Because it was difficult for Liu Qiao to carry pots, pans, jars, rice, flour, grains, oils, cloth, and salt by himself, he bought an old donkey that was used to grind flour in the village to carry all these belongings on his back.
All this cost a total of three cents, and the savings Liu Qiao had accumulated when he was an official had been spent to the tune of seventy-seven percent.
However, the time for practice is coming, and the extraordinary skills are already in his chest. Why should he care about this little money and extraneous things.
Seeing that it was still early, Liu Qiao did not dare to waste time, so he led the donkey and carried the load, and walked all the way to Beishan.
The mountain seemed to be right in front of him. However, with Liu Qiao's strength, he walked for three full days and another one or two hundred miles before reaching the foot of the mountain.
"My dear donkey, please try harder. We'll cross the pine trees in front of us, and we're not far from going up the mountain..."
Liu Qiao held the rope and filled the old donkey with water and cheered it up, regardless of whether the beast understood it or not.
"You hang out with those villagers and starve for nine meals in three days and become a skinny donkey. Follow me, Mr. Liu, and eat weeds and drink dew. You are free and comfortable. How wonderful..." Liu Qiao patted the donkey's head.
, said with a proud smile.
It would have been better if he didn't say this. As soon as he said this, the old donkey roared angrily, bared his teeth and yelled "Ah... Enang..." He immediately raised his front hooves and threw his burden to the ground.
Liu Qiao scolded: "I've made you a lazy donkey who doesn't know how to grind. You used to be able to pull hundreds of kilograms of rollers in the village. Now you can only carry a hundred kilograms. You have to rest after walking seven or eight miles. Don't worry about it."
Master Liu, am I easy to bully?"
After saying that, he was ready to pull the tree branches and beat him. However, donkeys are born with a provocative temperament. The road was dusty and it was extremely tired. No matter how Liu Qiao shouted and urged, it just wouldn't go up the mountain.
During the stalemate, Liu Qiao suddenly felt something and whispered in the donkey's ear, begging for mercy: "Master donkey, don't be stubborn, our nemesis is here..."
After saying that, he hurriedly picked it up with his feet, kicked the burden up to ten feet high, landed it firmly on the old donkey's back, grabbed the reins and dragged it hard into the forest.
The old donkey also seemed to have a spirit. He obediently picked up the load, stepped lightly on the grass with his four hooves, did not dare to make a sound, and quickly followed Liu Qiao into the pine forest.
"Huhu... Huhu..."
About twenty or thirty breaths later, a dark cloud flew across the sky, about dozens of feet above the ground.
The clouds seemed to have covered the sun, and the wind was blowing in the mountains and forests, and the smell was astounding.
Under the lush pine leaves, Liu Qiao and the old donkey were squatting in the grass. The old donkey was lying on the ground with his head buried in the soil and trembling. Liu Qiao also had a slightly tense look on his face, and he did not dare to take a breath.
Fortunately, there was shade from the trees, and the dewy weather just diluted the smell of strangers, so the black smoke was not noticed, and it just flew over the head and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Damn...there are really monsters..."
Looking at the monster's posture, it was obvious that it was not as easy to mess with as the nine-lives monster, and Liu Qiao felt a pang in his heart.
"Ah... Enang... Enang..."
After the black smoke flew over, the old donkey couldn't help but exhale white air, stood up, bared his teeth and barked twice, trembling all over, obviously urging Liu Qiao to leave quickly.
Liu Qiao thought for a moment, then pulled the old donkey off again, and cursed: "I told you to leave just now and you refused to leave, but now you come to urge me, you are really a stupid donkey..."
"Look at the speed of the demon's cloud light. It's obvious that he was captured alive and will be back soon. After passing through the pine forest, there is no obstruction all the way. Wouldn't he be seen by the demon who came back..."
After saying that, he stretched out his hand and forced the donkey's head to the ground again, and threatened: "Master, I have sword skills to save my life. I pity you, but you are like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth, and a meat bun beating a dog..."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was another whistle in the sky, and black smoke flew overhead again.
However, this time the smoke cloud was obviously much slower, and it was dimly visible that there were seven or eight living people wrapped in it, some old and young, all crying in the cloud, but I didn't know where the demon took it from. .
When the black clouds passed by, the fog dropped far away on the Nanshan Mountains and disappeared.
After a long time, Liu Qiao pulled the old donkey to get up. This time, the old donkey was no longer stubborn and followed Liu Qiao all the way up the mountain.
I don’t know the name of this mountain, but it is very wide. According to the villagers, it is three hundred miles long from east to west. The east side is called Songshuping and the west side is called Zhulinpo.
It is divided into two mountains, the north and the south, with a cliff and deep gorge in the middle as the boundary. On the left is Nanshan, also called Peach Tree, which is surrounded by rocks and stretches for hundreds of miles. On the other side is Beishan, also called Qingliu Gorge, which is also hundreds of miles wide.
In the middle of the top of the mountain, there is a hundred feet flat, which is called the Golden Summit. Each of the north and south mountains has a precious place for cultivation. Together with the Golden Summit, this mountain has three good terrains.
Originally, Golden Summit was Liu Qiao's favorite spiritual acupoint, but because he was afraid of the demons in Nanshan Mountain, he put aside his plans for the time being and instead used the clear stream of Beishan Mountain as a place for practice.
That is to say, there must be water in Yunqing's streams. Liu Qiao climbed the mountain for two days with one person and one donkey, and finally reached Beishan. Sure enough, he saw dozens of streams, streams, and rivers all over the mountain.
