Chapter Ten Two Clouds Meet

  It turned out that after closing the palace, he was also digesting what he had gained from the Purple Mansion. After a thousand years, he woke up and his cultivation grew significantly, reaching the early stage of Taiyi Golden Immortal. This is the benefit of visiting the Purple Mansion, which can greatly shorten the time it takes to advance in cultivation, without worrying about falling behind in one's Dao journey. Afterwards, he played the tape recorder again, and the first time he persisted was slightly longer than his previous stay in the Purple Mansion. After waking up, he continued to cultivate, and after waking up, he continued to listen, and the persistence time gradually increased, and his cultivation became higher and higher. However, an unexpected event occurred later on.

  After listening to it for the ninth time, the recorder shattered without warning and then actually turned into powder under a ripple, finally dispersing into the air. This change left Yun Zhongzi stunned, followed by endless flesh pain, "Damn... I've only listened to it nine times, and it's already broken? Not even leaving me any residue? That was Pan Gu's fingernail, I..."

  Yun Zhongzi sighed, thinking that the recorder made from Pangu's fingernail would last forever. He wouldn't have listened to it nine times in a row if he didn't think so. But he forgot one thing, the most important thing - nine is an extreme number. Such a heaven-defying object shouldn't exist in this vast and chaotic world. So after listening nine times, the recorder shattered. Yun Zhongzi thought that he had managed to exploit a loophole in the Heavenly Way. He took out a brown stone, not a precious one, just something for testing purposes. He didn't want to use anything too valuable, in case it got destroyed by the Heavenly Way, which would be a pity.

  Yun Zhongzi was also gambling, if he won the gamble, he could make a few more tape recorders in the future. After Sanqing became a saint and Tongtian lectured on the Tao, Yun Zhongzi could record Tongtian's great Tao. His own cultivation would rise rapidly, and it wouldn't take long to reach the peak of quasi-sainthood. He also had a chance to become a saint. If he lost the gamble, it was just that the materials used to make the tape recorder were damaged, so Yun Zhongzi started the gamble without hesitation.

  Yun Zhongzi held the brown stone and began to refine it, planning to create another recorder. Just as he was about to succeed, an unexpected event occurred again, and the almost completed recorder shattered. Not only that, but his own cultivation, which had advanced to the late stage of Daluo Jinxian through listening to the recorder's playback of Daozu's sermon, was weakened by heavenly punishment due to this challenge to the heavens' authority. His cultivation was reduced to the early stage of Daluo Jinxian and was somewhat unstable at that time.

  Yun Zhongzi's heart was shocked, and his soul was somewhat unstable. Fortunately, the heavenly punishment only weakened his cultivation and did not make him directly lose his soul, otherwise, there would be no Yun Zhongzi from then on.

  Yun Zhongzi still felt a bit uneasy in his heart, because if the Heavenly Way had descended to punish and weaken his cultivation, then the Heavenly Way should also have discovered that his soul was from a later generation who had crossed over. However, after Yun Zhongzi waited anxiously for half a day, the heavenly punishment did not descend again. This made Yun Zhongzi let out a sigh of relief while also filling his heart with doubt.

  This is unreasonable, how could the Heavenly Dao not discover itself? Although he was puzzled in his heart, Yun Zhongzi did not dare to delay any longer and sat down cross-legged, starting to consolidate his early-stage Mahayana Golden Immortal cultivation while contemplating the last recording of the Great Dao.

  Another thousand years passed, and Yun Zhongzi finally broke through, solidifying his cultivation at the early stage of Daluo Jinxian. However, after this incident, Yun Zhongzi knew that he absolutely could not challenge the authority of the Heavenly Dao, or else he would be doomed to die without a chance of survival. This time, he could only attribute those things he couldn't explain to... dogshit luck!

  After meeting with Reng Deng and Duo Bao, Yun Zhongzi sensed his own initial cultivation of Daluo Jinxian, but he smiled bitterly.

  Three people came together to the great hall and met the Three Pure Ones.

