Notes on Longevity

Chapter 190 The Dao gives rise to three things, and all things are formed; all the myriad Dao methods return to the Dao.

"The medicine has spilled."

"Uncle Zhou, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Blackface, go and get another bowl."

The sleepy Zhou Yanliu heard a conversation, and not only that, he also felt a pain in his arm.

What's going on here?
He remembered that he was looking for his grandfather on the mountain, so how did he fall asleep? In his hazy state, he remembered that he seemed to have a dream in which he saw his grandfather.

He tried to open his eyes, but found that he couldn't lift his double eyelids no matter what he did. At the same time, the sensation of alternating hot and cold on his forehead became more and more obvious.

"Liu'er, come and drink your medicine."

It was his grandfather's voice. Zhou Yanliu heard it clearly. Although he didn't know why, he slowly opened his mouth.

It was very bitter and a little hot. That was his first impression.

However, as he drank the medicinal soup, his consciousness began to focus, and his thoughts were no longer scattered. He concentrated his will, and as the medicinal soup continued to pour into his mouth, he opened his sleepy but haggard eyes.

The first thing that catches the eye is the grandfather, whose face is full of worry and whose eyes reveal sadness.

When Grandpa saw that Zhou Yanliu had finally woken up, he quickly handed the unfinished medicine to the black-faced man standing beside him. He then sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Zhou Yanliu's forehead and feeling the change in temperature: "You child, why are you always so reckless? Didn't I tell you? Yesterday it was foggy, and I told you to stay at home, but you wouldn't listen and even took the black-faced man with you."

Although his grandfather's words were reproachful, his tone seemed to be blaming himself for failing to keep a close eye on him once again. Even if something happened to him, his grandfather wouldn't care too much, since he didn't have much time left to live, and his parents would be coming back to take him away soon. He wouldn't worry too much, since everyone in the village was a member of the same clan and wouldn't leave him to fend for himself.

But if anything happens to Zhou Yanliu, he will never forgive himself until his death, and will live the rest of his life in regret for not being able to take good care of his grandson.

"Grandpa!" When Zhou Yanliu saw Zhou Ziping clearly, he thought he was still dreaming. But when he heard the familiar tone and scolding, he was certain that the grandfather in front of him was real.

He struggled to sit up, looked at Zhou Ziping with tears in his eyes, and choked out, "Grandpa, I almost thought you were gone."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziping frowned angrily, raised the hand that had slid down in front of Zhou Yanliu, and smacked him on the head. "You child, you're delirious from the fever! How could your grandfather possibly die?!"

"Grandpa." Without saying a word, Zhou Yanliu hugged Zhou Ziping tightly, and the tears that had been welling up in his eyes finally fell.

"Silly child. Grandpa still wants to see the wedding. How could he die?"

Zhou Ziping then hugged Zhou Yanliu and gently patted his back.

"Master."

In the mud-walled, earthen-tiled room, She Li, Xiao Changgong, Yang Shouren, and the black-faced man standing in front of the bed smiled at the scene before them, as if they were happy about the touching sight.

Only Ping An, standing at the very back, murmured softly.

Just as everyone was feeling for them, She Li heard Ping An's whisper. The smile on his face froze instantly. He turned to look at Ping An, who stood at the back, looking melancholy and lonely, and took a deep breath.

He forgot that Ping An once had a master who treated him like a grandson.

He walked up to Ping An, took his hand, and led him into the courtyard outside the house.

Meanwhile, Yang Shouren, standing next to the dark-faced man, noticed the two leaving. He patted the touching grandfather and grandson, and in his heart, he fantasized about being just as happy as Xiao Changgong after he and his vixen had a son and a daughter.

Xiao Changgong was pulled back to reality by Yang Shouren's actions. He frowned and stared at Yang Shouren with some anger. Just as he was about to say something, he realized that Ping An and She Li were nowhere to be seen. Yang Shouren also nodded at him.

He understood, then composed himself and followed Yang Shouren as they left the room. Seeing this, the dark-faced man also left.

Now, only Zhou Yanliu, who had gone up the mountain but fell into a fever and coma and then woke up, and Zhou Ziping and his grandson, who were relieved of their worries, remained in the room.

The fox and the cat walked out of the room and saw She Li and Ping An sitting on a bench in front of a wooden table in the courtyard.

