Just like that three days passed, and while Wang Wei succeeded in cleansing a few more wisps of soul energy he was still far away from the cleansing of the second hindrance, but before he could continue on cultivating he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Deity, all the cultivators of the empire have gathered to listen to the deity preach!" Huang Xue said through the closed door as he waited for Wang Wei to exit.
Wang Wei exited the room, and they quickly departed to the place where all of the cultivators were gathered.
The place they chose was of course within the first ring, it was the Grand Temple of the Guardian God.
When they arrived Wang Wei spread out his spirit sense and he saw tens of thousands of people crowded around the biggest statue in the temple.
He also noticed that at least a thousand of those people were, in fact, non-cultivators, as he was aware that they would try to sneak in some of their descendants, after all to them every word he will say is priceless.
Since to them, it meant an opening to a new future, so he wasn't angry at them for sneaking them in, after all, love for your descendants is hardwired into the human blood.
He flew up and sat in a lotus position on the head of the gigantic statue of himself. When all of the people saw him everyone went silent since they didn't want to miss anything.
Once he sat down he strengthened his voice with Qi and he started speaking "The teachings that I have bestowed upon you in the past were in fact the teachings of my sect that dwell in the Heavens, each sect within the Heavens has their own way to cultivate and become enlightened. However, your empire falls within the jurisdiction and rule of my Buddhist sect!"
"And the way you are all currently cultivating is called the way of the Buddha! The Buddha is in fact a respectful way to refer to someone who has achieved enlightenment and Immortality! It is a title of the highest prestige and influence and it is the goal of every cultivator of the Buddhist path!"
"Your empire has proven itself and followed the Buddhist teachings to a satisfying degree. Since that is the case the Buddhist sect has allowed me to share the next realm with your civilization!"
"The realm after Body Refinement is called the Soul Cleansing realm, and once someone enters this realm, they will officially have begun cultivating the Buddhist way, and will be known by their title of Arhat! "
"In the Body Refinement realm, the way a cultivator advances is by strengthening their will and body through the torturous process of destruction and rebirth. And once their will and body reach the peak they are ready for their very souls to be cleansed!"
Wang Wei then went on to explain the entire process of cultivation in the Soul Cleansing realm, while all of the people watched in stunned silence.
However, Wang Wei still continued "All who enter this realm have an obligation to help and teach all those who are below them, as the core of Buddhism is compassion for all suffering beings! And all of those who have not been enlightened to the Buddha's way are suffering! They are bound by their five hindrances and it is the duty of all cultivators of the Buddhas way to help them be rid of them! Just as I am currently helping you be rid of them and become enlightened!"
Wang Wei then finished his sermon with the sentence "I will allow you five days to digest all that you have been told here. Then in five days exactly I will examine everyone who wants to become my disciple and if they have adequate talents and knowledge of the Buddhist teachings, no matter the realm they are in I will personally guide them into the Arhathood!".
After he said that he flew up and returned back to his room, leaving everyone in stunned silence.
The days passed by quickly while Wang Wei was in deep meditation within the Imperial chambers he even successfully cleansed a third of the second hindrance before it was time for him to choose a disciple.
The criterium he decided to observe was the spiritual strength of the cultivator and their understanding of Buddhist scripture.
However, he still had no idea how to test for spiritual strength so while he was in meditation, he also communicated with the Heavenly Will and it instructed him on how to observe the soul of a cultivator.
The way it provided him was to use his spiritual sense and compress it into an extremely small area.
Doing so he would be able to observe everything in that area as if it were under a microscope, he could even see the cells of the body. However, most importantly according to the Heavenly Will he could see the soul.
He was also very excited at the prospect of finally sharing his teachings, as he always had a wish to spread his knowledge. Therefore he didn't delay and went back to his temple, where there was already a gigantic crowd.
When the entire city heard that the Guardian God was accepting disciples everybody that had knowledge of the Buddhist Scriptures showed up.
Which in the city of millions of people summed up into hundreds of thousands of people showing up. But Wang Wei wasn't annoyed at seeing so many people, on the contrary, he was excited to have so many people to pick from. After all with so many people to choose from, he is bound to pick up some decent disciples.
Therefore he didn't delay any longer and he announced "Everyone will have their chance! I have an abundance of time and therefore I will examine each and every one of you! However, you shall enter orderly to be examined one by one, mortals will have priority as they cant survive without food and water for a long amount of time!"
"I will divide you into thirty groups, while one of the groups is being examined the others will return home and wait! Each day a new group shall come to the Grand Temple to be examined" then Wang Wei proceeded to group people together, and send away all of the other groups except one.
Then he went into a chamber inside the temple as he announced to the people that they should start entering to be examined.