Enlightenment from watching flowers

"Merely through a likeness in spirit, one can obtain the favor of heaven and earth and the wonders of creation…"

Li Fan suddenly recalled an anecdote from the previous Dynasty of Great Xuan.

The last emperor of the previous Dynasty, Emperor Zhenxu, was originally a rare revivalist monarch.

Ever since ascending the throne at the age of sixteen, he executed treacherous officials, suppressed wandering bandits, developed water conservancy, and exempted taxes, sweeping away the decline of the Dynasty and resembling the sages of antiquity.

In just over twenty years, the realm became peaceful and prosperous to the extreme.

The common people had enough food and clothing and chanted the prestige of the wise ruler; the officials bowed in submission and wrote books praising the virtue of their sovereign.

If he had always remained like this, perhaps there would have been no subsequent overturning of the heavens and earth by the founding emperor of Great Xuan.

But everything took a sharp turn for the worse in the thirty-seventh year of Emperor Zhenxu's life.

The reason was that Emperor Zhenxu's lifelong love, Empress Duanmu, passed away due to illness.

Hearing the bad news abruptly, Emperor Zhenxu almost fainted on the spot.

Afterwards, due to excessive grief, he ignored court affairs for several months.

If it were only this, it would be fine; with the grand ministers of the court around, even if the emperor went into seclusion, the Dazheng Dynasty would not fall into any major chaos.

But perhaps due to the Luck of the Zheng Dynasty coming to an end, when Emperor Zhenxu revisited the place where he and Empress Duanmu first met, he saw a woman whose appearance was extremely similar to Empress Duanmu.

Not only was her appearance eight or nine parts similar, but even her demeanor and tone were identical to the person in his dreams.

Furthermore, she was even younger.

Emperor Zhenxu's heart was shaken, believing it to be destined by the netherworld, and immediately brought her back to the palace, conferring upon her the title of noble consort, lingering with her day and night.

To please her, Emperor Zhenxu did many absurd things.

He built grand palaces, constructed gardens within the palace, and even dug a small river connecting to the outskirts of the imperial city so that they could make love in the river whenever the mood struck; he ordered his subordinates to collect rare items from among the people for the noble consort to play with…

This caused the court and the country to be in utter turmoil, with the people boiling with resentment.

Any officials who dared to advise him were demoted or dismissed for minor offenses, or beheaded for major ones.

Even so, relying on the accumulation from the first half of Emperor Zhenxu's life, the Dazheng Dynasty would not have perished so abruptly.

But when the noble consort gave birth to a son, Emperor Zhenxu, not knowing what medicine he took wrongly, disregarded the unanimous opposition of all the senior officials of the court and wanted to depose the crown prince.

Seeing that Emperor Zhenxu's attitude was resolute, the crown prince naturally would not sit still and await death, gathering people to rebel under the banner of "executing the evil consort and clearing the sovereign's side".

This matter also received the support of many major clans in the capital, including the Duanmu family.

After several days of bloody fighting, although this rebellion ultimately ended in failure…

And the crown prince committed suicide after his troops were defeated.

However, the Dazheng Dynasty also suffered a heavy blow to its Origin Qi.

Ever since then, Emperor Zhenxu refused to see his ministers even more, caring only for pleasure.

The situation declined day by day, and finally, in the fifty-sixth year of Emperor Zhenxu's life, the forbidden palace was breached by the rebel army.

Emperor Zhenxu and the noble consort embraced each other and burned to death.

When later scholars studied this period of history, none failed to find it extremely perplexing that Emperor Zhenxu lost his country due to his obsession with women.

They could only attribute the reason to the fact that Emperor Zhenxu's love for Empress Duanmu had reached an unimaginable degree.

Therefore, after Duanmu died, when Emperor Zhenxu encountered a woman similar to her once again, he completely lost his reason and even became somewhat frantic.

Ruining a magnificent realm in a single day.

There are truly no new things under the sun.

Similarly, if the Clone Xu Bai could win the favor of heaven and earth to this extent simply because of a spiritual likeness to Mr. Bai…

Then either Mr. Bai is the Incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, or he is vital to the Xuanhuang World.

