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I Can Recognize Everything, But the Information is Wrong-Chapter 4 - Sincerity Brings Spiritual Response
Chapter 4: Chapter 4 Sincerity Brings Spiritual Response
As if to corroborate what Zhang Lao Da had said, the group hadn't yet left Qinghe County when they were robbed by four or five groups of people.
These people occupied favorable terrain and were all local villagers.
Faced with these muscular villagers wielding guns and knives, no one had the courage to resist.
Even Zhang Lao Da's gold ring and bracelet were plundered, and the group quickly found themselves weaponless and had to resume their life of foraging wild vegetables and seeking immortality.
"It's damn bullying, we didn't rob them, why should they rob our food?"
Someone collapsed, crying out in grievance.
Everyone was in low spirits, but Zhang Lao Da encouraged everyone, saying, "Hang in there everyone, we're not far from Yao Yue Sect now."
By this point, the group was so impoverished that the villagers had lost interest in robbing them.
Even when passing a small village, someone invited Tian Lin and the others, saying, "Why bother going to Yao Yue Sect? Just join us."
How could they agree?
Those people also said, "Well, if you can't enter the immortal gate, you can still come to us to find work."
After two or three days, upon crossing an iron-chain bridge, Zhang Lao Da said, "This is Lin'an Bridge. Once we cross the bridge and get on the official road, we can head straight to Yao Yue Sect."
"After over fifty years, am I finally going to become a cultivator?"
The old man, leaning on a bamboo cane, stepped into the river at the edge of the bridge.
Everyone eagerly rushed onto the rope bridge while Tian Lin, supporting the old man, said, "If Yao Yue Sect were so easy to enter, there wouldn't be so many farming villagers around."
The old man huffed and puffed as he jogged, retorting, "What do you know? Cultivation requires true sincerity. Those villagers living nearby, do they have the steadfast heart towards the Dao like our Huahua Lang who has traveled thousands of miles, leaving behind family and career?"
Tian Lin didn't respond because once they got on the official road, he saw many groups of displaced people.
No, not displaced people.
Because these 'displaced people,' like them, had all traveled from afar to seek immortality at Yao Yue Sect.
Tian Lin looked at the crowd of thousands, now converging at one point, all moving in the same direction.
Along the way, more Huahua Lang kept emerging from who knows where.
They continuously bolstered the ranks, majestically marching toward Yao Yue Sect.
"Quick, look up!"
Someone shouted, and the crowd, like ants, all gazed up at the sky.
There, several Flying Boats glided past the clouds, soon vanishing among the mountains.
"It's the immortals, the immortals!"
Someone excitedly dropped his walking stick and ran after the Flying Boats.
At that moment, Tian Lin was also excited, looking up at the sky.
It was like when he was a kid in his past life, running out of the house to look up whenever a plane passed over.
He quickened his pace and started running with the army.
"Kid, where are you?"
The old man's voice rang out from behind. Tian Lin quickly turned and said, "Over here, come quick."
But by then, the crowd was already in a frenzy. The official road ahead was a narrow mountain path, everyone was propelled forward.
The sound of children crying, women wailing, and husbands calling overlapped one after another.
At that moment, no one could take care of who was who. They stepped on the shoes of the person in front, grabbed the clothes of another, pushed forward by the people behind.
"Back up, back up!"
The crowd surged atop the mountain peak, and someone immediately shouted a warning.
Tian Lin vaguely heard someone ahead yelling 'There's a cliff ahead,' then was shoved into the person behind.
"Everyone stop moving forward, there's a cliff ahead and many people have already been pushed off!"
The people at the front shouted, but those at the back kept pushing forward.
At that moment, it was impossible to stop.
"Old man, go back, go back!"
Tian Lin shouted, but he himself was 'carried' to the edge of the cliff.
Those at the front, now like dumplings, screamed as they plunged into the abyss.
Tian Lin, stepping on rolling stones, clutched desperately at someone's clothes.
'Dong'
The sound of a bell resonated across the cliff opposite, its ancient toll carrying from the cliff top down to the mid-mountain, sweeping over the official road.
In an instant, both the hillside and mid-mountain's Huahua Lang fell silent.
Taking advantage of this moment of solitude, Tian Lin grabbed a large tree by the cliff.
"Kid, look, there's the mountain gate of Yao Yue Sect."
The old man's voice rang from above. When Tian Lin looked, he saw the old man perched on the branch above his head.
"Is that Yao Yue Sect? But we're separated by a dozen yards wide Sky Gorge, there's no way across."
Tian Lin and the old man both climbed up the tree.
Across the Sky Gorge, a stone arch stood on the cliff edge.
Beyond the stone arch was a set of stone steps that seemed to lead to Heaven, concealed within the clouds.
And the bell sound was drifting from the clouds.
"Cross, everyone, cross! As long as we get across this abyss, we can achieve immortality!"
Someone shouted, and the people on the mountainside went mad, surging forward.
At the edge of the cliff, Huahua Langs, regardless of age or gender, screamed trying to get away from the cliff shore.
But they were all shoved by the frenzied crowd behind them, falling into the abyss.
