Chapter 426: Cannot Be a Demon Traitor Anymore

Xu Jia looked at this demon wearing sunglasses, leather jacket, and leather pants, with a slightly "punk" style, and pondered in his heart: did I ever get to know such a demon in Dongda in my past life?

Although the face was a bit sleazy, the aesthetic a bit niche, and the figure a bit short, the feeling was just "uniquely ugly," perhaps he could become an "abstract general" under the command of Yellow Hair.

"The little one is Mo Xiaobei, a representative of the demons outside the pass in Dongda, sent by the Ginseng Immortal of White Mountain to pay respects because of the matter of cultivating the Spirit Vein..."

When he said this, Xu Jia raised his eyebrows: "This matter hasn't been passed to Dongda for long, yet you all have already come to the door; you truly live up to the name of dog noses, sensitive to smells, tracking for ten thousand miles."

Mo Xiaobei gave an awkward smile and thought to himself: Why is there such great malice toward our Bei Clan? I must clear the name of our Bei Clan... It's truly hateful, we haven't done anything, yet we are already "colluding like wolves and beis."

"This is the post from the Ginseng Immortal; he once said he had a Karmic Connection with the senior."

Xu Jia took the letter; there was nothing else inside, only a single Ginseng root hair.

Xu Jia immediately recalled the past; back then, when he suffered a Dao Injury and visited famous doctors everywhere, although he was later cured by the Daoist Physician Li of Maoshan, he also met an old doctor in Changbai Mountain who gifted him a strand of "thousand-year Ginseng root hair" to nourish his original Qi and keep his life hanging, otherwise, the Great Medicine Charging the Pass would have failed, and he would not have lived past sixty.

Looking at it now, this thousand-year Ginseng root hair must have come from that Ginseng Immortal, and it is also the result of my "Immortal Connection" from back then.

It's just that...

Xu Jia thought slightly: "I have an agreement with Dongda; this is a matter of national agreement. I intend to build a Dao Kingdom in America, which is to support the momentum of Dongda. For what reason are you asking about the secrets within this?"

Mo Xiaobei was shocked: So you are the one colluding with foreign forces! Colluding like wolves and beis...

But under Xu Jia's gaze, he couldn't say it out loud, only saying: "We know that in Dongda, many things are impossible; the government can do them, but we cannot. However, you shouldn't think of us as outsiders either. Although we are demons and mountain spirits, we are also Dongda's demons and mountain spirits, nurtured by Dongda's traditional culture..."

"You are also a patriotic demon?" Xu Jia asked with interest: "You all caused quite a stir back then. Wasn't the puppet dynasty of the past supported by you outside the pass? After the founding of the country, many followed the remnants of the old regime, until the Instructor broke the Four Olds, swept away all ghosts and monsters, and forcibly exiled you for fifty years, making you each seal your mountains and guard your caves. Those who didn't listen were directly bombed to death. How is it that you are patriotic again now?"

"That was how many years ago? Besides, after '82, didn't the ban slowly lift? It wasn't sealed for fifty... years."

Xu Jia sighed: "Indeed, that is why you have become active again, and have even mixed your way into various high positions."

"That's not entirely true; the little one is neither high nor low, and isn't that why I've come to find you? We, the various immortals of Shamanism, worship Tongtian Jiaozhu, and your lineage is named Tongtian Temple. Doesn't this align our fortunes?"

"With the National Fortune of Dongda flourishing, how could we act as demons?"

"Is it only here that you can act as demons?" Xu Jia smiled: "You speak without using your brain; I don't know how you cultivated five hundred years of Daoist Practice, passed the Calamity, and reached today's level."

Mo Xiaobei had a wronged face: I've already knelt down to lick you, and you're still stepping on my tongue!

Immediately, his expression became fawning and ingratiating: "You are Tongtian Jiaozhu; establishing a Dao overseas and being able to reach this point is the first time since the opening of heaven and earth."

"It's not that we are saying Dongda is bad and want to backstab it. To tell the truth, many demon races have become protected animals, but these animals, except for the panda, the more they are protected, the more they increase, while the rest basically become fewer the more they are protected. Those working in zoos have it even more miserable."

"We thought that overseas land is vast, perhaps it is more conducive to the recovery of our population... This also conforms to the idea of Heaven and Human Unity, doesn't it?"

"So your demon race has colluded with overseas animal protection organizations?" Xu Jia inquired.

"Actually, there are also vegetarian organizations," Mo Xiaobei thought to himself.

"No, no, how could we do such a thing of eating inside and out? That is what those with 'walking' tendencies do."

"I know about you all; the ban in Dongda against becoming spirits has caused a break in the lineage of your new generation of demons. The youngest demons all attained Enlightenment before the founding of the country."

"There are also some after '82," Mo Xiaobei said: "The Huang Pizi Clan often performed Tao Fen in the eighties. Look at those novels, they are always about ghost catchers, yin-walking people, corpse-carrying people, and the background is always the eighties..."

"What kind of unofficial history are you reading?" Xu Jia really felt that this guy's brain was indeed a bit problematic, and his cultural level was certainly not high.

He immediately said: "Here, I will definitely not bypass Dongda to pass on a method to you."

Mo Xiaobei felt a sense of listlessness in his heart: "It's over, this time I can't even be a demon traitor." "However, the Dongda Daoist delegation has already visited twice. Next time, it should be my turn to send disciples to Dongda. We also need to sign some official contracts and agreements. This is an opportunity. You all should discuss well in what aspects you can just happen to play a role within these contracts, joining in an official or semi-official capacity. Do not let these petty, underhanded things get involved. I have already cultivated the Yang Spirit, my nature is pure Yang, without a single bit of Yin residue. Do not use these crooked tricks here."

