Chapter 348: Eastern Great Dao Altar

Changes have occurred on the American side; certain Taoist cultural trends have suddenly emerged on the internet, and were quickly carried over to the East.

Many "Tao-style" youths have begun interpreting these types of videos, claiming they are staged or the like, and there are also some supernatural bloggers there acting all mysterious.

However, due to "positive energy" reasons, most of the time you can't find them during the day, but you can scroll through them continuously at night.

Mobile phones, this thing, are good things; whether human or ghost, everyone likes to watch.

The methods Xu Jia passed down to those disciples are not fit for polite society; they are Outer Path, even leaning towards heterodox and crooked ways, which has aroused the attention of some disciples of the Profound Sect.

Those Longhu Mountain, Qingcheng Mountain, Mao Mountain, Wudang Mountain, Zhongnan Mountain, and so on, are all famous mountains and great rivers, the Ancestral Courts and holy lands of Taoism.

For a time, there were a few white-bearded old Daoists who, while scrolling through short videos, saw the re-uploaded ghost-catching videos of the yellow-haired man.

Although most just watched for the spectacle and found it funny—the yellow-haired Daoist wearing a cross around his neck, and his chanting being even more ridiculous—these white-bearded Daoists recognized it: "This yellow-haired man seems to be using the Divine Strike Method; that pig bone knocking on a bell, the scissors and mirror, and the breaking of baleful energy—this is the method of the Lushan Witchcraft Sect. Look at that black ghost, its face carries baleful energy, the gloomy markings are heavy, and that house, one can see the Resentment Qi is extremely heavy, emitting black energy. Even if it's special effects, this thing is done by someone who knows the trade."

Among them, an old Mao Mountain Daoist who had lived for over a hundred years felt slightly familiar: "Although the Lushan Sect looks grand and spectacular, it is actually a pile of loose sand. Just seventy or eighty years ago, a senior integrated Lushan, but in the end, because he was too close to high-ranking officials in Min, he fled overseas during the liquidation and founded a Dao altar lineage in America. It is said his Daoist Practice reached the state of transformation, but after he achieved Feathered Ascension, that overseas lineage gradually withered away."

"This yellow-haired man, judging from his practice, has the style of that branch. Look at this use of a mineral water bottle to catch ghosts and apply talismans; it reminds me of how he used a Moutai bottle to catch ghosts back in the day."

"It's him!" A few white-bearded men were only twenty or thirty years old when Xu Jia was active in the Dao altars.

"I remember that time at the Mao Mountain Grand Offering, it seems your grand-uncle-master opened three Eight Treasures Purple Gold Pills for him, curing the Dao Injury from his Great Medicine Charging the Pass, allowing him to advance further. It is said he even succeeded in forming the Inner Elixir in America, leaving behind elixir books and videos. For a time, they circulated in the Central Plains, and we followed along to practice, but it was truly difficult..."

These few white-bearded old men are all big names in Taoism, their cultivation having reached the Human Immortal Peak. Although they did not attain Longevity, they were quite skilled in the methods of nourishing life. Through the four seasons and solar terms, they had no illnesses, and at a hundred years old, their movements did not decline; they were full of spirit, truly crane-haired and youthful-faced.

"I actually heard that that altar, called something like Tongtian Temple, recently had the Ancestor manifest..."

"My Wudang Taoist Culture Performance Troupe previously performed Wudang Supreme Ultimate Fist and Supreme Ultimate Sword at the Super Bowl, so I have had some contact with overseas Dao altars."

"Back then, when the bald-headed ones went offshore, they valued Buddha, Dao, and Confucianism and took many things away. You all know about our side; we lost many things, so I often send disciples overseas to search for lost inheritances."

"Just like the Esoteric Buddhism of the Central Plains, which had been lost for a long time, it instead circulated in Japan and then spread to Bao Island, and only then did we send people to Bao Island to learn it and bring it back."

"If their Ancestor has truly manifested, they are indeed more sensitive than us here. It cannot be said that this isn't the next great age of cultivation. In the Ming Dynasty, there were still records of ascending to become an Immortal, but in the Qing Dynasty, there was nothing. Before the Ming, there was a period during the Song Dynasty that ushered in a great age of cultivation, and some people became Immortals. Further back were the Tang, Han... pre-Qin... This great age of cultivation seems to revive every five hundred years or so, then weakens. Each time it does not exceed two sixty-year cycles. From the Jiajing reign of the Ming to today, it has been over five hundred years, hasn't it?"

