Chapter Thirteen: Preaching and Answering

  Behind, the seats were all occupied by powerful Golden Immortal experts. Shi Zhong didn't manage them, he just said "This time I will only speak once, for a period of 10,000 years. I hope that all of you present can cherish this" and then looked around before starting to lecture.

  "More than half of those who have spoken with immortals are false, and it is rare to find someone who has truly attained the subtle. Some have heard of the golden elixir but do not believe that anyone in this world can attain it, saying that only ancient sages have transcended to become immortals. Others have obtained external formulas but not the true scripture. Others have obtained scattered and fragmented alchemical formulas and think that this is all there is to the art of alchemy.

  In the past, when Lü Dongbin was in deep contemplation on Mount Tianzhu, a divine being transmitted to him the Golden Elixir Scripture of Immortals. At the end of the Han dynasty, with chaos erupting, he did not have time to complete his work and fled to the eastern side of the Yangtze River, intending to cultivate this path in a famous mountain. I received it from my ancestor, the immortal gentleman, who had received it from Lü Dongbin.

  The Nine Elixirs are the essential method for longevity, not something that ordinary people should see or hear. The masses are only aware of seeking wealth and honor, are they not just walking corpses? When the time is right, there will be a ritual, and the ritual has its own diagrammatic method in one volume.

  The first elixir is called Dan Hua. First, make the Xuan Huang using cinnabar water, alum water, ammonium chloride, salt, magnetite, oyster shell, red ochre, talc, and hu powder, each several dozen pounds, to create the Liu Yi mud. Fire it for 36 days, and on the seventh day, one becomes an immortal.

  Also, using the Xuan Gao pill with this elixir, place it over a fierce flame, and in a moment, it will turn into gold. Also, taking 240 taels of mercury and 100 pounds of silver, fire them, and they will also turn into gold. When the gold is formed, the medicine is complete. If the gold does not form, re-seal the medicine and fire it again, and after several days, as before, it will be complete."

  The second elixir is called the Divine Elixir, also known as the Divine Symbol. Taking it for a hundred days makes one an immortal. When crossing water and fire, apply this elixir to the soles of the feet and walk on water. Taking three knife-shaped pills, the Three Corpses and Nine Worms are immediately eliminated, and all diseases are cured.

  The third elixir is called the Divine Elixir. Taking one knife-shaped pill, one becomes an immortal in a hundred days. Giving it to the six domestic animals to swallow, they will never die again. It can also ward off the five weapons. After taking it for a hundred days, the immortal, the jade maiden, the mountain and river spirits, all come to serve him, appearing in human form.

  Ninety-nine hundred years passed quickly, Shi Zhong's cultivation went from the foundation of Qi refining, spirit refining to virtual refining (earth fairy realm), then merged with Tao (heavenly fairy realm) all the way to Golden Fairy (five elements facing yuan realm), and finally to Great Luo Golden Fairy (five elements facing yuan three flowers gathering peak realm). In addition to some scattered alchemy and equipment refining methods, it took a total of ninety-nine hundred years.

  Shi Zhong looked at the monks below and said, "Now that I have finished speaking, is there anything you don't understand and want to ask about?"

  At this time, Tongtian asked, "Master, is there another realm above the Daluo Jinxian?" After Tongtian finished speaking, the other cultivators also stared at Shizhong with unblinking eyes, hoping that he could answer this question.

  Shi Zhong took a glance at Tongtian below, then looked at the others. As for this question, Shi Tian and Shi Yao actually knew the answer. After all, they had already possessed the cultivation method of Hunyuan Daluo Jinxian when others had not yet cultivated any methods.

  After they transformed and obtained the Great Luo Golden Immortal, they came to Hongyuan and only then did they realize how precious this technique was. If it weren't for such a powerful technique to rely on, their innate talent as middle-grade pre-heavenly demon gods wouldn't have been able to obtain the Great Luo Golden Immortal so quickly. After all, even now there are still some powerful cultivators with congenital spiritual treasures who only have the initial stage of the Great Luo Golden Immortal and can't progress for a long time. Not to mention those middle-grade pre-heavenly demon gods who don't have any strong Great Luo Golden Immortals at all.

  Of course, going out of the Stone Heaven and Earth is just two, like other middle-grade innate demon gods, even if they reach the Golden Immortal cultivation, it's already the top. This Golden Immortal cultivation is not easy to achieve, after all, these middle-grade innate demon gods can only transform into human form when they reach the Golden Immortal cultivation. For innate demon gods, the first great calamity in life is the transformation calamity, and how many innate creatures fall because of the transformation?

  So even if a Golden Immortal's cultivation is only through their own enlightenment, it's still very difficult to achieve. So for those innate demons with heaven-defying aptitude, the postnatal spirits are still at a great disadvantage in terms of skills and techniques. However, due to the problem of poor aptitude, they often have significant limitations in their achievements. But these innate demons are different; they don't need to consider the issue of aptitude. Even if it's not an innate demon, but just an innate spirit, it still has a huge advantage over postnatal spirits in terms of aptitude. So when you hear about protagonists in later generations who achieve success beyond the heavenly way and defy the heavens, I'm telling you that's all nonsense; don't believe everything. Of course, nothing is absolute; isn't there always a glimmer of hope in every situation?

  To Shi Zhong, these were not very important, after all, they were not within the scope of Shi Zhong's consideration. Shi Zhong took a glance at the people below, and it was not just a glance with his eyes, but rather a sweep of his divine sense. Under Shi Zhong's divine sense, the people below felt an overwhelming pressure, including Tong Tian and Shi Tian Shi Yao, who also had this feeling. At this time, Tong Tian finally realized how profound Shi Zhong's cultivation was, and even his own current mid-stage Da Luo Jinxian cultivation felt very strenuous.

