Chapter 209 - Oh Lord, Why Treat Me So Badly
Yan Bugui smiled and said, "What a perfect timing to be here Chief. We both share the same feeling, let us drink to our satisfaction".
Everyone who attained the Dao of Dan would not possibly be the same, but once they had achieved this without obstacles, they would all feel the excitement in them.
This scenario was like when Buddha touched a flower and Mahakashyapa smiled, understanding his indescribable emotions without speaking a word.
The inn was owned by Yan Bugui. He decides when it ends its business hour, he was quite ruthless in nature after all. This drink that he was treating Shen Lian, was naturally good wine.
A day later, outside Mount Qing Xuan, the winds and clouds were rumbling for eight continuous days before it stopped. Just because this happened in the outside world, it caused quite a stir amongst the cultivators outside.
In the span of fifty years, there were three cultivators who attained Huandan on their own consecutively, which was a sign of a wave of talents and the prospering of school. One should understand that once a cultivator had reached Huandan, they could be addressed as Master, and be considered as a Daoist.
Moreover, within the Dao sect, those cultivators who gained Huandan on their own would celebrate a much greater success than those non-formal cultivators.
This was because Dan Dao might put more emphasis on understanding, but breaking through whims and gaining Primordial Spirit required a solid foundation. Otherwise, even a naturally talented person might break through whims, but they might lose grip at the step of gaining Primordial Spirit and fail the whole process.
Such occurrence was not rare.
In fact, in the beginning, it was difficult for the originator of Dao to achieve immortality, but with his seniors" experience, added with resources and literature, generations" worth of acc.u.mulation had help this major advantage.
Hence the motto of Qing Xuan, "To practice cultivation, one should practice their heart first" had its meaning, because the resources of the origin sect were not lacking, the challenging part lied in the practice of Dao heart".
For the non-formal cultivators to achieve the level Huandan, one could not imagine how much suffering they had to go through. The toughness of their spirits would be as solid as king kong, but this was where a problem could occur to their foundation.
As per quoted, the normal peasants would rebel. There were many heroic characters that would rise as a leader, but finally, there were very few who succeeded, all due to the lack of foundation.
There were many Daoists in the Qing Xuan Hall. As always, the Doyens and the disciples all stood in separate rows.
Shen Lian was performing the Golden Elixir, Jin Dan, Ceremony on Yan Bugui, where "Jin" which nature was indestructible, and "Dan" signified fullness.
Shen Lian possessed the sword will from Chen Jianmei, so when he inherited the orthodoxy from the chief, he did not receive the will of dharma from Grandmaster Yuanqing, which made sense too.
In the hall, Yan Bugui entered graciously and put on his Dao robe. Cultivating Daoism was not his early intention, but now he had no choice but to cultivate. After all, there were so many fun things to do in the human world, and he needed a long lifespan to enjoy them.
As he came in front of Shen Lian, Yan Bugui kneeled, not towards Shen Lian but to the previous generations of Grandmaster of Qing Xuan. Without these ancestors, the future generation would not have had these days.
Drink the water and be grateful for its source. The ceremony of Daoist, also helps to set an example to other disciples, as the road ahead was not dark.
Every cultivator could light up a lamp, as the ones in front shone themselves, while they s.h.i.+ne the roads for those behind.
"The Celestial touched my head, and I was pa.s.sed on the secret to immortality."
Shen Lian felt neither happiness nor sadness. He pointed towards Yan Bugui"s cavity, and a long-winded and deep sense of the meaning of Dao, appeared from an empty void. Different from the first time, Shen Lian could feel this surge of sensation. Looking towards the ends of the milky way, a Daoist stood there with his arms folded. His body formed a sword aura piercing through the stars, as nature and elements would cheer at the grace of this sword.
The Daoist had a stern look, seemed to look towards Shen Lian. What seemed like a sigh turned into a sentence:
"Daoism is as vast as the sky which I could not come out of."
So many emotions, transcending like loneliness, like sadness.
Shen Lian was not sure if the others and Yan Bugui heard this scripture too, he only felt an emotion of shock within. Is this Daoism that he was pursuing, an entrapment perhaps?
He thought that these words had opened up a new revelation, but difficult to understand and went against his past cultivation experience, because cultivations were done to pursue Daoism, bind with Daoism, and finally surpa.s.s heaven and earth.
All other people in the hall did not seem to feel the same emotions as he felt. Yan Bugui"s face only displayed calmness.
Shen Lian retracted his finger and suppressed his worries within.
Suddenly, a scarlet colored ray appeared outside, and a shapeless vibration was felt from the environment, shaking everyone. Everyone in the hall felt it. Shen Lian got up, and everyone left the hall at once. The sky eastbound was seen filled with colored clouds, divided into five colors, showing a magnificent and heart-tugging scene.
At the same instant, below the heavens, Daoists from various sects had the same detection and looked towards their west.
In the underworld, which was initially pitch black, now filled with five-colored clouds all over. A howl was heard, loud and clear and never-ending, which caused many demon soldiers to suffer as they hugged their heads.
Ye Liuyun stood on top of his blood red throne, and he was s.h.i.+elded by the blood aura around him from the howl.
Far away on the netherworld, a Daoist was seen standing there, who was initially confronting Ye Liuyun. He too, had retracted his aura light, s.h.i.+elded himself and looked up.
The five-colored gleam was shot from the sunny side of Yin Mountain, looking as if there were thirty-three long rainbows, crossing the sky.
Baoyue the Venerable who was strong as a youth stood atop the paG.o.da of Jinguang Temple, saw the rainbows and sighed, "Da Ming w.a.n.g had locked him up for so many years, yet he managed to study and understand the essence of Zen, transcended beyond the mortal world and escaped."
A monk stood behind him, who looked just like Mister Sea, he uttered, "Bald donkey, do you mean that if I mastered the Zen, I could escape as well?"
Bao Yue turned and smiled, "This I cannot say for sure. I see that you still have a big trial which you may not endure".
Mister Sea had shaved to be a monk but never felt that he was scolding the bald donkey for bringing him in. He smirked, "I am now in your Jinguang Temple, even when the trial comes, it would bring all of you down together".
Baoyue smiled, "In the mercy of Buddha, we would not care much about all this. If you overcome this trial, you will succeed in your practice and I cannot help but feel happy for you."
Mister Sea snorted and stopped talking, as he saw the long rainbow in the west, and startled.
In the end, he still envied the thing that was able to transcend beyond the mortal world and escape into freedom.
He thought that if Da Ming w.a.n.g, the bald thief, had locked him in the Ming w.a.n.g temple, maybe he would be the one who could transcend and escape. He subconsciously felt angry again. His emotions were so complicated it was indescribable.
At this time, in the Xuantian Sect, a middle-aged Confucian who was teaching saw the west side rainbow and smiled. He looked at his curious students and said, "I shall stop here today."
As he finished, he folded his arms and walked out. The students who initially drawn to the westward rainbow, subconsciously looked towards the back of their teacher, the middle-aged Confucian who seemed to carry an indescribable aura far exceed the captivating five-colored clouds.
As the saying goes, one would not know how high the skies were, which would be appropriate to describe the current situation.
The middle-aged Confucian cited, "I want to pursue the highest level of wisdom, but I cannot understand it. Oh lord, why are you treating me so badly?"
That last sentence was very heartfelt. Among the students, there was Song Qingyi, who thought, "Everyone wants to transcend the heaven and earth, yet the grandmaster thought that the heaven and earth treat them well."
The "me" in the sentence was not only describing the middle-aged Confucian but also included all mortals.