Reverend Insanity

Tai Bai Yun Sheng sat on the chair, he was stunned before laughing and scolding: “Junior brother, you’re making fun of me! I’ve heard this phrase countless times, ever since I started my cultivation journey, its been ringing in my head. Even mortals are familiar with the phrase.”

Fang Yuan nodded, there was a hint of arrogance in his tone, he spoke: “The origin of this phrase is the first rank nine Gu Immortal in human history, it was said by Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable. He was the creator of Central Continent’s Heavenly Court, it has remained standing up until now, through many eras, never falling to the corrosion of time. This phrase is extremely brilliant, it is the golden rule of Gu Master cultivation, having being passed down since long ago, it is even more popular than >. But in my opinion, this phrase is not brilliant enough, I summarized it into one word, that is — Dao.”

Tai Bai Yun Sheng heard this and straightened his body, he looked at Fang Yuan with shining eyes as he said again: “Please enlighten me.”

Fang Yuan said slowly: “Man is the spirit of all livings beings, among all living beings, humans have the highest intelligence and comprehension ability, we can understand heaven and earth and experience the Great Dao. Gu are the essence of heaven and earth, they are very unique among living beings, Gu worms contain meager traces of the Great Dao in their bodies, while Immortal Gu contain fragments of the Great Dao. Thus, they are the essence of heaven and earth.”

“What is dao? Water flows downwards, humans die from hunger, trees grow because of rain and fertilizers, these are all dao. Gu Masters use Gu worms, they can light up fire, make rivers flow upwards, shoot out lightning, heal injuries, these are also dao.”

“Humans nurture, use, and refine Gu, they are making use of the Gu worms to display the might of heaven and earth. By living and procreating, they eventually understand the laws of the world. After becoming a Gu Immortal, the aperture becomes an immortal aperture, and dao marks are carved on the body. One could say that Gu Masters are nurturing ‘dao’ when they nurture Gu worms, they are using ‘dao’ when they use Gu worms, and they are refining ‘dao’ when they refine Gu worms. There are Gu Masters of all sorts of paths, strength path, fire path, time path, poison path, these are all created by our predecessors who walked on an unknown path, a cultivation path that they created step by step.”

Saying so, Fang Yuan paused before saying: “So in other words, when Gu Masters cultivate, they are basically cultivating dao.”

“When Gu Masters cultivate, they are basically cultivating Dao…” Tai Bai Yun Sheng sat on the chair, he frowned as he thought over Fang Yuan’s words.

The more he muttered it, the more he felt the extreme brilliance of Fang Yuan’s conclusion.

This was truly directed at the core of the issue, to him, it was as if he felt clouds parting, he could see the clear skies!

At this point, Fang Yuan continued: “Let’s talk about the foundation of a Gu Immortal’s cultivation — the immortal aperture. The immortal aperture is the blessed land or grotto-heaven, it is a small world that contains dao in it. This kind of dao cannot compare to the world of the five regions, it is only expressed in dao marks.”

“Take my Hu Immortal blessed land as an example, it has the basic time path dao marks, thus it can draw in a tributary of the river of time, allowing the concept of time to exist in the blessed land, and for time to flow. It also has a rather large number of space path dao marks, thus the blessed land is large, even after losing the north area, it still is very large. Hu Immortal land spirit can even teleport freely. In blessed lands with few space path dao marks, they have a smaller area and the land spirit cannot teleport. It is most abundant in enslavement path dao marks, precisely because of these dao marks, Hu Immortal blessed land is helpful for raising foxes, in addition, it can help in enslaving beast groups that are similar in body structure to foxes, and can even promote the growth of desolate beasts.”

Tai Bai Yun Sheng nodded and said in agreement: “That is absolutely correct! In my Tai Bai blessed land, it is most numerous in time path dao marks, thus my time based resources are very abundant. One day in the outside world is thirty-three days in my blessed land. It has the least earth path dao marks, thus there are no mountains in my blessed land, and the soil is infertile as well. In terms of space path dao marks, it is only ordinary, in total, the area is not large, but the sky is very high.”

