Slay the Immortals, Attain the Dao - Chapter 3

My prolonged failure to reach Foundation Establishment finally drew Master’s attention.

Venerable Xuanji was more than two hundred years old, his hair and beard snowy white. In Daoist robes, fly whisk tucked in the crook of his arm, he looked every inch the immortal from a painting. No wonder the people of the Central Plains hung portraits of him in their homes and worshiped them day and night.

Now those sharp old eyes stared at me without blinking.

“Guan Tong, why have you still not established your foundation?”

“This disciple does not know.”

“Is your heart insincere?”

“My heart is sincere. Master, please judge for yourself.” I swept back my robe and knelt.

Master sat silent on his lotus throne for a long time. Then he flicked his fly whisk. An invisible force hoisted me into the air, and “spiritual energy” swept through my body, probing every inch.

The longer he searched, the deeper his frown became.

“Not the slightest sign of a spirit meridian. How very strange!”

He lowered his whisk, and I stumbled back to my knees before bowing deeply.

“Perhaps this disciple’s aptitude is too poor. I come from the southern wilds, after all.” My gaze rested on the white robes spread across the floor. “Perhaps that is why I cannot reach Foundation Establishment.”

Master shook his head. “You understand the flow of water, read the veins of the earth, and found a spring in a boundless desert. You have always been gifted. Do not belittle yourself.”

After a moment’s thought, he said, “Very well. I shall request another immortal elixir for you and help you break through.”

The buildings of Penglai’s immortal caverns were vast and imposing. In the great hall, seventy-two carved dragons glared down at me.

As an “ignorant” mortal granted the chance to become immortal, I ought to have been beside myself with joy. I had no conceivable reason to refuse.

So I feigned delight. “Thank you, Master.”

Then I took a risk.

“Guan Tong knows he has failed to live up to the sect’s teachings, and I am ashamed to disappoint Master. When you request the next elixir, please allow this disciple to accompany you and offer my thanks to the grand elders in person.”

Master studied me, then smiled. “No one has ever dared make such a request. You truly are a thoughtful boy.”

“Very well. I shall inform the grand elders first. Your sincerity should persuade them.”

The grand elders’ residences lay in the deepest northern reaches of Penglai, amid dense trees and luxuriant herbs. Eighty-one bronze pillars towered into the clouds, supporting ethereal palaces and tiered pavilions.

I followed Master upward until we arrived at their cave residence.

There were many cultivation stages: Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Out-of-Body, Spirit Division, Integration, Tribulation Transcendence, Mahayana, and finally Deity Transformation.

Penglai’s grand elders had already reached Mahayana. They were said to possess the power to condense their souls into elixirs, allowing outer disciples to reach Foundation Establishment quickly.

Master bore the title Xuanji and had lived for more than two centuries, yet before these grand elders he was little more than a babbling child.

He bowed respectfully in the courtyard. “Greetings, Grand Elder. This is my newly accepted disciple, Guan Tong.”

I lowered my head and saluted. “Disciple Guan Tong greets the honored elders.”

Only after a long pause did an old, rasping voice drift from beneath the ancient, forbidding eaves.

“Generation after generation of young faces. Xuanji, you were no older than he is when you first came to Penglai. More than three hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye. Seas have become mulberry fields in the mortal realm…”

I raised my head with care and cupped my hands.

“The mortal world knows no peace, but thanks to the immortal mountains and their cultivators, the people’s cries do not go unanswered. This disciple hopes one day to stand between heaven and earth with a clear conscience.”

The Grand Elder chuckled. “Hear that? Almost word for word what you said back then.”

Through an ancient sandalwood window, I could clearly see the gigantic monster coiled inside the hall.

I did not dare meet its eyes. Instead, I fixed my gaze on the carved cranes and gourds decorating the window, unfocused my vision, and used its edges to take in every detail I could.

The Grand Elder could scarcely be called human anymore.

He stood several dozen feet tall. His abdomen bulged, swollen veins webbing his entire body. His face had expanded several times over, layer upon layer of sagging flesh, like an overproofed bun.

At his dantian, one slick tentacle pushed into view.

Its tip looked like a sucker lined with savage teeth. It twisted through the air, then spat out a pill gleaming with golden light.

“There. An immortal elixir for our young friend.”

The Grand Elder cradled the pill and flicked it through the window into Master’s palm.

My hands and feet had gone cold.

I had assumed these monstrous slime-worms were a tool Penglai’s leaders used to control their disciples. I had even imagined finding the nest where they raised the creatures and destroying it in one blow.

But I had never imagined this.

Never imagined that everyone on Mount Penglai lived beneath the shadow of these worms.

How could the Grand Elder still be called a man?

He was an incubator for their eggs.

Master thanked him, then held the “immortal elixir” out to me.

“Guan Tong, take it. This time you will surely reach Foundation Establishment.”

I stared at the gleaming golden egg.

A bead of cold sweat slid from my brow.