Mei Qing had never felt so shocked before.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could continue to escape indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before he finally stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close for him to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly and took a closer look, only to be shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was an escape of a thousand miles was actually just a short distance from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the desire to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
A chilling wind brushed past his ears. Waves of evil energy permeated his body. The malevolent energy that had been clinging to him earlier had once again entered through the window. The dark aura quickly enveloped his entire being.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have had a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them entangled as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only sought each other desperately, possessing each other completely. The concepts of the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, lead and mercury, and the fire phase—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and release, along with an overwhelming love.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to float in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything fell into silence, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been born or died. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he had seen something. It was him, yet not him. It had existed, yet it had disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely made by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an exceptionally familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love so intense that he didn’t know what else to say. He just held Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light all over, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and found it amusing, but then they both said again: “You go first.”
These two sentences, as if coordinated, were spoken and ended at the same time. Both of them were stunned, then suddenly burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed at the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, both of them began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, scolding him playfully: “Don’t mess around, you go first, I mean it, you go first!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after having his fun, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences after leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to hearing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing beautifully, you lost your mind, staring like a lovesick fool from the balcony, and then rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen seemed to say this without a care: “Ah, poor old Master Shi, he became the excuse for some lustful man chasing after butterflies. Who is he? Who are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized something and exclaimed in surprise: “So you were the one doing the magic tricks!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen’s eyes wandered around as she lamented: “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so excellent. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a set of white, sharp teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, wasn’t it because I was hit by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out? I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so we must have had a telepathic connection.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck and quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” upon hearing this, Bi Zhen immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern: “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday, it disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was, but are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true energy, thick and on the verge of solidifying. Under the illumination of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, filling his body with a radiant mist. The true energy, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the interaction of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
In just one night, the golden elixir had grown significantly. Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Perplexed, Mei Qing quickly explained his internal condition to Bi Zhen. After hearing this, Bi Zhen was also very puzzled: “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat accustomed to the strange occurrences in his body and had become indifferent: “Since you were the one doing the magic tricks, secretly following me all along, and you know my every move, why are you asking how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s following you? I have no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its limitations, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This is why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past, when Mei Qing used the escape techniques, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled great distances.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to flee as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, so close that he couldn’t quite make it out. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost interest in pondering why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of malevolent energy seeped into his body. The same dark, sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again broken through the window and enveloped him tightly in an instant.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, it had been a long time since they last saw each other. He must have missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, more beautiful and bolder than ever. The two of them were entangled, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were desperately seeking and possessing each other, completely unrestrained. The concepts of the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, lead and mercury, and the fire of alchemy—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primal and simple desires, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed vanished, and the two of them seemed to float in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down from nowhere. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos. The world itself disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and Mei Qing remained, fused into one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life or spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been created or destroyed. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, it was as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared too.
It was as if he had seen something. It was him, yet not him. Something that had existed, yet had vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to comprehend, seeing much, understanding much. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he understood.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already filtering through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the demonic energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling an overwhelming surge of love. He didn’t know what else to say, so he just held Bi Zhen tightly.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen up. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting, “Don’t mess around, you go first! You have to go first!”
When both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after having his fun, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to seeing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your soul, didn’t you? Watching her from upstairs like a lovesick fool, and then rushing to her house?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Poor Old Master Shi, he’s become a banner for some lecherous fellow chasing butterflies. What kind of person is this? What kind of person is that?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the one doing the magic tricks!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, so how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, self-pityingly. “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking our heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so excellent. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you dragged me to bed and bullied me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a set of pearly white teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, I was just overwhelmed by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly stopped her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday. It disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and immediately used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, glowing with a purple aura under the reflection of the sun and moon, illuminating his body with a radiant mist. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the interaction of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also greatly surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit shifts to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir. How could it be so fast? Moreover, the shifting of the spirit to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron enter your body? This is truly bizarre.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, accustomed to the strange occurrences in his body, was almost numb to it. “Since you were the one doing the magic tricks, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move. Why are you asking me how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who’s been following you? I have no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, stop messing around… every time you play dead, you bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great calamity, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice like a broken gong came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could continue to escape.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before he finally stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object that was too close to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape was actually just a short distance from outside the house to inside.
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had led to such an outcome.
He felt a chilling wind and a sinister aura enveloping him. The same dark energy that had been chasing him earlier had now broken through the window and tightly wrapped around him.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, more beautiful and bolder than ever. The two of them were entangled, forgetting everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were simply desperately seeking and possessing each other. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell. There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primal and simple desires and passions, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed vanished, and the two seemed to float in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface. The sun and moon vanished, and the world became a chaotic void. The world itself disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he remained, merging into one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life or spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever existed or perished. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, even this seemed not to have existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he saw something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to understand, seeing much, comprehending much. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already filtering through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely pierced by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love so intense that he didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping for someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing his question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other, looking at one another, and suddenly both spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both were surprised by the simultaneous question and then laughed. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting, “Don’t mess around, you speak first!”
Both insisted, but naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, enjoying himself, and after Bi Zhen’s playful scolding, he briefly recounted his experiences since leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to hearing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told it all.
“Yes, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your soul, watching her from upstairs like a lovesick fool, and then rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen seemed indifferent as she spoke, “Ah, poor old Master Shi, he’s become a banner for some lustful man chasing after butterflies. Who is he? Who are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized, exclaiming, “So you were the magician!?”
“Ah, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have noticed this old hag?” Bi Zhen’s eyes wandered as she lamented, “We almost bumped into each other several times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the air, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of pearly white teeth.
