GBP Chapter 36 The world is impermanent
Chapter 36 The world is impermanent
It was another sunny weekend. Lin Yue and Gong Yong took their three children in their car to a city park a little further away than the previous park. Chengdu's urban planning is somewhat peculiar; the first, second, third, and fourth ring roads are surrounded by numerous parks, forming a protective ring around the city. The park Lin Yue and her children frequented, the one where the willow stump was injured, was located between the fourth and fifth ring roads. Now they were heading to a flower-filled park near a mountain range, past the fifth ring road and close to the sixth.
The children chattered and laughed all the way, filled with anticipation for the new park they were about to reach. Lin Yue and Gong Yong were also in high spirits, enjoying this precious family time. The car drove along the road, gradually moving away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The scenery outside the window became increasingly beautiful, with green mountains and clear waters gradually coming into view. Finally, they arrived at their destination—a picturesque park appeared before them.
Upon arriving at the park, the older and younger children took the little mouse spirit on an adventure. This time, the little mouse spirit was very well-behaved, staying in the older child's pocket. Although the little mouse spirit had used a concealment spell, it was safer to keep it in the older child's pocket and prevent it from running around.
The little one, being looked after by Gong Yong and Lin Yue, is currently playing in a sandpit, building sandcastles. Gong Yong suddenly receives a call from work and is answering questions from his superiors regarding issues with company documents. Lin Yue, meanwhile, is on her phone talking to Xiao Hui about their plans for a winter break trip. It's almost mid-November, and they're thinking of taking the child out for a trip after the final exams.
Suddenly, a little girl fell from a wooden climbing frame on the sand pile they were playing on, about 3 meters high, landing headfirst. The girl, about two and a half years old, had her hair tied in a small bun and was alone. Gong Yong and Lin Yue were both a little panicked and couldn't catch her after she fell. The little girl didn't cry at first, but suddenly burst into tears.
Because she had fallen from a height, Lin Yue, Gong Yong, and several other parents nearby didn't reach out to catch the little girl. Everyone knew that picking up a child falling from a height might cause further injury. Lin Yue loudly asked, "Whose child fell from the climbing frame? Are the parents here? Are the parents here?" An elderly woman emerged from a shady corner in the distance, smiling, and picked up the little girl. The smiling woman didn't seem to care much about the little girl; several other parents had confirmed that the child had fallen. The woman simply held the little girl in the shade, touching her here and there, as if she was alright. The little girl didn't say a word, seemed to have stopped talking and crying, drank some water, and just sat there blankly.
Lin Yue couldn't stand it anymore and went over to say, "Grandma, the child landed headfirst. I think you should take her to see a doctor, preferably now." Actually, Lin Yue had reminded the grandmother twice to take her to the hospital, but the grandmother hadn't been in a hurry. This time, Lin Yue walked right beside her and told her the child might be injured and needed to be taken to the hospital. Only then did the grandmother put the little girl in the stroller and push it away. Whether they actually went to the hospital or not, no one knew. Lin Yue thought to herself, shouldn't this be taken to the hospital immediately? Why did the grandmother just hold the child beside her, let her sit and drink some water, and that was it? It was obvious the little girl, who had been so active and energetic just moments before, had become sitting there blankly.
Lin Yue and Gong Yong searched for a guesthouse in the flower-filled park and booked a family suite, a double room with a bunk bed next to it. They stayed one night, planning to spend another day out the next day before heading home in the afternoon.
That night, the little mouse's nose twitched, detecting a special, energetic scent. The starry sky outside was bright and the stars shone dazzlingly. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the little mouse was startled awake and crawled out the window into a sea of flowers. In the flower field, the little mouse found a rabbit. This rabbit was an ordinary rabbit, but beneath that ordinary rabbit hole lay something extraordinary.
The little mouse spirit wanted to take one back to show Lin Yue, so he placed it in a 5-cubic-meter space. The further he went into the cave, the more of these stones he saw. Some were blue, with a hint of green, resembling jade but not quite, and contained a certain amount of energy. Others were milky white, giving the impression of a mineral vein forming, or perhaps undergoing a process of sedimentation and growth.
The little mouse came to an open space, swung its arms, stretched its legs, and kicked a few times, then filled all five cubic meters of its container with the energy stone. Just as it finished filling, it was attracted by the other colorful stones. It emptied two-thirds of its five cubic meters and put the colorful energy stone back in. It didn't know what it was, but it thought it was so pretty and wanted to take it back for Lin Yue, and for Da Bao, Er Bao, and San Bao to play with.
After it finished, it was already 5 a.m., and the family of five in the room were still asleep. The little mouse sneaked to the sink and washed its whole body. After washing itself, it was all wet, so it used its magic to dry its fur before crawling back onto Da Bao and Er Bao's pillows to sleep.
No one knew how busy the little mouse spirit had been that night, but it was filled with anticipation, thinking about how delighted everyone would be when they woke up and saw these beautiful and magical stones. It closed its eyes and soon drifted off to sleep again, feeling content, awaiting the arrival of a new day.
Lin Yue had a great time playing with Da Bao, Er Bao, San Bao, and Gong Yong. Gong Yong finally drove home in the evening. After the children washed up, they went to bed. Gong Yong and Lin Yue were also quite tired and prepared to sleep.
The little mouse spirit suddenly jumped onto their bed, stood on it, and said to Lin Yue, "Xiao Bao's mom, I have something new to show you."
Lin Yue asked, "What's new?"
