Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 5 Jiang Shou
"The Five Internal Organs Observation!"

Qi Yun squeezed out these three words from deep in his throat.

I felt a strange sense of unease. Most of the Taoist temples in the mountains have elegant and detached names like "Qingxu," "Baiyun," and "Sanqing." How could they be named after the "five internal organs"?

Just as he was hesitating whether to go in...

"sand……"

The chilling footsteps rang out again!

It was crystal clear, right behind him, seemingly just a few steps away!
"Oh no! That thing has caught up!"

Qi Yun's scalp tingled with fear; how could he dare to hesitate even for a moment?

He almost lunged forward, crashing into the half-open, rotten wooden door riddled with wormholes!
"Squeak—Clang!"

The wooden door let out a teeth-grinding groan, swung open in response, and then, as he rushed in, was abruptly pulled back shut by inertia with a dull thud.

Once the door closes, the world seems to be split in two.

Outside the door was a thick, impenetrable fog and eerie footsteps that seemed to be closing in.

Inside the door, however, there was only deathly silence and relatively "clean" air.

There was no fog inside the Taoist temple, and the originally dim and weak beam of the flashlight was finally able to barely create a clear area of ​​light. Although it was still dim, it was enough to illuminate the small area in front of us.

Qi Yun leaned against the cold wooden door, his ears perked up, nervously trying to catch any sounds outside.

There was not a sound outside the door.

The footsteps disappeared.

The world was now utterly silent.

Was that thing lingering outside the door?

Or... just wait quietly outside this thin door?

He dared not think about it too much and forced himself to turn his attention to the interior of the Taoist temple.

The beam of the flashlight swept across.

This is a small front yard, or rather, it used to be a front yard.

Now only ruins remain, with a few crooked pillars supporting a dilapidated roof, and the ground covered with a thick layer of dust that has accumulated for who knows how many years.

The corner was piled with rotten wood and broken rubble.

The air was filled with a strong smell of dust and the musty smell of rotting wood.

As for the rest, there was nothing there, just an empty space, as if it had been emptied out!
He walked through the front yard, around a dilapidated moon gate, and into the second courtyard.

The scene here is much the same as the front yard, only more spacious. There used to be a stone incense burner in the center, but it's now broken. Only a pile of rubble remains.

At the end of the courtyard lies the core of the Taoist temple—the main hall where the statues of the gods are enshrined.

However, when Qi Yun's flashlight beam swept into the depths of the main hall, his pupils suddenly contracted!
In the darkness ahead, a tiny ray of light stubbornly pierced through!
A tiny... spark?
It was orange-red, extremely faint, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

It burned silently, like a firefly in the dark depths of the sea, eerie and abrupt.

"fire?"

Qi Yun's heart skipped a beat, and she almost held her breath.

"This dilapidated place...is someone still living here?! And making a fire?"

He swallowed hard and, step by step, moved very slowly and cautiously toward the faint light.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that it was actually a flame beneath a pill furnace.

Beneath a huge, ancient-style bronze alchemy furnace, a small flame is burning tenaciously!

The alchemy furnace was more than a person tall, and its entire body was a deep, heavy dark green, covered with intricate and mysterious cloud and thunder patterns and bird and beast designs that had long since become indistinct.

The furnace was covered with a heavy lid shaped like an inverted lotus flower, and the knob of the lid was an unidentified beast with a ferocious appearance.

The entire alchemy furnace exuded an indescribable aura of desolation, perched in the center of this deathly silent and dilapidated hall.

Apart from that, there was nothing else in the entire hall!
Qi Yun's gaze, however, was fixed on the bottom of the alchemy furnace.

Right in the center of the ground surrounded by those three thick beast feet, there was no firewood, no charcoal, and not even any combustible material!
It was just a fist-sized, orange-red flame!
The flame was extremely stable, hovering quietly in the air about a foot above the ground, burning silently.

The core of the flame was a pure orange-red, while the edges were tinged with a faint golden halo.

It neither sways nor rises, but remains suspended in a constant state, emitting a faint but continuous heat.

"A fire without roots... a divine technique! It truly is a divine technique!"

Qi Yun stared in disbelief, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest!
"This place definitely doesn't look like it's inhabited. Could this alchemy furnace have been left behind by a deity who used it to refine pills back then, but suddenly had to leave due to other matters and couldn't take care of it? It's been there for who knows how many years!"

Upon thinking of this, Qi Yun immediately became eager.

This means that the elixir inside the alchemy furnace should still be there!
In Old Zhao's story, a bowl of water can extend one's life by 108 years. If only he could consume the elixir from the alchemy furnace...
Overwhelmed with immense joy, he was momentarily blinded! The legend was right before his eyes, and the miracle was within reach!
Qi Yun's eyes shone brightly, and all the pain in his body seemed to disappear at this moment, leaving only an extreme desire for the "elixir".

He suppressed his excitement and looked around. Soon, next to a pile of collapsed debris in the corner of the yard, he found a stone slab, about the size of a washbasin, half-buried in the dust.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain from his wound, and with all his might, dragged and pulled the heavy stone slab to the side of the enormous bronze alchemy furnace.

