The Myriad Phenomena of One Origin

His body drifted weightlessly, and so did his soul. Darkness stretched in every direction; he could see nothing. A powerful wind blew straight at him from ahead.

Then, without warning, countless bolts of thunderfire came hurtling toward him amid colossal roars. In the void ahead appeared a gigantic monster with an ox's head, dragon horns, a snake's body, and pig hooves. It let out a rumbling roar at him.

"Ah~~!"

With a miserable scream, Li Feng shuddered all over and sprang violently out of bed. After gasping sharply several times, he crouched on the bedboards, his right hand already clutching an inkstone from the bedside table, ready to hurl it at any moment. The second rule of street-thug survival: no matter when or where, if you found yourself somewhere unfamiliar, the first thing to do was find a weapon for self-defense.

He swept his gaze around, and the muscles clenched tight throughout his body slowly relaxed. It was a remarkably clean, simple room. The walls were woven from huge Emerald Bamboo, with two or three emerald branches growing from the bamboo joints. A wisp of breeze drifted in through the window, making those branches sway gently. A plain bamboo table stood casually beside the bed, with two or three writing brushes stuck in a pen holder made from bamboo root.

Other than the bed beneath Li Feng, the room contained only two small Grand Tutor's Chairs. Directly opposite the bed stood the open door. Looking outside, Li Feng could see a little stream babbling past some dozen zhang from the house. By its banks lay a Fierce Tiger with Fiery Eyes and White Forehead, shaking its head as it watched a butterfly flutter back and forth. Its huge tail, as thick as Li Feng's thigh and a full zhang long, swished merrily from side to side.

Li Feng froze. A tiger admiring butterflies—a tiger that looked, looked like some leisurely old scholar teaching in a classroom. He viciously smacked his own head with the inkstone in his right hand. "Fuck, my brain must be broken."

With a bang, Li Feng let out another scream. Getting hit in the head with a stone was no pleasant experience. His scream startled the fierce tiger, which jolted upright and charged into Li Feng's room, wagging its head and swaying its rump. Li Feng immediately screamed again and tremblingly shrank into the corner by the head of the bed. It was no wonder he was afraid. The tiger was simply too huge—on all fours, it stood taller than Li Feng did, and from head to tail it was more than three zhang long. Two beams of golden light even shot from its eyes, each over a foot in length.

Trembling, Li Feng raised the inkstone and stared at the tiger looming right before him. He stammered, "Y-you, you, don't come any closer, or this young master won't be polite... Y-you, are you an immortal? A demon?... N-no matter what you are, don't come closer, don't come closer... Supreme Lord Lao, Hasten as the Law Commands, get the hell away from me! Get away from me!"

The tiger's mouth curved upward, revealing a radiant smile. Yes, this tiger was smiling—a delighted smile. Li Feng's mind boomed, and he nearly fainted again. A tiger that could smile? What the hell kind of place was this?

A lazy voice drifted in from the doorway. "Little Cat, out, out. You're scaring Junior Brother Xiao's disciple. Still, Xiao Longzi really has good luck. His newly acquired disciple already knows 'Supreme Lord Lao, Hasten as the Law Commands.' Mm, he has a bright future... Hahaha, hahaha, hahahahahaha..." The man laughed until he could barely catch his breath.

The tiger licked its nose and turned to run outside. Its body was simply too large; when it turned, its tail nearly swept Li Feng right off the bed. In a frantic scramble, Li Feng grabbed that steel-whip-like tail and flung it forward. His pair of shifty eyes then fixed on the young man standing in the doorway. The youth looked barely twenty, with two topknots on his head, each pinned by a small Jade Sword gleaming sharply. He wore a moon-white Daoist Robe, looking utterly relaxed and unrestrained. At that moment, he leaned against the doorframe with a grin, watching the disheveled Li Feng.

Li Feng hastily released the inkstone and jumped barefoot from the bed. Only then did he notice that he, too, wore a Daoist Robe. His body was too small, so he only wore the upper garment, yet it still billowed around him like a cassock. Looking at the young man, Li Feng suddenly remembered how he had been brought here and asked hesitantly, "Big brother, where is this place? I seem to have..."

