Chapter 1330: Dao and Immortals

Chapter 1329: Dao and Immortals

Situ Wei frowned.

With such overwhelming deterrence, could it really be something the title “Little Senior Brother” alone could suppress?

Judging by that domineering bearing of his, he didn’t look like a Little Senior Brother at all, more like the Grand Senior Brother of the Four Sects and Eight Gates.

When had the Four Sects and Eight Gates of the Qianxue Prefecture Realm merged into a single great sect?

How could these outstanding elites of every sect—each a heavenly prodigy of their generation—possibly gather together and heed the command of a single person?

With his mere few hundred years of cultivation experience, Situ Wei racked his brain and still could not comprehend what he was seeing.

Even after the banquet ended and the prodigies dispersed, Situ Wei remained dazed and absent-minded.

He realized that all of his previous judgments had been wrong.

This youth named “Mo Hua” was not a mere flood dragon passing through shallow waters, but a mighty true dragon pressing down upon the realm, one that had forcibly flown straight over the head of the Situ clan.

But…

“An Intermediate-Lower Grade Spiritual Root… a True dragon?”

Situ Wei’s brow furrowed even tighter, his confusion deepening.

…

The banquet was over.

This was Mo Hua’s first time hosting a meal.

The assembled prodigies still felt unsatisfied as they dispersed.

However, since Mo Hua had said there would be matters to attend to tomorrow, none of them left. Instead, they settled down to rest at the Situ clan’s residence.

So many prodigies from great clans staying overnight, this truly made the Situ clan feel as though their humble halls had suddenly been illuminated with glory.

At Grand Elder Situ Wei’s instructions, every detail of hospitality was handled with utmost care, taken to the extreme.

After night fell, everyone retired to rest, yet the words Mo Hua had spoken continued to echo in their hearts, leaving them unable to calm down for a long time.

Feng Zichen, Shi Tiangang, Ao Zheng, Xiao Ruohan, Song Jian, and several other prodigies gathered together, quietly discussing Mo Hua behind his back.

Feng Zichen said, “Do you think Mo Hua is really that kind-hearted? Saving barbarian slaves from the Great Wilderness for no reason at all?”

Song Jian said, “I still don’t quite believe it. That’s Mo Hua we’re talking about—scheming, despicable, shameless, vicious, using any means necessary…”

“Though I don’t like Mo Hua either, he doesn’t actually seem that bad…”

“To be honest, he’s just a bit vicious and shameless toward us. Toward others, he’s actually quite good, especially toward his fellow disciples of the Great Void Sect. He spoils them rotten… Didn’t you see how those junior brothers of his treat him like a little ancestor? Whatever he says goes…”

“There’s no helping it. Mo Hua treats his junior brothers too well…”

An Eight Gates disciple blurted out, “Why didn’t I join the Great Void Sect back then…”

Everyone turned to look at him.

His heart tightened. Realizing he’d spoken without thinking, he quickly put on a serious expression and said slowly:

“I mean, if I had joined the Great Void Sect earlier, I could’ve infiltrated the enemy from within and figured out a way to sabotage this Mo Hua…”

The excuse was terribly flimsy. No one bothered responding.

Shi Tiangang also sighed. “Speaking of which, back in the Qianxue Prefecture Realm, in that Evil Dao grand formation, we were all saved by Mo Hua once.”

Shen Cangfeng sneered. “He didn’t save us. He was using us. He needed our strength to leave the formation, and we needed his formations to escape danger. Mutual benefit, that hardly counts as kindness.”

The others all nodded, though their expressions were subdued.

Feng Zichen said, “Then by that logic… is it actually possible that Mo Hua really did just have a sudden fit of goodwill and decided to meddle, to save those barbarian slaves? He really isn’t trying to pit us to death?”

Someone shot him a contemptuous glance. “Are you really that afraid of Mo Hua setting you up?”

Feng Zichen nodded candidly. “To be honest, even now I don’t know how Mo Hua’s brain is wired. How can a human mind be so sharp and bizarre?”

Shi Tiangang asked, “If he really did set you up, what could you do?”

