Moon Worship

"Zhang Jiugao took you into the woods to hunt monkeys? He actually came up with that?"

Back at Wangshu Residence, Fuling was fuming. The moment she came over, she twisted Li Fan's ear. "Fine, you went off, but that old Daoist didn't even give us a heads-up! I was worried sick—I thought you'd been lost! And you too, Qingyue. Immortal soup and spirit medicine—how could you keep pouring that stuff into your mouth with that taste?"

"This kid knows he was wrong..."

Li Fan seized the chance to act cute, hugging Fairy Wangshu's thigh and rubbing against it. No reason not to take advantage.

Li Fan's mood increased by 1.

Real Person Wangshu smiled, unbothered. "All right, Fuling. He wasn't lost, and we found him again. How did the things I asked you to handle go? Are they all done?"

"Yes, Miss. I brought back a small section of tail from the Mountain Gate, and it's stewing in the pot right now," Fuling replied seriously. Then she raised a hand and took out a flag and a sword, holding them in her palms. "I also obtained a Dao register and talisman for Qingyue, and found him work as a dragon-herding boy."

"A dragon-herding boy?" Li Fan curiously examined the flag and sword in Fuling's hands, completely failing to notice that dinner's ingredients were deeply questionable.

The flag was a triangular spirit banner, black with red trim. Its surface was covered in cinnabar talismans and incomprehensible secret incantations. The sword was four feet long, its blade secured within the sheath by a bronze lock, with a yellow talisman sealing the opening. It looked like a ritual implement rather than something meant for battle.

"Dragon-herding boy is a good assignment." Real Person Wangshu nodded, pointing at the command flag and ritual sword as she spoke to Li Fan. "Bamboo Mountain keeps many spirit birds and rare beasts, including four little dragons. They can't be shut in the mountain streams all the time; they need to be let out for air regularly, and someone has to watch them."

What...

Herd dragons? Literally?

Li Fan stared blankly. "The dragon you mean is the dragon I know?"

Fuling rolled her eyes at him. "A dragon is a dragon. What do you mean, this kind or that kind? Don't worry, you won't be the only boy serving them. Just come with me tomorrow. You'll learn after watching twice. You can also leave the mountain whenever you want, and the pay isn't bad either. One trip earns five thousand gold. If anything happens, just tear open the yellow talisman and raise the ritual sword to cut it down."

After she simply stuffed the command flag and ritual sword into his arms, Li Fan was still dumbfounded.

No, you made that sound easy, but this was herding dragons, not walking dogs, big sis!

Profound Heaven Sword Intent indicated that the host need not worry. Dragons were delicious. The system also indicated its agreement.

No, you'd eaten dragons before? Were dragons of this generation really this pathetic?

"You can ask Fuling about such trivial matters tomorrow." Real Person Wangshu glanced at the sky and smiled at Li Fan. "It's getting late. Tonight, I'll take you out for Moon Worship. When we return, dinner will be ready for a feast."

At the mention of Moon Worship, Fuling seemed unable to stop herself from shuddering. She excused herself and left first.

Please make mental preparations before Moon Worship. Current mood: 100/100.

Even the system was being this serious. Remembering how his mood had dropped point by point before, Li Fan swallowed. He wondered whether he ought to prepare some sweets or biscuits in advance, so he could chew on them if he couldn't hold out.

Fairy Wangshu seemed to see his nerves and smiled. "Don't worry. This time, I'm mainly teaching you how to cultivate the Great Dao. I won't enter meditation myself—I'll watch over you from the side. If anything goes wrong, or if you show signs of falling to the Dao Ancestor again, I'll pull you out in time."

Li Fan swallowed.

He had now gained at least a tiny understanding of this world's insane cultivation methods. Thinking back carefully, his first Moon Worship had truly been perilous. His mood had started at one hundred points, and normally it rarely declined, recovering quickly even when it did. Yet back then, it had been ticking downward second by second. Even with his calming talent supporting him, it had nearly fallen to the bottom. In the end, Profound Heaven Sword Intent had pierced his palm to wake him. But if it happened again, would he still have a chance to wake up alive?

