In Shu Mountain, cultivators generally start by cultivating their Primordial Spirit to form a Nascent Soul. A newly born Nascent Soul is as tender and fragile as an infant, easily losing its way if it strays too far from the body. It depends on successive cultivation to mature, and only when it has matured can it ascend to the Spiritual Space Immortal Realm, thus becoming a Heavenly Immortal, like Lu Rongbo.

If one could ascend with the physical body, they would become a Golden Immortal, such as Master Changmei.

If the body is lost before the Nascent Soul is formed, leaving only the Divine Soul, and one chooses not to reincarnate but continues to cultivate in this soul state, they become a Ghost Immortal, like Yuan Hua.

If the Nascent Soul is formed but, for various reasons, cannot ascend, remaining forever on earth eternally undying, then they are an Earth Immortal.

This is the sequence of cultivation, and the heights of one's Dao Level are reflected here. The strength of one's mana isn't directly related. There are those like Master Chi Zhang, who entered the path during the Tang Dynasty and has remained an Earth Immortal without ascending, his mana having reached the level of a Golden Immortal. His disciples also have yet to ascend and remain Earth Immortals, but their mana is at the level of Heavenly Immortals.

Take for instance Elder Kuzhu of the two great hermits of the vast wilderness, who is an Earth Immortal, but a son of the Green Emperor who fell to the Human World from the Immortal Realm. Despite being demoted and repeatedly challenged in duels, in an attempt to drive him out and take over Wuzhong Ridge by the Immortals themselves, they were unsuccessful. Though the son of the Green Emperor, now a Fallen Immortal, with much of his Dao Level reduced, his mana lies between that of a Golden Immortal and a Heavenly Immortal, and still, he could not overcome Elder Kuzhu.

Earth Immortals may not ascend, and while in the Human World, they face earthly tribulations every thirteen hundred years. Even Master Chi Zhang finds them somewhat difficult; they are indeed extremely formidable. However, after ascending, there is also a downside. One must follow the Heavenly Emperor's edict, and be assigned an Immortal office. Here, Dao Level is all that matters. The higher the Dao Level, like that of a Golden Immortal, the greater the power of the Immortal office. The lower the Dao Level, like that of Lu Rongbo, or Elder Xue Xue, the more likely one is to be assigned menial duties.

But regardless, they still belong to the Immortals, with an element of carefreeness about them. As long as they do their jobs well, life is still quite leisurely.

The Divine Dao differs from the Immortal Path in that it relies on human incense offerings. One must aid the devout, sometimes facing tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, praying simultaneously. One prays for wealth, another for promotion; one moment there's illness to cure, the next a child to be born. Amidst these myriad trivialities, once an incense connection is established, their prayers start drilling into one's head.

The higher one's Cultivation and Dao Level, the stronger the ability to hear the devotees' hearts, hearing them with greater clarity…

When Shi Feiyang was at Dinghu Peak, a Dragon King Temple was established for him, and the prayers would directly infiltrate his consciousness during meditation, utterly unavoidable and inescapable.

When leaving Dinghu Peak, he cast a spell to inform the villagers that if they wanted to save their children, they must build a temple dedicated to Prince Xie and two Saintesses before his seat, by the names of Xie Ying and Xie Lin.

Eager to save their children, many people immediately set to work. In their rush, unable to build a new temple, they relocated the statue of the Dragon King and the two generals, the tortoise and the snake, to their courtyards, and commissioned a statue of a middle-aged man with two little girls to be placed inside.

Whether the statues actually resembled their subjects didn't matter. What was important was the direction of the devotees' thoughts.

If the Xie sisters had absolutely no connection with the children, the whole endeavor would not have succeeded. It's not possible for villagers to merely think of someone and have their prayers answered. The fact is, the Xie sisters were indeed involved in the matter, and it was due to their actions on the karmic thread that Yue Qinyin was released, resulting in the tragic demise of the remaining children, with the souls of those who died earlier being captured.

The sisters were deeply entwined in the karmic consequences. In the karmic thread, Shi Feiyang, who had good intentions to save people, ended up becoming an outsider to the situation.

With cause and effect, the villagers chanted the names of Prince Xie from Xie Shan, Saintesses Xie Ying and Xie Lin, burning incense and praying devoutly every day, creating an atmosphere of resonance and response.

Although Xie Shan had powerful mana and was an Independent Immortal, he had profound accumulated wisdom from his past as a deeply meditative Big Monk.

When Shi Feiyang left, Xie Ying and Xie Lin were trapped inside Dinghu Peak, unable to escape no matter what, and finally knew fear. They prayed earnestly in the lake to their father. Xie Shan felt the response in his heart and rushed to rescue them. After understanding the whole situation, he was very angry and scolded his daughters severely. The two girls then clung to his legs, pleading and behaving charmingly. When their father's anger didn't subside, they burst into tears, telling him they had been abandoned in the snow right after birth and so on.

Xie Shan couldn't bear to truly punish them, so he brought the two of them back to Jinchun Valley at Immortal Mountain. This time, he cast a spell to thoroughly seal the valley, forbidding them from leaving, and sternly admonishing them to cultivate well within. They were to wait until several decades later, when they turned one hundred and ten years old, before they could leave. At that time, they were to rescue the children who had died because of them, no matter if they had become humans, ghosts, or beasts, one by one from the sea of suffering, only then would their trials be considered complete.

After finishing, Xie Shan ignored the two women's pleas and cries, returning alone to Wuyi Mountain to continue his seclusion and meditation.

