Ziwei Immortal Path

Chapter 105 The Secret of Monk Li
Looking back on the past, it is still vivid in my mind.

When he was young, he had no contact with the Ding family, so he always got those elixirs from the Wang family. There were many kinds of them, and he not only sold them, but also exchanged them. Except for the common elixirs like Qi Gathering Pills and Yangling Pills, the Ding family also collected and exchanged some uncommon elixirs.

Ever since he got in touch with the purple-clothed girl, most of the elixirs from her house had been taken by Ding Tianshi.

Thinking about it now, it is really abnormal. According to what Monk Li said, his Ding family's Samadhi Mountain is a famous alchemy family on par with the Qingshen and Pei families. Logically, it shouldn't be so troublesome. There must be other ways.

He had personally seen and inquired about the price of the elixirs in Fang Cun Jian, and found that the prices were one or two times higher than those in the Ghost Market. As cultivators of the Immortal Sect, it was impossible for him and his brother not to know this.

Logically speaking, these pills should not come from the Immortal Sect, but from Samadhi Mountain. However, if he remembered correctly, the pills in this small space were not only sold by the Immortal Sect, but also by all the families and clans in Qingshen. Could it be that these pills were the banned pills of the Immortal Sect that Fei Wenyu mentioned?
Or is it that the elixirs made by his Ding family don't want to leave spiritual marks?

Xu Boyang was full of doubts, but he knew that Monk Li had told the truth. He remained calm and said:
"I believe what you said, but you are exaggerating when you say this about the Ding family."

"According to what you said, Dongguo Diyun sent you to kill him. Even if the things were taken by the Ding family in the end, it only means that the two families cooperated. Even if the means were cruel, it doesn't mean anything. At least, he didn't harm his fellow Taoists, so how could he have any ulterior motives?"

"Master, you don't know. They have no humanity. They just won't kill their own people. For example, in Shenhua County, which is under the jurisdiction of Guliang Buqi City, countless mortals have died there. In the small temples and monasteries in Huangyang's Three Thousand Buddha Caves, countless monks and nuns have disappeared, and no trace can be found. In the wilds of Zhufen, countless transformed barbarian monsters and spirit-gathering witches have died in untimely deaths, and no remains have been found."

Monk Li sighed softly, and then he said what he had been hiding in his heart for several years. His expression suddenly relaxed, and he said in a low voice:
"I, Taoist Li, don't consider myself a good person, but I do have my limits. Killing some barbaric demons and witches is fine, after all, they are not of the same kind. But those unarmed mortals, children who haven't even grown their hair yet, young monks who have just started to observe the precepts, they are all... this group of people is truly heartless and worse than animals..."

"In those years, it recruited guest scholars from all three thousand academies and kept them in Renxian Mountain, all for the purpose of finding people to help its family commit murders and arson. To get close to Dongguo Diyun, I was blinded by greed and ignorance, repeatedly betraying my original intention and committing the greatest sin..."

"Dongguo Diyun learned of my past through the Ding family. He knew I had been to Huangyang and Guliang, so he held me in high esteem. He wanted me to lead the way, so that he could lead those money-hungry, ruthless cultivators to sneak into various places, kill people, and steal things."

"You think he wants to kill me for those broken Dao manuals? The Dao manuals are lost, and even if they were found, I'd have already memorized them. What's the point? He's offering a huge reward just to silence me!"

Xu Boyang listened silently, without comment, and asked:

"If that's the case, you've already formed an irreconcilable feud with the Three Thousand Academy. Doesn't the Ding family know about this? Why is Ding Qingliao still willing to refine pills for you?"

Monk Li sighed lightly and said leisurely:

"This is a long story. It goes back to why he risked being discovered by the Ling family to save my life."

"Master, Qingshen wasn't like it is now. Back then, Yuchuan's Lingxiao Sect was the only dominant faction in Qingshen, and in Yuchuan, there was another family that dominated everything. That family was my Ling family."

"My Ling family's ancestor, Ling Xuanzhen, has followed the Immortal since childhood and has long been a Huangting late-stage feathered scholar. He is second only to Qingshen and surpasses ten thousand people."