The young man abruptly clutched his stomach and burst into laughter. "Hahahaha, big brother? You little brat are calling me big brother? Hahahaha! Xiao Longzi is already ninety-seven, and even he has to call me Third Senior Brother, yet you call me big brother... Hahahaha! This Daoist is already two hundred and seventy-five years old, and you still call me big brother? Hahahaha..."

With a thud, Li Feng fell flat onto his back. He had been frightened stiff. The man before him was clearly insane.

After a long while, Li Feng slowly regained consciousness. This time, Xiao Longzi had arrived as well, dressed in a white Daoist Robe, and he and the young man were both staring at Li Feng without even blinking. Just as Li Feng was about to speak, the young man swiftly clapped a hand over his mouth and rattled off like a string of beans, "All right, I know you have plenty of questions, but I can explain them clearly."

"This is the Yiyuan Sect, a renowned orthodox sect in the Cultivation World. I am Xie Yuezi, and this is my junior brother, Xiao Longzi. We are cultivators, and also the immortals you speak of... Well, your luck is very good. In other words, your Immortal Destiny is exceptional. Junior Brother saw that you had no ties or attachments, so he brought you up the mountain to cultivate the Dao. As long as you work hard with all your heart, you will naturally achieve something in the future. Any more questions? If not, then take a master."

Li Feng was stunned. Combining everything he had seen, he finally understood that he had truly encountered immortals. His greatest wish in the past had only been to find some martial arts master and become his disciple, so that one day he could run rampant across the land, eat, drink, whore, and gamble without paying—that had been the grandest goal in this little thug's life. But now he had encountered an immortal, a real immortal, and that immortal even wanted to take him as a disciple of his own accord. Such an opportunity was simply too marvelous. What was there to be dissatisfied about?

The third rule of street-thug survival: when there was an advantage to be had, seize it—especially an advantage that required no investment. Anyone who did not seize it was an idiot.

Thus, Li Feng forgot his Golden Dragon Gang brothers, forgot that Gu Cangyue and the others were still running around Suzhou Prefecture like their hair was on fire in search of the Sword Pellet and Azure Spirit Pill, and forgot that his partner, A Zhu, with whom he had run wild since childhood, was still recovering from his injuries in the countryside outside Suzhou Prefecture. He sprang up from the ground, slammed his forehead against the floor, and said, "Master above, disciple Li Feng pays his respects." Then he knocked his head against the ground seventeen or eighteen times in rapid succession.

This was called striking while the iron was hot. Before these immortals could change their minds, he had to nail this matter down quickly. If any unexpected change occurred, it would be no good at all.

Xiao Longzi smiled in satisfaction. "Good, good, good. Excellent. Mm, in three days, my master—your Martial Grandfather—will emerge from seclusion. He is currently in closed-door meditation with several senior uncles, your grand-uncles, comprehending the Supreme Dao Arts. So for the next few days, you can wander around the mountain and try your luck. See just how great your fortune truly is. Hehe, three days from now, Martial Grandfather will formally bestow a name upon you. Then you will officially be admitted into the sect."

Xie Yuezi nodded with a wicked air. "Yes, yes, little martial nephew, let me tell you—there are quite a few good things on this mountain. I've lived here for two hundred and seventy years, yet there are many treasures I still haven't discovered. If you have luck, perhaps you'll find some Heavenly Treasures to eat. That would be your fortune, enough to save you at least a hundred years of bitter cultivation. Keep your eyes wide open and search everywhere. The greatest principle of our Yiyuan Sect is 'Model Nature': in all things, follow your heart and remain unfettered and unrestrained. So long as you don't set the mountain on fire, nobody will meddle in your affairs. Understand?"

