Chapter 86: The Ultimate Secret Revealed (Part 2)

After I finished asking this question, Johnny was lost in thought, but his hand was still unconsciously shaking the wine glass.

The entire restaurant was in a state of unusual silence and tension because of my question. Tao Bai and Lu Shan, who had been together for so long, naturally knew that our ultimate goal was to find our ancestors, who had been friends for life and death, and they were naturally nervous.

This atmosphere lasted for nearly a minute, and in that minute, I felt the most nervous in my life. I felt that in the end, even my breathing had turned into gasping, and my spirit seemed to have reached its limit when Johnny finally put down his glass with a “pop”.

Then he looked at me with flashing eyes and said, “Little guy, it seems that I have been avoiding the world for too long and have missed a lot of exciting stories. I can’t answer your question in general now. You have to tell me what happened.”

“Don’t you contact Jenny and the others?” Johnny’s words relieved me a little. At least he didn’t completely deny anything, and all I was worried about was the safety of my master and the others. But I was curious about how Johnny could be so closed off that his source of information was even worse than Wal-Mart.

“The Indian circle of cultivators is originally a relatively closed circle of cultivators, and it can also be said to be a paradise for exiled cultivators in the world’s circle of cultivators. Do you understand what I mean?” While Johnny was talking, he began to continue eating his steak. I was amazed at his amazing appetite. Each steak looked like a kilogram, and he had already eaten the third one without realizing it, along with a lot of other dishes.

“You mean that because you are a Taoist, you don’t fit in with the Indian spiritual community, and you don’t want to leave India, so you are cut off from information?” I spoke, and I took a big bite of steak. I suddenly realized that eating can be a good way to relieve stress.

I decided to start eating steak and red wine too.

Jonny looked at me approvingly, not sure whether it was because of my gluttony or my answer. He said, “Yes, you have analyzed a very important reason. Another reason is that after my loved ones, friends and relatives left me one after another, I closed myself off and refused to contact anyone from my past. So I prefer to be a bad person called Singh, living as I please, but always without getting the point. I can’t catch up with your master’s realm, and maybe after another 100 years, I will still be far behind. He once…” Johnny’s eyes revealed a look of reminiscence, and he didn’t know if he was too old and talked too much to have changed the topic.

I couldn’t help but urge him, and could only wait in silence, scolding myself for asking such an insignificant question.

“Yes, he once said something like this: the ideal state of life is to be a human being with no taboos, and to always have a sense of awe! It’s easy to understand, but difficult to achieve. In fact, it’s a very profound statement. In philosophical terms, it means to achieve a unity of opposites. This is like the Taoist diagram of the eight trigrams, which separates, reconciles, opposes, and unifies. This attitude towards life is too difficult!” Johnny commented, leaving us all stunned.

Because of this sentence from the master, we also began to think about what it means to be a person who has no taboos, but always has a sense of awe. It is not the sentence itself, but the ability to grasp this degree and be able to achieve these subtle details.

But Johnny suddenly realized what he had done and looked at us apologetically. He said, “I talk too much. I always do this when I mention the most important friend in my life. Okay, I just said that I have been closed off for a long time and don’t know a lot of news. Can you tell me about it?”

At this point, I also woke up from my reverie. Where would I dare to be rude and talkative? I immediately gave a brief account of what happened after Master left, as well as our analysis and various clues after Master left. In short, I said everything I could.

This was not a desperate attempt to find a cure, but because Johnny had taken the initiative to talk about Penglai, he would be our greatest guide in the future.

There was a lot that had happened, so I talked for a long time, nearly an hour, and I was the one doing all the talking, while the others added to what I said. I didn’t want to miss any details or clues, for fear that they would change the answer that Johnny was going to give us.

At first, Johnny didn’t really care, and he kept eating and drinking while listening. But later, he forgot to eat and drink, interrupted me, asked the servants to clear the table, and then took us to the study to make some coffee before letting us continue.

As I continued, Johnny’s brows furrowed, and when I reached the part about fleeing to India, Johnny finally waved to interrupt me, took his coffee cup, stood up, paced back and forth in the room a few times, then sat down again, took a sip of coffee, and said with a serious look on his face, “I have seen your master twice. At that time, Li had not disappeared, no, it was called a disappearance. Behind his disappearance, I am the only one in the world who knows part of the truth. Let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about your master, Li. Before he disappeared, he secretly came to see me once. He said to me, “Several of my disciples have long feelings for me. For the first time in his life, he felt concern and deep helplessness.”

At this point, Johnny sighed: “Li was truly helpless at that time. As his old friend, I could feel it! It was also the first time he had felt this way! He didn’t say much, but he said he already knew the fate of his disciples, but he was powerless to change it because fate didn’t fall on a few disciples… This was his earthly debt and sin. He said that for the first time, he discovered that knowing too much was also a kind of pain. I couldn’t understand him at the time, but now that you’re talking about it, I think that at that time, Li must have already figured out that in the future, his disciples would embark on a difficult journey to find him.

“What does this mean? What will happen to Master and his disciples when they go to Penglai?” The question finally came back to the beginning, and my heart was once again nervous beyond words.

