“Could Maitreya have actually… experienced enlightenment from my casually made-up words?”

On Little Jade Peak, Li Changshou, who had just returned from Three Immortal Island, was quietly muttering to himself by the lake.

Upon careful reflection, his few words might have indeed carried some “awakening of the true self” significance for a master of Maitreya’s caliber.

Yet he had truly just been making things up, hoping to plant some small seeds of doubt in Maitreya’s dao heart.

Perhaps it was because he had spent the past thirty years studying the characteristics of Heavenly Demons too intensively, making him instinctively want to manipulate his opponents’ mindsets and create cracks in their dao hearts.

Since Maitreya had only sent a rather crude avatar formed from divine consciousness, killing it wouldn’t have affected Maitreya much anyway.

The problem was, his avatar… might not have been able to win in a fight.

Thinking back, he had once tricked Golden Cicada using his nested paper puppet technique, sending him to search for the “three moles.”

Now the paper puppet method could no longer fool people, but he had managed to develop some skill in verbal manipulation instead.

This could be considered a small improvement!

Those rumors about “most of Star-Lord White Gold’s abilities being in his mouth” weren’t entirely baseless.

Glancing at the bustling card room, Li Changshou sat back down in front of the pill room, closed his eyes to concentrate, and began carefully comprehending the Dao of Balance.

After the Purple Void Palace incident and until the Great Tribulation officially began, Li Changshou only had a few tasks to focus on:

Cultivating and comprehending the Dao to strengthen himself as much as possible;

Protecting the establishment of the Commercial Nation and guarding against Western Teaching’s attempts to undermine it;

Maintaining control over the situation in the Three Thousand Worlds to prevent the premature collapse of the Immortal Alliance;

Accumulating more paper puppets and developing stronger “anti-interference” formations.

The current “brand new” improved paper puppets had the advantages of being more stable and less costly to produce;

Li Changshou had three main approaches in mind. The first was to strengthen the connection between his primordial spirit and divine consciousness, an insight mainly gained from “Du Shuren.”

Primordial spirits and Heavenly Demons were simply different manifestations of true spirit consciousness under different dao principles. This “Upper Realm Heavenly Demon” had indeed provided Li Changshou with significant assistance.

The other two approaches focused on simplifying the paper puppet formations and enhancing their protective capabilities.

For this purpose, Li Changshou had also spent over ten years studying Upper Clarity talismans, the knowledge he had essentially “borrowed” from Yunxiao.

To be fair, the Human Sovereign’s teaching methods were relatively straightforward, emphasizing “comprehending the dao to form one’s own path” and “nature holds wondrous methods,” allowing the Human Sovereign’s two disciples to comprehend combat techniques through their own dao enlightenment.

It wasn’t because the Sovereign had forgotten to teach them, or was too lazy to speak up.

Currently, Li Changshou has access to abundant cultivation resources, making the only challenge in his cultivation path the comprehension of realm boundaries.

He could easily refine spiritual pills and naturally had no shortage of precious treasures.

For the excess spirit stones and materials acquired, Li Changshou didn’t let go to waste, continuing his previous “Little Jade Peak Defense Satellite” project and adding the “Little Jade Peak Celestial Artillery” to his agenda.

He had also begun the long process of nurturing that innate Earth Essence acquired from Kun Peng’s mansion in the Chaos Sea. It would take at least several hundred years before it could be integrated into Little Jade Peak’s main formation as its core spirit.

When that time came, if another situation like the attack on the Gate of Ascending Immortality occurred, Spirit Maiden would be able to effortlessly control half of the peak’s formations.

By then…

Was he perhaps being wise after the event?

Li Changshou slightly opened his eyes, gazing at the vast sky and endless sea of clouds, feeling a hint of helplessness in his heart.

In the end, he had still chosen to be bound by the Heavenly Court.

Just as he was reflecting on this, a jade slip flew rapidly from beyond his field of vision, with a group of celestial soldiers and generals seemingly pursuing it.

His senior brother’s dao aura?

Li Changshou waved his sleeve, drawing the jade slip to him through space, while gently persuading the group of celestial soldiers and generals who had been chasing the jade slip to withdraw.

