Chapter 49: Troubled times for mortals, prosperous times for the world of cultivation
As the sun sets, on an ancient official road leading to Yanzhou, two figures, one large and one small, are walking slowly. The leader was the Taoist in purple; following him was Zhao Yuanwu, who was rescued by the Taoist in purple a few days ago.
Zhao Yuanwu felt like he was in a dream these past few days, and he still hasn't fully woken up. A few days ago, the town of Baishi where he was located was burned to ashes by party members. Even the big tree where he was hiding was burned. Just when he thought he was about to be burned to death, the self-proclaimed "Wandering Dragon" The cultivators of "Zi" arrived in time and rescued him.
Although Zhao Yuanwu didn't know what a cultivator was, he had seen the power of a cultivator in the past few days. In these troubled times, it is normal for some people and troops who are extremely vicious or unable to survive to become bandits and rob their homes. Generally, a lone business traveler encounters a robber and is lucky to be robbed. What is even worse is to be killed and silenced.
But these situations are different for this "Wandering Longzi". When he encounters bandits robbing him, he can just throw out a fire talisman to blow up the bandits with heavy casualties and scatter them in a rush; or he can use the magic spell , recited some spells, and cast some illusions that Zhao Yuanwu could not understand, scaring them into fleeing.
But all these just made Zhao Yuanwu curious. What really made him envious was "Wandering Longzi"'s ability to conjure food out of thin air. Because the world is in chaos, the fields are deserted, and natural disasters have continued in recent years, the harvest is very bad. The people are unable to eat enough and starve to death everywhere. In some places, there are even tragedies of people exchanging children for food! In the wild, not to mention wild animals and fruits, even mice, locusts, and even grass roots, tree bark, and Guanyin soil were eaten up by hungry people. Zhao Yuanwu originally saw that "Wandering Longzi" did not have a package with him. He was wondering where he should go to find food, but he didn't expect that even though he was so hungry that he couldn't bear it, he still looked as normal and was full of energy.
Zhao Yuanwu finally couldn't bear his hunger and hesitantly asked You Longzi when he would look for food. You Longzi was stunned for a moment and said with a smile that he had entered the inediate stage since he had become successful in cultivation and had not had food for a long time. After eating, he forgot that mortals still need to eat. After saying sorry to Zhao Yuanwu, he turned his hand and took out a fruit he had never seen before and handed it to him. The fruit was about the size of a fist. The fruit was plump, sweet and attractive. Zhao Yuanwu was also very hungry. After thanking him, he ate it. He felt that the juice of the fruit was sweet and green, refreshing and delicious, and there was no seed in it. He swallowed it all in three mouthfuls.
After the fruit pulp entered his stomach, Zhao Yuanwu suddenly felt a fresh breath flowing through his body, as if everything inside and outside had been washed. He suddenly felt that his hunger was gone, his strength was restored, his energy was doubled, and his whole body was covered in stinky sweat. Fortunately, You Longzi used a "dust removal technique" on him to clean away all the dirt on his body, which made Zhao Yuanwu couldn't help but sigh, "This magical spell is really convenient."
In the next few days, Zhao Yuanwu's eyes were opened. Whenever he was hungry, You Longzi would take out some fruits for him to eat. According to You Longzi, these were spiritual fruits he grew himself. After eating, he could Prolonging life and strengthening the body. If you eat too much, you can even enter the path of cultivation. Zhao Yuanwu doesn't know if it can prolong life. However, his body has indeed been getting better and better in the past few days. In just a few days, he has grown taller and faster. He is becoming more and more brisk, and can cover a distance of ten feet in one step. But he found that no matter how fast he ran, You Longzi always walked slowly and leisurely, but could always be one meter ahead of him. This made him secretly awe and become more and more curious about cultivation.
On this day, the two of them were resting. Zhao Yuanwu finally plucked up the courage and asked You Longzi, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, "Taoist Master, what is cultivation? What kind of person is a cultivator?"
You Longzi slowly opened his eyes, looked at Zhao Yuanwu, and replied with a smile: "That's a good question. In fact, the name of cultivation has been around since ancient times. It is commonly known as cultivating the Tao.
It includes the entire practice process of moving to transform essence, refining essence to transform Qi, refining Qi to transform into spirit, refining spirit to return to emptiness, returning emptiness to combine with Tao, and attaining the status of true immortal.
What is true? It is the karma of a real person, and it is a true immortal. It is not a self-proclaimed one, but it is actually a title granted by the upper realm of space. Real people are the highest realm of Taoist cultivators. Practitioners should have great ambitions, be far-sighted, be diligent throughout their lives, practice hard, and advance their virtues and merits in order to reach the superior realm of real people and real immortals. Therefore, it is called cultivation.
What is a cultivator? They are some beings who are born extraordinary or unwilling to settle for the ordinary. In order to better understand themselves and the world, they have continuously explored a path of cultivation and verification over the long years. The beings who then embarked on this path are cultivators. , Cultivators include not only human beings, but also birds, beasts, insects, fish = flowers, plants and trees. As long as they have spirituality and understand the way of cultivation, they can all be called cultivators. However, it was only when their cultivation concepts conflicted that they were considered cultivators. It is divided into different categories such as immortals, Buddhas and demons. "
Zhao Yuanwu seemed to understand, and then asked: "It sounds similar to myths and legends. Since there are so many cultivators, why have I never heard anyone mention it? What is the world of cultivators like?"
"Cultivation is also called cultivating the Tao. What we cultivate is the "Tao" that contains everything and evolves everything! Therefore, everything is based on seeking the Tao and self-improvement. We don't like to be contaminated with too much worldly cause and effect, so under normal circumstances we will not Those who stay too long in the mortal world, but there are also a few who have a certain purpose or who don’t care about the entanglement of cause and effect, will walk in the mortal world and play in the world."
You Longzi paused and asked Zhao Yuanwu: "What do you think is the goal of survival?"
Zhao Yuanwu thought for a moment, and for some reason he remembered the tragic situation in Baishi Town and his own tragic experience, so he replied: "Live for a better life! If possible, let more people live a better life!"
You Longzi was stunned for a moment and looked at Zhao Yuanwu, and Zhao Yuanwu also mustered up the courage to face it calmly and confirmed that what he said was indeed from the heart. You Longzi's eyes became softer and said, "I didn't expect that. You little kid actually has such a compassionate heart. Yes, the ideas of us cultivators are essentially the same as yours. However, most people have narrow minds. Their idea is: live a better life and let others live with you. Those who are closely related usually mean that their relatives, friends and sects are living better and more prosperous!" He paused, waiting for Zhao Yuanwu to digest his words, and then said something that shocked Zhao Yuanwu.
"And the current chaotic times in the mortal world are the prosperous times in the world of cultivation!"
