The Path Toward Heaven

Liu Shisui left the hillside grounds and went to the peaks, never to return.

The last scene before his departure was his slightly red face due to the anger and his eyes full of tears due to the sadness of leaving.

The only person who saw this scene was Jing Jiu, but soon he forgot about it as well.

As he had told Liu, the road is long and hard, a person cannot remember everything, and there is no need to remember.

From this point of view, he was indeed a natural practitioner.

After Liu left, Jing Jiu continued living the same life in the same way, but he had to make his own bed now, and the courtyard felt quiet and cold. It took him a few days to get used to it.

The mockery and sneering aimed at him on the hillside ground were becoming more and more frequent.

Liu Shisui had already entered the inner sect, but Jing Jiu was still here wasting his time, an embarrassing thing in anyone’s eyes

Jing Jiu didn’t feel any different. He still stayed in the small courtyard and put sands in that ceramic plate silently, only a few grains a day.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t good at patience; he simply didn’t care.

Yet, Master Lü could no longer hold back; he came to the small courtyard again one night.

He read Jing Jiu carefully with the Piercing Discernment, and found that he still didn’t have the Dao quality inside his body, and again felt disappointed.

No natural quality, no growth of meridians; how can he draw in heavenly and terrestrial energy

Without zhenyuan, how could the natural quality turn into big tall tree and form the Sword Fruit?

Until now, he had been pretty sure that Jing Jiu was not the disciple accepted beforehand by the master on a certain peak.

The reason why Jing Jiu could guide other disciples in Cultivation had to do with his outstanding intelligence and comprehensive ability.

“You could have guessed the right answers nine times out of ten, and it would mean you are from an extraordinary family.”

Master Lü looked at him and said, “I believe your family in Zhaoge is not an ordinary family.”

“There are many books at home,” Jing Jiu replied.

“One cannot rely on talent alone, and a simple life is not helpful for the Dao either, unless you are here only to study. If you aren’t willing to work hard, you can’t be expected to enter the State of Spiritual Stability, and it will be nothing but emptiness in the end.”

Master Lü sighed, “I have spent a long time thinking about this; if you keep going like this, I can recommend for you to go to a place working as a caretaker, where all you have to do is tidy the books and study them; it should be quite suitable for you.”

Jing Jiu knew he was talking about Shiyue Peak, where there were many special collections on the sword instructions and the Dao methods of the Green Mountain Sect, a place to seek Dao in old literature.

“You can still do something good for the sect over there, even have a chance to be rewarded with magic pills, increasing your longevity; however, you will no longer be qualified to obtain the True Sword Spirit,” Master Lü continued. “Your interest isn’t here anyway.”

Jing Jiu felt somewhat surprised; he didn’t think Lü actually cared about him or would arrange a position quite suitable for his needs.

But he certainly wouldn’t agree to the arrangement; he didn’t like Shiyue Peak, and besides, he would leave this place in one year.

…

Another spring arrived, catkins floating everywhere.

More than half of the three-year period had passed, and the external disciples at the South Pine Pavilion were getting more serious about their practice, not daring to relax for even a single day; and on the hillside grounds, the traces of white smoke could be seen everywhere.

So far, a majority of the disciples had already entered the State of Spiritual Stability; some of them, like Xue Yong’e and others, had even been getting close to reaching their Spiritual Fountain.

Only a very small number of them were either too dull or too lazy to have any hope.

Of course, there was only one person who had the opportunity to enter the Green Mountain Sect for Cultivation and yet was lazy from beginning to end.

“What can I do for you?”

Master Lü asked while looking at Jing Jiu standing in front of him.

Master Lü was not concerned about his lack of ambition anymore; though it was seldom for Jing Jiu to leave his small courtyard and come to the training hall to see him, Master Lü was still not interested in whatever he was going to say.

“I’m about to leave,” said Jing Jiu.

Master Lü was lifting a teacup to his mouth, suddenly stopping mid-lift when he heard what Jing had just said.

