Chapter 127: Old Friends and New Acquaintances Gather Together
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The bamboo raft had been drifting above the clouds. Now that it saw the Dragon and Tiger Mountains, it slowly sank beneath the cloud layer and descended toward Immortal Cauldron Mountain.
The moment it reached the skies above Immortal Cauldron Mountain, someone came to receive them. From far away, a Daoist of Dragon and Tiger Mountain spotted the people seated on the raft and called out loudly,
“The Sect Master of Three Pure Ones Mountain, together with his disciples, has arrived!”
The guide led the raft down onto a mountain peak, and everyone disembarked.
“Master Lu, the grand ceremony begins tomorrow. Please come with this humble Daoist to the Purple Magpie Tower, where you may stay for the night.”
Lu Duxing smiled and replied, “With pleasure.”
Thus, the group took up lodging in a lofty tower built of purple wood. Magpies were carved in relief across its doors, windows, beams, and pillars. The tower stood amid a grove of plum trees—spring plums, blooming at this very moment, their scattered blossoms filling the air with fragrance.
The guide escorted the twenty-odd people from Three Pure Ones Mountain into the tower, then said,
“Master Lu, fellow Daoists, this mountain is called Suitable Rest Mountain. All who stay here are guests. There are fine dishes, hot springs, a library, martial platforms, and more. Please make yourselves at home.”
“Thank you for your trouble.”
The Daoist bowed and withdrew.
Several of the elders went upstairs to rest, while the disciples, all visiting Dragon and Tiger Mountain for the first time, agreed to look around.
Zhu Jianrong, Zeng Jinian, and Xiao Miaoyu were familiar with Cheng Xinzhan and had shared life-and-death experiences with him. They now came looking for him, intending to take a stroll together, bringing two others along.
“Xinzhan, Grand-Uncle, let me introduce you to each other.”
Zhu Jianrong drew a young man over to Cheng Xinzhan and began,
“Xinzhan, this is my junior grand-uncle, Daoist name Weimin. He is the closed-door disciple of my grandmaster, Master Wanshan, and his worldly name is Fang Fengyi. You should have heard of him.
“Grand-Uncle, this is Cheng Yifu, Cheng Xinzhan. His reputation is so great that surely I need not say more.”
Cheng Xinzhan looked over. The man was remarkably young—young enough to seem even younger than Zhu Jianrong, and perhaps a little younger than Xinzhan himself. Yet since he belonged to the Wei generation and came from the same lineage as Zhu Jianrong, Zhu had no choice but to address him respectfully as his junior grand-uncle.
Cheng Xinzhan, naturally, had no need to do the same. Not only did they belong to different lineages, but if one truly calculated the mountain’s seniority, Xinzhan would actually be Fang Fengyi’s grandmaster.
Of course, Cheng Xinzhan knew of Fang Fengyi. He was a Daoist prodigy on the Southern Dipper Qi-Eating Ranking. Xinzhan also knew that the master of Purple Smoke Mountain bore the surname Fang.
“Boundless Immeasurable Temple, Weimin.”
He greeted him with a nod.
Within his own sect, apart from Grandmaster Tongxuan and his master, Cheng Xinzhan had never met anyone of higher seniority than himself. Thus, when addressing others, he generally judged by age. Those older than him received “senior brother”; those older still, “Daoist elder”; and those older yet, “Daoist grandfather.” Those with official positions were addressed by their titles, while those whose lectures he had attended were called “teacher.” He never considered the difference in cultivation.
If someone was younger than him, he simply called them by name.
“Greetings, Grand-Uncle.”
Fang Weimin, however, was an exceedingly proper man. He clasped his hands and bowed, addressing Xinzhan as grand-uncle. Once seniority exceeded three generations, everyone was simply called grandmaster; otherwise, adding string after string of “great” before the title would be unbearably cumbersome.
