Luo Bei and Yuan Tianyi had spent a long time together. Now that they had truly parted ways, he felt boundless reluctance and desolation.
The houses around him gradually grew more numerous. Though he had drifted about these parts since childhood, he had grown accustomed to the lonely, barren scenes where not a soul could be seen for a thousand miles. Luo Bei found it hard to adjust. After traveling ten li in the direction Yuan Tianyi had pointed out, he indeed entered a Mountain Town.
"No wonder going out to gain experience is called entering the mortal world."
"Could this be Purple Micro Daoist Temple?"
The Mountain Town was not large, only several li across, with a few hundred households. Yet shops stood in close rows, cooking smoke rose everywhere, and people came and went. Luo Bei felt as though he had been transported into another lifetime. After circling the entire town, he discovered a Daoist temple in the northwest. It had more than ten successive courtyards. Before it stood a Blue Stone Archway several zhang high, with two Kylin Stone Carvings placed at either side. Beyond the archway was a Three-Arch Gate, painted black, while Yin-Yang Fish designs were painted upon the walls. Plaques hung above both the archway and the temple's Three-Arch Gate, bearing inscriptions. But Luo Bei could currently only write his own name and could not even read, so he had no way of knowing whether this was the Purple Micro Daoist Temple Yuan Tianyi had mentioned.
Since Yuan Tianyi had told Luo Bei that he did not need to do anything, Luo Bei did not ask anyone whether the temple truly was Purple Micro Daoist Temple. He merely sat dazed upon a stone step roughly a hundred meters away from it.
Without realizing it, the sun had already slanted westward. Having cultivated the Mahākāla Secret Method, Luo Bei unwittingly entered a meditative state. Only when he sensed his surroundings seeming to brim with specks of True Sun Fire energy did he suddenly awaken. He reminded himself that, apart from the scripture and incantations Yuan Tianyi had bestowed upon him through empowerment, he must never again think of anything related to the Mahākāla Secret Method.
Just then, a burst of barking came from the northwest. It sounded as though there were five or six dogs.
Luo Bei rose in mild surprise and looked over. At the street corner, several children came racing toward him. One child, slightly younger than Luo Bei, ran too hurriedly and accidentally fell. By the time he climbed back up, both his hands and knees had been scraped bloody.
Five or six vicious dogs, tall and sharp-toothed, charged out from around the corner after them, barking without pause.
The children were all dressed in ragged clothes, their faces yellowed by hunger. Two of them were so gaunt they were little more than skin stretched over bones, as though a gust of wind could blow them down. The two at the front seemed to clutch several steamed buns smeared with vegetable juices and already gnawed upon, along with some cold dishes and meat bones that had hardly any meat on them at all.
By now, the children were utterly exhausted, their ragged gasps sounding like bellows in a blacksmith's shop. The child who had just fallen was trembling all over, whether from pain or fear. His eyes were filled with pleading and terror.
"Several little beggars actually dared come to my doorstep and snatch my dogs' food!" Another roar came from the alley.
The rich were heartless!
Luo Bei had drifted through the nearby Mountain Towns since childhood. How could he not know that these beggar children, no different from himself in age, had only stolen the rich people's dog food because they had no choice if they wanted to survive? Even so, perhaps they could not eat their fill even once out of ten meals. Seeing those large vicious dogs, their coats sleek with fat and their long white fangs exposed, about to catch the beggars, a surge of hot blood rose in Luo Bei's chest.
"Vicious dogs, get lost!" Luo Bei let out an angry roar, waving his fists as he stood in front of the beggar children.
Though Luo Bei had not the slightest cultivation at present, the temperament he had tempered in Luofu was exceptionally resolute. As he rushed forward, there was not a shred of fear in his heart. He cut an imposing figure. Those vicious dogs were accustomed to bullying people. They had only ever seen people flee in panic and had never seen anyone dare block them head-on. Stunned by Luo Bei's bearing, they all stopped where they were, baring their white fangs and barking furiously, yet not daring to draw near for the moment.
"Hm?" A fat man emerged from behind the street corner, uncannily matching Luo Bei's image of the heartless rich. He wore a silk jacket, with a large jade pendant hanging at his waist. His head was fat and his ears broad, his belly bulged high, and his narrow eyes seemed nearly squeezed shut by the flesh around them. The fat on his body and the grease shining over his face formed a stark contrast with those beggars who were skin and bones. Seeing the dogs cowed by Luo Bei, the merchant-like fat man froze slightly. But he immediately took Luo Bei, dressed in plain coarse linen, for one of the beggars. "What, after stealing my dogs' food, you even have the nerve to hit my dogs?" The fat man sneered, his expression changing as he roared at the dogs, "A pack of useless trash! A little brat can scare you all? What do I keep you for?"
Dogs flaunt their master's power!
At the fat man's roar, vicious glints appeared in the dogs' eyes as they all pounced at Luo Bei.
Luo Bei snatched up a stone. With a miserable "Woof!" the leading dog was struck in the head. But these dogs were extremely vicious and incredibly swift. Before that dog's cry had even ended, pain shot through Luo Bei's leg as a Vicious Dog clamped its jaws around it. Luo Bei struck the dog again and again with both fists through the pain, but it refused to let go. Another Vicious Dog lunged at him, and Luo Bei was knocked to the ground in an instant.
"Bite him for me!" Seeing blood streaming from Luo Bei's leg, the heartless fat man instead burst into excited laughter.
