Please call me Huanxian

Chapter 257 Earn Money, Visit Relatives

The young man raised his hands to show that he was wrong and suppressed the cynical smile on his face.

"Aunt Liu, my mother asked me to bring you a basket of peaches from our own trees. I want you to taste them. I ran on the road for two days without stopping. I wonder if they have gone bad?"

Xu Shengtian's expression changed smoothly and he returned to his calm and composed look.

He took out a small, verdant bamboo basket from his wide cuffs. It was covered with a few slender, emerald green peach leaves, revealing a hint of bright peach color.

"Fortunately, it's not broken. Otherwise, I would have been scolded to death by my mother if I hadn't gone home. Fairies, please have some peaches."

The bamboo basket was pushed forward and floated in front of Liu Xianfeng who was thirty feet away.

Hei Xiayi noticed that there was no storage bag in the young man's sleeves, and it seemed that he was using a kind of storage bag power similar to "the world in the sleeves". He was increasingly unable to see through the other party's depth and whereabouts.

"Xianfeng, this junior of yours is quite interesting. Which mountain do you practice on?"

"His name is Xu Shengtian, my master's nephew. He often goes to Bailin Valley to read books, and his studies are rather disorganized. In the past few years, my master... has no time to guide him, so he has been left to figure out his cultivation on his own."

Liu Xianfeng took the basket and gave a brief introduction.

She once heard from the young master that Xu Shengtian's physical condition changed after he recovered from his illness, and he was able to cultivate his spirit by reading books, but she didn't know the details.

After more than five years, Xu Shengtian seemed to have achieved some results in his practice, which was completely different from the practice system she knew, and he was neither a god nor an immortal.

The year before last, Yuanbao took him to the Baijisi of Qingping City, where he obtained an identity card for a casual cultivator, and then he ran around everywhere.

Since last year, she became more and more confused about the little guy's cultivation strength. To say that he is very strong, he can't fly so far, but he is good at everything, such as crossing mountains, escaping water, and avoiding fire. When he runs, even Yuanbao can't catch up with him.

Hei Xiayi didn't ask any more questions. Xu Yuanchang was a very peculiar practitioner with many mysterious abilities that were unknown to the public.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to break into the God's Tomb, stay in this dangerous place filled with the aura of the God of Silence, and still be alive for so many years.

Because of their master-disciple relationship, she has a close relationship with Elder Mei. She heard the secret information about Xu Yuanchang from Elder Mei, so she came to see him on purpose to fulfill her friendship.

The Xu family produces many extraordinary people. Like uncle, like nephew.

After talking for a while and eating the peach in his hand, Hei Xiayi and Douya continued to head north, not wanting to delay too long.

Xu Shengtian climbed to the top of the collapsed rock and easily passed through the protective formation set up by the old master of Xiyue Tower. He lay at the entrance of the cave, poked his head into the darkness below and shouted, "Uncle San, please come out earlier. My father and mother have been talking about having a reunion dinner together. Please."

He howled, then stood up and brushed off the mud and dust on his robe.

"Aunt Liu, I'm going to be away from home for more than half a year. If you have anything to say, please let me know. I really can't stay at home. My mother nags me every day and urges me to find a wife for me. She says that even if I become a god, I still have to listen to my parents and continue the Xu family line. Otherwise, I would be unfilial. I said I could wait a few more years, and she and my father picked up bamboo brooms and hit me. They didn't even give the gods any face."

Xu Shengtian felt so aggrieved that he could only tell his third aunt about his troubles.

Liu Xianfeng smiled so much that her eyes narrowed when she heard this, and said, "You should kidnap a fairy and bring her home soon. I guarantee your mother will be so happy that she won't be able to stop smiling and won't care about you anymore."

Xu Shengtian waved his hand and sighed as he walked northeast, saying, "It's not easy to have similar interests, so let's not turn."

He has so much beautiful scenery that he can’t even take in the time to kidnap a fairy.

Liu Xianfeng took out a crystal stone from his sleeve and threw it towards the back figure, saying, "Going out is expensive, don't save money. Where are you going to travel this time? Tell me, and I'll cover for you at your mother's place."

