I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 398 Dragon Fishing for Golden Carp, Old Man Xu Qing
The underworld, at the gates of hell.

A Buddha with a face half decayed, half golden, and half skeletal is attempting to open the portal connecting the underworld and the mortal world.

The Buddha took out the Fengdu Seal and used his supreme supernatural powers to mobilize the great power of heaven and earth.

At a certain moment, the precious seal connected the three bridges of the underworld. The Naihe River, which existed in the three thousand worlds and wandered in the darkness of the world, passed through the golden, silver and iron bridges and transformed into the Three Rivers of Destiny, rushing straight towards the Gate of Hell!

The Buddha was overjoyed, and even the ghostly flames in his empty eyes seemed to gain a bit more color.

As the Sanzu River, after its diversion, bursts through the Gate of Hell and is about to surge into the ancient Yin River Road, Buddha seizes the opportunity to step into the mortal world, intending to completely eliminate those who have severed the laws of the underworld and disrupted the grand plan of the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds.

However, just as the Buddha stepped halfway into the River of the Dead, about to enter the mortal world to wreak havoc on humanity, a three-eyed god dressed in black robes and silver armor, wielding a three-pointed knife, descended from the sky, the blade pointing directly at the Gates of Hell!
The divine being roared angrily, and with the force of splitting mountains and cutting through seas, he slashed at the Buddha's corpse with his three-pointed sword.

The Buddha slightly raised his eyebrows, his face showing a bitter expression, and asked with some surprise, "The heavenly path is severed, and the Heavenly Emperor forbids all gods from descending to the mortal realm. How can you possibly descend to the secular world?"

The three-eyed man had one eye tightly closed and the other two wide open in anger. He twirled the three-pointed dagger in his hand, the blades pointing diagonally at the ground, and coldly glared at the world, saying, "The Heavenly Emperor's decree governs the gods of the upper realm. What does it have to do with me, the Wandering Taoist?"

Having said that, the three-eyed man lunged forward, unleashing his profound skills to the extreme, determined to force the Buddha before him back into the gates of hell!

"Delusion!"

The Buddha roared, his bitter expression transforming into a fierce, Vajra-like glare. He formed the Buddha mudra with his hands, and the Lumbini Buddha realm appeared behind him, within which the phantom images of 'Mahamaya' and 'Prajna Buddhas' manifested.

However, the Buddhas' manifestations showed no trace of Prajna wisdom; instead, each of them had an evil glint in their eyes, and all Prajna wisdom had turned into the five poisons of greed, anger, ignorance, pride, and stagnation.

The illusory images of Buddhas, like wolves and tigers, like jackals and accomplices, stared at the three-eyed god before them.

At the same time, the manifestation of 'Mahaya,' the mother of all Buddhas in all realms behind the Buddha, is also rising infinitely.

The Buddha's mother led various Buddha images, like demonic monks and evil spirits, chanting all sorts of filthy and impure thoughts, attempting to disturb others' minds and wisdom.

When evil thoughts and old ideas invaded his mind, the three-eyed man frowned and showed a look of pain.

In the dim light, all sorts of unbearable memories surfaced in my mind, and countless emotions of regret, self-blame, and even helplessness blocked my thoughts.

The three-eyed man's attack was momentarily disrupted.

In a battle between highly skilled cultivators, there is no room for even a moment's distraction.

As one side weakens while the other gains, the evil Buddha's corpse sees the flaw, and its demonic heart surges. Its body grows several feet taller again, and at the same time, three heads and six arms grow from its body.

The six types of Buddhist weapons and ritual implements—the alms bowl, prayer beads, wooden fish drum, human skin drum, and vajra—shone brightly!

The three-eyed man used his three-pointed sword to block the Mingwang Sword and the Vajra Five-pronged Fork, while simultaneously drawing the Immortal-Slaying Sword from his waist to stop the purple-gold alms bowl that fell from above.

However, the three-eyed man underestimated the terrifying power contained in the body of the Dharma Corpse. After he had blocked most of the Buddhist treasures, a Vajra Pestle carrying immense ghostly power crashed down on him from the side!
The divine general in black robes and silver armor was too weak and could only rely on his physical body to withstand the blow.

The terrifying power emanating from the Buddha's demonic corpse surged to his chest. The three-eyed man groaned, then hurtled towards the distant cemetery like a cannonball, raising a cloud of dust.
The evil Buddha withdrew his demon-subduing pestle and once again strode towards the Gate of Hell.

However, the Buddha's body took only one step forward before pulling his foot back.

He looked into the distance and saw that a violent surge of magical power suddenly erupted from the place where the three-eyed god had fallen, followed by the rise of a hundred-foot-tall divine general's image from the ground.

At this moment, the three-eyed god, who was a hundred feet tall, no longer held the three-pointed sword, but instead wielded a giant axe with an ancient and simple design.

