Dao Equaling the Heavens
Chapter 396 - 19 Emotional Path, Unemotional Path_2

Chapter 396: Chapter 19 Emotional Path, Unemotional Path_2

"Senior, did you visit decades ago?" Gu Wen asked. "If you’re seeking your old dwelling to find something to eat, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to locate. However, our shop does offer a Clear Qi Pill that can aid in cultivation and increase the chances of condensing a Golden Core."

He produced a cyan-white pill and promoted it, saying, "Look at this luster – with the convergence of three qi, it gives rise to daylight, truly a fine pill indeed."

Gu Wen picked it up and scrutinized it, his calm and undisturbed eyes reflecting a whiff of clarity.

Chi Yu Zi leaned in and sniffed, inquiring, "Indeed, not bad. Who concocted this pill?"

"That involves a secret of our sect which I cannot reveal."

"I’ll take three pieces."

"Alright, True Man, please wait a moment."

Leaving the pharmacy, Chi Yu Zi studied a pill intently, sometimes frowning, sometimes puzzled.

"It’s strange, truly strange. How can there be such a pill?"

Xie Yunnan immediately became vigilant and asked, "Master Chi, is there something wrong with this pill? Could it be related to devils?"

Spirit Veins, Spirit Fields, and pills – these three are the most important pillars of the Human Race, always under strict control. Every Spirit Field has strict regulations on the crops grown. It is said that the Daoist Sect above the Nine Heavens has even raised Spiritual Mountains anew, with Arrays that overlook the earth to monitor Spirit Fields.

No sooner than changing a Spirit Valley’s crop to Spiritual Medicines would someone be knocking at your door.

The sects that trade in pills are the wealthiest, and if even they have succumbed to devilish ways, then it would likely be necessary to call upon cultivators from other regions to suppress them.

Of course, that’s a general scenario. Xie Yunnan felt that the three of them were capable of resolving the issue themselves – with Junior Master Gu and me together, we could sweep across the world!

"This pill’s aura is naturally flawless without the slightest leakage; it probably requires an Alchemy Master to concoct, yet it’s just a pill for breaking through to the Golden Core stage."

Chi Yu Zi gave it a lick and found that he couldn’t scrape off even the slightest residue. His Divine Thought probed and magnified a hundred times, yet it remained smooth.

If this were an Immortal Pill capable of remedying one’s Dao foundation, enabling a breakthrough into the Dao Realm, or allowing one to ascend to Immortality, then such impeccable form would be expected.

But it’s merely a pill for Golden Core breakthrough.

"Could it be concocted by Xuan Yue, the Demi Immortal?"

Chi Yu Zi looked to Gu Wen for confirmation, who nodded slightly, adding, "It should be, the Pill Furnace he carries seems to be a rare treasure indeed."

"Wow! Although Xuan Yue is not a Great Grandmaster of Alchemy, the fact that he was able to create such a high-level pill clearly owes to the Pill Furnace."

A girl of five and a half feet tall, her eyes shining keenly, proposed, "If we could acquire it, we could self-sufficiently concoct pills in your Inheritance Treasure Cave Heaven from now on. Even fleeing into the Void would be feasible."

Even Little Saint Gu Wen stated it’s a rare treasure, likely another artifact surpassing ordinary Dao Instruments. She had only seen artifacts of such caliber in the possession of the Sanqing Taoist Sect – the Upper Pure Eight Diagram, the Eight Diagram of Taiqing, the Upper Pure Jade Ruyi, and the Yujing Millet Pearl of Yuqing.

And these belong to the Sanqing Taoist Sect, a treasure they would need should they decide to depart.

Apart from the human-devil dichotomy within the Cultivation World, there are indeed many hermits who keep to themselves.

She tugged on Gu Wen’s clothes, not hiding her greed in the least, and declared, "This item must be destined for us!"

"It would be good if we could get it, but it’s not a big deal if we can’t."

Gu Wen took out a Clear Qi Pill and swallowed it; upon descent, it was like falling into the cosmos, the clarity spiraling.

With a thought, the clarity stirred, following the meridians into the Qi Sea, its path like a drop of water entering a river, ephemeral as mayflies in the ocean.

The Little Saint sat cross-legged in the Qi Sea, strands of his hair shining golden, stretching ten thousand miles.

A new hair grew, named the [Golden Core], three and a half feet long.

Over the next three days, they wandered throughout the city, neither visiting the Qianfeng Sect nor looking for the Pill Furnace, but simply visiting various places searching for a delicacy known as Qinghua Cake.

Xie Yunnan asked, "This Qinghua Cake, what kind of delicacy is it that Junior Master Gu can’t seem to forget?"