"At that time, I remember that the Huaishang Pei family's 'Emerald Green Jade' had just reached the early Huangting stage from the late foundation building stage, and there was no such thing as the Nanhuai 'Water and Fire Not Yet in Harmony'. As for the Xun family's 'Liyang Yangguang' and the Jiang family's 'Liehuo Bianri', they were both in the early Huangting stage at the same time as Ding Qingliao."

"So, the entire Qingshen was almost entirely controlled by the Ling family. Ling Xuanzhen was a man of hatred and a narrow mind, and he could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. At that time, the entire Qingshen was shrouded in his shadow. If any family was not careful, they would suffer terribly. But at that time, he was a late Huangting cultivator, standing out from the crowd. The feathered disciples of the Qingshen families dared to be angry but not to speak out, and no one dared to touch his tiger whiskers!"

"Until my defection!"

"Because I was obsessed with immortality, the Great Dao, and the Ligong Immortal Technique, I used all means necessary, and ultimately, I discovered their secret."

"I discovered that Zhenren and Ling Xuanzhen, in order to maintain the operation of the Immortal Sect, to preserve their status in Qingshen, and to command the feathered cultivators of various clans, disregarded the lives of the various clans in Qingshen and passed down scriptures that could quickly lead to enlightenment but were misleading. As a result, apart from his Yuchuan and Ling clans, all cultivators from other major clans could only cultivate to the early Huangting stage in their lifetimes and could never break through to the middle Huangting stage no matter what!"

"Hehe! If it weren't for me, Ding Qingliao would only be a feathered warrior in the early stage of Huangting now!"

Xu Boyang understood and said:

"In order to thank him for saving your life, you told Ding Qingliao the secret that Zhenren and Ling Xuanzhen deliberately blocked the path?"

"Not bad!"

Monk Li laughed heartily.
"Back then, I really didn't understand. The country was so divided. To the north, there were millions of Guliang soldiers, to the west, there were thousands of Huangyang temples, to the south, there were barbaric monsters and Li witches separatist forces, threatening to us. There were even Crystal Palaces hidden beneath the rivers, lakes, and seas. Why did they insist on such iron-fisted measures, cutting off people's paths and forcing them into a desperate situation? Was it just to maintain their rule? Weren't they afraid that one day Guliang would march south and wipe them out in one fell swoop?"

"To this day, I still can't figure out what this Immortal is thinking. But for so many years, he has worked so hard and worked so hard for Qingshen all day long. Sometimes I really don't know if he is a good person or a bad person."

"However, because of my defection, the situation in Qingshen changed. Ding Qingliao united the four sects of Taoist priests and went to Langfeng Peak to force the emperor to abdicate. Ultimately, the Taoist priest was forced to grant the immortal magic again, dividing the power of the four sects. This is how the Taoist priests of the four sects of Qingshen have been able to advance side by side for over a hundred years."

"But this is only limited to the core cultivators of the four counties' major clans. For cultivators from other clans, no matter how hard you try in your life, your cultivation will never exceed the late stage of foundation building."

"Unable to join an immortal sect, unable to join a large clan, living like a dog, cultivating to the end, then sitting back and waiting to die, hoping for reincarnation in the next life, this is the real situation of the Qingshen small family now."

"Alas, but then again, there are more Qingshen Yushi now, and their strength is stronger than before, but they all have their own ulterior motives, which has made things even more chaotic. Sometimes I wonder if the decision I made back then was right or wrong. Sometimes living in a dream, as long as the dream doesn't break, and you can live a peaceful and stable life, is actually quite wonderful. But when the dream is shattered and you see the bloody reality, it might be even more devastating."

Xu Boyang exhaled lightly and said:
"If that's true, then you've really done his family a great favor. Not only did you help his family, but the entire Qingshen. Without you, I'm afraid all the families in Qingshen would still be struggling under the tyranny of the Ling family."