“Wait, wait, I was knocked out by the evil energy from that cauldron. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck and quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern, “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday. It disappeared when it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and immediately used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly within the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and about to solidify. Under the illumination of two suns and moons, it emitted a purple halo, filling his body with a misty radiance. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
In just one night, the golden elixir had grown significantly. Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of reaching the Qi Refining stage.
Puzzled, Mei Qing quickly explained his internal condition to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised, “Judging from your condition, you are indeed nearing the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit shifts to the cauldron. But how could it be so fast? You’ve only just condensed your elixir. Moreover, the shift of the spirit to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could an actual cauldron enter your body? This is truly bizarre.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body, “Since you were the magician, secretly following me, and knew my every move, why ask how I got here? Instead, tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who’s following you? I didn’t know where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easily controlled form of Taoist magic.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the Water Escape Technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following the direction his heart pointed, he felt he had run at least a hundred miles before finally stopping the escape technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, so close that he couldn’t see it clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost interest in pondering why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears. Waves of sinister energy permeated his body. The dark, malevolent energy that had been clinging to him earlier had once again broken through the window from outside. In an instant, the murky aura tightly enveloped his entire body.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other, completely unrestrained. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist magic, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and passions, and a love so thick it was almost tangible.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he merged into one. Everything became still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and there was no direction. In the end, it was as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he saw something. It was himself, yet not himself. Something that had existed, then disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely made by the sinister energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
Thinking of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love so overwhelming that he couldn’t find the words to express it. He simply held Bi Zhen tightly.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a long time.
After a while, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed, then said again at the same time: “You go first.”
These two sentences were perfectly synchronized, starting and ending together. They both paused, then burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and she immediately stopped Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, scolding him playfully: “Stop messing around, you go first, I mean it!”
When both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, having had his fun, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to hearing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing beautifully, you lost your mind, staring like a lovesick fool from the balcony, and then rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Poor old Master Shi, becoming a pretext for some lecherous fellow chasing after butterflies. Who is he? Who are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the young girl, how could he spare a glance for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting. “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking our heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so masterful. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your perfect disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the rising jealousy, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a set of sharp, gleaming teeth.
“Wait, wait, I was just overwhelmed by the sinister energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly stopped her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really sinister yesterday. It disappeared when it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, emitting a purple halo under the light of two suns and moons, illuminating his body with a radiant glow. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, his golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir. How could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron inside you? This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body. “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move. Why ask how I got here? Instead, tell me how you ended up here.”
“Pah, who’s following you? I have no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, stop messing around… always playing dead and then bullying me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it also had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the Water Escape Technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before finally stopping the escape technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, too close to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s room.
He realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost interest in pondering why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of evil energy permeated his body. The sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again broken through the window from outside. In an instant, a dark aura tightly enveloped him.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He must have missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was thinking.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, more beautiful and bolder than ever. The two of them entangled as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only sought each other desperately, possessing each other completely. Forget about the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, the lead and mercury, the fire and water—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir, only the most primitive and simple desires and release, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two seemed to float in mid-air; the room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface; the sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos; the world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared too.
It was as if he saw something. It was him, yet not him. It had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing much, understanding much. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love, unsure of what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit his neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light-headed, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other, looking at each other, and suddenly spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed, then said at the same time: “You first.”
These two sentences were perfectly synchronized, both starting and ending together. They were stunned, then burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, feeling her body shake in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both reacted, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, scolding, “Stop messing around, you first, I mean it!”
When both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, having had his fun, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to seeing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing, you lost your mind, watching her like a lovesick fool, and even followed her home?” Bi Zhen said seemingly nonchalantly, “Poor Master Shi, becoming a cover for some lecherous man chasing after butterflies, who is he, who is he?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have time for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting, “We almost bumped into each other several times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise,” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the air, quickly flattered.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of white, sharp teeth.
“No, no, I was just overwhelmed by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy,” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly defended himself.
“Right,” Bi Zhen, hearing this, immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern, “How are you feeling? That cauldron was so evil yesterday, it disappeared when it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was, are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting upright inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like internal energy, thick and on the verge of solidifying. Under the reflection of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, illuminating his body with a misty glow. The nectar-like internal energy slowly condensed into dew from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of reaching the Qi Refining stage.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained his internal condition to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised, “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is truly strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, accustomed to the strange occurrences in his body, was almost numb to them, “Since you’re the magician who’s been secretly following me, and you know my every move, why ask how I got here? Instead, tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who’s been following you? I don’t know where you popped out from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got out! Ah, ah, ah, stop messing around… always playing dead and then bullying me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore, why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death, and he was trying to escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man. Naturally, he wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before he finally stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close for him to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly and took a closer look, only to be shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape was actually just a short distance from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But immediately, he had no time to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears. Waves of evil energy permeated his body. The same sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again entered through the window. The dark aura quickly enveloped him completely.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, it had been a long time since they last met. He missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and emotions, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down on nothingness. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, with no coming or going, no life, no spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared too.
It was as if he saw something. It was him, yet not him. It had existed, and then it had disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already shining through the window into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
Thinking of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love, but unable to find the words to express it. He just held Bi Zhen tightly.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen up. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and found it amusing, but then they both said, “You go first.”
These two sentences were spoken in unison, starting and ending at the same time. They both paused, then suddenly burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately stopped Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting, “Don’t mess around, you go first, I want you to go first!”
