My girlfriend asked me, "Do you believe in immortals?"
I said, "I don't believe, I am an atheist."
My girlfriend said, "Is atheism also a kind of god?"
Of course, it is. Atheism has walked on the earth for ten years, taking away the beliefs of many ignorant people and turning them into violent beasts, causing them to become disasters for others and each other. I said, "Yes, after all, I am a cultivator."
"Do you know?" she said to me, "I heard that a immortal appeared in Sanya recently, and now it's the perfect time for us to go to Sanya."
"Sanya?" My mind twisted into a knot, "Where is that?"
"It's in Hainan." My girlfriend expressed her disbelief in my ignorance, "You don't know Sanya?!"
"So it's Sanya!" I pretended to have a sudden realization, "Sanya, of course everyone knows, we should go and take a look." I planned to pretend to go to the bathroom later to search for where exactly Sanya is and what makes it special.
Anyway, we set off. We first took a spiritual beast to Chongqing, and then we used the teleportation array in Chongqing Jiangbei to arrive at the Phoenix teleportation array in Sanya. When we arrived, it was sunset; riding a local spiritual beast through the coconut grove, we couldn't help but excitedly imagine what the immortal in Sanya would look like.
Before coming, my girlfriend had searched a magic book called "Red Book", which was said to occasionally reveal information about new immortals. However, my girlfriend did not find any reliable information, only some seemingly irrelevant and even contradictory descriptions, such as the sky being blue, the sea being blue, and pouring rain.
We stayed at the Honglin Inn, a hotel specifically for cultivators, so there were no stairs. After checking in, we flew to the sixth floor facing the sea. I was surprised to find that our room number was actually 2666, which was the name of the last high-level magic created by the Chilean archmage Roberto Polanio! It was said that no one knew why he used such a strange number to name that magical and incomprehensible magic.
In my self-proclaimed luck, I pushed open the door and heard someone outside exclaiming that an immortal had appeared. We quickly put down our luggage, and we didn't even have time to wash our faces before putting on our image capturing artifacts and jumping from the sixth floor to the beach.
On the beach, there were more than ten other cultivators, all looking towards the darkening sky in the distance. I followed their gaze and saw the bright moon shining and the amorphous shape shifting in the sky.
"What is that?" I asked my girlfriend, my voice trembling with excitement and fear; she was a knowledgeable cultivator and knew much more than me.
"That's the South China Sea." She frowned, seemingly associating something, "It's the South China Sea. The Great Compassionate Monk cultivated here in the past." She paused, then recited, "Teaching to clarify the South Seas, following the imperial decree to save the calamity. Sensing the sound, extending mercy with thoughts. The saint's virtue is prominent, and the profound skill is unfathomable."
"But that immortal has already entered the immortal realm and is no longer on Earth." I said, stating the obvious that my girlfriend already knew.
"I hope it's not an evil god." My girlfriend sighed, "If it is, the future of the South China Sea may be in trouble."
There was silence for a while, and we both sighed. We had discussed these topics before and understood that the affairs of the world were beyond our control; we were like the sand under our feet, perhaps brought from elsewhere to fill the void, unable to resist the sweeping waves or the trampling of humans and shrimp.
"Or maybe it's just a cloud." My girlfriend said.
"Like a dark cloud."
We returned to the inn and had a simple dinner. The exhaustion from the teleportation process quickly made me fall into a deep sleep, but I didn't realize until I woke up the next day that my girlfriend had not slept all night. I felt guilty because I insisted on dragging her to drink coffee before the teleportation, ignoring the fact that we had different tolerances for this exotic substance. My girlfriend kissed me, indicating that it was okay; she said that although insomnia was painful, she had realized a new immortal technique during the night of contemplation. She called it "Light Capturing Technique", which, as the name suggests, could capture sunlight and store it for later use. She demonstrated it to me several times, but I was naturally dull and didn't learn it immediately.
The air was fresh, filled with the refreshed aura of the world after the rain. After tidying up, we went to the beach to absorb it, casually collecting some treasures brought ashore by the tide the night before.
The time for cultivation was always short, and before we knew it, it was already afternoon. I still hadn't mastered the Light Capturing Technique that my girlfriend taught me. But the Baihua Valley was now open, and we had to go and collect cultivation resources.
After rinsing off the seawater and sand from our bodies, we flew into the Baihua Valley, where colorful lights dazzled us. After collecting some refreshing supplements and coconut rice, we seemed to have lost our way and started wandering in the Baihua Valley.
We passed through a tree hole and entered a fantasy world filled with strange optical distortions, making it difficult to perceive reality. However, my girlfriend had mastered the Light Capturing Technique, which allowed us to safely escape from it. Shortly after, we encountered a giant snail that devoured everything, but fortunately, its vision was poor and it didn't see us.
After passing the giant snail, we entered a mangrove forest where there were many small monsters. Although we had the strength to deal with them, we decided to avoid them and quickly flew through the forest, arriving at a coconut grove. In this forest, there was a mirror lying on the ground, reflecting the sky. The mirror was so pure that it was almost impossible to distinguish which side was the reflection.
"Ah, oh!" I vaguely remembered seeing this mirror in the classics, but couldn't recall it, so I made monkey-like sounds, "Oh, this...is..."
"Phew!" My girlfriend saw my foolishness and couldn't help but laugh. "This is the Coconut Grove Mirror, the legendary gateway to the Little Immortal Realm in the South China Sea."
"Really."
Without hesitation, we stepped on the mirror and suddenly dazzling colorful lights appeared, obscuring all our senses. When we regained our perception of the world, we were standing in front of a huge stone with four characters engraved on it: South China Sea Li Village.
"Is this the Little Immortal Realm in the South China Sea?" I asked my girlfriend. It was rumored that the Great Compassionate Monk had opened his own little immortal realm here after becoming an immortal, but few people had truly found this place. Even those who claimed to have been here had descriptions that were so different from each other that they were difficult to believe.
"This is the village of the Li ethnic group." My girlfriend said with a surprised expression, "There is actually a village in the Little Immortal Realm, could it be..." She was puzzled, "The village of the immortals."
At this moment, a figure walked out from behind the huge stone. He was dressed in a white robe with flower sleeves, and a red cloth was tied around his forehead. He looked us up and down, then smiled and said, "Welcome! Are you two?"
I just nodded dumbly.
"Please come inside." He led the way.
We had no objections and didn't ask any questions, just exchanged glances and followed him.
We entered a papaya forest, bypassed several winding paths, and came to a restaurant.
The person who led the way before, or the immortal, brought a menu. "Take a look, what would you like to eat?" He handed the menu to my girlfriend.
My girlfriend looked at me, her worried expression indicating that she was thinking of a solution.
"They must be immortal delicacies, right?" I raised my voice and said, but the volume was a bit loud, almost scaring myself.
"These are specialties of the Li ethnic group." The person who transformed into a waiter gestured on the menu in front of my girlfriend.
My girlfriend sighed and seemed to make up her mind, starting to order: chicken that can climb trees, fish that can fly, scallion-flavored taro, stir-fried vegetables with South China Sea dried shrimp, Li Village coconut rice, and a refreshing dessert.
"Please wait." The waiter left satisfied with the menu.
"Look, it's still up to me to protect you." My girlfriend said confidently.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm." I nodded vigorously and kissed her. At this moment, the world suddenly changed color, and I quickly held her tightly. When the world reappeared, we were already on the teleportation array in Chongqing Jiangbei, not far from home.