Borrowing the False to Cultivate the True, the Dao Ancestor Speaks of Quasi-Saints

"There's no need for that, Daoist Friend. I brought a mat as well." Lingxiao laughed, then waved a hand and produced a mat woven from a branch and leaves of Fusang. Sitting upon it, he felt warmth suffuse his body.

Xihe and Changxi nestled against him from either side, their eyes curved into smiling crescents, their expressions filled with peace.

Nuwa was slightly startled by the sight, then smiled and returned to her Creation Mat.

Fu Xi frowned slightly. He looked at Lingxiao, who held one woman on each side with unhurried ease, then glanced at his own sister, whose heart was devoted solely to the Dao. In the end, he shook his head and sat cross-legged behind Nuwa.

On the mats in the front row, Jieyin and Zhunti watched the scene from afar. They exchanged a glance, each seeing gratitude and fervor in the other's eyes.

Jieyin pressed his palms together and softly uttered, "Excellent." A rare trace of delight appeared on his withered face as he sent a voice transmission to Zhunti:

"Daoist Friend Lingxiao guided Zhen Yuanzi in sorting out the earth veins, resolving the crisis of spiritual qi draining from the West for hundreds of millions of years. This favor outweighs Sumeru. My junior brother and I have traveled and labored through countless Yuanhuis, yet could not bring even the slightest improvement to the West. Daoist Friend, however, settled Heaven and Earth with a single word. Once the sermon ends, we may have to swallow our pride and ask Daoist Friend Lingxiao for guidance on restoring the West."

Zhunti nodded faintly, lightly rolling the Bodhi Prayer Beads between his fingers. A sharp gleam flickered in his eyes as he replied by voice transmission, "Senior Brother speaks true. It should be so. No one in the Primordial World can match Daoist Friend Lingxiao's precision of vision or depth of schemes. If we can receive his guidance, the flourishing of the West shall be within reach! Even if we must cast aside some face and kneel to beg him, what of it?"

For a moment, the gazes throughout Violet Firmament Palace fell, openly or subtly, upon Lingxiao.

Some envied his fortune. Some admired his insight. Some were grateful for his guidance. Others secretly feared his strength and reputation.

Even the Three Pure Ones seated in the front row glanced toward Lingxiao from time to time.

Bzzzt—

A supreme, unparalleled Heavenly Dao Sage's might suddenly shrouded the entire Violet Firmament Palace, then vanished in an instant.

Everyone looked up. Upon the Twelve-Petaled Merit Golden Lotus, light and shadow flowed, and Dao Ancestor Hongjun was already seated cross-legged.

He wore a plain Daoist robe. His hair and beard were both white, his features ancient and unadorned, without sorrow or joy. He seemed to have merged completely with the Heavenly Dao, leaving no trace to follow.

The Dao Ancestor's gaze slowly swept across the three thousand Violet Firmament Guests. It lingered longest upon Lingxiao. As he regarded the resplendent Merit Golden Wheel behind Lingxiao's head, an exceedingly faint note of approval and amusement flashed through his eyes.

Then his gaze moved away and swept once more over the foremost Innate Sacred Beings—the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti.

"Greetings, Teacher!"

"Greetings, Dao Ancestor!"

The three thousand Violet Firmament Guests bowed in unison, their voices shaking time and space.

"No need for formalities."

Hongjun spoke calmly. Without any visible movement from him, everyone found themselves helplessly rising and sitting back down.

His gaze fell upon Lingxiao once more and paused for a moment. Then he began to speak, lotus flowers blooming from his tongue, every word a pearl of wisdom:

"This second sermon shall concern the path of Quasi-Saints."

"A Quasi-Saint is the realm of attaining the Dao through our Profound Sect's Three Corpses Severing Path to Sainthood. Above the Great Firmament, below the Saint Realm, it stands on equal footing with the Primordial Golden Immortal. Only their paths to the Dao differ."