The little mouse spirit said, "I found this in the park. Let me show you, it's so beautiful."
Gong Yong had already closed the bedroom door, and the little mouse spirit took out a pile of stones from its spatial storage and placed them on the bed, all sorts of colors. Lin Yue said, "Where did you get these things?"
The remnant soul Xueyang leaped out from the depths of his soul and said, "What a treasure! This world actually has spirit stones."
Lin Yue asked, "What is a spirit stone?"
The remnant soul Xueyang replied, "Energy stones are those that are useful for your cultivation. Hey, the little mouse spirit is lucky; it has all five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth."
Lin Yue realized what was happening and asked, "Do these colorful things represent the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth?"
The remnant soul Xueyang said, "Yes." Lin Yue then asked, "Then what's the use of it?"
The remnant soul Xueyang told him confidently, "It will be useful for your cultivation."
Lin Yue then asked the remnant soul Xueyang, "So, which element do I belong to—metal, wood, water, fire, or earth?"
The remnant soul Xueyang told him definitively, "You have all the attributes, which means you're the most useless in this world, but in our world, you're the most powerful."
Lin Yue asked, "Why am I the most useless person in this world, but the most powerful in yours?" The remnant soul Xueyang replied, "Because in my world, all five elements were present, all kinds of energy were available, so no matter which attribute you cultivated, you could succeed without any problem. But in your current world, the five elements are incomplete, meaning some special energies are missing. For someone like you with more than five attributes, then you're considered useless."
The old man Huoyun Xianding also said, "Actually, this is quite good. You haven't reached the Foundation Establishment stage yet, have you? The main reason you haven't reached the Foundation Establishment stage is that the five elements of this world are incomplete, and there is a lot of energy that you can't see with your naked eye. You haven't cultivated it completely, so you can't enter the realm."
Gong Yong, seeing Lin Yue lost in thought, didn't want to disturb her, so he sat cross-legged on the bed and began meditating and cultivating. Because all the crystals on the bed contained all five elements, Gong Yong cultivated very quickly. Lin Yue, standing beside him, could see wisps of energy emanating from the large stone drifting into Gong Yong's body.
The little mouse was also quite surprised. It sat down next to Gong Yong and began to cultivate. Lin Yue thought for a moment, then sat down and began to cultivate as well.
That night, Gong Yong, Lin Yue, and the little mouse spirit sat at three corners of the bed, each beginning their cultivation. A mysterious and tranquil atmosphere filled the room, with only the energy flowing gently from the shimmering spirit stones. As time passed, the three seemed to enter a state of self-forgetfulness, completely immersed in their cultivation, hoping to achieve a new breakthrough on their path of spiritual practice.
Nothing more was said that night. Lin Yue, Gong Yong, and the little mouse were all diligently cultivating.
On a mountain peak, the old Taoist priest Ouyang's master stood dejectedly. Although they had seized many spiritual flowers and herbs that day, including a peach tree, many of them withered when they transplanted them to a secluded spot on the mountaintop with abundant spiritual energy. They couldn't understand how they could grow in the sparse spiritual energy below, but withered here in this place with ample spiritual energy. They simply couldn't fathom it.
Only that one peach tree, barely surviving on that tranquil riverbank, had all its fruit, ripe or unripe, picked by Ouyang. If it weren't picked, the tree might not survive. The three of them sighed and lamented; not just them, but all the ancestors in this world were sighing and lamenting. Because no matter how many spiritual flowers and herbs they plundered, they faced a major problem: they couldn't be planted and survived; they were basically all wiped out. Only a few ancestors thought that since they couldn't be planted anyway, they used them for medicine. Some were dried and used in medicine—a truly regrettable and lamentable situation.
These ancestors originally thought that seizing the treasure would enhance their cultivation or bring them enormous benefits, but they never expected to end up like this. Their actions, driven by greed, not only failed to bring the expected benefits but also caused numerous losses and regrets.
The old Taoist priest, unwilling to give up, consulted Lao Xiao in their group of four. He asked Lao Xiao, and his fellow cultivators, why none of the transplanted spiritual flowers, herbs, and fruits could survive. What was the reason? Lao Xiao replied that he didn't know either.
Old Xiao told the old Taoist priest some new information: the land they had moved away from had sprouted new spiritual flowers and herbs, but the government was strictly regulating them, and they were no longer allowed to be bought or sold, or picked.
This news left the old Taoist priest and his companions even more frustrated. They had initially thought the treasure they had seized would bring them immense benefits, but instead, it had failed to survive. The area that had been dug up had miraculously regrown, and was now under strict surveillance. This series of events left them feeling both helpless and regretful.
When the country's botanists had nothing to refer to and could not find the origin of these spiritual flowers and herbs, a child suddenly said, "You can look up some spiritual flowers and herbs in the Classic of Mountains and Seas." When they opened the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there were some summaries of spiritual beings and flowers and plants becoming spirits. The descriptions were so apt that they were somewhat similar to the spiritual flowers, herbs and fruits that were now growing within a one-kilometer radius of the park.
The scientists exclaimed in astonishment, "So the Classic of Mountains and Seas is just a translated book!" This discovery shocked and excited everyone. The Classic of Mountains and Seas, originally considered a work of mythology, now seemed to be the key to unlocking the mysteries of these enigmatic plants. Scientists began to study the records in the Classic of Mountains and Seas more deeply, trying to find more secrets about these spiritual flowers and herbs, as well as the energy and value they contained.