The immortal is beside me

Chapter 82 The Prosperous World He Witnessed
The wind blew through the streets, and the locust trees above danced desolately, scattering yellowed branches and leaves.

Fallen leaves passed before her eyes, and the scene in her vision seemed blurred and distant. Qin Jiajia lowered her head, looking at the pile of leaves gathered at her feet, speechless for a moment.

Zhou Qing told the story very simply, and it took only a few minutes to finish, but she knew how much weight of time was contained in those words.

An era of fighting between blue sky and yellow sky, a dynasty called Han, and a group of people struggling to survive.

In a trance, she suddenly felt that this person became very far away. Although there was only two steps between them, nearly 2000 years of time stood between them.

"Then what happened?"

"Later"

Zhou Qing casually picked up a locust leaf beside him and said, "I searched for several months along the way, and finally found Luoyang. I scattered his ashes beside the moat. At that time, many rebel armies were attacking, and the city was in chaos. Not many people noticed me."

"Later, I traveled south and searched for over three hundred years near Jiaozhou, but I still couldn't find the sect he mentioned. Given the chaotic state of the cultivation world at the time, I imagine that sect had already been destroyed."

In fact, there was another sentence he didn't say, which was about the sword left by Old Zhou.

That sword was also the first one he acquired on his journey of cultivation. Shortly after he achieved his Golden Core breakthrough, a Nascent Soul cultivator led a group to hunt him down to settle an old grudge, but he ultimately defeated them. However, during the encounter, the sword was shattered by the aftermath. He later searched for its fragments for a long time but was unable to recover them.

He didn't use a sword for more than two hundred years after that.

Qin Jiajia stared at him, speechless for a moment. For a few moments, she could clearly sense the deep sadness in his words, but then she realized Zhou Qing remained calm as he spoke, as if he were simply recounting the past of an old friend.

Finally, she could only calm down, lower her head and stare at the cement brick ground beneath her feet, her thoughts drifting away with the words just said.

Have the corpses of the starving been buried here? Have its tears been swallowed?
"So monks are like this too." She whispered, "I used to think that all monks were..."

"Are they all immortal gods who are high above and have nothing to do with worldly matters?"

Zhou Qing loosened his fingers and let the leaves in his hand be blown away by the wind.

"People tend to naturally embellish powerful individuals with various halos, believing that the strong possess ambition and vision."

"But the despicable do not become noble because of strength, and the narrow-minded do not become great because of power. On the contrary, many people who were originally pure and kind are blinded by power and regard all living beings as ants, forgetting that they were once just ants themselves."

At first, he had also longed for the world of immortals and the scenery he could see from high in the sky. However, when he actually stepped into it, he found that it was just another hunting ground for cannibals.

The Hu and Jie people are treated as two-legged sheep.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties fed on living creatures.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, internal strife led to bloodshed.

There was a mountain of bones under the cemetery.

For hundreds of years, there has been no prosperous era, no fairyland, only smoke rising everywhere and bones exposed in the wild.

Wherever I look, there is no peace in the world.

He hated everything he saw and heard, hated the hypocritical and whitewashed gods, and hated this world full of disasters.

Therefore, if we want to eliminate the evil, we must stop killing by killing.

He wanted to chop down those high and mighty beings one by one, step on their corpses and laugh at their weakness, and tear apart all the hypocrisy that covered them up and let them fall into the mud.

This is Zhou Fan, this is Zhou Wuqing, and this is also what he has been pursuing for hundreds of years.

Thinking about it now, perhaps I had already lost myself without realizing it.

"There are no immortals or gods in this world. The immortals people talk about aren't specific beings, but rather people's hopes and aspirations. When a being comes incredibly close to living beings' aspirations, they naturally become immortals in people's eyes."

"Then," Qin Jiajia looked at him, "what do you think is the vision of all living beings?"

Is it wealth? Is it power? Is it seeking truth? Or...
"Yes."

