"The Tongde Hall was originally established to facilitate the allocation of resources among cultivators from various schools and sects, as well as the imperial court, sects, and independent cultivators from different regions, so that their surplus could make up for our deficiency. With one heart and one mind, we can seek the Great Dao together."
"I see, thank you for your explanation, Fellow Daoist Gongsun." Lin Yi nodded and said, then pointed to the four columns "Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow" on the two walls and asked, "What is the purpose of these four lists?"
Gongsun Chenghua said, "In order to make it easier to compare and trade different types of resources, all resources are quantified and 'merit' is used as the unit. Whether it is an object, a set of techniques, or a matter, it can be converted into a certain number of merits and displayed in Tongde Hall for the knowledge of visiting cultivators."
“These four lists are all different. The ‘Good Deeds’ tasks issued by the imperial court to collect resources and investigate information are listed on the ‘Heavenly List’ on the left. The rewards for completing them are high, but the difficulty is also high. The ‘Good Deeds’ tasks issued by a certain sect or cultivator are listed on the ‘Earthly List’. The rewards and difficulties vary.”
"As for the two columns on the right, the 'Mysterious List' shows the prices of various cultivation methods that can be traded, while the 'Yellow List' shows the exchange rate between various cultivation materials and 'good deeds'."
After Gongsun Chenghua finished speaking, he gestured for Lin Yi to watch it himself.
Lin Yi walked through the four lists, grasped their general outlines, and combined with Gongsun Chenghua's explanation, immediately understood the intricacies. He paused beneath the "Heavenly List," where the ink characters shifted and changed with the flowing light.
A place name came into view: "Investigate the cause of the changes in Purple Cloud Valley..."
Gongsun Chenghua walked over and said, "Fellow Daoist, you've noticed this mission, so you must have heard of Ziyun Valley."
Lin Yi nodded slightly and said, "I've just heard of it."
Gongsun Chenghua said, "This Ziyun Valley was originally called Baihua Valley. It was a famous blessed land in the entire Lingzhou, ranking among the top-grade, no less than Phoenix Mountain occupied by the Lingzhou Academy in the south of the city. Unexpectedly, its spiritual veins disappeared overnight, and it completely changed its appearance."
"This task was originally issued by Lingzhou Academy. Many cultivators searched the entire valley from top to bottom, but they couldn't find any clues. Later, it was transferred to the county academy, and then to Dingyang Academy."
As he spoke, he shook his head. "To be honest, I have also explored this place, but unfortunately I found nothing."
Lin Yi remained unmoved upon hearing this, and instead asked, "I wonder what the difference is between this blessed land in the mortal world and the blessed land in the netherworld?"
Gongsun Chenghua said, "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things. All things carry Yin and embrace Yang, and achieve harmony through the interaction of these two forces! Therefore, Yang is the exterior of this world, and Yin is the interior of Heaven and Earth. Only when Yin and Yang are in harmony, and the exterior and interior are interconnected, can life be nurtured and all things created."
"Specifically, every blessed land nourished by the spiritual veins of heaven and earth can create a small world within the Nine Nether Black Waters, which is the foundation for the cultivation of the Earth Immortal lineage."
Gongsun Chenghua's voice was filled with undisguised envy.
There are five immortals in the world: Heaven, Earth, Man, God, and Ghost. These represent five paths of cultivation to reach the other shore and attain eternity.
Earthly immortals create blessed lands, evolve grotto heavens, create the world, and bring about the great universe.
This is the true path of the Earthly Immortal. Once achieved, the blessed land will never perish, and the Earthly Immortal will be immortal. It is roughly equivalent to the "blood rebirth" stage of a Human Immortal's cultivation, which is a step further.
The cultivation ranks in the Great Xia Dynasty were divided into five levels: fifth rank was Human Immortal, sixth rank was Earth Immortal, and seventh rank was Celestial Immortal. This actually represented the difficulty of achieving these different levels of enlightenment.
Below the Human Immortals, the fourth rank is the Divine Immortal, and the third rank is the Ghost Immortal.
Although ghost immortals are said to "transcend life and death, and have an undying spiritual light," they are always accompanied by "mysteries of the womb" with each reincarnation. After many reincarnations, they will eventually be unable to escape the fate of getting lost.
