My virtue is above yours.

Green mountains, floating clouds.

The morning glow reddened the clouds, and steam rose in the air.

The young scholar stepped onto the dew-covered bluestone slabs, passed through the mountain gate, and entered the temple.

It was too early; there were few worshippers at Fuyun Temple.

The scholar entered the main hall, knelt before the tall and solemn statue of the deity, offered incense, and drew lots.

"May the gods bless me, grant me the honor of passing the imperial examination this year and allowing me to enter the imperial court."

With a "thud," the bamboo skewer fell to the ground.

He picked it up and saw it was a very bad fortune slip, and his face showed displeasure.

The scholar stood up and saw the young Taoist priest slumped over a table in the corner. He took a step forward, but was stopped by the other worshippers.

"Young master, are you perhaps seeking an interpretation of your fortune by that young Taoist priest?"

"Exactly."

I advise you not to go.

Why?

The worshipper deliberately lowered his voice: "You don't know this. Originally, there were four young Taoist priests at Fuyun Temple on duty. The other three went to the main sect of Tianyi Daoist Temple in the capital last year, leaving only this young Taoist priest."

"So what?"

"This person is extremely arrogant and unruly; seeking his interpretation of divination slips may lead to unforeseen consequences. That is why the incense at Fuyun Temple is not as plentiful as it used to be."

The scholar simply smiled and said, "It's just interpreting fortune sticks; what could possibly go wrong? At worst, I might have interpreted it incorrectly. I'll just find someone else to interpret it. How could a mere Taoist priest possibly harm the incense offerings of an entire temple?"

"You don't understand, he—"

The pilgrim glanced back and saw that the young Taoist priest had woken up in a daze. He turned and ran away, leaving the scholar completely bewildered.

The scholar shook his head, took the bad luck slip, and walked toward the young Taoist priest.

The young Taoist priest Chen Jingxuan stretched, took the fortune stick, and glanced at it: "A very bad fortune. You're not satisfied?"

"That's certainly not satisfactory. What is the interpretation of this divination slip?"

"Why bother with the solution if you're not satisfied? Just burn it."

Chen Jingxuan immediately placed the bamboo stick on the candlestick, and the stick was lit, making a "crackling" sound, and a slightly sweet smoky aroma immediately filled the air.

He threw the slip on the ground and stomped on it several times, yelling, "Rotten slip! Rotten slip!"

The scholar's eyes widened in disbelief: "Why did you burn the fortune sticks?"

"What you just said you were dissatisfied with, the raging fire has burned away your past, allowing you to start anew. I'll go with you to draw another fortune stick; I guarantee it will be the best one."

Chen Jingxuan got up, took the divination tube, and handed it to the other party.

The scholar refused, saying, "If you burn my fortune slip, what will become of me?"

"Your life is in your own hands, just shake the wheel again."

"If I shake it again, it won't be accurate. I want my original slip!"

Chen Jingxuan asked incredulously, "Why would you want to draw such a terrible fortune slip?"

The scholar pointed at him and shouted, "You Taoist priest are truly arrogant and unruly!"

Chen Jingxuan chuckled: "Thank you for the compliment."

The scholar, breathless with rage, cried out, "I shouldn't have come to this damned Floating Cloud Temple! You're ruining my future!"

"My lord, there's no need to be so frantic. If you really want that fortune stick, I'll give it back to you."

Chen Jingxuan flipped his sleeve and took out a divination stick.

"Check if this is the signature you just made."

The scholar took the fortune slip, glanced at it, and exclaimed, "Not at all! This is an excellent fortune! Mine was an inauspicious one!"

"You're really strange. You refuse the best fortune slip and insist on the worst. Take a closer look at the text below."

The scholar brought the fortune stick to his eyes for a closer look, then gradually frowned: "Something's not right. The inscription is the same as the previous one, but why do I remember drawing the worst possible fortune stick, while this one is the best possible one?"

"Did you just see things? It must be because you study too hard."

The scholar looked at the fortune slip again with some skepticism: "But Taoist priest, are you sure that 'Adding firewood to put out a fire will ignite it all, and even if it burns for thirty days, it will reignite' is an extremely auspicious fortune?"

Chen Jingxuan, without changing his expression, made up a lie: "Of course! 'Fire' means prosperity. This divination slip indicates a great fire. Your career will flourish. Even if others bully you thirty times, you will still continue to prosper."

"Is that really the case?"

Watching the scholar scratch his head and leave, Chen Jingxuan felt a sense of accomplishment.

"Doing one good deed a day, that's truly my style."

"You unfilial disciple! You burned my fortune slips again!"

The master, dressed in a red Taoist robe, rushed in from the back door, picked up the charcoal ash from the ground, and glared fiercely at Chen Jingxuan.

"Master, don't be angry. Not a single one is missing. There are a hundred sticks. Count them yourself." Chen Jingxuan stuffed the remaining stick into the stick container and handed it over.

"There are indeed one hundred. But explain why they are all the best fortune slips!"

The master dumped all the fortune sticks on the ground with a clatter, and all the sticks on the ground were marked with the most auspicious fortune.

Chen Jingxuan smiled sheepishly: "Isn't this just helping others? That scholar got the worst fortune stick, he'll definitely go back feeling sad and sighing, and then he really won't pass the exam. It's better to give him the best fortune stick, to seek some comfort. People come to draw fortune sticks just to find peace of mind. You don't really think everyone is a devout believer, do you? Most people can't even remember the name of the founder. They just worship any deity they see."

The master gritted his teeth in anger: "You wretched disciple, with such a mind, how can you possibly cultivate?"

Chen Jingxuan shrugged: "But my cultivation level has been steadily increasing!"

The master gritted his teeth even more: "This can increase? I'm increasingly convinced you're a heretic. Can't you see through your natal character?"

