Primordial Era: Refusing Hongjun's path to sainthood, I attained the Dao of Hunyuan.

Chapter 117 Golden Core

And so, Xuanhuang settled in the Daoist temple in the chaos beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens. In this chaos beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, he could look down on the entire primordial universe. His divine sense enveloped heaven and earth and fell into the heaven and earth.

Then all the actions of all living beings in the world, whether they reproduce and thrive, fight and kill, engage in all kinds of deceit and treachery, or live a life of great mortals, all fall into the observation of Xuanhuang.

Xuanhuang even entrusted his divine thoughts to all living beings. His divine thoughts became one with those of all living beings, and all the things that living beings did were as if he himself had experienced them.

This is a new cultivation method that Xuanhuang has gradually developed. Some of it draws on Laozi's philosophy of non-action, while others draw on the Western method of enlightenment through dreams.

Furthermore, by combining this with his own Daoist methods, he became increasingly powerful. Initially, he only experimented in the Xuanhuang Heaven, but now he can descend into the primordial wilderness to observe all living beings and comprehend the myriad Daos contained within the heavens and earth that are constantly evolving and changing.

His understanding of Tai Chi is constantly improving, and his cultivation is increasing day by day.

In a daze, tens of thousands of years passed. On this day, Xuanhuang suddenly felt a change in the heavens and opened his eyes.

His gaze was calm yet profound. He suddenly murmured to himself, "The secrets of heaven have been revealed; all the sages are about to attain enlightenment."

Not only Xuanhuang, but also on the other side of the Thirty-Three Heavens, Nuwa sensed the heavenly secrets and knew that the saints were about to attain enlightenment.

In the Kunlun Mountains, Laozi had been in seclusion in an attempt to unite the Three Corpses, but he could not succeed in this step. In the end, he stopped at severing the Three Corpses and failed to unite them.

However, Lao Tzu's cultivation had improved a lot. After failing to merge the three corpses for a long time, he deduced the secrets of heaven and also comprehended his own opportunity to become a saint.

Since it's impossible to achieve enlightenment through the unification of the three corpses, the only option is to first accumulate merit and attain sainthood. Otherwise, if others achieve sainthood before you, you'll be the one who suffers.

So, on this day, Lao Tzu left the pass, departed from Kunlun Mountain, and headed towards the human race.

In recent years, the human race has developed rapidly in the prehistoric world. With its strong reproductive capacity and the martial arts methods created for them by Xuanhuang, it has gradually risen to prominence in the prehistoric world.

However, when Nuwa created humans from clay, the first generation of humans all possessed innate Dao bodies, allowing them to cultivate extremely quickly. Unfortunately, by the second and third generations, as the innate Dao bodies were passed down through generations, their physical strength gradually deteriorated.

The human race that later proliferated, although still in the form of the Dao, was only in appearance; their inner nature was no longer that of the original.

Even if there are martial arts methods to cultivate, not everyone can enter the Dao through martial arts and cultivate to become an immortal.

For most humans, practicing martial arts only serves to improve their physical health.

Besides, although humans have a strong reproductive capacity, there are far more races in the prehistoric world that can reproduce more than humans.

Moreover, various innate races are often accompanied by bloodline supernatural abilities, which are many times more powerful than those of humans.

Fortunately, the martial arts passed down from Xuanhuang have enabled the emergence of a number of powerful individuals among the human race; otherwise, the human race would have had difficulty surviving in the prehistoric world.

Not to mention it has flourished and developed to its current scale.

The moment Lao Tzu arrived in the human race and saw them, he fully understood his destiny to become a saint.

However, Lao Tzu was not in a hurry to establish a religion. Instead, he spent several hundred years gaining enlightenment among the human race. He even took a human as his disciple, named Xuan Du, who would later become the Grand Master Xuan Du.

Lao Tzu's only direct disciple.

Lao Tzu spent hundreds of years contemplating and creating a Daoist system for humanity. He put a great deal of effort into this system.

He incorporated all his own insights into it, including alchemy techniques, the Dao of Forgetfulness, and even the practice of severing the three corpses.

The final synthesis of this Daoist method is called the Golden Elixir Dao.

This Golden Elixir Path further divides the key to cultivation into four parts: first, refining essence into qi; second, refining qi into spirit; third, refining spirit into emptiness; and fourth, refining emptiness into the Dao.

