Zhang is afraid of everything, afraid of the dark, afraid of death, afraid of ghosts, and even afraid of tigers. He's also afraid of fierce dogs. His identity is that of a Guardian Taoist Child of the Wan Shou Cave of Tian Lei Mountain's Tian Lei Dao Guan. His master gave him the name Hongwu, but because he's afraid of everything, his fellow disciples still call him Zhang Pa.

  Tianlei Mountain and his fellow disciples, numbering at least 8,000, all knew him because they feared him. Every time it rained and thundered, accompanied by the rumbling of thunder, there would be a hoarse voice shouting for help.

  Because of fear, Zhang became the most diligent person in Tianlei Taoist Temple. The Shifu repeatedly proclaimed the tragic and brutal great war between good and evil, and Zhang was very worried that one day he would become a corpse in the Shifu's stories, so he worked especially hard. As the orthodox sect of Yueguo Daojia, the Cangjing Pavilion had 800 doors of cultivation methods, most of which he had flipped through. He studied magic spells, not seeking to defeat his enemies, but only for self-protection, carefully selecting those with great defensive power and fast escape speed.

  After days and nights of sleepless effort, he has cultivated the Heavenly Thunder God Technique to the sixth level, and his internal energy cultivation has reached the middle stage of the Refining Qi period, making him a leader among his peers. At the same time, he has also practiced Golden Armor Protection, Gale Technique, and other miscellaneous escape techniques. The most formidable one is that he learned the Six-Layer Shield Technique, including the Heavenly Thunder God Technique's Thunder Shield, Golden Armor Protection, Wood Spirit Protection, Ice Wall Barrier, Angry Fire Thousand Walls, and Earthly Armor. Now, he is cultivating the seventh protective divine technique, Wind God's Wings.

  According to Zhang's diligence and cultivation results, he could have entered the inner hall of Tianlei Temple for focused practice. However, because he was afraid of thunder, whenever there was a thunderstorm, he would shout and scream wildly, affecting others. Therefore, he was assigned to the Wan Shou Cave to accompany the demonic beasts.

  It takes half an hour to walk from the Wan Shou Cave to the main peak of Tian Lei Mountain, and no matter how loudly you shout, it won't be heard. There is also a boundary restriction that separates the inside and outside of the cave into two worlds. The master's intention is to send you to a place where there are no people, so go ahead and shout, shout your heart out, see who can hear you even if you shout yourself hoarse.

  Zhang Pa was sixteen years old this year and originally had a harmonious family. At the age of two, his parents took him to worship on Tianlei Mountain, but halfway there, they encountered immortal beings fighting, with thunder, wind, rain, and lightning that was terrifying. His parents were frightened and ran wildly into the deep mountains and old forests, where they first encountered wolves and then tigers. His father used his body to shield his mother and son as they escaped, and his mother carried Zhang Pa and ran wildly, climbing to a high cliff. Just after she put down Zhang Pa, she cried and rested, when a thunderbolt struck her from the sky. Suddenly, two-year-old Zhang Pa became an orphan. He was then rescued by a Taoist priest from Tianlei Mountain and became a Taoist child. From that time on, Zhang Pa began to fear everything, especially thunder.

  At noon, when the sun was at its most toxic, Zhang Pa sat alone in front of the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts. The hundreds of square meters of yellow earth were empty except for him. Zhang Pa's eyes were slightly closed, his breathing was long and steady, his expression calm, and the big sun in the sky seemed to be shining on someone else, as if the heat had nothing to do with him.

  According to the ancient book, when the Wind God's Wings are cultivated to a higher level, they can transform into radiant wings that surpass gold in strength and can be transformed into a shield for defense or into wings for flight, but the cultivation is extremely difficult.

  Zhang was afraid that he had been practicing for some time, working hard to gather and refine his Qi, but after a month of bitter cultivation, he hadn't made the slightest progress. The book was right, this technique wasn't suitable for someone in the Qi-refining stage, and he hesitated about whether or not to continue.

  At this time, there was a commotion outside the field more than 100 meters away, and the air rippled like lake water. Zhang Pa knew that someone had touched the boundary of the Wan Shou Cave, and estimated that it was a fellow practitioner, so he withdrew his power, stood up, and quietly waited for the person to arrive in front of the cave.

  In the time it took to take a few breaths, two Taoist priests in their twenties, neat and tidy, rushed over from the small path on the right side of the Wan Shou Cave. Zhang Pa saw them off: "Master Hong Cheng, Master Hong Tu."

