"Ba Zunan, what lies beyond Sword Thought?"
Half a year ago, when the Ghost Buddha Realm first stirred, Xu Xiaoshou had posed this question to Ba Zunan. The latter had smiled. "I pondered it for a long time."
"Did you reach a conclusion?"
Ba Zunan shook his head. "Divine Mind Penetration has 'Higher,' but Sword Thought has no 'Higher.' Or rather, what lies above Sword Thought is a return to its essence—to 'Fame.'"
Fame... Whenever Xu Xiaoshou asked a question, he struck straight at the heart of it. "Did you cultivate it?"
Ba Zunan shook his head a second time, his words tinged with feeling:
"Fame is like Dao—far too illusory and elusive."
"Even I could only borrow the concept of Sword Thought and make clever use of it. That gained only its form, not its spirit."
Fame is like Dao... Xu Xiaoshou nodded thoughtfully. He understood, for he felt the same way now. "Like scratching an itch through a boot."
"Exactly!"
Ba Zunan agreed, then continued:
"My Dao was born from Fame and came to fruition through Sword Thought."
"Thus, I later pursued and experimented with Fame. Yet my Dao was formed through Sword Thought, and it was also imprisoned by Sword Thought."
"Just imagine..."
Back then, at the Holy Mountain Ruins, beneath Ghost Buddha, his finger had pointed before him, but his gaze had traveled to the Southern Domain where this journey had begun. "I have already walked eight or nine parts of my path."
"Ancient Sword Arts made me, Sword Thought made me, and they also boxed my thoughts within 'eight or nine.' I had long forgotten the contemplation of Fame's essence that I held when first setting out."
He lowered his head, shaking it with a sigh. "If I cast everything aside and scattered all I