A Sect-tier Dharma Lineage appearing in Northern Mang Ridge was a rarity of earth-shaking proportions!
After all, the two great mountains that stood above every cultivator here, each casting a hand over three thousand li, were only Sect-tier.
When had they ever seen a giant of the "Zong" tier?
Between them lay a thousand-year estate of the Sect-tier, too!
The second-class carriage erupted like a placid lake struck by a boulder, sending towering waves surging.
Everyone craned their necks, voices of discussion and amazement weaving together into a clamor.
"The Great Talisman Sect! Good heavens... that's a mighty Dharma Lineage that has dominated Mingcang Great Marsh for ten thousand years!" A middle-aged cultivator's voice trembled, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"No mistake, that must be the legendary Exquisite Dharma Tower! It flies a thousand zhang above the ground and shifts a hundred li in an instant-the conveyance of a Foundation Establishment True Person!" Beside him, a knowledgeable old man stroked his beard, his tone certain.
"I wonder which True Person has come in person? I hear the Great Talisman Sect has ten True Disciples, all prodigies blessed for the Dao who have gathered all five elements. Could it be..." someone speculated quietly.
The carriage held no shortage of knowledgeable, well-informed Dharma Lineage cultivators, and they traded remarks in a lively discussion.
Before long.
The clear radiance enveloping the Exquisite Dharma Tower contracted, and it turned into a dazzling streak of light that tore through the sky.
Only rolling thunder remained, reverberating outward, sweeping the layers of cloud from the heavens.
It had arrived suddenly and departed even more swiftly!
After quite a while, the commotion in the carriage gradually subsided.
Jiang Yi withdrew his gaze and turned toward Yang Xun beside him.
The latter was still lost in thought, seemingly unable to forget the sight.
Presumably, to Lower Cultivators determined to pursue the Dao, a Foundation Establishment True Person was like a divine dragon circling among the clouds, visible but beyond reach. Even a single encounter made for remarkable conversation.
"I've made a spectacle of myself."
Yang Xun came back to himself and shook his head with a bitter smile. A rare trace of desolation appeared on his fierce-looking, long face with its sparse brows.
"Ever since I encountered cultivation as a boy, I hoped that one day I might reach the summit of the Twelve-Story Tower and gain a firm foothold in Northern Mang Ridge, like the Fu Clan and Kang Clan, those two great Dao Clans of the Illuminating Nether Sect... alas, the years spare no one."
Jiang Yi smiled bashfully.
"To tell you the truth, Grandpa, on my very first day on the Dao Path, I imagined having talents that would astound the world, making all those great sects fight to take me in! Ideally, I'd even land myself a position as some Dao Child or Holy Son!"
His innocent words dispelled the heavy mood and made Yang Xun laugh heartily, clearing away much of the gloom in his heart.
As the grandfather and grandson chatted, the land boat slowly approached Three Harmonies Ward.
"Feet in, please! Would any of you Daoists like some Spirit Cuisine or fine medicine to fill your bellies? Springy noodles made from flour ground from excellent spirit grain! Fifty Talisman Money a bowl!"
"I've also got eight-treasure spirit porridge! First-rate liquor! Sweet mountain spring dew!"
"We're here, Three Harmonies Ward of Longhua Mountain! Hurry if you're getting off..."
Jiang Yi could feel the land boat slowing, its long, dragonlike body hugging the earth veins as it gradually lost speed.
Yang Xun pointed at the cluster of buildings half-hidden among the snowy mountain ranges.
"That's Three Harmonies Ward. Let's get off first."
Jiang Yi peered carefully through the window. He could faintly make out towers, halls, pavilions, and terraces scattered throughout, their greens, purples, ochers, and reds striking against the snow.
Overall, it was quite sizable.
A moment later, the doors of every carriage in the Land Boat opened, and numerous cultivators filed out.
The second-class carriage that Jiang Yi and Yang Xun occupied was fairly orderly and spacious enough to avoid excessive crowding.
"Brother Yi! Over here!"
The moment he stepped off the land boat, Jiang Yi heard He Laohun calling.
Following the voice, he saw the man waving one hand vigorously while clutching his loose waistband with the other, stumbling toward him with his legs pressed together like a lame duck.
"Brother He, what happened to you?"
Jiang Yi paused in surprise. What had happened to He Laohun?
"Ah, don't even mention it! How can you travel the rivers and lakes without getting your shoes wet?"
He Laohun ground his teeth and huffed as he explained.
"My third-class carriage was packed so tight not a breath of air could get through. Three men and a woman sat beside me. The woman cultivator looked quite pretty, but who'd have thought she was running crooked schemes! She nearly tripped me up!"
Jiang Yi was startled. Had even an old hand like He Laohun fallen prey to Outer Dao tricks?
Yang Xun's discerning eyes missed little. He sneered.
"You were simply bewitched by beauty and fell into their game. It'll be something like a woman cultivator winning a prize but having no time to claim it, then selling the claim slip cheaply;
"Or going home to visit family, having her belongings stolen, and needing to sell herself to raise travel money, seeking some kind soul's help... which was yours?"
He Laohun looked embarrassed and answered sheepishly.
"Steward, your discerning eyes burn like torches. They worked together and used both tricks at once. I let my guard down."
After hearing the whole story, Jiang Yi was speechless.
