Chapter 441: White Ape Sword Immortal

Xu Jia had Muni Dingguang practice mantras and cultivate his heart and nature, and also had Huogong Toutuo help act as a Protector.

Huogong Toutuo felt immense envy toward this Sacred Fire Sect Leader; he had once claimed he wanted to be "the Master's dog," but how could he not want to be a disciple?

As it turned out, Xu Jia had first taken this Sacred Fire Sect Leader—whom he had wanted to "kill" and whom he had almost replaced himself—as a disciple.

Although he felt envious, he also looked down on him a little: "Back then, when I submitted to the Master, I even took two sword strikes; you, a cripple with a loud reputation, what kind of Sect Leader are you? How are you so cowardly? You surrendered without even fighting?"

The Sacred Fire Sect Leader also looked down on Huogong Toutuo, especially since the Fengyun Yuechen Four Envoys had been refined into Diamond Protectors.

If it were some other great bandit, it would be one thing, but these four envoys had been loyal to him and were handy to use; he had spent an unknown amount of time and energy cultivating them, and now they had become the wedding dress for this bald man, which made him even more depressed and stifled than submitting to Xu Jia.

The two looked at each other with mutual disgust, each snorted, did not exchange words, and even clashed secretly.

Xu Jia was walking on Kunlun Mountain, wanting to see if there were any Cave Heaven Blessed Lands, to look for Xi Wangmu's Flat Peach, or to gather some spiritual herbs to refine a furnace of Golden Elixir to cure Muni Dingguang.

As it turned out, he did not see any Cave Heaven Blessed Land, but he did catch a pair of rare ice silkworms.

These ice silkworms were about the thickness of an infant's arm, and they did not eat mulberry leaves or other leaves, but rather the cold energy of thousand-year black ice from the snowy mountains, or some other rare snowy mountain species.

Xu Jia put away this pair of rare creatures, secretly thinking that he could start an "aquaculture industry"; if they could be crossbred with other silkworms, they would certainly be excellent things.

In particular, he had also collected several taels of silk, which was enough to refine a treasure.

Just as he was searching further, he suddenly saw a rare white ape, calling out "hu-hu-hu" toward the great sun in the sky, and then exhaling an Inner Elixir; this Inner Elixir had not a thousand years of practice, but at least eight hundred, and an Original Fetus had already faintly gestated within the elixir.

Xu Jia sensed this elixir and found it had no impure Qi, with yin and yang complementing each other; half was gathered from the cold energy of this Kunlun snowy mountain, and half was gathered from the pure yang Qi of the great sun, yin and yang in harmony—it was truly a top-tier Inner Elixir.

He secretly thought to himself: "Could this thing be the xianxia version of the Kunlun white ape that Zhang Wuji encountered?"

"Apes are omnivorous; here, apart from snow, there is only ice, and there are very few crops to eat, so there must truly be a Cave Heaven Blessed Land hidden here that one can enter and exit."

Seeing this situation, Xu Jia silently followed the white ape.

This ape gathered Qi and refined the elixir for two hours, retracted the Inner Elixir, and then began to run "hu-hu-hu," leaping a hundred feet high and bounding a thousand feet away with each jump; with one somersault like this, it crossed a mountain peak.

A moment later it arrived at one place, where Xu Jia saw a hot spring, and it took a bath inside.

A moment later it arrived at another place, where there was a Lama temple, and the Lamas in the temple fed it some highland barley cakes.

A moment later it came out of the Lama temple and went to a river of melting ice on the snowy mountain, took a stone to polish a mirror, and after polishing for a while, it headed back up the mountain.

Xu Jia followed it on a leisurely tour and, seeing it so carefree, secretly thought: "I must find something for it to do; it is too idle."

Finally, at a certain moment, the white ape remembered something and came to a small mountain west of Kunlun; this mountain was not prominent, just flat.

The white ape climbed up, reached a crevice, and squeezed inside.

