Chapter 294 The Choice

The light sound mixed into the wind and disappeared. Only the sea of clouds on Dragon Tiger Mountain remained unchanged. Zhang Ruosu stood behind Wei Yuan, watching the young Daoist sitting in front, overlooking the clouds and mist, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.

Wei Yuan suddenly said, "Do you believe what I said, Fellow Daoist Zhang?"

Zhang Ruosu's tone was calm. "It doesn't matter whether I believe it or not."

He reached out and gently brushed away the clouds that had spilled into the room with the wind and air currents, saying:

"All things are one, but they do not interfere with each other, each going its own way. If I believe you, Fellow Daoist, it won't give you any comfort; and if I don't believe you, you won't lose anything. Since that's the case, what difference does it make to you whether I believe you or not?"

Wei Yuan said, "Fellow Daoist Zhang has reached a high realm."

"I've met many people, no matter how old they are, who care a lot about what others say."

"Sometimes a compliment makes them incredibly happy."

"And sometimes, just a few words can make them feel bad for a long time."

Zhang Ruosu thought for a moment and said, "That's because in the cities below the mountain, people are too close to each other. There are many 'others' in one person's world. Whether that person wants it or not, they will be affected by many people. And we cultivate in seclusion to find the real 'I'."

"It's probably about knowing what you really want."

"Then no matter how much or how chaotic other people's words are, they can't affect you."

He smiled and gestured, saying:

"The human world is too big, really too big, like a big supermarket with everything in it. You just want to go in and buy a piece of candy, but many people next to you tell you that this is good, take some of this, take some of that. Some of them are strangers, some are your parents and relatives."

"Some are well-intentioned, and some are not so good, hoping that you will fall down holding too many things."

"You will be affected, or rather, people in the world are affected every day, constantly shaped by the outside world. Each of us has more or less traces of other people's lives left on us. People who are too extreme live not like themselves, but like people living in other people's mouths."

"And cultivating the Dao is about finding yourself in this complicated world."

"Knowing what you want, remembering that you don't actually want so many so-called good things that others give you, you just want a piece of candy."

"Remember, don't forget."

"I don't care how well you speak, or how flowery your words are, or how much saliva you waste, it has nothing to do with me. This is what I want, I'll take it and leave, not wanting to be bogged down in the slightest, happy and comfortable. Many people say that cultivating the Dao leads to being unfeeling and devoid of desires, like a stone, and that's what it means to be an immortal, but that's a wrong idea."

"Cultivating the Dao is actually cultivating a person, cultivating the 'I'."

"How can a person become a stone?"

"Knowing what you want, knowing what to do, laughing when you want to laugh, crying when you want to cry, knowing that my birth is in accordance with the principles of heaven and earth, and my death is also in accordance with the principles of heaven and earth, knowing that I am shaped by all living beings, and knowing that I have found myself in this life, is also in accordance with the principles of heaven and earth and all things."

"There's no need to be happy when you're born, and there's nothing to be sad about when you die. It's just a law like the rising and setting of the sun. That's probably what it means to have cultivated the Dao."

Wei Yuan asked, "What have you cultivated?"

Zhang Ruosu smiled, "The real me, the real person."

"Not dwelling on anything, so even walking through the mortal world, you can be carefree and at ease."

Wei Yuan said, "It seems that what I said is very different from what you said, Fellow Daoist."

He stood up, looked at the churning sea of clouds in the distance, and after a long time, he said self-deprecatingly, "Actually, I'm not very interested in rebuilding the mountain gate of the Taiping Dao, otherwise I would have gone to the door with the Nine-Section Staff. But later, after experiencing some things, I felt that I was a bit too taken for granted."

Now, when the Daoist sects mention the Taiping Dao, they only remember the so-called Daoist Master of the Taiping Dao.

The world has forgotten you.

You probably don't care.

But I don't accept it.

Wei Yuan shook his head, not saying anything more, but looking at Zhang Ruosu, saying:

"Forget it, never mind. It's meaningless to talk about it."

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, farewell."

He tilted his head back and finished the tea in his cup.

Then he took a step forward and fell from above the sea of clouds. His black hair was tied into a Daoist bun with a wooden hairpin, and strands of hair wanted to float up, but his wide-sleeved Daoist robe was filled with the clear wind and white clouds of the mountain. Like a crane soaring into the sky, the Daoist lightly tapped his toes on a falling white feather, pausing slightly.

The air instantly flowed over the feather.

His body seemed weightless, and he took advantage of the wind to take off again.

Wide sleeves fluttering, the sky and sea of clouds.

Blue sky, sea of clouds, with the Daoist between them.

In the main hall of Dragon Tiger Mountain, an old man in a gray Daoist robe had a peaceful and serene expression.

Below the mountain was the human world.

In the distance, the steel jungle of modern technology still showed unprecedented prosperity.

………………

After a long while, Zhang Ruosu suddenly exhaled a large breath, and his entire shoulders slumped slightly.

He raised his hand to cover his heart and gasped for air.

The corner of the old man's eye twitched.

"This kid, is he telling the truth?!"

"Immeasurable Heavenly Lord."

"Scared the old Daoist to death."

The old Daoist covered his chest and sat down little by little. It was hard for him to finally exhale. He almost broke his decades of cultivation. As a monk, he almost uttered foul language. Actually, he didn't reveal his secret at the beginning, entirely because he was too surprised and stunned.

However, a disciple of the Great Teacher.

What exactly does that mean...

A descendant from a later generation.

Or maybe...

