The Most Beautiful Bustle of the Mortal World

Leaving the territory of Mount Hua, Chen Jue headed all the way west, taking the opportunity along the way to study the newly learned Hibernating Dragon Sleeping Elixir Technique from the previous night.

Chen Jue found that mastering this technique was extremely fast for him. This was likely due to the efficiency bonus from 【Lü Zu's Enlightenment】 combined with the fact that his physical body had already formed the elixir, allowing him to enter the embryonic breathing state at will. Thus, practicing this sleeping technique yielded twice the result with half the effort.

Moreover, Old Man Luo’s warning about the risk of falling into an eternal sleep from which one could never wake up was no big deal for Chen Jue, who was a true Elixir grandmaster.

If an ordinary person who had not yet formed the elixir were to practice the sleeping technique, they would indeed need to be careful not to transition from a "living corpse" into a truly dead person. However, Chen Jue had already attained the elixir and could freely control his conscious awareness, naturally rendering him immune to such side effects.

Still, this sleeping technique did not boost his attributes as much as hard qigong like the Tiger Roar or Dragon Chant. Upgrading it to Level 1 only brought a minor increase to his constitution and health index:

Name: Chen Jue
Age: 27 years old
Health Index: 209%
Strength: 3.51
Agility: 2.49
Constitution: 3.88
Intelligence: 1.61 (1.11)
Free Attribute Points: 0.67
Skills Acquired: Omitted... 【Hibernating Dragon Sleeping Elixir Technique Lv1 (5/200)】 【Wudang Golden Toad Technique Lv0 (9/100)】
Status Bonuses: Omitted

"This sleeping technique feels even more effective for recovering and boosting human vitality than a mastery-level Celibacy Skill."

"The fact that it boosts attributes only slightly can be overlooked. After all, it's a sleeping technique that you can practice while you sleep. If people who love to sleep in found out about this, wouldn't they wake up laughing in their dreams?" Chen Jue analyzed with a smile as he glanced at his attribute panel.

...

The distance from Mount Hua to Xidu was just over a hundred kilometers. Coupled with Chen Jue's fast pace and long-lasting stamina, he hardly stopped to rest along the way, only pausing at meal times to grab a bite at passing towns to fill his stomach.

When he finally walked into the brilliantly lit city of Xidu on foot, it was already nine o'clock at night.

As soon as he entered the city, Chen Jue smelled the distinct gamey and spicy aroma of roasted mutton skewers lingering in the air. He bought two skewers of red willow mutton and a meat burger from a street vendor, then searched for a nearby hotel on his phone and checked in.

Xidu was one of the Great Ancient Capitals of the Huaxia nation, where more than a dozen dynasties had risen and fallen before finally vanishing into the long river of history.

The historical and cultural heritage of this city was by no means inferior to Beidu, where Chen Jue had stayed previously.

Furthermore, Xidu was a city where multiple ethnic groups lived together in mixed communities. Its culinary habits were richly diverse, with delicious local snacks filling every street and alley. For someone like Chen Jue, who was a bit of a foodie, arriving here was like a fish taking to water.

After sleeping for a night and practicing the Hibernating Dragon Sleeping Elixir Technique for a night, Chen Jue woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. He had now developed the habit of waking up early, so as soon as he stepped out of the hotel, he could smell the fragrance of breakfast foods that habitual sleepers missed out on.

Finding a breakfast shop on the roadside, Chen Jue ordered a bowl of the local specialty—saorou noodles. The minced meat topping was savory and fragrant, the vinegar broth was appetizing, the noodles were not too thick, and the soup was crystal clear. Chen Jue devoured three bowls in one breath. His massive appetite left even the shop owner stunned, praising him with the saying that being able to eat was a blessing.

After finishing breakfast, following a travel guide he found online, Chen Jue first navigated his way to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda for a tour.

Back when he was in school and loved playing online role-playing games to relax, his absolute favorite was a game themed around a journey back to the west, which featured a team-based pagoda-clearing gameplay mode that gave Chen Jue an immense sense of immersion.

After touring the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, he found a restaurant by the side of the road and sat down to try the mutton bread soup in broth and the mutton in water basin.

After lunch, he wandered around the ruins of the Tang Dynasty's Daming Palace. Unfortunately, they were all ruined relics; only the grand ancient city wall at the entrance could still faintly offer a glimpse of that glorious era of the Great Tang.

By the time he finished touring this attraction, the sky had begun to darken, so he strolled over to the Drum and Bell Towers, which the guidebooks claimed to be the liveliest spots.

When he arrived, it was completely dark. As the night lights turned on, the Drum and Bell Towers lit up brilliantly with magnificent grandeur. Chen Jue followed the surging crowd and squeezed into the fragrant Huimin Street.

Compared to the rigid old city ruins he saw during the day, Huimin Street was bustling with activity! It was a scene of wall-to-wall people—tourists, locals, old and young alike, including whole families visiting together. The air was overflowing with delicious aromas, and all kinds of delicacies were readily available.

Chen Jue drifted along with the crowd, looking around while walking. Casually, he bought a bag of twisted crullers and munched on them, finally settling down at a dim, oil-stained little shop near a street corner.

The shop sold grilled skewers, but unlike the cookie-cutter red willow skewers, this place used thin iron skewers. Before putting the beef and mutton skewers on the fire, they were dipped in a special sauce. Chen Jue washed them down with a bottle of Arctic Ocean soda and devoured over a hundred skewers in one sitting, shouting in exhilaration.

