The Great Way to Truth, Starting from Jiazi Laodao

Chapter 61: The Mountain Tits
The crane landed on the ground, folded its wings and squatted down, with an elegant posture and attentive service. Xuanming lightly tapped his toes, with his wide sleeves waving in the wind, and floated down gracefully.

Qiuzhen was overjoyed and bowed his head in greeting under Xuanxu's guidance: "Thank you, senior brother (master uncle, senior uncle) for saving me."

"I'm glad you're all alright!" After comforting everyone, Xuanming said with a kind smile, "Congratulations, Junior Brother, on achieving Immortal Reality."

Xuanxu returned the greeting, smiling brightly, "It's all thanks to Senior Brother and Chang'anzi."

During the brief conversation, Xuanxu did not ask his senior brother the stupid question of why he went down the mountain. Senior brother Xuanming was good at fortune-telling and had mastered the art of Yi Dao. It was not surprising that he knew they were in danger, otherwise, he would not have left any means of self-defense before going down the mountain.

It is not advisable to stay here for long, so the Taoists didn't say much. They chatted for a few words and then stopped talking. Xuanxu asked everyone to sit cross-legged and regulate their breathing. After suppressing the restless qi and blood, they immediately set off and continued on their journey.

Xuanming swung his whisk, and three thousand silver threads wrapped around the corpse of the dragon snake. He then tied the whisk to the peach wood sword and ordered it to hold it up and follow behind him. He then leaped onto the crane and flew up with the sound of flapping wings, soaring into the sky and admiring the sunset glow and sea of clouds.

The other crane looked exhausted and flapped its wings hard, trying to catch up with its companion, but it was always nine feet slower than the crane in front of it and flew nine feet lower in the air.

Xuan Kong was sitting cross-legged on the spirit crane, looking at the spirit crane in front of him with a resentful expression. He raised seven spirit cranes, and he usually lived with them day and night and served them diligently. He recognized at a glance that the one in front of him was Xiao Qi.

Among the seven cranes, this one has the best appearance, with bright feathers, white as clouds, not stained by dust, and a gorgeous crown, red as the sun, dazzling and bright.

It is also the most spiritual among the seven cranes, with an arrogant personality and a cold look. On weekdays, except for eating and drinking, they would ignore him completely, let alone sit on him. Even if he touched it, they would chase after him and peck at it.

Now, not only did he obediently serve as Brother Xuanming's footstool, but he was also attentive and humble, and even squatted automatically when he landed. This was treatment he had never received in all his more than ten years of riding a crane, and it was a good thing that he didn't roll over when he landed.

For a moment, Xuan Kong felt mixed emotions, and had the illusion that the world was not worth living. He murmured softly, "I was wrong after all."

Looking down at the sitting spiritual crane, Xuan Kong said, "Ah Da, you have eaten spiritual food for two more years than Xiao Qi, and practiced for two more years. You will definitely be able to catch up. Don't let me down."

The crane rolled its eyes, chirped twice in dissatisfaction, and even shook its body, as if it was going to throw you off if you kept talking nonsense.

After years of getting along, he already knew what Ling He meant. This person disliked him for being fat. Xuan Kong's mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but complained: "Just like you, I'm not fat."

After he finished speaking, Xuan Kong realized that he was in trouble, and immediately leaned over the crane's back, circulating his magic power, sticking to it and holding on to its feathers at the same time. The next moment, the crane swooped down, spun in the air, and then rose up at a very fast speed, accompanied by screams and joyful crane calls that resounded through the sky.

On the spiritual crane, Xuanming stroked his beard and smiled: "I didn't expect Junior Brother Xuankong to have such a pure heart."

The voice was transmitted to the lower level. Xuan Yang raised the corner of his mouth and was about to speak, but he saw the head teacher staring at him. He smiled ingratiatingly and immediately lowered his head and shut up.

With Xuanming's escort, the group from Qiuzhen Temple had a smooth journey back to Fuyun Mountain.

---

After a busy day, everyone returned to their homes to rest. Since they were already back and there was nothing urgent, there was no need to rush.

After asking Chang'anzi to have a good rest at Zangdao Peak, Xuanming returned to the Wendao Temple. Inside the thatched cottage, the dim candlelight dispelled the darkness of night.

