Chapter 1

At the entrance of a classroom, a young man held a five-pound jar of flower-carved wine, in front of which was a beggar's chicken wrapped in lotus leaves and two porcelain bowls. He poured the wine into the bowls while muttering, “Master, I’m going to the county town tomorrow to prepare for school. I won’t be able to visit you every day from now on. This is your favorite flower-carved wine, aged for ten years, and the beggar's chicken you like. Today, let’s enjoy ourselves to the fullest.”

This young man was named Ge Dongxu, a villager from Gejiayang at the foot of Baiyun Mountain. The grave contained his master, Ren Yao.

Ge Dongxu had followed Ren Yao in his practice since he was eight years old, until Ren Yao passed away when he was fourteen. Now, two years after Ren Yao’s death, Ge Dongxu was a sixteen-year-old boy. He had been accepted into the county high school and was leaving for the county town the next day. Today, he had come to bid farewell to his master.

Speaking of his master Ren Yao, although Ge Dongxu had practiced with him for six years, he knew very little about his life. He only learned his name just before Ren Yao passed away. Since the day Ge Dongxu met him, Ren Yao had been a mentally unstable old man.

Ren Yao did not often appear in the village; most of the time, he lived in an abandoned small Taoist temple deep in Baiyun Mountain. When he occasionally visited the village, he was mostly in a state of madness. The children in the mountain village were mischievous and, seeing the old man’s madness, would laugh and throw rotten fruit and mud at him.

Ge Dongxu, with his kind and simple heart, unlike the other children, would always step forward to protect Ren Yao when his playmates threw things at him for fun. In the end, it was he who ended up covered in dirt.

One day, when Ge Dongxu was protecting Ren Yao and got covered in dirt again, Ren Yao suddenly regained his senses, scolded the children, and then scrutinized Ge Dongxu for a long time. Suddenly, he asked, “Would you like to be my disciple and practice with me?”

Ge Dongxu had intended to shake his head, but seeing Ren Yao’s white hair and tattered clothes, he felt pity and, as if possessed, nodded in agreement.

Ren Yao was overjoyed and immediately took Ge Dongxu to meet his parents to formally take him as a disciple.

Ge Dongxu’s parents, of course, were unwilling to let their son be a disciple of a mad old man, even though he seemed normal at the time.

Perhaps it was the refusal of Ge Dongxu’s parents that triggered Ren Yao’s mental state, and he immediately became confused and mumbled as he left.

From then on, he would visit Ge Dongxu every few days.

Seeing Ren Yao’s madness and his attachment to their son, Ge Dongxu’s parents, fearing he might harm their son, began to drive him away after a few visits.

No matter how much they tried to drive him away, Ren Yao would still come every few days, and Ge Dongxu’s parents would still insist on driving him away, not allowing him to approach their son.

One day, Ge Dongxu suddenly developed a high fever that wouldn’t subside, and the doctors were at a loss. His parents, in tears, were about to take him to the county town to see a doctor when Ren Yao suddenly appeared, picked up Ge Dongxu, and ran away.

Ge Dongxu’s parents, naturally, were extremely worried and chased after him. Strangely, the clearly old and white-haired Ren Yao ran faster than Ge Dongxu’s father, quickly disappearing into the forest.

At the time, Ge Dongxu’s parents, seeing their son being carried into the forest by a mad old man, were in tears, thinking their son, already suffering from a high fever, would surely meet a tragic end.

To their surprise, while they were frantically searching the mountains and calling out their son’s name, Ge Dongxu suddenly ran towards them from a small path, looking energetic and agile, nothing like his previous state of fever, where he was dazed and weak, unable to stand.

From that day on, Ge Dongxu’s parents made a significant decision, allowing their son to be a disciple of the sometimes mad, sometimes lucid old man, Ren Yao.

Strangely, after Ge Dongxu’s parents agreed, Ren Yao became mostly lucid. However, although he was mostly lucid, he could hardly remember his past and didn’t even know his own name. Later, Ge Dongxu’s parents discovered a scar on the back of Ren Yao’s head, guessing he had suffered some kind of brain injury, which might explain his condition. They wanted to take Ren Yao to the county hospital, but he was stubborn and refused, leaving them with no choice.

Fortunately, Ren Yao, despite his memory loss and occasional confusion, remembered the practice. He taught Ge Dongxu how to draw talismans, recognize various herbs, locate acupuncture points, and practice breathing techniques.

