Chapter 26 Departure: The School Cemetery
It was impossible to sneak over the wall in the middle of the night.
It was 2025. Even if this was a sacred place, it was equipped with no shortage of surveillance cameras. Unless Li Xuan could turn invisible, he had no confidence he could evade so many monitors; if he were caught and sent to the local police station, he would be ruined.
He took a deep breath.
He pulled out a talisman and focused his intent: *Activate.*
The crimson patterns on the talisman rippled with a flowing light, and in the next second, the entire paper turned to ash. A faint, distant sound of a crane’s cry echoed in his ears.
The Tiankuang Hall, previously filled with the din of tourists, loudspeakers, and staff, fell instantly silent. Only the clear, echoing sound of the crane remained. After a few seconds, the cry faded away as if it had retreated into the void.
Li Xuan suddenly realized that it wasn't just the sound that had vanished; the movements of the people around him had also frozen. The running children, the dharma flags fluttering in the wind, and the birds in the sky—all were locked in place.
Time had stopped.
Those were the only words that came to his mind.
A miracle!
He hurriedly looked toward the Great Emperor of Mount Tai. His mind buzzed with shock. Originally, there had only been the statue of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai on the altar, but now, two additional, hazy phantom images of deities had appeared on either side, both appearing to be emperors.
Could it be that the Great Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole and the Great Emperor of Fengdu had arrived as well?
Li Xuan felt a sudden pang of guilt. He had already sworn into the Fengdu lineage, yet he had come to the Great Emperor of Mount Tai before visiting Fengdu City. Seeing the blurred image of the Great Emperor of Fengdu, he felt as if he had been caught red-handed.
Was he about to be cast into the Iron-Walled Mountain right at the start?
No. He didn't even have the qualifications for that. To be cast into the Iron-Walled Mountain, one had to first become a Fengdu judge. Someone like him—an ordinary person without a master’s guidance, who walked into a temple and recited the "Tianpeng Incantation"—would likely be sent straight through the eighteen layers of hell before his soul was scattered into nothingness.
Biting the bullet, Li Xuan bowed respectfully to the three great emperors and said, "Junior Li Xuan pays respects to the Great Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole, the Great Emperor of Fengdu, and the Great Emperor of Mount Tai! Li Xuan knows that using the Tianpeng Incantation without authorization violates the laws. I know I am at fault and am willing to accept punishment..."
Confess first, and perhaps earn a swift judgment!
The hazy shadows of the two flanking emperors flickered like a television screen with a weak signal, shifting between blurry and clear. They remained expressionless and motionless, like the statues themselves.
Just then, the sound of the crane echoed once more.
The shadows of the two flanking emperors stabilized and became clearly visible; the one on the left was wreathed in purple light, while the one on the right was surrounded by gray mist.
Li Xuan quickly stated his purpose. "Li Xuan knows that there are Feng-Yue sect practitioners in the mortal world who serve the three great emperors, but because they have no central altar, I did not know whom to seek. Thinking that the Mount Tai dharma and the Fengdu dharma complement each other, I came to the Tiankuang Hall of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai to see if I could receive guidance..."
When facing deities, it is better to be honest.
The emperors gave no response. Li Xuan’s forehead broke out in a sweat. Had he been too greedy? Even though time had stopped...
Just then, the images of the Great Emperor Ziwei and the Great Emperor of Fengdu slowly dissipated, while the Great Emperor of Mount Tai in the center began to emit a faint golden light.
Li Xuan did not know why the two emperors had suddenly left. His hands suddenly felt heavy, and looking down, he saw a pile of thread-bound books in his arms. There were *The Precious Proclamation of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai by Taishang Laojun*, *The Great Cavern Scripture of Mount Tai*, *The Precious Scroll of Mount Tai*, *The Miraculous Scripture of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai*, *The Precious Records of the Jade Calendar*, and many others.
Just by looking at the titles, he understood that these books were all related to the Great Emperor of Mount Tai. They contained detailed information about the Emperor's identity, worship protocols, believer codes, the Emperor's authority and duties, and the rest concerned various arts and spells.
Among these books lay a small, black token. It felt like jujube wood—hard and cold. On one side were the patterns of the Five Sacred Mountains surrounded by a ring of incantations, and on the other was the image of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai, with the words "Reward and Punishment Token of the Great Emperor of Mount Tai" carved below.
Li Xuan understood. The Great Emperor Ziwei and the Great Emperor of Fengdu had not held his lack of initiation against him. Since he had come to the Mount Tai Temple and met the Great Emperor of Mount Tai, he would first learn the basic laws of the Mount Tai deities under the Emperor's seat and use the Reward and Punishment Token to slay demons and eliminate evil...
The gourd hanging at his waist flew out on its own, sucked all the books inside, and then hung itself back in place.
The surrounding environment suddenly became noisy; time had resumed, and the people had no idea what had just occurred. Li Xuan bowed earnestly to the Great Emperor of Mount Tai once more and turned to leave.
He had bypassed the middleman. He should have sought out disciples of the Feng-Yue sect, apprenticed, passed tests, and earned the Daoist classics. Now, with a direct supply from the source, he had saved a great deal of effort.
A flight. Home.
The little green sprout in the garden swayed gently every day, showing no signs of growth no matter how much water it was given.
Li Xuan did not force it to grow. In the time that followed, he spent his days reading the scriptures brought back from the Dai Temple. He did not rush into practicing various spells, but instead spent time carefully understanding the various introductions to the Great Emperor of Mount Tai.
Only when he felt ready did he begin to attempt the practice.
It was much as he had understood before: the main content involved "storing the spirit," imagining the appearance of the deity, and storing it into various parts of his body.
Practicing such things was dry and tedious.
After half a month of practice, Li Xuan, who had been meditating in a cross-legged position, felt as though his legs no longer belonged to him. It was hard to imagine how the ancients, hiding in deep mountains and old forests, had overcome their psychological barriers to endure it.
When he reached a full month of practice, he finally felt a trace of difference within his body. A faint, warm current seemed to slowly descend from the center of his forehead, gather at his lower abdomen, and then, following his blood vessels—or perhaps the legendary meridians—slowly circulate through his entire body.
Three months of practice.
Li Xuan felt a second trace of warmth in his body and thought to himself, *Cultivation is not easy. Two traces of warmth in three months? At this rate, wouldn't it take twenty-something traces in three years? No wonder those in movies who have only trained for seven or eight years get killed in seconds when they encounter evil spirits if their talent is even slightly lacking.*
*It is too difficult...*
*Perhaps in the movie world, the speed of cultivation can be increased.*
Li Xuan returned to the garden and looked at the green sprout. "Let's begin the next mission."
The green sprout swayed, and a green light suddenly shot out, enveloping Li Xuan’s body.
*Whoosh...*
It felt like changing television channels.
Li Xuan’s vision blurred, and in an instant, he was in another place. This appeared to be a school auditorium, with hundreds of students standing below. They were all female students—no, wait, in the corner of the formation stood three male students who looked entirely out of place.
What kind of school was this? The gender ratio was too exaggerated.
Li Xuan looked around and found himself standing on a wooden stage with a podium nearby. At that moment, a woman in professional attire with her hair in a ponytail and a stern expression was giving a speech. Her voice was harsh as she scanned the students below and said coldly, "While attending this school, all students are strictly forbidden from dating!"