“Little Black, where do you think you’re running?” “Keep running? Run all you want! I’ll chase you to death!” A small boy in a oversized blue cloth jacket stood on a tree branch, hands on hips, shouting at a monkey. The monkey lay on the ground, panting and baring its teeth.
“Pathetic, you don’t even have the strength to climb a tree.”
“Hmph, I’m off. You lost, and now I’m going to collect my spoils!” The boy, carrying two gourds on his back, hopped cheerfully toward a cave on a steep cliff. The monkey, still baring its teeth, grumbled as it watched the boy’s figure disappear into the woods.
A while later, the boy, reeking of wine and with flushed cheeks, leaped down from the cave on the cliff, his movements slightly unsteady—clearly, he’d had a bellyful of monkey wine. He ran toward the village at the foot of the mountain, which had only a dozen or so households, shouting, “Great-Uncle, there’s wine to drink!” His words echoed behind him.
The boy, named Mu Lin, lived in Huanglingkeng Village at the foot of Shaohua Mountain in Jiangxi Province. Shaohua Mountain, also known as Sanqing Mountain, is renowned as “the unparalleled blessed land” and “the foremost immortal peak of the south.” It is named for its three towering peaks—Yu Jing, Yu Xu, and Yu Hua—which resemble the three Taoist realms of Yuqing, Shangqing, and Taiqing. The mountain lies at the intersection of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces.
Born in 1970, Mu Lin was raised by his great-uncle, an old Taoist priest named Xuanming, after his parents, who were farmers, passed away when he was two. Xuanming had been part of the Xuqing Temple, which was disbanded in 1965. No one in the village knew his exact age; they only knew he was a respected elder, and even the younger villagers called him “Great-Uncle.”
The villagers worked in the fields during the day and returned home at night, paying little attention to Mu Lin. After his parents’ death, Great-Uncle Xuanming took him in, and the villagers only knew that Mu Lin grew up healthy and without trouble.
In truth, Xuanming was 136 years old when Mu Lin was born. At 16, his master had recognized his potential and brought him to Xuqing Temple. The temple followed the Fangxian Dao tradition from the Warring States period, emphasizing the cultivation of both spirit (xing) and body (ming). This practice involved self-discipline to achieve the lofty goal of “my fate is mine, not dictated by heaven.”
Their teachings focused on the arts of “mountain” and “medicine.” The “mountain” art involved cultivating the body and spirit through diet, foundational practices, scriptures, martial arts, and talismans. The “medicine” art used prescriptions, acupuncture, and spiritual healing to maintain health and treat illnesses. Since Xuanming joined the temple later in life and was illiterate, his understanding of advanced martial arts and Taoist techniques was flawed. By the time he realized his mistakes, he had missed the optimal age for martial training and could only practice techniques to strengthen his body. Unwilling to give up, he immersed himself in martial arts and Taoist studies. After his master’s death, he neglected the temple’s upkeep, leaving only a few scattered disciples and himself as the last of the Xuqing Temple lineage.
In 1965, when the temple was disbanded, Xuanming returned to his direct relatives in Huanglingkeng Village. Feeling that his path to enlightenment was unattainable and his health was declining, he hoped to pass on his teachings. However, in the environment of that time, there was no one to teach. When Mu Lin’s parents married and his mother became pregnant, Xuanming began preparing. He gave Mu Lin’s mother medicinal supplements during her pregnancy and bathed the infant Mu Lin in medicinal herbs at eight months, using his internal energy to build a foundation for the boy.
By age two, Mu Lin had completed the “Small Heavenly Cycle,” awakening his spiritual intelligence. He began learning to read and write, fortunate that Xuanming had brought the temple’s scriptures with him when he left. Around this time, during the “May Seventh Cadre School” movement, a school was established near Huanglingkeng Village, hosting 26 intellectuals. Due to the village’s remote location and harsh conditions, it became a place for re-educating high-level bourgeois intellectuals.
Transportation was difficult, and accidents often occurred during the rainy season. In June 1971, Mu Lin’s parents died in a cliff fall while procuring supplies. Two school administrators also perished in a similar accident while reporting to higher authorities. When new officials took over, they neglected to pass on information about the Huanglingkeng school due to oversight. Without instructions, the intellectuals couldn’t leave, and the school was temporarily forgotten by the outside world, left to fend for itself.
Raised by Great-Uncle Xuanming, Mu Lin and his guardian were not primary laborers, so the production team provided only basic rations, insufficient to sustain them. They turned to the mountains for food. Xuanming taught Mu Lin about herbs and their properties while training him in martial arts deep in the mountains. By age five, Mu Lin completed the “Great Heavenly Cycle,” but Xuanming’s health began to decline. Mu Lin took on the responsibility of foraging and hunting alone, supporting the household. His martial arts skills made hunting and gathering relatively easy.
