Chapter 296: The Difference Between Sect Leader Xu and Tongtian Jiaozhu

Bai Laotai was extremely shocked, but in the end, she still joined them.

All demons with over a hundred years of cultivation could establish an Immortal Hall. They gathered a group of seventy-two, and with Ao Jin driving the clouds, they were brought to see Xu Jia, becoming the first batch of disciples to swear oaths and make Great Vows.

These demons arrived at the territory of Sanqing Mountain and saw Xu Jia.

Xu Jia's aura had become even more composed; wisdom transformed into a bead behind his head, rubbing and rotating.

As the representative of the demons, Bai Laotai asked Xu Jia: "You want us to swear oaths and make vows; what kind of oaths and what kind of vows are they?"

Xu Jia stopped thinking and responded to Bai Laotai: "There are many beautiful qualities in this world—courage, integrity, wisdom, kindness, and the willingness to sacrifice. I do not require you to achieve all of them, but you must achieve some. So-called swearing an oath is merely vowing to uphold precepts; so-called making a Great Vow is merely to have no shame before one's own heart. You are still cultivating yourselves; if you can benefit others slightly while focusing on your own cultivation, that is enough."

"From this point forward, if you have three parts of cultivation, I shall have seven parts of resonance. My wisdom shall be your spiritual light, and I shall help bear your calamities."

"But this is not taking a shortcut. Only if you cultivate with three parts of effort will I have this seven parts of resonance. If you cannot cultivate this heart and uphold these precepts, this resonance will vanish. If you commit evils and bring disaster in the future, you will be reaped and harmed by your own oaths, your souls cast into the Five Directions Purgatory, never to be liberated."

Hearing this, Bai Laotai felt it was like an empty promise, and asked again: "When it comes down to it, you are only one person. If millions of people in the world are cultivating, can you resonate with and protect them all?"

"Naturally, I can. If ten people suffer a calamity, there will surely be a hundred to help. If a thousand people suffer, there will be ten thousand to support them. My role is the ideology; those who truly self-sustain and self-save are all sentient beings. They are me. Responding to the call, whether they are good men or good women, there will surely be a helping hand, so that you will not fall into despair or sink into suffering."

"I don't understand."

Xu Jia smiled: "You can try; if it doesn't work, you don't have to believe."

"If there are too many calamities, what will you do if you can't bear them either?"

Xu Jia said indifferently: "Then I have prepared myself to be shattered to pieces."

Bai Laotai's soul was shaken, and she said: "My family is good at treating difficult and miscellaneous diseases; we are willing to honor and worship the Lingbao Celestial Master!"

She immediately swore her oath and vow: "I, Bai Qinghua, swear and vow from this day forward to follow the Celestial Master's Great Vow, to universally save sentient beings, to freely administer spiritual medicine, and to surely overcome difficult cases. My merit shall be in curing every illness and ensuring the medicine works upon arrival; my virtue shall be in not coveting gold or silver, and not making profit from plagues. I shall treat with sincerity and uphold righteousness, cultivating this merit to seek the true fruit. If I violate this oath, may I suffer the disaster of plague and demonic illness, and die a miserable death; if I violate this vow, may my merit dissipate entirely and I be reduced to a mortal thing!"

As Bai Laotai swore this oath and vow, she felt a heavy shackle fall, but the next moment, a Dao Register flew out from Xu Jia's body, landing between her brows and entering her spiritual platform. Through this vow, it transformed into an Alliance Lu, and the power of those calamities dissipated by half; the rest would depend on how she acted in the future.

Meanwhile, above Xu Jia's head, outside the light of Merit, Black Qi appeared. This was Tribulation Luck; when it accumulated to a certain point, it would erupt. It was like a volcano, but one could also find ways to actively dissipate it, or actively trigger it to undergo a calamity.

As for the other demons, there were the Caipu Sanxian; their vow was to let the common people eat fresh vegetables. Xu Jia fully affirmed their vow and also bestowed the Dao Register upon them.