"I don’t know," Gu Wen shook his head. "It’s said that once made, the Qinghua Cake spoils in mere moments, so I’ve never had the chance to try it."

Xie Yunnan grew even more perplexed, pressing, "Then why do you keep searching for it?"

"An old friend once told me, ’This Qinghua Cake has the finest fragrance in the world.’

Gu Wen took out a piece of cloud-patterned paper from eight hundred years ago, plucked a Qinghua from the roadside, and gently shook it into the shape of a pen tip.

[...Chenhua City, truly a delightful place to travel. Women adore its elegant attics, and the beauty of its scenery, while men are infatuated with the beauty and ugliness of its brothels. The eatery you mentioned no longer exists, and it’s difficult to trace the whereabouts of its descendants.]

[Perhaps fate knows my preference, unappetizing food, and stores no longer stand]

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Bamboo leaves withered, light shone through holes in the dwelling.

"Can you help me get up there and lay these reeds properly?"

A clear, gentle voice reached his ears, as a woman in a gray Daoist robe approached, her sleeves rolled up to reveal snow-white arms, a straw twig tangled in her elegant hair.

"The house has a leak, when will you fix it?"

"Reeds are replaced every three months, tiles every year; a cultivator can pass five springs with a single breath, why bother to fix it?"

The Daoist had been sitting in meditation for five years, to his right the already collapsed bed, to his left the rotten meditation cushion. Time was ever showing its mighty force; all things are destined to decay, all beings are destined to die.

This was his realization; he could see insects floating in the void, gnawing at everything.

"Because people need a house to shelter them from wind and rain."

The woman in the Daoist robe moved gracefully towards him, her slight bend bringing a faint fragrance, the hem of her robe stained with mud, her features as stunning as an autumn begonia, yet not vulgar.

"Just as you now cultivate your Dao, a house too needs repairs. And this house was built for you by Jiang Fugui, repaired by Xiao Yunyi, its windows were papered by Hee Huan, and the wall paintings were gifts from Lu Chan."

"It is also where you and Jun Yan, Chi Yu Zi, and others have fought side by side, helped each other, and rested."

Memories echoed around him; the Daoist remembered each person, remembered his initial ignorance in cultivation when he first met Lu Chan and Hee Huan, remembered standing shoulder to shoulder with Chi Yu Zi and Jun Yan against their enemies.

All of this was part of cultivation, but not the entirety.

The Daoist spoke, "I remember all these, and will not forget. But just as fallen leaves were once tender buds, so is the life of man. I was once a reckless youth, and now I should become dust like withered leaves."

The woman in the Daoist robe asked, "Are you teaching me cultivation?"

The Daoist noncommittally replied, "Now that I am a fully fulfilled Immortal, of course I can teach you."

They were both teacher and friend; she was the one who first led me into cultivation, and she was the source of all great Dao in my early days of cultivation.

Now it is my turn to teach her the Immortal Path. She should have been a Phoenix soaring through the Nine Heavens, not stuck in a well with a mudfish like me.

"Do not be confined by love, do not linger over the past, master the true meaning to understand your heart. If one is not burdened by form, then the Great Luo Heaven is right before one’s eyes."

The woman in the Daoist robe was stunned upon hearing these words, contemplating the Daoist rhythm in them, then shook her head and said, "Supreme detachment is not the Great Dao. If forgetting emotions leads to the Dao, then even the Demon Sect would be full of Immortals."

The Daoist then asked, "So how do you prove this emotional Dao? From what I have seen, those with great power are unemotional, and Demi Immortals are heartless."

"Qingcang Master is an Immortal, but she has emotions; she regards you as her own child."

"The master attained immortality eight hundred years ago and is not yet a thousand years old. Emotionlessness comes with age; time cannot be stopped. In the end, who still retains true affection?"

"You are not yet a thousand years old either."

"I am different, of course. If you cannot prove the emotional Dao, then do not come again."

The Daoist closed his eyes. From the beginning, he had not wanted her to come, and now it was the same.

The only difference was that he truly began to let go: his lingering affection for her, his desire for the heavens earth she spoke of, all became part of his Daoist practice.

The dwelling returned to silence, suddenly a delicate fragrance entered the nostrils, his lips lightly pecked.

When the Daoist opened his eyes again, the woman in the Daoist robe had already retreated three steps gracefully; she clutched the hem of her robe tightly, the fabric pulling close to her body, her face feigned calm, but her ears were tinged with the blush of apricots.

"Huajian Continent, Chenhua City, Qinghua Cake with the world’s finest fragrance, revealing the path of emotion."