Chapter 519: Keep to oneself

“The other side of the painting?” Li Qi couldn’t help but look back.

“In other words, the back of the painting is blocking the outside of the gourd-shaped beam, preventing others from entering?”

“Why is this?”

“Senior, do you mean that no one is allowed to come to the gourd-shaped beam now?” Li Qi asked.

“It’s not that they’re not allowed, it’s that too many people come, and it’s annoying, so I put a cover over it. It’s open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. This way, half of the unlucky ones are filtered out, and with fewer people, everyone can still sit down. Otherwise, the whole place will be packed, and the aftermath of a fight might even kill a few people, which would be hard to clean up,” the Old Taoist waved his hand and said casually.

“Unlucky ones… you mean, those who were blocked?” Li Qi was a little surprised.

“If they’re blocked, then they’re blocked. It means their luck isn’t good. It’s not like I didn’t leave them a way out. If they can’t come, it means their fate isn’t deep enough. But you two, you passed through the back of the paper into the painting. That’s something. How did you do it?” the Old Taoist asked with a smile.

Facing the barrier set up by a Third-Rank, Li Qi and his group were able to unknowingly pass through, even entering the other party’s painting, which was indeed incredible.

“Senior just said that luck was bad and fate was not deep enough. Perhaps the reason we were able to pass through is that our fate has arrived,” Li Qi replied.

This answer made the Old Taoist pause for a moment.

Then, he burst into laughter: “Hahahahaha! Indeed, indeed. Since you can enter, then fate has arrived. Wonderful, wonderful. This humble Taoist, Lu Jian, greets you two young friends. Since we are fated, how about we travel together?”

Facing a Senior who was likely a Third-Rank, Li Qi naturally couldn’t say anything disrespectful, so he said, “Then it would be disrespectful not to comply. Please, Senior Lu Jian, go ahead.”

“No need to call me Senior. Since you two young friends are fated, you are friends. You can just call me by my name. If you feel it’s disrespectful, then call me Old Brother!” The Taoist named Lu Jian was very uninhibited. He waved his Taoist robe and walked out of the thatched hut.

Li Qi pulled Shen Shuibi and quickly followed. Although the old horse couldn’t change its size, it carefully twisted its body, not daring to damage anything, and squeezed out of the thatched hut’s doorway little by little.

As soon as it came out of the thatched hut, the old horse felt the effect of the Town Dragon Formation disappear, so it quickly shrunk into a loach and hid in Li Qi’s collar.

This place, the gourd-shaped beam, is so dangerous!

There’s even a Town Dragon Formation! Why would you put a Town Dragon Formation in a house?!

Li Qi, however, knew the answer to this question.

Because when Li Qi was in the room, he also felt his cultivation stagnate, and even Shen Shuibi had this feeling.

That thatched hut did not contain a Town Dragon Formation, but a formation that suppressed all things! Including, but not limited to, Dragons.

Anything that entered would be slowed down. If one’s cultivation was too low, they would be like the old horse, having all their Divine Abilities suppressed, unable even to change size.

As the old horse shivered, Li Qi followed Lu Jian out.

What greeted their eyes was the true gourd-shaped beam.

Uh…

Isn’t the true gourd-shaped beam just a desolate island?

However, this desolate island had quite a lot of people: Taoists, Taoist children, and Anomolus Spirits, various demon dragons from the East Sea, Shamanes, monks, practitioners of the Hundred Arts of Humanity, Martial Artists, Cultivators of the Dao of Reason, and so on, so many, many people.

Looking around, there were at least a million!

With so many people, it’s no wonder Lu Jian wanted to allow passage on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and prohibit it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. If it wasn’t controlled, the gourd-shaped beam might truly be packed, and even Penglai might be full of people. If a fight broke out then, it’s estimated that no one in the Daoist Sect would be willing to help clean up the aftermath, and it might really shake a few people to death.

As for the scenery of the gourd-shaped beam… it was indeed beautiful, but this beauty, to be frank, was just good mountains, good water, and good scenery. It was much, much better than ordinary places, and it also had that unique cinematic filter-like effect of the ‘Daoist Sect’, but…

It was just so-so.

How good could ordinary mountains and rivers be? Compared to places in the human world where even the sewers and floor tiles of an entire city were made of Spiritual Artifacts, the sense of shock was simply too weak.

Moreover, the great source of heaven and earth was also very ordinary, unlike Shaman God Mountain where one could feel the majestic pressure of heaven and earth and all sorts of Anomolus Spirits, poisonous insects, and other products born from it at all times.

The gourd-shaped beam, one of the Three Islands, was really very ordinary, huh…

However, after coming out of the thatched hut, Li Qi had already deeply understood the methods of the Daoist Sect’s high-rank mighty figures, so he already had reverence in his heart and was not too disappointed.