  "Not bad, this time both of you have made progress in your cultivation, especially you, Yun Zhongzi. After listening to the Third Patriarch's lecture for the third time, you actually closed up for ten thousand years before coming out. This talent is not bad, from now on, work hard at your cultivation, if there's anything you don't understand, come ask us three." The old man said with satisfaction, looking at Yun Zhongzi and stroking his beard.

  As for Yuanshi Tianzun, he had a cold face and didn't even glance at Yunzhongzi, which made Yunzhongzi's heart skip a beat. He thought to himself, "There's something wrong with these Three Pure Ones!" He took another look at Rulai who was standing beside Yuanshi Tianzun with a sly smile on his face, and suddenly understood that during this time, Rulai must have spoken highly of him and Duobao in front of Yuanshi Tianzun.

  But the master of Tongtian Sect was smiling as he looked at Yun Zhongzi and Duobao, these two disciples' talents were not low, this time listening to the Tao, their cultivation had greatly increased, giving themselves a lot of face, the master of Tongtian Sect was now in full bloom.

  Then, Burning Lamp and Many Treasures left the great hall, but Cloud Gatherer remained. Laozi and Tongtian Jiao were stunned for a moment, then Laozi suddenly understood and burst out laughing, disappearing in an instant. Yuanshi Tianzun also left, without saying a word from start to finish.

  The Master of Tongtian stared straight at Yun Zhongzi without saying a word.

  Yun Zhongzi smiled slightly, he found that in front of his master, there was no need to be polite at all. After paying respects to the Tongtian Sect Master, he directly said, "Master, your disciple has been in seclusion for over 10,000 years now, and my cultivation has increased too quickly. If I continue to stay in seclusion, not only will my cultivation not increase, but it will also make my heart unstable. Therefore, your disciple plans to go out and travel the world, hoping for Master's permission."

  The Tongtian Sect Master nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes, after the last time you heard the Tao, all the great masters of the Honghuang have already known that you are my disciple of Tongtian. I believe no one will be blind and look for trouble with you, go." After finishing speaking, the Tongtian Sect Master also flashed away and left.

  Yun Zhongzi had nothing to gain, and he directly left the Jade Void Palace. He didn't even bid farewell to Duobao or Rulan, as this time he went out with a purpose.

  Yun Zhongzi is now a Da Luo Jinxian in the early stages of his cultivation, so his speed is countless times faster than before. Yun Zhongzi wandered around Mount Buzhou, searching for various heavenly treasures and earthly gems, hoping to obtain one or two pre-heavenly spiritual treasures. At the same time, he headed towards Mount Wanshou, where Zhenyuanzi's Five Elements Temple was located. Hongyun and Zhenyuanzi were good friends, and Yun Zhongzi hoped to meet Hongyun outside of Mount Wanshou. For this Taoist priest who was kind by nature, delighted in helping others, and enjoyed making friends, Yun Zhongzi hoped to befriend him and ideally help him escape his mortal fate in times of disaster.

  Yun Zhongzi had a great time on his way, collecting all sorts of rare and precious materials, because he knew that after the Great War between the Wizards and the Demons, these abundant medicinal herbs in the mountains would be completely destroyed, and it would be very difficult to find them in the vast wilderness. At that time, these medicinal herbs would become treasures, so Yun Zhongzi didn't hesitate to collect all the good ones he saw into his three gourds, which had a lot of space anyway.

  Even if you won't use it yourself in the future, it's still good to give it to your junior fellow apprentices or disciples.

  Because there were too many medicinal herbs in the Buzhou Mountains, and not a few good ones, Yun Zhongzi was not in a hurry. On the way, he casually collected a few unformed demon beasts and let them help him collect the medicinal herbs. As a reward, he would point out their cultivation.

  Because these herbs can't be dug out and put into a gourd at will, it's got its own rules. After handing over the task to those few demon beasts, Yun Zhongzi had nothing to do, so he lay down on a tall tree, propped up his legs, held a dogtail grass in his mouth, and rested his head on his hands. "Sigh, thinking about my past, although life was bitter, it was fulfilling. Now, for over 10,000 years, I've only been focused on cultivating and improving my skills. For 10,000 years, I haven't even had a girlfriend. If this were the past, wouldn't my body have turned to dust? I'm still a virgin!" He thought to himself, but muttered out loud, "Cultivation is so boring, yet for the sake of my future life, I must work hard at it. What a miserable fate!"