"The passage between the three realms is severed, the Dharma Corpse cannot enter the mortal world, and the gods and Buddhas of the upper realms cannot enter the underworld or descend to any other realm. How dare you overstep your bounds and enter or leave the netherworld?"

The three-eyed man stood blocking the gates of hell, displaying the heroic spirit of one man guarding the pass against ten thousand!
Before he finished speaking, the three-eyed god, who was dozens of miles away, had already raised the Heaven-Opening Axe in his hand.

The Heaven-Opening Axe, stacked to thirty-five layers, carried a destructive and tyrannical aura, rampaging through everything in its path!
The Buddha's physical body attempted to dodge, but found that the Heaven-Opening Axe had already locked onto its aura.

The Dharma Corpse roared and immediately activated the power of the Three Corpses: Peng Ju, Peng Zhi, and Peng Qiao. The Dharma power of the evil corpses of the Buddhas in the Buddhist realm was fully activated, and the manifestation of the Buddhist kingdom behind the Dharma Corpse became more and more solid. The entire Yin River seemed to be chanting Buddhist verses.

After enduring a powerful axe blow, the Buddhist kingdom behind the corpse was partially destroyed, and the evil Buddha itself retreated a step towards the gates of hell.

The evil Buddha's corpse was just about to step into the gates of hell when its anger surged and its energy became wildly agitated.

"Was this axe technique used in the recent events at the Yin River your doing? How dare you act like this all by yourself?"

The only response to the Buddha's body came from outside the Gates of Hell, a hundred miles away: "Who's alone? Open your bald eyes and see clearly, your grandpa's right here too!"

The Buddha glanced to the side and saw a golden steel ring, as big as a star, shooting straight toward the Gate of Hell with the force to collapse mountains and overturn rivers and seas!

At the same time, the giant axe that had grown so much in the hands of the three-eyed man cleaved down once again!

The Buddha, who had already squeezed halfway into the Yin River, roared in anger and resentment. Behind him, hundreds and thousands of Buddha images chanted scriptures in unison, but they were still forced back by the combined efforts of the two.

The ancient Yinhe River Road.

The three-eyed man watched as the gates of the underworld closed and disappeared, and shouted urgently, "Quickly! Use the Map of Mountains and Rivers to seal the pass, and set up the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover to confine this place. We must not let the Dharma Corpse enter the Yin River again!"

As soon as the three-eyed man finished speaking, a boy of about half a generation appeared, standing on two flames, with his hair tied in two buns, red lips and white teeth, and a pretty face like a girl.

Upon hearing the words of the young man in black robes, the boy with a male body and a female appearance immediately threw the Mountain and River Map and the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover in his hand toward the Gate of Hell.

The Map of Mountains and Rivers is a supreme treasure capable of suppressing the fortune of an entire realm. Although it might not be able to hold out for long against a Dharma Corpse, it is still better than those gods and Buddhas who refuse to do anything at all.
After the gates of the Yin River and the Underworld were reinforced, the young man dressed in lotus-patterned robes chanted the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Mantra, activating the Divine Fire Cover, the treasure of his sect, which transformed into a mountain range of flames stretching for nine hundred miles, completely surrounding the Gate of Hell.

And the mouths of those nine dragon-shaped mountain ranges are directly opposite the location of the Ghost Gate.

After the teenager finished doing all this, he turned to the three-eyed man and asked with concern, "Senior brother, can you still hold on?"

With his third eye tightly closed and his body emanating black energy, the pale-faced youth said, "It's nothing, it's just that the Heavenly Gang Axe was too violent and aggravated my old injury. Don't worry about it, let's go back and talk about it later."

The young man turned his gaze to the location of the Yin-Yang Boundary Marker, and suddenly changed his mind, saying, "I'll stay here for a few days, and then I'll go find my senior brother."

"Don't act recklessly. I may disobey the imperial edict, but you cannot disobey orders. If your father discovers that you have descended to the mortal realm without permission..."

The boy's smile vanished, replaced by annoyance. "Even if he finds out, what can I be afraid of?"

"Don't worry, senior brother. I just wanted to leave some legacy after seeing that you have found someone to walk in the mortal world. If other destined people help us cleanse the mortal world of demonic influences, that would be a good thing."

The three-eyed man followed the other's gaze and looked in the direction of the Yin River boundary marker, where a young man was refining a treasure cauldron.

He nodded and gave the instructions:
"The Heaven-Mending Passage is unstable, so don't linger too long. I'll be waiting for you at the Zhonghuang Temple."

The underworld, the palace of Yama.

A Buddha, clad in tattered robes and imbued with the scorching aura of nine layers of divine fire, arrived at the place where the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds was in seclusion.

"Dharma Master."

