Human Nature

"Dan is 'single', which, in turn, is 'one'1.

"Dao is the only thing without a counterpart, hence the name Dan. Alone, it is enough to clear the sky, settle the earth, fill the grains, and make one immortal.

"Dan is one, which is very close to Dao itself. Neidan (internal Dan) is the practice to refine one's internal organs so that one could achieve the Great Dao.

"Most people are mislead in this concept. Because of the internet, modern men have easy access to a multitude of information that might not be necessarily true. Some are purely fictional and exaggerated, speaking of Dan as a bead-like object hidden in one's body. That is not the case." 

"Pffft!"

The second day, many people in the square couldn't help but lower their heads and snicker after Lu Yuanqing said those words, for most of the young people nowadays had read at least one of those brainlessly fabricated novels to know what the priest was talking about.

"The school of Neidan could find its origin in Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, then improved by the sages of later generations. After late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Neidan gradually became a perfected system of Dan motheds.

"As the saying goes, Boyang was the origin, Zhong and Lü inherited, then Liu (Haichan), Wang (Chongyang), Zhang (Ziyang), and Xue (Daoguang) carried it forward. During its development, various sects and branches were derived from it, including the Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Middle Sects, Sanfeng, Wuliu, etc.

"However, in the past thousand year or so, the Neidan methods have been mostly unified, and together, it is known as the Quanzhen School.

"Medicine is the core of Neidan.

"The fundament of any Neidan skill is to compose Neidan through adjustment and the production, the collection, and refinement of medicine. By 'medicine', we're referring to the vital essence of the human body, which is categorized into external medicine, internal medicine, and great medicine according to the stage of its application.

"In order to understand Dan skills, one has to understand this medicine—that is, what are essence, Qi, and spirit?

"Essence is the foundation of all forms and the physical basis of all lives. Based on its sources, it could be divided into the innate essence and the acquired essence.

"The term primordial essence is talking about the innate essence. 'Primordial' means 'the very beginning', and the primordial essence is the source material of life, which controls the reproduction and growth…"

As a matter of fact, this was not how Lu Yuanqing prepared his lecture at first. Because he was around cultivators who were constantly citing from the classics using the most profound wordings all the time, Lu Yuanqing was used to a certain way of speaking.

The audience of this lecture consisted of common people only, and considering that, he had tried his best to make his speech easier to understand. However, after listening to Gu Yu's opening speech, he realized his own was still way to obscure. Hence, he revised his lecture that same night, and came up with what he had now.

He had omitted a lot of jargons and concepts, as well as the more advanced theories, focusing on the Three Treasures—essence, Qi, and spirit—which was also the most fundamental concept.

Just like yesterday, no lecturer was seen, and the voice came from behind the fog, running through the entire square. An innate state cultivator still found that task a little difficult, but it was no longer a concern with the help of a Human Immortal.

The demeanor of the crowd changed as well. They were no longer anxious and fidgety, but more relaxed. Meanwhile, a great many more people were recording the lecture, and people clutching their mobile phone with a portable battery were seen everywhere, which made for quite an interesting picture.

They had to, for early this morning, when people arrived at the square to take a spot for the lecture, the cunning members of the Pavilion of Secrets were already there, ready to sell their product. Over a dozen men all had a bag straddled across their shoulder while waving a stack of paper in their hands, hawking their wares all over the square.

"Check it out! Check it out! Written record of the lecture from yesterday, transcribed word for word. We have made the revision overnight! Quality guaranteed! You don't have to pay 998, or even 888. 500 yuan, and it's yours to take home with!"

'Huh?'

With that much noise, who could resist the curiosity to take a look? Those unconvinced went to inquire about it, which played right into the hands of the sellers. They knew perfectly well of the customer psychology: "here's a part of it, see for yourself."

'We can always get the money out of your pocket afterwards!'

It was like shopping for exercise books—what concerned you was not whether you knew how to solve the problems or not, but if other students had bought it while you hadn't; what if one of the questions in the book just happen to be on the exam paper? You would be the only idiot!

