The white crane spread its wings and soared. For hundreds of years, it had never felt so happy. It seemed as if it was chasing the sun and rushing towards the ruins.
It was as if hundreds of years ago, I carried my teacher across mountains and seas and saw the vastness of the world. It turned out that there were so many living creatures in the world, including demons, monsters, humans, gods, and the immortals in the legends. There were so many gifted people and powerful people competing in the world, drawing a vast picture of the immortal road with surging winds and clouds.
It awakened its spiritual wisdom in its ignorance, and under the guidance of its teacher, it transformed into a celestial demon, and from a white crane it became a white crane boy. It followed its teacher to watch the wandering cultivators on the fairy islands in the South China Sea, and was finally invited by Yuchang, the most beautiful lady in the world who ruled over the entire South China Sea, to enter the Dragon Silk Palace under the sea.
During the Taoist Immortal Banquet, the White Crane Boy stood behind his teacher and watched the many Taoist predecessors on the cloud beds inside the Immortal Palace discussing the techniques of becoming immortals and the way to immortality. He was fascinated by the great path of each Immortal Lord.
Among all the True Lords, only his teacher truly created the art of becoming an immortal, opened up the road to immortality, escaped the six realms of reincarnation, and avoided the misfortunes of life and death.
With this skill, you can live freely and look down upon the world.
The White Crane Boy was standing behind his teacher at the time, looking at the immortal in white Taoist robes, talking about the great principles of heaven and earth in a casual manner. His broad mind and magnanimity seemed to embrace the heaven, earth, sun and moon in his arms.
Its innocent and tender eyes secretly watched the teacher's face as he lay on his side, holding a wine jug and pointing out the mountains and rivers. The Taoists from the immortal sect on the cloud bed all had shocked and admiring looks on their faces.
Its eyes were filled with endless longing and yearning. It had only one thought at that time: if there were immortals in the world, then this would be it.
It was granted magical skills and granted magical treasures, and it finally transformed from a White Crane Boy into a White Crane Taoist.
A hundred years passed quickly, and finally, when he accepted three disciples who all achieved the realm of immortality, he became one of four immortals, all of whom were practicing the immortal cause that led to immortality. They gradually perfected the great principles passed down by their teacher and integrated them into the Nine-Turn Taiyin Immortal Art. The various immortal sects even called them wandering immortals.
It is no longer a savage beast from the abyss of the sea ruins, but a wandering white crane from Dongzhou.
As time passed, the three disciples completed the Nine Transformations of Taiyin Immortal Art one after another and reincarnated. As the third disciple also reincarnated, Bai He still stayed in the world, as if he couldn't let go of anything.
He suddenly recalled the past, the figure of the Taoist in white, the carefree way he carried him across mountains and seas, the immortal figure preaching to the world at the Taoist banquet, and the spell and verses of the ghost immortal who left for him as he crossed the mountain and left behind.
He set out from Dongzhou, rushed to Youdu Fairy Island, and then crossed the Four Seas Fairy Island, but still could not find the shadow of his teacher.
I visited all the sacred mountains and fairy islands, but found no trace of the immortals.
After rushing to Youdu Fairy Island for who knows how many times, he finally saw the figure of the immortal again in the You Palace, on the Xianque Sacred Mountain of the Lord of Youdu.
The immortal sat cross-legged in front of the immortal pond. The fiery red leaves of the Fengwu tree fell like flames and flowed down the mountain along the river. He asked about his recent situation, and Baihe called him True Lord and performed the disciple etiquette.
Although the teacher never accepted it as a disciple, he still called it the True Lord.
"True Lord, are you going to return to the mountains and seas? Bai He is willing to be your dog and horse. This is Bai He's last obsession in this life. Perhaps the next time I see True Lord will be thousands or tens of thousands of years later."
"The white crane wishes to carry you, just like in the past, soaring in the clouds and overlooking all living things in the world!"
Zhenjun was quite like an ancient immortal, unwilling to let a being that could speak human language and had spiritual intelligence be his mount, but he finally agreed to it.
The white crane spread its wings and flew over the southern border of the Great Zhou Dynasty and landed on the East Mountain, while the sun gradually set behind it.
The fiery red sunset spread across the mountains and the land. A familiar mountain finally appeared at the edge of the East China Sea at the end of the sky. Once upon a time, it was this mountain that carried the True Lord to this place, and then he built a hut here, accepted three disciples, and began his life as the immortal Baihe.
Today I returned here again to end the first life of the immortal Baihe.
Just like the Nine-Turn Taiyin Immortal Technique that he practiced, everything is a cycle.
The white crane landed on the ground and stopped in front of a dilapidated Taoist temple. It prostrated itself and nodded to the True Lord, as if it was bowing and bidding farewell.
Then it let out a sharp cry, and layers of fairy fire surged out of its body, circling in the sky. The body of the celestial demon turned into stardust bit by bit, and finally sank into the sea of clouds.
Fang Xiu looked at the divine white crane in the sky, dragging a long flaming shadow, which gradually faded away. It was reincarnated with all its cultivation, accompanied by the setting sun and the flowing sea of clouds. Suddenly, he felt a little sad.
At first he just did it casually, and had even forgotten that he had once accepted such a White Crane Boy and passed on to him the Ghost Immortal Avenue that he did not value very much.
He didn't expect that after so many years, the White Crane Boy still remembered him and had already completed his merits and virtues, but because he didn't want to remember his death and reincarnation, he wanted to see him at the end of this life.
I have been traveling all over the Lingshan Fairy Island just to fulfill my last obsession in this life. Because in this reincarnation, all my past will be forgotten. I can only remember everything after the nine reincarnations are over and I become an immortal.
Bai He's obsession is that it will end this life in the same way that Fang Xiu brought it out of the wild sea abyss.
When Bai He's demonic body completely dissipated, Fang Xiu was still looking up at the sky, unable to stop for a long time, and finally he let out a long sigh.
"Nine lifetimes to become an immortal...Nine lifetimes to become an immortal!"
Fang Xiu closed his eyes, slowly lowered his head, then opened his eyes and looked at the small Taoist temple that had long since collapsed into ruins. He looked at the plaque that read "Zhenjun Temple", which was already covered in dust and blackened, and he could only vaguely make out the words on it.
Steep stone steps can be seen on the mountainside, and at the end of the distant sky, curling smoke in the evening. Those are ordinary villages where the common people of the Great Zhou live. The smoke reveals a sense of peace and tranquility.
Hundreds of years ago, there was no Taoist temple here. A hundred years later, there was a Zhenjun Temple. When the Zhenjun Temple was built, there were no people in this area for thousands of miles. Now there are villages everywhere, and it is divided into counties.
"Everyone in the world says that being an immortal is good, but who knows the price one has to pay to become an immortal?"
The sun had not yet set, and Fang Xiu wiped the plaque of Zhenjun Temple clean and hung it above the gate of the temple.
With a wave of his hand, a stream of light flew out from his sleeves, passed through the gate of the temple, and fell on the dust-covered statue of Zhenjun inside the temple. Instantly, the statue made a buzzing sound, suppressing the land and the Taoist temple.
The light vibrated out layer by layer, and cracks and sealing formations spread in the void. The power that reached the sky split this small world and the mountaintop.
This dilapidated Taoist temple disappeared bit by bit in the human world under this power. No one could see the dilapidated Zhenjun Temple anymore, and no one could enter it, except Bai He and his three disciples.
When they become immortals in nine lifetimes and come back here, they may be able to see the things that Fang Xiu left for them.
After doing all this, Fang Xiu turned around and left without flying. He just walked slowly down the dilapidated and moss-covered stone steps.