There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

Qianmuguan.

The annual worship ceremony after the Spring Festival ended under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of disciples in the temple. As usual, each academy began to select disciples with good aptitude and comprehension from the outer disciples.

The outer sect held a ceremony to worship the ancestors for the new disciples.

There are also thousands of disciples on the Dengxiantai who have been granted permission to go out and are completing the final procedures. These disciples include both outer and inner disciples, and a large number of them will never come back after leaving the mountain gate.

This is the tradition of Qianmu Temple. For disciples who do not return within the specified time, Qianmu Temple will send people to register afterwards and record these disciples in the book. They will not be captured again because these people have given up practicing.

However, they will not leave Qianmu Temple, but will become secular disciples of Qianmu Temple. Occasionally, they will help Qianmu Temple with things within their ability. If their descendants want to enter Qianmu Temple, they can also be sent to the temple.

To the west of the Qianmu Mountain range, on a peak close to the river outside the Taoist temple, there is a thatched hut in the thick mist. Surrounding the hut is a spirit gathering array formed by dense spiritual trees and spiritual herbs. At the edge of the spirit gathering array is a bamboo forest with rich spiritual energy. Shen Xiaozhu is now standing by a stream south of the bamboo forest, and there is a new grave in front of her.

This is the grave of her only disciple, Mu Yun. When Mu Yun entered the country and merged with the soul of the locust tree, the spiritual veins in his body overflowed and his consciousness was instantly contaminated. He was eventually killed by her own hands.

During these years of going out to gain experience, she had seen many joys and sorrows, and had personally witnessed many people fail in their promotions. But despite this, she still found it difficult to let it go.

"Meow~"

A black cat jumped over from the other side of the stream and walked to Shen Xiaozhu's feet. This was the civet cat given to Xiaozhu by Zuo Xuan's calico cat. Coincidentally, at this moment, a cloud of auspiciousness fell from the sky. Shen Xiaozhu saw the person coming and quickly saluted with a fist and said, "Greetings, Senior Sister."

The person who came was Liu Shuang, and she was accompanied by two boys, a boy and a girl. The two boys looked a little nervous, but they pretended to be calm, trying to show off.

Liu Shuang smiled and said, "Junior sister, your place has been unattended for a long time. These two boys are smart, and I specially selected them to take care of the garden for you, Junior sister."

She first explained the reason why she brought the two boys here, and then said to the two boys, "Come and meet your teacher."

Shen Xiaozhu's eyes flashed and he subconsciously refused.

"Meow!"

The black cat jumped onto Shen Xiaozhu's shoulder, called softly, and rubbed Shen Xiaozhu's cheek with its furry face.

Shen Xiaozhu couldn't say the words that were on the tip of her tongue. When she saw the two boys' pure and expectant eyes, she couldn't help but think of the scene when she first met Mu Yun.

When the two boys saw that Shen Xiaozhu did not refuse, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed, calling him "Teacher".

After the two boys bowed, Liu Shuang said to Shen Xiaozhu, "Master has come out of retreat. You take care of these two little guys and then go with me to see Master."

Shen Xiaozhu woke up from her past memories after hearing this. The black cat jumped off her shoulder and circled around the two boys, as if searching for something. Shen Xiaozhu exhaled and glanced at the two boys, then responded to Liu Shuang: "Okay, Senior Sister, wait a moment."

...

Mountain top ashram.

Wang Ping was playing chess alone under an old locust tree. Xia Wenyi and Xuan Ling were sitting cross-legged in front of him, discussing the contents of "Annotations on Heaven and Man" with Wang Ping.

This book is a collection of theories drawn from the observation of the universe by Senior Qianmu Guan. In fact, it is somewhat similar to the Tao Te Ching from Wang Ping's previous life. For example, the Tao Te Ching always mentions "name" and "nameless", which are replaced by "form" and "formless" in this book.

Form or name refers to all tangible things, which can also be called named or tangible, but nameless does not refer to all things beyond imagination, because there are many things beyond imagination that are also names, but the 'nameless' must be beyond imagination. The Tao mentioned by Taoists is such a 'nameless'.

But the "invisible" in this world is far from "nameless", because this is a world of cultivation. For the practitioners in this world, there are three stages of understanding of "invisible".

During the Qi training stage, Qigong practitioners' understanding of the 'invisible' remains at the balance of the Yin and Yang of the Five Elements of Heaven and Earth. They believe that Heaven and Earth are both tangible, and everything extending from Heaven and Earth is tangible, while the Five Elements of Yin and Yang are intangible, a continuation of the tangible, which is the method practiced by the practitioners.

A cultivator must practice according to the balance of the Five Elements and Yin and Yang, and must maintain the balance between them during practice. Those cultivators who do not follow the balance are evil cultivators.

