The Great Hero Has to Wear a White Robe?

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, but there were plenty of mosquitoes in the woods, buzzing incessantly.

Fortunately, they had built a fire. Waves of heat rolled outward, while the main force hid in the darkness and sent only its vanguard to test the waters.

Zhang Yu sat cross-legged, with the five centers of his body facing the heavens.

Yue Lingshan asked, "What are you doing?"

"Opening my Dantian."

"You're joking, right?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"You... you're simply ignorant and fearless."

Yue Lingshan was rendered speechless. From the way he spoke, opening the Dantian was as easy as drinking water and eating a sesame cake. She had spent a full seven years preparing for it.

"Before the age of sixteen, one's heart is pure and one's mind is free of distractions, keeping all evil at bay. That's the best time. As you grow older, distracting thoughts multiply, making it difficult to reach the state of Pure Heart and Mind and Embrace Origin and Maintain Unity. Forcibly opening the Dantian will cause disordered meridians and paralysis at best. At worst, your qi and blood will flow backward, and you'll die on the spot."

She looked at Zhang Yu, a gleeful smile appearing on her face.

"May I ask your age?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment. "If you don't count my previous life, eighteen."

Yue Lingshan laughed. "That's far too old. You'll never have a chance in this lifetime. Do you really think that finding a martial arts manual and learning the method of Breathing and Qi Guiding means you can open your Dantian whenever you want?"

Zhang Yu smiled confidently. "I just need to clear my mind and focus my spirit, right? What if I can rid myself of a hundred thoughts, Embrace Origin and Maintain Unity, and keep my mind clear and empty?"

Yue Lingshan's face was full of disbelief. She raised both hands and waved away the mosquitoes landing on her slender, fair neck. "Unless you're an ascetic monk from Shaolin Temple, or Chen Lingyue, the junior martial uncle of Wudang."

"I'm not anyone else. I'm just me."

Seeing that he did not seem to be joking, Yue Lingshan said solemnly, "Opening the Dantian is no less dangerous than entering seclusion at the brink of life and death. Even Chen Lingyue wouldn't dare do it in an environment like this."

"When Eldest Senior Brother opened his Dantian, my parents were there to protect him. If you fool around like this, you really will die!"

Zhang Yu looked at the green-robed girl, who appeared somewhat haggard after several days on the road. Genuine concern showed between her brows. He chuckled. "Thanks."

Yue Lingshan felt embarrassed under his gaze and turned her head away. "Why should this heroine worry about you? It would be best if you, this Demonic Cult scoundrel, died!"

The vanguard was utterly annihilated.

The mosquitoes around them grew even louder, as though plotting how to launch their next wave of attacks.

"His body is the Bodhi Tree, his heart the Mirror Stand. Diligently wipe it clean from time to time, and do not let it gather dust."

Zhang Yu let out a long sigh, flicked his sleeve, and slowly recited the verse toward the bright moon, looking like an unappreciated pearl abandoned by the world.

He gently turned the Green Jade Thumb Ring, closed his eyes, and began guiding qi into his organs...

Yue Lingshan turned around. Zhang Yu's expression was tranquil and his breathing steady, as if... he had fallen asleep.

"Could this little scoundrel be tricking me again?"

She stared at him carefully, then suddenly noticed what seemed to be a speck of white light between his brows, incredibly faint.

Yue Lingshan rubbed her eyes and looked again.

She rubbed them a second time, confirming that she had not been mistaken.

"This... could this be meditation? He entered a meditative state in an instant? How is that possible?"

Yue Lingshan covered her mouth in disbelief, afraid that she might cry out and disturb Zhang Yu. The consequences of that would be grave.

"My father once said that, for martial artists, meditation is a mysterious state that can be hoped for but not sought. Usually, only Buddhist monks and Daoist adepts with profound martial cultivation have a chance of entering it."

Entering a meditative state could greatly improve one's cultivation of the mind.

It was of enormous help in understanding the mysteries of martial arts and breaking through realms.

She watched as that speck of white light grew brighter and brighter, expanding from the size of a bean to the size of a ring,

In the dark chamber, it was like the bright moon hanging in the sky. This was the outward sign of a great monk entering meditation. Zhang Yu clearly had not reached that level yet, or he truly would have been a monster.

Even so, he was already monstrously gifted.

Yue Lingshan thought to herself, A martial prodigy like this actually ended up in the Demonic Cult. What a pity.

With the aid of the Green Jade Thumb Ring, Zhang Yu's breathing slowed as he entered a wondrous state of inner vision...

With every breath, it flowed like clouds gathering and dispersing.

A vast mountain rose before him, with many waterfalls, streams, peaks, and deep valleys.

Qi from all directions constantly converged at the center, gradually condensing into a white ball of light,

When the ball of light first formed, it was still the size of a fist. Then it continually spun and condensed until only a speck of golden light remained.

What did this speck of golden light resemble?

A soybean, grains of sand, a pearl, a lotus seed...

As his thoughts shifted, the speck of golden light seemed to keep changing shape.

At last, his mind settled, and the speck of golden light transformed into a Purple Gold Lotus Seed.

A great waterfall cascaded down the mountain in front of him.

