One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

Longhu Mountain is awakened in the early morning by a long and deep bell.

As the first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds and shone on the wide bluestone square in front of the Celestial Master's Mansion, hundreds of disciples dressed in blue Taoist robes were already lined up in neat rows.

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name..."

The unified chanting of sutras, accompanied by the rising wisps of sandalwood incense smoke, converged into a solemn and dignified torrent on this morning.

Everyone's breathing, tone of voice, and even their sitting posture are as if they were carved from the same mold.

However, today, there is an incongruous little black dot.

Chen Duo stood behind the pillars of the main hall, holding the futon she had just received yesterday, feeling somewhat at a loss.

She wore a somewhat oversized Taoist robe, and her hair was tied in a rather unconventional Taoist bun, which looked a little comical, yet also revealed a clumsy earnestness.

She looked at the fellow practitioners in the square who were chanting sutras with their eyes closed.

What are they doing?

Is it a conversation with the gods?

Or is it some kind of collective spiritual connection?

There are no such courses inside the bunker. There are only monotonous instructions and cold data feedback.

Chen Duo pursed her lips.

She wanted to join them.

Now that she's changed her clothes and her senior brother has acknowledged that she's from Longhu Mountain, she should do the same things as everyone else.

This is an instinctive longing for the group.

She took a deep breath, and imitating the young Taoist priest next to her, placed the prayer mat on the ground and sat down cross-legged.

Although she didn't know the meaning of those obscure scriptures, she could learn them.

Chen Duo closed her eyes, her lips moving slightly, trying to keep up with the grand rhythm.

"The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things..."

Just as she was about to integrate into the group, just as she was about to let her voice join the torrent.

A hand suddenly reached out from behind and grabbed the back of her collar.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Duo felt her body lighten, as if she were being lifted up like a kitten being strangled by fate.

"Who told you to sit here?"

That lazy, slightly sleepy, hoarse voice rang in my ears.

The solemn chanting was interrupted by this sudden change, with a very slight pause.

Many disciples who were nearby secretly opened one eye, wanting to see which audacious person dared to cause trouble during the morning lesson.

Upon seeing that it was Master Taichu, they were all so frightened that they quickly closed their eyes and chanted even louder, fearing that they would be punished.

Chen Duo opened her eyes and stared blankly at Zhang Taichu, who had picked her up.

"Master..."

Chen Duo pointed to the prayer mat on the ground, and then to the crowd in the square:

"Everyone is doing morning classes."

"They do what they want, what's it to you?"

Zhang Taichu yawned and glanced at the hundreds of people in the square with a look of disgust:

"A bunch of repeating machines, they've been saying the same thing for hundreds of years and they never get tired of it."

"This kind of rote memorization is fine for practicing your tongue, but do you expect it to cultivate your character?"

"That's a dream."

He didn't deliberately lower his voice when he said this.

Several high-ranking Taoist priests in charge of leading the lessons in the square twitched their eyebrows violently a few times, but ultimately chose to pretend to be deaf and dumb.

There's no way to beat them, we really can't.

"Take your mat and come with me."

Zhang Taichu released his grip and turned to walk towards the back of the mountain.

"My disciple doesn't practice this kind of nonsense that fools idiots."

Chen Duo was stunned for a moment.

She glanced at the formation whose entry qualification had been revoked, a hint of disappointment flashing in her eyes.

But the master's words are instructions.

She bent down to pick up the cushion, dusted it off, and jogged after him.

Passing through the hustle and bustle of the front mountain, and beyond the tranquility of the central courtyard.

Zhang Taichu did not take her back to that dilapidated courtyard, but instead led her all the way to the deepest and highest point of the back mountain.

The road became narrower and steeper.

Finally, even the road disappeared.

All that remained were exposed rocks and those crooked pine trees that stubbornly grew in the cracks of the rocks.

at last.

Zhang Taichu stopped at the edge of a cliff that jutted out from the mountain and seemed to be suspended in mid-air above the sea of ​​clouds.

This is one of the highest points of Longhu Mountain.

Standing here, the sky above is within reach, and the vast sea of ​​clouds below is rolling and surging.

The rising sun dyed the clouds a magnificent golden-red, so beautiful it took our breath away.

But again.

The wind here is terrifyingly strong.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!

The gale, carrying the chill of the high altitude, was like invisible knives, scraping across the face without any obstruction, making the Taoist robe flutter loudly.

"sit down."

Zhang Taichu walked to the very edge of the cliff.

There were no railings there; one more step forward and it would be a bottomless abyss.

He sat down casually, his legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, swaying in the wind.

Chen Duo, clutching the prayer mat, stood two meters away from the cliff, too afraid to move.

Her face was a little pale.

Although she is an extraordinary person, her physical abilities far exceed those of ordinary people, and she might not necessarily die from falling.

But the visual impact of facing the abyss directly still made her instinctively feel fear.

"Scared?"

Zhang Taichu glanced back at her, then patted the rock beside him:

"come over."

"That's an order."

Chen Duo gritted her teeth.

She placed the prayer mat where Zhang Taichu pointed—at the very edge of the cliff.

Then, like a stiff robot, she moved over little by little and sat down carefully.

I had just sat down.

A strong upward gust of air suddenly rushed up from below the cliff, almost knocking her over.

hum!

Chen Duo was so frightened that her hair stood on end, and her internal energy instantly surged to its maximum.

A fleeting purple light flashed in his once clear pupils.

She is fighting back.

She was using her strength to hold on tightly to the ground, resisting the wind that was trying to push her off.

