"Wow, Bone is amazing!"
The cool moonlight illuminated the bright fields of his childhood. Xue Ding's Ninth Junior Sister had come too. She had previously shouted about beating up Yuan Tianzong, but now that they'd met again, she was a little reserved. She only dared to circle Bone, exclaiming in amazement, and didn't dare approach Yuan Tianzong.
Xue Ding really was a good cook. He'd prepared a table full of delicious dishes, with a good balance of meat and vegetables.
Yuan Tianzong took a few bites, nodded, and smiled. "Not bad. I didn't expect you, Senior Disciple Brother, to be good at cooking."
"There was a time when I accompanied Master on an adventure. I was the one who cooked all the meals. After doing it for long enough, I naturally got the hang of tossing the wok."
"How long have you been at Celestial Master Temple?"
"Almost twenty years, I suppose."
Once one had made some progress in cultivation, the changes to one's appearance slowed and one's lifespan increased. Xue Ding looked to be in his early twenties, but he was actually thirty-eight.
"You've cultivated for twenty years and only reached the Five Elements Realm. Have you ever wondered why?" Yuan Tianzong took a sip of delicious mushroom soup and looked at Xue Ding.
His words made the Ninth Junior Sister, who was extremely fond of her Senior Disciple Brother, bristle. With a child's temperament, she ignored whatever her master had told her and retorted, "Senior Yuan! My master says reaching the Five Elements Realm in twenty years is already impressive!"
Yuan Tianzong answered with a chuckle, "With his talent, reaching the Dragon Opening Realm should have been easy. But he hasn't managed it. Shouldn't he look for the reason? Right, Xue Ding?"
Faced with Yuan Tianzong's pointed words, Xue Ding remained silent and gave no answer.
The Ninth Junior Sister held a braised pig's trotter in one hand and planted the other on her hip. She said angrily, "The Dragon Opening Realm? Does Senior Yuan think reaching that level is easy? How many years did my master cultivate before reaching the Dragon Opening Realm? And what about our grandmaster?"
"It isn't difficult." Yuan Tianzong chuckled softly.
"Isn't difficult? Then how many years did it take you to reach the Dragon Opening Realm, Senior Yuan?" The Ninth Junior Sister innocently assumed Yuan Tianzong was at the Dragon Opening Realm. She didn't understand the Grandmaster stage, or even know it existed, and thought the Dragon Opening Realm was the peak.
"Me?" Yuan Tianzong thought for a moment, then replied, "Just under eight years."
Xue Ding abruptly looked up.
Eight years?
The grandmaster of Celestial Master Temple had been extraordinarily talented, hailed as one of China's Ten Great Talents in his youth. Even so, it had taken him more than sixty years to reach the Dragon Opening Realm.
It seemed that Xue Ding, who had reached the Five Elements Realm in twenty years, would surely surpass the grandmaster one day. He wouldn't need sixty years to break through to the Dragon Opening Realm.
But one shouldn't forget that the environment in which the grandmaster had cultivated in his youth was different from the present one.
Under the same conditions, Xue Ding didn't believe his talent could surpass the grandmaster's.
And Yuan Tianzong, right there before him, had reached it in just eight years!
Xue Ding could hardly believe it. Doubt rose in his heart, and he thought Yuan Tianzong was lying.
But when he met Yuan Tianzong's calm gaze, he suddenly became absolutely certain that Yuan Tianzong wasn't making it up. It was true.
Eight years. Someone had reached the Dragon Opening Realm in only eight years. Xue Ding had never heard of talent like that anywhere in China... no, anywhere in the world. Not even if he looked back eight hundred years, to the beginning of the world's transformation.
If Xue Ding knew that, in his youth, Yuan Tianzong had cultivated in the Dharma-ending era, when spiritual energy had withered almost to nothing, he would have been so shocked that his mind went blank. He simply couldn't imagine it.
A flower blooming in barren land possessed enough resilience and vitality to rival the brilliance of an entire spring!
"Liar!" The Ninth Junior Sister froze for a moment, then reached her verdict, convinced Yuan Tianzong was talking nonsense and had exaggerated far too much.
"Xiao Ling, don't be rude!" Xue Ding looked into Yuan Tianzong's eyes and instinctively knew he was telling the truth. Reaching the Dragon Opening Realm in eight years—such talent was moving, but also disheartening. Xue Ding's mind was in turmoil.
The scolded Ninth Junior Sister pouted, still unconvinced, but obediently fell silent and took out her resentment on the pig's trotter, biting into it hard.
"Senior Yuan, please don't take it to heart. Ninth Junior Sister is just childish."