Xu Jia followed it in, and it was indeed a Cave Heaven, with fragrant grass like a carpet, flowers scattered everywhere, a river like a jade belt, and falling peach blossoms.

As soon as the white ape returned, many apes immediately appeared, including white apes and golden apes. The white ape was just what the golden ape looked like when it was very old; normal little apes all had golden fur.

The various apes happily surrounded the white ape, and the white ape then gestured while calling "hu-hu-hu."

Xu Jia secretly thought: "This shouldn't be; with such high Daoist Practice and the ability to communicate with people, why hasn't it learned human speech, and why is it still so natural?"

For such a place comparable to the Flower-Fruit Mountain Blessed Land and the Water Curtain Cave Heaven, Xu Jia still felt it was quite good.

He immediately revealed his form.

Seeing such a person suddenly appear, the white ape was immediately embarrassed and angry, opened its mouth, and spat out a flying sword.

This sword was both tangible and intangible, and it actually made Xu Jia feel amazed, faintly having the sense of "the Great Dao is forty-nine, and one escapes."

At the same time, among the various flowers, flower spirits and flower fairies were born; they clapped one by one, buzzing like bees talking: "Fight! Fight well!"

Xu Jia sparred with the white ape; although its cultivation was not as high as Xu Jia's, its Sword Formula was very profound, faintly in harmony with "Not Yet Completed."

Although Xu Jia had obtained this Immortal Sword, he had never had any top-tier Sword Formula and had purely relied on brute force; only after coming to this world did he see some Sword Formulas, absorb some essence, and possess the foundation of a first-class Sword Immortal, but without the blessing of "Not Yet Completed," he could not be considered a supreme Sword Immortal.

Furthermore, Xu Jia valued "intent" over moves; his sword intent was sufficient, and he held the sword of killing with compassion, otherwise it would backfire on himself and backfire on the people of the world.

Now, sparring with this white ape, he faintly had some insights.

"This Sword Formula is full of the intent to intercept everywhere; could it be the legendary Intercepting Sword?"

Xu Jia had guessed wrong; this Kunlun Blessed Land was originally the lower courtyard of Xi Wangmu's maidservants, where they planted peach trees, not for immortal peaches, but only for peach blossoms to use for brewing wine, and occasionally they would hold poetry and wine gatherings with other fairies.

During the Tang Dynasty of this world, a Sword Immortal accidentally broke in and disturbed the flower fairies; he didn't do anything, but perhaps because he was too handsome, it caused these flower fairies and maidservants to develop worldly desires one by one.

The fairies longed for the mortal world, so the Queen Mother strictly applied family law, summoned the fairies back, and used a Golden Hairpin to draw a Time River between the Desire Realm and the Form Realm, with Weak Water drowning everything; for immortals to descend to the mortal world, they had to pass through the Weak Water, and the Weak Water could not even support a goose feather, so ordinary Heavenly Immortals could hardly descend, and they had to attain the Taiyi level to cross it.

Consequently, this lower-realm villa was abandoned; after many years of confusion, when that Sword Immortal returned, things had changed and people were gone, and the fairies were nowhere to be seen, so he taught a group of monkeys here, letting them take the place of the fairies to guard the peach orchard, pick peach blossoms and peaches, and brew Peach Blossom Immortal Brew, waiting for the fairies to descend to the mortal world to use it again.

It was just that from the Tang Dynasty until now, more than eight hundred years had passed, and the fairies had never descended again; however, the monkeys from back then had become spirits, practiced that Sword Immortal's Sword Formula, gathered the light of the sun and moon, refined an intangible sword, and transformed it into an Inner Elixir; this Inner Elixir was the Sword Pill, and the Sword Pill was the Inner Elixir, their lives intertwined.

The white ape's mind was pure, and its Sword Formula had been practiced to a level comparable to that of the Sword Immortal back then, perhaps even exceeding it.

In short, not to mention its exquisiteness, it was also very simple, with a sense of returning to simplicity and the Great Dao being constant and one.