Both of them insisted, but naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, taking advantage, and after Bi Zhen’s playful outburst, he briefly recounted his experiences after leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to seeing Sweet Girl singing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so charmingly, you lost your mind, staring at her like a lovesick fool, and then you had to chase her all the way to her house, didn’t you?” Bi Zhen seemed to say it casually, “Ah, poor old Master Shi, he’s become a cover for some lecherous guy chasing after butterflies, who is he, who is he?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, self-pityingly, “We almost bumped into each other a few times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, of course, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of white teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, I was knocked out by the evil energy from that cauldron. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck and quickly stopped her.
“By the way,” hearing Mei Qing’s words, Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern, “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday, it disappeared as soon as it touched you, where did it go? I don’t know what it was, are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and immediately used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting neatly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, under the reflection of two suns and moons, emitting a purple halo that filled his body with a misty radiance. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed into drops from the half-dome where the sun and moon intersected, dripping into the cauldron and slowly gathering on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised, “From what you describe, it seems like you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal cauldron, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body, “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move, so why ask how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s following you? I don’t know where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore, why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Unexpectedly, just as he ended the technique and appeared, he found himself inside a house. Scanning the surroundings, he noticed the furnishings looked somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was something so close that he couldn’t see it clearly at first. Mei Qing slightly tilted his head back and looked carefully, only to be startled greatly.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it also had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following the direction his heart desired, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before he finally stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was immediately shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had actually just taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But immediately, he had no more time to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of sinister energy permeated his body. The dark, malevolent energy that had been chasing him earlier had once again broken through the window and enveloped him in an instant.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He must have missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other, without reservation. The concepts of the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, lead and mercury, and the fire of alchemy—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and passions, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a place to land. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it was as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he had seen something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, and then it had vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already shining through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely pierced by the sinister energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and immediately became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love so intense that he couldn’t find the words to express it. He simply held Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and the two of them remained silent for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and found it amusing, but then they both said again: “You go first.”
These two sentences, as if agreed upon, were spoken and ended at the same time. They both paused, then suddenly burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting and saying, “Don’t mess around, you go first, I mean it!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, taking full advantage, and after Bi Zhen’s playful scolding, he briefly recounted his experiences since leaving the capital. From his initial trip to Yongping with no success, to seeing Tian Niu singing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your soul, staring at her like a lovesick fool, and then you had to chase her all the way to her house, didn’t you?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Ah, poor Master Shi, he’s become a banner for some lustful man chasing butterflies. Who is he, and who are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized something and exclaimed, “So you were the one doing the magic tricks!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen’s eyes wandered around, self-pityingly. “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking each other out, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise,” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a set of pearly white teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, I was just hit by the sinister energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy,” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really sinister yesterday. It disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly within the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, emitting a purple halo under the reflection of the sun and moon, filling his body with a radiant mist. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the interaction of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation in his body to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir. How could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron move into your body? This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, accustomed to the various strange occurrences in his body, was almost numb to them. “Since you’re the one doing the magic tricks and have been secretly following me, you already know my whereabouts. Why are you asking how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who’s been following you? I have no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice like a broken gong came from outside the window.
Only then did he realize that although he had felt he had fled a thousand miles, he had actually only moved from outside the house into it!
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the Water Escape Technique would immediately cease to function.
For this reason, the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following the direction his heart pointed, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, so close that it was hard to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s room.
He realized that what he thought was an escape of a thousand miles was actually just a short distance from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears. Waves of evil energy permeated his body. The same sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again entered through the window. The dark aura quickly enveloped him completely.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, even more beautiful and bolder than before. The two of them entangled, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only sought each other desperately, possessing each other completely. Forget about the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, the lead and mercury, the fire and water—all of that could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir, only the most primitive and simple desires and release, and love so thick it couldn’t be dissolved.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a place to land. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he merged into one. Everything fell into silence, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of this had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared too.
It was as if he saw something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing much, understanding much. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he understood.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already filtering through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely made by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling an overwhelming love, so much that he didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly to his chest.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light all over, holding the beauty in his arms tightly against his chest, feeling full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she hugged him with all her strength, and the two of them remained silent for a long time.
After a while, they gently released each other, looking at each other, and suddenly spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed, then said at the same time: “You go first.”
These two sentences, as if agreed upon, started and ended at the same time. They were both stunned, then burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both reacted, and she immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, scolding him: “Stop messing around, you go first, I want you to go first!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, enjoying himself, and after Bi Zhen’s playful scolding, he briefly recounted his experiences after leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to seeing Tian Niu singing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your soul, watching her from upstairs like a lovesick stone, and then hurriedly followed her home?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Ah, poor Master Shi, he became the banner for some lustful man chasing after butterflies. Who is he? Who are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting. “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking my head off, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you got me into bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, her white teeth gleaming.
“Wait, wait, I was knocked out by the evil energy from that cauldron. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must be telepathy.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck and quickly stopped her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How do you feel? That cauldron was really evil yesterday. It disappeared when it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and immediately used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting neatly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, emitting a purple glow under the reflection of the sun and moon, filling his body with a radiant mist. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation in his body to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, moving the spirit to the cauldron usually involves an internal cauldron formed within the body. How could you have an actual cauldron move into your body? This is truly strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the various strange occurrences in his body. “Since you’re the magician who’s been secretly following me, and you know all my movements, why ask how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s been following you? How would I know where you popped out from? If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, stop playing dead and bullying me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there’s great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
He only felt a chilling wind in his ears, a sinister aura piercing through his body. The malevolent energy that had previously pursued him had once again entered the room through the broken window. In an instant, a grayish-dark aura tightly surrounded him.
