Chapter 1 True Meaning of the Three Teachings

【True Meaning of the Three Teachings: A hundred methods converge, none surpassing the boundaries of the Three Teachings!】

【Great Dao Trait (Acquired Creation)!】

【The black talisman created by Tao Hongjing, the Ninth Patriarch of Shangqing, in the True Spirit Ranking Chart, under the effect of the Eastern Florescence Scripture, melts the scriptures of the Three Teachings, uniting to achieve the supreme true meaning.】

【The Ninth Patriarch of Shangqing, in his youth, studied Zhou and Confucius, exhausting the Six Classics in his prime; in middle age, he observed Daoist books, both named and unnamed; in his later years, he opened Buddhist scriptures, like the moon reflecting among the stars. He mastered the arts of the Three Teachings, and people in the Southern Dynasties called him a "Sage Immortal"!】

【Those who see this talisman will be given the oral formula: "There are not two Daos under Heaven, and the Sage does not have two hearts!"】

【Reciting this oral formula can melt all methods, return them to oneself, seek any method, and after melting it, deduce and create a brand-new method belonging to any of the "Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist" teachings!】

【Influenced by the lectures of the Celestial Worthy of the Primordial Beginning and the book bestowing of the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, the inheritor of the Three Teachings Black Talisman is the Monarch of Incense, who can melt into the methods of "Heavenly Demons"!】

【Those who possess the Great Dao Trait must not abandon the Great Dao! When using the True Meaning of the Three Teachings to melt and create new methods, a "Tribulation of the Mortal World" will occur, the intensity of which depends on the power of the melted method!】

【Tribulation of the Mortal World, calamity befalling the body: The Three Teachings each have their own order. The true meaning unites them, inevitably displeasing the other two Daos. Therefore, the Tribulation of the Mortal World is a condition for using the True Meaning of the Three Teachings. Each time the Tribulation of the Mortal World is overcome, your Dao practice will improve, and the Tribulation of the Mortal World will involve you in an inexplicable disaster. If you deduce Confucian methods, you will be involved in the disasters of Daoism and Buddhism, and vice versa.】

【Minor tribulations can be avoided using the methods of the tenth lesson in the Jade Purity Esoteric Book. The tenth lesson of the Jade Purity Esoteric Book can create the Three Corpses of a person and slay the Three Corpses, using the Three Corpses Gods to replace oneself in welcoming the tribulation, and then slay them, the tribulation will naturally disappear.】

【Great Dao Traits are difficult to obtain. The more Great Dao Traits one possesses, the easier it is to comprehend the Great Dao. Yin and Yang are one; what is gained must be lost. Chaos is the ultimate of everything...】

The Blank Divine Tablet did not display everything, seemingly having unspeakable secrets regarding the comprehension of the Great Dao, and the words before its final disappearance were intriguing, like a warning.

Ji Xiang thought this was normal.

According to the many pieces of information already obtained, the many immortals of the Inner World were thinking of proving the Great Dao of the Outer World, and the old ones among them had disappeared in the Outer World for thousands of years. So, they deduced for more than ten thousand years in the Inner World, and still could not glimpse the mysteries of the Outer World.

And in the Outer World, the powerful Great Dao that could maintain the change of dynasties and continue without interruption was the easiest to see, yet they could not fathom it, so they had to constantly rely on the change of dynasties, triggering various chaotic times to spy on its secrets.

Although the Blank Divine Tablet was boundless in power, it seemed that some things could not be revealed. Ji Xiang was relieved. If he really knew the great secrets of heaven and earth, and this secret was exposed, he was afraid that he would have to die more than once.

Being able to contend with a Heavenly Heart Realm cultivator was wishful thinking. Who knew how many Heavenly Hearts there were in the Inner World?

Anyway, ascendant powerhouses were as numerous as clouds and rain. After all, that was a world of immortals, and the Outer World was equivalent to the mortal realm.

"But even if many things cannot be revealed, it's really flattered to get the Great Dao Trait for nothing!"

Ji Xiang had met the Great Sage Yuanmiao before, and the Great Dao Trait had appeared at that time. His belonged to "The Sky遁者" (Dun Tian Zhe, Sky Escaper), which could reverse the virtues of the world, violate the normal laws of nature, and hurting him would become self-harm, but with a price, which was to hide one's true form at all times.

