Chapter 25: Mending and Creating, Resuming the Path to Immortality

Zhuang Lin glanced at Liu Hongyu upon opening his eyes, then steadied himself against the table and stood up, offering his excuses to Elder Mu and the others nearby.

"I am not much of a drinker, and having been overly taxed by recent concerns, I am feeling quite weary. I shall take my leave now."

"Ah? Master Zhuang is leaving?" "Well, that is fair; Master Zi'an has indeed been working himself to the bone."

Elder Mu recalled the past two days, during which everyone had looked to Master Zhuang for a solution; he had truly exhausted both mind and body. Liu Hongyu immediately rose to his feet as well.

"Master, shall I accompany you back?"

Zhuang Lin smiled and waved a hand. "No need. I am not yet so feeble that I cannot walk. You should rest early as well; do not indulge too much in the wine."

Liu Hongyu promptly replied, "Understood, Master!"

With that, Zhuang Lin bowed to the nearby tables and departed the threshing ground amidst the farewells of those around him. The aroma of food and drink faded behind him, and the flickering light of the bonfires receded. Facing the gentle breeze of the valley, Zhuang Lin walked along the small path toward the schoolhouse. Even in the darkness where stars and moon were hidden, his progress remained entirely unhindered.

*For now, my "True Person" state is but an empty shell. I must initiate the Awakening of the Spirit as soon as possible.*

After Zhuang Lin left, Liu Hongyu also bid his farewells, claiming he needed to study hard tomorrow and required rest. Once Liu had departed, Elder Mu and his neighbors soon followed suit.

Near the bonfires, Tang Bin watched those who had left, particularly toward the direction of the schoolhouse, before saying to the remaining crowd, "Actually, the mysterious things that happened out there weren't just about monsters..."

"What else was there?" "Yes, what else could there be?"

Those who had been watching the young Master Liu depart found their attention recaptured by Tang Bin, whose expression grew even more solemn in the firelight.

"I feel that Master Zhuang himself possesses extraordinary qualities. It isn't just that he leads us away from misfortune; you don't know this, but back by the river..."

The conversation by the fire veered into the increasingly improbable, though it lacked any real basis, relying mostly on Tang Bin's subjective bias. Tang Bin had almost deified Zhuang Lin; in his description, even a troublemaker like Liu Hongyu became docile and obedient before the Master. His worship of Zhuang Zi'an was evident in every word.

On the outskirts, even those who hadn't heard Tang Bin bragging could not help but reflect on the recent events. The fact that people from the valley could travel through time to the Jin Dynasty and return in one piece was, in itself, the most bizarre thing imaginable. Did this occurrence have some connection to the young Master Liu? At least a fair number of people had inevitably wondered the same.

***

A short while later, in his room at the schoolhouse, Zhuang Lin sat cross-legged on his bed. Although he was in a dark room, his clear state of mind allowed him to perceive everything with perfect clarity; he could see as if in daylight.

To continue his ascent, he first needed to rapidly address his own deficiencies and transform this empty shell into a genuine "True Person." Second, he required luck—he needed to find new opportunities and understand the path ahead.

In truth, as Zhuang Lin had told Liu Hongyu, the bamboo slips containing the *Dao-Seeking Verses* were not written by a true immortal practitioner—at least not a complete one—for to Zhuang Lin's current perception, the energy within them was impure. The content on the slips was certainly not the complete *Dao-Seeking Verses*; Zhuang Lin estimated it was at most one-third of the full text. It was no small feat that it could even evoke a response from the remnants of a Dharma Lineage.

This Dharma Lineage was indeed on the verge of extinction, with few remaining insights for cultivation. A "Dharma Lineage," in a sense, was the mark left upon the world by predecessors who had walked this same path at similar stages of attainment. The more people of the same lineage who passed through a certain stage, the more frequent the resonance with the heavens and earth, and the deeper the imprint of the lineage would become, turning it into a vital foundation for cultivation.

Thus, in ancient immortal sects, even when many disciples studied the same scriptures, those with exceptional talent often developed minor differences in their practice. This was because they used the resonance of the Dharma Lineage to perceive the paths of their ancestors, gaining insights into the path that suited them best.

Of course, beyond this pure explanation, for a sect, a Dharma Lineage encompassed much more: the integrity of the transmitted techniques, the manifest and hidden guardians of the sect, and various things that consolidated its foundation.

