Great Immortal Zhenyuan

Fang Yu sat quietly in a side room, drinking only a cup of tea and eating a single spiritual fruit each day. It was called a spiritual fruit, but it was really just an apple he only thought of when there was nothing else to eat. Although the fruit was sour, it had a warming effect on his stomach. Fang Yu wondered if it was too sour, causing him to have excessive stomach acid. He sat there for over half a month, during which time he met Fang Yu, Mingyue contemporary of Qingfeng. Both spoke with a Sichuan accent and had similar personalities; both were quite polite to Fang Yu. One morning, Fang Yu suddenly felt the spiritual energy of heaven and earth surge like a tide, and the clouds above Wuzhuang Temple began to swirl, forming a huge vortex! "It's here!" Fang Yu's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly got up and went to the courtyard. Auspicious clouds stretched for a hundred miles across the eastern sky. Nine Layers of Cloud Mist gradually became distinct from bottom to top: the lowest layer was a mixture of Mysterious Yellow Qi, the middle layer was purple energy forming a canopy, and the highest layer was golden clouds condensing into Auspicious Cloud. In the center of the cloud path, a figure walked through the air. The man seemed to stroll leisurely, yet each step subtly aligned with the Array of Stars. His plain Daoist robe remained spotless, and a silk sash at his waist held his Natal Magic Treasure, the Sleeve of Heaven and Earth, from which the sun, moon, and stars faintly swirled. Most astonishingly, the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top on his head and the Five Qi Towards the Origin in his chest—an aura possessed only by Primordial Daluo Golden Immortal, someone who could sit at the same table as the Three Pure Ones. Monkey King had once heard Mingyue say that Great Immortal Zhenyuan had dined at the Heavenly Court at the same table as Grand Supreme Elder Lao, and that Mingyue was boasting. Fortunately, there was a video camera back then, capturing this precious scene. (See picture) "Welcome, Master." Qingfeng and Mingyue knelt at the mountain gate. When Zhen Yuanzi landed, the entire spiritual veins of Longevity Mountain Resonance. He casually tossed his whisk behind him, and the seemingly ordinary whisk tail actually caused space to slightly distort, revealing a faint, Chaos Void behind him. Fang Yu's eyelids twitched! This was too heaven-defying! "Hmm?" Zhen Yuanzi suddenly turned his head. Fang Yu felt as if struck by lightning! That gaze, seemingly casual, gave him the illusion of being stared at by the primordial universe. His chakra instantly froze, his soul felt as if it were being thoroughly examined before a primordial mirror, revealing all his secrets. Just as Fang Yu was about to use a Flying Thunder God Escape to escape, the pressure suddenly vanished. Fang Yu stood at the door of the side room, watching Great Immortal Zhenyuan's figure disappear around the corner of the main hall, his fingers unconsciously picking at the splinters on the doorframe. Qingfeng and Mingyue jogged to catch up with their master, the hem of their Daoist robes sweeping across the bluestone slabs, even their footsteps exuding respect. "I..." Fang Yu opened his mouth, his throat feeling like it was stuffed with rotten cotton from the edge of a bucket of stale water. Follow? The other person didn't even glance at him. Don't follow? They had gone through so much trouble to get to Wuzhuang Temple. Mingyue suddenly turned around, his almond-shaped eyes widening, his index finger pressed to his lips, his other hand pointing sharply towards the side room. Fang Yu nodded subconsciously, and by the time he realized what was happening, the vermilion palace doors had slammed shut, shaking a few drops of morning dew from the eaves. "Creak—" The wooden door of the side room groaned under its strain. Fang Yu curled up on the hard bed, staring at the cold tea on the coffee table. A thin film covered the surface of the tea, reflecting his distorted image, bearing a striking resemblance to the starving corpse floating in the swill bucket. Outside the window, the shadow of the Ginseng Fruit Tree crept across the window inch by inch. On the first day, he heard Qingfeng reciting some scriptures in the courtyard. On the third day, Mingyue kicked pebbles past the window, humming a tuneless tune. On the seventh day, the sound of bells came from the direction of the main hall. Fang Yu jolted to the window, only catching a glimpse of Zhen Yuanzi's robe flashing across the corridor. On the morning of the fifteenth day, Fang Yu suddenly sprang up from the hard bed, the straw cushion dented from his sleeping position, feeling utterly exhausted. "I can't wait any longer." He grabbed the earthenware bowl and gulped down several mouthfuls of overnight tea. The astringent taste of the tea mixed with the earthy smell assaulted his brain. For the past two weeks, he had been like the son of a farmhand staying at a master's house, spending his days meditating or staring blankly at the cobwebs on the roof beams, not daring to even step out the door. "In other worlds, I