Emperors and generals alike would one day die. Some cultivated the Dao in pursuit of escape from birth, aging, sickness, and death—for everlasting life and immortality.
A thousand chariots and iron cavalry could not withstand Heaven's might. Some cultivated the Dao in pursuit of strength beyond that of others.
Heaven and Earth held profound mysteries, and the stars stretched vast and boundless. Some cultivated the Dao in pursuit of the origin, to comprehend the mysteries of the universe.
"Why do you want me to take you as my disciple?" Old Zhao Nan stood behind Yuan Tianyi, squinting, bent-backed, and with his hands hanging at his sides. Yuan Tianyi stood before several wooden huts and asked the youth before him, "What is it that you seek?"
The youth raised his head. Seven-colored radiance filled his eyes. The rain over Luofu had just cleared, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Like that seven-colored dragon boat and the disdainful gazes of those two Palace Gown Beauties, the rainbow scorched his eyes with blazing heat!
There were many reasons in his heart, but he was dull by nature and no good with words. For a moment, he could only look up at Yuan Tianyi, unable to answer even a single sentence.
"What is your name?" Yuan Tianyi did not seem to care that he had received no answer and continued asking.
The youth shook his head with difficulty. "I have no name." He had been an orphan ever since he could remember and did not even know where he had been born. Only the little girl who had depended on him for life called him Brother Stone. She had begun calling him that only because Old Man Wu, the destitute fortune-teller who could not possibly have known the youth's birth characters, had made up some nonsense about his Five Elements lacking earth, saying that his name ought to be supplemented with earth or stone. Yet the kindhearted girl could not even distinguish between a surname and a given name, so Brother Stone could not really count as a name.
In truth, the youth did not know that if he had failed to climb this mountain peak, Yuan Tianyi would not even have needed to know his name. But now, everything was entirely different. The youth's eyes shone with a desperate, steadfast determination to seek the Dao. That fearless and valiant gaze had once appeared in Yuan Tianyi's own eyes as well. Looking at the youth, Yuan Tianyi recalled the first time he had seen him clutching the Mò Chà Pearl. He thought of placing that Mò Chà Pearl in Fairy Cangyue's hand, then of the first time he had encountered her north of the Luo River. White clouds turned to gray dogs; flying flames flowed like gold. Decades of light and shadow flashed through his Sea of Consciousness in an instant. No one could have imagined that at this moment, Yuan Tianyi actually saw his own "Heavenly Tribulation"!
Only cultivators who had reached the legendary Tribulation Stage would face their own "Heavenly Tribulation." Those who passed this tribulation were what cultivators called Tribulation Immortals. According to one's encounters and the techniques one cultivated, the final "Heavenly Tribulation" could differ entirely. Some cultivators of the Wind and Thunder Art would invoke the Nine Heavens Gale and Seven-Layered Thunder Tribulation. Those who cultivated Soul Secret Methods would invoke the True Demonic Realm and Three Lives Memory Illusion Tribulation. Those who cultivated Heart Secret Methods would invoke the cycle of greed, hatred, and delusion tribulation. Yet among the countless cultivators beneath the heavens, only a scant few had reached this final step over the course of a thousand years. Thus, no one could state for certain what sort of "Heavenly Tribulation" a particular technique would ultimately bring.
Only cultivators who had reached this realm could sense the "Heavenly Tribulation" they would face. Between gain and surrender, Yuan Tianyi's cultivation had unknowingly advanced another step, and he had finally taken that last step. What made Yuan Tianyi smile bitterly within was that he discovered his "Heavenly Tribulation" was the even rarer Karma Tribulation!
"You shall be called Luo Bei."
"Luo Bei?" The youth repeated the name. Having yet to enter the world of cultivation, he had no idea Yuan Tianyi had finally entered a realm only a handful of people had reached over the past thousand years. Yuan Tianyi's tone remained like an ancient well without ripples, calm and cold, but as the youth looked at him, a trace of warmth sprang up in his heart from nowhere.
"From today onward, you are a disciple of my Luofu Sect. I told you long ago that cultivating my Luofu Technique is a path where nine die for every one who lives. Since you have made this choice, you have handed your life and everything else to me. From this day forward, you may not defy anything I ask of you in the slightest. You may not even harbor doubt in your heart. Can you do that?"
The youth nodded forcefully. A yellowed scroll of silk fell from Yuan Tianyi's hand. He said to the youth in an offhand manner, "If you cannot read, Old Zhao Nan will read it to you. You may ask him anything you do not understand. But within ten days, you must memorize all of it. Ten days from now, you will begin cultivating on your own."
The youth took a deep breath and held up the long yellowed silk scroll. The golden characters and illustrations upon it looked as obscure as could be. He nodded somewhat stiffly and looked at Old Zhao Nan, who grinned at him.
There was no immortal grotto with an awe-inspiring air, no jade pools and nectar, immortals riding flying birds and Strange Beasts, or magnificent palaces shimmering with flowing light and color like those the old fortune-teller had described. Looking at Old Zhao Nan, who resembled a Miao elder with one foot in the grave, and Yuan Tianyi, standing alone, the innocent youth could not help asking, "Where is our Luofu Sect? Where are the other teachers?"
"Where you and I stand is where the Luofu Sect stands. My Luofu Sect has always passed down through a single line."
Yuan Tianyi's calm explanation sent a violent shudder through the youth's entire body.