He said this as his eyes shined brightly, he gained some understanding.

“That is why I said the offense and defense of a blessed land only is based at one thing, that is, the composition of dao marks in the blessed land.” Fang Yuan continued.

“Blessed lands are a small world, why can they restrict enemies and seal their Gu worms? The reason is because of the large number of dao marks in the blessed land, it is like a pond. Mortal Gu contain traces of dao, they are like drops of water, sparks of fire. One drop of water entering the pond would be fused into it easily. One spark of fire entering the pond will get extinguished easily. Thus, once the dao marks in the blessed land are activated, the heavenly power would be enforced and mortal Gu would lose effect.”

“Why are Immortal Gu unrestricted by blessed lands? Because Immortal Gu are the law fragments, they are unique entities, just like a rock. When a rock is tossed into a pond, no matter how the surface ripples, the entry of the rock cannot be stopped. But although it cannot be sealed, it can be suppressed. When an Immortal Gu is used in blessed lands to battle, its power would be weakened or strengthened by the blessed land’s dao marks.”

“As for Gu Immortals, when they invade blessed lands, they would be suppressed by the dao marks as well. But Gu Immortals have an immortal body, they are fundamentally different from mortals. What are immortal bodies, to put it simply, they are bodies that have dao marks carved on them! When Gu Immortals invade blessed land, the more dao marks in the blessed land, the more suppression the Gu Immortal would feel. In contrast, the more dao marks on the Gu Immortal’s body, the less suppression they would experience.”

In his past life, Fang Yuan was a blood path Gu Immortal. He could not enter many of the fragment worlds of the immemorial nine heavens. That was because these fragment worlds had sparse dao marks, they were far fewer than the dao marks in his body. If Fang Yuan entered them, it would be like a tiger entering a rabbit’s cage, the only result would be that the fragment world would burst, causing the fragment world’s dao marks to be destroyed, the winds of assimilation would blow and destroy all of the resources in the fragment world.

Or looking at another example, the demons and Dong Fang Chang Fan had been fighting in Jade Pool blessed land.

Dong Fang Chang Fan used his territorial advantage and caused the Gu Immortals to be unable to use their mortal Gu, but he could not seal their immortal killer moves.

This was because Jade Pool blessed land was a public blessed land, even though it had a lot of dao marks, it was very mixed. Dong Fang Chang Fan could not mobilize all of the dao marks, he could only control the part of the blessed land that he contributed. Thus, its power was limited. He could not even cause the flying Gu Immortals to land on the ground.

Not all Gu Immortals possessed immortal killer moves for flying.

But Gu Immortals have dao marks in their bodies, they can resist the suppression of the blessed land’s dao marks. The demonic path Gu Immortals’ mortal killer moves had no effect against Dong Fang Chang Fan, but the mortal killer moves used on their own bodies still had effect.

“Truly insightful, truly insightful!” Tai Bai Yun Sheng was struck by realization, he sighed: “I understand. Public blessed lands have weak defenses, why is that? That is because they are formed by numerous Gu Immortals sacrificing a portion of their blessed lands, they were pieced together. These types of blessed lands are very mixed in dao mark varieties, they cancel out each other and cannot form a cohesive strength, it is like having a finger each from five people, they can only act individually, they cannot form into a fist.”

“Blessed land that have a sole origin also have dao marks that are pure. If there are land spirits, they can expend immortal essence and mobilize the dao marks to use the heavenly power. Immortal Gu are the law fragments, there are dao marks on the desolate beasts’ bodies, Gu Immortals have been mentioned already, Immortal Gu Houses are formed by combining Immortal Gu, while immortal killer moves are the fusion of many types of dao marks, they are an effect or great power formed from varying sources.”

