Black Dragon that lazybones was still at the peak Golden Immortal Realm, while the spiritual fruits and beasts within the immortal mountain had suffered quite a bit at his hands. Unable to beat him, Yuan Hong lodged a complaint with Zhang Qing. As a result, Black Dragon received a beating from Zhang Qing that kept him bedridden for three months, and from then on, he never dared to wreak havoc in Fangzhang Immortal Mountain again.
On this day, Zhang Qing finally refined the thirty-six restrictions of the Qiankun Cauldron. After absorbing it into his body to slowly nurture it, wisps of Qi of Chaos actually emanated from the Qiankun Cauldron, merging into Zhang Qing's physical body and making him a little stronger every day. This truly came as an unexpected joy; taking that risk had certainly been worth it.
To test the Qiankun Cauldron's ability to turn the acquired into the innate, Zhang Qing also refined a cudgel for each of the Yuan Hong brothers and an immortal sword for He Ming and He Wu each, completely refining them into innate treasures using the Qiankun Cauldron. While they did not reach the level of supreme treasures, they still belonged to the innate rank.
When he presented the four magical treasures to the four of them, they were so overjoyed that, ignoring Zhang Qing's objections, they knelt and kowtowed in gratitude. Seeing this, Black Dragon looked on with burning envy. As part of the demon lineage, they had never been skilled in alchemy or weapon refinement, and most of their offensive methods relied on their own physical bodies.
Seeing Black Dragon's expression, Zhang Qing tossed a long spear to him. It turned out to be an acquired spiritual treasure with nine restrictions, and Black Dragon was so overjoyed he leaped high into the air and moved to kneel before Zhang Qing. Seeing this, Zhang Qing quickly stopped him and said, "Let me say this again: around here, we don't do all that kneeling. True respect belongs in the heart."
Black Dragon, Yuan Hong, and the other four hastily bowed in assent. Since he had emerged from seclusion, he decided to give another lecture on the Dao. Zhang Qing gathered everyone in Fangzhang Immortal Mountain who had awakened their spiritual awareness and began his second Dao lecture.
This time, he not only spoke on the Dao of cultivation, but also shared a great deal of worldly wisdom, incorporating some of the basic knowledge from his past life. He spoke on whatever came to mind, making it truly the most Buddhist-style approach imaginable.
He had always found one thing rather strange: in other novels, whenever someone casually gave a Dao lecture, celestial flowers would invariably fall in a riot of blossoms and golden lotuses would well up from the earth, followed by the Heavenly Dao bestowing merits. How came it that in his case, not even a single hair descended? There had been none last time, and none this time either.
On second thought, though, it made sense. If anyone who took a few disciples and gave a few lectures could reap merits, wouldn't Heavenly Dao merits be far too worthless?
Moreover, Zhang Qing had taken form within the chaos, and upon arriving in the Primordial World, he had never shouted out anything like, "From this moment on, there is no Zhang Qing of the past life, only the Primordial Zhang Qing." He had always maintained the stance: "Zhang Qing is Zhang Qing, what business is it of the Heavenly Dao?" Unless he performed a deed of great merit, the Heavenly Dao probably wouldn't even deign to notice him.
The lecture lasted for a hundred years. While Zhang Qing himself did not raise his cultivation realm, Yuan Hong and Yuan Ling crossed into the Golden Immortal Realm during the fiftieth and sixtieth years of the lecture respectively, while He Ming and He Wu also broke through to the mid-stage Mysterious Immortal Realm. It seemed that primates still progressed somewhat faster in their cultivation.
It was worth mentioning that within the century, no fewer than a hundred spiritual beasts and birds in the mountain took human form. Taking human form meant reaching the Celestial Immortal realm, and two gazing-moon rhinoceroses even reached the early-stage Mysterious Immortal cultivator level. This left the brothers He Ming and He Wu rather unconvinced, and as soon as Zhang Qing's lecture concluded, they demanded to enter seclusion for breakthroughs.
The two gazing-moon rhinoceroses were also kept by Zhang Qing, who gave them respective names. After taking human form, one appeared as a sturdy man in his thirties and was named Niu Gang, while the other appeared as a woman in her thirties and was named Niu Cui; the two of them were a couple.
Counting it this way, Zhang Qing already had seven subordinates: four boy attendants, a mount in the form of Black Dragon, and two gazing-moon rhinoceroses who temporarily had no assigned duties and simply hung around with Black Dragon as usual. One day, Niu Gang said to Black Dragon, "Black Dragon, I see our master's cultivation is only around the early-stage Taiyi Golden Immortal level. How come you seem so terrified of him?"
Taken aback by the question, Black Dragon recalled how he, a dignified peak Golden Immortal, had been beaten flat on his back for three months by Zhang Qing's fists when Zhang Qing was merely at the Taiyi Golden Immortal stage. A shiver still ran through him just thinking about it.
