Novel Bin Chapter 32: Preaching
As a crisp bell rang, all the people calmed down. Suddenly, Hongjun silently appeared out on the platform without any prior indication. Minghe was shocked, and his pupils shrank slightly. He thought, "God, he is so powerful. Is this the so-called force of a sage?"
Sitting on the platform, Hongjun looked around the cultivators below. When noticing Minghe, Hongjun paused for a short moment and said, "From now on, the seats are settled and won’t be changed anymore. This preaching will last for 3,000 years.
"In the beginning, a being formed from the chaos before the heaven and earth. Although it was alone in this universe, it insisted on its principles. After a long period of cultivation, it became the original mother of the world. I don’t know her name, so I call her Tao. Because of her strong force, I add a ’Da’ in front of her name, which means full of power. ’Da’ also means going away, going away means far, and the far means coming back. Therefore, the Tao is ’Da’, the heaven is ’Da’, the earth is ’Da’ and the creatures are ’Da’.
"The Tao is the principle of everything, but it isn’t unchanging; while the name of something will also change someday. At the beginning of the heaven and earth, everything has no name, but once it has a name, it becomes the origin of everything. Therefore, one needs to stay in a desire-free state to observe the subtleness of the Tao, while staying with a right desire to observe the micro-knowledge of the Tao. These two concepts are divided from the one—the Xuan, which was the principle of all the exercising methods.
"The merits are all formed by the Tao, but the Tao doesn’t have a visible figure. It seems chaotic but has a changeable shape; it seems chaotic but contains everything in. It is profound with essence in it. The essence is real and reliable.
"The Tao is running like a river around the universe. All the creatures are moistened by the Tao, but the Tao will never intervene in their development. We can consider it small since it cultivates all the creatures but doesn’t try to get paid back. We can consider it large since all the creatures are coming to be its subsections but it didn’t want to be the master. It never regards itself as a great one, which makes it the greatest one."
...
Hongjun deserved to be a sage, whose preaching was totally significant and full of knowledge. Above the Zixiao Palace, a mysterious sign showed up—millions of golden flowers floating in the sky and golden lotuses turned out from the ground, releasing out fulfilled spiritual air. The spiritual air formed into all kinds of mystical beast shapes such as crying immortal cranes, roaring Kylin, walking tigers, and so on... Splendid mysterious signs continued emanating out. Flowers fell down from the shining sunlight.
Actually, Hongjun’s content was not that difficult to understand. He started from the beginning cultivation of all the creatures to the realm of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal. Although most cultivators here had already been at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality, they still listened carefully. Hongjun’s content was all-embracing, so everyone could learn from it even if it was not essential for his cultivation.
A thousand years later, Hongjun finished his explanation of all the realms under the Sage-to-be. As an old Chinese saying goes, one can always learn from others. Although Hongjun didn’t impart any knowledge of the Way of the Three Separations, Minghe also benefited a lot from him, since he could use what he had learned to prove his own transforming exercises.
At the same time, the Magical Tao Mirror didn’t stop working, recording every single word of Hong Jun. He thought it would be a very good sample to teach his apprentices. Besides, Minghe found that the ability of his Magical Tao Mirror enhanced as his cultivation reached a higher level. He realized that the Great Way didn’t totally destroy the foundation of his Magical Tao Mirror in the beginning. How lucky it was!
Minghe didn’t think that Hongjun would continue his preaching after finishing the content of Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality. This time, Hongjun started to talk about the Tao of Divine Laws, which were parts of the 3,000 Great Ways recorded in the Jade Butterfly of Fate.
Minghe was surprised and delighted since he knew that it would definitely be beneficial for him if someone could give some advice on the ways of divine laws. Even if the Tao of Divine Laws from Hongjun was the basic knowledge to understand the divine laws, Minghe seemed to get a priceless treasure.
As Minghe listened to the preaching, he also drove his Magical Tao Mirror to record the 3,000 Great Ways. The Jade Butterfly of Fate had primordially recorded the 3,000 Great Ways, while his Magical Tao Mirror could post-celestially record them. With deep prediction, the mirror might become the same kind as the Jade Butterfly of Fate.
Unfortunately, in the next 2,000 years, the Tao of Divine Law that Hong Jun had referred to was a little bit superficial. It seemed that Hongjun gave a seed for each cultivator. Whether this seed would grow or not depended on the cultivator’s chance and perception. Among the 3,000 cultivators, most of them had good comprehension skills.
Many quickly comprehended the divine laws with the help of Hongjun’s preaching and the most shocking thing was that ten of them even stepped into the Sage-to-be Realm. Moreover, the six on the cushions all broke through the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortality, each becoming the real Sage-to-be.
