Daoist Master of Qing Xuan

In the void came a tearing sound, and Fang Yanying appeared behind Shen Lian, as if the void was a curtain, pulled open to reveal her.

This was a sword traveling technique of the highest caliber, where the sword aura was assimilated into the body, and the flying speed incomparable because of the nature of the Shapeless Sword Aura. Once put to use, there was not a trace left.

Fang Yanying said, “Uncle-master, I went up the mountain and met with the Mountain God, challenging him on your behalf.”

Having said this she could not help but recall the scene going up the mountain. A young man who wore a green Daoist robe stood on the cliff, the air was full of snow. Upon the groaning of the sword, all the snow became dust, which finally settled in the void and became fog, and dripped down to become wind and rain.

Not only that, Fang Yanying herself could feel it, and her transformation with the Shapeless Sword Aura at the time was too affected by the groan. The natural frequency of mana converged with the groaning of the sword, even the spirits were no exception. As if, if the person changed the frequency of the groaning, it would suffice to render her into a pool of blood mist. She never imagined that such a fearsome sword technique would exist in the world.

“You heard the groaning of the sword, could it be that you saw the Celestial Trapping Sword,” Shen Lian face looked carefree, along with the waves of the Ruoshui River.

Fang Yanying thought back for a bit, she heard the groaning, but did not see the sword, “Looking back, uncle-master, I did not see it.”

“That’s a pity. That truly is a good sword. It is hard to come across the pleasure one gets if one could defeat this sword, or suffer defeat at the hands of the sword,” Shen Lian said while he turned his body, smiling, the Five Elements Magical Sword let out a soft chant as if dissatisfied with what Shen Lian said.

Fang Yanying was perplexed as to how the uncle-master knew that she heard the groaning of sword, but hearing him say, ‘to suffer defeat at the hands of the sword’, she could not help but feel worried, and asked, “Mountain God told me, ‘During the night of the full moon, become an immortal using the way of the sword’. I counted, the next full moon is twenty days from today. Uncle-master, can you find the fruit of immortality?” The uncle-master’s wide sleeves covered the skeleton hand. If he used this incomplete body, to engage in a swordfight with the Mountain God, the outcome could change completely with a tiny bit of distraction.

“You could say that I found it, but you could also say that I did not because the fruit of immortality is not a fruit, but a person,” Shen Lian sighed.

“A… person?” Fang Yanying did not understand what he meant.

“The Dancing Tree is a treasure tree of the Sukhavati, the Western Paradise. The way it bears fruit is different from what we know. The fruit of immortality is a type of ‘karma’. It will fall into sea of bitterness in the human world, but it will fall specifically on the body of one being. That person will have the ‘immortal karma’, and in the future, he surely can become Bodhisattva or even Buddha. On this point, I had to meet the person before I can understand. It can be said that this person, in the eyes of those who cultivate and practice, is more valuable than the drug of immortality. His flesh and blood contained the retributory powers of the fruit of immortality, once it is eaten, there is hope for even a demon to become a great saint, for a Daoist to become a heavenly immortal, for a Buddhist to become the Bodhisattva. If I eat him, I will improve even more in the Dao of the five elements and can compete with Chen Beidou,” Shen Lian laughed.

“Where is this person, will he be hard to capture?” Fang Yanying’s eyes lit up with hint of strangeness in her look. Even though she had kindness, but when it comes of matters of life and death in the way of Dao, she can throw that away. Moreover, the gratitude she had towards her uncle-master was like a mountain, if he had any misgivings, countless sins, descending down to the netherworld after death, punishment by hacking, all of it she took on his behalf.

Shen Lian restrained his smile and quietly turned to her, “You need not mind this business anymore, for the rest of the days, find a place, cultivate the Dazizai Shapeless Sword Aura that I passed down to you, or else when the time comes, you would not even qualify to be a spectator, and it will also go against the original intention of me bringing you here.”

Fang Yanying saw uncle-master’s firm look and had no choice but to muster a ‘Yes’, before vanishing in the wind and rain.

Dazizai Shapeless Sword Aura was only one word short of Shapeless Sword Aura, but in essence, it was as different as the heavens and hell. The word ‘Dazizai’ came from Buddhism, but had the subtlety and profound will of the peak of Daoism. Even if it was only a small success, it could still confer a bit of freedom by protecting oneself during battles that shake the sky and tremble the ground.

Shen Lian himself could not say where the fate would take him, as of now he could only work hard to sow the seeds of cultivation in his school. At this point in time, he missed Senior-Apprentice Brother Chen even more, because, for all of senior-apprentice sister, Lu Shouyi, or Yan Bugui, all were merely chosen at one time, they were not the long-term backbone of Qing Xuan.

In Qing Xuan, other than himself, the only grandmaster could make the Sea Stabilising Needle.

But it was a pity that both of them were afraid that they may not be able to stay at this place for long, especially Shen Lian himself. Though his efforts were fast, it did not mean that there will be no future troubles. He had already attracted the attention of ‘heaven’s law’, even if he won against Chen Beidou this once, there might still be greater trials awaiting him. In terms of this he gained more and more respect for Lu Jiuyuan, as he did not know how the latter could stay so long in the heavens and earth, continuously improving, and come and go as he pleases.

Even so, no matter how good the other person’s path was, it was not easier than the path he chose now. Shen Lian admittedly felt admiration and was not envious. He looked up to Mount Zhong and thought in his heart, “You would have thought the same, no?”

________

Chen Jinchan followed behind the Honourable Witch, unsure if it was the dragon carp soup that he drank or the protection of the witch that made him climb the mountain so effortlessly, no matter how steep it was. His body had a wave of heat, over and over again, giving him no less power. Similar to the pace of the witch that was neither too fast nor too slow, but he did not realize that his pace and frequency was the same with that of the witch.

Mount Zhong was very high, the peak was nowhere to be seen. The good thing was that the Temple of the Mountain God was not built at the peak. Even so, they had walked until it was midnight and could see the moon up in the sky. It was barely a few days past the full moon, and the moon was then crescent-shaped, and looked rather swift and fierce, the moon showed its distinctive water-caltrop-like horn even in the snowy night.

Chen Jinchan who was always unaffected by external factors, became quite excited, after all he would be meeting the Mountain God very soon, someone of the highest order, taking care of all the life and death of all the beings in Mount Zhong.

His thoughts floated like the snowflakes, and suddenly with one step, in the ripples of the moonlight, he and the witch had already reached a piece of flat land on a cliff. The snow was very thick, the clouds were so thick he could almost touch them.

Even if the temple was not located at the top of the mountain, mere continuous walking of a half-month span, would not necessarily guarantee that one would reach there. He was unsure whether a moment ago the witch used a Dao technique that was akin to ‘shrinking the ground into inches’, first letting him follow behind to get him used to the pace and frequency, and later on utilized the technique, thus reaching the place in one step, so as not to place too much of a burden of his body.

After he finished cultivating, then only these complications can be understood. Then, he only saw that at the temple roof, a young man wearing a green Daoist robe seated there crossed-legged, he was the source of faith for all the beings in Mount Zhong – old Mountain God.

In front of him was a sword, placed flat. The moonlight flowed down his body like water, but other than this, no other extraordinary phenomena could be seen.