Hermit in the Mountains

After leaving Fushou Hall, Gu Changsheng contacted Yang Dashan to arrange a meeting place to pick him up, and the two headed back home.

The following day, thirty villagers from the same village, under the command of Yang Dashan, began a new round of tree planting.

The villagers are planting nearly 2,000 plants a day, steadily advancing the plan to plant 20,000 plants, and expect to complete the planting task in twelve days.

Gu Changsheng gave Yang Dashan full authority to manage the planting plan. Every day at lunchtime, Yang would meet the villagers with extra gifts, greet them, and offer them some warmth.

During other times, he was busy cultivating, tending the medicinal fields, nurturing spiritual herbs, raising spiritual pets, comprehending the withering and flourishing alchemy method, and perfecting the three arts of 'Gathering Spirit,' 'Spiritual Rain,' and 'Gathering Rain.'

Two days after Gu Changsheng returned to the mountain, he received dozens of clothing design sketches from Mu Lingjin. He made a few changes to the details according to his preferences and finalized the styles of two outfits that same day.

That evening, he received a message from Zhang Yuanfu, who said that he was going to hold a small alchemy appreciation meeting, and attached a list of six attendees.

Zhang Yuanfu paid meticulous attention to detail. There were only six people participating in the pill-tasting competition, and Gu Changsheng received a copy of their identities and names.

Why did Zhang Yuanfu prepare three days? Firstly, he wanted to take Peiyuan Xiaolingdan and Buyang Xiaolingdan to personally experience their effects.

Secondly, it's about arranging a time with old friends, since getting all six of them to meet on the same day would require everyone to make arrangements.

When Gu Changsheng saw the identities of the six people participating in the Pill Appreciation Conference on the list, he couldn't help but marvel at the connections of Fushoutang, a place with a history of over a hundred years.

Among the six are an old Taoist priest who lives in seclusion in the Zhongnan Mountains, a female lay Buddhist, a master of an old temple in the deep mountains, a top tea maker, a top incense maker, and a retired senior official at the level of a regional governor.

Aside from the retired senior cadres, whose information can be found sporadically online, information about the other five individuals is unavailable. Without an introduction or from their own circle, it's likely that no one would know about them.

All six of them have one thing in common: they are fond of health preservation techniques and are all accomplished in them. The youngest of them is over sixty years old, and the oldest is eighty.

Gu Changsheng memorized the names and identities of the six people, thinking that perhaps one of them had embarked on the path of cultivation.

He doesn't need to pay too much attention to or put in the effort to befriend these people. If any of them embark on the path of cultivation, they will naturally sense the residual spiritual energy within the small elixir after taking it, and they will come to him on their own.

He had a deeper plan in having Zhang Yuanfu sell the Lesser Elixir; the bait was cast out to see if it could attract the 'fish' he wanted.

He specifically instructed Zhang Yuanfu not to disclose his information, just to maintain an air of mystery.

How could Gu Changsheng not have considered the risk of his identity being exposed? This is the age of technology! If someone really wants to investigate you, even hiding deep in the mountains and forests might not be safe.

The previous sale of a 60-year-old wild ginseng served as a cautionary tale, attracting the attention of Li Anlan of Qin Medicine Group. He kept making excuses to avoid meeting with him.

Zhang Yuanfu did not invite anyone from the Qin Medicine Group to this pill-tasting event, as he was wondering if Li Anlan would come because of the smell.

Whether the tasting of elixirs would ultimately serve as a catalyst or a means to attract more talent, he could not say.

It could be a small fish taking the bait, or it could be a shark coming because it smelled the scent.

He only needs to pay attention to whether anyone is trying to find out about him to know if any "fish" have taken the bait.

Gu Changsheng both hoped that a 'fish' would bite the hook, and worried that the hook would be a 'shark'.

Since these six people were the first batch selected by Zhang Yuanfu, there shouldn't be any "sharks" among them.

