Chapter 5: Huang Zhong and Li Gan have a disciple named Kong Xuan

  In the midst of drifting clouds and fog, three figures gradually emerged, who were none other than Hong Xuan and his two companions.

  Mo Qi Lin quietly crouched at the foot of Hong Xuan, closing his eyes to cultivate his spirit. However, Ao Guang had transformed into a thirty-year-old, majestic and refined scholar wearing a robe with four-clawed dragon embroidery on the chest, standing respectfully behind Hong Xuan.

  Hong Xuan slightly closed his eyes, standing quietly at the top of Mount Buzhou. His heart was still trembling with excitement, it had been three days since he stepped onto the mountain peak, but he had yet to calm down.

  Behind him, Ao Guang looked at Hongyuan with a puzzled expression. He had been standing here with Hongyuan for three days now. Hongyuan simply closed his eyes and didn't speak or move, but it made him unable to guess what Hongyuan was thinking. However, he knew that Hongyuan was a great master, so there must be a profound meaning behind this, which wasn't something he could understand. Moreover, being an intelligent person, he knew his current identity and didn't dare disturb Hongyuan's contemplation.

  At this time, Hongyuan was completely unaware of the doubts behind him. He was now immersed in the Pangu Great Dao within his primordial spirit, wandering in the vast expanse, forgetting both himself and the world around him.

  Mount Buzhou is after all the transformation of Pangu's spine, so there is still a thread of breath that has not dissipated, and it has been left until now. Hongyuan is the transformation of Pangu's original spirit, so he is most sensitive to Pangu's breath. As soon as he stepped onto the top of Mount Buzhou, he caught that thread of breath, and under the traction of his vital energy, he immediately entered a meditative state, immersed in the realization of Pangu's great Tao within his original spirit.

  When Ao Guang and Mo Qi Lin were idle, they suddenly felt a suffocating force emanating from Hong Xuan's body. They were instantly pushed out of several tens of miles by that force, stirring up a vast amount of smoke and dust. When the smoke and dust dissipated, they saw a Taoist standing beside Hong Xuan, whose face was 90% similar to Hong Xuan's. He wore a purple Taoist robe, surrounded by a purple aura, with a five-colored wheel of merit hanging behind his head - what a perfect and true Taoist!

  He saw the Taoist priest bowing his head and paying respects, saying: "I have observed the heavens, and I have seen you, fellow Taoist!"

  Hong Xuan also returned the courtesy and said, "I am Daoist friend, Daoist friend is me, no need for excessive courtesy!" After finishing speaking, he suddenly appeared with three flowers. On top of one of the flowers sat a Daoist person, who was actually Qinglian Daoist, transformed from Hong Xuan's good corpse. Liang Tian saw this and also transformed into a purple gas shooting towards another flower petal, then transformed into a person sitting cross-legged on the flower, left and right with Qinglian Daoist, firmly guarding the middle flower petal.

  Hong Xuan once again revealed the five elements in his chest, but saw a strand of five-colored mysterious energy winding and swirling around Hong Xuan's body and the layers of white waves hanging down from the three flowers, entwining each other. Suddenly, clusters of green lotus flowers bloomed around Hong Xuan's body, emitting an ethereal fragrance that was both familiar and unknown. It turned out that Hong Xuan had coincidentally been drawn to Pangu's aura, which led him to comprehend the Great Way, thus greatly advancing his cultivation. With the Heaven-measuring Ruler, he then beheaded the evil corpse, and his Taoist powers had reached the pinnacle of quasi-sainthood!

  Ao Guang and Mo Qilin stared at Hong Xuan's transformation in shock, feeling that Hong Xuan was even more mysterious and profound in their eyes. Looking at the three flowers on Hong Xuan's head and the five auras around his body, the two exchanged a glance, both secretly rejoicing that they had made Hong Xuan their master earlier. Just looking at the strange phenomena appearing on his body, it was possible that he would become a saint in the future, and when that time came, they would be saints' mounts with completely different identities.

  Hong Xuan put away the three flowers on his head and the five energies in his chest, and restored that calm demeanor, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred. He glanced at Ao Guang and Mo Qi Lin, who were looking at him with eyes full of reverence, and said calmly: "Let's go, a thousand years is approaching, the Purple Palace will open, and I should also return to Kunlun Mountain!"

  Mo Qiulin heard the words and ran to Hong Xuan's front, bent his arms, waiting for Hong Xuan to sit on. Ao Guang also followed up quickly. Hong Xuan was about to ride Mo Qiulin, but suddenly stood up again, frowned, pinched his fingers, and couldn't help but show joy! Ao Guang next to him felt strange, knowing that he had been following Hong Xuan for a short time, but already knew that Hong Xuan was a person with a firm mind, not easily moved by external things. He didn't know what happened, even the usually calm and composed Hong Xuan showed a happy expression.

