A big question mark popped up in Feng Bingwen's head. What was his master paying attention to? Did it matter whether he slept or not? Shouldn't Zhao Junxian be concerned about his noble character of worrying about the country and the people and working tirelessly for the prosperity of the human race?
"How can that not be the point? With your cultivation level, how can you still sleep?"
The young Taoist priest, sitting cross-legged on the cloud bed, became serious and earnest. As one's cultivation deepens, one gradually acquires many extraordinary abilities such as fasting, sitting in oblivion, embryonic breathing, and flying.
"That was just a kind of..."
Feng Bingwen was pondering how to explain to his master that he was just using an exaggerated description to highlight his concern for humanity, but when he saw Zhao Junxian's slightly upturned lips, he suddenly realized the truth.
"Alright, I'm coming clean, I'm not pretending anymore. Master, I want to succeed as the sect's successor. Please make the arrangements!"
"no!"
Zhao Junxian refused without hesitation. In his eyes, his disciple was far from qualified to succeed him as the Dao Child.
Major Daoist sects typically establish two positions: Dao Master and Dao Son. The Dao Master oversees all affairs within the sect, while the Dao Son is the elected representative of the sect, whose every word and action represents the sect.
Generally speaking, the Daozi is selected from the most outstanding young generation in the sect, and the special rights and treatment that the Daozi can enjoy often make the younger generation of the sect flock to it.
However, the Supreme Dao is somewhat special. The foundation left by its founder is so rich, and the threshold for recruiting disciples is set extremely high. As a result, even after ten thousand years of development, the Supreme Dao is still sparsely populated and the treatment and resources that Dao disciples have are not even coveted by true disciples.
Therefore, the position of Daoist Master of the Supreme Dao is often vacant, so much so that the Supreme Dao, the number one sect of Daoism, often becomes a legend in the cultivation world because no one travels outside.
Until Zhao Junxian was born, the position of the Supreme Daoist Child, which had been vacant for hundreds of years, was finally filled. Zhao Junxian was certain that he was the strongest among his generation, but he did not have much confidence in his disciple, even though the disciple's physique was indeed outstanding.
"Why not? I'm already preparing to form my core."
Feng Bingwen frowned slightly. His master was underestimating him too much, and he was very dissatisfied.
"Even if you cultivate to the Golden Core stage, you are not qualified to succeed as the sect's Dao Child. Stop causing trouble and go back to your cultivation!"
Without giving Feng Bingwen a chance to entangle himself, Zhao Junxian flicked her sleeve, and Feng Bingwen had no power to resist. In the blink of an eye, he was thrown out of the Dao Palace.
"This master..."
Feng Bingwen wanted to compose a couple of lines, but after looking at his current location, he got up and flew back to his own Zhanmeng Islands.
After returning to his cave, Feng Bingwen felt much more relaxed. Many of his followers who saw his escape light fall into the island came to pay their respects, including Sun Yuansheng, the Golden Ape of Tongming.
"Sir, is something bothering you?"
Inside the Dao Palace, many magnificent and extraordinary beings stood on both sides. Sun Yuansheng, who was undoubtedly the strongest and sat in the chief position on the right, asked with a smile.
"Was my facial expression that obvious?"
Feng Bingwen touched his cheek.
“Master, I am the All-Seeing Golden Ape, born with the ability to see people’s hearts and observe the six desires.”
Sun Yuansheng explained,
"This is a talent of my clan. I survived when I was young because of it. It is somewhat similar to the telepathy, one of the six supernatural powers in Buddhism."
"Telepathy?"
Upon hearing this, Feng Bingwen's eyes narrowed slightly. Sun Yuansheng, being as shrewd as a monkey, immediately understood and quickly explained.
"I am no match for the Buddhist masters. I cannot perceive even the slightest thought in your mind, sir. I can only sense the slightest changes in your emotions."
"so."
