Strange Stories

Chapter 488: Disciples are for fun
The setting sun shines on the snow, and on the iron chain bridge of the Taoist Temple on Gushan Mountain, two figures, one tall and one short, slowly walk towards the Taoist temple.

"Isn't it fun to follow Uncle Master?"

"Um……"

The little girl thought about it.

In an instant, my mind flashed with the breakfasts I cooked, the floors I swept, the dishes I washed, the mountains I climbed, and the piercing water of the stream. But in the next instant, the vast beauty of the mountain top, the fish that slipped away in my hands and the water splashing on my face, the dew from picking tea leaves, the fragrance of frying tea leaves, and the bitterness of drinking tea.

There is also the feeling of riding the wind and overlooking the mountains and forests.

The little girl scratched her head and nodded again:
"Ok!"

"I knew it."

"But Master, you've been gone for a long time!"

"There is no way."

"Master, how could you leave me to Uncle Eighth for so long?"

"Don't worry." The master turned around and smiled at her, "Because I was almost raised by your uncle."

"what?"

"What? What's so unbelievable?" The little sister patted her head, "Have you seen the disciple that your uncle likes?"

"I've seen him twice. He was cutting wood in the mountains."

"He's a woodcutter..."

The junior sister couldn't help but reveal a look of reminiscence in her eyes.

They were two young Taoist priests chopping wood on Fuqiu Peak and Jiandao Peak of Tianmen Peak.

The firewood used in Fuqiu Temple and the dead branches and rotten wood on Fuqiu Peak and the nearby Tianmen Peak and Jiandao Peak were all cut by them.

"Chopping wood is good, it calms the mind." The little sister said, and then she turned to her little apprentice and said, "No matter what, your uncle has also taken root here. Even if he doesn't accept this woodcutter as his apprentice, he will accept other apprentices in the future. You are my apprentice, and you entered the door first and started practicing first. Don't be outdone by your uncle's future apprentices."

"must!"

The little girl said without hesitation.

"In that case, I have something for you. It's also a good opportunity for you to practice your magic!"

"whats the matter?"

The little girl immediately became serious.

"This 'stone-chopping' method is a relatively rigid spell, and requires diligent practice." The younger sister said, "Your uncle has just chosen a sacred mountain and a cave. We don't know how many years he will live there, but there is no road from here to there. So starting tomorrow, you will take a hoe and build a road from here to your uncle's cave."

"Ah? But... Master, can't you fly?"

"You can't fly all the time. After all, humans are born to walk on their legs, not birds. Sometimes you always want to walk a few steps. Besides, you can't fly, and it's not certain that everyone in Hongye Temple will be able to fly in the future."

The little girl nodded repeatedly after hearing this, thinking it made sense. But when she thought about it carefully, she still felt it was too far away.

Is this something humans can do?
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Although the road is long, if you keep walking you will reach your destination." The little sister said, "That's what your great master told me. Your master's amazing stone-crushing technique also started from the journey from Fuqiu Temple in Yishan to Xianyuan Temple. Even if we put everything aside, this is also a practice in itself."

"it is good!"

When the little girl heard this, she became determined.

What the master can do, she can do too.

The master is powerful, and she wants to be as powerful as him.

"Remember, this road must be built straight so that you can walk fewer steps in the future."

"But Master, there were mountains all over here. How could we make the road straight?"

"The practice of magic is here." The little sister pointed in that direction. The fog on the mountain was dyed yellow by the setting sun. The shadows of the mountains were overlapping and difficult to distinguish. It was unknown how far away it was. "If there is a hillside, build steps. If you can't climb over it, use the stone-crushing method to break through the mountain. Day by day, you can always build a road."

The little girl looked over there with a dazed expression.

The mountain is very high and big, and the road is very long.

But the master beside him shook his head:

"It's a pity that Fengshan is not as good as Yishan. Soil accounts for 60% to 70% of the mountain. Even if you take a straight road, the stone mountain only accounts for 30% to 40%. When I, Master, built a road in Yishan, it was all stone."

After saying that, he turned his head and looked at her and said:

"It's an advantage for you."

The little girl scratched her head.

After thinking for a while, she said to her master:
"Then Master, please don't tell Uncle Shi that I use the road repair to secretly practice magic, lest he also tell his apprentice not to be outdone by me and let his apprentice practice diligently."

"You're quite smart!"

"Remember not to say it!"

The green tile eaves reflected the skylight, and a Taoist temple was quietly waiting for them to come back.

……

The next morning, in a mountain attic.

The two of them moved the table to the corridor outside the door, facing the cliff and clouds, looking at the beautiful scenery of the mountains, enjoying the breeze, daydreaming, making tea and chatting.

The junior sister told this story to her senior brother, who laughed out loud.

After laughing, the senior brother pointed his finger at her and blamed her: "Junior sister, junior sister, look at you, Ziyun is such a young girl, why are you putting so much pressure on her?"

"I'm not like a teacher or a rich family's parents who push her around every day. Is this alone considered pressure?"

"Why not? Aren't they tired after building such a long road?"

"Then Senior Brother, please don't learn from me!"

"..."

"..."

The two looked at each other and the senior brother smiled again.

The junior sister drank tea from the cup to hide her inner joy.

In fact, she should be learning from him.

……

It was also on this day that human traces appeared in the mountains.

It was a young boy chopping wood.

Today, the young man still only brought a hatchet, a shoulder pole and two worn-out old hemp ropes. He walked into Fengshan Mountain and looked at the big trees with their branches chopped off and the almost invisible small trees. He sat there for a long time and decided to walk deeper into Fengshan Mountain. It was just as the man said -

Almost all the easy-to-cut firewood nearby, enough for a ten-year-old boy to cut, had been chopped up.

All that's left is the big tree.

But it is very difficult for a ten-year-old boy to cut down a big tree. What the man said makes sense. It is not easy for them to grow so big. It is a pity to just cut them down for firewood and sell them for so little money.

How could someone who could say such things be a demon that harms people?

But it's not just because there is no firewood to chop.

There was also last night's tossing and turning, my wild thoughts, the wonder of this encounter, the satisfaction of every conversation, the young man's yearning for fairy stories and magical legends, and of course, nearly a month of cold iron quilts, drafty walls, a seldom full stomach, and a clean bottom of the jar at home.

There are so many reasons, it’s hard to list them all, but all of them contributed to this decision.

Fengshan is very big and the forest is very deep.

Fortunately, the place where he chopped wood was close to the mountains, and he was already familiar with the mountain roads.

Move forward slowly, chopping wood to clear the way.

There is a mixture of timidity, curiosity, fear and anticipation in my heart.

The forest was deep and the snow was heavy. Once you stepped on it, you couldn't even see your knees. It was really difficult to walk.

It seemed as if someone was guiding him.

The mountain fog was charming and the miasma was obscuring. Just when I couldn't tell the direction, a breeze blew away the fog and miasma, and the sun shone through the trees.

I didn't know which way to go, but I saw human footprints in the forest.

The forest was dark, and just as I began to hesitate, I saw a plum tree in full bloom in the woods, with a cool fragrance that dispelled the haze.

Suddenly he stepped on empty air and found it was a slope, and the boy couldn't help but slide down.

"what……"

When I stood up gasping for breath, I found myself sliding out of the dense forest and standing on the edge of a cliff, before I could recover from the shock. The view in front of me suddenly opened up, yet it was shocking.

Deep in Fengshan, layers of green mountains are covered with snow, and there is no sign of human beings. However, on the vertical cliff, there is a classical and elegant wooden attic hanging, and it is unknown how high it is from the ground. There are clouds and mist below it. There are also ancient pines rooted in the cracks of the rocks, with pine branches sticking out, as if welcoming guests. There are huge egrets flying slowly in the sky, looking very leisurely.

Isn’t this the legendary palace of the gods?

The boy opened his eyes wide and looked.

Suddenly, a blur appeared before my eyes——

There were huge six-tailed white foxes leaping and running on the vertical cliffs, and tigers bigger than buffaloes jumped from a distance, transformed into human forms, and sat cross-legged in the snow.

"hiss!"

The boy was frightened and stepped back repeatedly, almost turning around and running away.

But when he looked closely——

At the bottom of the cliff, in the snow, there was not only the man transformed from a tiger, but also several other people, all sitting cross-legged.

Right in front of us was a stone with a cushion on it. A young Taoist in a grey Taoist robe was sitting there, seemingly preaching the scriptures. Everyone below was sitting there and listening attentively.

That person was the one he knew.

It was especially quiet on snowy days. The sound of breaking branches could be heard a mile away. The sound naturally drifted over and seemed to echo in front of the cliffs:

"An ancient scripture says: When the mind is free of distracting thoughts, the body is as light as the wind, and one can travel the universe without even realizing it...

"As light as a swallow, with the wind under his feet, he leaves no footprints on the snow, does not sink on the water, walks on branches, and flies on the grass. He travels a thousand miles a day, as gracefully as a god..."

The sound reached the young man's ears, making him stunned.

The fairy tales that are rumored in the world, and the magical arts that I have heard about and longed for since childhood, seem to be right in front of me.

It turns out that there really are immortals living on this Maple Mountain.

But when the immortal said this, he stopped talking.

He saw himself and looked over.

Then all the people sitting below, including the man transformed from a giant tiger and even a colorful cat, turned their heads and cast their gazes over.

The boy was a little timid for a moment.

The man smiled and waved to him, "Young man, are you here?"

"You...you are..."

"Don't you know who I am?"

"me……"

After all, the boy was young and couldn't say anything.

"Hahaha, I don't blame you, I don't blame you. I've met you so many times on the road, but I've never asked your name." Lin Jue said with a smile, "My last name is Lin and my given name is Jue. I once lived and practiced in the capital for a period of time."

"Forest……"

The young man’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t utter a simple “Master Lin”.

But it’s not really his fault.

By now, Master Lin’s deeds have spread throughout Qinzhou. I don’t know how famous they are in other places, but near the capital, everyone has heard the three words “Master Lin” countless times.

There is no teenager who doesn't know this.

The story of how Master Lin became an immortal by refining elixirs and even the legendary gods came to congratulate him with gifts has become a household name and has even been exaggerated.

When such a deity appears before you, it is not so easy to utter the three words "Master Lin".

"I have never asked the young master's name."

"My name is Xu Yi"

"Xu Yi, what a nice name."

With a clang, the hatchet was buried in the snow.

"I, I also want to learn magic from the gods." The young man took a deep breath and immediately performed a great salute to Lin Jue.

He was more direct than Lin Jue thought.

If you think about it carefully, it is human nature.

(End of this chapter)