Monk Li looked gloomy:
"Ding Qingliao is a smart man. He knew that I was pursuing the Great Dao, the fate of immortality after the collapse of the Heavenly Dao, just like him. That's why he supported me. Although I didn't see him again, we exchanged many letters through Ding Dikui."

"I told him I was pursuing the Ligong Immortal Technique and needed a Lihuo Shenyuan Pill. He told me the Immortal Technique bestowed upon me by the Immortal Master also had problems. It could only reach the late Huangting stage, and could not advance to the Purple Mansion. There had been precedents before, so he stopped practicing after reaching the middle Huangting stage and took a different approach, searching for the Purple Mansion." "Finally, he told me that if I found a three-year-old [Huaiyi Binzhu], he would help me refine a Lihuo Shenyuan Pill, but I had to provide the spiritual energy required for the pill myself."

"At that time, I had already gathered all the eight meridians of spiritual energy in the Li Palace, which was more than enough. However, there were a few that I had not yet cultivated because I did not have the Taoist method."

"I gathered seven kinds of spiritual energy for him, but because 'Spring Breeze and Yishui' is unique to Qingshen Xinyue Lake, I escaped Qingshen for nearly a hundred years and haven't been back. This spiritual energy was collected when I was still in Lingxiao Sect. I kept it in a small vial for a hundred years. The spiritual energy has dissipated, and to be honest, there is not much left. I was worried that I might need it in the future, so I kept it in mind and told him about it. He said he would find a way himself."

Xu Boyang was startled when he heard this. He remembered that Ding Tianshi had asked him to go to Xinyue Lake to collect the [Spring Breeze Yishui] almost four years ago, and had only given it to him about half a year ago. He immediately asked:

"When did you enter the Three Thousand Academy?"

Monk Li recalled for a moment and said:

"It should have been ten years ago, but for nearly seven years, we, the casual cultivators who committed murder and arson, were hidden by Dongguo Diyun in the back of Renxian Mountain. We had no freedom and could only go out when we were on a mission."

"Later, the person who came from the Ding family changed. It was a young man named Ding Yunshan. Three years ago, I couldn't stand the endless killing anymore. I felt like I was going crazy. Every time I opened my eyes, I saw blood. So I told Ding Qingliao that I had cultivated [Leaving Fire] and wanted to break through to the foundation-building stage, and asked for his help."

"He wrote back saying that the elixir wasn't ready yet, but it would be soon. However, with the unrest in Sishui, he couldn't spare any time, so he told me to go to Qingshen to find him myself, and he would talk to Dongguo Diyun."

"At this point, Dongguo Diyun finally gave me freedom and allowed me to join the academy as a guest official. He also said that he would personally escort me to Qingshen, and after I established my foundation, he would return to the academy and appoint me as his teacher."

"Hahaha... I'm not a three-year-old kid, how could I believe his nonsense? In fact, I still have one spiritual energy that I haven't cultivated yet, which is the [Red Flame Mountain Residence] in the hands of the barbarian monster. I deliberately delayed time and spent two years to find the flaw of the Three Thousand Academy. I sneaked into the Shenxiao Pavilion where the scriptures were stored. I found that they actually had four spiritual energy techniques, so I stole them all and then slipped away."

"In fact, Dongguo Diyun wanted to kill me mainly because I knew too much. The Three Thousand Academy prides itself on being a prestigious and upright sect in the Fen Mountains. Its reputation is remarkable, attracting countless cultivators and scholars from Qingshen and Guliang to come and throw themselves into their arms."

"If I expose their dirty deeds behind the scenes to the world, the reputation they've painstakingly cultivated over the years will collapse in an instant, and their enemies will be on their trail in no time!"

"After all, I know all about the things they did that are abhorrent to both humans and gods!"

"To be honest, although I escaped, I know that I am imprisoned. I know that no matter what, I can't escape the clutches of those two. Even if I escape from the Three Thousand Academy, I will eventually fall into Ding Qingliao's hands. Because once I go to him to build my foundation and get the Fire God Yuandan, he will never let me leave Yuchuan's Samadhi Mountain again in this life..."

