My brother is so cunning

Chapter 978 Taoist Priest Descends from the Mountain
Deep within the Jade Pillar Cave of Zhongnan Mountain, a burst of seven-colored light suddenly shot out from the cracks in the stone wall. The dazzling light flashed and disappeared in an instant, and a vortex of secret space opened up. From the vortex emerged a young Taoist priest with wide robes and sleeves, holding a whisk, with a dignified and otherworldly air.

The Taoist priest looked to be in his thirties, with a lean and ethereal appearance. He exuded an air of otherworldly grace. His face was fair and jade-like, but not the paleness of an ordinary scholar. Instead, it had a lustrous sheen like jade. His two sword-like eyebrows slanted upwards towards his temples, with the peaks slightly raised, giving him an aura of righteous indignation.

The Taoist priest had a joyful expression on his face, but he kept it to himself, as if his cultivation was going smoothly and he was making excellent progress.

The Taoist priest emerged from his long-secluded retreat, his mind now contemplating the path ahead. He had gained considerable insight into the Tao during his long period of seclusion and was about to embark on a journey to the mortal realm to cultivate himself, perform meritorious deeds, and bring blessings to all living beings, thereby solidifying his foundation in Taoism.

As soon as he stepped out of the secret realm, the Taoist immediately sensed something was wrong. His narrowed eyes widened suddenly, and his joy vanished. After looking around, he discovered that the layout of the cave was completely different from what he had seen before his seclusion.

This Taoist priest had always preferred tranquility, and his cultivation site was quite simple, just a natural cave with some simple items such as prayer cushions, stone stools, stone chairs, offering tables, and statues of the Three Pure Ones. However, when he came out of the secret realm after this seclusion, he found that his cultivation site was completely empty, and all the simple furniture had disappeared, completely restoring the original natural state when he first came to this cave.

"I'd like to see where this scoundrel came from. How dare he steal from an immortal's home?"

The joy of his successful cultivation vanished instantly. The Taoist raised an eyebrow, draped his whisk over his arm, and made a calculation with his fingers.

"what?"

After trying to calculate with his fingers, he came up with nothing, and the Taoist priest couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment.

"Cause and effect are reversed, the secrets of heaven are in disarray, and the divination results are in chaos. What major events have occurred in the Three Realms during my two hundred years of seclusion? Or is it that the petty thief who stole my cave dwelling actually knows a secret method to conceal the secrets of heaven?"

The Taoist didn't lose any valuable treasures, but as one of the few top-tier carefree immortals in the mortal world, having his cave empty while he was in seclusion was a huge loss of face if word got out.

Although his cave dwelling was simple, it was not simple at all. The maze and killing formations he set up before going into seclusion were extremely dangerous. Even if a demon king or a demon lord wanted to break in, they would be blocked outside and could only sigh in despair at the formations.

The thief who emptied his cave and was able to break his protective formation was no ordinary person. This aroused the Taoist's curiosity, and he was eager to know who had done this.

If that wicked person were to use his personal belongings to flaunt them or use them as evidence to defraud fellow Daoists, it would bring him considerable evil consequences.

Cautiously releasing his divine sense to investigate the cave, but finding no traps left by the thief who stole his belongings, the Taoist priest suppressed his anger and quickly walked out of the cave.

Upon exiting the cave and looking back, the Taoist's already agitated mood worsened. The three large characters "Jade Pillar Cave" that he had carved at the entrance of the cave were nowhere to be seen, having been erased by someone. The spot where he had written the characters had been replaced by a stubborn rock wall.

Stealing his house is one thing, but to remove the house number is quite another. Is this a deliberate mockery that his cave has changed hands?
"Whoever you are, don't let this humble Taoist priest catch you!"

Muttering something resentfully, the Taoist stood atop the mountain and gazed into the distance, using his immortal aura-gazing technique to observe the changing winds and clouds of the nine provinces, taking in the vast landscape.

From the perspective of ordinary mortals, one can only see the churning sea of ​​clouds and picturesque landscapes. But under the divine eyes of this Qi cultivator from Zhongnan Mountain, he saw a dark and gloomy scene in the west, while the south was full of vitality and radiant with the glow of dawn.

"How strange! In less than two hundred years, how could Xiniu Hezhou have fallen into such a state of decline? Didn't the Tathagata constantly say that the mortals of Nanzhanbuzhou were greedy, lustful, and prone to killing and fighting? As the saying goes, 'Words are a dangerous arena, and right and wrong are a treacherous sea.' But now it seems that the situation in Xiniu Hezhou is far worse than that of Nanzhanbuzhou." "The demonic energy in the west is so strong. Could it be that the Buddhas are unable to suppress the Asuras and Rakshasas, and they have launched a counterattack and invasion, plunging the entire Buddhist land into a bitter war?"

The Taoist priest stared intently at the west, but after only a moment, he frowned and slowly shook his head.

"Forget it. I was going to go and investigate, but the ominous signs in the West are too strong. It is not advisable to get involved. The Western religion is ultimately a foreign religion, not of our kind. Let them bear the consequences of their actions and seek their own good fortune."

Looking eastward again, the Taoist priest was shocked to see the direction of Haojing. He exclaimed in alarm, "Where is the royal aura? The world is without a ruler; how can the common people live in peace?"

He incredulously broadened his vision again, observing the world's fortunes with utmost suspicion, thinking he had misread it. He confirmed that the fortunes displayed by the Southern Continent were signs of peace and prosperity for the human race, with resentment, malevolence, and injustice reaching almost an all-time low.

The Taoist priest consulted the oracle again, but the result was a hexagram that said "When dragons are without a leader, the world will be blessed." He was momentarily lost in a cognitive blind spot, and the reality he saw was in serious conflict with his understanding of the rules of the world.

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, the Taoist rose into the air on auspicious clouds and flew towards the human settlement closest to Zhongnan Mountain and the most popular one.

This Taoist was none other than Yun Zhongzi, the Golden Immortal of the Chan Sect. After the Great Calamity of the Investiture of the Gods, Yun Zhongzi returned to the Jade Pillar Cave in Zhongnan Mountain to cultivate in seclusion, no longer concerning himself with worldly affairs, only occasionally observing the clouds and the qi to discern the fortunes and misfortunes of the human world.

Two hundred years ago, he retreated into a secret realm to cultivate in seclusion, but he just happened to miss a series of major primordial events that deviated from the timeline.

After emerging from seclusion, he was completely bewildered, unaware that the Three Realms had undergone a complete upheaval.

As for the cave being robbed, it wasn't actually the work of petty thieves. Even the most skilled petty thief couldn't steal the cave of a Primordial Golden Immortal.

However, Zhongnan Mountain was also within the range of the solar fire bombardment that Wen Rui had unleashed by manipulating the sky to block out the sun. His cave and the entire mountain were caught in the crossfire and burned to the ground.

Wen Rui used the Breath Soil to repair the damaged continental plates and casually restored Zhongnan Mountain. However, he only restored the original landform, and the Jade Pillar Cave was restored to its original state before Yun Zhongzi built his cave.

Whether it was the mountain-protecting formation or Yun Zhongzi's personal belongings in the cave, they had long since turned into elementary particles and merged into the world's material cycle, never to be found again.

Two hundred years is but a blink of an eye for a deity who has secluded himself for cultivation; it's like a month or two for an ordinary person.

Some immortals playing chess can cause the world to change dramatically, and such a change in the landscape is unlikely to have occurred in less than a thousand years.

However, in just two hundred years, the primordial world has become something that Yun Zhongzi could not recognize at all, and a brand new world is waiting for him to explore.

(End of this chapter)