Daoist Yuan and the youth Yunhai were filled with indescribable astonishment. Ancestral Master Yuqing had actually been rescued by Xu Ying so long ago!
Yet when on earth had that happened?
Xu Ying was inwardly quite surprised as well.
Five years ago at the Heavenly River, Xu Ying and Daoist Yuan had made an agreement to meet at Tushita Palace in Lihen Heaven once their respective tasks were finished, and then travel together to the Shangqing Ancestral Court. After parting ways with Daoist Yuan, Xu Ying had gone to Weixu, discovering that the Corpse Ghost Immortal Domain within Weixu was actually the bodhimanda of the Xuanhuang Realm. Using the Returning Dao Jade Platter, he restored the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Once the Heavenly Dao was restored, the Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit belonging to that bodhimanda was restored alongside it.
Back then, unwilling to form deep entanglements with such an existence or be swept up into those ancient karmic debts, Xu Ying had turned and left without ever meeting the Daoist.
Who could have thought they would meet again here!
"He revived Ancestral Master Yuqing without a whisper... Could Xu the Trustworthy truly be a man of his word?"
Daoist Yuan murmured, "Martial Uncle, do you think it's possible that we misunderstood him?"
The youth Yunhai said despondently, "Then all these five years we spent waiting bitterly at Tushita Palace—what were we waiting for?"
Xu Ying smiled. "You were waiting for me, so you could escort me to the Shangqing Ancestral Court."
The youth Yunhai felt deeply begrudging, yet he could not find a single word to refute him.
Daoist Yuqing, dressed in a robe of black and yellow, was tall and lean, possessing the bearing of a transcendent immortal. Coming forward to greet them with a smile, he said, "Last time, Fellow Daoist Xu departed in such haste that we could not converse, which was truly regrettable. Fellow Daoist Xu told me to seek help from others, yet who would have thought that after all these twists and turns, we would meet again here? It seems fate is on our side."
Back then, Xu Ying had only muttered to himself in a low voice and from an immense distance away, yet Daoist Yuqing had heard him with crystal clarity.
Xu Ying said, "I sought to dodge it that day, and though I managed to evade it for five years, in the end I still could not escape. It appears my affinity with Shangqing runs deep indeed."
Daoist Yuqing summoned a wisp of cloud beneath his feet and said with deep meaning, "Fellow Daoist thought this affinity was an omen of great doom, but perhaps it might not be misfortune after all. This way, please."
Xu Ying stepped onto the cloud, feeling as if he were walking on soft cotton.
Daoist Yuan and Little Martial Uncle Yunhai stepped up as well, drifting forward alongside Daoist Yuqing on the cloud.
With every breath, Xu Ying felt the immortal spiritual qi pouring into his body like sweet nectar, coursing through every part of him with indescribable comfort.
He glanced around and noticed that this cavern abyss was entirely different from the Supreme Cave Abyss he had seen before. The Supreme Cave Abyss was unfathomably deep and utterly barren, containing nothing but the primordial spirits and physical bodies of ancient cultivators, along with a few Dao trees.
In contrast, the Shangqing Cave Abyss was filled everywhere with immortal mountains and wondrous realms, dotted with countless Daoist temples and immortal palaces.
Looking deeper into the abyss, he saw myriad immortal peaks arrayed in rows extending into the depths, stretching beyond the horizon without end.
"The palaces and halls atop these immortal mountains are where the Shangqing qi refiners and immortals once researched the Shangqing Great Dao," Daoist Yuqing explained as he steered the auspicious cloud above the temples and palaces. "In the past, this place was not as it is today. When the Shangqing Great Cavern Abyss was first summoned, it was consumed by chaos, offering no foothold whatsoever. It was Fellow Daoist Taiqing and I who joined hands to suppress the turmoil. Only after that did we take in disciples and establish the Shangqing Dao Sect."
Though Daoist Yuan and Little Martial Uncle Yunhai were disciples of Shangqing, they had received their inheritance long after the Dao weeping had occurred, at a time when the Shangqing Dao Sect had already fallen far from its former glory. Consequently, they knew very little about the origins of the Shangqing Great Cavern Abyss.
