Notes on Longevity

Chapter 149 All conditioned phenomena originate from this point.
The night was enticing, and the city of Yu'an was ablaze with lights.

The Wei family sat around in a room, their faces beaming with joy as they looked at Wei Wanyao, who had fully recovered her complexion.

They didn't speak, just quietly watched Wei Wanyao eat, but they couldn't help feeling a pang of heartache.

Although she had woken up, Wei Shengming was deeply saddened. He still couldn't understand why Yun Gong had kept their daughter in a coma when she had clearly cured her illness. He asked Taihua, but Taihua remained silent.

"Dad, brother, why are you looking at me like that?" Wei Wanyao was very reserved while eating. Actually, she was very hungry, but her family members were looking at her with love and happiness, which made her very uncomfortable. She could only eat small bites at a time.

"It's alright, go ahead and eat. Later, our family will take you out for a stroll and let you see Yu'an at night. You probably haven't seen it in a long time."

However, Wei Shengming and her two brothers were completely unaware of this; all they cared about was making her eat more and nourish her body.

"Oh." Seeing this, Wei Wanyao didn't say anything more, because she knew they were all concerned about her. Although, she was still a little unaccustomed to it.

Thinking back to when I was seriously ill, I realized that I hadn't been able to get out of bed for four or five years, let alone go outside to see the world.

The night was alluring, and a gentle spring breeze stirred, lifting a strand of hair.

"Young master, everything is ready. I will go outside the city tomorrow to invite those two into the city."

Standing in front of a newly renovated silk shop, Qin Xiangyu smiled knowingly at the words "floral silk" written above the door. "This shouldn't disappoint that young lady, right?"

"Of course, young master, we renovated this shop according to the blueprints given by the immortal Taihua. All the silks are also from our other shop, and they are all of the finest quality."

"Okay, close the door. Let's go back."

"Yes."

Qin Xiangyu turned and left with a smile, heading towards the Qin family home.

The moonlight was bright, yet somewhat cold, much like the mood of someone at that moment. After searching for hundreds of years, he had finally found it, but he remembered nothing about it.

This reminded her of something Taihua had said to her when he left: "Heavenly principles, destiny, and laws are all uncertain; everything is both knowable and unknowable. The world is impermanent, and we are all mortals; how can we possibly foresee what will happen after we die?"

She sat on the wooden platform under the eaves of the wooden house, gazing at the bright moon in the sky, her thoughts wandering aimlessly.

"Sister, we heard what you just said."

The sea of ​​flowers in front of her swayed in the wind, and she couldn't tell who was speaking, but it also seemed like no one was speaking.

Looking at the sea of ​​flowers before her, Green-Clad Woman forced a smile despite her sorrowful expression. In her mind, she said to the flowers, "I'm alright."

"How could nothing be wrong? Sister, you've been searching for him for hundreds of years, and in the end he just says he doesn't remember and that's it?"

"Life is unpredictable, and anything can happen. Besides, even if he remembers me, how much time do I have left to live? It's better to just leave things as they are now."

Green Robe was heartbroken. She had chosen to leave so that she could see the world and search for him, but how could she just let it go like that now?

However, he has a long road ahead of him, and she is about to leave, which is why she did this.

What she's thinking about most now is, "If there's an afterlife, and if I still remember him, I'll make sure you remember me too."
"But, sister, this isn't fair to you."

The woman in green smiled and said softly, "Alright, there's nothing unfair about it. Now that I think about it, it was just wishful thinking on my part. What does it have to do with him?"

However, even if it was wishful thinking, she hoped that when she saw him again, he would remember her.

But why did things turn out this way? And why did he lose his memory? What did he experience during the years he left Jiangnan?

She didn't know, and she wanted to know.

"Sister, let's go back to Jiangnan. Let's go see Grandma; maybe she can save you."

The woman in green buried her head and gave a bitter laugh. "It's no use. Even Master Taihua can't help, Grandma."