Sitting at the table, he spread out his palms, with thunder and lightning in his palms, the five elements merged into one, evolving into a foot-long thunder, communicating with the heaven and earth, absorbing the free thunder spirit in the void, like a thunder dragon wandering in his palms, the foot-long thunder body contains terrifying energy, enough to destroy mountains and rivers, and kill Xiantian realm cultivators. This is the sign of the success of the Five Thunder Method: summoning thunder and lightning, not only greatly increases the power of thunder, but also initially breaks free from the distance limit. If it is said that the Five Thunder Method could only be performed a hundred feet away before, then now it is linked to the range of Xuanming spiritual perception, it looks like a thunder from heaven descending to the world, killing demons and monsters, and cleansing the world.

With his palm facing downward, he injected the power of thunder into the peach wood sword to refine the spiritual weapon. Xuanming looked at the bright moon in the sky through the window, his thoughts drifting.

On the evening of four days ago, when observing the last thunderstorm of the summer, he used his spiritual sense to perceive the four weather phenomena and once again entered that mysterious state, gaining a deeper understanding of wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

Previously, Xuanming had realized the way of the Great Circulation of Heaven through the circulation of weather, and had a preliminary understanding of the mystery of the microcosm and the macrocosm of the human body:
Heaven and earth give birth to and nurture all things. Man is the most spiritual being that has obtained the most beautiful energy. The universe is in his hands and all things are born in his body. The way of human life is connected with the way of the universe, and man and heaven are of the same structure.

In other words, the human body is a microcosm of the universe. If a person can remain calm and peaceful, all heaven and earth are his.

After realizing this, on subsequent thunderstorms, he would consciously look for the connection and resonance between the human body and wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

Because he had been immersed in the Five Thunder Method for the longest time and had the highest attainments, Xuanming was the first to gain something in the Thunder Method:

Thunder is courage; lightning is sound; the voice is deep if the courage is strong, and the voice is loud if the courage is strong. Thunder energy flows to the heart, thunder is like the sound of the heart, and lightning is like the lightning of the heart...

In addition, my cultivation has improved, and I have been able to understand some difficult problems by analogy. Although the progress is slight, it is better than no progress. When small progress accumulates, the momentum is considerable.

He also opened up the hand Taiyin lung meridian, and his practice shifted from the eight extraordinary meridians to the twelve regular meridians, increasing his magical powers.

When he came out of retreat today, he learned from Xuantong that Xuankong had come back for help. Chang'anzi won the fifth place in the Daoyuan Conference, and fought against opponents of higher levels with his cultivation level of the third level of Jingjing, and defeated many Taoist practitioners of the fourth level of Jingjing. Even if he practiced both Dharma and body, it was still a little unacceptable. I'm afraid some people have guessed that he has a superior Taoist foundation.

In other words, he is very likely to have the superior foundation-building method of the Qiuzhen Temple, so there is no guarantee that someone will not have evil intentions.

Thinking back to the fact that he had been assassinated by the killer from Fuyi Tower and that Xuan Ye's death was related to the eldest son of the Wang family, the hexagram only showed that there would be disaster amidst the good fortune, but he had not expected it to be so dangerous, so Xuan Ming immediately set out from the mountain.

This is why the scene of the snake being struck by lightning happened today.

---

Inside the thatched cottage, in front of the table.

Xuanming took a sip of tea, withdrew his thoughts, put down the teacup, looked at his plain wide sleeves, and suddenly remembered something.

With a slight wave of his sleeves, black and white lights flashed and evolved into a rune in the air. It was the character "Ming". It was in the darkness, shining with a mysterious aura, and the light was filled with the rhythm of Taoism.

The finger pointed upwards and rotated slightly. The black and white light of the Ming character went from being distinct to being intertwined. A hole opened up in the void, and the three-foot illusory world reappeared, evolving into a black and white vortex, and spitting out an object.

This is a red-bellied tit, with a black head and neck, a pure red belly, and a gradient blue back. It has a good appearance and is as big as a bowl. Although it is unconscious, it exudes a demonic aura and is a demon bird in the Qi training Zhoutian realm.

Xuanming waved his sleeves to put away the Ming character and looked at the mountain sparrow monster.

(End of this chapter)