I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 248 Painting (+12)

"A recluse..."

Li Bai, Yuan Danqiu, and Sima Chengzhen were all stunned.

San Shui and Chu Yi, the two junior disciples, dared not speak, and Chen Hong was even more horrified.

None of them expected that the person in the painting could sense the existence of a world beyond, and for a moment they didn't know how to answer.

Only Jiang She was lost in thought.

Hearing the phrase "a person from another world," a feeling he couldn't quite put into words welled up inside him.

So he was a traveler too.

The goddess seemed to be asking casually and did not delve into the matter further.

They then began to talk about interesting things in the mountains, and the mysteries of sunrise and sunset, and the shifting of stars and constellations.

As Li Bai listened, he gradually became engrossed.

Sima Chengzhen sat beside him, listening intently.

For some reason, the Taoist magic of these two goddesses, though they are figures in a painting, is also extremely profound.

Even subtly, as Sima Chengzhen listened closely, many of the principles mentioned echoed those casual remarks Mr. Jiang had made in the past. It was as if they had taken root and sprouted from those few words.

This debate.

It started at midday and continued for several days without us realizing it.

After drinking from the mountain spring and eating the spiritual fruit, the group felt no hunger at all.

The principles of Taoism have been explained to their fullest extent.

The goddess sighed, "It's been a long time since I've had such a pleasant conversation with someone."

Maids were already recording the discourse in ancient bamboo slips. They carved the characters with lightning speed, and after a few days, the bamboo slips had piled up all over the pavilion.

The way has ended, the wine is gone.

The group got up to say goodbye.

The goddess smiled at her two young disciples and ordered her maid to bring more spiritual fruits.

"I heard you say before that it was for Master. Now that you're leaving, you can take more with you so they can have a taste too."

The kind maidservant brought different kinds of fruit for the two boys, stuffing a few of each into their bags, making their bundles bulge. They were a little disappointed when they couldn't fit the last few jujubes in.

The goddess stroked Sanshui's soft head, regretting that she hadn't been able to comb the child's hair more beautifully these past two days.

She looked at the cat again and smiled.

"Goodbye."

"goodbye!"

Jiang She bowed. The other party returned the bow.

He turned around and listened to Sanshui and Chuyi, the two little boys, chattering about how to divide the fruit and how they were curious about what different fruits could be used for, many of which she hadn't seen in the past few days.

"what is this?"

"We'll see when Master tries it..."

In no time at all, their master, Qingyunzi of Yunmeng Mountain, had been arranged to taste five or six things.

Li Bai overheard this and remarked to Yuan Danqiu, "Everyone says Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, but now it seems Qingyunzi's poison-testing is nothing special." Yuan Danqiu laughed heartily.

The group descended the mountain.

Their figures gradually disappeared down the mountain.

It disappeared into the white mist.

……

……

In the afternoon, the wind rustled through the bamboo grove, and birds chirped.

Sanshui yawned, feeling as if he had just had a very long dream.

She and her junior brother quickly stretched and yawned. Looking around, they realized they were back in front of the courtyard wall.

When they looked at the murals again, they were able to recognize many things.

The tallest pavilion in the painting is where they discussed philosophy. The few houses in the far distance are the homes of Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao.

"We've really stepped into the painting..."

Li Bai also felt something.

His gaze fell upon the mural, where in one corner were depictions of ordinary people's shoes, speckled with dust and mud. He wondered if Ruan Zhao and Liu Chen had gone up the mountain again.

On the other side.

Sima Chengzhen was stunned.

In the mural, he has jet-black hair and is a strong, middle-aged man.

Now that he has left the painting, the youthful body he gained from consuming the spiritual fruit has also vanished.

He became an old man with graying temples and a trembling gait.

Sima Chengzhen raised his hand and could still feel the soreness in his arm, a result of years of seclusion in the mountains and the cold mountain winds.

He opened his palm; the skin was loose and thin as a cicada's wing, and you could see the dried blood vessels inside, because he had aged.

The previous miracle.