Hence, the first batch of 800 copies of the "revised version 1.0" that the Pavilion of Secrets rushed out last night was sold out hours before the lecture began.

The crowd might have paid for it, but they did not do it willingly. They knew better this time—record it themselves!

Before they realized, it was noontime.

Lu Yuanqing's session was finished, and after a brief lunch break, Shi Yunlai would give his lecture in the afternoon. The two had a clear division of labor: Lu Yuanqing talked about essence, Qi, and spirit, while Shi Yunlai talked about the spiritual and physical life.

However, when the afternoon session started, everyone was surprised to find a much emptier square—a lot of people had left!

Even Xiaojin was outraged by this injustice, and yelled, "How could they do that? That's so humiliating! Hey, Old Chao, where're your ghosts? Release a few and scare the sh*t out of them."

"It's just human nature. There's no need to get stirred up over such a petty matter."

"Nature my a*s! These people are spoiled!"

"Hoho, little laywoman, you should think it this way: since we have announced the agenda beforehand with the specific content of the lecture of everyday, the audience will naturally differentiate among the topics," Mo Haofeng, the oldest priest of them all, explained with a smile. "Some like Sword Skill, some like the Thunder Technique, and some are interested in Fengshui, but other topics may not seem as attractive as those three. Moreover, just observe their behavior: when there are ready-made records for sale, there will be those sitting idly and enjoying the fruits at a price."

"Men will fight desperately for a way out when there is no other option. However, given an alternative, they will display their laziness and opportunistic behavior. That is why it is called human nature," added Zhang Shouyang.

Having been hanging out with the members of the monastery these days, Xiaojin had blended in very well, and left the priests with a very good impression. She was now the "little laywoman" to them.

She actually had a point, for these people were indeed behaving like spoiled children.

Of course, we could not predict her train of thought the normal way, for her thoughts were already onto Gu Yu now. She was mumbling, "In that case, Brother-in-law is the sneaky one! The first lecture is so much easier, and he has taken all the spotlight. The man knows his sh*t."

***

Just like Mo Haofeng predicted, from the second day, people attending the lectures began to drop, which continued through the talisman lecture on the third day and Fengshui on the fourth day. The grand view of the first day became a one-time thing.

Among those who did come, a third were the persistent ones who came every day, a third were interested in the topic of that particular day, and the other third were there to record the lecture.

Those who did not come were mostly uninterested in the topics, but there were a few that simply decided to stay indoors from the second day onwards because of the heat and the early hours. They would buy a whole set of lecture material at the end, then go to the mountain for the pupil selection.

All the lecturers were masters of this generation who could see through all these petty charades. The lecturers were not affected at least by such behavior—the opportunity was there for everyone to grab, and those that let go of their hands only had themselves to blame.

Before long, it was the fifth day. The audience increased a little, for Sword Skill was the topic in the morning, and Spiritual Beast in the afternoon.

The crowd had arrived in excitement, expecting stories about legendary Sword Immortals. However, Bai Yunsheng's lecture was very proper and serious, which turned out to be a little boring.

Old Priest Mo was the surprise of the day. He liked practical things, and the content of his lecture was also practical. After the monastery discovered the underground palace and obtained the Beast-controlling Technique, he was the one studying it the most intensively.

Because he was aware of his limited potential, Mo Haofeng thought raising a capable spiritual beast of his own very beneficial.

"Up till now, there are 708 kinds of mutated animals recorded in our country, which includes a variety of birds and beasts. Some are tame and harmless, while others are vicious and man-eating. I have roughly divided them into two types: those that are worth raising and those with a practical value.

"Technically speaking, only the first type can be called spiritual beasts. The latter are edible, have pharmaceutical value, or are useful for refining instruments, but none of these makes them spiritual. Hence, I call them fierce beasts."

With that, the fog separated suddenly, and a giant shadow jumped out, raising a gust of wind.