“Thus, be it the blessed land or grotto-heaven, the purer the dao marks, the harder it is to take down. Land spirit, immortal essence, they are all to assist the use of dao marks. Looking at Imperial Court blessed land, if not for the land spirit and Eighty-Eight True Yang Building contesting against each other, if it was fully protected, how could it be destroyed?”

Saying this, Tai Bai Yun Sheng left his seat, he straightened his back and faced Fang Yuan, bowing: “After hearing your words, Fang Yuan, I have truly felt enlightened, my questions are answered, I have gained much from it. From today onwards, I would not dare to call you junior brother, a skilled person is a teacher, on the road of cultivation, you have already surpassed me.”

“Hehehe, Old Bai, today, we are just having a casual conversation. You do not need to be humble, you know this reasoning deep within yourself, you were just not as clear on it as me.” Fang Yuan waved his hand, he was very calm and collected.

Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s face was austere: “No, although the reasoning is simple, it is extremely brilliant. The word ‘dao’ is indeed more brilliant than the phrase ‘man is the spirit of all livings beings, Gu are the essence of heaven and earth’. I was quite ignorant in the past, only now have I seen the essence of Gu Master cultivation. This reasoning, I am afraid ordinary Gu Immortals have not comprehended it yet.”

Fang Yuan showed a slight smile.

Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s words were not exaggerated.

In truth, the reason he could understand this was because he had the advantage of being a transmigrator.

In the previous life of his previous life, Earth was greatly developed in the field of science. Laws of mechanics, trigonometry, acceleration, density, specific heat capacity and others, weren’t all these the laws of nature?

From this aspect, science is also a form of cultivation. ‘Give me a fulcrum and I shall move the Earth.’ This classic sentence, when used in the Gu world, would be ‘Give me a Gu worm, and I can give off light and heat. Give me all the Gu worms, and I will be omnipotent!’

Because he had experiences from two worlds, Fang Yuan could observe this world from another angle, he could understand logic that others could not sense or comprehend.

But in the Gu Master world, was there nobody who can understand this reasoning?

How could that be!

There were lots of people who understood, Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable was one of them. ‘Man is the spirit of all livings beings, Gu are the essence of heaven and earth’, this was a more detailed and easily understood explanation of ‘Dao’, Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable said it to aid in educating people of the future, it led to the development of inheritances of various paths, he had a different objective.

Anyone who could understand this was someone of high position, a Gu Immortal that stood up high, after looking at their cultivation journey over their entire life, they could conclude this.

Ordinary Gu Masters were living in the mortal world, ordinary Gu Immortals were busy dealing with their calamities and tribulations, why would they have time to think about such ‘useless’ things? Whether they could understand this reasoning or not, their lives would not be affected.

In the end, it was only a way of thinking.

But one could not look down on this way of thinking.

Gunpowder was first used to refine pills in ancient China. When exposed to other civilizations, it had been developed into use for guns and cannons. The ingenuity of Chinese civilization was unquestionable, but modern Earth was on the path of science, and the western world’s contribution was the greatest.

Different streams of thought would prevail in separate societies when viewing the world, and two different civilizations would be created.

Between civilizations, one could not say which was superior or inferior, they were specialized in different things.

Thus, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, who was part of the Gu Master civilization, heard Fang Yuan’s words and was deeply enlightened. From his perspective, he could feel that Fang Yuan’s understanding was much higher than him, he did not dare to call him junior brother anymore.

A skilled person is a teacher.

If he continued to call Fang Yuan ‘junior brother’, Tai Bai Yun Sheng would feel extremely embarrassed inwardly.

There was a type of feeling called humiliation of being inferior, Tai Bai Yun Sheng was currently in such a state.

The two talked for some more time before Tai Bai Yun Sheng said his goodbyes to Fang Yuan.

Even though they had always communicated with each other using Gu, after a face-to-face conversation, any distance between them had vanished.

Fang Yuan had lived in two worlds, his manipulation techniques were extremely amazing. After a simple ‘conversation about dao’, he left a deep impression in Tai Bai Yun Sheng, making the latter have a feeling of inferiority.