Chapter 1: Seven-Colored Dragon Boat, Azure Pearl...

  Emperors and generals will eventually die. Some people practice Taoism in order to escape the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death, seeking eternal life and indestructibility.

  A thousand iron cavalry cannot surpass heavenly authority; some people cultivate the Tao in pursuit of transcending others' power.

  The universe is vast and mysterious, with countless stars twinkling in its expanse. Some people cultivate the Tao to seek out their origins and comprehend the mysteries of the cosmos.

  "Why do you want me to accept you as my apprentice?" The old man, Summoned South, stood behind Yu Tianyi with his eyes narrowed and his back bowed, his hands hanging down. Yu Tianyi stood in front of several wooden houses, asking the young man in front of him, "What is it that you seek?"

  The young man looked up. The colorful light entered his eyes, and at this time, the rain had passed and the sky was clear, with a rainbow stretching across the horizon. This rainbow, like the seven-colored dragon boat and the two palace-dressed beauties' disdainful gaze, made the young man's eyes burn with fervor!

  There were many reasons in his heart, but he was born dull and couldn't speak well. He looked up at Yu Tianyi with his head raised, but couldn't say a word.

  "What's your name?" The original Tengoku didn't seem to mind that she hadn't gotten an answer and asked again.

  The young man shook his head in difficulty, "I don't have a name." He had been an orphan since he was old enough to remember and didn't even know where he was born. Only the little girl who relied on him for survival would call him Brother Stone, but that was also because one day the poor and shabby fortune teller Wu guessed that the young man's five elements lacked earth, so his name should be supplemented with earth or stone, which is why she called him that. However, the kind-hearted little girl couldn't even distinguish between surname and given name, so this title of Brother Stone couldn't be considered a real name either.

  In fact, the young man did not know that if he could not climb this mountain peak, Yu Tianyi would not even need to know his name. But now it was completely different. The young man shone with an unyielding and determined gaze, a fearless and bold gaze that had once flashed in Yu Tianyi's eyes as well. As Yu Tianyi looked at the young man, he thought of the first time he saw him holding the Qian Kun bead, and then thought of himself putting the Qian Kun bead into Cang Yue's hand, thinking of the scene when he first met her north of Luo Water. White clouds and gray dogs, flying flames and flowing gold, decades of light and shadow flashed through his mind in an instant. Who would have thought that Yu Tianyi would see his own "heavenly calamity" at this time!

  Only cultivators who have reached the legendary Tribulation Period will face their own "Heavenly Tribulation". In fact, there has always been a saying about the three nine heavenly tribulations in the cultivation world. It is called the three nine heavenly tribulations because it is said that the heavenly tribulation is divided into three layers and nine levels. However, from ancient times to the present, it is unknown whether any cultivator can really pass through the nine-level heavenly tribulation. For thousands of years, as long as one can pass through the first level of the heavenly tribulation, they are already considered a Tribulation Immortal by other cultivators. According to individual encounters and differences in cultivation methods, the triggered "Heavenly Tribulation" is also different. Some cultivators who practice wind and thunder techniques trigger the nine heavens' gale and seven heavy thunderbolts. Some who cultivate the primordial spirit's mysterious method trigger the heavenly demon's true realm, three lives' memory illusion tribulation. Those who cultivate the heart's mysterious method trigger the greed, hatred, and delusion cycle heavenly tribulation. Among the countless cultivators under the heavens, only a few can reach this final step over thousands of years. Therefore, no one can clearly indicate what kind of nine-level heavenly tribulation will be faced when cultivating a certain technique.

  Only cultivators who have reached this realm can possibly sense the "Heavenly Tribulation" they will face. Between gain and loss, Yuan Tianyi's cultivation unintentionally took another step forward, finally taking this last step, and what made Yuan Tianyi smile wryly in his heart was that he found out that his own "Heavenly Tribulation" was actually the rarely experienced "Causal Heavenly Tribulation!"

  "Just call him Luo Bei."

  "Luobei?" The young man repeated the name. He, who had not yet entered the cultivation world, did not know that Yuantianyi had finally reached a realm that only a few people had achieved in thousands of years. When Yuantianyi said this sentence, his tone was still calm and cold, but when the young man looked at him, he felt a warmth in his heart.

  "From today on, you are my Luofu disciple. I have already told you that practicing the Luofu method is a matter of life and death. You have made this choice, so from now on, you must entrust your life and everything to me without any hesitation or doubt, not even in your heart."

  The young man nodded vigorously. A yellowed silk scroll fell from Yuantian's hand, and he said lightly to the young man: "If you can't read, Lao Zhao Nan will read it for you. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask him. However, within ten days, you must memorize all of it. After ten days, you'll start practicing on your own."

  The young man took a deep breath, picked up the yellowed silk scroll, on which the golden characters and patterns looked as obscure as they could be. He nodded stiffly, looking at Old Zhao Nan who was grinning at him.

  There was no majestic divine palace as imagined, no jade pool and jade liquid depicted by the fortune-telling old man, no immortals with flying birds and strange beasts, no radiant buildings and palaces. Looking at the old Zhaonan who seemed like an old Miao Yi from a declining year and the solitary Yu Tianyi, the innocent and natural young boy couldn't help but ask, "Where is our Luofu Sect? Where are the other masters?"

  "Where you are is where I am, and where I am is where Luo Fu is. As for me, Luo Fu, I have always been a solitary figure."

