Chapter 162

In the human world, the April flowers have faded, but the mountain temple peach blossoms are just beginning to bloom.

This saying is not false at all. It was already April, and the spring breeze on the mountain had arrived late.

Grain Rain had passed for many days, but the faint rain mist still lingered on the mountain peaks. Taking a deep breath, one could inhale the cool raindrops floating in the mountain wind into the lungs.

With gentle breezes and fine rain, it was the lively season of orioles flying and grass growing, and the spring bamboo shoots on Mount Mingyue were breaking through the soil one after another.

There were simply too many types of bamboo on Mount Mingyue. Among them, there was a kind of bamboo called Sweet Bamboo, which tasted just like sugarcane when eaten. Usually, the third sister liked to hold one and gnaw on it slowly.

The shoots of this bamboo were called Sweet Shoots, with fat bellies and thick skins, but they tasted extremely soft, glutinous, sweet, and fresh. The hollow bamboo joints contained abundant juice, which tasted like fruit wine when drunk.

This kind of shoot was eaten by taking a bite, swallowing a bite, and then drinking a sip, so it was also called Three-Sip Shoot.

The third sister and the Green-Scaled one loved them extremely.

At this time, it was the season for Three-Sip Shoots to sprout. Cheng Xinzhan dug and picked many, and he also wove many bamboo baskets, sending a large basket to all the elders he was familiar with.

In addition to the bamboo shoots all over the mountain, the growth of the medicine garden was also extremely good, with various flowers and plants colorful and competing for beauty.

On this day, he was burying five-element mineral jade in the fields again, commonly known as fertilizing.

His medicine field presented a Bagua pattern. He fertilized in order, and after finishing the Qian field, he came to the Kun field. Just as he was busy, suddenly, his hand movements stopped, and his eyes looked toward a certain place.

He had just seen that piece of soil move.

How could that be?

The medicine garden was usually well taken care of by Old Bai and Deng Ge; as soon as bamboo roots came over, they were bitten off, so how could there still be bamboo shoots breaking through the soil?

Not right!

Cheng Xinzhan suddenly reacted; it was that position!

A sense of harvest joy surged into his heart. He maintained his posture, not moving at all, for fear of disturbing the thing underground.

Before long, that piece of land moved again, bulging high.

Immediately after, that piece of land became lively, and one clod of soil after another rolled down.

Finally, a pitch-black "Ding" character stood up.

Cheng Xinzhan smiled silently; it had really succeeded.

That tiny "Ding" character swayed back and forth, seemingly sensing the situation outside.

It should have confirmed that there was no danger. The "Ding" character probed further upward, revealing a round body like black jade. Then, a pair of golden wings could be seen, but the veins on the wings were pitch black. This black and gold combined together were unexpectedly exceptionally beautiful.

A rhinoceros beetle.

The beetle crawled unsteadily, its antennae, which were longer than its body, waving randomly.

After spinning in place for a long time, the beetle suddenly paused, as if it had discovered something, and crawled straight toward Cheng Xinzhan's direction.

Cheng Xinzhan stretched out his hand, palm up, and placed it on the ground.

The beetle quickly crawled into Cheng Xinzhan's palm and then stopped moving, as if it had fallen asleep.

But Cheng Xinzhan knew that with just one thought, this beetle would come back to life, and he could make this insect move however he wanted.

Because this was his corpse.

After seven years of raising the corpse, he finally achieved a good result.

When he opened the medicine field and planted flower seeds and grass seeds, he also planted this insect corpse.

Although the world is vast, there shouldn't be many places better for raising corpses than Mount Mingyue.

He used the gullies of the medicine field to form a Bagua formation and buried five-element mineral jade, which was fertilizing the flowers and plants, but even more so, it was raising the corpse.

Over seven years, he poured Xin-metal spiritual power into the insect corpse almost every two or three days to consolidate its metal-natured foundation.

In the autumn and winter seasons, he used Yin-water and Yang-earth spiritual power to condense into a cocoon to nourish the insect corpse. In the spring, he used Yang-wood spiritual power to wash the insect body to stimulate vitality. In the summer, he used thunder fire to temper and beat it to prevent the generation of Yin-evil and malicious thoughts.

As for the secret talismans for raising corpses, he didn't know how many he had burned; the talisman ash had dyed that piece of land black.

But even so, seven years had passed, and that piece of land had never had any movement.

So today, when there was movement in that piece of land, he thought it was bamboo shoots showing their heads.

Unexpectedly, the spring rain nourished all things, and in the eighth year, it woke up the long-silent insect corpse.

Now this insect corpse was still in a state of ignorance, as if it had just been born, only relying on instinct to move. Only after careful raising and increasing spirituality could it slowly live up to the great name of the rhinoceros beetle.

Perhaps he could also find a dragon corpse for himself.

