Chapter 345: Buddhism and Daoism

“Predecessor Mo, how old are you exactly?”

Mo Tiange was adjusting her breath with legs crossed. Lu Qiongying, the Lu Family’s Young Lady, chinned up and looked at her then suddenly asked that.

Mo Tiange opened her eyes and smiled faintly. “Why do you ask this?”

Lu Qiongying tilted her head and looked quite confused. “I think you look young, predecessor, and you don’t look like you’ve taken Look-Preserving Pills. But grandfather said you’re already in the late stage of Foundation Building realm, and you might be older than him…”

This Young Lady was actually saying something like this aloud—was she too innocent and pure?

Mo Tiange glanced at her and said, “You’re quite discerning. So how do you tell whether others have taken Look-Preserving Pills or not?”

Lu Qiongying scratched her own head with a little embarrassment. “Predecessor, please take no offense. I see my aunts in daily life and I’ve always found their appearances looked young, but their behaviors were unnatural… But you don’t look like them at all!”

Of course, Mo Tiange thought, I’m technically considered young from the perspective of a Core Formation cultivator’s lifespan.

Then she smiled and said, “Actually, I’ve indeed taken Look-Preserving Pills and I’m over a hundred years old. It’s just that I haven’t passed half of my lifespan, so you can’t tell.”

“Oh, I see…” Lu Qiongying lost interest, but then she turned her eyes and began to ask cheerfully, “Predecessor, have you been to a lot of places? Have you seen anything interesting?”

Mo Tiange paused and thought for a moment then said, “When I was young, I followed my uncle to wander around. Although I’ve been to many places, I was at low cultivation level and was focused on earning enough spirit stones to cultivate every day, so how could anything be interesting? At that time, if I could cultivate steadily and have enough spirit stones and medicinal pills, I would be very satisfied.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Qiongying blinked and said, “Predecessor, you lived such a tough life before…”

“Is that considered tough? My uncle was at least a Foundation Building cultivator, and he and I were able to settle down somewhere, which was quite good at that time. There were a lot of young cultivators which had a hard time even renting a cave with spiritual aura…” Speaking of this, Mo Tiange recalled a lot of injustices she endured when following her Second Uncle those years, and she was a little stunned. Finally, she sighed and said, “Life is tough for individual cultivators…”

She hadn’t thought about these things for a long time. Now she had become a senior and distinguished cultivator. She was no longer the small cultivator who struggled at the bottom of the cultivation community. As she recalled, she began to miss her Second Uncle more and more. If Second Uncle was alive today, how nice would that be?

After pulling back from the memories, Mo Tiange glanced at the young girl and suddenly smiled. She then said slowly, “I know what your grandfather sent you to do, and it’s too hard for a young, unsophisticated girl like you to do this. Just to tell you the truth, if I wanted to do any harm to your Lu Family, with my cultivation level, I wouldn’t need to act falsely. Of course, I do intend to gain something by becoming friends with you. Since I’ve made it clear, let’s just be frank.”

Lu Qiongying was quite surprised to see Mo Tiange’s calm eyes had a hidden sharp light. Indeed, her grandfather told her to come and determine whether this Predecessor Mo held any other intentions. If not, she could take the chance to ask Predecessor Mo to teach her something, but if so, Lu Family must be prepared.

She was clever since childhood and had always been loved by the family. She thought that if she pretended to be innocent, it should be very easy to deceive this predecessor, but she hadn’t considered that she was only eighteen years old—how could she outsmart this predecessor who had lived for hundreds of years? She was a little regretful now. If the predecessor really harbored some bad intentions, how could she save herself while only being in the seventh layer of the Aura Refining realm?

“Pre… Predecessor…”

Mo Tiange smiled and was as gentle as she was earlier. “Don’t be afraid; I don’t have any bad intentions for your Lu Family. I just wanted to ask some things. If you answer me well, I will leave.”

“Predecessor!” Upon hearing this, Lu Qiongying was a little anxious. Her grandfather said if the predecessor meant no harm, she had to make her stay. After all, it was rare for them to encounter a cultivator in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm!

Mo Tiange was unmoved and raised her hand to stop her then continued: “You only need to answer me well, and if I’m satisfied, I’ll give you something in return.”

Lu Qiongying swallowed her following words immediately. She was anxious, but she also knew that she couldn’t offend the predecessor. Besides, the predecessor said she’d obtain something in return…

“Predecessor, what do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything I know.” Now Lu Qiongying behaved respectfully like a cultivator and dropped the childish tone she adopted earlier.

Mo Tiange thought she was more comfortable this way, so she smiled and said gently, “Tell me about the general situation of Yunzhong.”

A trace of surprise flashed across Lu Qiongying’s eyes. Clearly, she didn’t understand what was going on, but she answered honestly, “Predecessor Mo, which aspect do you want to know?”

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“About schools and sects, spirit veins, countries… everything,” Mo Tiange said. “Tell me as much as you know, and the more you speak, the more rewards I will give you.” As she said this, Mo Tiange took out a jade bottle from her Qiankun Bag and tossed it over to Lu Qiongying.

Lu Qiongying took it and opened it. It was a full bottle of Aura-Converging Pills, containing a total of thirty five pills.

She was very happy. Even though she was the most favored member of the younger generation in the Lu Family, she normally only took Aura-Nourishing Pills. She could only get a small bottle of Aura-Converging Pills each year, about five to six pills. This Predecessor Mo was so generous!

Upon thinking this, she acted even more respectfully. “Yes.”

