Chapter 9: The Two Lectures of Zi Xiao, The Sacred Position Invites Disaster

  But then the Zi Xuan Palace reopened, and the Holy One lectured on the Tao. Everyone was eager to listen, and all those who were qualified went to the Thirty-Third Heaven in hopes of hearing the Great Way and advancing their cultivation. When Laozi and his three companions arrived at the Zi Xuan Palace, many people had already arrived before them. After exchanging greetings with everyone, the four of them sat down in their respective seats, either meditating or closing their eyes to cultivate their spirits. Before long, more and more people arrived, and the Zi Xuan Palace became bustling with activity. Tongtian sensed that most of the immortals present were at the mid-to-late stage of Daluo Jinxian cultivation, while those who had reached the peak of Daluo Jinxian were extremely rare, only a few individuals with great destiny and fortune had achieved this level. As for those who were about to become saints, there were currently only two: Laozi and Tongtian.

  At this time, Hong Jun Dao Zu quietly appeared on the small high platform in the void. This time, Hong Jun seemed even more ethereal and intangible, making people feel that there was only a sense of antiquity at first glance, almost merging with the grand hall, without any sense of oppression, yet still giving people an irresistible pressure.

  "Now, all of you sit down and listen to me." Hongyuan saw that everyone had arrived, so he began his lecture.

  "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of heaven and earth. The Named is the mother of all things. Therefore, always desire to observe its wonder without desire; always desire to observe its boundary with desire. These two are the same in source but different in name. They are both called mysteries. Mystery upon mystery - the gate of all wonders."

  "The appearance of virtue, only the Way is followed. The Way as a thing, only vague and obscure. Obscure! Vague! Within it there are images; Vague! Obscure! Within it there are things. Deep! Mysterious! Within it there is essence; Its essence is very real, within it there is truth."

  "The great Way is universal, it can go left or right. All things depend on it for their existence and do not think it strange; they achieve their purpose and do not think it remarkable. It clothes and nourishes all things and does not lord it over them, so it can be named the Small. All things return to it and do not know its name, so it can be called the Great. Because it never attempts to be great, therefore it achieves greatness."

  "When the superior scholar hears of the Tao, he endeavors to practice it; when the middling scholar hears of the Tao, he sometimes keeps it and sometimes loses it; when the inferior scholar hears of the Tao, he laughs at it. If it were not laughed at, it would not be worth being the Tao. Hence the establishment of the saying: 'The Tao is obscure and difficult to understand'; 'Progress in the Tao is like retrogression'; 'The smooth Tao seems rugged'; 'The highest virtue is like a valley'; 'Great whiteness seems soiled'; 'Abundant virtue seems insufficient'; 'Established virtue seems artificial'; 'Pure truth seems distorted'; 'A great square has no corners'; 'A great vessel takes long to complete'; 'A great note is rare in sound'; 'A great image has no shape'; 'The Tao is hidden and nameless'. Only the Tao is good at lending and completing."

  The great Dao of Hongjun is indeed mysterious and unparalleled. The supreme Dao Fa emerged from Hongjun's mouth, as if the divine sound pierced through the brain, and was engraved in the hearts of the immortals without any leakage. This time, Hongjun's lecture was all about the attainment of the Mixed Yuan Great Luo Golden Immortal Dao, which is not accessible to those who do not have great fate, spiritual nature, great willpower, or great virtues. Although this lecture by Hongjun was not as detailed as the previous one, it was much broader, covering thousands of Dao Fa and numerous side doors, many of which were still obscure and difficult to understand. As Hongjun lectured, everyone had their own epiphanies, and being able to come to the Purple Mansion to listen to the Dao was no easy feat; moreover, learning the Mixed Yuan Fa Men did not necessarily mean becoming a saint, but it gave many people who had reached a bottleneck and could not break through a new direction for effort, and they broke through to new realms one after another, feeling that waiting for this gathering was not in vain. Among them, Yuanshi Tianzun and the three people of Jieyin were already close to breaking through to the quasi-saint realm; Nüwa and Zhunti, although also at the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, unfortunately had little enlightenment, and wanted to break through but still needed a great opportunity. Others also made tremendous progress. Tongtian was listening to the Dao on one side while perfecting his own "Hundun Jue", entering an empty and clear state, with many gains.

  This time, Hongjun spoke for 1,800 years before stopping. Everyone saw Hongjun stop and was puzzled. They only heard Hongjun say: "After the creation of heaven and earth, I obtained the divine instrument of creation and achieved the great way of Hongjun. Under the heavenly way, it is necessary to lecture on the Tao three times to educate all living beings. After this time, there will be one more time that will soon be complete. Next time, the lecture on the mixed yuan dao fruit will be held in 10,000 years. What questions do you have now? The teacher can answer."

