Fortune and Karma

The fastest update to Seeking the Dao in the Mortal World!

Lingxu hurriedly left to help inquire about people, leaving Qin Yi alone in the guest hall. He turned around and looked around. The spacious hall, the multi-courtyard houses, the garden and rockery behind the hall, the carved railings and jade steps in front of the hall, and the Little Daoist Nun standing outside the hall.

The hall was filled with gold and jade, and even the prayer cushions were made of silk.

A Little Daoist Nun timidly carried in a tea tray. "Senior Brother, the abbot instructed me to brew tea for Senior Brother..."

Qin Yi waved his hand and laughed, "Your tea is nothing special."

The Little Daoist Nun bit her lower lip. "Senior Brother, would you like some midnight snacks?"

Judging from her tone, it was unclear whether "late-night snack" referred to food or herself. Qin Yi shook his head and smiled, then suddenly, as if by magic, produced a gourd in his hand. "I've prepared my own food and drink; you may go now."

The Little Daoist Nun felt that the gourd was mocking her figure, and she ran away in tears.

Qin Yi sat by the window with a smile and took a sip of "Poetry Wine Drifting".

A sense of carefree ease rushed into my Sea of Consciousness, then slowly dissipated, and I suddenly found a touch of tranquility in this secular Daoist Temple.

Qin Yi suddenly said, "It seems like this is the first time in my life I've ever lived in such a luxurious place. Even Li Qinglin's Crown Prince Residence wasn't this grand."

Liusu's voice came. "It's meaningless. The Spiritual Qi is thin, and it's unbearably vulgar. Compared to the wooden houses in Ju Yunxiu that seem to blend in with heaven and earth, this place looks beautiful, but it's actually like gravel and wasteland, utterly worthless."

This was a rare instance where the two shared the same values, so Qin Yi smiled and asked, "What's your opinion on that dragon energy?"

"Luck is something that cannot be seen or touched, but it does exist." Liusu said, "So since it exists, it is indeed possible to control it, perhaps through some kind of Secret Method... But logically speaking, luck can only be transferred or destroyed through certain means. I have never heard of anyone materializing luck and running away."

Qin Yi asked with some interest, "What specific impact does this luck have?"

"Just like your recent ' Leaping from the Abyss, that's a kind of personal luck. Dynasties naturally have their own luck; at their peak, everything they do is right, their military might is invincible, and even battles they clearly can't win might have meteorites falling from the sky and completely demoralizing the Fangshi..."

Qin Yi's lips twitched. "I understand."

"That is the Human Emperor Qi, protected by dragon energy. Demons and monsters cannot approach, and Apocryphal Arts cannot harm him," Liusu said. "Even if you or I could kill him with a single blow, we might suffer a backlash from his aura, which would hinder our future endeavors. In some schools of thought, this is called taking on a great karmic burden. Therefore, cultivators do not meddle in worldly affairs, not entirely because their pursuits are different and they are too lazy to care, but also because they fear the Mortal Karma. You should have understood this when you argued with Minghe."

Qin Yi nodded. Indeed, Minghe didn't want to get involved in the conflicts between people back then. Besides feeling that there should be rules, part of the reason was that she didn't want to bear the consequences. She didn't even want to get involved in the karma between ordinary people and local tyrants, let alone the rise and fall of dynasties. This was a huge karma that could affect hundreds of millions of people, and cultivators were unwilling to get involved.

Personal karma is easy to explain; if you offend Great Joy Temple, you just create another enemy. But the karma of all living beings is hard to explain and difficult to bear.

Therefore, worldly affairs should be left to worldly matters, while cultivators should only concern themselves with demons and supernatural powers. This is quite clear.

"You previously said that the relationship between cultivators and secular regimes in this world is quite interesting. Does that mean your situation back then was different from now?"

"The main difference is that, back in our time, this Hidden Dragon Temple would definitely be the Outer Sect of the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace, and all the princes and nobles in the court practiced the methods of the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace. Do you understand what I mean?"

Qin Yi pondered, "Do the major sects directly support spokespeople to represent their interests in the mortal realm?"

"That's right. It might be to have a foundation for spreading the teachings, or to facilitate resource collection, or for some other convenience. Having a regime in the human world brings many advantages. Even if one doesn't want to get involved, one can still support an Outer Sect representative. If that dynasty fails, one can simply support another without being held hostage... But now it seems to be completely severed, with only a faint shadow remaining in the background."

Qin Yi laughed and said, "That's called different settings... I've also seen cultivators climb up the ranks in dynasties, and I've seen people who treat mortals as ants and crush a few of them as they please. I've even seen sages use the country as a chessboard to compete for destiny."

"Perhaps it's because you've read too many books that you find everything unremarkable, and thus you've lost your curiosity," Liusu said. "But you must understand that you are now living in this world, and you should be aware of its changes, not just be a passerby. In fact, you have a greater advantage than others: you can step outside the game to see things clearly. Ultimately, everyone in this world is involved in the game, including me."

Qin Yi paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Then let me share my thoughts?"

Liusu said irritably, "That's exactly what I'm waiting for you to say. Otherwise, why would I bother arguing with you?"

Qin Yi said, "In my view, firstly, the further away from nature, the more vulgar people become, and the fewer those with Spirit Root there are, so there's no point in spreading the Dao to ordinary people; secondly, after mortals have lived together for a long time, there are really no rare and precious heavenly materials and earthly treasures left to fight over. Over time, this state has formed, and this is the evolution that should occur in different periods. Could the beginning of chaos and the peak of human civilization have been the same?"

Liusu sat on the windowsill, thought for a long time, and then smiled, "It should be pretty close to the truth. In that case, in the eyes of most cultivators, the mortal realm has actually been abandoned. Because this world is really big. If Southern Li was a small well back then, and Daqian was just a fishpond in the backyard, then so be it. The Great Joy Temple, which stirs up trouble in this fishpond, and that person who messes with dragon energy, don't necessarily have any future."

"At least we're not at the point of venturing into the wider world yet. Let's deal with this small matter at the fishpond first," Qin Yi said. He then asked, "We were just talking about the Human Emperor's fortune and the obstacles of cause and effect. So how would cultivators operate if they wanted to disrupt the Great Qian Dynasty?"

Liusu said, "Luck is ultimately ephemeral and cannot be eaten. One must diligently cultivate oneself. If one does not cultivate oneself, the court and the country will fall into corruption, and naturally, luck will dissipate."

Qin Yi said, "Therefore, the Great Joy Temple used various methods of dual cultivation with beauties to corrupt the Great Qian court and the country. This is also a way to gradually diminish the fortune of the Great Qian, thus making the dragon energy increasingly thin."

"More or less..." Liusu pondered, "As for the one that condenses the ethereal concept of dragon energy into form, I have never heard of it. It is indeed a very interesting method."

"You mean these are two separate things?"

"Of course, it's also possible that this person can use a technique to solidify their form after the dragon energy weakens. But in any case, this is definitely not the method of the Great Joy Temple. A sect that Yin-Yang Harvesting the essence of the body would never resort to such tactics."

Upon hearing this, the Myriad Phenomena Asura Sect suddenly came to Qin Yi's mind. Their relationship with the Great Joy Temple was somewhat ambiguous; could this be a perfect analogy for this situation?

What did Minghe say when he first mentioned this sect?

"All things belong to me, and the myriad realms are my accomplices. Has someone from the Myriad Realms and Myriad Phenomena Asura Sect entered the mortal world now...?"

Whether Meng Qingying is Shadow Demon or a Ghost, that is merely her Technique Method, and does not represent the Myriad Images of the Universe.