Zhang Ruosu couldn't help thinking, when he suddenly heard a voice from afar, saying, "Oh right, I almost forgot one thing, Fellow Daoist Zhang, please keep this thing for me first. I'll come back to get it later. Sorry for the trouble."

As he said that, an object flew over from afar with the wind.

Zhang Ruosu raised his hand and grabbed it.

Then he froze, realizing that it was a cell phone, and the kind that the Special Operations Group of Shenzhou used now. As soon as he held the phone, it started vibrating, and then a navigation voice sounded, saying:

"This navigation has ended. The journey was two hundred and thirty kilometers. You seriously exceeded the speed limit in one hundred and forty-one sections, and violated the Forest Protection Law by crossing seventy-six undisclosed mountain forest sections. The navigation reminds you to drive safely, for yourself and for others."

"We suspect that you have illegally modified a human-shaped vehicle."

"We have contacted the nearest police station for you."

"Di, the Dragon Tiger Mountain Police Station is connecting..."

Zhang Ruosu: "…………"

??!

The old man looked at the three-digit number that had been dialed automatically.

He looked at a certain Wei who had already stepped on the wind and didn't know where he had gone in the blink of an eye.

He looked down at the phone again.

He fell into silence.

So that's how it is...

……………………

Wei Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He successfully handed the phone over to the old Daoist. Only he could unlock that phone. Zhang Ruosu could only use it to answer calls. The main reason was that he had to travel back and forth for a long distance several times, and if he accidentally exceeded the speed limit too many times, it might cause some trouble. He didn't have time to deal with this matter now, so he had to hand it over to Zhang Ruosu.

Wei Yuan silently apologized to the old Heavenly Master in his heart, and then, following the connection with the Nine-Section Staff, he rushed back to the place where he had previously killed the Daoist Master of the Taiping Dao.

With the Nine-Section Staff suppressing the Qimen Liujia Formation, and because the time hadn't been too long,

this place was almost exactly the same as when Wei Yuan left.

After solving Yue Qinglin, he hadn't had time to take stock of what exactly was here. Taking advantage of his momentum, he went to Dragon Tiger Mountain in one go. Wei Yuan burned Yue Qinglin to ashes with a fire-breathing spell, flicked his sleeves to let the flowing wind roll him up and throw him into the mountains, and then walked into the place where the Taiping Dao cultivators had once cultivated hard.

It took him a while to rummage around everywhere.

He only found a few Daoist scriptures, some pills and talismans, and a few good magical artifacts.

There was no way around it. The Taiping Dao had been cut off for thousands of years, and in this era, Yue Qinglin had messed around everywhere, causing a lot of trouble and depleting the already meager family fortune. Wei Yuan carefully put away these things, especially one scroll that recorded the monks of the Taiping Department from previous generations, which he treated with even more solemnity.

Then, his gaze swept across this small place of cultivation, and he was about to leave when he paused slightly.

He found a small, hidden formation.

Hesitating for a moment, Wei Yuan reached out. Although he didn't understand formations, he could use the Disha Art of Forbidden Qi to directly cut off the connection between the formation and the outside world, causing this small formation, which had existed for who knows how long, to collapse, revealing the things inside. Wei Yuan's gaze fell and he was slightly stunned. It was a feather fan that had long since faded and withered.

The feather fan disintegrated into dust the moment it came into contact with the outside world.

It contained the aura of true spirit that belonged only to Wei Yuan himself.

Then it fell into his hand.

……………………

I'm already old...

Years passed, and the former young Daoist had become an old man with white hair and wrinkles.

He actually didn't understand.

Clearly, his body was the weakest of all, so why was his lifespan the longest?

At his age,

the past's unwillingness and pain had all turned into shallow regrets.

The elderly man quietly watched the sunset slowly fall. Once people get old, they start to recall the past. Perhaps it's because the further you go, the fewer people you travel with, until in the end, our past is full of waves, but when we open our eyes, only we are left alone in reality.

In the afternoon village, even the dust had a lazy, sultry feeling.

A group of people dressed in rich clothes passed by. One of the men, with a handsome appearance, noticed that his temperament was different from the surrounding ordinary people. He dismounted and politely asked, "Old man, are you from the Shu region?"

Seeing that the old man didn't speak, he didn't feel embarrassed. He smiled and introduced himself:

"I'm a historian from the imperial court. I'm here to investigate something. I just saw that you have an extraordinary aura, and I wanted to ask you something."

The imperial court...

Is it Wei now? No, it's Jin.

The old man's thoughts were a bit slow.

The handsome young man smiled and said, "I see that you are quite old and have lived in the Shu region."

"I wonder if you have ever seen a person."

"Who?"

"Zhuge Wuhou."

Upon hearing this name, the old man, who had been so peaceful, seemed a bit dazed.

"Kongming..."

"So you've seen him?"

The historian from Jin's eyes lit up. He didn't hesitate, and neatly sat down on the stone next to the old man, smiling, "Could you tell me about it?" The old man originally didn't want to say much, but this name stirred up the deepest part of his memories.

He gently stroked the white feather fan in his hand.

He couldn't help but start to recall.

……………

The story, had to start from that year.

The winter of the first year of the Zhongping era.

In that year, the Great Teacher passed away.

And the last flames of the Yellow Turbans, wrapped up in the chaotic world, arrived at the land of Langya with the Heavenly Book.

Yangdu, Langya.

In that year, there was a child in Langya who was just three years old. His mother had passed away, and his father was an official elsewhere.

His surname was Zhuge.

ps: Today's second update... three thousand four hundred words, thank you Xiliu Feng for forty thousand starting coins, thank you~