Placing the jade slip several zhang away, he examined its contents with his immortal consciousness. Upon seeing the simple message within, Li Changshou’s forehead became covered in black lines.

The Outer Realm Demons had gone mad, shouting about invading the primordial world to kill White Gold and destroy the Star-Lord.

What… was this situation?

Was it because he had ordered Golden Peng and Judge of Truth to clear out the Outer Realm Demons, angering them, or was it because he had rejected Kun Peng’s advances, infuriating him?

They had launched several major offensives within a month, and if not for the Taiji Diagram’s help, Even Xuandu City might have collapsed…

Li Changshou couldn’t help but let out a groan, raising his hand to his forehead.

How could he have accidentally made enemies like this?

After careful analysis, he determined that the Outer Realm Demons would have little impact on him, though his senior brother had mentioned the word “Saint.”

In the divine consciousness transmitted by that Demon Venerable, the “mother” of the Outer Realm Demons, there was great indignation over Li Changshou’s insult to their Saint.

Could this Demon Venerable, a primordial divine demon, have… formed some kind of long-term strategic cooperation with Kun Peng?

With these doubts in mind, Li Changshou carefully deliberated before taking out two extremely valuable supreme-grade communication jade slips. He sent one in reply to his senior brother and the other to Golden Winged Peng.

In the latter jade slip, he wrote:

[Eliminate the demons to benefit all beings; eradicate evil thoroughly, leave no future troubles.]

Li Changshou didn’t dare make his words too explicit, and could only offer this small encouragement based on Golden Peng’s personality;

Otherwise, he truly worried that Golden Peng might become too excited and order “better to kill wrongly than let one escape,” causing unnecessary bloodshed.

In the jade slip to the Grand Magus, Li Changshou briefly explained the cause and effect, warning his senior brother to be careful of that “Saint” who was most likely Kun Peng, whose current level of strength was unknown.

After doing all this, Li Changshou divided his attention to various places, making a round through the Three Thousand Worlds and the Five Continents of the primordial world.

The Immortal Alliance was stable, the临天 Palace was safe, and Black Panther continued his closed-door cultivation after visiting friends as if nothing had happened before.

In the Netherworld, Sect Leader Ji Wuyou’s soul was almost fully repaired and would soon return to the cycle of reincarnation. Li Changshou would need to go there shortly to send the Sect Leader on his way.

Back to cultivation.

Before becoming immortal, almost every enlightenment could break through a small realm boundary, and if not for his desperate suppression, becoming immortal would have been completely effortless.

Now, even dozens of enlightenments might not be enough to break through the obstacles ahead, requiring significant time spent on dao comprehension.

Without effort, how could there be rewards?

As insights arose in his heart, Li Changshou let out a soft sigh. Gentle breezes stirred around him, golden light appeared behind him, and the scroll manifesting his Dao of Balance fluttered in the wind.

*Cough*, that was embarrassing, he had accidentally broken through again.

This reminded Li Changshou of the saying — the joys and sorrows of the human world are not truly connected.

He simply felt that breaking through too quickly might make his dao foundation unstable.

Just as he was about to enter closed-door cultivation to stabilize his realm, Spirit Zhenzhu hastily arrived outside Star Lord White Gold’s Palace, seemingly with urgent matters.

Li Changshou closed his eyes and arranged for his newly modified [True Body] paper puppet to go out, transformed into his fixed appearance as Star-Lord White Gold, holding a fly whisk as he floated forward to meet the visitor.

Spirit Zhenzhu bowed in greeting and briefly explained what had happened.

It turned out that Yang Jian, who had been cultivating on Jade Spring Mountain in recent years, had hit a bottleneck and couldn’t break through for a long time, which was quite unusual for a qi cultivator focusing on physical cultivation.

Physical cultivation was different from primordial spirit cultivation. The latter could remain stagnant for hundreds or thousands of years without a breakthrough without being strange.

But with physical cultivation, one should at least be able to increase their strength somewhat, yet Yang Jian hasn’t shown any growth in recent years.

