After Wei Yuan redefined karmic luck, every kind of luck remanifested according to the Great Dao of this world, each bearing its own unique imagery. At this moment, for anything to even sprout in the Land of Karmic Luck was a monumental event, let alone blooming into a flower.
This single flower represented at least ten thousand strands of karmic luck. Moreover, its blooming by the lakeshore indicated that its rank was only slightly below that of a Dao Foundation. Ten thousand strands of Dao Foundation karmic luck was a major matter even to the current Wei Yuan; in practical terms, it was equivalent to having the power to sever two fingers of a mixed immortal.
Setting aside all other affairs, Wei Yuan closely scrutinized the origins of this karmic luck, preparing to show his new "living ancestors" what he was truly capable of.
To trace karmic luck back to its source across the entire world—even with Qingming's assistance—Wei Yuan was likely the only one below the immortal realm who could accomplish such a feat. Yet when he investigated, his expression grew rather peculiar.
These three traditions had established cultivation arenas across more than a dozen cities in Qingming, totaling over thirty branches—an absurdly flourishing state of affairs.
Taking the most popular one, the Southern Li Heaven White Gardenia Worship Method, it alone had opened fifteen cultivation arenas spread across nine cities. In the city where it had originated, three branches had been established in rapid succession, boasting more than five hundred thousand followers—surpassing a million if their families were included.
Having located the source, one of Wei Yuan's avatars in Qingming mobilized. Changing his attire, he arrived in the skies above that city, concealing his presence with the aid of the grand formation to look down attentively.
At the same time, over a dozen other avatars flew toward different cities, each with its own investigative target.
At times like this, Wei Yuan felt an acute shortage of avatars. He was currently in Ganzhou, maintaining contact with Qingming only through the terrifying status of his six spirit manors, which proved exceedingly difficult.
Even though Qingming served as the foundation of his mindscape world, the divine sense Wei Yuan could project was quite limited. He could sustain only two or three dharma idol avatars at most; deploying more than a dozen at once like this forced him to downgrade them to the Dao Foundation level.
Suspended in the air, Wei Yuan peered downward and spotted an old Daoist of transcendent bearing sitting in the rear garden of a courtyard behind the cultivation arena, leisurely sipping tea.
In Qingming, all four seasons were like summer. Flowering trees flourished in the courtyard. Under the verdant shade lay an unadorned pond of crystalline water, teeming with fish that seemed to glide through empty air.
Upon seeing the old Daoist, Wei Yuan pulled up his complete profile from Splendor of the Many Realms: Perfected Person Xiaoyu, surname Gu, given name Xiao, late-stage dharma idol cultivation. He had arrived in Qingming a year ago through the Outstanding Cultivator Program, accompanied by a hundred family dependents, twelve disciples, and seventy relatives of those disciples. Six of his disciples had attained the Dao Foundation, with the most accomplished being at the peak of Dao Foundation with an Earth-grade Dao Foundation.
Among the dharma idol cultivators recruited by Qingming, Perfected Person Xiaoyu was considered middling, not particularly prominent. The same held true for all his other attributes.
Wei Yuan had therefore paid him no special heed, knowing only that he took pleasure in preaching doctrine. To Qingming, this was generally welcomed; adhering to the principle of educating without discrimination, city lords everywhere encouraged senior cultivators to leave behind traditions in Qingming and opened wide the doors of convenience.
And this Perfected Person Xiaoyu truly possessed genuine skill. His worship method took one month to grasp the basics and yielded responses and feedback within three. The followers experienced surging strength and improved constitutions; within those few months, most had crossed the threshold into Body Casting. The miraculous efficacy was truly startling.
Furthermore, because the object of worship was the Realm Lord, even government officials who came to inspect could raise no objection. The old Daoist possessed a dignified, handsome appearance and guided his disciples conscientiously, so people naturally flocked to him in droves.
The sole hurdle was that the old Daoist charged tuition to teach students, and the fee was not cheap. Yet compared to the results achieved, the cost could hardly be considered steep. Who would not willingly surrender two or three months' wages to gamble on their future in this lifetime?
By the time the cultivation arena reached its sixth month, nearly all the initial worshippers had successfully achieved Body Casting. The few who had already been in Body Casting broke through to the Sinew and Muscle Realm. In Qingming's initial screenings, more than half of these people had been judged entirely hopeless for Body Casting.
From that moment on, the Southern Li Cultivation Arena gained widespread fame, with applicants teeming like carp crossing a river. The old Daoist opened two new branches, both filling to capacity in the blink of an eye. Hearing of this, other cities sent envoys inviting him to open branches in their jurisdictions. In the turn of a hand, the arenas numbered over a dozen.
