’This sermon... It’s clearly the Supre who is speaking, yet he’s gifted all the rit and Virtue to that "variable"...’
’Supre, oh Supre, what in the world are you planning?’
The Emperor Corpse’s gaze grew profound. Within its bleeding eyes, a bright light suddenly blood.
「anwhile, beyond the Thirty-Three Celestial Realms.」
Two colossal Daoist Palaces floated in the Chaos, their great gates wide open. Inside, the Blind Daoist and a bruised, swollen-faced La Daoist stood facing each other.
Neither of them looked pleased.
The La Daoist clutched his swollen face, gritting his teeth.
"That damn Supre, he can even play gas like this? This sermon on the Great Dao was destined by heaven and earth to be delivered by him, yet he let Xiaoxuan do it in his stead... What is that Supre thinking! What is he planning!!"
The La Daoist was utterly furious.
The Blind Daoist was also pacing back and forth, grinding his teeth.
"The Supre has finally grown suspicious. He’s pulling the rug out from under us, making Xiaoxuan preach his Dao and inherit his Taiqing Dao... No, we absolutely cannot let him succeed!"
The two Daoists were as frantic as ants on a hot pan, but they didn’t dare have a showdown with the Supre... They couldn’t beat him! They just couldn’t beat him!!
"Supre, you were unjust first, so don’t bla for being unscrupulous!" the Primordial Celestial Venerable said, incandescent with rage.
Beside him, the equally furious Lingbao Celestial Venerable caught his breath and said in surprise,
"But the Supre hasn’t been *that* unjust, has he...?"
"Stealing our disciple doesn’t count?"
"You’re right..." the La Daoist also said, furious. "Supre, you were unjust first, so don’t bla the two of us for being unscrupulous!"
The two Daoists—one symbolizing the Starting Point and the end, Creation and destruction, Pioneering and closing, the Cause of All Fruits and the fruit of all causes—whose held Daos were completely opposed, had actually united against a common enemy.
"Primordial, what should we do?"
"Let’s not rush. We’ll plan this out slowly."
The Blind Daoist listened angrily as his dear disciple rapturously expounded on the Supre Great Dao, and his teeth began to ache.
’You and your sches, Supre! You and your sches!’
Taking a deep breath, the Blind Daoist entered the state of Supre Forgetting Emotions. Becoming divine and transcendent, he temporarily discarded his humanity and said calmly,
"Lingbao, do you dare take a risk?"
"What kind of risk?" the La Daoist asked curiously.
The Primordial Great Celestial Venerable lowered his gaze.
"We’ll do this... and then that..."
"!!!" The La Daoist’s eyes widened. He stared at the Primordial Great Celestial Venerable before him, who had discarded his humanity and embodied the Great Dao, and said, stunned,
"If we really do that, and the Supre finds out..."
The Primordial Great Celestial Venerable exited the state of Supre Forgetting Emotions, reverted to being the Blind Daoist, and chuckled happily.
"It’s dull and tasteless for us to play Go against outsiders. But to play against the Supre? What fun!"
He paused, coughed lightly, a little sheepishly, and then added,
"Besides, wasn’t it the Supre who was unjust first, pulling the rug out from under us? The Supre is stealing our dear disciple, so what should we do?"
The La Daoist grew indignant.
"Son of a..."
As he said it, he realized it wasn’t right. Cursing the Supre’s mother was like cursing his own mother... although they didn’t have mothers.
Despite this, the La Daoist corrected himself,
"If the Supre can pull the rug out from under us, so can we!"
With that, the two Great Dao Monarchs, who had transcended Years and the heavens and earth, glanced at each other and said in unison,
"If the Supre can go, then so can we!"
...
「The Human World.」
It was called the Human World, but seventy-seven percent of all the Immortals and Buddhas from the heavens and the Ghost Gods of the Nine Nether were gathered here, listening to the sermon.
Every single one of them was listening, entranced and captivated. This was true for the True Immortals, true for the Celestial Venerables, and true for the Upper Celestial Venerables. It was also true for the Buddha sitting on his cloud and the Emperor eavesdropping from his Emperor’s Palace.
Lu Zi was preaching the Dao, the Dao of the Supre. The Supre Great Dao, which reached the heavens and perated the earth.
At this very mont, in this very place, Kongzi wore a look of great joy, as if he had seen the gateway to the Great Dao and was about to push it open, yet was still a hair’s breadth away.
He bowed at the waist and said joyfully,
"More, more, please continue, Teacher!"
Imrsed in the Supre Great Dao, Lu Xuan didn’t wait for Old Nong to tap the void. He simply continued on naturally, following the flow of the Dao, preaching to all living beings and also to himself.
Preaching the Dao to comprehend the Dao.
He smiled and began to speak:
"Viewed from the origin of the Cosmos, all things are ford by the blaze of the Primordial and extinguished by the light of the Spirit Treasure. They are ford by the transformation of qi, and by the formation of qi they are extinguished, in an endless cycle. This is..."
???
Three question marks appeared over Old Nong’s head. ’My dear disciple,’ he thought, ’how did his sermon go so off-track all of a sudden?’
’The blaze of the Primordial?’
’The light of the Spirit Treasure?’
His eyelid twitched violently. Just as he was about to tap the void, he saw Lu Xuan’s tone shift, and the Dao he described returned to the true essence of the Supre.
"All things born between heaven and earth are like a white pony flashing past a crack in the door, gone in an instant. This is Nature, this is reason..."
Old Nong’s expression relaxed.
Then, Lu Xuan’s sermon shifted again.
"The initial birth of all things is vigorous and thriving—this is the Pri, the Beginning. The final extinction of all things is dark and silent—this is..."
Old Nong looked furious. But after finishing this part, Lu Xuan once again returned to the true essence of the Supre:
"One who has achieved Enlightennt sees life and death as one; life is comfort, and death is rest. They also see right and wrong as one; right is not truly right, and wrong is not truly wrong. They also see nobility, baseness, honor, and disgrace as one; the noble is not noble, the base is not base, the honored is not honored, the disgraced is not disgraced. And why is this?"
"It is because they are all the sa. All things are the sa. All life in heaven and earth is born from the One. This One is the Supre..."
Old Nong nodded in satisfaction, but he remained vigilant, muttering to himself.
’My dear disciple’s comprehension is simply extraordinary. I only gave him a few pointers, and he’s able to recite the Supre’s true Great Dao in its entirety. It’s just...’
’It’s just that as he preaches, he keeps veering into the Daos of those other two. It’s truly infuriating, truly infuriating!’
’It seems that having such good comprehension isn’t necessarily a good thing...’
Old Nong didn’t actually think it was wrong. The Three Pristine Ones were originally one entity. The Supre Dao, the Primordial Dao, and the Spirit Treasure Dao, while seemingly different, were in fact inextricably linked.
But even so, he still sighed with a hint of worry.
User Comments
0 comments from readers