Chapter 165 Penglai

My master pulled me back to the top of the mountain and I sat down beside him in silence.

My mind was in a whirl, but I was thinking about an unrelated problem. If I were a child, no, even if it were ten years ago, if my master had told me that he had only a year to live, my first reaction would have been uncontrollable crying.

Nowadays, however, I am even more silent… I want to cry, but I feel like I can’t. I just feel like a huge, cold sadness is about to overwhelm me.

Is this the price of growing up? I can’t laugh when I want to, and I can’t cry when I want to. I suddenly feel that Master has reached such a state of openness and tranquility. What kind of state of mind is that? People always want to go back after going through something, just as adults want to have a childlike and sincere state of mind.

It seems like we are working in vain, but in fact, how can we understand its value without experiencing some vicissitudes? What we gain is actually “understanding.”

Master’s rough hands rested on my head, motionless. The wind blew past, as if it were his sigh.

The power of inheritance lies in the fact that even small details are passed down… Just like how my master loves to touch my head, I love to touch Huigen’s head.

“I have been looking for you for many years. You know I was looking for your master… After all these years, I can say that I have seen your master, but I haven’t seen him.” The master’s voice came into my ears. At this moment, I no longer had much emotion, only the calmness after the experience.

I sat cross-legged and listened quietly, and realized that there was so much to cherish in life. For example, this moment of tranquility, when will it appear again?

“You should know the secret of the few remaining spirits left by your master, right?” Master suddenly asked.

I looked at the master and nodded quietly, saying, “Yes, it was in India. An old man named Johnny, a friend of my master, told me.”

“Johnny?” Master asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, I’ve also experienced a lot. Master, do you want to hear it?” Since it’s about tearing open the past, I might as well say it all.

“Okay, listen…” The master nodded. The wind on the mountain gradually faded with the setting sun, and the night slowly approached, becoming a little larger. The master took two jugs of wine from his bosom and handed me one.

I unscrewed the lid, took a sip, and then looked into the distance and said, “Where should I start? Master, let’s start with the night you left me at the bamboo hut…”

Life sometimes seems very long, but when you talk about it, you realize that it is amazing that you can condense the whole of your life into a few hours and explain it to someone.

The wine bottle is small, and the wine it contains is less than half a catty, but when you drink it, sip by sip, when I finish telling you about my experiences, there will still be half a catty left in the bottle.

It was a fine day, and the night sky was full of stars. Sitting on the top of the mountain, I could see the stars as if they were close enough to touch. They seemed like jewels shining brightly, and the Milky Way was a silver ribbon that suddenly appeared in the sky and then disappeared.

After listening to my story, the master was silent for a long time. After a long time, he said, “These years, you have suffered a lot and grown up very quickly. I feel sorry for you, but I am also very happy.”

After saying this, the master took a big sip of wine… A single sentence already contained thousands of words. I and he had come to this point in life, and basically there was no need for many words to express anything.

“Master, the Taoist disciple can suppress his own will for only three days… After that, nothing is under his control… Today is the third day, and I don’t know if it will be tonight or tomorrow morning that my will will gradually be eroded by the Taoist disciple’s will. However, the good thing is that he can leave me with memories.” After telling him everything, I smiled and added, “Actually, my soul is still here, but the will has become that of the Taoist boy. I’m really worried that he’s so different from me in his style of work that he’ll offend all my friends in the future.”

As I spoke, I took a big drink from the wine pot, which was almost empty.

The hand that the master placed on my head could not help but shake. Perhaps he was afraid that I would detect his emotions, so he withdrew his hand and said in a low voice, “Damn it, I don’t have the strength to kick you now… The core of the soul is the will, and the will, in addition to its original essence, will also be formed due to different environments and encounter, etc. Even if the soul is the same in this life and the next, it is always changing. Only those who have transcended everything and jumped out of the cycle of reincarnation can break through the tempering of one life and another, and the will that remains closest, or is the will of the heart, melts the will of each life! The will can be said to be a heart. If the heart is different, what are you talking about leaving behind the soul? Just as people are gone, what is the point of leaving behind clothes? Are you my disciple? I just told you to climb over this peak, but you don’t even want your heart.

