Chapter 279: Recording the True Transmission

Mother sheep, mother frog, mother hen...

The three mothers of Lishan are now just like the Xuanyuan Tomb Three Demons.

They look at each other; after the transformation, their Dharma Power has also been sealed, unable to function in the slightest.

"Baa~"

"Croak~"

"Cluck-cluck-cluck~"

Xu Jia put away the two swords, which turned into pellets and entered his Inner Landscape. Now that they have undergone changes, he can let these two swords undergo a second tempering, refining their form and quality; this is the Two-Turn Sword Pellet. It also possesses much more spirituality and power than the first turn.

Xu Jia said, "You kept saying 'this evil obstacle,' 'that demonic evil,' but now that you yourselves have fallen into the animal path, experience the way of survival from the perspective of the animal path, feel what it means for all sentient beings to suffer, and then reflect on whether my propagating the Dao and Dharma, and bestowing Dharma Treasures and teachings, is ultimately right or wrong."

"You must be careful. The common people do not know you were transformed from humans, and your physical forms are different from ordinary things, so you will naturally be treated as demons. Just survive well. When the Sanqing Palace is completed, and the Heaven Official Bestows Blessings, the Earth Official pardons sins, and the Water Official resolves calamities, your Transformation Technique will naturally be undone. During this period, as long as you do not leave the two counties of Yushan and Dexing, you may go wherever you like, but if you step outside these two counties, this poor Daoist's Daoism may lose control, and you may not necessarily be able to turn back into human form."

"Baa~ Baa~"

They wanted to say something more, but strange cries came from their mouths, so they could only shut up.

The three demons huddled together, one bleating, one croaking; with no common language, it was still Fenglei Daoren who transformed into a human-sized old mother hen, whose claws were sharp enough to write on the ground to communicate.

"His evil magic is demonic; even I do not know how to break it. I have heard that for the Livestock Creation Technique, one can turn back after drinking water. Why don't we try?"

So the three of them quickly went to find spring water, but unfortunately, they drank until they were full and nothing happened.

Instead, a nature of the animal path was tempting them.

The sheep that Ling Yun turned into felt the grass was delicious, the frog that Yilei turned into had its eyes involuntarily fixed on flying insects, and the old mother hen that Fenglei Daoren turned into had the urge to scratch the ground for bugs.

This is precisely the power borrowed from the Dimu, a spell of the animal path within the orthodox Six Paths of Reincarnation.

The Longevity Sect had used it before, but they used the Hungry Ghost path, which is another path entirely.

The Six Paths of the Dimu are different from the Underworld; they are actually Womb Birth, Egg Birth, Moisture Birth, Transformation Birth, Colored Birth, and Colorless Birth.

The former are easy to understand; Colored Birth means being reborn in the Form Realm, while Colorless Birth means being reborn in the Formless Realm.

This means that the celestial beings of the Form Realm and Formless Realm still have to undergo reincarnation and still have limited lifespans; when the time comes, they must still go to the Desire Realm to reincarnate.

What Xu Jia is using is this part; by borrowing the Dharma, he is borrowing the corresponding Quanshen and communicating with the Great Dao. If one cannot understand the Six Paths of Reincarnation, it is very difficult to break.

Since they have turned into sheep, old mother hens, or frogs, they must all die in the flesh for their souls to be liberated. Only in a soul state can they enter the judgment of the Six Paths, discover the bug, and realize they were humans who were wrongly reincarnated...

Xu Jia did not pay them any more attention, but Huang Pipo appeared, pulling Hu Jinhua along: "Tsk tsk tsk, the Master is kind-hearted and gave you mercy. We are also learning from the Master; we originally wanted to beat the drowning dog, but then we thought that wouldn't that make us the same as you? So we are showing great mercy by coming to teach you the way of being a demon. Otherwise, if you are slaughtered by the villagers later and sent to the cafeteria to become cooked food, wouldn't that be our Master's sin, adding a layer of cannibalistic karmic debt to the villagers?"

On Xu Jia's side, Jinchan Duobao finished his tribulation and soon came to report for duty. After becoming a True God, he was able to shed the form of a Jin Chan and turn into the image of a fat merchant—amiable, fair, and plump. He wore a Money Robe and held a Treasure Basin in his hands, on which sat a Money Tree; the copper coins on the tree were all small copper coins with wings.

This is called "reap what you sow"; plant a coin today, and it will become a Money Tree tomorrow. This is the so-called "Investment Dao."

"Greetings, Teacher!" Jinchan Duobao prostrated himself, bowing deeply to Xu Jia.

Xu Jia turned slightly, only accepting half the bow: "Get up quickly. Mortals worship you as the Wealth God to seek wealth; what do you, this Wealth God, seek by worshipping me? This poor Daoist has empty sleeves and can give nothing."

Jinchan said sincerely: "Wealth is easy to obtain, but the Dao is hard to seek, especially the orthodox Dao. Disciple is grateful to Teacher for passing me the orthodox Dao, which allowed me to survive the tribulation of the oath, to guard my heart and maintain righteousness, to turn evil into good, and to achieve the status of a True God."