Thinking of this, he immediately happily held the insect corpse to report the good news to his master.

When Wen Sukong saw it, he was naturally extremely gratified. This was a skill passed down from generation to generation in Mount Mingyue, and it was also a responsibility. One didn't have to be proficient in it or take it as a foundation, but one must never be unable to do it.

"The words you said to me back then are still in my ears. I didn't expect that you would have already refined it so quickly."

Wen Sukong said with a smile.

Cheng Xinzhan also smiled, naturally thinking of that year. At that time, he had just opened his heart palace, and so many years had passed.

"Your soul cultivation is undoubtedly top-notch in the second realm, and it is not inferior to some newly promoted third-realm cultivators. When your soul has been washed and tempered by the thunder tribulation, it will be one of the best in the third realm.

"You are already extremely proficient in using the bamboo body as an external avatar. The next step is to practice the soul-splitting technique, stripping split souls from the three souls to drive multiple bodies simultaneously. At that time, the main soul will sit in the physical body, and the split souls will drive the external avatars and perform the technique of borrowing a corpse to return the soul. This way, cultivation will be faster, and it will be safer when traveling outside, whether true or false."

Cheng Xinzhan acknowledged.

Hearing his master mention traveling outside, he naturally followed the topic and asked for instructions,

"The disciple wants to go out for a walk."

Of course he wanted to go out for a walk; even the insect corpse underground knew it should crawl out to move around.

Wen Sukong smiled upon hearing this, "I knew you would bring this up. I have no opinion, as long as you can convince the Sect Master." Cheng Xinzhan laughed happily, thanked him repeatedly, and took his leave.

Next, he spent a few days saying goodbye to the ancestors, the Sect Master, the Immortals, Master Ren, the Atmosphere Rectification Department Director, and others.

Because his status in the sect was different now, it was no longer like before when he just had to tell his master.

Now there were even people who would have a big argument over whether he was suitable for going out before forming his Golden Core.

However, he couldn't withstand Cheng Xinzhan's soft and hard tactics, repeatedly guaranteeing that safety was paramount, that he was just traveling to see the world and would definitely not cause trouble, and then taking out the Sweet Shoots that had just been sent a few days ago to talk about it. Finally, these elders all agreed and let him go out.

This time, he only planned to take the third sister with him to relieve boredom, leaving Deng Ge at home and letting Old Bai teach him well, so he could refine the transverse bone as soon as possible, shed his mortal body, and practice transformation techniques.

Learning that Cheng Xinzhan was leaving, the Green-Scaled one was a bit angry for the first two days and didn't want to pay attention to him, but once it thought about not being able to see him for a long time, it became even more clingy later.

Just before leaving, the Green-Scaled one looked at Cheng Xinzhan with longing eyes, its wet green eyes like bottomless pools. Gu Qin stuttered and said,

"Come, come, come back, early."

Cheng Xinzhan smiled and said okay, touched the Green-Scaled one's head, and then stepped into the air and left.

He really liked traveling in the spring; this made him feel like he was going out for a spring outing, especially the fresh smell of spring rain, which made him feel relaxed and happy.

!

He stood on the high-mountain lawn outside the gate of Mount Zhongling. Under his feet was lush green grass, and at this time, many fine wild flowers were blooming on the lawn. The wild flowers were hidden in the grass and hard to find without careful observation, but if someone saw them, looking at these colorful colors hidden under the green, it brought a sense of indescribable surprise.

Outside the lawn was a surging sea of clouds, and what came toward him was the moist gentle breeze and fine rain.

This time, his state of mind for traveling was different; it was not to slay demons and eliminate monsters to see the dangers, but just to go out and see the world.

The gate of Mount Sanqing faced east. At this moment, he looked toward the east. In his two trips out of the mountain, the first time he went to the southwest, and the second time he went to the northwest. Truth be told, the east had always been a peaceful and prosperous place, and he had never been there.

Let's go to the east this time!

With a thought, he summoned the "Dragon Carriage". This trip was suitable for slow travel, and driving a cloud was very good. He held the civet cat in his arms, sat on the cloud carriage, and slowly left the mountain gate.

Sitting on the cloud, the wisps of rain mist dampened his Dharma robe. The mountain wind coming toward him was not cold, but clear and cool to the skin, which refreshed his spirit, so he recited casually:

In the mist and clouds, the grass color is thick; the dragon carriage floats me to the east of the river.

The late spring rain wants to dampen my clothes; the April wind blowing on my face is not cold.

————

Traveling east all the way, he soon arrived at the border of Yu Zhang and Kuaiji, which reminded Cheng Xinzhan of the time many years ago when he and Master Jianxian passed through here to go to Mount Huangshan to seek mountains and observe Qi, surveying the earth veins.

That trip was his first meeting with many people: Master Canxia, Zhou Qingyun, Daoist Brother Miaoshu, Daoist Brother Jishen, Jianmo, and Senior Jin Mingzi.

