Chapter 1 Ink Painting


    The 10th day of September in the year of the 2022nd month.


    Tongxian City, Tongxianmen Outside Mountain.


    The ten-year-old Mo Hua was wearing a simple Taoist robe of an outer disciple, squatting boredly behind a huge rock at the foot of the mountain, holding a grass root in his hand, and burying his head on the ground with complex patterns.


    At the time of the Mao period, the disciples of the sect went up the mountain one after another, talking and laughing together.


    A fat man wearing an outer door-style Taoist robe with precious jade ornaments, with a fat face and eyes, accompanied by two or three followers, found an ink painting that was happily painting behind the stone.


    The little fat man looked left and right, and found that there was no sect teaching, so he shrank his head and shouted:


    “Ink painting!”


    The ink painting looked up, revealing her handsome little face, and her eyes were clear as if she was scooping a pool of clear water.


    The little fat man whispered: "Is it done?"


    The 10-year-old man in the ink painting patted his chest, "I''m doing my business, don''t worry." After saying that, he took out a few pieces of formation from the storage bag behind him, and handed it to the fat man with white paper and red ink.


    "See if there is anything wrong with it."


    The little fat man solemnly took it, opened the copy, took a serious look, and then said with a bitter face:


    "I can''t understand..."


    Ink Painting patiently explained:


    "The homework assigned by the teacher is the basic array pattern of the Five Elements Formation. I have drawn it for you and made it wrong six points to prevent the teacher from seeing that these array patterns were not drawn by you..."


    “Six places…are you a little more wrong…”


    Mo Hua looked at him silently.


    The fat man immediately realized his mistake and reflected:


    "You can''t be too greedy. It would be nice if I could hand over the homework assigned by the teacher. If you do it too well, it would make people suspicious. Once you are discovered by the teacher, let my father know that he will definitely beat me hard. It will not be worth the loss, but it will not be worth the loss..."


    Mo Hua nodded and said, "I am worthy of being Young Master An. I figured it out so quickly!"


    The little fat man stuffed two spirit stones into Mo Hua''s hand, "Brother Mo, you have a good vision and know I''m smart! I''ll give you the spirit stones. I''ll find you next time I teach you the formation homework!"


    After saying that, he put the formation in his arms and ran up the mountain.


    Ink painting carefully packed the two spirit stones, pulled out a piece of grass roots again, and continued to draw them on the ground.


    A moment later, another thin young man shaking a golden paper fan came. He looked mean and had more jade pendants on his body.


    Mo Hua also gave him a pair of array pictures. The thin young master glanced at the array pictures and gave the servant a wink. The servant came forward to take it and handed the two spirit stones to Mo Hua.


    The thin young master took the formation diagram, but he didn''t leave. He suddenly put up a paper fan and said arrogantly: "I am also very good at formations, but I don''t have the time to do these basic formations, so I let you write for you."


    Mo Hua didn''t bother with him, so he picked up the grass roots and continued to draw them on the ground.


    The Skinny Young Master was a little annoyed and sneered, "It is said that among the early stages of Tongxian Sect Qi Refining, you are the one who draws the best formation. I wonder how you compare with this young master. If you have time, let''s compete?"


    Mo Hua thought you asked me to help you write the formation homework. How good are you?


    However, following the principle of harmony and wealth, Mo Hua still raised her head and picked up nice words and praised:


    "Of course, the young master''s formation attainments are much higher. The Qian family is the largest clan in Tongxian City, and the formation inheritance is not comparable to other monks."


    The thin young master looked slightly clear and asked again: "Then tell me, among the early stages of Tongxian Sect Qi Refining, who can compare with me in the formation level?"


    “However, there is…”


    The thin young master was unhappy, "Who are they?"


    "For example, I..." Of course, Mo Hua would not say such words foolishly.


    "It''s a little too many, I can''t count it for a while."


    The thin young man was obviously angry.


    "This is a good thing!" Mo Hua opened her eyes and said lies.


    The thin young master sneered, "The family background is not better than me, there are not as many spirit stones as me, but the formation is higher than me. There are many such people. Do you want to say that I am stupid and can''t compare to others? What''s the best thing about this?"


    Mo Hua said: "No matter how talented the monks in Tongxian City are, no matter how well they learn, they still have to go to the Qian family''s Wanbao Building to refine weapons, alchemy and draw formations for your Qian family..."


    "You think, as soon as you cultivate qi, there will be foundation-building cultivators who do things for you. If you are only a first-grade formation master, there will be a second-grade formation master who obeys your orders. How powerful is this! The stronger the cultivators under your command, the greater your ability!"