He had given up on Jing Jiu long time ago, but…

He had some potential, ultimately, and that is why he hadn’t been expelled from the sect yet..and yet, in the end, he was going to give it all up himself? Was he not even willing to simply dawdle around every day?

Master Lü’s mind went numb, and he offered a bitter smile. “Where are you going?”

Jing Jiu thought it over and said, “As for which peak I’ll go to, I haven’t thought it through yet.”

“Then I leave it to you to think about, but it doesn’t matter which village it is or if it’s Zhaoge. Ultimately, it’s your choice …Wait a minute!”

“What did you just say?” Master Lü suddenly came to his senses. “Say it again?”

“I said I don’t know which peak I should go to yet,” Jing Jiu replied.

“Are you talking about those nine peaks?” Master Lü asked tentatively.

“Yes, I am ready to enter the inner sect,” Jing Jiu confirmed.

Now Master Lü started to doubt his own ears. “Do you know what you’re saying,” he reiterated.

“My Spiritual Fountain has basically been filled up, and I am close to entering the State of Spiritual Stability. .”

Thinking of his non-stop pondering and the process of continuously absorbing the heavenly and earthly energy over the two years day and night, Jing Jiu couldn’t help but get a bit sentimental.

Master Lü didn’t believe it at all, so he used his mind to utilize the Piercing Discernment to see into Jing’s whole body. He was ready to punish him severely in accordance with sect rules once his lie had been exposed.

He was getting really angry this time. …

Snap!

The cup fell down on the ground and broke into pieces.

The tea water wet the ground and exuded a constant steam, just like the white smoke steaming up from the heads of those disciples diligently practicing in the woods.

Master Lü looked at Jing Jiu, his eyes full of shock and disbelief.

The training hall was very quiet at the moment.

“What’s going on here?”

“Was I wrong about you?” Master Lü asked this with a slightly trembling voice, his mind seemingly lost in a trance.

“You were not wrong,” Jing Jiu said.

A long period of silence passed.

The tea water on the ground had gradually cooled down and no longer steamed up the white smoke.

Finally, Mater Lü calmed down, but he stared at Jing Jiu as though he were looking at an immortal god, afterwards speaking with an obvious apologetic and regretful tone.

“As a matter of fact… I was wrong about you.”

“That isn’t your fault,” Jing Jiu said while patting his shoulder.

…

The hillside grounds were illuminated by a flash of sword light; the warm spring breeze suddenly turned chill to some extent.

The Master from the Xilai Peak arrived on his flying sword

Seeing the scene, the disciples stopped practicing and gathered in front of the training hall.

They all thought it certain that one of the disciples was going to participate in the inner sect examination, and so they all got excited.

Who would be the second person from the disciples at the South Pine Pavilion to become the inner sect disciple after Liu Shisui?

Some people thought that person should be Brother Yuan from Lelang County; still others believed the person should be the ever-talented Sister Yushan. .

But more disciples believed that it would, without question, be Xue Yong’e.

Yet these three people they were talking about were all here beside them, not in the training hall.

Xue Yong’e had a somewhat gloomy expression on his face. He was quite close to reaching the State of Spiritual Stability, and was confident that he would be the second person to enter the inner sect after Liu Shisui, but he was robbed of this honor by someone else.

He stared at the entrance to the training hall and thought angrily about how the person had concealed himself pretty well, with nobody knowing anything about him.

The white clothing waved in the gentle wind, and Jing Jiu walked into the training hall, guided by Master Lü.

The scene shocked everybody so much that none of them could speak.

They knew Jing Jiu was very smart and had a high comprehensive ability, but this person had no ambition and was extremely lazy.

Who had even seen him practice?

Could such a person be able to achieve a state of Spiritual Stability? Could he even have what was needed to take part in the inner sect examination?

Xue Yong’e’s expression became unusually ugly.

If it were another external disciple who had some luck and got in before him, he would have to accept it even though he’d be angry about it.

But that person was actually Jing Jiu whom he despised the most.

“How can it be!”

“How could he fill his Spiritual Fountain?” He blurted out angrily.

“Has Master Lü actually looked into this?”