Longzang

Chapter 1090 The Golden Core Era
An old monk and a young monk walked to the foot of Mount Ling. The old monk prostrated himself on the ground, his body trembling, appearing extremely excited.

Near the foot of Mount Ling, an Arhat statue suddenly opened its eyes, slowly turned around, looked down at the old monk, and said gently, "Weishan, you've returned."

The old monk prostrated himself on the ground and said, "This disciple has been traveling for seven hundred years, has gained some insights, and has returned."

The Arhat shifted its body slightly, seemingly looking at the old monk, but its eyes lacked a certain brilliance, appearing somewhat empty. Its turn of the head seemed to be directed only towards the source of the sound, without actually seeing the old monk.

The Arhat asked, "Is there an answer?"

"I have only grasped half of it. I know how to save myself, but I still can't understand the other half. Over the past seven hundred years, I have witnessed the ugliness of the world and have gained some understanding, but it is still not complete. I always felt that I should not abandon all people in the world, so I changed my focus to saving those who are destined to be saved, and that is when I gained some understanding. Just now, the Buddha's disciple has descended into the world. I happened to find a disciple with a deep destiny who can become the Buddha's disciple. I specially brought him back for my master to see."

The Arhat did not look at the young monk, but said, "Since you are a disciple of the Buddha, you should have the Buddha's guidance. You have traveled for seven hundred years and have already attained enlightenment. My business here is finished, and I have no more attachments. Very good, very good!"

The Arhat returned to his original posture, and a layer of gilded light suddenly appeared on a rectangular stone beneath his lotus seat, revealing several Sanskrit characters: Namo Guanyuan Chu Arhat.

The old monk bowed again; this was the first time in nine hundred years that he had learned his master's Dharma name.

The light flashed and disappeared in an instant. The Sanskrit on the stone disappeared, and several deep cracks appeared on the stone, as if pieces of it might fall off at any moment, but it was bound in place by an unknown force.

At this moment, a magnificent voice drifted down from the heights of Mount Ling: "Since you are a disciple of Buddha, why don't you step forward?"

The young monk looked somewhat bewildered, so the old monk quickly gave him a push. The young monk stumbled forward two steps and was already at the foot of Mount Ling.

Looking up from here, one can see a sheer cliff stretching to the horizon, with countless Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats bowing their heads and looking down at the little monk below.

The young monk was suddenly overcome with an indescribable fear, yet he didn't know what he was afraid of. At that moment, countless gazes pierced through him, not only seeing into the past but also illuminating the future.

Suddenly, a Buddha on the upper part of Mount Ling moved, and a begging bowl and a robe appeared in his hands. He threw them down, and they landed right in the hands of the young monk.

Then the majestic voice said, "Having already possessed a golden body and obtained magical artifacts, you have all the necessary skills to subdue demons and protect the righteous path. The Dharma-ending Age is approaching, and all kinds of demons will emerge. As a disciple of the Buddha, you should drive out the demons, and in doing so, your attainment of Buddhahood will naturally come."

The young monk was somewhat bewildered. In a daze, the scenery before his eyes shifted, and the magnificent and splendid Ling Mountain disappeared. He found himself back in a side hall of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land. Fortunately, he still had his alms bowl and kasaya in his hands, which calmed him down a bit.

At this moment, an unfamiliar old monk walked over. Looking at the Buddhist artifact in his hand, a strange look flashed across his face. He said, "Now that you have obtained the Buddhist artifact, you are a Buddhist disciple. Come with me to the altar on the back mountain to receive the golden body Dharma image inheritance."

The young monk asked, "Where is my master?"

“Brother Weishan has severed his worldly ties and has now gone to the Pure Land of Merit, where he will be liberated and attain pure bliss,” the unfamiliar old monk said calmly.

The young monk felt a vague unease, but his cultivation was still shallow, and he didn't understand what was wrong. He could only follow the old monk toward the back mountain.

……

In Yizhou, Wei Yuan had finally finished dealing with the mountain of official business and was preparing to go into seclusion for a few days to write a few more chapters of the "Three Realms Wish-Fulfilling Sutra" in the Desolate Realm when a new plan suddenly appeared amidst the prosperity of the various realms, requiring Wei Yuan's personal approval.

The affairs of Qingming are becoming increasingly complex, but most are administrative and repetitive tasks, which Wei Yuan has delegated. Original, pioneering tasks requiring directional clarification have decreased. All matters concerning the overall direction are now sent to Wei Yuan for review and approval.

This plan, titled "A Strategy for the Reform of the Golden Elixir Dharma Form," was jointly proposed by the Qingming Academy of Sciences and the Baiye Engineering Academy. The initiators included Xiaoyu, Fengtingyu, Chuhe, Xu Henshui, Sun Yu, and Yuemu Guijushi, among others. With such a lineup, Wei Yuan naturally attached great importance to it, abandoning his task of copying scriptures and beginning to read them carefully.

