On the Shore of the East Sea, Yuan Tianyi stood atop a massive boulder.
The night was moonless, yet a crescent-shaped jade disc hung silently above Yuan Tianyi's head, radiating a gentle glow that illuminated dozens of miles of sea.
The sea breeze swayed softly, rolling up blossoms of white foam.
This was where, sixty years ago, Yuan Tianyi had first seen the ocean after leaving Luofu to cultivate the Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art.
Sixty years had passed like a white colt flashing through a crack, gone in the flick of a finger.
The legends of the world had not all been true. At that time, Fairy Cangyue, Cihang Zhai's most outstanding and most beautiful disciple in decades, had stood at his side. She held out her hand to him, yet he placed this Mò Chà Pearl in her palm.
Back then, Yuan Tianyi had been wholly devoted to the Dao and had severed this bond of love with Fairy Cangyue himself. Yet when he entered the Heavenly Human Realm, he had never expected his heart to be knotted a thousand times over.
For sixty years, cultivating the Dao had been like untying those knots one by one. But so long as this Mò Chà Pearl did not appear, this knot could never truly be undone. Now that the Mò Chà Pearl stood before him, it could finally be resolved. Once this fetter was removed, perhaps he truly could take that final step and transcend the mortal world. Yet though the scenery remained the same, when he saw this pearl again, it was in the hands of such a Young Beggar. The softness of jade and the fragrance of warmth still lingered at his lips and nose, but that person had already passed away. No one could tell whether there was joy or sorrow in Yuan Tianyi's eyes.
He stood quietly for a moment, then slowly turned to face the youth beside him. "You heard what that man said in Shu Region just now. I can grant you one request. What do you want? So long as I can do it, I will surely help you accomplish it."
The sea breeze was damp and cold. The youth's clothes were tattered, and his face had frozen blue. Yet after Yuan Tianyi had swept him from Shu Region to this East Sea thousands of miles away with a spell, the youth had not uttered a word while Yuan Tianyi stood motionless. Only when Yuan Tianyi looked him in the eye and questioned him did he answer, "Can you take me as your disciple?"
"Take you as my disciple?" Yuan Tianyi glanced at the youth. "Wealth, fame, and profit—even if you wanted halls filled with gold and silver, riches to rival a nation, I could help you attain them. Do you truly want nothing else? You want to become my disciple?"
"Yes." The youth nodded.
Yuan Tianyi said nothing. The youth suddenly saw a flash of silver light in his eyes, then felt a scorching current explode directly within the crown of his head. His vision abruptly changed. He was no longer standing atop a boulder by the sea, but falling through the air into a volcanic crater. Below him was nothing but searing, crimson molten rock. The instant he fell into the magma, his flesh charred and rotted away. The pain was so fierce that his scalp seemed about to burst. Just as he involuntarily tried to let out an earth-shaking scream, he found that he could not make a sound. Scalding magma poured into his mouth and nose as well, burning his insides to ash. Yet he did not die. The moment his flesh charred and festered, tender new skin grew back, over and over again, endlessly suffering torment.
"Did you see that none of them were my match, envy my divine abilities, and therefore wish to become my disciple? But do you know that cultivating the Dao is like snatching chestnuts from a fire? To cultivate my Luofu Secret Method, both body and spirit must undergo boundless agony and torment." Yuan Tianyi's indifferent voice suddenly descended from the sky. When the voice faded, the youth realized that he was still standing atop the boulder by the sea. Yet the pain of his flesh charring and rotting seemed to remain within his body. In an instant, beads of sweat the size of beans soaked him through.
"Something like today's experience only counts as a tiny pain. Once true cultivation begins, the suffering you endure and the horrors you witness will be hundreds, thousands of times worse than this. Luofu's transmission of the Dao is also unlike that of others; it is nine deaths for one life. Are you truly certain that you want nothing else and wish to become my disciple?" Seeing the youth panting hoarsely in extreme pain, Yuan Tianyi flicked his sleeve with a trace of displeasure.
