Chapter 39: The Three Schools, Cultivators, and Heavenly Tribulation
Although completing apprentices.h.i.+p was unfavorable, and they had been played tricks on by the Dragon Palace at first, everyone in the Immortal Du Sect became cautious as a result.
Li Changshou was slightly relieved at this and had never let his guard down.
More and more people gradually surrounded them. Li Changshou felt that such an environment was rather unsuitable. Especially when strangers were all near him, he had to constantly pay attention to every single movement at all times.
A Wind Speech Incantation was used in the dark.
Whenever the breeze blew past, it would transmit pieces of information to Li Changshou while he processed them thoroughly.
When he used his spiritual senses to examine other people, it was akin to using his line of sight to look at them. The latter would sense it if they were vigilant.
This was considered as active detection.
When using the Wind Speech Incantation, he could voluntarily receive pieces of information apart from being able to pa.s.s a voice transmission to the person focusing his spiritual senses.
This was known as pa.s.sive detection by Li Changshou. Its advantage was that it would not consume his soul power, while its disadvantage was that all sorts of information could be transmitted through. Hence, he needed to constantly a.n.a.lyze them.
Long ago, Li Changshou had consciously trained his detection skills, willpower, and concentration.
Most Dao Requital cultivators of the same cultivation realm as him could only have lasted for a few hours before their mind wandered, and they relaxed their supervision of the surroundings.
When Li Changshou used the Wind Speech Incantation to observe his surroundings, he could already do it without stopping for hundreds of hours!
However, it was indeed sorrowful for an immortal cultivator to be a human surveillance system…
At least, Li Changshou could feel at ease.
Since he was using the Wind Speech Incantation to observe his surroundings, Li Changshou could hear the voices and peals of laughter from all the cultivators and listen to many interesting stories from them.
The Perfected Immortals there were mostly discussing this Meet and the main platform above where Heaven Immortals gathered.
Most of the Perfected Immortals were concerned about what agreement they would reach with the Dragon Palace, how the border of the East Ocean would be divided, and whether the dragon race would make things difficult for the human cultivators.
On the other hand, the young disciples were always discussing Heavenly Tribulation.
Most of the cultivators were afraid of Heavenly Tribulation because it was incomparably dangerous. It was a trial that n.o.body could avoid.
Of course, if they stopped cultivating or reached a bottleneck at the Qi Refinement, Soul Requital, Void Return, or Dao Requital Realms, they could not break through and did not need to face the Heavenly Tribulation.
As long as most of the cultivators in Immortal Du Sect did not undergo Qi Deviation, they would have a chance to face Heavenly Tribulation.
This was because the Immortal Du Sect was considered a prestigious immortal sect in the East Continent. Those with ordinary potential could not enter this sect. Their Dao heritage was complete, and cultivation techniques were brilliant. The system within the sect was robust, and they had good welfare.
This might not be the case for other immortal sects.
Looking at the Primordial World and Trichiliocosm, 90% of the human race did not have the potential for cultivating or Immortal Ascension, while 95% of them were mortals.
Among the community of cultivators, 90% of them could not attain Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation due to the limitation of their potential and their incomplete cultivation techniques.
In the end, only 10% to 20% of them could survive the Immortal Ascension Tribulation.
Based on these numbers, not many humans seemed to be able to become immortals.
In fact, the number of immortals from the human race had crushed the total number of immortals of the two races during the golden period of the mages and demons!
There was no choice. The human race was really good at giving birth… Their base number was simply too big.
After Li Changshou widely read ancient texts, he had concluded that the three main reasons why the human race could rapidly rise after the Great Mage-Demon War period and defeat the mage race and the demon race.
Firstly, G.o.ddess Nuwa had entrusted the connate Dao Body.
Secondly, humans reproduced very quickly and could adapt very well to their surroundings.
Thirdly, the forefathers of the human race had brought about cohesion and centripetal force.
Li Changshou did not believe arguments on things such as the Heavenly Dao undertaking the human race.
How could the impartial Heavenly Dao be biased to one race?
The Heavenly Dao deduced all the changes in all creatures in the world and had foretold that the human race would gain the upper hand. It was more like a kind of prophecy and not predestination for the human race.
The saying that the human race relied on the Three Schools of the Dao Sect to gain the upper hand was even more ridiculous.
After the human race had risen in power, the three founders of the Dao Sect made use of the human race’s destiny to validate their Dao and establish the Three Schools to obtain endless merits.
