Old Ancestor Hongjun's ethereal voice filled Zixiao Palace. Only then did Nuwa, standing in the front row, breathe a long sigh of relief.
"Phew!"
"Thank goodness Dao Ancestor didn't insist on driving Fellow Daoist Beichen out of the palace. Otherwise, Nuwa would have stood firmly by Fellow Daoist Beichen and persuaded Master to let him stay!"
Nuwa hadn't forgotten Beichen's kindness in giving up his seat. She would remember his gesture for the rest of her life.
Especially after she learned that the cushion represented a Saint Position, she would feel even more gratitude and reverence toward Beichen.
"Grand Unity Golden Immortal: the Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, the Five Qi Return to Their Origin. Water and fire cannot harm them, nor can the Five Thunders frighten them. Daoist resonance surrounds them. This is the beginning of deathlessness and immortality, the first to shake Heaven and Earth! Those who enter the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm can be called true great powers of this Primordial World."
"Yet the strength of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal's Dao differs according to the rank of their Three Flowers. This is determined by one's innate constitution: it is inborn, and no amount of effort later in life can control or change it. Still, the many cultivators of the Primordial World can make modest changes through nourishing their foundations, cultivating their Dao, strengthening themselves with magic treasures, and drawing upon Heaven and Earth's spiritual roots, merit, and opportunities..."
"But these factors are also quite limited and depend on fate. Thus, the foundation of cultivation does not lie in them, but in the cultivator themselves! The bodies and souls of us cultivators are like vessels. If the vessels are identical, then it comes down to who can fill theirs to the greatest extent. That is when one achieves completeness, and cultivation can proceed without regrets..."
Old Ancestor Hongjun explained the Dao in a leisurely, engaging manner. The cultivators listened attentively, found his words eminently reasonable, and hurriedly committed them to memory.
The cultivators seated on the cushions felt that the foundational Dao of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal was very simple. With a mere passing listen, they grasped all of it.
The farther back the seats went, the farther they were from Dao Ancestor. This meant weaker constitutions and poorer comprehension. And since they were so far away, they could barely hear him. Naturally, they gained less and less.
The listeners in the first two rows could absorb all of Dao Ancestor Hongjun's teachings.
Starting from the third row, they grasped nine-tenths, then eight-tenths, then seven-tenths, with each successive row receiving less.
In the last few rows, nearly everyone was at the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm. Even though they were listening to the most basic teachings on the early stage of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm, they were still confused and could barely understand. They gained less than a tenth of the Dao.
In the end, those Grand Unity Golden Immortals in the back who couldn't understand the teachings simply let them go in one ear and out the other. They listened while using the Daoist resonance of Zixiao Palace to cultivate.
The seats in the back were extremely far away, and Hongjun knew those cultivators had poor comprehension. He simply left them to their own devices.
Understanding the Dao depended on fate. Hongjun carried on teaching as he pleased. How much the guests below understood and how much they gained in cultivation was up to them.
Hongjun taught with great fervor, and before anyone knew it, five hundred years had passed.
From the very beginning, Beichen hadn't listened to him at all. Instead, he had plugged his ears and activated the Universe Great Dao Mystic Turtle Shell to record the contents of the Great Dao.
Buzz!
As soon as five hundred years had passed, radiant light bloomed from Beichen once more. Everyone's attention was drawn away, and they couldn't help looking over at him.
It turned out Beichen had been cultivating with the help of Zixiao Palace's Daoist resonance. He had made a minor breakthrough in the Quasi-Saint Realm, which had stirred up the commotion.
The commotion disrupted the palace, making it difficult for everyone to focus on the lecture. It also interrupted Old Ancestor Hongjun's teaching.
After that, Beichen's body radiated light nearly every hundred years, distracting everyone.
As time went on, Old Ancestor Hongjun even forgot his lines and fell silent several times while teaching, losing track of where he had left off.
"Where was I?"
Old Ancestor Hongjun was drenched in sweat. Every so often, he awkwardly scratched his head and glared angrily at Beichen.
He had wanted to kick Beichen out again, but remembered how sharp-tongued he was. That would inevitably lead to another argument and waste time. Besides, he couldn't afford a long pause in the middle of his lecture, so he gritted his teeth and continued.
