Chapter 462: Mutual Exchange

The re-establishment of the Huashan Sect was, in truth, merely a series of tedious procedures.

The key was the public announcement: Xu Jia had taken four disciples, appointed Huo Can'er as the Sect Leader of the Huashan Sect, and opened the gates wide, allowing Huo Can'er and the two Huashan elders to accept various innate Qi Refiners or innate martial artists as disciples. These individuals were all from small and medium-sized forces surrounding Huashan; by joining the sects of the two Huashan elders and Huo Can'er, their forces were also incorporated into Huashan, providing annual tribute in exchange for Huashan's protection.

Furthermore, they announced the recruitment of disciples from innocent, respectable families around Huashan. Of course, this was not strictly "taking disciples," but rather gathering various forces to jointly establish a "Huashan Martial and Literary School" to teach promising youths who were skilled in both literature and martial arts.

The top tier of students in this school could be sent to the Huashan Sect for selection and testing; the top three of each cohort would even be listed as True Transmission Disciples, while those ranked slightly lower, within the top ten, would become Outer Disciples.

The rest would enter the side sects for cultivation; once they reached a certain level, some would return to the school to teach students, while others would expand outward to build Huashan branch temples.

Even Duan Ziyu, Huang Yi, and the others, although they had not yet reached the cultivation level required to complete their apprenticeship, had each taken on a disciple of clean background and excellent natural talent.

These disciples were all selected one by one by Xu Jia, who used his Yang Spirit thoughts to startle the Dharma Realm, observing the past and future of ten thousand people in a single instant. Though they might not necessarily achieve great things in the future—after all, in two or three hundred years, this world would face the End of Dharma Era, roughly the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty—they were chosen nonetheless.

By then, all the Yang Spirits in the world would have ascended, and only a few Earth Immortals would remain in the world, yet even they would struggle to escape the great tribulation. Mortals would be even more turbulent during the End of Dharma Era; spells and martial arts would enter a terminal age, everything would be difficult to manifest, and it would be hard to produce power. People's natural talents would become increasingly poor, and the evil in human hearts would be unleashed ever more.

Xu Jia only felt weary in his heart; he did not want to play the role of savior in this world, but he also felt that his own nature of compassion—if he had not known, it would be one thing, but having known, to turn a blind eye would be no different from those who abandoned the ship to escape.

The Hengshan Sect, the Hengshan Sect (Hengshan), and even the Louguan Sect did not leave after the ceremony, but instead began to interact with the Huashan disciples.

It was only at night that the Hengshan Sect Leader Mo Da, the Hengshan Sect Leader Abbess Ci Jing, and the Louguan Sect Leader Yi Yangzi all traveled to Huashan in the guise of Primordial Spirit Dharma Realm night-wandering.

Mo Da was originally the leader of the Colorful Play Sect, one of the lower nine trades of the jianghu. Later, he obtained the inheritance of the Hengshan Tonglao from the old days on Mount Heng, and thus entered the world through cultivation, taking in some disciples. Therefore, although the Hengshan Sect could be traced back to Wei Cunhua, its foundation was actually the shallowest when it came to the true establishment of a sect.

Xu Jia's Great Yellow Court Fundamental Method was, in fact, left behind by Wei Cunhua, the Shangqing Sect leader of the Hengshan Sect. The Yellow Court Outer Scene Scripture that survived in later generations only contained the 24 Body Gods, not the Great Yellow Court, and the Yellow Court Outer Scene Scripture had been lost.

Xu Jia used this as a key to attract the Hengshan Sect into an alliance.

Of course, Xu Jia would certainly not expose the path of his own cultivation entirely; he only recited the original essence of the scripture once.

But this scripture had long been extinct in the world, so even as Xu Jia passed it on by word of mouth, it did not retain its original true meaning, but rather became a Yellow Court technique with Xu Jia's own characteristics, just like when Xu Jia passed it to Xiao Pang, and Xiao Pang cultivated it into Ten Thousand Immortals Ten Thousand Spirits...

The Daoist methods of Louguantai for establishing the Dao foundation and cultivating temples also had origins here, and Xu Jia also lectured on the Dharma to the current Dao Lord of the Louguan Sect.

