Communing with the Divine

Seated before the pill furnace.

A wordless silence.

"Alas."

Tu Shan Jun let out a long sigh.

Though he understood many things—pill refinement, talisman formations, artifact forging, and some of the more basic hundred arts of cultivation—all of these were comparatively simple personal skills. They could also be called personal arts. When it came to the art of the individual, he ought to have some right to speak.

Whether in cultivation or accumulated attainment.

Yet when it involved the art of the collective, he could not make heads or tails of it. So he chose respect and understanding: respect for the choices of others. As for what consequences those choices might bring, he knew, and others knew as well. Some things had to be done in the end.

Seeking benefit and avoiding harm was naturally human instinct. No—not merely human. Seeking benefit and avoiding harm was the instinct of all living beings.

Yet one who only knew how to seek benefit and avoid harm was no longer human.

Then what was an immortal?

Tu Shan Jun shook his head.

He had not even figured out what a human was, so how could he possibly understand immortals?

Besides, did immortals truly exist in this world? Those who stood at the summit—were they immortals, or cultivators with overwhelmingly powerful methods? In other words, humans. What was the difference between immortals and humans?

Within his sea of consciousness, the kasaya-clad old ape scratched his head and swept away the thoughts that had risen. The pressing matter was to hurry and refine pills. If the supply of pills proved insufficient, the cultivation progress of the sect's disciples would be delayed.

He opened the jade slip containing the written list. It recorded over a hundred kinds of spirit pills, each sorted into categories.

With the