Old Ancestor Hongjun had been able to teach the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao off the cuff. He hadn't expected to stumble through it like this. The disruption had been immense.
Still, he was Dao Ancestor, and he managed to keep teaching steadily.
However, as the teachings grew more and more profound, more of the guests in the palace found themselves unable to understand. More and more gave up.
Many of the cultivators who had stopped listening were drawn to the commotion Beichen made. Watching divine light shine from his whole body as his cultivation was refined seemed quite fascinating.
Hongjun was angry at the sight, but didn't show it.
"Menace! This Mystic Turtle Beichen is a menace, a single rat dropping in a pot of porridge!"
Old Ancestor Hongjun could only curse him in his heart.
The lecture continued, and a thousand years passed.
The cultivators in the front rows absorbed all of the Great Dao taught over those thousand years. The teachings on the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao had reached its middle stage.
Breakthroughs occurred from time to time in the Dao Field, but most were from the early stage of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm to the middle stage, and caused little commotion.
Sanqing, Nuwa, Fu Xi, Hong Yun, Ancestor Minghe, Jieyin, Zhunti, and the others were waiting for the final teachings on the consummate Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm. The early, middle, and late-stage teachings of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao were of no fundamental use to them!
The teachings on the middle stage of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm had eliminated countless cultivators. Seven-tenths of those present had given up listening. They either cultivated on their own or meditated on and absorbed what Hongjun had taught earlier. As for what came afterward, it was too profound, so they stopped listening!
Boom!
Just as Old Ancestor Hongjun began teaching the Dao of the peak of the middle stage of the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Realm, brilliant light erupted from Zhen Yuanzi. He had broken through into the Quasi-Sage Realm, setting off a commotion throughout the hall.
Fortunately, Zhen Yuanzi's breakthrough was nowhere near as disruptive as Beichen's first one. Old Ancestor Hongjun pretended not to notice and didn't let it interrupt his lecture.
But then he heard Zhen Yuanzi say something that nearly made his nose twist and his eyes bulge with rage.
Zhen Yuanzi said to Beichen, "Mystic Turtle Daoist, over these thousand years, I've watched you break through and refine your Dao foundation, then enter the Quasi-Sage Realm in one leap. Thank you, fellow Daoist!"
Hongjun's scalp prickled. So Zhen Yuanzi hasn't listened to a single word I've taught, either? Heh...
Hongjun nearly laughed himself into a rage. Zhen Yuanzi, you're truly detestable! You've actually fallen in with this Mystic Turtle!
Dao Ancestor felt a trace of hatred toward Zhen Yuanzi, but it wasn't intense. Compared to Beichen, Zhen Yuanzi wasn't worth taking seriously.
Still, Zhen Yuanzi's breakthrough had disrupted his lecture again, forcing him to pause for several days before continuing.
"Fellow Daoist Zhen Yuanzi, Hong Yun congratulates you! Dao Ancestor hasn't even finished teaching the Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao, and you've already entered the Quasi-Sage Realm. This breakthrough had nothing to do with Dao Ancestor at all. You're the impressive one!"
Hong Yun leaned over and whispered.
"This Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao is truly difficult to teach!"
Hong Yun was speaking from the second row, so it was hard not to disrupt Hongjun's lecture. But Hongjun couldn't very well enforce discipline, so he could only complain inwardly.
Yet things were about to get even harder for him.
Because he couldn't help glancing at Xihe and Changxi's bellies.
When Old Ancestor Hongjun's gaze landed on them, he froze and paused once more. "Th-these two Lunar Goddesses' unborn children are actually listening attentively to my lecture?"
Then he looked accusingly at Beichen, since Beichen was the one who had brought them here.
That glance was all it took for Old Ancestor Hongjun to freeze again. "There's also a powerful-rooted aphid that's awakened inside a treasure bottle on this Mystic Turtle. Is it listening to my lecture too?"
"Infuriating, infuriating! These wet-born, egg-hatched creatures..."
"This Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao is so difficult to teach!"
These unexpected incidents had a considerable impact on Old Ancestor Hongjun's lecture, nearly disturbing his Dao heart.
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