The mountain is so tall that it pierces through the clouds in the sky and looks like a giant pillar. As for what is above the clouds, even Aze can think of it immediately.
Thanks to the gentle spiritual energy brought in by Jin Changdong, Aze is now able to stand steadily on his own. His spirits have recovered a lot, and he seems a little excited because of the scene in front of him.
"Is that the fairyland..."
Hearing Aze's lost voice and dazed tone, Jin Changdong seemed to recall himself back then.
"Fairyland, this is both right and wrong."
Of course Aze didn't understand and looked at Jin Changdong in confusion, but the latter had no intention of explaining it to him in detail. The two monks from Jiufeng Mountain just took Aze and flew into the sky.
After passing through the thick clouds in the sky, Aze finally saw the real Qingtian Mountain, or Jiufeng Mountain. The flowing light in the sky, the fairy birds circling the mountain, and the faint fairy music, everything told him that he had left the mortal world.
"Nine peaks stand in the clouds, the rosy clouds are bright in the sky, and the mind is lost as if in a dream, and suddenly it seems that I have ascended to heaven."
Jin Changdong hummed softly and flew towards the distant Tiandao Peak with Aze, who had a dazed look on his face. In this trance, Aze gradually woke up and looked at everything in the sky in disbelief.
On the Xianlai Peak, Ji Yuan in the guest hall of Yunxia Garden was writing meticulously with a pen in his hand. The golden halo kept changing around him, as if every word was in harmony with the heaven and earth in this form. The huge Dharma image in the void turned its gaze, looking at the white cloud flying up into the sky from afar, at the three people on it, and at the young man.
Ji Yuan himself was writing in the script, and there were small characters arranged in an array that worked together to transform into golden characters. He was also in a special place, Xianlai Peak of Jiufeng Mountain. In addition, he himself was also very special, so sometimes he had a feeling of being in the "Tao". This feeling did not come from Ji Yuan's real body, but more from the Dharmakāya.
So in this mysterious state that is hard to come by, at this moment, Ji Yuan's Dharma eyes looked at Aze, and what he saw was far more transparent than the ordinary observation of Qi, and to some extent he could even see through deeper things, and had a peculiar sense of destiny.
Ji Yuan felt it was a bit ironic, because even though he was now called an immortal by many people and understood the magic of fortune-telling, he himself was not a person who was loyal to the theory of fatalism, and even most of the practitioners were not like that.
Since he was ordered by the headmaster, Jin Changdong of course took Aze directly to meet the headmaster of Jiufeng Mountain, looking at the young man who was fascinated by the scenery of the fairy palace.
"Zhuang Ze, Jin will take you to see the headmaster of Jiufeng Mountain now. You need to concentrate and try to remain quiet and humble."
This is just a reminder. In the current situation, Aze can't be arrogant.
White clouds slowly fell from the Tiandao Peak. At the moment of landing, Aze stared at the flowing light on the top of the peak in a daze. The spiritual energy surrounded the peak in a form visible to the naked eye, forming a blurry halo.
"A grand meeting of immortals just ended at the top of Tiandao Peak. The essence of the immortals' discussion attracted the spiritual light, so it was particularly beautiful."
This was said by a cultivator named Li who lived to the east of Jin Chang, but when he spoke, he was looking at Xianlai Peak.
A moment later, the clouds descended outside the headmaster's villa of Tiandao Peak. Jin Changdong and his senior brother led Aze towards the courtyard step by step. When they approached, the door opened automatically.
"Bring him in."
So the three of them walked into the yard without stopping.
Aze felt his heart beating fast, he knew he was going to meet the leader of the fairy world, and with trepidation and anticipation he looked carefully into the courtyard, there was a man with a long beard, wearing a brown robe and a nice little crown on his head looking at him.
"Greetings to the Master! Disciple has brought the person from the lower world."
Jin Changdong and Senior Brother Li bowed together. Aze was stunned for a moment and then followed suit and bowed.
"Haha, that's quite clever."
Master Zhao smiled and nodded to the three of them. He did not mention the fact that Jin Changdong brought people directly up the mountain. He neither blamed nor praised him. He just looked at Aze quietly.
Immortals can keep their composure, but the young man Aze cannot. After a moment of silence, he clenched his hands, mustered up the courage, and knelt in front of the headmaster of Jiufeng Mountain.
"I beg the immortal to save my parents and grandfather. I beg the immortal to save the people in our village. I beg the immortal to have mercy and save them!"
While Aze was shouting, he wanted to kowtow. His suppressed emotions burst out and his tears flowed uncontrollably. The emotions of sadness and hope intertwined were beyond words.
But no matter how hard Aze kowtowed, his head just couldn't hit the ground, as if there was always a layer of soft stuff separating him from the ground. After trying for a long time, it seemed that he really couldn't kowtow, so Aze raised his head, but he was still kneeling.
Sect Leader Zhao looked at Jin Changdong, who immediately began to describe the previous scene.
"This child's name is Zhuang Ze. He traveled alone in the mountains. He was covered in wounds but still kept moving forward. He was so obsessed that he didn't care about life or death."