After walking for another half day, I saw a small canyon with white stone cliffs on both sides. There was a gap about ten feet wide in the middle, turning into the valley, thirty or forty feet wide horizontally and vertically, and strange flowers and plants appeared before my eyes.
There is a hole under the cliff, about seven or eight feet deep, with water in it.
Liu Qiao led the donkey into the cave and couldn't help stroking his palms with great joy: "Yes, yes, I used Qimen Dunjia's Earth-Phaseing Technique to see that the spiritual vein of Beishan is right here, and the terrain is good. It's really a gift from God." A place to practice and achieve enlightenment…”
The donkey was also excited. He put down his burden and jumped around in the valley, happily eating weeds.
The terrain here is indeed good. There is a pine forest on the left, with full branches and pine cones hanging from the treetops. There are not only pine trees, but also peach, apricot, cherry, lychee and other trees. There is no shortage of fruits in all seasons.
On the left is a flat lawn, about hundreds of feet wide. In the future, we can open up wasteland and plant some polygonatum, ginseng, wolfberry, etc. to keep us full and healthy.
…
More than a month passed in the blink of an eye. During this month, Liu Qiao did not practice formally, but had been making preparations for practice.
There is a kind of bamboo on this mountain, with thorns on the tip joints, and it can only grow as thick as a thumb at most. I picked more than a dozen bundles and built four or five thatched huts in front of the cave.
But because the cave is humid, it is not suitable for long-term sitting in the mortal stage, nor is it consistent with the principles of health maintenance in all seasons, so building a thatched hut is necessary.
In addition, a few acres of wasteland were reclaimed, and some Polygonatum, yam, and kudzu root were collected. Some of the old ones were dried and eaten as food, and the more tender ones were planted.
After the house was built, Liu Qiao calculated that it would take exactly one month.
Immediately, I took a shower and changed my clothes, lit candles and burned incense, and prepared to start practicing for the first time.
In the cave, there is a table table with the ranking of the three Qing Dynasties. This was carved by Liu Qiao himself on a wooden board to show respect to the ancestor.
The large incense burner in the center was also lit with agarwood, and thin green smoke rose from the holes.
The cave was filled with "black smoke"... Oh no, according to Xianxia, it should be clouds, mist, and fairy aura.
Liu Qiao, with his hair disheveled and wearing a wide robe with wide sleeves and a Taoist robe tied with water and fire silk strips, kowtowed three times to the patriarch from afar, silently recited scriptures and prayed:
"Please, the Patriarch, bless my disciples to have a smooth practice. There will be no swords and weapons outside to block the way. There will be no evil demons to harass them inside. The five aggregates will not be born, and they will not be impure or pure... Disciple Liu Qiao, kneel on the ground and kowtow..."
This is called thanking the teacher. Regardless of whether you have succeeded in practice or not, you must express your gratitude from the bottom of your heart to the master and ancestor who created the method and taught it secretly. Because it is by cultivating other people's methods that you can have the opportunity to transcend the ordinary and become a saint. This grace is like re-creating. It is hard to repay even one of the ten thousand deaths.
Liu Qiao didn't know whether the patriarch would accept it or not, and whether he would bless him. But it was up to him whether he wanted it or not, and he had to fulfill all the etiquette.
Kneel down three times and knock down nine times, and after three rounds of worship, twist the water in the altar, dip willow branches in the water and sprinkle it all over the cave. This is called dust removal. Going back and forth to remove the miasma in the cave means to remove the red dust and seek immortality.
…
In short, according to the etiquette taught by Jiang Shang before, after pretending to be a ghost, Liu Qiao finally picked up the Immortal Jade Book, sat down on the futon, and began to read silently and practice.
There are only a few thousand words in the Immortal Family's true seal, but every word is precious and not a single word is redundant. However, for the same reason, it is also extremely obscure and difficult to understand. They are all written in classical Chinese and need to be interpreted word for word.
From then on, Liu Qiao went to the cave to practice for two hours every morning, practiced martial arts for an hour in the afternoon, then carried water, cooked and farmed.
In the evening, I turned on the light and read at night, practicing the fairy books for an hour.
In this way, it took half a month to finally understand the jade board fairy book handed down by Jiang Shang and written by "Yu Xu Yuanshi Tianzun, who Zhang explains the teachings of Taoism".
The general outline of the Book of Heaven says: Mix the shapes and qi of the five internal organs, gather the five elements and use kung fu, enter the void and obtain the three tastes, freely use supernatural powers, add water and fire, change the marrow and move the muscles, transcend the form and spirit to transcend the world, play with creation...
The general meaning is that it is just to concentrate and gather energy, mix it into a pill, and go through water and fire (such as mud and sand calcined into green bricks, which are not damaged by wind and rain), Goukanli (like painting a dragon and dotting its eyes, with a clear sense of perception), female beheading The red dragon (menstruation), the man kills the white tiger (gold, liquid), plants a golden lotus in the fire, and cultivates the life of the turtle and the snake...the success is returned to one Qi.
In the end, if you only develop one Qi, you will be able to play with nature and display magical powers.
This Qi in Tao is called Xiantian. If you get it, you will not die but will live longer...
————The text of this chapter is finished
As for the obscurity of this Jade Board Immortal Book, there are poems in "The Romance of the Gods" compiled by Lu Xixing later in history.
say:
A glaze of colored glaze will never extinguish the light, and a futon will discuss the art of immortality in detail.
Being able to know some of the secrets of the Heavenly Book is already the best in the world.