"When I was born with consciousness, the spiritual energy in the world had almost disappeared."
Yang Zhi recalled his past: "The environment was terrible back then. Every breath was burning pain, and it felt like I was suffocating."
"In order to survive, I have no choice but to stay in the cave."
"Who would have thought that while I was sleeping, I would be captured and dumped in this unfamiliar mountain area?"
“I was unhappy about that and we started fighting.”
Speaking of this, Yang Zhi's expression turned angry: "As a result, that person bullied me, a small dragon who is a few hundred years old. He took advantage of me while I was sleeping and attacked me, carving an array on my body to suppress my strength."
"In the end, he caught me here. He refined me while feeding me rare and precious herbs. I was stupid and didn't have a brain. When I saw that there were rare and precious herbs to eat, I just let him refine me."
"After finally breaking through and successfully overcoming the tribulation through countless hardships, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was insufficient for me to transform into a dragon."
"He survived the tribulation, but still didn't transform into a dragon."
"That human cultivator, seeing this, was filled with despair and died at the hands of his disciple."
Li Chang'an listened with great interest, then asked, "Was that cultivator named Yuan Tiangang?"
"Yes, that's the name."
Yang Zhi nodded and continued, "After that cultivator died, I was also trapped here because apart from the spiritual energy here, which can sustain my survival, other places are very barren and cannot provide me with so much spiritual energy."
"I thought about running away, but as soon as I got outside, I felt like I was going to die."
"Sigh, when I was a Jiao, I dreamed of becoming a dragon. But now that I've finally become a dragon, I feel that being a Jiao was better."
"After all, when I was a dragon, I could go to the sea from time to time to catch fish and swim."
"After transcending the tribulation and becoming a dragon, he can only stay at the foot of Jing Mountain and spend his days huddled together."
"And the most terrifying thing is that as time goes on, the spiritual energy dissipates faster and faster."
"In the end, I could hardly feel any spiritual energy with each breath."
"He could only lie on the mountain, his consciousness gradually becoming blurred, until finally, he was completely adrift between heaven and earth."
When Yang Zhi recounted this experience, his tone was somewhat somber; the feeling of death was not pleasant.
"When I woke up again, I had become a human child, and they named me Yang Zhi."
"So right now, I really don't know what I am."
Yang Zhi sat in the chair, touching the horns on his head, feeling that being human wasn't so fun. Life was short, only a hundred years, yet there were countless things to do.
As a child, I lived like a monkey, barking and making a racket everywhere. As an adult, I lived like an ox or a horse, with endless work and endless fatigue. As an old person, I lived like a dog, without any dignity, only able to humbly beg for food and just to survive.
He felt that the short lifespan of a human being, lasting only a hundred years, involved experiencing so much suffering, which was far more complicated than being a dragon.
After listening to his words, Li Chang'an began to think.
What this guy said was basically the same as what everyone else said, and it didn't sound like he was lying. It was just that the sudden appearance of such an oddball caught him off guard.
After a while, he finally spoke and asked, "Then how did you become the governor? And why did you gather so many martial arts practitioners in Jiangnan?"
Yang Zhi smiled bitterly upon hearing this: "To survive."
"In the present Jiangnan region, on the surface, I, as the governor, am in charge, but in reality, I am just a pawn."
"Those who truly control Jiangnan are the bald monks of Buddhism. Because I have memories of my past life, I was called a child prodigy from a young age, and then I caught the attention of the Buddhist monks."
"They took me as their apprentice and then found a way to get me the position of Governor of Jiangnan so that I could work for them."
"As for why I need to win over so many people from the martial arts world, I don't know why either. It's just that those bald monks from the Buddhist sect asked me to find a way to gather those martial arts figures in Jiangnan, the more the better."
"I was just following their instructions."
“I feel that those bald monks don’t completely trust me. They arrange for others to do many things. I’m just one of their pawns.”
Yang Zhi stroked his chin and continued, "Anyway, as far as I know, many sects in the martial arts world have people arranged by these bald monks. I feel that they are playing a big game."
"They always say they want to establish a Buddhist kingdom to save all sentient beings, but I don't believe a word of that nonsense. I always feel that they are playing a big game."
"Among the bald monks refining the dragon vein in Jingshan, I feel that there are a few who are not much different from Zhang Zhenren. If these people are released, along with the Buddhist disciples all over the world, it would be more than enough to establish a Buddhist kingdom."
"Why bother spending so many experts guarding a dark, sunless cave to refine the Heavenly Dragon Vein?"
After listening to Yang Zhi's analysis, Li Chang'an felt that it made some sense. Wang Xianzhi and the Sword Saint Wuming had occupied a place in the Ming Dynasty, which could be said to be equivalent to establishing their own kingdoms.
If Buddhism truly had so many masters still alive, establishing a Buddhist kingdom in the Ming Dynasty would be a simple matter.
"So what do you think they want to do?"
"I seek immortality!"
Yang Zhi revealed his guess: "Beneath Jingshan, what's buried isn't just my corpse."
“Yuan Tiangang didn’t place me in Jingshan randomly; he also practiced his Longevity Technique in that cave.”
"So I feel that there must be other secrets inside the cave, and it is very likely that they are related to immortality."
"Immortality, that's quite interesting."
The word "immortality" piqued Li Chang'an's interest. He himself had already achieved immortality, but You Chu and the others were still just ordinary people who would have to go through birth, aging, sickness, and death.
Immortality is not a blessing, but a punishment. Li Chang'an understood this principle long ago.
Watching people you know disappear one by one from the world is a pain worse than death itself.
Therefore, Li Chang'an hoped that the person by his side could live forever with him and pass through the long river of time, even if it was just one person.
He gave Zhang Xianzong's secret to immortality to the silly girl to study, hoping she could figure out the secret to eternal life.
As a result, the silly girl studied it for a long time but still couldn't figure out what these clumsy verses were talking about.
Zhang Xianzong himself couldn't explain what these things meant; he only said that after studying them once, one could automatically understand them.
Undeterred, Li Chang'an gave the object to Luoyang and Qiao Feng to study, but neither of them could figure it out either.
Even the smartest person, Su Xiao, couldn't understand these things.
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