Song Qingyi replied, “It’s not considered as cultivation of Taoism as I have yet to achieve Huandan. May I know what brought you here?”
Shen Lian had nothing to hide, “I am on my way to the Temple of Killings. I didn’t expect to pass by this place.”
Song Qingyi gave the I-knew-it face and said, “I thought so too. The Temple of Killings is a branch of Qing Xuan. I am guessing you wanted to learn the Daoist martial arts from Brother Chen Jianmei. Actually about ten years ago, Chen Jianmei has became the advisor of Hanhai Kingdom, which is located out of this desert. He helped the Hanhai Kingdom to kill the Mirage Demon king and that act earned the respect of the nation. He is also giving talks about Daoism, and if one’s character and potential impressed him, he might take them in as his disciples. Unfortunately, you came at the wrong time.”
Shen Lian’s eyebrows twitched as he asked, “You can address me directly as Shen Lian, and may I know what do you mean by I came at the wrong time?” It was clear that Song Qingyi misunderstood him but it will take too much effort for Shen Lian to explain.
“Hahaha, then you should address me directly as Qingyi too. As for the bad timing, I meant the conflict of interest between Dao schools. Chen Jianmei is an authentically certified Qing Xuan.
He preaches Dao in Hanhai Kingdom, teaches anyone without discrimination and goes in details about Qigong. His admirers are not just the citizens of Hanhai Kingdom but also people from the neighbouring country of Yue Tuo. Yue Tuo was initially a country that staunchly believed in Sramana but Brother Chen Jianmei attracted many of them over.
Their national adviser, Monk Baoguang is the junior of Monk Baoyue of Jingguang Temple and it seemed that he is about to achieve the Golden-bodied Arhat. Monk Baoguang devoted his life to Buddhism and ever since Chen Jianmei started giving talks about Qigong, many monks from Yue Tuo went over to attend his talk discreetly.
Although Buddhism too, practices teaching without discrimination, but when it comes to practice and cultivation, they are not as organized as us in Dao. Besides Huandan and Powang, the Nine States of Cultivation are all traceable.
Naturally quite a number of Bhikkhu experienced the benefits of the Art of Dao and some of then even changed their Buddhist temple to a Daoist temple. The Jingguang Temple had a relic and has been absorbing it’s believer’s wishes to spit out spiritual power and feed the temple’s monks cultivation. Because of Chen Jianmei, many believers to stop contributing their incense and the relic hasn’t been able to provide as much spiritual power to the temple’s monks as it used to do. It makes it difficult for the monks to cultivate.
Monk Baoguang investigated the cause behind it and was resentful. He challenged Brother Chen Jianmei to a Dao discussion of deity vanquishing on the fifteenth day of the tenth month. Whoever lost shall never appear within five thousand miles radius of Yue Tuo.
Brother Chen Jianmei is quite a character. He slayed uncountable numbers of demons and naturally he should be able to handle this challenge. It’s safe to say that demons and cultivators within a thousand miles from here are looking forward to this super rare once in a century battle between cultivators.
Rumour has it that brother Chen Jianmei is fully concentrated on preparing for this ‘discussion’ and had yet stepped out from his place for a good whole month. He is probably going to use his sword to utterly convince this highly ranked monk.”
Song Qingyi felt great telling the story in one breath. He got excited whenever he mention Chen Jianmei, as if he could not wait to take over his place.
After hearing the story Shen Lian felt that Chen Jianmei specializes in swords and would have excellent combat skills. However, even if Huandan had yet to degenerate and Powang was still in perfect precision, Monk Baoguang was a highly experienced monk. Chen Jianmei had a disadvantage in terms of experience and that’s probably the reason why he is fully focused on his training.
Shen Lian felt that he shouldn’t disturb Chen Jianmei before the challenge as he did not want Chen Jianmei to get distracted.
But he was curious about one thing. He asked, “Qingyi, you looked like you’re about the same age as I am and you don’t look like a Huandan connoisseur. Why do you address the master of the Temple of Killings as brother? It seemed like you guys belonged to the same generation.”
The world of cultivation practices the hierarchical system. Even if he was a disciple of the Xuantian sect, he shouldn’t sound so proud, as if he was of same seniority as Chen Jianmei. It seemed a little rude and its contrasting to his previous behaviour.
Song Qingyi answered with a smile, “I am nineteen years old this year. If I’ve achieved Huandan, I would have set a record to be quickest to achieve it. Even if I was an immortal in the previous life, I won’t be able to achieve it that soon either. Also, I have just had a breakthrough and I am focused on working on my mana. But if I to address Brother Chen Jianmei as a senior, he might not deserve it. To be honest, my mentor is Xiang Shan Zhenren. If you’re familiar with the world of cultivation, you would understand.”
To Shen Lian’s surprise, Song Qingyi was actually the disciple of Xiang Shan Zhenren; and probably a direct disciple. No wonder he would address himself in the same seniority level as Chen Jianmei.
Immortal Zhenren generally did not have a fix whereabouts. But there were also exceptional ones like Xiang Shan Zhenren. His real name is Lu Jiuyuan and he had lived through thousands of years. He specializes in Xuantian sect’s the “Enlightenment Scripture” that no one has managed to master over the sect’s history. He once had a devotion ceremony after reaching enlightenment and the first sentence he said was, “Learn from your heart, every other existing literature are just footnotes.”
The meaning behind his words were, if one wanted to obtain knowledge, they should not be constrained to past literature and instead should look for different sources and try different means. And that was what he meant by using existence literature just as footnotes.
He was extremely vigour and was Xuantian sect’s most robust person ever since it was founded.
Furthermore, since he started cultivating, he had yet to be defeated. After attaining Dao, he was less involved. Yet, he was recognized as Xuanmen’s number one and he was untouchable. Ever since Lu Jiuyuan attained Dao, he had never left Xuantian sect and devote himself to writing. Besides that, he did not have any Dao enemies and was extremely decisive. Anyone who became his enemy were either dead or seriously wounded. That was because of his concept of ‘a million scriptures annotate me and I annotate a millions scriptures’. Once his mindfulness shakes a little, people would be able to see the cause and effect and he usually did not miss his target. Therefore, one could try applying all sorts of tricks when in feud with him but it would never be enough to escape from him.
And that was why Song Qingyi had the guts to roam around despite only achieving his breakthrough recently. Even if he did not carry any protective protective talisman , the name ‘Lu Jiuyuan’ was good enough to induce fear among many skilled cultivators.
That sure was an overwhelming figure and many elderly immortals were probably waiting for him to breakaway and leave. After all, nobody likes to have someone so repressive above them.
At the same time, the Enlightenment Scripture was one of a kind in this world and it could possible match the methods of Taixu Strategy. Unfortunately Grandmaster Qingshui and Lu Jiuyuan were of different generations and never had the chance to experience the sparks of the duel between the two invincible Dao methods.
Perhaps when Grandmaster Ziling Fairy attained Dao with the Taixu Strategy and absorbed the experiences from the past and current lifes, she could challenge Lu Jiuyuan to be the number one person of Xuanmen.