Chapter 74: The Dao Convention

Just as Mo Tiange washed her face that evening, she realized why the woman looked familiar.

With her disguise removed, she found a clear resemblance between her own face in the mirror and that of the woman’s.

The similarity lay in their brows, eyes, and face shapes. Not to mention face shapes, but their brows and eyes were extremely similar. If she hadn’t disguised herself, the similarities would’ve been noticed right away.

It was weird. She didn’t have any sisters and all of her close kin remained in the secular world. Could it be that some members of the Ye Clan stayed in Kunwu? But Second Uncle told her that he moved all members of the Ye Clan to the secular world. He even told them that unless they had spiritual roots, they were never to step into Kunwu again. That woman was obviously a mortal; she couldn’t have spiritual roots.

After standing in front of the mirror for a while, she still couldn’t figure it out. She returned to her bed to meditate. She figured that if she still wanted to get some answers, she could go back there tomorrow and ask the woman directly.

After she reached the peak stage of the Aura Refining realm, she felt a change in the spiritual aura inside her body.

She had been using two techniques. The first was the Art of Sunu and the other Green-Wood Art. Because she cultivated faster with the Art of Sunu, it became her main cultivation technique. Green-Wood Art was a secondary technique she used during fights of magical powers. However, these two techniques didn’t differ much in terms of the spiritual aura absorbed. Although she absorbed mostly wood element spiritual aura when she used Green-Wood Art, some other elemental spiritual auras were also inevitably absorbed. As for the Art of Sunu, it could absorb all kinds of spiritual aura. The spiritual aura absorbed by these two techniques then mingled together inside her body, so there was no difference in the end. But, after the completion of the Aura Refining realm, a dark, cold spiritual aura gradually appeared inside her body. The amount was minuscule, but it was different from the other spiritual auras inside her body. The two types of spiritual auras traveled along her meridians, neither mixing nor rejecting each other.

She hadn’t had a chance to inform Second Uncle about this matter. Nonetheless, it seemed harmless at the moment, so she could let it go for the time being.

Once she reached the peak stage of the Aura Refining realm, cultivating would no longer increase the amount of spiritual aura in her body; it would only refine the existing spiritual aura. Right now, cultivating had turned into a habit for her, so if she had nothing to do, she meditated and worked on her spiritual aura.

However, something surprising happened during a typical cultivation session one day.

The two separate spiritual auras inside both her dantian and meridians still moved along their own courses, but the amount of dark spiritual aura gradually increased. Upon discovering this phenomenon, she performed an experiment. In her dantian, she separated a small amount of the two kinds of spiritual aura which she then slowly pushed into contact with each other. Before long, she saw the results. The elemental spiritual aura decreased slightly while the dark spiritual aura increased slightly.

After confirming that this dark spiritual aura could erode her original spiritual aura, Mo Tiange stopped cultivating straightaway. Although she could control these two types of spiritual auras at present and there weren’t many differences between them, she still hadn’t figured out this dark spiritual aura. It’d be better for her to not act rashly.

After contemplating the matter for a while, she felt that this dark aura might be the Yin aura that appeared from cultivating with the Art of Sunu. However, since this wasn’t mentioned in the technical manual, she wasn’t sure.

Generally speaking, the sky was Yang and the earth was Yin; men were Yang and women were Yin. In fact, whether man or woman, they both had Yin and Yang forces in their bodies. It was just that men had more Yang and less Yin while women had more Yin and less Yang. Cultivation techniques in the cultivation world were derived from this principle.

Every cultivation technique specifically created for female cultivators favored Yin attributes. It was especially the case for the Art of Sunu, which could only be practiced by female cultivators with a Pure Yin Constitution. Nonetheless, she hadn’t heard that the spiritual aura from female cultivation differed from that of males, so she simply wasn’t sure whether this was Yin aura or not.

The night passed very quickly.

Mo Tiange tidied up her belongings before she went out.

This day marked the beginning of the Dao Convention in the market square. On the same day each month, cultivators from the surrounding areas flocked here. Most of them were Aura Refining cultivators who yearned to enter the Tiandao Sect, although there were also occasionally Foundation Building cultivators who came to have Dao discussions with cultivators from the Tiandao Sect.

Mo Tiange already asked about the location of the convention. She bypassed several paths before walking directly towards a common-looking little courtyard.

The gate to the small courtyard was open with two low-level cultivators guarding it. Once in a while, people entered the courtyard. They handed over some spirit stones and received identity tablets in exchange.

Mo Tiange followed behind a group of people. She paid two spirit stones and received a wooden tablet which was engraved with numbers before she entered the courtyard herself. Shortly after, she passed the main sitting room. Someone from the group in front of her took the lead, walking into a room then towards a staircase that led underground. After walking for a while and making several twist and turns, they finally arrived at a hall.

This hall was enormous and wasn’t much smaller than the preaching temple at the Yunwu Sect. At the very least, it could accommodate a thousand people. At the innermost part of the hall, there was a high platform on which several praying mats were arranged. Off the platform, various kinds of desks, chairs and praying mats were placed.

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The receptionist told her that if she paid an additional spirit stone, she would get the privilege of sitting on a chair. Back then, Mo Tiange didn’t probe any further and simply paid the admission fee, so now, she was only able to sit on a praying mat. In any case, since she didn’t really care about her seat, she immediately looked for a corner a good distance away from the platform and sat down. After she sat, she closed her eyes to rest.

Most people were sitting on the praying mats as two additional spirit stones each month was a lot for individual cultivators. Even ordinary Aura Refining disciples in the Yunwu Sect only got five spirit stones a month.

People entered the convention hall continuously. As time passed by, the number of people in the hall gradually increased.

