It seemed like a long time, but in reality, only half an hour had passed.
After dismantling the formation and stepping outside, Mu Lin approached the group of people waiting there and told Madam Hong to arrange for someone to dress Hong Jiani before leading his two younger sisters away.
By the time Hong Jiani awoke in the afternoon and was ready to confront Mu Lin, he had already taken his sisters and boarded a plane bound for the U.S., embarking on a long journey.
Mu Lin’s plan was to continue traveling and studying around the world, as his teachers had suggested. He wanted to settle his sisters somewhere reputable. Since his teachers were also going overseas to study, it made sense to place his sisters there, where they could receive a quality education.
At the same time, he wanted to distance himself from the underworld back home. The incident in Fujian, where he had taken action to protect his sisters, might have left a trail. Hong Kong was too close to mainland China, and if someone came looking for him, he would have to deal with them, which would be difficult to manage. Too harsh a response might violate the natural balance, and Mu Lin preferred to avoid trouble.
This trip to the U.S. was arranged entirely at his own great expense through a reputable law firm. His requirements were simple: a large, economically developed country in a remote location. This ensured privacy and allowed him to avoid owing any favors.
In Hong Kong, Mu Lin had also purchased his first property, which he intended to serve as a base for his sisters, since it was still very much a Chinese community.
The lawyer had arranged for them to settle in Salt Lake City, Utah, in accordance with his request to be far from bustling urban centers and Chinese enclaves. Utah, a state in the western U.S., has a population of about two million, mostly descendants of Mormon settlers and Nordic immigrants. The Chinese population is small, concentrated mainly in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Provo. Mu Lin and his sisters applied for family-based immigration to the U.S., which requires the sponsor to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Fortunately, they had a stepmother, and the required secondary school diplomas were all obtained in Hong Kong.
At the airport, Mu Lin and his sisters were picked up and taken to their rented accommodation. A few days later, after completing the immigration procedures, they went their separate ways. Mu Lin stayed in the rented house, contemplating his next steps.
First, he needed to enroll his sisters in a boarding school so they could live comfortably and, eventually, support themselves with some skills. At the same time, he needed to establish a suitable identity for himself to integrate into this world. Before, it was easy for him to live alone, but now that he had two sisters, he felt a sense of responsibility. Slowly, he began to understand the feelings of ordinary people.
Reflecting on the many ordinary people he had met during his three years of traveling, he realized that as a cultivator, he had once felt superior. But after three years of wandering, he felt increasingly isolated, like a song too refined for others to appreciate.
These three years also allowed him to experience the bitterness and sweetness of life. On the Sichuan-Tibet highway, the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives made him feel the fearless spirit of the Chinese people. In the northwest and Inner Mongolian grasslands, the poor people who wore tattered clothes and lived in bare homes still offered him their best food and treated him like an honored guest, making him feel the kindness of the Chinese people. In the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the people living deep in the mountains offered him strong corn wine when they met a wanderer like Mu Lin, and after getting drunk together, they would laugh heartily upon waking up, making him feel the open-mindedness of the Chinese people.
So many stories had changed Mu Lin’s mindset. The diverse aspects of human life and the changing of the seasons had made his cultivation more in line with the Dao.
Otherwise, too many attachments would only weaken his cultivation. The domestic environment made it hard for him to take care of himself, let alone anything else. It was only through his interactions with his teachers that he realized how vast the world was. This trip to Hong Kong, with its prosperous economy, comfortable material life, free cultural environment, and natural landscapes, further motivated him to travel abroad.
It was now April. He enrolled his sisters in a semi-boarding school where they could go home once a week. The school had both boarding and day students, and he wanted them to integrate into this world as quickly as possible.
After sending his sisters off, Mu Lin began spending time in the library, reading to understand the changes happening in this country and the world. Without the distraction of his sisters, he devoted himself entirely to studying. After a week of intensive reading in the library, Mu Lin gained a basic understanding of the modern Western world.
Over the next month, Mu Lin traveled across the country. He believed that theoretical knowledge alone was shallow and that only through personal experience could one truly understand the real world.