  "Excuse me, sir," said Ao Guang, plucking up his courage and stepping forward to ask, "May I ask what's made you so delighted?"

  Perhaps due to his pleasant mood, Hong Xuan smiled lightly and said: "You two don't know, but in this Not Weekly Mountain, there is a chance for me. Follow me, and you'll understand when the time comes." After speaking, he ignored the two beasts and walked in one direction.

  The two beasts did not dare to say more and had no choice but to follow Hong Xuan with great curiosity.

  Three people walked for no more than ten miles, and at the turn of the mountain road, a pool of fairy spring appeared. The spring water was clear to the bottom, and the sparkling ripples shone even brighter under the sunlight. Hong Xuan, however, had no heart to admire the spring water, but instead strode to a clump of wild grass by the spring, reached out to part it, and saw a spiritual root emitting a faint yellow glow quietly taking root in the soil. Several tender green fruit leaves were opening vigorously, surrounded by twinkling starlight that flashed and jumped about, exceptionally beautiful and delicate!

  Hongyuan was overjoyed and said: "It's exactly this thing! The Heavenly Way has taken pity on me, it is indeed destined for me to obtain!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, a clear air burst out from his fingertips and instantly transformed into a lotus flower. The lotus flower slowly rotated above the spiritual root's head, sprinkling down a piece of clear light that enveloped the spiritual root. Immediately afterwards, the spiritual root slowly struggled out of the soil and instantly flew onto the lotus flower.

  Hong Xuan held the lotus flower, gazing at the spiritual root floating above it, and said to Ao Guang and Mo Qilin: "As the story goes, when Hongmeng was first divided, heaven and earth were not yet separated. In the midst of chaos, three great spiritual roots were born together - Huang Zhongli, Renshengguo, and Pantao tree. The three great spiritual roots are all nurtured by chaos, so they have great wonders, are all extraordinary, although each is different, but they are all extremely precious, really rare and hard to come by. I didn't expect that today this Huang Zhongli would be obtained by me, it can be seen that the Heavenly Way is favored!"

  Ao Guang and Mo Qilin were also overjoyed when they heard this.

  But then Ao Guang asked: "May I ask, master, what is the wonderful use of this Huang Zhong Li?"

  Hongyuan replied, "This spiritual root must be planted with the pre-heavenly five elements of earth, nourished by the pre-heavenly lotus water. It blooms once every 100,000 years, bears fruit once every 100,000 years, and ripens once every 100,000 years. After 300,000 years have passed, it can be eaten. Moreover, only one fruit grows on it. If an ordinary person eats this fruit, they will immediately ascend to the heavens and attain the Great Luo Golden Immortal Dao Fruit, which is indeed a treasure of the universe!"

  Ao Guang was already stunned and speechless upon hearing this. Good grief, a single fruit could make an ordinary mortal achieve the Great Luo Golden Immortal, whereas he himself had to cultivate for millions of years just to barely attain the Golden Immortal realm, let alone the Great Luo Golden Immortal!

  Hong Xuan no longer paid attention to their sighs, and put the spiritual root into the Chaos Pearl for nourishment, waiting for the day when he had a Dao field to plant it as a fruit tree.

  At this point, Hong Xuan sat on the Mo Qilin, with Ao Guang following behind him, and headed towards Mount Kunlun. Along the way, Hong Xuan occasionally collected spiritual roots and treasures, and from time to time passed on some divine abilities to Ao Guang and Mo Qilin, and they spent their days quite leisurely. Ao Guang and Mo Qilin, however, were the ones who gained the most, not only learning many divine abilities that they had never known before from Hong Xuan, but also being occasionally pointed out by him, thus making great progress in their cultivation. The two of them couldn't help but sigh with emotion, thinking that they hadn't mistakenly chosen a master after all, and indeed there were many benefits to this!

  Kunlun Mountain, Hongyuan Zheng and three senior brothers discussed the Tao and tasted tea. A black Qilin was lying at his feet snoring, while Ao Guang had transformed back into a four-clawed golden dragon in the distance, practicing his magical powers against the Taiyin star. A peaceful and auspicious atmosphere!

  When he finished speaking, Tongtian opened his mouth and asked Hongyuan: "Fourth brother, I think one leg is enough for this mount, why do you want two?"

  Hong Xuan said calmly: "Nothing else, just for fun!"

  Tongtian was taken aback, speechless. In his heart, he thought: How could I have forgotten? Last time, I ended up with nothing to show for it, and I had already made up my mind not to bother with him again. But this time, out of curiosity, I ended up with nothing to show for it once more. Wu Lian Tian Zun, from now on, I will never bother with him again!

  Several people suddenly changed their faces! It was the same feeling that a pressure came from the sky above Kunlun Mountain. Looking up, I saw that hundreds of miles above the sky had a layer of calamity clouds brewing, occasionally emitting a breath with a faint sense of oppression, and chaotic lightning flashing in the cloud layer, shocking!

