Sun Lang took the old man back to the Wolf Head Gang in Qing County, and chose a big house in the backyard of the headquarters as a place for the old man to live and practice. In a conversation with the old man, Sun Lang learned that the old man's name was Liu Jingxiu, who was eighty-two years old at the time, and was originally a child of a squire near Jisi Mountain. A few years later, a cave was found at the northern foot of Jisi Mountain, and a few words were engraved on the wall of the cave, writing: "I am the cave master Hao Tianzhen, the cave has been cultivating immortals for more than 30 years, and has now successfully left this place by refining qi, leaving behind the self-use of the immortal cultivation enlightenment formula and the supreme secret method of cultivating immortals, hoping that people who are destined to get it." There is a parchment scroll on the ground, the first part is the so-called "enlightenment formula", and the latter part is the "supreme secret method of cultivating immortals".

If Yuan Miaozi sees these things, he will definitely laugh off his big teeth, what "enlightenment formula" is just the lowest level of spiritual opening method; what "supreme immortal cultivation secret method" is just the most common introductory manual in the immortal cultivation world, "Gathering Spiritual Heart Method", what is introduced is just the most ordinary Taoist cultivation introductory method in the Qi refining period, and it describes the most superficial method of absorbing spiritual energy from the five spiritual roots. The person who wanted to leave this hole was not a master, but a casual cultivator who had just started cultivating immortals.

Liu Jingxiu naturally didn't understand this, and thought that he had an adventure, so he learned to ponder in this cave. It was also Liu Jingxiu who was extremely intelligent, and without any help from a monk, he actually figured out the basic principles of cultivating immortals, opened his spirit, and also understood how his wood spirit root refined qi. It's a pity that this Jisi Mountain doesn't have any spiritual energy, and it can't be cultivated here at all, so half a year later, Liu Jingxiu left the cave to look for spiritual veins everywhere.

In the more than sixty years since then, he has also found two small pitiful spiritual veins, and after absorbing all the wood spiritual energy in them, his cultivation has gradually improved to the sixth layer of the Qi Refining Period, which is the peak of the middle stage of Qi refining. Liu Jingxiu knew that the lifespan of the Qi refining period was only one hundred years old, which was no different from ordinary people, and if he didn't find a huge spiritual vein in the remaining ten years or so, cultivate to the perfection of Qi refining, and find the opportunity to advance to the foundation building period, his cultivation career would definitely come to an end. But where is the spiritual vein so easy to find, as the days go by, he has gradually lost the hope of finding the spiritual vein again, and can only hope to find a disciple to inherit his mantle. So this time I met Sun Lang, who was seriously injured, and I couldn't wait to take him as an apprentice.

Sun Lang performed the apprenticeship and truly became Liu Jingxiu's apprentice. This Liu Jingxiu is kind by nature and has never done anything that hurts heaven and reason. At the apprenticeship ceremony, he warned Sun Lang not to do evil, but to be kind to others. But who is a gang doesn't take doing things that hurt nature and reason as the way to survive? Therefore, Sun Lang pretended to accept it on the one hand, and continued his gang career on the other hand, just hiding it from Liu Jingxiu.

The apprentice was accepted, and Liu Jingxiu fulfilled a wish. But the spiritual vein still has to continue to search, otherwise how can the apprentice cultivate, and how can he pass away with peace of mind? Therefore, the old man did not spend his days in the wolf's head gang, but continued to go out to search. More than half a year ago, he found a spiritual vein in the east of Yixian County, seeing that the spiritual energy far exceeded what he had encountered before, he absorbed the wood spiritual energy, and the disciples absorbed the gold, fire, and earth spiritual energy, without affecting each other, so he had the idea of practicing here, although he didn't know how far he could cultivate, but the apprentice could also at least cultivate to the ninth layer of qi refining, if the apprentice would have the opportunity to build the foundation of the spiritual vein again if it took time. As for himself, he knew that there was not much time left, there was no hope of building a foundation, and it would be in vain to be able to guide a promising disciple. So he had the idea of obtaining this spiritual vein, but he found that this spiritual vein had been occupied and was used as a medicine field by mortals, so he returned to the headquarters of the Wolf Head Gang in Qingxian County, hoping that Sun Lang could buy this place.

Sun Lang was puzzled and asked Liu Jingxiu: "Master is a monk, why don't you use spells to seize it?"

Liu Jingxiu said: "As a teacher is a person who cultivates the Tao, in this life to do good deeds and accumulate virtues, to chase the way of heaven and help sentient beings as the heart of the Tao, how can you take other people's things because of your own selfishness? ”

Sun Lang said yes, but secretly said in his heart: "This old thing that eats ancient things, it's good to grab this land, why do you have to do it so much?"

coincided with the father-in-law Jin Huan becoming the magistrate of Yixian County under his own operation, so there was a story of destroying the Zhao family and seizing land under the pretense of collecting debts.

