I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 384 Past and Present Lives, Wudang Master

With my ancient, gray-bearded, wild-looking clothes, I am a figure of great antiquity; amidst the vines, the moon, and the cassia breeze, who cares for my poverty?

A dragon soars above the gate, while cypress trees stand tall; across the river, chickens and dogs hide the Qin people.
In this corrupt and degenerate world, Zhang Pingsheng lived in seclusion in the mountains, cultivating his own virtue. When he heard Xu Qing mention the various fame-seeking and reputation-seeking practices of the Celestial Master's Mansion, the Taoist priest not only did not become angry, but instead laughed:
“Names are guests of reality; without names, heaven and earth begin. The word ‘name’ is illusory. Take the Celestial Master’s Mansion, for example. It originated from the Zhengyi sect. After being passed down from generation to generation, all that remains in the end is a name.”

Zhang Pingsheng came to the statue of the Heavenly General, bowed, and said to himself, "Initially, the Zhengyi sect only focused on cultivation, taking elixirs from the Xuanmen and appearing in plain clothes. Later, the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling was granted the Zhengyi Alliance Talisman, and from then on, we took it upon ourselves to subdue demons, protect the Dao, and save the world and bring peace to the people."

"The Celestial Master has already made the principle clear: when poor, one should cultivate one's own virtue; when successful, one should benefit all under heaven."

"My orthodox lineage must not be broken. Now, the evil is rising and the righteous are declining. The Celestial Master's Mansion, which cultivates itself with evil methods, is gaining momentum. I need to avoid its sharp edge and wait for the time when the world turns around before I leave the mountain."

Xu Qing looked at Zhang Pingsheng, who had a calm expression, and suddenly asked, "How many true disciples of the Celestial Master's Mansion are left?"

"."

The Taoist priest, who had always been calm and composed, showed a noticeable fluctuation in his aura for a moment.

"I am the only one."

Zhang Pingsheng paused, then added, "It could be two people. The boy outside the temple is the disciple I have chosen, but the old Taoist of the Taiping Sect is unwilling to hand over his disciple. I am still young. When he gets old, my Zhengyi Sect can continue to add to the incense offerings."

It turns out he was an only child.
Xu Qing suddenly realized that the Taoist priest was unwilling to enter the world because his sect was facing the crisis of extinction. If he did not have this concern, he might not have made this choice.

"The Righteous Path Sect is a prestigious and powerful sect. Since you all refuse to engage with the world, how did you end up in such a sorry state?"

Zhang Pingsheng's eyelids twitched, and his voice betrayed no emotion as he said, "My Celestial Master of the Righteous One Path is the Heavenly Venerable Who Subdues Demons and Protects the Way, wielding the Three-Five Demon-Slaying Sword and the Yangping Governing Seal, specializing in exorcising evil and suppressing demons. In the mortal world, he carries out the Heavenly Decree; upon ascending to the upper realm, he carries out the Thunder and Lightning Decree. The Heavenly Emperor bestowed upon my Celestial Master the title of 'Grand Master of the Righteous One and Peaceful Qi'."

"As disciples of the Zhengyi Dao sect, we are disciples of the Great Celestial Master, and naturally we must take the Ancestral Celestial Master as our role model. Before the great calamity arrived when the passage between heaven and earth was severed, the Ancestral Celestial Master manifested himself and descended to the mortal realm, instructing his disciples to hide in the mountains and forests and wait for the right time to act."

"But in a world rife with demons and monsters, how could disciples who are dedicated to eliminating demons and protecting the righteous path stand idly by?"

"Over the past thousand years, the Zhengyi sect has never truly gone into hiding. The enmity between the disciples and demons has only deepened. In this generation, it should have been me, my master, and my senior brother who would have protected the flame of our sect."

"But thirty years ago, my master entrusted the sect's legacy to my fellow disciple and me. He then went to Yuzhang alone to settle his old scores, and ultimately perished under the 'Corpse-Dissolving Sword' of the Yinhe Sect's leader, the Corpse Buddha, becoming food for demons."

