Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor
chapter-1185

1185 Dao Banquet: Preaching

"This is such a waste," Yan Liling complained while sitting beside Li Jun. "It would have been better to use these things as the primary or supplementary materials for pills."

"You can't exactly feed pills to people for the banquet," Li Jun stated with his left hand on Su Ai's belly, helping the baby better absorb the nourishment from all these rare and precious resources.

"Why not?" Yan Liling countered. "Once it's my turn to hold the banquet, I'm feeding everyone the best pills possible."

"I guess that would work. Do you think I should prepare some underworld delicacies? Is that even a thing?"

"If it isn't, just make it."

"You have a point."

Yan Liling, Li Jun, and Wang Wei's parents were not the only ones thinking about holding the same banquet and wondering how they would make theirs unique and stand out. Su Ya, who was in the guest area, had similar thoughts. She thought about creating a special ditch based on her Seven Emotions Six Desires Dao that would temper or even heal Dao Hearts.

Di Jiaying's thinking was more extreme as she wondered whether she could force people to pay a fee for attendance at her banquet. She realized it was possible, but it would have to be very enticing-as enticing as this one or very close to it.

Cai Song wondered whether she had to have a banquet during her time. If she did, could she give people special puppets as gifts? But what kind of special puppet? She felt annoyed, thinking how troublesome the entire situation would be. However, she enjoyed the thought of creating individualized puppets for the Emperors of her era.

Jun Mengyao wondered whether the sect would be willing to sponsor him for his banquet or whether he would have to use his own wealth. He decided to start amassing wealth now, just in case.

Once everyone finished their meals, Wang Wei summoned the tea and sipped it. Once everything had been drunk, he pointed to the sky to summon a phantom of the River of Time that immediately turned into a formation.

'Such brilliant and effortless application of Time Dao,' Xu Shi thought. Like most of her peers, she was slightly jealous she would never have an opportunity to hold such a banquet - at least, not as the Heavenly Emperor. However, she quickly removed such emotions.

"If she wanted to, she could have been the Heavenly Emperor, but she didn't, and that was for many reasons. Firstly, she did not want to abandon her citizen status in the Myriad Emperor World after going through so much trouble.

Secondly, and more importantly, she viewed the position of the other worlds as useless and less important than the one from the Myriad Emperor World. In her eyes, and the eyes of most of her peers, only the Heavenly Emperor from their home was the True Emperor, and all the others were poor copies. And if she could not have the original, she did not want any other.

There is also the fact that the benefit she received working in Wang Wei's court was much higher than if she were the Emperor somewhere else. Tong Ruobing was the best proof of this. If not for her alliance with Wang Wei, she would have regretted starting her own court.

Xu Shi shook her head to remove all these unnecessary thoughts from her head and focus on the event.

"I'm expecting this event to take a while, so I've accelerated the time in here to ensure not too long passes outside," Wang Wei explained. He could sense the agitated emotions of a few people who were wondering whether he had organized this banquet to eliminate all of them.

'As if I needed to go to such lengths to kill every immortal in the lower dimension,' Wang Wei sneered. He did one last check to ensure no problem occurred during this significant event. He checked on the people to prevent anyone from having nefarious thoughts; he checked on the sect's mortal disciples and elders hidden by his power on floating mountains next to this one; finally, he checked on the Dream World's broadcast and the entire lower dimension. Wang Wei then cast a protective spell that contained all his powers that covered every corner of the Endless Void to ensure no one interrupted this meeting.

"These are the rules," he declared. "Each sermon will be between 3 to 3000 years, with a break between 3 days to 300 years after each sermon for digestion. The length will be decided by Heaven and Earth itself, based on the amount of Dao Rhymes you condense."

Everyone entered a high alert state. In an event like this, with the most powerful and influential people of the lower dimension, there is nothing more embarrassing than having a short sermon. No matter what, the people present were the cream of the cream, meaning they had their own ego and pride. However, they could do nothing about the rules now, and they can only hope their sermons are not subpar.

"We will begin with the Immortal Paths. The first thousand preachers will be normal, followed by 1000 swordsmen, then 1,000 professionals. We will repeat this pattern.

"The first professionals to preach are the Alchemists. Once there are no Immortal Alchemists, it will be the Array Masters, Weapon Makers, Talisman Refiners, and the Puppeteers."

Many people were immediately not happy that swordsmen had their own category. However, Wang Wei did not care. Swordsmanship was the most popular Weapon Dao, and their population was enormous compared to others. Sword Dao was not the most powerful simply because of the weapon, but because there have been so many swordsmen throughout history that the Dao has been elevated to a higher status due to how many skills, techniques, and scriptures were written.

'Once it's my turn, the Spear will have its own section, and I'll make sure it has earned that position,' Jin Mengyao thought with great dedication.

Wang Wei waved his hand to assign numbers to the Immortals. "The first and last sermon will be chosen by me, but the rest will be randomly selected. Once it's your turn, you'll receive a direct message in your mind."

"We will start with Immortal Jin Ye from the Red Sea World."

A mass of clouds surrounded a scholarly-looking middle-aged man, elevating him five meters above the sky. He bowed to Wang Wei before immediately starting his sermon:

"Essence, Spirit, Qi - the essence of life and cultivation. The Immortal Path is also called the Qi Path, making it seem like Qi dominates the other. But that's wrong. Heaven and Earth is all about balance, and the same principles apply to the Qi Path. The only difference is that we use Qi as the primary source to supplement our body (essence) and spirit (mind or soul.) This is ...."

As Jin Ye's words echoed throughout the mountain, Dao Rhymes condensed from the sky, appearing similar to runes and beautiful music. The power of the Enlightenment Tea and all the blessing methods of the banquet perfectly combined with the Dao Rhymes to allow people to enter a deep state of epiphany. In that state, their normal state of cultivation, which is usually slow, boring, and even tedious, became the most enjoyable act in the world, given how easy and spiritually fulfilling it was.

Everyone became engrossed in this sermon. Although it did not discuss a specific Dao, that was a pro instead of a con since it was applicable to everyone present-especially the part about maintaining the balance between the Essence, Spirit, and Qi. The process lasted over 1600 years and a digestion period of 160 years.

Once everyone woke up, they felt it was too short. One of the reasons cultivation in the lower dimension is so slow is the lack of conversation and exchanging ideas. It's also why the Dream World was so successful. This banquet was even more direct in its approach, putting everyone together and forcing them to discuss cultivation and the Dao without any restraints or care of status, wealth, power, or faction.

Jin Ye slowly descended to his seat before the clouds chose someone else. With Jin Ye as an example, these cultivators were comfortable, feeling they could do as good of a job as him - if not better. However, they all received an awakening.

The second sermon only lasted 536 years. The third one went on for 345 years, the fourth one for 99 years, and the fifth one directly dropped to 3 years. That cultivator was so embarrassed that he did not open his eyes and closed off all his senses so as not to hear any comments or murmurs.

Things became visibly worse after the fifth cultivator. Few people's sermons lasted for more than three digits. In fact, out of all 1000 cultivators, there were more than 200 people who lasted three years, and only a total of 27 people lasted over 100 years, and no one reached a thousand years like Jin Ye.

The immortals immediately stopped comprehending while the swordsmen and the professionals were preaching, hoping to improve their sermons and avoid embarrassment.