Restarting the Journey, Spreading the Dao in the Western Realm

After Hongjun united with the Dao, Li Cha returned to Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven and lived in seclusion. During this time, aside from secretly assisting the Witch Race in consolidating its strength and balancing the Primordial Wilderness's overall situation, he spent most of his days in leisure. He devoted his main efforts to further refining the Chaos Pearl. It took him two thousand years to refine the three layers of restrictions that had loosened due to the Ren Water Grotto-Heaven's fusion. By then, his control over this Chaos Supreme Treasure had risen to another level. The Chaos Pearl's aura completely enveloped and muddled his fate and heavenly secrets; even Hongjun, who had united with the Heavenly Dao, would find it difficult to calculate his precise movements unless Li Cha deliberately revealed himself. This provided tremendous convenience for his future travels through the Primordial Wilderness.

Treasure Distribution Cliff was made of extraordinary material. Having once borne countless spirit treasures, it was imprinted with innumerable chaotic fragments of laws, giving it unique properties. It was unsuitable for crafting deadly weapons focused on slaughter, yet equally difficult to forge into purely defensive spirit armor. After pondering for a long while, Li Cha found inspiration in a concept from his past-life memories. Expending great effort, using Great Dao Merit as an aid and the qi of the Five Elements as furnace fire, he finally refined Treasure Distribution Cliff into an Exotic Treasure—a Postnatal Supreme Spirit Treasure—the Treasure Gathering Basin.

The basin was dark gold, its outer walls carved with countless simplified spirit treasure Dao patterns. Within it lay a space of its own, profoundly mysterious. Its core laws were neither offense nor defense, but "gathering" and "derivation." Because it had once carried ten thousand treasures, it could quietly absorb the faint luck and Spiritual Energy scattered throughout the Primordial Wilderness that were associated with "treasures." Every year, it could automatically condense a Postnatal low-grade treasure material; every ten years, a mid-grade material; every hundred years, a high-grade one; and only after a thousand years could it nurture a heavenly material or earthly treasure of Postnatal supreme-grade quality. Postnatal supreme grade was its limit, and what it produced was mostly unrefined raw material requiring further processing by its user. Even so, this Exotic Treasure was practically heaven-defying, providing Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven with a stable, continuous supply of precious resources. More importantly, its hidden ability to gather luck associated with "treasures" gradually nourished the grotto-heaven's fortune. The younger members of the grotto-heaven, especially lively, restless ones like Wu Zhiqi, were particularly curious about the basin. Every year's "harvest" was like a festival, adding much amusement for the disciples.

The years within the grotto-heaven passed peacefully, while outside, the Witch and Demon Races continued accumulating strength, with only minor frictions between them. East King Duke, on the other hand, was running about everywhere, hoping to establish an "Immortal Court." He had even sent people to Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven to recruit them in the name of the "Head of Male Immortals," only for Mo Ran to rebuff them with neither servility nor arrogance. When Li Cha heard of it, he merely laughed it off. He had never regarded East King Duke as worthy of his attention.

After such leisure had lasted for a long time, Li Cha grew restless in his stillness and decided to once again begin a journey through the Primordial Wilderness, spreading the Dao in every direction. This time, his cultivation had reached the Peak Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm. Baxia, peerless in defense, remained behind in Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven to guard it, ensuring the foundation would be secure. Mo Ran accompanied him, attending to him and managing all the trivial matters along the way with his steady, meticulous nature. Shi Qing, Wu Zhiqi, and Forget Worry, his three disciples, also traveled with them. They could protect the Dao while gaining knowledge and experience from the journey. Only Lianyi and Qing Xuan were left behind in the grotto-heaven to cultivate diligently. Having only recently broken through to the Golden Immortal realm, their cultivation still required consolidation and settling. Moreover, the Western lands had recently become rife with undercurrents due to Daoist Jieyin and Daoist Zhunti's activities, and Li Cha feared unforeseen accidents.

With Mo Ran serving as their mount, the group traveled atop the clouds with an air of easy leisure. Setting out from Buzhou Mountain and heading west, whenever they encountered spirit mountains, blessed lands, Demon Race tribes, or settlements of intelligent beings, they chose a suitable spot to sow tea seeds brimming with vitality, enlightening them with their own Dao resonance to help them take root and sprout. Several decades passed unhurriedly. Along a route spanning tens of millions of li from Buzhou Mountain to the western Boundary, hundreds of thousands of tea trees of all shapes had already flourished amid the mountains and waters, their faint spiritual light shimmering as they silently radiated a tranquil, peaceful aura. The name "Tea Dao" also spread farther and wider as these tea trees grew and Li Cha occasionally stopped to explain its principles, becoming known to more and more living beings.

On this day, the group finally entered the Western Realm. Compared to the east, the west truly appeared thin in spiritual qi, and the mountains and rivers still bore faint traces of wounds left behind by ancient great wars. Yet thanks to Li Cha's arrangements during his earlier travels and the spread of tea seeds, this place was not a "Tea Dao desert." Many regions already had entire tea gardens. After sensing the tranquility brought by the tea trees and their slight benefits to cultivation, some local cultivators and intelligent beings had begun picking the leaves and attempting to process and drink them themselves. However, they did not know the proper methods, achieving less than one-tenth of the intended effect. Some even suffered backlash from improper use.