Li Fan hugged Fairy Wangshu's thigh as she flew out of the grotto-heaven, sneaking glances at Real Person Wangshu, who was still licking the corners of her lips.

Li Fan was no fool. It was just that sometimes, the vigorous hormonal secretion of this young body interfered with him and involuntarily delegated a little of his priority for rational thought... Could he be blamed? Hormones had decided it!

Ahem. In any case, Li Fan could naturally tell that this fairy's appetite for him was immense. She wanted nothing more than to swallow him whole, but had been forcibly holding herself back, probably because she thought he would taste better, be more nutritious, and provide a larger portion if saved for later.

But if Li Fan truly risked demonic corruption later, even revealing a trace of Devil Form, then whether Fairy Wangshu could suppress her appetite and save him, or whether she would be unable to resist letting him turn into a demon before feasting to her heart's content, was impossible to say.

He could only gamble—gamble that Real Person Wangshu could suppress her appetite... with an even greater appetite...

This time, they flew much farther, all the way into the depths of the mountains and ancient forest. Only then did Real Person Wangshu bring Li Fan down at an altar deep within Ink Bamboo Grove.

Its layout was largely similar to the altar Qin Jianshi had guarded before: a statue of a demon lord stood in the center, with forty-nine meditation cushions on each of the four sides. But this demon lord looked obviously different. It was not an eight-armed, six-headed human figure, but a... thing Li Fan could not identify. It did not look like tentacles, nor did it look like snakes. It resembled a mass of tangled earthworms, like clumps of intestines boiled to mush in plain water...

Li Fan's mood decreased by 1.

Damn, just looking at it made him nauseous.

"Revered Heavenly Demon." Real Person Wangshu pointed at the disgusting cluster of worms atop the altar. "These statues and demonic bodies were made from the discarded shells of Real Persons who manifested Devil Forms when their minds were disturbed, but returned to their Dao bodies and human forms before the moon set and dawn arrived. They are used to serve the Heavenly Demon and sense baleful qi.

"If someone makes a mistake during Moon Worship and gazes into the abyss in a dream, seeing something foul, it will stir the baleful qi within the void. It is normally hard to detect while meditating, but once the Revered Heavenly Demon is infected by baleful qi, it will revive. At that point, I'll know it is time to wake you."

Li Fan nodded as if he understood. With such an alarm-like warning mechanism, he felt somewhat reassured. Presumably, Qin Jianshi had pulled him out this way before. But imagining that thing before him coming alive was truly...

Fairy Wangshu stared at the Revered Heavenly Demon in thought and said,

"To worship the False Moon, one should originally have the foundation of the Golden Core and cultivate the Divine Treasury Method to form divine light protecting the body before cultivation is considered safe. But Golden Cores are hard to obtain in the first place. To break through that threshold, countless cultivators have taken the risk. Those who transformed into demons—even those in the Qi Refining Stage secretly taking the risk—were not uncommon.

"But Qingyue, having worshipped the moon before, you should know that ordinary people cannot control the Heavenly Dao. The moment obsession arises in one's heart, there is a danger of manifesting a Devil Form. Especially for a lucky one like you, who saw the Dao Ancestor at first glance.

"So even though every altar has a Revered Heavenly Demon and a Nascent Soul Real Person standing guard, there are still many who fall to demons during Moon Worship. Even among your batch of boys, no one was originally meant to teach you meditation. It was merely a formality, letting the Revered Heavenly Demon sense whether you harbored hidden baleful qi, whether Devil Embryos might seize the chance to infiltrate our Mountain Gate and cause trouble.

"Who would have thought that it would uncover you, a Dao Child, and that you would happen to encounter the False Moon overhead? Heh, it was fate..."

Thinking of the other twenty boys who had entered the mountain with him, Li Fan could only silently agree.

Fairy Wangshu shook her head, then smiled brightly and guided Li Fan to sit on a meditation cushion. "In another half hour, the twin moons will appear together. If the False Moon is not directly overhead, then you can cultivate normally. Put simply, all you need to do is watch the moon, breathe, and enter meditation while continuing to cultivate the Postnatal Cultivation Method you are practicing.

