Sorting Things Out

As the sun rose and set, with White Fox handling the odds and ends nearby, Yu Chen and the others talked for six full days.

Over those six days, much of the information within Yu Chen's golden finger updated again and again. Jin Guang and Yan Chixia were also deeply astonished by Yu Chen's capacity for comprehension. Their discussions gradually changed from Yu Chen listening while the other two spoke, to the two of them listening while Yu Chen spoke.

By the third day, they had exhausted all the cultivation techniques and subtleties of their methods that they could discuss. Their conversation then shifted from cultivation methods to sects and factions. This time, Yu Chen was once again the listener while the other two spoke. Whether deliberately or not, they explained in great detail the relationships among numerous sects, as well as the many forces under the White Lotus Sect.

It was not until the Heaven-Human Sect replied to Yan Chixia's message and urged the two of them to return at once that the three realized how much time had passed. After reading the message, Yan Chixia rose to bid farewell.

"The sect has summoned us, so we shall not disturb you any longer, Daoist friend."

Yu Chen replied with a smile, "This discussion of the Dao with you has benefited me greatly as well. I need to contemplate it carefully for some time, so I will not interfere with the two of you attending to your affairs."

After the three bid each other farewell, Yu Chen stayed with the Dong Family.

On the one hand, this was to prevent anyone from returning after leaving. On the other, he intended to use the opportunity to teach his disciple Daoist arts and sort through what he himself had learned.

Yu Chen possessed quite a few cultivation techniques. Aside from the repeatedly revised Orthodox Three-Mountains Talisman Qi Formula, which could be cultivated to the Ghost Immortal Realm and had both a qi-refining and a talisman version, he had also repaired portions of the incomplete <Supreme True Person's Life-Nourishing Information Yin Talisman Treasure Register> and <White Lotus True Faith's Doubt-Dispelling, Cultivation-Free Free and Easy Treasure Scroll>. Combined with this latest discussion of the Dao, they were now sufficient to ensure cultivation through the Human Immortal Realm.

Yet after considering it over and over, Yu Chen ultimately decided to teach the Dong Family boy, now named Dong Ye, the Golden Light Mantra.

It was not that Yu Chen was unwilling to teach Dong Ye a more profound technique. The issue was time.

Based on Yu Chen's estimate, this journey across time would last only around three months. In such a short span, it was simply impossible to lay the foundations of cultivation for a muddleheaded child.

Rather than forcing a child to comprehend countless essentials of Daoist learning within three months, it was better to teach him something simplest and easiest to master quickly.

Then, through the method of transmission, he could leave all the methods he wished to impart within Dong Ye's Golden Light Ruyi.

Moreover, Yu Chen did not believe that his Golden Light Mantra, which had obtained the true intent of Generating Light and incorporated a small portion of the true intent of Talisman Water, would be lacking in any way.

After his recent research into Talisman Water, along with the newly activated Generating Light as a comparison, Yu Chen was already seventy percent certain of the relationship between the true intents of the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiend Arts within his golden finger and cultivation realms.

The Seventy-Two Earthly Fiend Arts could roughly be divided into three tiers: crimson cinnabar-script, golden script as the foundation, and encircled by azure qi. If the floating white characters that had appeared when they were first activated were included, then there were four tiers.

When an Earthly Fiend Art appeared white, its true intent should correspond to the Human Immortal Realm. Crimson true intent corresponded to the Ghost Immortal Realm, golden script true intent to the Earth Immortal Realm, and the final azure qi encircling it likely carried a portion of Heavenly Immortal Realm true intent.

Although Generating Light ranked below Talisman Water among the Seventy-Two Arts, it was still among the top fifteen methods. Records showed that it was founded upon golden script. Now that the Golden Light Mantra had fused with the true intent of the initially activated Generating Light Earthly Fiend Art, it was enough for Dong Ye to cultivate to the perfection of the Human Immortal Realm.

If Yu Chen could make further breakthroughs in Generating Light over these three months, or further revise the Golden Light Mantra and increase the proportion of Talisman Water true intent within it, then Dong Ye cultivating to the Ghost Immortal Realm through the Golden Light Mantra would not be impossible.