“Mei Qing!” A voice extremely familiar suddenly called from behind.
It sounded like Bi Zhen’s voice.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it also had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the Five Elements’ spiritual energy.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your inner energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his inner energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death, and to escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following the direction his heart desired, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly and took a closer look, only to be shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had actually just taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of evil energy permeated his body. The same sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again entered through the window, and in an instant, a dark aura tightly enveloped him.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, it had been a long time since they had parted. He must have missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling inner energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other, without reservation. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir, only the most primitive and simple desires and emotions, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air; the room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a place to land; the sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos; the world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and Mei Qing became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been created or destroyed, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and Mei Qing disappeared.
It was as if he had seen something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, and then it had disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, to see many things, to understand many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely made by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an extremely familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love, so much so that he didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light all over, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a long time.
After a long while, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and burst into laughter, then said at the same time: “You go first.”
These two sentences were spoken in unison, starting and ending at the same time. Both were stunned, then suddenly laughed together. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, both of them began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting: “Don’t mess around, you go first, I want you to go first!”
Both insisted, but naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, taking full advantage, and after Bi Zhen’s playful outburst, he briefly recounted his experiences since leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to seeing Sweet Girl sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told it all.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing beautifully, you lost your mind, watching from the balcony like a lovesick fool, and then rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen seemed indifferent as she spoke: “Ah, poor Old Master Shi, he’s become the banner for some lecher chasing after butterflies. What kind of person is he, what kind of person are you?”
“Ah? Could it be…”, Mei Qing suddenly realized, exclaiming in surprise: “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen’s eyes wandered, self-pityingly: “We almost bumped into each other several times, almost knocking our heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so skillful. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry mouth, her white teeth gleaming.
“Wait, wait, I was hit by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck throbbing and quickly stopped her.
“By the way,” at Mei Qing’s words, Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern: “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday, it disappeared when it touched you, where did it go? I don’t know what it was, are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting upright inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like inner energy, thick and on the verge of solidifying, under the reflection of the sun and moon, emitting a purple halo, illuminating his body with a radiant glow. The elixir-like inner energy slowly condensed into dew from the half-dome where the sun and moon intersected, dripping into the cauldron and slowly solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of reaching the stage of refining qi.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation in his body to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised: “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal cauldron, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is really strange.”
“Never mind that!” Mei Qing was somewhat accustomed to the various strange occurrences in his body, to the point of being numb: “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move. Why are you asking how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s following you? I have no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah ah ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.
“This is what they call ‘surviving a great disaster leads to great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore, why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a raspy voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the Water Escape Technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death, and to escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before finally stopping the escape technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, so close that he couldn’t see it clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly and took a closer look, only to be shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had actually just taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But immediately, he had no more time to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of sinister energy permeated his body. The same dark, evil energy that had been chasing him earlier had once again broken through the window and enveloped him in an instant.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. It seemed he missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Soon, he felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was thinking.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, even more beautiful and bolder than before. The two of them entangled, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only desperately sought each other, possessing everything the other had. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two seemed to float in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he merged into one. Everything fell into silence, as if in a space of nothingness, with no coming or going, no life, no spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he saw something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, and then it had vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already filtering through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love so intense that he couldn’t find the words to express it. He simply held Bi Zhen tightly.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light-headed, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy with emotion. A nameless sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other, looking at one another, and suddenly spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting, “Don’t mess around, you go first. You have to go first!”
When both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after thoroughly enjoying himself, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to seeing Sweet Girl sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your soul, watching her from upstairs like a lovesick fool, and then couldn’t wait to chase her to her home,” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Ah, poor Old Master Shi, he became the banner for some lecherous fellow chasing butterflies. Who is this person? Who is that person?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he spare a glance for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting, “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise was so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise,” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of pearly white teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, I was just hit by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been a telepathic connection,” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern, “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday. It disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and immediately used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting upright inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and on the verge of solidifying. Under the reflection of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, illuminating his body with a radiant glow. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed into drops from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
In just one night, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised, “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit shifts to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the shift of the spirit to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron enter your body? This is truly bizarre.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, having grown accustomed to the strange occurrences in his body, was almost numb to it, “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move. Why are you asking me how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who was following you? I had no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dumb… every time you pretend to be dead, you bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice like a broken gong sounded from outside the window.
Where does the Dao reside?
Everywhere.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
While it was indeed extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death, and to escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, so close that he couldn’t see it clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s room.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind whistled in his ears, and waves of malevolent energy permeated his body. The same sinister energy that had been following him earlier had once again broken through the window from outside. In an instant, the dark aura tightly enveloped him.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He hadn’t realized how much he missed her. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They only desperately sought each other, possessing each other completely. Forget about the sun and the moon, the dragon and the tiger, the lead and the mercury—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and passions, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down on nothingness. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything fell into silence, as if in a space of nothingness, with no coming or going, no life, no spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it was as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he saw something. It was him, yet not him. Something that had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing much, understanding much. Yet he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely made by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light yesterday.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an all-too-familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling an overwhelming surge of love. He didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly in his embrace.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she huffed and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light all over, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart, feeling both full and heavy with emotion. An inexplicable sense of gratitude left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she hugged him with all her might, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other, looking at each other, and suddenly spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and feeling her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms, she instinctively blocked his mischievous hands and scolded, “Stop messing around, you go first, I want you to go first!”