Cheng Xinzhan jumped. He had assumed that a Daoist prodigy would carry an air of arrogance. He had not expected such a rigid traditionalist.
“No, no, Weimin. We can simply treat each other as equals.”
Fang Weimin was stubborn, however. He shook his head repeatedly, said nothing, and did not change how he addressed him.
Cheng Xinzhan now roughly understood why Master Wanshan had given him the Daoist name Weimin.
“Little Daoist Grandfather, there’s no need to bother with him. He’s simply a block of wood.”
Another young man spoke.
Cheng Xinzhan looked over and immediately saw that this person was the exact opposite of Fang Weimin.
Fang Weimin spoke with rigid precision and walked with measured steadiness. This newcomer, by contrast, was utterly unrestrained—put less politely, he was a shameless idler. He wore a thin hemp robe embroidered with gold thread, the thread forming a phoenix chrysanthemum. His collar hung wide open, exposing his chest, and he looked over with slanted brows and languid eyes.
For a moment, Cheng Xinzhan was dazed.
Senior Brother Miaoyuan…
“Xinzhan! Xinzhan!”
Zeng Jinian patted him on the shoulder.
“Ah? I’m here!”
Cheng Xinzhan came back to himself.
Zeng Jinian sighed inwardly. He had been present during that first clash in the Western Kunlun Mountains and had a deep impression of Wang Miaoyuan. He could more or less guess what was running through Xinzhan’s mind.
“Xinzhan, let me introduce you. This is my grand-uncle, the closed-door disciple of Master Yingshan. His name is Zheng Miaoji, and his worldly name is Zheng Weicheng.”
Once he heard the worldly name, Cheng Xinzhan understood. The master of Stone Forest Mountain was surnamed Zheng. He had never expected that his son would join Sword Mountain.
“Grand-Uncle, this is…”
“No need, Jinian. I know him. Cheng Yifu, Cheng Southern Dipper, Cheng Dujie, and Cheng Xinzhan are all the same person.”
Cheng Xinzhan hurriedly waved his hands. “Just call me Xinzhan.”
Two months earlier, he had broken through a realm and successfully opened his Palace, thereby entering the Southern Dipper Ranking. As a result, the name Cheng Southern Dipper had begun circulating once more. He had opened his Palace after seven years, and his ranking this time happened to be fifth again, just as it had been during the Qi-Eating stage. The fifth star lord among the Six Stars of the Southern Dipper was the Star Lord of Deliverance from Calamity, which was why some people also called him Cheng Dujie.
Still, Cheng Xinzhan was truly not familiar with these two Daoist prodigies. When he had been at the sect, both men had been away searching for celestial and terrestrial energies. Once they returned, he had gone traveling abroad. Furthermore, their cultivation had previously been far apart, and both prodigies were rather low-key in their conduct. It was perfectly normal that they had never met.
They were all young people, and before long they became acquainted. The six of them were all at the Second Realm, so their conversation naturally turned to celestial and terrestrial energies and divine abilities.
Celestial and terrestrial energies, and divine abilities, were the two great paths of cultivation in the Second Realm.
Celestial energy and terrestrial energy were spiritual forces born from the union of innate yin and yang with acquired phenomena. They could be called spiritual energy, yet could not be directly inhaled and refined. But if one said they were not spiritual energy, they could, after refinement, circulate through the body, form golden cores, and condense primordial talismans. In short, they were exceedingly mysterious substances.
Moreover, astral energy and baleful energy were both extraordinarily fierce and savage. The slightest carelessness during refinement could pierce one’s acupuncture points. Thus, the refinement of these energies was often referred to using the internal-alchemy terms “subduing the dragon and taming the tiger,” with the emphasis placed on the words subdue and tame.
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If one succeeded in subduing these energies, they brought many conveniences. Apart from the most important function—harmonizing yin and yang to form a golden core—they could also condense into primordial talismans.
