Above the Great Dao

Chen Shi looked at the sculpted-like great black snake, his heart full of reverence.

The mentality and spirit of this great snake had far surpassed that of ordinary people, reaching a height that even top cultivators would find difficult to attain.

Granny Sha led him, continuing deeper into Qianyang Mountain.

"Granny Sha, do you think Qianyang Mountain also has a spirit?"

Chen Shi asked, "If Qianyang Mountain does have a spirit, how vast would it be? And what would it look like?"

Granny Sha thought for a moment, then shook her head, "Perhaps it does, but I have never seen it."

They crossed a mountain stream, where maidens were washing their hair by the water—that was the spirit of the stream, beautiful and lively, who greeted Chen Shi and Granny Sha.

Granny Sha gave one of the girls a comb, making her very happy. After thanking them, the water of the stream also became much gentler.

They passed through a forested area filled with numerous spiritual medicines that had grown for countless years. Many bare-bottomed toddlers, no taller than a foot, were running under the trees. When they saw them, they all hid behind the trees, peeking out at them stealthily.

Granny Sha opened the floral cloth on her basket, grabbed a handful of candy, and the children came out chirping and yapping. A cluster of heads squeezed together, extending chubby hands, pale and soft, to beg for candy.

Such is the great mountain.

Chen Shi had seen the Qianyang Mountain near Huangpo Village, where the realms of the Ghost God Domain followed one after the other, mysterious and unpredictable.

However, Qianyang Mountain here had shown him a different side.

The magnificent mountains and rivers steeled one's resolve.

After this experience, he felt that the world was indeed so beautiful; only with a broad mind can one encompass these mountains, these things.

After a while, they finally arrived at their destination.

An ancient and time-worn temple came into Chen Shi's view, with a mountain gate in front of the temple, half-collapsed.

The two approached the mountain gate, only to see broken bricks and tiles scattered everywhere. The gate's lintel was also broken, lying on one side. Chen Shi stepped forward, moved the rocks on top, cleared away the soil, and could barely make out the words "Mountain Lord."

"This is... the Mountain Lord Temple!"

Chen Shi looked around: the Mountain Lord Temple had a main hall and two side halls, though the side halls had collapsed and no longer existed; only the main hall still stood tall.

Giant trees reached for the sky in the ruined courtyard, their crowns so large they completely hid the temple, impenetrable by light, preventing any sunlight from shining upon the temple.

Even though there was no sunlight shining on it, the place did not feel cold; the temperature was quite comfortable.

Beneath the tree was an incense burner missing a leg, about ten feet long, five feet high, and three feet wide, resembling a large rectangular cauldron, filled with incense ashes—evidence that incense once burned brightly here.

The air here seemed to be filled with a strange power. Chen Shi paid close attention, but it disappeared without a trace.

"Extraordinary force!"

He suddenly realized this elusive, strange power was the extraordinary force formed by the Incense Fire Qi, which could converge divine likenesses, allowing deities like the village's Dryad to have miraculous powers!

What was odd, though, was the extraordinary force within this ancient temple remained in a state of flux and hadn't condensed.

Chen Shi carefully sensed and discovered that the extraordinary force was emanating from the incense burner.

"In the past, the incense here was so prosperous that an abundant amount of extraordinary force also condensed inside the incense burner, so much so that after the temple's decline, there was still extraordinary force that had not completely dissipated. Strange, why hasn't it dissipated?" he wondered.

Granny Sha stepped forward, placed three sticks of incense in the burner.

However, the extraordinary force formed by these three incense sticks also quickly drifted into the air.

"This place's extraordinary force is too strong!" Granny Sha exclaimed as she looked around.

Chen Shi stepped into the main hall, where the extraordinary force was even more pervasive, stronger than outside.

The last dilapidated temple that Chen Shi had encountered did not have such a dense extraordinary force.

There was also an incense burner in the hall, quite large, with accumulated ash.