Seeing this, Li Cha felt both gratified and responsible. Whenever he arrived at a place where the art of tea had begun to sprout, he would remain for several days, having Shi Qing, Wu Zhiqi, Forget Worry, and the others establish simple Dao venues on the spot and explain the essential principles of the Tea Dao. They covered everything in detail: picking, processing, and storing tea leaves; the water temperature, state of mind, and etiquette for brewing; and even how one could perceive nature through tasting tea, harmonize Yin Yang, and calm the spirit. They guided these bewildered seekers of the Dao through the maze and corrected their mistakes. The Dao they taught was peaceful and practical, involving neither slaughter nor conflict, concerning only the cultivation of body and mind and the comprehension of heaven and earth. Before long, it attracted great numbers of Western beings to listen. Many cultivation problems that had plagued them for ages suddenly became clear through a cup of Pure Tea and a few words of guidance. For a time, wherever Li Cha went, there were devout Dao seekers and tea fragrance in the air, while his reputation spread rapidly among the Western Realm's lower-level cultivators and living beings.

Such enormous momentum naturally could not be concealed from the Western lands' two "masters"—Daoist Jieyin and Daoist Zhunti.

Though they had not personally attended Li Cha's Dao teachings, Daoist Jieyin and Daoist Zhunti quickly sensed the influx of this foreign Dao Lineage and its growing appeal to Western beings through their increasingly profound cultivation and perception of Western fortune. The two sat facing each other in Spirit Mountain's Dao venue, their expressions grave.

"Senior Brother, this Daoist Yun Hua's cultivation is unfathomable. Back in the Purple Sky Palace, he was even someone who dared contend with the Dao Ancestor. The Tea Dao he spreads appears peaceful and free of contention, yet it truly points directly to the Dao Heart, moistening all things in silence. If this continues, I fear it may shake the very foundation of our Western Dao!" Daoist Zhunti's face was filled with worry. He had always regarded revitalizing the west as his own duty and was extremely sensitive to any factor that might affect the west's "purity."

Daoist Jieyin wore a face of suffering, his brows tightly furrowed as he slowly said, "What Junior Brother says is true. This man's Dao practice is profound. He has shown disrespect toward the Dao Ancestor, yet the Dao Ancestor has never made things difficult for him. There are even rumors that he bears Great Dao Merit, so he cannot be confronted by force. However, the spread of his Dao Lineage does indeed differ from our teachings, diverting Western fortune and believers. We cannot simply stand by and watch."

After discussing the matter for a long time, the two felt that directly appearing to drive away or oppose Li Cha would be too risky and lack proper justification. In the end, they decided upon a roundabout strategy. Secretly, they sent disciples and believers influenced or controlled by them to infiltrate the places where Li Cha taught the Dao, or to visit the regions that had just received the Tea Dao's initial teachings after he departed.

Some of those sent would openly raise tricky questions during Li Cha's teachings, attempting to use the Western ways of nirvana, karma, and salvation to refute the Tea Dao's "non-action" and "naturalness," stirring up disputes. Others would spread rumors after Li Cha left, claiming that the Tea Dao was merely a "minor path," that indulging in it would delay one's "true fruition," and that only by taking refuge in the Western Wondrous Dharma could one attain true liberation and everlasting life in ultimate bliss. Worse still, some secretly sabotaged newly growing tea gardens or used divine abilities to disturb the mental state of those sincerely practicing the Tea Dao.

These methods were not particularly clever, but like gnats and flies, they were indeed irritating. To a certain extent, they interfered with Li Cha's progress in spreading the Dao, causing some weak-willed people to waver and the Tea Dao's spread in certain regions to encounter resistance. Daoist Jieyin and Daoist Zhunti hoped that through this continued interference and struggle between Dao Lineages, Li Cha would recognize the difficulties and retreat, leaving the west of his own accord and restoring it to "purity."

On this day, Li Cha had just finished a Dao teaching in a place called Clear Spring Valley. The beings within the valley were utterly entranced, and many broke through their bottlenecks on the spot. Mo Ran quietly approached and said in a low voice, "Master, lately, during your Dao teachings, there have always been people with ill intentions causing disturbances. After we leave, many tea gardens we have enlightened are also destroyed, and believers are harassed. Judging by their methods, the trail faintly points toward Spirit Mountain."

Li Cha sat upon Mo Ran's back, holding a cup of freshly brewed Pure Spirit Tea. Upon hearing this, he merely gently blew away the heat rising from the tea, his expression unchanged. Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

"Oh? They finally can't sit still? No matter. Where the Dao lies, how can a few demons and monsters block its path? If they wish to use Dao to break Dao, then we shall... discuss this Dao properly." His gaze calmly turned toward Western Spirit Mountain. He drained the Pure Tea from his cup. "Next, we will teach the Dao at Withering Prosperity Mountain near Spirit Mountain. Shi Qing, Wu Zhiqi, prepare yourselves. This time, it may become rather lively."