No matter if Xu Jia struck first or later, he would be intercepted, and then the force would be borrowed to strike back, returning the Sword Qi and sword momentum.

One person and one ape sparred for more than eight hundred rounds; the back-and-forth made the white ape understand that Xu Jia had no malice, and instead faintly had the shadow of the Sword Immortal who had taught it the Sword Formula back then.

The more it thought this way, the more it superimposed the two people's temperaments and figures.

Finally, it called out "hu-hu-hu" in joyful madness, and stopped fighting.

Xu Jia's divine sense was spiritual, and he used the "Taming Animals and Controlling Beasts" of the Seventy-two Arts to communicate with it.

He immediately understood what it was saying with its "hu-hu-hu." It was keeping its promise and had been saying all along: "You finally came back to see me, you finally came back to see me."

This white ape was also a genius among apes, possessing a "childlike heart," which allowed it to use the Sword Formula to comprehend the corresponding breathing technique and harmonize yin and yang into an Inner Elixir, a technique for protecting the Dao that was not good for Longevity.

Other monkeys with distracting thoughts and impure hearts, even if they obtained the Sword Formula, found it hard to learn, were half-hearted, and at most became martial arts experts, but none attained Longevity.

Among the various apes, there were not even a few who had achieved the Pre-Heaven Realm.

Xu Jia asked: "Why did you say I finally came back?"

"Hu-hu, Xiaobai, brewing wine, waiting for you, you didn't come back, Xiaobai waited for a long time, peach blossoms bloomed again and again, peaches ripened again and again, always waiting for you."

Xiaobai, what a perfunctory name.

Xu Jia pointed, transmitting the Lingbao Daoist Citizen Register and the Earth Immortal Register to it, and the white ape instantly became a Lingbao Daoist Disciple.

Although the white ape did not know what had happened, it only felt it was a benefit and immediately jumped up and down, extremely happy.

It pulled Xu Jia toward the depths of the peach forest, first reaching the top of the largest peach tree, and picked a giant immortal peach the size of a head for Xu Jia: "Delicious!"

Xu Jia wiped the peach fuzz with his sleeve and took a bite, but it wasn't particularly stunning; he had actually thought it was a real Flat Peach of Wangmu Niangniang.

But this was actually a small peach received as a reward by a handmaiden of Xi Wangmu; after eating it, she cherished the remaining pit and sent it to her own separate residence in the lower realm to be planted.

Later, there was an intentional effort to collect the pits left over from the Immortals' meals and plant them together; apart from these which counted as "Second-generation Flat Peach," the rest were later derivatives. Some were even grown from pits discarded by monkeys after they ate the peaches.

The Peach Blossom Immortal Brew was also not fit for high-level occasions; it was only drunk when female Immortals gathered. Most female Immortals, being of low rank and small office, had no chance to attend the Flat Peach Banquet at all, but drinking the wine made from these Second-generation Flat Peaches was still quite good. The main thing was that once an Immortal species fell into the mortal dust, it could no longer compare to the original version.

The peach Xu Jia ate was a Second-generation Immortal Peach grown in a Blessed Land and Cave Heaven of the mortal dust; it was actually already quite good, and eating it could prolong life, but for a God Immortal like Xu Jia, it had no effect, so he just treated it as a piece of fruit. If given to Xu Mu or his father to eat, it could extend their lives by a hundred years, making it easy to live to two hundred.

After eating two bites of such a large peach, Xu Jia no longer felt the greed of gluttony; with a slight touch, it transformed into a "Life-Prolonging Pill."

He continued to follow the white ape and saw a pavilion; the pavilion was not very tall, about three stories, and there was a kiosk outside the pavilion, located right under the peach blossoms.

Outside the pavilion were eight wine vats, all about the height of a person, with the words "Flat Peach Banquet" written on them.

These wine vats were indeed vessels for holding wine to be used at the Flat Peach Banquet; they were not Immortal artifacts, but they did possess the "Pot Heaven Technique," and inside they could hold enough water to fill the West Lake.

Every year when the monkeys finished brewing their wine, they would pour it into these eight large vats.

