Seeking Immortals

The moment he landed on Lanying Star, Li Qing transformed into thousands of people and merged into the rolling mortal world. He can be seen everywhere.

The big snake eats the small fish, the king tiger in the roaring mountains, the beggar who is hungry, the mother who educates her children... Regardless of whether they understand the Tao or not, their views on the Tao are all heard by Li Qing.

"These are indeed the Tao, but they are not the Tao I requested..." With a murmur, Li Qing glanced elsewhere.

　　Li Qing was walking in the mountains and fields, and the grass and trees were calling: "More sunshine, more rain."

 This is the way of vegetation, a kind of way of life.

This kind of questioning about ordinary people made Li Qing very interesting. He saw many sides that he had never touched.

Any path that is sublimated and opened to the ultimate point will definitely be the path of truth.

Mortal Tao is the simplest. Li Qing found that there is no pressure to dominate this kind of Tao. He asked all the way and integrated these mortal Tao into the Tao.

 He saw a broader side, and just started asking mortals, and he gained a lot.

 Regardless of whether it is feasible to dominate all the avenues, at least Li Qing saw the possibility of dominating the mortal realm. He did not need to specifically suppress the mortal realm. He could already exercise the power of **** if he saw, heard, and felt it.

Walking, Li Qing came to the bank of a small river and saw an old farmer taking a pair of fishing nets with gaps and catching fish in the river.

 As soon as the net was lowered, all the big fish escaped through the gap.

“My father-in-law’s net is broken and can’t catch any fish. Why not mend a few things and make it complete? It must not be difficult.” Li Qing was very surprised when he saw this scene and stepped forward to ask.

 At this moment, Lan Yingxing is full of his incarnations, communicating and asking questions to various living beings.

“The net is already broken, why do we need to mend it?” the old farmer said with a smile, not caring that nothing was caught in the net, and threw the fishing net into the river again.

Li Qing looked at the net again. It was indeed broken and did not need to be repaired.

This net was actually sewn by the old farmer’s wife. His wife loved fish. When sewing the net, she said: “For families like ours, we can feed ourselves by growing food, and there are always chickens and ducks, so there is no need to net fish.”

“The net has a mouth, but it cannot catch small fish. I will open another hole in this net to give the big fish a chance to escape.”

The old farmer’s wife has passed away. This fishing net is the old farmer’s trust. He came to lower the net not to catch fish.

 It is impossible for the old farmer to repair this fishing net.

“The Tao is like this net. In fact, it does not necessarily require perfection. It does not necessarily dominate the extreme points of the Tao. It does not necessarily dominate all the Tao. It may also have shortcomings.” Li Qing thought thoughtfully.

“The great road is fifty, the sky is forty-nine, and people can escape one of them.”

“There are similarities and differences, there are gaps in the great road, but how to find the limit of this ‘deficiency’?”

Li Qing spoke again: "I dare to ask my father-in-law. An immortal asked me first, what does my father-in-law think is Tao?"

"I don't understand what immortals and Tao are." The old farmer closed the net again and found nothing. He smiled and said: "I don't understand, that Tao doesn't exist at all. The Tao of immortals is the pursuit of immortals."

"For this river, the fishing net does not exist. The fishing net is the Tao. When I put the fishing net in the river, I throw the Tao into the river."

“When the fish is in the net, the fish has a way; when the fish escapes from the gap, it loses its way again.”

"In my opinion, Tao is not needed or exists at all. It is a restraint on fish."

"I'm an old farmer. You can talk to me about Taoism. I don't need Taoism. That thing is useless."

 The old farmer dragged the net and walked away laughing.

These words, like morning bells and late afternoon drums, awakened Li Qing and simplified the path. The ultimate path he pursued was expressed by the old farmer in simple words.

　　After Dao Zunren arrived and broke through the true immortal path, the avenue was like a net, trapping the monks like fish and becoming a constraint. Li Qing's ultimate Tao was to break through the shackles and jump out of the avenue, just like the free Dao fruit jumped out of the world.

