In an instant, the treasure hall returned to its original state. The luster of the imprint faded completely, and Demon Venerable Suchan's remnant wisp of divine will dispersed entirely. In a daze, Wei Yuan felt as though this wisp of divine will had persisted for over three thousand years solely to say those words to him.
Ever since his grotto-heaven had both sun and moon complete and the Splendor of Myriad Realms emerged, Wei Yuan had found that the boundary between Dharma Idol and Scenery Command had completely blurred. He was even somewhat confused about his own state of cultivation.
If not for the fact that a speck of true spirit had yet to form and his mindscape world had not yet ascended above the Immortal Heaven, Wei Yuan felt that by the strength of his six grotto-heavens alone, the difference between himself and an immortal was not all that vast.
With the birth of the Splendor of Myriad Realms, the world in Wei Yuan's eyes suddenly changed. Like an ebbing sea tide, secrets once concealed beneath the water's surface gradually floated into view.
Succeeding as the Master of Water Moon Hall had seemed completely natural. Yet upon deeper reflection, during the more than two hundred years that True Monarch Xuanyue had concurrently served as hall master, the position had essentially been vacant—as if it had been waiting for him all along.
Wei Yuan even wondered whether any of the previous Water Moon Hall masters had ever seen this memory left by Demon Venerable Suchan.
After all, authority over the Great Dao of Great Yin had already been seized. The other hall masters, much like True Monarch Xuanyue, likely held the title in name only, lacking any way to activate the imprint upon the jade dais.
Wei Yuan's fifth grotto-heaven, however, was an ancient full moon—a thing unique under heaven. Although a full moon was one tier lower on the Great Dao than Great Yin itself, Wei Yuan possessed the entirety of that full moon, which was stronger than a mere sliver of the Dao of Great Yin. Perhaps that was why he had been able to awaken the memory.
And when he pondered further, even more clues emerged.
For example, after casting his Dao Foundation, by all rights and reason Wei Yuan should have cultivated the Sovereign Time Scripture of the Pure Heaven Orthodoxy just like Zhang Sheng. Yet for some unknown reason, what True Monarch Xuanyue had imparted was the Myriad Aspects of Great Yin Moon Splendor instead. At the time, he hadn't thought much of it, but the more he reflected now, the stranger it seemed.
Even the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon Chart he had cultivated during Body Casting seemed far from a coincidence.
During Zhang Sheng's recent clash with the Buddha Sword, her dharma idol, Sword Family Under Heaven, bore unmistakable marks of the scouring of time. It was only because the status of the Sword Family Under Heaven was exceptionally lofty that the scouring of time—capable of shaving a millennium of lifespan from ordinary Scenery Command cultivators—had only cost Zhang Sheng under two hundred years. Had her dharma idol been even slightly inferior, her lifespan would have been drained dry long ago.
From the memories left behind by Suchan, both the power of time scouring and the authority over Great Yin had fallen into the hands of the Great Baohua Pure Land. This divine ability was singular and unique; since Zhang Sheng had been struck by the scouring of time, Wei Yuan wouldn't believe for a second that the Buddha Sword had no ties to the Great Baohua Pure Land.
Still, numerous questions remained—in fact, witnessing this memory only multiplied them. First and foremost, the Great Baohua Pure Land possessed multiple Dao fruit positions of its own, so why covet the authority over the Great Dao of Great Yin? Unless there was an overriding reason, the Great Baohua Pure Land should never have forged such a bitter vendetta against the Palace of Grand Beginning—an enmity severe enough to warrant sect warfare and the eradication of an entire lineage.
And if this remnant thought had specifically been waiting for him, that raised even more questions. Wei Yuan was the reincarnation of the Great Joy King Buddha, someone with profound, deep-seated roots in the Great Baohua Pure Land. Why would Suchan choose to speak his dying words to the reincarnation of that King Buddha?
The more Wei Yuan pondered, the more his head ached, so he simply put it out of his mind. Delving too deeply into these matters risked touching upon hidden karmic entanglements and shadowy truths.
In any case, he intended to uproot the Buddha Sword completely in the future; when that time came, many of these mysteries would naturally find their answers.
Wei Yuan looked through the rest of the treasure vault, finding most of the treasures of little use to him. Over thousands of years, many Scenery Command spiritual treasures had lost their spiritual essence, leaving behind mere empty husks kept primarily for their memorial significance.