Yuan Tianyi had thought that after saying this, the Young Beggar would surely change his mind. Yet contrary to his expectations, the youth, bent over from pain and looking even frailer in the sea wind, wore an unprecedented resolve on his face. After nodding forcefully, the youth bit through his lip and answered in a hoarse voice, as though it had been scorched, "I'm not afraid."
Yuan Tianyi looked at the youth coldly. "I can agree to accept you as my disciple. But according to Luofu Sect Rules, anyone entering Luofu must undergo an initiation trial. I cannot show favoritism in this matter. If you fail, you may not make any other requests. Have you considered this carefully?"
The bent-over youth nodded forcefully once more.
Yuan Tianyi frowned slightly. This was clearly an ordinary mountain youth, yet the more he looked, the more extraordinary this thin youth seemed. A blazing light shone in his clean eyes, unlike the fear and numbness of ordinary beggars.
Could this be the worldly cause and effect that he still could not see through?
Yuan Tianyi looked once more at the Mò Chà Pearl glowing with a deep blue radiance in his hand. When he raised his head again, the light of the crescent-shaped jade disc that had been hanging above his head silently vanished.
A pale blue-white streak of light rose from the Shore of the East Sea and flew southward. Compared with those streaks of sword light at Shushan, it was more than ten times faster.
"Blessings of the immortals!" On the distant sea, several fishermen aboard boats that had set out before dawn to fish stared at the pale blue-white radiance. They all prostrated themselves in terrified reverence.
Yuan Tianyi brought the youth to a mountain valley.
Was the initiation trial to be held here? Yuan Tianyi did not say, and the youth did not dare ask. Before them lay a strange sight: a deep-blue mountain lake, smooth as a mirror, reflecting the surrounding ridges and forests. Unknown shrubs and flowers grew all along the shore, many of them bearing berries of every color. Yet though it was April, when spring was warm and flowers bloomed, patches of white floating ice drifted across the lake. Looking closer, the youth saw transparent slivers of floating ice constantly rising from the depths of the deep-blue lake.
Yuan Tianyi, barefoot and with his hair loose, walked to the lakeside. The Mò Chà Pearl fell from his hand into the water.
This Mò Chà Pearl, which would make the Dao hearts of most cultivators in the world lose control and drive them mad, was simply thrown by Yuan Tianyi into this deep-blue lake whose bottom produced thin sheets of ice.
The Mò Chà Pearl did not sink after falling into the water, but swayed with the waves. Then, without warning, it split open like a cocoon breaking apart. To the youth's astonishment, a sapling rapidly grew from within it, floating upon the water. Its branches and leaves were transparent, crystal-clear like sheets of ice. "What is this?" Unable to suppress his nature, the youth could not help asking.
The instant the words left his mouth, the youth felt uneasy. In Yuan Tianyi's presence, people such as Hetu and True Lord Lieyang were still like ants. To the youth, Yuan Tianyi was a true god. Asking a question of his own accord without permission naturally felt like an offense.
Yet Yuan Tianyi merely said casually, "This is Jīng Tú. It flowers once every hundred years and bears fruit once every thousand years. After bearing fruit, it withers and dies. This Mò Chà Pearl is the seed it produces."
"Then there has only ever been this one tree? Isn't it very lonely?" the youth asked.
"Lonely?" Yuan Tianyi froze for a moment. Then he looked at the tiny yet vibrantly alive Jīng Tú floating on the lake and silently said to himself, Ignorant youth, what could he possibly understand? In this world, what is not lonely?
This was a mountain range with a mild, humid climate, ample moisture, and dense trees. It lay quietly dormant amid a vast, uninhabited wilderness.
With Yuan Tianyi's speed of flight, it had still been deep night when they departed from the East Sea, yet by the time they reached this valley, the rising sun was already shining. After leaving the valley, the youth saw thick mists of many colors rising throughout the damp mountain range. Suddenly, he spotted several brilliantly colored venomous snakes coiled around branches. Though those venomous snakes and insects rustled away when they were still several zhang from Yuan Tianyi, the sight of poisonous creatures everywhere and this deserted wilderness still made the youth ask, "What place is this?"