  The two were in a hurry, and Hong Cheng said: "Swallows, twenty." As he spoke, he tossed an octagonal jade token to Zhang Pa. Zhang Pa took the token, examined it briefly, and handed it back to Hong Cheng, asking casually: "What do you want so many swallows for?"

  "What's wrong? Of course we're going down the mountain, hurry up, Master told us to make haste."

  Zhang was afraid to turn around, and from his bosom he took out a piece of jade token, which was the same size and shape as the one held by Hong Cheng. He lightly pressed it into the air in front of the cave, and the air seemed to have a bracket, and the jade token stood in mid-air.

  Zhang Pa said to the two senior brothers: "Come in, don't make a noise inside, Master Zhenyi is here." The two nodded in agreement.

  The Wan Shou Dong cave looks like just a small hill from the outside, with only a hole dug at the foot of the mountain. It's not until you go inside that you realize what a different world it is.

  The cave has no door, and from the outside looking in, it's all dark. After entering the air boundary, inside is still pitch black, a not-too-large hall, relying on the cave wall to carve out seven small holes, plus the entrance hole, making up the number of eight trigrams, so this place is called the Eight Trigram Hall.

  After the three entered the cave, Zhang Pa retrieved the jade token and headed towards the first cave on the right. After stopping, he looked at Hong Cheng: "Brother." Hong Cheng had been to the Wan Shou Cave several times and knew its rules. He took out the jade token from earlier and lightly pressed it into the air in front of the cave. Zhang Pa, however, took out another black iron token, also in the shape of the Eight Trigrams, and similarly pressed it into the air, saying softly: "Alright." He led the way in, followed by Hong Cheng, who then retrieved the tokens.

  As I walked into the cave, I realized what was meant by "ten thousand beasts' cave". Originally, the path ahead was pitch black, but after climbing two flights of stairs, the scenery in front of me suddenly changed. Inside the cave, there was blue sky and white clouds, as well as wind, sun, and various strange flowers, rare grasses, weird rocks, and spiritual trees that couldn't be counted. Many small animals were jumping and playing among the trees and grass, and in the sky, there were also many kinds of strange birds flying about.

  Exiting the cave, there were three roads underfoot. Zhang Pa was afraid to choose the middle one and walked straight ahead. Before walking a hundred meters, a giant stone over a hundred feet high blocked the way. Zhang Pa took out two tokens from his body, one black, one white, one iron, and one jade, holding them in both hands, and muttered incantations under his breath. The tokens slowly rose into the air, each emitting a beam of light that hit the giant stone, which responded with a loud noise and split open, revealing a cave entrance over a person tall. The three entered, but it was a divine temple, where there were many compartments, most of which contained crystal clear beads. Zhang Pa counted out twenty spirit beads from a compartment marked with a flying bird symbol and handed them over to Hong Cheng and Hong Tu.

  Three people came out of the cave, and returned to the cave. Hong Cheng grasped the Lingzhu with both hands, probed into his divine consciousness, and suddenly twenty small red birds with sharp claws and beaks flew down from the sky. Hong Tu took out the beast-controlling bag and picked up the twenty small birds. The three people returned to the Bagua Hall again, but strangely, Zhang Pa didn't follow the original path, closed his eyes in the center of the hall to calculate for a moment, then walked towards the cave where they had taken out the Swallow earlier. Before entering the cave, he casually threw out a jade token and stepped across, the scenery changed again, and the three people had already exited the Wan Shou Cave.

  Hong Cheng exclaimed: "The Bagua Xuantian Formation is really incredible, I've come several times and still can't find the entrance." Hong Tu laughed at him: "Nonsense, if you had mastered the Bagua Xuantian Formation, you would have reached the top of Long Lao Peak long ago."

  Hong Cheng also smiled, took out a Lingzhu, and let Hong Tu open the beast bag. Zhang Pa intercepted him, with a bitter face saying: "Hong Cheng Shixiong, this thing, can you go further away before releasing it?"

  Hóng Chéng burst out laughing: "Little animals aren't scary, but when they grow bigger, then they're scary?"

  Zhang Pa just looked at him with a bitter face, and Hongtu mediated: "Okay, it's not that we don't understand him, stop teasing Shidi, let's go, Shifu is waiting."

