by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
When she arrived in front of Long Chen, she immediately hugged him, stunning Long Chen. She then gave him a kiss on his face.
Long Chen’s jaw dropped. The other disciples’ eyes also widened. This maiden was definitely direct.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I like you, but I know I’m not a match for you. However, that’s fine. I’m still young, so I’ll work hard just like you said! After all, what if my dream comes true? I’ll definitely work hard for you! I heard that you’re quite lecherous and have many beautiful women by your side, so there will definitely be a chance for me!” exclaimed the maiden worshipfully.
“Who did you hear that from?” Long Chen’s expression stiffened. He was facing an innocent thirteen-year-old maiden. He didn’t know how to explain himself. Lecherous was not a good adjective.
“Hehe, you don’t need to know who I heard it from. In any case, I will work hard to make this dream come true!” The maiden laughed and ran off, leaving behind her tinkling laughter. Her laughter was completely innocent and unaffected.
“Senior apprentice-brother, we also-!” Suddenly, a huge group of women began running over to Long Chen.
“Hey, don’t mess around! Let’s get back to the topic. I’m only accepting questions about the Martial Dao.” Long Chen hastily waved his hand. If Tang Wan-er were to learn of this, a layer of his skin would be stripped off.
That awkward appearance of his made countless female disciples laugh. They found that the Long Chen whose power shook the world also had a cute side.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, how can I make myself stronger?” asked a disciple.
Long Chen became serious again. “To become stronger, dreams are only a foundation, the motivation to get stronger. Once you have this motivation, you will need to learn techniques and skills. The important thing is that while you learn new things, you cannot deviate from your original path.
“The first thing you need to do is make clear to yourself your personal cultivation path. In this world, the only one who understands you best is yourself. You know what you want to do, and you are your best teacher. Don’t have blind self confidence in yourself, but do not sell yourself short either. Have confidence in your decisions. Make that a firm belief.
“This point is very important. Many people are cultivating blindly. They see something, feel that it’s amazing, and so they want to learn it. Then they see something else and want to learn it as well. But in truth, on the martial path, any kind of energy or ability can be trained to the same level if taken to the peak. Three thousand Major Daos, a hundred thousand Minor Daos. In my opinion, any of these Daos can allow one to become a god or immortal if trained to the peak. Splitting Daos into major and minor ones is a mistake. Daos are not split that way. They are only split that way because people later added such distinctions. As for why they did that, it’s because the so-called Major Daos had instances of people who managed to succeed in becoming gods or immortals, so they were called Major Daos. As for the Minor Daos, many people believe that this path is a severed path that cannot reach the peak. But if a supreme expert were to continue on this severed path and this expert managed to reach the peak with this Minor Dao, it would also become a Major Dao. That’s why I believe that the Dao is not split into big or small ones. Techniques are not better or worse. People are not innately higher or lower. As long as you can continue on your path to the end, you will benefit endlessly.”
This time, even the Elders clapped to his words. When others expounded on the Dao, they always brought up ancient scriptures that sounded profound but were difficult to understand. They put the burden of understanding on the people listening. On the other hand, Long Chen was using his own viewpoint to explain his arguments. They were simple enough for even a child to understand.
His final point, that the Dao is not split into big or small ones, that techniques are not better or worse, that people are not innately higher or lower, was especially important. It opened a whole new world to people.
Many people abandoned the things that they excelled in the most because of the artificial distinction between Major and Minor Daos. They pursued the Major Daos because only that path could lead them to becoming a god or immortal.
However, Long Chen had put this principle forward clearly and given them a direction.
Even if you cultivated a Major Dao, how many people really became a god or immortal? As for cultivating a Minor Dao, although people said that it was a severed path, who could say for sure that someone wouldn’t be able to break that limit once they reached the end?
In the end, the two were the same. There was no difference in the difficulty of the Major and Minor Daos. If you walked a Minor Dao, you wouldn’t necessarily become a god, and if you walked a Major Dao, you also wouldn’t definitely be able to become an immortal. In the end, it depended on a person’s effort.
Choosing what you excelled in the most, even if it was just a Minor Dao, was better than discarding your original heart to cultivate a Major Dao. There was no need to blindly follow the crowd when it came to your cultivation. That would just harm yourself.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, when you run into bottlenecks in your cultivation, what should you do?” asked the next disciple.
“If you encounter a bottleneck, it means you’ve cultivated too quickly, and that your cultivation base has far exceeded your mental realm. If you forcibly break through, it will become a heart-devil. When it comes to this point, you should believe your Elders. I’m sure they’ve already told you this. That’s why many experts will tell you to go into seclusion and calmly meditate to increase your mental realm. This is a very traditional cultivation method. However, I don’t fully approve of this method. When my brothers run into bottlenecks, I will tell them to stop cultivating and go do whatever they want to do. Some go fishing, some go drinking, and some even go fighting with others. Some might even go begging on the streets. They forget that they are a cultivator and return to their roots. The goal of seclusion is to forcibly calm yourself, and this method is more suited to seniors who have experienced everything that they want out of life. As for youngsters, our hearts are naturally restless, so trying to forcibly calm ourselves will be twice as hard. Doing what you want to do will allow you to reach the realm of forgetting yourself. In truth, the goal is the same as going into seclusion, but there is an immense difference in effects. At the very least, in my Dragonblood Legion, people rarely run into bottlenecks because our mental realms far surpass our cultivation bases,” said Long Chen.