"Don't be sad, everyone has that day." She Li wasn't good at comforting people. He looked at Ping An, who already looked melancholy, and couldn't see any change in his expression, but he knew that Ping An must be feeling bad, and that was all he could say.

Ping An changed out of the light green Taoist robe that Dao Yisheng had given him, and even changed out of the Ziwu Lotus hairpin. He put his hair up in his usual Taoist bun and nodded to his senior brother, She Li.

It was She Li who told him to change out of his Taoist robe.

Last night, after they found the unconscious Zhou Ziping on the mountain with the villagers who disregarded whether the mountain god Dao Yisheng would cause trouble, on the way down the mountain, She Li said to him, "I know His good intentions towards you. But this color doesn't look good. Besides, there are no green Daoist robes in any Daoist temples. Since you're going to travel the world and go to Penglai, you need to change out of this robe when it's not necessary. Otherwise, if you meet fellow disciples from other Daoist temples on the road, they might think you're practicing some kind of evil path. You won't be able to explain yourself then, not to mention that you hardly speak anymore."

Ping An, however, did not think so. Instead, he said to She Li, "But the way of nature is to follow, so why be bound by these things? If everyone in the world distinguishes good from bad people by the color of their clothes, and everyone can change into the clothes of a good person, then who will be able to distinguish between good and bad people?"

She Li was speechless at Ping An's words. He was usually quiet, but that didn't mean he didn't have anything to say; he just rarely spoke to others.

She Li sensed Ping An's stubbornness from his words and, seeing this, had no choice but to remain silent. However, after waking up today, Ping An still changed into his usual Taoist robe.

Although he said this to She Li, he also understood in his heart that, just like what the green-robed man said to him in Dao Yisheng's story: "If someone is given a fake robe, that person will surely be harmed."

His trip to Penglai was to meet the immortals, not to attract attention. If he wore this green Taoist robe every day, he might bring disaster upon himself one day.

"Ping An, don't listen to nonsense." Hearing She Li comforting someone, Xiao Changgong came to his side, placing a hand naturally on Ping An's shoulder. Ping An looked up at him and heard him say, "What he said isn't entirely true. Everything in the world has its own laws; plants live for a season, and human life is short—these are all ordinary things. But you are different, and your master is different too." Ping An looked at him, puzzled, and asked, "Why am I different from my master?"

Xiao Changgong smiled and said, "You should know that there are people, demons, mountain spirits, monsters, and evil spirits in this world. I, Xiao Changgong, have lived for five hundred years and have seen everything."

"No matter what it is, it cannot escape a law. Birth and death, separation and reunion are all within the law, and within the law there is something called coincidence."

"Skill comes from the timing of Heaven, the energy of Earth, the beauty of talent, and the ingenuity of craftsmanship. Only by combining these four can one achieve excellence. This is what makes a skilled craftsman. Skill can also be about blurring the lines between reality and illusion, like the art of war, which relies on deception. The art of war lies in understanding the enemy's intentions, converging on one enemy, and killing a general from afar. This is what it means to achieve success through skill. Deception involves arranging troops and formations with a mix of real and feigned intentions, making it difficult for the enemy to distinguish between them, using the real to fight the fake, and ultimately being defeated on the battlefield."

"巧 can also mean exactly, for example, two families each gave birth to a son, and the children were just as clever as each other; when they grew up and played together, they were just like fish."

"Those who come together are a multitude of skillful individuals, including those who are real and those who are not, skilled craftsmen and children. This is also the reason why it is said that there is no book without skill."

Ping An understood what Xiao Changgong was saying, but he was still confused. Xiao Changgong noticed his confusion and then explained using Taoist principles: "Since you are a disciple of Taoism, are you familiar with the Tao Te Ching?"

Xiao Changgong's serious demeanor not only confused Ping An, but also left She Li, who was accompanying him, dumbfounded. Not to mention Yang Shouren, who had only seen Xiao Changgong for the first time when he was beaten by She Li and acted like a rogue. He had never seen him serious before. Xiao Changgong's appearance was truly astonishing.

“I’ve read it, and I remember it all,” Ping An replied.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Changgong nodded in agreement. He pulled out a long bench and sat down next to Ping An, then began to speak at length:

"Since you are familiar with the Tao Te Ching, you also know that there is a saying in it: 'The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things.'"

Xiao Changgong's words and tone suddenly reminded him that Dao Yisheng had asked him the same question when he left the mountain.

As he was thinking, he heard him continue, "When I was in the mountains, I also talked with a mountain god and discussed the Tao, but I didn't understand it at the time."