There was no superiority or inferiority between the two; it depended only upon the depth of one's cultivation and the strength of one's treasures.

Quasi-Saint was the new name for a realm he had defined according to his own Three-Corpses Severing Path to Sainthood. In the broader sense, it too belonged to the Primordial Golden Immortal realm, much like the relationship between Heavenly Dao Sages and Primordial Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals.

Dao Ancestor Hongjun's voice was even, yet it rang clearly in every person's ears:

"A Primordial Golden Immortal proves the Dao through Force, comprehending the source of the Great Dao. I am the laws, and the laws are I. This is the ancient path of the Primordial World. Its foundation is solid, yet progress is exceedingly slow. None but those with great perseverance and profound foundations can achieve it."

"A Quasi-Saint borrows the false to cultivate the true, severing attachments to illuminate the Dao."

"Within the depths of every living being's Primordial Spirit lie three obsessions: goodness, evil, and self. Like shackles binding the heart, they obstruct the clarity of one's Dao heart."

"The method of Three Corpses Severance uses a spiritual treasure containing Innate Indestructible Numinous Light as a vessel. It strips one's obsessions from the Primordial Spirit, severs them into the treasure to become independent corpse bodies, making the original body's Dao heart clear and pure, allowing it to comprehend the Great Dao more swiftly."

This was what it meant to "borrow the false to cultivate the true":

The corpse bodies were the "false self" formed from obsessions. By severing the false self, the original body drew closer to the "true self."

This was also the most fundamental difference between Quasi-Saints and Primordial Golden Immortals—Primordial Golden Immortals "use the self as the Dao," with their bodies themselves becoming laws; Quasi-Saints "borrow objects to illuminate the Dao," relying on external objects to strip away their obsessions.

The instant these words were spoken, a wave of murmuring arose in the hall.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches all wore disdainful expressions.

Gonggong curled his lip and sent a voice transmission to Zhurong. "What Three Corpses Severance? It is nothing more than a heretical side path. We Ancestral Witches use our bodies to become Saints, bearing laws with Father God's bloodline. Why should we borrow the strength of external objects?"

Gonggong nodded slightly, deeply agreeing with this.

The Three Pure Ones, however, appeared thoughtful, sharp light flickering in their eyes.

They had been formed from Pangu's Primordial Spirit, and their Dao hearts were pure. This path of Three Corpses Severance suited them exceedingly well.

Fire Phoenix Ancestor stroked his long beard, his brows slightly furrowed.

—He was one of the surviving ancestors of the Phoenix Clan and had long since reached the middle stage of the Primordial Golden Immortal realm. At this moment, he was weighing whether to switch to this shortcut of the Profound Sect.

Watching everyone's reactions, Hongjun inwardly sighed.

He had lived through countless Yuanhuis and understood better than anyone the difficulty of the ancient path of the Primordial World. If they followed the old path, then among the three thousand Violet Firmament Guests present, fewer than one in ten could become Primordial Golden Immortals. At most, several dozen or a hundred Primordial Golden Immortals would emerge.

It seemed he truly had to explain the Quasi-Saint path properly, so they could take a shortcut.

Dao Ancestor Hongjun had his own calculations as well—

Beyond benefiting the Primordial World, teaching the Dao to all beings also gathered here the Innate Sacred Beings with the greatest fortune and finest foundations. So long as they could heed his teachings and refrain from creating great conflicts and disputes, the Calamities could be eased to some extent.

And if he could use them as the foundation to establish order completely, so that living beings would no longer raise weapons against one another, that would be even better...

He continued his sermon. "Severing one corpse makes one an early-stage Quasi-Saint. Severing the corpses of goodness and evil makes one a middle-stage Quasi-Saint. Severing the corpse of self makes one a late-stage Quasi-Saint. Three Corpses Unification brings one to Quasi-Saint perfection. At that point, if one obtains Primordial Purple Qi as a guide, one may make the ultimate leap and attain the Primordial Dao Fruit, becoming a Saint."