Both insisted, but naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, having had his fun, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. He told her about his initial lack of success in Yongping, then seeing Tian Niu singing, and finally visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty little girl singing so enchantingly, you lost your mind, staring like a lovesick fool from the balcony, and then had to chase her all the way to her house, right?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Poor Old Shi, he’s become a cover for some lecherous guy chasing butterflies. What a person, what a person!”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Ah, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he possibly notice this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting. “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise was so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, of course, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise,” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy, quickly flattered.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of pearly white teeth.
“Wait, wait, I was just overwhelmed by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy,” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly stopped her.
“Right,” hearing Mei Qing’s words, Bi Zhen immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday, and it disappeared when it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was, but are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly checked his internal state with his spiritual sense. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting upright inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like internal energy, thick and about to solidify, emitting a purple halo under the reflection of the sun and moon, illuminating his body with a radiant glow. The elixir-like internal energy slowly condensed into dew from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained his internal condition to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, having grown accustomed to the strange occurrences in his body, was now indifferent. “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, and you know my every move, why ask me how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who’s following you? I have no idea where you popped out from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, stop messing around… you always play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, blushing with anger, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there’s bound to be a great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a raspy voice came from outside the window.
It seemed as if he saw something. It was him, yet not him. Something that had existed, and something that had vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be trying hard to think, seeing much, understanding much. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he had seen, or what he had understood.
This was a dream, he thought.
And so he awoke.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. Autumn sunlight had already begun to seep through the window paper into the room. On the paper was clearly a large hole the size of a bowl, likely caused the previous day by the evil aura from the cauldron and the subsequent green light.
Thinking of this, Mei Qing suddenly shivered, recalling everything that had happened, and instantly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an extremely familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body lying beside him.
“Zhen’er? How… is it really you?” Ignoring everything else, Mei Qing pulled the beauty beside him close, suddenly feeling an overwhelming surge of love. He didn’t know what else to say, only tightening his arms around Bi Zhen.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean, ‘is it really you?’ Do you wish it were someone else?” As Mei Qing moved, Bi Zhen was immediately awakened. Upon hearing his question, she pouted angrily, burying her face in his chest and biting him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt his whole body light and floating, tightly holding the beauty in his arms against his heart, feeling his chest full and heavy. An indescribable emotion left him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she hugged him with all her strength, and the two remained silent for a long while.
After a long time, the two gently released each other and looked at one another. Suddenly, they both spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Their words came out simultaneously, and both were greatly amused. Yet they both said at the same time: “You go first.”
These two sentences, as if planned, were spoken at the same time, ending at the same time. Each looked at the other in surprise, then suddenly burst into laughter together. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Feeling her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms, she unconsciously became a bit excited, immediately blocking Mei Qing’s hands that were trying to misbehave, pouting cutely: “Don’t mess around. You go first—insist on you going first!”
With both insisting, naturally the woman’s word prevailed. Mei Qing’s wandering hands roamed freely, enjoying every moment, until Bi Zhen, after a brief fit of temper, finally listened as he briefly recounted his experiences since leaving the capital. He told her about arriving at Yongping and finding nothing at first, then seeing Tian Niu singing, and later visiting Shi Mengzhu in Gangli.
“Yeah, as soon as you saw that pretty girl singing so beautifully, you lost your soul, standing there like a stone waiting for her husband, and had to chase her all the way home, right?” Bi Zhen said casually, seemingly unconcerned: “Ah, poor Old Master Shi, turned into a banner for some lecherous guy chasing after pretty girls. Who is this person? Who is that person?”
“Ah? So… you were the one performing the magic tricks!?”
“Ah, Master Mei’s eyes were all fixed on the pretty girl, how could he have any attention left for me, an old yellow-faced woman?” Bi Zhen looked around, feigning self-pity: “I almost collided with him several times, nearly bumping my head, and yet he didn’t even notice me…”
“Cough cough… Well, it’s mainly because Zhen’er’s makeup skills are so amazing. I mean, my cultivation is shallow, my experience is poor, and my eyesight is bad—I naturally couldn’t see through your masterful disguise,” Mei Qing, sensing the rising jealousy in the room, quickly flattered.
“Is that so? Then why did you recognize me all of a sudden yesterday, the moment you came in the house, and immediately pulled me onto the bed, bullying me… hmpf…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry-like mouth, revealing a set of white, sharp teeth gleaming menacingly.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t. It’s because that cursed cauldron’s evil energy hit me, and I fainted. I miss you day and night, so naturally, I had a spiritual connection,” Mei Qing, only now realizing the faint pain from the tooth marks on his neck, hurriedly stopped her.
“Right,” upon hearing this, Bi Zhen immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern: “How do you feel? That cauldron yesterday was really evil. When it touched you, it disappeared. Where did it go? I don’t even know what it was. Do you feel okay?”
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for escaping, it had its shortcomings, primarily its extreme reliance on the Five Elements’ spiritual energy.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the Water Escape Technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past few times Mei Qing had used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never went very far.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death, and to escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his heart’s direction, he felt he had run nearly a hundred miles before he stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that his feeling of having escaped a thousand miles was actually just moving from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But immediately, he had no time to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
He felt a chilling wind and a sinister aura permeating his body. The same malevolent energy that had been following him earlier had once again entered through the window, wrapping tightly around him in an instant.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It seemed… like Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, it had been a long time since they parted. He missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. He felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, not knowing where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, more beautiful and bolder than ever. The two of them were entangled, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no holding back. They were desperately seeking and possessing each other completely. Forget about the sun and moon, the dragon and tiger, the lead and mercury, the fire and water—all of that could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir, only the most primitive and simple desires and release, and an overwhelming love.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two seemed to be floating in mid-air; the room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down on nothing; the sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos; the world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and Mei Qing became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been created or destroyed, time had no beginning or end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of it had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and so did he.
