After a few cups of yellow wine, He Laohun felt a little tipsy. After toiling for more than half a day, taking a sip like this was truly pleasant.
His relationship with Jiang Yi could be considered fairly good in the communal courtyard. Seeing the other man “drowning his sorrows in wine,” he opened his mouth to advise him:
“Yi-ge’er, try to let it go. Luo Qian’er is proud and ambitious, and all she thinks about is entering the inner sect and climbing to a higher branch.
“The talisman coins you earn in a month aren’t even enough for her to buy pills or rent a cave abode. Why cling to her?
“We have to live for ourselves! Look at Old Li in the courtyard—life is tight enough for him as it is, and he still has to be nagged by his wife for being useless!”
Jiang Yi sipped at the yellow wine in small mouthfuls. Naturally, he was not drinking to drown his sorrows. Having lived two lives and experienced no few twists and turns, his state of mind had long since been tempered.
It was just that from the moment he opened his eyes and became a mortal menial laborer in a demonic sect, toiling day and night like an ox or horse, unable to see any hope of breaking free from his cage;
To then obtaining the Heavenly Book, investigating karma, and seeing a chance to seek out opportunity and grasp at the possibility of cultivating the Dao.
The rises and falls between them were too complex to describe to outsiders.
He had to use wine to press it down!
“Brother He.”
Jiang Yi set down his cup and said:
“From now on, I just want to earn talisman coins steadily and see if I can enter the inner sect to attend a few lectures, seek a method, and strive for a way out.”
A look of surprise appeared on He Laohun’s face. Then he lowered his head.
“Yi-ge’er, it’s good that you have ambition, but a single lecture in the inner sect isn’t cheap, and besides… it’s not much use.
“Listen to your elder brother’s advice. That road won’t lead anywhere.”
Jiang Yi raised his brows, seeming somewhat surprised.
“Brother He, you’ve been to the inner sect?”
According to the original owner’s memories, He Laohun was an old hand of Red Flame Peak. After his twelve-year term expired, he had not descended the mountain, but had remained in the Qianji Sect.
Ordinarily, he went to work on time but never did any extra. Once he had endured four hours or completed his quota, he would rest.
He was not diligent in meditation or cultivation either, and had always given people the fixed impression of someone muddling along, eating and waiting to die, simply getting by day by day.
“Ah, your elder brother here once studied Daoist learning too, once hoped to climb to the summit of the Twelvefold Tower and become a Foundation Establishment Perfected…”
He Laohun seemed to have had his emotions stirred, and sighed with feeling:
“Back then, I scrimped and scraped to earn two thousand talisman coins every month, slept on a shared plank bed, gnawed on steamed buns, all to save up the fee to enter the inner sect and attend lectures.
“In one year, I went a total of eleven times, but gained nothing at all.
“What the sect elders spoke of was always about the ‘Great Dao,’ ‘eternal life,’ ‘grotto-heavens,’ and ‘blessed lands.’
“They spread the boundless mountains and rivers of the Five Domains before your eyes, yet never mentioned a single word about how to take the first step.”
So the open lectures had no real substance?
As expected of a demonic sect!
Jiang Yi thought to himself:
So the Qianji Sect did not forbid mortal laborers from attending lectures and seeking methods because it wanted to harvest them like leeks. It had never intended to teach anything real in the first place!
“Yi-ge’er, I’m not afraid of you laughing at me. Even now, I still dream of stepping into the inner sect, sitting beneath the altar, listening to lectures together with those Qianji Sect disciples…”
Fine wrinkles appeared at the corners of He Laohun’s eyes. Years of labor had deepened the marks of time, making him, barely in his forties, look like a little old man of sixty.
“The most poisonous medicine in this world is the word ‘hope.’
“Especially for you and me. Who is born wanting to be a mortal laborer? Who doesn’t long to be a cultivator of the Dao, to dine on rosy clouds and drink dew, to gather qi and refine methods?
“But there’s no chance! Mortal laborers are materials to be consumed, not talents meant for cultivation! I only understood this after I spent every last talisman coin I had!”
Jiang Yi fell silent at once.
Who would have thought that He Laohun, the person in the communal courtyard who seemed the least motivated of all, had once possessed such a firm and persistent heart toward the Dao?
“Brother He, is the demonic path like this, and the immortal path the same?”
Jiang Yi changed the subject and asked:
“I heard the teacher of Daoist learning mention that South Continent’s spiritual opportunity is not abundant, far inferior to East Victory Continent under the rule of the immortal path.”
He Laohun downed a few more cups of yellow wine. Perhaps the liquor had gone to his head, for his words became unrestrained as well:
“Ah, what difference is there? It’s nothing more than the immortal path being difficult to enter and valuing one’s background, while the demonic path teaches without discrimination and makes full use of everything.
“Think about it, Yi-ge’er. Immortal path, demonic path—either way, they’re just roads of cultivation, seeking immortality and unfettered freedom through the ages.
“Since the goal is the same, sooner or later all roads lead to the same destination. What difference could there be?
“Could it be that just because you’re on the immortal path, you’ll pity heaven and man and take ordinary mortals seriously? To put it plainly, what great person would ever put ants in their eyes?”
“Brother He has insight, true insight. Tell me more in detail…”
Jiang Yi immediately grew interested and hurriedly poured wine for He Laohun, wanting to hear some “real substance.”
He automatically ignored the resentment and indignation mixed in, selecting only the useful words.