Lingxiao sat upright upon his mat and quietly listened to the sermon, yet his heart was clear as a mirror.

His gaze swept over everyone in the hall. Knowing that more than half of these Innate Sacred Beings possessed Great Firmament Dao Flowers of merely the fifth or sixth grade, he mused inwardly:

This path may be a shortcut, but it is not one that everyone can walk.

One needs a Great Firmament Dao Flower of at least the seventh grade, as well as an Innate Spiritual Treasure suited to oneself to serve as the vessel for severing the corpses.

—For those whose Dao Flowers fall short, obsessions are difficult to sever. Forcing the matter will only shatter their Dao hearts and leave them dead, their Dao extinguished!

The Dao Ancestor did not mention this because he did not wish to dampen everyone's enthusiasm.

The Heavenly Dao had fifty, while heavenly evolution had forty-nine. Even if one's Dao Flower fell short, one could accumulate merits and virtues after birth and use merit to complete one's Dao foundation. There would still be a sliver of hope.

It could strengthen the Primordial World as a whole while driving everyone to perform more good deeds—a single stone striking two birds.

—This was the Dao Ancestor's compassion.

Lingxiao understood even more clearly that although Three Corpses Severance was swift, its foundation had the flaw of being unstable—

The corpse bodies were formed from obsessions, not the true self. Once the spiritual treasure used to sever a corpse was destroyed, the corresponding corpse body would dissipate and be lost forever. The original body's cultivation would suffer greatly as a result, and flaws would arise in its Dao heart as well.

Primordial Golden Immortals, on the other hand, advanced slowly but fortified every step, their foundations solid and free of such future troubles.

Of course, once one obtained Primordial Purple Qi and became a Heavenly Dao Sage, that instability of one's former foundation would no longer be a problem.

As for the Dao Ancestor's intention to use the method of Three Corpses Severance to establish order and dispel the Calamities, Lingxiao could guess a little of it. Yet he merely shook his head inwardly.

Even after severing the obsessions of goodness and evil, the most fundamental conflicts of interest would remain unresolved. All manner of resources were limited!

Before the Dao Ancestor merged with the Dao, he could still keep them suppressed, even forcibly making the Lich and Witch races cease their fighting. But after merging with the Dao, it would become difficult.

The War of Liches and the Apotheosis Calamity would ultimately arrive as scheduled!

Ten thousand years passed in the flick of a finger.

When the sermon ended, Dao Ancestor Hongjun looked around at everyone and slowly said, "Those with doubts may ask. I shall transmit the Dao, impart knowledge, and resolve your confusion."

Laozi stepped forward, bowed with clasped hands, and asked, "May I ask, Teacher: what is the Dao?"

Yuanshi stepped forward, bowed with clasped hands, and asked, "May I ask, Teacher: what is a Saint?"

Tongtian stepped forward, bowed with clasped hands, and asked, "May I ask, Teacher: how does one attain the Dao?"

Dao Ancestor Hongjun nodded slightly and answered, "The Dao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. The Dao is in the ants, in the weeds, in tiles and shards, in dung and urine... The Dao is everywhere."

"A Saint entrusts their Primordial Spirit to the Heavenly Dao and unites truthfully with the Dao, remaining indestructible through Infinite Calamities."

"There are three methods of attaining the Dao. The first is Proving the Dao through Force, using supreme power to break open the shackles. The second is attaining the Dao through Three Corpses Severance, severing every obsession until the Dao heart is complete. The third is Proving the Dao through Merit, accumulating boundless merit and summoning power through merit."

When he spoke of Proving the Dao through Merit, every gaze in the hall turned in unison toward Lingxiao.

The resplendent Merit Golden Wheel behind Lingxiao's head gleamed beneath the rosy radiance of Violet Firmament Palace, dazzling everyone until they could scarcely open their eyes.