Feng Bingwen nodded slightly, and that was the end of it. In this world, beings who can perceive the thoughts and ideas of others are rare and hard to find. If a being with such a talent were slightly weaker, it would have been killed long ago.
"Sir, is there anything troubling you that you can share with us? We may not be wise, but we are numerous and can offer some advice to you."
Seeing that Feng Bingwen was not going to delve into the matter, Sun Yuansheng quickly changed the subject.
"I wish to take over the position of the sect's successor, but my master says that even if I form a Golden Core, I am not qualified!"
Feng Bingwen didn't expect these guys in front of him to give him any advice, so he just spoke casually and shared his thoughts.
"Why not allow it?"
"Indeed, sir, your talent and aptitude are unparalleled in the world. In this sect, there is no one more suitable to be a Daoist than you."
“That’s right. If you are not qualified to be a Dao Child, then who in the Supreme Dao is qualified?”
The followers that Feng Bingwen had placed on the Zhanmeng Islands couldn't help but start chattering. They followed Feng Bingwen, and their future achievements were closely related to him; if one suffered, they suffered; if one prospered, they prospered.
The Supreme Dao Child—what an illustrious status! Just by being enveloped by this halo, even when they return to their respective clans, they can receive preferential treatment in terms of resources. The benefits are too numerous to list at once.
"My master has always felt that my abilities are not yet worthy of the position of Dao Child, what can I do?"
Feng Bingwen sighed helplessly.
"Sir, this matter is actually not difficult!"
"Oh? What's your brilliant idea?"
The young Taoist looked at the golden ape in front of him with some surprise.
"May I ask, sir, is your master the late Daoist Master Ren?"
"nature."
"What position does your master hold now?"
"He doesn't hold any important position; my master is currently in charge of a blessed land?"
"Hearing what you say, sir, I thought your master had already succeeded to the position of Dao Lord and become the current Dao Lord."
Jin Yuanshen's tone sounded somewhat sarcastic.
"Dao Master? My master's cultivation is still far behind!"
Upon hearing this, Feng Bingwen laughed heartily, seemingly unconcerned.
"In that case, why should you care about your master, sir? Your master can't decide whether you can become a Dao Child. It all depends on your own ability, sir."
“You’re right, that’s what I was thinking. Whether I can become a Daoist priest is not something he can decide.”
The young Taoist laughed loudly, feeling as if a clear sky had suddenly opened up before him, and all the illusions had been dispelled.
In any major Taoist sect of any significant size, becoming a Taoist disciple requires personal ability, not connections. If a sect selects disciples based on connections, it is only a matter of time before it declines and falls apart.
His master thought he couldn't become a Daoist disciple, but what did that have to do with his desire to become one? His master's thoughts couldn't influence his actions, so he could simply ignore them.
“Master, as far as I know, before your master became the Dao Child, he challenged all the true disciples of the sect and defeated them all before he was officially appointed as the Dao Child.”
The Golden Ape continued to offer his advice. As a demon king born and raised in the Taishangdao sect, he knew far more than Feng Bingwen, a newly promoted disciple who had been in the sect for less than a year.
"Yes, if I were to defeat all the true disciples like my master, even if he disagreed, it wouldn't stop me from becoming a Dao Child."
As Feng Bingwen spoke, his eyes grew brighter and brighter. His thinking became completely clear: becoming a Dao Child was a very simple matter. All he had to do was prove that he was the most outstanding person of his time. In that case, as long as the sect's higher-ups weren't too old and blind, they would have to choose him. Otherwise, if word got out, he would be criticized and there would be plenty of conspiracy theories.
bidige.
"That's true, but it will be quite difficult for you to reach this level. Because you are still young and have only been practicing for a short time, your cultivation is the weakest among all the true disciples."
Sun Yuansheng subtly reminded Feng Bingwen that although what he said was true, he should first consider his own cultivation level and whether he could do it before speaking.
"Increasing my cultivation level is nothing difficult! I'll be able to form my core in no time!"
"Master, the formation of the core cannot be rushed. You should be more cautious. Once the core is formed, there will be no regrets!"
The golden ape was startled by Feng Bingwen's words and quickly tried to stop him. If something went wrong with the formation of the core, the immortals of the Supreme Dao would probably skin it alive.
"I already know what I'm doing, so you don't need to say anything more. I've already made all the preparations."
Feng Bingwen was full of confidence, and all his plans were already in his mind.
"All of you, step back. I need to cultivate!"
Feng Bingwen's followers exchanged glances, wanting to offer some advice, but given their status, how could Feng Bingwen possibly listen even if they did?
Finally, even the strongest Golden Ape could only retreat with worry. They had said everything they could, but as for what they could do, sorry, there was really nothing they could do in this matter.
"Core Formation!"
After his subordinates left, Feng Bingwen lowered his head and pondered. He was certainly not the kind of fool who blindly pursued cultivation levels.
In the pursuit of spiritual cultivation, the importance of a solid foundation is self-evident. Only by perfecting each stage of cultivation can one reach the pinnacle.
For ordinary cultivators, achieving this level is extremely difficult. It requires consuming numerous rare and precious natural treasures to compensate for innate deficiencies in order to possibly reach the limit.
However, for Feng Bingwen, he only needed to cultivate step by step. He didn't even need to deliberately look for a particularly good cultivation cave, as long as there was spiritual energy.
For him, the growth of his cultivation was as simple and natural as eating and drinking. He didn't need to deliberately pursue it or spend effort to acquire rare natural treasures. He could naturally reach perfection in each realm.
Now, Feng Bingwen has cultivated to the Transcendent Realm. He has condensed the method of cultivating the True Seed of Talismans. Once the nine talismans are successfully condensed, the Transcendent Realm will naturally be perfected, and he can also use this to condense a Golden Core.
"I still need to deduce the art of divination!"
Feng Bingwen pondered and calculated in his heart that the cultivation of the Transcendent Realm depended entirely on himself. If he found a suitable supernatural method, it wouldn't take him long to condense the True Seed. It would happen naturally and effortlessly.
"Tsk!"
A shadowy voice, seemingly tinged with disdain, rang in Feng Bingwen's ear. The instant he heard it, Feng Bingwen felt a familiar drowsiness wash over him. Without much resistance, he drifted off to sleep.
Amidst the vast sea of clouds, a majestic sacred mountain stands tall, its summit shimmering with seven-colored divine light. Upon closer inspection, one can see that this light originates from a half-withered gourd vine. Before that gourd vine stands a young man in blue robes, his hands clasped behind his back. He turns around and meets Feng Bingwen's gaze.
"Feng Bingwen, tell me, what should I say to you?"
"Please feel free to praise me, senior. I can accept it!"
Having entered the dream for the third time, Feng Bingwen was now quite adept at it, no longer showing the caution he had before, and his words and actions had become extremely casual.
"How come your skin has gotten so thick in just a few days? Or is this your true nature?"
The young man in blue was surprised by Feng Bingwen's tone, but he didn't care much.
"Perhaps!"
Feng Bingwen smiled and said that his parents were still alive and well, and the elders in his family were also in good health. In terms of cultivation, he had a bright future and was almost destined to become an immortal. His newly accepted disciple was even an ancient immortal reincarnation. What could he possibly be dissatisfied with? Everything was so perfect, except for the fact that he did not have a Daoist partner.
"You've had it too easy. I think you need some setbacks and blows!"
The young man in blue looked at Feng Bingwen's smug expression, stared at him for a moment, and then said thoughtfully. After speaking, he actually put one hand on his chest and the other on his chin, and began to think seriously, which startled Feng Bingwen.
"Second brother, are you kidding me? How can you call this a smooth life? Didn't I get inexplicably sent to the Outer Heavens before?"
"And then you just picked up a remnant of an extraterrestrial realm for free, and you call that bad luck? If this counts as bad luck, then just call me plagued by bad luck."
The young man in blue rolled his eyes and said irritably.
"Haha, isn't this just a coincidence? Besides, that remnant realm isn't anything special. After I refined it, it just gave me a slightly more spacious place. I don't need a storage magic item anymore."
"You're acting innocent after getting the benefits. Don't you know how my older brother scolded you after you practiced the Crippled Realm?"
The young man in blue glanced at Feng Bingwen, finding his words utterly baffling.
"Why are you scolding me? What did I do wrong?"
“My older brother said you are short-sighted, greedy for quick success, ungrateful, and beyond redemption.”
"What did I do? Why are you insulting me like this?"
Upon hearing these comments, Feng Bingwen was immediately displeased; there wasn't a single good word to say. If he weren't outmatched by that powerful figure, he would have definitely challenged him to a fight.
"You've already cultivated the Remnant Realm, fine, but why did you have to ask Fairy Xuanqing to drag you into the Kunxu Realm?"
"Kunxu Realm?"
Feng Bingwen was taken aback, noticing the key words.
"This is the world we inhabit!"
The second brother in green casually offered an explanation.
“I’ve memorized the Kunxu Realm.”
"Don't change the subject. Tell us your thoughts. If your answer doesn't satisfy us, we will have to test you again!"
"baffling."
Feng Bingwen expressed his feelings at that moment.
"Immortal Lord Xuanqing helped me send that remnant realm into the Kunxu Realm. Is there anything wrong with that? Isn't it a good thing?"
"Once you enter the Kunxu Realm, you will be contained and devoured by this world, and you will have an inseparable connection with it. If you want to transcend it in the future, you will be unnecessarily hindered."
That's it?
Feng Bingwen snorted, disregarding all decorum, and sat cross-legged on the ground.
"My choice affected my later transcendence, so your elder brother criticized it as short-sightedness?"
"Naturally, my other younger siblings feel the same way!"
"Transcendence is your choice, not mine, so why force it on me?"
Feng Bingwen was very puzzled by this. You guys, who were born holy and seemed to be innate gods and demons, have enjoyed everything and are now bored with everything in the world. You want to break free from the shackles of heaven and earth and run away to the void.
He expressed his understanding and tolerance, but why should they assume that he has to be like them? There are too many unknowns in this world for him, too many places for him to explore. In comparison, the desolate, empty void holds no appeal for him.
Don't you want to transcend?
The young man in blue was taken aback, then asked earnestly.
"In no mood."
Feng Bingwen answered without hesitation: What level is he at? To think about transcendence is like trying to run before you've even learned to walk. This is not what being overly ambitious means.
"Besides, even if I want to transcend, there is nothing wrong with my actions. Leaving that remnant world in the Outer Heaven is of no benefit to me. It is as if that time has been wasted without any advantage."
"So that's why my brother thinks you're too eager for quick success?"
"What does it mean to be short-sighted and greedy? I only know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Feng Bingwen didn't buy into that at all. These people were indeed big shots, but he wasn't a cultivator without a background. He now had the number one sect of the human race as his backer, and he wasn't someone who could be easily bullied.
"What you say makes sense. I hope that a thousand years from now, you won't regret the choice you made today."
"That's definitely not the case."
Feng Bingwen was full of confidence.
"The remnant realm you came into contact with was a fragment left behind after the collapse of a world. It was drifting aimlessly in the void until it came to a location near the Kunxu Realm, and then you just happened to come across it. Do you know how small the probability is?"
You might encounter it once, but you'll never have it a second time. Such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has been wasted by you.
The young man in blue felt obligated to make Feng Bingwen understand what he had given up.
"oh!"
Feng Bingwen responded calmly. He never felt that he had done anything wrong. He believed that his choice was the one that suited his heart, even though some bigwigs were now saying that his choice was wrong.
If it's wrong, it's wrong. What does it have to do with him? As long as he's happy.
"You rascal, you really are just as my elder brother said."
"Isn't this great?"
Feng Bingwen looked up and glanced at the young man in blue.
“I have no desire to transcend, but I do desire to live a carefree and immortal life. I can protect you on your path. You can hand over all the unnecessary burdens you have cut off to me. I will bear all the consequences for you. You don’t need to be polite with me.”
"Ha, you really dare to say that!"
The young man in blue was amused by Feng Bingwen's words.
Go!
In a flash, Feng Bingwen saw a finger growing larger and larger in front of him, but he had no room to dodge. His body was stiff and he could not move. He could only watch helplessly as the finger touched the center of his forehead.
In an instant, Feng Bingwen felt that the world was in chaos, and the earth, wind, water, and fire had not yet been differentiated. In a flash, he seemed to have been forcibly taken to the era before the creation of the world.
When Feng Bingwen came to his senses, the somewhat unfamiliar furnishings came into view, and he had already returned to the Dao Palace of the Zhanmeng Islands.
"Huh! The Lesser Primordial Eight Trigrams and the Heavenly Yi Numbers!"
Feng Bingwen read out the extra information in his mind word by word. It was a divination technique, and what it described was how to conceal the secrets of heaven and avoid being divined about one's own location.
In some respects, this art of divination and fortune-telling is extremely suitable for him, as if it were tailor-made for him, perfectly matching his needs. He doesn't need to be like those charlatans of the Heavenly Evolution Path, calculating everything without missing a single detail; he just needs to prevent others from predicting his own fate.
"This is still an arrogant... cough!"
Feng Bingwen clenched his fist and placed it near his mouth, coughing lightly. He didn't say the rest of his words. In terms of divination and fortune-telling, that second brother was far superior to the charlatans of Tianyandao. He couldn't possibly speak ill of him in his heart, not even in a whisper.
"Cultivate, cultivate!"
Meanwhile, inside the Calabash Cave, the young man in blue robes, having seen off Feng Bingwen, looked at the many brothers and sisters who had descended from all directions before him. Without any restraint, he casually chose a rock and sat down cross-legged.
"You all heard what that kid said. What do you think of him?"
“We shouldn’t judge him from our perspective. In the end, Feng Bingwen is just a being born after birth. He regards immortality as the highest pursuit, so we can’t blame him.”
The Goddess of the Moon spoke, her voice soft and gentle, like the sound of a clear spring, melodious and pleasant to the ear.
“That’s right, his .asxs is too low and cannot be compared with ours.”
Because there was no trace of anything missing, it was a void in the field of vision, a black hole into which even light could not penetrate. A voice rang out, and it was one of agreement.
"Whether he wants to transcend or not is actually not of much concern to us. If he only wants to live a carefree and immortal life, it is actually better for us. We don't need to trouble Brother Fei to make any deductions. We can just let him take on our karma."
"Can he afford it?"
"Can."
It was the young man in blue who spoke. The Bagua diagram clearly appeared on his palm, with an obscure and mysterious aura flowing within it. Above his head, purple lightning, like dragons and snakes, was roaming.
"Of course, since that's the case, I'm going to reincarnate. There's no need to search for anyone anymore, this kid will do!"
His vital energy was like a furnace, or a volcano about to erupt, and the young man spoke with surging vital energy.
"Brother, wait a minute!"
The young man in blue quickly stopped him.
"The time is not right yet, brother. Please wait a little longer."
---Aside---
Damn it, I ate vegetarian for three days and my legs are weak. All that food I used to eat went down my throat, but I don't feel anything; I'm still hungry. If I ever encounter a vegetarian in real life who claims they can't eat meat, I'll beat them to a pulp. Real vegetarians are definitely weak and powerless; they couldn't possibly beat a meat-eater.
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