Within the Twelve Lofty Towers of Cheng Xinzhan’s body, the Bright-Yang Cloud Hall Astral Energy had condensed into a Cloud-Root Primordial Talisman. With a single breath, he could exhale mirage clouds and weave an illusionary realm in an instant.
Besides forming golden cores and primordial talismans, these energies had another major use: attaching themselves to weapons.
Take flying swords, for example. A flying sword bearing sword-astral energy and one without it were utterly different things. Cheng Xinzhan’s left eye, for instance, concealed the Peach Capital, and the Bright-Yang Cloud Hall Astral Energy clung to it. Its power was naturally extraordinary. It was precisely because the sword bore that astral energy that, on the battlefield of the Western Kunlun Mountains, he had been able to cut through the true body of the Third-Realm demon, Shang Sansi, with the Peach Capital.
Apart from gathering celestial and terrestrial energies, there was another great path in the Second Realm.
That was the path of divine abilities.
The name of the Second Realm was the Hidden Treasury of Destiny. The “Hidden Treasury” referred to the treasures of the physical body—in other words, the hundred apertures throughout the circulation of heaven.
Humans were the foremost spirits among all living things, and the transformation of all creatures into human form naturally had its source. Every aperture in the human body possessed innate attributes and acquired functions. Once an aperture was opened and its innate divinity comprehended, one could refine a divine ability.
In truth, the First Realm’s opening of the Five Palaces could also be considered a path of divine abilities. The Heart Palace circulated blood essence, the Liver Palace dispersed emotions, the Spleen Palace transformed nourishment, the Lung Palace breathed out vital essence, and the Kidney Palace stored essence and guided one’s nature. These functions might appear no different from those of an ordinary person’s five organs, but in reality they were worlds apart.
Ordinary people possessed shallow and unstable blood vitality. Once they passed the age of sixty, their vitality began to deteriorate. But if the Heart Palace had been opened, their blood and qi would still surge at the age of a hundred.
An ordinary person’s inhalation and exhalation took no more than a moment. With the Lung Palace opened, however, breathing became slow and prolonged; a single breath in and out could equal a hundred breaths of an ordinary person.
Once ordinary people passed fifty, their vital essence would begin to dry up. With the Kidney Palace opened, their kidney essence would remain abundant even after a hundred years.
These divine abilities functioned within the body, so people generally did not speak of them deliberately.
What truly fascinated cultivators were the divine abilities that could be used in battle.
For example, after opening the nose aperture, some people could refine the divine ability known as the Heaven-Shaking Drum. After opening the ear apertures, others could refine the Wind-Summoning Ear. There were also the Thousand-Li Eyes, the Sky-Covering Hand, the Heaven-Imprisoning Finger, and the Six-Vein Divine Sword—all famous divine abilities.
Cheng Xinzhan’s Nine-Yang Returning-Form Alchemical Eyes also counted as a divine ability.
Besides this, opening the apertures and following the path of divine abilities brought another benefit that could not be overlooked: the storage of magical power.
When fighting others, once numbers increased and the battle dragged on, the exhaustion of magical power became the greatest problem every cultivator had to face. Even a Fifth-Realm cultivator with an ocean of magical power would eventually reach the point of depletion.
At such times, the more apertures one had opened within the body, the more magical power one could store. This was an advantage that could not be ignored in battle.
Yet every person’s energy was limited, and secret divine arts, as well as celestial and terrestrial energies, were not things found everywhere. Thus, a cultivator in the Second Realm would generally focus on developing one path.
Naturally, refining one yin and one yang energy, and opening the Yellow Court aperture, were the two most fundamental requirements for breaking through from the Second Realm into the Third.
The five people around Cheng Xinzhan began discussing these two paths.
Fang Weimin, the one of highest seniority, followed the path of divine abilities. He had already found two energies that suited him, but was in no hurry to form a core. Instead, he was concentrating on exploring the vital apertures of the Hidden Treasury of Destiny and tempering his foundation.