The Purple Gold Lotus Seed flew upward against the waterfall, entered the mountain, and wound its way upward through the peaks and valleys. When it reached halfway up the mountain, it circled around to the rear.

There was another waterfall behind the mountain.

The Purple Gold Lotus Seed followed the waterfall downward...

After completing this cycle, the Purple Gold Lotus Seed grew increasingly clear and solid, even its patterns vivid and lifelike.

The Purple Gold Lotus Seed fell to the ground, instantly bursting into golden light,

"Dantian, open!"

The Dantian he had opened was like a Golden Pool. It was almost completely empty, containing only a little mist and a single lotus seed,

Zhang Yu opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was an incomparably beautiful face, its eyes filled with curiosity and envy.

Their gazes met.

"Were you planning to kiss me?"

"I... I thought you had died."

Yue Lingshan sat back down on the other side, but still could not resist asking, "What grade is your Dantian?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment. "Can you not tell anyone?"

Yue Lingshan hurriedly said, "Of course. I swear it to the moon."

Zhang Yu smiled. "I believe you."

"What is it? Hurry up and tell me."

"Silver Furnace."

"Really?"

"Really. Why would I lie to you?"

"Hehe, so it's nothing special."

Yue Lingshan could not help feeling pleased.

No one was a sage.

No one wanted to spend years painstakingly cultivating and making countless efforts, only to find that what they had gained was inferior to something another person had achieved in a few days.

Besides, sages had no desires precisely because they had already won everything in the world.

The green-robed girl before him was like that, and those ravenous martial artists of the jianghu were even more so.

Yue Lingshan suddenly asked, "Why did you join the Demonic Cult?"

"There are many reasons. Let me think of one for him: to scrape by, rise above others, shake the jianghu, and, in short, not live an ordinary life like mud. I don't want to be powerless to resist when someone presses a steel blade against my neck."

Yue Lingshan asked in confusion, "Then you could have joined a Righteous Path sect. Shaolin, Wudang, Qingcheng, Emei, or the Five Great Sword Sects."

"A Righteous Path sect? You mean those two Mount Song Sect disciples in Guanyin Nunnery?"

"You're being narrow-minded. When a tree bears many fruits, a few will inevitably be worm-eaten. But the soil is still good, and most of the fruits will be fine."

"Perhaps."

Zhang Yu rose and stretched his arms and legs. His bones crackled like popping beans.

Opening the Dantian had given rise to internal power. In this jianghu, he had finally risen from the role of a bottom-level foot soldier to, at the very least, a supporting character with a few lines.

But if he wanted to leave his name behind and tell this world that he had once been here, he still had to keep working hard.

"I came, I saw, I conquered!"

Zhang Yu recalled the famous words of a Western emperor. He looked at the round moon overhead, feeling refreshed and no longer sleepy,

He turned excitedly toward Yue Lingshan. "The night is long and unbearably dull."

The green-robed girl shrank backward. "What are you going to do?"

"To save Heroine Yue's innocence, I'll tell you a story."

Yue Lingshan let out a sigh of relief and nodded,

"The story took place in Meixi Village, south of Pingding City. There were two young men in the village."

"They aspired to become white-robed heroes who could roam the world with swords. They had no idea where they had heard it, but the young men believed that a hero had to wear white, carry a long sword, and ride a fine horse. So they chopped firewood for half a year, bought a white robe, sold their ancestral farmland and house, and purchased inferior horses and iron swords."

"First, they traveled east to Lu, hoping to join the Taishan Sect. When the bull-nosed gatekeeper heard that they came from Pingding Prefecture, he beat them senseless and drove them away."

"They sold their inferior horses and scraped together enough traveling expenses."

"Then they headed south to Xiang. They wandered around Hengyang City for half a month, but because no one introduced them, they could not even enter the gates of the Hengshan Sect."

"..."

"A year later, they returned to Pingding Prefecture, and all that remained was that white robe."

Yue Lingshan asked with great interest, "What happened next?"

To her, this story was novel. A boy from a poor family worked hard and ultimately became a great hero—that was how the jianghu was supposed to be.

Yue Lingshan had been born on Mount Hua, already standing at a destination that countless sons and daughters of the jianghu could never reach in their lifetimes.

"Times change, but things do not. Everywhere is the same."

Zhang Yu suddenly lost the desire to continue.

"Later, they joined the Sun Moon Divine Cult. One died at Damaoling on Mount Heng, and the other..."

Yue Lingshan already understood that he was using the story to speak of himself. "You're the young man who survived?"

Zhang Yu smiled. "I'm not. That young man died too."

Yue Lingshan had been expecting a reversal, one twist after another, with the young man making a comeback and ultimately becoming king. When it simply ended, she could not help saying, "This story is so boring."

Zhang Yu lay on the grass with his hands behind his head, gazing at the fair moon. "It is pretty boring, but this is the story of the vast majority of people in the jianghu."

"Heroine Yue, you should know that many people might spend half their lives working hard just to earn the right to sit with you and eat sesame cakes."

Yue Lingshan's face reddened slightly. She lowered her voice and said, "There you go, talking nonsense again."