Yuan Tianyi stood beneath a sheer mountain peak, his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed upon the barren mountains shrouded in vapor. Slowly, he said, "This is where Luofu lies."
The youth did not know whether Luofu Sect's abode resembled the immortal dwellings of legend, wreathed in immortal aura with nectar and jade liquor everywhere. But the desolate mountains and treacherous waters before him were far removed from those legendary immortal abodes. Morning sunlight cast a layer of golden light over his face and Yuan Tianyi's. The sheer peak behind them was terrifyingly steep, covered in trees and vines. Thick white rain mist veiled it from halfway up, making its true height impossible to see. There was neither path nor staircase upon the peak, only an old black iron chain hanging down from above.
"Three li south of here is a small hut where the local Miao Yi people stay when they travel through the wilderness. The Miao Yi are simple and honest. There is food and clean water inside; if travelers stay there temporarily, they need only replenish the grain and fill the water before leaving. You have not slept all night, and your body is weak. You may go there and rest first." Yuan Tianyi had always been as quiet and cold as the floating ice in that lake. Hearing him suddenly speak so much, the youth was momentarily stunned. Then he heard Yuan Tianyi point at the sheer peak behind him. "This peak has no name, but Luofu Sect is atop it. If you can reach the summit, you will be counted as a Luofu disciple. If not, leave the mountains yourself."
Yuan Tianyi's words were cold and absolute, leaving no room for retreat. The youth looked at the terrifying steepness and the iron chain hanging down through the clouds and mist, but said nothing more. After saluting Yuan Tianyi, he broke off a branch, used it to push aside the shrubs and grass, and headed toward the small Miao Yi hut Yuan Tianyi had mentioned. Before long, he vanished into the dense rainforest.
"Master." The youth had barely disappeared into the woods when an aged figure appeared behind Yuan Tianyi. His gray-white hair was sparse and disheveled, and the wrinkles on his face crisscrossed like mountain gullies. Most striking of all were the two deep scars on his left cheek. The old man wore local Miao Yi clothing, and the wax-dyed blue cloth bore the hues of smoke and fire. Had such an old man sat quietly in a stilted house in a Miao Yi mountain village, smoking a water pipe with dim eyes, it would have been the most natural sight in the world. Yet the old man standing respectfully beside Yuan Tianyi now had eyes the color of the rising sun, shining with a brightness utterly at odds with his age. Looking in the direction where the youth had vanished, he said softly, "Master, this youth is resolute and enduring, and his aptitude is not bad. He truly seems to be promising material."
"Is that so? Old Zhao Nan, you have been absent from the world for too long. You do not know that war has once again broken out everywhere, with starving corpses strewn across the land. This youth's eyes are filled with unwillingness and anger, with resentment toward his fate. That has conjured up a burst of courage to support him out of nothing." Yuan Tianyi looked at the old man coldly. "As for temperament and aptitude, Old Zhao Nan, you should understand that only time reveals a person's heart."
Several wooden huts stood atop the mountain. They had all been built from mountain timber and looked extremely crude. Yet the mountain was impossibly high, soaring thousands of ren beyond the thick clouds. From the summit, one could see only one mountain peak after another jutting out from an ocean of clouds.
With his back to the fierce mountain wind, Old Zhao Nan lit reed pith in a black iron pot, then placed the burned ashes into a yellow-bell pitch pipe. While doing this, his weathered face, carved by the sickle of time into mottled age, was full of concentration, as though he were polishing an exquisite piece of porcelain.
"Yin reaching its extreme gives birth to yang. If you want to observe changes in the weather, why go to such trouble?" As Old Zhao Nan carefully watched the reed ash flutter within the yellow-bell pipe, a scroll of golden-threaded brocade bearing the Golden Cauldron Seven Essences Inner Scenery Scripture—a treasure that would make many cultivators' eyes redden and hearts race—had been casually tossed onto the wooden table beside him.
Old Zhao Nan raised his head and looked at Yuan Tianyi, barefoot and loose-haired, as though he did not belong to the mortal world. He smiled. "It helps pass the time. Master, there should be a great rainstorm in three days, shouldn't there?"
