The immortal is beside me

Chapter 50 Old Friend
It was a sunny morning in early autumn.

On the street of the community, Zhou Qing was carrying a folding bed in one hand and a birdcage in the other, walking towards the activity square where he usually basked in the sun.

As soon as I stepped across the street, I saw a group of old men and women gathered in the middle, chattering.

In the middle of them was a small stall set up anywhere. A middle-aged man with a beard and wearing a Taoist robe was sitting on a stool with a Bagua diagram in front of him, acting like a street fortune teller.

The stall has been here for a while. Owner Liu Guishan comes in once or twice a week, and the service is just as it appears: fortune-telling, five yuan per session.

In this neighborhood full of elderly people, the attraction of a fortune-telling stall is like a 4090% discount on . Even if you don’t buy anything, you still have to go and take a look at the excitement.

Because of this, the business of this fortune-telling stall is visibly becoming more prosperous day by day.

At first, only a few people went there half-believing and half-doubting, then gradually people started to line up, and now it has almost become a star effect, as soon as he appears, a group of fans will flock to him.

"Hey, isn't this Xiao Zhou! Come quickly!"

A figure poked his head out from the crowd and shouted to him.

It was Uncle Wu. Today, he hadn't gone out to play chess with anyone, but instead joined the crowd in front of the fortune-telling stall, clearly demonstrating its appeal.

"Master Liu is incredibly accurate in his fortune-telling! You usually don't run into him at work, which is a huge loss. But today you finally get to meet him. Come over and have your fortune told!"

"No thanks." Zhou Qing glanced at the fortune teller Liu Guishan. "I don't really believe in fate. Let's not waste money."

"Hey, Master Liu doesn't just tell fortunes; he can also give you a lot of useful advice. Let him give you some pointers! Why are you leaving?"

The words were left far behind him, and he carried the birdcage and folding bed and walked towards the corner where he usually basked in the sun.

There were patches of locust trees planted in that corner. Although it was early autumn and many of the flowers on the trees had faded, there were still one or two unyielding white flowers standing upright on the branches, releasing their fragrance to the world.

He loved locust flowers. Over 1,300 years ago, locust trees lined both sides of Zhuque Street in Chang'an. When the flowers bloomed, the entire street was filled with fragrance, and white petals covered the entire street.

Li Shimin, Li Bai, and Yan Zhenqing had all seen the scene of the locust flowers in full bloom; at the same time, Ye Qiansheng had seen it, Yuan Tiangang had seen it, and he had also seen it.

Now, more than a thousand years have passed, and many traces of the ancient Chang'an City have been erased. Zhuque Street has also been occupied by commercial areas and subways, but traces of locust flowers can be seen everywhere in Liangzhou City. The famous flowers in the imperial city now grow on the edge of residential areas.

He hung the bird cage and placed a folding chair under the locust tree with the most flowers, then lay down comfortably and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine.

The wind blew past my ears, bringing the sounds of birds singing and leaves swaying, mixed in with a few noises.

First, it was Uncle Wu's voice: "Hey, Master Liu, Xiao Zhou doesn't seem to be very willing to come over. I couldn't persuade him."

Then the middle-aged man chuckled, and it was Liu Guishan's voice.

"It's okay, this is normal. That young man is still young and untouched by worldly experiences, so it's understandable that he doesn't believe these things."

"That's true. If I were thirty or forty years younger, I certainly wouldn't believe this. Young men full of vigor and vitality always think they can change their fate."

"If even young people firmly believe that fate is predetermined, what fun is there in this world?"

Liu Guishan's voice was filled with regret. "However, our sect's founder once said that going against the will of heaven is a taboo and will ultimately result in a heavy price. I hope that little brother won't fall into this trap."

"Wow, a master is a master! Look at this!" Uncle Wu seemed very excited. "Master, I've been feeling my eyelids twitching for the past couple of days. Can you help me figure out what this sign means?"

The sound drifted in waves on the wind. At a distance of several hundred meters, it was no different to him than a discussion right next to his ear.

People always liked to talk behind his back, but he didn't see anything wrong with that. As the saying goes, "He who means nothing is innocent." These people just thought he was an ordinary person, and their comments were just advice based on their own observations, so there was no need to make a fuss about it.

Moreover, in a sense, Liu Guishan does have the confidence to make the evaluation.

