Chapter 5: A Mortal's Axe, Startling Puti

Time flew, and another three months passed.

The Mountain of Spirit Terrace and Square Inch was in late autumn, the layers of forest dyed in colors, the mountain wind bleak.

Su Chen's life was simple to the point of being boring.

Every day he rose at the Yin hour, fetched water, swept the courtyard, and then followed the woodcutter up the mountain.

He no longer used the sharp woodcutting axe of the woodcutter, but stubbornly used that forgotten, dull, heavy old axe.

At first, the woodcutter tried to persuade him, saying he was making things hard for himself, using a dull axe to chop wood, getting half the result with double the effort, wasting strength.

Su Chen just smiled, saying he liked the heaviness of this axe, which could exercise his strength.

Seeing he couldn't be persuaded, the woodcutter didn't say anything more, just assuming this young man had some special hobby.

Only Su Chen himself knew what he had gained in this boring repetition day after day.

Every time he swung the old axe, he no longer deliberately looked for the grain of the wood, but used his heart to feel.

Feeling the complete process of strength rising from his feet, passing through his waist and abdomen, and finally pouring into the axe blade.

Now his martial arts internal strength had long since dissipated, and what drove him now was the purest physical essence.

Every time he reached exhaustion, he was squeezing the deepest potential of his body.

And then, in the quiet sitting at night, that thread of newly born "Qi" would nourish his exhausted body, making him full of energy when he woke up the next day.

This was an incomparably slow, yet incomparably solid accumulation.

His skin became dark and rough, his palms covered in thick calluses, looking no different from any ordinary woodcutter in the mountains.

But his eyes became brighter and calmer.

This day, it rained heavily, the mountain road was slippery, so the woodcutter didn't go up the mountain.

After breakfast, Su Chen still put on his coir raincoat, wore his bamboo hat, and went into the mountain alone carrying the old axe.

The mountain forest in the rain had a unique scenery.

Everything was silent, only the rustling sound of rain hitting the leaves.

The fragrance of soil and the fresh breath of plants mixed in the cool air, refreshing the heart.

Su Chen came to a forest area he often visited on weekdays, didn't rush to start, just stood quietly under a huge ancient pine that required two people to embrace.

He closed his eyes, feeling the rain sliding along the edge of his bamboo hat, feeling the ground becoming soft because of the rain, feeling the majestic and calm life force inside the ancient pine.

He seemed to have merged with this mountain forest and this autumn rain.

After a long time, he opened his eyes and slowly raised the old axe in his hand.

No amazing momentum, no profound moves, just the most common woodcutting action of an ordinary woodcutter.

But at the moment when the axe was raised to the highest point and about to chop down, Su Chen's temperament changed abruptly.

He didn't seem to be a person anymore, but the axe itself.

His will, his spirit, his Qi, all condensed on the dull and heavy axe blade.

The old axe carried a whistling wind and chopped accurately onto the thick trunk of the ancient pine.

The dull and heavy axe blade, like a hot knife cutting through oil, sank into the trunk silently, right up to the handle.

Immediately after, Su Chen flicked his wrist and pulled the axe back.

A straight, thin white line appeared on the trunk of the ancient pine.

The next moment, a strong wind suddenly rose, blowing through the mountain forest.

The huge ancient pine, from that white line, separated silently, the upper half of the huge tree crown collapsed with a bang, stirring up dust all over the sky!

The cut was as smooth as a mirror.

Su Chen looked at his masterpiece and let out a long breath.

This breath turned into a long-lasting white mist in the cold air.

He succeeded.

He condensed all his essence, Qi, and spirit into one axe, chopping out this strike that transcended the mundane.

This was no longer martial arts, but the prototype of the "Dao".

At the same time, deep in the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars.

In a simple quiet room, Patriarch Puti was sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion, the Dao rhyme flowing around his body, merging with heaven and earth.

Suddenly, his closed eyelids trembled slightly, and then he opened them abruptly.

In his eyes, it seemed as if stars were extinguished and the sun and moon were revolving.

"Hmm?"

He let out a soft sound, his gaze seemingly piercing through the layers of obstacles of the cave dwelling, looking toward the depths of the mountain forest.

Just now, he felt a strange fluctuation of Dao rhyme, which flashed and disappeared in the mountain.