This method of Long Chen’s made the disciples cheer. This was their first time they had heard of someone combining cultivation with playing. There was no need to be so grave and inflexible.
Although they didn’t know whether this method was effective for them, at the very least, the Dragonblood Legion was the strongest legion in the Martial Heaven Alliance. They had over ten thousand people who never ran into bottlenecks, so this method had to be effective on at least some people. They had an urge to go try it immediately.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, when fighting, how can you effectively defeat your opponent?”
“This isn’t something I can answer. I don’t know how others fight, but I have a belief that I will definitely not lose to anyone in the same realm as me. Even if the opponent was a god, as long as they were at the same level as me, they wouldn’t be able to win,” said Long Chen.
That made everyone’s hearts pound. His voice was completely calm as if this was a completely ordinary thing.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, are you saying that people must have absolute confidence in themselves?” asked a disciple.
Long Chen shook his head, apologetically saying, “This is something very difficult to explain with words. It’s an indescribable realm. Belief is just one part of it. After countless fights, after countless times blood dyed my clothes red, after countless brushes with death, I have cultivated a kind of power that is difficult to
put into words. That power makes it so that as long as I am facing an expert in the same realm, I will definitely not lose to them. Sorry, there’s really no way for me to describe this feeling.”
Although these disciples didn’t understand what he was saying, their worship for him grew. This kind of confidence was definitely something only a peerless genius would possess. They were far too lacking.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, what should we do when encountering enemies stronger than us?” asked a female disciple.
“Run.” Long Chen answered without hesitation.
“Ah?” That disciple looked at him oddly. This response was difficult to accept.
“If you can’t beat them, wouldn’t you be a fool if you don’t run?” Long Chen shrugged.
“But... can someone weaker not defeat someone stronger?” she asked.
Long Chen smiled and shook his head. “Saying someone weaker can defeat someone stronger is a defective statement in itself. It’s a mistaken idea. In this world, there is no such thing as someone weaker defeating someone stronger. You might bring up many examples in history of weaker people beating someone stronger, but you’ve been misled. In truth, the weak who defeated the strong were never truly weak. For example, if a bull were to fight with an insect, in your eyes, the bull is strong, while the insect is weak. If the insect had poison and bit the bull, poisoning the bull to death, you would see that as someone weaker defeating someone stronger. However, the bull here was not actually the stronger one, while the insect was not actually the weaker one. Even calling them strong or weak is a mistake in perception. The bull has a bigger body, so in terms of power it’s stronger, but you have failed to take into account the insect’s poison. So don’t be fooled by the false concept of the weak defeating the strong. Everyone present is an elite. You’re all powerful Celestials. When fighting ordinary Life Star experts, I trust you can easily win. But to say that you are weaker because you are only at the Soul Transformation realm would be false. So there is no such thing as the weak defeating the strong because being weak is just an idea. As long as you have a tooth with strong enough venom, even a Soul Transformation disciple can kill a Netherpassage expert. To put it even simpler, if you want to defeat a supreme expert, you need a venomous tooth.”
“So that’s what it was! No wonder senior apprentice-brother Long Chen could kill a Netherpassage expert’s clone!”
The experts present immediately connected this with the story of how Long Chen had slain Di Long’s clone. Their eyes blazed with passion.
Chapter 1765 Long Chen’s Sword Dao
Long Chen’s words were completely different from what they had always been taught. Although they were somewhat against classical conventions, they contained philosophical theories that opened a new world to them.
All of this was based on his own experiences. He had come to understand them through his own circumstances, and he was sharing them without hesitation.
Even some of the old Elders were nodding inside. Although Long Chen was still young, he had managed to create a whole new path and understood so many principles.
Thinking about Long Chen’s special course in life, they knew that his current accomplishments were not the result of happenstance. Long Chen truly had the ability to reach his current height.
Furthermore, to be able to share these understandings with people without hesitation required courage that few people possessed.
So even those Elders that had felt his words to be wrong in the beginning were starting to have their opinions subtly shift.
“Long Chen, senior apprentice-brother, what is the Dao?” asked the next disciple.
Hearing this question, Long Chen chortled.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, is this question of mine really laughable?” asked the bewildered disciple.
“No, no. This question of yours just makes me think of a funny thing from the past,” said Long Chen.
“What funny thing? Can you tell us?” That young maiden that had kissed Long Chen shouted from the crowd.
“Yes, we want to know too. We’re very curious about everything about you!” More maidens spoke up, emboldened by the first.
