In the 327th year of Anchao, there was a severe drought in the southwest, accompanied by locust plague.

The national government funding was exploited layer by layer. Before the disaster relief food arrived, it was already covered with bags of floating rice, and the bottom layer was covered with chaff and sand and gravel.

For a time, famine was everywhere, and the three southwest states were like hell. Everyone changed their children to eat, chewed on the bark, and swallowed the soil raw.

A village with strict garrisons, a group of desperate hungry people. Their eyes of hungry red make both sides look like evil ghosts crawling out of the hungry ghost realm.

Neither side was at fault, but now they both have to fight each other for survival.

The number of hungry people was too large, and the walls were broken in three days. The villages and towns were killed, and even the food and corpses were eaten.

Only Liu Xiu, the youngest son of the Liu family in the town, was helped by the old friend of the Liu family and an elder of the Tianji Sixiangmen Sect, who survived the siege of hungry people.

"Uncle Wang, is this world always so miserable? Or is it just now?"

The thin young child stood on the hill where grass was barren. He looked at the endless dry earth and the locust swarms flying by like dark clouds. Liu Xiu asked the wry-smiling practitioner in a daze. He could not understand the reason why all this happened, why the three southwest states, which were in good weather, suddenly did not rain for hundreds of days, and why the locust plague was followed closely after the drought.

"The heaven and earth rotate. The weather is sunny, rainy, and fog. This drought is not something that we all like us can control. It's ridiculous to say that you, Wang Bo, practiced the Xuanwu Water Control Art. I thought I could do something in this drought, but now I realized that since heaven and earth don't give it, how can you ask for it? There is no trace of water vapor, and no Taoist Dharma can be created out of nothing."

“Manpower is poor, manpower is poor.”

With a long sigh, the practitioner who is still a mortal, looked up at the sky that is still cloudless, and looked at the dead bones all over the ground. He lamented and murmured: "As a saying, nearly a thousand years ago, there were still immortals and gods in the world, who could summon wind and rain, and move mountains and seas... If there are still immortals now, they will surely be able to change the world and end this suffering."

"Is that true... the world will not give..."

The young boy surnamed Liu repeated gently, and his eyes revealed his intelligence and determination that was inconsistent with his age.

"Since that's the case, then I must become an immortal."

Tianji Four Symbol Sect, the master of the Xuanwu Altar, Wang Shoudao, brought Liu Xiu, a young child from the Liu family. After testing the spirit and touching the bones, he confirmed that he was carrying the "natural Taoist body" and was a talent that he had never met in a thousand years. Therefore, he was taken under the sect leader and was given the Taoist name "Zhong Ling" and was carefully cultivated.

Eight years later, Liu Xiu and Liu Zhongling were seventeen years old, and reached the peak of the acquired world. At the level of a great master, he was able to pass on the core secret technique of the Four Symbols of the Heavenly Ji, the "Tianth Thunder Kirin Method".

Three years later, in his prime.

Liu Zhongling became the 37th generation leader of the Four Symbols of Tianji. All the masters and elders were convinced, believing that he had surpassed his ancestors. If he had not been the Heavenly Master, he might have really ascended to become an immortal.

Two years later, at the age of twenty-two.

Liu Zhongling's sword picks Liuhe, which is invincible in the world. The Tianji Four Symbol Sect defeats the other seven Dao Sects in Shenzhou and becomes the leader of the Taoist Sect.

Five years later, at the age of twenty-seven.

Liu Zhongling felt that the five fundamental inheritance methods in the sect were behind the times, so he presided over the practice of the Dharma, recreated the inheritance, and made breakthroughs to create compound Taoism, as well as new applications of various Taoisms.

From the day the practice ended, the Tianji Four Symbol Sect hung his portrait on the side of the ancestor. All new disciples, in addition to worshiping the ancestor, also need to worship him.

——This is the first ten years after Liu Zhongling, the leader of the Tianji Four Symbol Sect and the leader of the Taoist Sect, reached the peak of the acquired world.

But Liu Zhongling didn't care about these false names and was not interested in them at all. Whether it was the invincible world, the leader of the Taoist sect, or the kneeling of disciples, the practice of the Three Immortals... these are all bubbles for practitioners.

He still can't become an immortal.