There was no helping it. As a mortal laborer, the information he could come into contact with was truly too little.
“The true difference between the immortal path and the demonic path actually lies in the difference of birth.”
“If you were not born with parents who had entered the immortal path, or a fate and aptitude superior to others, then you have no chance in this life.
“As for the demonic path, it doesn’t matter if your origins are humble. It can give you a ‘chance’ to try, to stake everything on one throw.”
He Laohun pinched a strip of wild rabbit meat and chewed it dryly.
“I also heard it from an inner sect elder. East Victory Continent is rich in spiritual opportunity, but it is gathered and controlled by the upper sects, which have established nine grades of Dao registers.
“Without background, it is extremely difficult to be accepted into their gates. Without receiving a register, it is hard to cultivate the Dao, and one can only become an unlisted mountain-and-marsh rogue cultivator. That is why immortal-path cultivators from East Victory Continent often come to our South Continent to seek a livelihood…”
Jiang Yi chewed over these words and roughly came to a conclusion.
If demonic-path cultivation was like being a “wage-slave ox and horse” on an endless, long road, then the immortal path sounded like passing the civil service examination and landing a secure post.
“Among those eleven lectures I attended, there wasn’t much that was useful. Now I’ll pass one sentence on to you, Yi-ge’er.”
Probably because he had drunk happily today, He Laohun spoke frankly, unlike his usual habit of concealing this and hiding that.
“On the immortal path, only if your father’s generation has a Perfected does Foundation Establishment become easy; only if your ancestors produced someone at the twelfth level of Qi Refining does entering the gate become easy.
“As for the demonic path, that road lies in the word ‘struggle.’ If you do not fight or seize, if you have no money and no backing, then you will have no hope of turning your life around in this lifetime.”
Jiang Yi pondered carefully and expressed his agreement.
Achieving the Dao had been difficult since ancient times. Naturally, every step was fraught with peril.
He looked toward He Laohun and thought that the other man must have been struck down by these words from the inner sect elder. Feeling that the road ahead was dark, he had chosen to “lie flat.”
“Brother He, every word of yours is a pearl of wisdom. I have benefited greatly!”
Jiang Yi raised his cup in toast, deliberately lowering his own cup to show full respect.
“Yi-ge’er, I can see you reaching the fifth level of Qi Refining! Work hard!”
Jiang Yi’s attitude pleased He Laohun greatly, and he said expansively:
“If there’s anything else you want to ask, your elder brother here can be considered to have seen a thing or two…”
Jiang Yi did not inquire too deeply. The bit of real substance in He Laohun’s belly had already been dug out by him for the most part. He merely asked casually:
“Why are we called the ‘demonic path’? The word ‘demon’ doesn’t sound very nice.”
He Laohun breathed out wine fumes, swaying his head as if reciting from a book, speaking in a measured tone:
“The ‘demon’ of the demonic path actually has two origins.
“One is the self-designation of the Ancestral Master, the name he set for the Daoist lineage and Dharma vein; the later disciples and descendants could not very well change it.
“As for the other, this word ‘demon’ does not mean doing evil recklessly, without law or restraint. Rather, it means not being bound by precepts, rules, and the fetters of sin and karma, seeking only to ‘preserve one’s innate nature and not diminish one’s body.’”
Jiang Yi understood, and deeply felt that this meal had not been treated in vain. At the very least, he had been able to make up for a great deal of “basic common sense” and now understood, more or less, what the demonic path was about.
The two drank wine and ate meat, chatting about this and that, until past the middle of the hour of Hai before they finally stopped.
Jiang Yi settled the bill. It cost a full four hundred talisman coins, and his purse instantly shriveled.
If not for the large sum he had received from the new recruit commission, his heart truly would have been bleeding, and the pain would have been unbearable.
Jiang Yi carried He Laohun, whose steps were already staggering, on his back and groped his way along the mountain path in the dark of night.
The latter might truly have been drunk, for he was still muttering on and on:
“Yi-ge’er, you’re still young. Don’t be like your elder brother here, thinking yourself a talent for cultivation, only to spend all the hard-earned talisman coins you have before realizing that cultivation is like scooping for the moon in water… that road is too hard, far too hard… Listen to your elder brother’s advice. Muddle your way to the fifth level of Qi Refining, save up some talisman coins, then descend the mountain and enjoy yourself…”
When Jiang Yi returned to the communal courtyard, he simply tossed He Laohun onto the bed in one piece and did not take much care of him.
In any case, with cultivation in his body, he would not fall ill from the cold.
Afterward, he sat in the courtyard, letting the wind blow for a while to disperse the smell of wine from his body, then washed up and entered his room.
“Even if the road to the Dao is obstructed and long, I must still move forward. Otherwise, wouldn’t I have wasted this stroke of heaven-sent luck!”
Jiang Yi still leaned against the rough earthen wall. In his eyes, that page of the golden book appeared, the tadpole-like small characters flickering uncertainly.
After he provided the preconditions, the opportunity he obtained had only one entry!
【Matter Investigated: An opportunity compatible with oneself】
【Entry One: Two days later, at three quarters past midnight, north of Red Flame Peak, where fallen trees lie on the shaded side of the mountain, moonlight will gather and congeal, dripping down as flowing nectar. A way may be devised to swallow it.】
P.S. During the new book period, there will be two updates every day. I humbly ask all esteemed readers to vote often and support often~