In exchange, the Hengshan Sect lectured Xu Jia on the "Secret Strategy of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady Transmitting to the Yellow Emperor," which had been passed down by the Hengshan Tonglao of that year. The Hengshan Tonglao had attained the Dao at Huashan; she was the reincarnation of a Han dynasty princess and also an ancient imperial daughter. She was enfeoffed to the west of Huashan and was the master of the Huaxi Dongtian, which was why she possessed the inheritance of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady. The Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady transmitted military strategy, bedroom arts, and medical arts to the Yellow Emperor, while Guang Chengzi transmitted the method of cultivation to the Yellow Emperor. However, the Hengshan Tonglao herself had studied under Wei Cunhua, and thus supplemented the cultivation method into this secret decree.

Of course, the Hengshan Sect did not share the method of training Dao soldiers; they only passed on the Daoist methods, techniques, and original essence, but it had lost some of its true meaning, retaining only seven or eight tenths of the flavor.

Xu Jia was interested in the Nine Heavens Mysterious Origin Great Dharma, but unfortunately, Deng Yin had sworn not to pass it on. He had not expected that the Hengshan Sect would actually possess the secret decree of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady.

Although the Immortal Dao flourished in the Qin Dynasty in this world, the inheritance of the ancient immortals actually dated back to the era of the Yellow Emperor. Guang Chengzi was under the seat of Yuanshi Tianzun. Yuanshi Tianzun was the ancestor of the Divine Path and the master of all gods. Guang Chengzi combined the Divine Path to create the Divine Immortal Dao, which was the Immortal Dao that cultivated Innate One Qi, the ancient Qi Refiners. Its essence was also to constantly improve one's own background to become an "Innate Divine Saint"; the process was that of an Immortal, and the end was that of a God.

The Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady was the same; she was an even more ancient Great God, rumored to be even older than Xi Wangmu. She descended to become the consort of the Yellow Emperor, and as a result, passed down military strategy and practiced dual cultivation with the Yellow Emperor, helping him attain immortality.

This method stated that one should mainly cultivate Innate One Qi and nothing else; there were no Golden Cores, Nascent Souls, or Yang Spirits, just Innate One Qi, constantly refining this thing.

But while it was called "Innate One Qi," it was actually biased toward "Ancestral Spiritual Light." It used Innate Spiritual Light to create an Innate Divine Saint, and then used the Innate Divine Saint to refine Innate One Qi. In this way, the Innate Spiritual Light was nourished by the Innate One Qi, gradually growing into an Innate Primordial Spirit. The Innate Primordial Spirit then constructed an Innate Dao Body, and thus one became an Innate Divine Saint.

How to put it, this method was relatively resource-intensive, focused more on a person's own comprehension, and was very difficult to discern in terms of realm. It belonged to the ancient cultivation method and was more in line with the Innate Divine Dao of the Yellow Heaven Sect. However, the Innate Divine Dao of the Yellow Heaven Sect seemed to be more advanced; one could first cultivate the Acquired Divine Dao, which had clear ranks, and then transition to the Innate Divine Dao.

Louguantai, on the other hand, recited the complete Hibernation Technique left behind by the ancestor Chen Tuan. It was a method of attaining the Dao in a dream, refining the Primordial Spirit in the dream to match the realm of a Heavenly Immortal. Between the breathing of sleep and dreams, one attained cultivation; one could span a thousand years in a single dream, and thus, upon waking from such a sleep, one would already possess a thousand years of Daoist Practice.

It was just that this method was rather sinister and had a very deep connection with the Dharma Realm, making it easy to lose oneself. Beginners would sleep for three or five days, and upon waking, it would be like having traveled through time. There were also those at the Earth Immortal realm who would sleep for one or two hundred years, only to wake up and find themselves sealed inside a coffin.

Cultivating like this was actually quite meaningless; most of the time was spent sleeping and dreaming, and when it was time to exert effort, one could not be found...

The ancestor Chen Tuan had been taught by the Nanhua True Person, and the Nanhua True Person was Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi had dreamed several times that he was a butterfly, and sighed, not knowing whether it was the butterfly dreaming it had become him, or he dreaming he had become a butterfly.

After the exchange, the two parties left in a hurry, needing to return to verify their cultivation.

Only Abbess Ci Jing wanted nothing, carefully explaining the Dharma to Deng Yin. What she spoke of was none other than the Lankavatara Sutra, the foremost in subduing demons.

"This poor nun once suffered from a Demonic Obstacle, a Love Tribulation Demonic Obstacle, and carried a demonic fetus in my womb. It was by using the Lankavatara Sutra that I dissolved it. After that, I gained a daughter, and later passed through another tribulation to regain my virgin body, which is how I have my current cultivation and attainments."

(End of chapter)