Chapter 27: The Immortal Points the Way, Visiting Longevity

By now, all the villagers in this village had followed the Old Daoist Priest Fang Hong to Cultivate the so-called Longevity Immortal Method.

Their eyes were dull, their mouths and eyes skewed, their movements slow, and their minds were deeply immersed in the Longevity Immortal Method, unable to extricate themselves.

Li Qiuchen could understand this feeling very well.

Country folk had never enjoyed any blessings in their lives; their greatest wish was to be able to eat their fill. Drinking a couple of taels of Guoshao liquor with a bite of sizzling, fatty meat was a god-like enjoyment for them.

Now, true Immortal-like enjoyment had appeared, and everyone had begun to breathe in and out Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

That feeling was like carrying bricks all day at an outdoor construction site in thirty-five-degree heat, then returning home to open the fridge, take out an ice-cold cola, and gulping it down.

A sensation of pure bliss from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.

Next, the Old Daoist Priest had originally intended to lead the villagers to worship the tree roots, using incense offerings to stimulate their growth.

As it turned out, they were stuck fast at this very step.

Nonsense, of course they would be stuck. That was just a section of dead tree root; feeding it incense was no different from putting 95-octane gasoline in a horse carriage.

The two things just didn’t go together!

The Old Daoist Priest had trained two boys—though they were called boys, they looked more like Protectors.

The two burly men stood beside him like door gods.

Li Qiuchen had seen them and their father at the mountain stronghold; none of them were good people. He didn’t know what kind of demonic Spell the Old Daoist Priest had used to kill their father and then take the two of them under his wing.

He took the tea handed over by Song Gang and took a small sip.

Li Qiuchen put down the teacup and smiled at the Old Daoist Priest, “Senior, this coarse tea… is a bit too coarse.”

The Old Daoist Priest chuckled dryly, “In this countryside, where can one find good tea leaves? I hope Junior Brother will be patient with me.”

“Let’s drink something better instead.”

“Huh?”

Before the Old Daoist Priest could react, Li Qiuchen stood up, walked outside the door, and tapped the air three times while forming a hand seal.

A moment later, a melodious crane cry echoed from the sky.

A White Crane descended from the heavens.

The Old Daoist Priest was dumbfounded as he watched from the side.

What kind of Immortal Spell was this?

Li Qiuchen walked up to the White Crane and whispered a few words, waving it away. When he turned back, a package of tea leaves had appeared in his hand.

“I hope Senior doesn’t laugh at me. This is a Spiritual pet raised by my Master. I just asked it to help me steal some of the good tea leaves my Master hid away, to bring here and entertain guests.”

“I’m not laughing, not… No, I mean, it’s too much trouble…”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

Li Qiuchen casually poured out the tea in the cup, put in a few leaves of Spiritual tea gifted by the Mountain God, picked up the kettle to fill it with hot water, and pushed it in front of the Old Daoist Priest. “Master has taught me since I was young that it’s not easy to Cultivate our path. When we meet fellow cultivators, as long as they aren’t ill-intentioned villains, we should help them out if we can.”

The Old Daoist Priest nodded repeatedly in agreement. He took the tea, sniffed it, and his eyes instantly widened.

“This tea…”

“Please, Senior.”

Li Qiuchen’s heart was bleeding, but he maintained a calm smile on the surface.

As the saying goes, one must let go of the child to catch the wolf. He had to put on a good enough act to completely break down the old man’s defenses.

The Old Daoist Priest was not polite at all. Ignoring the scalding water, he tilted his head back and gulped down the entire cup of tea in one go, then shamelessly stuck out his tongue to lick the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup clean.

“Heh—”

After the cup of Spiritual tea entered his stomach, the Old Daoist Priest let out a long, satisfied sigh with his eyes half-closed, as if he had drunk half a catty of fake wine. Thunderous rumbling echoed from his belly, and large chunks of dead skin fell off his body on the spot.

“Junior Brother…”

Coming back to his senses, the Old Daoist Priest looked at Li Qiuchen again with eyes as fervent and mournful as a long-time widow’s, and even his voice became much softer.

“Senior, I actually have an impolite request. Please don’t be angry when I say it.”

Li Qiuchen struck while the iron was hot and spoke directly, “I wonder what Cultivation Technique you practice. Could you let me have a look?”

“Look at what you’re saying. How could a superficial method like mine enter the Dharma Eye of an expert?”

Without a word, the Old Daoist Priest pulled a small booklet from his robes and respectfully handed it to Li Qiuchen with both hands.

If someone else had made such a request, the Old Daoist Priest would have treated it like nonsense. How could one’s own Cultivation Technique be shown to others so casually? Let alone outsiders, even his own son or Disciple couldn’t just look at it.

But when this Junior Brother made the request, the Old Daoist Priest felt no resentment, only a bit of nervousness.

What level is he at, and what level are you at?

If nothing else, just that one cup of Spiritual tea was worth many years of his hard cultivation. How could he possibly be interested in your meager belongings?

He wasn’t afraid of him making requests; he was afraid of him making none.

That would mean he had no value at all.

Li Qiuchen remained calm and took a glance at the booklet. On the cover were written the words “Yellow Locust Chapter.”

Locust trees belong to the Yin element and are connected to ghosts.

The contents of this booklet were very simple. There was an “Qi Induction Mantra,” a Cultivation Technique for the Qi Refining Realm. A “Soul Tethering Technique,” a Spell about using thousand-year-old locust wood to hook people’s souls. And a “Human Elixir Formula,” which described the method of using flesh and blood to grow “Human Pills.”

In terms of depth, it certainly couldn’t compare to the Li family’s techniques, but it had the advantage of being sufficiently sinister and meeting Li Qiuchen’s most urgent need so far—it explained what Qi Refining actually meant.

Li Qiuchen flipped through it quickly, using his Pupil Technique to memorize all the contents, then handed it back to the Old Daoist Priest with a reserved but polite smile.

The Old Daoist Priest didn’t suspect a thing. Seeing Li Qiuchen’s expression, he became even more uneasy.

“Junior Brother, this…”

“Is this the kind of thing you’ve been cultivating all along?”

Li Qiuchen tapped the table with his hand. “Senior, if I’m not mistaken, this technique of yours is incomplete. You only have half, or maybe even less than a third of it?”

The Old Daoist Priest nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes, yes. Junior Brother is truly perceptive. When I followed my Master to Cultivate back then, I only studied this Yellow Locust lineage. Over the years, I’ve always felt something wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t describe exactly what it was…”

At this point, he looked at Li Qiuchen and suddenly had a moment of clarity. He stood up and bowed deeply. “Please, Junior Brother… no, please, Master, take me as your Disciple and teach me the Great Dao of Longevity! This Disciple is willing to serve you in any way to repay your great kindness!”

Li Qiuchen laughed. “Senior, you’re truly thick-skinned. You drank my tea and now you want to join my sect? It seems you want all the benefits for yourself, don’t you?”

After reading the booklet, he basically knew the Old Daoist Priest’s background.

To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than the word “ignorance.”

A child who grew up in the mountains and couldn’t even read—even if you threw a Cultivation Technique at him, how much could he possibly understand?