The bamboo hut had a nice layout. Before Shen Lian and Lu Shouyi were at the door when it swung open, a person with grayish-white hair stood at the door. His Daoist robe looked old and the right sleeve was empty.
Shen Lian noticed that he was aging. Unlike the headmaster Daoist and the two old men who brought them here, there was no life bustling underneath this aging body.
The old man emits an aura of a setting sun.
“Two junior apprentice-brothers, please follow me.” The old man glanced at Shen Lian and Lu Shouyi and behaved as though he knew their identity.
Shen Lian thought maybe Jingqing informed the old man through other means.
The people in Qing Xuan were weird indeed. Since Jingqing was here, why did he not come in and greet the old man?
Shen Lian understood that these cultivators who were pursuing Dao probably did not care much about mannerism like the mortal world.
As he walked into the bamboo hut, he realized that it was actually not small and was built entirely from bamboos. He wondered what species it was as they were very strong.
Before long, they reached a long corridor. There was a stream of water flowing gently underneath them.
Lu was more enthusiastic than Shen Lian. “Senior apprentice-brother, how should I address you?” Lu asked before they made it past the long corridor.
“You can call me ‘Sanwen’,” the old man replied.
“Senior Apprentice-Brother Sanwen, how many people are there in the lower house?” Lu asked.
“Excluding you both, there are four of us,” the old man replied calmly.
“I heard that Qing Xuan only takes in ten disciples every fifty years. Senior Apprentice-Brother Sanwen, did you join Qing Xuan fifty years ago?” Lu was curious. After fifty years of cultivation and yet he still aged so badly, was it that difficult to pursue Dao?
“I came into Qing Xuan a hundred years ago,” the old man shook his head and said.
“When can we start cultivating?” Lu pressed further.
“Do you know why my name is Sanwen? That is because I will only answer three questions per day.” Sanwen Daoist glanced at Lu.
There was a hint of iciness in his cloudy eyes which stopped Lu from pestering further.
Shen Lian did not say anything since the beginning. He looked around and observed his surroundings.
To be precise, the heaven and earth Qi was especially strong here.
The bamboo hut was like a water reservoir, it accumulated Qi from the outer world to nourish the people and things in the hut. The stream below received nourishment from that Qi too. It was clear and flowed smoothly.
Shen Lian felt the presence of Qi since earlier and he managed to absorb a small part of it. Though, he failed to retain more of it.
After unblocking his Conception Vessel and Governor Vessel, he could absorb Qi from the heaven and earth. His need for the five grains was not that pressing anymore and could go a long way without eating or drinking.
He felt his physical condition got better too. It was as though his body was being nourished discreetly by the gentle spring rain. After a certain period of time, he would probably be able to pinpoint some noticeable changes.
Staying in a place like this, Shen Lian thought that he probably would not age as badly as Daoist Sanwen did even if he were to live over a hundred years old.
He knew that Qing Xuan was not a heaven on earth – it was not in total isolation with the mortal realm. Just because he was carefree and did not fancy competition, it did not mean that all other cultivators there were like him. This was not strange as emotions came naturally with heart.
There were all sorts of people in this path. It was hard to say what was right and what was wrong.
Furthermore, Shen Lian held on to the perception – that one should not pursue Dao and immortality at the expense of one’s emotions.
If one must be heartless and cold in order to attain immortality, it would not be considered as immortality in its strictest sense anyway.
Immortality meant being at peace with everything and to bring forth a future with endless possibilities. If every day were to be the same in thousands and hundreds of years, how would it be different from being a stone in the mountains?
Moreover, the people that he met so far, such as the elderly in red, elderly in gray, headmaster Daoist, and Jingqing all had their unique characteristics.
Perhaps cultivators were just people who lived longer.
Shen Lian still could not picture what celestial was.
The long corridor was not straight and it had a few turns and corners. There were different Daoist courtyards along the way.
Most of them had a similar layout, and they looked deserted and had been empty for a long time.
There were two neighboring Daoist courtyards. “You both can each choose one courtyard. When the headmaster is done with his tasks, he will make further arrangements for you both,” said Daoist Sanwen.
He floated away the moment he was done with his sentence.
“The people that we met on this mountain are getting stranger and stranger,” Lu said as he shook his head.
“Which one would you prefer?” Shen Lian ignored his statement and pointed at the two courtyards.
“Alright then, I will take the one on the right,” said Lu.
In the Daoist courtyard, there was only a bamboo couch and nothing else.
Shen Lian did not fall asleep immediately. He closed the door and meditated on the bamboo couch.
When he heard that Lu was sound asleep next door, he proceeded to attain spiritual calmness through entering into a state of concentration.
At the bier, there was nothing but the void. Shen Lian did not imagine the deity statue this time around. In his brain, he imagined a giant chessboard. A move by the white was followed by the black. Before long, the chessboard was filled with black and white pieces.
He had a good memory. He was not sure if it was due to the strength of his spirit or the effectiveness of Visualization Technique. So long as he concentrated and was not distracted, he could recall everything that he saw without fail.
The chessboard was very complicated, yet Shen Lian managed to recall the details perfectly. Compared to back when he came across the chessboard without knowing what it was, right now he managed to appreciate this genius art better.
Shen Lian had always been able to absorb heaven and earth Qi then slowly developed independence from worldly sustenance. However, his understanding of heaven and earth Qi was still very shallow.
The method of martial exercises on the chessboard, namely Xuanji martial art, connected the different acupoints in the human body. It was as though the body was turned into an electric panel. Different paths could be connected and lead to unexpected results when heaven and earth Qi was instilled into it.
Shen Lian used to be a giant funnel, vital Qi would enter and exit from his body, and most of them would not be retained. There was simply not enough for him to sustain even the basic functions.
Otherwise, he would have been able to cut off the worldly needs long ago.
Shen Lian practiced the Qi flow for Xuanji martial art and tried to prove the effectiveness of heaven and earth Qi had on his body at the same time.
Previously, heaven and earth Qi was retained in small quantities. he managed to obtain more feedback from it.
The strength of the spirit dispersed evenly throughout his body and limbs. He could observe his body closely, way closer than before.
If someone else were to see him now, they would notice that his body was surrounded by a thin mist which his body could vaguely be seen.
In one of the Daoist courtyard, three Daoists were sitting opposite of a Dao practitioner.
The Dao practitioner was a lot younger than the Daoists. He looked around thirty years old, had thick brows, big eyes, and was clothed in a green robe.
“After all these years, Uncle-Master Hong finally met a disciple who has the potential of cultivating the Solution of Ziwei Dong Mystery, which explained why he passed the Xuanji martial art to him so desperately,” said the young Dao practitioner.
“Besides that uncle-master, in the past three thousand years, Shen Lian was the one who used the shortest time to get through the Wenxin Road. That showed how strong his mind and spirit was, which makes him the perfect candidate to cultivate the Ziwei Dong Mystery Solution. Of course, Uncle-Master Hong would be excited,” Daoist Sanwen replied nonchalantly.
“I wonder what kind of person uncle-master was, to think you didn’t hold a grudge against him after he took your arm away!” the young Dao practitioner exclaimed.