Chapter 25: The Method of Wood Escape

His fingers touched the wall.

What came from the front was the hard but not cold touch of the wooden board, smooth because it had been painted.

Lin Jue opened his eyes wide, not daring to blink.

It wasn't entirely to steal the art; it was just that the art itself was wonderful and interesting, especially to him. And for any ordinary person in this world, this experience must have a very high attraction. It was just that most people couldn't encounter yaoguai, and if they did, they would be afraid. It was difficult to get the yaoguai to agree to their request, and they wouldn't dare to easily entrust their safety to the yaoguai.

If there was no danger, probably few people could refuse to experience the feeling of passing through a wooden wall.

And Lin Jue had a pair of extraordinary eyes.

In his eyes, he only felt the flow of primordial qi in the wall, constructing something mysterious. Suddenly, the spiritual charm and luster of this primordial qi flowed to the outside of the wall, and the whole wall suddenly became illusory.

The touch of his fingers suddenly became wonderful.

It seemed that the wall had changed, becoming like water or air, which could be passed through, or it seemed that it was his fingers and arms that had changed, becoming a part of the wall.

"..."

Lin Jue's fingers just passed into the wooden wall.

At the same time, Lin Jue immediately felt that familiar strange feeling.

The tree yaoguai's force did not stop, slowly pulling him, and from his fingertips, to his palm, gradually a small part of his forearm passed into the wall.

It felt cold, sticky, strange, and mysterious.

"If I let go of my hand at this time, this part of your arm would be stuck in the wood. I heard that some yaoguai and sorcerers have no other skills, but just rely on this kind of deception to harm people. Therefore, in the future, when you go to other places, don't easily agree to let others pull you into a wall. Not just in a wall, but in water or soil, it is the same. They may not necessarily let you out."

"I have been taught."

"You can slowly pull your hand out."

"Good!"

Lin Jue slowly pulled his hand out, and only after it was completely withdrawn did he let go of the branch.

His five fingers moved constantly; he lowered his head to look at his hand, and there was no abnormality. He touched the wall in front again, and the touch was the same as usual.

This feeling was truly too magical.

Wonderful, wonderful.

At the same time, Lin Jue also basically confirmed—

The ancient book had already reacted.

"Is there any difference between the 'Wood Escape' cultivated by humans and the divine ability you display?" Lin Jue couldn't help but ask.

"To say it's big, it's not big; to say it's small, it's not small." The tree yaoguai's voice came from the wall, "In the affairs of the world, even if it is just one category, there may be thousands of arts, but there is only one Dao. I heard from other people that yaoguai and spirits were originally ahead of human cultivators. Most likely, human cultivators saw the skills of us plant yaoguai and then groped to create similar arts."

"Why do you know so many things?"

"You don't know, the spirits here originally secretly worshipped a divine being. Although I haven't heard any news about that Jun Niangniang for many years, there is still a connection between us."

"Jun Niangniang?"

"It is not convenient to tell you more about the affairs of spirits."

"This is natural, natural." Lin Jue nodded, "I am just surprised that it is not convenient for you to go out, yet you know so many things."

"If I could go out, I would know these things in a year. It is precisely because it is not convenient to go out that I spent decades to know just this little bit."

"You are already very learned."

Lin Jue was both flattering and sincerely feeling so.

At the same time, he sat back on the bed beside him, picked the wick of the oil lamp, and then let the oil lamp flicker, continuing to ask for advice: "Are there many yaoguai and ghosts here?"

"Not many, but there are some. There are very few in the city, but there are also those who mix in the human world and live like people; it's just that I'm not convenient to say who they are. There are more in the mountains and wilderness outside the city, but because this is not a remote and desolate place, and there has been no war recently, and it is not far from Qiyun Mountain, even the wild demons and ghosts in the wilderness are rarely very rampant and fierce."

"Listening to this, is Qiyun Mountain really very powerful?"

"That goes without saying. Qiyun Mountain is one of the four famous Daoist mountains. I don't know about the others, and I haven't been to Qiyun Mountain myself. I only guess from legends that it is probably indeed powerful."

"How do you say that?"