Glancing sideways at Niu Gang, he thought this fellow wasn't as harmless as he looked on the surface—why didn't he go give it a try himself? Black Dragon snorted and said, "How about the two of us spar a bit?"
Niu Gang felt a bit uneasy under Black Dragon's gaze. Spar with you? How on earth could you even suggest that? You're at the peak Golden Immortal stage, and what am I supposed to spar with you as a Mysterious Immortal?
Did you really think old Niu here lacks brains? Pah! Letting out a shout, he led his wife deeper into the mountain; he wasn't going to play with this lazybones anymore—he was no good dragon.
Meanwhile, back in the Extreme Western Realm, after Luohuo incited the earth veins and subsequently perished, the injured Ancestor Hongjun collected the treasures of Luohuo, Qiankun, and the Yin-Yang Taoist, including the God-Killing Spear, the Zhuxian Four Swords, and Ancestor Yin-Yang's Taiji Diagram.
However, both the 12th-grade World-Destroying Black Lotus and the Qiankun Cauldron were nowhere to be found. Hongjun assumed they had been blown away by the earth vein explosion, and after searching for a long time without success, he returned to the Yujing Mountain Daoist sanctuary to cultivate and recover from his injuries.
This period of cultivation lasted for tens of millions of years. Then, tens of millions of years later, the Primordial World suddenly trembled, and celestial flowers mixed with the power of merit descended all over the sky. Every sentient being derived no small benefit from it.
Before long, an ethereal voice rang out: "I am Hongjun, taking form in the chaos and attaining sainthood in the Primordial World. Three hundred years from now, I will lecture for a millennium at the Zixiao Palace in the chaos beyond the thirty-three heavens. All those with affinity may come to listen."
Zhang Qing naturally heard it too, but was Hongjun's Dao really that pleasant to listen to? Ever since the four of them fought Luohuo, Zhang Qing had realized that Hongjun was no benevolent character. Back then, could he really not have blocked the Zhuxian Sword if he hadn't withdrawn the Creation Jade Disc?
In Zhang Qing's view, if Hongjun had continued to suppress Luohuo with the Creation Jade Disc at that time, Ancestor Yin-Yang and Ancestor Qiankun might not have died.
With the four of them besieging him together like that, Luohuo might not have had the opportunity to detonate the veins of the Extreme Western Realm. They say that actions bring karma, and now Hongjun owed a massive karmic debt to the Western Realm.
The fierce battle among several figures had thoroughly ravaged the Western Realm, fracturing the earth veins and leaving the people destitute. The once vibrant Primordial World land had become exceptionally barren. Luohuo was dead, Yin-Yang and Qiankun were also dead, and Ancestor Yangmei had simply packed up and left for parts unknown.
Wasn't this karma bound to be borne by Hongjun? The Western battle had erupted precisely because he gathered four people to encircle and suppress Luohuo; if he didn't shoulder it, who would? Perhaps this was why he would later take two individuals from the Western Realm as his nominal disciples.
He would have those two nominal disciples make nearly impossible "Great Vows" in the Western Realm later on to repay this karmic debt for him. Tsk tsk tsk, thinking up to this point, Zhang Qing involuntarily clicked his tongue; the Primordial World truly had no good people in it.
Recalling the later legends that Hongjun eventually merged his body with the Heavenly Dao to become a Heavenly Dao Saint, and that his disciples also anchored their Divine Sense in the Heavenly Dao to achieve sainthood, one could well imagine that all these saints were held right in the palm of his hand. Hongjun's Dao was certainly not easy to listen to. Furthermore, Zhang Qing had also covertly made off with the Qiankun Cauldron that originally belonged to Hongjun, so his conscience was somewhat pricked as well.
Whoever wanted to go could go; as for him, he certainly wouldn't go to listen. If one wanted to latch onto a powerful backer, the naturally arrogant Primordial Beginning was not a good choice, and Laozi, who favored non-action, wasn't all that reliable either. That left only Master Tongtian, the Shangqing Lingbao Heavenly Venerable of the "Ten Thousand Immortals Gathering."
Even though his fate after the "Conferment of Gods" Tribulation didn't seem particularly good, that would be after countless kalpas anyway; with the shifting of worldly affairs, who could predict the future?
When he had nothing to do, Zhang Qing would cultivate, occasionally guide his subordinates, and when the mood struck, he would go out for a stroll to gather various materials, spiritual artifacts, and spiritual plants.
That innate spiritual root tea tree had already grown lush and leafy, and the spiritual tea plucked from it overflowed with immortal qi. Drinking a single cup cleared one's Divine Sense and even brought a faint increase to it, making it wondrously extraordinary—truly living up to its status as an innate spiritual root.