On a sunny hillside somewhere deep in Niu Kui Mountain was a narrow cave a little over one zhang wide and two zhang high. The inside seemed very wide. After going about four or five zhang deep, the cave narrowed and went diagonally downward, connecting to an underground river.

At this moment in the cave, a strong tiger huddled in a nest made of soft grass. The tiger currently felt an itch on his head. He stretched out its claws and went to scratch it, but stopped his paw in midair.

He hesitated for a dozen breaths, but it was too itchy, and finally he couldn’t bear it any more. So he carefully retracted his sharp claws rubbed his forehead with his paw pads.

Just as he was feeling comfortable, he suddenly felt his claws slip, and the tiger’s heart suddenly froze.

He clenched his claws and stretched them out in front of his eyes. Sure enough, there was a large mass of yellow and black hair on his claws, and there was a trace of spiritual energy flowing on them, but he couldn’t deny the fact that it had fallen off.

“Ah… I knew it, I should have used my claws to scratch the itch earlier…”

Lu Shan Jun’s face was full of sadness. Looking at his shedding hair, he could tell that there was definitely a large bald patch on his head.

There is a small pool of water dripping from stalactites at the back of the cave, which he could use as a mirror, but Lu Shan Jun didn’t dare to look in it.

Looking behind him, his long tail, which was like a steel whip, also appeared mottled, and flesh was exposed in several spots.

“Ah…”

Sighing again, Lu Shanjun carefully brought the fluffy hair on his claws to his mouth, then opened his mouth and swallowed it.

He had done the same for all of the hair that had been shed before. All of it was stored in his stomach. Since he had achieved a certain level of success in his cultivation, his fur had never changed. It had been with Lu Shan Jun for over one hundred years. Now, seeing it all fall off, he felt extremely dejected.

“Lu Shan Jun… Lu Shan Jun…”

Hu Yun’s voice came from outside, lifting the spirits of the tiger lying in the cave. However, when he heard the footsteps approaching quickly, he hurriedly roared again.

“Rooar… stop! Don’t come into my cave, just talk outside!”

Lu Shan Jun usually used the majestic appearance of a master to educate the red fox. Now, his body was covered in mottled spots, unlike a handsome tiger. He really did not have the courage to see the fox.

From Lu Shan Jun’s point of view, he had already become a disciple of Mr. Ji’s. Although Hu Yun was still immature, he was becoming more and more stable. Sooner or later, he would be able to make his own achievements. They would both be considered immortal beasts in the future.

Now, it didn’t matter if Mr. Ji saw him like this, but if Hu Yun saw him, he would be laughed at for thousands of years.

Hu Yun ran down the mountainside excitedly with a piece of paper tied around his neck. He had originally planned to rush into the cave, but he hurriedly stopped outside the entrance when he heard the tiger’s roar.

In fact, the fox had not laid eyes on Lu Shan Jun for a long time. Although he was very curious about the so-called “hair loss,” he was still more afraid of Lu Shan Jun.

“The Master, ah, has the Teacher woken up? Do you have a message from him?”

Lu Shan Jun’s majestic voice came from the cave alongside a slight whistling of wind. It blew up some leaves and grass at the entrance of the cave, sending them flying away with a rustling sound.

When the red fox heard his words, he stretched out his paws to pick up the paper tied under his neck, and shook out it in his hand.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Ji said, your current situation is similar to that of some aquatic spirits who are blessed with unique advantages before they turn into flood dragons. It is a fundamental rebirth. Who knows, you may no longer be a tiger in the future — or at least not an ordinary tiger. Mr. Ji told you not to worry too much and to practice well!”

In the shadows of the cave, the tiger’s eyes suddenly burst into dim light.

“So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is! It is truly wonderful to listen to the Master’s teachings and understand the supreme Tao…”

The fierce tiger suppressed the strong excitement in his heart, and couldn’t help whispering in excitement. However, this excitement worsened the itch on some of the more sensitive parts of his body again.

But this time, Lu Shan Jun was no longer afraid. He stretched out his claws and scratched fiercely. Compared with his fearful and cautious demeanor in recent days, scratching felt so comfortable now that the tiger couldn’t help but want to moan.

Hu Yun grabbed the rice paper in his hand, stared at it in the sunlight, and sniffed the fragrance of ink on it from time to time. He had been in a hurry to get back before, so he hadn’t looked carefully on the way.