Feng Zichen frowned. “Seems like… I couldn’t do anything. Even if he lied to me, I probably wouldn’t be able to see through it.”

“Then there you have it,” Shi Tiangang shook his head. “If he tricks you and you can’t even tell, why bother overthinking it?”

Feng Zichen shook his head. “I don’t want to end up like you, being called a ‘big idiot.’”

Shi Tiangang’s face darkened.

Back then, the distance between being the Vajra Gate’s Grand Senior Brother and becoming the Vajra Gate’s Big Idiot was just that one sword debate with Mo Hua.

When joining the Slaughter Mo Alliance, he had initially named himself “Big Idiot” merely to encourage himself, to never forget revenge against Mo Hua.

Who would’ve thought it would backfire, and that these prodigies of the Four Sects and Eight Gates would privately all start calling him that?

If his movement techniques hadn’t been inferior to Feng Zichen’s, he would’ve pinned him down and beaten him senseless.

“Enough,” Xiao Ruohan said. “Don’t turn on each other.”

Feng Zichen said, “I still feel this matter isn’t that simple.”

He replayed Mo Hua’s words in his mind, sentence by sentence, before finally voicing a question he’d long wanted to ask but hadn’t found convenient to say:

“Do you think what Mo Hua said… was true or false?”

“True or false about what?”

“About…” Feng Zichen lowered his voice. “Dao. Immortals. All that stuff…”

Everyone frowned.

Shen Cangfeng shook his head. “You actually believe it? Anything that comes out of Mo Hua’s mouth is a lie. That brat doesn’t speak a single word of truth.”

Feng Zichen said, “But… it doesn’t seem completely unreasonable…”

“What reasoning?”

“I heard my grandfather mention it once,” Feng Zichen said.

“Nowadays, the cultivation world is peaceful, developing generation after generation, flourishing greatly. Especially among great clan, those who can reach Foundation Establishment and Golden Core are far more numerous than ten or twenty thousand years ago. But strangely, once you go higher, the numbers start dropping more and more.”

“Starting from Feathered Ascension, the difficulty spikes sharply, and the numbers become extremely scarce.”

“As for Profound-Hollow-Void, it’s an outright cliff-like drop.”

“Beyond Profound-Hollow-Void, it’s almost equivalent to being a heavenly being. We’ve hardly even heard of such people anymore…”

“This situation is very wrong.”

With Feng Zichen saying this, everyone grew thoughtful.

Xiao Ruohan also frowned. “Indeed… The Dao Court has unified the realm for over twenty thousand years. The population has exploded, reaching hundreds of millions. Those without spiritual roots have all been eliminated. Across the world, everyone is a cultivator—meaning the minimum is Qi-Refining.”

“Logically speaking, with such a large base, there should be more high-level cultivators as well…”

“Now there are many Qi-Refining cultivators, many Foundation Establishment cultivators, and Golden Core isn’t particularly rare either.”

“But Feathered Ascension and Profound-Hollow-Void cultivators—though greater in absolute number than in ancient times—have actually decreased drastically in proportion.”

“In ancient times, when the population was sparse, there were still many who could enter Feathered Ascension, become True Persons, reach Profound-Hollow-Void, and inquire into the Immortal Dao.”

“Today, every aspect of the cultivation world has developed, yet those who can comprehend higher realms are fewer and fewer.”

Feng Zichen said, “Could it be… an issue of spiritual qi? The spiritual qi of heaven and earth has declined, so we can only rely on spirit stones to cultivate. But spirit stones are ultimately dead objects, they’re fundamentally different from the naturally circulating spiritual qi of heaven and earth.”

“If one day the spiritual qi of heaven and earth were to recover, and the pathways to higher realms reopened, wouldn’t things be different?”

Shi Tiangang shook his head. “The revival of heaven-and-earth spiritual qi, it’s easier said than done.”

Xiao Ruohan also frowned. “And it might not even be a spiritual qi issue…”

“A large-scale revival of spiritual qi across the entire cultivation world is practically impossible. But on a small scale—mountains, rivers, grotto heavens and blessed lands—using human effort to simulate a natural spiritual qi environment isn’t difficult. Which great clan doesn’t have a few small secret realms rich in spiritual qi, used for seclusion?”