Spirit Zhenzhu said: “Uncle Master, Uncle Master Jade Tripod says that your comprehension of the Eight-Nine Mystic Art is incredibly profound, and you might be the only one in the world who can guide Brother Yang Jian.

Uncle Master Jade Tripod hopes you can send a paper puppet there for a visit, and my master is already at Jade Spring Mountain.”

“Mm,” Li Changshou’s expression was quite serious as he asked Spirit Zhenzhu to wait a moment.

He immediately prepared several paper puppets, altered their qi aura and dao rhythm, concealed their appearances, and slipped them into Spirit Zhenzhu’s sleeve, letting Spirit Zhenzhu take them to Jade Spring Mountain.

What was wrong with Yang Jian?

As one of the children of the Great Tribulation, with extraordinary innate talent, cultivating the Eight-Nine Mystic Art which itself had few bottlenecks as a “perfect technique”…

“Uncle Master,” Spirit Zhenzhu transmitted his voice to ask, “Brother Yang Jian seems to harbor great resentment towards the Heavenly Court. If this continues, won’t it affect his dao heart?”

Li Changshou smiled and said: “No worries, Uncle Master Jade Tripod’s dao is perfectly suited to protect Yang Jian’s dao heart.”

“But why… Spirit Zhenzhu knows that Uncle Master certainly isn’t one of the villains who persecuted Brother Yang Jian’s family, so why not tell him the truth earlier?”

Spirit Zhenzhu’s handsome face was full of confusion.

Li Changshou smiled and asked: “How do you view Yang Jian’s cultivation progress up until now?”

“It could be called advancing a thousand li in a day, truly somewhat frightening.”

“A large part of this comes from the obsession in his heart,” Li Changshou said. “Even if I went to explain things to him, it wouldn’t eliminate the demon in his heart.

That year when he was still a child, Immortal Cloud Flower’s family fell victim to someone’s scheme. No matter how one explains it, or who controlled the celestial soldiers’ minds that day, it was still the Heavenly Court’s celestial soldiers who killed Yang Jian’s father and elder brother.

Rather than me going to explain things to him, temporarily covering up the demon in his heart, it’s better to let this demon transform into his obsession, giving him an outlet for the emotions accumulated in his heart.

The human race is inherently weak, without powerful dao bodies or naturally formed primordial spirits. It’s not easy to quickly become an immortal or deity.”

Spirit Zhenzhu fell into deep thought, his form turning into a streak of light heading towards the Central Divine Continent after leaving the Heavenly Court.

“But Uncle Master, during his two trips out for experience, he heard from somewhere the rumor that you and the Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Court are the murderers of his father.

He has asked me several times what kind of person Uncle Master is, and because of your previous instructions, I never know how to answer.”

“No worries, just make sure you don’t let anything slip, or else all the efforts Master Brother Jade Tripod and I have made will go to waste,” Li Changshou smiled and said, “Just relax, I have my arrangements.”

Spirit Zhenzhu seemed to want to say something but held back, finally just pursing his lips and nodding, flying even more swiftly.

…

Two hours later, on Jade Spring Mountain.

Li Changshou, transformed into a beardless version of Zhao Gongming, was hiding in the clouds with True Persons Jade Tripod and Supreme Unity, watching a young cultivator meditating in the mountain forest while calmly discussing Yang Jian’s “condition.”

Li Changshou quickly determined that Yang Jian’s bottleneck wasn’t due to the Eight-Nine Mystic Art, but rather confusion in his dao heart.

True Person Supreme Unity said: “I think you’re just spoiling him too much. It’s just a bottleneck of a few years. Looking at our current cultivation, which of us hasn’t encountered difficulties lasting hundreds or thousands of years?”

True Person Jade Tripod and Li Changshou exchanged glances, both shaking their heads in tacit understanding.

Li Changshou: “My cultivation time has been short.”

True Person Jade Tripod said: “Bottlenecks… not many.”

True Person Supreme Unity’s mouth twitched, but he held back from starting a fight, avoiding getting beaten up.

True Person Jade Tripod asked: “Does Long Geng need to interact with Jian directly?”