Listening to Daoist Yuqing recount the past, the two of them became completely engrossed.
"Later, the Shangqing Dao Sect grew and flourished, and the disciples cultivating and meditating within the Great Cavern Abyss numbered over thirty thousand. More than thirty thousand Daoists remained here, all striving to grasp the true essence of the Shangqing Great Dao."
Daoist Yuqing paused slightly and descended before one of the Daoist temples. Stepping inside, he said, "Strangely enough, there is only one Shangqing Great Dao, yet the truths comprehended by each person were entirely different. Even though they were disciples of Fellow Daoist Taiqing and myself, not a single one among them comprehended an aspect of the Shangqing Great Dao that resembled what Fellow Daoist Taiqing or I had found. More than thirty thousand people actually managed to derive over thirty thousand distinct cultivation arts! Even Fellow Daoist Taiqing and I came to have great disagreements."
Xu Ying was taken aback and blurted out, "How could contemplating the very same Great Dao yield different cultivation arts? Unless... unless..."
He declared abruptly, "Unless none of those thirty thousand methods are the true orthodox path!"
The moment he said this, Daoist Yuan and Little Martial Uncle Yunhai prepared to berate him for his great irreverence.
The Shangqing Dao Sect was one of the three great Dao sects of antiquity, possessing an ancient heritage and unfathomably profound Dao methods. Hearing someone declare that their arts were not orthodox naturally infuriated them.
Daoist Yuqing, however, exclaimed in surprise, "Fellow Daoist Xu truly possesses extraordinary wisdom, discerning the crux of the matter at a single glance. The reason everyone comprehended different methods while contemplating the mysteries of the Shangqing Great Dao here was primarily that we were like blind men feeling an elephant. One touched a leg and said it was a pillar; another touched the trunk and claimed it was a python; another touched the body and declared it was a wall. Not one of us had ever felt the whole elephant."
Seeing him say this, Daoist Yuan and Little Martial Uncle could no longer rebuke Xu Ying. After all, they could hardly scold their own ancestral master for not understanding the Shangqing Dao methods.
Inside the temple, Xu Ying looked around and saw rows of scripture pillars standing tall. Each pillar was around twenty feet high, divided into three tiers: a pedestal, the main shaft, and a canopied cap.
They were inscribed with countless bizarre Dao runes that seemed alive, swirling continuously across the stone surface.
These scripture pillars had likely served as the place where disciples of the Shangqing Dao Sect corroborated their learning with one another. Whenever they made progress while contemplating the Shangqing Great Dao, they recorded their insights here to exchange them with fellow disciples.
Daoist Yuqing gave a gentle flick of his sleeve. Suddenly, pillar after pillar levitated, and the Dao runes inscribed upon them projected into the air around Xu Ying and the others. Great resonances of the Dao boomed as streaks of runes twisted rapidly like flood dragons, lightning, wind, and frost, each expounding a different mystery of the Great Dao.
There were an enormous number of scripture pillars in the temple, and the countless Dao voices converged into a torrential flood—like tens of thousands of voices layered together, yet each entirely distinct. The Dao runes tangled in disarray; though each offered its own explanation, none agreed with the others.
Xu Ying was left utterly dazzled, his head spinning from the cacophony.
Daoist Yuqing withdrew his magic power, and the pillars settled back onto the floor. The swirling Dao runes returned to the stone surfaces, and the resonances faded away.
"Fellow Daoist Taiqing and I realized this as well. Though our cultivation at that time could not be said to span heaven and earth, it was still extraordinary; even an Immortal Emperor had to treat us with great deference. Yet both of us felt that neither had truly attained the Dao."
Daoist Yuqing sighed. With a slight press of his foot, an auspicious cloud rose beneath them, carrying them gently out of the temple into the sky toward other immortal peaks.
They arrived at another temple atop a different mountain and lowered their cloud. Daoist Yuqing activated the scripture pillars here, only to reveal Dao runes dancing into the air that bore virtually no resemblance to those they had just seen!