The remaining demons were also selected one by one. They knew that the size of the vow determined the size of the treatment; basically, none made such great oaths and vows like Bai Laotai. They all had the idea of finding a peaceful corner, and the vows they made would not harm their foundations.

Of course, Xu Jia would not give them great support, but basically, the Ershinian Dajie was all dissipated.

He let them choose their own hall names and create immortal rosters, and after Xu Jia stamped them with his seal, he sent them off to their respective places.

After Bai Laotai came out, she told her descendants the situation: "The opportunity for our clan has arrived. You must all strive to be in the second batch to swear oaths and make vows; there is great merit and great opportunity. It is not good for me to be selfish and worry about you anymore. You must develop well; I am going to provide free medical consultations now, to practice my vow through action."

The younger generation of the Bai family asked: "Grandmother, can that Dao Register really dissipate calamities? Can you survive the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation? If you can survive the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation, our Bai family will count as a demon immortal clan."

"I don't know either," Bai Laotai said. "But I feel that Lingbao Xu Celestial Master is a good person, and good people do not tell lies."

Having said that, Bai Laotai carried a Medicine Box on her back, took a Tiger Clapper, and placed it against her chest to shake it.

From then on, Bai Laotai provided free medical consultations during the day and compiled medical manuals at night. The herbs she used were all cheap and could be found everywhere.

Most of the time, she didn't even need herbs. She had a set of Silver Needles that could treat illnesses, refined from the thorns that had been pulled off her. When she survived the Five Hundred Year Tribulation, the thorns on her body would shed once, and at that time, they would become a set of Gold Needles.

Besides using needles, she was also skilled in massage, which could help people with waist and leg pain find relief. Her reputation was unmatched for a time, and many people were even willing to follow her to learn medicine.

For example, Chen Liuxian.

Chen Liuxian had learned Gu Technique from Gu Po, and a great love was gradually awakened in his heart; this was his Nine Palaces Immortal Rank Dao foundation correcting itself. He had been kidnapped by bandits and had eaten from the communal pot in Poyang. He saw the bandits who came with him weeping with joy here. If one had three or four mu of fertile land, enough for three meals a day, to support a mother and child, and to marry and have children, who would think of going up the mountain to be a bandit? With the ox demons doing the heavy labor, the speed of reclaiming wasteland was very fast. When contiguous fields were created in their hands, everyone had tears in their eyes. Even the older generation of farmers, when they got up in the middle of the night to urinate, would think of running over to take a look.

The ancients said: Those who win the hearts of the people win the world; those who lose the hearts of the people lose the world.

But Xu Jia felt that everything was still not enough. A Great Vow is a great desire; he was never satisfied with the status quo and wanted to develop faster and better.

"Although I have obtained the Lingbao lineage, I am actually moving more and more toward the path of Tongtian Jiaozhu. Tongtian Jiaozhu taught without discrimination, but why did he fail? It was because his orders were not truly executed by his followers. He said to quietly recite the Yellow Court two or three times, but not many disciples listened to him, because most Outer Disciples had not even seen his face; they only acted under his name but did not fulfill his will." "Secondly, he did not teach his disciples effective methods of struggle, allowing them to be defeated one by one by the noble class of the Chan Sect Golden Immortals."

"Thirdly, there was a rebellious ideology among his trusted followers, which he never noticed; this shows poor judgment in using people."

"Fourthly, since one can become a saint or a god in the flesh, he should have let his disciples occupy the Heavenly Court first. Although they would be subjects, the dualistic opposition of the monarch-subject structure was enough to abolish the Heavenly Emperor, and Tongtian Jiaozhu could have just placed a clone of his own on the throne and become the sect leader elsewhere. His judgment of the overall situation was not accurate enough."

"Fifthly, although he possessed powerful formations and various Dharma Treasures, they were always broken by the enemy; this was because they were not iterated and upgraded."

The more Xu Jia thought about it, the more he felt he could not be Tongtian Jiaozhu, but his own America had a Tongtian Temple and followed the Lingbao lineage, and now that he had made a Great Vow to save sentient beings, there was indeed some "mysterious" element in it.