  "Haha, fellow Taoist is indeed elegant and refined. This cultivation matter is indeed boring."

  At this moment, a voice suddenly came from under the tree. Yun Zhongzi sat up abruptly as soon as the sound started, and when the words fell, a person with a fiery red body stood in mid-air, level with himself. The newcomer wore a fiery red robe, with a gourd hanging at his waist.

  As soon as he saw the newcomer was Red Cloud, Yun Zhongzi immediately let out a sigh of relief. Just now, he had indeed been careless. If the newcomer had ill intentions, it's possible that he would have been killed before he even reacted. Thinking about this, Yun Zhongzi felt another wave of fear.

  "It turned out to be Hong Yun Daoist friend, I was really rude." Yun Zhongzi also stood up at this time and saluted Hong Yun.

  Hongyun's face was flushed with red light, and he estimated that it had something to do with his original body. He said, "Where, where, fellow Taoist, this is a true revelation of one's nature, really carefree! I think we cultivators should just follow our hearts and not worry about what others think?" Hongyun had also seen Yun Zhongzi in the Purple Cloud Palace before, so they weren't strangers.

  Yun Zhongzi burst out laughing and said, "Fellow Daoist, your words are indeed correct. I have learned from you."

  "Daoist friend is the eldest disciple under Taichang Upper Person, why didn't he cultivate in Yuexu Palace? Instead, he came to Buzhou Mountain..." As she spoke, Hongyun looked towards several other places, where those places were exactly where Yunzhongzi sent out a few demon beasts to collect medicine for him. The implication was obvious: Yunzhongzi was originally the eldest disciple under Tongtian Gate, and could even be said to be the eldest disciple under Sanqing Gate. Laozi's alchemy techniques were well-known among the people of Hongyuan, and those rare and exotic medicinal materials were rarely seen in the outside world. So why was Yunzhongzi collecting medicine in Buzhou Mountain at this moment? Moreover, these medicines weren't particularly precious, which left Hongyun puzzled.

  Yun Zhongzi naturally couldn't tell Hong Yun the real reason, and only said, "I'm feeling a bit itchy in my heart, I want to learn a few alchemy techniques from Master Taiyi, but the medicinal materials in the Jade Void Palace are too rare and precious. As a beginner in alchemy, I naturally can't use such valuable materials to refine pills."

  Hongyun suddenly realized, so it was like this.

  Yun Zhongzi asked again, "I don't know where Fellow Daoist Hongyun is headed?"

  Hong Yun said, "I was just about to go to Wuzhuang Guan to visit my good friend."

  Yun Zhongzi pretended to be in a hurry and said, "But what about the ancestor of the Earth Immortal, Zhenyuanzi the Great Immortal?"

  "It's true." Hongyun was not surprised at all by Yun Zhongzi's expression. The ancestor of the earth fairy in the great ability of Honghuang is also very famous, and Hongyun is not jealous of his good friend's reputation, but instead is happy for him.

  "It's indeed true to their nature, such kind-hearted people, yet they were plotted against by Kunpeng and Minghe. It's really unjust, I must help them out." Cloud Middle Child thought to himself upon seeing Red Cloud's expression, then said to Red Cloud, "As for the reputation of Zhenyuan Sublime One, I've long since heard of it and have been wanting to pay a visit, but unfortunately, no one has introduced me. Would fellow daoist Red Cloud be willing to lend a hand?"

  Hongyun burst out laughing and said, "What's so difficult about this? Fellow Daoist, just follow me to Wuzhuang Guan together."

  Yun Zhongzi was also delighted, saying, "Alright, fellow Taoist, wait for me to call back those few little demons." After that, Yun Zhongzi called back the few little demons, collected the medicinal materials, gave some instructions and then left with Hongyun.

  Yun Zhongzi and Hong Yun's true forms are both clouds, one being the first white cloud in the world, and the other being the first red cloud in the world. Therefore, they have a kind of "it's-a-pity-we-didn't-meet-earlier" feeling when they meet each other.

  When they went to Wuzhuangguan, the two of them chatted with great pleasure, and it can be said that they were a perfect match.