Volume 4, Chapter 65 – Cultivating the Heart

Was it a success?

Although Xiang Xian had already heard Guo Rongzhi describe what it would look like when the void was torn open, seeing the flying vessel vanish just like that still made her unable to resist looking at the disciple beside her.

“There should not be any problem.” Guo Rongzhi naturally understood what she was worried about, and said in a low voice, “I admit that because of the rushed schedule, this ship lacks some necessary functions. For example, it cannot store too many supplies, and I did not inscribe any offensive formation diagrams on it.”

“But those hidden risks would only be exposed if it were not being piloted by an Immortal Venerable. If this trip really is as easy as Junior Sister Dao Lord described, then at the very least she should not run into any trouble on the way.”

“You have worked hard during this time as well.” Xiang Xian’s gaze softened a little, and she turned to ask about Guo Rongzhi’s recent progress in cultivating the Path of Qi.

“Still the same as always.” Guo Rongzhi smiled. “Neither fast nor slow… I quite like this so-called Qi-force trait. It has helped me quite a bit in my work.”

As he spoke, he looked at a silver crystal stone on the ground nearby and casually struck out a palm. At once, a semi-transparent palm print appeared in the air, growing denser and denser toward the front until it actually seized the crystal stone out of thin air and moved it into his palm.

So this was a condensation and solidification of form?

Xiang Xian nodded, but there was bitterness in her heart.

There was one thing Guo Rongzhi did not know. As one of the earliest cultivators to come into contact with the Path of Qi and switch over to it, Xiang Xian, even to this day, still had not figured out what her own Qi-force trait was.

Qi-force trait, this thing that at present seemed to exist in nearly every Path of Qi cultivator, alone lost all sense of presence in her case. Xiang Xian had even once suspected that something had gone wrong with her cultivation, and in the middle of it all she had gone to Bai Xiang to have her body adjusted with the Vibration Art.

Yet no abnormality had been found, which meant that at least judging by the Vibration Art’s examination, there was nothing wrong with her Qi cultivation.

If there was no mistake in that aspect of her cultivation, then the problem could only lie in her thinking.

Xiang’er once told me that a Qi-force trait is actually the manifestation of the aspiration buried deep within a person’s heart.

Some people are extroverted and competitive by nature. Most of them acquire Qi-force traits that better display “aggressiveness.”

For example, the efficiency with which they use Qi may increase, or the power of their Qi may grow stronger. In extreme cases, they can even condense intangible Qi into “Qi-flame,” that semi-transparent fire that burns in the void, which is obviously more powerful than ordinary Qi-force alone.

By the same logic, because aspiration differs from person to person, some people also acquire Qi-force traits that lean toward “conservatism.”

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This “conservatism” may be inward.

Some disciples join the dojo not to stand out or accomplish great deeds. They merely want to secure a stable life in chaotic times. Reflected in cultivation, this makes the Qi they refine exceptionally gentle, with a tendency toward using Qi-force to temper the body’s sinews and membranes.

It could also be outwardly expressed.

For instance, Bai Zhuqing’s control over Qi-force could be said to surpass the entire Dao. Her Qi is tighter and more solid than other people’s, to the point that she can even condense it into sharp sword pellets.

Or take Guo Rongzhi. His Qi-force can change as freely as flowing water, soft or hard as needed. While working, it can seep into many mechanical tools, into places normal methods cannot reach, and carry out fine adjustments.

No matter what form such a trait takes, and no matter whether its manifestation is strong or weak, a Path of Qi cultivator is ultimately supposed to have such a thing.

Only Xiang Xian did not. Even Bai Xiang did not know about this.

Is it because I have lived for decades in vain, and do not even know what I truly want?

After Guo Rongzhi left, Xiang Xian stood in the empty workshop, lost in thought.

If one spoke of her aspirations in youth, then what she had really wanted was to live in harmony with the old man, and with all those senior brothers and senior sisters.

But reality had developed in a cold and cruel direction. After seeing off the older generation, she had no choice but to face the malice closing in from every side. Those senior brothers and senior sisters who had once doted on her and loved her had suddenly changed their faces, wishing they could flay her alive and eat her flesh.

She had no choice but to resist, and in a muddled sort of way, she truly did become Dao Lord.

Life after becoming Dao Lord was also orderly and routine.

She knew that the Yuming Sword Dao was extremely special among the Nine Daos, and that it would be difficult for her every action to escape the surveillance of Qianyu Palace. Because of that, she had greatly enjoyed traveling through mountains and waters at the time, moving about everywhere under the pretext of taking disciples.

Quite a few of her disciples, such as Song Ruhua, Guo Rongzhi, Song Chengqing, Liang Yu, and Bai Nianchan, had all been encountered in just this way before being brought into the Yuming lineage.

