682 This Is A Question (1/2)

Haotian wanted to eat, but what to eat was a problem. But no matter what Haotian consumed, there was no need to pay. However, when humans ate, they had to.

The Headmaster had Ning Que settle the bill before bringing him and Sangsang downstairs. They walked around the capital of the Kingdom of Song and went to a Chenjinji Cosmetics Store branch to buy Sangsang some cosmetic powder.

Ning Que felt that his teacher was too good to Sangsang and was unlike the teacher he knew. However, he was entirely occupied with the question and did not think too much about it.

The black horse carriage left the capital of the Kingdom of Song. Moments later, it returned to the verdant Wilderness.

Ning Que looked at the wild grass and sheep on the Wilderness. After thinking for a moment, he said, ”Teacher, can you make it simpler?”

The Headmaster got off the horse carriage and looked at the endless meadow. He said, ”Grass grows in the wild and is nourished by the sun, rain and dew. They take in the essence of the earth so they can grow. This is what they consume.

The Headmaster looked at the sheep in the distance and said, ”Sheep eat grass.”

Then, he pointed at a spot a few dozen miles away and said, ”Look, the wolves there are eating sheep.”

”Then what does Haotian eat?”

Ning Que suddenly thought of Master Lotus' angry tirade at the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine. He thought of Master Qishan's lament in the autumn rain at the Buddhist temple and of the confusion of many elders and asked with a trembling voice, ”People?”

”Sheep cannot eat mud and sunlight directly, so they have to eat grass. Wolves cannot eat grass directly, so they eat sheep. Humans are relatively more capable. We eat almost everything. But in general, when you look at food in layers, each layer has a higher energy and the utilization efficacy of energy increases. So the layer above can only eat the layer of life below it.”

The Headmaster shook his head and said, ”I reckon Haotian replenishes its vitality through the Qi of Heaven and Earth. It cannot consume Qi directly, just like how sheep cannot consume mud and sunlight directly and how wolves cannot eat grass. That is why it needs an intermediary, and that is man.”

Ning Que said, ”That's what I said earlier.”

The Headmaster said, ”Ordinary people don't even know what the Qi of Heaven and Earth is, so how can they change it? That is why we need cultivators to cultivate and raise the Qi of Heaven and Earth to become what nourishes Haotian.”

Ning Que said, ”Do you mean that the Qi of Heaven and Earth is grass and cultivators are like sheep that eat grass who turn the nutrients into something the wolf that is Haotian can absorb?”

The Headmaster said, ”Yes, that's about it.”

Ning Que said, ”The Haotian Taoism classics say that cultivation is a gift to mankind from Haotian. According to your explanation, this gift is a little dark and scary.”

The Headmaster said, ”Of course, Haotian is more picky about food than wolves in the wilderness. After all, it is the highest set of rules in our world. In its eyes, ordinary practitioners are sheep that are tasteless. Those cultivators who have crossed the Five States begin to have their own world and create their own rules. They purify the Qi of Heaven and Earth in nature into their unique essence. By this time, they have become a delicacy in Haotian's eyes.”

Ning Que looked into the Headmaster's eyes and asked, ”What about you?”

”At my stage, I'm of course a delicious sheep.” The Headmaster said smilingly. He continued, ”But just like the relationship between lions and wild cattle, when some bison are too strong, or the herd of bison is too strong, lions would also feel threatened.”

Ning Que had remained calm and had looked at the grass below his feet and the sheep that looked like clouds leisurely while talking with the Headmaster. However, his mood was actually oscillating from one extreme to another. He felt like the boiling mutton hot pot one moment, and then like frozen mutton in the next. He was close to break down and had to keep telling himself that they were having an academic discussion that did not reach into reality before he could continue the conversation.

Academic discussions would eventually lead to reality. After a long silence, he asked the most important question of their discussion so far. ”Teacher, do you have any evidence?”

If there was no evidence, then this was just an academic discussion. He could spread his thoughts to the deepest, most incredible and most eerie places without any psychological burdens. If there was evidence, then this was a cruel and sad story that one cannot bear to listen to, let alone to discuss.

The Headmaster knew how he felt, so he said with a smile, ”This is not a sad story, and it is neither eerie or scary. Over the last thousands of years, the number of the cultivators who could cross the Five States is not as many as the number of sheep humans eat in one day. Humans are scarier than Haotian if we were to discuss eerie or terrifying things.”

Ning Que found it hard to find comfort in his words because he was a human and not a sheep. He opened his eyes wide and looked at his teacher innocently and pitifully, trying to hear the answer from him.

”There is of course no evidence for this kind of things.”

The Headmaster said. Then, he continued without waiting for Ning Que to have a sigh of relief. ”But your Youngest Uncle and I have already proved that Haotian is conscious. It is a form of life similar to and superior to human beings. Therefore, it needs to eat and it is hard for you to deny this conjecture.”

Ning Que looked revolted, similar to a pig to being slaughtered during the new year.

”Cultivation is indeed very difficult, but it is not too difficult considering how many people there are in the world. There would always be some who could cultivate and some who could cross the Five States.”

The Headmaster looked at him and said, ”No matter how rare cultivators who can cross the Five States are; there must be plenty of them over the past millennium. Then, can you tell me where they have gone?”

Ning Que answered, ”Birth, aging, illness and death are common. It's not surprising that they might have died of old age.”

The Headmaster smiled and said, ”I have lived for more than a thousand years. And if I am willing, I can continue to live on. Birth, aging, illness and death are unusual for those of us above the Five States.”

Ning Que felt his mouth dry out and bitterness filled his mouth. After a moment, he asked, ”In the Buddhism Sect, there is Nirvana. In Haotian Taoism, there is the ascension to heaven and becoming immortal. In these stories, have all the people become deities in heaven?”

The Headmaster smiled and said, ”Heaven? Where is that? Where is the divine kingdom of Haotian? Are you still yourself after returning to that world? If you can't be yourself, are you still alive?”

This was a problem Ning Que and Master Qi Shan had discussed before in the Lanke Temple. He knew that there was no solution to the problem. If one thought about it deeply, the answer they would receive would probably point only at the negative aspect.

”Nobody has been to Haotian's divine kingdom and returned. Your Youngest Uncle might have caught a glimpse of it back then, but forgot to leave any message behind. That is why I had no answer to this problem in the past.”

The Headmaster looked at the blue sky and white clouds of the Wilderness, then and said slowly, ”I only saw the answer when I saw the Divine Guard of Light on the golden chariot.”

Ning Que asked, ”Where was the answer?”