"The cycle has arrived." The white-bearded Daoist from Longhu Mountain said: "The divination from a hundred years ago was the sixty-third of the sixty-four hexagrams. It was passed down to the sixty-third generation of the Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain. One knows that the sixty-four hexagrams cycle endlessly. Today, perhaps there is a new hexagram. The Qian hexagram opened the country's dragon; another sixty-year cycle later, it is sixty years since the founding, which is the Kun hexagram, representing peaceful and harmonious development. As for after one hundred and twenty years, it is the third hexagram, the Water-Thunder Tun hexagram. The surrounding environment begins to become dangerous; important trials are about to arrive."

"Calculating now, the time is about right. The latitude of ascending to heaven, the Purple Star descends, the Investiture of the Gods begins again. America is going downhill, showing signs of fatigue, while the East is rising. One superpower and many strong nations will inevitably lead to a pack of tigers biting a dragon. Looking at the global landscape, the East will inevitably become the world leader. If America does not want to give up its status as world hegemon and yield to the leader, it will inevitably start a war."

The few white-bearded old men had lived long enough that they didn't avoid anything, so they spoke up: "Could it be that someone is laying out plans in advance? Accumulating Merit to be canonized as an Immortal?"

"Has your Ancestor manifested recently?"

"He has also manifested. Although the Three Mao True Lords are in the Heavenly Court of the Shangjie, they still keep us in their hearts. A few days ago, Ancestor Sima Chengzhen indeed left behind a Dharma decree, telling us to wait quietly for the opportunity."

"We are the same. Our Tang Dynasty Ancestor Qihuizi from the Zhongnan Mountain Tower Viewing Terrace appeared in a dream and manifested, and it was the same."

The few white-bearded men compared notes and began to ponder: "That Tongtian Temple Dao altar, did they also receive an order from the Ancestor? Can this Ancestor even descend in a foreign country? Isn't the Lushan Ancestral Altar on Lushan Mountain?"

"Could it be that he obtained some official position? Although it is difficult to become an Immortal without a great age of cultivation, one cannot guarantee that someone might find a path. At the very least, the cultivation of forming the Inner Elixir was only heard of in the Qing Dynasty; since the Republic of China, I haven't heard of anyone forming the Inner Elixir, let alone after the founding of the country. At least for one hundred and twenty years, there has been no word of it, yet he actually achieved it. Could it be that the Spirit Machine in America is more abundant?"

"The Spirit Machine is indeed abundant, but the demonic atmosphere is also heavy." The white-bearded old Daoist from Wudang Mountain shook his head: "In the eighties, there was a wave of emigration, and I went out to play as well. The demonic atmosphere is thick, especially in America. The white people slaughtered the Indians, exterminating them, and that was in their own home—like the actions of robbers. Not to mention the matter of black slaves; the scale of the slaughter was so huge, the Resentment Qi so abundant, it is enough to construct a human ghost realm. Besides breeding evil gods, it can even attract extraterrestrial gods and demons, those extraterrestrial gods and demons."

It is heard that they are: "Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Nurgle." These four demons in Chaos descended upon America, attracting a large number of believers, and even controlled those so-called Hell Seventy-two Demon Gods.

"Only stubborn and stable order can avoid being influenced by them; otherwise, it will inevitably be continuous chaos. In order to avoid being influenced, we in the East hold Grand Offerings every year, laboring the people and wasting money, and even failing every time. It is only by gathering the faith and beautiful wishes of the people that we can resist the influence of these Chaos Demon Gods."

"Actually, it cannot be said that it is their influence. They influenced us as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but we called them the Chaos Four Evils: Chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, and Taowu." "It's just that back then, we were the center of civilization, the leaders of civilization. I didn't expect that after a hundred years of humiliation and the collapse of order, it would instead be the barbarians who established civilization and even became powerful, causing the Four Evils to be increasingly nourished and strengthened..."

"Send some disciples out. If the East becomes the world leader, America will inevitably split. We need to re-establish order, and we need to lay out our civilization in America in advance. Otherwise, in the future, this chaos will be a melee of American vassal states, comparable to the four hundred years of chaos during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods."

The white-bearded men then summoned some disciples and said: "Next, there is an International Taoist Exchange Meeting being held in Canada, but it will also expand to America. You must contact the local Daoist gates as soon as possible, obtain their help, and establish branch altars overseas. This is a cultural war; if our Daoist gate does not compete, we will not be known by others."

"Hasn't Germany already become a Dao Kingdom? Their upper-class elites highly revere the Tao Te Ching."