  Zhang watched as the two figures walked far away and disappeared into the mountain path, then a red bird with a wingspan of over ten feet flew out from the mountain path, with the two figures standing on its back, it was indeed Hong Cheng and Hong Tu riding the Swallow to fly away.

  After finishing his tasks, Zhang continued to meditate in stillness. As soon as he sat down, the air beside him fluttered and a middle-aged man appeared silently, with a somewhat dispirited expression. Zhang hastily stood up and paid his respects: "Greetings, True One Shifu."

  Zhuang Han asked in a loud voice: "What did Hong Cheng come here for?"

  "Back to Master Shifu, they took twenty Swallow Birds."

  "Twenty? What's the point of having so many? Ah, I see, it's for the Qi Refining Conference."

  Zhang was afraid he didn't know what the Qi Refining Conference was about and it wasn't good to ask too many questions, so he respectfully stood aside.

  Zhenyi Shu Shu didn't stay for long, he grasped his flying sword and leaped into flight.

  The Wan Shou Cave was left with only Zhang Fei again. After being disturbed several times, he decided to temporarily give up practicing the Wind God's Wings and went back to his room to sleep.

  On the right side of the cave, there was a small thatched hut. Inside, there was only one bed, one table and one chair, with nothing else. The table was cluttered with all sorts of protective gear such as masks, helmets, armor, and soft armor, which were all Zhang's life-saving treasures accumulated over the years. However, he was just a child who never went down the mountain, so these protective gears seemed like a joke to others. Moreover, as his cultivation increased, these things became even more impractical, but he couldn't bear to throw them away, so they were all piled up in the hut.

  Zhang was afraid to enter the house, and lay down on the bed with a thud, closing his eyes only after he had settled in. Three small dogs crawled out from under the bed, round and cute, scrambling to jump onto the bed and nuzzle into Zhang's arms. Zhang laughed out loud: "Stop messing around, go to sleep." He patted the three small dogs with one hand, forcing them to rest. The dogs were unwilling, sticking their butts up in the air as they ran outside. Zhang raised his hand and pointed, closing the door behind him, letting them make a ruckus inside the house before he fell fast asleep.

  Zhang was also afraid of being alone, living by himself on the mountain top. During the day it was still okay, but after dark it was especially unbearable. Outside the house were wind and beasts howling in the forest, which sounded like monsters and fierce beasts to his ears. So he asked his senior brother to bring back three small dogs as companions when he went down the mountain.

  Behind the house is a mountain spring, and next to the spring is a small cave with a stove, firewood, rice, vegetables, oil, salt, which can solve the living expenses of one person and three dogs. As for the monsters in the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts, what they eat is taken care of by the Konton Temple.

  The next day was the trial day for the Tianlei Mountain Qi Refining disciples, and the Transmission Disciple came to inspect Zhang's cultivation level. After a round of testing, Zhang was still the same as before, his internal energy cultivation realm still at the middle stage of Qi Refining, but his application of techniques was extremely proficient. The Transmission Disciple sighed: "How can your cultivation still be like this? Your master said you're putting the cart before the horse, why don't you change?"

  "It can't be wrong for me to learn more, right?" Zhang replied nervously.

  "Alas, how much time do you have to cultivate? Life is short, only a hundred years, and if you can't even reach the foundation stage, no matter how well you practice your skills, you'll still die. When I came here, Master said that if you can advance your Qi to the higher stages, he will summon you to the Purple Light Pavilion to teach you the Heart Stabilizing Technique, so you won't have to be afraid of anything anymore." The disciple who was transmitting the skill shook his head as he spoke.

  Zhang's face turned red with shame, and he said in a low voice: "Brother, I'm sorry, I was just afraid."

  "Who isn't afraid? Everyone has something they're afraid of, but what you're afraid of is too ridiculous. Forget it, I'm leaving." The disciple of the transmission thought wanted to leave.

  Zhang suddenly asked: "What is Jing Xin Jue? Why doesn't Cangjing Pavilion have this book?"

  The disciple of Chuangong was a bit impatient: "Do you understand what it means to put the cart before the horse? The eight hundred methods in the Zangjing Pavilion are actually all about how to use magic techniques, but the real practice of internal skills and foundation-building exercises are all kept by Master Chuangong's teachers. These are the basics, and the better the basics, the more natural it is to use magic techniques. But you're doing it backwards." The disciple of Chuangong finished speaking and left on his sword.