Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

"I miss the King."

"I really want to eat a pancake..."

The red pandas chatted idly, but their eldest brother was worried and said, "Before the king left, he told us not to forget to practice our skills every day, but none of you listened."

"Big brother, why don't you just practice your skills?" The younger brothers rolled over. "Anyway, the King never takes us down the mountain to play."

“I’m not going down the mountain for fun; I’m going to do something for the King.”

"Big brother is indeed big brother, he's really amazing."

Shoumu, who had originally intended to discipline his younger brother, wagged his tail immediately upon hearing the praise.

"It's alright, it's not that amazing."

It waved its paw, but then it remembered the king's teachings and immediately straightened its expression.

The king is coming back soon. Even if it's just a temporary measure, I have to go and hug him. I can't let my brothers go to report with their round bellies that have grown fat all winter.

No matter how much weight you gain in winter, you'll have to pay it back later. Once the king comes back, he'll supervise the lazy panda to run bamboo wheels every day. In the end, won't it be you who suffers?

Shoumu was about to persuade his younger brothers to do a set of gymnastics with him when a dark shadow flew over from the horizon.

A gust of wind swept by, and a wild goose landed in front of Shoumu, staring wide-eyed at him.

Shoumu was startled by this creature and almost lost his balance. After regaining his composure, he quickly asked, "Where did you come from, you monster? How rude of you to be running around on someone else's roof like that."

The goose didn't reply. It hopped twice on the eaves with its two slender legs, its head bobbing up and down as if it were examining the red panda in front of it.

"How strange, how strange," said the wild goose. "I must have come to the right place today, how come I've run into you, you panda spirit, again?"

"Brother, is this a friend you made down the mountain?"

The other four pandas, upon seeing the strange bird, were also disturbed from their afternoon nap. They rubbed their eyes, climbed up from the green tiles, and stood in a line next to Shoumu, yawning as they did so.

The nameplates on their necks jingled, and apart from the one with an eye injury, it was difficult to distinguish which of the four pandas was which.

The goose seemed startled by the panda brothers; it stretched out its wings and counted softly, "One, two, three, four, five..."

"Huh, why are there five panda spirits?"

The goose spirit scratched its head with its wings, its tone filled with doubt.

"What are you saying, you strange bird? We are five brothers, and shouldn't we always be five brothers wherever we go?"

Shoumu felt that this bird spirit had ill intentions. He had never seen it in the Taoist temple and did not know its origin.

Maybe it's here to steal something. As the king's little brother, Shoumu felt it was his duty to guard the gate and not let this bird spirit take a piece of meat from the house.

Shoumu bared its teeth and bristled, preparing to bravely confront the bird spirit and drive it away.

It's a master at catching birds; back in the mountains, it loved to catch sparrows to eat.

Compared to its fat younger brother, it diligently practiced its skills every day. It felt confident that it could defeat the bird spirit in a single move, so it pounced forward, intending to pin the goose spirit down and subdue it.

To its surprise, it missed.

Why have you become so much slower?

The goose spirit's voice came from behind its tail.

Shoumu turned around and found the bird spirit standing behind it, craning its neck to look at it.

"Big brother, we're here to help you!"

Seeing their eldest brother being tricked, the four panda brothers joined forces and pounced on the goose spirit.

They used all their might, and a faint white mist rose around them, with howls of wolves and roars of tigers coming from the mist, as well as huge black shadows.

Although they were just some minor, unsophisticated magic tricks, they still looked quite convincing and professional.

Even the bravest person, seeing the red panda's combination of punches for the first time, would inevitably be disturbed and reveal a flaw. But the goose spirit remained unmoved, simply spreading its wings and gently flapping them. A strong wind blew up, instantly dispersing the white mist and revealing the four pandas performing the ritual within.

The wind was so strong that, apart from Shoumu, the red panda could not maintain its balance and rolled on the green tiles like a ball of flesh.

When the wind subsided, the little ones were already seeing stars.