At this moment, Li Qing thought of the third step to break through the path to true immortality and jumped out of the avenue.

The avenue is like a net and may have gaps. He is like a fish in the water. As long as he finds a gap, he can jump out of the avenue and reach the end.

 …

 Li Qing's incarnation and the dialogue with mortals were staged all over the Lanying Star.

 The Prime Minister's Mansion in the capital of the Ming Dynasty welcomed a special guest.

"Ask?" the prime minister said solemnly: "Tao is the power in my hands!"

Li Qing asked: "Sir, are you willing to give up the Tao and gain great freedom and freedom?"

"It is not so easy to let go of power. I have offended many people. If you let go of power, you will not get great freedom." The prime minister waved his hand.

Li Qing committed a crime and was thrown into prison. He asked the jailer: "What is the Dao?"

The jailer's face turned grim and he said sternly: "The Tao is the law! I want you to go east, but you dare not go west! Be honest!"

Li Qing asked the butcher. The butcher shook his arm and said with a smile: "It's the butcher's knife in my hand!"

Every mortal has a different view of Tao, but they mostly regard Tao as a higher-level object and a tool for exerting authority, which is the same as the immortal Tao.

Monks also use Tao to improve their cultivation and exert their authority.

  It’s just a tool and can be thrown away.

 Li Qing found that the Tao in the eyes of mortals was more consistent with his way of respecting people. Mortals did not know the Tao and did not respect the Tao. Even if the immortal asked, the mortals would consider "Tao below people".

 Monks seek the Tao and fear the Tao, but they cannot develop the concept of "people are above the Tao".

Li Qing kept asking, integrating the mortal way into his immortal way, and continuing to move forward on the road to breaking through the true immortal.

 Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Qing has a vague feeling.

“This realm after breaking through the path to true immortality may be called Taoist immortality.”

Ten years later, Li Qing integrated thousands of mortal Tao into several bodies. From the perspective of complementing the Tao and seeking similarities and eliminating differences, the mortal Tao and his Tao have a "same" relationship.

“But it seems not enough. The Tao is endless. I cannot simply classify the uncontrolled Tao as ‘the lack of Tao’.”

“Even if I dominate all mortal paths, I still cannot ignore the paths pursued by other monks.”

Li Qing encountered a big problem on the second step of the Taoist Immortal Realm. He saw a feasible way, but he could not dominate all the avenues, and he could not see the lack of the avenues.

If you find the gap in the Dao, you can hope to pass the second and third steps of the Taoist Immortal Realm.

 After Li Qing asked the immortal question "What is Tao?", in the past thirty years on Lan Yingxing, the enthusiasm of the creatures on the star to discuss "What is Tao" has not dissipated.

Mortal Taoists who are keen on seeking Taoism have appeared in many areas. They want to answer the questions of the immortals and gain great opportunities.

To the north of the Lanying Star, there is a secular country called the Sheep Country.

The State of Sheep is a great country of poetry and literature. It is known as the ancient state of etiquette and civilization in Lanying Star. All the methods of education are spread from this country.

 Most of the famous Confucian scholars came from the Yang Kingdom, and those who respected Confucianism and Taoism were called saints.

The sacred ears of the saints today are called masters.

The Master was a scholar of heaven and earth all his life, and when he was fifty years old, he was called the Master of Literature and Dao. However, the Master could not forget the scene thirty years ago. A young man came up to him and asked him what the Tao was.

The Master did not blurt out his views on the Tao like ordinary old farmers. He did not understand the Tao and could not answer. When the young man saw that he did not answer, he left.

The Master watched the young man leave and couldn't calm down for a long time. The young man did not reveal his identity, but the Master knew that the young man was the immortal who asked the mortal.

 A mere literary and Taoist figure in a secular country is nothing in the eyes of immortals.

From that day on, the Master abandoned what he had learned in his early years and devoted himself to seeking the Tao and its interpretation. He became a pure Taoist. He studied the Tao and wanted to explain it to the immortals.

