The Little Fox's Immortal Cultivation Encyclopedia

"After much thought and visualization of my primordial spirit, I finally discovered that it was as if someone was constantly whispering in my ear while I was dreaming, causing this thought to be unintentionally etched deep into my memory."

"I am a Taoist practitioner with some skill, which is why I was able to recall it in a daze and write it down in my notes. But afterwards, I couldn't remember anything at all, and I only remembered the legend not long ago. I wonder what the situation is for you all?"

Abbot Yun slowly began to speak.

"Neither Mianli nor I have ever been to this place, and we don't even know much about this legend. Guijian, you..." Magistrate Zhang turned his head and saw He Guijian with his hands pressed against his forehead, his face contorted in pain.

Master Yun stepped forward and placed a talisman on He Guijian's chest. Only then did He Guijian come back to his senses and shake his head, saying, "Thinking back carefully, I had never heard of the story of the escaped soul before. But after Elder Niu mentioned it once in the yamen, I suddenly remembered this legend, as if I had known it since I was a child."

Duan Mianli frowned: "There's something fishy about Elder Niu. I'll go and call him in right away."

The fox wondered to itself, "What's with that sound?"

"There are two kinds of memory: one is innate and the other is acquired. Innate memory is stored in the primordial spirit, while acquired memory belongs to the conscious spirit."

"When evil spirits invade the body, emotions become excessive, or the body is overworked, all these can disrupt the consciousness, leading to confusion, loss, or errors in memory."

"Yin Sha?" The fox suddenly remembered something. Back when it first absorbed incense, it heard Pu Shunnian's prayer. Incense is a boat to ferry wishes to the gods. If that's the case, can the gods do the opposite and transmit their thoughts through incense?

"Do you all worship the Peach God?" the fox asked.

"If we're talking about those who are devout believers and set up shrines for worship, nearly half the households in Tao County do so. If we include those who casually offer incense and pray for peace during festivals, the number is countless," He Guijian replied after a moment's thought.

Abbot Yun understood: "The fox spirit means that this legend of the fleeing soul is a divine decree passed down by the Peach Goddess through incense offerings?"

The fox remained noncommittal, then jumped down from the main seat: "Bring me the incense; I want to go see for myself."

The scene fell silent in solemn silence.

A short while later, a small offering table was set up, incense was lit, and the fox casually placed the honey from his bag on the table as an offering.

"Fox spirit, wait! Fox spirits possess profound magical powers, vastly different from mortals. If we rashly establish contact, unexpected things may happen." Master Yun took nine small lamps and arranged them on the ground in a specific order.

"I have a method that might be of assistance. This is the Nine Lamps for Drawing Qi. Could you perhaps take a hair from a fox spirit's tail and use it as a lamp wick?"

"The lamp represents the heart; the light represents the spirit; the brightness represents the Dao. It can illuminate the darkness and reveal the root of life. Placing lamps in the nine palaces can gather Qi, disperse Qi, and transform Qi. When one lamp moves, the nine lamps respond; when the nine lamps are in unison, the Qi returns to oneness," the voice explained.

The fox understood, and before the abbot could explain further, it shook out nine of its furs, which floated toward the Taoist priest.

Winter is coming soon, and every single fur of the fox is precious; we can't give them too much.

The abbot of Yun Temple twisted the fox fur into the wick of the lamp one by one, and the red flame lit up. The fox closed its eyes and, following the connection of the incense, sent out a wisp of its consciousness into the flame.

……

It was very dark, with the sound of water dripping.

The fox opened its eyes, its body sinking as if into a dark stream. Ink-like water quickly seeped into the fox spirit, creeping up its fur little by little.

The fox's divine sense was being washed away and diluted by this chaotic river.

Nine lights shone from the fox's tail, and crimson flames followed the connection, condensing into a fox-shaped fire boat that sailed upstream against the current.

The fox let out a long sigh and looked around. Fragments of images flashed by on both sides of the river.

……

Plump peaches were happily picked by countless hands and delivered to thousands of homes.

An elderly man in blue robes stared blankly, his eyes filled with weariness, showing no joy.

……

"You go over there and keep watch."

Niu Qizhang furtively dismissed his colleagues, kowtowed to the peach tree, then plucked a peach from the tree and quickly stuffed it into his bosom.

……

Li Agui lay on the bed, her face deathly pale and her breath weak, murmuring that she was terminally ill. She weakly reached out and grasped her son's hands:

"Li Lang..."

The old man in blue gripped Li Agui's hand tightly, his face contorted with pain. He looked at Tao'er beside him, unable to make a decision for a long time.

……

The rain poured down like a waterfall, washing away the mud on the road and revealing a deep hole. Li Lang excitedly carried a peach, which looked more like white jade than a peach, and hurried on his way in the night, completely unaware of the danger beneath his feet.

The old man in blue opened his eyes for the first time, looking at the scene with curiosity and excitement.

……

As the war subsided, smiles returned to the faces of the displaced people as they emerged from the mountains. After some discussion and careful selection, they did not choose the largest peach tree, but instead carefully dug out the smallest one from the cliff edge and placed it in the city, where they offered sacrifices every year.

Joy, gratitude, dependence, and the power of wishes flow into the peach tree year after year. The peach branches move without wind, and the withered tree blossoms.

……

The leaves rustled softly. The old Taoist priest, his beard and hair all white and his face haggard, leaned against the peach tree, gazing at the peach trees covering the mountain. A slight smile appeared on his face as he gently closed his eyes and his breath gradually dissipated.

……

Bones littered the ground, corpses lay strewn everywhere, and a figure resembling neither dog nor human licked the remains, while ghostly figures roamed freely in broad daylight. For miles around, not a soul could be seen.

A young Taoist priest dressed in a blue robe walked over with a sorrowful expression.

In front of him, a thin peach tree was crookedly stuck on the cliff.

He broke off a peach branch, slowly knelt down, painstakingly dug through the dry soil, and carefully placed the peach branch back in.

A few wisps of magical power seeped out from between his fingers and into the branches.

Under the Taoist's praying gaze, a tender green bud trembled and unfurled.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the tangible Yin energy in the air seemed to have faded slightly.

……

The fox climbed upwards until it finally reached the end.

The fox understood completely.

There were no immortals, nor were there any two peaches. From beginning to end, this peach grove was planted little by little by the Taoist using the branches of the Peach God.

The Yin energy beneath the earth has always been there. Perhaps it's some kind of formation, or perhaps it's the power of a heart full of wishes, that allows the Yin energy to be gradually absorbed and transformed by the peach trees covering the mountain, creating this spectacular sight of blossoming and bearing fruit in all four seasons.

However, for some reason, things went wrong. At some point, the balance was disrupted.

The peach tree, having endured the dual influence of incense offerings and malevolent spirits, finally developed a nascent sense of intelligence.

Filled with curiosity about this world, it instinctively escaped from the Yin spirit and merged into the body of the recently deceased Li Lang.

Without consciousness, the soul is incomplete, and the Peach God can no longer suppress the Yin energy, becoming a contradictory, Yin-Yang hybrid state.

The people's prayers for longevity through the immortal peach, combined with the evil spirits, created this peach that can turn people into ghosts after death, allowing them to live on in the world forever.

The Peach Goddess, through the connection of incense offerings, warned the people that this connection was too weak, like babbling in a dream. Yet, day after day of babbling, it eventually created this legend hidden in people's hearts.