As the fifth month arrived, news of the Grand Assembly of the World's Number One Dharma Idol had already spread far and wide across the world. Many young and promising high-level cultivators could no longer sit still, eager to travel to Qingming to witness the realm's finest talents—though deep down, they mostly wanted everyone to witness their own peerless dharma idols.
Consequently, numerous Dao Foundation patriarchs who had spent years secluded in deep mountains emerged with their genius dharma idol disciples, heading for Qingming in hopes of making a name that would ring across the world overnight.
At the start of the fifth month, the assembly's rules were released in succession and circulated throughout the world via periodicals in various regions. Twelve Celestial Idols would be chosen at the grand event, and the background, credentials, and life deeds of each honored cultivator would be printed in a special publication distributed throughout the lands.
In addition, the standards for the four tiers of dharma idols—Celestial, Heavenly, Earthly, and Human—would be made public. All cultivators under a hundred years of age whose idols were ranked Earthly tier or higher would receive the status of outer disciple in either the Palace of Grand Beginning or the Sword Palace. Those with Heavenly Idols could directly join their inner ranks, while Celestial Idols went without saying—all would have the opportunity to become direct disciples under an immortal.
Among the Twelve Celestial Idols, the World's Number One Dharma Idol would be selected, accompanied by a grand prize of one million Qingyuan.
A Young Hidden Dragon Award was also established, exclusively ranking dharma idols belonging to cultivators under a hundred years old.
The assembly included many supplementary programs as well. For instance, when the rankings were posted at the end of the evaluation, there would be a "snatching sons-in-law beneath the roster" event. It was designed specifically for great figures from aristocratic clans to lie in wait like hunters at a burrow, seizing young, promising, and handsome men on the spot to bring them home for a forced marriage.
To ensure no one came away disappointed, Wei Yuan even introduced a complimentary grooming and etiquette service tailored for attending cultivators, emergency talent training available for a fee, and even free rentals of precious dharmic robes—all so that participants could arrive in high spirits and get smoothly snatched.
In mid-May, the panel of judges was announced. To everyone's astonishment, it consisted of Immortal Lord Yanshi, Palace Master of the Palace of Grand Beginning; Immortal Lord Bai, Palace Master of the Sword Palace; the Immortal Ancestor of the Bao family; and the Immortal Ancestor of the Zhao-Li clan. With four great immortals arriving in person, the Twelve Celestial Idols they selected would naturally be beyond reproach, and the Number One Dharma Idol would surely be hailed by all... right?
Yet the moment the title of Number One Dharma Idol was mentioned, countless people felt that in their own specific niche, they were truly the unrivaled best.
Starting in May, itinerant cultivators and practitioners from neighboring lands began arriving in Qingming one after another. All four immortal sects had confirmed their attendance. The Four Sages Academy had originally planned to send several Scenery Command cultivators to lead their contingent, but completely unexpected was that the Great Baohua Pure Land had dispatched Baosheng Bodhisattva of the South.
Baosheng Bodhisattva cultivated the fruit of the Five Dhyani Buddhas and had already caught an initial glimpse of the Great Dao, with prospects of attaining the southern fruit status in several generations. For a millennium, she had largely remained in quiet seclusion within the Great Baohua Pure Land, rarely walking among mortals. No one had anticipated she would show herself at this juncture, much less participate in the Dharma Idol Assembly.
With three immortal sects now fielding immortals, the academy had no choice but to urgently alter its arrangements, inviting Duke Yansheng out of his bitter cultivation of the Scholar's Heart to lead their delegation so as not to be outdone.
The Grand Assembly of the World's Number One Dharma Idol had originally been a spur-of-the-moment idea of Wei Yuan's, intended simply to build up prestige for his brothers and sisters. He had never expected it to balloon to such proportions, having completely gathered unstoppable momentum.
Fortunately, the Splendor of the Many Realms was now even more capable than the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. It handled large-scale events with effortless ease, drawing up detailed rules according to Wei Yuan's wishes in the blink of an eye and directly assigning broken-down tasks to each individual.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of related staff members received minute and concrete assignments, each attending to their designated duties. Many tasks carried strict schedules, permitting neither delay nor premature execution.
More than a hundred thousand people moved in seamless coordination like an army of impossibly efficient ants, setting up a comprehensive support system covering everything from registration and medical examinations to lodging check-in within a matter of days.
Wei Yuan also opened dozens of forums large and small, charged by use, where patriarchs and old eccentrics of various sects could expound their dao and showcase their disciples.
By the end of the fifth month, Qingming had grown exceptionally bustling. Cultivators gathered in clouds, and the gathering showed faint signs of becoming the cultivation realm's foremost grand occasion.
During this period, several rustic cultivators from the countryside failed to rein in their divine senses. Sweeping them about carelessly in hopes of glimpsing things they should not have seen, they triggered counterattacks that left every one of them severely injured.
Qingming was now teeming with immortals and crowded with Scenery Command masters. A bunch of rustic bumpkins letting loose their divine senses to sweep around recklessly was no different from scorching a tiger's tail or plucking a lion's whiskers. That they escaped with mere injuries rather than their lives was already mercy extended out of consideration for Wei Yuan.
In the end, Wei Yuan was forced to urgently publish notices listing a series of prohibited behaviors, explicitly declaring that divine senses must not extend beyond ten zhang from the body. The notice clearly stated that certain high-level cultivators were adept at karmic curses; offending them might bring no immediate harm, but after some time, one would die without ever knowing why.