"I told you before that Zhu Zunquan and Zhu Zongshan, uncle and nephew from Pingbo County, came to visit Bailin Valley. I received them. A few days ago, Zhu Zongshan came to Bailin Valley again and we had a good chat. He invited me to go to Pingbo County. I also wanted to go to the beach to take a look."

Xu Shengtian took the crystal stone worth ten thousand coins, without any pretense of refusing, and walked away with his sleeves fluttering in the air.

"Thank you for the generous reward, Auntie!"

"Yuanbao, bite him!"

The old yellow dog lying on the ground, too lazy to move, barked twice perfunctorily.

I can’t bite. I can’t bite that slippery guy at all.

Liu Xianfeng chewed the peach slowly, thinking, I wonder how Daoyou Xu is doing? Elder Mei hasn't come for a long time.

……

The underground palace of the God’s Tomb, the space of the Thousand Souls Flower.

The closed house is inlaid with luminous stones on the ceiling, and the soft white light makes every detail visible.

Occasionally, a very faint golden light flashed on Xu Yuanchang's body. He sat upright on a bamboo chair, leisurely tasting Hundred Flowers Wine from a small white jade bowl, and chatting with Rabbit about mundane business.

"Friend Li, the old must go before the new can come. The old place where you live and rest is half mine. You can take my half to refine it and share the profits. In the end, you still make the profit. People who achieve great things regard money as dirt. Don't be so petty."

"Master Xu Yuan, don't be so careless when you're talking. Is this dirt? I believed your lies and peeled off a layer of Yingcai crystals on my nest for you to refine. Now you tell me that you're almost there before you can break through the petal shell. If you peel it off again, my nest will be leaking. Where will I live in the future?"

The rabbit's fur is colorful, obviously because it has absorbed a lot of essence from the refined colorful crystal stones.

He had been hunting hawks for many years, but this time he was pecked in the eye by a little sparrow, and he refused to be fooled.

The piece of colorful crystal in the corner shrank to only five feet.

Some places are thin and translucent, and the inside is hollow, through which you can see the black rabbit lying down.

Xu Yuanchang was not one to give up easily. He took a sip of the fine wine and continued to persuade, "If we get out earlier, we can still go to the Chaos God Tomb in the Thousand Mountains and Hills. Wouldn't the God Condensation Stone and the God-Separating Fruit be easily obtained? The petals are almost drilled through. Giving up now will mean failure. You won't be willing to wait for another five years, right?"

The rabbit's fur shone brightly, and the lion opened his mouth and said, "I want 50% of the benefits. After you get out, you must go to the Chaos God Tomb within half a year to look for the God Condensation Stone and the God-Separation Fruit. In addition, you must go to the bottom of the Endless Lake again."

"Thirty percent, no more, otherwise the loss of the Creation Light will not be enough to replenish it."

After some bargaining between the two, Xu Yuanchang insisted on a bottom line of 30%, and promised to go to the bottom of Wuya Lake within 20 years. Finally, a deal was reached. Rabbit asked for three more drops of purified and refined "Thousand Souls Liquid", which was a good thing for replenishing the soul and refining high-level elixirs.

The rabbit endured the pain and plucked up a bunch of colorful crystals and threw them onto the altar of creation.

Xu Yuanchang laughed and said, "That's enough, that's enough."

The rabbit rolled his eyes in disdain, and the boy also said "enough" last time.

He was very suspicious that Xu was embezzling money, but unfortunately he couldn't see what was happening outside.

Xu Yuanchang drank the Hundred Flowers Wine in the bowl in one gulp. After the Yingcai Crystal Stone turned into colorful liquid and was completely refined to remove impurities, he separated 30% of it and threw it to the rabbit with a keen eye beside him, and slowly extracted the remaining essence.

After several years of hard work, the prototype of the invisible phantom armor that emerged on his body was about a foot wide.

