Several days later, a part-time disciple came to deliver their uniforms. Senior Martial Brother Zhou also told them that there would be a Foundation Building martial uncle giving a sermon in the preaching temple that day. The sermon would start at the hour of the dragon ¹ and finish at  the hour of the rooster. ²

　　The uniforms of the disciples at Mount Yunwu were black-colored and had several wisps of clouds as well as small ‘Yunwu Sect’ words drawn on the cuff. The Aura Refining disciples’ uniforms really couldn’t be described as good-looking. Mo Tiange recalled the clothes Ye Jingwen wore – they looked far better than this Yunwu Sect’s uniform. However, she soon laughed at herself. Sure enough, a woman’s nature is hard to change…

　　Having bound her chest tightly, she wrapped her waist several times before putting on an outer robe as a cover. Upon seeing the flat figure reflected in the mirror, she finally felt satisfied. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of a woman’s figure to be seen in that refection. For cultivators, this method was actually safer than using things like spells or spirit tools.

　　Nevertheless, it was becoming more exhausting for her to put on this kind of appearance. After she turned fifteen years old, the difference between her stature and that of a man was getting increasingly bigger. Not only did she have to bind her chest and wrap her waist, she now also had to mimic a man’s voice. Luckily, her voice wasn’t high, so it was less likely for others to suspect her.

　　After determining that there weren’t any problems with her appearance, she stepped out of her room and saw that the three others were already ready. As for that Jiang Shanghang, he had already left before them. He wasn’t compatible with the others, but it didn’t really matter; after all, cultivators originally didn’t care about things like making friends. The only reason the four of them were always moving as a group was because Liu Yidao and Xu Jingzhi were extremely friendly people. Fortunately, most of the time, all of them were engrossed in cultivating. Otherwise, she would also want to imitate Jiang Shanghang and ignore everything.

　　Once they arrived at the preaching temple, everyone went looking for a seat and sat down. Before long, a middle-aged Daoist in the Foundation Building realm walked forward and sat facing everyone on the frontmost praying mat.

　　Everyone instantly stood up and bowed. “Greetings to Martial Uncle.”

　　The Daoist nodded. “Everyone, please take a seat.”

　　There were at least several hundred people inside the preaching temple. At this moment, it was completely quiet inside. Everyone was sitting on the praying mats and no sound could be heard.

　　The Daoist watched them for a moment then said, “My Daoist name is Qingyu. This month, I’ll be the one giving sermons to everyone. It just so happens that a batch of new disciples has joined the sect a few days ago, so today, we’re just going to discuss the meaning of Dao. Disciples, according to you, what is Dao? Why are we cultivating?”

　　Once Daoist Qingyu finished speaking, a disciple in the front row answered, “Answering Martial Uncle’s question, Dao is the principle of the world. We’re cultivating to achieve immortality.”

　　Daoist Qingyu nodded before asking again, “Other disciples, do you have any objections?”

　　Someone answered, “Answering Martial Uncle, disciple thinks that Dao is the Origin and cultivating is done to achieve immortality.”

　　Daoist Qingyu smiled and nodded. “What both of you said were correct. Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three begets all beings ³ , thus it could be considered the Origin. The sun and the moon disappear and the four seasons alternate with each other; in the netherworld, all beings abide by karma. This is the principle of the world.”

　　“We’re cultivating to achieve immortality and also to pursue the course of Dao. Life and death are originally the principles of the world, yet immortality is a leap out of the cycle of life and death, so why are we calling it ‘pursuing Dao’?”

　　“Bear in mind that the Way of Heaven is everlasting. What we’re pursuing is abandoning all worldly emotions and existing forever along with the heavens. Therefore, cultivating is both following and defying the heavens.”

　　“Every being is bound to life and death. Wanting to escape the fate of all beings could be considered defying the heavens. The world cannot tolerate this heaven-defying act. Therefore, once our cultivation succeeds, we have to pass a tribulation.”

　　“Nevertheless, once we pass the tribulation and fly heavenwards to the Way of Dao, it’ll be equivalent to Way of Heaven giving life forces to all beings. Us cultivators are just accepting trials from the Way of Heaven, thus we could be considered to be obeying the heaven. Achieving the situation in which we obey the heaven in our journey to defy it is exactly what us, as cultivators, do.”

　　Everyone was listening earnestly; Mo Tiange even concentrated her full attention. This was the first time she heard about this version of the theory of Dao. There were countless different paths of cultivation, and everyone had their own understanding. What this martial uncle said was different from what Second Uncle told her.