When the seats in the hall were almost completely filled, Mo Tiange finally opened her eyes to observe her surroundings. The people present were numerous; only 20% of the seats were empty at the moment. Among all these people, some were individual cultivators dressed in different varieties of clothing, some were disciples of small cultivation groups wearing their groups’ uniforms, and some were even members of cultivation clans with their respective entourages.

Apparently, this Dao Convention was very popular. Not only did it attract individual cultivators, but even members of cultivation groups and clans also came. This observation actually raised Mo Tiange’s expectations of this Dao Convention.

There were still some people outside waiting to enter the hall. It was only after the seats in the ninth row were filled that the flow of people gradually stopped.

After fifteen minutes, the door of the hall closed while the small door at the innermost part of the hall opened. Several Aura Refining cultivators led a Foundation Building cultivator to the platform.

At the same time, the Aura Refining cultivators in the hall stood up one after another to make their greetings. Upon seeing this, Mo Tiange followed suit.

This Foundation Building cultivator was a man who looked about thirty years old. He was wearing a light purple Daoist robe with a white lining. He looked very calm and seemed to have a rather sage-like aura.

Mo Tiange couldn’t detect what stage of the Foundation Building realm this cultivator was in. After all, low-level cultivators, unless they were cultivating with some kind of secret technique, wouldn’t be able to sense the specific cultivation level of high-level cultivators. However, Foundation Building cultivators had a lifespan of 300-400 years. This cultivator looked like he was in his thirties. Presumably, his real age hadn’t yet reached a hundred years old. According to the average age of Foundation Building cultivators, he could indeed be considered very young.

This Foundation Building cultivator sat on a praying mat in the middle of the platform. He swept his gaze over the audience before saying, “Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, I’m Wen Xiangdao of Tiandao Sect, and today, I’m going to give a sermon to everyone. Fellow Daoists who wish to discuss Dao are also welcome.” The man paused for a moment then continued to say, “I think everyone should already be somewhat acquainted with cultivation experience and knowledge. Today, I wish to tell everyone about my experiences in building my foundation.”

Mo Tiange was intrigued once she heard this. At first, she was only mildly interested in this market square Dao Convention. She never expected the topic to be on foundation-building insights. This topic was precisely what she wanted to listen to the most at the moment.

When it came to foundation-building insights, martial uncles in Yunwu Sect also talked to Aura Refining disciples who were on the verge of breaking through to the Foundation Building realm like her, but she didn’t know how that knowledge compared to what a Foundation Building cultivator from Tiandao Sect could provide.

She wasn’t the only one who felt excited; others were even more excited than her. It was very rare for individual cultivators to be able to access information like this. As for members of cultivation clans and disciples of small cultivation groups, although they did have more resources, the person preaching now was a cultivator from the Tiandao Sect, which was the best cultivation group in the Celestial Pole. His sermon was definitely different from what elders from their divisions had to offer.

Wen Xiangdao paused, seemingly pondering how to begin. After a short while, he slowly began to speak. “I presume everyone here already knows how Aura Refining cultivators build their foundation. First, they cultivate until they reach the consummation of the Aura Refining realm. Next, they take Foundation-Building Pills. After that is about a year of Closed Door Meditation. Those who succeed advance to the Foundation Building realm. Those who fail stay in the Aura Refining realm, but if their luck is quite good, they might advance into the eleventh layer of the Aura Refining realm. Right now, I’ll talk to everyone about my experience in building my foundation and the process I went through.”

“I’m endowed with three spiritual roots, but people like me are very common in Tiandao Sect. The cultivation technique I use is a very general five elements cultivation technique. I was lucky and managed to obtain a Foundation-Building Pill. In the end, I succeeded in building my foundation on my first attempt.”

“I think… many of you are just as ordinary as me. The chance of ordinary people in building their foundation is very small, but they usually like to take chances, wishing that they would be blessed with some luck and can enter the Foundation Building realm. However, what I want to tell all of you is that building your foundation doesn’t rely solely on luck.”

“As everyone already knows, spiritual roots affect the speed of spiritual aura absorption, thus affecting the result of cultivation and consequently the odds of advancing to the next realm. The disposition of people with fewer spiritual roots is much more suitable to cultivate compared with people with many spiritual roots. Some people can break through to the next realm effortlessly, while others may have to struggle painstakingly.”

“Naturally, all of you better abandon the delusion that your spiritual roots don’t affect your foundation-building; it is 100% delusion. However, if you get enough patience, you can still narrow the gap between yourselves and people with exceptional spiritual roots.”

“After reaching the consummation of the Aura Refining realm, most cultivators tend to feel anxious and want to immediately advance to the next realm. In fact, at that point, there are several factors that will affect the success rate of foundation-building. The first one is the density of your spiritual aura.”

Even Mo Tiange was surprised by his last sentence.  The density of spiritual aura? What does that mean?

She had never heard this before. Second Uncle only told her that it would be hard for her to succeed in building her foundation if she was too time-pressed, but he never mentioned the reason. She didn’t know if this theory was something specific to Tiandao Sect, but right now, she was attentively recording everything onto a jade slip, planning to relay it to Second Uncle when she went back. She would let him determine whether the content was correct or not.

Wen Xiangdao talked continuously for an hour to explain this point completely. He then stopped for a moment before starting to talk about the next part.

“In addition, there’s something else I want to tell everyone. You must never ignore your mental state just because the Inner Demon only appears in the Core Formation realm. Although it’s true that the Inner Demon won’t appear when you build your foundation, your mental state affects your behavior and confidence. Never neglect your mental state; people with a steady mental state can carry things out properly once they start building their foundation and can calmly resolve problems they run into. Thus, from another point of view, it could be said that paying attention to your mental state can increase your odds of successfully building your foundation…”