It was as if he had seen something. It was him, yet not him. It had existed, then disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing much, understanding much. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already shining through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
Thinking of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling all that had happened, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without caring about anything else, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love, so much that he didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly.
“Big bad guy, what do you mean ‘really me’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light-headed, holding the beauty in his arms tightly against his chest, feeling both full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other, looking at each other, and suddenly both spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed, then said together: “You go first.”
These two sentences were perfectly synchronized, both starting and ending at the same time. They were both stunned, then burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting: “Don’t mess around, you go first, I mean it!”
With both insisting, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after some playful antics, finally recounted his experiences after leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to seeing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing, you lost your mind, watching her like a lovesick fool, and then chased her all the way to her house?” Bi Zhen said seemingly nonchalantly: “Poor old Shi, he became a pretext for some lustful person to chase after butterflies. What kind of person is this, what kind of person is that!”
“Ah? Could it be…”, Mei Qing suddenly realized, exclaiming: “So you were the one doing the magic tricks!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, self-pityingly: “We almost bumped into each other several times, nearly knocking our heads, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the air, quickly flattered.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you got me into bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry mouth, her white teeth gleaming.
“Wait, wait, I was knocked out by the evil energy from that cauldron. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly stopped her.
“Right,” hearing this, Bi Zhen immediately forgot her teasing, her face full of concern: “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday, it disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was, are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious small cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting neatly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid, emitting a purple glow under the reflection of the sun and moon, illuminating his body with a radiant mist. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed into drops from the sun and moon’s interaction, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised: “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, moving the spirit to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process, how could you have an actual cauldron inside you? This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing, accustomed to the various strange occurrences in his body, was almost numb to it: “Since you’re the one doing the magic tricks, secretly following me, and knowing all my movements, why are you asking how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s following you? How would I know where you came from? If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of shyness and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, good disciple, it’s really not early anymore, why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the five elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could continue to escape underground.
In the past, when Mei Qing used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Additionally, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to flee as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before finally stopping the technique and emerging from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
There was something right in front of him, but it was too close for him to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly and took a closer look, only to be shocked.
It turned out to be the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was an escape of a thousand miles had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the ability to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had resulted in such an outcome.
A chilling wind brushed past his ears, and waves of sinister energy permeated his body. The same dark energy that had been following him earlier had once again broken through the window from outside. In an instant, the gloomy aura tightly enveloped his entire body.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, they had been apart for so long. He had missed her so much. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already dwindling internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other, without reservation. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and release, and a love so thick it couldn’t be dissolved.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a place to land. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world turned into chaos. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and he became one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It seemed as if nothing had ever been born or died. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, it seemed as if none of this had ever existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and he disappeared.
It was as if he saw something. It was himself, yet not himself. It had existed, and then it had disappeared.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, seeing many things, understanding many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight had already begun to filter through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the sinister energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
Thinking of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an exceptionally familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, feeling a surge of love in his heart. He didn’t know what else to say, only holding Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“You big bad guy, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen up. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his chest, feeling his heart full and heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a long time.
After a while, they gently released each other and looked at each other, suddenly speaking at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and burst into laughter, then said at the same time: “You go first.”
These two sentences were spoken in unison, starting and ending at the same time. They both paused, then suddenly laughed together. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, scolding him: “Don’t mess around, you go first, I want you to go first!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after some mischief, waited for Bi Zhen to calm down before briefly recounting his experiences after leaving the capital. From arriving in Yongping with no success, to seeing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing, you lost your mind, watching her from upstairs like a lovesick fool, and then chased her all the way to her house?” Bi Zhen said seemingly without concern: “Ah, poor Old Master Shi, he became the banner for some lustful person chasing butterflies. Who is this person, who is that person?”
“Ah? Could it be…”, Mei Qing suddenly realized, exclaiming in surprise: “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, lamenting: “We almost bumped into each other several times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise is so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, naturally, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday, and as soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of white, sharp teeth.
“No, no, it was because I was hit by the sinister energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it was just a matter of telepathy.” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” hearing Mei Qing’s words, Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern: “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really sinister yesterday, it disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was, are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting upright inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like internal energy, thick and on the verge of solidifying. Under the reflection of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, illuminating his body with a radiant glow. The nectar-like internal energy slowly condensed into dew from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
In just one night, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of reaching the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation in his body to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised: “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir, how could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal cauldron, not an actual cauldron entering your body. This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body: “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you already know my whereabouts. Why are you asking me how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who was following you? I don’t know where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen, with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, resisted.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Taoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past, when Mei Qing used the escape techniques, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t last long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled nearly a hundred miles before he finally stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close for him to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it.
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A cold, eerie wind brushed past his ears. Waves of malevolent energy permeated his body. The same sinister energy that had been chasing him earlier had once again broken through the window and enveloped him in a dark, oppressive aura.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly rang out behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? It had been so long since they last met. He must have missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold gas invade his body. His already depleted internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking and possessing each other, completely unrestrained. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Taoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and emotions, and a love so thick it was almost tangible.
Where is the so-called Tao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down without a surface. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and Mei Qing remained, merged into one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life or spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, even this seemed not to have existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and Mei Qing disappeared.
It was as if he had seen something. It was himself, yet not himself. Something that had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, to see many things, to understand many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already streaming through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the evil energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, remembering everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms. His heart was suddenly filled with love, and he didn’t know what else to say. He just held Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen up. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light and airy, holding the beauty in his arms close to his heart. His heart felt full and heavy at the same time. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a long time.
