A Tale of Encounters with Immortals: A Peach Blossom Temple in the Martial World

Shu Baimei abducted the female corpse and the white-haired rat and ran away.

Now that the senior disciple Qingyangzi is in charge at the Taoist temple, everyone seems to have tacitly accepted it. Although Qingyangzi is still young, he is able to manage the progress of such a large project as Peach Blossom Temple and keep the accounts crystal clear, so that even the abbot cannot find any fault with them. That is true skill.

Scholars are always easily admired.

Qingyangzi came from a scholarly family, and naturally carried the aura of a learned man, which always gave other wandering martial artists in the temple a very high and mighty impression.

Everything was in good order.

Qingyangzi has already made plans for the best and worst possible outcome: to rule in place for a thousand years.

He walked unsteadily, his mouth almost twisted into a grin.

The time spent in seclusion by immortals is naturally incomparable to the time spent by ordinary mortals in the martial arts world cultivating some kind of martial arts secret. One is a deity who can pluck stars from the sky, and the other is a mortal wandering the martial arts world.

I wipe the gourd twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, without daring to slack off.

They were very careful when wiping the gourd.

Polish it until it shines, again and again.

Let's clean the dust off Master's clothes again.

In just a few days, there was no dust on his body. The way he sat cross-legged on the bed, with his otherworldly and ethereal appearance, made Qingyangzi admire him greatly.

I tried to sit facing my master in meditation, but when I closed my eyes, all I could see in my mind were my master's treasures swaying in front of me, making it impossible to enter a meditative state.

After several days of effort, I gave up and simply took pleasure in polishing gourds.

The purple gourd is the one Zhang Zhengdao often carries with him when he goes out.

The gourd has two layers: one layer contains the things from Peach Blossom Mountain, and the other layer contains things that can be collected anytime and anywhere, such as wine and beverages.

Once these things are placed inside, they automatically isolate themselves from the influence of other things, becoming a space of their own.

It's nice, like dividing a storage room into partitions.

In particular, the space that housed the spiritual creatures of Peach Blossom Mountain has now become a vast world. What was originally just a pool of moonlight water has grown to be almost the size of Qixian Lake inside the gourd.

It also features blue skies and white clouds, grasslands and forests, especially that big tree, which stands in the very center of the space, growing ever stronger and larger, like a pillar supporting the sky.

This large tree was brought from Qixian Lake. As it was planted in the space, it grew taller and taller, reaching straight into the sky, its top invisible.

The changes this big tree brought to the gourd were considerable, and the world inside it also continued to grow as the tree grew larger.

There is the sun, moon, and stars; there is wind, rain, thunder, and lightning; and there are mountains, rivers, and peaks...

Since arriving here, Chuanshan has been able to unleash its true nature.

Here, it doesn't have to live in constant fear, except when that dragon appears.

However, the weather has become a bit gloomy lately.

Moreover, the gloomy weather lasted for a very long time, seemingly an eternity.

The weather made it instinctively feel uneasy.

It was as if the sky was about to collapse and the earth was about to overturn.

The dragon seemed to sense it too, leaping out of the lake with a "whoosh" into the air, gazing down from the clouds at the trembling mountain-piercing generals on the ground.

"Boss...am I going to die?"

Chuanshan looked up and asked.

The dragon stared intently at the sky, but its Heavenly Eye was closed, revealing nothing. Then it remembered the True Man and shook its head, saying, "Look, the True Man's gourd is a supreme treasure of heaven and earth. The place where we are is the highest realm of Taoism—the world within a gourd."

Pangolin General: "Boss, do you think we're going to die?"

Chilong: "What I've said all this to tell you is that we won't die unless the real person dies before us. Do you understand?"

Zhang Zhengdao: ...

Chuanshan was still flustered, but he was afraid that if he spoke out, he would be scolded by Chilong.

The world inside the pot changed color.

Qingyangzi, who was wiping the gourd outside, naturally had no idea.

After wiping the gourd and examining it carefully, he sighed.

“Master, oh Master, you've gone into seclusion like this, and it's been so hard on me. I've been working so hard for this Taoist temple, repairing it and keeping it up with the daily expenses. We've had some income lately, but we don't have a long-term plan. As they say, if you don't have immediate worries, you'll have long-term anxieties… Why don't you appear in my dream tonight and give me the incantation for using the seven gourds? I can keep them safe for you and go out from time to time to collect some things to barely keep the temple running…”

After saying that, he sighed, turned around, and was struck dumb as if by lightning.

Staring blankly at the person meditating on the bed.

The person meditating on the bed looked at Qingyangzi, and Qingyangzi looked at the person meditating.

The two stared at each other for a long while before Qingyangzi came to his senses...