"But, I went through all the hardships to smuggle over... how can I smuggle back?"

Xu Jia smiled: "That is unnecessary. This Ginseng root hair is an avatar of the Ginseng Immortal. If planted, it will live. I will communicate with it myself. Your role was just to bring this strand over; it has no other use. Presumably, the Ginseng Immortal also didn't trust you enough to handle important matters. Go and play."

Mo Xiaobei was instantly deflated. Beyond the deflation, there was a secret sense of relief; beyond the relief, a hidden joy; beyond the joy, a sense of loss; and then, regret, resentment... there were so many emotions that one could mix a palette.

"Then can I stay in America? Will you take me in, Jiaozhu?"

"I have a talent under my command; go follow him. Set up a company; keeping you won't cost much money." Xu Jia was also generous: "Many of the Dharma techniques and Divine Abilities under my sect are based on a contribution system. Now that you can be considered to have rendered service, go exchange for a path of cultivation."

"Hooray! Thank you, Jiaozhu!"

Mo Xiaobei left happily. Xu Jia then arrived at the Fa Jie Zhuangyuan Fudi, soaking the Ginseng root hair in the Spirit Spring. Immediately, the root hair began to take root and grow, appearing with leaves and even seeds. The entire Ginseng gradually revealed a face, looking like an old man.

This old Ginseng spoke: "Fellow Daoist, you and I have had a spiritual connection for a long time; today we finally meet."

Xu Jia nodded and said: "Does the Ginseng Immortal have any guidance?" He did not dare to be arrogant, after all, those who "become Immortals through Merit" all have great perseverance and great kindness.

Those who become Earth Immortals establish three hundred good deeds; those who become Heavenly Immortals, one thousand three hundred good deeds.

One good deed in Daoism requires stopping a fight or war involving over a thousand people, or solving a great drought in a hundred-mile radius, or a plague affecting over ten thousand people...

These are all clearly recorded. This old Ginseng, if nothing else, just by curing plagues from the Ming Dynasty to the present, does not know how many people he has saved. Even if he only pulled one root hair as a medicine primer for each plague, drawing the plague Qi into himself to resolve it, he had to endure the suffering of millions of people's illnesses to truly attain the Dao. Furthermore, after he entered the modern era, he became an Academician, conquered the main components of Ginseng for treating diseases, and advocated for artificial cultivation and synthesis... the drugs produced are in the millions.

For someone who follows the proper path of official appointment and becomes an Immortal through Merit, although Xu Jia could beat him, there is no need to offend him. Even if he ascends, he is highly respected and can serve under the Medicine King Sun Simiao, or the Savior Heavenly Venerable, or Dong Wanggong.

"I dare not offer guidance. Although this old man has some empty fame, it was obtained through managing merit and profit. Precisely because of these two words, these one thousand three hundred good deeds have never been perfected. That is why I threw myself into the scientific cause, shining and heating for Dongda, but I have never felt that sense of being guided to ascend."

"Meeting with the Jiaozhu this time is just a private matter; I wanted to ask about the matter of becoming an Immortal."

Xu Jia thought of the old turtle of the Tongtian River. Eh? How is it also "Tongtian"?

That old turtle of the Tongtian River was the same, cultivating for ten thousand years, never shedding its turtle shell to cultivate a human body, entrusting Tang Seng to ask the Buddha. As a result, Tang Seng promised well, but ended up forgetting, and was flipped off the back by the old turtle.

How could Xu Jia know where the problem lay in his becoming an Immortal through Merit? If one says the End of Dharma Era closed the ascension channel, that wouldn't be the case.

If one says "doing good with intention, though good, is not rewarded," it does not conform to the operation of the Heavenly Dao. As long as it is done, and persisted in for a hundred or a thousand years, how is this not Merit? "In terms of Merit theory, internal cultivation is Merit, external cultivation is Virtue. As for Merit, having a thousand years of Daoist Practice is enough to ascend. The threshold is not that strict; it does not require vast Dharma Power or powerful Divine Abilities, only that one's perception of the Great Dao is sufficient. How powerful one's combat is, that is all for protecting the Dao."

"External cultivation is Virtue, which is one's own private virtue and the public virtue of public instruments. Some have good private virtue but poor public virtue, or good public virtue but poor private virtue. This is being inconsistent, using public instruments to cultivate private virtue, or using public virtue to cultivate private instruments; it is all like this."

"If there are no problems with these, perhaps the problem lies in the Demon Examination. Back then, I experienced a Demon Examination. This Demon Examination is sometimes a person, sometimes an event, sometimes a heart-demon illusion, sometimes a delusion in cultivation..."

The more Xu Jia spoke, the more the old Ginseng broke into a cold sweat, sighing: "I have understood. I am inconsistent internally and externally, using public instruments to cultivate my private virtue."

Immediately, he said naturally: "Over these years, I have Westernized many traditional Chinese medicines, extracting effective components, believing my theory was definitely correct, and even chemically synthesizing them..."

"Perhaps I should set about revitalizing traditional Chinese medicine itself, rather than following this path of Westernization."

"Some say that traditional Chinese medicine died because of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients, but advocating for wild medicinal materials basically contains malicious intent. The modern population is too large; it is impossible to rely entirely on wild harvesting. It can only be planted, and planting will lead to insufficient medicinal power."

Xu Jia smiled: "It seems the Ginseng Immortal also came to build the Spirit Vein method."

(End of chapter)