Seeking Immortals in the Rain

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Qing Mu leaned against the car door, smoking one cigarette after another as he waited outside the gates of the design institute for Wang Xuan to get off work.

He was troubled. His master had fled to New Star as if his butt were on fire. How many years had it been since anything like this had happened? What exactly had occurred? He wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Wang Xuan was in a good mood. A great stone had fallen from his heart, and he walked out with his colleagues, chatting and laughing.

"Little Wang, over here." Qing Mu called out to him.

"Someone's looking for me. See you tomorrow." Wang Xuan greeted the people beside him, then quickly headed forward.

In the evening glow, a flock of migratory birds flew away, making the deepening autumn and lofty sky seem all the more pronounced.

Qing Mu drove Wang Xuan to dinner and began questioning him nonstop on the way. When he heard that Old Chen had recently made an appointment with the Ascension True Immortal, he nearly rammed the car ahead with One Kick on the gas.

"Watch the road. Steady yourself!" Wang Xuan hurriedly reminded him.

There were many cars on the street. It was rush hour, traffic was a little clogged, and Qing Mu's heart felt clogged as well. What was this situation? Old Chen had been scared off by the Female Daoist practitioner?

He knew deeply that Old Chen's Old Arts were exceedingly formidable. He was one of those rare super experts, and he had always been shrewd and capable, almost never suffering losses. Yet recently, he had actually... stumbled.

Wang Xuan was very relaxed, still in the mood to admire the blazing red maples lining the road. Their leaves looked especially fervent in the evening glow. Thinking that the Female Daoist practitioner had not appeared again, he wondered whether she had really followed Old Chen to New Star this time.

"What do you think will happen to my master?" After Qing Mu more or less understood the situation, he found it somewhat absurd. How could someone dead for three thousand years still appear in dreams?

"Old Chen is a good man. He'll definitely be fine." Wang Xuan comforted him.

Qing Mu never lacked money, so he chose a high-end restaurant. The private room was large and exceptionally quiet. After ordering, he began asking in a low voice about the details.

"You're saying Old Chen took the disaster for you?" Qing Mu choked on his own smoke, completely speechless.

"Don't let your imagination run wild. It has nothing to do with me. The reason the Female Daoist practitioner appeared in dreams is that no one involved in the underground experimental site in the Greater Khingan Range was innocent. Old Qing, you'd better watch yourself lately too!"

Wang Xuan was refreshed and ravenous. As he enjoyed the delicious food, he kindly warned Qing Mu that he should prepare some talisman paper or something lately. Old Chen was rather experienced in that regard. After the incident, he had immediately pulled out a whole pile and plastered them all over his body.

At the same time, he grumbled inwardly that Old Chen was truly stingy. When he had asked Wang Xuan for help over the weekend, he had only sent over one talisman. But once something happened to himself, he had desperately slapped them all over his body until he was nearly covered from head to toe.

Listening to his outrageous complaints and warnings, Qing Mu bared his teeth. His feelings were complicated, and he blew out a smoke ring without saying anything.

"Old Chen's case is that the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility," Wang Xuan commented.

Qing Mu glared at him. What kind of nonsense was that? This brat had gained an advantage and was still acting innocent.

"You speak, how do we help him?" Qing Mu frowned. He really was worried about Old Chen; after all, Old Chen was his master.

Wang Xuan said, "I don't think it's a big deal. Old Chen ran off to New Star. The Female Daoist practitioner will surely be unfamiliar with the place there. She probably won't get used to staying there, and sooner or later she'll fiddle Old Chen back."

Listen to that—what kind of talk was this? Qing Mu glared at him, then discussed with him whether they should send him to New Star to look after and support Old Chen.

Wang Xuan immediately refused. He had just escaped the fiery pit. Who would jump right back into it for no reason?

He looked at Qing Mu and said, "Don't worry about Old Chen just yet. I truly think you need to worry about yourself."

"What do you mean?" Qing Mu stubbed out his cigarette.

Wang Xuan glanced at him and said, "What else could I mean? Old Chen chickened out and ran to New Star, so he definitely can't help the Female Daoist practitioner solve her problem. If she comes back, I reckon it'll be your turn."

"Your mouth is poisonous. Shut up!" Qing Mu truly felt uncertain now, and he thought that Old Chen had probably been targeted exactly this way.

He seriously suspected that the Female Daoist practitioner had very likely gone to find Old Chen after hearing Wang Xuan's nonsense.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became. He solemnly warned him, "Eat. Once you're done, get out of here! You're not allowed to come looking for me during this time. And don't mutter nonsense when you're alone either. In any case, don't mention my name anytime soon!"

"Old Qing, that's not very decent of you. You make it sound like my mouth has been consecrated." Wang Xuan was dissatisfied and argued that this matter had not had the slightest thing to do with him in the first place. He was a victim too.

"Say nothing more. We're drawing a line between us for now. You're not allowed to contact me lately!" Qing Mu went straight to settle the bill and leave. He did not want to stay a moment longer and had barely touched his chopsticks.

Wang Xuan said, "Don't be in such a rush to leave. When will my five million arrive? That's compensation I earned by risking my life in Qingcheng Mountain."

"It'll arrive tomorrow!" Qing Mu stood up after saying that. He was quite straightforward about giving him the money. Though the silver beast-hide scroll had not yet been deciphered, the expert group unanimously believed it was worth a shocking amount. Otherwise, an ascended Daoist Master would not have kept staring at it until death.

