Immortal Travel of Longevity

Tong Nianyi made a quick trip to the Latrine and came straight back.

Yet the moment Mister Chen saw her, he asked, "So what did your parents just say?"

"..."

Tong Nianyi sat perfectly straight, staring at Mister Chen with wide eyes.

"What is to be done?"

Chen Changsheng said, "This Chen wasn't listening either..."

Chen Changsheng's words caught Tong Nianyi off guard.

Tong Nianyi blinked and asked, "Mister Chen, you were talking with my parents. How could you not be listening?"

Chen Changsheng said, "Just because we were talking doesn't mean I actually took it in..."

Tong Nianyi could not help but grumble inwardly at this.

This Mister Chen did not seem reliable at all.

Chen Changsheng said, "But no matter. Your parents just wanted me to teach you a few things anyway. I'll just make do and teach you a little something."

"Ma—make do?"

"A slip of the tongue. This Chen will absolutely teach you everything."

Tong Nianyi's eyes were full of doubt.

"So Mister Chen didn't just accidentally say what was really on his mind?"

"Of course not. This Chen will teach you properly."

Regardless, this did not sound very convincing.

Yet Tong Nianyi found it quite interesting. It was as if this Mister had become a completely different person the moment her parents left. He was much more interesting now than he had been earlier.

Who would have guessed that the perfectly proper Mister Qingshan had not been listening at all?

The two of them sat beneath the withered tree.

Tong Nianyi could not help but ask, "Then what does Mister Chen plan to teach me?"

"What do you want to learn?"

"Doesn't that depend on what Mister is willing to teach?"

"The things This Chen knows are quite mixed; it really depends on you."

"I see."

Tong Nianyi promptly fell into thought.

"Can I learn anything?"

"Naturally."

"I need to think about it."

"Mhm."

As she was thinking, Ruyi walked out with her hair disheveled.

"Xiao Nianyi, you came up the mountain too."

"Aunt Ruyi, you're here too?"

"I'm staying on the mountain for a couple of days."

Ruyi yawned and said, "I'm going to wash my face first."

Tong Nianyi watched the direction Ruyi left in and muttered, "Aunt Ruyi is so lazy..."

Chen Changsheng glanced over, nodded, and said, "I think so too."

"Ah..." Tong Nianyi smacked her lips and said, "Mister Chen, isn't it bad for us to talk behind someone's back?"

"It's fine. Your Aunt Ruyi is a martial artist, so her hearing is quite good. She heard what we just said, so it doesn't count as talking bad behind her back."

"..."

Tong Nianyi said, "Mister Chen is so different from other Misters."

Chen Changsheng thought about it and agreed, "That is true. After all, they are actual Misters."

"Mister Chen isn't an actual Mister?"

"At any rate, not a school-teaching Mister."

"Oh, oh..."

Chen Changsheng then asked, "So have you decided what you want to learn?"

"I don't know..."

"How about studying medicine, like your father?"

"No, studying medicine is boring, and it's exhausting. Father is always endlessly busy."

"What about martial arts?"

"Um..." Tong Nianyi thought of Aunt Ruyi's ferocious demeanor and could not help but shake her head.

"Studying books?"

Tong Nianyi shook her head and said, "I want to learn something else."

Chen Changsheng pondered for a moment before suddenly laughing, "Otherwise, This Chen can teach you how to chop trees."

"Chop trees?"

"Yes."

"Just like how you chop trees in my mind?"

"Do you want to learn?"

"I'll learn!!"

Tong Nianyi was extremely curious about how exactly one went into someone else's head to chop trees.

To her surprise, however, Chen Changsheng led her up the back mountain.

Then, he handed her an Axe.

Tong Nianyi stared at the Axe in her hands, blinked, and asked, "We're chopping real trees?"

"What else would we be doing?"

"I thought we were going to go inside someone's head, just like how Mister chops trees in my mind."

"Doesn't everything have to be learned step by step?"

"Mister makes a good point."

Tong Nianyi turned her gaze toward the peach tree in front of them, heavily laden with peaches, and asked, "But isn't it a bit bad to just chop this tree? It still has so much fruit."

"I didn't say we were going to chop it down."

"Huh?"

"Hasn't the tree in your mind been perfectly fine all this time?"

"That is..."

"There is a method to it. We call it chopping trees, but it is actually a craft. Take this peach tree in front of us, for example. If you just let it grow freely, it will still bloom and bear fruit every year. But if you prune some of the branches this year, it will produce even more fruit next year, and they will be sweeter and larger."

Tong Nianyi was stunned after hearing this; it was her first time hearing such a concept.

"Really?"

"Of course."

Tong Nianyi said, "But Mister, every time you come to the tree in my mind, it doesn't bear fruit for years. It still hasn't grown a single one."

"That is a different outcome. The tree cannot fall, nor can it be allowed to bear fruit."

Chen Changsheng said, "This is what This Chen truly wants to teach you."

Tong Nianyi blinked, not entirely understanding.

Chen Changsheng said, "No one else has a tree in their mind. Only you do. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

Tong Nianyi stared eagerly at Mister Chen, waiting for his explanation.

Inwardly, she was also curious about this. Whenever she had mentioned it to others before, they would often say there was something wrong with her and tell her to go see a doctor. Why did she have one when no one else did?

"This Chen doesn't know either."

"Cough cough..."

Tong Nianyi coughed and said, "Mister might as well not have brought it up."

Chen Changsheng laughed and said, "Regardless, this tree is entirely unique to you. You and it are fundamentally one entity. If this tree dies, you will not be able to survive either, but if it is left to bloom and bear fruit, then you will no longer be yourself, but rather another you."

"Another... me?"

"Correct. On the path of Cultivation, there is a rather similar concept known as a body seizure. It is when someone's soul seizes control of another person's physical body. That is a body seizure."

"Someone will seize control of my body?"

"It is just a similar principle."

Chen Changsheng continued, "What This Chen is going to teach you is how to prune a tree, from the good aspects to the bad. This way, you can control this tree, keeping it from withering to death and preventing it from blooming and bearing fruit. Only by doing this can you take control of your own fate."

Tong Nianyi grew somewhat bewildered and said, "That sounds so confusing."

"It's fine. This Chen will teach you little by little."

Although it sounded confusing, fortunately, Tong Nianyi was genuinely interested.

This was something she had never learned about before. Growing up, she only knew that some peaches were sweet and others were less so. She had always thought that such things were left entirely up to nature and beyond human control. Yet now, Mister told her that there was a trick to it.

How could she possibly not be curious?

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