However, even so, the Golden Elixir Path is incomplete; the detailed cultivation method only leads to the attainment of immortality.

Whether Lao Tzu did this intentionally or not is unknown, but it has something in common with the concept of Xuanhuang.

Even so, the Golden Core Path is still powerful, and it is divided into three levels.

Those of lower level merely acquire magical power and supernatural abilities, but they must refine their essence, energy, and spirit, and even borrow various rare and precious materials to form a golden core within their bodies. Although their magical power and supernatural abilities are strong, it is quite difficult for them to even become immortals, let alone cultivate true great supernatural powers.

Those who progress to the middle level can glimpse some of the Great Dao. This involves using Heaven and Earth as the cauldron, the sun and moon as water and fire, Yin and Yang as the transformative mechanism, lead, mercury, silver, sand, and earth as the Five Elements, temperament as the dragon and tiger, and thought as the true seed. Refining thought with the mind is the control of the fire; calming thought is nourishing the fire; containing light is solidifying the foundation; subduing inner demons is the battle; body, mind, and intention are the three essentials; the Heavenly Heart is the mysterious gate; and the return of emotion to nature is the completion of the elixir. Mastering this method can prolong life and lead to immortality.

But the most powerful and superior path is to use the Great Void as the cauldron, the Taiji as the furnace, purity as the foundation of the elixir, non-action as the dantian, nature and life as lead and mercury, concentration and wisdom as water and fire, suppressing desires and punishing anger as the interaction of water and fire, the unity of nature and emotion as the combination of metal and wood, cleansing the mind and purifying thoughts as bathing, preserving sincerity and fixing the will as solidification, precepts, concentration, and wisdom as the three essentials, the center as the mysterious gate, understanding the mind as the verification, seeing one's nature as condensation, the three elements merging into one as the sacred embryo, nature and life becoming one as the completion of the elixir, having a body outside the body as the rebirth, and breaking through the void as the attainment of the ultimate goal.

This method is the essence of Lao Tzu's Tao. If one can cultivate it, one will achieve perfection in both body and spirit, and be able to unite with the Tao.

Lao Tzu spread this method to the human race and preached to them for hundreds of years, yet no one was able to comprehend this supreme Golden Elixir Dao.

Even among those who have reached the intermediate level of the Golden Elixir Path, the number of practitioners is still small.

However, regardless of the circumstances, Lao Tzu's creation of the Golden Elixir Dao method laid the foundation for the cultivation path of the human race.

Compared to the martial arts methods of Xuanhuang, this seems more authentic. After all, in the prehistoric world today, the most mainstream cultivation system is still the Immortal Path.

Although martial arts can lead to enlightenment and even immortality, it is not the right path.

Lao Tzu spread the method of the Golden Elixir Dao throughout the human race. Although he did not establish a religion, the merits of the Heavenly Dao had already begun to descend.

More and more merits accumulated on Lao Tzu, and behind his head, a golden wheel of merit gradually formed, radiating an increasingly brilliant light.

Various extraordinary phenomena also appeared one after another, further highlighting Lao Tzu's sacred and solemn aura.

Upon seeing this scene, countless humans knelt down in worship.

With a wave of his hand, Lao Tzu transformed the Tai Chi diagram into a white jade bridge, and he led Xuan Du onto this bridge.

Then he shouted to the heavens: "Heaven above, I am the eldest disciple of the Xuanmen under Hongjun, the Taiqing Laozi who was transformed from the primordial spirit of Pangu. Today I establish the Human Sect here, create the Golden Elixir Great Dao, and enlighten the human race."

"I use the supreme innate treasure, the Taiji Diagram, to suppress the destiny of the Human Sect. The Human Sect shall be established!" With Laozi's deep shout, the heavens and earth resounded with a thunderous roar.

Centered on Lao Tzu, countless extraordinary phenomena occurred, creating a lively scene. Moreover, even more merits descended upon Lao Tzu's head.

Lao Tzu followed the will of Heaven and established human teachings, which earned the approval of Heaven, hence the immense merit bestowed upon him.

Moreover, as the merits of the Heavenly Dao increased, the golden wheel of merit behind Lao Tzu's head grew larger and larger.

At this moment, the creation merit hidden deep within Lao Tzu's primordial spirit finally began to stir.

(End of this chapter)