Deep within the Daoist Prefecture in the Divine Capital.
Xiao True Person was studying the prayer reward bestowed by the Heavenly Immortals. The more he read, the more doubtful he became, and the more dispirited.
The Brocade Continent had a long history of prayer. This peculiar phenomenon of cultivation had appeared almost as soon as spiritual energy first arose between heaven and earth on the continent.
At first, even a mere Profound Connection cultivator could pray for an opportunity. Later, as humanity's cultivation levels gradually rose, only Golden Core cultivators could offer prayers. Now, prayer ceremonies could only proceed under the direction of a True Person such as himself. That was how things had developed.
Praying did not necessarily mean having one's wishes fulfilled. Perhaps the immortals in heaven were not home? Or perhaps they were in a bad mood and could not be bothered with the lower realm? Luck played a part, just as what a beggar received when begging at a wealthy landowner's door depended on the landowner's mood.
He might get a full meal, another garment to ward off the cold, or a small piece of silver... but he might also get a resounding slap across the face...
Even beggars needed professional know-how. One could not come knocking too often, grabbing one tree and stripping it bare, or even a wealthy household could not withstand such demands. Over more than a thousand years, the cultivation powers of the Brocade Continent's dozens of kingdoms had gradually reached a consensus: they would ask once every century, staggering their prayers so as not to truly annoy the wealthy landowners above.
This Anhe Prayer, for instance, was not entirely the Anhe Daoist Sect's private affair. The Daoist Sects of other kingdoms had also been notified. It was a tacit understanding among them.
Their luck with this prayer had not been bad. They had not returned empty-handed, and the immortals had bestowed a cultivation method upon the Anhe Daoist Sect. At least they had gained something. But their luck could hardly be called good, either, because this cultivation method was a little... a little too ordinary?
It was like a rich landlord sending a beggar away with a pair of shoes, only for the beggar to discover that they were even more tattered than the toe-baring shoes already on his feet.
The cultivation method was called the Yellow Court Inner Landscape Scripture. The name sounded grand and lofty, but its contents were utterly ordinary. In fact, the various Daoist Sects of the Brocade Continent had mastered them long ago and divided them into countless schools of cultivation. They belonged among the most basic, most widespread teachings.
This was what the immortals had given them?
Xiao True Person was troubled, because he did not know how to explain this to the disciples and grand-disciples below him. If he failed to explain it clearly, the cultivators under him might think he had hoarded some divine art or wondrous method and refused to share it.
Explaining would be rather troublesome, because heavenly rewards did not come as physical objects. If a Law Treasure was bestowed, for instance, what descended was merely its crafting techniques and underlying principles. If pills were bestowed, it was their production process. A cultivation method, too, was transmitted only through thought, directed into the cultivator presiding over the prayer. The cultivator would then record what he had received in his mind and incorporate it into the Daoist Sect's heritage.
The cultivation method transmitted this time was a demonstration of the human body's Yellow Court inner landscape. Through a demonstration performed by mighty power, concepts had formed within Xiao True Person's sea of consciousness.
It was highly profound, yet entirely useless to someone at his realm, because his Yellow Court had long since been opened through.
With the cultivators below placing such earnest hopes in it, he had no choice but to work hard to find something distinctive in this cultivation method and determine what level of cultivator this Yellow Court Inner Landscape Scripture actually suited.
This was the conflict between cultivation methods transmitted from above and those created locally. The heavenly immortals' cultivation methods described realms differently from the Brocade Continent's system. It was not that they disrespected the immortals, but that all cultivation had to be based on actual local conditions and circumstances. Rigidly forcing a borrowed framework into place was not the way to cultivate.
For instance, the most crucial step for cultivators-the step that enabled flight-was called Profound Connection on the Brocade Continent, while methods transmitted from above called it Foundation Establishment. Before Foundation Establishment, those transmitted methods had only a single, simple stage called Qi Refining, whereas the Brocade Continent divided it into five levels: Pulse Movement, Qi Gathering, Foundation Cultivation, Grain Avoidance, and Bridge Linking.
These divisions were each based on actual circumstances. Their fundamentals were the same, but each differed under its particular conditions.
What Xiao True Person was doing now was figuring out how to disseminate this Yellow Court Inner Landscape Scripture, so that through actual study and cultivation, they could slowly discover what true intention lay within it.
Hou Niao's journey grew pleasant. When one was in good spirits and could dimly see the road ahead, every scene along the way was beautiful.
He could vaguely guess the truth behind the change. It could not have been anything else; it could only have happened during that brief interval when his consciousness left his body during the sacrificial offering at the Divine Capital Daoist Prefecture. Had his furious, destructive punch shattered something that had always suppressed his potential? Or was it some other mystery he could not yet understand? His efforts had finally been rewarded, and rewarded enormously-perhaps enough to change his entire life.
"Sir, there are canal boats passing up ahead. Should we go around or wait?" asked Old Qi, the boatman.
Hou Niao smiled. "Wait! Old sir, this is a journey of study and cultivation for me. I'm in no hurry, so there's no need to work yourselves to death making good time and let all these mountains and waters go to waste.
"Take your time rowing, and I'll take my time looking. When we return, I'll pay whatever the fare comes to. I certainly won't shortchange you."
Old Qi beamed. "Right you are! You've already paid very generously, sir. This old man was merely afraid of delaying you. With that said, I know what to do."
Hou Niao actually had another option now: he could simply not go to the Shan Kingdom, not go undercover in the Demonic Sect on the Great Wind Plains. Instead, he could find somewhere peaceful and seize the time to continue cultivating. Once his realm rose, he would have nothing to worry about.
As he saw it, Daoist Chongling could not truly be counting on him for anything. Could the struggle between the Daoist Sect and the Demonic Sect really hinge on a nobody like him, who did not even qualify as a pawn?
But he would not do that. Even without an oath, he would not break a promise he had made. It would invite the Daoist's contempt, and he could not get past his own conscience, either.
He had already begun to sense that the cultivation journey he had finally managed to begin would hinge on this undercover mission. Whether through the Demonic Sect or the Daoist Sect, he had a chance to enter the true cultivation world. Having come this far, what sense was there in finding some obscure corner to hide in and practice bitter cultivation?
Cultivating the Dao also meant cultivating oneself amid the world. Perhaps a day would come when he withdrew from the world to cultivate, but that would be after his mastery of the Dao had matured. It was still far too early now.
His feelings about the Daoist Sect had changed continually over the past month;
Previously, the Daoist Sect had been no more than a name and a concept to him, vague and intangible. But after coming into contact with it, he discovered that it was neither as ethereal and immortal-like, nor as detached and far-seeing, as he had imagined. Nor was it as selfish, domineering, and cruel as rumor claimed.
The Dao might be transcendent, but people were grounded in reality. Before becoming immortals, everyone was mortal, with all a mortal's passions and desires, private interests and public-minded intentions.
His impression of the Daoist Sect was fairly good, so he was willing to take another gamble and fight for a chance to enter it. He had not dared entertain the thought before because his cultivation was a problem. But now that it had been resolved, at barely over twenty, spending a few years striving in the Shan Kingdom for a proper outcome could hardly count as an impossible dream, could it?
Old Qi and his son plied their oars leisurely. Amid shimmering waters and mountain scenery, singing drifted from beneath the black boat canopy,
...A lone cloud left its native land; a few autumn geese reached Liuyang. I would ask after the flowers and moon of old in the Pure Capital-how could they know an exile stood in Xiaoxiang?