Therefore, in his heart, he had actually identified himself as a low-spec version of Tongtian Jiaozhu.

But perhaps low-spec in strength, yet in spirit and wisdom, Xu Jia was "if a god blocks, kill the god; if a Buddha blocks, kill the Buddha," and did not consider himself low-spec.

He made a decision: he also needed to have Dharma Treasures to pass on to his disciples, but not material Dharma Treasures—they would be spiritual Dharma Treasures, or rather, "Lingbao."

Laojun said: I have three treasures, hold them and preserve them; the first is compassion; the second is frugality; the third is not daring to be ahead of the world.

Because of compassion, one can be brave. Because of frugality, one can be broad. Because one does not dare to be ahead of the world, one can become the leader of vessels.

Now, abandoning compassion to be brave, abandoning frugality to be broad, abandoning the rear to be ahead—this is death. If one uses compassion to fight, one will win; if one uses it to defend, one will be secure. Heaven will save them, protecting them with compassion.

Ordinary people only know the first two sentences, but do not know that the last sentence is the essence.

Let the army know for whom they are fighting; if they fight with this, they will be invincible; if they defend with this, they will be as solid as a golden fortress.

Now, preaching and spreading the Dao is the same principle. For whom do they cultivate, for whom do they struggle, and why are they willing to swear great oaths and make great vows? With this charter, they are basically disconnected from the foul atmosphere of the Jie Sect. As for the Yellow Heaven Sect or the Longevity Sect, they cannot even touch the hem of the garment, let alone compare.

Xu Jia's current swearing of oaths and making of vows is the general outline of this charter, to be spread to people, demons, gods, or various immortals, cultivators, and monks.

That is equivalent to everyone having a Dharma Treasure; using it to fight, one can be invincible, and using it to defend, one can be as solid as a golden fortress.

But this is not the Boxers, firmly believing they are "possessed by heavenly soldiers" and invulnerable to blades and guns; rather, if one acts righteously, one becomes a "heavenly soldier," or something else. In short, this is what "Lingbao" is.

Just like when the previous Heavenly Master benefited from the Demon Examination, those lonely ghosts and wandering spirits asked Xu Jia if there were any Dharma Treasures he could pass on to them, instead of that nectar and ritual food. Xu Jia's Lingbao might be more meaningful than such Dharma Treasures that merely soothe the heart.

What does my Lingbao have?

Is it also compassion, also frugality, and also not daring to be ahead of the world? Xu Jia fell into an ineffable state of enlightenment; this was not the Heavenly Dao, the Earthly Dao, or any other Dao.

This was his own Dao.

"I want to hide it in the Dao Register," Xu Jia thought. "To give the power of Lingbao to every Dao citizen."

Thus, Xu Jia began to create Dao Registers suitable for ordinary people, which could protect the health of parents, benefit the stability of the household, make husband and wife harmonious, make children intelligent, strengthen their power, and help them study to clarify their ambitions...

But these all seemed to be just skin-deep, lacking the fundamental essence, just like those ordinary peace talismans, house-protecting talismans, and harmony talismans.

"They must dig out their own power, instead of seemingly having a choice when they actually have none."

Xu Jia then abandoned these various functional Dao Registers and touched the most primordial Innate Spiritual Light, creating the first and simplest Lingbao Register—a Lingbao Initial Lu that had infinite possibilities and was adept at a thousand changes.

Once the Register is received, it will be bound to the source of the Innate Spiritual Light, assisting in the awakening of the power of one's own nature; according to each person's wisdom, cognition, and growth experience, the Register method will evolve on its own.

This is both the initial Register and the highest-tier Register, possessing infinite possibilities.

There is actually no necessary relationship between the Register Tier and becoming an Immortal; those who receive the Heaven Immortal Register are not necessarily going to become a Heavenly Immortal, and among those who do not receive a Register, there are also many who cultivate and attain Immortality.

Therefore, subsequent Daoist followers can add Registers, but they need not worry about the issue of "upgrading the Register."

(End of this chapter)