The second stage is the second half of the practice after entering the country. It is necessary to follow the balance between humanity and rationality. The truth here is "invisible" and cannot be expressed in words. It requires the cultivator to practice on his own. Others can only do simple guidance. The cultivator needs to feel the key. If you understand this step, you understand it; if you don't understand it, you don't understand it. It cannot be expressed in words.

The third stage is illusory. It is all objects based on "form". It is the conjectures of human monks trying to understand the secrets of heaven. Most of them are fabricated. This is because the monks themselves have not studied it clearly, let alone figure out the truth.

In general, the 'invisible' of this world is actually infinitely close to the 'visible'. Its idea is to guide practitioners to stabilize their practice, while the 'nameless' of the previous life is more of a philosophical thought and a goal of self-cultivation, which is even more difficult to explain than the 'invisible' of this world.

Wang Ping and his two disciples were discussing the second stage of the world's "Tao", which is human thoughts and behaviors.

"The predecessors said in the book that practitioners should shield themselves from harm and avoid crises in their fate, and asked us to remain humble and content. They also said that the more things a practitioner does, the more harmful it will be to the world and to himself. I agree with this, but..."

Xuan Ling expressed his views calmly and indifferently, "But what does it mean to be content? Should I be content with everything I have now?"

Xia Wenyi continued, "Our ancestors left us these words so that we can maintain a noble and stable mindset during our practice, not to stop us from moving forward. Being contented means that our humanity should match our practice, rather than being satisfied and complacent."

The two men discussed this issue while Wang Ping quietly placed his pieces on the chessboard. After a long while, he looked up at the sky in the direction of Sanhe Prefecture. Then a green light flashed and Yu Lian appeared above the dojo on the top of the mountain. She was about three meters tall at this moment, with Yuan Yuan following behind her.

Yu Lian has been going to Sanhe Prefecture frequently recently. Not long ago, she defeated her mother and officially became the queen of the spirit snake clan. She also planned to let her people practice well according to the model of Qianmu Temple, but her model failed in less than two days because the spirit snakes were too lazy and she herself was too lazy to do it.

Then, she thought of signing a contract with the disciples of Qianmu Temple in order to improve their cultivation, but the only one who was interested in this was her good sister Yuanyuan. The other tribesmen nodded in person but did not do anything behind her back.

Wang Ping sensed Yu Lian's thoughts and looked up at his two disciples. Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi immediately stopped their discussion and saluted Yu Lian with their fists clasped. After they saluted, Wang Ping said:

"The Tao is nature and everything. The Tao allows us to understand the laws of the universe and the principles of the world. This will help us practice, but practice is bound to go against the Tao. You must understand the Tao before practicing it. You must maintain a balance between them to achieve the Great Dao."

Wang Ping finished his point of view in a low voice. The two disciples were not very convinced, because everyone has their own understanding of the "Tao". Wang Ping did not ask the disciples to completely believe him, so he changed the subject and said: "The master called you two here to teach you a set of secret methods."

As he spoke, he took out a jade slip from his storage bag, looked at Xuan Ling and said, "This is the 'External Body Technique', which is considered one of the secret techniques of the Taiyan Sect. Once you have mastered this technique, you cannot easily pass it on to others. Do you understand?"

"Yes, disciple understands. Thank you, Master, for giving me the secret method!"

Xuan Ling stood up and knelt down to pay homage.

After he stood up, Wang Ping threw the jade slip in his hand away. The moment Xuan Ling took the jade slip, the jade slip turned into a stream of light and sank into his forehead.

While Xuan Ling was digesting the contents of the jade slip, Wang Ping took out another jade slip, looked at Xia Wenyi, and said, "This is the 'Secret Method of Transferring', which is also one of the secret methods of the Taiyan Sect. After you practice this secret method, you will have to bear the consequences of the Taiyan Sect branch on Shangyang Mountain. Are you willing?" Xia Wenyi also knelt down and said solemnly, "Disciple is willing. Thank you, Master, for giving me the secret method."

Wang Ping also threw out the jade slip when Xia Wenyi stood up, and then looked at Yu Lian and Yuan Yuan who were watching silently beside him. Yu Lian immediately flew over and shrank her body and landed on Wang Ping's shoulder, while Yuan Yuan flew to the side of the coffee table, raised her head and looked at Xia Wenyi and Xuan Ling.

"I'll find a partner for you two. This is my own sister. Are you willing?"

Yu Lian pointed at Yuan Yuan with her tail and said to Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi.

Before Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi spoke, Yuan Yuan pointed her tail at Xuan Ling and said in human language, "This man has been to Mingyuetan before. His consciousness is too quiet, like a pool of stagnant water, but it seems to contain danger. I didn't like him at the time."

In these years, many disciples of Qianmu Temple went to Mingyuetan, and many spirit snakes came to Qianmu Temple to play, but they never found the right one. As for sending unhatched eggs, no parents are willing to do so, because it requires parents to infuse part of their own power into the child's body in advance, otherwise if they let others hatch the eggs, they will definitely not have intelligence.