With the precedent set by the Southern Li Cultivation Arena, many senior dharma idol cultivators followed suit, opening their own arenas; within a month, over thirty opened for business. Yet apart from the worship-based arenas, ordinary cultivation arenas were sparsely attended, primarily because tangible results were practically nonexistent.
Several worship-type arenas, however, displayed wondrous efficacy and steadily flourished one after another. Primal Locust Spirit-Ghost Husbandry Art and Central Capital Record of Deification were two standout examples, boasting over three hundred thousand and two hundred thousand followers respectively, both likewise taking Wei Yuan as the object of their worship.
Worship-type arenas belonged to different traditions and had originally revered varied objects, ranging from sacred beasts, ancient immortals, and the Human Sovereign to the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and primordial origin qi—everything imaginable. Yet a few months proved that none could hold a candle to Wei Yuan; they could not even come close.
The greatest benefit of worshipping Wei Yuan was immediate feedback—and in generous abundance at that, turning him into practically a humanoid automated prayer-answering machine. Once they realized this, the various traditions quietly removed their own idols and replaced them with statues of Wei Yuan.
Though these subsequent sects scrambled to catch up, their scale could never match the Southern Li Cultivation Arena.
Nowadays, the old Daoist made a monthly circuit, giving a day of lectures at each arena. The rest of his time was spent tasting tea, admiring scenic vistas, or traveling leisurely across Qingming, living a life fit for an immortal.
While Wei Yuan was reviewing the dossiers, the old Daoist suddenly raised his head, gazing right through the grand formation. He then stood up, bowed politely, and said, "The Realm Lord graces us with his presence! Forgive this old man for failing to welcome you properly."
Since his trace had been detected, Wei Yuan drifted down slowly and landed in the courtyard. "This eyesight of yours, Old Perfected Person, rivals even Scenery Command."
There was deep implication in Wei Yuan's words, but Perfected Person Xiaoyu seemed utterly oblivious. Stroking his beard, he laughed and said, "This old Daoist has spent a lifetime currying favor with the powerful, wanting nothing more than to live comfortably in peace and see the younger generation grow up safely with a passable station in life. To curry favor, one must have sharp eyes, so every divine ability this old Daoist has developed over a lifetime is concentrated in his eyes."
The old Daoist then offered a seat and poured Wei Yuan a cup of tea.
Wei Yuan sat across from him, sizing the old Daoist up and down. He asked, "Where did you receive your teachings, Perfected Person? This Southern Li Heaven White Gardenia Worship Method does not look like your sect's heirloom heritage."
Perfected Person Xiaoyu smiled faintly. "This method was originally bestowed by an immortal, yet fell into the hands of an ignorant rogue cultivator who had no idea of its purpose. Unable to bear seeing such a pearl buried in dust, this old Daoist took it, studied it for ten years before achieving minor success, and then headed straight for Qingming. Not only does this serve the Realm Lord, but it also allows this old Daoist to take a shot at Scenery Command."
Hearing this, Wei Yuan naturally understood what had transpired. It was rare for the old Daoist to speak of such theft so nonchalantly and matter-of-factly. Wei Yuan took a mental note, quietly learning from the attitude, and felt three parts of spontaneous goodwill toward him.
However, three parts of goodwill were far from enough to suppress Wei Yuan's killing intent.
Wei Yuan said, "Since you knew this was Qingming, why did you insist on carving the Realm Lord's statue to worship?"
Unfazed as a mountain in the face of the eight winds, the old Daoist replied steadily, "This Southern Li Heaven is an immortal's dharma, subtle and wondrous beyond words. Ordinary worship generates incense aspiration power; such things are filthy and crude, and receiving them would only taint one's dharma body and sea of consciousness. If this old Daoist had used such vulgar methods, getting decapitated wouldn't have wronged me in the least.
"Yet this worship method generates karmic luck. And the higher the standing of the worshipped entity, the higher the karmic luck rises, as a boat lifted by rising waters.
"The Realm Lord possesses a stature that goes well beyond celestial elegance; worshipping him is more effective than worshipping an ordinary immortal. Mortals can thereby generate cultivator karmic luck, and these disciples reap benefits through daily chanting and worship as well. Their flesh and seas of consciousness are cleansed by aspiration power, elevating them from being incapable of cultivation to forging a shallow Dao Foundation. It is truly leaping the dragon gate, reaching heaven in a single bound! For this alone, the Realm Lord attains immense merit, while this old Daoist earns a modest share of credit."
Wei Yuan asked again, "Then where lies their upper limit?"
Perfected Person Xiaoyu chuckled. "It caps out at the Dao Foundation, naturally. What else could it be?"
This was already quite formidable. After all, a fair portion of those worshipping at the Southern Li Cultivation Arena struggled even to achieve Body Casting; yet their bodies were cleansed by incense aspiration power, and their seas of consciousness gradually opened, granting them the ability to build a foundation.