Those days could be said to have passed without the slightest ripple. The turning point did not come until Bai Nianchan was killed. Only then did she completely change her previous temperament, beginning to make arrangements to investigate the truth and trying to clear her disciple’s name within her own lifetime.

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After that came meeting Bai Xiang.

And only after meeting Bai Xiang did her life truly change course, shifting from “she was the one thinking and planning for others” into “following Bai Xiang, and thinking and planning along the momentum Bai Xiang herself had gathered.”

Now, this newly accepted disciple had leapt ahead of her in a single bound, becoming a great figure feared by the court and dreaded by the Illusory Realms, able in turn to shelter her from wind and rain. And only after being left with this sudden emptiness did Xiang Xian realize that there no longer seemed to be anything she wanted to do.

Protect the dojo?

That was not something that fell to her anymore.

Given Bai Xiang’s cultivation, there were not many factions that would still dare make underhanded moves against the dojo under the pressure she exerted. And the people who did would casually be able to send wandering Immortal Venerables to attack. Her False Core cultivation simply was not enough in front of enemies like that.

Then teach disciples?

Bai Lianzhou, and even Bai Shengju, were personally handling that work.

As the master of the Dao Lord, her status was too sensitive. It was not easy for her to take another personal disciple lightly. Offering shallow guidance could not count as an aspiration, not even as a short-term goal.

Craftsmanship had Guo Rongzhi. State governance had Zhang Xianzhi, along with people like Song Ruhua who had been sent out elsewhere.

Even the back mountain laboratory she had thought about constantly would continue without issue in her absence. Hannah and Han Yuanfeng were enough to maintain its daily operations.

This was not needed.

That was not needed either.

Surely I cannot be thinking of having those juniors hurry up and start families, only so I can help raise their children?

Following that train of thought, Xiang Xian thought again of the somewhat abnormal sisterly relationship between Bai Xiang and Bai Zhuqing, and a smile involuntarily rose on her face.

As if that were something one could count on… even after several more decades, it would still be impossible.

Last night, when Xiang’er left the laboratory, she had left me some manuals on body tempering and acupoint striking.

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I may as well go back and study them, and see whether I can gain anything.

With that thought, Xiang Xian returned to her own room on Yuming Peak, took out the books Bai Xiang had left behind, and began turning through them page by page.

They were handwritten. Bai Xiang’s calligraphy was forceful and sharp, revealing the firmness within her heart.

The contents included formidable arts such as the Sun-Chasing Scripture, the Tathagata Body-Ferrying Scripture, and the Meridian-Opening Method. In this regard, there was no way Bai Xiang would hide anything from Xiang Xian.

After reading a few pages, Xiang Xian tried circulating her blood and Qi according to the route described in the Sun-Chasing Scripture.

But perhaps her Dao-age had not yet reached the required level. Not only did it produce no effect whatsoever, it instead made her blood and Qi surge upward, leaving her mentally unsettled and her whole person looking rather irritable.

She wanted to calm her mind by practicing calligraphy, but in the middle of it, she knocked over the ink box.

To think such a clumsy blunder, the sort even ordinary mortals seldom made, would appear in her own hands… even Xiang Xian laughed at herself in exasperation.

She could not help picking up the book beside her again and, looking at Bai Xiang’s handwriting, sighed, “Do not seek by crooked paths; only take what is straight.”

“In terms of Dao heart alone, there is probably no one in this world who can compare with Xiang’er.”

“Ah, no wonder her progress is so astonishingly fast.”

When she turned another page, a folded slip of paper suddenly fell out.

Xiang Xian was startled. She picked it up and unfolded it, only to see another sentence written upon it in the same sharp hand.

[Master has come this far under many constraints.]

[Have you ever thought]

[of living for yourself?]

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“…”

Her eyelids twitched. Xiang Xian stared blankly at the note, and the surging blood and Qi within her emotions gradually subsided, bit by bit, until they returned to pure calm.

She began to review and gaze upon her own life from the perspective of an observer, from the perspective of a third party, and found that Bai Xiang seemed to be right. In all her life, she had never once lived for herself.

In her youth, it was for her master, to shoulder expectations and revitalize Yuming.

Later, it was for her disciples, for vindication and revenge, to the point of owing favors and running herself ragged for it.

In a daze, it was as if she passed through scenes of time and returned once more to the Qizhou University dormitory, watching herself give a disciple advice with a trace of mischievous malice.

“Sweat smell is a woman’s great enemy.”

“You must not let your bad side show, you know?”

And that disciple’s answer had been:

“So what if it shows?”

“If practicing the sword cannot win me freedom, and I still have to care about what others think, then what is the point of my practicing the sword at all?”

Hah…

Suppressing the goosebumps rising on her skin, Xiang Xian slumped in her chair, her eyes staring blankly into the void.

“To need a disciple to teach me a truth like this.”

“Peak Master Xiang, you really are a disgrace.”