Chapter 46: Chapter Forty-Six: Ancient Sage Emperors, Middle Antiquity

Cui Dan naturally presented the gift he had prepared, and the old servant Wu Bo, well-versed in human affairs, also noted down the matter of the spirit grain and instructed someone to deliver it upon returning—this back-and-forth gave their young master a legitimate reason to visit again, allowing him to become familiar first, so that future opportunities to forge ties might arise.

The old servant Wu Bo, having accompanied his mistress for years, was well-traveled and discerning; he could tell that Qian Chen’s effortless mastery when subduing the Mei Mountain demons, and the many extraordinary feats he displayed while refining elixirs, were no less impressive than those of any true disciple from a major sect his mistress sought to befriend.

To travel far and encounter such a high cultivator in this small place as Wukang County was clearly a stroke of fortune for their young master.

To speak bluntly, even an ordinary heterodox cultivator who could produce elixirs of such quality and possess such advanced Qi-Dan cultivation would hold status equal to a true Daoist heir.

At any noble family or sect, such a person would be treated as an honored guest, never regarded lightly… and the art of elixir refinement is typically deeply tied to the Daoist sects.

Especially with Qi-Dan, this supreme elixir art—its lineage must have origins. The demonic sects favor turbid energy; their pills could never be so pure and spiritual. The Buddhist sects have their own distinct tradition of pill-making, unmistakable in character. Heterodox elixir arts are chaotic and mixed; their Dao could never be so pure. A cultivator capable of refining such pure spiritual Qi elixirs, even if not a true Daoist heir, must be a hermit with deep ties to the Daoist sects.

Qian Chen had some understanding of the Daoist sects, but little knowledge of other forces in the Central Lands.

Earlier, when he questioned the old fox, he had been deceived into believing Mei Mountain was some great sect, a pillar of the orthodox path; later, after killing one of Mei Mountain’s people, he saw how arrogant the man spoke, yet how utterly powerless he proved in actual combat.

He now knew full well he had been fooled.

The old fox was likely just a frog at the bottom of a well, having never seen any grand spectacle, of low standing; this time, having finally encountered a noble disciple with some knowledge of the upper echelons of the cultivation world, Qian Chen was happy to chat with him and learn more about the grand currents of the Central Lands.

Though Cui Dan found it odd that this elder master seemed ignorant of basic Central Lands lore, he was naturally open-minded and carefree, even a bit reckless; Qian Chen, deep down, was also a modern man who paid little heed to ritual propriety. At first they sat formally chatting, but soon Qian Chen leaned back against the cloud-seat formed by the Flying Cloud Pouch, the soft white clouds cradling his waist like a sofa from his past life.

Seeing this, Cui Dan could no longer maintain the upright posture of a nobleman; he whispered to Qian Chen, “Is this sitting posture comfortable?” Qian Chen laughed heartily, waved a hand, and summoned two clouds to lift Cui Dan up, then granted a seat to Wu Bo beside him.

Feeling his stiff back and waist perfectly cradled by the soft, fluffy, resilient curve of the cloud-seat, Cui Dan sighed in relief and imitated Qian Chen, slumping against the cloud-seat. His entire body relaxed to the tips of his fingers, supported entirely by his back without collapsing. Wu Bo dared not behave so freely; he could only watch as his young master revealed his true, unrefined self before the master.

“Our noble families all cultivate through inherited lineages, known as ‘Classic Studies.’ My Qinghe Cui clan inherits the Daoist tradition of the ancient Sage Emperors. When the Primordial Dao Ancestor first unified the Daoist sects, to greatly prosper humanity, he dispatched his chief disciple, the Daoist Master Guangcheng, to the Central Lands to assist the human emperor. Guangcheng Master expounded the classics for the emperor and his ministers, transmitting the Jade Void Daoist lineage’s ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture.’”

“This is the origin of Classic Studies among the Central Lands’ noble families.”