"After entering meditation, your cultivation speed will increase enormously, but there remains the risk of gazing into the abyss in dreams. In the Postnatal Immortal Dao, this is called letting Divine Sense travel outward and perceive heaven and earth. This is what is known as 'enlightenment.'

"But in the Innate Great Dao, Divine Sense merges with the Supreme Plain Heavenly Dao. The greater one's comprehension, the more likely one is to see the Innate grotesque forms of things that are and are not things within the abyssal void—even the Tai Su Dao Ancestor.

"Of course, most of the time, most people are dull of aptitude and see nothing in the void. But if they do see something, there is a risk of demonic corruption.

"Therefore, only a very small number of Dao Children with hearts as firm as stone, cultivators above the Golden Core who have cultivated the Divine Treasury Method, or cultivators with immense perseverance and determination can recover their original hearts and restore their Dao bodies after being tainted and revealed by the Great Dao.

"But if they still cannot remember their human form by the time the moon sets, the sun rises, and daylight fully arrives, their Devil Forms can no longer be withdrawn."

The fairy smiled as she scraped Li Fan's nose with a finger. "At that point, they become Devil Embryos—something every cultivator among us may kill, and whose flesh is a great tonic."

At her touch, Li Fan nearly jumped up in horror.

Li Fan's mood increased by 1.

Fuck, this thing had to be broken.

Wangshu stopped teasing him and giggled. "During the era of the Postnatal Immortal Dao, no matter how exquisite a sect's Cultivation Methods were, how brilliant its Dao Children, or how thoroughly they were nurtured with all available resources, it still took one Jiazi of bitter cultivation to break through the Golden Core threshold. Those who failed to form a Golden Core even after two hundred years and could only seek wealth and status for a lifetime were as numerous as carp crossing a river.

"Even swallowing a Golden Core was not truly a matter of my fate being mine rather than heaven's. One merely gained three to five hundred more years of life. Cultivation became slower afterward, while competition for companions, resources, methods, and land grew fiercer. Without a bit of personal fortune, the Golden Core Realm was the end of the road. Still, once one reached the Golden Core Stage, there was barely a method of releasing the body and reincarnating. If one had rendered great service to a sect in a previous life, then after reincarnation, one could ask one's former masters to guide them back into the Mountain Gate. It simply meant taking fewer detours from childhood.

"Thus, those who cultivated the ancient methods to Nascent Soul Real Person generally endured over five hundred years of bitter cultivation. Beyond that, the realms of Divine Transformation, Enlightenment, and Feather Transformation Immortal each required cultivation spanning thousands of years. Nearly all were immortal paths opened by the Three Great Sects of the Central Plains, heavenly principles only comprehended by the orthodox Xuan Sect traditions from antiquity to the present. As for fringe sects and independent cultivators, no mighty expert has ever been heard of developing another method to break through the realms.

"Of course, such figures have always been exceedingly rare. Generally speaking, great cultivators in the Divine Transformation Stage are enough to establish sects and schools, while mighty experts of the Enlightenment Stage are already giants ruling a regional power. As for the legends of Immortal Ascension and Dao Unification, there have only been a handful throughout history.

"Now then, Qingyue, do you understand the advantage of the Innate Great Dao?"

Li Fan seemed to realize something. "Speed?"

Fairy Wangshu nodded. "Speed. So fast that all so-called cultivation bottlenecks and breakthrough thresholds can be smashed through in one charge!

"I remember Fuling needed ten years to open her Inner Landscape, while you merely worshipped once and sat in meditation for a while, right? Even if her aptitude were far worse than yours, there could not be such a gap. That is the difference between Innate and Postnatal—the gulf is this vast.

"My aptitude is poor. Even so, it took me only three Jiazi to reach my current cultivation and break into the Nascent Soul Realm, and that was roughly a hundred years ago. If I can obtain more high-grade Devil Embryos to consume, breaking through to the Transformation Stage within three hundred years is by no means impossible.

