Chapter 43: The Age of the End of Dharma

Grand Induction Ceremony

Qin Xi and Jiang Baiqiu stood in the front row of the audience. This area was reserved by default for personal disciples and major elders. As they walked over, they were met with countless gazes filled with envy, jealousy, and admiration.

Liu Yi was already seated by now, remaining completely silent as if she didn't exist at all.

This ice-cold attitude made everyone around them feel strange, and only Qin Xi was accustomed to it.

With so many people around, it would be a wonder if his master wasn't terrified.

Looking at the sea of people filling the seats, he suddenly felt that something wasn't right.

"Why are there so many people?"

He had originally thought that the Great Thousand Sect, which screened candidates once every sixty years and only selected around a hundred people, wouldn't have many members, but that all of them would be elites. Yet, looking at it now, the disciples were densely packed and stretched out endlessly as far as the eye could see.

Just as he was feeling puzzled, a voice sounded right beside his ear.

"Those screened over the course of sixty years are all outer or inner disciples, or personal disciples like us; however, the Great Thousand Sect also recruits choreographic disciples from time to time, and the number of these people is quite large. These choreographic disciples don't receive specialized instruction, but they are allowed to audit the lectures."

It was a familiar voice.

Qin Xi turned his head and saw that pretty face.

"Bu Weiwei?"

"Hehe, how have you been these past few days?"

The clothes Bu Weiwei wore this time were no longer as tattered as before; instead, she was dressed in a translucent silk short-sleeved shirt, cinched at the waist with a tasseled belt from which hung an Eight Trigrams mirror. On her lower half, she wore lightweight shorts, and her slender, fleshy thighs exuded a healthy glow under the sunlight, outlining a perfect curve.

Clothes make the person, and this outfit of Bu Weiwei's perfectly highlighted the advantages of her figure. Except for her chest, which looked as though it were protected by a steel bulletproof vest, she was in no way inferior to Jiang Baiqiu.

Now that she had entered the sect, she finally didn't look as shabby as before.

"Pretty good? By the way, how on earth did you find your way back?" Qin Xi glanced at her, recalling how miserably she had been tricked by Jiang Baiqiu previously.

"......Master said that from now on, everything I divine is to be completely disbelieved."

"That's the correct choice."

"Hey, you...... sigh!"

Bu Weiwei wanted to say something, but she realized she lacked the confidence to retort, so she could only puff out her cheeks and say no more.

"Everyone's here, I see."

Seeing the three of them gathered, Ah Ling walked over as well.

The clothes she wore hadn't changed from before; she still carried the Taihang Monument on her back.

When Ah Ling walked up to Qin Xi and Jiang Baiqiu, she suddenly paused, as if remembering something, and then said to Qin Xi, "Thank you."

"Thank you for what? Thank you for stopping me from going to the medical hall to beg the doctor with a crying voice? Or thank you for telling me that I actually didn't have that organ in the first place?"

"Ugh......"

Ah Ling's cheeks flushed slightly, and then she turned her head away, silently sitting down beside Bu Weiwei and saying no more.

"You're a bit aggressive today, aren't you?" Jiang Baiqiu narrowed her eyes as she looked at Qin Xi. "You look like you've eaten a bolt of heavenly tribulation liquid."

Qin Xi rested his chin in his hand. "Cut the crap. Let me ask you, how long have we known each other?"

"Almost a month, I suppose."

"Then do you remember anything?"

"Our one-month acquaintance anniversary?"

"Bullshit, it's that the damned Heavenly Dao is about to strike both of us to death!"

"!!!"

It seemed there was indeed such a matter.

"Then, what do we do?" Jiang Baiqiu broke out in a cold sweat. She had been having too much fun these past few days and had almost forgotten the fact that she owed spirit stones to the Heavenly Dao.

"There are still three days left; I'm thinking of a way." Qin Xi clicked his tongue. "Actually, there are many ways: borrow from Master, borrow from the Sect Master, or even borrow from Ah Ling...... It's not that dangerous after all."

"That's good then." Jiang Baiqiu patted her chest and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Let's listen through the grand induction ceremony first; I'll have a way afterward."

At that moment, a figure drifted slowly toward the center of the grand ceremony. Her robes fluttered and her footsteps were light, as if untouched by dust, resembling an immortal descending to the mortal realm.

It would have looked even more like it if she didn't have a bruise on her face.

Master really hits hard.

This ethereal and breathtakingly gorgeous figure was none other than Fairy Siqi.

