The Dao dies but I live on, the spiritual energy dries up but I remain evergreen

A swordsman came to a small village.

The swordsman was dressed in white, with a sword hanging from his waist, a wine gourd, and an emerald green bamboo flute.

He knocked on the door and it took a few seconds before there was a response.

There was a burst of complaints from inside, saying that it was abhorrent that the person was so blind as to knock on the door and disturb people's sleep on such a snowy day.

But complaining is complaining.

The man still opened the door half a crack.

The wind and snow blew in, and the fire in the house fell to one side.

"What's the matter?" The man frowned.

"Big brother, can I stay here for half a night?" Li Changxiao said with a smile, "The snow is so strong that I can't walk any more."

The man frowned, looked down, and seeing that the man was carrying a long sword, he immediately declined and quickly closed the door.

"Go somewhere else."

The man's voice came through the crack in the door and mixed with the wind and snow.

Li Changxiao smiled helplessly.

Since leaving Lingtian City, the weather has been getting colder. When we passed by this village, a snowstorm happened to blow.

Li Changxiao is a Nascent Soul cultivator, so he is naturally not afraid of this kind of weather.

However, if we travel in such a hurry, we cannot see the scenery and it is not comfortable. The wine in the gourd is not so delicious anymore.

After some thought, I decided to find a home to stay with for a few days until the snowstorm was over.

So, we came to this village.

Next, Li Changxiao knocked on the doors of one house after another.

But without exception, they all refused. In this snowy weather, only a fool would open the door to a swordsman.

Li Changxiao was not angry. He walked to the last door and knocked gently.

If he was rejected again, he would have no choice but to continue on his journey.

A few seconds later, the door opened, revealing a trembling head, a little boy.

"Where are your parents?" Li Changxiao asked.

The little boy shook his head, his eyes showing maturity beyond his age, "There's no adult here, are you here to stay overnight?"

"Oh?" Li Changxiao was stunned.

The little boy continued, "I heard everything that happened just now. Come in."

As he said that, he pushed open the door and let Li Changxiao walk in.

Li Changxiao didn't move, but asked with a playful look: "Aren't you afraid that I'm a bad guy?"

The little boy shook his head. “Bad guys won’t knock on the door that many times.”

He closed the door very maturely and poured a cup of warm tea to warm Li Changxiao's body.

Then he sat down in front of the fire, clasped his hands together, blew some air in front of his mouth, rubbed them back and forth, and placed them by the fire to keep warm.

Li Changxiao also sat down in front of the fire and observed the little boy curiously.

After staring at him for a long time, he suddenly asked, "Would you like to drink? This will warm you up quickly."

The little boy looked over and said, "Drink!"

Li Changxiao found it inexplicably funny, poured out some wine and handed it over.

The little boy drank it in one gulp with great pride, then bared his teeth and frowned.

Seeing this, Li Changxiao burst into laughter.

"Huh? It's not cold anymore?" the little boy asked in surprise.

"Nonsense, how could I lie to you?" Li Changxiao said.

"Are you a god?" the little boy asked suddenly with his eyes turning.

Li Changxiao paused and said with a smile: "What immortal? He is just an unknown wanderer in the martial arts world."

Immediately, he asked curiously: "Why, from what you said, have you seen a real immortal?"

"Of course." The little boy nodded. "More than that, I'm not afraid to tell you that in our village, many people have successfully entered the mountain gate!"

The firelight shone into the little boy's eyes, which were unusually bright. "I really envy them. They will be able to fly in the sky and hide in the ground in the future. They don't have to worry about farming and food every day like us."

The little boy looked at Li Changxiao and said, "That immortal has a kind of water. After drinking it, your strength will increase several times, and it will be easy to plow the land. It's very magical."

"The wine you gave me warmed me up as soon as I drank it. It's not as good as the magic water, but it's still somewhat magical."

"But unfortunately, you are not a deity, otherwise you could have accepted me as your disciple."

Having said this, the little boy became gloomy.

Li Changxiao's expression remained unchanged, but he felt something was amiss.

In this day and age, it is almost impossible for anyone to accept disciples.

If you can preserve yourself, everything will be fine.

Li Changxiao asked, "How often does that immortal take in disciples?"

"Why? You want to become an immortal too?" the boy asked, looking Li Changxiao up and down, and finally shook his head, "No, you are too old, too chivalrous, the immortal won't like you."

"No, I just want to go and take a look." Li Changxiao shook his head.

"Every three years, the immortal will come down the mountain to recruit disciples." The little boy looked gloomy. "In three days, it will be the day to recruit disciples again."

The little boy said, "I don't know why, but recently more and more people come here to seek immortality, and many strangers appear nearby."

He sighed deeply and stared blankly at the flickering flames, "I don't know if it will be my turn."

Li Changxiao said nothing.

He thought that he should know why there were more and more people seeking immortality recently.

The assassination in Lingtian City undoubtedly told the world that there really are gods in this world.

Naturally, this aroused the interest of many people, and they began to ask around. It was not surprising that they finally found out that there were traces of immortals in this village.

"One day in heaven is like one year on earth."

"For a cultivator, a hundred years is but a moment, but for a mortal, it is a lifetime, or even two lifetimes."

Li Changxiao sighed deeply.

Practitioners have always been there, but mortals have short lifespans, and after a few decades of passing, they can forget many things.

Therefore, in the mortal world, whether immortals exist or not has never been a constant.

……

It snowed for three days.

Li Changxiao lived in the little boy's home for three days. The little boy looked mature and experienced, and he must have suffered a lot, but in essence, he was still a child.

He told Li Changxiao that his name was Zhang Tian and his parents were hunters, but a year ago, they went hunting in the mountains and never returned.

His mother died soon after, leaving him alone. He usually helped the villagers do odd jobs in exchange for some rice and coarse grains, which allowed him to barely survive.

When winter came, the villagers gave him a lot of stored food, which they hid in the cellar, enough for him to eat for a month.

He was kind enough to crawl into the cellar, take out a dry biscuit, break it in two, and hand one half to Li Changxiao.

Li Changxiao shook his head and laughed. He took the dry biscuit and started eating without any hesitation.

The little boy named Zhang Tian was actually not opposed to Li Changxiao's arrival.

After spending a day together and getting to know each other, he saw Li Changxiao wearing white clothes and carrying a long sword, and he looked very similar to the great knights mentioned by the storytellers in the town.

So they guessed that Li Changxiao must have a lot of experience, so they tried hard to persuade him to tell them about the outside world.

Li Changxiao had a headache, after all, he was just a child. In desperation, he picked out a few experiences in the mortal world, processed them artistically, and told them to the little boy.

Thus.

Two days passed quickly.

The heavy snow stopped.

The young men in the village got up early in the morning and cleared the snow from the roadside.

People who want to seek immortality get up early, dress up, and throw handfuls of snow on their faces to make themselves look more energetic.

About ten o'clock in the afternoon.

The immortal that Zhang Tian mentioned really came.

He was a middle-aged man, wearing a Taoist robe and holding a whisk. He really looked like an immortal.

Li Changxiao opened a window and saw the immortal's true body. He frowned and felt that he looked vaguely familiar.