True Mystery Peak, Mystic Law Hall.
Xuanming closed his eyes. The voice of the Dao flowed from his heart into the hearts of the assembled guests, echoing throughout the Truth-Seeking Abbey and even across the ten thousand miles of Floating Cloud Mountain.
Any living being with a heart could listen.
How much they could hear, remember, retain, and comprehend depended on their own fortune.
Those with strong perseverance gained abundant fortune.
Those with keen comprehension gained profound fortune.
Those blessed with flourishing fortune gained mysterious fortune.
Those with steadfast Dao Hearts gained wondrous fortune.
Aptitude, by contrast, ranked far behind all these.
After facing himself honestly, Xuanming lived with clarity and authenticity, making no attempt to hide his likes or dislikes. Even when expounding the Dao, he was no different.
He openly favored the cultivators of the Truth-Seeking Abbey and a handful of those close to him. As for other living beings, it depended on whether they rose to the occasion and how many conditions they met.
“Contemplate the heavenly Divine crowning my head, my hair ten thousand strands of Stars. Long and winding, coiling and curling, its radiance deep and dark. Above the crown—the center is named Heaven-Reaching...”
What Xuanming expounded was the Jade Scripture of the Central Yellow Court. So vast that nothing lay beyond it, so small that nothing lay within it—the Dao resided therein.
The voice of the Dao resounded, its resonance rising in a flowing melody.
Upon True Mystery Peak, Daoist Visions unfolded in dazzling profusion.
Heavenly blossoms rained down, golden lotuses surged from the earth, sun and moon vied in brilliance, and wind and rain arrived together. At times, stars appeared in broad daylight; at others, night descended.
All living beings were immersed in the Dao.
Essence Refining cultivators listened in rapture, Qi Refining