"This is the true broad road of the Great Dao. How can a side path like the Postnatal Immortal Dao compare?"

Profound Heaven Sword Intent indicated: Damn, she has cultivated to such a level in less than two hundred years. No comparison, truly no comparison.

Li Fan pursed his lips. "But cultivating like this has risks, doesn't it?"

For example, the Postnatal Immortal Dao was like climbing mountains and crossing ridges. Some places were sheer, perilous cliffs; if one could not cross them, one simply could not cross them.

The Innate Great Dao, meanwhile, truly was an unrestricted highway where one could floor the accelerator. But if some thing-that-was-not-a-thing occasionally blocked the road and the brakes could not stop in time, would that not mean total destruction?

"Ha! Risks? What in this world has no risks?" Fairy Wangshu laughed loudly. "Does the Postnatal Immortal Dao have no risks? It requires aptitude and qualifications too! Do you know how bloody and brutal the struggles were back then among the Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators of the Three Great Sects? They fought for resources, for release and reincarnation, for achievements within their sects, and to lay a better foundation for their next lives!

"There is no need to go into the internal conflict and slaughter of the cultivation world. Do you know what the Human Dao, caught up in the Immortal-Demon Conflict, called those Immortal Palaces, Xuan Sects, and God Sects?

"Demon Palaces! Demon Sects! Demon Cults!

"Compared with that Taiji Left Way, the Innate Tai Su Dao merely causes slight bodily changes. As long as one strictly guards one's Dao heart, it can be controlled freely. What is bad about that? It is simply wonderful! Hahaha! Hahaha! Ahahaha!"

Profound Heaven Sword Intent indicated that the girl had a point. Slaying the demons in one's heart was always better than cutting down the demons in one's body.

Hey, what was with a sword immortal of the Postnatal Immortal Dao, famed for slaughter, being convinced first?

"Oh dear, no good. I got carried away. Restrain yourself, restrain yourself." Fairy Wangshu stifled her laughter, covering her mouth with a smile. Then, hands behind her back, she circled behind Li Fan and crouched at a distance to watch him.

"Of course, I have indeed benefited from the sect. I had the Innate Great Dao cultivation methods compiled by generations of mountain masters, and I was fortunate enough to proceed smoothly without manifesting a Devil Form.

"But Qingyue, you are different. You saw the Dao Ancestor on your first worship—what will you see on the second? I truly look forward to it. All right, the moon is out."

Li Fan swallowed with difficulty. He felt a little guilty too... Hm?

Then Li Fan saw a streak of white light dart out from beneath his robe, shooting into the shadows behind the Revered Heavenly Demon to hide.

Eh? That was... Sword Intent?

Profound Heaven Sword Intent indicated that it had suffered a great loss of power. It truly could not endure seeing the Dao Ancestor again. This time, the host would have to handle it himself. Next time, it would teach you two secret sword sect methods as compensation.

Holy—fuck! Your contracted item ran away at the critical moment? And you called yourself the Supreme Limitless Xuantian Sword Ancestor? Fuck!

Ugh... This was exhausting...

Ding. Lottery cooldown complete. Charging complete. The system recommends that the host draw once first. If you are sent outside the service area, the prize may not be delivered, and this will also prevent the lottery charge from being wasted.

Oh! The system was still reliable! Though it sounded like it was a little nervous too? Ah, whatever! Draw, draw, draw!

Li Fan hurriedly adopted the ostrich strategy, shutting his eyes to avoid seeing the moon.

Lottery complete!

Oh, oh, oh!

Hm... Li Fan groped around with his hands. There was nothing.

Hm? System?

Prize is being delivered. Please wait... Delivery failed. Host is outside the service area.

Huh?

Li Fan opened his eyes and found himself sitting in a vast ocean filled with gray sludge.

At the same time, that continuous shrill cry he had heard before rang out beside his ears again, like the voice of a boy.

Li Fan's mood decreased by 1.

Li Fan's mood decreased by 1.

Li Fan's mood decreased by 1.