Long Chen smiled. After hesitating, he told the story from when he was in the Eastern Wasteland. In the Immortal Intoxication Pavilion, he, Mo Nian, Zi Yan, Yu Tong, and others had discussed what was the King Dao, what was the Hegemon Dao, and what was the Humane Dao.
Long Chen told them his answers to these questions, and countless disciples held their sides from laughing so hard.
“What is the King Dao?”
“To directly smash pompous people.”
“What is the Hegemon Dao?”
“To smash those who aren’t pompous together with them.”
“What is the Humane Dao?”
“To give a warning before you smash them.”
The disciples and even the Elders laughed at this exchange. They hadn’t expected that this figure that could strike fear in the hearts of both the Righteous path and the Corrupt path, this existence that gave Pill Valley, the ancient races, and the Xuan Beasts a giant headache, also had such a funny side.
However, while everyone else was laughing, Long Chen didn’t. Instead, he seemed a bit sad.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, rumor is that you and fairy Zi Yan seemed to have… a relationship. Why have the two of you ended up in your current state?” asked a woman curiously.
As soon as she said this, she felt countless glares from others. This question was clearly inappropriate.
Long Chen and Zi Yan were both peerless figures. They had met all the way back in the Eastern Wasteland. Then they had run into each other by chance in the Grand Xia Ancient Nation. One was an unrivaled hero, and the other was a nation-toppling beauty. Rumors had long since started about the relationship between the two of them.
However, in the Dragon Slaughtering Convention, the two of them had ended up fighting. Although Long Chen had defeated Zi Yan, he hadn’t killed her but had said heart-breaking words at the end. Everyone could see that the two of them had true feelings for each other.
Nevertheless, Long Chen had slain Shen Bijun and had caused chaos for the Illusive Music Immortal Palace. As for Zi Yan, she was heir to the Illusive Music Immortal Palace. How could the two of them end up together?
That woman had definitely thought of all that, causing her to ask Long Chen this question. However, this question was clearly picking at one of Long Chen’s scabs.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” The woman immediately apologized.
Long Chen forced a smile. “It’s fine. Zi Yan and I might be enemies, but she is someone I respect. Even if I were to die to her hands one day, I would not hate her. There might be no way around the future, but all I want is to have a clear conscience in the end.”
Although that was what Long Chen said, he felt a sour emotion in his heart. He might not be afraid of an army of thousands, of mountains of corpses, of seas of blood, but this towering mountain known as romantic relationships possessed a heavy pressure.
Perhaps fate was just playing with them, making both Long Chen and Zi Yan feel helpless. He had never believed in fate, but Zi Yan did. It was troublesome.
Countless people felt sorrow for Long Chen. They also sympathized with him. It seemed that no matter how strong someone was, there were always things they couldn’t do anything about.
“Let’s get back to the previous question, what is the Dao. Many people explain the Dao to be something ephemeral and imperceptible. In truth, they have no idea what the Dao is, so they explain it in such a way to cover up their own lack of knowledge.
“The Dao. The simplest explanation I can give is the principle that all things in the universe are connected. There is a natural cycle to the world, while the Dao in itself is not something that exists on its own. Look up at the stars in the sky. They are connected but apart. In order to see the world more cle
arly, it was necessary to give a name to the things that they could not explain with words. That name was the Dao.
“As for our Martial Dao, it is just one path amongst the endless Daos. So the Dao can also be explained as a path. The so-called three thousand Major Daos and one hundred thousand Minor Daos that we have are just our own cultivation paths. They are not the universe’s Daos. Compared to the universe, those Daos are but a speck of dust.
“The Martial Dao refers to a path to reach the peak of martial power. When you stand at the peak, you can become a god or immortal.
“If you were to liken cultivation to a mountain, then each person’s cultivation Dao is a path up the mountain. Each path leads to the peak of the mountain, which is why I said that there is no such differentiation between a Major Dao and a Minor Dao.
“The most important thing is to pick a path that is suited to you. The large path of the Major Dao is straight and well-trod, and the quickest way to the peak. But because it is straight, it is dull and boring. The mist makes it so you can’t see the peak of the mountain, so people get lost in its flatness. The small path of the Minor Dao is rugged and winding, filled with dangers. It looks like it spirals, but the difficulties temper a person’s will.
“A Major Dao is good, a Minor Dao is fine. Either way, success means ascension. It’s just that each person experiences different things. If you choose the winding path, you’ll see more scenery and experience more things. Once you succeed in reaching the peak, your realm will definitely be higher than others that trod the straight path.
“After picking a path, you must be unwavering. You must be determined to reach the end of your path. This determination is called the Dao-heart.
“The Dao-heart cannot be rattled. Perhaps you see someone walking a large, unhindered path with no dangers, so you want to walk it. Perhaps you see someone experiencing countless amazing things that no one else can experience on the small path, so you follow them onto the small path. In your hesitation, you lose sight of your original goal and direction. That is taboo for the Martial Dao.