Xu Jia laughed and said: "That is correct. Since it is for seeking the Dao, then it is worth the bow. Kowtow two more times, and this poor Daoist will accept you as a True Transmission Disciple and pass you the Lingbao Upper Method. The previous two True Transmission Disciples are Hui Zhuo and the yet-to-mature Cai Yu; they are both human. Originally, you were a different species, and I had my reservations, only willing to accept you as an outer disciple. Now I have thought it through—what does it matter if I accept you as a True Transmission Disciple?"

Jinchan was moved beyond words and hurriedly kowtowed several more times, the thuds echoing loudly as he used great force.

All the Qi and luck on his body rushed toward Xu Jia like a tidal wave; if he could not bear it, he would surely be backlashed by it.

Fortunately, Xu Jia could bear it, and this Qi and luck became nourishment and feedback, a "merit of education." Behind Xu Jia's head, it transformed into a halo of education, related to wisdom and all matters of education and enlightenment.

After he finished bowing, Xu Jia said: "I have a Great Dharma for True Transmission here, which is the Great Yellow Court, cultivating the 365 True Gods of the Inner Landscape. But the gods I cultivate are within, following the Inner Sage King Way; Hui Zhuo's cultivation is in harmony, encouraging together with various demon immortals. As for passing it to you, I do not know how you should cultivate. You were transformed by my gold, shedding stubbornness; it is a transformation of spiritual nature. By a twist of fate, I imagine you have no acupoints, and your Five Elements Qi is incomplete, possessing only partial Metal and Water Qi, hence you obtained the position of Wealth God. You cannot cultivate any of those 365 Body Gods."

"It does not matter, Master. You have already taught me a peerless divine art, specializing in the path of the Evil Wealth God. Haven't I already cultivated it quite well now?"

"That technique was made up by me; I have no confidence in how it actually works. For example, haven't you also been at risk of falling into demonic ways several times?"

"How about this: you have 7,200 Debt Ghost Jin Chan; you can entrust your spirit externally. Eight times nine is seventy-two, three times three is nine; calculated this way, it is enough to divide."

"The Inner Landscape Dao lies in the Three Primes and Eight Vistas. The Three Primes Dao lies in the Three Talents. Thus, defining wealth results in three paths: Right Wealth, Right Register, and Right Official. Each path is set with two assistants—one partial and one robbery: Partial Wealth, Robbery Wealth, Partial Register, Robbery Register, Partial Official, and Robbery Official."

"This makes exactly three 'Right' and six 'Assistants,' much like the Three Ministries and Six Departments of the imperial court, assisting you in managing finances." "Each path commands 800 Debt Ghost Jin Chan as sub-gods, managing the eight directions, 100 in each direction, scattered about like an Eight Trigrams Diagram. The 'Right' is a horizontal line of the Yang trigram, the 'Assistant' is the two broken lines of the Yin trigram... By using these changes, you can grasp all changes in financial affairs."

Jinchan Duobao heard this and felt it was infinitely profound.

"How to interpret 'Right,' 'Partial,' and 'Robbery'?"

"Right means there is a gain; Partial means there is a probability of gain, or rather, there is both gain and loss, between gain and loss; Robbery is loss. Correspondingly, it is 'Yes,' 'Or,' 'No'."

Xu Jia said: "Is this clear?"

"Official, Register, and Wealth have always been combined. If you only include wealth, it is incomplete. Only by combining the three paths can you obtain the wonder of the Three Primes."

Jinchan nodded repeatedly: "This way, it complements the previous Wealth God technique, checking for leaks and plugging gaps."

Xu Jia said: "Once this set of rules is established, anyone who joins this game must follow your method. The risk of things going out of control or falling apart will be greatly reduced."

Jinchan nodded: "It is equivalent to me being the Finance Emperor, with three prime ministers, six ministers, and civil and military officials under my command—7,200 in total. Based on nine officials with sufficient rank per county, and three 'Right' and six 'Partial' paths, I can propagate the Dao in 800 counties? Integrating and operating the wealth within their borders?"

"The point is that this can be nested and repeated." Xu Jia pointed out: "Just like these small Jin Chan of yours, some have grown and changed significantly, while others are still in their ordinary form."

Jinchan Duobao replied: "The first level is ordinary, with gold bumps all over their backs like boils. These are still repaying debts; they are Debt Ghost Jin Chan. As long as there is gold, I can continuously transform Debt Ghosts into these small Jin Chan. Now there are none left."

"The second level: the bumps on their backs have opened up, turning into money patterns, and they have started to carry money in their mouths. These have finished repaying their debts and have earned some wealth Qi; they can lend money to others. These are called Carry Treasure Jin Chan. Now, these 7,200 Debt Ghost Jin Chan have all been transformed into Carry Treasure Jin Chan."