Noticing the entire situation, Minghe couldn’t help praising the outstanding talents of the six. They deserved to be called the sage of the Heavenly Way because they had reached the Peak Stage of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal after totally comprehending their own divine laws on the basis of Hongjun’s preaching. Only one last step was needed to break into the Sage-to-be and Hongjun could give them help in time.
Everyone here had got what they needed, more or less, as had Minghe. With the unbelievable skill of the Magical Tao Mirror, Minghe had recorded all the knowledge that Hongjun had preached in case he needed them someday. Unfortunately, Hongjun didn’t describe the several strongest divine laws in a very detailed way.
Actually, even if Hongjun had turned into a sage, he didn’t totally comprehend all of the 3,000 divine laws, maybe just a few at most. In his preaching, all the Tao of Divine Laws were from his Jade Butterfly of Fate in which some powerful divine laws like the Law of Space, the Law of Time, or the Law of Karma weren’t explained in detail. Besides, there was a quite important divine law absent.
That was the Law of Reincarnation. At this moment, the six paths of Reincarnation didn’t completely form, leaving a defect in the Way of Heaven of Untainted Land. That meant that someone would turn into the reincarnation, completing the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Only if the Law of Reincarnation was completed, the Way of Heaven would be perfect.
Silently and smoothly, 3000 years passed by. Hongjun stopped his teachings, and all the cultivators finally woke up from the mysterious realm. At this moment, they felt terrible as if they were in a desert and they couldn’t get enough water to drink. Several cultivators even started to raise hell, but when they found that they were still at the Zixiao Palace, they gradually calmed down again.
"That’s the end of the first teachings. Go back, my fellows, and the next time will be in 3,000 years."
Hongjun didn’t care what the cultivators thought about, and slightly waving his sleeves, he silently disappeared like a wind. As the cultivators became aware of Hongjun’s leaving, they felt a little bit regretful, saying in chorus, "Ancestor Hongjun, thanks for your teachings, and we ask to be excused to leave."
"Ancestor!" Minghe suddenly realized that the reason why Hongjun made his preaching was that he could get enormous Luck from the cultivators here, most of whom were the top ones in Untainted Land. These cultivators all called Hongjun ’the Ancestor’, so that Hongjun could get the Luck from them.
Luck, essential to one’s fate, was very mysterious. Every creature would gain its own Luck at its birth, more or less. Although the Luck was invisible, it was closely related to one’s cultivation. The more Luck one had, the easier his cultivation would be. Conversely, the less one had, the more disasters he would come across. If one’s Luck disappeared, his soul would also be disintegrated.
During the days of the Three Tribes of Dragon, Phoenix, and Kylin dividing Untainted Land into three parts, they all had powerful Luck. However, their Luck gradually faded away after they started to fight against each other, and finally disappear from Untainted Land, and dwelled in corners of the land. Owing to the weaker Luck, fewer and fewer cultivators with a high level would arise in their tribes.
However, Minghe wondered why Hongjun tried to absorb the Luck from all the creatures in Untainted Land. Fortunately, Minghe had his own treasures to protect him from losing Luck, the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth, Red Lotus of Fire, and Black Lotus of Destructions.
The other cultivators were different from Minghe, since maybe few of them had treasures to protect them. There were Karmas among all these things. The cultivators’ coming was the cause, and paying for their Luck to Hongjun was the result, which was all related to fate.
Since Minghe had realized what happened here, he would be more cautious about Hongjun. It also seemed that Hongjun was not a very simple person. Although Minghe didn’t know why Hongjun tried to absorb the Luck from the others, he knew that Hongjun wouldn’t have a simple mindset since he had fought against the monster Luohou for the fated chances.
Minghe didn’t care about the others since his Luck wouldn’t be lost. Minghe patted his garment, stood up and walked out. He didn’t know that Hong Jun was keeping his eyes on him. The Jade Butterfly of Fate in Hongjun’s hand shone splendidly and no one knew what he was thinking.
Actually, Minghe had already guessed partly correct, but he was wrong about one thing. His Luck was also lost a little. Because of his treasures, his loss was minimized to the least amount, so that Minghe didn’t notice. The Karma from a sage was not easy to get rid of.
Besides, all the cultivators had lost their Luck, more or less. The Three Pristine Ones had Merit of Creation and Baraka Exquisite Pagoda to protect him, the Emperor Jun and Taiyi of the Demon Tribe had the River Chart and the Inscription of The Luo and the Bell of Chaos to hold their Luck, while Zhenyuanzi had the Book of the Nether World. In Untainted Land, there were plenty of powerful cultivators.