Now, he studied it carefully, but his Taoism was still too basic. Apart from the illusory feeling that this paper was “very heavy”, he couldn’t see any difference. If he even diverted his focus, he wouldn’t even feel the “weight.”

After studying it for a while, Hu Yun held the paper up and shouted into the cave again.

“By the way, Shan Jun, Mr. Ji had something to give you. He said it would be helpful to you. It’s in my hands…”

“What!? Mr. Ji has a gift for me? Roooar-!”

Amidst the fierce tiger roar, a giant tiger with mottled clumps of fur jumped out of the cave in great excitement, leapt over the red fox’s head, and landed on the hillside.

“Where is it? Where is the gift from the Master? Is this it? Are these words written by the Master?”¹

Lu Shan Jun noticed the rice paper held between Hu Yun’s two claws at a single glance. The four characters “Fundamental Rebirth” flashed with light from time to time, and a rich aura of Taoism permeated it.

“This is Mr. Ji’s handwriting… Good words, good words! Rebirth, rebirth…”

The tiger approached cautiously, then retracted his sharp claws back into his front paws, gently held up both sides of the paper with his pads, and took the decree from Hu Yun’s hands.

As soon as he touched the paper, another line of small characters appeared, reading “A gift from Ji Yuan to Lu Shan Jun”.

As soon as the handwriting appeared, the spiritual aura flowing from the paper immediately rushed out to Lu Shan Jun, making him feel refreshed, and his limbs and bones feel rejuvenated.

“The Master gave me something! Hu Yun, look, this is what my Master gave me, hahahahaha… Look at what my Master gave me!”

The tiger’s laughter was like a roar, and it brought a gust of mountain wind, which even shook the surrounding flowers, grass, and trees.

“Uh…Shan Jun…How did you become like this…”

Hu Yun stared at Lu Shan Jun, shocked. a stunned manner. The majestic tiger spirit of the past had now become bald in many places, and there was not much hair left on his forehead and face. He looked like a giant half-bald cat. In this state, it was ten times uglier than being completely bald.

The tiger’s laughter stopped abruptly.

Lu Shan Jun who was originally excited, stiffened. He looked down at Hu Yun, who was standing over to the side. The small fox eyes and the round tiger eyes met.

‘Why don’t I just eat him now to eliminate potential trouble later?’

This thought crossed Lu Shan Jun’s mind in a moment of hatred, and it was reflected in a dim light in his eyes.

The red fox suddenly felt a chill hit, his body trembled twice. He shouted in a panic.

“I will never tell anyone! Never! Ah… Mr. Ji’s paper has a spiritual power, it’s making my eyes feel so uncomfortable. I can’t see things clearly. I didn’t see anything clearly just now! I… I will take my leave to the mountain to cultivate!”

After saying these few words, the red fox gathered all of its strength and leapt away from the mountainside.

“Ah…”

As he watched the red fox disappear into the forest, the tiger spirit sighed. Then he looked at the calligraphy in his hand and his mood brightened again. He brought the calligraphy into the cave.

Since the birth of his consciousness, this was the first time that Lu Shan Jun had ever received something that could be considered a gift, and it had been bestowed upon him by his respected master. Together with the message brought by Hu Yun, it was enough to offset all of his recent anxiety about the future.

After carefully examining it for a long time, Lu Shan Jun placed this piece of paper in a recessed groove in the wall, and then began to breathe the spiritual energy in and out to cultivate.

He had heard that the transformation of aquatic beings into flood dragons required several long or painful stages. Lu Shan Jun didn’t know what kind of situation he would face, but he was not at all panicked. After all, he had his Master behind him.

‘Perhaps the day when I am completely reborn will be the day when I successfully transform!’

. . .

Without that special jujube fragrance, Ju’an Pavilion seemed even more inconspicuous in Ning’an County. It was as though a special Taoist aura was circulating, and the pavilion always appeared more peaceful.

Not long after Hu Yun left, there was a rare knock on the door of the small courtyard.

“Knock, knock, knock…”

Ji Yuan looked up in the direction of the door, walked to the courtyard gate, and opened it in person. Standing outside were the old beggar and the young beggar.

“Mr. Lu, Xiao You, how did you find this place?”

Ji Yuan bowed with cupped hands in greeting, then stretched out his hand to lead them into the courtyard.

“Please come in!”

