Chapter 9

This time returning to Dream Marsh did not take much time; only twenty thousand years had passed.

Mainly because later Di Jun became somewhat impatient, and he and Taiyi used the Golden Crow Rainbow Transformation Technique, taking Qi flying.

The Primordial Chaos is too vast; Taiyi and Di Jun felt deeply moved. Now they have attained the Taiyi stage, their speed much faster than before, yet it still takes an extremely long time—back then, flying from the sun to Mount Buzhou also took only over ten thousand years.

Originally they wanted to tear through space and leave, but Qi and Taiyi were unwilling, after all the Primordial Chaos has many beautiful sights and there's nothing urgent—why bother?

Seeing that they had arrived home, Qi took out the spirit pearl of the Dream Marsh Grand Array, activated his mana, and the mist spread outward with the pearl as its core; then he took out the lotus pond, and the Dao Chang appeared on the water surface.

A supergiant lotus leaf floated on the water surface, bearing a fake mountain and spiritual spring, like an island.

Qi was very proud; this lotus leaf was specially cultivated by him, and in his years of wandering the Primordial Chaos he had never seen a larger one.

It has no other special traits—just big, round, and the leaf surface is much more supple. It cannot be considered a spiritual root, but it is also an immortal herb.

The three also began formal Dao exposition on the lotus leaf, with Di Jun first.

Di Jun rose into the air and said, "Lesser Yang is external yang and internal yin; it corresponds to wood among the Five Elements; it arises when yin reaches its extreme and gives birth to yang; its number is seven…"

When Di Jun expounded the Dao, the Heaven-Earth Dao Sound resonated, responding to his voice.

In broad daylight, rosy light flew; it entered the water and shone into the lotus pond, where many lotus flowers turned from white to blue, emitting a fragrance that permeated the air; within the resonating Dao Sound, plants and trees stretched out.

The sun star in heaven corresponded with it, and the entire Dream Marsh was like the great sun just rising—the time of morning yang.

This phenomenon lasted seven minor cycles of years, with the Dao Sound surrounding the entire Dream Marsh; in these seven hundred fifty-six years, the great sun of Dream Marsh neither rose nor set, always like the initial morning yang.

Di Jun's voice grew increasingly confident; from initially hesitating, it gradually became fluent, as if he were constantly confirming his own Dao.

The Dao's sound also spread from initially only diffusing in the lotus pond to the entire Dream Marsh, while the sound grew louder and clearer.

When the Dao exposition ended, Di Jun's fatigue was visibly apparent, yet the change in his spirit and energy was extremely obvious; his whole being was in an exalted state.

Expounding the Dao is not merely speaking with one's mouth; one must use one's own Dao resonance to connect with heaven and earth, letting heaven and earth know and respond to you.

At the same time, one must continually display the evolution of one's Dao and its manifestation.

The listeners are also extremely important; the influence of the listeners on heaven and earth is also a reference for heaven and earth's response to you, and whether they accept it or not greatly affects the outcome.

Expounding the Dao is better described as an exchange rather than a transmission; it is a dialogue with heaven and earth for answers, and the Dao Sound is heaven and earth's hint.

During the Dao exposition, the changes in the Dao Sound are extremely important for sorting out one's own Dao.

The listeners are to the speaker like examiners and question-setters, witnesses to the communication with heaven and earth; they see how you persuade them and let them accept that your Dao is correct.

At the same time, one must also sort out one's own Dao path and understanding, combining changes in heaven and earth and expressing them through the Dao Sound.

Therefore, the external function of expounding the Dao is actually only a small part of the purpose; the true purpose is to prove and sort out one's own Dao.

This is an extremely mentally taxing process; not only must one's comprehension be correct, but one must also speak clearly so that people can understand.

Taiyi and Qi both said, 'Great goodness.'

Di Jun returned to the lotus leaf, sitting cross-legged beside Taiyi; the smile on his face was not concealed by fatigue, and he said to Qi.

"Fellow Daoist, please."

Qi also showed no fear; a twelfth-grade Pure World White Lotus stopped before him, and he sat cross-legged on the lotus platform.