Zheng Miaoji, next in seniority, followed the path of celestial and terrestrial energies. He had yet to find a suitable celestial energy, but already possessed four terrestrial energies. He cultivated the Nourishing-Qi school of ritual swords and specialized in metal among the five elements. He had fused baleful energy into his ritual sword, and its sword aura was now extremely formidable.
Zhu Jianrong also cultivated divine abilities. As far as Cheng Xinzhan knew, he possessed a remarkable divine ability called the Heart-Penetrating Flame. It could kindle a fire in his palm, and the fire’s strength and transformation were governed entirely by his will. This was completely different from using the Five-Element Method to condense a flame in one’s palm. Zhu’s Heart-Penetrating Flame was not particularly useful in combat, but it could be used to refine pills in the palm of one’s hand, which was exceptionally impressive.
Zeng Jinian was determined to follow the path of celestial and terrestrial energies, nourishing his flying sword with them. The only problem was that he had not yet gathered many.
Xiao Miaoyu had resolved to follow the path of divine abilities. At present, he seemed to be cultivating something akin to the divine ability of Words Become Law. Once mastered, combined with his talismanic scripture and magical treasure, it would surely be formidable.
How should I choose?
Listening to their discussion, Cheng Xinzhan silently asked himself that question.
Was there a way to achieve two benefits at once?
There ought to be.
After all, during the First Realm, he himself had conceived the idea of refining a Sun Sword within the Sun Palace. His left eye now concealed a strand of Bright-Yang Cloud Hall Astral Energy. It was both tempering the Sun Sword, the Peach Capital, and increasing the power of his Nine-Yang Returning-Form Alchemical Eyes.
But could this method be applied to other apertures?
That was difficult to say.
Celestial and terrestrial energies were scarce, and it was exceedingly rare to find a situation in which the Sun Palace aperture, the Peach Capital sword, the Nine-Yang Returning-Form Alchemical Eyes, and the Bright-Yang Cloud Hall Astral Energy all perfectly complemented one another.
“It’s Cheng Yifu!”
He was still deep in thought when a shout abruptly interrupted him.
He turned toward the voice. The speaker was around his age, not from Three Pure Ones Mountain. The face seemed familiar, yet he could not remember who the person was.
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“Daoist Elder Yifu, I’m Du Quanxian of Mount Gezao! You may not remember me, but I remember you. Several years ago in the Western Kunlun Mountains, I went to you to receive a talisman!”
“Oh, yes!”
Cheng Xinzhan remembered.
“How have you been since then? I never saw you again on the battlefield. After the demon from the Five Ghost Sect captured you, were you injured? Did your Dao foundation suffer?”
The man spoke with genuine concern.
Cheng Xinzhan smiled. “Nothing serious, nothing serious.”
They exchanged a few casual words. Seeing that Cheng Xinzhan’s fellow disciples were waiting for him, the man did not linger, merely saying that they would speak again if they had the opportunity.
“Fellow Daoist Xinzhan!”
No sooner had Cheng Xinzhan parted from the man of Mount Gezao than he heard someone calling him again. He looked over and saw a man in blue robes approaching swiftly.
“I never expected to meet you here, Fellow Daoist Xinzhan!”
The man in blue hurried to his side.
“Fellow Daoist Lan!”
Cheng Xinzhan recognized him as Lan Yuqing of Mount Lu. They had met at the sword duel gathering hosted by the Master of the Pearl-Returning Tower. Lan Yuqing had formed a sword-aura formation, leaving a deep impression on Xinzhan.
“We exchanged blows briefly at White Jade Capital all those years ago. Several years have passed since then. Fellow Daoist Xinzhan, you have entered the Second Realm, haven’t you? Your flying sword was damaged back then. Did that affect your cultivation?”
Lan Yuqing asked.
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Cheng Xinzhan smiled. “It was nothing. I entered the Second Realm only a few months ago.”