Zhou Qingdao said, "Wealth, power, seeking the truth within oneself, seeking the truth from outside... people pursue all of these things mostly just to live a better life, nothing more."

Qin Jiajia looked at the ground beneath her feet, speechless for a moment.

Thousands of years of time, thousands of years of disputes, in every era, there are countless people living hard.

"It's to live." She murmured this sentence again and again.

The wind around stopped at this moment. Zhou Qing patted the fallen leaves on his body and smiled faintly.

"So, eat well."

Two hours later, Qin Jiajia returned to the Super Research Institute.

It was already getting dark, but the researchers in the office were still working overtime, and the scene was like an arms race.

In the academic field, publication of results is a matter of urgency, and the hotter the field, the more so. Right now, the popularity of the powerful man named Zhou Qing is undoubtedly the center of the sun, and everyone is revolving around him.

".Did he tell you this?"

In the conversation room, Cheng Xiaomeng, who was sitting on a chair, listened to Qin Jiajia's last report, nodded repeatedly, and swiped continuously on the tablet in front of her to update the database information.

"That is to say, his origin time is around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty."

Several researchers who were listening on the side were whispering to each other, and the more they thought about it, the more surprised they looked.

"He entered Taoism at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, before any sect inheritance. Yet, by the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, he had already reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage? Damn, what a freak!"

"According to the Jiuli History, he probably reached the level of Transformation during the Tang Dynasty. Are there any existing Transformation Gods who have reached this level?"

"So who is he now?"

Everyone was gossiping and talking. Amidst the clamor, Cheng Xiaomeng finished typing the last word and tucked the tablet away. "This information is crucial. I'll submit it to the higher-ups later."

Cheng Xiaomeng reached out and patted Qin Jiajia on the shoulder: "Xiao Qin, you have made a great contribution this time. It's really a stroke of luck that you joined our team. I'll treat you to a good meal in a couple of days."

"That's right. Wait a couple of days. Can you help our Super Research Institute deliver something to him?"

Qin Jiajia responded absentmindedly, "What?"

"A historical object that might be related to him."

Cheng Xiaomeng said, "I heard from the Environmental Sanitation Bureau that the powerful person doesn't seem to be interested in things like spirit stones and money, but seems to have some interest in things like antiques. We want to start with this aspect and give him some gifts."

"While you were away, we checked the database and found a cultural relic related to a special historical event, and he might have participated in that event."

This sentence made Qin Jiajia focus a little more: "What incident?"

"Want to know?" Cheng Xiaomeng smiled mysteriously, "Follow me."

She led Qin Jiajia out of the conversation room and back to the cultural relic restoration room. Inside, in a vacuum chamber, a thin jade pendant lay.

The jade pendant was about half the size of a palm, engraved with cloud-like decorations, and the carving technique was extremely delicate. In the center of the jade pendant, the word "Yan" was written in regular script.

"This was one of the incense offerings offered to the Immortal Alliance by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, during the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty."

"According to current historical records, Xuanzong enjoyed banquets in his later years. At the end of the Kaiyuan reign, on New Year's Day, he held an unprecedentedly grand banquet in Chang'an."

"Rumor has it that the banquet was held with the city as the banquet table and the river as the wine cup. All citizens of the Tang Dynasty, regardless of their wealth or status, were welcome to attend, and even monks were among the guests."

Cheng Xiaomeng pointed her finger at the vacuum box and explained it in detail.

"The transcendental power behind the Tang Dynasty at the time was the Jiuli Immortal Alliance. This jade pendant was an invitation from Emperor Xuanzong to the Immortal Alliance, inviting them to a banquet. At the time, at least thousands of jade pendants like this were made, but only this one remains intact."

"That Zhou Qing was still the Immortal Alliance's guest, Zhou Wuqing, at the time. Perhaps he'd heard about the events surrounding that night's banquet, and perhaps he'd be interested in this jade pendant. If there's a chance in the future, I'd like to ask you to ask him if he's interested in it. Consider it a small token of appreciation from the Transcendental Research Institute."