"His Ding family and Three Thousand Academy are ultimately a deal. Even if the two families are on good terms, he won't kill me for that. But if I take the Fire God Yuan Pill and successfully establish my foundation, he will keep me under house arrest for life. Otherwise, I will have to take the Soul Leading Pill. He wants to see with his own eyes whether my path is smooth. This way, he will achieve his goal and also give an explanation to the Three Thousand Academy..."

"But Dongguo Diyun doesn't think that way. I mean nothing to him. He held me in high esteem, but in the end, I betrayed him. He hates me to the core and would definitely want to kill me and turn my bones to ashes!"

After hearing what Monk Li said, Xu Boyang felt a chill in his heart, fell to the bottom of the valley, and was extremely disappointed.

In this case, this path is simply not feasible. If I go to find Ding Qingliao by myself, wouldn't that be like seeking death like Monk Li? Fortunately, I thought it over again and again and asked about the whole story in advance. Otherwise, if I went there rashly, I might be the one who was put under house arrest. In this way, everything would be over.

Monk Li sighed:
"After I escaped from the Three Thousand Academy, I returned to 'Smoke Mountain Light'. Firstly, the spiritual energy of the eight meridians of my Li Daoist Dharmakaya and Li Palace had not yet been fully integrated, and I had not yet cultivated the [Nine Purple Li Fire] mentioned in the 'Lihuo Yuqi Xuandao Sutra'."

"Secondly, although I have found a branch of the Black Tooth Yellow Shell tribe, this [Huaiyi Binzhu] has not yet become popular. It has not been more than three years."

"Thirdly, after I regained my freedom, I've been feeling very conflicted. I know that once I go to Qingshen, there's no coming back, and I'll never see the light of day again in this life."

"But my time with this Taoist Dharmakaya is drawing to a close. If I can't break through the foundation-building stage, defy fate, and prolong my life, my century of hard work will be wasted. I can only rely on the [Yin Shen Exchange Body] to survive. That's why I've been hesitant and indecisive all this time... Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes... In the end, I was found by Dongguo Diyun... Fortunately, fortunately, my master saved me..."

Xu Boyang's eyes flickered as he asked, "Besides Ding Qingliao, who else in Qingshen can refine this pill?"

Monk Li was silent for a moment and said:
"There are actually quite a few families in the Qingshen alchemy community. There are some in all four counties, but they are all small families in the foundation-building stage. This Lihuo Shenyuan Pill is a Huangting elixir, which is very special. Only Huangting Yushi can refine it."

"Currently, the two major Huangting alchemy families in Qingshen, besides the Ding family, are the Pei family of Cangwu. I heard that the youngest of the three feathered masters of the Pei family is named Pei Shaoyuan, with the Taoist name 'Boil the Sea Golden Pill'. This person is gifted and uses [Kan Water] to enter the alchemy path. He created the unique 'Water Method Alchemy Technique' and is famous throughout the country."

"But it is said that the elixirs he refines are mainly based on the Kanshui lineage, and this Lihuo Shenyuan Dan is based on the Lihuo lineage. Water and fire are incompatible, so he probably can't make it... There should be no one left..."

"If there is someone, it should be Ding Qingliao's disciples... I don't know if there are any new Huangting Yushi in his family after a hundred years..."

After hearing this, Xu Boyang no longer had any hope of returning to Qingshen through Ding Tianshi and then looking for Ding Qingliao to ask for the elixir. Monk Li had a deep connection with his family. If he rashly got involved, the risks would be unknown and the consequences would be unpredictable.

However, he never believed in evil or fate. He only believed that man could conquer nature and that everything depended on human effort. He already had other plans in mind, so he stopped worrying too much. After pondering for a moment, he asked:
"Do you know why the Ding family is going to such great lengths to help the Three Thousand Academy?"

"There's no clear clue in this matter, at least I don't see any."

Li Heshangzhiqi recalled the past and felt a little emotional. When he heard Xu Boyang's question, he remembered some things and said,

"But according to my guess, the Ding family has ulterior motives."

(End of this chapter)