"Turns out they were just a few pampered little demons."

The wild goose spirit possessed the demeanor of a superior being.

"Don't be so arrogant, you strange bird. When my king returns, he won't let you off easily," Shoumu shouted.

"Your little demon is nothing special, and what kind of creature is your king?" The goose spirit sneered.

The goose spirit was feeling smug, but it didn't notice that a small white snake was crawling out of the shadows, its vertical pupils gleaming with a warm golden light, locking onto the goose spirit's neck.

The white snake flicked its tongue and crawled silently across the green tiles, slowly approaching.

No sooner said than done, the white snake arched its body and shot out like an arrow.

The goose spirit finally realized something was wrong and tried to flap its wings to escape, but it was too late; the white snake had already coiled around its body.

A plume of smoke enveloped the white snake and the wild goose. When the smoke dissipated, the wild goose was found tightly bound with a bundle of straw rope, held in someone's hand like a duck about to be sent to the kitchen.

“You wild goose spirit are so fresh and delicious, cough, so naughty, you just had to come here to bully my brother’s little demon. I’ll definitely have Brother Zhuang pick some scallions and garlic to teach you a lesson.”

The goose spirit stared wide-eyed and struggled, howling, but its beak was bound, and it couldn't utter a word. Its magical power was also almost entirely locked away.

It looked at the white snake that had transformed into a human in front of it with fear. It was clearly just a child, yet it was able to lock up the wild goose that had cultivated for a hundred years so tightly that it could not escape.

It noticed the dragon-horn-like protrusion on the boy's forehead and realized that it had once again caused trouble and offended someone it couldn't afford to offend.

The boy smiled and flicked the goose's head, saying, "We'll wait for Brother Zhuang to return so we can have a drink tonight and I'll stew you into a side dish."

Delayed

"The words in this letter are rather strange."

Qingxuzi pointed to the slightly yellowed letter, looking somewhat puzzled.

Zhuang Xing looked closely and saw that it read, "I have reached the other side of the sea. Although I have left without saying goodbye, I am still thinking of my teachers. So I ask the friends I met along the way to go on my behalf." On the surface, there was nothing wrong with this sentence, but there was another sentence following it.

My friend is named Shuofeng, a bird spirit who cultivates on Dachong Island. We met by chance. He moves like the wind and says he often travels between the coast and the mainland. After I told him the location of Xuanqing Temple, he said, "Nothing special. Half a year is enough for the trip." When I and the treasure ship arrived at Dachong Island, more than a year had passed. I never expected him to arrive so quickly. So I entrusted this to my friend.

If my teacher sees my friend, please do not blame him. My actions have nothing to do with my friend. I entrusted him with the message, hoping he would simply report that I am safe.

“According to the letter, Song Yu should have returned after a year at sea,” Qingxuzi stroked his beard. “But more than fifty years have passed now. Fellow Daoist Shuofeng, even if there were delays on the journey, it shouldn’t have taken this long…”

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Xing's face showed a thoughtful expression. This letter reminded him of an event from the past. He recalled their conversation in the emperor's study that day and said, "Master, when Yunling and I went to the capital to pay our respects to His Majesty that year, we also encountered a strange event that seemed to be related to this matter."

"Oh?" Qingxuzi looked up. "What is it?"

“When I came back that year, I actually had a spiritual exchange with my master.”

"As people get older, their memory isn't what it used to be. I only remember that you brought back the sword-tasseled robe from the palace. I can't remember anything else very clearly."

"Actually, it was also about the letter," Zhuang Xing said. "That day, I went to the Emperor's study alone, and the Emperor became interested and showed me a letter."

"His Majesty said that the letter seemed to have been sent from the treasure ship. The letter stated that it was sent in the 24th year of the Zhengde reign, but the letter was received 18 years after the treasure ship set sail."

"At that time, the late emperor had passed away and the reign title had been changed. The emperor thought that the matter of the treasure ship had long since sunk into the sea and was nowhere to be found. However, a strange bird came from the coast and delivered this letter to the person guarding the sea. It was delivered to the emperor in three days with urgent delivery."