"Some demons and ghosts I know who have high cultivation are all wary of the name of Qiyun Mountain. Even the City God in the city seems to have some connection with Qiyun Mountain. I have heard other rumors before, saying that some demons who did evil things fell into the hands of Qiyun Mountain."

Speaking of this, the tree yaoguai paused and informed him:

"That Yuanzhong kid called a young man from the Wei family, and he is sitting at the gate downstairs right now."

"Hmm?"

Lin Jue thought for a moment and understood.

It should be that there were still some wealth or valuable items stored in this house. Although Wei Yuanzhong left, he couldn't rest easy, so he called a young man from the family to guard the gate.

"Human nature."

Lin Jue only said this, not feeling there was anything to it.

"You are quite free and easy."

"It should be so." Lin Jue didn't care much and continued to ask for advice, "Then what about Yishan?"

"Yishan? There are fewer rumors about Yishan, mainly because Qiyun Mountain worships divine beings, while Yishan cultivates arts. Moreover, Yishan is remote, few people go there, and few people come out. Even I have rarely heard about Yishan."

Worships divine beings? Cultivates arts?

Lin Jue sat in the room on the second floor of the Wei family, chatting with the yaoguai without any fear, asking for advice and absorbing the world's knowledge about yaoguai.

This tree yaoguai obviously knew the curiosity of mortals about these immortal and magical things, so it kept telling him what it knew, answering his questions, and answering whatever he asked. Chatting and chatting, Lin Jue roughly knew why it was not convenient to go out but knew so many things—

Trees have no mouths, but this one was actually talkative.

It was just that neither Lin Jue nor the tree yaoguai noticed that in the alley outside the house, besides the young man from the Wei family sitting at the gate, there was also an old Daoist priest standing quietly listening to them speak.

The Daoist seemed to merge with the dark night.

Before he knew it, a night had passed.

Lin Jue returned to the inn and opened the ancient book in his room. Sure enough, there was another page:

The Method of Wood Escape, one of the Five Elements Escape Arts.

Born with five qi, the earth bears yin and yang, all can be paths. Therefore, yin and yang and the five elements all have escape arts, felt in heaven and earth, born in the Great Dao, and those who learn them can come and go freely among all things in heaven and earth. When learned to a high level, the technique is harmonious, the same as all things, and things cannot harm them. Traveling between metal and stone and stepping on water and fire are all possible.

To learn the Five Elements Escape Art, one needs to have a sense of the five elements, be in harmony with the five elements, and those who are not compatible cannot learn it. Those with distracting thoughts cannot learn it.

"Those who are not compatible cannot learn it?

"Do I need special talent?

"Or is it like the Fire-Hating Art, where I need to perceive the spiritual charm of fire? If it is those who cannot perceive the spiritual charm of plants and have never liked plants since childhood, they cannot learn it?"

Lin Jue frowned and guessed, reaching out to pinch the page.

Immediately, words sounded in his mind:

"Five Elements Escape Art, Earth Escape is the most commonly used, and cultivation is also the most dangerous. Water Escape is commonly used and the danger is second, and it is also considered easy to use. Wood Escape is the next.

"The Method of Wood Escape begins with plant spirits and monsters. Cultivation requires affinity with plants and requires Five Elements talent.

"Those who are just entering can pass into living wood, and further cultivation can allow passing into dead wood. Those at a high level can pull others into plants and can hide themselves in thinner, differently shaped, or even smaller plants than themselves. It is said that those who have achieved great success can even move by borrowing the roots of plants and trees and the branches and leaves that touch each other. The roots are not broken, the branches and leaves are not sparse, and they can travel a thousand li a day. As long as it is a wooden object in the world, it cannot harm them in the slightest.

"If the Five Elements talent is insufficient, one cannot cultivate. If one cannot perceive the spiritual charm of wood, one cannot cultivate. Those who often cut down trees and pull up living grass at will are difficult to cultivate to a high level.

"When performing the technique, one must discard distracting thoughts in the heart as much as possible. If it is difficult to do so, it is difficult to cultivate, and it is easy to get stuck in the wood.

"..."

Just listening to the introduction, Lin Jue felt a lot of mysterious and elusive flavors.

How to be in harmony with plants?

