Chapter 39 Three Teachings, Qi Refiners, Heavenly Tribulation

Chapter 39 Three Teachings, Qi Refiners, Heavenly Tribulation

Although the apprenticeship started poorly and they were initially set up by the Dragon Palace, the disciples of the Du Xian Sect became more cautious as a result.

Li Changshou felt somewhat relieved by this, as he himself did not relax his vigilance in the slightest.

As the surroundings gradually became crowded, Li Changshou felt somewhat uncomfortable in such an environment, especially when there were strangers in several directions at relatively close distances. He had to constantly be alert to any movements around him.

Secretly casting the Wind Whispering Spell; Whenever a breeze passed by, strands of information would be conveyed to Li Changshou, and he calmly dealt with these messages in his mind.

When probing others with spiritual awareness, it was akin to staring at them with one's eyes, and the person being observed might sense it if they were alert. This belonged to 'active probing.'

Using the Wind Whispering Spell, aside from transmitting sound to those targeted by spiritual awareness, one could also receive surrounding information oneself. Li Changshou referred to this as 'passive probing,' the advantage being that it did not consume the power of the soul, but the disadvantage was the influx of various messages requiring continuous analysis.

Li Changshou had been consciously training his observation skills, perseverance, and concentration long before. In this state, if he were a Qi Refiner at the same level, most would find it difficult to maintain focus for more than a few hours without becoming distracted or relaxing their surveillance of their surroundings.

However, Li Changshou could use the Wind Whispering Spell to monitor his surroundings continuously for hundreds of hours without stopping!

Although... Turning a perfectly good life of cultivating immortality into a 'human monitoring machine' did indeed evoke a sense of sadness to some extent...

But at least his mind could be somewhat at ease. Because by monitoring various places with the Wind Whispering Spell, Li Changshou could also hear the laughter and conversations of many Qi Refiners, and he could hear many interesting anecdotes from them.

The topics discussed among the true immortals present mostly revolved around this grand assembly and the main platform where the heavenly immortals gathered above.

Most true immortals were concerned about what agreements would be reached with the Dragon Palace during this trip, how the boundaries of the East Sea would be delineated, and whether the Qi Refiners of the human race would encounter trouble from the Dragon Clan when coming to the East Sea in the future.

Among the young disciples, the topic of 'Heavenly Tribulation' would always come up. Most Qi Refiners feared the Heavenly Tribulation because it was extremely dangerous, and it was a trial that no one could escape.

—Of course, if one stopped cultivating or got stuck at a bottleneck in refining Qi, returning to the spirit, transcending emptiness, or returning to the path, they wouldn't have to face the Heavenly Tribulation.

The vast majority of Qi Refiners in the Du Xian Sect, as long as they didn't fall into demonic ways, had the opportunity to face the Heavenly Tribulation; this was because the Du Xian Sect was considered a prestigious immortal sect in the Eastern Continent, and it was difficult for ordinary humans with average aptitude to enter. Moreover, their Dao inheritance was complete, their techniques were brilliant, their internal systems were sound, and they had excellent benefits.

It wasn't necessarily the case for other immortal sects.

Looking at the vast wilderness and the three thousand worlds, ninety percent of the human race did not have the aptitude to cultivate immortality, and ninety-five percent of the human race were mere mortals; Among the Qi Refiner community, due to restrictions on aptitude and incomplete techniques, roughly ninety percent would not reach the Heavenly Tribulation of becoming an immortal; And among those who could survive the tribulation to become immortals, only about ten to twenty percent would remain...

With this calculation, it seemed that there weren't many human immortals.

In fact, it was not the case. At this point in time, the number of human immortals far exceeded the total number of immortals from both races during the heyday of the war between the witches and demons!

There was no way around it; humans were too prolific... ah, the human population base was indeed too large.

Li Changshou extensively studied ancient texts and summarized the three major factors that contributed to the rapid rise of humans and the defeat of the witch and demon tribes during the late stages of the war:

First, the innate Dao body bestowed by the Great Goddess Nuwa; Second, the rapid reproduction rate and the extraordinary adaptability to the environment; Third, the cohesion and centripetal force brought about by the human ancestors.

As for the argument that the 'Heavenly Dao favors the rise of the human race,' Li Changshou didn't quite believe it. How could the impartial Heavenly Dao favor any particular race? The Heavenly Dao deduced the changes between heaven and earth; predicting the rise of the human race was more like a 'prophecy' rather than decreeing any fate for the human race.