In fact, they didn't brew much; although the peaches ripened every year, the monkeys had to eat them too, so having two hundred catties of peaches available for brewing each year was already quite good. However, there were extremely many peach blossoms.

It was just that through the aging of time, plus the fact that monkeys brewing wine simply had more charm than humans brewing it themselves, these wines, after more than eight hundred years, could already be considered "Immortal Brew," and even a Heavenly Immortal descending to the mortal world would get drunk after drinking them.

Xu Jia followed him to look; all eight wine vats contained wine liquid, but they were slightly different.

One vat was brewed from "Green Peaches" that had fallen before they were ripe, naturally having a feeling somewhat similar to sour green plums.

One vat was brewed by adding peach resin in addition to peach blossoms; it was Peach Blossom Beauty-Preserving Wine.

One vat required the addition of the various flowers from the plains in addition to peach blossoms; it was Hundred Flower Brew.

One vat required "Vermilion Fruit" cultivated by the apes themselves in their fields; Xu Jia had also seen this stuff by the edge of the peach forest, looking like small tomatoes.

Of course, there was also the pure "Monkey Wine" brewed by monkeys who went out to the snowfields to collect Spirit Grass, spirit flowers, and various fruits and treasures around Kunlun Mountain.

The white ape didn't know where he pulled out a glowing wine cup from, scooped it into the vat, filled it with wine liquid that looked like golden gel, handed it to Xu Jia, and watched him with full expectation.

Xu Jia hadn't drunk wine for a long time; he slightly identified it for a moment, confirmed there was no poison, and then drank it down.

There was no Wine Qi; instead, it carried a fragrant, mellow, and rich scent with many layers.

The Wine Qi only slowly rose up afterward.

These were all wines that female Immortals liked to drink; while called wine, they were actually just like beverages.

Because the taste was good, Xu Jia tasted every vat.

But as a breeze blew by, his walking immediately became a bit wobbly, and his vision doubled.

Even Xu Jia's Pure Yang Primordial Spirit could not resolve it for a moment.

"It truly is an Immortal Brew."

Xu Jia managed to sit still and practiced his cultivation in the kiosk to sober up, while the white ape began to dance with hoots and hahas.

It felt like he was secretly gloating, and also seemed to be mocking: "How are you so weak, getting knocked down after drinking just this little bit?"

When the monkeys brewed wine, they would also sneak drinks; as an old wine master of over eight hundred years, the old white ape's ability to hold his liquor was naturally not bad either.

He did not let Xu Jia sober up, but shook Xu Jia up, then switched to a different Sword Formula, wanting to spar with Xu Jia.

Xu Jia's Primordial Spirit was drunk at this time, his mind sluggish; after exchanging a few sword moves with him, his flaws began to multiply. This white ape had no malicious intent; instead, while Xu Jia was in this half-drunk, muddled state, he displayed a set of "Wine Sword" techniques as profound as an escape sword.

This Wine Sword was created by the white ape himself; he was distressed that what he had created had no one to learn it, no one to understand it, and no one to communicate with, so he took advantage of Xu Jia being drunk to feed him moves, as it was only in this state that one could grasp the true essence of the Wine Sword.

It was a pity that Xu Jia was not a Wine Sword Immortal, and furthermore, drinking alcohol ruined things.

If it were someone addicted to wine, such as the Green Lotus Sword Immortal Li Taibai, perhaps they would be very happy.

Perhaps the one who came to this Kunlun Blessed Land back then was indeed the Green Lotus Sword Immortal Li Taibai.

If it weren't for him, how could he have enticed the celestial maidens in heaven to yearn for the mortal world?

Xu Jia thought secretly, not knowing that this really had nothing to do with Li Taibai. It was a sword immortal surnamed Li from the early Tang Dynasty, and the sword formula this white ape used had a famous name called the "Heavenly Escape Sword Technique," which was the signature sword formula of the Pure Yang True Person Lv Dongbin.

(End of this chapter)