This Dao rhyme did not belong to any disciple in the cave, and even less to that monkey head who was learning etiquette and cleaning the courtyard in the back mountain.

The monkey head's aura was nimble, but full of unruly wildness.

And the Dao rhyme just now was completely different.

It contained a tenacious will of "from nothing to something, creating one's own path".

"Interesting."

A look of interest appeared on Patriarch Puti's face.

He pinched his fingers to calculate, but the heavenly secrets were in chaos, and he couldn't calculate anything.

This made him even more curious.

This Mountain of Spirit Terrace and Square Inch was his Dao field, and every grass and tree in the mountain was under his control; when did such a variable appear that even he couldn't see through?

He remembered the mortal youth he had rejected from the door.

At that time, he said he had "no affinity", firstly because the youth's heavenly secrets were shielded by a mysterious force, and he couldn't see through his origin;

Secondly, because the Journey to the West catastrophe was a fixed number of heaven, and that monkey was the person who should face the catastrophe; this youth, as a variable outside the plan, rashly getting involved would only bring unnecessary trouble.

Therefore, the words "no affinity" were both a rejection and a form of protection.

But he didn't expect that this youth not only didn't leave, but with a mortal body, in this mountain wilderness, he had forcibly knocked open the door to cultivation.

"Using a mortal axe to chop the wood of the Great Dao... this kind of temperament, this kind of comprehension, actually makes me a bit moved."

Patriarch Puti muttered to himself.

He stood up, his figure flickered, and he disappeared from the quiet room.

In the mountain forest, Su Chen was immersed in the joy of the breakthrough, when suddenly his heart moved, and a warning sign arose.

He turned his head abruptly, only to see an old farmer wearing a bamboo hat and a coir raincoat standing not far behind him.

The old farmer was leaning on a bamboo staff, looking ordinary, but Su Chen's scalp instantly exploded.

Because with his current perception, he hadn't discovered when this person had approached at all!

"Young man, great strength; such a thick tree, you were able to fell it so easily." The old farmer's voice was hoarse and old.

Su Chen was extremely vigilant, but his face remained calm, and he bowed: "Elder, you make me laugh; it's just a skill to make a living."

The old farmer paced forward, looked at the cut as smooth as a mirror, and then looked at the dull axe in Su Chen's hand, a flash of brilliance in his turbid eyes.

"Hehe, to be able to chop such a cut with such a dull axe is truly extraordinary."

Su Chen's heart jumped.

"Young man, your axe technique, seemingly chopping trees, is actually cutting off worldly ties and sharpening your Dao heart."

"It's just that your random groping without anyone's guidance is ultimately a wild path. Essence and Qi are condensed, but you don't know how to circulate them; spirit and intent are sharp, but you don't know how to restrain them."

The old farmer's words were like heavy hammers, knocking on Su Chen's heart.

Every sentence hit the key point of his current cultivation state.

Su Chen knew he had met a true expert.

He took a deep breath, dropped the axe, and bowed respectfully to the old farmer.

"Junior Su Chen, I didn't recognize Mount Tai; please give me some guidance!"

The old farmer laughed, reached out his withered hand, and helped him up.

"Fine, fine. Since you chopped out a path yourself, if I don't fulfill it, wouldn't it seem I'm too stingy?"

As the words fell, the coir raincoat and bamboo hat on the old farmer, along with the old face, dissipated like water ripples.

Replacing them was an old Daoist wearing a Daoist robe, with the demeanor of an immortal, a clear and thin face, and deep eyes that seemed to contain the entire starry sky.

It was none other than the master of the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars—Patriarch Puti!

Su Chen's expression changed drastically as he looked at the person before him, unable to speak for a while.

Patriarch Puti looked at his shocked appearance and stroked his beard with a smile: "It seems you guessed my identity?"

Su Chen reacted and knelt on the ground, his voice even carrying a hint of choking.

"Su Chen, pays respects to the Patriarch!"

This time, Patriarch Puti didn't refuse again.

He accepted this bow calmly and said leisurely: "I once said you had no affinity with me. Now it seems that the word 'affinity' is not fixed by heaven, but can also be taken by oneself."

"Since you were able to chop open the immortal path with a mortal axe, it shows your Dao heart is firm. From today on, you shall enter my sect as a registered disciple."

"Follow me." ===== CHAPTER 6 =====