Chen Shi looked around and saw stone dragons coiling around the pillars of the main hall and traces of Door Gods on the gates, though blurred and indistinct.

The tile pieces on the eaves were decorated with mythological stories, unintelligible now.

On the ceiling of the hall, there was a crossbeam more than twenty feet long, painted cinnabar, with gold-inlaid dragons.

Upon entering the main hall, the ceiling was resplendent with golden light—a golden dome. At the center of the dome was a caisson painted with the Eight Diagrams, surrounded by cloud patterns.

Directly opposite the caisson stood a shrine that reached two or three stories high, extremely majestic, hinting at the enormous size of the deity that must have been enshrined in the temple.

But now, the shrine was empty and no deity could be found.

The temple was deserted.

"With such rich extraordinary force here, the Mountain Lord that once lived here must have been extremely powerful, but why is this place now desolate?" Chen Shi wondered.

Granny Sha replied, "This temple, even this mountain, was originally nonexistent. It burst out from underground overnight. There was a major earthquake in Qianyang Mountain back then. Buildings collapsed, trees were destroyed, many people died, and the next day I discovered this new mountain peak. However, at that time I was busy saving people in the countryside and could not afford to come here to investigate. I have been here a few times later on, but I haven't noticed anything unusual."

Chen Shi was slightly moved. The Mountain Lord Temple had also suddenly grown from underground?

He stepped outside the hall, looking up at the sky. The branches and leaves of the tree in the courtyard blocked all the sunlight.

Standing in the temple, they could not see the sun; likewise, the sun could not see this temple!

How wonderful.

The temple seemed to intentionally avoid the gaze of the Outer Heaven True Gods!

"Can you cultivate here?" Granny Sha asked.

Chen Shi tried to activate the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique, with starlight pouring in all around him, as well as sunlight and moonlight from another space-time dimension. Apparently, this place was suitable for cultivation!

Granny Sha was also very happy and said with a laugh, "I'm reassured knowing you can cultivate. If I couldn't repay you for yesterday's adventure, I'd have no place to show my face. You stay here and cultivate, I'll clean up for you."

Chen Shi shook his head and replied, "You go back Granny, I can clean up while I cultivate."

As he activated the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique, he began cleaning the grand hall.

Seeing this, Granny Sha chuckled and said, "Then I'll go back first and bring you lunch at noon."

Chen Shi felt somewhat guilty and was just about to tell her that she didn't need to come over at noon when Granny Sha had already left, so he had no choice but to let it be.

After busying himself all morning, Chen Shi finally finished cleaning the main hall by noon. As promised, Granny Sha came to deliver his meal, three dishes and a soup, which smelled much more appealing than the meals at the Chen family's home.

Chen Shi devoured the food with inexplicable gratitude.

Granny Sha watched him with joy, just as if she were watching her own son.

In the afternoon, Chen Shi repaired the damaged parts of the main hall. The hall was now decent enough to stay in. It must have been the canopy of a large tree that protected the roof from damage, so there was no need for a brick and tile mason to repair it. Only some areas needed whitewashing.

"I won't spend the night here tonight. I'll head back and bring some lime tomorrow to whitewash the walls."

Chen Shi surveyed the place and thought to himself, "The doors and windows also need some thick paper to seal them up. If sunlight were to shine out from inside the hall, I'm afraid this temple couldn't be preserved. The two collapsed side halls need to be cleared as well, and the yard needs to be tidy."

He left the Mountain Lord Temple and headed back the same way.

On the way, he encountered those chubby toddlers playing in the woods again, but as it was getting late, they had become sluggish and each took root under a tree, burying themselves with only their heads exposed, curiously gazing at Chen Shi.

Chen Shi then passed by the girl near the mountain stream; she was quite shy, stealing glances at him.

After climbing over a large mountain, the black snake was still coiled around the peak, motionless, like a wood carving.