One day, while returning from gathering wild vegetables, Mu Lin found three people lying in the woods near the production team, foaming at the mouth with pale faces. Approaching them, he recognized the smell of poisonous Arisaema roots they had eaten. He administered antidote pills he had made, and soon the three recovered, though they were weak. Mu Lin helped them back to their camp, arriving just as they were serving a thin vegetable broth for dinner.
Observing the group, Mu Lin saw they were emaciated, like skeletons. Moved by pity, he shared his hunted game, preparing a meat soup that filled the air with its aroma, drawing the group around him. When the soup was ready, they lined up orderly, maintaining their dignity despite hunger and hardship. As they drank, no one spoke, but Mu Lin could sense the deep gratitude in their eyes.
When Mu Lin told Great-Uncle Xuanming about the incident, Xuanming explained that these were highly educated people, akin to great Confucian scholars of the Qing dynasty, now suffering in this remote place. He left it to Mu Lin to decide how to help, testing his character.
Mu Lin resolved to ensure they had enough to eat. His workload increased, but as he grew closer to the intellectuals, they began teaching him. His quick learning astonished them, and with little else to do, they poured their knowledge into him, treating him as a prized student. Mu Lin practiced traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture on the villagers and intellectuals, and even tested Western surgical techniques on monkeys, who fled at the sight of him.
Eventually, any animal that recognized Mu Lin would either run or play dead, knowing they couldn’t outrun or outfight him. Villagers and teachers, seeing him approach, would puff up and claim to be in perfect health to avoid his treatments. With no large animals left to damage crops, the village’s grain output increased, addressing the basic needs of both the village and the cadre school.
Under the intellectuals’ one-on-one tutelage, Mu Lin mastered modern physics, chemistry, and basic computer technology. He became proficient in Western and Chinese painting, music (playing the flute and xiao), and learned 16 languages, including Latin, English, French, Russian, German, Japanese, and Arabic, as well as 25 Chinese dialects. The professors, unable to conduct research or leave, devoted all their energy to teaching Mu Lin, who absorbed their knowledge eagerly.
By 1980, two significant events marked Mu Lin’s life. First, Great-Uncle Xuanming passed away, and both the villagers and the cadre school attended his funeral. He left Mu Lin a ring, its significance known only to Mu Lin. Second, the intellectuals left. In 1977, universities had resumed, and by early 1980, the shortage of senior academics led authorities to rediscover the 26 scholars. They warned Mu Lin not to reveal what they had taught him, fearing repercussions, and never spoke of it until years later when the political climate changed. By then, Mu Lin had left the village for distant lands.
With Great-Uncle and the teachers gone, Mu Lin’s world grew quiet, and he struggled to adjust. The teachers had described a different way of life—having studied abroad, they contrasted foreign and Chinese lifestyles, sparking Mu Lin’s curiosity. Great-Uncle’s storage ring revealed the reality of cultivation, but it also raised questions. Why, during times of national hardship, did cultivators with extraordinary powers remain absent while ordinary people stepped forward?
For now, Mu Lin focused on forming his Origin Pill, a goal Great-Uncle never achieved, remaining in the Acquired Realm. Had he reached the Innate Realm, he might have lived three times longer. Over the next year, Mu Lin lived a peaceful life of hunting, gathering, and practicing. He explored every corner of Shaohua Mountain, discovering two cultivators’ caves. After respectfully handling their remains, he inherited their relics.
From a martial cultivator’s cave, he found a non-metallic, non-jade belt sword and a book, Martial Insights and Secret Medicines, which elevated his martial arts understanding. From a medicinal cultivator’s cave, he obtained the upper volume of Golden Needle Compendium, Golden Elixir Scripture, a set of golden needles, a medicinal cauldron, and dozens of pill bottles. One bottle of Origin-Replenishing Pills accelerated his progress, allowing him to achieve the “Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown” and “Five Energies Converging” stages two years early, forming his Origin Pill and reaching the early Origin Pill stage.
Three months later, with no further progress, Mu Lin, restless, decided to explore the world. He realized that until the Origin Pill was formed, all cultivation was fleeting. The prospect of extended life was a powerful motivator, and only after forming the pill could one truly be called a cultivator. With time on his side, he wanted to see the world the teachers described, compare his people’s lives with those abroad, and seek out other cultivators or immortals mentioned by Great-Uncle.
A lingering question haunted him: how, with the limited productivity and technology of ancient times, did people discover meridians, invent acupuncture, and produce rigorous medical texts like the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon? As a cultivator with modern thinking, he sought answers in the wider world.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage