The myth begins with the Lotus Lantern

Chapter 287 Cheng Yun
Xin Jia was indeed very good at protecting himself; he never mentioned it, nor did he show any sign of doubt.

But, of all the words, there is only one.

Ding Lin suspected that he was doubting.

One reason is enough.

Ding Lin also believed that even if Xin Jia harbored doubts, this secret might follow him throughout his life, and he would never reveal a single word until his death.

But how can trust compare to that of a fellow case?
"What, do you think it's not enough?" Ding Lin's voice rang out, sounding like a devil's whisper in the empty main hall.

"This humble general... General, your kindness is too much. I feel ashamed. My efforts are in vain. Your reward is far too generous," Xin Jia said.

“But I think you deserve it,” Ding Lin said, his gaze fixed on Xin Jia, never wavering for a moment.

"In that case, I can only accept your humble reply." Xin Jia smiled bitterly. He had no choice. Once he understood this, he calmed down.

The sharpness in Ding Lin's eyes faded, and with a gentle push, three peaches flew towards Xin Jia, who raised his hands high and respectfully accepted them.

"Such a treasure might attract jealousy if it goes out. Let's consume and refine it in this hall. I will protect you then," Ding Lin said.

"promise!"

Xin Jia was very compliant. Now that he had made the decision, everything else would take its natural course and there would be no more obstacles. A flash of inspiration appeared on his body, and he put away the cumbersome silver armor, then sat cross-legged.

As Ding Lin watched Xin Jia put the peaches into his mouth one by one, a very familiar spiritual aura emanated from his body, and a smile finally appeared on Ding Lin's lips.

However, refining this purple-veined peach with the body of a human immortal is still a bit too slow.

Ding Lin then unleashed another burst of Golden Immortal magic to assist Xin Jia. After an hour, all three peaches were refined, and he retrieved the three peach pits.

In that case, they'll be one of us.

"How is it?" Ding Lin asked.

"Thank you for your generous gift, General. I had previously consumed some longevity-promoting substances, and with the help of these three peaches, my lifespan has now increased to 90,000 years. In the future, I will barely qualify to cultivate to the late stage of the Immortal Realm," Xin Jia said.

"What do you think should be done about this?" Ding Lin asked, now that he no longer needed to avoid Xin Jia's presence.

"General, now that Yin Huan has been executed and his soldiers have settled down, our base is secure. The next problem is how to deal with the outside world. I believe that the troubles outside come from two aspects."

“One is General Wang Yu, the general just went out…” Xin Jia paused for a moment. The collision of the laws between Ding Lin and Wang Yu by the Milky Way had not been hidden, and he had certainly felt the oppressive atmosphere of that moment.

“I’ve already spoken to Wang Yu, and he shouldn’t be having any trouble for the time being,” Ding Lin said.

“Then only the inspection from above remains. Originally, with the Peach Banquet approaching, it was uncertain whether or not someone from above would come. But now that the General has attained the Golden Immortal realm, it is certain that he will come, and it will be within the next few days,” Xin Jia said. He looked at Ding Lin and said, “This subordinate is ignorant in many ways. I wonder if the General could enlighten me.”

“You patrol this garden every day, and you know better than I how many peaches the monkeys eat each day. Besides, didn’t you already guess that I secretly took some as provisions? That’s why this breakthrough went so smoothly.”

Ding Lin paused as he spoke, and Xin Jia didn't respond, waiting for him to continue.

"In addition, during the handover, there was an account book. Before I became a Golden Immortal, in order to stabilize the situation and avoid any unforeseen problems, I would deduct a little from each reported loss of peaches," Ding Lin said.

"General, you are truly decisive. You have accomplished a great feat without making a sound!" Xin Jia exclaimed. He understood Ding Lin's meaning perfectly. In short, Ding Lin had inflated his achievements to maintain his position in the Peach Garden while he was cultivating.

"During my routine inspection today, I counted the peaches. The number of 3,000 and 6,000-year-old peaches remained the same. There were 8,301 9,000-year-old purple-veined peaches, of which 2,569 were ripe. Only seven of the large peaches remained, and they were all of poor quality. The medium and small peaches were counted together as instructed by the general, totaling 2,562," Xin Jia said.

Ding Lin's palm flashed with inspiration, and he took out the ledger and opened it, saying, "According to my ledger, there are still 9,096 nine-thousand-year-old purple-veined peaches, and 26 large fruits left."

