Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 32: Hastening on the Journey All the Same

Chapter 32: Hastening Upon the Journey All the Same

Liu Province

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TL: In the prologue chapter, I mistranslated the name for the character that I called “Luo Han” at the time. The proper name should be Arhat Luoyin. Arhat is a title given to the perfected followers of Buddha who have gained insight into the true nature of existence and reached the state of nirvana (spiritual enlightenment), which is basically the main goal of a Buddhist. Also, Formless Territory → Formless Realm, and Heavenly Sea Border Territory → Heavenly Ocean Territory. In this novel, the word for stage/realm (cultivation level), realm (world), and territory are all the same character in Chinese, so it can be hard to tell. It may be helpful to go back and read the prologue chapter, the events happening here are consistent with what happened in that chapter, just told from a different perspective.

20,000 years ago, in the Three Realms of the Golden Crow, the Qingluo Palace was floating above the endless sea of clouds that made up the Formless Realm. The palace halls stretched forever into the distance, pervaded with Buddhist aura. Golden lotuses bloomed all over the place and Sanskrit sounds teased the ears endlessly.

The space inside the palace was like a world of its own, tall enough to encompass the heavens and just as limitless in width. In such a lofty and stately place, there was a man who exceeded the limits of description. He was dressed in golden Buddhist robes, and a radiant golden halo floated behind his head, scattering prismatic light that shined throughout the ages.

The Buddhist aura surrounding him was profound, and he was seated upon a lotus seat with a thousand leaves. When his eyes opened and closed, the gaze within seemed to embody all the living things in the world while also containing an unfathomable void. His eyes seemed to reflect the birth and destruction of countless worlds.

Seated below him were ten arhats, and the first among them was a senior arhat named Panthaka. At this moment, he stepped forward and put his hands together, giving a Buddhist salute to the person seated upon the thousand-leaved lotus seat upon high. “Venerable One, Arhat Luoyin has already arrived at the Heavenly Ocean Territory.”

When he finished speaking, a Buddhist aura began to revolve in his palm, and in the blink of an eye it began to emit magnificent rays of light that illuminated the interior of the Qingluo Palace. Eventually, the rays of light formed into a massive screen of light. Projected on the screen was a scene taking place in the Heavenly Ocean Territory showing a man wearing a golden white dragon robe, walking on the surface of the ocean.

The extremely lofty, venerable man seated upon the thousand-leaved lotus seat simply nodded. He then freely moved his finger around, releasing a very fine stream of golden light from his hand.

Although the golden light was small, it began to grow in size, and by the time it left the Qingluo Palace, it had already transformed into a sphere of golden light that gave off enough radiance to illuminate the entire pristine sea of clouds.

It was always daytime in the Formless Realm since it was one of the Three Realms of the Golden Crow, and was established on one of the three supreme, almighty suns by means of great dharmic power. In the bodhimanda situated on top of the sun, there were countless living beings receiving enlightenment, belonging to the Formless Realm.

The Formless Realm had one billion Buddhist disciples, and at this moment the countless living beings all witnessed a beam of golden light splitting open the walls of the realm, disappearing into the distance hundreds of millions of li away.

The golden light left the great sun, shooting directly towards the Heavenly Ocean Realm with brilliant momentum. When this happened, the almighty beings in the Three Realms of the Golden Crow all had their own reactions.

Some shook their heads while others sighed in silence, and somewhere in the Three Realms of the Golden Crow, there was even someone who spat, “That son of a bastard dragon. In the end he’s just an uncivilized aboriginal, not even worthy of enlightenment. The venerable Formless Bodhisattva is just too biased towards him.”

There was a person beside him who cut in, “The venerable Formless Bodhisattva’s dharmic power is known by all. Even among the Three Bodhisattvas of the Realms, it ranks near the top. If you mention his name, he can sense it within the range of 100 million li, so watch your tongue!”

That person responded with a disapproving smile, “If the venerable Formless Bodhisattva really cared about the discussions of such small beings, then the fruits of his millions of years of cultivation would have been wasted on him.”

The person next to him turned pale with fright, not even bothering to say that he bad-mouthed the Bodhisattva. He simply turned into light and flew off as fast as he could, resolving in his heart to never get involved with this person ever again.

Time went on, although there was no concept of time for these living beings who had transcended the concept of worldliness. But for regular living beings, not to mention 10,000 years, even 100 years was an extremely long amount of time, more than enough for a lifetime.

In the fields, there was an old farmer laboring away. The sun began to set, casting forth the colors of an extremely beautiful magenta sunset.