  Several people counted their fingers at the same time, and they all understood in their hearts!

  It was not long after the heaven and earth were opened, when the first pair of phoenixes flew over a low valley one day, accidentally stained with a strand of innate energy born from the opening of the heaven and earth, and thus laid an egg, then flew away. Unexpectedly, that low valley hid a pool of water transformed from the essence of the five elements of the innate, which had not yet dissipated since the creation of the heaven. The egg happened to fall into the pool, and was nourished by the spiritual energy of the five elements in the water day and night. Finally, one day it hatched into a peacock with a five-colored plumage.

  That peacock, however, did not understand the ways of cultivation and spent his days traveling through the desolate wilderness, enduring hardships in search of a famous master to learn from before he could transform into a human. But then, in today's world where immortals are as common as dirt, with his current level of cultivation that wasn't even on par with an immortal, how could he possibly impress those great divine beings of the desolate wilderness? As such, they all rejected him one after another.

  The peacock ate all the bitter heads but still couldn't learn the great method, day after day, year after year, it was already time to transform its shape, there was no way to avoid it, and finally on Mount Kunlun, a heavenly calamity cloud descended.

  Four people looked far away at the tribulation clouds in the sky and the peacock standing proudly on the ground, gazing condescendingly at the tribulation clouds. Tongtian sighed: "Looking at the momentum of this tribulation cloud, I'm afraid it's the 99th Great Luo Golden Immortal Tribulation, this little peacock is probably not going to make it!"

  Hong Xuan said calmly, "How can you be sure he won't make it if you don't take a look first? Everything under the heavens leaves a thread of life, but it's up to this little peacock to seize that thread."

  Laozi heard this and said: "It is indeed so!"

  Tongtian heard the words and also seemed to be thinking deeply, suddenly having an epiphany, his Taoist practice made great progress.

  At this time, the calamity clouds in the sky had already gathered, and a divine thunderbolt of over ten feet in diameter suddenly struck down towards the peacock. The small peacock was powerless to resist and was struck flying by the divine thunderbolt, crashing to the ground with severe injuries, unable to get up again!

  Yuánshǐ was unable to refrain from ridiculing, saying: "This is merely the first calamity of thunder, and he already has no strength to climb up again. What more can be said about the remaining eighty calamities? Fourth Younger Martial Brother, how will he go on to contend for that one thread of a chance at life?"

  Hong Xuan smiled lightly and said: "Senior brother, look, hasn't he already grasped that one thread of life?"

  But at this moment, the peacock was struggling to get up, although it was shaky, but it was unyielding, and its eyes flashed with determination. Tongtian couldn't help but praise: "What a great peacock!" Just as he was about to lend a hand, he saw that on top of the peacock's head, a twelve-petaled blue lotus suddenly appeared.

  The green lotus enveloped the peacock tightly, sprinkling clusters of green lotus around the peacock, and no matter how the tribulation raged, it could not shake the lotus platform in the slightest. However, Hongyuan had long hidden the twelve products of green lotus on top of the peacock's head to help him through the tribulation.

  The ninety-first calamity of thunder has passed, and a piece of immortal light sprinkled from the calamity cloud shines on the peacock. With the help of the immortal light, the peacock transforms into a seven-foot-tall Taoist priest with hemp shoes on his feet and five beams of light on his back, arranged in the order of blue, yellow, red, white, and black.

  But then he saw the Taoist priest bowing from afar and saying: "Kong Xuan thanks you, Daozhang, for your help!"

  Hong Xuan suddenly appeared in front of Kong Xuan, put away the twelve Qinglian, and said to him: "Kong Xuan, I know your origin. You have a fate with me, are you willing to take me as your master?"

  Kong Xuan was overjoyed and bowed: "Disciple Kong Xuan pays respects to Master, may Master's sacred life be boundless!"

  Hong Xuan nodded, and without saying much more, had Kong Xuan pay his respects to the three senior brothers before transmitting some Taoist magic and divine abilities to him. He then had Kong Xuan choose a cave in Mount Kunlun to enter meditation.

  Tong Tian sighed and said, "This Kong Xuan has already achieved the Great Luo Golden Immortal Dao fruit after transforming his body. It's just that he didn't learn any divine abilities before. Now that he has taken me as his master and learned my Mysterious Gate Great Dao, his future achievements will be boundless!"

  Hong Xuan just smiled and didn't say anything. The three of them had no idea what Hong Xuan was thinking in his heart, he secretly sighed: This Kong Xuan is indeed a treasure, not to mention the five-colored divine light behind him that can sweep away all things and his innate talent for cultivation, just the fact that he dared to raise his hand against an existence who was already a saint in the future, it's clear that he's a talented individual, this time I've really picked up a treasure!

  It is: The three great spiritual roots were born in chaos, and the first one belongs to Huang Zhongli.

  The five-colored divine light brushes all things, and Kong Xuan comes out to worship Hongyuan.