After a while, they gently released each other and looked at each other. Suddenly, they both spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and laughed. Then they both said again: “You go first.”
These two sentences were spoken in perfect unison, starting and ending at the same time. They both paused, then burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting: “Don’t mess around, you go first. I want you to go first!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing’s hands roamed freely, taking full advantage, and after Bi Zhen’s playful scolding, he briefly recounted his experiences after leaving the capital. From his initial lack of success in Yongping, to hearing Tian Niu sing, and then visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor, he told her everything.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing beautifully, you lost your mind. You were so entranced watching her from upstairs that you turned into a ‘longing husband stone,’ and then you rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Poor old Master Shi, he became the excuse for some lustful man to chase after butterflies. What kind of person is this? What kind of person is that?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized and exclaimed in surprise: “So you were the one doing the magic tricks!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl. How could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, self-pityingly. “We almost bumped into each other several times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise skills are so excellent. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, of course, I couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the waves of jealousy in the room, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of pearly white teeth that gleamed coldly.
“Wait, wait, I was hit by the evil energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing now felt the bite mark on his neck and quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really evil yesterday. It disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious little cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting perfectly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid. Under the illumination of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, filling his body with a misty radiance. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
Overnight, the golden elixir had grown significantly, and Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing was puzzled and quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen was also surprised: “From what you describe, it seems like you’re about to reach the stage where the infant spirit appears and the cauldron shifts. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir. How could it be so fast? Moreover, the shifting of the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron enter your body? This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body. “Since you’re the one doing the magic tricks and have been secretly following me, you already know my every move. Why are you asking how I got here? Instead, how did you get here? Tell me the truth!”
“Pah, who’s been following you? I don’t know where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, don’t play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
Mei Qing had never been so astonished before.
The Five Elements Escape Technique was not an easy Daoist art to control.
Although it was extremely convenient for fleeing, it had its shortcomings, particularly its extreme reliance on the spiritual energy of the Five Elements.
For instance, if you were using the Water Escape Technique to flee and suddenly encountered a cliff ahead, the technique would immediately cease to function.
This was why the Earth Escape Technique became the most commonly used among the Five Elements Escape Techniques. The reason was simple: the earth was vast and boundless. As long as your internal energy could sustain it, you could keep escaping indefinitely.
In the past, when Mei Qing used the escape technique, his cultivation was still shallow, and his internal energy couldn’t sustain it for long. Moreover, the situations didn’t require him to flee too far, so he never traveled a great distance.
But this time, it was a matter of life and death. To escape the attacks of the demonic cauldron and the sallow-faced man, he naturally wanted to run as far as possible. Following his instincts, he felt he had traveled at least a hundred miles before he stopped the technique and emerged from the ground.
To his surprise, as soon as he stopped the technique and looked around, he found himself inside a room. The furnishings seemed somewhat familiar.
Right in front of him was an object, but it was too close for him to see clearly. Mei Qing leaned back slightly to get a better look and was shocked.
It was the strange black cauldron he had seen with his spiritual sense in the sallow-faced man’s house.
He then realized that what he thought was a thousand-mile escape had only taken him from outside the house to inside it!
The contrast was too stark. Mei Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. But he quickly lost the inclination to ponder why his Earth Escape Technique had produced such a result.
A chilling wind brushed past his ears, and waves of sinister energy permeated his body. The same malevolent energy that had been chasing him earlier had once again broken through the window and enveloped him in a dark, oppressive aura.
“Mei Qing!” A very familiar voice suddenly called from behind him.
It sounded like… Bi Zhen’s voice.
Was it an illusion? Indeed, it had been a long time since they last met. He must have missed her deeply. With this thought, Mei Qing felt an extremely cold energy invade his body. His already depleted internal energy suddenly became sluggish, then began to spin wildly. Mei Qing felt himself floating, dizzy, and disoriented, unsure of where he was or what he was feeling.
Mei Qing seemed to have a dream.
In the dream, he saw Bi Zhen again, and she had become even more beautiful and bolder. The two of them were entangled together, as if they had forgotten everything else. There was no shyness, no hesitation. They were only desperately seeking each other, completely possessing one another. The sun, the moon, the dragon, the tiger, the lead, the mercury, the fire—all of it could go to hell… There was no dual cultivation, no Daoist arts, no golden elixir. Only the most primitive and simple desires and emotions, and a love so thick it was almost tangible.
Where is the Dao?
It is everywhere.
At the end of the dream, everything disappeared. The bed disappeared, and the two of them seemed to be floating in mid-air. The room disappeared, and the essence of the sun and moon shone down on nothingness. The sun and moon disappeared, and the world became a chaotic void. The world itself disappeared, and only Bi Zhen and Mei Qing remained, merged into one. Everything was still, as if in a space of nothingness, without coming or going, without life, without spiritual energy. It was as if nothing had ever been born or died. Time had no beginning, no end, and no direction. In the end, even this seemed to have never existed. Bi Zhen disappeared, and Mei Qing disappeared.
It was as if he had seen something. It was himself, yet not himself. Something that had existed, then vanished.
Mei Qing seemed to be struggling to think, to see many things, to understand many things. But he didn’t know what he was thinking, what he was seeing, or what he was understanding.
This is a dream, he thought.
And then he woke up.
Mei Qing slowly opened his eyes. The autumn sunlight was already filtering through the window paper into the room. There was a hole the size of a bowl in the window paper, likely caused by the sinister energy from the cauldron and the later blue light.