The cultivators believed that with the large number of Qingming template Dao Foundation cultivators, the most urgent task was to help hundreds of thousands of Dao Foundation cultivators continue their Dao path.

When Qingming was first established, Wei Yuan created the Immortal Sword Pseudo-Sun, pioneering the template-based Dao Foundation. In the decades that followed, the template-based Dao Foundation became very popular, and the number of people who cultivated the Dao Foundation increased by more than a hundredfold.
Focusing on quantity over quality is the essence of Qingming. Before Qingming, the entire Taichu Palace had less than 10,000 Dao foundations, but now Qingming has more than 200,000, which is dozens of times more than the main sect of Taichu Palace.

The widespread availability of templates and slabs has ignited an unprecedented surge in the enthusiasm of mortals for body forging. Most mortals feel that they have a chance to achieve the foundation of the Dao, so as long as the conditions are right, everyone is working hard to forge their bodies.

Currently, out of every one hundred residents of Qingming, fifteen are Body Forging cultivators. And after newborns reach the age of six, the proportion with Body Forging aptitude is a staggering forty percent!

This ratio is not only far higher than that of any of the nine kingdoms, but even the cultivation families of the Seven Clans and Thirteen Noble Families do not have such an outrageous ratio.

The template-based Dao Foundation clearly boosted the overall cultivation of mortals, but it blocked their path to enlightenment. Many cultivators who successfully consolidated their Dao Foundation and entered the mid-stage of the Dao Foundation reached the end of their cultivation journey. They lost their motivation to cultivate, and many began to slack off, seeking pleasure and excitement, which caused many problems.

In recent years, according to statistics from the human world, crimes committed by template-based cultivators have increased more than tenfold, making it necessary to put the continuation of their cultivation path on the agenda.

The cultivators believed that the two major Dharma forms, "The Birth of All Things" and "The Golden Elixir of Myriad Blossoms," provided pioneering ideas. Just like the foundation of the Dao, if one does not insist on powerful supernatural abilities, but only needs a foundation of the Dao, then a template foundation of the Dao is created.

By the same token, if a Dharma form does not require perfect and full spirituality, but only a little spirituality, then the difficulty of cultivating a Dharma form will be greatly reduced.

In this respect, the Dharma forms created by cultivating the Golden Elixir of All Things and All Transformations do not emphasize spirituality at all, nor do they even require an innate shape. They are simply a round ball containing spirituality, which is also a Dharma form. Therefore, cultivators collectively refer to this type of Dharma form as the Golden Elixir Dharma Form and have proposed a subsequent systematic development path.

In general, these ideas suggest that the Golden Core is becoming smaller and looser, containing less and less spiritual energy. But no matter how small or inferior it is, it is still a Dharma Form, much stronger than an ordinary Dao Foundation.

The natural lifespan of the Golden Elixir Dharma Form is also far shorter than that of the normal Dharma Form, roughly only three hundred years, but still much longer than the one hundred and fifty years of the Dao Foundation.

As a supplement to the plan, an unorthodox method was also introduced: the method of ascending to immortality by consuming elixirs.

This unorthodox path is specifically designed for those with even a sliver of hope of advancing to the Dharma Aspect stage. Its core is the Ascension Foundation Pill, which Wei Yuan unintentionally refined years ago. This pill has been improved multiple times by Xu Henshui and the Hermit of the Pill-Knowing Sect, making its medicinal properties much milder and its effects somewhat weaker, but its lifespan-shortening effect is far less severe than Wei Yuan's original version.

Now, a single Ascension Foundation Pill can enable a cultivator to quickly cultivate the Myriad Blossom Golden Core or the preliminary foundation of the Myriad Life Formation, at the cost of only forty years of lifespan. Then, with the assistance of various pills to accelerate the cultivation progress, if the Golden Core Dharma Form is cultivated before forty, another two hundred years of lifespan can be gained immediately.

This method primarily uses elixirs, sacrificing lifespan in exchange for a shortcut to advancement, hence the name "Emergency Ascension Method."

Wei Yuan immediately saw the potential of this method: many scions of noble families are talented but cannot endure hardship. The long cultivation process is a torment for them, so they are unwilling to spend most of their lives in tedious cultivation for a sliver of hope for the Dharma Form.

The method of ascending to immortality by consuming elixirs is their best solution. It only requires sacrificing a hundred years of lifespan, and there is a greater than 50% chance of advancing to the Dharma Aspect. Many people are willing to take the gamble.

Wei Yuan also has many other methods to increase the chances of achieving the Golden Core Dharma Form, so this method is very feasible.

After careful consideration, Wei Yuan pointed a finger at the "agree" option. This gesture marked the beginning of Qingming's Golden Core Dharma Form era.

(End of this chapter)