Zhuang Lin's situation was much crueler. He had none of the advantages of his successors, no immortal scriptures to refer to, and not even a complete, pure Dharma Lineage. Yet, he was fortunate; the lingering Dharma Lineage had bestowed its final radiance upon him. In that moment, the lineage had seemed to vanish into the heavens and earth, but since Zhuang Lin had chosen to step onto the path of immortality, one could say the lineage had, in a way, truly been reborn.

However, while Zhuang Lin had no scriptures to reference, standing at the height of a "True Person," the first few steps no longer troubled him.

"If there are no scriptures, I shall write them myself!" Zhuang Lin murmured.

At least for the first three steps, he could do it!

His words were not boasts, but born of absolute confidence. From the height of a True Person, the road ahead was clearly visible. Without scriptures, he would create them as he cultivated.

The first step: Awakening the Spirit!

Zhuang Lin had already experienced this before. Now, his heart returned to calm. With eyes slightly closed and spirit extended, the spiritual energy that had already been following his breath became incredibly clear to his perception.

Within the Hidden Immortal Valley, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth seemed to stir. From inside and outside the valley, wisps and strands of energy converged toward where Zhuang Lin sat. Zhuang Lin even felt an illusory sensation, as if the energy were rejoicing, or perhaps it was simply the rhythm of the Dao between heaven and earth...

*Whoosh... Whoosh...*

Invisible winds filled the valley, flowing like water toward the schoolhouse. Passing through doors and windows as if they were not there, they rushed into Zhuang Lin’s body. At first, the energy was drawn in through his mouth and nose, then it seeped through his pores, gradually gathering to open his acupoints.

In his perception, he was enveloped by a warm current. Skin, flesh, meridians, internal organs, bones—every part of his body was absorbing the spiritual energy of the world, undergoing a process of cleansing. The impurities accumulated over years were being struck away, and old ailments, whether hidden or manifest, began to tingle with a sensation of numbness and itchiness.

***

*“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”*

A shrill crowing of a rooster awakened Zhuang Lin from his meditation.

“Hoo...”

He exhaled a breath of turbid air and felt an unprecedented sense of lightness. He stepped off the bed and opened the door. The early spring breeze no longer felt cold; it was refreshing against his face. He felt an itch on his head and scratched his temple, only to find he had touched some sort of brittle shell.

With a faint sound, something shattered across his body...

A layer of black ash drifted from him—some falling from his scalp, some from his sleeves—scattered everywhere by the wind.

“*Cough... cough...*”

Zhuang Lin waved his arms and coughed, understanding well what this was.

The sun had just begun to show a thin white line on the horizon. Zhuang Lin hurried to move out a wooden tub, fetched buckets of cold water from the large vat, and filled it. He removed his clothes and plunged into the icy water to scrub himself. In other times, a cold bath at this season would have been freezing, but for the Zhuang Lin of today, he could still feel the cold, yet it was not uncomfortable—it was refreshing.

When he stood at the door again, dressed and feeling the wind, he felt his body and mind had undergone another purification. Throughout the process, the spiritual energy had remained in sync with his breath.

To be honest, even now, Zhuang Lin felt a surge of excitement. After all, he had truly embarked on the path of immortality! His progress overnight was not massive, but how could everything be achieved at once? To have attained the status of a True Person was already a great stroke of fortune.

After a moment of reflection, he tidied up the tub and sat at his desk. The "Four Treasures of the Study" were already laid out. As he ground the ink, he looked at the items on the table and in the bookcase. Eventually, he chose not to use white paper, but spread out a scroll of silk. After all, these were immortal scriptures, his own life’s work; he should use something better.

Once prepared, Zhuang Lin took up his brush, dipped it in ink, and after a moment of contemplation, began to write.

First, relying on his own experience, he completed the *Dao-Seeking Verses*. Although it could no longer evoke the Dharma Lineage, it remained, in his heart, the gateway technique. Of course, this was the version he had perfected; the full scope of the original was now hard to fathom. Regardless of whether he might meet other practitioners in the future, or what kind of people they might be, in his eyes, those with crooked hearts were not fit to enter the gate.

The *Dao-Seeking Verses* could, to a certain extent, help future practitioners with "Awakening the Spirit." The fact that it could no longer trigger the Dharma Lineage was only temporary; once he broke through the path ahead, he would leave his own "footprints" behind.

After completing the *Dao-Seeking Verses*, Zhuang Lin switched to a new scroll of silk to write the actual "Step of Awakening the Spirit."

