Longzang

Chapter 61 The Foundation of the Dao
Upon returning to his residence, the first thing Wei Yuan did was move.

He was now only one step away from achieving the Dao Foundation stage. According to regulations, he needed to move out of the New Disciple Valley and head to the exclusive area for Dao Foundation cultivators to choose a cave dwelling. Forming the Dao Foundation was the most important matter on the path to immortality. The higher the grade of the Dao Foundation, the more opportunities and fortuitous encounters were required. Therefore, many people would spend several years waiting for a good opportunity to advance their Dao Foundation to the next level.

Unless they die an untimely death, few disciples of the Taichu Palace are unable to condense their Dao Foundation. Therefore, once they have completed the Body Forging process, they are considered to have the same Dao Foundation and are treated the same as disciples with the same Dao Foundation.

Wei Yuan's luggage was simple and easy to pack; it all fit in one suitcase. Aside from books, Wei Yuan was practically penniless, possessing nothing at all. The Taichu Palace didn't use ordinary paper; all books were printed on jade paper. Jade paper was the color of warm jade, impervious to water and fire, and a single sheet could hold a million words, its content changing at the holder's will. Wei Yuan's ten years of savings amounted to several hundred books, but when stacked together, they were only about a foot high.

After completing the handover with the steward, Wei Yuan walked out of the courtyard, suddenly turning back with a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection). Unbeknownst to him, he had already lived here for ten years.

All of Wei Yuan's contemporaries had long since established their Dao foundations, and now there was no one Wei Yuan knew in the valley anymore. Even many of the new disciples who entered the sect five years after him had established their Dao foundations and moved out of the valley. It took Tai Chu Palace disciples as little as one year to as long as six or seven years to establish their Dao foundations, with an average of more than three years.

Among Wei Yuan's fellow disciples, four had already achieved the Immortal Foundation stage, with Xiao Yu's Great Sun Immortal Sword and Bao Yun's Seven Wonders Exquisite Tree being particularly famous. Divided by faction, the Zhi Gu and Ding Xin factions each had two members who had achieved the Immortal Foundation stage, but the Ding Xin faction only had one-third the number of disciples as the Zhi Gu faction, so proportionally, their number of Immortal Foundation stage members was much higher.

Not only in terms of their foundational cultivation, but also overall, the Dingxin Sect's foundational cultivation was of superior quality, and their cultivation progress significantly surpassed that of the Zhigu Sect. This was thanks to Bao Yun and Cui Yu's establishment of the public account. During the three years of intensive instruction, the public account lent out as much as 500,000 taels of immortal silver. As long as the Dingxin Sect students had talent, they were never short of resources or elixirs, and naturally their cultivation progressed at lightning speed.

By now, most of the money borrowed from the public account has been repaid, and everyone knows they owe Bao Yun and Cui Yu a great debt of gratitude. For this reason, the Dingxin faction disciples are exceptionally close-knit and particularly united with outsiders, which is an unexpected bonus.

Currently, the outstanding loans in the public account amount to only 100,800 taels, of which 100,000 taels belong to Wei Yuan. Bao Yun is Wei Yuan's largest creditor in the public account, with 80,000 taels. Xiao Yu is the second largest creditor, with 20,000 taels.

Regarding personal debts, Wei Yuan still owes Bao Yun 120,000 taels.

Bao Yun had tried to take over Xiao Yu's debts, but Xiao Yu refused. Cui Yu secretly approached Bao Yun three times and successfully obtained five thousand taels of debt, thus joining Wei Yuan's ranks of patrons.

The intensive instruction lasted for three years. From the fourth year onwards, the disciples returned to their respective temples and monasteries to cultivate, and they rarely met after that.

Standing at the entrance of the courtyard, Wei Yuan reminisced about the past. He felt that the first three years had been filled with many happy moments, even the duel with the Zhigu Sect, where he was pinned down and beaten by dozens of people. Thinking back on it now, it had a unique kind of fun, and a smile would involuntarily creep onto his face when he recalled it. As for the next seven years, they were unremarkable and could be summarized in a few words: taking pills and the Moon Essence.

As usual, Wei Yuan quietly greeted the miscellaneous members of the Creation Temple.

