Taoist Baopu recalled his earlier cultivation in the secular world, where his progress had been rapid. It was only after moving into the Langyuan Secret Realm that his cultivation slowed down. The spiritual energy within the Langyuan Secret Realm was incredibly rich, nearly twice as rich as that in the secular world. Taoist Baopu's spiritual energy was abundant, and it seemed something was amiss with his state of mind.
As everyone knows, for a cultivator to advance in cultivation, both spiritual energy and state of mind are indispensable. If one's state of mind doesn't keep up, no matter how much spiritual energy one absorbs, the body will only be able to store the spiritual energy that matches one's level, and the rest will be automatically excreted.
Taoist Baopu reflected on himself three times a day, but he still couldn't figure out what was wrong with his state of mind.
Seeing his fellow disciples around him practicing at a rapid pace, with signs of surpassing the old ones, Taoist Baopu began to feel restless.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Master Baopu sought to relinquish his position as head of the sect and escape into the secular world for training. Advancing from the middle to the late Jindan stage requires not the accumulation of spiritual energy but the expansion of the mind. Since reaching the middle Jindan stage, Master Tianyan and his two fellow apprentices, who had perished at the hands of Master Baopu, have appeared in his dreams. In these dreams, Master Baopu saw his master gazing at him sorrowfully, seemingly bewildered as to why Baopu and his companions had killed him. His fellow apprentices sneered at him, as if mocking the fact that his years of glory had ultimately been nothing but a dream.
After waking up from the dream, Master Baopu realized that his realm had been stuck in the middle stage of the Golden Elixir because there was something wrong with his state of mind.
Taoist Baopu once asked himself, do you regret killing your master and senior brothers?
After thinking for several days and nights, Baopu finally found the answer, and he had no regrets.
Under such circumstances, if Baopu did not join forces with his fellow apprentices, they would first eliminate him and then kill the master. The master's fate would be nothing but death, so why should Baopu risk his life for the master?
To survive, the six-year-old Baopu dared to snatch food from the mouths of wild dogs. To achieve immortality, the two-hundred-year-old Baopu killed all his master and fellow apprentices who stood in his way. What did it matter? In this world, there was nothing that Baopu could not bear to part with.
Sometimes, Taoist Baopu would recall the time when he first became his master's disciple, shivering in tattered clothes in the snow. His master would reach out his large, bony hands and take his chilblained hands. The warmth in his hands moved Baopu deeply, and when he looked up, he saw his master, Taoist Tianyan, smiling like the sun in the sky.
In the end, was this touch of warmth strangled by his own hands?
No! No! Who could accompany him on the path to immortality? Coming alone, leaving alone, living a life of solitude and freedom from worries was his true path!
Taoist Baopu decided to go to the secular world to gain experience. This is what all cultivators do. When they encounter a bottleneck, they go to the secular world to experience the various aspects of human life in order to consolidate their Taoist heart.
When Taoist Baopu was walking in the secular world, he was always kind to others. He wanted to try whether "kindness" could make him happy.
In Changle Town, Baopu Taoist met Zhou Xi, who was then an eight-year-old child. Zhou Xi's spiritual root was the same as Baopu Taoist's, a pure fire spiritual root.
At that time, Taoist Baopu had an idea and thought that if he really could not advance when his life span was over, it would be a good idea to take in a disciple as a backup for him to take over another body. Otherwise, when he wanted to take over another body, he might not be able to find a body with such good qualifications as Zhou Xi.
Taoist Baopu proposed to take Zhou Xi as his disciple. Unfortunately, although Zhou Xi was small, he was very stubborn.
Sold as a slave to the Zhou family since childhood, Zhou Xi had always considered serving the young master until old age his ultimate goal. When Taoist Baopu learned why Zhou Xi didn't want to follow him in cultivating immortality, and found out that it was because he didn't want to leave the young master he had always served, he was so angry that he almost spat out blood from his throat.
Taoist Baopu was extremely surprised. He had never thought that there were people who would give up the high and mighty "immortal" position and choose to be a slave. Even when Taoist Baopu was young, although he was so poor that he was chased and bitten by dogs, he never gave up his ideal: he wanted to be a master, and in the future, he only needed to give an order and people would kill all the stray dogs in the city for him.
All of this is based on power and influence. Even if one is an emperor in the human world, no matter how powerful he is, he cannot match the little finger of a monk.
Taoist Baopu was curious about the child Zhou Xi. He wanted to know what conditions he could offer to make Zhou Xi change his mind?
Therefore, Taoist Baopu said that he and Zhou Xi had a connection and was willing to spend three days teaching Zhou Xi the "immortal arts". In fact, Taoist Baopu wanted to use his "immortal skills" during these three days to make Zhou Xi willingly follow him back to the mountain.
The result was beyond Master Baopu's expectations. Seeing Master Baopu use his spiritual energy to instantly grow a small sprout into a beautiful flower, Zhou Xi's face was filled with curiosity, but he did not change his mind about staying with the young master.
After seeing how Taoist Baopu could take objects from a distance, Zhou Xi had nothing but admiration for Taoist Baopu in his eyes.
Seeing Taoist Baopu casually creating gold ingots out of nothing, Zhou Xi's eyes showed admiration without any desire.
Taoist Baopu then realized that Zhou Xi was not only a person with a pure heart, but also a person with a strong will.
Once such a person has decided on something, he will go all out and do it several times better than the average person. Once such a person has decided on something, no amount of temptation will change his original intention.
Taoist Baopu felt it was a pity. Zhou Xi, with his pure spiritual roots and resolute character, was truly a promising candidate for a cultivator. If he followed him back to the mountain, Taoist Baopu only needed to cultivate him diligently, and reaching the Golden Elixir stage would not be a dream.
It’s a pity that Zhou Xi has no intention of practicing, and he can’t force him to go back to the mountain with him.
During those three days, Taoist Baopu was locked in a constant struggle. One moment, he thought, "Such a prime cultivator must not be wasted. Even if I have to snatch him away, I must bring him back to the mountain." Then, he thought, "As a Jindan cultivator, if I want a disciple, there will surely be scores of people crying out for help. If anyone knew I had to resort to trickery to secure a disciple, I would be utterly humiliated."
Ultimately, Taoist Baopu gave up on Zhou Xi. However, he kept a secret and passed on half of the Yushan School's inner skills to Zhou Xi. After Zhou Xi practiced this half of the inner skills, all of his meridians would be opened up, just like a cultivator. However, Taoist Baopu didn't tell Zhou Xi the final step: channeling the spiritual energy within the meridians into his dantian.
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