This circumstance was bizarre beyond measure.
Members of the same sect, meditating on the very same Great Dao, had derived completely different methods. Had there been minor differences within broad similarities, it might have been understandable; but for every single one to be completely different meant only one thing: everyone had cultivated it wrong!
Xu Ying's heart stirred. Receptive to this world, he felt a wondrous rhythm of the Great Dao, captivating and profound.
It was the rhythm brought forth by the Shangqing Great Dao.
This place was different from the Supreme Cave Abyss. The Dao of the Supreme Cave Abyss was boundless in its profundity; the slightest contact would allow one to grasp the Dao, unleashing an overwhelming flood of profound mysteries. A single misstep while contemplating the Supreme Dao could leave a cultivator utterly enraptured, bringing the peril of dissolving into the Dao.
Yet the Shangqing Great Dao was different. The Great Dao of Heaven and Earth here was continuous and gentle. One could not enter or attain the Dao as readily as with the Supreme Dao, nor could one comprehend it as quickly, but it was far safer. Even so, what every person perceived remained entirely distinct.
Daoist Yuqing said, "Fellow Daoist Taiqing and I labored in research, yet we could never identify where the problem lay. After languishing like this for who knows how long, a crucial thought suddenly struck us."
He tapped his foot, and the cloud rose once more, carrying them away from the temple toward the next immortal mountain.
Before them stood a cluster of immortal halls. In ancient times, many Shangqing disciples must have gathered here to debate the Dao, bathed in magnificent immortal light and extraordinary immortal qi.
Daoist Yuqing said, "Back then, we thought: since we cannot directly comprehend the Shangqing Great Dao on our own, could we gather the insights of all Shangqing disciples and deduce the Shangqing Great Dao from them?"
Xu Ying's eyes brightened, and he clapped in praise. "A splendid idea! Since the Shangqing Great Dao could not be grasped directly, one could summarize and synthesize the varying insights. Brother Daoist, did you find the true Shangqing Great Dao?"
"No."
Daoist Yuqing's expression turned somber. "After compiling these arts together, our premises came into conflict. I believed we should invite even more people to comprehend the Shangqing Great Dao and derive still more diverse methods. By discarding the identical elements and selecting the differences among those arts, what remained would be the Shangqing Dao."
His method was equivalent to assembling a jigsaw puzzle.
Each Shangqing disciple had comprehended a different method here, which was akin to each holding a puzzle piece. Setting aside similar pieces, the more unique pieces one gathered, the more complete the resulting picture would be.
Daoist Yuqing continued, "Fellow Daoist Taiqing, however, believed that the differing arts were merely illusions, and that only the truths perceived by all disciples constituted genuine knowledge. He sought to find the commonalities among these arts, believing that what was identical was the Shangqing Great Dao."
Daoist Taiqing's method was to search for the common denominator.
The methods comprehended by each disciple were simply too varied and disorderly; piecing together the true Shangqing Great Dao from tens of thousands of convoluted arts was extraordinarily difficult, and what was obtained might still not be the authentic Dao. In contrast, the Shangqing Great Dao had to be embedded within these countless disordered arts, making common ground far easier to identify.
They flew up from the palace complex and headed toward the next mountain.
As they ventured deeper into the Shangqing Great Cavern Abyss, Xu Ying found his perception of the Shangqing Great Dao growing increasingly clear, giving him the distinct sensation that with just a touch of meditation, he could attain the Dao.
Daoist Yuqing descended toward an immortal hall below and said, "Once our conflict arose, each of us held firmly to his own view, convinced that his own approach was correct and the other's was flawed. Thus, we decided to split into two directions and organize the divine powers and Dao methods independently. In the end, we would place our synthesized Shangqing Great Daos side by side to verify them against each other. If our results matched, it would prove we had attained the Dao; if they differed, it would prove one of us was mistaken."
He did not land, merely passing through the grand gateways of the magnificent immortal hall. Inside, prayer mats, scripture pillars, and jade tablets remained in abundance.