The crying resumed; she truly longed to return to Jiangnan. She wanted to go back to her grandmother's side, to throw herself into her arms and cry her heart out. After all, how could a wounded child not miss home? But she had promised Taihua that she would stay by Daoyisheng's side until he returned.

"I'm sorry, sister."

"What do you mean, 'sorry'?" The woman in green had tears streaming down her face; she was puzzled.

“If we hadn’t insisted on coming out with you, maybe you would have been able to walk on your own then, instead of being like this now.”

"Silly girl, how could you think like that?" Green-clad Qi spread her arms and walked through the flower-lined path, gently comforting the flowers: "This world is wonderful, it's just that it might not be suitable for us."

"elder sister."

The sound was very soft, and the breeze and the bright moonlight shone on them, making their bodies shine like stars in the sky, radiating a dazzling array of colors.

Dao Yisheng stood at the window, watching them with his unseen eyes and listening to the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the sea of ​​flowers.

The moon shines brightest in one's hometown. Some people are longing for their distant hometown, yearning for the misty, picturesque Jiangnan region; others are listening to the wind, trying hard to recall lost memories, which they may never be able to remember.

But not far from Yu'an, beside a riverside reed bed, some people lit a bonfire, drank wine, and looked at the old Taoist priest in front of them.

"Aren't you angry with me?" The old Taoist priest was Yun Gong, who lowered his head and looked at the burning fire in front of him.

Taihua took a big gulp of the wine from the gourd that had returned to its normal size. "Strange, but not entirely strange."

"Why?" Yun Gong looked up at Tai Hua with confusion. "You don't blame me for doing such a thing?" "Everyone has selfish desires, and besides, it's just survival of the fittest." Tai Hua drank a mouthful of wine and lay down on the ground. The campfire in front of him was burning, and the bright moon in the sky remained the same.

"Then why did you leave me all alone?" Yun Gong asked.

Upon hearing this, Taihua smiled wryly and said, "I was so young back then, how could I understand such principles?"

Yun Gong gave a wry smile: "You understand now?"

"I don't understand, I don't understand, but suddenly I understand." Taihua sat up and looked at Yun Gong with a smile. "You said that if I had accepted your idea back then, would we still not have been able to reach Kunlun and learn these skills?"

"How would I know?" Yun Gong rolled his eyes at Tai Hua, but after thinking for a moment, he said, "If you had accepted back then, I don't know if we would have reached Kunlun, but I'm sure that we wouldn't be so hostile to each other now."

“That’s true.” Taihua took another sip of wine and continued, “Do you know why I didn’t go back after I asked you about it?”

Yun Gong thought for a moment, then shook his head: "What happened to the tree spirit?"

"When you were fighting with him, did you notice anything?" Taihua pretended to be profound, but Yun Gong also didn't understand. He carefully recalled the details of his fight with Dao Yisheng, but he didn't notice anything.

"This guy is about to undergo his tribulation." Too lazy to pretend with Yun Gong anymore, he brought the matter to the table directly.

"Tribulation?" Yun Gong frowned. "He's only a thousand years old. There are still at least three hundred years before his first tribulation."

"Hey! This is what I told you about some of the things he encountered." Taihu stood up, facing the reeds on the bank and in the river, and took a big gulp of wine.

"In youth, one knows not the taste of sorrow, but loves to climb to the upper floors, loves to climb to the upper floors."

"What do you mean?" Yun Gong asked, puzzled. What did this have to do with what he was trying to say?

“This guy was in love, and his later appearance at Chuyun Temple was also because of love,” Taihua said with a smile.

"But what does this have to do with you going upstairs?" Yun Gong asked, puzzled.

"Now I know the full taste of sorrow, I want to speak but I cannot, I want to speak but I cannot!" Taihua swayed precariously.

Yun Gong roughly understood what was going on, but he was still a little worried about the tribulation. So he asked, "Aren't you going to watch over him during his tribulation? If something happens, you won't even have a chance to regret it."