　　Thus, the day passed very quickly. Once the hour of the rooster arrived and the sermon ended, the four of them already gained some understanding. When they went back, Liu Yidao sighed and said, “It was originally due to a fated chance that I stepped onto the path of cultivation. If I had someone teaching me this earlier, I probably wouldn’t have wasted my time like this.”

　　Although Liu Yidao had four spiritual roots, two of his spiritual roots were excellent. In normal condition, his abilities should be a bit better than Mo Tiange’s. Mo Tiange was sure she could reach the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm and enter the Foundation Building realm before she turned twenty-five; yet on the contrary, Liu Yidao, whose abilities should be better than hers, was around thirty years old when he entered this realm. Evidently, what he said about wasting his time wasn’t false at all.

　　Xu Jingzhi smiled and said, “Senior Martial Brother Liu, you’re still in your early thirties. The possibility of building your foundation before you turn forty is very high. It’s much better than many others who don’t have any chance of building their foundations at all.”

　　Liu Yidao also smiled. He patted Xu Jingzhi’s shoulder and said, “What Junior Martial Brother Xu said is right. I’m already very lucky.”

　　Once they returned to their residence, each went back to their respective room to cultivate and reflect on the knowledge they gained today.

　　Hereafter, Mo Tiange’s daily life tended to be calm. Every ten days, she went with everyone else to listen to a sermon and concentrated on cultivating once she returned to her room. Every half month, she would go on a trip down the mountain. At that time, she would give the formation manuals she and her uncle created to the sect’s shop so the shop could sell them on her behalf. She would then use the spirit stones attained to buy some medicinal pills to be used for Second Uncle’s recuperation.

　　Three months later, she successfully advanced into the eighth layer of the Aura Refining realm. She accumulated quite a lot of medicinal pills these few months due to the medicinal pills left behind by that man and woman she met in the forest, the prize of the Immortals Assembly, and the medicinal pills and spirit stones the sect distributed every month. Hence, after consuming Aura-Nourishing Pills, she finally advanced into the eighth layer.

　　This matter caused Xu Jingzhi to be extremely envious. He was originally in the eighth layer, but up til now, he hadn’t made any progress. Meanwhile, Qin Xi had also advanced into the tenth layer from the ninth layer. Among the five people in this house, it could be said that Xu Jingzhi was the only one who didn’t show any improvements.

　　However, he could only blame himself. He often ran errands and constantly went out these three months, so he didn’t have much time to cultivate. In fact, it would indeed be a wonder if he could advance at all. Therefore, Xu Jingzhi made a resolution to do Closed Door Meditation and wouldn’t go out unless it was to listen to sermons.

　　Since Xu Jingzhi was currently in Closed Door Meditation and the three others were the type to cultivate painstakingly, Mo Tiange didn’t need to deal with them so much, much to her delight. Every day, she only cultivated, researched and studied formations, or sometimes went outside to catch some wild animals to satisfy her cravings. Her days were actually quite free and unfettered.

　　—-

　　While using the Light Body Technique, she sent a wind blade out, causing the running little deer to fall to the ground.

　　Mo Tiange rushed forward, pulled the little deer up and threw it into her Qiankun bag. She then went back taking the same route she came. When she arrived by the side of a creek, she pulled the deer out to be skinned and cleaned.

　　Although the South Peak of Mount Yunwu was far inferior to the North Peak, it still had a rare spirit vein. The little animals she caught here were a lot more delicious than the ones she caught at the foot of the mountain.

　　She bled the deer and cleared its internal organs before skinning it and cutting it into pieces. After that, she smeared most of the pieces with salt and wrapped them with leaves of spiritual plants then stuffed them inside her Qiankun Bag. Having picked a thin cut, she seasoned and roasted it. A fire spell was used just for this.

　　“Oh!!! Senior Martial Sister, there’s someone roasting something here!”

　　Mo Tiange turned her head and saw two Aura Refining female cultivators walking towards her. From their clothes, they were apparently also disciples of the Yunwu Sect. Although she had long felt people’s breaths around her, this was, after all, Mount Yunwu; the sect’s disciples were everywhere.

　　She walked out from behind the tall grass and smiled. “Greetings to the two Senior Martial Sisters.”

　　Her sudden appearance shocked these two people. These two women seemed to be in their twenties. Their looks were also quite good, especially the one called “Senior Martial Sister” – she could be considered a beauty.

