Chapter 945 — Asking the Dharma Before the Toad, Seeking the Way Among Men
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
A Daoist is one who cultivates the Way and has few desires; the disciples of the Heavenly Court's Dao Sect merely came to study the sect's arts and methods of calculation, treating it as a place to learn Daoist powers and divine abilities. As for the core of the Dao Sect's teaching, they cared nothing for it at all. They were no true Daoists; rather, the powerful of the Heavenly Court sent their descendants here to be gilded. The Jingping Dao Sect, by contrast, still preserved the core of the teaching that the Dao Ancestor had established when he founded the sect, and upheld it with all its strength; both the old Dao Master of former days and the present Dao Master Lin Xuan had done very well by it.
Of course, there were also some Daoists in the Heavenly Court's Dao Sect who wore Daoist robes, with the bones of the Way and the air of an immortal—but their number was truly too few. Walking along, Shen Mu was filled with emotion. Among monks there are true monks and false monks; among Daoists there are true Daoists and false Daoists.
If one merely puts on the outer garment without inner cultivation, one is nothing but a fraud.
"The true transmission of the Dao Sect is not within the Heavenly Court.
" Shen Mu looked at the young men and women in bright clothes and on fine horses, and thought: 'No wonder the Dao Ancestor does not often return to the Dao Sect. ' Just then a Daoist came hurrying up and whispered a few words to the Heavenly Court's Dao Master. The Heavenly Court's Dao Master nodded slightly and smiled: "Heavenly Venerable, and all of you, the Dao Ancestor has left seclusion.
Hearing of the Heavenly Venerable's visit, he has ordered me to invite you over. Please follow me.
" Shen Mu was delighted, and followed him forward, the others trailing behind.
Yun Chuxiu laughed: "Heavenly Venerable Mu went to visit each of the Heavenly Venerables, and not one of them dared receive him. The Dao Ancestor is bold indeed, to dare meet Heavenly Venerable Mu.
" The Heavenly Court's Dao Master said hurriedly with a smile, "The Dao Ancestor is only the Dao Ancestor of our Dao Sect—how would he dare rank himself with the Heavenly Venerables?
When the Heavenly Venerable comes visiting, how would the Dao Ancestor dare not to see him? " They came to the Dao Sect's main hall.
This main hall stood where the Lingxiao Hall of the Dao Sect's Jade Purity Heavenly Palace should be, yet it had not been built on the Lingxiao Hall's plan.
On the contrary, this main hall was unexpectedly shabby: a Daoist temple built of thatched huts, some six or seven zhang across, with no divine beast guarding the door. Shen Mu saw two toads squatting on the stone steps before the door, one to the left and one to the right.
The two toads seemed to have spirit.
Hearing footsteps, they pushed their eyes out of their heads, slowly lifted their eyelids, glanced at them, and croaked once. Then the two toads slowly drew their eyes back into their heads, covering them up tight and neat.
Yan'er hopped down from Shen Mu's shoulder and tapped her beak on the skull of one of the toads. The toad slowly pushed out its two eyes again and said unhurriedly, "What is it?
" "It can talk! " Yan'er was startled, hopped back two steps, and said warily, "Are you monsters?
" The toad rolled its eyelids and said with displeasure, "Don't you talk too? " "I am different. I am a demigod, and you are a toad!
" Yan'er hopped forward and laughed: "If you were of the common breed, you could not speak—unless you had cultivated into a spirit. " The toad said, "I am the Way, not a toad, so of course I can speak.
" Yan'er was astonished. The Dragon Qilin brought its great head close and asked curiously, "You are the Way?
Who told you that?
" "The old Daoist said so.
" The toad said with a solemn face, "He said the Way is a toad.
He wished to seek the Way, and since he had need of us, he brought us here to make a show for him.
You do not understand.
Withdraw.