Hunted into a dead end by Zhu Youmu, the Yin-Yang Old Man scurried east and west through the Southern Border like a rat. He had been the only person who could find Li Ning during this period.
Heaven's ordained course had its part to play. Just as he reached the end of his rope, he indeed encountered Li Ning fetching water to the west. He immediately went up and pleaded, saying that Li Ning's senior brother was hunting him down, and that Nun Xinru had directed him to seek Li Ning's protection.
Remembering the instructions of his master, Chan Master Bai Mei, Li Ning had never used any magical power or divine abilities.
During this time, his body had grown increasingly like that of an ordinary mortal. He had even begun to feel hunger, and had to come out every day to gather wild fruit from the mountains and fetch water from the streams to sate his hunger and thirst.
Chan Master Bai Mei had once told him that if the Yin-Yang Old Man found him ahead of time, he must never, under any circumstances, accept the man as his disciple.
If Li Ning had said nothing, ignored the Yin-Yang Old Man, and simply turned and left, the power of the two holy monks Zunsheng and Bai Mei's Buddhist teachings would have remained in effect.
So long as he used no spells, even if he entered the Dharma Decline Age ahead of time, anyone who knew spells would be unable to find him. His meeting with the Yin-Yang Old Man had merely been a chance encounter brought about by karmic affinity.
If the Yin-Yang Old Man used spells to follow him, he would soon lose him, watching helplessly as Li Ning vanished into the mountain forests, never to be found