Wandering the Primordial Wilderness, Encountering a Spirit Monkey's Birth

Li Cha's preaching concluded, and the crowd outside Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven gradually dispersed. Most beings departed with full insights and hopes for the future, but some, either stubbornly attached or with nowhere else to go, chose to find a spot in the valleys and woodlands around the grotto-heaven, building simple huts and living there day by day, soaking in the lingering Tea Dao charm that drifted from the grotto, hoping that one day they might gain the favor of the Ancestral Master.

Li Cha did not drive them away. As long as these people behaved themselves and did not disturb the tranquility of the grotto-heaven, he allowed them to cultivate there, planting some good karma for the Yun Hua lineage and leaving behind a few sparks on the periphery.

This round of preaching and disciple-taking, aside from the thirty-six nominal disciples, the most satisfying for Li Cha were the two new personal disciples he had accepted.

One was a mid-grade innate spirit beast—a Moon Gazing Rhinoceros that had taken human form, with the Dao name Forget Worry. Her cultivation was only at the peak of Golden Immortal, not yet stepping into Da Luo, but her nature was tranquil and gentle, naturally aligning with the principles of "stillness" and "harmony" in the Tea Dao. Her rhino eyes could clearly discern the energy of all things, giving her a unique talent for selecting water and distinguishing tea.

The other was a mid-grade innate spiritual root—a Purple Void Ginseng that had taken human form, with the Dao name Purple Spirit. Her foundation was deeper; upon transformation, she was already at Early Da Luo cultivation, with both her Human Flower and Earth Flower blooming at nine grades, a solid foundation. Her temperament was lively and agile, yet her mind was delicate, showing great comprehension in the changes of the Tea Dao and the control of heat—a rare and excellent seedling.

As for the other nominal disciples, Li Cha paid them less attention. He uniformly passed down the foundational chapter of the Primordial Chaos Great Dao True Scripture, bestowed upon his personal disciples a few Tea Dao spirit treasures he had refined in his spare time (mostly high-grade or mid-grade Postnatal Spirit Treasures), and then dumped all educational and miscellaneous affairs onto the ever-diligent and long-suffering steward Mo Ran to arrange and manage.

With everything settled, Li Cha sat quietly in Pure Silence Studio, his mind automatically comprehending the Great Dao. He deeply understood that establishing the Tea Dao, gaining the recognition of the Great Dao, and having boundless merit descend upon him was by no means a favor from the Great Dao. The Great Dao was supremely impartial; it would never act without reason.

'The reason the Great Dao recognizes my Tea Dao values not the taste of tea itself, but the supreme potential it contains to harmonize Yin and Yang, educate all beings, and promote harmony.' Li Cha's heart was like a clear mirror. 'The Great Dao hopes that through my hands, through the power of the Tea Dao, it can guide the Primordial Wilderness toward a more balanced, more promising future—that is, to let the Heavenly, Earthly, and Human Daos walk side by side, jointly supporting the world, rather than the current situation where the Heavenly Dao dominates alone, suppressing the Earthly and Human Daos. Only when the three Daos stand together can the origin of the Primordial Wilderness be complete, and only then can the world's level hope to rise, escaping the fate of future spiritual energy loss, degradation, and decline.'

How grand this goal was! It meant awakening the currently hidden and unmanifested Earthly Dao, liberating the sealed Human Dao, and letting them truly stand beside the Heavenly Dao, contending on equal footing. The schemes, means, timing, and the karma and resistance involved were nothing short of heaven-defying! With Li Cha's current cultivation at the Peak Primordial Golden Immortal, though he already stood at the apex of the Primordial Wilderness, he still felt somewhat inadequate to push such a grand chess game forward.

He clearly sensed that his realm, based on his profound understanding of the Tea Dao, was already complete, and he possessed the foundation and insights to impact the Primordial Da Luo. But the Tea Dao was never a path of solitary drinking and self-indulgence. The essence of tea lay in sharing, in exchange, in gaining recognition and resonance. Admiring one's own fragrance in solitude was by no means the true meaning of the Tea Dao.

This meant he needed to spread the Dao throughout the Primordial Wilderness! He needed to scatter the seeds of the Tea Dao into every corner of the Primordial Wilderness, to let more beings understand, accept, and even practice the spirit of the Tea Dao, gathering boundless fortune and recognition. Only then could he use this as a foundation to break through the final barrier in one fell swoop and attain the Primordial Da Luo fruit of a self-established Dao!

Now, his disciples and the countless listeners from his two preaching sessions had already laid some preliminary groundwork for him, accumulating initial prestige and foundation. But it was far from enough! He needed to go further, to let the fragrance of tea truly permeate the entire Primordial Wilderness.

With a clear goal in mind, Li Cha immediately began to act. The first thing he needed to do was prepare enough "seeds"—tea tree seeds.