Luo Bei gritted his teeth. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a Vicious Dog biting straight for his face. Luo Bei hurriedly seized its neck with both hands, and man and dog rolled together on the ground. The other dogs pounced one after another. After several rolls, Luo Bei felt searing pain across his shoulders and back. He had no idea how many more places had been bitten.
Hearing the commotion, nearby residents of the Mountain Town gathered around. Yet they seemed afraid of both the dogs' ferocity and the fat man's influence. They could only gasp and murmur, not daring to step forward and stop them.
Seeing Luo Bei rolling all over the ground as he was bitten, the richly dressed fat man grew even more pleased. He laughed loudly. "Little beggar, hurry and beg for mercy. If you do, perhaps I'll have a fit of kindness today and let you go."
Beg for mercy?
Hearing the fat man's triumphant laughter, Luo Bei's blood and qi immediately churned, and an overwhelming fury surged into his heart. With a muffled groan, even his right wrist was seized in the jaws of a Vicious Dog. "You want me to beg mercy from someone like you? Dream on!" Luo Bei roared in fury and bit down toward the throat of the vicious dog that had clamped onto his right wrist!
Blood splattered everywhere!
"Is this little beggar a man or a beast?!"
For a moment, not only did that dog howl miserably and leap away like mad, even the smugly triumphant fat man in fine clothes was stunned by Luo Bei's beast-fierce gaze.
"Boundless Heavenly Venerate. Could Steward Zhuang grant me a little face and stop this for now?" At that moment, a clear voice suddenly came from one side.
The heartless fat man and the onlookers unconsciously turned their heads, only to discover that at some unknown time, a Red-Crowned Four-Porter Sedan had stopped by the side of the street.
"That is the County Magistrate's sedan!" The moment the fat man saw the exterior of the sedan and the attire of its four bearers, he was startled. Then, seeing the person who pushed aside the curtain and stepped out, he hastily returned the greeting. "So it is True Person Qingxu. Since True Person has spoken, how would I dare refuse?" As he spoke respectfully, the fat man repeatedly shouted for the dogs to stop and drove them to one side.
"Since Steward Zhuang is so courteous, this poor Daoist has an unreasonable request. Why not let today's matter end here? What does Steward Zhuang think?"
The man who stepped from the sedan stroked his long beard. He wore a Purple Gold Daoist Crown and a dark Daoist robe. He was an elderly Taoist priest, appearing over seventy, with a lean face, fair complexion, and long beard, possessing a distinct Immortal Bone Daoist Aura.
The moment Luo Bei saw the old daoist priest, he involuntarily shuddered from head to toe as he struggled to rise from the ground.
That was because he sensed upon the old daoist priest an aura unlike that of ordinary people... the aura unique to cultivators.
"Of course, of course." The fat man, who had been so vicious and arrogant moments earlier, nodded again and again with a fawning smile. People like him only bullied the meek and feared the strong. He could only tyrannize ordinary mountain folk. True Person Qingxu was the Temple Master of Purple Micro Daoist Temple. Leaving aside the rumors that he possessed many divine abilities, to the point that even the nearby bandits did not dare enter this Mountain Town, his friendship with the County Magistrate alone, as an honored guest of the County Magistrate, was enough that the fat man did not dare offend him in the slightest.
"Young man, your face is unfamiliar. You do not seem to be from around here." After True Person Qingxu nodded, he ignored the fawning fat man and fixed his bright, piercing gaze upon Luo Bei.
Luo Bei had exhausted all his strength. His body was drenched in blood, and he trembled uncontrollably. Yet his steadfast mind still remembered Yuan Tianyi's instructions. He nodded and said, "I am from nearby Coiled Dragon Stockade. Bandits attacked our village, and everyone was scattered, so I came here."
"So that is how it is." True Person Qingxu nodded slightly. "I see that your bones are refined and your natural gifts excellent. How about I take you as my disciple? You may first stay in my temple, and then I will help you search for your family."
The moment True Person Qingxu said this, an uproar broke out among those nearby who heard him.
One had to know that ordinary households usually found it difficult even to see True Person Qingxu once. His Daoist temple rarely accepted disciples, and even wealthy families who came begging at its doors might not be accepted. Yet True Person Qingxu had actually offered on this very street to take in the youth who had just escaped the jaws of vicious dogs. What was so special about this youth? Could it be only because he had acted bravely for a righteous cause and feared no vicious dogs?
Yet just as everyone stared at Luo Bei in astonishment, Luo Bei did not nod. Instead, he asked, "Daoist master, may I ask who you are?"
Qingxu smiled faintly and pointed at the Daoist temple with its more than ten courtyards not far away. "I am Qingxu, Temple Master of Purple Micro Daoist Temple."
Many kindhearted mountain folk could barely stop themselves from crying out, wanting to tell this foolish youth to agree quickly, for becoming a disciple of Purple Micro Daoist Temple at least meant never having to worry about food or clothing. When they saw Luo Bei finally nod in agreement, if not for the stunned Steward Zhuang still standing nearby, these kindhearted mountain folk might have clapped with delight. Good people receive good rewards. As these kindhearted mountain folk rejoiced inwardly, they never imagined that sometimes those words were only lies they used to comfort themselves. Or perhaps this brief episode would be given such an ending and passed down as a tale. Yet many times, they would never consider that some people committed no evil throughout their lives, only to drift through hardship and meet no good end.
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