　　Seeing Mo Tiange’s gaze, the younger one frowned and scolded her: “Which Senior Martial Brother is your supervisor? How can you be this rude?”

　　Mo Tiange was stunned but then smiled bitterly. She only stared at the older one for a moment longer, yet she was already branded as a lecher. She hastily said, “Senior Martial Sister, you misunderstand me. I’m just worried—I was just looking for a secret place to roast something to eat, but unexpectedly, you two caught me.”

　　Her excuse made sense, so the older one, the one referred as “Senior Martial Sister” said, “Junior Martial Brother doesn’t need to be worried. We just came to take a look because we smelled the aroma. We won’t tell others about this.”

　　In fact, it didn’t matter if they told others. After all, Senior Martial Brother Zhou wouldn’t care about this kind of thing. Of course, Mo Tiange still put a huge smile on her face. “Many thanks to Senior Martial Sisters. It’s fate that we could meet; as it happens, I just finished roasting my venison. Why don’t we eat together? Just take it as my apology for shocking the two of you earlier.”

　　Seeing Mo Tiange being so courteous, the one supposed to be the “Junior Martial Sister” among the two let the matter go and smiled. “Junior Martial Brother, are you serious? Are you maybe doing this reluctantly?”

　　Mo Tiange took out a huge chunk of venison from her Qiankun Bag and said, “Take a look, Senior Martial Sister. I still have a lot. I can’t eat all this by myself.”

　　Mo Tiange’s craft wasn’t to be underestimated. The venison was roasted until it was golden brown and the aroma floated everywhere. Just smelling the aroma could already make people feel ravenous. Indeed, the “Junior Martial Sister” was unwilling to walk away and directly pulled her friend. “Senior Martial Sister, we…”

　　The one referred as “Senior Martial Sister” helplessly said, “We’re not familiar with this Junior Martial Brother, how can we just…”

　　“So what? He himself said that this is his apology to us.”

　　“True.” Mo Tiange grinned. “Senior Martial Sisters shouldn’t hesitate. Just consider it as me bribing you because you found out I’m eating secretly.”

　　That “Junior Martial Sister” happily clapped her hands. The good impression she had of Mo Tiange became even better now. She said, “What Junior Martial Brother said is reasonable! Senior Martial Sister, we don’t need to be too polite.”

　　What else could that “Senior Martial Sister” say? She could only follow what that “Junior Martial Sister” wanted.

　　The three of them introduced themselves to each other. Unexpectedly, these two female cultivators were disciples of Martial Uncle Lin from the female courtyard. From their talking, Mo Tiange found that Martial Uncle Lin’s name was Lin Qingwan. She was a renowned Foundation Building cultivator in Yunwu Sect. In fact, although all the female disciples in the South Peak were placed under her supervision, she herself didn’t live in the South Peak. The one who, on her behalf, had truly been supervising everyone was actually this “Senior Martial Sister”, Shen Bing. As for the “Junior Martial Sister”, she was Martial Uncle Lin’s youngest disciple, Murong Yan.

　　Having chatted with the two of them, Mo Tiange learned that Shen Bing was a cultivator with double spiritual roots. She just turned twenty this year, but her cultivation level had reached the peak stage of the Aura Refining realm. As for Murong Yan, she was endowed with three spiritual roots. She was eighteen this year and was in the eighth layer of the Aura Refining realm.

　　Never mind Shen Bing; just from Murong Yan’s character, it was already apparent she wasn’t someone who was willing to put a lot of effort into cultivating. Moreover, her spiritual roots were ordinary. And yet, despite all this, her cultivation level managed to reach the eighth layer! It was very evident that being a disciple of a cultivation sect was much more advantageous than being an individual cultivator.

　　Although Mo Tiange didn’t purposefully befriend them, having a few more friends in this sect wouldn’t be harmful. After all, these two people were the inner disciples of a Foundation Building cultivator.

　　Besides, right now, she was extremely lonely. In addition to not being able to reveal her identity as a woman, she also had to keep a distance from those male cultivators. Furthermore, it was also hard for her to meet other female cultivators. She often recalled her childhood, how she got along together with Tianqiao, wishing to have a friend like that again.

　　Sometimes, when she wasn’t cultivating, she would wonder—if she could start her life over again, would she choose to live as a mortal and live a tranquil life, or would she still come to the cultivation world, struggling with cultivating, struggling on the path towards immortality? If she was really a man, she wouldn’t hesitate at all. However, as a woman, in the end, she was still affected by her emotions.