The old farmer wiped the sweat from his brow, putting down his hoe to look up at the colors of the sky. Speaking to his old wife next to him, he said, “Dear wife, it looks like the gods are granting me a great harvest this year. After paying tax to the Wang Clan, it looks like our Bai family will have at least half a year’s worth of provisions left.”

The woman’s face was wrinkled with age, but it was clear that when she was young, she was extremely pretty. Hearing what he said, she smiled and nodded, then took a rag and helped to wipe the dirt off the face and neck of the old farmer. “Hu’er has also reached the age to get married and settled down. Last time the matchmaker from the landlord Liu family came over, she said that she could help set him up if he’s willing.”

Just as the old farmer was about to reply, he suddenly saw a massive white cloud flying over his head about 300 meters above him. It was moving quickly through the sunset afterglow on high, leaving the old farmer completely dumbstruck. “Dear, look at the sky.”

The woman took a look and replied, “What’s so alarming about it? If the wind blows, the clouds will move, that’s all.”

The old farmer rubbed his eyes, and he found that in such a short time, that massive white cloud had already floated far off into the distance.

He didn’t dwell on it, and under the care of his wife, he packed up his farming tools and prepared to return home.

That white cloud was none other than the Spirit Cloud belonging to Daoist Lord Shangyuan. The party of people had already departed from the Anyang Region, leaving for the Central Imperial Province.

The cloud was around 15 meters in radius, and was very fast. It could also fly at a high altitude, and conveniently had a thin, transparent protective cover over the top of it to block the wind and rain.

Su had washed up and changed into a set of satin clothes. He could be considered to be a tender, good-looking youth, and he was younger than Xu Disheng, at around 11 or 12 years old, so he had already changed his way of address for him to ‘Senior Martial Brother’. “Senior Martial Brother Sheng, isn’t this also your first time riding on a cloud? Why are you not excited in the least?”

When Su saw the calm and indifferent look on Xu Disheng’s face, he felt gloomy, and had a hard time getting excited all by himself. From time to time, he would go to the edge of the cloud and press his face to the protective cover, oohing and aahing as he watched the scenery go by.

Su didn’t dare to disturb the three Daoist Lords, but he always wanted to be close to Xu Disheng, so Su was always making a fuss around him.

When he thought about what happened to him recently, he couldn’t even find words to describe it. He was originally a beggar, but the experiences he went through in the last few days had overturned his entire life, which ultimately caused his temperament to change a bit.

Before he left, he went to go pick up his older sister, who had been begging on the streets by showing off her skills. With a casual order from Daoist Lord Shangyuan, she was given a house in the Anyang Region, some maids, and some belongings. As for himself, who had always been a lowly beggar, he now was clothed in an entire outfit of embroidered satin, sitting upon a cloud to embark upon his path as a profound cultivator.

His destiny had been completely altered in such an unexpected manner, so it made sense for him to have some changes in his temperament. As such, he silently examined Xu Disheng, learning from his mannerisms. He also sat down cross-legged and began to absorb the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, transforming it into Shangqing Profound Qi.

In the last few days, Daoist Lord Shangyuan had already helped him cultivate a single strand of profound qi, just like Xu Disheng had to do at the very start.

Although they were at more than 300 meters in altitude, the sky wasn’t devoid of living creatures. From time to time, there were vultures, cranes, and wild geese flying by. Looking further, there were villages and hamlets dotting the landscape, interspersed with vast expanses of farmland. In the far distance, the vague, towering outline of a gigantic city came into view. They had already left the Eastern Qin Province, and were about to enter the territory of the Liu Province.

This gigantic city was known as the Jiujiang Region, and it served as the border region of Liu Province.

Xu Disheng was still in the middle of cultivating when he heard Daoist Lord Shangyuan’s saying, “Senior Martial Brothers, how about we rest in Jiujiang Region tonight?”

Daoist Lord Qingyu replied, “I, just like other profound cultivators, don’t need to eat or drink. We can just continue traveling through the night.”

Daoist Lord Shangyuan was at a loss. He came to the Secret Realms to live a comfortable life, and at no time was he willing to strain himself.

Nevertheless, it was Daoist Lord Qingxin who helped save him from this situation. “Senior Martial Brother, this isn’t the sect, so what need is there to be so strict? You’ve been here for 100 years already, but you haven’t changed one bit,” he said with a smile. He then turned around and looked at Xu Disheng and Su before continuing, “Plus, Sheng’er and Junior Martial Brother Shangyuan’s disciple still need to eat and drink. There’s still more than half a year until the Secret Realm Envoy from Wenyuan Mountain arrives, so there’s no need to be so rushed. Let’s just travel during the day and rest at night.”

Footnotes

This name is the same as one of the legendary recorded in real Buddhist history.

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