“His cultivation level isn’t low anymore, and I’m worried he might see through my paper puppet technique,” Li Changshou pondered for a moment, politely declining True Person Jade Tripod’s suggestion.

Although he knew this situation was unlikely to occur, he still decided to err on the side of caution.

Li Changshou asked: “In recent years, has Master Brother talked with Yang Jian?”

True Person Supreme Unity folded his arms and interjected from the side: “You should ask how many times.

Since discovering Yang Jian’s bottleneck, a certain master has been incredibly concerned yet maintaining his dignity, occasionally passing by to recite some scriptures or speak some ambiguous words, trying to give his disciple some inspiration.

Why didn’t we get such treatment when we were cultivating back then?”

True Person Jade Tripod coughed: “This poor dao only has this one disciple.”

Li Changshou smiled and after careful consideration, gave a very simple solution.

Let Spirit Zhenzhu take the lead, first get drunk with Yang Jian, and see if it has any effect.

True Person Supreme Unity frowned and said: “This poor dao thought Junior Brother Long Geng would have some profound insights when taking action, how… is this it?”

“The greatest dao is the simplest,” Li Changshou smiled and said, “Regardless of the method, as long as it works. Spirit Zhenzhu and Yang Jian are of the same generation with deep friendship.

The younger generation might be embarrassed to reveal certain things to us but perhaps would confide in peers when drunk.

Since we’re going to take action, let’s make more preparations…

Like this, first let Spirit Zhenzhu try to open Yang Jian’s heart defenses, and determine exactly what’s troubling his dao heart.

Then we’ll act afterward, with Junior Brother Jade Tripod using divine abilities to protect Yang Jian’s dao heart, while Senior Brother Supreme Unity uses the method of consciousness invasion of the dao heart to apply targeted treatment.”

“Good.”

“Alright, let’s try it.”

The three high-level Dao experts discussed various details for a while longer, then spent quite some time giving Spirit Zhenzhu transmitted voice instructions, finally beginning to implement the plan.

But as soon as the plan began… it met with a major setback.

At the back mountain of Jade Spring Mountain, Spirit Zhenzhu smiled at Yang Jian and said: “Junior Brother, seeing your gloomy expression, you seem quite unwell lately. Why don’t I accompany you for a walk outside the mountain to help clear your mind?”

Yang Jian let out a light sigh, standing up from his meditation posture, and smiled: “Is it that obvious?”

“Indeed,” Spirit Zhenzhu said seriously, “Uncle Master Jade Tripod is quite worried about your condition and specially called me over to talk with you.”

Yang Jian looked toward the cave dwelling at the front mountain, his handsome face showing a trace of apology as he said softly:

“I’ve made Master worried. Let’s go, taking a walk to clear my mind would be good.”

Spirit Zhenzhu turned and made a gesture of invitation, Yang Jian cupped his hands in thanks, and just as he was about to step forward…

“Brother!”

Yang Jian’s foot paused, and along with Spirit Zhenzhu, his neck seemed to rust as he slowly turned his head toward the source of the voice.

Just as Yang Jian was about to open his mouth to explain, Spirit Zhenzhu’s form flashed, using a Witch Tribe battle technique to appear behind Yang Chan’s delicate figure, pressing a finger to her back.

Yang Chan’s eyes rolled back, and Spirit Zhenzhu’s immortal power formed a hammock, “hanging” her between the trees.

“Handled,” Spirit Zhenzhu dusted off his hands, giving Yang Jian a frank look, while Yang Jian’s mouth twitched.

The action was quite decisive indeed.

So this pair of martial brothers rode clouds out of Jade Spring Mountain’s great formation, finding a forested peak several hundred li away, setting up some formations, and lying on two tree branches drinking and having heart-to-heart talks.

However, no matter how Spirit Zhenzhu inquired, Yang Jian wouldn’t open up, only saying he was fine, just that some thoughts weren’t quite clear, and he’d be fine once he figured them out.

After leaving Jade Spring Mountain, Yang Jian did indeed seem much more relaxed.

As they talked back and forth, the two discussed other topics, and unknowingly became somewhat drunk.