“If it were just about absorbing spiritual qi, all of us could do it. Even so, those who reach Feathered Ascension and Profound-Hollow-Void are still extremely few.”

Everyone’s brows were tightly knit as silence fell.

Feng Zichen then said, “So… what Mo Hua said actually does make some sense. We people of the great clans are too selfish, caring only for our own gain, going against the Heavenly Dao. That’s why reaching Foundation Establishment is easy for us, and forming a Golden Core isn’t that hard either, because these realms can all be forcibly piled up with ‘resources’…”

Shi Tiangang shook his head and corrected him. “Golden Core doesn’t work like that. Golden Core depends on luck… and fate.”

“It’s the same,” Feng Zichen shook his head as well and explained. “If you have enough resources, forming a core is nothing more than trying a few more times. Once isn’t enough? Then five times. Ten times.”

“As long as cultivation resources are sufficient, luck isn’t really an issue. Can someone be unlucky their entire life? It’s just a matter of when you form the core, and the quality of the core.”

“In fact, for prodigies like us, the issue of core quality is even more serious than forming the core itself. If we weren’t worried about unstable cores, defects, or the risk of downgraded quality, we’d have formed our cores long ago.”

“After all, forming a Core happens only once in a lifetime. Once the core is formed and its grade fixed, it can never be changed. If it drops in grade, the consequences are extremely severe.”

“This is completely different from how difficult core formation is for ordinary cultivators…”

“What we prodigies truly fear isn’t failing to form a core, but falling behind others, and forming an imperfect core.”

Feng Zichen continued, “But above Golden Core, once you reach Feathered Ascension, things become entirely different. At that point, it’s probably no longer a simple matter of piling up resources. It likely has something to do with the Heavenly Dao and one’s state of mind…”

“And people born into great clans are, more or less, all like this—accustomed to selfishness.”

“If this way of doing things is wrong, if it goes against the Heavenly Dao, then reaching Feathered Ascension may be extremely difficult for us, Profound-Hollow-Void even more unattainable, let alone becoming immortals…”

“So Mo Hua’s words may very well be… actually reasonable… After all, great clans appear prosperous and powerful, but after absorbing so many resources, not a single person has become an immortal. That alone shows that our path, at least to a large extent, does not align with the road to ‘immortality’…”

The more Feng Zichen spoke, the more reasonable it seemed, and the more he felt that he was probably right.

Shen Cangfeng glanced at him. “If you understand things so well, why were you so stubborn when you were facing Mo Hua?”

Feng Zichen sneered. “How could that be the same? How could I possibly give Mo Hua a good look?”

Everyone was too lazy to pay him any attention.

But after a short while, Xiao Ruohan, Ao Zheng, Shi Tiangang, Song Jian, and the other geniuses could not help but seriously ponder these words in their hearts.

They were geniuses of great clans, but they were also cultivators—people who walked the Dao.

The word “immortal” held for them an almost instinctive, overwhelming attraction.

No cultivator could possibly not yearn for that word.

If it were truly as Mo Hua said, that from the very beginning they had chosen the wrong path toward immortality, then it would be an extremely terrifying matter…

Impossible not to make one wary.

Even though outwardly they still questioned and scorned it—mocking that Mo Hua was nothing more than a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, what right did he have to speak of the Dao, to speak of immortality—deep down, it was like a dike gnawed by ants, faint cracks quietly forming here and there.

…

The next day, Mo Hua woke the group of geniuses early and gathered them together, saying, “Today I’ll take you to have a look around nearby.”

“Have a look around?”

The crowd looked stunned. Xiao Ruohan frowned and said, “Mo Hua, we’re not that idle. What exactly are you trying to do?”

Mo Hua merely smiled faintly and said nothing more.

The group of prodigies didn’t understand, but out of habit, they silently followed behind Mo Hua.

Mo Hua didn’t do anything special. He simply led these heavenly prodigies of Qianxue—scions of the great clans and major sects, raised in privilege since childhood, standing above tens of thousands—on an ordinary tour through the poorest, most backward, most broken tribes around the Royal Capital region, tribes that had been reduced to inhuman conditions by warfare.