"Don't worry," Taihua said with a smile, his face flushed red in the firelight, "He doesn't need me this time; someone is by his side."

"That flower spirit? What can she do? With her cultivation level, a single bolt of heavenly lightning would shatter her soul and reduce her to ashes." Yun Gong couldn't understand Tai Hua.

"Who says that every tribulation has to be struck by heavenly lightning?" Taihua, drunk, held the gourd and bent down to pick up the sword beside him.

Sword drawn, wine wafts to the nose, water enters the throat, the bright moon accompanies one on the side, and one dances gracefully: "Love is a thing of the human world, the way of nature is the way of the universe. If heavenly thunder does not strike, it is because there are lovers."

"A love tribulation?" Yun Gong immediately understood.

But he still didn't understand. To cultivate a human body, the first tribulation should always be a lightning tribulation, without exception. So why was Dao Yisheng's tribulation a love tribulation? And why was it several hundred years earlier than expected? He couldn't figure it out.

Taihua, drunk, danced with his sword; Yun Gong, brows furrowed, pondered deeply.

He looked at the crackling fire in front of him and suddenly realized something!
Yun Gong stood up, looking at Tai Hua with some surprise. He took a deep breath, and finally shook his head and sighed helplessly: "After all these years, I still can't compare to you. So be it. I should start cultivating again."

After saying this, he turned around and looked at the river behind him, shouting in a voice that was both weathered and resolute: "I have strayed onto the wrong path and misled the way of immortals. This time, I will cultivate for another three thousand years in the mortal world."

"What? You're going to have to start over?" Taihua, who was practicing swordsmanship, stopped what he was doing and stared at Yun Gong's back with some surprise.

“Yes. I have plenty of time. What’s wrong with repairing it again? At worst, I’ll become an immortal a few years later than you.” After saying this, Yun Gong felt an unprecedented sense of ease and joy.

Over the years, in his quest to prove himself superior to Taihua, he lost his composure and forgot that cultivation is actually a path of introspection. Now, he sees in Taihua what he has lost, and naturally, he wants to retrieve it.

"In that case, I will help Senior Brother Yun Gong achieve his goal as soon as possible." Tai Hua said, bowing to Yun Gong while holding a gourd in one hand and a sword in the other.

Yun Gong smiled and said, "I remember when we first met, I wasn't using this Taoist name, was I?"

“That’s definitely not it.” Taihua smiled as well.

"Since that's the case, then this humble Taoist should take his leave." Yun Gong took a step and leaped into the river. He had originally intended to leave immediately, but after thinking about it, he felt it was better to say some things first:
“Taihua, although I am older than you, my temperament and cultivation are inferior to yours, which is my shortcoming. Furthermore, since we are both disciples of the Kunlun Immortals, why don’t we make a bet?”

"Taihua is all ears," he said with a smile.

"Give."

Yun Gong smiled and tossed out a golden light. Tai Hua caught it and saw that it was a slip of paper with the following date written on it: Xin Si, Xin Mao, Bing Shen, Wu Xu.

Taihua, puzzled by the characters, asked, "Whose birth chart is this?"

“A few days ago, I saw a person in the water mirror. This person was dressed strangely, had short hair, and wore a pair of glasses with glass covering his eyes. Afterwards, the water mirror gave me these eight characters, and after careful calculation, I found that this person was from several thousand years in the future.”

Yun Gong looked somewhat confused. "I don't know the meaning behind this, so I wanted to show it to you."

"A person from thousands of years in the future?" Taihua was equally puzzled upon hearing this, but he still understood Yun Gong's meaning: "In that case, let's see who can live to that time and then find this person."

"Alright. Our bet is settled. Taihua, see you again in a thousand years."

After saying this, Yun Gong transformed into golden light and disappeared into the distance, while Tai Hua said to him, "Senior Brother Yan Yu, see you in a thousand years."

(End of this chapter)