365: Chapter 5 Qingcang Enlightens the Masses_3 365: Chapter 5 Qingcang Enlightens the Masses_3 Gu Wen asked, “How effective was it?”
“Very little effect,” Xie Yunnan shook his head, “Without Spirit Stones and Pills as aid, a mortal would spend decades to at most reach Qi Cultivation Third Level.
For three hundred years, not a single Golden Core Cultivator has emerged from the common folk.”
This immediately sparked complaints from other disciples of the Sword Sect.
“Every year, the sect still takes a lot of Spirit Stones to subsidize the Cultivation Hall for mortals, but we haven’t seen any great power emerge to slay demons.”
“I’ve been there once to teach cultivation, and sometimes it’s like a big gathering, with barefoot farmers standing below listening, not knowing if they can really grasp anything.”
Gu Wen took these complaints in stride, feeling that the disciples of the Sword Sect were not at fault.
Among mortals, there were scholars, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants, just as among cultivators, there were sect cultivators and Loose Cultivators.
Everyone had different interests, but since ancient times, it has always been the strong who occupied the majority and continuously squeezed the living space of the weak.
That was common sense, Gu Wen could cry out “common ownership,” but he knew full well that such an ideal would never be realized in the Cultivation World.
Even redistributing the existing resources to improve the lives of the common people was extremely difficult.
The violence held by cultivators was not something mortals could compare with.
Only stronger violence would make them submit.
Yet conversely, those who wield such stronger violence already possess more, so why would they allocate more to those on the lower rungs?
His own master was a miraculous event in this world spanning tens of thousands of years, with an emergence probability perhaps even lower than his own.
Gu Wen said, “Could you take me to see it?
That so-called Cultivation Hall.”
“I was born in Taiyi City, I remember there is one nearby.”
The young Sword Sect disciple enthusiastically raised his hand and, without further questioning Xie Yunnan, took Gu Wen outside, his rash demeanor causing Xie Yunnan, as the eldest senior sister, considerable helplessness.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Gu Wen followed the young man into an alley.
After passing countless earthen walls and overhearing numerous domestic sounds, they found that the lives of mortals in the Cultivation World were not prosperous, only just enough to be well-fed.
Finally, after many twists and turns and walking for some time, faint recitations could be heard.
At the end of the alley, a door emerged, with couplets at the entrance that read, “Opening the wisdom of all people, for a unified world under heaven.”
At the door, Gu Wen saw a group of snotty-nosed children, like in a private school, struggling to read a Qi Cultivation Skill, guided by a teacher who was only at Qi Cultivation Third Level.
“From Qi Refinement to essence transformation, Qi is the beginning of all things, essence the hidden sanctuary of the spiritual divine.”
“To return to the root and recover the primal is to nourish the Golden Core, to maintain pure Yang is to change the altar.”
A thread of thought arose from his heart, Gu Wen thought of his shabbily dressed master, who, whenever he produced some sayings that aligned with the modern ‘twenty-four character mantra,’ would ruffle his hair into a mess, praising him: Truly worthy of being my disciple.
With a smile, Gu Wen said, “Truly worthy of being my master.”
Perhaps not a single Golden Core had emerged from the populace in three hundred years, but he was still proud of his master.
If his own ascendance was something ordinary people could not achieve, then his master’s deeds were something none across the aeons could attain.
—————–
Xuanhuang Continent, Sanqing Taoist Sect.
Spirit Veins stretched like a long dragon for thousands of miles, Spiritual Energy burst forth in thousands of streams of purple mist, accompanied by thirty-three heavenly palaces, seventy-two treasure halls, and a hundred and eight branching Daoist temples.
Three Pure Mountain no longer existed, but the Sanqing Taoist Sect had become more prosperous, expanding in scale day by day.
Located within the Jade Purity lineage, a remote and peaceful courtyard.
Wu Kong, with bare feet on the ground, ascended the stone steps to the courtyard gate and gently knocked on the bamboo gate.
A White Fox yawned as it lay on the steps.
It glanced at Wu Kong and asked, “What brings you here?”
“I come to bring glad tidings to Qingcang Fellow Daoist.”
“Glad tidings?
You’ll have to wait another few years for that.
Yun Chang hasn’t awakened yet; she was terribly injured in that great battle four hundred years ago, and I fear she might just slip away one day.”
“It’s about Gu Wen.”
No sooner than his words fell did the gate automatically open, as if blown by the wind.
“That rigid-hearted fellow perks up the moment he hears ‘Gu Wen.'” The White Fox glared at Wu Kong, “You better truly be bringing good news, otherwise brace yourself to have your legs broken.”
With that said, she ran into the house.
Wu Kong entered and saw the female cultivator, seated cross-legged in meditation within the thatched cottage, dressed in a coarse Daoist robe, her hair disheveled and with no adornment or makeup.
Her complexion was pale, her hair half silver and half black.
The White Fox coiled on her thighs, emitting a Demon Core to nourish her.
Qingcang slowly opened her eyes, her gaze profound as the abyss.
“What is it?”
Wu Kong, with a smile on his face, said, “Gu Wen has become a Saint.”
Clang!
The Immortal’s inner core, as pristine as crystal, rolled onto the ground.