Chapter 3: Corpse Dissolution

Cheng Yunqi felt very strange at this moment. He felt himself floating in the air, as if he had really become a cloud, and another "himself" was sitting under his feet.

He listened, the wind was very loud, the rustling of bamboo leaves was like thunder; he looked, it seemed that everything had no distance, and the ants on the ground carrying insect corpses could be seen clearly; he smelled, the sweetness of rain and mist, the grassy fragrance of spring bamboo shoots, the slight fishy smell of mud, all could be distinguished.

He wanted to feel it carefully, but caught a glimpse of Daoist Daoist Sukong waving her sleeve at him, and felt a dizzying turn of heaven and earth. When he came back to his senses, he was already in the depths of the bamboo.

Looking around, the greenness was like a sea surrounding people, the mountain wind passed through the forest, and Yunqi felt that he was also going to be taken away by the mountain wind.

Yunqi gathered his mind and carefully felt the connection with the Human Soul in Daoist Daoist Sukong's words.

In the dark, he had a feeling that he was now a rootless duckweed, going to be taken away by the wind, could melt into the sky, could seep into the ground, only in the northwest direction, there was an attraction. Only by going there could he take root.

Having clarified the direction, Yunqi had the thought of going there. As soon as the thought arose, he felt himself floating in that direction. The stronger the thought, the faster the soul floated.

After passing less than half a mile, a fragrant scent came from the mud underground. He was stunned, and his soul couldn't help but descend. He saw a green-leaf purple vine lying on the ground, the leaves were heart-shaped, with white veins, and the vines were dark purple, looking like He Shouwu, but emitting a strange fragrance. Just floating beside it and smelling it, he felt his soul become more solid.

In just a few breaths, Yunqi didn't know how long he felt had passed. He was fascinated in a trance, and then suddenly woke up. If his physical body was still there, he would definitely be in a cold sweat.

Enduring the temptation and excluding distracting thoughts, Yunqi began to float towards the northwest again.

Along the way, various spiritual species such as golden butterflies, white cats, green snakes, macaques, black muntjacs, and pheasants discovered Yunqi's wandering soul from time to time. These spiritual species had not yet opened their orifices and did not know what a wandering soul was, often pouncing to play and frolic. Yunqi tried his best to dodge, suffering unspeakably.

And what made Yunqi even more unbearable was the attraction of various strange flowers and grasses along the way, as if the invisible fragrance was a net, wanting to net his soul.

Fortunately, Yunqi's thoughts were tenacious. For various temptations, he just turned a blind eye and only wanted to return to his physical body.

However, the Earth Soul was outside, the five senses were sensitive, but it was extremely dull to the passage of time. Yunqi didn't know how long had passed, nor did he know how much time he had left, just struggling to hurry, not daring to delay any longer.

Floating and floating, a feeling of weakness and exhaustion struck. Yunqi secretly said it was not good. Could it be that the time was up and the Earth Soul could no longer maintain it?

A feeling of panic rose immediately, but Yunqi was helpless. He had never realized that the feeling of life passing away was so clear.

"Woo—"

At this moment, Cheng Yunqi keenly noticed that the mountain wind that had never stopped had turned northwest. He realized this was an opportunity. He carefully felt, pondered, and tried to melt his soul into the wind and travel with the wind.

The soul was between virtual and real. Previously, when attacked by fragrance, when pounced by various spiritual species, he imagined himself as a virtual body, weakening his perception and gathering his soul. But at this moment, to borrow the power of the wind, he imagined himself as a real body, imagining himself stretching his limbs and bulging into a big flag.

These were all things he pondered himself, but the fact was that it was very useful. The soul rode the wind and went away in an instant.

When the wind gradually slowed down, Yunqi was almost there. From afar, he had already seen the Zhan Biyun's Bamboo-Hiding Place monument.

He breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly floated towards the stone monument, and soon saw a bamboo pavilion again. But when he looked closely, a palpitation surged up.

The place was still the original place, the stone monument was there, the bamboo pavilion was there, and the bamboo mat was there, but where was Daoist Daoist Sukong? Where were the young boys and girls who traveled with him? More importantly, where was his physical body?

Yunqi hurriedly searched around, but didn't know how many circles he had circled, but couldn't find anything. He wanted to shout, but the soul couldn't make any sound.

The feeling of weakness became heavier. Yunqi was anxious. At this moment, he had a flash of inspiration and flew into the bamboo pavilion. The situation inside made him at a loss.

