Chapter 1296 — The Path of Seeking the Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
They pursued madly forward — only to see Lan Yutian and his company suddenly veer away outside the Celestial Venerables' encampment. They had not gone to the Celestial Venerables' camp after all!
Shen Mu was overjoyed and laughed: "He's lost his way again!
" Bai Yuqiong laughed too: "He never knew the roads to begin with!
" The two hurried on, and from the tracks left by Lan Yutian and the others, it was clear that more and more were following him — a hundred-odd before, now a thousand strong! Along the road they even picked up several stragglers.
Shen Mu questioned one of them, and the divine one said, "I do not know how it was, but I simply followed him, muddled and dazed.
Only that following him brought peace to my heart — hearing the sound of the Dao, listening to him preach, I felt both joy and serenity. " Shen Mu asked, "Then why did you fall behind?
" The divine one said, "I had followed them a long while when suddenly I awoke, and found I had come to this place.
I feared he was using sorcery to bewitch us, and so dared not follow further. " Bai Yuqiong did not show herself; hidden deep in space, she said to Shen Mu, "Ask him — after following that man and listening to so much, does he think it was sorcery?
" Shen Mu asked, and the divine one shook his head in confusion, saying, "It was no sorcery. On the contrary, I came to understand a great many things because of it; places where I was once bewildered were suddenly opened clear.
But the more it was so, the more dread I felt, and the less I dared follow further. " "This is a man without the fate for it," Bai Yuqiong said to Shen Mu. Shen Mu nodded, and continued following the tracks of Lan Yutian and his company.
Now and then along the way there were more stragglers.
These divine ones harbored the same misgivings as the one before, and so did not continue to follow Lan Yutian.
Along the route stood many watchtowers of the Celestial Court, and many of the outposts were empty — their men carried off by Lan Yutian. On the road they came upon those bewildered divine ones — some sitting dumbstruck by the water's edge, some lying in the shade of trees, some clutching their heads in bitter thought, some muttering in a low murmur, some sprawled on the ground in loud slumber.
And some were minded to leave Taixu and go home. Shen Mu and Bai Yuqiong looked at each other. These stragglers seemed to have had their very souls dealt a tremendous blow, and had become no longer normal.
And from the tracks upon the ground, the Celestial Court divine ones following Lan Yutian already numbered three thousand!
Shen Mu suddenly sighed, and said in a low voice: "To found a faith, to establish teachings, to render merit — by these three establishments, one becomes a saint.
This founding of a faith and establishing of teachings, Lan Yutian has already accomplished without knowing it.
He is but a single step from the three establishments becoming a saint, as my Celestial Sacred Religion speaks of it. Should he create a cultivation method that benefits all living beings, a system of Dao arts and divine powers that transforms the world, then merit too he will have accomplished. " Bai Yuqiong did not understand his sighing. As the leader of the Celestial Sacred Religion, Shen Mu was deeply shaped by it; founding a faith, establishing teachings, rendering merit, and by these three becoming a saint was well-nigh his lifelong rule, the goal he pursued.
Many had led the Celestial Sacred Religion, yet not one had ever reached this step.
The Woodcutter was the founder of the three establishments becoming a saint, yet he had not accomplished the three; he wished to create a method whereby the acquired Dao might attain the divine. But his aim was too vast — three hundred and sixty trades, three hundred and sixty kinds of great Dao, and by them he sought to cultivate an incomparably grand system of an acquired Celestial Court, bringing grace to all living beings.