“This… I think I remember something.” Qingxuzi paused for a moment.

That day, Zhuang Xing and Qing Xuzi were having tea at Qiluzhai when they discussed this matter.

However, Qingxuzi had no interest in the so-called treasure ship and elixir of immortality. His mind was preoccupied with his disciple whom he had not seen for many years. He only touched on the other things superficially, forgetting them as soon as they were mentioned.

Fortunately, he was a cultivator, and although he was old, he was not insane. With Zhuang Xing's help, he remembered most of what had happened.

The letter sent to the emperor seems to have been at sea for more than a decade.

At the time, Qingxuzi only regarded it as an interesting anecdote and did not think about investigating its origin. However, today, his disciple, whom he had personally raised, wrote back a letter, so he asked, "What happened to that letter afterward? Did anything else happen?"

Zhuang Xing shook his head: "According to what His Majesty said, it was just a strange bird that brought the letter back. As for the treasure ship, there was no follow-up. Why the letter drifted at sea for eighteen years is still a mystery. We haven't received any more letters since then."

Do you know what was written in that letter?

“I have read it, but it only describes some ordinary things.”

"It seems we must ask Fellow Daoist Shuofeng to return before we can find the answer," Qingxuzi said. "Since it was it that delivered the letter, it should know what happened. However, that fellow Daoist is truly exceptionally fast; I wonder where we should find it..."

"Strange, very strange..." Qingxuzi sighed softly, "I intended to treat Fellow Daoist Shuofeng with courtesy, but why did it run away as soon as it saw you, as if it had seen a creditor?"

"Master, it's really not my fault," Zhuang Xing said helplessly. "I've never seen it before."

"Hehe." Qingxuzi chuckled. "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Now that you've returned, you should go back and propose marriage. Did it go smoothly?"

"If a date is set, I, this old Taoist priest, can officiate your Taoist wedding."

The old Taoist priest had a gossipy look on his face. Though he was old, he was not young at heart and was quite concerned about the love affairs of the younger generation.

Zhuang Xing scratched his head, somewhat helplessly, and told Qing Xuzi about the day he came to propose marriage.

There were only the two of them in Qiluzhai. The other teachers and elders were still outside searching for "Fellow Daoist Shuofeng" in case anything unexpected happened. Yunling had gone back to the medicine garden with her master and was probably preparing medicine for Zhuang Xing right now.

If there were too many people, Zhuang Xing would really be too embarrassed to say it.

The old Taoist priest listened with a smile, his joy overflowing from his face as he watched this marriage, which he had witnessed since childhood, finally come to fruition.

"Excellent, excellent, excellent," Qingxuzi said with a smile. "This is a cause for great joy."

“By the way, Master, there’s something else I’d like to ask you,” Zhuang Xing said.

“Speak freely,” Qingxuzi said.

Zhuang Xing also told his master about the strange dream he had back in his hometown.

“I thought it was an evil spirit entering the body, but I couldn’t find anything wrong when I looked inside. I asked Yunling to take a look, but she couldn’t find the origin of the dream either.”

After thinking for a moment, the old Taoist priest said, "Put your hand here, and I will take your pulse."

Zhuang Xing sat down and obediently rolled up his sleeves. The old Taoist pressed two fingers on his wrist, and he could feel a stream of pure energy piercing into his meridians.

Zhuang Xing relaxed his mind and let his master examine him.

After a moment, Qingxuzi said, "Your pulse is strong and deep when palpated at the cun position, and the three pulse positions (cun, guan, and chi) are coordinated. I can't see anything wrong with it."

"Then, Master, should we just ignore this matter?"

“That may be true, but it’s still not advisable to overexert yourself these days,” Qingxuzi said. “Go back and rest for a few days. Don’t worry about anything else for now. Spend more time with your pandas at home and calm your mind.”

Go back and play with the red teddy bear at home?

Is this a prescription?