"Twenty years ago, my senior brother left without saying goodbye, leaving only a letter. Since then, we have not heard from him. I suppose he went to Yuzhang to follow my master."

Zhang Pingsheng's tone remained calm throughout, but Xu Qing noticed that his hands, hidden in his sleeves, were trembling. Clearly, beneath his composed exterior, the Taoist's heart was already churning with turbulent emotions.

Xu Qing changed the subject, saying, "Why is your shadow different from that of the Celestial Master's Mansion? I've noticed that the Taoists of the Celestial Master's Mansion judge each other's status by the number of their shadows. The Celestial Master's Mansion disciple I've seen with the most shadows has five."

Zhang Pingsheng, who only had two shadows, sneered: "What kind of disciples of the Celestial Master's Mansion are they? They are just a bunch of people who fawn over fame and power. Because they couldn't bear the hardship of cultivation, they turned to the demonic path and specifically sought out some demonic children and monsters as their true disciples. Those shadows are all formed from obsessions, trapped in these wicked creatures and used by them."

"Just watch, when the universe is reversed and yin and yang are in balance, these trapped shadows will surely transform into evil spirits and demons, and reap the bitter fruits of their own actions!"

Zhang Pingsheng looked down on the Taoist priests of the Celestial Master's Mansion in the capital. He walked to the door and let the sunlight shine on him.

The two shadows, one green and one black, appeared even more mystical in the sunlight. The green shadow seemed to radiate divine light, while the black shadow was as tangible as if it could intervene in reality.

Xu Qing looked at Zhang Pingsheng, a Taoist whose aura had been relatively normal just moments before, but suddenly his aura surged, and even the surrounding wind became fierce.

A gasp came from outside the Taoist temple. Xu Qing could vaguely hear the old Taoist cursing. It was the wind that came quickly and blew the withered grass and rotten leaves into the farmland.

During the autumn harvest season, the withered grass contains mature grass seeds. Once these seeds are blown into the fields, weeding alone becomes a troublesome task once the wheat seeds sprout.

Zhang Pingsheng, who had just been acting like a master, quickly stopped his practice and pretended that nothing had happened. He was still just an ordinary Taoist priest staying at a temple.

Xu Qing moved closer, intending to step on the shadow, but Zhang Pingsheng dodged her.

How come this person has absolutely no sense of boundaries?
"What kind of skill is this?"

Xu Qing was curious. He only possessed the technique of dismembering corpses, but not the technique of shadow splitting. He only knew that the shadows of the sorcerers from the Celestial Master's Mansion were obtained by harming their own relatives, but Zhang Pingsheng's shadow seemed to be different.
"This is not a cultivation technique; even if you wanted to learn it, you would not be able to imitate it."

Zhang Pingsheng laughed heartily, then returned to the hall and invited Xu Qing to sit down, saying:
"This shadow is my past life; it is me, and I am it."

Seeing Xu Qing frown, Zhang Pingsheng pondered and said, "Fellow Daoist should have heard of the concept of the primordial spirit leaving the body. You can regard this shadow of mine as the primordial spirit, but this primordial spirit is my past life. I, the Righteous Daoist, prefer to call it the Shadow God."

Xu Qing said thoughtfully, "Could this be a method of summoning ghosts and spirits? Except that what you cultivate is a fragment of your past life's spirit."

Zhang Pingsheng clapped his hands and said, "That's exactly it! Fellow Daoist, you truly deserve to be called the one who can subdue the waters of the Turbid River. Your insight is indeed extraordinary." After a pause, Zhang Pingsheng continued, "This kind of concept of a divided spirit is not uncommon. For example, my senior brother was a scholar in his previous life, who was not strong enough to even kill a chicken. However, when he encountered bandits on his way to the capital for the imperial examination, he unintentionally awakened the god of his previous life and wiped out all the bandits overnight."

"When my senior brother woke up, he was covered in blood and knew nothing about what had happened. If his companions hadn't told him, he wouldn't have known that he was the one who had done it."

