A song from Chengdu revived a closed-down pub.

Su Fan greeted his fellow disciples before finally pushing open his master's door.

Zhang Lingyuan sat cross-legged on the wooden couch, with a half-read scripture book in front of him.

"You're here?" Zhang Lingyuan raised his eyelids and glanced at him. "Tell me, what happened this time?"

Su Fan looked completely innocent: "What happened to me? I just missed you, Master, so I came up the mountain to see you."

"Do you miss me, or do you want to escape trouble in the mountains?"

Su Fan was taken aback for a moment, and Zhang Lingyuan continued, "Judging from your clear complexion and calm gait, it's not that you're in trouble, it's that something's wrong. You wouldn't come here unless you had something to hide from."

Su Fan scratched his head and gave an embarrassed smile: "Master, you're amazing! How could you even figure that out?"

"I didn't calculate it; I just know you too well."

Once Su Fan was exposed, he stopped pretending and honestly confessed, "Okay, I admit it. I came to Longhu Mountain because I was afraid of getting caught up in the excitement."

So Su Fan gave a brief account of what was going on in Kyoto.

After listening, Zhang Lingyuan said, "Fate is truly a wondrous thing."

Su Fan asked curiously, "What kind of fate?"

Zhang Lingyuan waved his hand: "It's not your destiny, you don't need to ask."

"Master, I feel like you're playing a riddle on me."

"Haven't you heard the saying, 'See through it but don't say it'?"

Su Fan, quick to speak, blurted out, "I've also heard a saying: 'If you don't speak, you won't be able to speak fast.'"

"Um?"

Su Fan immediately backed down and quickly waved his hand, "Okay, okay, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask. Let's change the subject."

So, Su Fan asked a question he had been holding back for a long time: "Master, how old are you?"

Zhang Lingyuan said, "I have lived for eighty years, yet I have not felt old age approaching."

Su Fan suddenly realized, "You're eighty years old?"

"What's wrong?"

Su Fan looked at his master. He had a ruddy complexion, a straight back, and spoke with a strong voice. He looked to be at most in his fifties.

"Master, I have a question for you. Is there such a thing as immortality in this world?"

Zhang Lingyuan glanced at him, his tone tinged with disdain: "Stop thinking about all that nonsense all day long. Immortality? It's rare to live to seventy, and even with today's advanced medicine, how many people actually live to be a hundred?"

Su Fan was not giving up and chuckled, "But judging from your condition, living to be a hundred years old is like child's play to you."

"Even living to a hundred years old is rare enough; how can one speak of immortality?"

Su Fan asked, "Then why can't people live forever?"

Zhang Lingyuan took a sip of tea and said, "Putting aside whether the human body can achieve that, from an ethical and moral standpoint alone, humans cannot live forever."

"What does this have to do with ethics and morality?"

"Think about it, if a person becomes a father at the age of twenty, the age gap between him and his child is twenty times. When the child is ten years old, the father is thirty years old, and the gap has narrowed to three times. When the father is one hundred years old, the child is eighty years old. As they age, the age of the father and child will approach 1:1."

Su Fan was processing what he had just heard.

Zhang Lingyuan continued, "If this person lives to be a thousand years old, his child will be nine hundred and eighty years old, and the father and son will be the same age. As they get older, the son's son, grandson, and great-grandson will all become brothers. At that time, who will be whose elder and who will be whose junior? There will be no distinction between superior and inferior, no order between elder and junior, and all clan ethics and human relationships will collapse."

Su Fan suddenly realized that it made a lot of sense.

Zhang Lingyuan concluded: "Heaven and earth give birth to people, and all who are born must die. It's not that they cannot escape death, but that they should not. If generations of ancestors lived on, where would this world find room for new life?"

……

After chatting with his master for a while, Su Fan came out of his master's room. Before he even reached the kitchen door, he heard Huixin inside chanting incantations as she busied herself.

He peered through the doorframe. Huixin was squatting on the ground, skewering chunks of mutton with bamboo sticks, her little mouth never stopping: "This lamb is really big, it can't fit in one pot. Let's make a mutton offal soup, get a whole barbecue grill, and leave two kidneys for Junior Uncle to nourish him..."

Su Fan pushed open the door and entered, saying, "Aren't you practicing your martial arts?"

Huixin said, "Junior Uncle, didn't you say that eating is also a form of cultivation? In a sense, what I'm doing is also a form of practice."

Su Fan gave a thumbs up: "That makes sense."

Just then, his phone rang.

He took it out and saw that it was a call from Lin Na.

Su Fan muttered, "This is never going to end!"

After pressing the answer button, Linna asked, "Where are you?"

"It's in Longhu Mountain."

"I asked you where in Longhu Mountain?"

"Up in the mountains."

"Stop talking nonsense, send me the exact location, I'm coming up."

Su Fan was stunned for a moment: "Holy crap, Sister Na, you didn't really come, did you?"

"Otherwise what?"

Su Fan suggested, "It's almost evening, and I'm afraid you won't be comfortable staying in the Taoist temple. Why don't you stay at a hotel down the mountain?"

Linna completely ignored the question: "Stop talking nonsense and send it over quickly."

Su Fan sighed and sent the location.

In less than an hour, Lin Na appeared at the entrance of Qingxu Temple.

She wasn't wearing her military uniform today; she was wearing a dark-colored windbreaker.

Su Fan went up to her with a smile and said, "Sister Na, did you arrive just in time for lunch?"

Lin Na looked around, a hint of surprise in her voice: "This is your sect?"

"How is it? Can you feel the authentic inheritance of Taoism?"

Linna suddenly asked, "You said last time you had a senior brother who was really good at fighting, is he here?"

Su Fan's eyes darted around, and he immediately shouted into the courtyard, "Senior Brother! Someone wants to spar with you!"

Zhao Xiyan looked up when he heard the shout, his face blank.

Linna looked at Su Fan speechlessly.

Su Fan didn't give the two any time to react, waving his hand: "Don't just stand there, if you want to fight, then fight. We'll eat after we're done."

Lin Na had only asked casually, but Su Fan's provocation piqued her interest.

She flexed her wrists and cupped her hands in a respectful greeting to Zhao Xiyan: "I've heard that Taoist masters possess extraordinary skills. I wonder what the intricacies of their martial arts are?"

Zhao Xiyan had no idea what was going on, and turned to look at Su Fan with a questioning look in her eyes.

Su Fan said, "She's here to cause trouble. Senior Brother, why don't you spar with her and show her what it means to be outmatched."

Upon hearing the words "crash the party," Zhao Xiyan's brow twitched slightly.

Without asking any further questions, he stood up, lifted a corner of his Taoist robe and tucked it into his waistband, then clasped his hands in a respectful greeting: "Please."

Linna didn't hold back either, taking a half step forward with her left foot, lowering her shoulders and elbows, and assuming a standard fighting stance.

She swayed and threw a straight right punch at Zhao Xiyan's face.

Zhao Xiyan neither dodged nor avoided the punch, but simply turned his head slightly. The punch grazed his temple, missing him by a hair's breadth.

Lin Na changed her moves extremely quickly. Before she could finish retracting her fist, her left elbow slammed down, followed by a knee strike to her lower abdomen. The three strikes were executed in one smooth motion.

Zhao Xiyan kept his feet still, his upper body swaying from side to side like a willow branch in the wind, barely dodging every move. His clothes fluttered, yet he didn't even dodge a single breath.