  The originally gentle and subtle explanation had a profound impact on the young man.

  At this moment, Yuantianyi, with disheveled hair and wearing a hemp garment, was like a white lotus, isolated and alone in the mountains.

  "Luobei", under the dim yellow oil lamp, a nameless young man put down the worn-out "Mahakala Dharma" he had been memorizing by rote, and wrote his own name in the sand. "Old Zhao Nan, look at what you taught me, is my writing correct?"

  The old man, Zhao Nan, put down the coarse linen garment he was sewing and looked at it with narrowed eyes, then burst out laughing. "Young master, you've written this correctly."

  "Old man Zhaonan, aren't you also a disciple of Luo Fu?"

  "Yes, didn't the master tell you? The Luo family has always been a single line of transmission, with only one disciple per generation. I'm just the master's servant." Old Zhao Nan replied in his own Miao dialect, not tired of repeating himself.

  "But why send just one? Don't other sects have many disciples?"

  "Different sects have different rules, just like how something exists for a reason. According to the Luo Fu Sect's rules, if you grow up and take on disciples in the future, you can only take one, Young Master."

  "Old Master Nan, don't call me Young Master, just call me... just call me Luo Bei, it always sounds awkward to me."

  "Yes sir." Old Summon South smiled and said, "Luobei, this name sounds good."

  Creaking, the wind on top of the mountain was strong, causing the window frames to creak again and the oil lamp's flame to flicker. However, the young man's heart felt extremely warm. Yuan Tianyi and Old Zhao Nan had only been with him for a few days, but they had given him a taste of home that he had never experienced before. Although he knew his natural talent was ordinary, he decided not to let this name disappoint his master!

  He then spent nine whole days reciting the Mahākāla Tantra, and finally memorized all 34 volumes of it, including the annotations made by Laozang Namu for the parts he didn't understand.

  "Can I start practicing a day in advance?" Luo Bei asked Zhao Nan with a hint of inquiry, having just finished reciting the entire text. He had originally thought he should ask his own master, Yuan Tianyi, but after all, when he looked at Zhao Nan, he didn't feel the same kind of reverence as he did when facing Yuan Tianyi.

  The thin and hunched old man, Zhao Nan, nodded his head, "Master has instructed that as long as you can recite it completely and understand the meaning, I can take you to cultivate."

  "Isn't Master going?"

  "He's busy with something else right now, but he said that when you reach the second level of repair, he can take you to meet him."

  Luobei looked at the "Mahakala Secret Method" in his hand, nodded, and suddenly asked, "Was that Heavenly Master always watching me climb this mountain peak?"

  "Yes, I just didn't think you'd come up so quickly."

  "What was that two-headed monster that day?" The young man finally asked the question he had been holding back for a long time, "And what did it feed me? I still feel like I have endless energy."

  "That's a Double-headed Mountain Lizard. It's a spiritual beast unique to Luo Fu, but generally, the double-headed mountain lizard looks like a large lizard with two heads. The one you saw must have eaten some kind of spiritual grass or fruit that opened up its divine consciousness and slowly cultivated a human form." Old Zhao Nan stopped his work, "The thing it gave you to eat is called Zhan Xike Za Grass. In the local dialect, Zhan Xike means the power of the mountain god. If it eats it, it's equivalent to several years of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Generally, if a person eats it, not only will they find it difficult to digest, but they may also fall ill, and their blood and energy will increase several times over. It seems that by saving its life, it knows how to repay kindness."

  "Can spirit beasts cultivate too?" The young man asked curiously.

  "Of course." The old man's eyes, like amber, flashed with a bright light, and then dimmed again. "All things in the world, from plants to animals, enjoy the nourishment of heaven and earth's spiritual energy. No matter what kind of living being, as long as they understand the method of cultivation, they can naturally cultivate. However, humans are born with an open spiritual awareness, understanding how to explore the mysteries of heaven and earth, and those who have attained enlightenment leave behind many techniques for later generations to cultivate. On the other hand, creatures like mountain sprites are mostly born ignorant, their lives entirely dependent on fate. Those who coincidentally develop spiritual awareness often lack existing methods to cultivate, and without guidance, they act solely based on instinct. Many are not accepted by humans and are called 'monsters.' Some, however, cultivate according to their natural instincts, producing internal elixirs or treasures that become the ultimate goal for many cultivators. These creatures are often hunted down and killed, making their cultivation even more difficult than that of ordinary humans."

  Luobei had just begun to come into contact with this completely unknown world, although he didn't necessarily fully understand what he was hearing, but he listened with great interest. He asked again: "That one that got its head chopped off, will it be okay?"

  "The double-headed mountain butterfly won't die unless both heads are cut off, so you can rest assured." Old Zhao Nan smiled with his eyes narrowed.

  "What about those fruits it took away?" Luo Bei seemed to have an endless stream of questions, "It must think I want to snatch its fruits, that's why it attacked me."

  "That's the treasure fruit. It's not some kind of rare object, it's just the favorite food of the mountain goblin, just like the golden-haired wild monkey in Luofu, which loves to eat a type of yellow-shelled nut, and regards it as its lifeblood. It's purely because their cultivation is insufficient, and they haven't escaped their original nature yet." However, when he heard this question, Old Zhao Nan's face instead showed a rare serious expression, "To cultivate the Mahakala Secret Method, one must first be able to withstand the temptation of one's own nature."