"Great!" Wang Xuan was thoroughly satisfied. For a student who had just graduated, such an enormous sum was an unimaginable surprise.

"You should eat something too." Wang Xuan urged Qing Mu, then added, "You're really leaving? You're not taking me home?"

Qing Mu ignored him and even quickened his pace. In the blink of an eye, he had disappeared, having resolved not to go anywhere near Wang Xuan's residence for the time being.

The next day, Wang Xuan received a text message. The bank notified him that a large payment had been deposited. He counted the zeros—there were six of them. It was indeed five million, and his spirits immediately soared.

Soon, he remembered something else. Had the taxes been paid? He hurriedly contacted Qing Mu, only for Qing Mu to hang up on him five times in a row and ignore him!

In the end, perhaps unable to stand him any longer, Qing Mu texted him that the tax had already been paid on his behalf and that the five million was after tax.

"Old Qing, you're amazing!" Wang Xuan quickly typed back.

The moment Qing Mu saw it, he blocked him outright. He always felt that getting too entangled with Wang Xuan lately would lead to trouble. The more he considered it, the more he believed that was the case. He should never have gone looking for him and treated him to dinner. Old Chen was the lesson before the cart.

That evening, Wang Xuan called his parents and told them he would be returning that weekend. He also prepared them in advance. "I won the lottery!"

Over the next two days, Wang Xuan studied the Daoist Canon, practiced the Root Method, and pondered the Ascension Stone. This time, when he went home, he had to visit that mountain and see whether anything had been left behind there.

After work on Friday, Wang Xuan rushed to the station. His home was in a neighboring small city, just over a hundred kilometers away. Relatively speaking, it really was not far.

When he got home that night, his parents were delighted at first, but afterward they were far calmer than he had imagined. In Old Wang's words, what was the use of having so much money? As long as there was enough to spend, that was enough. Perhaps this mindset was also why Wang Xuan was usually so carefree.

"Keep it yourself. Buy a marital home and bring back a wife soon." Old Wang said happily, not forgetting to urge him to marry.

Wang Xuan came back once every week or two, so although the couple was very happy to see him, they were comparatively calm about it.

"I've only just graduated. It's too early. Let's wait another two years. I'll transfer the money to you first." Then, without giving them a chance to refuse, Wang Xuan completed the transfer.

After dinner that night, he asked his parents about the Great Black Mountain range several dozen li outside the small city. There had always been legends of a Fairy Maiden in that place.

He remembered that there had once been a Daoist temple on the mountain when he was young. Later, it had fallen into disrepair over the years. Not a single Daoist had remained, and it had completely collapsed. He did not know what it was like now.

Old Wang reminisced with a sigh. "That place really did have some legends. When I was little, the incense offerings were still flourishing. Later, the Village Towns at the foot of the mountain were demolished and relocated. Everyone moved away, most of them into the city, and the incense offerings gradually died out. In the end, even the Daoists were gone. Now the place is overgrown with wild weeds. I heard that even the temple's foundations can no longer be found."

Wang Xuan said, "Tomorrow, I'm planning to ask two childhood friends to take a stroll there. It's been a long time since I went into Great Black Mountain. Autumn is just the right time to see if there are any hazelnuts, wild walnuts, and the like."

That evening, he began making arrangements. His two childhood friends were delighted to learn that he had returned and readily agreed. One would prepare a car for the next day, while the other said he would borrow several local dogs to bring into the mountains to chase rabbits.

Unfortunately, the heavens did not cooperate. The forecast had said Saturday would be sunny turning cloudy, but instead, rain began to fall in a fine, steady drizzle, growing heavier and heavier. His two childhood friends were disappointed and changed their plans to visit Great Black Mountain on Sunday.

Wang Xuan could not sit still. Even in heavy rain, it made little difference to someone who practiced the Old Arts. He set out on his own.

He put on his rain gear, left his home, then left the small city and began running wildly, charging all the way toward Great Black Mountain.

The main reason was that the legends concerning that Fairy Maiden seemed to be connected to rainwater. This was the perfect chance to enter the mountains and take a look.

After practicing the Golden Body Art to the fourth level, even a distance of several dozen li was nothing to Wang Xuan.

At last, he entered the mountains. The rocks throughout this range had a blackish sheen. Without the vegetation, it really did look like pale ink from afar, which was why it was called Black Mountain, or Great Black Mountain.

Going by memory, Wang Xuan headed straight for one of its peaks and rapidly climbed the mountain. Yet when he reached the summit, he was filled with doubt. The Daoist temple was gone. Even if it had collapsed, there should have been foundations and broken tiles. Why was the place completely bare?

He felt as though someone had dug away the entire foundation.

Had he remembered wrong? Was it not this mountain?

Wang Xuan searched the other mountains as well, climbing several peaks in succession, but he found no trace of the collapsed Daoist temple.

Boom!

Thunder exploded between heaven and earth. Dazzling lightning tore across the curtain of rain, illuminating the dark sky and briefly lighting up the whole of Great Black Mountain.

Without thinking, Wang Xuan looked up. What did he see?

On the main peak where he had first believed the collapsed Daoist temple stood, a creature had appeared. It was not small. It was a... hou, carrying a person down the mountain.

Moreover, as that hou charged down the mountain, the ground actually trembled faintly. It was rushing straight at him!