Episode 10

* Title card
* Poster

## Image gallery

**Laojun** (老君, *Lǎojūn*) is the tenth episode of *The Legend of Luo Xiaohei*.

## Description

Xiaohei, Xiaobai and A-Gen travel with Diting to Laojun's spiritual palace, known as Blue Creek Town, where they met him. Laojun explains that it was okay for Xiaohei to get the Shining Pearl, and that everything was a misunderstanding. While they talk, two dangerous spirits enter the place...

## Plot

The rain has passed, and the countryside becomes peaceful once again. Still, the lands have become flooded, and it’ll be a while until the water goes down. Xiaohei, Xiaobai, Diting, his dogs, A-Gen and grandpa are staying in the roof of grandpa’s home, since the water flooded everything else. Grandpa is used to this, since it happens every year. Everyone will go to see Laojun, except for grandpa, who’ll stay with a man A-Gen calls uncle. Before he leaves, grandpa gives A-Gen a piece of paper and tells him he’d love to get Laojun’s signature. They all travel by riding the dogs, who can turn into eagles, and fly off into the distance. Xiaohei, however, has left a Heixiu with grandpa. In the remote mountain, another Heixiu watches over Bidiu.

While the group travels the sky, Xiaobai asks whether Laojun is the Taishang Laojun (one of the highest divinities of Taoism, who is traditionally regarded as the founder of Taoism). A-Gen answers that the real Laojun must have inspired the legend of Taishang Laojun. He says the real Laojun is very powerful and that they are about to arrive to his home, which he knows Xiaohei already knows. The eagles enter a narrow rock corridor and arrive to a tall *paifang* gateway with the words Blue Creek Town (*Lanxi Zhen*) written on it. Xiaobai is confused, because there’s nothing behind the doorway except a mountain wall, and there’s nothing around it either. Unexpectedly, Diting walks to the mountain wall and passes through it, entering another dimension.

Everyone passes through the portal, and enters what looks like a run down, abandoned town. The buildings are covered in moss and in rough shape, with some of their doors broken. The town is built around a big creek, although it isn’t blue, like the town’s name suggested, but green, due to the moss. A-Gen tells Xiaobai that they’re in Laojun’s spiritual palace. They get into a canoe, and begin travelling the creek. Xiaobai notices that the sky is white, and A-Gens says that deities live in places like that. Xiaobai says that it doesn’t feel like a deity’s home, but more like an old town. The place is very quiet, and A-Gen says that the place’s been abandoned for a very long time, which makes Xiaobai sad, because the place’s very pretty.

Eventually, they reach another gateway, one that leads to a tunnel. Once they get through it, they appear in a big, open lake. It’s a different space, where it’s constantly nighttime.  Xiaobai is astonished by its beauty. A-Gen tells her the place is called Starry Night Lake. Since they’re in a space controlled by Laojun, day and night work as he chooses them to. They approach a mountain that its seen in the distance, known as Mountain Laojun, where Laojun lives. To get to it, they pass through a cliff with a marking. It’s the Fire Borrower's Stone, and it tells the story of the meeting between Laojun and the goddess Quingning. Xiaobai finds it very romantic.

Finally, the group gets to Laojun mountain, and enter the palace in the top. The building is filled with bookcases and everything it’s entirely blue. Diting explains that Laojun has lived isolated for thirty years, and Xiaobai calls him an otaku. Diting admits that Laojun has mostly played games, watched anime, and read comics. It’s then that Laojun appears, as an intimidating presence floating from above, with a heavy voice. Laojun laughs, surprised that Xuan Li would want to visit him. A-Gen tells him that It’s not weird at all, answering to the Xuan Li name. Once he’s at their level, Xiaobai is surprised at Laojun’s figure: he looks like a little kid. Laojun explains to her that he’s recovering energy, so that’s why he looks like a kid. He also explains that he could change his voice at will, but chooses to have a deep voice that will maintain his prestigious image.

Unbothered by his presence, Xiaobai asks Laojun why he’s such an otaku. Laojun answers that he made an oath to stay inside the palace for a hundred years. However, he doesn’t want to talk about the reason he made the oath, since it was a very tragic story. Laojun begins to talk, but Xiaobai interrupts him and tells him that he doesn’t need to tell it if he doesn’t want to. Laojun is bothered by her interruption, and stops the story. A-Gen remembers what grandpa told him, and hands Laojun the piece of paper he had to get his signature. But, once he reads the paper, Laojun realizes it’s a bill for damages, and A-Gen pretends it was a mix up. After that, they decide to talk about important stuff, and enter an inner sanctuary, leaving Xiaobai behind. Outside Lanxi Zhen, the dogs, who were watching the gateway, notice something.

Diting, A-Gen, Xiaohei and Laojun talk in private. Laojun tells them he’s sorry for having troubled them. Diting refuses to apologize for anything. Four hundred years ago, Laojun placed the Shining Pearl in the top of his pavilion and made an oath, saying that anyone who managed to take the pearl outside of his spiritual palace would get to keep it, or to return it to Laojun in exchange for one favor. The reason he asked Diting to follow Xiaohei is… because he’d forgotten about his own vow. Diting applauds Laojun’s incompetence. Laojun says that Xiaohei must be very powerful, since he managed to be the first person to scape with the Pearl, and he managed to escape Diting’s true spiritual form. Xiaohei, however, says that it was Laojun’s negligence that allowed him to get the pearl, not his abilities. Laojun asks him if he wants to keep the stone, or a favor.

Outside Lanxi Zhen, two spirits have appeared, and they knocked the dogs out. They are called A-Xian and Moss. They know they’ll be detected quickly, and one second later, Diting appears between the gateway and them. The spirits know Diting is too powerful, so they run away. Diting follows them, and tries to interrogate them, but it was a trap. The spirits Diting was following dissapear, and re-appear back into the gateway. They manage to get inside before Diting can get back there. They then seal the entrance from inside. Now, they think they’re unstoppable.

## Features

### Characters

* Xiaohei
* Xiaobai
* A-Gen (also called Xuan Li in this episode)
* Diting
* Grandpa
* Laojun (first time fully seen)
* Bidiu
* A-Xian (Debut)
* Moss (Debut)

### Items

* Shining Pearl

### Locations

* Countryside
* Grandpa's home
* Remote Mountain where Bidiu is
* Blue Creek Town
* Blue Creek Town's Main town
* Blue Creek Town's Starry Night Lake
* Blue Creek Town's Fire Borrower's Stone
* Blue Creek Town's Laojun's Mountain

### Abilities

* Xiaohe's Xeihius.
* A-Xian's teleporting

### Continuity

* This episode heavily references the events from the Lanxi Zhen comic.
* In Episode 22, it's revealed how A-Xian and Moss were able to trick Diting to enter the town. They were using cloned entities of themselves created by their friend Tanjiu, who has the power to create real-looking entities.