Xiao Longzi added, "As for anyone meddling in your affairs, no one will. Apart from you, the sect currently has three generations. Sect Leader Uncle-Master True Person Qingbo, his Dao companion, Second Uncle-Master True Person Lingwei, Third Uncle-Master True Man Miaomiao, Fourth Uncle-Master True Man Huoyun, and then my master, Chen Songzi, also known as True Man Qingsong. These are the five highest-ranking members of the sect. There are eleven second-generation disciples in all. Senior Disciple Brother and Second Disciple Brother have gone down the mountain to travel, while the other nine are all on the mountain, but they devote themselves to bitter cultivation and rarely leave their homes."

Xie Yuezi nodded. "At present, counting every last one, you are the only fourth-generation disciple. As long as you don't violate sect rules or precepts, nobody on this mountain will manage you. Understand? In any case, no one will be following you around, so do whatever you want."

Li Feng vaguely felt that something was amiss. This supposedly orthodox cultivation sect had only sixteen people from top to bottom, seventeen including himself. Wasn't that sect far too small? Even speaking of martial arts sects, Cangfeng Fortress had over two hundred people in Suzhou Prefecture alone, with more than a thousand experts throughout the sect and countless disciples. Especially the Wudang Sect, now blazing with popularity in the martial world—its followers filled the world. But if Cangfeng Fortress was a great temple, then the Yiyuan Sect was no more than a roadside Land God Temple.

How could Li Feng have known that Xie Yuezi and the others had not been boasting? The Yiyuan Sect was indeed famous far and wide in the Cultivation World, hailed as an orthodox inheritance of cultivation. But their principle of "Model Nature" had made every disciple pure-hearted and ascetic, until in the end none of them even had the interest to go down the mountain and seek disciples. That was why the entire sect had dwindled to only a few stray cats and dogs. Though every member was formidable, in terms of sheer presence, they truly could not compare with many other cultivation sects.

Xiao Longzi smiled and, as if performing a conjuring trick, pulled a three-foot sword from behind his back and handed it to Li Feng. "This is the protective treasure sword my master gave me when I first came up the mountain: Jade Rhinoceros. It bears three precious pearls—Water Repelling, Fire Evasion, and Heart Cleansing. They will protect you from water and fire and make you basically immune to a hundred poisons. I now have a flying sword of my own cultivation and no longer need it, so I will pass it on to you."

Xie Yuezi pulled a tattered scroll from his robes and tossed it into Li Feng's arms. "This is the first passage of the first section of the foundational beginner's incantation for our sect's peerless art. You can study it carefully over the next three days. Junior Brother says that all your meridians are open, which is excellent. Perhaps you can even practice a little. Your master and I both have critical cultivation hurdles to overcome lately, and we might not emerge even after three days. Thus, for the next few days, you'll be the only living person on the mountain. I'll have Little Cat accompany you. If you want food, there are mushrooms beneath the pine trees. If you want drink, there is fresh water in the streams. Help yourself."

The moment he finished speaking, Xie Yuezi and Xiao Longzi walked out, completely ignoring Li Feng as he stood there dumbfounded.

Faintly, he could hear Xiao Longzi complaining, "That old Daoist Chen Songzi was too lazy to take disciples himself, so he forced me to take a disciple's disciple. Every senior uncle has two disciples, and Sect Leader Uncle-Master even has a daughter, yet my master only took me. Sect Leader Uncle-Master forced him to take one more disciple, and he forced me to do it instead. It wasted more than half a year of my cultivation for nothing... My Misty Violet Qi has already taken form. I only need to circulate my mystic art and form my Golden Core. Once the Golden Core forms, I'll truly become immortal and ageless, yet he had to make me find a disciple at a time like this."

Xie Yuezi cursed even more crudely. "You have it good—you were lucky enough to bring back a naturally gifted disciple. That master of mine, Lingwei, wanted to please that little girl, so she made me go to Western Kunlun in search of White Crane Spirit Saliva. Are thousand-year spirit cranes so easy to deal with? I finally managed to steal a thread of its saliva, only to be chased for over two thousand li by more than a dozen Crane Spirits. If my Golden Core had not already taken form, I would have been captured long ago and fed to those two young cranes."

