hsntnovel Chapter 570 Wu Shi, immortality!
Chapter 570 Wu Shi, immortality!
"master!"
"Lin Mo" suddenly opened his eyes, and a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
He subconsciously touched his cheek to make sure his skin was still warm, then he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you distracted again?"
The old Taoist priest's voice came from behind, with an unquestionable majesty.
She raised her hand and tapped him on the back of his head, "When you are meditating, your mind is wandering. Be careful not to get carried away or you will ruin your cultivation."
"Disciple knows his mistake."
"Lin Mo" stuck out his tongue embarrassedly and quickly sat cross-legged again.
The morning mist in the mountains had not yet dissipated, wetting the hem of his Taoist robe, bringing a chill to his face.
He took a deep breath, forced down some lingering memories, and tried to meditate again.
But those images always come uninvited——
First, my mother’s face was as pale as paper.
Although he did not remember the specific circumstances of his birth, the villagers always said that his mother suffered heavy bleeding when giving birth to him.
Before she died, she held the midwife's hand tightly and begged her to save the baby.
Then came the hunched back of my father.
That cold winter he caught a cold and had a high fever that wouldn't go away.
My father went up the mountain to collect herbs with a bamboo basket on his back, but he never came back.
Three days later, the hunter found his body at the foot of the cliff, with a few fresh Polygonatum sibiricum tightly grasped in his hand.
The clearest thing is the haggard faces of my grandparents.
The plague was raging and my grandfather died of coughing up blood.
Seven days later, grandma used her last bit of strength to push him to the entrance of the Taoist temple.
He fell on the stone steps and never got up again.
That year, he was ten years old and became a real orphan.
"Life and death are impermanent, why bother clinging to them?"
The old Taoist priest's voice rang out again, like the morning bell and evening drum, startling "Lin Mo" and making him tremble all over.
Only then did he realize that his nails had dug deeply into his palms, oozing blood.
Looking up at his master's penetrating gaze, Lin Mo hurriedly lowered his head, his voice trembling: "Disciple...disciple is just..."
"Are you afraid of death?" The old Taoist chuckled and swept his whisk across his head. "Who in this world is immortal? Even the legendary Peng Zu only lived for 800 years."
"Lin Mo" pursed his lips and did not answer.
What he feared was not only death itself, but also the fear of being completely wiped out from the world.
He had seen wild dogs tearing apart corpses at mass graves, and he had also seen bones gradually decay and turn into dust in the wind and rain.
Whenever he woke up in the middle of the night, he always dreamed that he was dead, lying in the wet soil, feeling the maggots eating his flesh and blood inch by inch.
The helplessness and despair followed him like a shadow, making it hard for him to breathe.
"I want to live..."
He silently chanted in his mind, like a spell, or like an obsession, "I want... to be immortal!"
This obsession took root in his heart and grew stronger as the years passed.
On the day when the old Taoist priest passed away, "Lin Mo" knelt in front of the couch, watching his master's breathing fade away little by little until the last trace of life disappeared.
He reached out his trembling hand and touched the face that suddenly looked ten years older.
Death was so concrete and irresistible that it filled him with fear and strengthened his obsession.
In the winter of the year when he took over the Taoist temple, "Lin Mo" found a scroll of bamboo slips in a wooden box in the corner of the Sutra Library.
An ancient legend about Fengmen Village is recorded on the worm-eaten silk cloth.
"In the land of old age, there is a blood pool that leads to the underworld. Entering it can keep your youth and live forever."
However, if you want to enter Fengmen Village, you must have the key to open that place - the bronze dragon talisman.
But he had never seen this thing before, and didn't know where to get it.
For a moment, he was helpless and could only bury the obsession deep in his heart and wait for the opportunity.
For the next three years, "Lin Mo" was like a possessed man.
I searched through ancient books and visited many Taoist friends, but still couldn't find the whereabouts of the bronze dragon talisman.
Until that rainy night.
"Master! Master!"
The little Taoist boy rushed to open the door in panic, "A strange man came down the mountain and said he wanted to see you!"
"Lin Mo" frowned, slowly put down the scripture in his hand, and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.
In the rain, a figure wearing a straw raincoat and a hat stood quietly in the courtyard.
The rain flowed down the edge of the hat in streams, but strangely, the man's clothes were as dry as before - this was clearly a very clever way to avoid water.
"I'm a poor Taoist, Wu Shi."
The visitor slowly raised his head, revealing an ordinary face, but his eyes were surprisingly bright, "I have come to discuss the way of immortality with the master of the temple."
"Lin Mo's" heart skipped a beat, and an inexplicable premonition came to his mind.
That night, the two of them had a long talk by candlelight.
This Wu Shi's origins remain a mystery, but his abilities are astonishing.
He discussed astrology and calendar, and was well versed in the art of divination, and was also familiar with various methods of cultivation.
What shocked "Lin Mo" even more was that Wu Shi could recite the entire text of the long-lost "Huangting Neijing Jing" word for word.
It was so fluent that it seemed as if he had written the scripture himself.
"Master, do you know Fengmen Village?"
Wu Shi suddenly changed the subject and his eyes became deep.
The teacup in Lin Mo's hand almost fell, and the tea splashed onto the table, leaving a stain.
Wu Shi took something out of his arms.
The bronze dragon-shaped symbol glowed an eerie green in the candlelight.
There were two dots of cinnabar on the eyes of the dragon, so red that they were blinding, staring at him like living things.
Lin Mo's sight was suddenly attracted by a magnet, and he couldn't move his sight away from the bronze dragon talisman.
Every scale of the dragon pattern was exactly the same as what he saw in the book.
After that, within just half a year, the entire Taoist community was gradually impressed by this sudden genius.
The Heavenly Master of Mount Longhu usually looks down on others, and even when he sees Wu, he has to bow respectfully.
The Taoist priest of Maoshan boasted of his profound Taoist knowledge, but he had to humbly ask for advice in front of Wu Shi.
His fame spread like wildfire in the Xuanmen world, and soon he became a figure that everyone looked up to, like the brightest star in the night sky.
Until one day, Wu Shi suddenly displayed the bronze dragon talisman again in front of everyone at a ceremony held in Zhongnan Mountain.
"I have found the entrance to Fengmen Village."
Wu Shi's voice was not loud, but it exploded in everyone's ears like thunder, "The secret of immortality lies in this."
Although Taoists want to achieve immortality, they are not foolish.
At first, everyone was skeptical and their eyes were full of suspicion.
It was not until Wu Shi demonstrated in public some long-lost Taoist secret techniques.
He also accurately predicted several secrets of heaven, and each one came true to the exact same degree.
This made some people believe his words without a doubt.
Three months later, a strange team headed into the mountains.
In addition to "Lin Mo", there were more than 40 practitioners who were persuaded by Wu Shi.
The oldest one, Xuan Chengzi, is over 120 years old. He needs his disciples to support him when he walks, and his body is shaky.
But he insisted on witnessing the "method of immortality" with his own eyes, and his eyes were full of desire for immortality.
"right here."
Wu Shi stopped in front of a seemingly ordinary valley.
He held up the bronze dragon talisman and chanted obscure spells.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew, sand and rocks flew everywhere, and the cinnabar eyes on the dragon symbol burst into blood-red light, like two burning eyes.
The rocks spread apart like a living thing, revealing a dark hole. A damp, rotten smell filled the air, making people feel nauseous.