  Di Jun listened and stepped forward to ask: "Teacher, what is the Dao fruit of Hunyuan? Is it a sage after Hunyuan?"

  "Let's not mention this matter for now and discuss it again after a myriad of years."

  The four of them looked at each other and then turned to Laozi together. "It's up to you, the eldest!" Laozi saw this and could only stand up and ask: "Teacher, is there a way to attain enlightenment?" As soon as Laozi finished asking, everyone below held their breath and stared at Hongjun. This was indeed the ultimate purpose of everyone coming to listen to the Tao.

  Hong Jun hesitated for a moment, then said: "The Great Way has three thousand paths, all of which can be verified by the primordial chaos. But when summarized, there are only three options. The first option is to prove the way with power, that is, to use one's own profound law and cultivation to forcefully break through the shackles of the heavenly way. The second option is to prove the way by cutting off corpses, cutting off good and evil, and the self, so that good and evil are cut off from oneself, and naturally become the way. The third option is to prove the way with merit, to obtain the recognition of the heavenly way through great public virtue, and thus verify the way."

  "Teacher, what is San Shi?"

  "The Three Corpses, are poisons. The human body has three corpse gods, named the Three Poisons. The upper corpse is called Peng Jia, governing good and evil in the Upper Burner; the middle corpse is called Peng, governing good and evil in the Middle Burner; the lower corpse is called Peng, governing good and evil in the Lower Burner."

  "The upper corpse resides at the Jade Pillow Pass, the middle corpse resides at the Jiaji Pass, and the lower corpse resides at the Weiquan Pass. Every time it encounters Gengshen or Jiayin, they report good and evil deeds. Moreover, there are nine Gu that cause harm, blocking the three passes and nine orifices, making it impossible for the true yang to ascend."

  "And the nine worms all have names, one is Fú Wù, living in Yù Zhěn Qiào; two is Lóng Wù, living in Tiān Zhù Qiào; three is Bái Wù, living in Táo Dào Qiào; four is Ròu Wù, living in Shén Dào Qiào; five is Chì Wù, living in Jiá Jǐ Qiào;"

  "The sixth is the isolated Gu, dwelling in the Xuan Shu Qiao; the seventh is the Lung Gu, dwelling in the Ming Men Qiao; the eighth is the Stomach Gu, dwelling in the Long Hu Qiao; the ninth is the insect Gu, dwelling in the Wei Hui Qiao. The three corpses dwell in the three passes, the nine Gu dwell in the nine orifices, with many changes and variations."

  "Mysterious and unpredictable, transforming into beautiful colors, the remnants of dreams become the essence of fantasy, giving birth to troubles in sleep, making it difficult for cultivators to achieve the Great Dao."

  Yuanyuan then asked: "May I ask, Master, what is a sage? Is there a fixed number?"

  Hong Jun said expressionlessly, "Sages conform to the Heavenly Way and emerge into the world. As the Golden Immortals of the Primordial Chaos, they attain the Primordial Chaos and their divine spirits are entrusted to the void, becoming bodies that will not be destroyed for myriad kalpas! If one is not a sage, even if one's lifespan comes to an end, there will still be calamities. Therefore, without attaining the Primordial Chaos, one will ultimately be nothing but ants! Hong Jun paused and continued, "Among my disciples, there should be eight sages!"

  "Without proving the origin, it's just an ant", this sentence constantly shocks everyone in the scene, thinking "what a joke, who wants to be an ant?"

  As soon as Dong Huang Tai Yi heard this, he immediately asked loudly: "May I ask the teacher, who can enjoy these eight sacred positions?"

  "Pangu opened the sky and has great merit. Laozi was originally connected to heaven, transformed from Pangu's original spirit. When the opportunity arrives, he can enjoy his merits and attain sainthood. Hou Tu also has Pangu's original spirit and will have a great merit to accomplish in the future, which can also lead to sainthood. Nuwa will also have great merit to accomplish in the future and can become a saint."

  "Dare to ask the teacher, can you point out the key for the disciple to become a saint?" Nüwa was also somewhat anxious. The few people in front had at least been pointed out by Hongjun as the key to becoming a saint. Laozi, Yuanshi Tianzun and Taishang Laojun were all based on their merits of opening up the sky, and Houtu, who like herself needed to do great merits, also possessed the merits of Pangu's opening up the sky. However, her own great merit was something that she had to do herself in order to have it. Now, a problem arose - Nüwa really didn't understand that so-called "great merit" at all. Moreover, she wasn't very satisfied with Hongjun's mention of "in the future". Who knew how many days later this "future" would be?