“Later, the human emperor founded the Heavenly Zhou dynasty, enfeoffed the realm, purged demons and monsters, expelled barbarians, abolished shamanism, and promoted human ways. After ten thousand years, when the Zhou emperor’s virtue waned tens of thousands of years later, the feudal lords rose in competition. At that time, Classic Studies included not only the ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture’—popular among the emperor’s ministers and many noble families from the Jade Void lineage—but also the ‘Classic of the Way and Its Virtue’ transmitted by the Supreme Dark Metropolis Daoist Master to the Hundred Schools, and the ‘Shangqing Scripture for Guiding Beings’ introduced by the Three Mao True Ones to the heterodox paths.”

“These three are the sources of later Daoist Classic Studies! Today’s noble families either descend from the Zhou emperor’s feudal lords and ministers, or study the Hundred Schools, or have been influenced by the Maoshan lineage’s widespread transmission to the heterodox. Their inherited classics all originate from these three. Their root is none other than the Daoist lineage.”

“Though Buddhist scriptures circulate widely among the common folk and appear in noble families and sects, with great monasteries everywhere, they are not embraced by noble families who value lineage. But it is said that the northern Great Wei, originally barbarian, seized the north during the previous dynasty’s chaos; there, Buddhist Classic Studies are widely spread among noble families, unlike the Great Jin, which upholds Daoist Classic Studies.”

Qian Chen smiled: “So your family’s inherited classic is also the ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture’?”

Cui Dan sighed and shook his head: “The ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture’ is so profound and vast—it is the foundational method of the Jade Void Palace. Though Guangcheng Master widely transmitted it, our ancestors could not comprehend even a fraction; most merely borrowed its fundamental principles to create their own cultivation methods, appending ‘Mystic Scripture’ to the name merely to indicate its origin.”

“My Qinghe Cui clan had an ancestor who attained the Primordial Spirit, transmitting cultivation methods such as the ‘Inscription on the Right,’ ‘Four Bright Moons,’ ‘Nine Rivers and Nine Gao Water Method,’ and ‘Communicating Fate and Meaning’—but our foundational method remains the ‘Great Expansion Five Virtues Mystic Scripture,’ inherited from the State of Qi during the Zhou dynasty.”

“The ‘Great Expansion Five Virtues Mystic Scripture’ derives from the essence of the ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture’ transmitted by Guangcheng Master to the Zhou emperor and feudal lords; the Jiang clan of Qi received it as the ‘Yang Tian Mystic Scripture.’ My Cui clan, a branch of the Jiang clan, received part of its essence, and later our ancestor entered the State of Qi’s School of the Five Phases, cultivating the Primordial Spirit under Master Zou, disciple of the Great Expansion Daoist Master.”

“Thus we synthesized the essence of Guangcheng’s ‘Nine Heavens Mystic Scripture’ and the Supreme Dark Metropolis’s ‘Classic of the Way and Its Virtue.’”

“From the ‘Yang Tian Mystic Scripture’ and selected essentials of the ‘Five Phases Great Expansion True Scripture,’ an ancestor of extraordinary talent forged a new path to attain the Primordial Spirit; later, Cui clan geniuses continuously perfected this path, filling its gaps until the ‘Great Expansion Five Virtues Mystic Scripture’ was complete.”

Hearing this vast family history stretching from the Middle Antiquity to the present, and learning that the Cui clan had produced dozens of Primordial Spirit True Persons, Qian Chen could not help but be moved.

He said with awe: “Ah, attaining the Primordial Spirit must be a great path indeed. Given such a lineage, does the Cui clan still have any Primordial Spirit True Persons today?”

Cui Dan sighed: “That was tens of thousands of years ago. Now, the Central Lands’ cultivation is in a low ebb. Aside from the ancient Sage Emperor’s Five Imperial clans and the Middle Antiquity’s Hundred Schools and feudal lords, which may still retain Primordial Spirit-level reserves, which noble family dares claim to have a Primordial Spirit to stand guard? Even the Great Jin’s imperial family, the Sima clan, has only one Primordial Spirit ancestor holding back their fate’s decline, enabling their dynasty’s founding!”

“Our Cui clan’s current publicly acknowledged elders are merely Core Formation cultivators. After all, if our family’s reserves were too great, the imperial court might grow suspicious…”

Regarding ancient history, Qian Chen knew far more than Cui Dan…

The ancient human emperors who unified the Central Lands were also called the Son of Heaven.