Yuan Tianyi did not answer. Looking at a sharpened axe and some split firewood lying elsewhere, he asked thoughtfully, "Old Zhao Nan, how long has it been since we used fire and smoke?"
Old Zhao Nan scratched his head. "Three years? Or five? It has been too long, so I cannot quite remember."
"Yes, it has been too long. You have already had to rely on such things to pass the time." Yuan Tianyi looked at Old Zhao Nan. "I have devoted myself wholly to the Dao, hoping to comprehend the mysteries of all living beings. In sixty years, do you know what I have seen?"
"Master, sixty years ago, your Empty Life Extinguishing Sea Glazed Art had already reached great completion. This old servant is dull and foolish. How could I see what Master has seen?" Old Zhao Nan shook his head.
"The strong devour the weak. That is nature's law; so too is the operation of the Heavenly Dao." Yuan Tianyi said grimly, "You may have no heart to harm others, but others may have hearts to harm you. You may not kill others, yet others will seek to kill you."
"Master speaks the truth. It is only that I am already old enough." Old Zhao Nan's eyes were unexpectedly filled with a calm acceptance of fate. "While Master remains, I remain. Once Master is gone, what boundary is there between life and death?"
"Do you think he can truly climb up?" Yuan Tianyi turned away and said no more. His long fingers, enough to make any woman in the world burn with jealousy, instantly formed an abstruse hand seal. Strands of white cloud dispersed and formed a Light Splitting Mirror more than eight feet tall. The scenery from the foot of the mountain to its middle appeared clearly upon the mirror. A formidable spell said to be usable only by an Earth Immortal grade cultivator, capable of rebounding the attacks of most immortal arts and spell formulas, was being used by him merely as a mirror for spying. Most cultivators would surely see such use as the wastefulness of a nouveau riche ruining a treasure, yet this spell, which consumed an enormous amount of magical power, seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.
Old Zhao Nan rubbed his rough hands together. He saw the frail youth laboriously climbing upward along the iron chain. The chain and the branches jutting out around it cut scar after scar across his palms and body, but he continued climbing with all his strength. Yet for a child of twelve or thirteen, this mountain was simply too steep and too high. Before reaching even a quarter of the way up, he finally collapsed from exhaustion and slowly slid back down.
"It seems he cannot climb up." Old Zhao Nan had never doubted Yuan Tianyi's words, but after respectfully saying this, the old man with the thick Miao Yi accent grinned. "But Master, the moment I saw him, I felt he was somewhat different."
No matter how different Old Zhao Nan felt the youth was from others, not a single Luofu Sect text recorded anyone ascending to heaven in one step and gaining something without labor merely because of another's appreciation. The next day, Old Zhao Nan still did what he always did: he sat in meditation and regulated his breathing without moving for half the day, like a dead man. Then he brought out a stone mortar that had not been used for a long time and, like a true old man with one foot in the grave, slowly pounded millet while quietly watching the fierce mountain wind blow the golden husks from the mortar.
At noon three days later, the first thing Old Zhao Nan did after waking from his corpse-like meditation was grin. Yuan Tianyi stood on the platform before him, seeming to have merged with heaven and earth. The Light Splitting Mirror, which consumed such immense magical power, floated quietly in the air before Yuan Tianyi.
"This child is not so foolish after all." A gleam flashed through Old Zhao Nan's slightly golden eyes. As three days before, the youth was still struggling upward. He had more wounds on his body, but ropes twisted from cloth strips were tied around his hands and waist. Whenever his strength gave out, he tied the ropes to the iron chain and hung himself from it to rest briefly, just as Old Zhao Nan had hung cured meat over the past two days. In the past, the youth had never climbed beyond one quarter of the height, but today, he had nearly reached the mountainside.
"It took him so many days to think of such a method, and you call him not foolish?" Yuan Tianyi said dismissively. "Besides, can this method truly get him to the top?"
Old Zhao Nan said nothing. He merely narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the four-cornered bronze wind chimes hanging from the wooden hut. The chimes now rang out one after another with pleasant tinkling sounds. A rainstorm common in the Luofu mountains had officially drawn back its curtain.