  "It's futile to say more when the timing isn't right." Hong Jun replied coldly, indeed an old stubbornness. Originally Tong Tian still wanted to ask if reincarnation could be compared to creating humans first, but this time he didn't dare to, fearing that he might accidentally provoke him, thinking about it and decided to follow the trend instead.

  After Hong Jun finished speaking, he paused for a moment, and the people below also held their breath, staring at Hong Jun with eyes full of passion. The usher sitting in his seat had a bitter face, looking at Hong Jun with eager eyes, while Zhu Ti was even more furious, with green light flashing in his eyes.

  "Although Jie Yin and Zhun Ti do not have much innate virtue, they will eventually establish a great teaching, cultivate virtues, and become saints." Hong Jun finally spoke up, his words making Jie Yin and Zhun Ti overjoyed, while others were disappointed.

  "The teacher is unfair, Taiyi does not obey!" The crowd was shocked, and it was Dong Huang Taiyi who stepped forward, saying this to Hong Jun with a bow.

  "That group of people who are being led by the Western desolate and barren land, come to my Eastern land every day to cause trouble. How can they enjoy this honor? Moreover, these two are not even from my Eastern land. Such an arrangement, how can it be convincing?" The words of Dong Huang Tai Yi indeed had some reason, but also because of this, he offended Jie Yin and Zhun Ti. Only to see Jie Yin still with a bitter expression, while Zhun Ti's eyes gleamed with anger, secretly plotting against Dong Huang Tai Yi, and this matter also led to the cause of the great war between witches and demons in later generations.

  "The West is destined to have a great teaching, and the introduction of the true meaning of the sacred position is predetermined by heaven, no need to say more." Hong Jun Lao stubbornly continued to hold on to his own point of view.

  Everyone listened and sighed endlessly, but immediately after, they looked at Hongjun with even more passionate eyes than before. Now that there was only one sacred position left, what face or anything else didn't matter; the sacred position was the king's way. So everyone activated their eye technique, staring at Hongjun with all their might.

  "Teacher, have mercy on me after billions of years of bitter cultivation, and give me that last sacred position." Dong Huang Taiyi saw that things were impossible, immediately fell to the ground wailing, and began performing. Everyone looked on shaking their heads, despising him in unison, but also quickly knelt down, praying together.

  "Alright, I'll give it to you!" Hong Jun thought for a moment, then waved his hand and eight purple air streams flew out. "This is the Hong Meng Purple Air," he said to the crowd. "With this, you can obtain the Great Way." Then, with another wave of his hand, seven air streams flew towards the people whose names were on the list, while one stream hovered above the crowd's heads, darting back and forth. At that moment, they were in the Purple Cloud Palace, and no one dared to use their powers, so they simply flailed their hands wildly in mid-air. The purple air stream zigzagged through the crowd, circled around, and then flew into Hong Yun's body before disappearing.

  "Hmph, Hongyun, you actually wanted to be a good person and gave up your position to Zhunti, directly leading to the Eastern Saint's seat being taken away by the Western Saint. Who should die if not you?!" Tongtian thought to himself, feeling no sympathy for Hongyun at all. A person who would give away their own opportunities to others didn't deserve any sympathy. Everyone else was fighting tooth and nail to get ahead, but he just gave it away. This wasn't just foolish, even a fool wouldn't do something like this. But Hongyun had done it, and what's more, he did it with a clear conscience. Little did he know, by giving up his position, he had also given away the Eastern Saint's two seats, as well as his own life.

  Everyone saw Hongyun get the eighth holy seat, and they were all stunned. Some people didn't dare to believe it, and their eyes were filled with envy and jealousy as they looked at Hongyun. All the immortals had a sense of unwillingness in their hearts, but in the Zixiao Palace, they didn't dare to be presumptuous, so they could only remain silent. Hongyun, on the other hand, was overjoyed, and he hadn't expected such an opportunity to fall from the sky. He even forgot to thank Huangjin.

  At this time, Hongyuan thought for a moment and said: "The Great Way is fifty, the Heavenly Path is forty-nine, all have a thread of opportunity. Therefore, although the Heavenly Path has numbers, if there are great willpower and great wisdom, one can become a saint; you must all strive to seize that thread of opportunity!"