He let them see what the true “bottom” of society actually looked like.

He let them see what the poorest and most lowliest “people” truly looked like.

Skin-and-bones infants, children feeding on poisonous insects, barbarian slaves dismembered, deformed people living under miasma, women brutally violated, slaves with severed limbs crawling on the ground like worms—countless scenes of misery, too many to list…

Many of them, at first glance, could not even be recognized as “human.”

It was as if a path had suddenly opened in the human world, leading straight into hell.

All the geniuses of Qianxue fell silent. For a long time, their minds were shaken, and not a single word could be spoken.

Human growth requires “seeing the world.”

Those who have never seen the world fall into two types. One is the poor, who have never seen the splendor and wealth of this world and therefore cannot imagine what true extravagance is.

The other is precisely the opposite—those born into privilege, accustomed to prosperity, yet never having seen the true poverty of this world, and therefore utterly unable to imagine what “suffering” truly looks like.

The geniuses of Qianxue were mostly like this.

From childhood, they grew up in great clans and studied in great sects. What they thought of as “poverty” was at most the servants within their clans who lacked spirit stones for cultivation and had to toil at menial tasks.

But today, Mo Hua truly opened their eyes and showed them the world.

And this “world” delivered an extremely severe shock to both their minds and bodies.

These genius disciples had come to the Great Wilderness and had not been unfamiliar with bloodshed or severed limbs.

In the wars of the Great Wilderness, they had even killed barbarian soldiers.

But that was on the battlefield—different sides, life-and-death combat, no room for mercy—and those barbarian soldiers were all tall, strong, and fierce-looking.

What lay before them now was entirely different. This was the fate of ordinary barbarian civilians in the various tribes, after the Great Wilderness had been ravaged by war and reduced to a land of scars.

The elderly had no one to rely on, the young had no one to raise them.

All adult barbarian cultivators had been seized as “barbarian slaves,” bought and sold, killed, or thrown into unknown uses.

Those left behind—the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, with no value to exploit—could only end up like this.

These people were also “people,” yet from head to toe, it was difficult to associate them with the word “human.”

No one would care whether they lived or died.

The Dao Court, intent on suppressing rebellion, would not care about them.

The Great Wilderness, rising in rebellion, would not care about them either.

Aristocratic clans sought profit, tribes fought among themselves, everyone had their own interests. No one spared these people a second glance.

What shocked these heavenly prodigies even more was that these suffering, bottom-tier barbarian cultivators were actually not far from them at all.

Everyone existed within the same mountain realm, standing upon the same earth.

Yet it was as if they were isolated from one another, before this, they had never encountered them, never seen them.

If not for Mo Hua leading the way, they would never have seen this, nor even realized that such people existed in the world at all.

They would never have experienced that the “suffering” of this world could look like this…

Mo Hua thus led these prodigies on a full round through the lowest strata of the Great Wilderness, showing them the myriad forms of suffering among living beings.

These bottom-tier barbarian cultivators lived in “hell,” yet they had no cultivation, no spiritual power, and crippled bodies—they could not harm these heavenly prodigies in the slightest.

But their very existence, these scenes of misery, still inflicted severe damage upon the prodigies’ minds, completely overturning their understanding and causing intense turmoil within their Sea of Consciousness.

After returning to the Situ clan, all of the prodigies fell silent, brows furrowed, faces contorted with pain, not a single word spoken.

The cracks in their hearts had grown deeper.

Their understanding of the Dao had begun to change.

Seeing this, Mo Hua gently nodded.

People cannot understand things they have never experienced.

Many matters—once seen with one’s own eyes—become clear on their own, without the need for him to say anything.

Most of these sect prodigies were still young, with short cultivation ages and little worldly experience. Having witnessed the suffering of all living beings, perhaps they could still achieve some measure of enlightenment.

But if they were to steep themselves in aristocratic clans for several more decades, becoming numb and having their dispositions set… Then their Dao would also be fixed.

And their fate, for this lifetime, might never change again.