He feared the emergence of cultivators more powerful than himself, but he feared even more the absence of cultivators in the world.

The former only requires dealing with pressure from a certain force or individual, while the latter is much more troublesome.

If there is only one cultivator, you are an anomaly and an uncontrollable danger in the eyes of the country, and elimination is the best option.

But when practitioners are not isolated cases, it's another matter. It proves that everyone has the opportunity to embark on a spiritual journey, and practitioners are no longer outcasts, but rather an opportunity for everyone to pursue longevity.

With the hope of immortality before you, even if the country wants to harm you, there will always be someone who wants to protect you.

Who can resist the allure of immortality?

Throughout China's five thousand years of history, countless historical records have revolved around the struggle to become emperor.

But from emperors and nobles to talented people and ordinary people, who doesn't yearn to seek immortality and attain eternal life?

Even the most powerful emperors of all time, including the "Greatest Emperor of All Time," could not escape this fate, let alone others.

You are the only one who can cultivate and has the potential to live forever. You are the biggest exception. What you need to consider is how to survive.

The fact that a group of people can cultivate themselves means that everyone has the hope of pursuing immortality. Regardless of whether one can achieve immortality, the word "hope" is an irresistible temptation for everyone.

This uncertainty gives rise to "hope": if you can all cultivate, why can't I? As a result, everyone has selfish thoughts, and their hearts are not united.

When hearts are not united, many things change; some want to eliminate, some want to control, and some want to cooperate...

Gu Changsheng bet that there was a 99% chance that someone as lucky as him would embark on the path of cultivation.

Because he discovered two humans in Xiaohe Village who could resonate with spiritual energy: Yang Dashan's son and Yang Qingshan. Their spiritual compatibility was only a few points, but there was still hope.

Even if only one in a billion people possess innate talent for cultivation, with a population of 1.4 billion in China, there are enough people in the country to find fourteen who meet the requirements for cultivation.

Moreover, Xiahe Village only has a few hundred people, and two of them meet the cultivation requirements. According to this ratio, it's one in a hundred. Even if the ratio isn't that high, even if it's one in a thousand or one in ten thousand, the population base that meets the cultivation requirements is still quite large.

Gu Changsheng also concluded that places near the wild or far from cities are more likely to stimulate the regeneration of one's innate spiritual roots.

He entered Chang'an City twice but did not find a single person with innate spiritual roots, because there was no spiritual energy in the city, so how could he resonate with it?

To awaken the innate spiritual root hidden within the body, one must first come into contact with spiritual energy and receive its nourishment over a long period of time.

The Daoist canon states that each person is born with a wisp of innate essence, which is regarded as the foundation of all matter and energy.

Within the body lies a wisp of innate Qi bestowed by heaven, considered a divine object capable of sensing the spiritual energy and power of the outside world.

The primordial Qi may be what people often call the "spiritual root," a bridge for communicating with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Therefore, he personally speculated that every living being is born with an innate spiritual root, but under the erosion of acquired turbidity, some of these innate spiritual roots are completely extinguished, leaving them as people without spiritual roots, while others still retain a glimmer of hope...

The longer one spends in the mundane world, the faster one's innate spiritual root is eroded by the worldly atmosphere, and the further one drifts away from cultivation.

Gu Changsheng realized he hadn't seen Yang Xiaoshan in a long time and wasn't sure if his guess was right. He decided to find some time to have Yang Dashan take his son up the mountain.

The compatibility of spiritual energy with Yang Qingshan's body has only just begun and is not yet obvious, but he has not seen Yang Xiaoshan for nearly two months, so he can verify whether there has been any change in the compatibility of spiritual energy with Yang Xiaoshan's body.

The following day, people arrived at Fushou Hall in Chang'an City from time to time.

Some were wearing Taoist robes, some were dressed in plain clothes, some wore Zhongshan suits, and some were draped in cassocks...