Oh, That Familiar Tone

Riding clouds for ten thousand miles, how free the Dao heart was.

From afar I beheld the Kunlun Mountains; an immortal came from the western lands.

No one could match the power of this poem.

Li Changshou kept his face taut on the surface, humming a little tune inwardly. His true body maintained a Clear and Empty Dao Heart, ever vigilant for any will descending to control this body.

As he neared the Kunlun Mountains, Li Changshou slowed his cloud even further.

Rather than heading straight for the Jade Void Palace, he wandered around Western Kunlun, found a valley, muttered a few words toward it, and finally sighed. "In the end, all is emptiness."

At his feet, a wisp of something that was neither spiritual energy, Immortal Qi, Dao Charm, nor any tangible force quietly burrowed deep into the earth.

Yet this action left not the slightest trace between heaven and earth, nor did it draw any response.

Li Changshou sighed softly, admired for a while longer the dazzling, naturally wrought beauty of Western Kunlun, observed the Jade Void Palace with his immortal senses for some time, and only then rode his cloud onward.

Dong—

He heard the toll of a bell from afar.

Two young Daoists flew out from the Jade Void Palace. Li Changshou rode forward and made a Daoist salute to them from a distance. "I am Xu Bodhi, from Spirit Mountain. I have come specially to pay a visit to the Jade Void Palace."

The two young Daoists returned the salute unhurriedly. Each stepped back half a pace, turned to face one another, and raised a hand in invitation, saying in mild voices:

"Please, this way, Fellow Daoist."

Li Changshou nodded with a smile, though inwardly he could not help but gripe.

When had he ever