Chapter 18: The Tribulation of Immortality

As the first autumn wind blows from the northwest.

It blows away the heat of midsummer and brings the coolness of autumn.

On the West Mountain path, under the sycamore tree, Li Zhi accompanied Zhou Mei, who was already pregnant, for a walk in the woods.

As the fetus in her belly grew bigger, Zhou Mei became more and more attached to Li Zhi.

I wish I could see Li Zhi by my side every day when I open my eyes.

Perhaps because he knew that he would not have much time to accompany them and their son in the future, Li Zhi was particularly accommodating to Zhou Mei.

Every day, like an alarm clock, he would appear by her bed on time after morning exercise.

He personally helped Zhou Mei get up and wash, accompanied her for walks, exercised with her, read with her, and went shopping with her.

He was almost inseparable from Zhou Mei.

Zhou Mei was happy like a little woman, enjoying Li Zhi's meticulous care.

The aura of the strong woman has long disappeared without a trace.

The reason for this is that Li Zhi knows that once he embarks on the path of cultivation in the future, all human emotions will be completely gone from him.

Love, hate, affection, and hatred will no longer be as pure and beautiful as they were when we were mortals.

The leisurely stroll in the woods, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, is a romance that belongs only to mortals.

Because mortals are weak enough, they can go deep into nature and enjoy its beauty.

During this period, Ye Fan asked him to go Taobao together several times, but Li Zhi decisively rejected him every time.

For this reason, Ye Fan teased Li Zhi several times and fell into the arms of tenderness and couldn't extricate himself.

Only he himself knows what he wants.

He didn't want to be like Ye Fan in the future, who returned from Beidou after going through so much trouble, only to find that his relatives had died because of missing him.

Perhaps the two are not comparable, but Li Zhi cherishes every day of his mortal life very much.

In the past few months, he has been dealing with the properties under his name one after another, and as soon as the child is born, he will transfer most of the properties to the child and Zhou Mei's name.

Once one embarks on the path of spiritual practice, worldly money will have no value to him.

But for Zhou Mei and her children, it can guarantee them a lifetime of wealth and prosperity.

After achieving a small goal, Ye Fan and Li Zhi have become neighbors.

He has said many times that when he gets married and has children in the future, he will bring his parents over so that the whole family can live together and enjoy the happiness of family life.

Li Zhi also told Ye Fan at the time that he should work hard to make his parents have a grandson within three years.

Unfortunately, Ye Fan didn't take it seriously.

When the two sat together and chatted, they talked more about the past and the present, and imagined the ancient times.

Although the skills they had obtained before could be practiced, just like the breathing method, they could only be practiced.

As for the effect, it cannot be said that there is none at all, but it is not as miraculous as described in the exercises.

Therefore, Ye Fan was looking forward to finding more and more intuitive introductions to ancient civilizations.

Although Li Zhi knew something, he didn't know much.

After all, he is just a mortal. Even if he has read the original novel, he dare not boast that he knows the world of Shrouding the Sky thoroughly.

Take the earth for example, who sealed the earth?
Who else had achieved enlightenment and become an emperor here?

Who left behind those complete imperial formations on Earth?

What are the sealed areas like besides Kunlun?
He doesn't understand any of these things.

Li Zhi always takes a cautious attitude towards things he doesn't understand.

Take the skills they acquired last time, for example. They never appeared in the original book.

Is there any connection between the so-called opening chapter of the Sutra of Longevity and the Eternal Heavenly Lord?

It is not something that Li Zhi today can understand.

He always believes in one point, that is, the higher you stand, the higher the view you can see.

You can look down at the earth from a high place, but never look up and try to push aside the clouds to see the scenery at a higher level.

It is very likely that you will not see the scenery, but instead break your neck.

As a mortal, you must have the awareness of a mortal.

The reason for most of the failures in history can be attributed to the fact that the growth of strength could not keep up with the expansion of ambition.

Li Zhi believes that the path of spiritual practice also follows a similar principle.

Those things that a saint should know, must not be approached without the strength of a saint; those truths that a quasi-emperor should see, must not be touched until one reaches the quasi-emperor level.

The world of spiritual practice has never been about how bold or productive a person is.

If one's virtue does not match his position, he will bring disaster and trouble.

The power of cause and effect may seem illusory, but in fact it is extremely powerful. Even the Immortal Emperor cannot avoid it, let alone him, a mortal.

Walking on the forest path, Zhou Mei held her belly with one hand and held Li Zhi's arm with the other. She was in a particularly happy mood and said, "Li Lang, have you named the child yet?"

Li Zhi said with a smile: "If it's a boy, we'll call him Li Kui; if it's a girl, we'll call her Li Feng."

Zhou Mei rolled her eyes at him and said, "You're just being perfunctory. Change it quickly."

"Mei'er, the baby is still in your belly. Why don't you discuss with him and see what name he wants to be called, and then we'll give him that name." Li Zhi said while touching Zhou Mei's big belly.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Mei said, "If it's a girl, she'll be named Li Zihan. If it's a boy, she'll be named Li Jiaming."

"Zi Han, Jia Ming? Isn't that a bit too tacky?" Li Zhi retorted cautiously.

"How can they be tacky? I think Zi Han and Jia Ming are both nice names. Their names sound like the protagonists from a romance novel." Zhou Mei said with a hint of excitement.

Li Zhi also laughed and said, "As long as you are happy." At this moment, Li Zhi's phone rang.

Taking out his phone and seeing that it was an unfamiliar number, Li Zhi hung up the phone immediately and then said to Zhou Mei, "It's a harassing call. Let's continue walking."

Zhou Mei shook her head and said, "I am very touched that you have been with me for the past few months. My condition has stabilized now. If you have something to do, just do it. Don't let me delay your work."