Among them, Zhou Qingyun turned into an enemy, Daoist Brother Miaoyuan who went down to the underground palace together had already passed away, and Senior Jin Mingzi had ascended again; it was truly a case of things remaining but people changing.

This time, he did not go to Qingzhou, but to Kuaiji.

As the saying goes: the southeast is a place of beauty, the metropolis of the three Wus, and Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times. Misty willows and painted bridges, wind curtains and green screens, with a hundred thousand households.

The land of Kuaiji has been rich since ancient times. There are countless families with bells and tripods, and people seeking the Dao and worshipping Buddha are everywhere, so the incense is flourishing.

There are many Daoist immortal mountains. The famous ones are Mount Tianmu, Mount Tiantai, and Mount Siming. The first three are of the same breath and branches, collectively known as the Three Days of Divine Beauty, worshipping the leader of female immortals, the Queen Mother of the West, so there are mostly female disciples in the mountains. Mount Siming is the inheritance of the Wanfa Sect, worshipping the Three Pure Ones and regarding Mount Sanqing as the ancestral court.

Among these families, Cheng Xinzhan recognized people from two of them, and both were met in Bai Yu Jing.

One was the female Daoist Qiao Shoujing of Mount Tianmu, who had competed with him in magic swords in Bai Yu Jing back then.

One was Daoist Cunsi of the Siming Sect. Back then, when his soul left his body and his fellow disciples shook the magic bell, Elder Cunsi of the Siming Sect had rushed over to protect his Dharma.

And there were also two famous Buddhist mountains, one was Mount Putuo and the other was Mount Yandang, both of which were Buddhist holy places renowned throughout the world.

Besides these, there was also Mount Kuaiji, the place where King Yu governed the water and discussed merits, and it was also the location of the Southern Town, where the imperial Qi and evil Qi were quite rich, so no major sect opened a sect here.

Cheng Xinzhan thought about it in his mind. Anyway, it was an aimless tour, so let's go to Mount Siming first to visit Daoist Cunsi. After all, he had the grace of helping him guard the Dao, and he still had some Sweet Shoots frozen in his cave stone, so he should bring them for the Daoist friends of Mount Siming to taste.

Having made up his mind, he continued to travel east, unhurriedly, sometimes driving a cloud, sometimes walking.

The third sister had also been stifled in the mountain for too long, and this was her first time out of the mountain after her eyes were completely healed, so she felt everything was interesting, smelling flowers and playing in the water along the way, walking and stopping.

One person and one civet cat walked along the Qu River. After passing Quzhou, it was Jinhua. Here, the Qu River connected to the Jinhua River. When the Jinhua River reached its end, it arrived at Dongyang, so the river name changed to Dongyang River, which was quite interesting.

This felt different from his feeling of walking along the Yellow River in the north.

The Yellow River surged. Although it nourished the land on both sides, in its essence, it was ultimately a rolling torrent. The water power did not move according to human will. The great river was vast, and even if the stars moved and the Dipper turned, it did not change its speed. It seemed that nourishing both sides was just incidental; the great river was just the great river.

The passing of time is like this, never stopping day or night.

At that time, Cheng Xinzhan by the river saw the momentum of water, the power of water, and the eternal change and eternal invariance of water.

But this time, the river flowing windingly through the mountains and villages gave him a different feeling.

People built huts along the river to live, eating river water and using river water. The river water was not hurried or impatient, flowing slowly. He often saw old fishermen with white hair and beard still able to drive a bamboo raft in the river to cast nets and catch fish.

Now, Cheng Xinzhan by the river saw the softness of water, the moistening of water, and that water benefits all things without contending.

Similarly, this was also a manifestation of Yin.

While comprehending, he walked eastward until he reached the end of the Dongyang River.

The water vein stopped abruptly here. He continued to move forward, but not long after leaving Dongyang, on a moonlit night, he saw another north-south water vein, quite spectacular, as if it came from the sky, dividing Kuaiji into two halves.

This was the Shanxi Creek.

Crossing the Shanxi Creek was Mount Siming. Similarly, Mount Tianmu was also on the east side of the Shanxi Creek.

Oh, could it be that the Green Lotus Lay Practitioner also took this route when he visited Mount Tianmu at night?

Cheng Xinzhan couldn't help but think so.

Crossing the Shanxi Creek, the rolling Mount Siming was right in front of him, shrouded in clouds and mist, with a thousand rays of auspicious color.

Cheng Xinzhan quickened his pace. It would be best to stay in Mount Siming before dark today, so that tomorrow morning, he could look out at the red glow of Chicheng from Mount Siming. This was a strange scene that even the Green Lotus Lay Practitioner praised endlessly. Since he was here, he couldn't miss it.

(End of chapter)