The spiritual energy was restored, and he became a mortal immortal in two days.

"Benefactor, a cultivator should take it upon himself to save all sentient beings. As the saying goes, 'If I don't go to hell, who will?'"

Chen Xuan: "Whoever wants to join can join, but I'm not joining. Better to die for my fellow Daoists than for me."

……

"Everything in the world has a cause and effect. The people you meet in this life are here to help you. You must not kill them indiscriminately."

Chen Xuan: "Anyone who makes me feel bad is a jinx to me, and those who disturb my peace of mind must not be allowed to live today!"

……

"As Youde said, if a person has pent-up feelings and harbors resentment, it is an act of virtue to allow them to vent their anger and let them express it. Why bother arguing with them?"

Chen Xuan: "He's asking for it. It would be a sin not to retaliate. I'll make him bleed from all seven orifices and have epilepsy every day."

……

The mighty river surges and rolls on.

Three towering figures streaked across the sky and descended one after another in front of a young man.

"Our three paths of benevolence, righteousness, nature, and compassion are all the right paths to save the world."

"You reject education, disregard cause and effect, defy fate, disdain merit, and disregard ethics. You have spent thousands of years in the mortal world without becoming an immortal."

"Chen Xuan, what exactly do you want to do?"

Three figures looked down at the youth on the shore, their eyes devoid of any emotion, their questioning voices resounding throughout the world, like the might of heaven.

Chen Xuan remained calm, his robes fluttering, his voice still indifferent: "There is only one thing I seek in this life."

"What is it?"

"Keep to my true self, live my authentic self. Even if millions of people go to paradise, I will walk my own path in the human world."

"This is heresy!"

Three figures, their faces contorted with anger, shouted sternly.

Chen Xuan slowly raised his eyes, a hint of coldness in them: "The three of you, do you really think you're qualified to teach me?"

The voice just fell.

Centered on him, the energy of heaven and earth within a radius of ten thousand miles suddenly surged, instantly overwhelming the raging river.

The three imposing figures' expressions changed drastically, but they were unable to withstand the attack no matter what.

The golden light around them shattered inch by inch, the countless Daoist proverbs vanished with a roar, and even the divine phantoms they had condensed collapsed suddenly.

……

China, Qingcheng.

The screen shattered, and Chen Xuan, lying on the hospital bed, regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes.

As dawn broke outside the window, a look of confusion appeared in his eyes as he gazed at the hospital room he was in.

It seemed as if he had been having a very, very long dream.

So long that it will last forever, beyond the reach of heaven and earth; so magnificent that it will reach for the moon in the heavens and capture turtles in the deep sea.

Those events felt so real, as if they had happened yesterday, that he could hardly distinguish between reality and dreams.

Was Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly, or was the butterfly dreaming of being Zhuangzi?

"Never mind, none of that matters. The world is me."

Heaven and earth should be born with me, and all things should be one with me.

After a short while, the confusion on Chen Xuan's face faded away, and a sense of vicissitude, loneliness, and worldly experience arose spontaneously.

The boy is still the same boy he was back then, but his state of mind has transcended countless levels.

boom!

Suddenly, a heavy object fell to the ground behind him. Chen Xuan turned around and saw a woman staring blankly at him.

She covered her mouth tightly with both hands, but tears welled up in her eyes and spilled out uncontrollably.

"Chen Xuan... Senior Brother Chen... you've finally... finally woken up..."

Ignoring the basin that had fallen to the ground, Lu Yao excitedly rushed over and hugged Chen Xuan tightly.

Only when she felt the real warmth emanating from Chen Xuan did she realize that this was not a dream.

Chen Xuan is awake!

Senior Brother Chen, who had been in a coma for five years, has finally woken up!

Looking at the woman in his arms, Chen Xuan's expression was momentarily dazed, and his memories, blurred by the passage of time, gradually became clear.

"Junior Sister, it's been a long time." Chen Xuan said softly, his eyes filled with emotion.

To be precise, it has been 9,731 years since it was last seen.

"Five years! Senior brother, you've been in a coma for five whole years! I thought you'd never wake up again, sob..."

Lu Yao cried tears of joy, her eyes fixed on Chen Xuan.

Then, she froze.

Five years have passed, and my senior brother's appearance hasn't changed at all... No, no, his temperament has become even more ethereal and otherworldly.

For a fleeting moment, she thought Chen Xuan was a reclusive immortal.

I rubbed my eyes hard and looked again, but found nothing different. It was as if I had just had a hallucination.

My senior brother was in a coma for five years, but now he seems to have gone to cultivate immortality!

"Can you let me go now?"

Chen Xuan wanted him to get out of bed and walk around, but he was held so tightly that he couldn't move.

So many years have passed, and my junior sister still loves to cry.

"what……"

Lu Yao's face instantly turned red, and she jumped away in a panic, like a startled rabbit.

Chen Xuan smiled slightly: "How is everyone doing?"

Is Master still the same as before, always talking nonsense and obsessed with cultivating immortality?

Do the fellow disciples in the Taoist temple spend all their time gathering together, discussing how to go down the mountain and make big money?

"This...that..."

Lu Yao became stammering, unable to answer, and suddenly changed the subject, "Senior brother, you just woke up, let me go call the doctor to give you a check-up!"

Not long after, the entire department was in an uproar when they heard that a patient who had been in a vegetative state for five years had suddenly woken up. Doctors rushed over to check on him.

"This is truly unbelievable!"

"His bodily functions are completely intact; he doesn't look like he's been in a coma for five years at all."

"...It seems like there's something wrong with his self-perception."

"Where are the immortals in this world? How can he call himself a mortal immortal?"

"He's insane! He even claims to have punched the Confucian sage and kicked the Buddha, and that he was omnipotent in that world, able to go anywhere in heaven and earth... It's all just wishful thinking!"

"But it must be said, the fact that he woke up at all is a miracle!"

"Diagnosis: No physical abnormalities, but excessive delusions. It is recommended to monitor the patient's mental state!"

……

"What should we do?"

"It must have been when he fell off the cliff that my senior brother hit his head..."

After finally completing the discharge procedures, on her way back, Lu Yao looked at the test report in her hand and couldn't help but sigh.

Chen Xuan completely disregarded the hospital's diagnosis.

"Is this where we're supposed to stay?"

He stopped and frowned as he looked at the dilapidated, low-rise buildings in front of him.

Lu Yao said awkwardly, "Senior brother, I..."

"Why don't you go back to the Taoist temple?"

Chen Xuan's gaze was somewhat serious.

It wasn't that he disliked the place being too dilapidated, but rather that his junior sister wanted to live outside when her master was managing the Taoist temple.

Meeting Chen Xuan's questioning gaze, Lu Yao could no longer hold back. Her eyes reddened and moistened, and she poured out all the grievances she had held for so many years.

"Senior brother, in the second year of your coma, Master... he fell ill with grief and passed away..."

"Not long after, my senior sister... she also cruelly left the Taoist temple..."

"Later, the eldest disciple took a portion of the temple's finances and left with his men, without a trace..."

"There are only a few of us left in the Taoist temple... But... But three years ago, a group of monks who appeared out of nowhere insisted that Xianyun Temple was their property..."

"We...we couldn't win the argument, so we were all kicked out..."

"They also threatened us, saying that if we dared to go back, they would beat us into a pulp..."

At this point, Lu Yao's strength crumbled instantly, and her voice, choked with sobs, revealed the untold hardships she had endured over the years.