Sun Lang walked into the back hall to meet Liu Jingxiu, handed over the title deed he had obtained, and said, "Master, I have bought this land from the owner of the spiritual vein, please take a look at it." ”

Liu Jingxiu didn't look at the title deed, but only asked, "You didn't treat the owner badly, did you?"

Sun Lang swore and said: "No, the owner of that family is reluctant to give up the medicine field, and most of them want to delay it to get a few more money, no, a delay is half a year, and I have also used a lot of relationships in the past six months, and finally received it at three times the high price." ”

"You also bothered, take a good rest these days, cultivate your spirit, and in three days I will teach you the enlightenment formula, and you can cultivate after the spiritual root is opened. Liu Jing cultivated.

"Yes, Master, the apprentice is retiring. Sun Langxiao stayed overnight, sat in the car for a day and a half, traveled three hundred miles, and was indeed a little tired, and thought that he would be enlightened in three days. As for the affairs of the Jin family, as for his third aunt, Sun Lang secretly thought to himself: Lao Tzu is about to cultivate immortals, what do you care about these things.

Early in the morning of the thirtieth day of the lunar month, Sun Lang finished freshening up, and entered the back hall in good spirits.

"Disciple, listen to me before enlightenment. You have a three-attribute spiritual root, which is an excellent cultivation qualification, but the fire and gold spirit root itself is more tyrannical, so I want to warn you, the cultivation of the Tao emphasizes conforming to the way of heaven, stressing the cultivation of the mind, and you must do more good deeds, and you must not do things that violate the principles of heaven, can you write it down?" Liu Jing cultivated.

"I wrote it down. Sun Lang agreed.

"Okay, here is the master's immortal cultivation enlightenment mantra and the supreme immortal cultivation secret method, which I will pass on to you now. Liu Jingxiu handed over a parchment scroll.

Sun Lang took the scroll and read it carefully. An hour later, he seemed to have come to his senses, "Master, I understand. ”

Then, like Shi An, he sat on his knees, his five hearts went up, he intended to guard the lower dantian, and began to exercise his own spirit. In less than a meal, Sun Lang also flowed black oil all over his body, and Kailing succeeded.

"Okay, that's all for today, in the past few days, I will memorize the first layer of the heart method of absorbing spiritual energy from the three spiritual roots of gold, fire and earth in the Supreme Immortal Cultivation Secret Method, and teach you how to open up the Zhoutian meridians in five days, and then we will go to Yixian Spiritual Vein, and simply build two grass houses to start cultivating, you can prepare for this matter." Liu Jing cultivated.

"Okay, let's arrange for someone to build the house. Sun Lang replied.

Back in the lobby, at this time, Deputy Gang Leader Su had just come back, so he hurriedly reported to Sun Lang: "Gang Master, I took my three brothers to follow Lao Liu and the fast horse to the cliff early the day before yesterday to search, and I rushed back overnight last night." ”

"How's it going?"

"Qi Yu Gang Leader, no one was found, and no body was found. ”

"Oh, how so? ”

"After arriving at Cangmeng Mountain, we quickly arrived at the valley cliff according to Lao Liu's instructions, the horses were guarded by Lao Liu, and the four of us used ropes to go down from the cliff, the cliff was quite high, about more than 20 zhang, the valley was full of pines and cypresses, and there was a lot of snow on the ground. When we got down the valley, we searched all around, but we searched all the neighborhood, but we saw no one or a body. ”

"Is there any blood?"

"No, there hasn't been any snow in the mountains since the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, and if there is blood, you can see it at a glance. There were a lot of scattered branches on the ground, and some peeling bark. The pine branch is easy to explain, I guess the guy was blocked by the pine tree when he fell from the mountain, but the peeling bark was a little strange, could it be that he was hungry and gnawed on the bark? We didn't care about it at the time. When I looked closely, I saw two rows of dragged marks on the snow. ”

"And you think he was dragged away by the beast?"

"We thought so at first, but soon denied it, that if a wild beast tore and dragged it, there would be traces of a fight, and there would be blood, and here it was clean, and there was not a single beast's footprint. There are also brothers who estimate that he was rescued by others, but I think about it, and others should carry him on his back when they save him, and there will be footprints on the ground without drag marks, which is also different from the situation at the scene. So I'll assume that he didn't die after jumping off the cliff, but at least he hurt his legs and crawled away on his own. It was also thanks to the snow that had fallen for several days before, and the snow in the mountains was very thick, so the drag marks were not broken along the way, so our group followed the imprints all the way to find them. What I saw along the way confirmed my guess even more," Speaking of this, Su Jun took a light breath, and couldn't help but feel a little complacent in his heart, "There are a lot of traces that have been turned under the trees on the side of the road, and there are also a lot of pine cones that have been knocked open, this is not like squirrels and other animals, so it seems that he is indeed not dead, and those marks must have been made by him to find food." In this way, he walked for about twenty miles and went out of the valley. Not far from the valley, there is a broken Taoist temple, and the drag marks are gone here, so I think he climbed in. ”