Chen Jingxuan shook his head: "I can't see through it; that layer of fog just won't dissipate."

This is a world where virtue is the foundation of spiritual cultivation; the greater one's virtue, the higher one's level of spiritual attainment.

In order to improve one's moral character, one must act in accordance with one's inner understanding of one's inherent virtues. If one goes against virtues, one's moral character will decline.

When Chen Jingxuan first heard these claims, he was still a mortal. He was mostly worried, since cultivating the Tao meant being bound by one's inherent virtues, which was demanding and restricted his freedom.

But later, when he suddenly had an epiphany and entered the realm of enlightenment, he discovered that he could not see his own natal character at all.

He was initially worried that this might inadvertently violate moral principles and cause his cultivation to stagnate. However, in the past six months, he has done everything as he pleased and with a clear conscience. His cultivation has not declined but has instead continued to rise.

Compared to the traditional moral cultivation that is bound by morality, he is much freer.

Just now, while helping others, I could feel my internal cultivation level increasing again.

Seeing his master's furrowed brow, he patted him on the shoulder: "Master, don't worry, I'm a good person at heart, I could never be an evil cultivator."

He wasn't lying. In his previous life, he saved someone from drowning, which is how he transmigrated. Although the concept of a person is a bit abstract, his character is beyond question.

"That's not what I'm worried about. You can't see your own path, and I don't understand your methods either. Perhaps they are some kind of rare path. You can still increase your cultivation by acting according to your heart, but when you break through, if you know nothing about your own path, you won't know what kind of rare treasures to find or what kind of advancement method to use."

Chen Jingxuan sat down cross-legged: "Then what should we do?"

"I originally thought that your natal character would become clear after a while, but it seems I was too naive. You went up the mountain when you were eight years old. Before that, did you encounter any strange people or things? Perhaps you were subjected to some kind of restriction spell at that time."

Chen Jingxuan thought about it carefully: "I grew up without parents, and everyone in the village treated me very well. I grew up relying on the kindness of others. Although the village was poor, no one ever let me go hungry. Is that strange?"

The master shook his head: "It's a little strange, but not much. They're probably just kind-hearted."

Chen Jingxuan scratched his head: "Our village is isolated and has inconvenient transportation. There are almost no outsiders, except for a strange uncle I saw when I was eight years old."

The master's eyes lit up: "Tell me what characteristics this person has."

"He wore a red robe, had a large beard, and a lewd look in his eyes. He would lewdly stare at the young women in the village, and—"

Before he could speak, his master's fist landed on his head, making him wince in pain.

The master gritted his teeth and said, "If you continue to insult me ​​with such sarcastic and mocking language, I will punish you by banishing you from the mountain gate for three years! I'll say it again, I wasn't leering at people. Your village was suffering from a plague at the time; I was observing the qi!"

"So, 'qi observation' actually involves looking at the chest and buttocks. One is never too old to learn!"

Another punch landed, but Chen Jingxuan dodged it with a roll and begged for mercy at lightning speed: "Master, I was wrong."

Master sighed: "When you go to the main sect in the capital in a few days, you must restrain your temper and not be so arrogant. Although your senior brothers and sisters will help you there, you must not implicate them."

"I understand, Master. I will definitely take good care of my senior brothers and sisters. On this trip to the capital, I also want to take the opportunity to visit my village. I haven't been back for ten years, and I miss home."

"You should go back. The villagers have been incredibly kind to you. That year you contracted the plague and were critically ill. The villagers sought medical help everywhere, and were even swindled out of all their savings by a quack doctor, yet they never gave up on treating you. Even among blood relatives, there are distinctions of closeness and distance, let alone an orphan. Such kindness should not be forgotten. It is truly wrong of you not to return for ten years; it was my negligence. Now that you are a cultivator with cultivation, returning home would be a triumphant homecoming."

Chen Jingxuan not only wanted to visit his relatives this time, but also wanted to investigate his own background, hoping to find out who had covered up his birth name.

A few days later, Chen Jingxuan bid farewell to his master and embarked on his journey to the capital alone.

He hummed a song as he faced the rising sun, imagining the scene of returning to the village.

When the original owner transmigrated, she was only five years old. She left the village at the age of eight. She was too young at that time, and there was no time to promote agricultural technology.

He wrote down complete work notes in the Taoist temple, including the traditional method of making nitrogen and phosphorus compound fertilizer, the production method of dragon bone waterwheel, and the crop rotation method. He would stay in the village and there was a literate old man named Luo who could understand them. Even if he was not there, he could still help the village get rid of poverty and become rich.

After walking for over a hundred miles, we saw green mountains ahead, with more than a dozen small houses on them, and terraced fields layered upon each other like a ladder to the mountaintop.

"Qingyuan Village, I'm finally back! Our village has cultivators now!"

A chubby, fair-skinned boy, dressed in simple clothes, walked towards us. He looked very familiar.

He remembered that this person was his childhood playmate, Xiao Bao, the son of Uncle Luo next door.

Back then, in order to make a winter coat for Chen Jingxuan, every household contributed a strip of cloth. The Luo family's piece was cut from Xiao Bao's summer pants, so Xiao Bao wore open-crotch pants until he was six years old, for which everyone laughed at him quite a bit.

Chen Jingxuan waved and shouted, "Xiao Bao! It's me, Quan-ge'er!"

His nickname is Chen Quan'er, and he is commonly called Quan Ge'er by the locals.

"Quan-ge'er? It really is you!" Xiao Bao rushed over excitedly, hugging him tightly until he could hardly breathe. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and said, "Quan-ge'er, I've missed you so much!"

"Pfft—"

The opponent exerted sudden force, and Chen Jingxuan's body was instantly crushed, blood splattering all over the ground.