Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Shen Lian pointed his finger-tip towards the front and instantly, there were clouds come flooding. After a short while, all the clouds congealed together to form a lump. Shen Lian waved his hand again and immediately, the clouds dispersed and a light ray reflection as clear as a mirror appeared. There were countless of mountains and rivers in it. As one paid slightly closer attention to it, one would be able to see the scenery inside clearly.
This supernatural power of his evolved from the Monitoring Technique. However, capturing Qi dynamic and peeping at the heaven while watching the earth were way more powerful than the Monitoring Technique. There were not only mountains, rivers, and people inside but it also emitted a smoke very quickly. The smoke represented a Qi dynamic emitted from living creatures. If the smoke came together, it would be very vigorous and powerful. Sometimes there were also independent living creatures. If it was extraordinarily strong, the smoke emitted would congeal like the wolf smoke.
Shen Lian smiles while explaining to them. The two of them seemed to be impressed because this technique of Shen Lian was about insight Qi and shape. It was indeed extraordinary.
There were a total of thirteen types of smokes which were like the wolf smokes which congealed together. It was obviously very strange.
Shen Lian said, “This place is known as Youshen. A female disciple of mine named Si Jing is the monarch of this place. Yi Zhi was actually her advisor but now that Zhou nation required excellent talents and thus, I invited him to come back. Yi Zhi does not only have the capability to govern a country but he is also a very powerful cultivator. Although the Dao which he cultivates is different from our way of cultivation of Qi, in terms of combat power, he is almost comparable to the heavenly immortals. Moreover, the witchcraft he practices is mysterious and difficult to defend from. Otherwise, even if I messed the demon’s mind and spirit, Yi Zhi wouldn’t be able to send the Flying guillotine into his body and capture him.”
Song Qingyi nodded and said, “Just now I could really sense a pure yet mysterious vital force on him. I didn’t know he’s actually an expert in witchcraft cultivation. Just by looking at the pure side of his vital force, it seems like his cultivation path is nature-based which is quite similar to Daoism’s cultivation method. What arouses my curiosity is that in terms of mana, the demon is way ahead of Yanying and me, and he’s almost comparable to Brother Shen. How can he be so incompetent to lose defense on his mind and spirit so easily under Brother Shen’s Dao of Yi?”
Shen Lian smiled, “It’s not surprising at all. Although his power is sufficient to withstand the mountains and sea, there wasn’t any sign of the minutest detail of his heart. After all, these demons got their psyche power from the heaven and thus, it’s not comparable to our Daoism authentic handed-down techniques. Of course, if he has a treasure which could defend his mind and spirit, I’d have to be the one to do it.”
After listening to Shen Lian’s explanation, Song Qingyi finally solved her curiosity. He also knew that regardless of how bad the mentality of this demon was, only people like Shen Lian could plot something against him. If it were to be him who faced this demon alone, even if he had the godly pen granted by the honored master, he could only withstand for a short while. It was impossible for him to turn things around.
Ever since Fang Yanying entered the Nine Underworlds, she was continuously improving. The power of her Killing Sword could actually force the demon to temporarily stay away from the sharp edge and that left Song Qingyi in shock.
It was no wonder the honored master used to say last time that there were only three persons in this whole wide world that were worth meeting. One of them was Chen Jianmei. At that time, Chen Jianmei had not attained immortality but he was already being looked up by the honored master. Now it was his disciple, Yanying’s turn. The honored master’s words were indeed nothing like empty words.
Only Shen Lian knew what was going on with Fang Yanying’s improvement. The last Anattā Sword by Chen Senior Apprentice-Brother was vividly imprinted in the Netherworld. Fang Yanying entered the Netherworld as his disciple, thus she was able to absorb the remaining vital force from the Anattā Sword. This was also another type of passing on of swordcraft. Of course, if Fang Yanying was not successful in practicing the Tai Shang Killing Sword and gradually entered the State of Ruthlessness, she would not have such lucky chance.