“Don’t worry, just listen to me! Li was my closest friend, and even though we were close, it didn’t affect my admiration for him or my belief in his omnipotence… I’m sorry that Li couldn’t stop Li-chun and the others from embarking on the Kunlun journey and change their fate. I’m also sorry that I’m powerless to do anything about it,” said Johnny, shaking his head.

My face suddenly turned gray, because I heard a bad answer from Johnny’s mouth.

With a loud bang, the coffee cup that Chengzhen was holding fell from her hand, spilling the coffee. The quilt rolled to the side, and Chengzhen didn’t respond for a long time. After a few seconds, she suddenly started to choke.

“No, Seung-jin, you have to calm down!” Seung-cheong stood up all of a sudden, pulled out some paper towels, handed them to Seung-jin, and then hurriedly picked up the coffee cup. He wasn’t calm either.

Looking at everyone, more or less, their emotions had already changed. Only I, holding onto the arm of the sofa where Johnny was sitting, could barely control my emotions and said in a trembling voice, “Uncle Johnny, can you actually be a bit more direct?”

“Well, actually, before I really went into hiding, there was a period of time when I was extremely crazy. That was when I was doing something big with your master. I know very well that without my guidance and the necessary conditions, the possibility of setting foot on Penglai is less than 1%! Going to Penglai by walking on the dragon is a feasible method, but it is only one of the conditions, or even not a necessary condition. It is just a way to find Penglai. From the clues you mentioned, Li Chun and the others have already found Penglai, but after that, I can’t give you any answers. The only thing I can be sure of is that they won’t be able to set foot on Penglai, let alone Kunlun, which is all very vague to me. When he said this, Johnny’s eyes flashed with a look of regret.

Hearing this, I inexplicably felt a heartbreaking feeling, not because I thought that the masters had finally met with misfortune, but because I was heartbroken that they had finally come so close to success and then failed. Next, I looked up and found that everyone in the room was sobbing, and the people in the Old Li clan, including Brother Chengqing, were all in tears.

I sighed, stood up suddenly, and said loudly, “What are you crying for? Uncle Johnny only said that our master would not be able to reach Penglai, not that he was dead. Wipe away your tears and cheer up.”

At this time, as the eldest brother of the Li family, I must resist and cheer everyone up, even though my heart is suffering the same way.

“Yes, in fact, the masters may not be dead. I… I…” Lu Shan, who had been silent, suddenly stood up, his face agitated as he tried to say something, but after a long time, he couldn’t get it out.

I looked at Lu Shan in confusion and asked, “Lu Shan, what do you want to say?”

Lu Shan’s face turned red, and he took a deep breath before saying to me, “Chengyi, I’m sorry. I once said that when I had time, I would sit down and tell you about my life, but I never had the chance. I was busy traveling to Sikkim and India, and Ru Yue was injured. I would have told you, but let’s wait until Uncle Johnny finishes talking.”

At this point, Johnny put down his coffee cup and said in a calm and collected tone, “Chengyi is right. I can only say for sure that your master will not be able to reach Penglai, but nothing is absolute. With Li Chun, I have only met him twice, but he is definitely a man of great wisdom. You don’t have to be too sad. You will have to take the Penglai Road, and you may meet each other on the way. In fact, you don’t have to be so stubborn. Just like my life, I have seen all my loved ones leave one by one, but I am still alive. Of course, it is because I have a promise and a mission to my friends, but it is also because I am learning to practice my heart and learn to let go after picking it up.

Johnny’s words obviously had a great effect and gave us great comfort. Coupled with the inexplicable appearance of Lushan, who said that sentence, everyone’s mood finally calmed down a lot, and they began to calm down and continue to listen to what Johnny was going to say next.

It is very important to set foot on Penglai and truly awaken the master? At this time, I realized the horror of this sentence. What does it mean to awaken the master?

We all fell silent, but Johnny’s expression became inexplicably heavy. He looked at me and said, “Chengyi, in the words you gave me, there was one person who didn’t appear often, but you mentioned him often, right?”

“You mean…” Johnny’s thinking was clearly too jumpy. We were waiting for him to continue, but he inexplicably asked me a question.

“A man named Yang Sheng. Please tell me everything you know about him. This is very important,” said Johnny seriously.

I was stunned. Was he talking about Yang Sheng again? He was a scientist. How could he even mention things like Penglai and Kunlun, which were considered myths in Taoism? It seemed like a long hour of talking, but I couldn’t possibly go into detail about every character. I only mentioned a few things about Yang Sheng, but I didn’t expect Johnny to be so interested in him.

I tried to remember everything about this person, but I didn’t expect Wal-Mart to stand up at this time and say loudly, “Oh, Yang Sheng, I finally remember this difficult name. Chengyi, didn’t I once tell you about the attitude of the righteous way? One of the four major forces mentioned a key figure, the key figure who brought about changes to them, was Yang Sheng! Yang Sheng!”

Suddenly, my mind felt numb for some reason, and all kinds of past events whizzed through my mind.

I never thought that he would be the one to force me to the duel stage, and I never thought that after I walked up there, the one who would be facing me would be him.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and said to Johnny with a self-assured expression: “Yang Sheng. When I first met him, I was still a teenager. At that time…”