Strange Stories

Chapter 489 Planting Flowers
"Oh why?"

Although Lin Jue believed that he had a connection with him, he still asked.

"Because, because I want to become powerful, I want to be immortal, I want to be like a god, I want to be able to fly in the sky, and I want to get rid of demons and monsters!"

This is a common thought among people these days, and also a common answer.

If you go to the streets of the capital or the villages at the foot of the mountains and ask anyone if he wants to practice Taoism and become an immortal, nine out of ten times he will say yes. If you ask him the reason, nine out of ten times he will say these.

At most, it's just a little more "free and easy".

Maybe young people of this age don’t know what it means to be free and easy.

But Xu Yi lowered his head and added:
"Also, my family has run out of food, wild vegetables, or anything to eat. I might freeze to death or starve to death. My uncle told me to let my cousin come live with me, but my aunt told me that they wanted to drive me out and take over my house. I want to learn magic. If I learn magic, I won't freeze to death or starve to death wherever I go."

A very common sentence, “I might be frozen to death or starved to death,” is the dilemma faced by many people in this chaotic world.

That’s right——

Although the young man does not have as many worries and ties as adults, and therefore does not know what freedom and ease are, he is trapped by hunger and cold, and faces the most basic, biggest and most direct dilemma. He wants to transcend it very strongly. In comparison, the worries and ties that the literati want to throw away after eating and drinking seem weak and powerless.

The previous sentence is not surprising.

The latter sentence is very unusual.

It seems extremely sincere and simple, but in fact it is not something an ordinary ten-year-old boy can think of, nor is it something an ordinary ten-year-old boy can say, but he both thought of it and said it.

Although he lowered his head and blushed, his face was full of embarrassment and inferiority.

Sincerity always trumps everything.

Just like the junior sister some time ago.

When you are not in that perspective, you may find it unreasonable that the gods would be willing to exchange the thousand-year-old snow lotus with you just because you are of good character and sincere. But when you change your position, you can fully understand the gods on Tianshan Mountain. The gods really do this.

Otherwise, what would the gods want from you?

At this moment, the young man lowered his head and dared not raise it, for fear of being rejected, and he didn't know how to face such a rejection.

The other people in the snow also held their breath and dared not speak. They looked at both Master Lin and the young man.

They all seemed to have noticed something.

Master Lin is an immortal.

If Master Lin agrees to accept him as his disciple, he will become Master Lin's first disciple, the disciple under the immortal, and the eldest disciple of the immortal's cave.

This moment is not simple.

This will also be the first time in their lives that they will witness an immortal accepting a disciple.

But then a gentle voice sounded:
"You and I met in the mountains, it was fate. We have met many times, and our fate is not shallow. Coincidentally, I see that you have the talent for cultivation, and I am willing to establish a relationship with you."

Just hearing this, Wan Xinrong and others took a deep breath, looked at each other, and then looked at the young man.

The boy's whole body froze.

The Taoist's voice was heard again: "But it's not that easy for me to accept disciples."

The boy lowered his head and trembled again.

Yes--

This is a god in the capital!
If he wanted to accept disciples, no matter how smart the students were, how high their official positions were, or how wealthy the descendants of the wealthy were, there would be a long queue. What right would he have?

There are many legends and stories in the world. Whenever the gods in the stories accept disciples, in addition to fate, they often have to go through unusual tests. How can I do it myself?

"Why are you so nervous? Didn't we get along very easily in the past?" Lin Jue smiled and shook his head, and continued, "I am a flower lover. I just moved here and I think everything here is good except that the mountains lack some colors, which makes it too monotonous. If you want to be my disciple, you must first go to various places in this mountain, go to villages far away, or buy them at the market. In short, find saplings. Whether you plant them or take cuttings, you must plant them all over the nearby green mountains. The tops and ends of the mountains, the ditches and the forests, will all be colorful when they bloom."

"what?"

The boy looked up in surprise, he didn't expect it to be so simple.

"Don't be surprised, and don't think it's easy. This mountain is not small, and I have a lot of flowers to plant, including wintersweet, camellia, peach, plum, apricot, pear, magnolia, chinaberry, cherry blossom, magnolia, and locust tree. I want to plant them all over the nearby mountain." Lin Jue said to him, "You don't have to choose big trees, small trees will do, and saplings will also do. You don't have to plant too densely, and you can't cut down existing trees to make room. Just plant one tree in the empty space where there were no trees before. But you can't be lazy, careless, or perfunctory."

"I...I will!"

"Since you agreed, there is an empty house here. You can stay here temporarily." Lin Jue pointed to Wan Xinrong and others next to him and said, "These are the people who protected me when I became a Taoist. You must be more respectful to them. They will cook for you every day. You can eat with them and go find a tree when you have time."

"it is good!"

Although the boy was a little bit unbelieving, he agreed.

This is similar to his job of chopping wood.

The boy turned his head to look.

This mountain is indeed very high, and the forest at the foot of the mountain is vast, but as long as you don’t think about this mountain, this vast piece of land, and only think about those trees, you will always plant them full.

Just like the mountain outside, it’s such a big mountain, but didn’t I cut off all the side branches and small trees?
"You must know that plants and trees also have life, and all things have spirituality. Cutting down trees and planting trees are completely opposite. It is easy to cut down trees, but it is difficult to keep them alive. You must be careful and attentive." Lin Jue said, "Otherwise, if there is a tree that is not planted alive, at best you will have to wait a long time to find it, wasting a lot of time, or at worst you will kill a tree for nothing. Since you are no longer a woodcutter and don't make a living from it, you should respect them a little."