Zhang Pingsheng said, "Later, my senior brother became my disciple, which enabled him to control his distracted mind. In his previous life, he was a famous general who was skilled in battle!"

"And this is the Shadow God Orthodox Method that I, the Righteous One, cultivate."

Xu Qing, puzzled but impressed, asked, "May I ask who you were in your previous life, fellow Daoist?"

"You ask me?"

Zhang Pingsheng smiled mysteriously, without saying anything explicitly. He turned his back to Xu Qing with his hands behind his back and recited a poem of cryptic meaning:
"The cloud hand deduces the four symbols, and the mysterious gate is clear at the Three Platforms Peak."

The alchemical furnace no longer boils the years of human life; the celestial ladder is trodden backwards into the Great Clarity.

"."

Xu Qing glanced at the Taoist priest who was deliberately putting on an act, and curled his lip. This man was even more pretentious than him.

Three Peaks

Despite his disdain, Xu Qing still felt a greater sense of respect for the Taoist priest after hearing his hidden-name poem.

In the Jingchu region, there is a mountain called Taihe. On Taihe Mountain, there is a Three-Peak Peak, whose shape resembles a phoenix perched on a swan, and has long been praised by scholars.

Combining the hidden information in the Taoist's poem, Xu Qing suddenly laughed and said, "So it's the Three Peaks. Those mountains are quite famous!"

"."

Zhang Pingsheng didn't respond.

"Fellow Daoist, you are willing to take action to control the floods of the Zhuohe River, which suggests that you are a person who upholds the righteous path. Now that you know the whole story, please do not mention this matter again after you leave."

“Fellow Daoist, you are overthinking this.” Xu Qing did not mention that he was the one who caused the turbid river to flow: “I did not come here for you, but to erect a tombstone for an old friend.”

“My old friend, Fellow Daoist Zhang, is probably familiar to you as well.”

Xu Qing got up and went outside the temple. He then used his geomancy skills to find a good burial site and buried the coffin containing the remains of the Heavenly Emperor, Earthly Emperor, and Human Emperor generals inside.

At first, Zhang Pingsheng tried to stop him several times. After all, it was a bit presumptuous of a newcomer to break ground and build a new grave on someone else's land without saying a word.

But when he saw Xu Qing bury three tattered headscarves and several sets of helmets and armor in the grave, and establish the positions of the "Three Dukes" of the Taiping Sect, Zhang Pingsheng completely lost his temper.

Back at Taiping Temple, the simply dressed old Taoist priest had finished planting the wheat seeds and was now in front of the temple, using a tree branch to write and draw on the sand, teaching the young Taoist boy to recognize characters.

"I have something I wish to entrust to the Taoist priest. Please keep it safe."

Xu Qing approached, took out a scroll of the Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace), and said, "This item originated from General Tiangong, the founder of the Taiping Dao (Way of Great Peace), and is over a thousand years old. You are the only surviving disciple of the Taiping Dao, so this scroll should be preserved and passed down by you."

The old Taoist priest looked at the Taiping Scripture and felt overjoyed. But it wasn't over yet. After staying at the Taiping Temple for a night, Xu Qing copied the Earth Talisman Scripture into a book and handed it over to the temple's abbot.

"I thought the lineage had withered away, but I never expected the Taiping Dao to still have a true successor. Wuchen, why don't you quickly pay your respects to your grandmaster?"

The young Taoist priest was about to bow as instructed, but Xu Qing stopped him.

“I am not a disciple of the Taiping Dao. These scriptures and talismans were left by an old friend. Apart from the two of you, there are no other true inheritors in this world.”

"Even if it's not the true transmission, we're still fellow practitioners. We even treat that old Taoist Zhang Pingsheng as a fellow disciple."

After going through a long and complicated process, the old Taoist priest settled for second best and had his youngest apprentice address Xu Qing as "Uncle-Master," determined to strengthen their relationship.

This time, Xu Qing didn't refuse. He patted the boy's head and said with a smile, "This child looks clever."

The young Taoist smiled, and two shadows behind him appeared and disappeared in the dim light of the day.

(End of this chapter)