In order to restore the lost divine light of creation, Xu Yuanchang was not in a hurry to use the Yin-Yang Magic Fire and the divine light of creation to dig out the petals bit by bit. That was a slow and laborious job.

He sat cross-legged in a closed room, slowly regulating his breathing and absorbing excess energy. His most urgent task was to improve his cultivation.

The rabbit swallowed the purified colorful crystal liquid given to him in one gulp, and hurriedly got into his increasingly shabby nest and kicked the black rabbit out.

With the help of the Altar of Creation to refine the materials, he felt both pain and happiness.

A home that has been lived in for thousands of years cannot withstand a few disasters.

……

Summer goes and winter comes.

The snow was falling heavily and the north wind was blowing wildly.

A sturdy figure stepped into the gate of Bailin Valley against the wind and snow, his dark and resolute face showing a bit of excitement.

After six years of brutal training and cultivation, he was finally allowed to return to the Daning Dynasty to visit his master.

"Quack", an ugly toad as big as a water tank jumped onto the rock, carrying a fat white worm on its back. The two sides looked at each other from a distance of more than ten feet.

The visitor took off the hat that was pulling down the brim on his head and shouted with a smile: "Xue Li, it's me!" The fat bug jumped up and excitedly circled around the guest whom he almost didn't recognize.

He was a boy when he left and he has grown into an adult when he returned.

"Aren't Master and Aunt Liu in the valley? What about Master Gou? He's not here either."

It was Zeng Shanlang who went home in the snow. He talked with Xueli in a charades. He heard that his master had been away for several years and he didn't know when he would return. He felt a little melancholy and lost. But when Xueli said that she knew the whereabouts of his master and Aunt Liu and could take him there, a journey of three thousand miles.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Xueli."

Zeng Shanlang smiled and rubbed Xueli's cold forehead, just like when his master praised Xueli.

After walking around the courtyard and valley halfway up the mountain, Zeng Shanlang felt the desolation from the dead grass that no one cared for. He felt a little heavy-hearted. He raised his hand to send a message to Aunt Liu, informing her that he had returned home. He originally wanted to give his master and Aunt Liu a surprise.

The journey is long, and I have only communicated with Aunt Liu three times in the past few years.

The master could not be contacted for a long time, and Aunt Liu replied that his master was in seclusion, and asked him to practice with peace of mind and not to waste the good time.

He had never thought deeply about it before, but now he guessed that something might have happened to his master.

The snow grain knew nothing about anything, so Zeng Shanlang didn't stay for long and flew into the sky carrying the much smaller snow grain.

He has advanced to the middle stage of the second stage. The path of physical cultivation has been full of ups and downs, and has been honed through hard work.

After a while, Zeng Shanlang slowly descended from the sky and took a look at the ancient stone archway in the wind and snow. Compared with the tall and majestic appearance in his childhood memory, he felt that the stone archway seemed to have become much shorter. Leaving the snow grains outside the village, he walked alone in the snow into the once familiar Xianqiao Village.

Returning to his hometown after eight years away, he did not feel any homesickness.

The mountain village was silent amidst the strong wind and heavy snow.

Zeng Shanlang wandered like a lonely ghost on the deserted village road, occasionally reaching out to touch the tree trunks that he still remembered and the dilapidated mud-walled yard.

The sky was leaden and gray, and icy cold.

Wandering in front of the gate of a newly renovated courtyard where someone else lives.

There was a trace of pain and memories in Zeng Shanlang's eyes. It was in this yard that he sent off his last relative in the world and shed all his tears.

The dark world and the heart-wrenching despair only stopped appearing in my occasional dreams in the past two years.

The child, who was so thin that the wind could blow him away, struggled to survive like a weed, and almost died of starvation and disease in the room where wind was blowing from all directions.

A bitter smile appeared on Zeng Shanlang's lips.

Hearing the sound of a dog barking in the yard, he turned and walked down the mountain and came to the cemetery two miles away.

He found a single grave that was closely connected to each other and wiped the snow off the middle tombstone to reveal the name of his grandfather who had once been the clan leader. He then cleared the dry weeds and shrubs from the other graves, lit incense and candles on each grave, placed bowls of offerings of chicken, duck and fish, and knelt down to kowtow to each one.