Xiao Longzi let out a startled sound. "Hey, hey, hey, Third Senior Brother, you told me that you battled for three days and three nights and forced the leader of those white cranes to offer up its saliva. Now you're saying this. Could it be that what you stole was the young cranes' spirit saliva? That would make it a thief's method—not very honorable..."

Xie Yuezi loudly shushed him twice, then muttered in a low voice, "Think about it. More than a dozen thousand-year spirit cranes—could I beat them? Saying that was only to earn a little more credit before Master. Did you think I was really that stupid? Naturally, while those old cranes had left their nest to swallow the essence of sun and moon, I rushed into their lair, seized the young cranes, and forced them to spit out their saliva. I'm not Sect Leader Uncle-Master. How could I be that powerful? Hmph..."

Li Feng fell backward again, staring at the sky. He felt as though he had boarded a pirate ship. What sort of people were these? Were these truly the elders of his future sect? Take Xie Yuezi, for instance—those methods were exactly how street thugs seized territory. And he called himself an immortal? Were immortals really like that?

After sighing mournfully for a long time, Little Cat finally sat obediently beside Li Feng and stared blankly at him with a pair of golden eyes for quite some time. Only then did Li Feng sit up. He carefully studied Little Cat, then gently stroked its head. Finding that this huge tiger was truly as tame as a little cat, even making a contented rumbling sound in its throat, he finally relaxed. Muttering to himself, he said, "Looks like they weren't boasting when they said they were immortals. At least they trained this tiger to be like a cat. That takes some skill."

Casually opening the scroll supposedly containing the first passage of the first section of the foundational beginner's incantation for his sect's peerless art, Li Feng nodded solemnly and began pointing at it. "One, two, three... two hundred seventy-eight. Oh, this first beginner passage has two hundred seventy-eight characters. Fuck, this young master can't read. What use is a book to me?" He casually tossed the Yiyuan Sect's introductory general outline into a corner by the wall.

Afterward, Li Feng gently drew Jade Rhinoceros. With a soft hum, a chill rushed toward his face. His nose stung, and he sneezed four or five times in succession. The sword was neither metal nor stone, and he had no idea what material it was made from. Yet it looked like a pool of clear water, merely emitting a faint jade-colored radiance. Near the hilt were set three pearls the size of little fingertips, which must have been the three precious pearls.

With a long sigh, Li Feng shook his head and said, "Those two old Daoists are strange as hell, but they're generous enough. If this sword were brought to Suzhou Prefecture, Old Tou'er and the others would surely crack their heads fighting over it. Ah, damn it, Old Tou'er forced Tiger Boss and the others to cause trouble for the Golden Dragon Gang. I wonder how that turned out... But... why should I care? A Zhu is recovering in the countryside, so they won't be able to trouble him. Niu Boss isn't any kind of good bird either. If he gets beaten to death, he deserves it."

After snorting a few times, Li Feng could not help feeling a burst of delight in his heart. In the entire Golden Dragon Gang, aside from A Zhu, the partner he had been with since childhood, he cared about no one. He muttered, "If Niu Boss hadn't insisted on forcing us into the gang, our Suzhou Number One Pickpocket Crew would have become rich beyond measure long ago. Why would we need to serve as lackeys beneath you people? Hmph, once this young master learns his arts, I'll return to Suzhou Prefecture and settle accounts with you. You think Cangfeng Fortress is something special? When that day comes, this young master will piss and wash down your Number One Fortress Under Heaven."

After gesticulating wildly for a while, Li Feng finally noticed that his stomach had begun growling. Following a round of complaints, he finally took Little Cat and walked out the door.

The instant he stepped outside, Li Feng froze. The bearing of an immortal's domain was beyond mortal imagination.