It left his body again. It took him a long time to recover. Looking around, he saw the man in blue standing under the eaves. He walked shakily to Jiang She, shaking his head and giving a bitter smile.

"Now I understand why you didn't accept my greeting before."

Jiang She looked at the old Taoist priest.

Yuan Danqiu also saw it and knew that the old man was feeling extremely sad, having lost his lifespan and youth. He hesitated for a moment, unsure how to comfort him.

Sima Chengzhen waved his hand.

He withdrew his gaze from himself and chuckled softly.

He raised his hand and asked Jiang She, "I would like to ask you something, sir."

"Please speak, Master."

Sima Chengzhen asked, "We have been wandering in the painting for more than ten days. How much time has passed now?"

Jiang She glanced at the sunlight and replied.

"It should be about ten days."

Sima Chengzhen laughed, practically bursting into laughter: "I've been a Taoist priest for decades, and it's been thirty or forty years since I've felt such a light and agile body. Thank you, sir, for letting me experience this."

Jiang She sized him up.

Suddenly he asked.

"Doesn't the master feel regret?"

Sima Chengzhen pressed his chest; his aged heart was still beating. His chest had been filled with ecstasy from the past ten days of wandering in the painting, and he hadn't felt that youthful body in decades.

"Of course, there is regret."

Sima Chengzhen thought for a moment.

"Being able to experience my prime again, even if only for a few days, is enough for me to cherish."

The group walked together to have a meal.

The people in the Taoist temple were both surprised and delighted to see them.

"Master, I thought something had happened to you!"

The disciple breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the old Taoist Sima Chengzhen's hand and examined him closely, fearing that something might have happened to his master.

Sima Chengzhen: "How is the temple?"

Disciple: "Everything is fine. Master Chiying even asked if we needed guards to help search for someone, but we declined. Fortunately, Master has returned..."

Throughout lunch, Sima Chengzhen spoke with a smile to the Taoist priests, answering their questions.

However, when asked what he had been doing these past few days, he simply smiled and did not answer.

The group devoured their food, their appetites astonishing the Taoist priests.

Li Bai and Yuan Danqiu burst into laughter.

Seeing that they enjoyed drinking, Sima Chengzhen had wine brought over and drank with them.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, when Sima Chengzhen summoned his disciple and asked him to find talented scholars to write poems for the mural in the next few days, Li Bai, holding a wine cup in one hand, laughed heartily.

"There is no need to look for a guru elsewhere."

There is someone right in front of you.

Sima Chengzhen looked over, sizing up the drunken man in white, then glanced at Yuan Danqiu beside him, and he was somewhat unsure.

"Who?"

Li Bai raised his cup and drank it all in one gulp.

This meal took a long time, from the afternoon when the sunlight was just right until dusk.

The sunset glow stretches for miles.

Jiang She was in a good mood.

He chose a spot on a cliff overlooking the distance and sat down to chat with Sima Chengzhen. The world before them was vast and open, and they could even see the hazy line of the East China Sea in the far distance.

He didn't bring much else with him, just a pot of wine and a few cups.

The wind is clear and the moon is bright.

Sima Chengzhen looked into the distance, but couldn't see anything clearly. He didn't mind, and took a sip of wine with a smile.

"That's the East China Sea. Sir, your eyesight is exceptional; you should be able to see it clearly."

On the horizon, a bright moon rises early.

The clouds and mist swirl and ripple, creating a breathtaking spectacle.

They were being blown by the mountain wind. This wind came from a hundred miles away, from the sea. Once the winds of heaven and earth began to blow, they never ceased for thousands of years.

Having experienced a spiritual journey within the painting and returned to the mortal world, Sima Chengzhen was filled with many emotions.

He pointed towards the unseen coastline.

Ancient books record that there are three sacred mountains in the sea: Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, where immortals reside.

Sima Chengzhen's Taoist robe fluttered in the wind.

He laughed loudly.

"I wonder if what the Qin Emperor saw a thousand years ago, when he sent people to find the elixir of immortality and to seek immortals in the sea, was the same as what we see today."

【Ask for monthly ticket】

(End of this chapter)