Qin Jiajia leaned over, stared at the jade pendant through the glass, and pondered carefully.

At the end of the 741th year of Kaiyuan (), Chang'an.

Thousands of people were bustling about under the city gate, and the ears were filled with the hustle and bustle of noise.

At a side road with few people in front of the door, Zhou Wuqing held the jade pendant in his hand and examined it carefully.

The jade pendant was decorated with cloud patterns and the word "Yan" was written in the center.

This is the invitation letter sent by the contemporary Human Emperor Li Longji to the Immortal Alliance, inviting the monks in the alliance to come to Chang'an for a banquet.

In recent decades, people's livelihood in the Tang Dynasty has been stable, the spiritual veins are stable and there are few natural disasters. External enemies such as the Turks have also been subdued, and the Immortal Alliance has experienced a rare period of leisure.

During this idle period, the Human Emperor hosting a banquet was a rare diversion. Many cultivators in the alliance were quite interested in this, and with the idea of ​​joining in the fun, he and his friend Ye Qiansheng came together.

"There are so many people." Ye Qiansheng beside him sighed in a low voice.

At the Emperor's call, people from all over the Tang Dynasty descended on Chang'an for the feast. Though it was winter, the crowds were already drenched in sweat, their shoulders rubbing against each other. The sheer volume made one wonder if the entire country had gathered at this gate.

In order to avoid attracting attention, they did not wear their usual Taoist robes today, but changed into ordinary Tang suits and blended into the crowd like ordinary people.

Zhou Wuqing hung the jade pendant on his waist and looked up at the crowded Chang'an city gate in front of him.

More than six hundred years ago, there was a capital city called Chang'an within the Han Dynasty. He had never been there, but only heard bits and pieces about it from other people.

People said that the palaces and avenues in that city were the best in the world. Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang offered sacrifices to heaven there, and Emperor Wu Liu Che issued edicts from there. Once the city gates were opened, the Han cavalry poured out like a hot knife through butter, sweeping across the four directions with invincible momentum.

Today, the capital of the Tang Dynasty is also called Chang'an. It is said that its size is twice that of the Han Dynasty Chang'an. Just looking at the outer city walls, the grandeur and majesty are overwhelming.

The bell for the night banquet rang, and the soldiers on the city wall shouted signals. Amid the sound of wood and stone rubbing against each other, the heavy city gate slowly opened. Passing through the doorway that was more than ten steps long, what came towards them was an overwhelming light.

A firework rose into the night sky, bursting into brilliant fireworks, illuminating the entire dome.

Beneath the dome, a magnificent palace stands at the end of the avenue. The oncoming winter wind brings the rhythm of celebratory music. Looking up, the city is full of hustle and bustle and fireworks.

Jiutianchang opens the palace, and all nations pay homage to Mianqi.

"It's truly an unprecedented banquet." Ye Qiansheng raised his eyebrows with joy and turned to the person beside him and said, "Brother Zhou, look..."

There was no response. Beside her, Zhou Wuqing had stood still at some point, letting the vast crowd flow past him.

He stood in the noisy crowd, staring intently at the splendid Chang'an in front of him. The red lights and colorful fireworks were draped over him, and everything around him was dazzling.

Those are the lights of thousands of homes, the singing in the sky, and the vitality of the whole city.

"So this is the golden age." Ye Qiansheng heard him say softly.

The music in his ears seemed to suddenly fade away, and even the noise of the crowd faded away. He stopped talking and just stared at the sky filled with fireworks.

This is the sky in the 29th year of Kaiyuan.

Since the Yongyuan period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains waited for 650 years in bloody wars, and finally waited for another prosperous era.

A prosperous era called Kaiyuan.

Ye Qiansheng stood quietly aside, looking at the figure standing in the fleeting shadows. After a while, she suddenly walked forward and grabbed his sleeve with one hand.

"Let's go, Brother Zhou." She smiled faintly in the light, "Let's go and see this magnificent world together."

(End of this chapter)