"One hundred, two hundred? Or perhaps thousands?"
Tian Lin held tightly onto a tree branch, watching people fall into the abyss below the tree.
The cliff here was bustling, but the opposite cliff was very serene.
In the floating clouds, the bell representing 'the path', reverberated faintly from the stone steps.
"Kid, let's go down and figure out a way to get to the opposite cliff shore."
The old man on the tree had red eyes and suddenly spoke, holding Tian Lin's hand.
Tian Lin was stunned, then responded: "Are you crazy? Did you see the people under the tree? Do you also want to be buried at the bottom of the cliff forever?"
"I've been searching for nearly sixty years, traveled across kingdoms, searched through mountains and rivers. I'm over seventy now, how many more years can I search?"
As the old man spoke, he let go of the tree branch to climb down the tree.
"Hold on, if you want to descend, at least wait until these people calm down."
Tian Lin grabbed the old man, comforting him:
"Look, people on the middle of the mountain have come up, the ones at the cliff top have died - wait for some more to die, wait till the cliff top is no longer crowded, wait till everyone calms down, then we'll go."
The old man took a deep breath, then hugged the tree trunk again.
The two looked at the Yao Yue Sect on the opposite shore, being only able to see the stone arch and the faintly visible white stone stairs.
Apart from that, the opposite cliff shore was shrouded in haze, obstructing their view.
"Everyone, no need to push anymore, better think of a solution."
"I have a Flying Claw, once I hook the stone arch on the other side, I can climb over along the iron cable."
Now only about a hundred people remained on the cliff top, hard to imagine how many had succumbed to the abyss before.
A man under the tree threw his Flying Claw toward the opposite side, the iron cable thrown by the brawny man rose up and then hooked onto the stone column of the stone arch.
"Bravo, brother, you must be a master in the Martial Arts world too, right?"
Someone cheered, but the brawny man ignored them, tugged at the iron cable, causing it to wrap tightly around the stone column of the stone arch.
He then tied the iron cable in his hand to the trunk of the ancient tree where Tian Lin was hiding, thereafter using the cable as a bridge, stepping on the cable heading to the opposite shore.
"Good, he made it!"
Watching the stout man successfully reach under the stone arch on the other side, someone cheered loudly, as if they themselves had stepped into the immortal gate.
"Who's next?"
"I will!"
One after another, some directly stepping on the iron cable to cross the abyss, some crawling over with the cable wrapped around, but the majority fell into the abyss.
"Kid, let's go too."
The old man had already descended the tree, speaking to Tian Lin next to him.
Tian Lin shook his head, pointing to the stone steps on the other side: "Look, what's flowing down from the stone steps?"
Although the old man had unclear eyes, he still saw blood trickling down the steps.
"That blood is?"
"Probably from those who crossed to the other side, those trying to ascend the steps. Haven't you noticed, there's no more sound of them talking on the other side?"
"Why, after we've come all this way, crossed the Sky Gorge, and are about to enter the immortal gate. Why kill us just outside the gate?"
People on this side of the cliff were red-eyed, immediately someone said: "Didn't you see the words on the stone columns of the stone arch? 'Immortals and mortals forever apart, neither humans nor ghosts may enter.'"
"Still crossing?"
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"I won't go anymore, I'll just live in the nearby town first. When the immortal gate opens next year, I'll come again."
Someone turned back down the mountain, but others, not willing to give up, climbed onto the iron cable, using all their strength to crawl to the other side.
"Kid, let's go too!"
The old man, with red eyes, pulled Tian Lin's hand.
Tian Lin shook his head, advising him:
"We'll also stay in the nearby town first, then look for an opportunity to enter Yao Yue Sect—look, when we came from Lin'an County, weren't those bandit villagers former Huahua Langs? They settled there, surely waiting for some kind of opportunity."
"I can't wait any longer, I'm a man in his seventies now. I don't know how many good years I have left, I can't wait, I must go."
The old man disregarded Tian Lin's persuasion, glanced at the miles-deep abyss shrouded in clouds.
Then he closed his eyes, clenched his teeth, and hugged the iron cable stretched between the two shores.
The mountain wind whistled through the old man's tattered clothes, who like a maggot, wiggled his body, moving towards the unknown ahead.
"Kid, you wait for an opportunity outside the mountain. Once I have achieved immortality, I will come find you."
The old man crossed the abyss successfully, joyfully waving at Tian Lin from under the stone arch on the other side.
Tian Lin watched as the self-assured old man stepped onto the stone steps, climbing step by step, then disappearing into the mist.
After an unknown period, 'thud thud thud' sounds of impacts echoed from the mist.
Then a head, like a ball, continuously tumbled down from the stone steps, eventually resting under the stone arch.
"It's that old man."
Someone commented.
"Ha, he's over seventy, well past the age for cultivation. At such an age, still wanting to enter Yao Yue Sect?"
Someone mocked.
The sounds were particularly harsh, making Tian Lin unable to hold back: "Who says cultivation is about age or talent? In cultivation, sincerity is what counts most. The old man told me, 'When the heart is sincere, the spiritual will respond.'"