Just as Li Qi had once said to Liu Canzhi—

Whether it’s magnificent, terrifying, solemn, or simple, it’s all just a style of decoration and doesn’t represent the essence.

Presumably, this was just the gourd-shaped beam’s style of decoration, and it wasn’t strange. It’s just that this decoration was a bit simple, similar to how everyone else had laid floor tiles, painted walls, and applied caulk, but the Daoist Sect’s side was still a roughcast house.

A roughcast house isn’t uninhabitable, it’s just a bit too shabby.

But these Taoists probably didn’t care.

For example, the thatched hut just now was a real thatched hut, not some Spiritual Artifact palace pretending to be a thatched hut. It was a dilapidated thing made of thatch. Even the old horse didn’t dare to mess with it, afraid of breaking it apart and letting those true treasures fall to the ground.

So, the appearance of the gourd-shaped beam was understandable.

Once outside, Shen Shuibi spoke less because there were too many people, and her social anxiety flared up. She hid behind Li Qi, almost shrinking back to her original form.

Li Qi, on the other hand, was full of excitement. He said to Lu Jian, familiar and at ease, “Old Brother Lu, how does one get from this gourd-shaped beam to Penglai?”

“You want to go to Penglai? Over there, it’s a self-service Immortal Path. Each flash means someone has left.” Lu Jian pointed to another mountain, which was constantly flashing with light.

“It’s just placed there like that?” Li Qi was a little surprised.

“Otherwise? It can’t be broken, and it’s quite convenient,” Lu Jian said with a smile.

“This… then who built it? The Golden Dais of Tang Nation was built by gathering the strength of the whole country, so every large city can have a Golden Dais. Was this one on the gourd-shaped beam also built by everyone working together?” Li Qi asked curiously.

He was truly curious.

Whether it was the Human Dao or Shaman Dao, there was a clear center that could rally everyone’s strength and concentrate efforts to get things done.

But the Daoist Sect’s looseness was simply astonishing. Penglai obviously couldn’t command other branches, for example, Shen Shuibi’s Mount Luofu had no connection to Penglai at all. They didn’t know each other. When Mount Luofu was in trouble, Penglai didn’t even bat an eye.

Under such circumstances, without collective effort, who built the Immortal Path of the gourd-shaped beam?

“Certainly not. If it were me, I would usually go to the Human Dao side and use their Golden Dais to travel. However, a True Immortal said, ‘What others have, I must also have,’ so he built this Immortal Path. This is the only one, and he’s not responsible for its maintenance,” Lu Jian replied. “But it’s really useful, so the subsequent maintenance work was handed over to the people who need to use this thing. If you need to use it later, remember to also be responsible for repairing it, injecting some energy, and doing good maintenance. After all, you use it, you clean it up, understand?”

“That is natural, I understand.” Li Qi nodded.

Indeed, it truly fit the image of the Daoist Sect.

If you use it, you clean it up.

If you want to do something, do it yourself, and bear the consequences yourself.

No one will control you, and no one will restrict you. Everyone does what they want to do and makes their own friends.

The Ninth Blessed Land went to practice martial arts, the Seventh Grotto-Heaven Mount Luofu closed its doors for self-cultivation, the Talisman school leaned towards the Divine Dao, the founding Old Ancestor of the Maoshan Sect even possessed the blood of a True Dragon and had long become a True Dragon, and was very close to the East Sea. The Outer Elixir schools were almost like family with the Dao of Reason, and the Manifested Daoist Faction went to the human world to become noble officials.

Everyone did their own thing. Except for the ultimate goal, which is “eternal life and freedom,” everything else was completely unrelated, and they didn’t even know each other.

They truly upheld the principle of “I cultivate my own Dao, and it has nothing to do with you.”

Li Qi continued to ask questions, and Lu Jian smiled and continued to answer, pointing the way for Li Qi and telling him some interesting anecdotes about the gourd-shaped beam.

Li Qi still wanted to say a few more words to his newly befriended Old Brother Lu Jian, but the other party seemed to have lost interest. That bit of fate from before seemed to be a consumable, and once it was used up, Li Qi suddenly realized, without knowing it, that the other party had disappeared.

It wasn’t a sudden disappearance, but rather like chatting on social media. They were chatting happily, but after a while, his avatar turned gray.

In the mountain path, Li Qi scratched his head and said, somewhat uncertainly, “Uh… did I make him unhappy?”

With no one else around, Shen Shuibi finally had the courage to speak. She took Li Qi’s hand and said, “This might be a case of leaving when the mood strikes and returning when the mood fades. He became interested because he saw us, and now that his interest is gone, he naturally left.”