"I remember."

"Since you have read books and can recognize words, I will give you another book." Lin Jue said to him, taking out a book, "Read it once a day, and after you can recite it, you can change to copying it every day. No matter how proficient you are, you must not be perfunctory when reciting or copying it."

The boy took it and read the three big words on the book -

"Yin Yang Classic".

Several voices rang out around me:
"My last name is Tao. If you don't have paper or pen, you can get some from me."

"My last name is Wan Xinrong. It's my turn to cook today. You can tell me what you like to eat."

"My name is Cai Lingyu. Did you bring your quilt?" "Young man, here is a hoe."

Several people have realized that although the immortal wanted him to plant flowers, in fact, as long as nothing unexpected happened, the man in front of him would already be a disciple of Immortal Lin.

Only the young man didn't know. He answered them one by one, took the hoe, walked into the mountain while thinking and muttering to himself.

Want a variety of flowers?
To plant them in a staggered manner, does that mean to plant them mixed together?

Therefore, we must distinguish which trees are which trees and which flowers are which flowers, and they cannot be planted together.

This is a bit difficult...

But these are things for later.

What matters now is to find the flower tree.

There must be a lot of wild fruits and trees in the mountains, not to mention wild flowers. But now it is freezing cold, and there are few flowers blooming in the mountains. Those trees are either bare or covered with snow and ice crystals. As a small woodcutter, he can only tell the difference between dead trees and living trees. How can he tell whether there are flowers or what kind of flowers they are?

Only on the way here did I see a wintersweet.

He remembered the flower.

Decided to go find it first.

It didn't take long before the boy walked away.

Unconsciously, another person appeared behind Lin Jue. It was a female Taoist in a Taoist robe:

"This kid is good."

"Ah."

"Brother, tell me, was it my Ziyun who built the road here first, or was it your disciple who planted the mountain flowers here first?"

"Guess what these are for?"

"Then let's guess another way." The little sister walked up to him, "Was it my Ziyun who first mastered the 'Stone Crushing Method', or was it this kid who first mastered the 'Flower Blooming Moment'?"

"Haha! Junior sister is really good at teaching her apprentices!"

"Brother, don't you also cultivate by planting trees?"

"Ha ha……"

"What do you think, brother?"

"Disciples have their own destiny."

Lin Jue sat down cross-legged and said with a smile.

After chatting for a few more words, he stopped talking and continued to explain magic to everyone.

The art is an extension of the Tao. In addition to imparting the art, Lin Jue also cited extensive examples and talked about the great truth behind it.

The sound traveled far in the snow and had a mysterious sound. Some spirits in the mountains heard it and, although they did not dare to approach, they appeared from afar and listened carefully. Birds and small animals were also attracted. They were much simpler and boldly came over here, stopped at the edge of the snow, landed on tree branches, and listened with their ears tilted.

……

Xu Yi is down-to-earth and focused.

The immortal asked him to read the scriptures every day, so he read them every day. The immortal asked him to find trees and plant flowers, so he went to the mountains to find flowers every day, even if he couldn't find any, rain or shine.

For him, there was a small house for him to live in. Although it was small but not ventilated, it was warmer than home. He had food to eat when he woke up in the morning. He didn't have to worry about being hungry. He also had meat and rice for every meal. He had to rely on dreams and fantasies to get such a life before. Now it was easy. Sometimes he really wondered if he was dreaming, or if it was like in the story, where he accidentally encountered monsters and gods while cutting wood in the mountains, and was bewitched and had hallucinations.

Even if you go to the mountains every day to find trees, dig trees, and transplant them, it is no more tiring than chopping wood, it just requires more effort.

Fortunately, he does one thing at a time and focuses on it.

He searched everywhere in and around Fengshan and in every mountain village.

After searching for plum blossoms, I looked for camellias.

He often accidentally stepped on empty space and fell, or rolled down the snow slope, often bumped into ferocious beasts in the mountains, came into eye-to-eye contact with birds of prey, and sometimes even encountered monsters. He was so scared that he ran back in a hurry, gasping for breath.

Sometimes he would stop in front of a village house, bend down, and listen to the village elders talking about the trees in front of him, how to identify them, what characteristics they have, how to plant them, what they like in terms of soil temperature and moisture, and what insects they will grow. Sometimes he would sit on a futon in the snow and listen to Wan Xinrong and others telling him what trees there are in the mountains, and what a certain tree looks like in winter, and he would listen carefully.

Gradually he felt that this was completely different from his job of chopping wood.

Lin Jue often watched him in the attic.

He became more and more satisfied with this disciple.

This actually has nothing to do with talent.

In his spare time he would meditate, drink tea, take a nap, sit without thinking about anything, or ride on a cloud to visit other immortals. He felt so comfortable.

Suddenly one day, Taoist Qingxia, who lived on the South Mountain, came to visit and invited him to watch the fun together:
"Fellow Daoist Lin! The Northern Fuchi Divine Lord is fighting three True Lords alone above Qingyuan. Come! Come with me to take a look!"

Once he had some free time, Lin Jue fully experienced the feelings of these immortals.

Being idle and bored, one naturally wants to join in the fun. To retreat from the world and practice cultivation, one is not involved in disputes, so one naturally has no scruples. No matter which side is fighting or who is beating whom, one can watch without any burden.

And he was really interested in that Lord Fu Chi.

"I'm just about to go out! Let me pack!"

Lin Jue didn't think much about it. He changed into a Taoist robe and followed Master Qingxia on a cloud.

(End of this chapter)