I tilted my head slightly and said, “If I can, why wouldn’t I want it? Master, the strong will of a Taoist disciple is not something I can…”

“Nonsense, there is no such thing as a strong or weak will. In my eyes, there is only right and wrong. What you have realized in this life is right, and it will surely cover the wrongs you committed in your past lives… The right path is always the mainstream. No matter what the world becomes, the reason people can remain sober is that the mainstream still promotes righteousness and goodness… Because people do not live for themselves alone, they are not simply individuals, existing in isolation. Only the warmth of everything is the power to continue moving forward, and it is the ultimate support for the endless cycle of life. “The master said to me.

And for some reason, I suddenly felt a stirring in my heart, and the emotions I had been immersed in for three days seemed to have been released.

Yes, the ultimate support is all that is beautiful, and even animals have the instinct to protect their children… This is the warmth of motherhood bestowed by heaven… If I am right, I clench my fist tightly… Am I right in front of the Taoist monk?

My fists were white, and the master said, “I believe in you. Even after all these years, I have always believed in you in the process of searching for your master.”

I didn’t say anything, but I said to the master, “Why did I see my master, but not my master?”

“I think you should understand… The bead I gave you contains the remnant soul of your master, which is all that remains of your master in this world. And the reason you didn’t see it is because to me, your master was a living person who brought me many warm memories, not a remnant soul stripped for the sake of protection. Do you understand?” Master said calmly.

I can understand my master’s feelings, but what I can’t understand is that Uncle Johnny once told me in person that only he knew the secret of the Grandmaster’s remnant soul. Why did my master find the Grandmaster’s remnant soul?

Master seemed to see through my confusion and turned to me with a smile, saying, “Actually, this secret is just like what you told me earlier. Only Uncle Johnny knows it… But ever since I saw Penglai, I knew everything.”

My heart began to beat faster. Although the mystery of Penglai and Kunlun had been troubling me for years, and it was also the path I had been pursuing… I still felt in my heart that I might not be able to find it, because of the awe I felt for the legend.

So, I couldn’t help but use the last of my wine to calm my emotions, but my voice still trembled as I asked, “Master, did you really go to Penglai?”

“Penglai?” The master’s eyes had a look of confusion in them… as if he was remembering something. Then he wiped his face and said, “I saw it, but that doesn’t mean I went there… because at that moment I suddenly had a profound understanding, that is, people have to be in the right place, no, everything should be in the right place, do you understand?”

I shook my head, I said I didn’t understand… Obviously Penglai is right in front of me, why would Master say such a strange thing? If it were me, and I discovered the legendary location… my curiosity would make me want to go to Penglai at all costs, to see one of the sources of my great Chinese legend.

“Just as an ant must live in an ant nest, and a lion must live in the grasslands… I live in this place, but I am not qualified to enter Penglai. Do you understand?” The master said to me, and then continued, “Many things are not as close as they seem, and you can’t really touch them… just as things placed in water will be refracted, and the eyes can also deceive people.”

“So Master… you mean to say that even if Penglai is right in front of our eyes, it is still very far away?” I was also confused.

The master shook his head and said, “That’s not something I can explain to you right now… You know, I’m your master, and if I could explain it to you, I would have already explained it to you.”

“Then Master, why did you say that you would understand everything when you saw Penglai?” I asked seriously. I remembered the information that Jiang Yi had given me, and I realized that I had many questions to ask my master.

“That’s because the biggest remnant of your master’s soul is guarding the entrance to Penglai. At that moment, I thought I had finally seen your master! And at that moment, I also realized why it is said that if you want to climb Kunlun, you must first find Penglai.” The master whispered to me.

All of this made me tremble with excitement.

Because no matter how much magic I have seen… what could be more exciting than the place where these myths and legends are located? In fact, I was actually close to it. It was in the Miao village of Heiyan, when the demon was transforming… I saw a place shrouded in mist. In retrospect, I am more and more suspicious that it was Kunlun!

Now… So, I couldn’t help but ask my master, “Why?”