（9）

Chu Zhuang, in his forties, is slender and fair-faced with long hair reaching his shoulders. He is dressed in a loose-fitting gray-white robe, with a loose gray-black belt tied around his waist. He does not live in this secluded village, but rather lives alone near the cliff next to the village.
In the deep valley where the hidden village is located, there are towering and steep rocky cliffs on all sides, with precipices rising thousands of feet. On one of the cliff faces, several dozen feet above the ground, there is a flat area, where a sturdy old pine tree has grown. Underneath this twisted pine, Chu Zhuang has built a thatched cottage. Occasionally, Grandfather would go to discuss things with Uncle Chu, but he never took Yuwen Lei with him.
Once, Yuwen Lei, curiosity, secretly followed his grandfather to see how he got up to the flat ground. He was halfway there when his grandfather found him and scolded him to go back. This only added to Yuwen Lei's curiosity about this so-called Uncle Chu.
There was only one conversation between Yu Wenlei and Chu Zhuang, in the deep autumn of last year. Yu Wenlei was hunting in the mountains and happened to meet Chu Zhuang collecting herbs in the mountains.
Yu Wenlei walked up and called out, "Uncle Chu." Chu Zhuang, seeing that it was him, stroked his head and recited, "There are fallen pearls, my heart is like a mirror. The brilliance of the pearls, the brightness of the jade." Yu Wenlei did not understand his meaning, and Chu Zhuang did not explain either, turning and leaving.
Now Grandpa suddenly asked Yuwen Lei to go find that strange person in Chu Zhuang. The young man's face was full of surprise: "Grandpa, are you sure you're talking about Uncle Chu who lives under the cliff pine tree?"
"Stinky kid, besides Uncle Chu, how many people with the surname Chu are there in our secret village?" Yuwentian asked with a smile.
Yuwenlei scratched his head and thought for a moment, "Indeed, he's the only one with the surname Chu."
"Yes, it's him, go quickly, or he might not be at home anymore." Grandpa suddenly became anxious, urging Yuwen Lei to hurry up and set off.
Yuwen Lei couldn't help it, he grabbed the piece of paper on the table and stuffed it into his pocket, then ran out of the house. "You can use your wind-controlling talisman one last time, just use it, otherwise you won't be able to get up to that cliff." Grandpa's voice came from behind.
Grandpa's words reminded Yuwen Lei, he urged the control wind charm, drove up the whirlwind, said goodbye to Grandpa, and flew towards the cliff where Uncle Chu lived.
This cliff stretches across the northwest of the village, about two or three miles away from Yuwen Lei's house in the southeast of the village, and Yuwen Lei just happened to fly through the entire village in the air.
When he walked right over the center of the village, he looked down at Uncle Liu's house and wanted to see if Baoshan was practicing martial arts in the yard. Unintentionally, he felt that there seemed to be a black shadow in a alley below, and it disappeared in an instant.
Yuwen Lei was greatly curious and decided to go down and see for himself, so he slowly descended from the sky.
This was the third time he had manipulated the Wind Riding Symbol, so he was already very familiar with it. He skillfully controlled his true qi, hanging about a foot off the ground, swiftly shuttling through the streets and alleys.
Although this village has only a few dozen households, the houses are not built neatly, mostly built according to the terrain, so they appear disorderly, and the roads are as tangled as a spider web.
Yuwen Lei searched for a long time and found nothing unusual. He said in annoyance, "Maybe I just have blurred vision. It could be a wild cat. Forget it, I'd better go find Uncle Chu quickly."
After speaking, he hurriedly activated the wind-controlling symbol and headed towards the northwest.
After a long time, a figure wrapped in a black robe emerged slowly from a small path in an alley. The figure glanced at the surroundings, then disappeared in a wisp of black smoke in a certain direction.
When Yuwen Lei arrived at the cliff where Chuzhuang lived, Chuzhuang was pacing back and forth under the ancient pine with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself as if deep in thought.
Yuwen Lei hurried forward and bowed, saying, "Hello, Uncle Chu. My grandfather asked me to find you and said that you have something important to tell. He asked me to give this to you."
After finishing speaking, he took out the piece of paper from his chest and handed it over with both hands.
Chu Zhuang came to his senses and saw Yuwen Lei standing in front of him, slightly stunned: "How did you little guy get up here?"
Yu Wenlei honestly replied, "My grandfather gave me a Wind Control Talisman before. I've used it twice already, and this is the last time I'll be using the Wind Control Talisman to come up here."
Chu Zhuang nodded slightly, reached out and took the page, put it in his sleeve, and then said, "Your grandfather asked you to come to me, I suppose he has nothing else to teach you. Many years ago, I wrote the basic methods of learning physical arts and cultivating immortality on two pieces of paper, one piece for your grandfather and the other for the grandfather of Liu Baoshan, so that they could teach you according to the records on them. When you have learned, come back to me, and I will tell you how to cultivate in the future."
Yuwen Lei sneaked a glance at the arrogant Chuzhuang, secretly thinking: Could it be that my grandfather and third grandfather's skills were all taught by him? Looks can be deceiving! So he asked, "Uncle Chu, the spiritual symbols my grandfather gave me, are they also from you?"
"Not exactly, for example, the puppet talisman was drawn by your grandfather himself. Come in with me," Chu Zhuang turned and led Yuwen Lei into the thatched cottage.
The cottage was very simple, with just a table, a chair, and a pallet. There were a few mats on the floor, and Chu Zhuang pointed to one of them, saying, "Sit down casually, no need to be restrained." Yuwen Lei hurriedly bowed and sat down, and then told Chu Zhuang about his earnest desire to cultivate: "Uncle Chu, please teach me how to cultivate."
Chuzhuang immediately sat on a tuffet and said, "All things in the world follow the rules of the 'Dao'. The essence of the 'Dao' is obscure; the ultimate 'Dao' is silent. Now that your soul bead is back in place and you have the elemental spirit of the Azure Vine in your body, theoretically you can start dual cultivation of true spirits."
Yuwen Lei sat quietly on the ground, listening attentively, with doubts in his mind but not daring to interrupt rashly.
Chu Zhuang continued, "Humans are the spirits of all things, cultivating true energy. Flowers, plants and trees absorb the essence of heaven and earth to cultivate spiritual energy, and other demons, monsters, ghosts and demons also have their own cultivation methods."
Among these various cultivation methods, true qi and spiritual qi are the purest, so they are also the easiest target for other beings to seize, which is called 'elemental seizure' and 'true seizure'.
However, this kind of forcibly obtained truth, yuan, and the practice method itself has a low degree of integration. In the end, most of them are consumed and only one or two out of ten can be transformed into their own method, so it is impossible to form dual cultivation in this situation."