Chen Shi greeted Granny Zhu beside the big tree and asked permission to pass through.

Not long after, he safely returned home. Grandpa had already prepared dinner, the sky had darkened, and the moon was slowly opening its eyes, illuminating the earth.

The next day, Chen Shi specially bought some incense candles and snacks, which he placed in his book chest before heading out again.

He went to Huangpo Village first to greet Granny Sha and then entered the great mountain, where he offered incense to Granny Zhu under the big tree. He also lit a few sticks of incense for the black snake that lay across the mountain path and gave the mountain stream girl a copper mirror. From his book chest, he took out some pinwheels and snacks to give to the chubby toddlers in the woods.

He had become familiar with these marvelous beings during his journey and only then entered the Mountain Lord Temple.

It took Chen Shi five days to clean up the temple inside and out thoroughly.

While he worked hard, the chubby toddlers would come over to help him move bricks and tiles, while the girl from the stream brought running water to help him wash away the dirt on the ground.

If Chen Shi got so absorbed in his work that he forgot about the time and it became night, the enormously large black snake would make its way to the front of the Mountain Lord Temple to guard it and ensure that no Evil Spirits would harm Chen Shi.

They got along harmoniously.

There was also a life-release pond in the courtyard, which he had cleaned. Inside, Chen Shi found a very large turtle shell, big enough to be a small boat.

"I don't know how many years this turtle lived, but it's a pity it couldn't withstand the passage of time."

Chen Shi washed the turtle shell clean and tapped it with his hand; it sounded solid. When he hit it with his fist, it emitted shimmering light that dispersed the force of his blow.

"This thing seems pretty remarkable."

Chen Shi dragged the shell into the main hall and thought, "Maybe I can sell it for a good price. I'll save it for now, for Grandpa's retirement, so he won't have to go out and sell talismans anymore."

While cleaning the side halls, he found a stone chest amidst the rubble, perfectly square, with visible seams, yet he couldn't open it.

Chen Shi didn't know what kind of stone the chest was made of. He tried smashing it a few times but it remained undamaged, without even a mark.

"I wonder what's inside the stone chest? Maybe it's a treasure, or maybe someone just carved a stone to look like a chest to fool the gullible."

He set the stone chest aside without taking it to heart.

Now that everything was in order, he could finally concentrate on his cultivation.

Chen Shi inserted several sticks of incense into the censer, and the air filled with a strange and extraordinary force. He hadn't forgotten to offer incense these past few days, and the force had grown increasingly potent.

With his arrival, the extraordinary force in this place also became much more vibrant.

What puzzled Chen Shi the most was that the extraordinary force within the temple didn't dissipate. Ordinarily, unclaimed extraordinary forces should fade quickly, but instead, it accumulated more and more in the temple.

During this cultivation session, he unwittingly fell into a marvelous state, forgetting the passage of time and the difference between day and night.

After an indeterminate period, Chen Shi awoke to find that through days of Beidou Refining, his internal organs had become as strong as steel, and his breath stretched long and smooth.

His blood flowed like mercury through his veins, brimming with tremendous energy.

Blood like mercury, body like iron!

This was the sign of the "transformation of true blood" mentioned in the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique!

Transforming the true blood was the first step to forming the Holy Embryo Dharma Body!

To achieve such progress in just a few days of cultivating in the Mountain Lord Temple was truly astonishing!

"Eh?"

Chen Shi opened his eyes wide in surprise. The great hall was bathed in bright spring light, with warm and glistening yet gentle golden rays.

This sunlight was the same as what he had seen in the dilapidated temple, coming from another dimension!

Following the direction of the sunlight, he saw the sun of another world.

The sun was rising in the east, just emerging from the horizon.

He finally understood what was meant by "sunrise at dawn."

Greedy for the sight, he watched the slowly rising sun, overwhelmingly excited.

Suddenly, Chen Shi had this thought: "Can I pass through this beam of light and reach another world?"