    The thin young man was stunned, and then suddenly realized, "It seems to make some sense!"


    The thin young master nodded, looked at the monks at the foot of the mountain, and his neck raised higher:


    "Not bad! Not bad! No matter how talented you are and how hard you practice, you will still have to be a good person for my Qian family in the end?"


    Mr. Qian, who had a mean face, said that, and left with his head held high.


    After fooling the Qian family''s son away, Mo Hua then practiced the formation on the ground with grassroots.


    After a while, several rich monks came over and handed over the goods. They used the spirit stone to buy several formations from Mo Hua. After Mo Hua''s hand-written formation was traded, he had twelve spirit stones in his hand.


    Twelve spirit stones are already a lot for casual cultivators, but they are still far from enough for practicing Taoism.


    Mo Hua sighed, and there was a hint of helplessness on her young face.


    Low-level monks, there is no hope of practicing Taoism...


    In the first year of Daoli, more than 20,000 years ago, the largest force in the Taoist world, the Dao Court, unified the nine provinces of Taoist cultivation, enthroned aristocratic families and sects, established a unified rank system, and standardized the level of Taoist cultivation.


    The Dao Court also promulgated the "Dao Law" to restrict monks so that monks should not be killed indiscriminately, robbed, or supplemented.


    The world of cultivating has developed with this, and has been in full swing for more than 20,000 years, with an extremely prosperous and vast territory, with no billions of monks.


    However, the Taoist court was prosperous and prosperous, with aristocratic families singing and eating, and the sect was dominant.


    Only the scattered cultivators at the bottom have no place to rely on, have a difficult life, and have no hope of practicing Taoism.


    The world of cultivation has been reborn for more than 20,000 years, and mortals without spiritual roots are gradually eliminated naturally. The rest are monks with spiritual roots who can practice Taoism. But the more monks, the more spiritual energy they consume, and the more spiritual energy they consume between heaven and earth.


    Nowadays, if a monk wants to practice Taoism, he must not only pass on the inheritance, but also have spirit stones.


    However, the large family occupied the spiritual mines, and the spiritual stones of the scattered cultivators at the bottom were scarce, and the sects monopolized the inheritance, and ordinary scattered cultivators had no way to practice Taoism.


    In Tongxian City, most of the casual cultivators have neither inheritance nor spiritual stones. They can only be cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm throughout their lives.


    The Qi Refining Realm is just a humble ant under the vast heavenly way.


    And ink painting is one of these hundreds of millions of ants.


    And it is very likely that it will be for the rest of your life!


    The tender face of the ink painting is slightly bitter.


    The way of heaven may be equal, but practicing Taoism is absolutely unequal...


    Mo Hua is a casual cultivator in the second level of Qi Refining. He came from a casual cultivator family in the Qi Refining Realm. Both his parents are in the Qi Refining Realm.


    My father Moshan made a living by hunting monsters. He needed to fight with monsters all day long and was covered in scars. My mother was helping the kitchen in the kitchen building, and was invaded by the fire of the stove, and her lungs were often hurt and coughed.


    And all the spirit stones that my parents saved were just to allow Mo Hua to enter the outer sect of Tongxianmen to practice.


    But no matter how much I practice Mo Hua, although the spiritual roots of the middle and lower grades are slightly better than ordinary people, they are destined to be just an ordinary member of the world of genius.


    No matter how much you practice, you may be just a cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm.


    The family is in a difficult situation, without spirit stones, ink painting can only be like ordinary disciples. They have reached the sixth level of Qi refining and then left the sect, and then find ways to learn craftsmanship to make a living.


    But ink painting is born weak!


    The weapons and demon hunting that monks in the Qi Refining Stage rely on for their living are usually only for strong physical cultivation. Ink paintings with innate weakness may not even be able to find a job to make a living.


    If you marry and have children in the future, the burden will be increased, and all the spirit stones will be used to support the family.


    If ink painting does not have spiritual stone cultivation, its cultivation will stagnate forever and will be just a qi-refining cultivator for the rest of your life.


    Like all the poor casual cultivators in Tongxian City.


    Like the hundreds of millions of lower-level monks in this world of cultivation.


    Life is just a refining energy!


    Ten-year-old Mo Hua sighed, calmed down and entered the sect to attend class. After practicing for a day, Mo Hua returned to his disciple''s residence, read the Taoist scriptures, and then lay on the bed at midnight.


    When the ink painting closed its eyes, a broken monument appeared in the sea of ??consciousness.


    There are no words on the residual stele, but it seems that the name of the stele is known from the first glance from the ink painting:


    Taoist monument!


    (This chapter ends)