Xu Ying asked, "And what was the result?"
Daoist Yuqing sighed and said, "The result was the *Yellow Court Scripture* and the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture*."
Xu Ying fell silent for a moment before asking, "So the results you obtained were different?"
Daoist Yuqing sighed once more. "Completely different. The *Yellow Court Scripture* and the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture* could not be unified. He and I exchanged techniques: he took the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture*, and I took the *Yellow Court Scripture*. We contemplated them for a long time, yet neither believed himself to be in the wrong."
When reason failed, the truth had to be settled by strength of arms.
The two ancestral masters of the Shangqing Dao Sect clashed to determine whose path represented the orthodox truth of the Shangqing Great Dao. Whoever achieved higher mastery would hold the true path!
The outcome of that battle was that Daoist Taiqing departed, establishing Tushita Palace in Lihen Heaven, leaving only Daoist Yuqing behind in the Shangqing Dao Sect.
Daoist Yuan and Little Martial Uncle Yunhai exchanged glances, both feeling a lingering fear: *So Daoist Taiqing departed because he was defeated and unwilling to admit his path was wrong. To think we've been mooching off his food and drink these past few years without him striking us down—his tolerance is absurdly high!*
Daoist Yuqing said, "Having defeated Daoist Taiqing, I was overjoyed, believing my path to be the correct one and my Dao to be the Shangqing Great Dao. From then on, I took in disciples extensively and passed down the teachings. The Shangqing Dao Sect flourished even more, and more disciples came to study the Shangqing Great Dao. I held no prejudice against the *Yellow Court Scripture* either, letting the disciples practice as they pleased; those who favored the *Yellow Court* cultivated the *Yellow Court Scripture*, while those who favored the *Great Cavern* cultivated the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture*. I even cultivated the *Yellow Court Scripture* myself, reaching the pinnacle of attainment."
A towering immortal mountain came into view ahead. At its summit, a golden hall radiated tens of thousands of rays of immortal light, presenting a scene of immense grandeur. From afar, deafening chants could be heard echoing from within:
"Subtle and wondrous is the Gate of the Profound Origin, blazing bright to pierce the vast void. The supreme Dao arises from tranquil silence; behold the Three Pristine Palaces. Here the Great Dao reaches fruition, riding the sunlight and driving dragons of cloud..."
The sound was the recitation of tens of thousands in unison, making it evident that this was a vital bodhimanda of the Shangqing Dao Sect.
Yet hearing this chant, Xu Ying could not help feeling perplexed. "The Shangqing Dao Sect still has so many powerful experts living in the world?"
He could sense waves of mighty auras surging from the golden hall atop the mountain ahead; every single individual possessed a cultivation immensely formidable, deeper and more vast than his own!
"I always believed I was right, until one day, the Dao wept."
Daoist Yuqing slowly lowered the cloud, arriving before this immortal palace known as the "Fangzhu Azure Palace." After a moment's hesitation, he stepped inside.
The cloud beneath Xu Ying's feet dispersed, and he followed behind. Looking ahead, he saw thousands of Daoists seated upright with their backs turned toward them, chanting the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture* at the top of their lungs!
These Daoists brimmed with vital essence and profound Dao rhythms, pure ethereal energy soaring from within them into the heavens, churning the clouds and winds of the Shangqing Cave Abyss!
"Reaching this place, their auras have become so terrifyingly powerful that every single one of them possesses a cultivation no less than that of an Immortal Monarch or Heavenly Monarch—"
Xu Ying's expression shifted drastically, revealing awe as he whispered, "A single Shangqing Dao Sect is probably equivalent to an entire Immortal Court!"
Right at that moment, a chilling breeze blew past from behind them, lifting the robes of those thousands of Daoists.
Beneath the robes lay skeletons of bleached bone.
Still unaware that they were already dead, those Daoists continued to chant the *Shangqing Great Cavern True Scripture* at the top of their voices, as if striving to ward off the invasion of something unknown!
Chapter 502