Chapter 175: Chapter 172: Dharma Transmission and Inheritance
Wind seemed to gather at Lady Li’s feet as she flew low over the clouds. In just a moment, she soared over cluster after cluster of obstructing Immortal Herbs.
The Little Immortal Deer bounded ahead, but its speed was no longer a match for Lady Li’s.
After a few leaps through the air, she quickly swooped down beside it.
"Little Immortal Deer!" She threw her arms around the running fawn and giggled with delight. "Little Immortal Deer, I caught you, I caught you! Let’s be friends, okay?"
The Little Immortal Deer turned its head and bleated, "Yoo-yoo!" It seemed both frightened and uneasy.
Its expression struck Lady Li at once. She immediately let the Little Immortal Deer go, a look of panic appearing on her own face as she apologized, "I’m sorry, Little Immortal Deer! Did I scare you? I shouldn’t have grabbed you, right?"
The Little Immortal Deer took a step back but didn’t run away again. Instead, it tilted its little head and let out another "Yoo-yoo!"
It was hard to tell what this particular "yoo-yoo" meant, but Lady Li seemed to understand something. Her face lit up. "You’re not mad at me! I apologized, so you’re not mad at me anymore, right?"
Lady Li said happily, "You’re so nice, Little Immortal Deer! You’re so kind!"
She tentatively took another step forward. Seeing the Little Immortal Deer didn’t flee again, she reached out her small hand and gently stroked the top of its head.
The Little Immortal Deer tilted its head slightly, its tender antlers brushing gently against Lady Li’s palm.
Lady Li giggled again. Reassured, she let her hand trail from the Little Immortal Deer’s head down to its back. Stroking it with one hand, she squatted down beside it.
The Little Immortal Deer was tiny, and Lady Li was short.
The two little figures, huddled together, looked identically pitiful and adorable.
Leaning against the fawn, Lady Li apologized to it once more. "Little Immortal Deer, I just wanted to be your friend. I really didn’t mean to grab you or scare you. I’m sorry."
After apologizing, she added, "I saw your friends all run away from you, and I felt like you were just like me—so alone, so pitiful. I feel sorry for you, and I feel sorry for myself..."
Little Immortal Deer: "Yoo-yoo!"
It couldn’t speak human words, but its call seemed to carry a special kind of comfort, possessing an indescribable clarity and gentleness.
Lady Li hugged it and continued, "Little Immortal Deer, did you know I used to have a friend? There was an older sister who lived next door. She was only four years older than me. She took me climbing trees, counting ant nests, and building houses out of mud. It was so much fun."
"She also had so many different kinds of clay-molded vases, little animals, and even clay swords, spears, and halberds. Every single one was interesting. She would share all her treasures with me and teach me how to make them, too."
"She was so, so nice. I loved to watch her smile. When she smiled, she was missing two front teeth. She told me it was because she was losing her baby teeth, and her grown-up teeth would come in later."
"I’ll lose my baby teeth one day, too, and have gaps in my smile, but I don’t have to be scared, because my teeth will grow back, too."
"She was so gentle and so much fun. Don’t you think she was the best, Little Immortal Deer?"
Little Immortal Deer: "Yoo-yoo!"
As if it understood, it nudged Lady Li’s side with its fuzzy little antlers again.
Lady Li laughed cheerfully again, but after she finished, she sighed.
A little person letting out a little sigh. She said, "But then, my mother suddenly forbade me from playing with her anymore! My mother said her father died, and their family no longer has an Innate Expert, so I can’t be friends with her anymore..."
"My mother also said that all she does all day is play in the mud, which isn’t how a proper young lady from a good family should act, and that I would definitely be led astray if I spent time with her."
"She said that’s the behavior of a wild girl, and when she grows up, no good suitor will want her!"
Lady Li lowered her head, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "But I still want to play with her. What’s so bad about playing in the mud? A good suitor would make me bind my feet, but my sister wouldn’t. She would teach me about flowers and birds. She even taught me to recite poetry and how to hold a sword..."
"I don’t want to listen to my mother. I want to go find my sister and play, but I can’t climb over the wall around my house."
"Oh, Little Immortal Deer, I miss my Sister Yun so much!"
The little deer nuzzled her gently again, making a soft "yoo-yoo" sound.
In the midst of her crying, Lady Li started to laugh.
She said with a laugh, "But just now, I learned something really interesting. I think I can fly! Little Immortal Deer, do you know what flying is?"
"It’s, it’s like this..."
As she spoke, Lady Li stood up, rose onto her tiptoes in front of the Little Immortal Deer, spread her arms, and made a flying motion.
A gentle breeze began to swirl around her. Lady Li tapped her toes, and her entire body instantly drifted forward about ten feet.
It was only ten feet or so, nothing at all for an expert like Song Ciwan. A single step from her could cover a distance many times greater.
But for the little Lady Li, this short distance felt like crossing a heavenly abyss.
Lady Li drifted ten feet in an instant, so she lightly tapped her feet again and continued to float forward.
With each "flight," she had to touch the ground. She repeated this motion over and over—it wasn’t true flight, but at best, it could be considered a slightly more graceful leap.
In Lady Li’s eyes, however, this was flying.
The more she "flew," the more she got into it. She flew about joyfully, exclaiming, "Look, Little Immortal Deer! This flying is called Liezi’s Wind Riding Technique! A... a Fairy Sister taught it to me!"
"Huh? Where did the Fairy Sister go?"
Lady Li looked all around, but she had never actually seen Song Ciwan’s face; she had only heard the voice that taught her the incantation.
"Fairy Sister, can I teach Liezi’s Wind Riding Technique to the Little Immortal Deer?"
Lady Li called out, her head tilted up toward the sea of clouds before her.
From within the sea of clouds, Song Ciwan did not appear.
But her voice gently and slowly responded to Lady Li, even carrying a hint of a smile. "You may. Go ahead and teach it."
Liezi’s Wind Riding Technique wasn’t a High Level Cultivation Technique. It was just a beginner’s Flying Magic, a technique collected by many Taoist Sects in the Great Zhou.
Therefore, Song Ciwan felt at ease letting it be spread.
In truth, when she first taught Lady Li the Liezi’s Wind Riding Technique, Song Ciwan hadn’t even thought she would be able to learn it.
Song Ciwan had initially just been trying it out. If Lady Li could learn Liezi’s Wind Riding Technique, it would prove she likely had an Immortal Bone and could practice Cultivating Immortality.
If Lady Li had been unable to learn it, Song Ciwan would have taught her the Mountain-Breaking Fist instead, planting the seed of martial arts within her.
For someone in Lady Li’s situation, rather than saving her once or twice, it was better for Song Ciwan to grant her power.
It was the principle of teaching someone to fish rather than simply giving them one; saving someone a hundred times was not as good as teaching them to save themself.
Back when Song Ciwan had preached the Dao to the anomaly, she had told it to strive for self-improvement rather than blame the world.
At the time, Song Ciwan had seemed to be merely using rhetoric to control the anomaly, but now, she was truly practicing what she preached.