When teaching these, Ren Yao would take Ge Dongxu to the abandoned Taoist temple on the mountain, not allowing his parents to watch. After Ge Dongxu began practicing with Ren Yao, he never fell ill again and seemed to become exceptionally smart and quick to learn, surpassing his peers in both intelligence and strength. Thus, Ge Dongxu’s parents allowed Ren Yao to teach their son, sometimes curious but respecting Ren Yao’s rules, a man of the world, and refrained from asking what Ge Dongxu had learned from him.

As parents, as long as their son was healthy, everything else was secondary.

Two years ago, in the summer, Ren Yao finally succumbed to the passage of time and passed away. In his final moments, perhaps in a moment of clarity, he recalled some of his past. Unfortunately, the time left was too short, and Ge Dongxu only learned a small part of it, including his master’s name.

Recalling the moments with his master, Ge Dongxu was lost in thought until the porcelain bowl overflowed with wine, snapping him back to reality. He wiped the tears from his eyes, poured the flower-carved wine in the bowl onto Ren Yao’s grave, and then drank the other bowl in one gulp.

A hint of red appeared on his still somewhat childish and simple face but quickly faded.

“Master, since you left, I have practiced diligently without slacking off. I haven’t boasted about the skills you taught me or used them for evil. Rest assured, no matter where I go, I will always remember your teachings.” Saying this, Ge Dongxu poured another bowl of flower-carved wine for Ren Yao, drank a bowl himself, and ate some of the beggar's chicken.

“By the way, Master, I have some good news. During my morning practice today, I finally broke through to the third level of Qi cultivation. I’m sure you didn’t expect such rapid progress. It’s all thanks to the Bagua furnace pendant you left me. It contains the lifetime cultivation insights of our Danfu School’s ancestor, Ge Hong, and a complete scroll of the *Baopu Jiudan Xuanjing*. Unfortunately, I discovered this secret too late. If you had seen this scroll, it might have given you some inspiration and perhaps you wouldn’t have left your disciple so soon.” Ge Dongxu reached for a small peachwood sword pendant hanging from his neck. The pendant looked ordinary, but when Ge Dongxu touched it, a faint green light flowed over it, emitting a subtle peachwood fragrance.

Actually, there was another ancient Bagua furnace pendant hanging from it, which Ren Yao had left him. Once, Ge Dongxu accidentally dripped a drop of blood on it, and the Bagua furnace reacted with his blood, merging into his body and disappearing. At the same time, his mind was filled with many cultivation-related knowledge, mostly about alchemy.

Originally, after practicing with his master Ren Yao for six years, Ge Dongxu had barely broken through to the second level of Qi cultivation. After obtaining the cultivation knowledge from the Bagua furnace pendant and practicing the complete *Baopu Jiudan Xuanjing*, his cultivation speed increased significantly, and in just two years, he broke through to the third level of Qi cultivation.

While talking to his master and eating and drinking, he unconsciously finished the five-pound jar of wine. At sixteen, Ge Dongxu’s face was slightly red, but he showed no signs of drunkenness.

Seeing the jar of wine empty, Ge Dongxu finally stopped talking, bowed three times to his master’s grave, and then got up and walked down a mountain path.

The path was overgrown with weeds, clearly a rarely used trail.

At the end of the path was Gejiayang village. Gejiayang was once a poor and isolated mountain village, but in recent years, Changxi County had vigorously developed tourism, and city dwellers enjoyed coming to the mountains to escape the heat. Gejiayang, located at the foot of Baiyun Mountain, the highest mountain in Changxi County, had also benefited. In recent years, the village had not only gained access to roads but also saw villagers opening small shops, farmhouses, and homestays, earning money from home.

To attract tourists, the villagers even claimed that Gejiayang was the descendant of Ge Hong, a famous Taoist alchemist and medical expert from the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Ge Dongxu, of course, didn’t believe it before, thinking it was just the village elders’ exaggeration to attract tourists. But after the Bagua furnace pendant merged into his body and his mind was filled with new knowledge, he realized he was indeed a descendant of Ge Hong, which explained why his blood had reacted with the pendant.

Ge Dongxu’s mother, Xu Suya, was a teacher at the village’s primary school, and his father, Ge Shengming, ran a farmhouse, serving as both the chef and the owner.

It was late August, still scorching in Jiangnan Province, but the mountains were cool, and with the children on summer break, many city dwellers came to Baiyun Mountain to escape the heat. With more tourists, Ge Shengming’s farmhouse business had improved significantly.

Thinking about the good business at home and the fact that it was mealtime, Ge Dongxu quickened his pace.

However, before he reached home, he saw a crowd gathered outside his yard, pointing and talking.

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