340: Chapter 215: An Old Friend Visits, A Farewell 340: Chapter 215: An Old Friend Visits, A Farewell In the twenty-third year of the great Daxia era, in the summer, the air sultry and humid with rainfall.
[Heavenly Marrow a thousand years]
[Imperial Elixir thirty years]
The spiritual medicine gradually became scarce, and the opportunity for becoming an immortal neared its end.
The imperial court found it increasingly difficult to mine spiritual medicine.
Gu Wen himself had spent several hundred years searching to no avail.
To avoid harming the populace, he had written a letter to Jiang Jucai a few days earlier, after a gap of three years.
Therefore, due to the search for spiritual medicine, nearly a million people lost their jobs.
In Nanshui, crowds of commoners formed groups to go to the capital and demand an explanation.
Fights, unemployment, and chaos emerged one after another, especially severe in Lin Chuan.
A million dock-workers depended on this industry for their livelihood.
It was an established industry that had been thriving for decades since the previous dynasties.
But now the spiritual medicine no longer grew.
The foundation they depended on for survival vanished, and the industry’s disappearance was beyond Gu Wen’s need.
The transportation route from Lin Chuan to Bianjing alone had consumed one-third of the national treasury in silver taels.
All Gu Wen could do was to burst the bubble in advance.
Rain drizzled from the sky, water dripping steadily from the eaves.
Standing in front of the desk, Gu Wen moved a basin with his foot, ensuring the drops fell precisely into it.
He wielded his brush, strokes sharp as a sword’s edge, breaks forceful as a spear’s energy.
Then he changed styles continuously, as if to infuse all his life’s learning into his writing.
The long-silent Immortal Sword unsheathed, floating behind Gu Wen.
Its snow-white blade reflected the content of his writing.
A chicken, with a round head, a triangular beak, and a three-forked foot.
To anyone else, it might look like a child’s careless doodles, but the Immortal Sword could see the intricacies at a glance.
It hummed softly, conveying thoughts: “Not bad, you’ve quite captured the essence of ‘return to the truth’.”
The round head symbolized the sword, the triangle the sun, and the three-forked foot Taiyin.
There were many more magic skills, evenly distributed throughout, section by section.
Gu Wen was scribbling aimlessly, but it was precisely the casualness of applying the magic skills that made the sword admire him.
The Dao is not confined to form, the intent is not confined to thought; the casual writing embodied the utmost principle of the Dao.
And his growth had not stagnated upon reaching the peak; he continued to stride forward.
If not for Jianmu, perhaps his opportunity to become a saint would have been more than Qingcang’s.
Gu Wen shook his head and said, “It’s just idle scribblings, not at all a divine skill or a miracle method.
Besides, much of it is just picking up what others have discarded.”
In his spare time, he aimed to master the magic skills more proficiently, and after several years, it became second nature.
He often recalled his master’s words that ‘Daoist Skill is simply the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, earth.’ Now, he was beginning to grasp the simplicity of it.
The sword comes from the mind; with a thought, it becomes a spear.
The sword is a spear; the spear is a sword—all in a single thought.
Hum!
The Jade Pendant nested in his chest resonated.
Looking down, he saw a crack had appeared on the surface of the Jade Pendant, from which a faint chirping sound emerged.
He chuckled, “Now that everything has settled, what use is there for you, little fella, to make your entrance?”
Another year passed, and once again it was the rainy season of summer.
The leaks in Gu Wen’s house had worsened.
His one basin had turned into five.
The Immortal Sword asked, “Aren’t you going to patch it up?”
“I’ve just bought ten basins; I’ll wait until there are ten holes.”
Gu Wen decided to wait because he felt no urgency.
If he fixed the roof, what would he do next?
Life always needs a bit of contemplation.
As the thought ended, the Jade Pendant shattered, and a wisp of cloud emerged from within, enveloping and consuming Gu Wen in no time.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself in a different realm, spanning ten acres, bordered by clouds, with a Spiritual Spring at the center.
“Ow~”
A soft howl entered his ears as a cloud beneath his feet morphed into a long-haired beast with a tiger’s face, its fur subtly grey, with a tuft at the chest resembling whiskers, centered around a red, swirling circle.
It licked its paws and regarded Gu Wen with pupils unlike that of humans.
Looking left, looking right, tilting its head in scrutiny.
Gu Wen locked eyes with the creature for a long time.
Upon the first glance, he recognized the “cat” as a transformation of the ancestral treasure.
However, the cat’s eyes were dull and foolish, purely innocent and likely had something amiss during its nurturing—why did it look so stupid?
“Hello.”
Gu Wen reached out, and the kitten sniffed at his hand before licking it with its tender tongue.
“Can you understand what I’m saying?”
The kitten licked Gu Wen again and then simply wrapped its paws around his arm, relentlessly licking.
“Do you belong to a dog?”
It was an idiotic cat.
Gu Wen was certain of this, at least at this stage, akin to a newborn infant, not understanding human speech, unable to convey thoughts, and unable to comprehend his intentions.
At least the problem with the house was solved.
Gu Wen lay back on the soft clouds, hands resting behind his head.
The kitten tentatively stepped on his chest, scratched a bit, and grew bolder seeing no reaction.
A closeness, almost as if bonded by blood, drew it unconsciously to Gu Wen.
This was the most precious trait of a divine beast: once it acknowledged a master, rebellion was nearly impossible, and such loyalty extended to its descendants or successors.
Clang!
The Immortal Sword forcibly broke through from outside the realm, its brilliance shining in all directions.
Startled, the kitten reverted back into a Jade Token, hanging around Gu Wen’s neck.
After a long observation, the Immortal Sword stated, “It’s a world unto itself, containing the sun within its heart, the foundational vessel of the Dao.
Your lineage is deep, even the divine beast is of the highest caliber.”
Gu Wen asked curiously, “What is considered the highest caliber?”
“Able to create a Grotto Heaven, and perfect the laws within to the highest standard.
It can be likened to Jianmu.”
The Immortal Sword was succinct—the potential of the divine beast was limited to Jianmu, capable of forming its own universe, eventually even replacing the Cultivation World.