He said that all the myriad methods of Taoism ultimately come down to the word "Tao".

In a mountain in this vast world, there is a stone forest cave. The dark passage of the cave makes people feel depressed, but the faint light in front of them fills them with hope.

Deep within the cave lies a vast expanse of strangely shaped rocks, with stalactites hanging upside down. Above, an open opening allows one to observe the stars, the sunset, and the moonrise.

Inside the cave, on a stone platform surrounded by a water channel, a divine ape several meters tall sat cross-legged. Xiao Changgong, who was only the size of an ant before it, was bothered by the ape's fur, which was sometimes incredibly soft and sometimes hard and prickly. He listened to the crimson ape speaking Taoist incantations, finding it quite novel, and asked, "Why is it all about the word 'Tao'? Is it simply because there are countless Taoist methods, and 'Tao' comes first?"

The divine ape snorted coldly, its rough and hoarse voice echoing in the cave, blending with the flowing water and sounding somewhat gentle: "I'm preaching to you, but you're dismissive. Believe me or not, I'll slap you to pieces."

Seeing the divine ape staring at him with a mixture of anger, embarrassment, and fear, Xiao Changgong quickly explained, "No, that's not what I meant. I just don't understand. I didn't mean to hit you. Don't overthink it. Besides, how old am I? Only two or three hundred years old. Who knows how old you are?"

Xiao Changgong's nervous waving made the divine ape both amused and annoyed: "You little fox, you can't beat anyone in these mountains and forests, except for this mouth of yours, which is a little bit powerful, but you've been beaten up because of it."

"Don't laugh at me. Haven't you ever been beaten up before?" Xiao Changgong said, feeling both helpless and speechless.

Although there are many ferocious birds and beasts in this mountain forest, there are also many weaker than him. He was not always beaten. Just before He brought him here, he had crushed a little demon that was a wild pheasant.

The divine ape laughed heartily: "That's true. Everyone gets bullied sometimes. Back then, I was captured by a great demon and made a monkey slave, eating nothing but dew and eating nothing but wind every day. Who would have thought that thousands of years later I would become a mountain god, while it would become a skeleton in the ground? How pitiful and tragic."

"But speaking of which, what exactly is this Dao?" Xiao Changgong asked, not wanting to hear any more stories from Him.

The divine ape hesitated, and after a moment of confusion, it stared at Xiao Changgong beneath it and slowly said, "Things may differ, and methods may differ, but the origin is the same."

"You are a fox demon, and I am an ape. We are both demons, but our lifespans and minds are different. However, our roots are the same: life."

"Life?" Xiao Changgong clicked his tongue a few times, finding the divine ape's words quite troubling.

He shook his head and asked the divine ape, "Isn't having life the same as being alive? What's the difference? Or are they the same?"

Xiao Changgong was unsure. He had originally wanted to be direct, but in the end he decided to be more tactful. After all, having lived for so many years, his experiences and knowledge were naturally different.

"Life is not all living things, but rather a specific term used by humans to refer to a class of living things that have the ability to reproduce, not all of them."

Xiao Changgong was confused. He crossed his arms, then scratched his head, clearly not understanding. What did "specific" mean? What did "reproduction" mean? After racking his brains without success, he could only frown and ask again, "Then what is life?"

"If you want to know what life is, you must first know what life is and what destiny is." The divine ape stopped laughing and stared intently at Xiao Changgong, waiting for his next question.

"What do you mean? Life, isn't it just life?" Xiao Changgong was tormented by the divine ape's words. He wanted to get up and turn to leave, but he was not in control of his own destiny. If he did so, he didn't know what the consequences would be, after all, he had been captured by Him.

However, the divine ape did not think that way. If he wanted to leave, He would never stop him, but this time, if he really left, he would never see Him again.

The divine ape sighed and shook its head, saying, "I don't know either. This is a question for the gods in heaven."

Xiao Changgong was speechless. So, the reason he was suffering here was because you didn't know either. So, he asked, "If you don't know, how could I possibly know?"

"It's not that I don't know, it's just that I'm unclear. I simply don't know whether what I've come to understand over these thousands of years is right or wrong."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Changgong asked, puzzled.

"You have to understand that there are thousands of different people in this world, and everyone has their own thoughts. I have my own understanding of the word 'life,' but I don't know if it's right or wrong."

(End of this chapter)