He had never expected that the Demon Dragon inside Dinghu Peak would be so shameless as to have the villagers build a temple for it. That day, he was deep in meditation, practicing intensely; suddenly, he smelled the odor of pig-head meat. Following it was the scent of fruits, pickled vegetables, and even the poor quality of incense sticks, all of which reached his nose; he thought he had entered the Demon Realm.

When cultivators encounter such a situation, regardless of whether they follow Buddhism or Daoism, the correct response is not to get agitated and try to suppress the demon. By getting agitated with the intent of demon-suppressing, one immediately falls into the Demon Realm, trapped within it. The proper course of action is to keep watch and observe, but not to act upon any arising thoughts. It's like when a thief enters one's home, one should not fight him directly; instead, one watches quietly. After being observed for a while, the thief will leave on his own...

That's what Xie Shan did, kept watching, and then he heard the villagers' prayers.

At first, he didn't take it to heart—the villagers were praying to Xie Wang, a title no one had used for him before. He didn't think it was addressing him, instead thinking it was an illusion created by a Yin Demon showing him villagers praying at the temple. To him, such low-level demon illusions were too weak; he was not the type to crave fame and fortune, and wouldn't feel joy from being called "Xie Wang," nor would he feel proud due to worship. It was foolish for a Yin Demon to try to tempt him with such methods...

But later, he gradually realized something was wrong, because he heard the villagers shouting out the Saintess's name, Xie Ying and Xie Lin; weren't those the two unfortunate children under his care?!

Still, he thought it was the work of a Yin Demon, all illusions; he continued to ignore it, simply observing... But the more he watched, the deeper the connection grew; he entered a deep meditative state for seven days and nights, until at last, the rotten smell of pig-head meat seemed to stuff his nostrils, and the voices of the villagers directly pleaded in his mind.

Finally unable to endure it, he opened his eyes, breaking the meditative state, and all sensations disappeared. He laughed at himself, "It was indeed an illusion of the Demon Realm; pity, I couldn't persevere to the end. Alas, it's still because my meditative steadiness is not profound enough. This time, I must persist until all demons are extinguished!"

So he entered meditation again, and at an even faster speed, he smelled the stench of spoiled pig-head meat again... He kept telling himself these were all illusions of the Yin Demon. He shouldn't cling to it and continued to observe impassively... He thought the "Demon Realm would extinguish itself," but unexpectedly it became "Devil Thought growing stronger with each day." He assumed it was due to his insufficient meditative power, forcibly suppressing his body and mind from reacting.

After many days of such torment, he finally... suffered a setback in his practice; the blood and energy in the lower half of his body reversed their natural course, the Essence Energy within his Dantian became uncontrollable, chaotically rampaging throughout his body, and ultimately, he lost all sensation from the waist down, his body as rigid as rock, realizing something was amiss.

At that time, Zen Master Tian Meng had not yet recognized him, and many things from his past life were sealed away. He didn't know he had a Zen master as an older fellow disciple; he liked peace and tranquility by nature, had few friends in his life, and among those close to Immortal Mountain, Cui Wu had already undergone Soldier Disintegration and reincarnated, Ye Bin was far in Little Antarctic, and Divine Nun Master Ren of Little Han Mountain was a Buddhist nun who was practicing "Iron Bars Gate" and would not leave until she had broken through the barrier of emotion; the only hope was Jile Perfected, Li Jingxu.

He urgently sent a Flying Sword Transmission to Li Jingxu who came quickly to rescue him, using Spirit Pills and casting Immortal Law to restore his Primordial Qi, enabling him to walk again.

Li Jingxu was already at the level of a Golden Immortal, but he stayed in the Human World because of his attachment to his wife and cousin, still counted as an Earth Immortal. If he did not ascend, he would face his own major tribulation of a thousand three hundred years.

His Daoist power was exceedingly refined and extraordinary; swiftly, he helped Xie Shan deduce the cause and effects of the situation. Upon finding out, Xie Shan was infuriated, stomping angrily, and hurried to the shores near the Niweng Cave at Dinghu Peak, where he saw his own Xie Wang Temple. Li Jingxu laughed heartily at the sight, unable to stop for a while.

Xie Shan quickly told the villagers to stop their worship. The villagers, upon seeing the two descend from the heavens, one a Daoist with an immortal bearing, handsome and elegant, with a young boy in a goose-yellow shirt and wearing a golden collar next to him, were convinced their sincere prayers over so many days had finally moved Xie Wang. He had descended with a divine child to save the suffering souls. They knelt down, bowing repeatedly like pounding garlic, crying and begging Xie Wang to save their children.

Xie Shan told the villagers, "Your children were destined to face this tribulation, their lifespans were not meant to be long. Although my children are somewhat responsible, that is the way of the Heavenly Number. I have already told them, once they have successfully cultivated, they will come to rescue them from suffering and return them to the Human Path."

The villagers asked, "Xie Wang, how much longer do your children need to master their spells? Our little dog has been taken many days ago, I'm afraid we cannot wait any longer, with your high level of mana, and with the divine child accompanying you, why not go rescue them now?"

Seeing that the villagers hadn't understood what he was saying, Xie Shan helplessly replied, "Your children are already dead! Otherwise, I would have gone to rescue them. When I came earlier, I had already calculated—if there were any alive, would have rescued them then..."

"Already dead? Oh my child, you've died a tragic death!" Parents from villages far and wide fell to the ground, weeping loudly.

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