"Master...you...you failed your tribulation?"

Zhang Zhengdao angrily retorted, "You traitor, I am in seclusion."

Tribulation? I'm already a god, why would I need to undergo tribulation?

Come on, which lightning tribulation will come to deliver me? I'll slap you across the face if I don't!

Qingyangzi swallowed hard.

"Master, you...you failed your seclusion?"

What the hell...

Zhang Zhengdao wanted to slap this traitorous disciple to death.

Is he wishing he were dead or wishing he were paralyzed?

"Failure? Do I look like a failure to you?" Zhang Zhengdao said angrily. "Go and have your aunt fetch some water. I want to take a bath."

Qingyangzi took off running to pick him up, but turned back halfway and asked cautiously, "Master... are you really alright?"

"roll!"

A loud, powerful shout.

Qingyangzi was suddenly swept up by a gust of wind. While he was still in the air, his mind was still in the house, when he crashed heavily to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and ran away.

As it turned out, Master was perfectly fine.

Wasn't it agreed that immortals would go into seclusion for at least ten years? I was already planning for a thousand years!

It's only been less than ten days.

I've only just taken over as acting abbot, and I'm only just getting into the swing of things...

He limped off to find his aunt, Hu Yunying.

Hu Yunying and her apprentice Guo Lanying were flipping through Taoist books, trying to find the treasures they wanted from the Taoist scriptures and legends. But they found this one good and that one good too... They had reached the point of having difficulty making choices.

Seeing Qingyangzi limping, his face full of suffering and confusion.

"What happened? Did you get chased by a dog?"

Hu Yunying smiled.

Now, in the entire Taoist temple, apart from Aunt Hu Yunying who dares to joke with Qingyangzi even slightly, everyone else is almost succumbing to the pressure of his senior brother and acting abbot.

"Master is looking for you. Please fetch him water to bathe."

Hu Yunying: "You need your aunt to come and take a bath? Hehe, well, I'd like to see... what's with the chick pecking at rice..."

Having experienced it firsthand, he speaks more freely now.

Where is the promised "pure and innocent fairy, righteous and upright Hu Yunying"?

That's it?

Qingyangzi was speechless, but dared not argue. His master had already come out of seclusion, and his aunt's status was now higher than his own!

"Auntie, it's Master who wants to take a bath!"

Qingyangzi repeated the sentence.

"Master wants to take a bath, hee hee...Master? Your master has come out of seclusion?"

Hu Yunying was shocked. He had only been in seclusion for a few days, and he had already come out?

"Yes, Madam, I'll take my leave now!"

After Qingyangzi finished speaking, he turned and ran away.

Once Master officially emerges from seclusion, I will immediately pack my bags and move to the construction site. If I stay here any longer, I will probably see a group of junior brothers and sisters with ferocious faces, as well as elders and protectors.

Zhang Zhengdao has emerged from the pass.

The news had already spread throughout the entire courtyard while Zhang Zhengdao was taking a bath.

Then, led by Qingyangzi, they all stood in the courtyard.

The direct disciples stood at the very front.

The elders and protectors stood behind their direct disciples.

Finally, there are the family members.

Hu Yunying helped Zhang Zhengdao put on his clothes, and then accompanied him out of the room. Once outside, Zhang Zhengdao was dressed in a crown and robes, looking like a celestial being, inspiring awe in all who saw him.

Qingyangzi led the way.

"Welcome Master out of retreat!"

"Welcome back, Abbot!"

"Welcome back, sir!"

……

Everyone bowed and shouted in unison, creating quite a stir. Zhang Zhengdao couldn't help but glance at Qingyangzi, realizing that Qingyangzi was clearly the most adept at handling things in the entire Taoist temple.

"No gift!"

Zhang Zhengdao waved his hand.

“Starting tomorrow, I will set up an array in the back garden of this courtyard. It is a Taoist spirit-gathering array. You can spend one hour each day cultivating in the array, so that you can achieve cultivation as soon as possible, be reborn, and shed your mortal body!”

Everyone was overjoyed and shouted in unison, "Long live the Abbot!"

Zhang Zhengdao's face turned dark.

Lao Tzu cultivates the immortal path of eternal life, long live Lao Tzu!

He is so filial to his teacher!

"Disperse, everyone!" Zhang Zhengdao said, then suddenly glanced at Qingyangzi. "From now on, all affairs of the Taoist temple will still be managed by Qingyangzi, and everyone must comply."

Upon hearing this, Qingyangzi was overjoyed and immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

“Master…you can now go into seclusion in peace! Your disciple will definitely lead everyone in Peach Blossom Temple to pursue the path to immortality and build Peach Blossom Temple into the only immortal abode in the world.”

He truly has the demeanor of a senior disciple!