Even though it was wrong of him to a.s.sess this as a Dao Sect disciple, Li Changshou had always felt that the three Saints of the Dao Sect had received the glow of the human race. However, he also felt that they had not done much for the human race.
The Ren School was also known as ‘humans’. The Grand Pure One had only taken in the Great Venerable One from the first generation of the human race as his disciple. The founder of the Immortal Du Sect, Perfected Du’e, had unclear cultivation. She should neither be from the human race nor the teachings of the Grand Pure One.
The Grand Pure One had yet to go to the mortal world of the human race to impart the Dao De Jing[1].
As a result, Li Changshou did not dare to comprehend the cla.s.sical texts of the Dao De Jing that he had memorized!
The Chan School was not bad either. The Heavenly Lord of Primordial Beginning had taken in many human race experts of the first generation as his disciples. Those disciples of the Chan School had established their own sects in the Middle Continent and promoted the way of cultivation among the human cultivators.
However, the Jie School had gone overboard.
It was akin to the Grandmaster of Heaven taking the human race’s destiny to help out the other races. There were only a few disciples from the human race. It could be said that he had done things relatively improperly.
Among the relations.h.i.+p between the human race and the Three Schools of the Dao Sect, the former was just a foundation to the latter, while the latter was just something that made the former better, which provided more insurance for the prosperity of the human race.
The Primordial World was full of schemes.
The elders, who had truly contributed to the emergence of the human race, might either be leading a carefree retired life in the Fire Cloud Cave or had entered reincarnation again.
These opinions were definitely criticized as deviating from the Dao. Li Changshou was only casually thinking and did not tell anyone about these theories.
For example, Li Changshou had only taught Ling’ e how to not acc.u.mulate karma and how to escape during an emergency and trained her to be responsible for her own actions. She definitely could not follow her senior brother’s outstanding nature of having his morals high up to the clouds when she encountered any problems.
Ling’e’s potential was actually pretty good. She had the potential to become an immortal seedling and was also diligent.
Li Changshou had always felt that the potential of immortal cultivation might be some hidden inheritance.
80 of the ancestors were mortals. However, there might be an outstanding immortal cultivator genius, which was the case for Ling’ e.
Li Changshou remained silent for a while before he heard another interesting topic—the success rate for the Tribulation Transcendence of human cultivators.
This could not be lumped together. Different disciples from different Dao heritages were worlds apart in their success rate for their Tribulation Transcendence.
As for the cultivators with Dao heritage outside the Three Schools, they did not have superior-cla.s.s cultivation techniques or the protection under the Three Schools. Out of the 10 people going through Tribulation Transcendence, only one would survive.
On the other hand, as long as the cultivators with Dao heritage from the Three Schools did not commit any mistakes, the cultivators from the Chan School and Ren School could obtain a 50% to 60% success rate in the Heavenly Tribulation.
It was worth mentioning that the average survival rate of those from the Dao heritage of the Three Schools barely reached 30% because this value had been pulled down greatly by the Jie School.
The Chan School pursued excellency, so their disciples had a higher rate of Immortal Ascension, and their number of Dao heritage was in the middle.
The Ren School pursued fate, so the Immortal Ascension rate of their disciples was in the middle. However, the Grand Pure One did not like taking in disciples. Therefore, their Dao heritage was meager.
The Jie School pursued education for everyone, so their disciples were a mix of humans, demons, and spirits. Their survival rate was based on their destiny, and their Immortal Ascension depended on their looks. Therefore, their Dao heritage was widely distributed in the Trichiliocosm.
No matter how brilliant the Dharmic Dao from the Three Schools was, how prosperous their destiny was, or how much the Saint’s connate treasure could suppress their destiny, their Immortal Ascension rate still could not be pulled up.
Moreover, the Grandmaster of Heaven did not have any treasures to suppress it. What he had control of was such a lethal killing weapon like the Four Swords of Zhu Xian.
Thus, Li Changshou had always been very grateful that his Master had brought him into the Ren School.
“Little Changshou, come here.”
When Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu suddenly sent him a voice transmission, Li Changshou was distracted right away and looked at her, who was waving at him.
Li Changshou slightly nodded to her, expressing that he did not want to move.
Jiu Jiu stared at him with a threatening gaze.
Li Changshou pretended as if he had not seen anything. He continued closing his eyes and maintained his Wind Speech Incantation.
After some time, Jiu Jiu walked over with a smile and sat behind Li Changshou’s short table.