Condensing tea seeds was already a familiar task for him. Spending nearly a thousand years, combining his own origin Dao rhyme with the vitality of all trees in the Primordial Wilderness, and aided by the wondrous methods of creation, he successfully condensed hundreds of millions of basic tea seeds, each containing a faint Tea Dao spiritual charm!

This was still not enough. He then had the already sentient Pure Spirit Tea Tree contribute over a thousand high-quality origin tea seeds. The various spiritual tea trees within the grotto-heaven, propagated from his descendants, each contributed dozens or hundreds of tea seeds as well. In this way, the quantity and quality of the tea seeds in his hands reached an astonishing level.

After preparations were complete, Li Cha summoned Mo Ran before him and solemnly instructed:

"Mo Ran, your master intends to travel the Primordial Wilderness, spreading the Dao in all directions, with no fixed return date. Within the grotto-heaven, you are to oversee all affairs, lead your junior brothers and sisters in diligent cultivation, refine your tea arts, and guard our home well."

"Disciple respectfully obeys the master's command! I will not fail the master's trust!" Mo Ran, fully aware of the great responsibility, solemnly accepted.

Li Cha nodded, then selected a few disciples to accompany him: the steady and reliable senior disciple Shi Qing, the tea-art-proficient Qing Xuan and Lianyi, the newly accepted lively and clever Purple Spirit, and the gentle-natured Forget Worry, who could serve as a mount.

Outside the grotto-heaven, Forget Worry let out a low, deep roar. Moonlight flickered around her body as she revealed her true form—a magnificent Moon Gazing Rhinoceros, about a hundred zhang tall, her entire body white as jade, with a single horn on her forehead bearing a natural crescent moon divine pattern! She shrank her form to a few zhang in size, just enough for several people to ride comfortably.

Li Cha and his disciples drifted down and landed on Forget Worry's broad, steady back. Forget Worry trod on clouds with her four hooves, carrying the master and disciples as they began this journey of roaming the Primordial Wilderness, scattering tea seeds and spreading the Dao.

According to Li Cha's plan, they would first head east, intending to traverse the Primordial Wilderness in the general order of east, west, south, and north. Wherever they encountered mountains, they would plant tea; wherever they encountered water, they would spread its charm; and whenever they met beings with affinity, they would preach the essence of the Tea Dao. If four thousand years were not enough to cover everything, they would return to the grotto-heaven before Hongjun's third preaching concluded. After all, the years were long, and they could continue the unfinished journey later.

Time slipped away quietly during their travels, and in the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed.

In these hundred years, the master and disciples had set foot on countless famous mountains, great rivers, secluded valleys, and secret realms in the East. Sometimes, Li Cha would preach for a short while in spiritually beautiful places, causing the local beings to stop and listen; other times, he would casually point out and transform a few spiritual veins, improving the environment. Along the way, they also harvested many innate spiritual materials and Postnatal Spirit Treasures, all of which he bestowed upon his disciples. As for the tea seeds imbued with Dao rhyme, they had scattered over a million of them, like sparks of fire, quietly spreading across the Eastern lands.

One day, the master and disciples arrived at a precipitous mountain range where water vapor was abundant and rivers converged. They saw cliffs on both banks as sharp as knives, the rushing river water crashing against reefs, producing thunderous roars. The air was thick with abundant water spiritual energy.

Li Cha was about to order Forget Worry to stop and observe the feng shui of this place, to see if it was suitable for planting spiritual tea.

Suddenly, from the depths of the surging river, a towering water column shot into the sky! A mysterious aura, accompanied by the vast pressure of Early Da Luo, exploded outward, churning the entire great river into surging waves and changing the wind and clouds!

"Master! Look at the river's heart!" Purple Spirit, sharp-eyed, immediately pointed at the anomaly and exclaimed.

Li Cha's Spiritual Sense spread out like quicksilver, covering the area. He saw within the soaring water column, a figure was swimming against the current, wrestling with the waves, and roaring up to the sky! Its form was like an ape, its entire body fiery red, its limbs long, especially a pair of arms that seemed to contain the immense power to hold up the heavens. Most peculiar were its eyes: the left eye flickered with a black light that could see into the underworld, while the right eye swirled with a white radiance that peered into the future. Its entire body's Dao rhyme was faintly connected to the water veins of the Primordial Wilderness, yet it carried a rebellious arrogance that defied heaven and earth and showed no respect for gods or ghosts!

"Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey!" A sharp light flashed in Li Cha's eyes as he immediately recognized the origin of this Innate God-Demon. This was one of the four spirit monkeys of heaven and earth, transformed from a quarter of the origin of the Chaos Demon Ape, which innately mastered the Daos of Yin Yang and water!

"So it's this one being born here..." Li Cha's heart stirred slightly. In his knowledge or deductions, the Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey should not have been born at this time or place, and its fate trajectory had taken an unexpected turn due to the flapping of his "butterfly" wings.

Watching the red divine ape in the heart of the river, freely releasing its origin power, its aura already at Early Da Luo, a meaningful smile curled at the corner of Li Cha's mouth.

"Come, let's go over and take a look."