After Yuan Yuan finished commenting on Xuan Ling, she looked at Xia Wenyi again, "You have too many thoughts, and I don't have that much time to guide you. If you..."

"cough cough"

Yu Lian coughed lightly and said, "You have to think carefully. These two are your best choices at the moment. As long as you choose one, you can be promoted to the third level within ten years!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Yuan's pupils rolled and she stuck out her tongue, looking at Wang Ping who was quietly studying the chess manual, but she was soon hit by Yu Lian's tail, so she had to turn her head and look at Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi.

Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi straightened their backs immediately. Yuan Yuan looked at the two of them for a long time, but still had no choice. She had to turn her head to look at Yu Lian. Yu Lian did not indulge her and said directly: "If you don't choose, I will choose for you."

"Then I choose him!"

Yuanyuan's tail pointed at Xia Wenyi.

Xia Wenyi's face immediately lit up with joy, and then he heard Yuan Yuan raise her head and say, "Call me uncle first!"

"... "

"Call!"

"Uncle Master!"

Xia Wenyi is not pretentious either.

At this time, Liu Shuang and Shen Xiaozhu fell from the sky.

Wang Ping glanced at the two of them. Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi both stood up, stepped aside, clasped their fists and said, "Greetings, Senior Sisters."

Yu Lian quickly called out, "Xiao Zhu, come and sit down!"

When Shen Xiaozhu and Liu Shuang came over, Wang Ping looked at Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi and ordered: "You should leave first. Practice the secret techniques given to you well and don't humiliate the reputation of Qianmu Temple."

"Yes!"

When Xuan Ling and Xia Wenyi were about to leave, Yuan Yuan soared into the sky and shouted, "Wait for me." Although the spirit snake clan is very proud and will not easily make a contract with others, once they make a decision, they will not have any other ideas.

Yu Lian ignored her sister. She looked at Shen Xiaozhu and asked, "Where is your little black cat?"

"Go out and play, she has a wild temper."

As soon as Shen Xiaozhu finished speaking, Hu Qianqian's breath came from the sky, and then her figure appeared at the end of the path. She saluted Wang Ping from a distance, and then walked over, wagging her furry tail.

Wang Ping looked Shen Xiaozhu up and down and said, "Not bad, your cultivation is solid, your spiritual veins are stable, and your soul is just one step away from condensing your spirit. At this level, I'm afraid you've already stepped into the third realm."

He first praised her, then warned her seriously: "But the Taiyan Talisman is not something that can be mastered simply by practicing hard. You have to sense the principles of heaven and earth and resonate with the spirit of the locust tree."

"Disciple never dares to slack off!"

"Relax, don't tense yourself up~" Yu Lian said, "The Dao is ruthless, but it also has feelings. All practitioners have a glimmer of hope, let alone you. You are Qianmu Temple's direct disciple. Now the Dao of the world is in Qianmu Temple, so just do what you want."

Wang Ping put down a chess piece, pushed the black chess piece forward, and asked, "Who will play with me in the back game?"

The person who finally sat opposite Wang Ping was Hu Qianqian, whose chess and piano skills were also excellent, almost as good as Zuo Xuan's, and she was calmer, but sometimes she would suddenly jump out of the blue.

Soon after the chess game started, Liu Shuang talked about business: "The Taiyan monk from the southeastern sea area wants to hang a plaque of our Qianmu Temple."

Wang Ping understood the other party's plan in just a moment, and he responded casually: "You decide for yourself, if you can, then it's fine, if you can't, then it's not fine."

He is now high up, and what he sees and hears is different from Liu Shuang and the others, but those people are just chess pieces to him. After he finished speaking, he looked at Liu Shuang's puzzled expression and added: "If it suits your interests, do it. If it doesn't suit your interests, find a way to refuse it."

"Yes!"

Liu Shuang's heart skipped a beat when he saw Wang Ping's casual look, and then he said, "Disciple intends to let Zi Luan handle the affairs of the three seats of Qianmu Temple."

Wang Ping still responded casually: "If you think it's feasible, go ahead and do it."

After he finished speaking, he thought for a moment and reminded: "The world will eventually be divided after a long period of unity, and will eventually be united after a long period of division. You should stop interfering in the issues of the Datong royal family. If things cannot be done, support a new regime in the south and wait for the opportunity of 'unity'."

Upon hearing this, Liu Shuang said, "The Datong court can actually still be saved, as long as it undergoes a transformation."

Wang Ping looked up at Liu Shuang and said with a smile: "There is no need for us to move. Whoever wants to do it can do it."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned his head and looked to the north. At this moment he sensed a very strong aura of fire spirit. Someone had successfully advanced to the fourth level!

"It's Sujun's aura!"

Yu Lian reminded Wang Ping in his spiritual sea. (End of this chapter)