Spirit Zhenzhu said: “Why does this wine have such a strong aftereffect…”

Yang Jian couldn’t help but yawn, and though he wanted to lie there and sleep, he thought of something and sat up to meditate.

Just as he was about to dispel the alcohol’s effects, drowsiness came like a tidal wave, overwhelming his dao heart.

Within the formation, snoring arose…

In a certain hidden corner to the side, Li Changshou, Jade Tripod, and True Person Supreme Unity, concealing themselves with the power of the Taiji Diagram, couldn’t help but exchange glances at this moment, revealing slight smiles.

True Person Supreme Unity transmitted: “Drugging one’s disciple, truly worthy of being Star-Lord White Gold.”

Li Changshou smiled indifferently and cautioned: “Senior Brother, don’t make any mistakes later.”

“It’s just reciting a few phrases,” True Person Supreme Unity smiled calmly, “This trick of pretending to be a Western Teaching Saint’s disciple to bewitch Yang Jian’s dao heart and strengthen his obsession is something this poor dao hadn’t thought of.”

—Specifically asking Spirit Zhenzhu to invite Yang Jian to leave Jade Spring Mountain was to make this easier to accomplish, otherwise it would be inexplicable how someone from the Western Teaching could silently bypass True Person Jade Tripod’s vision and break through Jade Spring Mountain’s great formation.

“Yang Jian just can’t see the path ahead clearly, he’s somewhat lost,” Li Changshou looked toward True Person Jade Tripod, “Master Brother, please protect Yang Jian’s dao heart well.”

True Person Jade Tripod smiled without speaking, waving his left hand, and a seven-colored cauldron appeared before the three of them, showing a somewhat blurry scene inside where Yang Jian could be seen meditating in the center of a square platform.

This was…

Yang Jian’s spirit platform!

Li Changshou and True Person Supreme Unity exchanged glances, both feeling utterly speechless.

What does it mean to cherish a disciple?

This is what it means to cherish a disciple!

Monitoring the disciple’s primordial spirit changes at all times, using one’s unique divine abilities to watch over the disciple’s spirit platform, while also fearing the disciple might succumb to heart demons and worrying about the stability of the disciple’s dao heart.

Even using one’s own natal primordial spirit power to form a small green cauldron, floating above the disciple’s primordial spirit, such that without the power to break through Jade Tripod’s primordial spirit, one couldn’t harm Yang Jian’s primordial spirit…

No way, right? No way?

Surely there aren’t masters who don’t use their own natal primordial spirit power to protect their disciples’ primordial spirits?

At least Li Changshou felt he couldn’t do this for Dragon Princess;

True Person Supreme Unity wanted to care for Spirit Zhenzhu this way but was limited by his strength.

True Person Jade Tripod calmly said: “Let’s begin.”

True Person Supreme Unity sat cross-legged, his expression solemn as a red light flew from his forehead, condensing into a phantom form.

Under the concealment of the Taiji Diagram’s power, all this was completed silently.

Just as this phantom was about to fly out of the area covered by the Taiji Diagram’s illusion, a sudden breeze blew through the forest.

Li Changshou reacted fastest, immediately raising his hand to signal True Person Supreme Unity to stop. The three stared intently and saw a wispy phantom floating through the forest.

“Whose divine consciousness?” True Person Supreme Unity frowned and asked.

True Person Jade Tripod’s expression instantly became somewhat gloomy as his left palm swept across the large cauldron illusion before them, and the scene inside the cauldron became extremely clear.

Around Yang Jian’s spirit platform and primordial spirit, a gray-haired old Daoist appeared, slowly floating around Yang Jian’s primordial spirit, blocked outside by the green cauldron above Yang Jian’s primordial spirit.

Li Changshou quickly identified the source of this divine consciousness…

Western Teaching, Empty Bodhi!

True Person Jade Tripod raised his hand and lightly tapped, and in the hearts of the three Dao immortals, the sounds from Yang Jian’s spirit platform simultaneously resonated.

“Yang Jian, have you considered what this poor dao discussed with you last time?”

Yang Jian’s primordial spirit slowly opened its eyes.