"No, if I want to break through the acquired peak and enter the 'innate realm' in the classics, I must use spiritual energy to penetrate the whole body, and practice from the inside to the outside without any flaws... I have reached the peak of internal cultivation, but external cultivation requires the assistance of the vital energy between heaven and earth, so that my mind can penetrate the heaven and earth, and feel the spirit of heaven and earth and grow."

"But the concentration of the energy of heaven and earth is far from enough to support me to understand the spirit of heaven and earth and to strengthen my mind and soul... The road to heaven has been cut off, and this path has been broken."

The elegant Taoist sat in the hall of the leader. Liu Zhongling, who was invincible in the world, no longer took action, but no one dared to be an enemy of him. Now, his real enemy is not any tangible and qualitative existence, but the world and time itself.

"I have reached the upper limit of this life. Although I can sense that my limit is far more than that, but the environment does not allow it."

After countless attempts, Liu Zhongling finally confirmed that almost all inheritances in this world have cut off the road ahead and it is impossible to cultivate into innateness.

Unless... he creates another set of inheritance and another set of Taoism that can strengthen his soul and control the power of heaven and earth.

But this is really too difficult. It takes time and may take Liu Zhongling's next life. He cannot put all the eggs in one basket. With this idea, Liu Zhongling went to various parts of China again to collect classics from major sects, from the myths and legends of ancient times to the present.

He finally calculated that the rise and weakness of spiritual energy had ups and downs. In this era, the concentration of spiritual energy is actually rising, and the increase rate reached its peak in the range of about 92 to 114 years.

At that time, even if he did not create new methods, he could use the spirit of heaven and earth to achieve extraordinary success.

"At least ninety years, or even a hundred years later..." Liu Zhongling, who is already thirty years old, stood among the mountains full of stone tablets. He could see that the rocky land with him as the center was smoothed out by people with true energy, and there were countless dense characters engraved on it, which seemed to be used to deduce and calculate something extremely complicated: "The alternation of withering and prosperity, the transformation of life and death, and the demise of thousands of years reached its limit, so by that time, the heaven and earth will usher in a great prosperity."

Footing his long beard, the Taoist asked in confusion: "But can I live for so long?"

Then, Liu Zhongling smiled and said, "Of course I can."

The lifespan of a practitioner is the cycle of a breath of true energy. Ordinary people often joke that as long as they keep breathing, they will not die, but this kind of joke is a reality for Taoists.

As long as the spiritual power of a great circle continues to operate, practitioners will not die of old age.

After confirming this, Liu Zhongling once again had goals and hope.

In his second decade as the head of the Tianji Four Symbol Sect, he studied Taoism from other sects, learned alchemy, and fought with other sects who wanted to compete for the leader of the Taoist sect and the first sect in heaven and earth, and defeated the evil demons and monsters of the people of China, and even fell into danger several times and was seriously injured.

Although Liu Zhongling's cultivation is the best in the world, the upper limit in the world is only the peak of acquired nature. Everyone is the grandmaster of acquired nature. A few people beat one up and still attacked him. Even Liu Zhongling had to retreat.

When receiving treatment, he was as calm as him, and occasionally he felt angry: "It's hateful that these people are just mediocre people who just follow the old paths of their predecessors. They just rely on time to accumulate cultivation to reach the same level as me... If there are more people who attack, even if it is me, they might die."

"But if I could achieve my innate..."

——The 30th year of reaching the peak of acquired life, Liu Zhongling was forty-seven years old.

Because he felt that time was insufficient, he cultivated the seeds of the next generation of the sect leader of the Tianji Four Symbol Sect and updated the Tianlei Qilin Technique. However, because the acquired monster beast Thunder Eagle Wind Tiger appeared in the northwest, and the beast army raided the town, Liu Zhongling still led his team to the northwest without hesitation, slashing the demon tiger with his sword, killing the Thunder Eagle with his palm, and making peace for the people.

The same injured disciple carefully applied ointment to heal his wound. Liu Zhongling smiled and comforted the other party: "It's okay, the thunder method is becoming more and more mature the more you use it. This battle has made you deeply understand your master, and the new method has some inspiration."

"When I create a new method and achieve innate success, you, my master and apprentice can help the people more easily... Oh, you, your disciple, have a lighter hand!"

"Okay, okay, Shouxin, come here, I will heal you, and demonstrate by the way, what kind of strength is needed to apply medicine."

——The fiftieth year of reaching the peak of acquired life, Liu Zhongling was 67 years old.

