I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 220 Old Friend, Taoist Boy, Burning Mountain (+6)

Jiang She walked along the mountain path. Stone steps had been built on the path, and over time, footprints had appeared in the middle of each step, leaving gaps and green moss growing beside them.

He spoke casually.

"Yes."

Li Bai remarked with some emotion, "That is somewhat similar to my relationship with Danqiu Zi."

Jiang She smiled.

"It's not quite the same."

He was trying to find a way back then, spending his days either reading or practicing Taoism. He mostly lived on the mountain, sitting among the clouds, watching the sun and moon rise and fall, and ten years passed without any difference.

He rarely goes down the mountain, only returning once every few months, and doesn't really care about what's happening around him.

It wasn't until the young women in the neighborhood styled their hair into a married woman's bun, accompanied by three or five children, each holding a soup spoon, and quietly urging the children to eat.

Young people from the surrounding area went to Chang'an to study and didn't return for several years, causing their mothers to constantly worry about them.

The neighbor's yellow dog died of old age.

The last time he returned, he ordered his usual steamed buns at his favorite tavern. The taste had changed slightly, but they were still edible. As he ate, he heard the tavern staff looking at him and whispering among themselves.

Only then did I realize that, in the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

Ten years.

The young woman who used to secretly admire him in the alley is now surrounded by five children, the oldest of whom has begun to learn to read and use an abacus.

He was a young man who had just come of age and looked to be about the same age as him. He was advising his parents not to be superstitious, but he had been away from home for five years and had not returned.

The lively, playful yellow dog that used to rub against people's legs and love to eat flatbread is now dead.

And he exists in this world.

Her appearance remains unchanged.

One person survived alone.

My feelings then were naturally different from now.

Li Bai and Yuan Danqiu were somewhat curious, and even the old Deer Mountain God standing to the side looked over.

Jiang She did not tell them what the difference was.

He looked up at the mountain, where stone steps stretched all the way to the end of the green hills.

The landowner asked, "Is it right there?"

……

……

Mirror Dust Mountain.

Two young Taoist boys sat in the hall, tending to the incense. They heard that the incense was offered by pilgrims from the mortal world. Mortals always have many requests, and the incense burns constantly. Fortunately, the patriarch told them not to listen, so the two boys couldn't hear it.

Inside the hall, there were also more than a dozen memorial tablets of various sizes, with numbers written on them: one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, and so on, up to more than a dozen.

They are here guarding.

To prevent any of the chickens, birds, rabbits, snakes, toads, or other pets raised by fellow students from wandering in and disturbing the incense offerings and disrupting the peace.

The two yawned.

They guessed what bet Fifth Brother had made with someone else today.

"I heard that Fifth Brother lost so much that he had to pawn his underpants, and he's still gambling?"

Another young Taoist said, "How would I know? I heard he pawned his headband yesterday, and none of the senior sisters were willing to lend him money."

Where are my senior brothers?

Fifth Brother was unwilling to give it to them, feeling it was filthy.

The two young Taoist boys were not disciples of Daoist Jingchen, but ordinary children from the mountain who had learned some rudimentary immortal techniques. If they were interested, they could go down the mountain to show off and be praised by mortals, thus indulging in the fantasy of being immortals.

What did you gamble on the day before yesterday?

"I bet Eighth Brother cooked some awful food again; a few people skipped it." The young Taoist was very well-informed. "Fifth Brother actually won the bet."

The other person was curious.

"Since you won, what did you get?"

"I got a meal made by my eighth senior brother, which was a stew of chicken, toad and beans. I was so sick of it that I threw up."

They chatted idly, partly out of loneliness. The senior disciples rarely came to this hall; only every few years would Patriarch Jingchen bring a disciple. Otherwise, the hall was deserted.

After talking for a while, my stomach started growling.

The two boys rubbed their bellies, stood up from the prayer mat, took the sacred fruit from the offering plate, and shared it with each other. The fruit was very sweet and beneficial to cultivation. They often stole some, and no one has ever noticed.

"Click..."

"Crack, click, click..."

The two of them were eating with their faces covered in juice when they suddenly heard some noises.

It looked like something had cracked.

The two carried the fruit and searched around, only to find that all the memorial tablets were cracked and wobbling on the table.

Just as he was about to reach out and pick it up, the already precarious memorial tablet suddenly crashed to the ground.

They were shocked.

"What a disaster!"

The two hurriedly tried to find their senior brothers and sisters to check on the situation, causing quite a stir throughout Mirror Dust Mountain. Chaos erupted; toads scurried out of the pool, and horses neighed.

The two young Taoist boys were deathly pale, their hands clenched tightly together, terrified.

"Why haven't any of my senior brothers come out?"

"Did they all go down the mountain?"

They searched for a long time but couldn't find anyone.

One of the young disciples lowered his voice and whispered a suggestion: "Maybe it's nothing serious. The patriarch and his senior brothers and sisters only come once every few years. Usually, it's just us watching over things. Even if something goes wrong, no one will know."

"Why don't we go down the mountain and order a dozen or so new memorial tablets to replace these?"

Another person said, "But the incense has also stopped burning!"

The young Taoist boy waved his hand.

"We'll talk about that later. The patriarch said that the incense offerings of mortals are just things that bind the body, and they're not important. He told us not to listen to him and to just let it go if it's broken."

The other person thought about it and agreed.

He reached into his sleeve and then patted his pockets. "Well, we don't have any money either."

The young Taoist swallowed the spiritual fruit he was chewing and picked up the one that was left over from their previous dispute over the spoils from the offering plate.

"Let's give this to them; we might be able to get some money from it."

The two quickly made up their minds, tidied up the scattered memorial tablets, put them all in their bundle, looked around, and were about to pick up their bundle and go down the mountain to find a craftsman to make new ones.

We encountered a few more people along the way.

A man in blue saw them and asked politely.

"Where is Daoist Jingchen?"

The two young Taoist boys, carrying their bundles, were startled, thinking their scheme had been exposed. They breathed a sigh of relief when they realized they weren't from the mountains.

Perhaps they were disciples accepted by a senior brother or sister, or simply ordinary people with good fortune.

I want to visit the patriarch.

The young Taoist pointed casually.

"See that? It's on that mountain, at the top."

The young Taoist priest remembered that some of his senior brothers could fly at a young age, and reminded them, "Can you fly? If not, you can walk over, but it will be slower."

Jiang She expressed his gratitude.

The two young Taoists nodded haphazardly, a little embarrassed, as it was the first time someone had thanked them, two juniors.

Once the others left, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.

The young Taoist patted his chest.

"Thank goodness it wasn't my senior brother. Let's go, let's hurry down the mountain and change back as soon as possible."

I hurried all the way to the mountainside.

Behind them, a loud noise suddenly came from the distant mountains.

The two young Taoist boys turned around. The forest was dense, and even craning their necks, they couldn't see clearly, so they climbed a tree to get a better look. They had barely reached the top when the boys cried out in surprise:
"The ancestral master's mountain is on fire!"

(End of this chapter)