However, he definitely would not reveal this because the higher the swordcraft achievement was, the more painful Fang Yanying’s heart would be, just that she was always using the State of Ruthlessness to conceal it.
Shen Lian hesitated and said, “Due to the fact that I transferred Yi Zhi away, it’s actually unstable to leave my disciple as the monarch of Youshen alone. I’ve been thinking it’d be more suitable to send the both of you there to secretly protect her. If she’s in danger, it’s alright to abandon the title of Youshen monarch as long as you can escort her back safely.”
Song Qingyi said, “This isn’t tough. I’ll try my best.”
Fang Yanying nodded her head.
Shen Lian said softly, “Thank you so much, Qingyi.”
Upon finished talking about this, Shen Lian told them about his perceptions about things lately. The path of cultivation was filled with challenges and danger and thus, nobody knew what hardship they would face at the next moment. Therefore, it was always a gain to constantly exchange experience with people who share the same views. At the same time, one could also leave traces of his or her knowledge so that if anyone faced any misfortune in the future, there would at least be some traces of his or her left in this world.
This was also one of the reasons why the Qi cultivators extremely prioritized the passing on of the sect. After all, although the land immortals were addressed as immortal Zhenren, there were only so few land immortals who could live above thousands of years since a long time ago. Even if one were to be a coward, he could also be struck with sudden disasters.
Not just the land immortals, even the mortals who did not reach the age of one hundred, there were only so few of them who could die at old age.
Shen Lian took the rarest and fastest speed to attest and construct the State of Taiyi. The more it was like this, the more aware he was that everything came too fast and in actual fact, his foundation was not solid. Under his Dao of Yi, he was getting clearer at the fact that he would face a lot of catastrophes in the future and he might not be able to turn peril into safety.
Those who were born with great dharma would have conflicts with those of equally great dharma. Shen Lian was not perfect. One day, someone who was in conflict with him in every aspect would appear and that person would be the biggest trial of his life.
These trials could be overcome but only by overcoming all these trials, one could be resistant to all the future trials and continue to move on. Otherwise, there was never any chance to reach the supremely detached State of Daoist Master.
He must work hard for Chen Jianmei, Gu Caiwei, and even the genie-liked Zhao Xiaoyu. All these had become part of his life. Even if he had to give up the better, he would never choose such a way. It was not that he did not have feelings, but he placed it in such a way that he seemed to have forgotten because those who prioritized feelings always ended up in bad circumstances. But Shen Lian chose to accept the beauty and restraints of life.
Upon finishing exchanging experience with the two of them, Fang Yanying and Song Qingyi left in mutual understanding because they spotted the changes in Shen Lian’s emotions. Though he was not distracted, he was clearly not focusing. As for people like Shen Lian, this kind of situation is very rare. They were aware that Shen Lian needed some time alone at this moment.
After the two of them had left, Shen Lian was aware of their thoughts but with his present cultivation level, it was unnecessary for him to keep his mind. All the chaos in the secular mortal world, life and death were no harm to him. Any knowledge and experience could be part of his cultivation. Only by this, he could get closer to ‘Dao’.
Because ‘Dao’ was inclusive of everything; gold and jade, chicken and cow feces all had ‘Dao’ and it was not restricted to any form.
Hence, the Book of Dao said ‘nature is not benevolent and partial, it treats all things on the earth the same and fairly’, Buddha said, ‘Equality in all sentient beings’. These two sentences all had one common meaning which was ‘At their stage, everything they thought and saw was about the intrinsic quality of the matters and they saw through the physical appearance.
It was not difficult to understand this principle. After all, Daoism and Buddhist scriptures stated this principle but being able to understand and do it were two different things.
Days had passed and Shen Lian had gradually completed his tactical formation of training one hundred thousands of cultivators.
The thunder and lightning struck and in the end, there were countless bolts of lightning attacking Shen Lian’s palace.
