Watching the Mountain

Chapter 381: Chapter 207: A Century of the New Calendar

The Major Sects also explained why the new calendar was to be called the Hidden Dao Era rather than the Dao Concealed Era.

Dao Concealment is when Heaven and Earth retract their own Laws, while Hidden Dao is when Cultivators artificially cause the Laws of Heaven and Earth to be concealed.

This instance of Heaven and Earth Dao Concealment is the result of us Cultivators solving the curse that polluted the Laws of Heaven and Earth, which shows that humanity’s strength is greater than the Power of Heaven and Earth.

This symbolizes the spirit of us Cultivators—never giving up, actively resisting, and remaining self-reliant, no matter the calamity.

Therefore, ”Hidden Dao” is more fitting than ”Dao Concealment.”

Finally, the representatives of the Major Sects jointly called upon future generations of the Cultivation Realm to remember this spirit and carry it forward.

We Cultivators will not retreat. We are unconquerable.

When this slogan spread, the entire Cultivation Realm erupted. Countless people felt a passionate fire ignite in their hearts.

Many people flocked to towns and markets to gather with their fellow Daoists, drinking and conversing in an incredibly spirited atmosphere.

The Cultivation Realm, which had grown somewhat quiet due to the Heaven and Earth Dao Concealment, burst into a rare state of excitement—even more bustling than it had been before.

Even Xu Ran could feel it as he walked through the Sect. The Disciples’ spirits were higher than ever, and the sound of their passionate discussions could be heard everywhere.

Clearly, the slogan proclaimed by the various sects of the Cultivation Realm gave everyone a shared sense of glory, filling their hearts with pride.

However, this recent liveliness was likely the last burst of excitement the Cultivation Realm would see until the Dao Concealment ended.

After just a few days, the enthusiasm faded. The whole world grew quiet again—even quieter than before.

A pool of stagnant water.

That was how Xu Ran felt at this moment.

He found it hard to imagine that just the day before, the Sect had been a picture of liveliness. Walking through it felt like a festival, with Disciples gathered everywhere in twos and threes, chatting and joking around. The sound of their laughter had been constant.

But in the span of a single night, it was as if everyone had overdrawn all their future enthusiasm. Every person he met on the path now walked in complete silence.

He knew why, of course. Today, another large batch of Disciples had entered Dust-Sealing.

This batch was the largest yet, accounting for thirty percent of all the Disciples who had received a Dust-Sealed Stone.

The day of Dust-Sealing was a day of farewells. The parting between those who entered the seal and those who did not was, in essence, a separation of life and death.

Today would be the last time they would ever see each other. From now on, one would grow old and die in the near future, while the other would awaken in a far more distant one.

Even though everyone was still alive, they had already experienced a parting like that of life and death.

This was the experience that the Heaven and Earth Dao Concealment had brought upon the Cultivation Realm.

Those assigned a Dust-Sealed Stone entered the seal. Those without one watched them silently, then contemplated their own futures. They might not have felt despair, but they were certainly lost.

This was the current atmosphere in the Sect, steeped in the sorrow of parting and the confusion of being left behind to live.

Despite there still being so many Disciples, it felt unnaturally quiet.

Compared to other Nascent Soul Sects, the Profound Pure Sect had a fairly large number of people entering Dust-Sealing. After all, it had absorbed the full quota from the Illusion Spirit Sect, bringing its total number of Dust-Sealed Stones to nearly twenty percent of its total Disciples.

However, only seventy percent of the stones were distributed in the first round. The remaining thirty percent were reserved for Disciples who made contributions during the Dao Concealment and for newly emerging prodigies.

After this batch of Disciples was sealed, the Sect had no intention of recruiting new ones.

This wasn’t unique to the Profound Pure Sect; it was the same for nearly every Sect in the Cultivation Realm. For the next hundred years, they would only recruit a handful of Disciples.

Before the world’s malady, the appearance of Secret Realms had caused many Sects to expand their ranks several times over. For now, their number of Disciples was more than sufficient.

No one knew how severely resources would dwindle during the Dao Concealment. Recruiting new Disciples now would be a disaster if they couldn’t support them later.

It was for this very reason that almost no power in the Cultivation Realm was recruiting new Disciples.

With one batch of people entering Dust-Sealing and no new Cultivators emerging, the Cultivation Realm grew even quieter.

Surprisingly, after the Immortal Ancient Cultivation Realm announced the new calendar, the Evil Demon Race and Phoenix Race, the Demon Race, and the Overseas Archipelago all issued statements of their own, for reasons unknown. They each expressed their approval of the new calendar and declared they would adopt it within their own territories.

This announcement caused a small stir in the Cultivation Realm.

Before this, the Evil Demon Race and Phoenix Race, the Demon Race, and the Overseas Archipelago had all used their own calendars. For all the powers under heaven to use the same calendar was truly unprecedented.

In a way, this could be considered the first great unification this world had ever seen.

But that wasn’t all. In the twentieth year of the Hidden Dao Era, the Demon Court of the Demon Race issued a declaration to all the major powers, announcing its intention to redefine the world’s system of tiers.

The Demon Race’s declaration stated that the existing classifications for Spiritual Objects, as well as for various professions, were relics of an ancient past and had become too convoluted.

Under the old system, Tier One and Tier Two Demon Cultivators, as well as various Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, Spirit Pills, Spirit Talismans, and Arrays, all corresponded to the Human Race’s Qi Cultivation Stage. Tier Three and Tier Four, in turn, corresponded to the Foundation Establishment Stage.