Even the sealed Gu poison bead on her neck began to emit uneasy fluctuations due to excessive tension.

"It's over."

Zhang Taichu's voice rang out in the wind, sounding somewhat ethereal.

"What?" Chen Duo asked loudly, her body tense.

The wind was too strong, and she couldn't hear clearly.

"I said, disperse your Qi."

Zhang Taichu reached out a hand and placed it on Chen Duo's stiff, iron-like shoulder:

"Remove all those defenses and those confrontations."

"But...we'll fall!"

Chen Duo's voice carried a hint of panic.

If she doesn't use her Qi to resist, this wind really will blow her away!

"I'll fish you out if you fall."

Zhang Taichu exerted a slight force, and a domineering yet harmless golden light instantly entered Chen Duo's body, forcefully dispersing the Qi she had just gathered:

"Now, close your eyes."

Don't think about anything.

"Just sit here."

"daze."

Staring blankly?

Chen Duo's mind went blank.

In her life, she learned how to kill, how to infiltrate, how to endure pain, and even how to eat and dress.

But no one ever taught her how to daydream.

Without the protection of Qi, the biting cold wind instantly penetrated the thin Taoist robe and clung directly to the skin.

cold.

Not only was it cold, but the sense of weightlessness and the possibility of falling at any moment was amplified infinitely.

Chen Duo's eyelashes trembled.

Her hands gripped the rocks beneath her so tightly that her fingernails dug into the cracks.

"Don't grab me."

Zhang Taichu pried her fingers open:

"Relax."

"Loosen your hands, and your heart will be at ease."

"This wind isn't trying to harm you; it's just passing by."

"Since you were just passing by, why did you block its way like a hedgehog?"

Chen Duo was forced to let go.

She placed her hands on her knees, feeling like a leaf adrift in a storm, utterly helpless.

The wind rushed into her sleeves, billowing her Taoist robe.

She felt like she was about to fly.

It's going to break.

It's going to disappear.

"listen."

Just as she was about to collapse and wanted to circulate her Qi to resist again.

Zhang Taichu's voice, like a stabilizing needle, firmly pierced her mind:

"Listen to it."

"Besides the sound of the wind, what else is there?"

What else?

Chen Duo forced herself to shift her attention away from her fear.

Apart from the whistling wind, all I could hear was a buzzing noise.

That was the echo of fear.

"Calm down."

"Feel the bead on your neck."

"It's alive too."

bead?

Chen Duo subconsciously focused her mind on her chest.

The bead that sealed the primordial poison was now pulsating in rhythm with her heartbeat.

Boom, boom, boom.

That was the pulse of death.

But at this moment, high in the sky.

Chen Duo was surprised to discover.

The rhythm of the beads surprisingly resonated with the surrounding wind.

The wind blows.

The purple nebula inside the bead glowed faintly.

The wind subsided.

The nebula then dimmed.

They... are breathing.

Chen Duo was stunned.

She slowly, tentatively, and completely relinquished control of her body.

She no longer fought against the chill, no longer resisted the pushing force.

Instead, imagine yourself becoming a stone, a tree, or... part of the wind.

A miracle happened.

When she stopped resisting.

The wind, which had been cutting like a knife, suddenly became gentle.

It slipped through the wide sleeves, taking away the warmth from her body, but it also took away the boulder that had been weighing on her heart.

The fear of falling at any moment disappeared.

Instead, there is an unprecedented lightness.

She heard the sound of the sea of ​​clouds surging, a low murmur like ocean waves.

She heard the faint cracking sound of the rocks expanding as they heated in the sunlight.

She could even hear a squirrel leaping across the treetops in the forest hundreds of meters below.

This is...

Is that the sound of the mountains?

Chen Duo's brows relaxed.

The corners of her mouth, which had been tightly pursed, gradually relaxed.

The gloom and deathly aura that had lingered between her brows for years were swept away by the fierce winds of the mountain peak.

She kept her eyes closed.

But a single, glistening tear slid down the corner of her eye.

It's not because of sadness.

Rather, it's because...

Too noisy.

The sounds of this world are so rich, so lively, so... vibrant.

"ah--!!!"

Sudden.

Chen Duo suddenly opened her eyes.

Those eyes, once as still as water, now reflected the vast sea of ​​clouds and the rising sun, shining with an astonishing brightness.

She gazed at the vast sea of ​​clouds, at the endless void.

He mustered all his strength and let out a shout.

Meaningless.

It's just a simple release.

Shout out Chen Duo, who has been hiding in the secret bunker for over a decade, and that Gu-body Saint Child who only knows how to kill, and throw them all into this bottomless abyss.

The sound was crisp and penetrating, echoing through the valley for a long time.

It startled a flock of birds in the distance.

Zhang Taichu sat to the side, his hands resting on the rocks, watching his foolish apprentice shouting at the air.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

There was no stopping them, nor any mockery.

Chen Duo continued shouting until her voice was hoarse, and she was so exhausted that she collapsed onto the rock, panting heavily.

Zhang Taichu slowly took out a steamed bun from his pocket, broke it in half, and handed it to her:

"Are you hungry?"

"Have something to eat."

Chen Duo took the steamed bun, her hands still trembling slightly.

That was exciting.

She turned her head and looked at Zhang Taichu, a bright smile appearing on her rosy face, which was flushed from the wind.

That was the most hearty laugh she had ever had in her life.

"Master."

Chen Duo took a bite of the cold, hard steamed bun, but found it even more delicious than the vegetarian chicken she had last night.

"wind……"

"It's sweet."