A few months ago, when he first met the "fortune teller" Liu Guishan, he saw the mystery of this person: the fluctuation of spiritual power was pitifully small, but the soul was extremely strong, which was a typical characteristic of a practitioner of Yishu.

Compared with the cultivation of spiritual power, the practice of Yishu is inseparable from observing the world, so most Yishu practitioners choose to travel the mortal world under false identities. The most common false identities are fortune tellers or Feng Shui masters.

His old friend Yuan Tiangang had once used a similar identity, but his accomplishments led to his fame, so great that his real name even appeared in human history books. When he tried to escape from the mundane world, he couldn't, and only managed to fake his own death. He later mocked him about this. After joining the Immortal Alliance, Yuan Tiangang would occasionally reappear under different names, continuing his physiognomy and feng shui practices, often discarding them after a single use. At first, he thought it was a sign of infatuated cultivation, but later realized it was simply a playful pursuit.

He still remembered that once he and Yuan Tiangang were traveling through Chang'an City, and they happened to meet a scholar who came to read his fortune. After taking a look at him, Yuan Tiangang immediately said with a smile that the young man would have good luck in love during his visit to Beijing, but this luck would be accompanied by bloody disasters, so he had to be careful with his words and actions.

Even he couldn't understand all the riddles, and the scholar was even more confused. He just thanked the teacher and left in a daze.

As a result, the scholar was knocked to the ground by a passing carriage just as he walked out of the door. His head was bleeding. Then the carriage door opened and a young girl got out. She apologized and asked about the scholar's injuries with concern.

A few years later, when he passed by Fansu again, he heard that the two had gotten married.

There were countless things like this, and this formed his initial impression of the Yishu monks - they didn't speak human language.

At first, Yuan Tiangang's problem was particularly severe, sometimes driving people crazy. Later, he had several cordial and friendly exchanges with him, and finally he was able to speak a little less inflected.

But now, hundreds of years have passed, and today's practitioners of Yishu still talk about things like "blood disaster" and "black forehead". Does it mean that all practitioners of Yishu will become weird?

Having said that, Liu Guishan was just practicing for his own benefit. He didn't harm anyone, didn't disturb anyone, and didn't cheat people out of money. He was just like Yuan Tiangang in the past, entering the world in his own way, so he just let him go.

Zhou Qing closed his eyes, letting the sun shine on him. Just as he was dozing off, his phone beside him suddenly vibrated.

He half opened his eye, clicked on the screen, and a WeChat message came into view.

[Jia Jia is having a bad day today: Zhou Qing, do you know Yuan Tiangang?]

A line of words written clearly made him open half of his eyes again.

In the past few years, he has been concentrating on cultivating his mind in the mundane world and has not paid special attention to the affairs of his old friends. Unexpectedly, the first time he heard about it was from Qin Jiajia.

Could it be that Yuan Tiangang had also joined the Chinese government? Considering that he had previously served the Tang court during his travels, this was consistent with his style.

He rested his head on his arm and typed with one hand.

【Qing: Know.】

Jia Jia is having a bad day: You really know me! I received a message saying he might be dying soon, which will cause a lot of trouble.

Yuan Tiangang is going to die?

Zhou Qing opened his other eye, a thought flashing across his eyes.

When he last saw Yuan Tiangang over six hundred years ago, he had already broken through to the Spiritual Transformation stage. According to the lifespan of a cultivator of the Yishu realm, he should have at least five hundred years left to live.

He thought of a possibility, and his eyes darkened.

[Qing: Where is he now?]

After the message was sent, the chat box on the other end went silent for a moment, I couldn't tell if they were stunned or looking for someone to ask about the situation. About ten minutes later, a new reply came in.

[Jia Jia is having a bad day today: I'm not sure about the exact location, but I heard they said it's probably in Tianjiyuan in Yizhou. That unit is in...]

A string of addresses was sent over. Zhou Qing looked at the line of words and narrowed his eyes slightly.

The purpose of the Yishu technique is to comprehend the heaven and earth and cultivate one's body and mind. However, there is only one possibility that can lead to harm to one's body and shorten one's life - to try to peek into the heaven's secrets and suffer backlash from the heaven.

He put his cell phone in his pocket, slowly sat up from the recliner, and looked towards Yizhou.

Many years ago, he had witnessed the consequences of a backlash from Heaven's Way. It was then that he understood the weight of the saying, "The price of offending Heaven's Way is unstoppable."

But that was many years ago.

And now, he has the ability to change the world.

(End of this chapter)