Lu Qiongying was a clever girl. She guessed Mo Tiange wasn’t from Yunzhong and began to introduce to her Yunzhong’s different regions, then she talked about the sects gradually.

Mo Tiange just listened quietly.

Yunzhong was large and extended in all directions, and it also contained many countries. However, there were only three big states: Eastern Tang State, Southern Zhou State and Northern Lin State, which occupied most of the land of Yunzhong. Different from the Celestial Pole, these three states were supported by cultivation sects. The Eastern Tang State and Southern Zhou State were the territory of the Righteous side, while Northern Lin State was the territory of the Devil.

Ordinarily, these three states were at peace with each other. After all, there was no concept like the “righteous path and evil path stand against each other” like in Yunzhong. No matter whether it was the righteous path or the evil path, the cultivators took independent principles of life. They only fought when there was a dispute of interest.

Eastern Tang State was the largest of the three and mostly Dao cultivators lived there. There were also numerous mid- and small-sized schools and sects. The sects that were considered big included the following five: Jiuyan Sect, Danxia Sect, Jingxu School, Pufa School, and Wuxing Valley.

Among the five schools and sects, Jiuyan Sect was the most powerful. It was said that there were nine disciples under its creator Grandmaster. These nine disciples were very outstanding and jointly established the sect. They respected their Master as the founder Grandmaster, so the sect was called Jiuyan Sect.

Originally, Danxia Sect was second only to Jiuyan Sect and was also a big school, but in recent years, it had declined. Among the five schools and sects, it was only a little stronger than Wuxing Valley.

Jingxu School and Pufa School were equally powerful, but because Jingxu School’s founder Grandmaster was a female, it had more female disciples within the sect.

The last Wuxing Valley was a sect that concentrated on array formations. It was said that their disciples were all good in array formations, but this kind of sect that paid much attention to vice businesses wasn’t very prosperous, so Wuxing Valley was the weakest of the five schools. However, in spite of this, the other sects didn’t dare to bully them. After all, the greatest protection barrier for each sect was a mountain defending array formation. If they offended Wuxing Valley, they might be in trouble when in a fight.

Southern Zhou State was ruled by Confucianism cultivators and their state religion was controlled by Buddhism cultivators. Most of Southern Zhou State’s common people believed in Buddhism, and the state was filled with buddhist temples. However, Confucianism cultivators controlled the power of the country and educated people in academies. Because Confucianism and Buddhism cultivators had different requirements and their doctrines had something in common, they were quite harmonious with each other.

Mo Tiange was very curious about this. She knew there were Buddhism cultivators elsewhere, but she never saw any in the Celestial Pole. So at this time, she inevitably asked a little more. Unfortunately, Lu Qiongying had never traveled, and South Pole Island was far away from the mainland, so she didn’t know much about Buddhism cultivators and sects either.

But even so, Lu Qiongying roughly knew about Buddhism cultivators since they were quite commonly seen in Yunzhong.

The so-called Buddha, known for high consciousness, was said to be a sect handed down from the Distant Past era. They paid attention to cause and effect, strictly disciplined themselves, and believed that all evil thoughts came from the heart. One needed to cut off all human desires so as to cultivate to Buddha.

This made Mo Tiange feel a little strange. She could naturally understand the so-called cause and effect, and there was also such content in the Dao Sutra for Dao cultivators, but it wasn’t taken as seriously as Buddhism cultivators.

The Buddhism cultivators pursued the beliefs that everything was changeable, there was no self in all dharmas, and nirvana in silence. “Everything changeable” meant that everything in the world was variable; “no self in all dharmas” required Buddhism cultivators to let go of their obsessions and find their true self; and “nirvana in silence” was the final destination of Buddhism cultivators’ pursuit, who would neither live nor die, to witness eternal life.

Mo Tiange comprehended this gradually in her heart and was deeply aware that there was a commonality between the Buddhism cultivators and the Dao cultivators, such as the principles of cause and effect, everything was changeable, and abandoning obsession. On the other hand, the Buddhism cultivators’ doctrine was very different from Dao cultivators’.

According to the Dao scriptures, heaven and earth were indifferent to everything. That was to say, heaven and earth were indifferent to benevolence and malevolence; everything was born and died by itself. Therefore, Dao cultivators in the Celestial Pole never had the concept of benevolence. The road to immortality was a road full of thorns. If they wanted to succeed, they had to kill a way out. They needed to kill devil cultivators, kill demonic beasts, and even kill their own kind. According to Lu Qiongying, the Dao cultivators in Yunzhong weren’t different from those in the Celestial Pole.

However, this wasn’t the case with Buddhism cultivators. Instead, they cultivated their minds and hearts and rarely harbored killing intentions. They only killed when they had to.

Therefore, in Yunzhong, Buddhism cultivators above the Core Formation realm were rarely trapped in the state of mind, and their advancement had always been easier than Dao cultivators. However, their weakness was that their cultivation speed was too slow. For Dao cultivators, there would be one Foundation Building cultivator among a hundred cultivators, but for Buddhism cultivators, only one Foundation Building cultivator was produced from several hundreds of them.

Upon hearing this, Mo Tiange fell into a deep meditation. She felt as if she had caught a key point.

There were contradictions in the teachings for both Dao and Buddhism cultivators, but there were fewer in that of Buddhism cultivators, or at least they could justify themselves, while Dao cultivators made no sense at all on some points.

Immortality cultivation and heart cultivation—this was what Dao cultivators knew from the time they set foot on the path to immortality, but why did they act like demonic beasts, full of bloody fighting?