"Um."
Master Zhao stroked his beard and slowly approached Aze. He waved his sleeves lightly, and Aze was lifted up by an invisible force. Looking at the young man's tearful face, Master Zhao asked softly.
"Child, are your family members and villagers sick?"
"No, no! A group of soldiers and bandits came to the village. My family members were killed. Grandpa hid us in the old temple cave so that we could survive. Wuwu..."
Master Zhao nodded and looked into the distance, as if he could see the small village that had suffered from the war through the thick fog.
"Then why don't you let me help save your grandma too?"
Aze was stunned for a moment. He had never thought about this before.
"Because, because my grandma passed away when I was very young, she, she has been dead for a long time..."
Sect Leader Zhao said "Hmm." and looked towards Xianlai Peak. He did not speak for a while. He spoke again when Aze became more and more uneasy.
"In fact, there is also a boundary between life and death in your heart, but you are unwilling to accept a tragedy that is too sudden. Life and death is one of the most mysterious ways in this world. Even immortals like us are looking for a way to transcend it. If a person dies, there is no way to turn back. Even if he turns back, is he still the same person?"
Aze understood some of these words, but not some, but he could vaguely hear that the immortal was telling him that his parents and grandfather could not be resurrected.
"No, no, you are gods in heaven. Gods can do anything. Gods have elixirs that can make bones grow flesh, and gods can make people immortal. You can definitely save my parents and grandfather. I beg you, I beg you, as long as you can save them, I can do anything, even my life in exchange!"
Aze wanted to kowtow again, but this time he couldn't even kneel down. Master Zhao shook his head and looked at him, patted his shoulder gently, and spoke in a faint Taoist voice.
"My child, the dead cannot be brought back to life, so you must accept your grief and accept the change."
The voice of this god was very soft, but it roared in Aze's heart like thunder. He froze in place and wanted to argue but felt too weak. He had arrived in heaven, the place everyone wanted to come, but he saw no hope.
Aze looked like a fool, standing there blankly. Sect Leader Zhao tapped his forehead lightly, and he slowly fell limp into Jin Changdong's arms.
"I have protected his mind. Let's take him downstairs to recuperate first."
"yes!"
Jin Changdong and the cultivator named Li bowed to the headmaster before picking up Aze and slowly leaving the headmaster's villa. Headmaster Zhao Yu looked towards Xianlai Peak again. He could feel that Ji Yuan was also paying attention to this place.
…
Aze was dreaming in his sleep. He was having the same dream for many days, the same nightmare. In the dream, Aze was in a trance and returned to a few months ago.
The three friends were all gathered in front of a small broken table in the firewood room of Aze's house, competing to see who could catch the biggest caterpillar. Then they used various methods that were fun for them but "vicious and terrible" for the caterpillars to stimulate the caterpillars.
At this time, it suddenly became a little noisy outside, which made Aze and the others a little confused.
"Brother Aze, I heard someone calling outside."
"Well, I don't know what the quarrel is about."
Just when they were about to go and take a look.
With a "bang...", the door was pushed open from the outside, and Aze saw his grandfather coming in with a panicked look on his face. He had never seen his grandfather with such an expression before.
"Hurry up, follow me!"
"What happened to Grandpa Zhuang?"
"Come on, come on!"
The old man grabbed the youngest child's hand, and then eagerly called out to Aze and A Long to follow. When they got outside, Aze and the others found that many people were running, some forward and some backward, and it was very noisy and chaotic.
The old man took the three children and did not go out of the village, but ran to a secluded place until he reached the back of a small temple in the village. He pulled apart a few wooden boards covered with dry grass, revealing the temple cave underneath.
In the early years, the land temple in the village had no house, so they worshipped in this cave. Later, a temple was built, but the cave was not filled. It was originally intended to be a place for the temple keeper to store things, but the place was too small and it was not used later. Instead, a mud house was built as the temple storehouse. Fewer and fewer people remember this incident, and the temple keeper was Aze's grandfather Zhuang Mian.
"Hurry up, go in, go in quickly!"
The old man kept pushing the three children into the cave. The cave was not big. After all, the land statue in the early years was only very small, and the space inside the temple cave could not accommodate many people.
Amid the three children's confusion and fear, the old man took off the two bags hanging from his shoulders.
"Aze, here, save some money, and don't make any noise outside! I'm going to go out for a while!"
The old man covered the temple cave from the outside and filled it with dry grass, and the inside fell into complete darkness.
Amid the fear and anxiety of Aze and the others, about half a quarter of an hour later, the old man came back and dragged the other two teenagers into the temple cave as well. He took a look inside at the space, gave some instructions, and left again, and never came back again.
The temple cave was quiet most of the time, with occasional noisy noises, and vague screams and pleas for mercy. Aze and the others didn't dare to come out, and stayed in the dead silence and darkness for three whole days. When they came out, they saw the horror that they would never forget...
"don't want… !"
Amid the screams, Aze, who was covered in sweat, was suddenly awakened. Then he looked at the unfamiliar environment, breathing heavily and looking dazed.
"Huh... Huh... Huh..."