Chapter Five: The Immortal Path

  Xu Xian lay quietly on the bed, a red glow at his chest, radiating light that illuminated his entire body, and at this moment his consciousness was clearer than ever.

  Those things in my mind are no longer muddled, but have a few moments of clarity. The methods of cultivation are not words or patterns. Words and patterns ultimately still serve to convey some kind of information, but in the process of conveying it, they inevitably cause distortion and misunderstanding.

  But now Xu Xian felt that the things those Taoists injected into his mind were all accurate and clear, as if they had directly transmitted that information to him without using any medium, so even an illiterate person could understand.

  Xu Xian, apart from admiring the magical powers of Taoist spells, was even more meticulous about these things. Becoming an immortal or a Buddha is probably a knot in every Chinese person's heart! However, with the development of science and technology, more and more natural phenomena can be explained by humans, and such things are gradually relegated to superstition, slowly disappearing from modern people's hearts.

  But have you ever had such a scene in your dreams, with a bamboo staff and hemp shoes, walking among the famous mountains. Wearing light clothes and long shirts, traveling outside the dusty world. Treading on the green hills without getting old, what kind of freedom is that?

  When all these are true, who can remain unmoved? Xu Xian is no exception.

  Lying quietly in bed, he savored the subtle and profound techniques in his mind, and gradually came to understand that he was at the "point star" stage. After the main star is established, it should be constantly strengthened, and then the star palace can be established. But that little light did not match any description.

  Although Chi You star is also red, it carries a murderous and bloody light. However, it's not like that little red star of mine, which although faint in radiance, shines brightly and endlessly with an unyielding vitality.

  Xu Xian thought and thought, but still couldn't quite understand, so he could only follow the described method to sense the celestial phenomena, continuously inhaling and exhaling. He only felt that a small red star was constantly absorbing extremely tiny light points from the outside world.

  It is impossible to absorb the power of a star when one's own main star is unclear. However, as the main star of the solar system and the closest fixed star to Earth, the sun's power plays an enormous role even at night, as it is said that sunlight shines everywhere, leaving no place untouched.

  Others need to bring the starlight accumulated by stars thousands of light-years away, while the sunlight reaches the Earth in just a few minutes. This is naturally worlds apart.

  However, Xu Xian also felt that as he got closer to dawn, the star power gathered more and more quickly, but when the sun actually rose, it was scorching hot and unbearable. It wasn't a physical scorching heat, but a spiritual one. He tried to resist this scorching feeling, persisting for a while, but soon felt as if his soul was about to evaporate, hastily stopping and getting up with sweat all over his body.

  Pushing open the window and looking towards the horizon, I see a red glow as if on fire, the east is about to dawn.

  Xu Xian vaguely realized that his main star was the sun in the sky, and when he felt the red light in his soul, it had grown from a small millet grain to a large one. It had only increased by a tiny bit just before dawn, but now it had suddenly grown so much, which was truly unbelievable. It turned out that persisting for a while at dawn had such a great effect, and if he could cultivate at noon, wouldn't he immediately ascend to the heavens?

  This is just Xu Xian's wild imagination, if he really practiced this method at noon, it would be impossible to ascend to the sky immediately. It's true that ordinary people can still enter reincarnation after death, and the worst-case scenario is that their soul will scatter, but Xu Xian thought that if he persisted for a while, he would suffer such agony, so he didn't dare to force himself to practice.

  Xu Xian got up, washed himself clean, and rushed to the private school. Although he had actually gone a whole night without sleep, he was nevertheless in high spirits, with an inexhaustible supply of energy and strength throughout his body.

  Mr. Song takes care of his flowers every day, and when Xu Xian arrives, the old man continues to water them with his head down. Xu Xian has never expected to gain favor from teachers in any lifetime, nor does he think it's a big deal, he just wants to hurry past, if others ignore him, he also doesn't have the interest to stick around.

  "Xu Xian, you're here!" The old man suddenly blurted out a sentence, although he didn't look at Xu Xian.

  "Ah? Yes, I'm coming, sir." Xu Xian was taken aback and quickly bowed in response. Not knowing what was wrong with the old man, he wanted to leave but was also a bit worried, so he carefully asked: "Sir, is everything all right today?"

  The old man was about to get angry, but after thinking for a moment, he waved his hand and said, "Hurry up and go inside."

  Xu Xian unknowingly walked in and sat down, but he didn't know that his performance yesterday had already caught Mr.'s attention. He felt that although this child was not interested in studying, he had the best natural talent, and he should guide him onto the right path. Having failed many times in his life, he always wanted to teach a particularly outstanding disciple.