Her words were those of a child, and they were harmless. Yuan Tianzong didn't mind at all. He changed the subject and asked, "Xue Ding, speaking of which, I went to your Celestial Master Temple earlier to look up some information. I couldn't find anything about the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao, yet the news that it's about to appear has already spread. Why is that?"
Xue Ding smiled.
"Senior Yuan, it's perfectly normal that you couldn't find information about it in Celestial Master Cave. Although most people don't know about this divine smoke, it's common knowledge among cultivation sects of any significant size. Almost everyone knows about it, so why would anyone need to record it specially and store it in Celestial Master Cave?"
"I think it might be in the Scripture Pavilion, but I don't know which corner it's in."
Yuan Tianzong nodded. So that was why he hadn't been able to find it.
"Tell me about the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao. I don't know much about it."
Xue Ding nodded. He was increasingly certain that Yuan Tianzong didn't come from some mysterious organization but was indeed a wandering cultivator from the mountains. Otherwise, how could he not even know about the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao? It was one of the most basic things in cultivation.
Online, it was presented as mysterious, as if it were some incredible secret. In truth, that was simply because most of the people spreading the information were ordinary folk who thought they'd learned some secret of the Heavenly Family, which led others to misunderstand.
"The Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao is essential to cultivating the divine path. It's the key that opens the great door and lets you enter the next room."
"Only with the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao can our spirits undergo a transformation and fully awaken. Then we can become more attuned to heaven and earth and begin to comprehend nature."
"Awakening, Lotus Lamp, Dan Heart, Soul Fusion, Dao Palace, Primordial Fetus, Ascension. Those are the Seven Realms of the Divine Path. Once cultivated to completion, one can commune with the divine."
Awakening?
Yuan Tianzong nodded repeatedly, committing the words to memory. He had lived in the Dharma-ending era. In that time of decline, many sects and schools had withered away and vanished, and it was impossible to know who held the records and traditions, let alone find them.
Now heaven and earth had transformed, and cultivation had returned. Many things that had disappeared were resurfacing along with the revived cultivation sects.
Yuan Tianzong pondered the first realm, Awakening.
Xue Ding had said that the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao could transform a person's spirit and fully awaken it. This was the sign of entering the Grandmaster stage.
Yuan Tianzong had already entered the Grandmaster stage, but what had transformed wasn't his spirit. It was his body: a Life Transcendence that had increased his lifespan.
So the spirit and the body could indeed follow two separate paths in cultivation: true qi and inner qi.
True qi came from refining energy in the outside world.
Inner qi came from deep within the body.
"Cultivating the body has Shackles. It's a forbidden zone that one mustn't enter..."
"Why is that?"
In Yuan Tianzong's eyes, every rule had a reason behind it. None were made without cause.
For now, with no clues, he naturally couldn't figure it out. The only response was a faint smile on his lips.
Whatever the reason, the Shackles on his body had already disappeared because he had "sneaked across."
Others couldn't cultivate this way, but he could. The path was clear!
"Thank you for sharing. As I said earlier, your cooking is excellent. If you have any questions about cultivation, ask me anything. I'll tell you all I know." Yuan Tianzong spoke generously, intending to offer some guidance to this junior who suited his taste.
Xue Ding spoke up at once. "Senior Yuan, I've been stuck in the Five Elements Realm for years and still can't reach the Dragon Opening Realm. My master and grandmaster both say I'm very talented and should have broken through long ago, but... Many disciples of other sects from my generation have broken through their bottlenecks. I'm the only one who hasn't. Sigh."
The Ninth Junior Sister raised her lively eyes, eager to hear how Yuan Tianzong would guide her Senior Disciple Brother.
"Tell me, Xue Ding. Don't you know why yourself?" Yuan Tianzong asked with a knowing smile.
Xue Ding was taken aback. "I don't know?"
Yuan Tianzong didn't answer. His gaze fell on the simple, ancient sword in Xue Ding's hand. "A good sword. But aren't you a saber practitioner?"
The Ninth Junior Sister couldn't hold back her laughter. "My Senior Disciple Brother isn't a saber practitioner! He practices the sword. Master says he's a once-in-a-century sword genius. His Celestial Master Demon Subduing Sword made a great impression at the gathering between sects, and won lots of praise!"
Yuan Tianzong kept looking at Xue Ding. "You really don't practice the saber?"
Xue Ding nodded and raised the ancient sword in his hand. "This is the Celestial Master Sword, the heirloom of the master of Celestial Master Temple. Ever since Master placed it in my hands, I, Xue Ding, have practiced the sword. I've never dared slack off for even a moment."
"Oh." Yuan Tianzong said nothing more and continued drinking his soup.
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