Chapter 193: Enlightenment
"Hand it over." A man said.
Jiang Yue looked at the man and raised his right eyebrow. He pretended he didn’t know what the person was talking about and waited for him to continue.
"Don’t pretend you don’t know what I am talking about."
"Do I know you, or am I a worm in your stomach? Why should I know what you are talking about?" Jiang Yue sneered and didn’t intend to back down.
"You..."
"This fellow Daoist, this is the secret realm of our Lu family, and this cave belongs to our ancestor." Another voice interjected.
"So?"
"Everything in this secret realm belongs to our Lu family." The first voice stated.
"As I remember, your family only needs three thousand kilogrammes of gravity stones..." He trailed, but everyone understood what he meant.
Since the Lu family only needed three thousand kilogrammes of gravity stones, everything else was free to take.
If it wasn’t, the Lu family could only blame itself for not making it clear.
"You are Yeying, right?" A calm voice asked.
"So what?"
"Do you think it’s possible to take away the treasures of my Lu family?"
When Jiang Yue heard that, his eyes narrowed.
He understood the threat and was prepared for the consequences when he rushed out of the pit.
However, Jiang Yue was not willing to compromise.
If he compromised and took out something to appease the Lu family, they would still suspect him.
’Since they can’t be appeased, I should go all out to provoke them.’ He thought, and a wicked smile curled his lips.
In the next moment, a pipa appeared in his hand, and one of the Lu family burst out in laughter.
"Yeying, if we want to listen to one of your stories, we will go to the Black Wind teahouse." He spoke in disdain.
In fact, he frequently listened to Yeying at the teahouse.
However, his mind was normal, and he knew when to separate matters.
"Don’t waste our time, take out the treasure."
"How will you divide it?" Jiang Yue’s voice was ethereal, and he lightly strummed the pipa.
"There is only one treasure, but there are thirteen of you." He continued, and the Lu family members felt a haze enter their minds.
The image of a golden egg appeared in their minds, and its glow illuminated their souls.
A surging desire rose from their souls and spread to every part of their being. Their eyes reddened, and killing intent permeated from their bodies.
Soon after, a growl resounded in the chamber.
"You dare to covet my treasure?" A voice echoed, and a sabre appeared in the speaker’s hand.
Without hesitation, he swung it towards one of his clanmates, but the opponent had also drawn his spear.
When he saw this, Jiang Yue smiled, and his eyes turned a little glassy. He continued strumming the pipa as an ethereal sound floated out of his mouth.
What followed was chaos.
The Lu family members were convinced that their clansmen were enemies trying to steal their treasures and the enemies had to be eliminated.
In this way, they killed each other until Jiang Yue was the only one left in the room.
Although the massacre was ruthless, Jiang Yue did not regret his actions.
The Lu family members were determined to rob him, and there was no way to stop them. Even if he managed to avoid them until the secret realm closed, the exit was in the Lu family residence.
Jiang Yue did not know the specific details of the Lu family, but he knew there were many cultivators in the family.
No matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t deal with a crowd of enemies.
Although he could use the golden talisman to teleport to Yu Nianzhen, Jiang Yue did not want to do so.
On one hand, he couldn’t be sure of his lover’s situation in the black wind abyss. If he randomly appeared beside him, they could both fall into a dangerous situation.
This was the last thing Jiang Yue wanted to see, so he chose to be ruthless to his would-be robbers.
"Kindness to enemies is cruelty to myself." He muttered and put the pipa away.
He collected the storage artefacts of the dead cultivators and released his beast fire to eliminate evidence.
When that was done, he walked to the cultivation mat and stared at it solemnly.
Rather than sit down, he tried to move the mat but was instead pulled onto it.
’As expected.’ He sighed and accepted that the mat could not be taken away.
In resignation, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
As soon as he closed his eyes, Jiang Yue felt like he was pulled into the heavens.
The stars were shining brightly, but before he could enjoy the scenery, the world around him began to dim.
Shortly after, all the stars disappeared, and he was surrounded by a profound feeling of nothingness.
In the next moment, an ancient voice resounded all around him.
"The Tao gave birth to one." The voice started, and the nothingness turned into a chaotic grey.
Jiang Yue was standing in the grey, and thousands of thoughts rushed into his mind.
’Chaos...’ He thought.
From this thought, he inferred many things.
Seemingly random, Jiang Yue thought of XiaoLan, and a blue illusion butterfly appeared in the chaos.
’Chaos beast?’
After that, more things appeared in the chaos. He saw a black dragon, his yin-yang flame, the tree of life, and many things he couldn’t name.
’The tao gave birth to chaos, but the chaos was not empty.’ He concluded just in time to hear the voice again.
"One gave birth to two,
Two gave birth to three,
And three gave birth to ten thousand things.
Everything carries yin and embraces yang,
Yin and yang blend together to birth harmony."
As the voice spoke, Jiang Yue saw the opening of chaos and the creation of all things.
In this creation, he felt a grand design. The grand design was a starting point but also an ending.
’Is it the tao?’ He thought.
From what he understood, the tao was the start of everything but also the ending.
There were countless things in the world, and each of these things represented a path from, and to the tao.
This meant there were countless ways to achieve the tao.
After coming to this conclusion, Jiang Yue felt a change in his mood, but he knew his understanding was superficial.
However, he wasn’t in a hurry.
He could sit on the mat for seven days, and when his time ended, he would restart the process.
’I hope no one else will come to the cavern.’ He thought and took it for granted that he could cultivate on the mat again after the initial seven days.
After listening for a long time, Jiang Yue became enlightened.
’Although there are many paths to the tao, the best and most straightforward is the path represented by the origin tool.’ He thought, and fireworks burst in his head.
He remembered the blue illusion butterfly he saw when the tao gave birth to chaos, and his heart skipped a beat.
Although his origin was a moon pearl and not a blue illusion butterfly, their meaning was the same.
The blue illusion butterfly was the living representation of illusions, while the moon pearl was inanimate.
When he thought about it this way, an elusive idea began to form at the back of Jiang Yue’s mind.
He didn’t know what the idea was or what it led to, but it produced a strange resonance with his soul.
While Jiang Yue reasoned and tried to grab the idea, the tao te ching kept sounding in his mind.
The same scenes of creation played out in his mind, and after watching it many times, Jiang Yue had an idea.
From the beginning, he observed the overall image and didn’t focus on any one thing. This time, he wanted to see if he could find his moon pearl and track its trajectory from birth to death.
Jiang Yue didn’t know if he could do it, but he had a feeling that the benefits of doing so would be immeasurable.
With that thought in mind, Jiang Yue focused on the images formed by the tao te ching.
At first, he thought his moon pearl was at the same level as the blue illusion butterfly. In that case, it should appear among the things that existed in chaos before the world opened.
However, this was not the case.
Jiang Yue soon discovered that he didn’t see any weapons in the chaos. There were no swords or spears, and naturally, there were no moon pearls.
Although he didn’t know what this meant, Jiang Yue felt it was important. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how or why it was so.
Without a choice, he found the blue illusion butterfly and focused on its evolution from tao to tao.
’It’s also illusion related, and my contract beast is a descendant.’ He thought.