He felt that his body was beginning to age and passed the throne to his disciples, becoming the Supreme Elder to recuperate.

At this time, Liu Zhongling still remembered his oath and determination when he was a child. He still tried to help others and created a thunder magic technique that specifically kills locusts and locust eggs, killing the locust plagues all over the land.

With this, he even received the real title of the contemporary emperor of the An Dynasty, and there were ancestral temples everywhere in China.

Although the new method cannot be improved and achieved innate success, Liu Zhongling, who was quite depressed, was still excited for a while after hearing this news.

Until one day, he noticed that the first white hair had appeared on his head.

"Are the human body entering a period of decline in his sixties?" The Taoist, who stared at a white hair in his hand and still had a middle-aged face, sighed: "It seems that it is the injury left by the previous battle, which has damaged a lot of my life... I can't take action so frequently, I need to maintain my peak state, otherwise, I may not be able to wait for the awakening of the heaven and earth vitality."

"The innate road...it's a long road."

——The seventy years after reaching the peak of acquired life, Liu Zhongling was 87 years old.

The Taoist, whose face had wrinkles and half-black and half-white hair, no longer left the back mountain of Tianji Sixiang Gate. He stayed in his bamboo house to recuperate, reduce his movements and breathing frequency, and delay his consumption.

"I want to keep quiet and my mindset stable. The turbulent emotions will bring extra consumption."

"If it weren't for the big thing like destroying the family, don't come to me."

Although this is what he said to those disciples who sent him to the mountain, when Liu Zhongling's eldest disciple passed away and his disciple succeeded to the throne, he still appeared. After the funeral and succession ceremony, he secretly cried at the spiritual position of his disciple.

"Shouxin, even you are dead... As long as a practitioner is injured, will his lifespan be affected? It's Master, I'm sorry for you. When I was young, I always took you to various dangers... It's me that I'm sorry for you..."

After shedding the last tears, Liu Zhongling, who was empty in his heart, felt unprecedented peace in his heart. He no longer cared about this life.

My parents and relatives had already died in the severe drought nearly a hundred years ago. The king's Dao Master who saved him in the past also died decades ago, and the old sect master was the same.

Now, his own disciple has also left, and the concerns in the Tianji Four Symbol Sect and even the concerns for him in this world are gone.

He had no distracting thoughts at all, and his mind entered a higher state.

——The 90th year of his cultivation to the peak of his acquired nature, Liu Zhongling was 107 years old.

In the quiet bamboo house of Houshan, the old man with spider webs and white hair and wrinkles was sitting cross-legged on the ground calmly, unable to see any movement on his body, just like a stone sculpture.

Liu Zhongling, who cut off all distracting thoughts and focused on maintaining the circulation of spiritual power in his body, was just waiting. Even the Tianji Four Symbol Gate seemed to have forgotten him, or in other words, thought he had already died.

"It's been ninety years since the spiritual energy is reviving soon. I can't die, I can't die... Even if I can't achieve the innate and become an immortal, I will at least have to wait until the spiritual energy is revived. I must wait until that era..."

"Otherwise, my life will be meaningless?"

——The 110th year of reaching the peak of acquired nature.

Liu Zhongling is 127 years old.

"The emotion of looking forward to becoming an immortal is also fluctuating."

"The mood of waiting for the spiritual energy to revive is also emotion."

"A heart that cannot die is also a distracting thought."

"All troubles will be cut off."

The shackles in the mind and the persistence in the mind are cut off bit by bit. No one knows what Liu Zhongling was thinking at this time, and even Liu Zhongling himself didn't know.

He has forgotten and cut off too many things. Every time he breaks the distracting thoughts in his heart, not only makes his mood clearer, but also makes his temperament more inhumane and ethereal.

"But if there is nothing in your heart, what's the difference between death?"

“I have to… pick something.”

"The obsession as being."

Even though his body had dried up, just like a mummy, Liu Zhongling still opened his eyes. His eyes were extremely divine, as if there was light blooming from his soul: "My obsession..."

At this moment, he recalled many things: Liu Zhongling recalled the determination of a child, the crying of countless people on the dry land, the mercy for himself and the people, and the unwillingness to this world.

Why don’t rain? Why are there locust plagues? Why are there blizzards and heavy rains, floods and tsunamis? Why are there always suffering in this world?
To be continued...