He said, "Purity means no defilement; it is not stained by calamitous qi; karmic sin does not cling; the mind is pure without reaching the point where strong desire dirties the utmost clarity; it wards off all evils and illuminates the Dao, simplifying complexity, and returning to the fundamental nature of myriad phenomena…"

When Qi expounded the Dao, the phenomenal manifestations from Di Jun's Dao exposition completely disappeared, and a soft clear light filled heaven and earth.

The Dao Sound seemed to be there and not; upon close listening it seemed nonexistent like an illusion, yet inadvertently it became clearly audible.

In Dream Marsh, the sun and moon cycled without abnormality; the clear and turbid aspects of heaven and earth returned to their places, and all qi flowed smoothly.

The water of Dream Marsh was clear to the bottom; swimming fish seemed to fly in the air; all things were free of dust, and heaven and earth were pure together.

Moreover, as time passed, the Dao exposition continued; heaven and earth changed; the Dao Sound resonated like a great bell; the waters of Dream Marsh turned into vapor, and the aquatic beings roamed within the vapor, feeling no change.

The earth turned into flowing turbid qi, yet it remained distinctly separate from the other qi.

Heaven and earth lost their color; the clouds turned into white cloud vapor drifting about, at times colliding with the clear vapor formed from the sky; the cloud vapor was split into fragments by the clear vapor, yet it reassembled again in the sky.

At this time, birds in the sky above Dream Marsh dared not fly; they could only loiter at low altitude.

Unlike the swimming fish in the water, the vapor when still was peaceful and had no effect on them.

The turbid qi originally contained no living beings, and moreover it was pressed by the water vapor; although it moved, it did not harm external things.

But the cloud vapor obscures the mind and spirit; touching it gives rise to myriad illusions, and the clear vapor is extremely sharp, untouchable.

This time, in advancing the Dao, Qi lectured for one thousand ninety-five years, totaling three great cycles; from the Dao of purification to the transformation of existence and non-existence, the accumulated more than ten myriad eons were fully laid out; when he descended from the lotus platform, he was nearly exhausted mentally and physically.

But he was equally thrilled, having thoroughly sorted out and renewed his Dao; the external heaven and earth also gradually returned to normal as Qi stopped, and the state of spiritual abundance surpassed before.

The various toxic gases accumulated in the earth's turbid qi rose up, being strangled to death by the clear and cloud vapors, turning into pure heavenly-earthly spiritual essence, which permeated the entire Dream Marsh.

Many mindless savage beasts, due to contacting the various vapors, were eroded and killed, becoming nourishment for Dream Marsh.

Taiyi and Di Jun's eyes showed undisguised astonishment and praise; they clapped their hands and exclaimed, 'This Dao is great goodness!'

It was Taiyi's turn to expound the Dao.

He flew up and sat cross-legged in the sky.

Although it was the same motion and posture, it was much more overbearing than Di Jun's; Di Jun had added a bit of dignity and gentleness.

And Taiyi was purely an aura of 'supreme under heaven, none but me'.

All that was heard was Taiyi saying:

He said, "The sun: 'great' means great; it is the utmost excess of yang; the sun is the day; taking the extreme number nine, it becomes extreme yang, governing the yang qi of all stars under heaven, called 'Supporting Light'…"

Following Taiyi's words, in Dream Marsh the heaven-earth light blazed myriad zhang; the great sun hung in the sky; yang qi rose and surged, scattering the clear qi; the cloud vapor, upon contact, was burned to blankness; heavenly-earthly impurities exposed to it had nowhere to hide and were entirely burned away.

The marsh's water vapor rose, and the spiritual essence, pervasive, was burned by Brahman fire into tiny specks of light that fell into the water.

Plants were withered and collapsed by the sunlight, yet their roots continually dug deeper underground; their branches and leaves ignited in blazing fires, turning to ash, while beneath the earth there lurked burgeoning vitality.

Taiyi's Dao exposition lasted only one great cycle of 365 years; during this period the great sun hung in the sky, many pools of the marsh were dried bare, exposing the ground; the marsh bottom cracked, yet in the deep cracks fish and shrimp survived in the mire.

Some marshland was lush with flora, where birds and beasts chased and played, hunting for survival.

Heaven and earth are indeed thus; no matter how the environment changes, there will always be living beings that adapt, transform themselves, and take over the niches left by species that cannot adapt and disappear, propagating and multiplying.

(End of chapter)