"There's a shortfall of over a thousand coins! Can monkeys really eat that much?" Xin Jia's eyes widened, and he immediately realized that Ding Lin had taken the vast majority of the money. Although he had expected it, hearing the numbers made him realize that his superior was far more ruthless than he had imagined. Xin Jia gave a bitter smile. "To erase such a large amount in just a few days, we don't need a monkey, but a gluttonous beast."

Ding Lin looked at Xin Jia quietly, his expression calm. He then pushed the accounts to Xin Jia.

"Think of a way. If the monkey doesn't work, then blame it on Yin Huan and the others. After all, the dead can't talk. If they hadn't stolen so many peaches and raised their magic power to the peak, how would they have dared to launch an attack on me when their immortal rank was so low? Let's think outside the box and use this as a starting point to settle the accounts before the inspection arrives. I'm leaving this to you."

The thin ledger felt incredibly heavy in his hand, its surface slightly burning hot, but Xin Jia had no choice but to accept it. Once on board, getting off wasn't so easy, and getting involved in this matter meant he was completely locked in.

Xin Jia calculated that of the thousands of peaches missing, only three hundred were from the stone monkey, leaving a total of seven hundred that had been swallowed up by his superior. He truly had a gluttonous mouth.

Even more tragically, despite his deep involvement, he only received a mere three out of the seven hundred.

“I still have quite a few peaches left. Now that I’ve become a Golden Immortal, these peaches are of little use to me. You still have room for growth in your lifespan and cultivation. Those three were just appetizers. Once you’ve done your job well, I won’t be stingy. At least, when you try to break through to the Golden Immortal realm in the future, you won’t fail due to insufficient magical power or lifespan.” Ding Lin seemed to see through Xin Jia’s thoughts and added, “There’s plenty of time in the future, but first we need to have a future.”

Xin Jia paused for a moment.

"I understand."

Xin Jia said that a few numbers could be easily calculated, but the difficult part was putting them into writing. He gathered his magic power at his fingertips and stared at the ledger for a while.

Ding Lin stopped urging him and gave him ample time to struggle and think.

An hour later, Xin Jia finally put down his pen.

The magic power outlined the ink marks, and the accounts were complete.

This is the true pledge of allegiance.

On the high seat, Ding Lin looked at Xin Jia with an unprecedentedly friendly smile.

Now, we can finally be considered true friends.

"Go ahead. The country has just been thrown into turmoil, and the people are in disarray. The men outside still need your guidance. I entrust you with the command of the troops and the men below. I am at ease."

Ding Lin added that Xin Jia could now be completely trusted, so it was only right to entrust him with these trivial military matters.

"Thank you for your trust, General. I will take my leave now." Xin Jia bowed and then slowly withdrew from the small building.

I looked up; the sun was blazing.

No matter how you look at it, it's completely different from when I came here.

……

Ding Lin watched Xin Jia disappear, gradually calming his emotions. He then closed his eyes and began cultivating. He had already become a Golden Immortal, and a chain of laws stretched across his inner world. Although he tried his best not to ponder it, it was still subtly influencing his understanding of the water element laws as time went by. He needed to cultivate a transformation as soon as possible to comprehend other laws, the sooner the better, otherwise it would only become more and more difficult.

"Clouds are the vapors of mountains and rivers; the earth's vapors rise to form clouds... Some clouds appear as if suspended in the air and are reddish in color, and are called clouds..."

"When the earth's energy rises, the sky does not respond, and this is called fog..."

"Thunder is the subtle movement of Yin and Yang, and it is the source of life in thunderstorms."

Ding Lin closed his eyes and began to ponder the changes of riding the clouds and mist. His thoughts rose and returned to the inner world.

That law still hung there, suppressing everything. The sea was calm and still, like a stagnant pool. Ding Lin had a thought, and waves rose again on the sea. But compared to when he first became a Golden Immortal, these waves were much smaller. He felt powerless.

Ding Lin recalled his sudden enlightenment in the Milky Way, and then submerged his thoughts into the water. The bottom of the water was quiet and still. Indeed, it was not so easy to avoid. As his gaze fell, the bottom of the water became the surface of the water, and calm became the keynote. Water has a thousand faces. Since he had first befriended the calm and gentle, he naturally distanced himself from the turbulent waves. At this moment, Ding Lin had a deeper understanding of Tianpeng's words.

But clouds and mist, another form of water, should remain unaffected.