After gaining a deeper understanding, he realized that this was a world dominated by money. If that was the case, then he would play by the rules of this world. To participate in this game, one needed capital and skills. His initial goal was to ensure a comfortable life. This time, Mu Lin used his spiritual techniques to disguise himself as a white man, opened ten Swiss bank accounts, and then headed to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas was one of the most famous gambling cities in the world. This bustling desert city was filled with luxurious hotels, noisy casinos, and nightly entertainment, giving off a dreamlike atmosphere that attracted tourists from around the globe. At the Bellagio baccarat table, Mu Lin exchanged a check for $1.5 million in credit and sat down at a baccarat table with chips.
To other gamblers, it was truly a bad day. The cards came out strangely, alternating between the banker and the player with no pattern. After one shoe of cards, thousands of dollars were gone. Some times were even more bizarre, with the player winning over a dozen times in a row. Some gamblers firmly believed that the player couldn’t keep winning and kept doubling their bets on the banker, only to lose badly. Mu Lin, on the other hand, won five hands and lost three, quietly making a small profit. An hour later, the money in Mu Lin’s hands had grown to $3.8 million.
Mu Lin went to another casino and played blackjack this time. Using his spiritual awareness, he made a modest profit of $1.9 million before calling it a night and then moved on to another casino.
Each day, he changed his name, appearance, and place of residence. Mu Lin was worried that his name might spread among gamblers, leading to him being blacklisted by various casinos and attracting the attention of the underworld. It wasn’t so much for himself, but he was mainly concerned about causing trouble for his two sisters.
Ten days later, Mu Lin had already accumulated $450 million. He changed his appearance again, moved to another city, and altered his look once more. After passing through four or five cities, he returned to his original appearance and went back to Salt Lake City. Mu Lin reminded himself that this was for the sake of his two sisters and that this would be the last time he would make money from the casinos.
Cultivation of the Dao requires persistence and continuous effort. After forming the Nascent Pellet, to achieve the Golden Pellet Dao, some people needed to retreat to remote mountains to avoid worldly distractions and focus on cultivation, while others lived in bustling cities, seeking inner peace amidst the chaos.
After three years of traveling, Mu Lin decided to cultivate in the secular world. In fact, secular life was also a test of one’s Dao heart. After forming the Nascent Pellet, the path to the Golden Pellet Dao mainly involved cultivating one’s mindset. Because the process of cultivation was long, one’s power would grow gradually over time. If one’s Dao heart was not firm, even if one’s power was sufficient, one’s Nascent Pellet might explode due to insufficient mental cultivation, ultimately leading to the destruction of the pellet and the death of the person.
Mu Lin learned all of this from the cultivation notes left by the elders of his sect. During his three years of traveling and studying, watching recordings left by cultivators further deepened his understanding.
Mu Lin was worried that if he too often used his extraordinary abilities to gain things without effort, it might leave a slight flaw in his Dao heart cultivation, preventing him from achieving the Golden Pellet Dao.
Once the Golden Pellet Dao is achieved, one can truly be called a cultivator, being closest to the Dao. At this point, the changes of all things in heaven and earth revolve around the heart, and the myriad aspects of human life are but fleeting clouds. Only the alternation of the sun and moon, stars and planets, and the transformation of the universe are what cultivators must deeply perceive. Only then can one speak of utilizing the power of the universe, the sun and moon, and stars to temper the physical body. If one is to cultivate in the secular world, one must integrate into the secular world, experience the changes in people’s hearts, the operation of all things on earth, and the transformation of the sun, moon, stars, and the universe. One must perceive the changes of Dao from nature, draw strength from nature, thus understanding and utilizing nature, finally transcending nature to achieve a mature Dao heart, progressing from the Golden Pellet Dao to the formation of an infant body, and ultimately achieving the ascension of the physical body to godhood in broad daylight.
Having made his decision, Mu Lin bought a villa in Salt Lake City. Through an agency, he hired several servants to clean the house and employed two guards to protect it. He set up an account for each of his two sisters, depositing $10,000 into each as their future living expenses. He himself planned to go to university to systematically study some knowledge. These modern skills would not only help him establish himself in the secular world and assist more people but also aid in his cultivation of Dao techniques, allowing him to complement his strengths and weaknesses. On weekends, he planned to pick up his two sisters—it would be the first time he went to meet them.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage