Chapter 17: The Eastern King's Lecture on the Dharma, Compassionate Heart Makes a Great Vow

  Dongwang Gong preached the Dharma, with a compassionate heart making great vows

  "Haha... Those two idiots are still sleeping, well, it's only right. Now is the era of our three clans, and the Heavenly Way had to make them unconscious in order to protect the next generation of Heavenly Pig Feet." Shen Long secretly raised a middle finger at the Heavenly Way.

  "When it comes to the main characters of heaven and earth, the next life is theirs, so where will our three tribes go? Alas! I don't believe that my dragon tribe, which occupies a third of the world, will be destroyed just because someone says so. Although it's said that thirty years on the east bank, thirty years on the west bank, but by then, we dragons will retreat from being the main characters of heaven and earth, hide our strength, and become auspicious creatures. I don't believe anyone would dare to have any unscrupulous thoughts about my dragon tribe." Recalling the tragic fate of the dragon tribe in the legend of their previous life, Shen Long's heart felt like it had been pierced by a thorn.

  "Alas! Let's talk about it later, first and foremost is my strength. As long as I can raise my strength, if I become a saint, no matter what catastrophe comes, it will follow my own will, and be indestructible for eternity, living as long as heaven and earth..."

  "Alas! Strength! Strength!" Shen Long, who had been indulging in fantasies, was once again faced with his own reality. Although he was now a mid-stage Quasi-Saint, he would still be at the bottom of the pack among those of the same level, because since arriving in the Desolate Expanse, Shen Long had only cultivated sitting meditation, and had no actual combat experience. Even if Shen Long did have some combat experience as a mid-stage Quasi-Saint, he didn't think his strength could withstand the Great Tribulation of the Three Clans.

  "Alas, strength! Strength!" Shen Long let out another sigh.

  With a sigh, Shen Long planned to continue forward, wandering in the vast expanse of Hong Huang. After taking another look at his own unnamed small mountain that he had cultivated for ten thousand years, Shen Long turned around to leave when suddenly a colorful light shadow emerged from the first cave of his mountain.

  Shen Long was startled and took a defensive stance, but Cai Ying stopped three meters away from him. Shen Long looked again and found that it was an ox, but this ox was different from ordinary ones. Its whole body was born with nine colors, extremely beautiful, with two small horns curved upwards, giving off an unusually sharp feeling, as if wanting to pierce a hole in the sky. Its four hooves were off the ground, stepping on colorful auspicious clouds, what a majestic and auspicious creature.

  The cow stood still within three meters and called out to Shen Long.

  "Mooooo..." and conveyed his kindness through spiritual power.

  The most spiritual exchange, Shen Long finally understood his meaning.

  "You said you want to be my mount?" Shen Long said incredulously. Other people's mounts were usually subdued by themselves before being tamed, and Shen Long was just thinking about how to get one, but this one came on its own? After Shen Long dropped his guard, the Nine-Colored Divine Cow walked closer to him, licked his face with its tongue, and then nodded its head.

  "Huh?" Shen Long put away his mount and sat on the Nine-Colored Divine Cow, which was also connected to the divine cow's aura. He calculated with his fingers and exclaimed in surprise, "You're still the Ancestral Bull of the Hong Huang Cow Tribe?"

  "Moooo!" The divine cow let out a pleased cry.

  "How can your cultivation be so weak? You haven't even transformed yet?"

  "Mooooo"

  "Alright, alright, I don't understand your cow language either. Let's talk after you transform." Shen Long found it difficult to communicate with him, his intelligence seemed very low, and also he was not used to the cow language.

  "Mooooo..." The nine-colored divine cow let out another cry.

  "What's wrong?"

  The divine cow pulled Shen Long to the first cave where Shen Long had closed himself in, this was where Little Fox Su Tian Xiang had crossed her tribulation. Shen Long had set up a restriction here out of compassion to protect those living beings with fate.

  "This is the first cave where I was closed up, why did you bring me here?" Shen Long said with doubt outside the cave, holding back the divine cow.

  However, when Shen Long went in, he saw a scene that shocked him. Inside, there were all the elves from the mountain, at this moment, they were densely packed in the cave, kneeling on both knees, looking very devout, their eyes fixed on Shen Long, and their eyes were full of prayers and longing.

  Looking at such eyes, Shen Long fell into memories...

  In his previous life, Shen Long was a young boy from a rural village. He spent his childhood and primary school years in the village. Whenever he saw teachers from the city, Shen Long would feel extremely envious and yearn for a wealthy lifestyle like theirs. He wanted to live like a city person. Therefore, he studied hard, worked diligently, and tried every means possible to improve his life. He even learned Feng Shui techniques to change his fate.

  However, although Shen Long's past life did not change his fate, and after rebirth, Shen Long's destiny was extremely high, without the need to recall the past's trivial obsessions. But when he saw that group of people in his eyes as ants with that kind of gaze, Shen Long's heart seemed to have been deeply pinched.

  They cultivate for spiritual enlightenment, increase their cultivation, or ride mounts, or worship mountains, just to survive, in my eyes they are ants.

  I, in order to stand firm in the Chaos, created the art of alchemy, seized the treasure of the Primordial Chaos, and calculated the lives of the Chaos creatures. Am I not also stealing a life? Am I not just an ant in the eyes of other existences?

  Shen Long thought to himself, and the nine-colored divine cow under him mooed loudly, waking Shen Long up.

  "It's all just struggling to survive!" Shen Long sighed and said.

  "Alright, I have been in seclusion here for nearly ten thousand years. It's also fate that brings us together. You may rise now, and I shall impart a lesson to you." As he spoke, with a wave of his hand, the multitude of living beings below felt themselves being lifted up by an unseen force.

  Shen Long descended from the divine cow and sat in the void, where a cloud platform emerged from the earthly energy below, pulling Shen Long down. The living beings below felt increasingly mysterious and powerful about Shen Long, and they bowed to him again.

  Shen Long's voice of preaching has sounded:

  "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao..."

  Shen Long began with the moral classics of a previous life, of course not reciting the entire book. This was an ancient scripture that shouldn't appear now, and he didn't want to be tainted by karma. Through his own enlightenment, every time Shen Long read this scripture, he gained unexpected insights. This time, Shen Long was going to share his understanding of morality.

  Shen Long was still sober when he first started speaking, but gradually, Shen Long entered the realm of enlightenment and began to harmonize with heaven and earth, expounding on the ultimate principles of the universe.

  "Nourishing all things without contention."

  "A thousand cliffs stand upright, without desires then firm."

  Just as the lecture on the ultimate principle of heaven and earth has just begun, in the midst of heaven and earth, the heavenly energy descends and the earthly energy ascends. Purple air and jade pendant descend from the sky, falling into the bodies of living beings below. The earthly energy transforms into golden lotus flowers underground, also entering the bodies of living beings. Heaven and earth converge, and the great Daoist talismans are generated between heaven and earth, providing for the living beings who have heard them to absorb.

  Shen Long entered that state of mind, experiencing the laws of heaven and earth, enjoying the understanding of Tao Fa, increasing...

  Suddenly, with a "ding" sound, Shen Long came out of that state of enlightenment, looking around dazedly. It turned out that all the living beings were immersed in their epiphanies and no one had heard anything.

  Shen Long's face turned strange after a quick calculation with his fingers.

  "How can it be just ten years? Others talk about thousands of years as a unit, isn't this too little for me?" However, the mountain's living beings have low cultivation and limited ability to hear, not enough to withstand thousands of years, or else they would burst.

  At this time, the sky descended with merit, about one mu in size, and opened up a small thousand worlds of three inches. Although Shen Long's lectures were not many, this was Shen Long's voluntary lecture to the Hongyuan living beings under his compassionate heart, and he should have been rewarded as such.

  "Who would have thought that this one effort of mine would yield such great merit? I've gained a huge amount of good karma from just one lecture." Shen Long couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

  "If I were to preach the Way in the Desolate Expanse, wouldn't that resolve the issue of merit?!" Shen Long sighed, and suddenly a spark of inspiration flashed across his mind. "Moreover, it would also help the living beings of the Desolate Expanse, and allow me to establish a beautiful reputation."

  "Alright, let's do it this way. However, the name of the Dragon Clan is a bit sensitive and needs to be used as an alias. I am of the Dragon Clan, from the East, and as the Ancestral Dragon, the King of Dragons, so let's just call me Duke Dongwang!"

  "Alright." Shen Long made up his mind and declared loudly to the heavens, "I am Dong Wang Gong. I feel that heaven and earth are open, and all living beings are ignorant. Therefore, I wish to travel throughout the vast wilderness to the land of Zhou, teaching about mountains when I encounter them, teaching about water when I encounter it, either as a friend or as an audience, to enlighten the living beings of the wilderness about the principles of heaven and earth."

  A loud clap of thunder in the sky, just as expected.

  Shen Long patted the Nine-Colored Divine Cow's head and left without caring about the creatures in the mountains who had heard the Tao.

  Shen Long traveled through the vast wilderness, originally intending to go to Buzhou Mountain, which was also on his way, so he made such a grand vow.

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