And the notion that 'the human race thrives by relying on the three teachings of Daoism' was even more ridiculous. It was obvious that after the rise of the human race, the three patriarchs of Daoism took advantage of the human race's fortune to prove the Dao and establish the three teachings, thus gaining boundless merits. Although it was somewhat biased to evaluate it like this as a disciple of Daoism, Li Changshou had always felt that the three holy beings of Daoism benefited from the human race's fortune but hadn't done much for the human race.

The Daoist teachings were named after 'human,' but the venerable Taiqing only took in the first-generation human Daoist Master Xuan Du as a disciple, while the founder of the Du Xian Sect, True Person Du E, had obscure origins and was neither human nor a direct disciple of Taiqing.

And Laozi, at this time, had not yet transmitted the "Dao De Jing" to the human world; This made Li Changshou completely reluctant to comprehend the classic passages of the "Dao De Jing" that he had memorized!

The Orthodox Teaching was good, as the Primordial Lord had taken in quite a few first-generation humans as disciples. These Orthodox sect disciples established schools in the Central Divine Continent and popularized cultivation methods among human Qi Refiners; But the Unorthodox Teaching went a bit too far... The Supreme Teaching Master was essentially using the human race's fortune to subsidize other races, and there were few human disciples among the seated disciples, which was quite unfair.

The relationship between the human race and the three teachings of Daoism was the foundation of the latter and a 'boost' for the former, adding an extra layer of security to the prosperity of the human race. In the wilderness, everything was about calculations.

The real contributors to the rise of the human race were either enjoying a leisurely retirement in the Fire Cloud Cave or had long since reincarnated.

If these thoughts were voiced, they would certainly be criticized as 'deviating from the orthodox path.' Li Changshou only casually thought about them in his heart and wouldn't tell anyone about these theories.

For example, when educating Ling'e, Li Changshou only taught her how to avoid karma, how to escape in emergencies, and how to cultivate a mindset of self-reliance. If something happened, she absolutely must not implicate her senior brothers with her excellent sense of loyalty...

Ling'e's aptitude was actually quite good, with the potential to become an immortal seedling, and she was also diligent in her practice. Li Changshou always felt that the aptitude for cultivating immortality might be some kind of latent inheritance; With eighty generations of ancestors being ordinary people, it was still possible to produce astonishing talents in cultivating immortality that amazed the world, and Ling'e was such a case.

After quietly waiting for a while, Li Changshou heard another interesting topic...

The success rate of human Qi Refiners in overcoming their tribulations.

This couldn't be generalized. The probability of success varied greatly among disciples of different Dao inheritances. For the majority of Qi Refiners who did not belong to the Three Teachings, without superior cultivation methods or the protection of the Three Teachings' fortune, out of ten people who crossed the tribulation, usually only one would survive.

But for Qi Refiners of the Three Teachings, as long as they didn't make mistakes, the survival rate of Orthodox and Orthodox-aligned Qi Refiners under the Heavenly Tribulation could reach fifty to sixty percent.

It's worth mentioning that the average survival rate of Heavenly Tribulations for Qi Refiners of the Three Teachings only barely reached thirty percent, because this figure was significantly lowered by the Unorthodox Teaching.

The Orthodox Teaching advocated 'selecting the best disciples to enter the sect,' resulting in a higher rate of disciples becoming immortals, but the number of Dao inheritances was moderate; The Orthodox Teaching advocated 'acting in accordance with fate,' resulting in a moderate rate of disciples becoming immortals, but since the venerable Taiqing didn't like taking in disciples, the number of Dao inheritances was extremely small; The Unorthodox Teaching advocated 'teaching without discrimination,' with disciples of both humans and demons mixed together. The survival rate varied with fate, and becoming an immortal depended entirely on one's luck. Moreover, the Dao inheritances were widely distributed throughout the three thousand worlds...

This led to the fact that no matter how brilliant the Dao methods of the Three Teachings were, how prosperous their fortunes were, or how powerful the innate treasures of the venerable sages were in suppressing fortune, they couldn't completely raise the rate of becoming immortals.

Moreover, the Supreme Teaching Master, who couldn't suppress the fortune of the teaching, controlled the four swords of slaying, which were extremely lethal weapons.

So Li Changshou was very grateful to his master for bringing him into the Orthodox lineage of Daoism.

"Little Changshou, come over here."

Suddenly, Junior Martial Brother Jiu summoned him with a transmission of sound, and Li Changshou immediately diverted a strand of his mind and looked over to see Junior Martial Brother Jiu waving at him.

Li Changshou shook his head slightly in response, indicating that he didn't want to move.

Junior Martial Brother Jiu glared at him, his gaze full of coercion.