"Aaaaah!" the crowd shrieked and fell back. The dark figure strolled around slowly before lying down in the middle of the square. It was an enormous black tiger almost two meters tall.

The largest Siberian tiger was just over a meter tall and over two meters long2. This one, however, was the size of a small hill. Its fur was a light black with a hint of blueish gray, and striated with dark black stripes. Despite lying there motionlessly, it was giving off an imposing regal air.

Its yellow eyes were the most remarkable of all, and lazily closed after a single glance at the crowd, apparently full of contempt.

This tiger was an unusual beast Old Priest Mo found after some painstaking effort, then raised and trained with the Beast-controlling Technique, making it a beast as they saw now.

"..."

The crowd had yet to recover from the astonishment when the fog separated again, and another fellow hopped out.

It was small and the shape of a sausage. Running busily with its four short legs, it was happy to get some fresh air when it saw the black tiger. It then made a grunting sound and whoosh!

The piglet disappeared. It reappeared the next moment a couple of meters away, and went on frisking around.

The black tiger rose to its feet unhurriedly, ready for some snack. However, as soon as it stood up, the piglet vanished again, this time being teleported back to the mountain.

"Roar!"

The black tiger looked around, feeling deceived. There was now indignation and irritation in those eyes. Immediately after that, the fog separated, and it heard the summon of its master. The tiger then went back a little disgruntled.

"One is a mutated black tiger and the other a mutated boar. Both seem to be spiritual, but the former is a spiritual beast, while the latter a fierce beast.

"Where is the difference?

"Spiritual beasts are intelligent creatures that are able to organize their own thoughts; just like we humans, they have temperaments and are able to make their choices. Fierce beasts, on the other hand, might appear to be clever and sly, but it is purely out of their instinct, without any advanced emotions.

"We can go so far as to deduce that with the right opportunity, spiritual beasts can also follow a cultivation path and pursue the Great Dao.

"With the infinite kinds of species in this world, we will need even more an infinite amount of resources to support them all. Among the audience here, those competent enough could start trying from now to gain some experience. If one could learn the methods of appraising and catching beasts, they could earn themselves an extra foothold in this world."

The crowd did not expect to hear such a speech, for it was so down-to-earth.

The lecturer was explicitly telling them that mutated creatures were a great treasure. Dabbling with it could earn one a living, and digging deep into it could make one a fortune. With the 2 billion people of this country, if everyone joined in, wow! Just imagine that scale!

His fellow monastery members also listened to his speech with an expression hard to describe.

Old Priest Mo might sound a little vulgar, but what he taught was something ready for everyone to use, which was also a kind of enlightenment through education.

***

The lectures went on like so, and it was soon the sixth day.

The crowd in the square was huge today, only smaller than that of the first day, because the subject today was Thunder Technique. Do not underestimate the common people's judgement—they knew perfectly well what would get the most spotlight.

You Yu and the other three attended the lectures every day devotedly. The words always brought them into a trance-like state, in which they found the lectures remarkable, but could not say that they had fully understood it. All in all, they were a little confused.

Right now, they were among the cramped crowd, waiting for the time to come.

After the past five days, everyone was very relaxed with the arrangements now. People were chatting in low voices everywhere, and the occasion felt like a company annual meeting. The buzzing sound only quieted down a little when eight o'clock arrived. Immediately after that, a pleasant female voice rang out from the top of the mountain. "The transformation of thunder is a supreme skill since the ancient time…"

'!!!'

The crowd jolted in unison with twinkling eyes. Holy sh*t! A woman's voice! Having been listening to male immortals for five days in a row, they were getting tired a little. Now that a female immortal suddenly showed up, all fantasies became alive.

In a moment, murmuring was rising here and there, and began to spread out. A few fellows even said excitedly, "That's a fairy, I bet you! What do you think she look like?"

"..."

While they were indulging in their discussion and let their spirits rise, they failed to notice that up on the mountain, it had suddenly became awfully quiet.