command the wind and rain, why do I have to swallow my pride and be a silent coward here?!" Fang Yu strode across the messy ground and headed straight for the main hall! The Stone steps in front of the main hall were as cold as jade. When Fang Yu knelt down, the biting cold made him frown slightly. "Junior Fang Yu requests an audience with Great Immortal Zhenyuan!" A crisp sound of porcelain clinking came from inside the hall, followed by Mingyue's low exclamation: "Master! That kid isn't bad." "Noisy." The two words, light and airy, made Fang Yu's eardrums ache! His vision went black, and the smell of rust filled his nostrils. When his vision returned, he found himself somehow back at the doorway of the side room, his knees still bent in a kneeling position. "Good heavens, how did I get back here?" There's little debate about Zhen Yuanzi's Divine Ability abilities. When Monkey King challenged Zhen Yuanzi, Zhen Yuanzi easily defeated him with two moves of his whisk, sending his Golden Cudgel flying. After knocking down the Ginseng Fruit Tree, Monkey King, in a fit of rage, wanted to silence Zhen Yuanzi and join Sha Wujing and Sha Wujing Bajie in Lu Bu Lü Bu. However, in a short time, the three were utterly defeated, and Zhen Yuanzi easily concealed the four of them, along with their luggage, in his Universe in the Sleeve. Of all the hardships Monkey King faced on his journey to the Journey to the West, none had ever been so desperate. Zhen Yuanzi was Tathagata more imposing than the Buddha, completely unbeatable. His abilities were genuine. Following him was certainly not a bad thing. Fang Yu realized that being too hasty might waste an opportunity, so he reluctantly returned to the side room. Zhen Yuanzi wouldn't teach him, then he could only strengthen his physical body. If Saitama's training methods were practiced for several hundred years, Fang Yu refused to believe he would be inferior to that Monkey King! Another week passed, Fang Yu had already gotten used to life at Wuzhuang Temple. Calling it life was an understatement; it was more like quiet recuperation and watching his own "little movies" from other worlds. That day, Fang Yu woke up early and heard rustling sounds in the courtyard. He quickly got up and looked out the window. What he saw chilled him to the bone. He saw Zhen Yuanzi riding away on a cloud, the auspicious clouds gradually dissipating into the horizon. Watching that receding figure, his heart was filled with mixed emotions. Qingfeng and Mingyue, seeing their master completely gone, immediately breathed a sigh of relief, their tense nerves relaxing instantly. "Phew, finally gone!" Qingfeng stretched, flicked his sleeve, and pulled a small fruit from his robes, tossing it to Fang Yu. "Catch!" Fang Yu caught it, looking down to see it was a crystal-clear spiritual fruit, its peel shimmering with a faint Golden Light —clearly not an ordinary fruit. "Master won't be back for at least half a year," Qingfeng grinned, winking at him. "We're going to have a lot of fun!" Mingyue coughed twice, then pretended to be serious as she corrected him, "Ahem! Qingfeng, we need to strengthen our Dao Heart while Master is away!" Qingfeng rolled his eyes. "Right, right, strengthen our Dao Heart, strengthen our Dao Heart." He turned to Fang Yu, then couldn't help but grin again. "But, since Master isn't here, it's not a big deal if we secretly relax a bit, is it?" Fang Yu, holding a piece of fruit, smiled helplessly. "I don't know anything, I don't understand anything, what's there to strengthen? What's there to review?" Qingfeng stroked his chin. "That's true." Mingyue slapped her forehead, Satori, "Oh right! Master didn't kick you out, so he must have tacitly agreed to keep you here! Look at my brain!" He turned and ran towards the inner hall, "Wait here, I'll go get the book for you to read!" Seeing this, Qingfeng shook his head and sighed, "Sigh, Mingyue is still so rigid." He leaned closer to Fang Yu and lowered his voice, "Actually, when Master isn't around, we can sneak off to the back mountain to pick some spiritual fruits, or go to the stream at the foot of the mountain to catch fish, that's what real fun is!" Fang Yu raised an eyebrow. "Are you guys usually this 'steadfast in your Dao Heart '?" Qingfeng chuckled, "Of course! Although Master is strict, as long as it doesn't interfere with our studies, he turns a blind eye." Just then, Mingyue came running back, panting, carrying a stack of bamboo slips. She shoved them into Fang Yu's hands. "Here! Take a look." Qingfeng, seeing this, pouted. "Fine, here we go again." He stretched lazily and said, "Alright, alright, you two read, I'm going for a walk in the back mountain." Mingyue glared at him. "You're trying to slack off again!" Qingfeng waved his hand and walked out without looking back. "That's called a balance between work and rest!" Fang Yu ignored their bickering and lowered his head to open the bamboo slips. They were densely covered with writing; it was difficult to even read them, let alone digest them. But he already had a plan in mind. The six months Zhen Yuanzi had been away might be the best opportunity for him to "get it"!