In the sky, five exquisite little mountain peaks floated three hundred zhang above the ground. They were riddled with countless holes and looked adorable beyond compare. Each peak was only a dozen or so zhang high, with a base three to five zhang wide. They had no soil at all and were entirely formed from a kind of emerald-green jade. Strange little crimson trees grew resolutely from the stone, their branches laden with vermilion fruit. Beneath them grew countless rare medicinal herbs, all in full bloom. Their flowers were like brocade, scattered in tiny specks that made the entire mountain peak extraordinarily splendid.

Directly above Li Feng floated a towering conical peak a hundred zhang high, with streams, flowing water, pavilions, terraces, and towers upon it. Waterfalls like ropes plunged straight down from it into a small lake beside Li Feng. When the breeze blew, those dozen slender waterfalls immediately turned into water mist and lightly sprayed over him. Li Feng's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the ground again.

Li Feng murmured deliriously, "My mother... my ancestors... my ancestors' mothers... This really is where immortals live... Heaven, heaven..."

Several clear cries sounded overhead as two white cranes flew gently, elegantly, and with graceful dignity over Li Feng's head. Each crane held a medicinal herb in its beak. Li Feng recognized them: they were Lingzhi Mushrooms, the most expensive herbs in Suzhou Prefecture's pharmacies. Yet even in the biggest and finest pharmacy in Suzhou Prefecture, such lingzhi were no more than palm-sized and a dull brown. The ones in the two white cranes' beaks, however, were a full foot across, smooth and red, with seven-colored light radiating around them.

Layers of white clouds drifted across the sky. Strands of clear sunlight rippled amid the clouds, filling everything with an incomparably tranquil feeling.

The place where Li Feng stood was a sparse yet orderly bamboo grove. To his left lay a small lake, and ahead ran a little stream. To his right, a lofty peak pierced straight into the clouds. More than a hundred zhang above the ground, there was a heart-shaped cave, golden light flashing outside its entrance while sheets of purple clouds drifted out from within. The scent of medicine struck his nostrils; even Li Feng could smell it.

He rose dazedly and followed the stream for over a hundred zhang. Ahead, the land opened into a vast flat plain, dotted with clusters of trees and bamboo groves. Beneath the trees and bamboo grew flowers and grass, and a dozen or so bamboo and wooden houses were scattered among them. Yet not a single person could be seen. He continued onward for another three or four hundred zhang, until the flat ground abruptly ended. Ahead lay an endless sea of clouds, with more than a dozen small mountain peaks poking their heads out from it. When a gale swept through, the cloud waves rolled, and those peaks vanished without a trace.

Piercing cries came from afar as two black eagles soared up from beneath the sea of clouds, whipping up a whirlwind as they shot straight into the nine heavens. Li Feng drew a long breath, marveling at the vigorous vitality and savage power of those giant eagles, whose wingspans stretched more than ten zhang.

When he looked down at his feet, Li Feng nearly fell over. Beneath him was a boundless abyss. Strange pines grew from the cliffs, while several Golden Apes leaped back and forth among them, fighting over silver fruit growing on vines wrapped around the pine trees.

Li Feng stood there, watching the sea of clouds surge and roll before him, watching a round red sun slowly sink into it... In his eleven or twelve years of life, Li Feng felt for the first time just how tiny he was, while heaven, earth, and all creation were so vast and magnificent. For a time, staring at the scenery all around him, Li Feng was entranced. Who did Gu Cangyue think he was? And who was Tiger Boss? They could muddle through their entire lives in the human world and never behold such grand, magnificent sights.

The next day, ten thousand rays of golden light shot from beneath the eastern clouds as the sun rose once more. The golden light shone into Li Feng's eyes, and only then did he awaken from his reverie. Li Feng shouted, "Fuck, this young master finally understands! So what if I became the number one gang in Suzhou Prefecture? I, I, I—if I can fly straight into the nine heavens like those two eagles, then I'll be a true hero!"

From that day onward, Li Feng finally had a goal for his life—a goal that seemed difficult to achieve for now. One day, he would surpass extraordinary figures like Gu Cangyue. He would transcend these mortals. Like those two great eagles, he would ride the wind upward and charge straight into the nine heavens.