In the pavilion, there were:

A handsome young man in white, thin, pale, with his brows tightly closed, sitting cross-legged, life or death unknown, but looking at the situation, it was no different from his own physical body with the Earth Soul out of the body;

A burly man with a strong physique, looking to be in his thirties or forties, but with a broken right eye, looking quite ferocious, also in a state of lost soul;

A sloppy bald old Daoist, covered in filth, smelling foul, but the Daoist's robe was of the same style as the female Daoist Biku, also in a state of lost soul;

A paper man that looked a bit creepy, wearing normal people's clothes, wearing a hat, shoes and socks;

A plant with thick roots and few leaves, the root block was black, already possessing a human shape, limbs, and facial features, looking exactly like a doll, with the leaves on the doll's head intertwined like a grass crown;

The last one was even more peculiar, a bamboo staff, seven feet long with seven knots, straight up and down, the bamboo staff was jade-colored, slightly transparent, and you could see that the first and last two knots were hollow, while the middle five knots had five-colored brilliance. The second knot of the bamboo staff grew two bamboo branches, and the bottom of the last knot also grew two bamboo branches, each branch tip had five leaves, looking like it had a bit of the charm of limbs.

Yunqi had no ideas for a while, but his intuition told him that these people or objects could all let the Earth Soul inhabit, and now it was just a matter of choice.

Yunqi looked at the incense burner again. The incense had reached the end and was about to burn out.

Could it be that flying back on time was not the test, and the final choice was the real test?

People?

Was it the handsome but weak young man? Or the strong but incomplete middle-aged man? Or the sloppy but high-status old man?

Humanoid?

Was it the paper man and bamboo man that were so strange that they were completely confusing, or the He Shouwu that already possessed a human shape and emitted a strange fragrance? Yunqi was now a mess, his thoughts jumping back and forth between the three people and three objects.

Not too long, Yunqi gave up the three human bodies first. If he really wanted to live again, he didn't want to wear someone else's skin, and thinking about it, whether these three people's physical bodies were also waiting for their own Earth Souls to return?

Since there really were immortals in this world, what was wrong with inhabiting objects?

Subsequently, Yunqi immediately gave up the paper man, just because He Shouwu and the bamboo staff at least looked full of vitality, while the paper man felt dead.

His thoughts probed back and forth between He Shouwu and the bamboo staff, but he didn't know how to choose. Seeing the last bit of incense ash about to fall, Yunqi prepared to attach to the He Shouwu that was more humanoid.

But just as the soul was about to touch the He Shouwu's body, he suddenly discovered that there was a faint thought on the He Shouwu, and this faint thought was expressing fear and begging to Yunqi's Earth Soul.

It turned out that this He Shouwu had already become a spirit and was born with intelligence.

Yunqi breathed a sigh of relief. No need to make a choice, he immediately threw himself into the bamboo staff on the side.

Just right, the last bit of incense ash in the furnace fell.

————

Cheng Yunqi opened his eyes suddenly.

What caught his eyes was still the Zhan Biyun's Bamboo-Hiding Place monument. Looking around, Daoist Daoist Sukong was sitting peacefully in the bamboo pavilion, surrounded by a circle of people sitting cross-legged with their heads drooping and souls lost. Under the stone monument, about twenty or thirty young boys and girls were still standing in place, still not daring to step forward.

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He touched his cheeks, touched his chest and back, and found that he had returned to his physical body at some point. The young man, middle-aged man, old man, paper man, He Shouwu, and bamboo staff he saw just now had all disappeared.

It was as if it were just a dream.

"You, stand behind me."

Yunqi looked up at Daoist Daoist Sukong and found that she was looking at him.

Yunqi didn't dare to neglect, got up and walked to stand behind the female Daoist.

At this time, he saw the incense in the furnace, which clearly still had more than half left.

"Truly immortal means, did I pass?"

Yunqi thought to himself, then looked at his nose, mouth, and heart, standing still like a stake.

Watching the incense burn out, no one woke up again.

The people with lost souls sitting on the bamboo mat had no reaction.

Looking at this scene, the expressions of the dozens of young boys and girls under the stone monument who did not dare to participate in the Dharma test could be described as wonderful, either shocked, horrified, or regretful, but these expressions were all accompanied by a kind of celebration of surviving a disaster.

After the incense burned out, Daoist Sukong was expressionless and took out a small white banner from her sleeve. She shook the white banner gently, and Yunqi heard her whisper:

"Wandering soul, where do you stay? The thousand-mile soul is here, hurry into the orifice!"

Suddenly, a wind rose. Yunqi only felt a coolness brushing his face. Immediately after, the people with lost souls on the bamboo mat raised their heads suddenly, as if waking up from some nightmare.

These people looked around and gradually came back to their senses. When they saw Yunqi behind Daoist Sukong and the fire in the incense burner gone, expressions of annoyance and unwillingness gradually appeared on their faces.

However, seeing these people with lost souls wake up, the faces of those under the stone monument changed again, becoming even uglier than those sitting on the bamboo mat. If they had known that this female Daoist could summon back wandering souls, how could they not dare to participate in the Dharma test?

Just after everyone on the bamboo mat woke up, Daoist Jihu also arrived as promised.

Daoist Sukong pointed at Yunqi and said:

"Trouble Jihu, send the young lay practitioners back outside the mountain first. When you come back, send him to Wanhu Peak."

"Yes, Master Yu."

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(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 4 =====