Wei Yuan left the vault without taking anything.
After inspecting the vault, Wei Yuan said to Real Person Lanhua, "I will stay for a few more days to offer some guidance to the disciples. Have the disciple register sent to my residence first."
The Real Persons were faintly skeptical. Their seniority far exceeded Wei Yuan's; even the youngest among them, Real Person Lanhua, had watched Wei Yuan grow up. Although he was now the new hall master, the Real Persons still doubted whether he could truly guide young disciples in the cultivation arts of Water Moon Hall.
Paying no mind to their peculiar looks, Wei Yuan set an order as soon as he received the register. He then summoned all the disciples one by one, thoroughly examining their aptitudes, cultivation levels, and the characteristics of their Dao Foundations.
His inspection was meticulous and unreserved.
The female disciples were particularly curious about Wei Yuan. Upon emerging from their examinations, their reactions varied widely: some giggled, some seemed dazed, some rejoiced quietly, while others blushed faintly, doing their best to hide it as they hurried away once inspected.
Altogether, the Dao Foundation and Body Casting disciples of Water Moon Hall numbered just over fifty. Spending less than a quarter of an hour on each, Wei Yuan gained a comprehensive understanding of every disciple's situation in a single day.
Most Body Casting disciples were still in the stage of unified basic instruction, so Wei Yuan kept them all in the hall and announced that each of them would be issued a Body Nourishing Pill every day. Of course, not the Monastery of Creation version, but Qingming's locally produced version.
At current mass-production costs, the efficacy of a Qingming Body Nourishing Pill was roughly thirty percent of the Monastery of Creation original, but the cost was a mere one percent.
Previously, the Body Casting disciples of Water Moon Hall had to pinch pennies and scrimp just to take one Body Nourishing Pill—or an equivalent realm-appropriate pill—every half month. Now that they could take one daily, their cultivation progress was bound to accelerate dramatically.
As for disciples at or above the Dao Foundation realm, Wei Yuan planned to take them all to the State of Ji to farm. He wanted these handsome and beautiful disciples to interact closely with real mortals and deeply experience mortal life. Only by genuinely understanding the joys, sorrows, and passions of mortals could they step onto the path of gaining karmic luck.
Wei Yuan would fall one day; he could not continually bestow karmic luck upon every disciple in the hall forever. In the end, they had to rely on themselves.
Now that he oversaw Water Moon Hall, Wei Yuan naturally hoped that all disciples within the hall would uphold his philosophy moving forward: transform the world, alter the heavens and earth, improve mortal lives, and ultimately turn this world into a Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Next, Wei Yuan left behind several chunks of Desolate Realm ironstone and ordered a hot spring pool built in Water Moon Hall for young disciples to use in Body Casting. Furthermore, all Dao Foundation disciples would receive auxiliary cultivation pills—naturally, the Qingming versions.
Even in their Qingming iteration, the overall effect was seven to eight times better than what they had used in the past.
Finally, Wei Yuan selected the Real Person whose expression toward him had been the strangest to stay behind and guard Water Moon Hall, instructing the other three Real Persons to head to Qingming as soon as possible so they could enter the Desolate Realm and soak in the sun together once the next portal opened.
As for when this Real Person who had dared look down on Wei Yuan would be allowed to go to the Desolate Realm, that depended on whether she recognized her mistake. Whether she needed to privately write an essay of apology, Wei Yuan felt was entirely unnecessary—though if she insisted, he wouldn't turn it down.
Having settled Water Moon Hall's internal affairs in this manner, Wei Yuan went to pay his respects to True Monarch Yanshi. After some haggling back and forth, Wei Yuan finalized his recruitment quota for the upcoming immortal sect joint examination: three hundred regular disciples and one thousand seven hundred outer disciples, rounding out to an even two thousand.
Disciples who had passed the immortal sect joint examination were the cream of the crop; even the outer disciples possessed far superior qualities compared to cultivators in Qingming.
Planning ahead, Wei Yuan intended to popularize advanced template Dao Foundations among the outer disciples, primarily along the Fanghua Golden Core path. Thus, the more outer disciples, the better. Even if the vast majority could never achieve a dharma idol, Water Moon Hall would still have plenty of hands to do the work.
Chapter 1040