Finally, he knelt for a long time in front of the almost flat grave mound with no tombstone, mumbling like he was sobbing.

"Mother, Shanwa is here to see you."

"Shanwa is still alive. Alive."

"Shanwa misses you."

"..."

When Zeng Shanlang passed away, new soil was piled on the grave and a carved stone tablet was erected in front of the tomb. It was simple and heavy, engraved with his mother's name and signed "Respectfully erected by the filial son Zeng Shanlang", representing his eternal companionship.

The heavy snow slowly covered the graves and tombstones.

Heaven and earth share the same color.

Zeng Shanlang washed his hands and walked to a mud-walled courtyard. He took out the prepared gifts from his storage bag and slung them over his shoulder. He also held a large bag in his left hand. Hearing a cough coming from inside, he knocked on the mottled and old wooden door.

"Who is it? It's so cold."

The footsteps stopped behind the door and a young man's voice sounded.

"Squeak", the wooden door opened, and the two people did not recognize each other through the door.

Zeng Shanlang smiled and said, "I am Shanlang, and I have come to visit Uncle Lai specially."

An old man with gray hair who was warming himself by the fire in the main room heard the voices and stood up in surprise, saying, "Oh my God, it's Shan Lang. Come in and warm yourself up. It's hard for you to travel in this strong wind and heavy snow."

Looking at the tall and burly man in dark green clothes, walking up the stairs carrying a sack and a bundle.

Zeng Lai looked at his nephew, who looked unrecognizable now. He only vaguely resembled the old patriarch in his features. He said repeatedly, "You kid, why do you spend money on gifts when you come? I went to Bailin Valley in the spring of the year before last, but I didn't see Taoist Xu and Fairy Liu. I heard from a gatekeeper that you went to a distant place to learn skills and I don't know when you will be back."

Zeng Shanlang put the sack and bundle on the ground and was about to kneel down to pay his respects, but the old man grabbed him tightly.

"That's not the point. I'm satisfied that you came all the way here to see me."

"Uncle Lai, you are still in good health. Are you still going to the mountains to hunt?"

"Haha, when we go into the forest to plant traps in the fall, I can do the job of two of them."

The old man pulled his nephew, who was as strong as a calf, to sit down, glared at the laughing child, and scolded him, "This is your mountain boy, why don't you call people? Call your wife and children in the west room to recognize your relatives. Call your eldest brother, third brother and the others back home later to make things lively."

A big tree has many branches; a poor man has many children and a divided family.

The old man lives with his youngest son.

As they were talking, a beam of talisman light suddenly flew in from outside.

Zeng Shanlang took it in his hand, put it in his sleeve and examined it. It was a reply from Aunt Liu, telling him the place.

Let him find the past on his own and still don't tell him about his master.

Seeing that the old man and his cousin were no longer talking, there were two little kids in patched clothes peeking out from the door. Zeng Shanlang waved and called the kids in, took out two bags of candies and dried fruits and gave them to them, and stuffed each of them with an ingot of silver, weighing ten taels each.

"No, no, it's too valuable."

The old man hurriedly stood up to stop him.

Zeng Shanlang stuffed two more silver ingots into the old man's pocket and refused politely for a while. When he saw his cousin going out and loudly instructing his wife to kill chickens and cook game, Zeng Shanlang said goodbye.

He was always uneasy without seeing his master.

The old man tried to persuade his nephew to stay for a while, but seeing that his nephew was indeed busy with important matters, he had to promise to stay a few more days next time he came back.

The old man was quite pleased to see his nephew, who was in a hurry to leave, out of the village in the snow.

The old patriarch's family has not been extinct.

Shan Lang became a fairy.

"Dad, Brother Shanlang left some money for you. He told me it's in his bag."

"This child, the gift is too big."

The old man walked back and told his son, "From now on, you have to take care of hanging paper and sweeping the graves of their descendants."

"I understand, Dad."

……

(End of this chapter)