The solemn young beggar and the smiling old beggar returned the greeting to Ji Yuan, and then entered the courtyard.

“As the saying goes, great people hide in the city.² It is quite applicable here with Mr. Ji!”

The old beggar sighed with emotion. His eyes were naturally attracted to the seemingly ordinary but truly extraordinary jujube tree in the courtyard. He could even see the red jujube fruit hidden behind the green leaves.

Ji Yuan shook his head and closed the courtyard door.

“Don’t look at it, the jujube tree in my courtyard also needs to practice. It will not bear fruit unless something special happens.”

“I came to visit, isn’t that a special occasion?”

The old beggar spoke. He could only smile helplessly when Ji Yuan returned to write on the stone table under the tree.

“This old beggar visited Yuhuai Mountain. After the beheading, they saw that I was a friend of yours, Mr. Ji, and after I mentioned it, they said you lived in Ning’an County.”

Indeed, the crux of the matter is finally here, Ji Yuan muttered in his heart, but his hands did not stop writing.

“You, Sir, have not been seen since the beheading at the Capital Prefecture’s Assembly. I thought that you had left Dazhen, but I didn’t expect that you would want to stay here?”

‘I owe you a favor, so I feel bad!’

The old beggar thought to himself, but then laughed.

“In this land of Dazhen, it already rare to have an immortal sect like the Yuhuai Holy Land. There is a True Dragon lurking in the Tongtian River, and now there is a True Immortal. This old beggar is very curious. No wonder those long-bearded old men in Tianji Pavilion divined that the land of Dazhen would be very prosperous.”

Ji Yuan continued to write with a smile and glanced at the old beggar.

“Alright, I have no wish for you to repay any favors. You are acting just like an ordinary mortal who owes money. For a beggar who takes the sky as his blanket and the ground as his bed, you are quite mercenary.”

“Hey, Mr. Ji, you are really vicious! You know that for someone with my cultivation and character, the more you say these words, the more it will weigh on me and be uncomfortable. Yet you still say this… tsk tsk tsk…”

When the old beggar didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, Lu Xiaoyou had already walked over to the stone table. He rested his elbow on the table and looked at the paper sitting on it.

Although he was a little beggar, he had learned to read and write since he had followed the old beggar at the age of nine, so he could clearly see what was written on the paper.

“A vast universe in a sleeve, infinite time in a bottle, containing multitudes within each square inch. The Tao can contain thousands of things. This is the art of dimensional storage…”

“You’er, how dare you!”

The old beggar suddenly looked nervous, and he stretched out his hand to pull the little beggar to his side. He didn’t expect Mr. Ji to have written such important techniques on paper without any defenses. Just listening to Xiaoyou reciting these few sentences, he could only imagine how amazing and wonderful this technique was.

He also blamed himself for not telling Xiao You enough about the world of cultivation. This ridiculous peeping on people’s techniques was a taboo in all cultivation circles!

When Ji Yuan saw that the old beggar was suddenly furious with the little beggar, he was stunned at first, and then he responded with a smile.

“It’s okay, I was just practicing calligraphy.”

After saying this, he waved his sleeves out of habit, and all the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table were put into his sleeves. The brush in his hand also spun and flew into his robe.

The dimensional storage technique, let alone his deduction to the path of success, was even now not comparable to the lofty supernatural powers of Ji Yuan’s imagination. The first few sentences on the paper were just a kind of wish; to put it bluntly, it was more like exaggerated boasting and self-encouragement, but it was enough to take the old beggar by surprise.

The old beggar glanced at the table and then at Ji Yuan’s sleeves with a complicated expression. The movement of taking away the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone just now was definitely not like an ordinary storage technique. It was too casual and nonchalant.

‘A universe in a sleeve, infinite time in a bottle…’

T/n: I think JY has been led astray by anime. He thinks all of his techniques are underpowered because he can imagine doing crazier stunts, while everyone else has never seen this madness before.

Lu: Hello plz I owe you a favor

JY: nope

Lu: Please

JY: I’m not listening~

*documentary voice* And in this chapter, we can see two different species of simps in their natural habitats–

1. T/n: LSJ is a simp
2. Derived from the proverb that goes “Small seclusion is in the wild, and great seclusion is in the city.” Essentially, hermits in the wild rely upon a lack of surroundings, while the best practitioners can even block out the noisy city.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read