Li Qiye’s Dao lecture caused Li Shuangyan to be shocked; just the Jade Spiral Merit Law alone was enough for her to feel that it was impossible. Afterward, Li Qiye started to preach the other foundational merit laws of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect. He spoke continuously like he had them memorized on the palm of his hand, from shallow to deep, and from simple to complex; indescribably wonderful, just like the deluge of heavenly flowers and the golden spring rushing forth from the earth.
Li Qiye, in one breath, explained several foundational merit laws of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect. He spoke about the profound truths, he taught the mysterious meanings, and he left behind an everlasting impression without comparison, giving others a fresh feeling.
Since Li Shuangyan had read these foundational merit laws, before and after, she had meticulously understood them; it caused her to have an even greater surprise. Even though these merit laws were superficially simple; however, with her current cultivation and with her current Dao understanding, she wouldn’t be able to preach such profound truths like Li Qiye.
This discovery impacted her and shook her very foundation. Li Shuangyan was the heaven’s prideful daughter; she had a King Physique and a Saint Fate Palace. It wasn’t an undeserved reputation regarding her talents or Physique, or even her Dao understanding. Not eyeing just the whole Grand Middle Territory, even the whole Mortal Emperor world, she would still be a named genius.
However, her explanation of the Dao truths and her understanding of the profound truths, even with her current cultivation, were left far behind by Li Qiye. This sort of thing, to appear in an ordinary person with a Mortal Physique, Mortal Life Wheel, and Mortal Fate Palace; it was never seen before. However, when things like this happened to Li Qiye, everything felt like it was a natural matter.
At this moment, Li Shuangyan couldn’t help but lament over the fact that, regarding the spotting of geniuses, she was far inferior to her master, Demon King Lun Ri. In the beginning, she had thought that her master had chosen Li Qiye because of the four Heavenly Guardian golems, but seeing what was before her eyes, this was far from the truth.
Li Qiye went from rotten to magical, and this caused Li Shuangyan to feel an incomparable astonishment. She couldn’t see through Li Qiye, a young boy who was younger than her. His unfathomable existence has to be a miracle!
Li Qiye’s Dao lesson was entering its closing stage; he originally wanted to correct the incomplete moves of these disciples, and that also served as a way to earn the respect of this arrogant and unruly group. After was the Dao instruction meant to create a complete foundation for their cultivation in order to avoid flaws within their merit laws; otherwise, it would have an adverse effect on the rest of their cultivation lives.
In fact, since the ancient ages, many cultivators only needed to practice the most powerful merit laws. In the future, they could step into the apex ranks. Many cultivators, ancient immortal heritages, and even major figures teaching their disciples had thought that this was the case.
However, after innumerable years of ups and downs, regarding the insights within Dao instructions, other people couldn’t compare to Li Qiye. To Li Qiye – a cultivator, at the beginning of cultivation – the most important thing was not a world-shattering method, but a proper understanding of morality and an awareness of the grand Dao foundation. If, in the beginning, one’s morality and foundational Dao understanding had diverged from the main road, then in the future, it would be difficult to change; this negatively affected the ideals of Dao cultivation. [1]
Lastly, Li Qiye wanted to show the direction to the three hundred disciples of the Cleansing Jade Peak. In reality, these disciples were limited in their foundational cultivations with the introductory merit laws, plus they were also in the early and superficial stages; it was difficult to spot flaws. However, Li Qiye did not take this matter lightly, and, without any carelessness, he examined all the individual disciples.
Physique, Life Wheel, Fate Palace, and the Dao willpower affected and reinforced each other; Li Qiye had his own insights. Regarding this matter, Li Qiye was absolutely the unparalleled grandmaster!
Thus, as he checked the base of each disciple, he could formulate the most exact explanations!
During Li Qiye’s examination, Luo Fenghua was the first leading horse; the first to stand out. He had greatly changed. Before, the most disrespectful towards Li Qiye was him; the one who opposed Li Qiye the most was also him; however, he was currently one of Li Qiye’s biggest admirers.
Sectional Leader Zhou taught the Dao to him for several years, but it was not equal to Li Qiye’s Dao instruction of a few days. With such an obvious gap, a talented person like Luo Fenghua naturally understood who was a true mentor; he was not a fool.
Under Li Qiye’s command, Luo Fenghua was floating his Shou Life Wheel, Xuan Fate Palace, and Zhan Physique; he activated his Fate Palace and Life Wheel merit laws so that Li Qiye could thoroughly check them. [2]
“You practiced very thoroughly; the Dao foundation is without flaws. However, you were too anxious with ranking up; in the future, do not be hot-tempered and impatient. Step-by-step improvement is not a bad thing. Do not only see the cultivation rank ahead as you need to have a vision for the future.” Li Qiye was impressed with Luo Fenghua since he indeed had some talents.
After hearing Li Qiye’s view, Luo Fenghua stepped back with joy.
“You belong to the Night Owl Physique. On the basis of Dao foundation, with an emphasis on lightness. In the future, with your cultivation, emphasize flying bird types, and you should take the road of quick and violent.
“There is an insufficient ferocious strength, but there is an abundance of yin; this seems to be the Early Form Fate Palace. You cannot single-mindedly pursue the ranks; it is as if you were just expanding your Fate Palace. You need to use your Fate Palace to revolve your Life Wheel in order to refine your Physique to its max potential. Slow down your cultivation speed, and you should use more time to rebuild your Physique.
“A girl doesn’t necessarily have to practice a gentle yin method. Your blood qi is yang, and your Life Wheel is extremely fast. In the future, you should have a bias for firm and yang cultivational methods because your Life Wheel directly affects your Physique…” [3]
***
Li Qiye examined the Dao foundations for each disciple. After his examinations, he would give out exact advice.