Once beaten into his true form, he would be punished by the Dun Tian execution. At that time, Ji Xiang also used Celestial Master Sa's *Lei Shuo* (Discourse on Thunder) to briefly break the Great Sage Yuanmiao's concealment and make him appear, thus abandoning the Great Dao.

"Tribulation of the Mortal World? Not bad, it's better than being a lone star of heavenly煞 (sha), at least it won't kill relatives and friends, it only involves myself, and the price is acceptable. The weaker the exercises I deduce, the smaller the disaster I encounter. If I deduce an introductory spell, maybe the disaster I get is just falling at the entrance of the Daoist temple and eating dog shit."

"But I'll try it first!"

"But this requires exchanging one method for another, that is, using a main spell as a blueprint and then re-creating it, using other learned spells as flames to melt..."

Ji Xiang looked around and saw that no one was there. He didn't know where the Maoshan Mountain Master had gone. It seemed that when he was in a state of blurred consciousness before, the other party seemed to have greeted him, but he couldn't remember clearly.

At that time, he was muddle-headed, how could he hear the voice of the Maoshan Mountain Master. Now that he had disappeared in the Great Yuan Treasure Hall, naturally he had left for something. He didn't know how long he had stayed in the painting world.

He came out suddenly and didn't say hello to the Eastern Florescence Goddess and the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, so he left in a hurry.

Fortunately, there were many spell classics in the Great Yuan Treasure Hall. Of course, Ji Xiang had no way to enter the secret land, so he picked up the books outside to read. First of all, he started to deduce from a book of mortal martial arts.

"There are not two Daos under Heaven, and the Sage does not have two hearts!"

This was a Daoist saying that could shake the soul. Just uttering it aloud, a powerful force would run in the body. Under the operation of this force, all Daos could be melted into one furnace. No matter which sect's classics, they could be included in it, and then deduce the arts of the Three Teachings.

Ji Xiang ran the oral formula, and the first reaction in his mind was that those immortal scriptures had grades. This seemed to be a kind of power of the True Spirit Ranking Chart itself, giving grades to things without grades, which was actually a good thing, so it looked simple and clear.

So, the classics he deduced this time should also have grades, right?

The mortal martial art in his hand was a set of swordsmanship. The basic martial arts of the Shangqing Sect mainly consisted of boxing and swordsmanship. Of course, mortal martial arts were nothing special. They were placed in the Great Yuan Treasure Hall only because these were the basics.

An ordinary person, even if he had immortal roots, after entering Shangqing, he had to start practicing from the most basic mortal skills. It was just that these people with immortal roots, when practicing skills, would be martial arts monsters in the martial world. Others might take more than ten years of hard work, but he might succeed in three months.

After the basic martial arts, it was the immortal sect's Daoist methods.

It was like the old Zhang had once commented on Emperor Wanli. If Emperor Wanli's trashy bones were used to practice martial arts, with the cultivation of a cultivator, he could cultivate to the third realm of golden tendons and jade bones, which was already a top-notch second-rate master among mortals. There was no problem in defending against an assassination, after all, the broken defense of the Forbidden City leaked from all sides.

As for those first-rate masters, in this harsh era where demons and monsters were running all over the place and there were always worries about life, they would not be brainless enough to run over and fight with cultivators, saying that they wanted to break through themselves. But you would be blown into eighteen pieces with one punch, so what could you comprehend?

In fact, these people were already cultivating immortality themselves, so even the first-rate masters in the martial world were more or less cultivators, but the last batch of cultivators.

Ji Xiang melted this spell, and soon this spell produced a wonderful change.

The basic swordsmanship in the classics began to twist. Those graphics and texts began to become obscure and profound. Ji Xiang improved this mortal martial art according to the logic in his mind, supplemented its shortcomings, and only needed to move his mind, and the classics would take shape on their own.

Soon, a brand-new cultivator spell appeared in his hand.

Everything in it was as Ji Xiang thought, written in that way. With Ji Xiang's current Dao practice, plus the Maoshan formations he had obtained before, after understanding their application, writing such a simple book was not difficult.