Ignoring it, Li Changshou continued to pretend to rest with his eyes closed, maintaining the Wind Whispering Spell.

Before long, Junior Martial Brother Jiu walked over with a smile and sat down behind Li Changshou's low table.

Junior Martial Brother Jiu whispered, "Nephew Changshou, did you bring those interesting things with you?"

"No," Li Changshou transmitted his voice back, "those are reserved items of Xiaoqiong Peak, meaning they cannot be brought out of Xiaoqiong Peak."

Junior Martial Brother Jiu's face immediately fell, but he still maintained a dignified posture, complaining through transmission: "So boring, these tasks are the most boring, and we have to wait here for two or three days before the conference officially begins... Unfortunately, Master is also up there, so I can't even slip away."

Li Changshou smiled slightly, pondering how to quickly get his Junior Martial Brother back to his own seat. Being so conspicuous was not a good thing.

Taking out a wooden six-color magic cube from his sleeve, Li Changshou held it in his hand and slid it gently. The finely polished cube felt quite pleasant to the touch, quickly attracting Junior Martial Brother Jiu's attention...

"What's this?" Li Changshou paused his movements, showing the scrambled colors of the magic cube at the moment, then his hands moved swiftly, and in just a couple of breaths, the cube was restored. Junior Martial Brother Jiu's eyes lit up immediately.

Li Changshou then scrambled the cube again and placed it beside him, saying in a transmission, "Don't show it to anyone else."

"Okay, don't worry, your rules, your Senior Uncle understands them!" Junior Martial Brother Jiu immediately agreed and picked up the magic cube, lowering his head to try it out. Soon, he became engrossed in it, slowly getting up and returning to his own low table.

Finally, everything calmed down again.

Li Changshou continued to function as an unnoticed human surveillance device, waiting for the end of this Demon Suppression Assembly.

Half a day later, most of the sects invited to the banquet had arrived, and the Water Lily Platform was filled with handsome men and beautiful women. If one had nothing to do, it was quite pleasant to glance around.

Suddenly, a gong sounded, and a white cloud drifted down from the sky, carrying dozens of 'sea people' dressed in purple and red robes, who were a large sea orchestra sent by the Dragon Palace.

It was seen that: The clam maiden played the zither with pearls in hand, the mermaid softly sang, moving the guests; The dragon cave flute, shrimp drum, and turtle fairy trumpet, with crabs playing the gong. Below, graceful sea maidens in light and cool skirts came slowly into the spacious venue, dancing gracefully.

Their dance was graceful, with a fragrant breeze.

The two-day grand Dragon Palace cultural performance officially began...

Li Changshou did not get distracted by this, but most of the idle chatter around him had ceased, and most people were watching the singing and dancing in the venue. The messages he needed to deal with in his mind had also decreased significantly.

If the next few days could be peaceful like this, it would be great.

Li Changshou silently prayed in his heart, analyzing the troubles he might encounter.

Sparring shouldn't concern him; he was still only at the Return to Emptiness Second Stage in everyone's eyes, and he couldn't stand out in such a situation.

There shouldn't be any matters related to young disciples, except...

Huh? Junior Martial Sister Youdu stood up, still carrying her cushion and carrying a large sword on her back, walking towards him.

This... There was no grievance or enmity between them, so why force it like this?

Yu Qinxuan had just taken two steps when Li Changshou's slightly helpless transmission entered her ears.

"Sorry, Junior Sister Youdu, I'd like to rest alone for a while."

It's better to refuse and not let her have any thoughts.

Standing two zhang away, Yu Qinxuan was slightly stunned, looked up at Li Changshou, but had already placed her cushion beside another female true immortal.

The female true immortal smiled and said, "Come, Xiaoyun, let's see how your Senior Uncle's latest song is."

"Yes, Senior Uncle... Senior Brother Changshou, are you feeling unwell?" Yu Qinxuan asked softly, her beautiful eyes full of concern.

Li Changshou shook his head calmly, made a gesture of invitation, and smiled with his eyes closed, as if resting.

A little embarrassing... But this Junior Sister of his didn't come over to attract attention, which was a good thing; Li Changshou had already felt that when Yu Qinxuan stood up, many people around began to look towards the spot where the disciples of the Degree Immortal Sect were gathered.

Although everyone was a Qi Refiner, Yu Qinxuan's temperament, appearance, and figure were too outstanding, and it was hard not to attract attention.

If anyone wanted to marry her, they'd better fatten her up a bit. —This was Li Changshou's sincere advice to his fellow Junior Martial Brother.