  As soon as Hong Jun's words came out, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became strange. The immortals looked at each other, their eyes revealing a fierce glow. As soon as Hong Jun's words came out, everyone understood what he meant. It turned out that all the immortals who had cultivated to this point thought they had great willpower and wisdom, and each of them believed they had a chance. Now, under the circumstances where there were too many monks and not enough porridge, apart from working hard to cultivate and reaching the Mixed Yuan realm as soon as possible, there was only one way left - to fight fiercely. If all the other competitors in the hall were eliminated, wouldn't the sacred position be theirs? Among them, Minghe and others who were originally ruthless and ferocious had an even more sinister aura, while Emperor Jun and Dong Wang Gong, who were deep and cunning, also had a strange glow in their eyes as they secretly plotted. Kunpeng looked directly at Hongyun, saying that he was originally one of the seated immortals in the Purple Palace, but Hongyun had given up his seat to Zhuanti, causing him to be ostracized by everyone and lose his position. Now, all those who had a seat had obtained the sacred position, which made Kunpeng furious, his eyes almost spewing fire as he looked at Hongyun.

  Hong Jun's words are no different from a fuse. From now on, the chaos will be endless, and there will be no more peaceful days. The immortals will fight over this thread of opportunity, and it will be impossible to reconcile. It is already unavoidable.

  Hongjun waited until the crowd in the hall had finished asking questions, and then said: "This lecture is over, you will come again after ten thousand years." After finishing speaking, he disappeared into the great hall.

  The immortals pondered deeply, leaving the Purple Cloud Palace with a sigh of regret. They each thought about the meaning behind Hongjun's last words. This trip to the Purple Cloud Palace was indeed very rewarding, and the greatest gain was learning about the news of becoming a saint. Except for those destined to become saints, all the immortals were thinking about how to eliminate the remaining people's lives, so as to increase their own chances of becoming saints. Red Cloud was the primary target among these people. Although Red Cloud had obtained the Hongmeng Purple Qi, the Dao Ancestor did not say that he would definitely become a saint. As a result, all the immortals were thinking about how to snatch the Hongmeng Purple Qi from Red Cloud, so they could use it to become saints themselves.

  The multitude of gods descended to the Desolate Expanse, each going their separate ways. Among them, the Eastern King and Western Queen remained in the Purple Mansion Continent and Kunlun Immortal Island, continuing to govern those groups of immortals; Emperor Jun and Donghuang Taiyi returned to the Sun Star's Sun Palace; Changxi and Xihewent back to the Moon Star's Moon Palace; Nüwa and Fuxi, siblings, returned to Mount Buzhou; Minghe went back to the Blood Sea; Leize returned to the Southeastern Great Marsh; Kunpeng originally wanted to return to the Northern Dark Ocean, but under Emperor Jun and Donghuang Taiyi's invitation, also went to the Sun Palace as a guest; Jieyin and Zhunti, two of them, returned to the Western Paradise; The rest, including Hongyun and others, all wandered through the Desolate Expanse, their whereabouts unknown.

  Tongtian and Houtu declined Laozi's original invitation, and the two of them headed east to the East Sea, returning to Penglai Island. It had been several tens of thousands of years since they last left, and although Penglai Island could conceal its heavenly mechanisms on its own and was also guarded by the large array they had set up, they still needed to return to take a look in order to feel at ease. Thus, the two of them rode on auspicious clouds, flying towards the East Sea.

  Back in Penglai Island, Tongtian and Houtu inspected the current situation of Penglai Island, everything was fine.

  "Little sister, you must keep that piece of incense well! It will be crucial for a great merit in the future." After finishing the trivial matters, Tongtian immediately instructed Hou Tu.

  "What merit?" Hou Tu asked strangely, that piece of soil looked like a good soil to him, if he wasn't born with the cultivation method of earth, this piece of soil wouldn't have helped his cultivation at all, and he wouldn't have gone back to get it specially.

  "It's not time yet, anyway you have to keep it safe, little sister will rely on it to cut the good corpse in the future." Tongtian didn't dare to explain, he didn't know if this was considered revealing heavenly secrets, so he could only remind Houtu.

  "Alright, little sister has taken note. Brother can rest assured!" Hou Tu did as Tong Tian said, despite feeling a bit strange, and directly placed the Jiu Tian Xi Ran into the Tian Di Ling Long Xuan Huang Treasure Tower. Tong Tian was taken aback for a moment, thinking that after the Jiu Tian Xi Ran had been nurtured by the Xuan Huang merit, it might absorb some of the Xuan Huang merit. Would this perhaps allow humans to reach new heights in the future? However, this was a good thing, and Tong Tian didn't stop him.

  Then Tongtian went to check the situation of the twelve black lotus, and found that the black lotus was still some time away from maturity. So, he discussed with Hou Tu again about what they had gained this time, and after a brief discussion, the two made some arrangements and then went into seclusion to comprehend what they had learned from listening to the Tao, of course, including the Hongyuan purple energy that the immortals in the vast wilderness dreamed of.

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  (Here is the second update, I hope you all like it, seeking votes, recommendations, collections and reviews.)