At the thought of this, Mei Qing shuddered, recalling everything he had experienced, and suddenly became fully awake. He looked around and realized he was lying in bed, completely naked, with an incredibly familiar and infinitely beautiful naked body beside him.
“Bi Zhen? How… is it really you?” Mei Qing, without a second thought, pulled the beauty beside him into his arms. His heart was suddenly filled with love, and he didn’t know what else to say. He just held Bi Zhen tightly in his arms.
“You big jerk, what do you mean ‘is it really you’? Were you hoping it was someone else?” Mei Qing’s movement woke Bi Zhen. Hearing Mei Qing’s question, she pouted and bit him on the neck.
Bi Zhen bit Mei Qing, but he didn’t feel any pain. He only felt light-headed, holding the beauty in his arms close to his chest. His heart felt full, yet heavy. An inexplicable emotion overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless for a long time.
Bi Zhen was the same. After biting Mei Qing, she held him with all her strength, and neither of them spoke for a while.
After a long time, they gently released each other and looked at each other. Suddenly, they both spoke at the same time: “How did you get here?”
Both of them were surprised to have spoken simultaneously and burst into laughter. Bi Zhen laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she felt her body shaking with laughter in Mei Qing’s arms. Unconsciously, they both began to react, and Bi Zhen immediately blocked Mei Qing’s mischievous hands, pouting, “Stop messing around, you go first. You have to go first!”
Since both insisted, naturally, the woman had the final say. Mei Qing, after getting his fill of mischief, waited for Bi Zhen to finish her playful scolding before briefly recounting his experiences since leaving the capital. He talked about his initial lack of success in Yongping, then seeing Sweet Girl singing, and finally visiting Shi Mengzhu in the harbor.
“Ah, so as soon as you saw a pretty girl singing, you lost your mind, watching her like a lovesick fool, and then rushed to her house?” Bi Zhen said, seemingly indifferent. “Poor Old Master Shi, he became the excuse for some lecher to chase after butterflies. What kind of person is this, what kind of person is that?”
“Ah? Could it be…?” Mei Qing suddenly realized something and exclaimed, “So you were the magician!?”
“Well, Mr. Mei’s eyes were all on the little girl, how could he have any attention left for this old hag?” Bi Zhen looked around, self-pityingly. “We almost bumped into each other several times, but you just didn’t see me.”
“Ahem… well, it’s mainly because your disguise was so good. With my shallow cultivation, lack of experience, and poor eyesight, I naturally couldn’t see through your masterful disguise.” Mei Qing, sensing the jealousy in the air, quickly flattered her.
“Is that so? Then how did you suddenly recognize me yesterday? As soon as you entered the room, you had me on the bed, bullying me… hmph…” As she spoke, Bi Zhen opened her cherry lips, revealing a row of sharp, white teeth.
“Wait, wait, I was just overwhelmed by the sinister energy from that cauldron and passed out. I’ve been thinking of you day and night, so it must have been telepathy.” Mei Qing, now feeling the bite mark on his neck, quickly tried to stop her.
“Right,” Bi Zhen suddenly forgot her teasing, her face full of concern. “How are you feeling? That cauldron was really sinister yesterday. It disappeared as soon as it touched you. Where did it go? I don’t know what it was. Are you feeling okay?”
Mei Qing frowned and quickly used his spiritual sense to inspect his body. What he saw shocked him.
The mysterious cauldron that had disappeared was now firmly placed in his lower dantian. His already condensed golden elixir was sitting neatly inside the cauldron. The cauldron was filled with liquid-like true essence, thick and almost solid. Under the illumination of the sun and moon, it emitted a purple halo, filling his body with a misty radiance. The true essence, like sweet dew, slowly condensed into drops from the intersection of the sun and moon, dripping into the cauldron and gradually solidifying on the elixir.
In just one night, his golden elixir had grown significantly. Mei Qing even felt that he was on the verge of breaking through to the next stage of cultivation.
Mei Qing, puzzled, quickly explained the situation to Bi Zhen. Bi Zhen, after hearing it, was also very surprised. “From what you describe, it seems you’re about to reach the stage where the infant form appears and the spirit moves to the cauldron. But you’ve only just condensed your elixir. How could it be so fast? Moreover, the spirit moving to the cauldron is supposed to be an internal process. How could you have an actual cauldron inside you? This is really strange.”
“Who cares!” Mei Qing was somewhat numb to the strange occurrences in his body. “Since you were the magician, secretly following me all along, you must know my every move. Why are you asking me how I got here? Instead, you should tell me how you ended up here!”
“Pah, who was following you? I had no idea where you came from! If you don’t explain clearly, I won’t tell you how I got here! Ah, ah, ah, stop messing around… you always play dead and then bully me… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“This is what they call ‘after a great disaster, there must be great fortune.’ It’s still early, no need to rush…” Mei Qing said with a mischievous grin.
“Ahem, my good disciple, it’s really not early anymore. Why don’t you two lovebirds take a break?” Suddenly, a hoarse voice came from outside the window.
“Who cares!” Mei Qing had long grown accustomed to the various strange phenomena within his body, becoming indifferent and numb: “Since you were that magician, secretly following me all along, you already know all my movements. Why ask me how I got here? Rather, how did you get here? You’d better confess!”
“Phooey! Who followed you? How would I know where you came from? Don’t change the subject—you always take advantage after pretending to die… in broad daylight…” Bi Zhen resisted, blushing and pouting.
“This is called surviving a great calamity and receiving great fortune. It’s still early, no rush…” Mei Qing grinned mischievously.
“Cough cough, dear apprentice, it really isn’t early anymore. Perhaps you two lovebirds should rest for a bit first?” Suddenly, a voice like a broken gong came from outside the window.
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