Following the warning, suicidal antics decreased considerably, yet there were still those unable to control their divine senses, itching to poke into every corner. Wei Yuan had no patience for such bizarre behavior, simply mobilizing the power of the Fourth Grotto-Heaven to strike them down with several ferocious bolts of tribulation lightning, allowing them a foretaste of heavenly tribulation.
Amidst the clamor, the turn of the sixth month arrived in a flash. The Dharma Idol Assembly was a mere three days away.
At this moment, an ordinary-looking cultivator arrived in a hurry at the registration desk to enter the Dharma Idol Assembly. Less than half a shichen remained before the deadline, yet the Qingming staff members remained diligent and conscientious, not daring to slacken in the slightest.
Immediately, someone handed over a form, asking the ordinary cultivator to record his name, native place, identity details, and the epithet he went by in the pugilistic world.
The cultivator's eyes gleamed sharply, and with a flourish of his brush, he wrote on the spot: Li Zhi, native of Yanzhou in Northern Qi, epithet Double Paragon of Cauldron and Sword.
One of the staff chuckled. "Senior brother, you're actually from Yanzhou?"
The ordinary cultivator glared with beady eyes. "What of it?"
The clerk immediately shifted his accent. "Well now, I'm from Yanzhou meself..."
The ordinary cultivator took on a look of sudden realization, feeling he had struck up a bit of a connection. Leaning in, the two engaged in a warm chat, practically looking ready to swear brotherhood on the spot. Fortunately, another clerk snapped irritably, "Quit blathering and get on with the registration! Once the system shuts down, guess what? Let me tell you, no one will be able to open it, and you won't even have a place to cry!"
The Yanzhou native and Double Paragon of Cauldron and Sword hurriedly submitted his form. Then, the staff handed him a sheet of paper and pointed to a nearby formation array. "Step into the array, drop your protective dharmic power, and read the words on the paper aloud."
The ordinary cultivator Li Zhi stepped into the array. As a beam of Dao light shone down upon his head, he held up the white sheet and recited loudly, "I, Li Zhi of Yanzhou, confirm that all information submitted is true and accurate, with no deliberate concealment or omission. Should any erroneous information be submitted, I am willing to bear all consequences and accept punishment..."
As he recited, the array's light flickered once, then grew still.
The clerk assumed the array was slightly underpowered and paid it no mind. Once Li Zhi stepped out of the array, they handed him a stack of materials outlining schedules, guidelines, prohibited matters, lodging locations, shops offering reasonably priced medicinal pills, and high-efficiency cultivation rooms billed by tier.
Upon receiving the materials, Li Zhi let out a hearty laugh and said merrily, "Keep your eyes peeled, brothers! Three days from now, the name Li Zhi shall ring across the world! The Twelve Celestial Idols are practically in the bag for me!"
A clerk retorted wearily, "Our shift is over! Go find a place to rest your head already. I've heard that exact line a dozen times today!"
Li Zhi wore the look of an unsophisticated rustic, first gaping in astonishment before slinking away in embarrassment.
Once he was far off, several clerks finally muttered among themselves, "These country bumpkins popping out of who-knows-what backwoods forest—enough is enough! Do they honestly think that digging up a cave to live in and stumbling upon a secret scripture is enough to cultivate an unrivaled dharma idol?"
"A bumpkin is a bumpkin! Disciples from great sects never brag in public; they just stab you in the back when no one is looking."
"All right, all right, don't mock him too much. At least he has a dharma idol; the few of us are just template cultivators."
"So what if he has a dharma idol? Outside Qingming, everyone is a bumpkin!"
Just as Li Zhi emerged from the registration center, a wretched-looking cultivator sidled up and whispered, "Senior brother, care to place a wager or two? This ledger lists the hottest candidates for the Celestial Idols. If you pick right, there's big money to be made!"
Li Zhi opened the roster and looked. Over thirty names were recorded, detailing each candidate's dharma idol traits and abilities, with betting odds inscribed after every name.
Reading from start to finish, Li Zhi's face darkened. "Why isn't my name on here? Who are you looking down on? I bet on myself—one hundred taels!"
With that, Li Zhi pulled a hefty chunk of immortal silver from a beast-hide pouch and shoved it into the man's hands. The wretched cultivator immediately entered Li Zhi's name onto the spot. The ledger turned out to be a dharmic artifact; the moment Li Zhi's name was written, his detailed registration data appeared, along with a description of his dharma idol: a sword and a cauldron, propped atop a wooden plank.
Though unrefined in looks, the wretched cultivator possessed an expert's eye. Without hesitation, he scribbled the odds behind Li Zhi's name: one to a thousand.
Li Zhi instantly beamed from ear to ear. "You folks certainly know what you're doing. Those guys up front are only three to one or four to one; they're clearly far inferior to me."
"Indeed, indeed!"
Tucking the betting slip away, Li Zhi strode toward his lodgings in deep satisfaction. Midway through his journey, he vanished into thin air, reappearing inside his residence in the immortal city where he restored his true appearance as the Master of the Qingming Realm.
With the assembly reaching unprecedented grandeur, Wei Yuan could never pass up such a golden opportunity. He intended to burst onto the scene out of nowhere and deliver a harsh wake-up call to those conceited fellows. For the dharma idol he had specially prepared, the sword was the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, the cauldron was formed from the Blue Lamp Before the Buddha of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, and even the wooden plank had been severed from the main trunk of the Jianmu.
Deploying three immortal treasures in a single strike, Wei Yuan was eager to see who could possibly rival him.
Chapter 1025