At that moment, Yuan Tianyi stood barefoot and dressed in plain hemp robes, like a white lotus standing alone amid the mountains, apart from the world.
"Luo Bei." Beneath the dim yellow lamplight, the formerly nameless youth put down the yellowed Mahākāla Secret Method he had been committing to memory by rote, then wrote his own name once in a sand tray. "Uncle Old Zhao Nan, is what you taught me written correctly?"
Old Zhao Nan, bent with age, put down the rough hemp garment he had been sewing. Squinting at it, he broke into a smile. "Young Master, you wrote it right."
"Uncle Old Zhao Nan, aren't you also a disciple of Luofu?"
"Yes. Didn't Master tell you? Luofu has always passed down through a single line, and each generation accepts only one disciple. I am merely Master's servant." Old Zhao Nan answered patiently in his Miao accent.
"But why can there only be one? Don't other sects have many disciples?"
"Different sects have different rules. Just as everything that exists has its reason, according to Luofu's rules, when you grow up and take disciples, you too may only accept one, Young Master."
"Uncle Old Zhao Nan, don't call me Young Master. Just call me... call me Luo Bei. It always sounds strange to me."
"As you command, Young Master." Old Zhao Nan grinned. "Luo Bei is a very pleasant name."
Creak, creak. The wind atop the mountain was fierce, rattling the window lattice once again. The flame in the oil lamp flickered brightly, then dimly, but the youth's heart was filled with warmth. Yuan Tianyi and Old Zhao Nan had only known him for a few days, yet they had given him a taste of home unlike anything he had known before. Though he knew his talent was ordinary, he was determined not to let this name disappoint his master!
After carefully reciting the Mahākāla Secret Method once more, Luo Bei, whose aptitude was ordinary, finally memorized all thirty-four volumes of the Mahākāla Secret Method in their entirety after a full nine days, including Old Zhao Nan's annotations on the passages and characters he did not understand.
"Can I begin cultivating a day early?" Having finished reciting it all, Luo Bei asked Old Zhao Nan tentatively. He had originally thought he ought to ask his master, Yuan Tianyi, but he did not feel the same awe when looking at Old Zhao Nan as he did when facing Yuan Tianyi.
Thin, shriveled, and hunched over, Old Zhao Nan nodded. "Master instructed that once you can recite it in full and understand its meaning, I can take you to cultivate."
"Master isn't going?"
"He is occupied with other matters now. But he said that once you cultivate to the second level, I can take you to see him."
Luo Bei looked at the Mahākāla Secret Method in his hands and nodded. Then he suddenly asked, "Was Master watching me climb that mountain all those days?"
"Yes. We just never expected you to make it up so quickly."
"Then what was that two-headed monster that day?" The youth finally asked the question he had held back for so long. "And what did it give me to eat? Even now, I still feel as though I have inexhaustible strength."
"That was a Two-headed Mountain Salamander. It is a Spirit Beast unique to Luofu. Ordinary Two-headed Mountain Salamanders look like large lizards with two heads, but the one you saw must have eaten some Spiritual Herbs and Exotic Fruits, opened its Spiritual Sense, and gradually cultivated a human form." Old Zhao Nan paused in his work, his twig-like hands going still. "What it gave you was called Zhanxikezha Grass. In the local tongue, Zhanxikezha means the Power of the Mountain God. If it eats it, it is equivalent to several years of absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. If ordinary people eat it, not only will they rarely fall ill, but their blood and qi will flourish, and their strength will increase severalfold. You saved its life, so it knew to repay kindness with gratitude."
"Spirit Beasts can cultivate too?" the youth asked curiously.
"Of course." A glimmer flashed through Old Zhao Nan's amber-like eyes before dimming again. "All things in the world, from grasses and trees to living creatures, receive nourishment from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. So long as any living being understands the method of cultivation, it can naturally cultivate. Humans, however, are born with opened Spiritual Sense and understand how to explore the mysteries of Heaven and Earth. Among them, those who comprehended the Dao left behind many techniques for later generations to cultivate. Mountain Salamanders and creatures like them are mostly born ignorant, their lives and deaths entirely at the mercy of fate. Even those who happen to open their Spiritual Sense usually have no established techniques to cultivate, and without guidance, they act wholly according to their instincts. Many are not accepted by humans, so the world calls them demons. Yet some cultivate according to their own nature, or produce inner cores and treasures, becoming priceless treasures in the eyes of many cultivators, who often hunt and kill them to obtain such things. Thus, cultivation for their kind is far more difficult than cultivation for ordinary humans."
Luo Bei had only just come into contact with this world entirely unknown to him. Though he might not have understood everything, he listened with great fascination. Then he asked, "If one of its heads was cut off, will it be all right?"
"A Two-headed Mountain Salamander will not die unless both its heads are severed, so do not worry." Old Zhao Nan smiled with narrowed eyes.
"Then what were those fruits it took away?" Luo Bei seemed to have endless questions. "It attacked me only because it thought I wanted to steal those fruits."
"Those were Pagoda Fruits. They are not anything particularly rare. They are simply the fruits Mountain Salamanders love most to eat, much like how a kind of Golden-haired Wild Monkey found here in Luofu loves a yellow-shelled nut and regards it as precious as life itself. It is simply that their cultivation is insufficient and they have yet to cast off their natures." Yet upon hearing this question, Old Zhao Nan's face instead took on an unusually solemn expression. "To cultivate this Mahākāla Secret Method, you must first be able to withstand the temptations of your own nature."
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