Ding Lin's eyes flickered. After becoming a Golden Immortal, although enlightenment became more difficult, he naturally gained insights into how to achieve enlightenment. To transform into one, one must first thoroughly understand the causes, processes, and principles, and then comprehend the essence before attempting to succeed.

This is what is meant by the upper body embodying the heart of heaven.

In Ding Lin's mind, knowledge from his past life naturally surfaced. Although the past years were long ago, after condensing the demon core, divine thoughts were born, and his mind became clear and his memory was strong. Unless he wanted to, he would never forget it again.

Memories that were once hidden deep in the mind and had become faint traces can be brought back to clarity simply by digging them out.

Causes of clouds and fog.

This was knowledge from a middle school biology textbook in my previous life.

Clouds are visible polymers floating in the air, composed of tiny water droplets formed when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses upon cooling or tiny ice crystals formed by sublimation.

It is a tangible result of the Earth's massive water cycle.

When the sun shines on the Earth's surface, water evaporates to form water vapor. Once the water vapor becomes supersaturated, water molecules gather around the dust particles in the air, which are condensation nuclei. The resulting water droplets or ice crystals scatter sunlight in all directions, creating the appearance of clouds.

The conditions for fog formation are cooling, humidification, and the presence of condensation nuclei, which increase the water vapor content.

Compared to clouds hanging high in the sky, fog is below, close to the ground. If there isn't enough dust in the air, it will fall to the ground and turn into dew.

These things are clearly etched in my memory.

Ding Lin no longer needs to observe and study; the great figures of his previous life have already given the correct conclusions. He only needs to stand on the shoulders of giants to easily reap these achievements.

Clouds, fog...

As Ding Lin pondered, suddenly, a soft "clattering" sound came from the void in front of him, and two blurry images of iron chains appeared, only to collapse abruptly.

The sky cracked open, revealing the chaos beyond the cavern.

Ding Lin's eyes widened, his body trembling slightly, not from fear, but from excitement. Just now, merely recalling the knowledge of cloud formation in his mind, he had almost achieved a law. This...

This……

Ding Lin seemed to see an incredibly bright future. Having traveled through so many years, always cautious and trembling, this was indeed the true nature of the original mythical world—a world full of cruelty, where there was so little peace and tranquility. But sometimes Ding Lin wondered if this journey had brought him no advantages at all.

It's not that it doesn't exist, but rather that the time hasn't come yet.

It turns out he was a late-game player.

Cultivating according to the laws requires even the Dao Ancestor to first comprehend its essence before he can understand it. Furthermore, the techniques that have been passed down are all only partially recorded.

The so-called "immortal path values ​​self-interest" reveals the essence of cultivators fighting independently. Human strength has its limits, and if one cannot stand on the shoulders of predecessors, even those with great supernatural powers can only rely on long years of trial and error to uncover a corner of the truth.

Behind Ding Lin, however, was an entire civilization as his support. Although he went south to work after the college entrance examination, he was grateful to the country for the fact that he had received nine years of compulsory education, plus three years of secondary education in high school. This accumulation was enough to give him a huge first-mover advantage after he became a Golden Immortal.

It took Ding Lin a while to calm down again.

For ordinary Golden Immortals, the most difficult thing about comprehending the laws is that the laws they have already cultivated will be intentionally interfered with by preconceived notions, and observation is only the first step in exploration. If they encounter setbacks at the first step, it will be difficult to continue.

Ding Lin, however, was not bothered by this. He already had ready-made conclusions in his mind, which he could use immediately. Putting aside everything else, these phenomenal laws were simply a gift package from a time traveler.

Still can't be happy too early.

Ding Lin cleared his mind of the jumbled thoughts and returned to the clouds. His memory of the clouds' formation should be complete. But why did they suddenly collapse just as the laws were about to condense?

Was it because I was too careless when I was studying that I made a mistake somewhere?
Ding Lin decided to put the fog aside and first figure out the cloud. With a thought, the Great Sun Golden Pill above his head became even hotter, causing water vapor to rise continuously from the sea surface and form steam. He then used his magic to make the steam suddenly cool down and form small ice crystals.

The next moment, Ding Lin realized the problem.

This is, after all, his inner world, not the mature world outside. Although the sky appears blue, it is actually empty and devoid of any dust or haze.

Once the free water vapor reaches saturation, it has nothing to rely on. Without condensation nuclei to attach to, and lacking the necessary conditions, clouds naturally cannot be formed.

(End of this chapter)