He lived in Western Zhou Dynasty. Prior to becoming an immortal, his spirit once travelled to the heaven; however, his uninformed apprentice mistook his inanimate body as a sign that he has died, so the apprentice crematedd Li. In another version, the apprentice was told that the spirit will return in seven days, but on the sixth day, the apprentice's mother was in grave illness, so he had to return home, so he cremated the body. Upon returning, Li had no choice but to enter the corpse of a homeless who died of starvation.