The Nine Netherworld Dharma Lord, who had already refined more than half of the Yinshan authority, interrupted:

"I already know about the Ghost Gate incident. The Ghost Law was trained by the Heavenly Emperor and is a pawn to replace Yama, the King of Hell, in controlling the Underworld. Even if this pawn goes out of control and is used by me, they should not destroy the Ghost Law without authorization." If any immortals or gods destroy the Ghost Law without authorization, wouldn't that be clearly accusing the Heavenly Emperor of making a mistake in cultivating the Ghost Law?
The Heavenly Emperor's majesty is inviolable. The Lord of the Nine Netherworlds seemed to understand the Heavenly Emperor's nature better than anyone else. He laughed and said, "Whoever kills Ghost Law will be intolerable to the Underworld and the Upper Realm. Even if there are one or two rebellious individuals, how many immortals and gods can they invite to deal with us?"

"This is a lone pig and a rotten rat, possessing only the courage of a lone man, like a dragon out of water, no different from an earthworm."

The Nine Nether Corpse said with a strange look in its eyes, "The immortals and gods severed our bodies, causing us to be stranded here. We were originally fugitives and abandoned children. How could they kill our former selves, and how could they destroy the corpses of those who were already dead?"

"The gods and Buddhas will not tolerate them. We only need to wait for the right time. Once the power of Yinshan is completely in my hands, I will have a good chance of winning against the master of Shouyang Mountain."

Having said that, the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds asked again, "Have you found what I asked you to search for?"

The Buddha's evil corpse clasped its hands together and said, "Reporting to the Dharma Master, the King of Hell has merged with the Dao, and the Underworld Emperor's Sword is a spiritual object. If we want to find it, we need to find someone else. If we go there, the Emperor's Sword, as well as the various treasures lost in the Underworld, will probably all disappear without a trace."

The treasures remain hidden. For the past thousand years, the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds has devoted all his efforts to searching for them. Although he has found most of the treasures left behind by the Underworld, there is still no trace of the escaped Emperor's Sword, the unknown treasure forged by the King of Hell.

Besides the Emperor's Sword, which can expedite the acquisition of the authority of Yinshan in the Underworld, there are also the Mirror of Retribution on the Mirror of Retribution platform at Tail Yinshan, the large cauldron at Meng Po Post Station, the Three Lives Stone beside the Terrace of Longing for Home, the Soul-Slaying Whip at Evil Dog Ridge, and the Chicken-Shaped Mountain at Golden Rooster Mountain.
Sometimes even the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds felt quite helpless. These ghosts and gods of the underworld were simply too despicable. It was one thing if they couldn't defeat him, but when they fled, they took almost all the important things related to the Six Paths from that Yin Mountain.

The Lord of the Nine Netherworlds still remembered that when He went to Golden Rooster Mountain, there was only a basin left, and the entire rooster-shaped mountain had been hidden away by the beasts of the underworld.

He searched the underworld for that mountain, but has not found it to this day.

"How can a perfectly good mountain fly away?"

The Lord of the Nine Netherworlds was very frustrated. If he hadn't lost these things, how could he have spent a thousand years only to refine half of the Yinshan authority?
“Continue the search. I have foreseen that in the next few hundred years, there will be a major change that will affect the balance of power in the Three Realms. This change is also an opportunity for you and me. You must do your utmost to find the lost power of Yinshan for me.”

In the second year of the Fengjing reign, during the Qianlong season in the Jia month.

Tianjin Prefecture, Linjiang City, Baishui Wharf.

With a full head of silver hair, Xu Qing, wearing a thick coat and holding a fishing rod, sat calmly on the boardwalk extending into the river, just like an old fisherman who made his living from the water.

Behind Xu Qing was a middle-aged man with sunken eyes, a pale face, dressed in a scholar's robe, and looking very weak.

"You can go fishing by yourself, why did you call me here?"

Master Fuluan, who was in seclusion to recuperate using the spiritual energy of Tianjin, was very unwilling.

Xu Qingchao raised his chin at the white river water in front of him and said, "Two months ago, my Yatang Immortal Clan saw two golden carp climbing up the rain curtain here, as if they were about to leap into dragons."

"As far as I know, that golden carp still has one more tribulation to overcome. Fellow Daoist is most skilled in divination and prophecy, why don't you calculate for me where to bait the bait to catch these two golden carp?"

Master Fu Luan thought it was something serious. He took out paper and pen, squatted down, and while performing the Fu Luan ritual, asked, "You also know divination, so why did you specifically seek me out?"

“That golden carp seems to have some connection with the Azure Dragon lurking in Tianjin. My methods don’t work on them. Since you have nothing else to do, why don’t you give it a try?”