Jiu Jiu whispered, “Martial Nephew Changshou, did you bring anything fun over?”
“I didn’t,” Li Changshou answered through a voice transmission. “That was a reserved item from the Little Qiong Peak, which also means that it cannot be brought out of that place.”
Jiu Jiu’s expression sank, but she still maintained her upright posture. She complained through a voice transmission, “I’m so bored. This errand is bothersome, and I still have to wait two to three days here before it officially begins… Master is above, so I can’t even slip away.”
Li Changshou smiled slightly and pondered how he should let his Martial Aunt return to her seat as soon as possible.
It was not good to be attracting so much attention like this.
Li Changshou fished out a woodcut six-colored Rubik’s cube from his sleeve and lightly played it in his hands. He had a rather smooth play with the polished cube and very soon attracted Jiu Jiu’s attention.
“What’s this?”
Li Changshou stopped his actions and showed her the scattered colors of the Rubik’s cube. Then, he returned the cube to its original state in a flash.
Jiu Jiu’s eyes lit up.
Li Changshou scrambled the Rubik’s cube again and put it beside him before he sent a voice transmission. “Don’t give it to anyone else.”
“Okay, don’t worry! I know about your rules!”
Jiu Jiu agreed, took the Rubik’s cube, and lowered her head to start trying it out. She was soon immersed in it and slowly got up to return to her short table.
Finally, it was peaceful again.
Li Changshou continued portraying as a human surveillance system, which n.o.body had noticed and waited for this Demon-Sweeping Meet to end.
Half a day later, the immortal sects had more or less arrived. Handsome guys and pretty ladies had filled the water lotus platform. If one had nothing to do and scanned them, they were quite outstanding.
Suddenly, gongs and drums were heard. A white cloud floated over in the sky with dozens of ‘ocean people’ in purple robes and red robes on it. They were the large orchestra sent over by the Dragon Palace.
It seemed that the clam maidservants played the zither, while the mermaids sang softly.
The flood dragons played the bamboo flutes, the prawns beat the drums, the turtle immortals played the bra.s.s instruments, and the crabs beat the gongs.
A woman with a graceful posture in a thin, skimpy dress came over and danced in the middle of the s.p.a.cious venue.
Her dancing posture was graceful, and she waved her sleeves.
The two-day large-scale joint literary and art performance by the Dragon Palace had officially begun.
Li Changshou was not distracted because of this. However, there were lesser chatterings around him. Most of the people were watching them singing and dancing. Hence, he had much lesser information to deal with.
It would be good in the next few days if things were as peaceful as it is now.
As Li Changshou prayed for that, he a.n.a.lyzed what trouble he could be encountering.
The errand should not have anything to do with him. He was only at the Second Stage of the Void Return Realm. There was no place for him on such occasions.
That also meant that it was not a matter that concerned the young disciples.
Except…
‘Huh?’ Junior Sister Youqin Xuanya stood up and walked over to him with her meditation cus.h.i.+on as she carried a huge sword on her back.
‘This…’
Everyone was on good terms. Was there a need to be so overbearing?
After Youqin Xuanya took two steps, Li Changshou sent her a voice transmission helplessly.
“I’m sorry, Junior Sister Youqin. I want to rest alone.”
It was better to reject her so that she would not think about it.
Youqin Xuanya, who was 20 feet away, slightly froze. She looked up at Li Changshou and put the meditation cus.h.i.+on beside a female Perfected Immortal.
That female Perfected Immortal even said with a laugh, “Come, Little Ya. Why don’t you take a look at the melody I have written recently?”
“Yes, Martial Aunt…”
“Senior Brother Changshou, are you not feeling well?” Youqin Xuanya asked softly, looking deeply concerned with her beautiful eyes.
Li Changshou shook his head calmly and gestured to her with a slight smile, and his eyes closed.
This was a little awkward…
However, this junior sister did not lean toward him and attract others’ attention, which was a good thing.
Li Changshou sensed that when Junior Sister Youqin Xuanya had gotten up, many people around had gathered their gaze toward the Immortal Du Sect.
Although everyone was cultivators, Youqin Xuanya’s manners, looks, and figure were just too outstanding. It was hard not to attract attention to those qualities.
If anyone wanted to take her as a wife, they would feel more at ease after feeding her fat.
This was a conscientious suggestion from Senior Brother Li Changshou.
[1] The Book of the Dao and Its Virtue