Li Shuangyan was still by Li Qiye’s side, keeping him company, and she continued to be astonished by his suggestions. Li Qiye’s current achievements, once again, pushed her to a different door. Before, when Li Qiye was preaching, she assumed that Li Qiye’s Dao understandings were beyond comprehension.
However, with Li Qiye’s current explanations for Dao cultivation, this was outside the realm of understanding cultivational methods. This matter, it didn’t matter how high one’s talents and aptitudes were, as one couldn’t simply be enlightened with these explanations.
These explanations were accumulated through time, accumulated through the months and the years. These explanations, only someone who was very far along on the grand road of Dao would be able to accumulate.
If someone said that her master, Demon King Lun Ri, would have this knowledge, she wouldn’t be shocked because her master, as of today, had experienced countless grinding and polishing. With regards to cultivation, his understanding was truly deep.
However, the thing that was impossible to understand was that Li Qiye was only thirteen or fourteen years old. Right now, Li Qiye and his insightful form made Li Shuangyan question whether this was the first time that he had cultivated.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if this was not Li Qiye’s first time cultivating, as a thirteen or fourteen-year-old, how could his knowledge be so deep?
The last person to step up for the examination was Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu stepped forward, and he couldn’t help but rub his hands together; his voice was very soft, and he asked: “Bro–brother, does my, my practice have any problems?”
The time since Zhang Yu had joined the sect was longer than Luo Fenghua’s group. One could even say that Zhang Yu was one of the longest-running disciples. His age was high; however, no one knew why, in these recent years, his cultivation was always near the bottom.
This was not because Zhang Yu did not try. On the contrary, Zhang Yu was one of the hardest working and diligent disciples, but his cultivation, nevertheless, had always been in the back.
Zhang Yu was the type without many words. As his cultivation grew difficult to increase, even by a half step, he became even more silent, saying fewer words than before. Many disciples in the Cleansing Jade Peak had thought that his talents were not great, and even Sectional Leader Zhou thought this way. This was why Sectional Leader Zhou ignored him during Dao instruction, didn’t question his cultivation, and left him to live and die by himself. [4]
When Zhang Yu showed his Shou Life Wheel, Xuan Fate Palace, and Zhan Physique, and showed Li Qiye his Dao foundation; one could see that his Life Wheel was faint, his Fate Palace was unstable, only the Physique had an indistinct sound of a cow mooing.
Li Qiye examined Zhang Yu’s condition; he couldn’t help but change his expression. He stared at Zhang Yu and said: “Why are you practicing the Beneficence Water Longevity Law? This type of Life Wheel merit law, was it chosen by you?”
Zhang Yu scratched his head, and he said: “I, I, I, Sectional Leader Zhou said, I am a Houtian Physique; a Water Ox Physique. So, he picked the Beneficence Water Longevity Law, and he said it would express the water affinity of the blood qi!”
“Truly not knowing east from west!” Li Qiye coldly scowled, and he said: “Hampering the student’s progress! Houtian Physique is not wrong, but this is not the Water Ox Physique. You have the Primordial Chaos Ox Physique!" [5]
A Houtian Physique was not like Xiantian Physique or Mortal Physique in that it could become an King Physique, Saint Physique, or Immortal Physique. Although it couldn’t increase in rank, this didn’t mean that a Houtian Physique would be weak.
Houtian has its own evolution procedure. Normally, the Water Ox Physique, through the cultivation with a formidable Physique merit law, could evolve into the strongest Kui Ox Physique. When Kui Ox Physique was practiced to its strongest form, even someone with a Saint Physique would change their expression.
“Primordial Chaos Ox Physique? There, there is a physique like this?” Zhang Yu was in a daze, he had never heard of this physique before.
“Of course there is.” Li Qiye indifferently said: “Your physique is it.”
In fact, the Primordial Chaos Physique was extremely rare, and there were many uses for this physique.
Li Qiye glanced at him once, and he said: “You have practiced the wrong longevity law. If you continue, there will not be a half step of improvement.”
“Well, well, what should I do then?” Zhang Yu’s face became pale with fear, and didn’t know what to do in the moment.
Li Qiye replied: “Tear down everything and rebuild once more; practice the Jade Spiral Merit Law! This merit law is gentle, and it is the most basic foundational merit law. It reinforces the Life Wheel, Fate Palace, and the Physique. This merit law is the most fitting for you!”
Zhang Yu jumped up from being frightened, and he quickly said: “However, the assessment is, is less than a year from now.”
Li Qiye looked at him once, and he calmly responded: “Is the assessment important? Or is the road to your future important? If you don’t pass the assessment, you could try to retake the test again. After another ten years, if you want to tear down your Dao foundation to rebuild it, I’m afraid you would have wasted your best years. It is best to carefully think about this.”
At this point, many disciples sympathetically looked at Zhang Yu. He practiced hard for five years, and now, he has to tear away everything and rebuild it. This was a matter that was difficult to accept for anyone. Just like this, five years of blood and tears were completely wasted.
For most people, they would not want to break and rebuild. If they missed this assessment, they would have to wait another five years; not everyone was willing to wait.
[1] Moral is used different here, it is saying to be moral/true to oneself. It is not referring to societal moral completely, although a certain righteousness and justice are usually associated with the path of Dao.
[2] The prefixes in front of the Life Wheel, Fate Palace, and Physique seemed to be their more official names – I didn’t translate because their meanings were already very close to the three things.
[3] Yin and Yang, yin = softness/feminine, yang = hard/masculine in this case.
[4] Couple of idioms in this one. Type without many words is self-explanatory, leaving him to live and die by himself = leaving him to fend for himself.
[5] Hampering the students progress is an idiom meant to criticize teachers for their incompetence.Hampering the students progress is an idiom meant to criticize teachers for their incompetence.