As for gods, those who are not true gods who govern the laws are ultimately just puppets driven by the incense offerings and wishes of sentient beings, sinking into the sea of suffering and unable to escape.
Lin Yi and Gongsun Chenghua continued their conversation. This man truly lived up to his title of "know-it-all," possessing extensive knowledge of astronomy, geography, historical anecdotes, and all sorts of gossip. Moreover, he was full of witty remarks, making it impossible not to listen attentively.
"Fellow Daoist Gongsun, which sect do you belong to?" Lin Yi asked jokingly.
Gongsun Chenghua said with a smile, "The ninth class is nameless, and the tenth class is the least prestigious."
Chapter Thirty-Two: The Myriad Manifestations Book, Exchanged for Merit Points
"So it turns out that Fellow Daoist Gongsun is a disciple of the novelist." Lin Yi said, as information about the "Nine Schools and Ten Families" flashed through his mind.
The ten schools are: Confucianism, Taoism, Yin-Yang School, Legalism, Military School, Mohism, Miscellaneous School, Agricultural School, Medical School, and Novelist School. Since the Novelist School belongs to the arts and literature, it is excluded, hence the term "Nine Schools".
These "Nine Schools and Ten Families" were designated by the Emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty. In addition, there are minor schools such as the Music School and the Painting School among the Hundred Schools. Sword cultivators are considered a branch of Taoism and are known as Sword Immortals.
“Indeed.” Gongsun Chenghua said, taking out a jade slip from his sleeve, “This is a book called ‘The Book of All Things’ that I compiled in my spare time. The contents of the book are all-encompassing and are just right for someone like you who is just starting out. It can not only broaden your horizons, but also serve as a form of cultivation. As the saying goes, ‘Read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.’ The unity of knowledge and action is the right path.”
Lin Yi took the jade slip, casually channeled his true energy into it, and rows of ink characters appeared on the slip. Flipping through it, he could also see some pictures.
The book contains a wealth of information. In addition to detailed descriptions of various monsters and spiritual herbs, it also records a great deal of human geography, the detailed history of the Great Xia Dynasty, anecdotes about various famous people, and even gossip such as the "Beauty Register," truly deserving of the name "Book of All Things."
"A good book," Lin Yi praised. "How much merit does this book require?"
"The original price is one hundred merit points, but since you like it, I'll give you a 20% discount," Gongsun Chenghua said.
Lin Yi looked up and saw that the list of fasting pills, ten pills per bottle, also cost one hundred merit points. After the discount, it would be about the same as buying a book with eight days' worth of food money. Considering the preciousness of knowledge in this world, the price wasn't actually that high.
Lin Yi said, "I bought this book, but..."
"Please speak, fellow Daoist," Gongsun Chenghua said.
"I don't have any merit points yet, so I need to exchange one or two first," Lin Yi said.
"I wonder if it's material from the Xuan Ranking or a cultivation technique from the Huang Ranking?" Gongsun Chenghua asked.
“It’s a Taoist cultivation method,” Lin Yi said.
"This matter is simple, fellow Daoist, please follow me." After Gongsun Chenghua finished speaking, he led Lin Yi out of Tongde Hall and headed towards the side hall on the left.
As he walked, he explained, "To accept merit tasks from the Heavenly Ranking and Earthly Ranking, you can go directly to the back hall. If you want to exchange for cultivation techniques from the Mysterious Ranking, or if you, like this fellow Daoist, intend to exchange a certain cultivation technique for merit, you should go to the side hall on the left. Similarly, the place to exchange cultivation resources is the side hall on the right."
"The Hundred Schools of Thought in the 108 states of the Great Xia Dynasty are basically arranged like this. In some smaller places, where there are too few cultivators, the head of the school usually holds multiple positions."
The left side hall was deserted with very few people coming and going.
The two entered the hall and saw an old man reclining in a rocking chair. On a small table beside him was a pot of tea. He turned a page, put down the book in his hand, looked up, and said, "Please sit down, both of you."
After Lin Yi and Gongsun Chenghua sat down, the old man slowly asked, "Do you want to exchange for a cultivation technique, or do you have a cultivation technique you'd like to trade?"
Lin Yi said, "I have a Daoist method for cultivating true fire here, and I plan to exchange it for some merit points."
"What true fire?" the old man asked.