Chapter 10: Explanations and Visiting Friends

At present, with Bitter Bamboo’s current state, it was truly difficult to comprehend the profound principles within. After all, the other party had condensed all his vitality and bestowed it upon him, allowing him to experience the Great Dao of Life at every moment. Such a sacrifice had even driven the attendant spirit into hibernation.

Seated upon his cloud-bed, Hongyun turned his mind back with a helpless sigh, exhaling a clouded breath. That breath dispersed in the air, and upon noticing an immortal herb in the distance, drifted over at once. The poor immortal herb managed to resist for only half a breath before its leaves turned waxen yellow and wilted.

Is my breath truly so formidable? Hongyun’s old face darkened, his brow arching as he stepped off the dais and pointed with a finger.

“Stand tall!” he commanded.

With a sweep of verdant energy, it fell upon the herb’s leaves, and visible to the eye, the withered yellow gradually transformed into a lush green, full of renewed vitality.

So it seems my cultivation has not been entirely without result. This, at present, was the most palpable aspect of the Great Dao of Withering and Flourishing that he had gleaned from Bitter Bamboo. Although he had only just stepped across the threshold, this ability to rejuvenate living things without expending his own spiritual power was not insignificant.

Moreover, he was renowned across the Great Wilderness as the “good-natured elder,” often troubled in the past when he encountered the weak on the brink of death, yet was unable to save them—a source of distress for many ages. Now, having grasped even the rudiments of the Dao of Withering and Flourishing, it was as if he had set one foot upon the path of life itself. It would be most fitting to use this skill to forge new bonds of goodwill during his future wanderings through the Great Wilderness.

After all, he was not, by nature, a true recluse of the Primordial Era; now that he had spent the better part of an epoch in seclusion, it was already a rare feat for him. Besides, there were still tens of thousands of years before the second sermon at the Purple Cloud Palace—a mere flick of the finger for beings such as they.

If he truly cloistered himself away for too long, it would indeed be a grave shame. Smiling faintly, he walked toward the entrance of the hall. “My retreat has lasted long enough. It’s time to go out and see the world once more.”

...

Hongyun emerged from his secluded chamber and entered the great hall of the Fire Cloud Immortal Palace. He didn’t bother to look around, merely shaking his head slightly.

“Nearwater! Distantmountain!”

“Ah... ya!”

With his low call, two small children tumbled from atop the palace’s guardian stone spirits outside the gate. Distantmountain was the first to fall, Nearwater landing atop him, eliciting a startled yelp.

“You two little rascals, slacking off again!”

With a flick of his fingers, Hongyun instantly divined what these two had been up to for the past tens of thousands of years. Turning his mind to his medicine fields, he saw that the weeds had grown several times higher than the medicinal herbs themselves, and his head began to ache anew.

These two had accompanied him for so long, he could hardly rebuke them too harshly—but he still chided them a bit.

“Think of Qingfeng and Mingyue—those two were far sharper than you. What was I thinking, bringing you two back with me?”

“It was we who chose you, master...” Distantmountain rubbed his backside, still bleary-eyed with sleep. But as he looked up and met Hongyun’s gaze, he shivered and instantly perked up, too nervous to speak.

They needed something to keep them occupied...

Hongyun pondered for a moment, knowing full well the lazy nature of these two. Unless given something truly engaging, they would soon be off to nap again.

...

He had it!

After a long contemplation, his mind stirred, and he manifested the bamboo leaf at his brow. Pointing at the leaf, he summoned the multicolored gourd seeds he had thrown into the cold pool.

Seeing that they had absorbed a trace of withering energy, he dispelled it all at once, wrapping them anew in a thick aura of life.

He could only blame himself for this miscalculation. He had hoped to utilize the mutual support among spiritual roots to enhance each other’s growth, but instead, the gourd seeds had become tainted by the Dao of Withering, showing no signs of sprouting.

He then reached out and extracted the richest patch of spiritual soil from his medicine fields. Though it could not compare to the legendary Heavenly Resting Soil, it was still first-class Black-Yi Earth. Placing the gourd seeds in it, he cleared a large area of the fields and moved the entire plot to the center of the Fire Cloud Immortal Palace’s most abundant spiritual veins.

“I’m going to visit some friends. You two look after this medicine field—see that nothing goes amiss.”

With one stride, he was already at the palace gates. Casting a final glance at his two disciples, his figure vanished.

“Tend the field well. If the seeds sprout, or if nothing goes wrong before I return, next time I travel, I’ll take you with me to visit Qingfeng and Mingyue.”

“Qingfeng?”

“Mingyue!”

At these words, the two children’s eyes brightened. After exchanging a glance, they threw themselves into their work.

...

Ha! Those two little ones—my old trick still works best.

Standing atop the Fire Cloud Immortal Palace, Hongyun surveyed the situation within and could not help but chuckle.

Qingfeng and Mingyue, Nearwater and Distantmountain.

When he had first taken form and attained the Da Luo level, he had met Zhenyuanzi, also a Da Luo, while traveling. The two became fast friends, and their meeting place happened to be in a cave heaven shaped by the Dao of Painting.

That Da Luo, in his attempt to depict the sunrise over the Great Wilderness, had painted Hongyun himself into the scene, thus forging a karmic bond that remained unresolved. As he neared the end of his tribulation, he transformed his indestructible divine light into four entities—Wind, Moon, Mountain, and Water within the painting.

Together, Hongyun and Zhenyuanzi chose among the four spirits, enlightening them and bringing them into their respective immortal palaces as attendants.

Having benefited from that Da Luo’s treasures and fortunes, and knowing the origins of these two little ones, Hongyun seldom found it in himself to be truly angry with them.

It was all well and good before, as many knew of his abode. Those who did not, unless they had reached the Da Luo realm, could not enter; and those who had would already know of it, so trouble was rare.

But now that he had offended Kunpeng, and had yet to find a way to resolve it, there was no telling if some Da Luo of the demon race might come to cause trouble to curry favor with the Demon Master.

If he remained in his cave, even if he wasn’t a match, he could always rely on the array formations to hold out. But if he left to travel, and a Da Luo arrived, it could truly be troublesome.

So thinking, Hongyun summoned the handkerchief containing the fragment of Mount Buzhou where the innate spiritual root Bitter Bamboo was concealed.

With a gentle flick, the mountain stone separated from the great innate formation that hid Bitter Bamboo’s spirit root.

This formation, in fact, was even stronger than the current one protecting the Fire Cloud Immortal Palace.

As the green light at his brow shone forth, he activated the innate formation, directing it to descend upon the Fire Cloud Immortal Palace.

A faint hum resonated through space, the two formations folding and merging with a brief pause before resuming their operation.

This should be enough to deter most ordinary Da Luo.

Satisfied, Hongyun nodded, stepped onto a cloud, and departed.

He had not deceived his two attendants—he truly was going out to visit friends. As for refining the two formations... that could wait. If he really set about improving them both, he might even miss the second sermon at the Purple Cloud Palace.