"The third level: not only are there money patterns on their backs, but the bumps have also turned into gemstones. When I sat on the Treasure Basin before, I was in this state. They are called Hundred Treasure Jin Chan. I can probably focus on cultivating a few of them and divide my authority and sub-authority among them; that should be achievable."

"The fourth level is perhaps what I am like now—not only carrying money but also having a coin on my back, and having hundred-treasure inlays on my body... But I have the Treasure Basin, and they do not. I have condensed the divine position..."

"I don't know what the fifth level is..."

Xu Jia replied: "I don't know what you can eventually turn into either. As long as there is gold and treasure, you can continuously grow. Perhaps it is that kind of Jin Chan from ancient legends, just as the Three-Legged Golden Crow is the spirit of the sun; your Three-Legged Jin Chan also has a similar implication."

Hearing this, Duobao became excited: "I will definitely grasp the opportunity firmly and not fail the Teacher's expectations and teachings."

Xu Jia touched his head and then began to impart this Lingbao wonderful method, and by the way, also imparted the Register method. He had already imparted two Register methods before: one was the Color Realm Prestige Alliance Register, which is for the gods of the Desire Realm, but since he is now a Ninth Rank Wealth God recognized by the Form Realm, it became the Color Realm Prestige Alliance Register. The second was the "Wealth Register," and Xu Jia added the "Lingbao Middle Alliance North Dipper Register." The North Dipper governs life, so it includes the Official Register and Wealth."

After obtaining the Register method, Jin Chan could henceforth obtain the power to nourish life from the seven stars of the North Dipper through Worship the Dipper, and so could all the small Jin Chan.

"Duobao, now that the Dharma has been imparted, you are completely one of my own. You can operate all these money-making things."

Xu Jia then took out the shipbuilding blueprints and the blueprints for the improved Jenny spinning machine: "These two are the most profitable, especially shipbuilding, which can open up water transport and even sea transport."

The blueprints Xu Jia provided were actually for sailing ships, but they had hubs at the bottom, which could utilize the "donkey-turning-the-mill principle" to use animal or human power to achieve the "wheel-striking-water" effect of a steamboat.

Besides these, there were also some fast boats and "warships."

Of course, the versions were roughly blueprints from the Ming Dynasty era of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Oceans, or the Age of Discovery; to evolve further, one would need to complete "boiling water" and tinker with a Steam Engine, which requires initial industrialization.

Even building these wooden ships is tough; Xu Jia has not yet gone south to Nansheng, which is occupied and in chaos by the Longevity Sect, and without being on the coast, he cannot build large ships, but these small, medium, and micro-sized boats that can operate on riverways can certainly be started now.

Don't look at how Jiangnan West Circuit was kicked out of the ranks of the land of fish and rice in the previous life; it is actually very suitable for water transport, and there were even plans to build a canal to connect the Gan River and the Pearl River.

Jin Chan digested these blueprints: "Not to mention anything else, for this machine to operate and produce a large amount of silk to sell elsewhere, we need to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields and plant a large number of mulberry trees. Existing fertile fields certainly cannot be converted, but thin fields or fields with uneven terrain can all be converted to mulberry trees. It's just that mulberry trees take a lot of time to grow, so we can only purchase a large amount of raw silk and use the existing mulberry fields."

"However, even if we purchase raw silk, we can still make a profit. The best way is still not to plant it ourselves; if silkworm households can make money selling silk, they will certainly plant more mulberry trees. It's just that this conflicts with the land reform we previously carried out, and these landlords might violently annex land again, so we must concentrate our energy on doing big things and cannot leave it entirely to market choices, otherwise, a gap will appear in the food supply... So, let the farmers unite, determine the nature of the land, and conduct a land survey. Those suitable for farming must firmly farm, and only those suitable for mulberry should plant mulberry... Let the silk merchants act according to this set of rules to save money; that is, the institutional system..."

"As for shipbuilding, we need skilled carpenters and shipwrights, and we also need them to build these wooden looms. These two can be carried out simultaneously; we just need to choose a place to open a factory."

Xu Jia recalled: "My mother's maiden home, that is, my grandmother's house, seems to be in this line of work. They have a hundred acres of mulberry fields, and even my mother's dowry included ten acres of mulberry forest, raising silkworms, reeling silk, and weaving cloth... I could let my mother try it, but she practices Buddhism now and does not like to kill living things, so the scalding of cocoons is all left to others."

"I won't think about it so much; my family doesn't seek immense wealth, so it's better not to get involved." Xu Jia shook his head: "You just do it according to your own ideas."

Jin Chan said: "Master, I have one thing to ask. Since wealth, Register, and officialdom are one, can I go and communicate with those officials?"

Xu Jia smiled: "Some officials are dedicated to the people, while some officials are tigers. Do you possess the power? Or are you planning to bribe them?"

Jin Chan was lost in thought.

"The artisan households of the Salt and Iron Bureau are our people, and now that Lu Zhenqi is doing research inside, you can allocate a portion to them while making money to arm them well. This world is about to fall into chaos!"

Xu Jia sighed with emotion.

(End of this chapter)