  Shi Tian and Shi Yao also felt that their elder brother's cultivation had increased a lot. To know, they are no longer just in the early stages of Daluo Jinxian! In this ten thousand years, listening to the Tao has long been like Tongtian, who has already advanced to the middle stage of Daluo Jinxian. The realm of Daluo Jinxian middle stage and the realm of Daluo Jinxian middle stage are quite different! It's not the same as speaking on the same day!

  After Da Luo Jinxian, wanting to advance to the next step requires an understanding of the Tao! This is not just a simple increase in Fa power, but a qualitative transformation. Even now, as a mid-term cultivator in the Da Luo Jinxian realm, under my brother's divine intention, I can feel the pressure that feels like Mount Tai pressing down on me. Just imagine what level my brother's cultivation has reached!

  Now, Shi Zhong's cultivation has also made a lot of progress. Although it hasn't reached the middle stage of the Great Luo Dao fruit that he wants to achieve, it's not difficult to reach the middle stage of the Great Luo Dao fruit now. This is also one of the benefits of repeatedly reviewing and understanding the great way for himself, which is in line with Confucius' saying "Reviewing the old to know the new!"

  Actually, many cultivators in the current Primordial Chaos are still confused about this. Many people only know that the highest realm of cultivation is the Great Luo Golden Immortal, but there is another realm above it, called the Mixed Yuan Great Luo Golden Immortal, also known as the Sage. However, below the Mixed Yuan Great Luo Golden Immortal, there is a mysterious realm, which is the Great Luo Golden Immortal who has attained the Great Luo Dao Fruit. Attaining the Great Luo Dao Fruit means to enlighten one's own Dao, and the Great Luo Dao Fruit belongs to the Great Luo Golden Immortal, but there is a clear difference between the Great Luo Golden Immortal and the Great Luo Golden Immortal who has attained the Great Luo Dao Fruit. The two cannot be discussed as the same.

  Now, your cultivation has reached the realm of the Great Luo Golden Immortal. Shi Zhong couldn't help but tell them, after all, this would be made public in the future, and it's just a step ahead now. However, what Shi Zhong didn't know was that by revealing the realms above the Great Luo Golden Immortal, he had caused a different change to occur in the Primordial Chaos world in the future, although not very big, but still important.

  After answering, he closed his eyes and began to cultivate again.

  Tongtian and the seated listeners below felt that their vision was shallow after hearing Shi Zhong's words, thinking that their current cultivation could already allow them to roam freely in the Hongyuan world. Who would have known that above the Daluo Golden Immortal, there were still so many realms? They themselves were still just small white mortals in the realm of cultivation!

  Tongtian couldn't wait any longer and asked Shi Zhongdao, "Teacher, what realm are you in now? How can we attain the Great Luo Dao fruit?" Tongtian spoke out the question that everyone present wanted to ask. After all, these cultivators were all eager to progress further, which practitioner would want to stop at their current level?

  Of course, except for the twelve ancestral witches. After all, because these twelve ancestral witches do not cultivate their yuan Shen, even if they come to listen, they cannot enlighten the way and it is useless. However, Shi Zhong still talked about many useful ways for them, which can be said to be some cultivation methods, that is, some cultivation methods in Wu Dao. These cultivation methods in Wu Dao are extremely precious for the twelve ancestral witches.

  Shi Zhong took a look at the cultivators below, and apart from Shi Er Zu Wu, they had all made significant progress. Some like Tong Tian and Shi Tian Shi Yao had already reached the middle stage of Da Luo Golden Immortal from the initial stage, while others who were originally in the Golden Immortal cultivation realm had also reached the early stage of Da Luo Golden Immortal. There were many other Golden Immortal cultivators on Mount Bu Zhou who had broken through during Shi Zhong's lectures and came to listen afterwards. At that time, Shi Zhong didn't manage them and just let them do as they pleased.

  Shi Zhong then said, "Now I am just a great Luo Jinxian who has attained the Great Luo Dao Guo. As for how to attain the Great Luo Dao Guo, it depends on you to enlighten your own way and attain your own Great Luo Dao Guo. So if you want to attain the Great Luo Dao Guo, you still have to rely on yourself, others can't help you." After Shi Zhong finished speaking, he had already spent ten thousand years. Shi Zhong declared to the outside world that he would no longer preach the Tao externally, and the cultivators at the foot of the mountain all left one after another.

  Shi Zhong said to the 21 Da Luo Golden Immortals, excluding Tong Tian and others, "Are you willing to become nominal disciples of Pu Dao? If not, I won't force it. I just hope that when you encounter Pu Dao's followers, you will show mercy and spare them." These 21 Da Luo Golden Immortals were a considerable force wherever they went, with the potential to become mid-ranking innate demon gods. Shi Zhong had the idea of taking them on as disciples, but he didn't want to take them on as direct disciples, so he offered to take them on as nominal disciples instead. However, this still depended on whether others were willing or not. After all, if they weren't willing, you couldn't force it, could you? Forcing someone would only lead to unhappiness.

  In the end, only seven remained, and the others left after saying a word to Shi Zhong. After all, in this current world of Honghuang, there are still many people who don't like being too restricted by others. They haven't experienced any great calamities yet, so they don't know how terrifying calamities can be or how important it is to rely on the mountains. Who would have thought that later generations would want to worship saints as their masters?