"That is different. Germany has already declined; America is the center of future planning. We must go there. We old bones cannot go out, because from time to time, people come to ask us for strategies, seeking the wisdom of our ancestors. Although they mostly don't adopt them, they still have to keep us, lest we offer strategies to others. If we went abroad, they would definitely be uncomfortable, and the status of our Daoist gate would be even lower."

"Then who should we look for?" The disciple had a headache; when surfing the internet, his speed was not as fast as these few white-bearded old men.

The white-bearded old man gave him the live-stream recording of the yellow-haired man dealing with the Voodoo witch: "Find him and the Daoist gate behind him. That is an overseas Dao altar of the Lushan Sect. You just go and contact him."

Although the Daoist felt it was absurd—these few ancestors thinking of one thing and then another—and taking a recording to engage in cultural exchange, he still nodded: "This disciple understands."

This Daoist is a contemporary successor of the Hidden Immortal Sect of Wudang Mountain. He has practiced Inner Elixir for twenty years and has already achieved small success in the Heavenly Circuit. He counts as a late-stage Human Immortal; he is not yet at the absurd realm of Great Perfection Peak or half-step Earth Immortal, but he is a "sect leader" level figure, aside from these few white-bearded old men.

He directly made a video call to the internet-famous sect leader of Qingcheng Mountain. This internet-famous sect leader thought for a moment and found his own MCN company operator.

The operator opened foreign software and searched for who the yellow-haired man was, finally finding him on a live-streaming app. He had 150,000 followers, and his recent content was all live-streaming ghost-catching and exploring haunted houses.

So he directly tipped three thousand dollars and sent a private message: "Are you there?"

Because of the time difference, the yellow-haired man, who was still meditating and resting, suddenly felt his phone vibrate. He opened it and saw that a tycoon had tipped three thousand dollars. He was ecstatic and clicked on the avatar, only to see the private message: "Are you there?"

Thinking that someone had seen his video of catching ghosts and wanted to invite him out of the mountains, he immediately started chatting.

The overseas Tongtian Temple also communicated with the Eastern Great Dao altar through this absurd yet reasonable method.

The yellow-haired man chatted with them for a while and discovered they were a force from the Eastern Great Daoist gate, and he was very excited.

Although he was an overseas Chinese, he had never been to the East and felt that Eastern Taoism was very mysterious. Most of his understanding came from those martial arts novels and immortal cultivation novels—what ancient martial arts sects, hidden immortal gates—plus he was a supernatural blogger who acted all mysterious himself, so he chatted freely on the spot and revealed his background.

"Our Ancestor recently manifested his physical body on the altar. Isn't that awesome? He is enshrined on the altar, a bacon Golden Body covered in gold foil. He absorbs Incense Fire and turned into a young Immortal, guiding our cultivation and even saying we all have a chance to become Immortals."

"The Ancestor wants us to cause trouble for the Voodoo Sect, saying the Voodoo Sect has a Voodoo Wood with over three thousand years of Daoist Practice. It is a totem and Sacrificial Spirit of an ancient African tribal religion, a holy object of the Voodoo Sect. The Ancestor wants its Thousand-Year Wood Core, but this guy escaped into a Cave Heaven Blessed Land and is deeply hidden within the Dharma Realm. Ordinary people can't find it at all; we can only wipe out the Voodoo Sect step by step and force this Cave Heaven to expose itself."

The yellow-haired man was young and immature; although Xu Jia didn't say this matter was confidential, a three-thousand-dollar tip made him spill the beans directly, showing he was a chatterbox. However, it didn't matter; it was already being live-streamed and was public dissemination anyway, so it didn't count as anything.

Back in the country, the Qingcheng Mountain sect leader looked at the chat content between the MCN operator and the other side, not daring to act rashly, and reported it upward. It was reported further until it reached the white-bearded old men. They were also stunned: "Physical body descended on the altar? A gold-foiled mummy absorbed Incense Fire and resurrected into a young Daoist?"

So they picked up the phone themselves to chat: "Absurd, don't believe it."

"What's there not to believe? Our Ancestor keeps pace with the times. He previously even let us use a camera to record his Dharma-teaching videos. We can follow the video directory to find the spells we want to practice, the Magic Tools to refine, and even refine Outer Elixirs. I learned the Pure Bottle Ghost Capturing Technique by following the videos. Using a plastic bottle to catch ghosts is a unique skill; every time I can attract three or four thousand viewers!"

Having said that, he thought for a moment and said: "You tip me another three thousand dollars, and I'll send you the compressed video file!"

The white-bearded old men tipped directly; they were also very trendy and often shopped online, telling disciples to go pick things up.

After a while, a compressed file of over ten gigabytes was indeed sent over.

(End of chapter)