  But the imperial examination was truly like thousands of soldiers and horses crossing a single-log bridge, many times more difficult than the high school entrance exams of past dynasties. How could it be easy? But relying on the four characters "photographic memory" really took advantage of a huge shortcut.

  The imperial examination is divided into several steps, including the county test for children, the provincial test, and the metropolitan test. The previous tests were mostly about book knowledge, but it was repeated back and forth, intertwined with each other, and no one could pass without a good brain.

  A child who has passed the imperial examination is a scholar, but most readers are stuck in the county examination for their whole lives and cannot pass, so they will always be ordinary people. They can't hold anything in their hands, nor can they bear anything on their shoulders. Moreover, many of them look down on merchants and traders, and can only end up as teachers or tutors, which is what people mean by "useless scholars".

  But if he could pass the imperial examination, he would be a gentry, even without an official position, he could see officials without bowing, and every year he could receive a stipend from the country. The villagers all wanted to curry favor with him, and Xu Xian's ability to remember everything at a glance made passing the imperial examination as easy as reaching into his pocket.

  Song thought with a smile: At that time, I was the mentor who taught Xi'an his skills. If everyone didn't respect me, even if I failed repeatedly, it would be considered bad luck rather than incompetence. So he became more affectionate towards Xi'an, but just to save face, he couldn't bring himself to be too good to Xi'an for the time being, although his attitude had already changed.

  So, Xu Xian had a very strange day today. Mr. Song kept pointing at him to answer questions. It made him feel somewhat flattered and surprised. However, he was now clear-headed and had a good memory, answering questions fluently. This made Mr. Song increasingly delighted as he looked on, treating him like a favorite student.

  In a small private school, loud and clear reading voices.

  Xu Xian still didn't like reading, but his talent for remembering everything he saw gradually spread. Sometimes when his sister came back, she would excitedly say that today someone gave her an extra scallion when buying vegetables, or which store praised Xu Xian. Even the head of the laundry factory no longer made things difficult for him.

  Xu Xian just smiled and said: "One scallion is not enough, I will recite the 'Zuo Zhuan' today, and they will give you two tomorrow." Xu Xian's sister smiled and agreed.

  There is also some worry, Xu Xian's sister was originally already at the age of marriage, but with Xu Xian this burden, only grew up to be mediocre, not tall or short, and delayed marriage. Now that Xu Xian's divine child fame has spread, matchmakers from Qiantang County are all rushing over.

  Xu Xian's sister flatly rejected them, and those matchmakers, seeing that their words were not working, couldn't help but utter some sarcastic remarks. As a result, they were all beaten out of the house by Xu Xian's sister wielding a door bolt. In the alleys, if there was no male in the household, without being tough, people would have been bullied to the doorstep long ago.

  Xu Xian smiled and asked: "Sister, why don't you choose one?"

  "What's good to choose from, isn't it the blind or the lame? Like some prince or Mr. Zhang's, their family has so many concubines that they can't even count them all. Go away, you little monkey, don't meddle in my affairs, focus on reading your books, and when you become a scholar-official, I'll also get to enjoy the imperial edict, it won't be in vain for me to have suffered so much." She didn't know many characters and had limited education, but her words were all straightforward, yet her heart was much kinder than those who were well-read.

  Xu Xian couldn't help but smile wryly, thinking that it wasn't as bad as he had said. There were also good people in the family. Xu Xian later found out that his sister actually had a suitor, who was just an ordinary small police officer from a poor family. Xu Xian's heart skipped a beat as he realized that this was exactly what had happened to his sister - she had married a police officer and lived a happy life in a modest household. That would be the best outcome!

  Mr. Song has been quite unhappy lately, as someone tried to poach his students by offering them many benefits, including free tuition and board. Although he was rejected by Xu Xianyuan, it still made the old man angry. However, towards Xu Xian, he became even more friendly and courteous.

  Xu Xian, who had become a Taoist immortal, lived out his peaceful days like this. His daily cultivation was a required course of study, and he paid more attention to it than reading books. Every day, he felt that he had made some progress, although not much, but he always felt that there were some changes in himself.

  This change is slow and subtle, just like a butterfly in a cocoon waiting to spread its wings and fly high. In the countless days and nights before, the beauty of the butterfly was unknown to anyone, even the butterfly itself didn't understand!

  Only when the butterfly spreads its wings and flies towards the blue sky, does it still remember itself in the chrysalis? Is it a ruthless abandonment or leaving behind a hint of melancholy for the empty shell?

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