The woman cultivator had first pretended to have won a grand prize in Three Harmonies Ward but urgently needed money, offering to sell the claim slip cheaply. When He Laohun refused to bite, she changed her story, claiming her family had fallen on hard times and she needed travel money to return home.
While He Laohun was distracted, her accomplice beside him had cut his waistband, trying to steal the Talisman Money hidden in his pouch.
"Luckily, I kept an extra eye open and sewed the real stuff into my loincloth."
He Laohun patted his crotch with relief.
"It digs into me, but it really is secure."
"Hurry and change your Daoist robe, Brother He! Half your backside's showing."
Jiang Yi spoke while stifling a laugh.
He Laohun had a thick enough skin. He chuckled and hurried toward the privy outside.
After this interlude, the three tied on their Jia Ma Talismans again and hurried onward.
In barely half an incense stick's time, a bustling Market Ward appeared before them.
Its outskirts, however, were terribly shabby, with stretches of low shanties looking jumbled and disordered.
"The proper Market Ward is farther in. Out here is mostly where Lower Cultivators with no connections, who can't enter a Dharma Lineage, make their homes."
This was not Yang Xun's first visit. Unfazed by the sight, he led the way.
Jiang Yi looked around and found cultivators sitting or lying everywhere along the roadside.
Most wore old clothes and had ashen faces.
Their cultivation was naturally low. Some had barely opened their meridians and only just qualified as Qi Refining First Stage cultivators.
"These are all 'unregistered people' with nowhere to go."
He Laohun had visited twice himself and knew the situation. He lowered his voice.
"They've pawned their Identity Verification Slips, so their backgrounds can't be established. Proper Dharma Lineages won't hire such Mortal Laborers, leaving them to do odd jobs here for daily pay."
Having recruited newcomers for the Qianji Sect, Jiang Yi naturally knew that an Identity Verification Slip was an important credential.
Without one, a Dharma Lineage would not even let someone through its gates.
After all, everyone under heaven could cultivate. Nowhere lacked expendable hands to use, and plenty of people fought for the chance to come.
"Why would they pawn them?"
Jiang Yi asked.
"All sorts of reasons. Some are abducted here by traffickers. Those heartless bastards specifically lure relatives from impoverished backwaters to do illicit labor in the Market Ward;
"Some can't keep their purses shut, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves to their hearts' content, then pawning it for emergency funds when they can't get by.
"After doing a few daily-paid jobs, they redeem it, only to pawn it again next time..."
He Laohun sighed, perhaps having seen too much of it before.
"Besides, the Market Ward is full of pits to fall into. People tricking you into the mines, drawing you into medicine trials, lending at usurious rates—too many to count."
Jiang Yi frowned slightly. Cultivating like this, living in such hardship, seemed worse than returning to the mortal world to live a steady life.
"How could it be that easy?"
Yang Xun, walking ahead, stopped and bought Jiang Yi a bowl of milk skin.
"This is wonderfully fragrant and tastes quite good. I tried it on my first visit, and they're still open now. An old establishment by now."
Jiang Yi accepted the porcelain bowl and tasted it carefully. Sure enough, it had a rich milky flavor and was delicious.
Threads of cool Qi also dissolved throughout his Hundred Bones, producing an extremely slight nourishing effect.
Then he heard Yang Xun continue.
"The common people of the mundane world, unless born into a Qi Refining Clan, eat ordinary grains and drink bitter, brackish mortal water. They never touch so much as a trace of anything spiritual.
"Commoners hunger and thirst. As they age, a hundred ailments beset them. Only cultivation lets them change their fate and rise above their lot.
"With this road to heaven before their eyes, who could resist walking it? Once on it, they must bear every hardship and grievance and submit to being driven.
"Besides, what would honestly returning home accomplish? Without a craft to support them or any training in the arts, they'd still be tenant farmers for the local clans, faces to the yellow earth and backs to the sky."
Jiang Yi fell silent.
After finishing the bowl of milk skin, he continued onward.
A clamor rose behind him. A middle-aged man who looked like a manager drew a full breath and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Fire-Cloud Stone mine! Urgently hiring! Daily pay, thirty-five Talisman Money a day! One meal of Spirit Cuisine included!
"Qi Refining Second Stage required, with decent bones and muscles, able to endure extreme heat and hard labor! Only thirty people!"
The cultivators who had been sitting, lying, or leaning along the roadside instantly swarmed forward.
"Me! Pick me! I'm Qi Refining Second Stage!"
"Master Manager! I'm strong! I can work six double-hours straight without stopping!"
"I only want thirty Talisman Money! Pick me!"
Jiang Yi sighed deeply without looking back.
So entering a Dharma Lineage as a Mortal Laborer, toiling like an ox or horse, did not even count as being at the very bottom.
The many faces of Lower Cultivators in Three Harmonies Ward suddenly made him feel how lofty and distant the Dao Lineage was, like the sun hanging in the heavens.
Everyone could see it, but none could hope to touch it.
"Even through a thousand hardships and ten thousand ordeals, cultivation is still something I must pursue."
Jiang Yi steadied his resolve and thought no further.
Just as Grandpa had said, however rough this Dao Path might be, it was ultimately a road to heaven.
In an age more distant than ancient antiquity, Commoners could struggle their entire lives without touching the threshold, let alone entertain extravagant talk of "cultivation."
Precisely because the Great Dao is hard to travel, I must secure every step and climb gradually.
So Jiang Yi thought.
As they talked, the three finally entered the Market Ward proper.
Before you continue