Though this was akin to building on sand—a single-story wooden shack might hold, but a two-story hut was doomed to collapse—wasn't it also true that the overwhelming majority of Qingming's template Dao Foundations stalled permanently at the elementary stage?
Having observed the disciples in the arena and spoken with the old Daoist, Wei Yuan did not even need to read the canon to understand the basic principles behind this Southern Li Heaven worship.
Unlike the traditional divine way of incense, the incense aspiration power generated by mortal worship was not channeled to the idol. Instead, it was applied to the worshippers themselves to cleanse their physical constitutions. Naturally, its efficacy seemed divine; shaken by the miraculous results, worshippers became firm believers from then on. In this state, not only did incense aspiration power surge, but it also generated karmic luck. And this karmic luck flowed toward the object of worship—Wei Yuan.
The recipient of worship did not gain karmic luck for free either; they had to return a fraction of benefit in exchange, namely Dao power or immortal power. When this bit of Dao power or immortal power was funneled back to the followers, it accelerated their cultivation progress even further.
Having received karmic luck, Wei Yuan naturally would not mind paying a slight price, especially when that price was mere Dao power. Hence, the entire process occurred organically without catching Wei Yuan's notice—akin to a great bird ruffling its plumage and casually shedding a feather or two, which then fed tens of thousands of mortals.
However, Wei Yuan currently possessed six spirit manors. His Dao power naturally carried the aura of six divine abilities, a world apart from ordinary Scenery Command cultivators. When even a shred of such extraordinarily exalted Dao power settled upon mortals, it was nothing short of a complete rebirth.
This was precisely where the brilliance of this worship method lay. Under normal circumstances, Wei Yuan's Dao power belonged exclusively to Wei Yuan. Even if channeled into a mortal's body, they could never control it; the slightest excess would cause them to explode and die.
Yet through the transformative mechanism of worship, the returned Dao power actually converted into the mortal's own Dao power! It was equivalent to a mortal with hardly any cultivation suddenly acquiring a trace of Dao power that naturally possessed six wondrous properties.
This technique stole Heaven and swapped the sun; it was utterly inconceivable, something no mere dharma idol could ever devise—not even ordinary or mixed immortals.
Listening along, Wei Yuan was already certain this was an immortal-grade Dao method. When applied within Qingming and directed toward Wei Yuan, it was truly adding wings to a tiger.
Had any other object of worship been chosen, it could never have yielded such miraculous effects. In all the world, perhaps only Zhang Sheng's stature could rival his to some degree. Yet Zhang Sheng pursued a singular path and would never accept tangled, miscellaneous karmic luck.
Yet Wei Yuan had never believed in such good fortune falling into anyone's lap, much less his own—after all, this world's Heavenly Dao loathed him to an extraordinary degree. Without even pondering, he knew something was amiss with the Southern Li Cultivation Arena.
With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan found over eight thousand people currently cultivating and worshipping in the three arenas of this city alone, with thousands more waiting outside. As soon as one batch finished worshipping, the next filed in, impeccably orderly.
In the brief time Wei Yuan spent speaking with Perfected Person Xiaoyu, a strand of karmic luck arose from each of the three arenas, vanishing as they ascended into the sky. Simultaneously, three strands of karmic luck entered Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness and settled onto the small tricolored flower, adding a tiny bristle to one of its petals.
A smile appeared on Wei Yuan's face. "I misunderstood Senior earlier. What Senior practices is indeed orthodox immortal dharma. However, there are many traditions in Qingming; if you wish to expand, you must rely on your own efforts. Furthermore, there is one more thing: since you are already worshipping the Realm Lord, you may not casually switch the object of worship hereafter."
Perfected Person Xiaoyu stroked his beard. "Naturally! Looking across the entire world, nothing else can compare to the Realm Lord. At least, within Qingming, that is so."
Wei Yuan nodded and turned to leave.
The old Daoist chuckled, finished the tea in his cup, and summoned a trusted disciple. Pulling a book from his robes, he said, "This is the latest issue of Secret History of the Immortal Sects; take it. I have an errand for you: depart immediately for Qingwu City and reserve a unit at the Phoenix Perch Immortal Residence. It must be on a high floor, with spacious rooms and a fine view!"
"Rest assured, Master. This disciple will see it done." Taking the booklet, the disciple hurried off on the wind.
The old Daoist picked up another copy of the latest issue of Secret History of the Immortal Sects. Flipping through it idly, he turned to the fairy illustrations in the centerfold. After admiring them intently for quite a while, he finally sighed, "Less and less fabric, alas! They fail to understand that going too far is as bad as falling short. Some things must be kept veiled and concealed to truly evoke their wondrous charm..."
Chapter 1211