Journey to the West: Cultivation Begins at Jindou Mountain

Chapter 25: Concealing the Secret
Qianyuan Mountain, Jinguan Cave.

Taiyi Zhenren felt a headache when he saw Nezha eating the fairy peach in big mouthfuls.

But Taiyi Zhenren still tried his best to put on a kind smile and looked at Nezha.

"My dear disciple, you must have picked all the flowers and plants in my garden. I still need those things to make pills. Hurry and bring them out."

"Oh~ I gave them all away."

"What!!! Giving it away! Ahem. Giving it away?"

"What about my Nine-Bend Resurrection Flower?"

"It looks good, I'll give it to my little sister."

"What about my black bone grass?!"

"It looks like a bone. Throw it to Sky-Howling Dog."

"What about my Golden Spirit Jade Bamboo?!"

"I gave it to a man named Niu Yi."

"This, this, this, this!!! Eh? Wait, is there a deity named Niu Yi in heaven?"

When Taiyi Zhenren heard the name, he was stunned for a moment, looked at Nezha strangely, and kept wondering in his mind which god this was.

But Nezha spat the peach core onto the table and said:

"He's not a god from heaven, but a demon from the earth. He's quite interesting. So I gave him the bamboo."

"Master, if there's nothing else, I'll go and rest."

Master Taiyi pondered for a moment, waved his hand and said casually:
"Go, go! That servant is really capable. You've worked hard too."

Seeing this, Nezha shook his head helplessly and walked out of the courtyard.

This confused master of his is still so troublesome. He actually got himself into trouble.

"Niu Yi? A demon from the earth? We must not teach Nezha bad things. Let me figure out where you came from."

As Taiyi Zhenren said this, he flicked his whisk and started calculating with his hands.

"This is... you can't even predict it?!"

Taiyi Zhenren put away his casual expression and his face became serious.

"Even I can't predict it? Either Niu Yi is born divine or has a special fate, or there is a being with a higher level of Taoism than me who is concealing the secret for him."

"His cultivation level is higher than mine. No matter what, this Niu Yi is also a person with connections."

Compared to the first possibility, Taiyi Zhenren is more inclined to the second possibility. I just don't know who is behind Niu Yi.
"Hahaha~ Chief Niu Yi, please don't send me off again. We'll meet again someday~"

"Okay, okay~ See you again someday~"

Niu Yi watched the land of Yunwu Mountain turn into a wisp of smoke and fall into the ground and disappear. He picked up the bucket of blue-grade Yunwu pine cones and a bucket of blue-grade century-old pine resin next to him and came to the thatched hut that had just been built on the top of the mountain.

Guo Le'an and Niu Feng were standing aside, the man and the demon each holding a pink peach and watching the scene.

At this moment, the numb expression on Guo Le'an's handsome face formed a sharp contrast with the happy expression on Niu Fengniu's face next to him.

"The peaches from this peach tree this year are much more delicious than last year's!"

"Eh? Why don't you eat it? This is a spiritual fruit grown by the leader himself!"

“Eat, eat.”

Guo Le'an's eyes were still a little dull. He picked up the peach, put it to his mouth and took a light bite. A rich, sweet peach fragrance accompanied by a cool air instantly filled his mouth, making Guo Le'an's eyes light up.

This peach is really delicious. He has never eaten such delicious fruit! Is this a spiritual fruit?

Niu Yi watched this scene with some amusement in the straw hut.

Guo Le'an had been up the mountain for three days, and for the past three days, he'd had the same expression, as if his worldview had collapsed. But that was true. If it were an ordinary human living with a bunch of monsters, they'd probably have a mental breakdown and gone insane long ago, but Guo Le'an's performance was already quite good.

Niu Yi could see that even though this guy knew he was the leader of this group of bull monsters, he still hadn't given up on becoming his disciple. He hoped he would give up sooner rather than later.
Niu Yi no longer paid attention to the man and the demon who were watching on the side. Instead, he picked up some prepared dark blue fragrant mud on the table in front of him and smelled it. After a moment, he had no choice but to put it down and shook his head.

“It smells too strong.”

Niu Yi scraped all the fragrant mud into the wooden barrel beside him without any reluctance, picked up some materials beside him, and began to process them very carefully.