"Awakening the Spirit" meant opening one’s own spiritual nature, sensing the energy of heaven and earth, attempting to draw it in, and slowly tempering oneself. This was the first step of the immortal path...

Zhuang Lin’s brush paused for a moment before he continued.

"Though it is one step, it is subdivided into three: Clarifying the Energy, Opening the Acupoints, and Piercing the Meridians..."

The external energy is yin, while the internal breath is like fire; the process of accommodating external energy involves using the internal breath to gradually elevate and refine one's own yang energy...

Zhuang Lin wrote fluently, filling the silk scroll, clearly explaining the stage of Awakening the Spirit that he had not yet fully passed. He even added notes, suggesting that complementing this with medical texts would be beneficial.

While his inspiration and realization were at their peak, he took another blank scroll to write the second step.

The second step: Breaking Through Delusion!

Zhuang Lin pondered for a moment. This was a trial of the heart. He had actually passed this trial yesterday while seeking the Dao, but he knew his own case was an extremely rare exception. How should ordinary successors pass this?

*Forget it, why worry about that?*

How one passes depends on the individual's inner state. Perhaps there would be other methods in the future, but for now, he only needed to record the nature of this trial!

With that thought, he no longer hesitated and continued to write.

"Once the meridians are pierced, evil thoughts, desires, and illusions will assail the mind and distress the heart. This is the illusion of the cinnabar, the trial of the heart..."

"Once this trial is passed, the spirit is clear, and the inner landscape can be manifested. With a sufficient foundation, one can ignite the furnace of pure yang at any time—no longer a hollow burning of the heart, but the appearance of a cinnabar furnace within the mind’s vision!"

This part was something that even those who had stepped onto the path would find mysterious, and even Zhuang Lin could not fully articulate it. Perhaps it was truly difficult to describe, and writing too much might lead others astray. So, he left it at that, perhaps to add more once he himself had crossed this stage.

He added a note: *Only with righteousness in the heart can one remain unafraid of demons!*

***

After finishing the second step, Zhuang Lin saw there were no more silk scrolls, so he pulled over a blank bamboo slip. He had made these himself while learning bamboo crafts in the valley, never expecting them to be put to such use. Paper was fragile, after all; bamboo was sturdier.

He didn't use a knife to carve; he simply used his brush.

After the stage of Breaking Through Delusion, while the mind grows stronger, the body continues to be tempered, gradually creating the conditions for further improvement.

"One can then connect to the stars and draw upon the moon, accommodate the heaven's yang, and let the spiritual essence of the heavens, earth, sun, and moon flow into one's own body..."

"This is: The Heavens and Earth lend their strength!"

"With the furnace burning, the essence inexhaustible, and the internal and external realms tempered together, this will span the long career of a practitioner. It is the work of years, not a single stage..."

"When brought to fruition, the bones become like jade, the body like amber, and the blood like radiant fat!"

"At this step, the physical body is not yet the key, but the soul grows stronger through the process, and the state of mind gradually meets the requirements. One may then attempt to summon the two souls of heaven and earth, entering the realm of a True Person..."

***

Sometimes his writing was continuous; sometimes he needed to ponder for a while. Sometimes he would stand and pace the room. By the time the sky was fully bright, Zhuang Lin had finished everything he wanted to write—everything that could be written at this stage. However, he could only go as far as the pre-True Person stage.

Writing this had consumed much of his mental energy and exhausted the spiritual essence he had just cultivated. As a result, the scrolls and slips seemed to shimmer with a faint, barely visible spiritual light. Compared to this, the original bamboo slip of the *Dao-Seeking Verses* truly did not seem to have been written by a practitioner of the genuine immortal path.

Zhuang Lin put down his brush and contemplated the future. He did not know what lay beyond. He only knew that reaching the realm of a True Person meant entering the so-called "Realm of True Dao." The True Person realm was the first step of this; the second step seemed related to the Primordial Spirit, and as for the third, he had absolutely no concept yet.

Based on the current situation, the remaining resonance of this Dharma Lineage might not be enough to support him to the second step of the Realm of True Dao.

He rose from his desk and opened the door. Holding his brush and with his hands clasped behind his back, he looked out as the morning glow filled the Hidden Immortal Valley.

A moment later, he looked back at his desk. Although he had written much, and although he believed he had been meticulous, he knew that for someone wishing to enter the path of immortality, taking that first step was still no easy task.

*Awakening the Spirit, Awakening the Spirit... not everyone can feel the Spirit!*

*Without a master to point the way, how arduous the cultivation for all living beings!*