Having settled on the method he would teach, Yu Chen began considering the information he would leave Dong Ye during the transmission.

Naturally, the division of forces in this world was indispensable.

According to Jin Guang and Yan Chixia, this world was currently in an age when the Dao waxed and demons waned. Among the righteous paths, the immortal path had the Heaven-Human Sect, while the Buddhist path had Prajna Temple. Both possessed cultivators at the perfection of the True Person Realm—in Yu Chen's memories, the perfection of the Ghost Immortal Realm. With only one step further, they could achieve an Earth Immortal Primordial Spirit and live long, seeing the ages pass.

Beneath them were nearly a hundred immortal-path sects of varying sizes. Their strengths varied, but even the weakest had a cultivator in the early Ghost Immortal Realm guarding it.

By contrast, across the entire Divine Land, other than the White Lotus Sect, there was not a second demonic-path force with the nerve to show its head.

For the White Lotus Sect to continue thriving even while the righteous path flourished, and even send its disciple Wang Daoist here to establish a Daoist ground, it was naturally exceedingly powerful.

The White Lotus Sect Master's cultivation was unfathomably profound. He had clashed several times with the strongest experts of the Heaven-Human Sect and Prajna Temple, displaying cultivation no weaker than the perfection of the Ghost Immortal Realm. Of the Eight Divine Envoys and Five Great Elders beneath him, every one was a Ghost Immortal Realm cultivator. Among the incense masters commanding various regions, as well as the smaller forces flying the White Lotus Sect's banner, there might well be Ghost Immortal Realm cultivators too.

Overall, the White Lotus Sect was powerful enough to effortlessly destroy any righteous force aside from the Heaven-Human Sect and Prajna Temple. Even against the Heaven-Human Sect or Prajna Temple, in a one-on-one confrontation, it would likely hold the upper hand eighty percent of the time.

The only thing restraining the White Lotus Sect's ability to wield its full strength was the sect itself. Of its Eight Divine Envoys, four had unclear allegiances. Among the Five Great Elders, only one clearly stood by the Sect Master's side; the other four each harbored their own schemes.

The forces beneath them were even more of a motley mix of fish and dragons. After hearing this, Yu Chen strongly suspected that if the White Lotus Sect Master did not possess heaven-piercing, earth-shaking cultivation and forcibly suppress them from above, the sect might have torn itself apart long ago.

For that reason, the White Lotus Sect Master rarely left the sect's main altar. Of the Eight Divine Envoys and Five Great Elders beneath him, eight remained away from the main altar year-round, and orders from different sides often did not interfere with one another.

This was also why Jin Guang and Yan Chixia, two direct-line members of the Heaven-Human Sect, dared to travel abroad by themselves.

Come to think of it, the White Lotus Sect's setup is somewhat similar to the main and side instances of Strange Tales in the game world. The Heaven-Human Sect and Prajna Temple also resemble the plot of a certain Strange Tales instance. By that logic, Wang Daoist, Dong Ye, and Mirror Flower all seem to have prototypes in the Strange Tales series of instances. Wang Daoist and Mirror Flower's prototypes are Painted Skin, though that also involves a little other material. Dong Ye's prototype, meanwhile, is...

Yu Chen then recalled what he had encountered in his first instance, as well as the reliable information he had sorted out from the game world during this time. A different sort of thought could not help but arise in his heart.

"Fellow Daoist Hu!" Yu Chen called softly. White Fox immediately darted out from the side, cupped his paws in salute toward Yu Chen, and said, "May I ask why the True Person has summoned this little fox? What are your instructions?"

"How many times must I say it? I cannot bear the title of True Person! Just call me Daoist friend!"

Only after correcting White Fox's form of address did Yu Chen continue, "This time, I need you to help me gather some information. Once it is done, I can teach you the Golden Light Mantra."

At those words, White Fox dropped to both knees and kowtowed. "This little fox will certainly complete the task!"