"Three ounces of deer musk, two and a half qian of sapphire flowers, and one ounce of ten-year-old ebony root."

What Niu Yi was refining at this time was the first kind of incense in the "Incense Book", thyme.

This thyme is extremely magical. After it is lit, combined with the simple method recorded in the "Incense Book" that any mortal can use, it can achieve the effect of transmitting sound over a hundred miles.

I saw Niu Yi first grind and mix the dried materials according to a very strict ratio, adding them in little by little and grinding them all.

Then put these ground materials into the steamer on the simple stove nearby, strictly control the heat, and start heating continuously.

"Senior Niu Yi, are you making incense?"

Niu Feng heard Guo Le'an talking to him and nodded repeatedly.

"That's what Niu Ping said, but you've seen it all over the past three days. The leader always throws it all away after he's done it. I don't know why."

Guo Le'an didn't know much about making incense. Most of his interest was in martial arts, but when he saw Niu Yi's movements, he felt inexplicably impressed.

Although it is unknown why Senior Niu Yi lived in seclusion here and became the leader of these monsters, he was definitely a master. His every move was free and easy, which made him inexplicably envious.
Niu Yi ignored what the two guys next to him were talking about. After heating the ingredients in the steamer, he quickly walked to the side and mixed the washed grass spirit flowers together in proportion, squeezing out the juice for later use.

In the following period of time, Niu Yi completed a series of complicated processes including boiling, roasting, frying, roasting, baking, grinding and crushing.

Finally, Niu Yi added flower and herbal juice as a liquid auxiliary ingredient to the spices, turning the spices into a crystal blue slurry.

When Niu Yi saw the crystal blue slurry taking shape, his eyes couldn't help but light up. This color was exactly the same as the thyme in the "Fragrance Book"!

Niu Yi put the bowl of paste-like crystal blue liquid under his nose and sniffed it gently. When he smelled the rich fragrance and felt the touch of his treasure-hunting talent, he nodded with joy in his heart.

[Thyme (Blue): Also known as Hundred Mile Sound Transmission Incense, when this incense is lit, smoke fills the air, allowing you to use simple spells to transmit sound to a specific target a hundred miles away, up to three hundred miles away. The burning speed of thyme is related to the transmission distance.]

His thyme was finally done. Next, he just had to shape it and dry it in the sun. This step was the simplest.

Niu Yi saw a golden light flashing in his hand, and the crystal blue liquid in the bowl of thyme fell onto the chopping board beside him without a drop left. Then it was quickly shaped into five crystal blue round incense sticks of the same length.

Niu Yi placed the plate of incense blanks on the stone table to dry, feeling the difficulty of making incense.

The production methods of each kind of incense in "The Book of Incense" are extremely complicated, and the preparation of spices is also very strict.

When refining incense, every step must be mastered.

If it is not enough, the effect will be difficult to achieve; if it is too much, the flavor will be lost.

The refining of spiritual incense is extremely critical, as even the slightest mistake can lead to a huge loss. The spiritual incense that has been painstakingly produced may lose its efficacy, or even turn into a poisonous incense!

Therefore, Niu Yi threw away all the failed incense without hesitation these days.

Niu Feng and Guo Le'an looked at the crystal blue incense thread curiously.

At this moment, Guo Le'an suddenly felt a surge of air running around in his body. Guo Le'an's face changed, and he suddenly realized that the air was actually flowing towards the unopened meridians in his body!
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

Niu Feng looked at Guo Le'an in astonishment as he suddenly heard a sound from his body, then covered his nose and quickly stepped back in disgust.

Guo Le'an did not think about explaining to Niu Feng at this time, because he was surprised to find
Because of that energy, his martial arts actually opened up many meridians and he stepped into the eighth level from the seventh level!

Nope.
Didn’t he just eat a peach?

Storytellers often tell stories about people who encounter magical fruits in the deep mountains and forests, and who greatly improve their martial arts skills after eating them!

The peach he just ate was so similar to the legendary magical fruit.
Guo Le'an felt complicated as he looked up at the tree full of spiritual peaches. At this moment, he seemed to understand why his father became increasingly listless after returning home.

After seeing all that happened on Jindou Mountain, their proud martial arts skills were simply a joke.
Cultivating immortality and cultivating Taoism?
(End of this chapter)