It's time to start a new life.

There was no need for a carriage to get to the new home. Wei Yuan carried his luggage in one hand, stepped onto Zhang Sheng's flying sword, and headed directly to the new cave dwelling.

The cave dwellings of Foundation Establishment disciples are divided into several areas, with Wei Yuan's assigned cave dwelling being relatively close to the Azure Sky Hall. Most Foundation Establishment cave dwellings are built against mountains, each an independent courtyard. These courtyards are ten times larger than the new disciples' courtyards, separated by several miles, ensuring they do not interfere with each other. Each courtyard is fully equipped with various facilities such as cultivation rooms, alchemy rooms, studies, and kitchens. The biggest difference is that the cultivation rooms are all built on the spiritual veins within the mountains. These mountains are all spiritual mountains, their spiritual veins having been nurtured for thousands of years, making their cultivation efficiency incomparable to that of the new disciples' valley. The open spaces surrounding the courtyards are divided among the various cave dwellings along a central line. How this land is disposed of is entirely up to the cave dwelling owner. Looking from afar, Wei Yuan saw some areas planted with flowers and grass, others densely forested, but most of the open spaces around the courtyards were still grassland. Perhaps the owners of these courtyards were too busy, or perhaps they simply avoided trouble, so they kept them as they were.

After examining so many empty plots, Wei Yuan's first thought was to cultivate them for planting spiritual herbs or spiritual rice. It would be really awkward to have land but not plant it.

However, Wei Yuan knew that the idea of ​​clearing land for farming was impractical. There were specially designated areas inside the mountain gate for growing medicinal herbs or spirit rice, where the concentration of spiritual energy was ten times that of the outside world, and the yield and quality were incomparable to what disciples could grow at will.

Although he understood the reasoning, Wei Yuan still felt awkward about not cultivating the land.

After completing the handover procedures for the cave dwelling, Wei Yuan and Zhang Sheng went to the study.

After settling down, Zhang Sheng took out a map, unfolded it on the table, and said, "Let me tell you about the sect's grand examination. The so-called grand examination refers to a screening, not an exam. Closed-door exams and arena duels are for lower-ranking disciples. When we cultivators forge our Dao Foundation, we embark on the path of immortality, and from then on, we should embark on the path of changing the world and giving back to humanity. Not only are Dao Foundation disciples screened, but Dharma Aspect True Persons are also screened. However, the grand examination for Dao Foundation disciples is once every ten years, while for Dharma Aspect True Persons it is once every fifty years."

Zhang Sheng pointed to the map and said, "Now the grass is growing tall and eagles are flying in the north. Several tribes of the Northern Liao have begun to harass the border again, especially the Ganning and Bianning prefectures in Ganzhou. These two prefectures belong to the Western Jin Dynasty. In recent years, the Western Jin government has been corrupt and its military preparedness has been lax, making it increasingly difficult to resist the Northern Liao's attacks. The purpose of this Daoji Grand Examination is to assist the Western Jin in defending the border and to protect the two prefectures from being plundered by the Northern Liao."

“This time, not only our Taichu Palace will participate, but other sects will also participate. Since you have not yet formed your Dao foundation, you will be assigned to a county with other disciples during the great examination. There may be two or three other disciples, or three or five, depending on the battlefield situation.”

Wei Yuan asked, "You just said that True Immortals also undergo a major test every fifty years, which is also to resist foreign races?"

"The Grand Examination for True Immortals is much more lenient in its format, focusing mainly on their contributions over the past fifty years. There are very few large-scale events that require the participation of all True Immortals. After all, my Taichu Palace is not a small sect. If all True Immortals were to come out, it would be a world-shaking event."

Zhang Sheng looked at Wei Yuan and said, "Even if you have established your Dao foundation, you should focus on cultivation for the next ten years. You don't contribute much to the sect normally, so you need to perform well in the major examination to be qualified to obtain more resources and silence the gossips and avoid criticism."

Wei Yuan nodded, deeply agreeing.

Zhang Sheng put away the map, stood up, and said, "Come on, your teacher will take you to a good place!"

"Where to go?"

"Go and see the foundations of the Dao throughout the world!"

(End of this chapter)