"Hello everyone! I am the Sect Master of the Great Thousand Sect, Fairy Siqi," Fairy Siqi said with a smile, looking thoroughly proper and making Qin Xi feel somewhat unaccustomed to it.

The newly inducted outer disciples present stared with wide eyes; this was the first time they had ever laid eyes on someone of such peerless beauty.

Meanwhile, the old-timers who had entered the sect in previous sessions appeared somewhat more calm, silently picking up the placards in their hands, which displayed a bunch of deeply embarrassing cheering slogans.

"Sect Master Lord!!!"

"The Great Dao has fifty, Heaven's evolution leaves forty-nine!"

The cheers shook the heavens, and Fairy Siqi's smile was simply impossible to suppress.

"I didn't expect this old fraud to be so popular." Qin Xi was somewhat surprised. Perhaps it was because he had seen too many beauties recently, which had made him somewhat face-blind, causing him to only remember the miserable state Fairy Siqi had been beaten into by his master, and forget that she was also a peerless beauty.

"After all, she's the runner-up of the Great Thousand Sect beauty pageant, and the Sect Master to boot. Of course her popularity is high," Bu Weiwei remarked, having recently memorized a wealth of knowledge related to the Great Thousand Sect.

"Alright, alright, everyone quiet down. Although today is the grand induction ceremony, the primary purpose is actually to explain to everyone what this Age of Dharma Decline truly is."

"My Great Thousand Sect has always taken saving all living beings in the world as its responsibility, and naturally we must minimize casualties during the Age of Dharma Decline as much as possible. This is also the purpose of our cultivation, and the Dao heart of our Great Thousand Sect."

As Fairy Siqi spoke, the scene gradually quieted down.

"Does anyone know how long a single reincarnation of our world lasts?"

"An *Yuan*!" someone shouted from below.

"That's right. According to the theory of epochs, periods, and ages from the Branch of Arts, one *Yuan* contains twelve periods, one period contains thirty cycles, one cycle contains twelve generations, and one generation contains thirty years. Therefore, a single reincarnation of our heaven and earth lasts one hundred twenty-nine thousand and six hundred years."

"Within this *Yuan*, time is divided into three parts of unequal lengths, with the first two being somewhat longer: the Age of Righteous Dharma, the Age of Semblance Dharma, and the Age of Dharma Decline."

"In the Age of Righteous Dharma, vitality is exuberant and all things strive for growth. Heaven and earth have just opened, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt. At this time, there are more resources and fewer people between heaven and earth. Even without engaging in cultivation, our human race could survive without fighting or contending. Yet, right at the end of the Age of Righteous Dharma, people discovered the 'Immortal Path'—our ancestors invented Qi-refining techniques, capable of absorbing the spiritual Qi between heaven and earth into their own bodies and then utilizing it, thereby mastering powers previously unimaginable."

"When Qi-refining techniques spread widely and became a necessary condition for the Immortal Path, the Age of Semblance Dharma arrived."

"More and more people embarked on the Immortal Path, and in order to contend for the spiritual Qi between heaven and earth, some competition gradually arose. However, this competition was not fierce, and when it reached a certain degree, cultivators would pull back. Because at this time, people discovered that the spiritual Qi between heaven and earth was steadily increasing at a rate far exceeding the speed at which cultivators absorbed it, as if it were inexhaustible and un-depletable. Why bother competing?"

"Yet heaven does not always grant what humans desire; the sun at noon declines, the full moon wanes. The principle that things must decline once they reach their zenith is surely understood by everyone. The growth of spiritual Qi is not eternal, and the very moment it stagnates represents the arrival of the Age of Dharma Decline."

"Because the spiritual Qi is sparse, the Immortal Path falls into utter chaos. Conflicts arise endlessly even among our sects of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches...... Yet our Great Thousand Sect cannot bear to see the mortal world plunged into misery and suffering because of this. Our Dao path is to prevent the collapse of the world's rules, and to stop heaven and earth from descending toward the ultimate destruction of the Age of Dharma Decline!"

Having said that, Fairy Siqi waved her arm. The once unserious woman now looked dignified and majestic, truly worthy of being a Sect Master.

The sound of applause rose and fell like waves.

So this was the Age of Dharma Decline......

Qin Xi took a deep breath. To be able to maintain one's original aspiration in such an immortal cultivation world with sharp conflicts—the Great Thousand Sect truly lived up to its reputation as an upright, righteous sect.

After saying this, Fairy Siqi suddenly smiled slightly, her smile revealing a trace of craftiness.

"My speech is concluded. Next, I invite Fairy Taiyi, my seventh junior sister, to address everyone."