And people who often cut down trees and pull up wild grass at will actually seem to become an obstacle to cultivating this art, making it difficult to reach a high level. Could it be because there is no respect for plants in their hearts?

Listening further, he felt it was even more mysterious and ethereal.

Lin Jue understood half of it.

So for the next few days, he stayed in Dangxun City.

He had originally planned to leave the next day, and even if invited by Wei Yuanzhong, he had planned to leave after sleeping for one night. However, he had chatted with the tree demon for nearly a night and learned the Method of Wood Escape from it. This favor could not be ignored no matter what. And its cultivation was still in the hands of the Wei family, so Lin Jue had to stay in Dangxun City, waiting for the Wei family to seek the talisman from the Green Emperor Temple in Luosu County.

It just happened that he was studying the Method of Wood Escape.

Whether it was for this art, or in terms of "affinity with plants" and "perceiving the spiritual charm of wood," if there were any questions, there was no better way than to ask a tree.

Probably even a great master of cultivation would not be as good as it in terms of attainment and perception in this aspect.

Five days later, in the wilderness outside the city.

The Wei family had long followed the instructions of the tree yaoguai. All the men in the family went into battle, digging out the tree stump together with the root ball and soil underneath, and hired an ox cart, spending a lot of effort, before they sent it to the mountain.

Digging a hole, transplanting, burying soil, watering.

Everything was extremely careful.

Lin Jue also helped a bit, then stood by and watched carefully.

If it were just like this, a tree stump, without even a branch or a leaf, it probably wouldn't be able to survive. The rest would have to rely on divine help.

This was the so-called Green Emperor Talisman.

There were not many temples and divine statues of Green Emperor in the world. It is said that many years ago in Luosu County, one of the few divine statues of the old man in the world was covered in dust. At this time, a down-and-out person was wandering in the wilderness, soaked by the rain, and suddenly saw the divine statue, half washed by the rain and half buried in the mud. Feeling that his fate was similar to his own, he couldn't help but feel moved, so he dug it out, cleaned it up, and put it into the temple beside it.

This behavior was perhaps moved by Green Emperor, or perhaps Green Emperor himself had the idea of manifesting again to gather incense. So in a dream, he taught him a divine talisman and taught him how to draw talismans, letting him be his temple keeper.

Relying on this divine talisman, setting up a dharma altar and rituals, and drawing talisman paper, one could borrow Qingdi's divine power.

It is said that this temple keeper gradually became a greedy person, and every time someone came to seek a talisman, he would collect a few taels of silver. I don't know if the Wei family was afraid of the tree yaoguai's revenge, or if they truly repented, or if they were afraid that their unfilial behavior would be known to the world, or even be punished after death. In short, their sincerity in repenting was very sufficient, and they really sought a talisman from the temple keeper.

At this time, Lin Jue only watched them take a bowl, burn the talisman paper, and mutter prayers, putting the talisman paper into the water.

"Gurgle..."

It seemed to be in harmony with something, causing some magical reactions. After the talisman paper entered the water, it didn't go out, but continued to burn into ashes.

The Wei family poured the water onto the tree stump.

Lin Jue seemed to feel something and turned to look into the distance.

"Whoosh..."

In the hot and quiet summer day, a cool breeze suddenly blew from nowhere, as cool as spring, blowing up everyone's hair and robes, causing the Wei family to feel a sense of wonder.

Turning his head again—

I don't know when, but a small bud point had appeared on the edge of the tree stump, and the bud point grew rapidly, producing a branch nearly a foot long and as thin as a grass stem. Blown by the wind, it trembled and unfolded a few tender leaves.

Lin Jue couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

There really was Qingdi and divine power.

It was so magical.

Sure enough, one had to go out to gain such knowledge.

"Whoosh..."

The tender leaves were still trembling in the wind.

Lin Jue walked up.

"Now it seems that you have no worries, senior. Thank you for answering my questions these past few days." Lin Jue bowed deeply and performed a salute, "Now I will bid you farewell."

"..."

Straightening his waist, there were a few more peach gums on the tree stump.

There was a faint sound that made people unable to hear clearly, seemingly calling him to take them away. ===== CHAPTER 26 =====