“That truly is… carefree.” Li Qi shook his head: “It’s very much the style of someone from the Daoist Sect.” He sighed.

As he thought this, Li Qi suddenly had a jolt.

Wait, isn’t this very dangerous?

He immediately looked at Shen Shuibi and said worriedly, “If people of the Daoist Sect are truly like this, you won’t one day ‘return when your interest in me fades,’ will you?”

Upon hearing this, Shen Shuibi pinched Li Qi, and said angrily, “We and Senior Lu Jian are merely nodding acquaintances, but you and I share life and death, and walk the Dao together. Are you saying this to me now?”

Apparently, one pinch wasn’t enough to satisfy her, so she leaned on Li Qi’s shoulder and bit him, leaving a tooth mark.

Afterward, she directly shrunk back to her original form, turning into a rabbit wearing a skirt, constantly emitting Talismans, with her ears drooping over her eyes, no longer paying attention to Li Qi.

Li Qi held the rabbit in his arms and quickly tried to comfort her, but she kept her ears drooped and refused to speak a word.

The old horse couldn’t help but snicker from inside the collar, but its laughter was a bit too loud and was heard by Li Qi, who pulled it out and gave it a beating.

You little brat, if I can’t beat the rabbit, can’t I beat you?

Amidst their playful antics, the group finally arrived at the ‘Immortal Path’.

Li Qi used to call it the gourd-shaped beam, but now he knew that this mode of travel for the Daoist Sect was called the Immortal Path, which sounded quite nice.

He held Shen Shuibi and observed the operation of the Immortal Path, watching one traveler after another pass through the Immortal Path to their desired destination.

Li Qi watched for a full hour. The old horse even fell asleep on his shoulder, completely unable to understand why Li Qi was so idle, watching people come and go at the station entrance.

But Li Qi saw many things that allowed him to think deeply.

He discovered that activating the Immortal Path had no restrictions; anyone could go. However, they needed to consciously replenish the consumed energy and damaged equipment.

It was also fine not to replenish them; it didn’t matter, no one would manage you.

And through his observation, truly no one managed it. Everyone was very busy and had no time to care whether you were conscious of your responsibilities.

However, strangely enough, even though there was no supervision, Li Qi found that almost everyone consciously completed this task.

Li Qi had previously thought that the Daoist Sect, with its loose organization, was about ‘cultivating oneself,’ and therefore felt it was somewhat inappropriate.

After all, everyone knows that concentrating power to accomplish great things is the best way. Everyone supervising each other, through systems and social norms, can build a good social cycle.

The Daoist Sect’s ideas of ‘Heaven and Earth are vast, I am the greatest,’ ‘I do what I want, no one can control me,’ and ‘I cultivate my immortality, you go away,’ seemed quite irresponsible to Li Qi. At the same time, he also believed that the loose organizational form of the Daoist Sect was the evil consequence of this mentality.

However, observing this, he found that cultivating oneself seemed not so simple.

The main reason was that these Daoist Cultivators truly achieved ‘cultivating oneself.’

What is cultivating oneself?

‘Good’ means perfect. ‘Cultivating oneself’ means silently improving oneself alone. Although it also means being isolated from the world, its essence is for self-improvement.

Everyone was so far apart, and very estranged from each other, but because they ‘cultivated themselves,’ a special balance was maintained.

This reminded Li Qi of something he had heard before, also said by a Daoist Senior.

That saying was: “If sacrificing a single hair benefits the world, I will not do it; if the whole world is offered to me, I will not take it. If everyone does not sacrifice a single hair, and everyone does not benefit the world, then the world will be in order.”

If plucking one of my hairs benefits the world, I won’t do it, but if everything in the world is given to me, I won’t take it either.

I just need to do my own thing well.

And when everyone does their own thing well, and everyone reaches the point of ‘if the whole world is offered to me, I will not take it,’ then no one will take advantage of anyone, just like this Immortal Path. No one will think of taking advantage of the Immortal Path.

Chickens and dogs hear each other, but people grow old without interacting, yet each cultivates themselves, and everyone silently improves themselves.

Everyone is far apart, but by doing their own things well, they can still build a peaceful and perfect society.

Li Qi was thoughtful, feeling as if he had understood something. If everyone does not sacrifice a single hair, and everyone does not benefit the world, it seems… this ‘cultivating oneself’ might not be without its merits?

After standing for over an hour, Li Qi nodded slightly and whispered, “True nature undisturbed, myriad attachments unbound, neither coming nor going—this is what is called ‘cultivating truth.’ If one can achieve this, one can truly see their ‘truth.’”

With that, he strode forward and activated the Immortal Path.