Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Chapter 550 - 272: Liu Hai and the Golden Toad! Mountain Patrol Officer in the Night (5,000-Word - )

Deep in the quiet mountain, the sound of heaven is silent, the forest shadows are clear under the moonlight.

A single star falls on the mountain, only two shadows of people walking along the narrow mountain path.

"I suddenly thought of a lesson I learned in middle school," Zhang Fan suddenly said.

"What?" Qi Delong asked instinctively.

"There was no road in this world, but as more people walked, it became a road." Zhang Fan lamented.

Toad Treasure Mountain has never been developed, rocks scatter, and the mud is difficult to traverse, so where did the road come from?

This place is occasionally visited by mountain climbers, other than that, only the nearby mountain patrol officer comes once or twice a month.

"The road I took last time was much more dangerous than this." Qi Delong said in a deep voice.

"We are now on the back of a toad, and those bumps move."

The shape of Toad Treasure Mountain is like a lying toad, with mounds and strange rocks standing like the bumps on a toad’s back.

The so-called "moves" by Qi Delong means that once in here, it’s easy to get lost, even if the primordial spirit awakens, it will be affected by the feng shui layout. After all, human strength cannot beat the terrain, the road that was walked last time, is not necessarily the same road walked this time, just like those bumps move.

Instead, only someone like Qin Ergou who is extremely familiar with every grass and tree here can roam the mountains without easily losing their way.

"What did you find last time you went into the mountains?" Zhang Fan asked.

"I can only say, the big tomb in this mountain is unusual, that Daoist is not an ordinary person..." Qi Delong said deeply.

The Daoist he mentioned should be the one Qin Ergou said passed down the fishing toad qi to his ancestors.

Back then, that Daoist saw the extraordinary nature of this mountain, the Golden Toad Containing Pearl, so he transformed it into a big tomb as his resting place after death.

"I encountered a Tomb Guardian Beast in this mountain."

"Tomb Guardian Beast?" Zhang Fan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Li Yishan who studied folklore in college played well with the neighboring archaeology students. He heard Li Yishan say that those people encountered many strange things when excavating tombs.

One year, three senior archaeology students followed their professor down to a Han tomb, and as they entered the main burial chamber, a gray rat the size of a wolf suddenly rushed out and bit two of them to death on the spot.

That Han tomb had not been visited by anyone, and the main burial chamber was completely sealed. It’s hard to imagine what that gray rat was and why it could survive inside for so long.

Li Yishan said that thing is a Tomb Guardian Beast, something only enjoyed by ancient noble families, and the method for cultivating a Tomb Guardian Beast was passed down from Pre-Qin Alchemists.

This matter was suppressed by the school, and the surviving senior student was directly accepted for graduate school.

But Li Yishan said, if it were him, he wouldn’t want to do this job even if beaten to death.

"I encountered a stone lion on the outside of that big tomb, it was very powerful, almost costing an arm," Qi Delong said in a deep voice.

The Tomb Guardian Beast he encountered wasn’t even a living thing, yet a stone lion was more eerie and terrifying than a living creature.

"What kind of technique is that?" Zhang Fan asked curiously.

That stone lion certainly wasn’t some kind of puppet trick.

"I don’t know." Qi Delong shook his head.

In the Daoist Sect to this day, many inheritances have been lost in the river of time, especially many awe-inspiring, mysterious, extraordinary techniques.

He heard that in ancient times, there was a Daoist Skill that could cultivate a kind of heterogeneity, neither god nor demon, nor monster, named Yellow Turban Warriors, often used to guard the mountain gates and act as protectors.

Unfortunately, this kind of method has long been lost.

That stone lion is probably refined using a similar technique.

"You almost got caught, it seems that stone lion is very fierce." Zhang Fan said solemnly.

Qi Delong and Qi Dongqiang, the two brothers, are masters in the Mahayana Realm, and even they almost lost an arm, showing the stone lion’s ferocity.

"Burying and entwining bones, that Daoist probably staked his entire fortune on that tomb, how could it not be powerful?" Qi Delong said in a deep voice.

Fortunately, they encountered the group of Daoists from Zhongnan Mountain, saving them from trouble, but that group was not so lucky, losing two pieces of Yellow Feather Treasure before escaping.

"That must be a good thing." Zhang Fan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

If that stone lion were to be obtained to guard the gate, it would be very prestigious indeed.

"Wait!"

At this moment, Qi Delong grabbed Zhang Fan, the latter was slightly startled, looking up, he saw not far away, bathed in moonlight, shimmering was a mountain pond, but in that pond, there was a trace of golden brilliance spreading.

"This is..." Zhang Fan’s eyes narrowed into a line, showing a strange expression.

"Golden Toad!?"

This mountain does conform to the Golden Toad Containing Pearl Formation, but it is not the same as the legendary true Golden Toad.

"It’s said that the Golden Toad is a dragon species. Ancestor Liu Haichan, one of the Northern Five Ancestors of Quanzhen Dao, achieved enlightenment because of this." Qi Delong said solemnly.

Liu Haichan, the ancestral master of Quanzhen Dao, also famous as one of the Nine Gods of Wealth, served as the prime minister for the Yan ruler Liu Shouguang during the Five Dynasties, later enlightened by Master Zhengyang, namely the illustrious Zhongli Quan, and later taught Alchemy Techniques by Ancestor Lv, eventually attaining enlightenment at one of Daoism’s ancestral courts, Zhongnan Mountain, and ascending to immortality.

There is another version of the story about Ancestor Liu’s ascension that is widely spread among the people, known as Liu Hai and the Golden Toad.

"The Golden Toad is a dragon species, originating from the West Sea, hidden in a well, spewing white light that shoots straight into the sky, those who possess the Dao can ride this white light to ascend and become immortals..."

"Ancestor Liu teased and fished the Golden Toad, the Golden Toad emerged, Ancestor Liu rode on its back, ascended in the daylight, and achieved enlightenment to become an immortal."