"What is Tao... I am a scholar of heaven and man, and have extensive knowledge of ancient and modern times. But after thirty years, I still haven't found the answer. Immortal..." In the light of the oil lamp and candle, the master turned over the record of questions written by himself, and kept asking himself.

Over the years, the Master has been asking questions and exchanging opinions with people, and compiled them into a thick record of questions. He is already over 60 years old.

 …

“This record contains many explanations of Tao, but I understand that these are not the Tao required by immortals.” The master shook his head.

At dawn, a disciple was already waiting in front of the Master's door: "Teacher, Mr. Murong from Mount Laoshan has returned from his study tour, but he wants to ask questions."

 “Go.” The master replied in the room.

The group set out from the Master's house. Mr. Murong's hermitage was in Laoshan outside the city, and it took quite a while to visit.

Halfway through the journey, the gods were not kind and it started to rain lightly. The Master and others had no choice but to go into a wild temple in the mountains to take shelter.

There were many people taking shelter from the rain, including scholars carrying a basket of books on their way, mountain folk chopping firewood, and business travelers passing by.

"It's raining, it's raining." The Master became interested and asked the mountain people directly: "Friend, what is the Tao?"

The mountain people did not know the Master, but when they saw that the Master was dressed in an extraordinary way and that he was very old, they did not dare to neglect him and politely said, "I don't know."

 “What about you?” The master looked at a business traveler again.

 The merchant pointed to the sky and said with a smile: "There are many kinds of Tao, countless. To the rain outside, Tao is the sky; to me right now, Tao is the umbrella."

"Interesting." Master nodded, "The Tao is indeed endless. I am worried about the Tao of the Immortal, trying to find the Tao that the Immortal wants to ask."

The Master was communicating with others, but the scholar beside him was looking at the book in his hand without any thought.

Seeing the scholar's expression, the master was quite satisfied and said: "Scholar, what books have you read that can tell you what the Tao is?"

The scholar was alarmed, closed the book, cupped his hands and said: "The young man is not a scholar, he is just a scholar. It's hard to tell what the Tao is. The book he is reading is Jiuzhou Chronicles."

"Jiuzhou Chronicles..." Master, who is well versed in writing from hundreds of schools of thought, naturally knew this book, and said: "This book is a history book, which was circulated three thousand years ago, but the contents in the book are all fabricated, and are different from any period of history, and its words are unknown. It is difficult to understand and involves so many characters that it requires careful reading to fully understand.”

 “That’s what you said, sir.” The scholar guessed that the master was a great master, so he was even more polite.

The Master continued: "What about the other books you are reading? They are the books in the basket."

 The scholar spread out the books in the basket, and it turned out to be a series of books related to Kyushu such as Romance of Kyushu, Fengyun of Kyushu, Biography of Kyushu Lu You, etc.

Master murmured: "These books are all novels based on the Chronicles of Kyushu."

"Exactly." The scholar became more interested and said with a smile: "Xiaosheng likes Chinese speaking novels, especially those related to Jiuzhou Chronicles. He has almost read all the related Jiuzhou Chinese novels, and has personally created new ones. A novel in Kyushu dialect."

“But Xiaosheng later discovered that no matter how he wrote a new Jiuzhou dialect novel, he could not exhaust the history recorded in Jiuzhou Chronicles, so Xiaosheng gave up on the Kyushu Chronicles and focused on reading Kyushu Chronicles.”

 “Every time you read it again, you will gain a lot.”

“If you really want to ask me, ‘What is the Tao?’, reading this Jiuzhou Chronicle thoroughly will be the Tao that Xiaosheng requires in his lifetime.”

 Speaking without meaning, but listening with intention, the Master praised: "Well said!"

Just as the Master was about to write down the scholar's teachings, he heard lightning and thunder outside, strong winds, torrential rain, and great tremors from the heavens and the earth.

A young Taoist came facing the heavy rain and lightning. The rain stopped three feet away from the Taoist, and the wind stopped three feet close to the Taoist. The Taoist's eyes were long and full of Taoism.

“It’s you!” Master trembled. He recognized the young Taoist who was the immortal who asked him thirty years ago.