To the extent that heaven and earth are expecting the appearance of the next "Mr. Bai" at every moment.

It has even reached the point where merely looking similar can provide a special bonus to one's affinity with the Laws of heaven and earth.

"Mr. Bai…" All the related matters witnessed in the past within the Realm of Fallen Immortals flashed through his mind, and Xu Bai remained silent without a word.

After a long while, his thoughts temporarily subsided, and he took out the seventeen-petaled Heavenly Spirit Flower sealed using a special secret method.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, after looking at the numerous scenes on the petals once more, feelings completely different from the main body slowly welled up.

It was like sweeping rapidly across the entire Tianling Province from a bird's-eye perspective of heaven and earth.

In a trance, he could vaguely see mountains and rivers, the myriad states of living beings, shifting winds and clouds, prosperity and decline, and other such images.

Facing the Heavenly Spirit Flower was just like truly seeing all the worldly events happening within Tianling Province.

A trace of enlightenment quietly flashed through Xu Bai's heart.

But like flying snow entering water, it vanished without a trace in an instant, leaving him feeling a sense of loss.

"This feeling is just like when I previously used the Azure Sea Pearl to view the changes of the vicissitudes of life from the vast perspective of heaven and earth…"

"…and ultimately comprehended the Formless Killing Intent."

"A Cultivator's divine abilities and Spells mostly originate from heaven and earth itself."

"And comprehending them from the perspective of heaven and earth naturally becomes much easier."

"However, after all, it is just a flower recording the scenery of heaven and earth, not truly merging one's body with heaven and earth."

"Wanting to gain something from it is not so easy and requires extremely strong Comprehension Ability."

"Just like the main body before, who personally crafted it and carefully observed it many times, yet still felt it was merely a pure ornamental object."

"Yet this is not a problem with the flower, but a problem with the person."

"Hmph."

Making fine adjustments to the plan in his mind, before Liu San returned, Xu Bai's divine mind continued to immerse itself in contemplating flowers to comprehend the Dao.

…

Tianyu Province.

Spending quite a bit of time, Li Fan and Dongfang Yao, who finally arrived inside Tianyu City, did not head to the Cosmos Abode where Li Fan had received Formation training in his previous life.

Instead, they came to a private room in the Dao Discussion Tower within the city.

"Wait a bit. I've already notified Brother Huangfu, and he'll be here right away."

Dongfang Yao sat cross-legged on the ground casually, tapping his fingers on the floor, and shortly after, a cup of spiritual tea emerged.

"Such a damn stingy bastard."

Dongfang Yao curled his lips, downed the spiritual tea in one gulp, and muttered softly.

Li Fan could be considered a regular customer of the Dao Discussion Tower.

He knew that this was because Dongfang Yao was tight on money and could only drink the complimentary spiritual tea.

Smiling slightly, his Divine Sense contacted the control jade token in the room.

Not long after, a dark green teapot appeared.

"Please, Brother Dongfang!" Li Fan smiled and gestured.

"Brother, you really are straightforward!" Dongfang Yao instantly beamed with joy, happily poured a cup, and drank it in one gulp.

"It's even the top-grade [Thousands of Cultivators Discussing the Dao]! Brother Li, you're so magnanimous! The last time I drank spiritual tea of this grade was when I returned from the [Thousands of Pages Library] and couldn't help celebrating a bit!"

Dongfang Yao praised it endlessly.

Shaking his head and closing his eyes slightly, he seemed to be comprehending something.

"Well, you, Dongfang Yao! To think you have such good stuff as [Thousands of Cultivators Discussing the Dao] and actually enjoy it all by yourself behind my back!"

Right at this moment, a voice quite familiar to Li Fan rang out.

A pot-bellied, very kind-looking fat Cultivator appeared in the room.

His face feigned slight anger, but in reality, there was a trace of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

Sweeping his gaze across Li Fan without leaving a trace, Huangfu Song remained calm and looked at Dongfang Yao.

"Brother Huangfu, you've come just in time!"

Dongfang Yao suddenly opened his eyes, poured a cup of spiritual tea, and tossed it over.

There are still more chapters, wait…