Chapter 63 Could there be supreme truth hidden in this mud?
In the northern suburbs of Qingyun City, the scorching sun hung high in the sky.
What was once a desolate wasteland of weeds had now transformed into a bustling, massive construction site for Cultivators.
Tens of thousands of elite Disciples from the Central Province's Zixiao Holy Land had all shed their magnificent robes and changed into coarse linen garments. The True Yuan within their bodies was firmly sealed; they could only rely on their most primitive physical strength to push wheelbarrows, carry timber, and mix mortar.
At the center of the construction site.
Demon Venerable Wanhua wore a tattered straw hat and held a bamboo switch for shooing mosquitoes, looking every bit like a black-hearted foreman.
"Hey, you! Yes, I'm talking to you, the one in the purple underpants!"
Demon Venerable Wanhua tapped a cart full of blue bricks with his bamboo switch and pointed at a formerly high-and-mighty Soul Transformation Stage Elder, cursing, "Didn't you eat lunch? I told you to push the cart, and you're dawdling! These blue bricks were specially ordered by the Young Master from that old kiln outside the city called 'Luo Dao'. They're top-quality bricks! If you chip even a tiny bit, I'll use you to fill the latrine!"
"Yes, yes, yes, Foreman, please calm down. I'll speed up right now!" The Soul Transformation Stage Elder was drenched in sweat, gritting his teeth as he pushed the heavy wheelbarrow so fast it practically flew.
Meanwhile, at the outer wall at the very front of the construction site.
The Mahayana Stage Grand Elder, Lei Mingzi, was squatting by a mud pit. Holding a rusty iron trowel, he mixed mortar with a numb expression.
He was a titan of the Central Province, a being who could once disperse the clouds of a Heavenly Tribulation with a single breath. And now? Because he had no Spiritual Qi to protect them, his hands were covered in bloody blisters from the rough sand and gravel.
"Shame... this is an unprecedented, eternal humiliation for my Zixiao Holy Land!"
Lei Mingzi's heart bled as he stirred the mud with the trowel.
He glanced to the side, where several Void Returning Stage True Disciples were huffing and puffing while carrying roof beams, their tongues hanging out like exhausted dogs.
"Old Ancestor, this mud is too dry! It won't stick to the bricks!" a Disciple, his face covered in dust, ran over to complain.
"Useless! If it's dry, add water!"
Lei Mingzi barked irritably. Subconsciously following the techniques of a Mortal mason, he scooped a ladle of clear water, slowly poured it into the basin of dry yellow mud, and began stirring clockwise with the trowel.
One rotation, two rotations, three rotations.
Initially, Lei Mingzi was just working numbly, his heart full of resentment.
But as he continued to stir, the clear water and yellow mud gradually merged. The originally dry soil became supple and viscous, emitting a pure scent of the earth.
Suddenly, Lei Mingzi's stirring hand stopped.
An unbelievable light suddenly erupted from his cloudy old eyes. He stared fixedly at the clump of freshly mixed mud in the basin, his breathing becoming incredibly rapid.
"Water benefits all things without contention; the Earth carries all things with great virtue..."
Lei Mingzi stared blankly at his mud-stained, blister-covered hands.
In this instant, he seemed to forget that he was a prisoner. His mind was completely immersed in the moment when the water and earth merged.
"I understand... I finally understand!"
Lei Mingzi suddenly stood up, trembling with excitement, completely unaware that the trowel in his hand had fallen to the ground.
"Old Ancestor, what's wrong? Don't scare me!" The Disciple beside him was terrified, thinking the Old Ancestor had been driven mad by the torture.
"Don't call me Old Ancestor! Call me Worker Lei!"
Old tears streamed down Lei Mingzi's face as he grabbed the Disciple's shoulder, his voice fanatical to the extreme. "Look closely at this mud! Look at this wall-building technique!"
He pointed at a section of the blue brick wall that had just been built, his eyes filled with a pilgrimage-like devotion.
"In the past, we cultivated the Dao only knowing how to plunder the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, standing high above. But we forgot that a ten-thousand-foot building rises from the ground! We don't even understand the most basic earth of this world, so how can we talk about ascending to immortality?!"
"That Senior Lin Yuan didn't cripple our cultivation and make us move bricks and mix mud to punish us!"
Lei Mingzi howled toward the sky, tears mixing with mud as they flowed down his cheeks.
"Senior is using the most simple labor of the Mortal World to help us reshape our hollow and superficial Dao Hearts! He is teaching us what it means to be perfectly blended, and what it means to be down-to-earth! What is mixed into this mud is not water, but the Great Dao of Yin and Yang! This is not a wall being built, but our supreme staircase to the path of immortality!"
Boom!
Along with Lei Mingzi's deafening 'top-tier Epiphany'...
The Mahayana Stage Dao foundation within his body, which had been stagnant for thousands of years and was covered in cracks, actually let out a crisp boom at this moment. Those cracks began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming even more solid and radiant than before!
The tens of thousands of Zixiao Holy Land Disciples nearby were all dumbfounded.
They looked at the Old Ancestor's glowing face, which seemed dozens of years younger, and their brains instantly fell into a frenzy of thought.
"The Old Ancestor actually had an Epiphany while mixing mud?!"
"Heavens! Senior making us move bricks is actually granting us a supreme stroke of luck?!"
"Quick! Give me that basket of bricks! I want to carry ten baskets! I want to reshape my Dao Heart!"
"Don't anyone fight me for the mud-mixing job! I feel like I've already touched the threshold of the Void Returning Stage!"
In an instant, the entire atmosphere of the construction site completely changed.
What was originally a lifeless, complaint-filled labor camp directly transformed into an incredibly fanatical cultivation training class.
Those high-and-mighty Elders and Disciples were now fighting until they bled for bricks and mixing mud with eyes full of light. Everyone was frantically experiencing the 'muscle soreness' brought by moving bricks, viewing it as the Great Dao's tempering of their Mortal bodies.
Standing not far away, Demon Venerable Wanhua watched this group of Central Province Cultivators who had suddenly gone mad, their work efficiency increasing more than tenfold. His mouth twitched violently.
"These people's brains... have probably been melted by the sun, haven't they?" Demon Venerable Wanhua shook his head and continued to leisurely drink tea while supervising the work.
Meanwhile, in the small courtyard separated only by a wall.
Lin Yuan was lying on a rocking chair, taking an afternoon nap.
The thunderous slogans of 'moving bricks to comprehend the Dao' from outside the wall were so loud that he rolled over, his brow furrowing slightly.
"This bunch of free labor... if you're going to work, just work. Why shout all those nonsense slogans?"
Lin Yuan rubbed his ears and sighed helplessly. "If I had known that these people could get this excited just being masons, I should have saved myself the trouble of providing that one meal."
He turned his head and looked at his Disciple, Xiao Yuer, who was seriously practicing calligraphy in the courtyard.
"Xiao Yuer, go tell Old Wan later that since those brick-movers outside have so much energy, tonight's dinner will be replaced with steamed corn buns and pickles. Eating more coarse grains will be good for their 'Dao Hearts'."