Their dynasties were called Heavenly Dynasties. The Zhou emperor mentioned by Cui Dan, whose reign saw Guangcheng transmit the Dao, was the founder of the Heavenly Zhou Divine Dynasty—the Zhou Son of Heaven. Before the Daoist sects backed the Zhou Son of Heaven, the ancient Heavenly Court, supporting the bloodline descendants of the Heavenly Emperor Taiyi, had established the Heavenly Shang Divine Dynasty. Even older was the Heavenly Xia Divine Dynasty, supported by the ancient shamanic deities.

The Heavenly Xia Dynasty was founded by the descendants of the Divine King Yu; its rulers were called Hou! This was the Xia-Hou clan…

In ancient times, ‘Emperor’ and ‘Hou’ were interchangeable; they could also be called the Xia-Huang clan.

The Heavenly Shang Dynasty was founded by the descendants of the Heavenly Emperor Taiyi; its rulers were called Di! This was the Di-Shang clan…

The Heavenly Zhou Dynasty was supported by the Three Ancestors of the Daoist sects; its rulers were called the Son of Heaven! This was the Zhou Son of Heaven…

These three ancient divine dynasties—Xia, Shang, and Zhou—each held sway for a million years. Their descendants—the ancient Ji, Jiang, Feng, Ying, Si, Di-Shang, and Xia-Hou clans—were called the Ancient Sage Emperor’s Five Imperial Noble Families. Only later, after the Zhou Son of Heaven’s authority declined in the Middle Antiquity, did the many feudal states emerge, followed by the recent antiquity of the Immortal Qin and Immortal Han dynasties, which unified the Nine Provinces.

There were feudal states bearing surnames such as Cao, Qi, Yun, Jiang, Dong, Yan, Gui, Mi, Yun, Gui, Si, Zi, Ji, Feng, Ying; those that survived to the present, excluding those founded by the Ancient Sage Emperor’s Five Imperial clans, are called the Middle Antiquity’s Feudal Noble Families…

In the Middle Antiquity, there were also the Hundred Schools’ Daoist lineages—these were at least the teachings of Dao Lords, many of which became the precursors to today’s major sects: the Great Expansion Five Phases Sect, the Shennong Hall, the Wu-Yue Sword Pavilion, the Yunxiao Palace, the Spring-Autumn Pavilion, the Mo School… Among these sects, there are also families with extremely ancient lineages, such as Yang, Zhu, Zou, Kong, Meng, Zhang, Zi, and others. These families either remain rooted within sects, passing down through bloodlines, or have entered the secular world to transmit their heritage.

They are called the Middle Antiquity’s Hundred Schools Noble Families.

Finally, there are families like Cui Dan’s—originating from the Ancient Sage Emperor’s world, the Middle Antiquity’s Hundred Schools, and even descendants of recent cultivators who attained the Primordial Spirit, whether from sects or hermits.

Among them, those with long lineages, like the Qinghe Cui clan, have deep ties to the Ancient and Middle Antiquity’s noble families and sects, and have produced dozens of ancestors who attained the Primordial Spirit and ascended; their reserves are no weaker than those of medium or small sects.

Those with shallow lineages may merely descend from a Primordial Spirit ancestor who favored his own bloodline, even entrusting the sect’s power to his descendants, thus continuing the cultivation tradition.

After all, cultivators are selfish; after achieving success, they favor their own descendants far more than they take disciples. Even if a True Person accepts both disciples and descendants, they will always value their bloodline heirs more.

Thus, cultivation spreads far more easily among bloodline descendants. A single Primordial Spirit True Person can inadvertently found a minor noble family; if, after ascending, his descendants continue to hold power in the sect, after several generations, they can establish a deeply rooted noble family.

Such families, if they transmit within a sect, are called Cultivation Noble Families; if they transmit independently in the secular world and achieve success, they must at least control a commandery as their base, and are called Commandery-Worthy Noble Families.

The Ancient Sage Emperor Noble Families, the Middle Antiquity’s Feudal and Hundred Schools Noble Families, and today’s Commandery-Worthy Cultivation Noble Families—these are the origins of the Central Lands’ noble families.