“Excellent!”
Lan Yuqing slapped his palm.
“Fellow Daoist Xinzhan, this time we must have another match!”
Lan Yuqing had brooded over his previous defeat for a long time. He had repeatedly reviewed the battle and now wanted another chance to compete.
Cheng Xinzhan smiled and nodded. “When there’s an opportunity, certainly.”
“Good, good. I won’t keep you any longer.”
Lan Yuqing smiled and departed.
“Xinzhan’s reputation is truly impressive. Just among those attending the Dragon and Tiger Dharma Assembly, he already knows so many people.”
Xiao Miaoyu spoke with a laugh.
He, too, had participated in the rotating battles of the Western Kunlun Mountains. But so many people had taken part that who could possibly know everyone else? The only person known by all was Cheng Yifu—the Cheng Yifu who had escaped alive from the hands of a Third-Realm demon.
Cheng Xinzhan waved his hands. “It was only coincidence, only coincidence.”
They had taken no more than two steps when they heard another cry.
“Senior Brother Xinzhan!”
Cheng Xinzhan sighed helplessly and turned toward the voice once more, only to find a young man and woman walking toward them side by side.
Huh?
This time, Cheng Xinzhan was baffled. They were complete strangers.
“May I ask who the two of you are?”
He cupped his hands.
The young man and woman exchanged glances, then smiled at each other.
“Senior Brother, I’m Meng Xuq—”
“Senior Brother, I’m Meng Xuyi!”
Cheng Xinzhan blinked and studied them carefully. Were these the Meng Xuq and Meng Xuyi of the Divine Firmament Sect? They looked nothing like he remembered. The first time he had met them, they had still been children!
“Senior Brother, you haven’t changed at all, but my sister and I have both grown up.”
Meng Xuqi smiled.
Cheng Xinzhan nodded cheerfully. This reminded him of the first time he had summoned thunder. Four or five years had passed since then. At the time, the two of them should have been eleven or twelve. Now they were probably fifteen or sixteen. They had grown so much taller, and their features had changed considerably.
“Has Daoist Yibi come as well?”
Cheng Xinzhan asked. He had a very favorable impression of their master. If the old Daoist had also come to Dragon and Tiger Mountain, he ought to pay him a visit when he had the chance.
But the instant Cheng Xinzhan finished speaking, the young siblings’ eyes dimmed. Meng Xuyi said,
“Senior Brother, our master’s allotted lifespan came to an end. He has passed into stillness.”
“This…”
Cheng Xinzhan’s breath caught. He immediately apologized again and again.
“I’m truly sorry. I didn’t know the old Daoist had passed away. I was discourteous, truly discourteous.”
The siblings recovered quickly, however, and Meng Xuyi said,
“It’s all right. My brother and I were beside our master when he departed. He left without regrets.”
“That’s good. That’s good.”
Cheng Xinzhan spoke in a low voice.
“Then we won’t disturb you, Senior Brother. When you have some free time, my brother and I will visit you and ask you about the art of thunder.”
Meng Xuqi said.
“Of course. We can simply discuss it together.”
Cheng Xinzhan replied.
Apart from Fang Weimin, the other five, who had been waiting nearby, naturally began teasing Xinzhan once more. As they chatted, they arrived beside another brightly lit tower. The fragrance of wine drifted from within.
“Let’s have a jar.”
Zheng Miaoji’s eyes lit up.
“Let’s have a jar.”
Old friends and new acquaintances had gathered together, and Cheng Xinzhan naturally could not suppress the wine worms stirring in his belly.
The group entered the tower.
The moment he crossed the threshold, Cheng Xinzhan once again saw a familiar figure. The man wore a cobalt-blue Daoist robe, with a white egret embroidered across his chest.
Xinzhan’s heart sank.
Sure enough, when the man saw Cheng Xinzhan, he was overcome with delight and shouted,
“My benefactor!”
The End of the Chapter
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