Moreover, Ji Xiang felt a trace of wish power, which he had given to this book.

"It's amazing. This wish power is too weak, but it does exist, because this is what I created, it's the original... not a printed version. The use of this wish power is to guide people to practice correctly. When reading this scripture, it's like an immortal dancing a sword in front of you, showing everything clearly and allowing people to quickly understand the important points in the spell classics."

It could be imagined that once this classic flowed into the mortal world, it would definitely make those second-rate martial arts masters break their heads to snatch it, because this kind of classic was equivalent to a Daoist scripture, allowing them to confront the weakest batch of cultivators without falling behind just by relying on their moves.

Although it was impossible for mortals to ascend, it was definitely enough to dominate a small place and stably inherit a large family without monsters and ghosts coming to visit.

Ji Xiang pondered and casually gave this sword scripture a name. Immediately, the previous extremely weak wish power was strengthened a lot, which meant that people could "comprehend" this sword scripture.

This was a huge difference from the initial learning because learning had to be step by step, practicing every move, even if the scene of an immortal dancing a sword was reproduced for you, you still had to imitate it, but comprehension didn't need to!

Comprehension was unreasonable, I said I would, then I would!

The focus was on this word "comprehend," just like... those who understand will understand, and those who don't understand won't understand even if you explain it.jpg

"A small sword scripture, let me see how big the Tribulation of the Mortal World it brings will be?"

Ji Xiang waited for a while, and indeed a tribulation emerged in the dark. Now that Ji Xiang had the Jade Purity Esoteric Book as the fundamental scripture for cultivation, he was much more sensitive to tribulations and劫 qi (jie qi, calamity aura).

"It's really not a big tribulation, but because it's too small, I don't know where this tribulation will fall!"

"I'll move around and see."

Ji Xiang suddenly didn't know whether to laugh or cry, because the tribulation brought by slightly upgrading mortal martial arts was very weak. Ji Xiang didn't even know what form this tribulation would take, and he couldn't even detect this tribulation without careful sensing.

If he wanted to resolve it, it seemed easy. This small-scale tribulation was just bad luck.

If there was a Benevolence Jar of the Kitchen God, eating a red bean a day would cure all diseases, but unfortunately, he only had a Black Jar, and eating black beans would only bring bad luck to the end.

Moreover, there were also ways to斩灭 (zhan mie, exterminate) the tribulation, just use the Three Corpses Gods as scapegoats.

The unlucky ones are the Three Corpses, you want to catch the Three Corpses, what does it have to do with me, Ji Xiang?

The Three Corpses of a person are constantly existing, and the Three Corpses Gods like to report behind people's backs, all kinds of desires of people are caused by them, and as long as a person dies, it is said that the Three Corpses Gods will be liberated and can leave freely.

Zhang Junfang, a Daoist of the Song Dynasty, in order not to let the Three Corpses Gods go to heaven to report and instigate his desires, did not sleep for thirty consecutive years. Although he did not斩 (zhan, slay) the Three Corpses, one day after thirty years, he ascended to immortality in broad daylight, proving the Dao.

I don't know how the Three Corpses in his body spent these thirty years.

Ji Xiang's mind moved, and his thoughts stirred up the ten directions of gods and煞 (sha, evil spirits). At this time, a flash of light fell in his mind, and the Upper Corpse was driven out by Ji Xiang, requiring only some incense energy.

The Upper Corpse landed, and immediately the tribulation缠身 (chan shen, entangled the body). Ji Xiang also used the methods of the Central Jade Book to give it form and spirit, making it a small, third-rate god.

This small god ran to the door of the Great Yuan Treasure Hall, only about an inch high. Ji Xiang commanded it, and it crashed into the pillar of the Great Yuan Treasure Hall, and then its body scattered, turning back into incense energy, which Ji Xiang swallowed back in one gulp.

And the tribulation that had already arrived also disappeared without a trace.

The elimination of bad luck meant that some unlucky events that would have happened would no longer happen.

And this small god was originally a thing without intelligence, just a Three Corpses God that was casually created. It could continue to be recycled after crashing to death, and then continue to crash. In the future, the job of this small god would probably be to beat its head against the ground every day.

"This little thing is so fun."