Compared to the frozen zombie meat skewers back in his hometown of Wushi, the fresh meat skewers here in Xidu completely wiped the floor with his hometown's offerings.

After finishing his stroll down Huimin Street, he returned to the hotel for a sound sleep. The next day, he checked out, put on his backpack, and walked on foot to the Mausoleum of the First Emperor in the suburbs of Xidu.

First, following the tourist crowds, he squeezed into the excavation pits of the Terracotta Army to look at those figures of the First Emperor dating back over two thousand years, then wandered over to the adjacent Mausoleum of the First Emperor to take a walk around.

Looking at the mound of the First Emperor's mausoleum covered in green grass and trees, resembling a pyramid, Chen Jue couldn't help but sigh: "An emperor through the ages! Yet even he could not escape the destiny of fleeting time and being a hurried traveler."

However, as he strolled along the stone-paved path of the imperial mausoleum, Chen Jue’s acute ears faintly caught an echo emanating from deep beneath his feet, resembling the circulation of vital energy and blood.

"Could this be... lead and mercury smelting a golden elixir?"

"No, it seems more like a pure accumulation of liquid mercury..." Chen Jue pondered inwardly, then picked up the tourist brochure he had casually grabbed when entering the mausoleum, discovering that according to surveys, a massive amount of mercury was buried deep beneath the imperial mausoleum beneath his feet.

And mercury was an extremely crucial component in Daoist alchemical texts. Just as the alchemical texts mentioned: "Flesh and skin share the nature of lead, blood shares the nature of silver mercury." Silver mercury was an alchemical element simulating human qi and blood.

With his mind wandering, coupled with his attunement to heaven and earth, Chen Jue realized that standing atop the imperial mausoleum was akin to standing upon a colossal grand elixir of lead and mercury.

"Using the earth as lead, hundreds of tons of silver mercury converging... The person who laid out this imperial mausoleum back then was definitely an accomplished senior master of the Daoist gate! A pre-Qin sorcerer?"

Connecting this with the legend that the First Emperor had dispatched Xu Fu to cross the Eastern Sea to Penglai in search of the elixir of immortality during his reign, Chen Jue felt that this emperor through the ages had truly exhausted all his schemes for longevity, even designing his final resting place according to the Daoist alchemy of immortality.

Yet no matter how ambitious he was during his reign, he still could not escape the corrosion of time. In the end, his dynasty still perished in the second generation, leaving later generations to sigh with emotion.

...

After wandering around the Mausoleum of the First Emperor for a good half-day, Chen Jue shouldered his backpack and left Xidu, setting off on foot toward the southwest.

Ever since leaving Guanshan and subsequently departing from Beidu, measuring the earth with his own feet, Chen Jue had spent the entirety of the month of October. Checking the time, he realized that in another week, it would be the wedding day of Zhou Anping, the fourth roommate in their college dorm, whom Wang Biao had mentioned. Thus, Chen Jue slightly quickened his pace and headed toward the direction of Wudu.

Starting from Xidu, traversing over seven hundred kilometers from the plains of the Central Plains, Chen Jue entered the rugged mountain ranges of Bashu. The surrounding terrain changed, and the humidity in the air increased.

In the early mornings, the mountains were shrouded in clouds and mists, allowing Chen Jue to truly experience what a fog city was like.

When he finally walked into Hezhou District under the jurisdiction of Wudu, where Zhou Anping had settled down, it was already November 3rd. Over the past few days, the dormitory WeChat group had become extremely lively, with everyone discussing the upcoming roommate wedding.

Several roommates from all corners of the country had booked their tickets in advance and were rushing to the wedding venue, bringing their families along.

Chen Jue’s pace was faster than theirs, so he arrived in Hezhou a step ahead. When he reached the location sent by Zhou Anping, Chen Jue found that this college friend seemed not to have been doing very well over the past few years—he had actually set up a snack stall right at the back gate of a university in Hezhou!

When Chen Jue arrived, it was right during the dinner rush. He saw Zhou Anping looking greasy, accompanied by a young woman of about his age. The two of them wore aprons, bustling back and forth at the snack stall to greet students and make deep-fried chicken collarbones.

The surroundings were packed with locals who also made a living pushing carts and running snack stalls. Looking as far as the eye could see, they formed a long dragon along the pedestrian walkway, just like the "junk street" from Chen Jue's college days in his memory, exceptionally lively.

The passing university students were either picking up packages at the roadside courier stations or gathering in groups in front of these snack stalls. There were fried rice, fried noodles, fried skewers, malatang, barbecue, stinky tofu, and all kinds of snacks. Most of the students didn't have much money in their hands and had limited living expenses. Having been through it himself, Chen Jue knew that this was enjoying the most delicious things in the world at a low price.

How else could it be called the most beautiful fireworks of the mortal world?

Watching Zhou Anping and his future wife busily send off their last student customer, Chen Jue walked up with a smiling expression: "Boss Ruanping, give me a serving of chicken collarbones, no spicy, extra cumin, and deliver it to Dormitory 348!"

The third update for tonight is delivered!
Writing up to this point, the plot of enlightenment is coming to an end~ Giving a heads-up in advance~
& Note: The prototype of this fourth roommate in the dorm is actually Pianfeng himself (covering face). Not doing very well in life, please bear with me everyone~