I have nothing better to do?
He almost lost half his life two years ago, and you call this nothing?
Xu Qing retorted confidently, "When a person dies, they pass away. You're alive and well now, and you still have the energy to argue and bicker with people. Doesn't that mean you haven't passed away?"

"."

Master Fuluan's pale face darkened slightly. He raised his hand and handed the white paper in his hand to Xu Qing. There was only one word written on it—Dragon.

"what for?"

Master Fuluan said, "If you see a dragon, you will see it. Fellow Daoist Xu, as long as you see a dragon, you will surely see the two golden carp."

Do I need you to tell me?

If he can see the Azure Dragon, why would he be afraid of not seeing the Golden Carp?

Xu Qing didn't give Fu Luan Shangren a friendly look. This Nuo Immortal was getting better and better at fobbing people off. Ever since he used Fu Luan Shangren once two years ago, whenever Xu Qing asked Fu Luan Shangren for help, the other party would always find various excuses to refuse, as if afraid of falling into his pig-butchering scam again.

Is he that kind of person?
Xu Qing dismissed the Venerable Fu Luan and then continued his fishing adventure.

The Baishui River is calm today, making it a perfect day for fishing.

Ever since Qinglong came to Xu Qing's rescue, Xu Qing had been wanting to chat with Qinglong's neighbor and talk about their daily life.

Unfortunately, the Azure Dragon didn't give them any face.

For the past month, he has been getting up early every day to fish, but he has not seen the dragon appear even once.

Fourteen years have passed since Xu Qing last used the Immortal-Seeking Technique. Of the extra two years, one year was spent dealing with the corpse of Gui Lu and the affairs of the Beijing-Tianjin waterway, and the other year was spent eliminating renowned immortal opportunities and fishing.

Since the Azure Dragon appeared, there has been a new story about the Azure Dragon God in this river. Xu Qing's shop is only a dozen miles away. If he were to use his Immortal-Seeking Technique again and find his neighbor, wouldn't that be a waste?
"Wait three more days, until it reaches a full month. If we still can't see it, then this chance to become immortals can be ruled out."

In the blink of an eye, another two days passed.

On this day, Xu Qing was sitting on the dock casting his fishing rod when suddenly a noble old man led his servants over.

The servant was fair-skinned and beardless, and kept his head down and eyes downcast the whole way, occasionally raising his hand to guide the old man along the path.

Xu Qing continued fishing as if nothing was wrong, completely ignoring the old man sitting next to him who seemed to know him well.

"It's been more than ten years since we last met. Brother Xu, you've aged quite a bit!"

Xu Qing looked at the water and said without turning his head, "Who doesn't grow old? Everyone gets old one day, it's not surprising."

Zhu Huai'an was speechless. "I thought you were a deity."

"Immortals? Where are there immortals in this world? Even Jiang Taigong would grow old, how could I, an ordinary funeral director, possibly withstand the erosion of time?"

Upon hearing the words "Grandfather," Zhu Huai'an's eyes lit up. "King Wen of the past supported Grandfather Taigong, establishing an empire that lasted eight hundred years. Now I am old, and if I could find a Grandfather for the Great Yan, even if I were to pass away one day, I would rest in peace."

Seeing that Xu Qing didn't respond, Zhu Huai'an continued, "My eldest son, Brother Xu's nephew, is currently in need of a suitable teacher. If Brother Xu is willing, I am willing to follow the ancient rites and appoint Brother Xu as the Imperial Tutor to teach the future crown prince."

Xu Qing shook his head and said, "I'm already halfway to the grave, and all I want now is peace and quiet. Besides, the palace is as deep as the sea; throughout history, which imperial tutor has ever been able to stay out of it?"

"King Wen invited Taigong, and Taigong was able to retire into seclusion; if I were to go, I fear I would be unable to escape until my death."

Seeing that this approach wouldn't work, Emperor Zhu simply pointed to the river and said, "How about this, Brother Xu and I will make a bet on fishing. We'll both fish in the same spot and see who catches more fish within an hour. Whoever catches more gets to win. If Brother Xu wins, from now on, I will no longer covet your entry into the capital!"

Xu Qing was delighted to hear this. Not to mention catching a fish, it wouldn't be difficult for him to use a little water zombie magic to catch all the fish in the water.

"You said it yourself, so let's bet on the fish!"

Once Zhu Huai'an sat down and cast his line, Xu Qing stopped holding back and started catching fish one after another as if they were free. At first, Xu Qing used some bait, but in the end, he didn't even bother with the bait anymore and just used an empty hook to catch fish one by one.

Seeing that he couldn't catch any fish, Zhu Huai'an became anxious and quickly winked at the eunuch standing beside him.

Xu Qing didn't take it seriously, but the next moment, Zhu Tianzi stood up and laughed, and just then he caught two golden carp.

However, the golden carp was actually caught by someone who dived into the water and forcefully put it on!
(End of this chapter)