He first tentatively and extremely slowly brought his trembling hand close to the furnace wall.

It feels warm to the touch! Not scalding hot as you might imagine, but a just-right warmth, like touching a sun-warmed stone in the dead of winter!
This further solidified his belief that "this is a treasure of the immortals."

Without further hesitation, Qi Yun placed the stone slab firmly beside the furnace and climbed up using both hands and feet. Standing on the stone, he was just tall enough to reach the lotus-shaped furnace lid.

The lid was extremely heavy, cold to the touch, and covered with a thick layer of dust.

He took a deep breath, gripped the grooves on the lid of the grotesque beast with both hands, and used all his strength, bracing his feet on the stone slabs for leverage, letting out a low groan.
He actually managed to pry open the heavy stove lid, creating a crack! Immediately, an indescribable smell wafted out from the crack.

With a burst of energy, Qi Yun flexed his muscles and violently overturned the entire furnace lid!
"Thump!" The heavy bronze furnace lid tumbled and crashed into the thick dust on the ground, making a muffled sound and stirring up a cloud of dust.

Qi Yun disregarded all of that and eagerly leaned half his body into the dark furnace opening, raising his flashlight and shining it into the furnace with great enthusiasm!

A beam of light pierced the darkness inside the furnace.

There was no dazzling radiance or fragrant aroma as I had imagined.

The inside of the furnace was exceptionally clean, and the furnace walls were smooth.

The beam of light was focused on the bottom of the furnace.

There were no glittering elixirs.

Only one thing remained, silently suspended in the very center of the furnace.

That was a scroll... a jade slip?

It is about one foot long and three fingers wide, and its whole body has a warm and restrained mutton fat white jade luster. Both ends are inlaid with simple bronze axle heads.

The jade pieces were tightly rolled together and tied with a dark gold silk ribbon.

"This..." Qi Yun's enthusiasm was instantly dampened as if he had been doused with a bucket of ice water.

Where's the elixir? Why is it a piece of jade?
Why is the alchemy furnace used to refine jade slips instead of pills? What's the logic behind that?
A huge sense of disappointment welled up inside me.

But then I thought, this jade slip appeared in such a miraculous alchemy furnace and was burned by that rootless immortal fire for countless years. How could it be an ordinary object?
Could it be... a secret manual containing supreme immortal techniques?!

"Whatever it is, let's get our hands on it first!"

Qi Yun leaned over the edge of the furnace, stretched out his arm, and touched the jade slip with his fingertips. It was icy cold to the touch. He grabbed the jade slip and pulled it out from the depths of the furnace!

Feeling its weight in his hand, Qi Yun jumped off the stone slab and couldn't wait to untie the dark gold silk ribbon.

However, no matter how hard he tried, the seemingly ordinary dark gold ribbon remained completely still!

The jade pieces seemed to be firmly bonded together by an invisible force, and no matter how he tried to bend or twist them, he couldn't budge them an inch!

"What's going on?" Qi Yun asked anxiously and suspiciously, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

Just as his thoughts were racing, his fingers unconsciously stroking the jade slip, trying to find the mechanism to open it—

A slight tingling sensation came from my palm!

It turned out that a wound on his palm, which had been cut by sharp rocks when he rolled down the mountain earlier, had reopened during the violent movements of moving stones and lifting the stove lid, and was oozing bright red blood.

The blood droplet landed precisely on the smooth surface of the jade slip.

A sudden change occurred!

The few drops of blood, upon contact with the jade slip, were instantly absorbed without a trace, like water droplets falling into scalding sand!

The originally warm and understated mutton fat jade suddenly burst forth with a dazzling white light!
"Om-!"

A deep and resonant hum seemed to emanate from within the jade slip, or perhaps it resonated directly in Qi Yun's mind!
The entire dilapidated hall seemed to tremble slightly!
Immediately afterwards, at the bottom of the alchemy furnace, the rootless orange-red flame that had been floating and burning for countless years suddenly leaped up!
It transformed into a slender yet incredibly condensed line of fire, flying straight out from the bottom of the furnace with lightning speed, instantly disappearing into the dazzling white light erupting from the jade slip!
The jade slip flew out of his hand!

It hovered in the void three feet in front of Qi Yun, and the dark golden silk ribbon that bound it broke silently inch by inch and turned into ashes!
In the blinding white light, the jade slip slowly, automatically... unfolded!
A complete jade scroll floated in the air, shimmering with luster.

However, the jade book was completely empty!
There were no tadpole-shaped immortal characters as expected, no mysterious talisman patterns, only a pure and utterly blank space!
Just as Qi Yun was stunned by this unbelievable sight, his mind going completely blank—

At the very front of the unfurled jade book, on the blank jade piece, a point of light suddenly shone!
It's not text, but a picture.

A leaping flame.

It was the same flame that had flown out from under the alchemy furnace earlier.

Below it, three ancient seal characters also appeared:

【Crimson Hunting Fire】

The jade slip suddenly closed and then abruptly entered Qi Yun's mind.

Qi Yun instinctively leaned back and fell to the ground.

(End of this chapter)