Ji Xiang also casually deduced several martial arts books, upgraded them into cultivator spells, and then saw this small god constantly condense, constantly crashing into walls and the ground, dying and living, and repeatedly doing sit-ups.

"A tribulation of this level can be offset by one Corpse God. Estimating upwards, it will take two, then three, until it is inevitable. What the Blank Divine Tablet said means that small tribulations can be avoided, and big tribulations are hidden."

Ji Xiang suddenly felt itchy, really wanting to try this Great Dao Trait. But then he thought that he didn't know how long he had been in the True Spirit Ranking Chart, and it was not good to leave the others in Shangqing for too long.

"Um, right, get a flying術 (shu, technique) for yourself!"

Ji Xiang slapped his forehead. There were also flying techniques in the Great Yuan Treasure Hall, but it would take some time to cultivate the spells of腾云驾雾 (teng yun jia wu, riding the clouds and mist). If he used the Bright Light Heavenly Book to perform it, it would consume incense energy.

So Ji Xiang saw through this spell of riding the clouds and mist, and found a mortal's walking martial art, slightly deduced it, and created a crash course version of "Riding the Clouds and Mist".

It took about half a day to learn this Riding the Clouds and Mist Art. So he went out from the Great Yuan Treasure Hall, and clouds rose under Ji Xiang's feet. He flew up into the sky in this way, although the speed was a bit slow.... He went all the way to the Maoshan Nine Heavens Palace.

In the Nine Heavens Palace, the Shangqing Dao Child was unconscious and had been for ten days. The atmosphere in the hall was a bit strange because the first lineage's successor had suddenly had a problem, and the entire palace was helpless. In this case, Maoshan could only choose the successor of the second lineage... which was Hou Niangzi.

However, the Maoshan Mountain Master was not in the Nine Heavens Palace at this time.

He was in a secret place in Maoshan, sitting cross-legged in this place for several days, looking a bit haggard because the ancient immortal ancestors of the Inner World had sent a message, but it was not good news.

"Qiankunzi, I'll tell you one last time, bring that girl to inherit the Dao lineage, you don't have to worry about the rest."

"The traces of the Shangqing Ancestral Scripture have appeared in the Outer World. These two Dao Children are containers we use to descend."

The Maoshan Mountain Master said with difficulty: "Dao Children are related to the inheritance of the Dao lineage, not objects for others to seize. Are you... really the ancestors?"

"You've asked many times! Then I'll answer you again and again without being bothered!"

In that secret place, several phantoms appeared.

"The Dao lineage of the Outer World is just a chess piece. It's enough if it doesn't perish. In front of the Shangqing Ancestral Scripture, all Dao lineages can be broken and restarted. Now it's the struggle between the Maoshan Shangqing two veins. Will the Qingxu vein win, or will the Sanmao vein win?"

"Whoever gets the Ancestral Scripture is the true Shangqing Sect!"

"As a disciple of the Qingxu vein, you should know the importance of this matter!"

"By the way, you also have to prepare a large number of sentient beings' essence spirits for us, whether it's demons or humans, it doesn't matter. With the essence spirits of sentient beings, we can change their physique to correspond to ours so that we can perfectly arrive in the world."

The Maoshan Mountain Master refused: "How can my Three Mountains Orthodox Sect do the things of the Lower Maoshan? Moreover, there are not so many sentient beings' essence spirits here!"

The phantom snorted: "Most of the Lower Maoshan techniques were passed down from the Upper Maoshan, and have been changed over thousands of years! Since you can't find it, then go to the White Lotus Sect. Wherever the White Lotus Sect passes, there are victims. Bring back their essence spirits!"

"Wasn't there a Dao Child who just betrayed us before?"

The Maoshan Mountain Master was stunned at first, and then horrified!

"You, you! That was... he is yours...!"

"He also took away the Qingping Sword.... It's also you...!"

The phantom laughed:

"The Qingping Sword is an ancient divine artifact. It will soon rust if it's placed in Maoshan to镇宗 (zhen zong, guard the sect). This sword is of great use! Don't worry, no one will know about this. We'll help you bear the blame, and you're still the Three Mountains Orthodox Dao of the Outer World because the one who killed people was the Biyou Palace, not your Shangqing Sect!"

"After all, you didn't know about this!"