Li Zhi said, "It's nothing serious. I will never leave you and your mother before the baby is born."

A bright smile instantly appeared on Zhou Mei's face.

After walking for half an hour, they returned home.

After returning home, Zhou Mei went back to her room to rest, while Li Zhi went to the study.

Redialed the number.

Li Zhi asked directly, "Brother Peng, what's going on?"

"Xiao Zhi, it's just as you guessed. The families you asked me to observe have all suffered disasters in the past few months. There are even two families that have simply disappeared." Li Dapeng on the other end of the phone told Li Zhi everything he had investigated.

After listening to this, Li Zhi said, "Brother Dapeng, can you find out who did it?"

Li Dapeng said, "I haven't found out who it is yet. But I heard someone say that someone is offering a large reward on the black market for the whereabouts of a cultural relic dealer named Xu Jiping. It is said that Xu Jiping is very close to those families and worked together to cheat a big boss from Xi'an. The big boss was furious, so he issued a reward on the street."

Li Dapeng is the son of Uncle Zhong from Dali Village.

Since last year, I have been working with Li Zhi, specifically handling matters that Li Zhi is not convenient to handle.

In order to prevent any fish from slipping through the net, Li Zhi asked Li Dapeng to go to Anyi to help him keep an eye on the vegetable greenhouse base and the homes of the tomb robbers that Ye Fan had investigated.

Just as he expected, the man who had obviously died from supernatural power was not going for the treasure in the tomb at all.

Instead, he specifically wanted to find a method of practicing martial arts in the tomb.

From this we can see that in this world, there seems to be a large number of people who are secretly pursuing immortality.

At the same time, the son of an old friend came to Xu's Jing'an Hall.

The man who came looked to be in his early forties. He was the youngest son of Mr. Xu, the director at that time, and his name was Yao Le.

I came here specially to visit Mr. Xu.

They had a conversation in the reception room of Jing'an Hall. After the polite words, Yao Le said very impolitely: "Uncle Xu, I heard that your eldest and second sons are frantically looking for your third son?"

Mr. Xu frowned, as if he was very unhappy that Yao Le was questioning him, and said, "Xiao Le, what do you mean?"

Yao Le said with a frivolous smile, "Uncle Xu, you are asking even though you already know the answer."

Mr. Xu frowned even more and said, "Xiao Le, you didn't come to see me because of my youngest son, did you?"

Yao Le nodded and said, "Uncle Xu, give me the copy of the Changsheng Sutra in your hand. Over the years, your youngest son Xu Jiping has been looking for the missing parts of the sutra everywhere, and it almost became known to everyone. If it weren't for my eldest brother Director Yao's pressure, I'm afraid he would have been sent to prison long ago."

Mr. Xu's face changed drastically, and he asked, "What on earth do you want to do?"

Yao Le suddenly laughed and said, "Uncle Xu, stop now. Just be an ordinary citizen, and our Yao family can pretend that nothing has happened. If your eldest and second sons continue to mess around like this, maybe our Director Yao will have to come out and have a good talk with you in person."

A trace of doubt flashed across Mr. Xu's eyes, and then he asked, "Have you found the whereabouts of the complete set of scriptures?"

Yao Le sneered and said, "Uncle Xu, you have lived to such an old age, don't you still not understand the meaning of the four words 'it's hard to be confused'?"

At this moment, Mr. Xu seemed to have lost all his bones. He slumped down in his chair and muttered, "So that's how it is. Director Yao saw things further than I did back then."

Yao Le said, "Uncle Xu, don't worry. Once our Yao family has a cultivator, there will be no problem in ensuring that your Xu family will be rich and prosperous for the rest of their lives."

Mr. Xu said weakly, "I will call the eldest and second oldest back. Xiaole, can you tell me what happened to my third oldest?"

Yao Le said very directly: "If nothing unexpected happened to your third son, he should be dead. A few months ago, someone secretly resold a whole set of bronze ritual vessels on the black market. They were similar to the things your third son released before."

Mr. Xu said, "Thank you for letting me know."

Yao Le said: "Uncle Xu, remember what you promised me."

Mr. Xu said, "Come with me."

Afterwards, he took Yao Le to the Xu Family Ancestral Hall, took out the copied "Eternal Life Sutra" and gave it to Yao Le.

"There is only this one book on longevity in my family. The eldest and second sons have never read it, and they didn't know I had it. Only the third son has read it, but he disappeared." Mr. Xu explained to Yao Le.

"I believe you."

Yao Le put the book "The Book of Immortality" into his bag without even flipping through it.

Then he left the Xu family.

Old Mr. Xu sat in the ancestral hall in a daze for the entire afternoon.

Then, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes.

The descendants of the surname Yao became high officials, but they were still not satisfied and wanted to achieve immortality? This is unforgivable.

He was tricked back then and the precious original was taken away. Now it seems that there is something on the original that he didn't discover back then.

"Since your Yao family wants to cut off my Xu family's path to immortality, then don't blame me for being rude." Old Mr. Xu said secretly in his heart.

Then he called the boss Xu Jianan and asked him to come back.

Afterwards, he called the second brother Xu Jisheng and asked him to go directly to Beijing to wait for orders.

After finishing the call, a disdainful smile appeared on Mr. Xu's face.

Then he took out a secret box from under the floor tiles of the ancestral hall.

There is also a book on longevity inside.

And compared to the one given to Yao Le, the one in the secret box is more original.

Even the text above was obtained through rubbings.

This was the information he had copied from the jade slip in order to ensure its integrity.

In addition to the text above, he also copied the patterns on the back of the jade slip.

(End of this chapter)