The Heavenly River Runs Dry

"Hey."

A lazy voice sounded beside him.

Su Yu had somehow sat up straight and was watching him with smiling eyes.

Having drunk some wine, her face was rosy, adding an indescribable charm to her features.

"What are you thinking about? So happy you went stupid?"

She shook the wine gourd, and a splashing sound came from within.

"You put on quite a show just now. Here, your senior sister will reward you with a mouthful."

She spoke with sweet innocence, not caring whether Shen Qingzhou agreed, and directly held out the gourd's mouth to him.

The fragrance of fruit wine drifted over.

"Ha, I'd be impolite to refuse."

Shen Qingzhou did not decline. He took it and tilted back his head for a large gulp.

The wine slid down his throat, mellow and richly fragrant, without the slightest burn.

Fine wine! His eyes lit up.

The value of this wine was probably no less than a bottle of high-grade Qi-Refining Powder.

"Hey, hey, hey... Take fewer sips. What am I supposed to drink if it's all gone?"

Su Yu snatched back the gourd and took another swig herself, her cheeks flushing even redder.

"This was brewed from the fruit of that green plum tree in the courtyard, mixed with spring water from the mountain stream, then buried beneath the tree for thirty years. Master doesn't care for drinking, so it fell into my hands, hehe..."

Shen Qingzhou circulated that thread of spiritual energy through his body. His cultivation improved a little further, and his whole body felt considerably more relaxed.

The banquet continued. Elder Wang offered a few compliments and announced some rules for the minor competition, but no one had their heart in it anymore.

The banquet ended amid that atmosphere.

The disciples left in twos and threes. Quite a few wanted to come over and ingratiate themselves with Shen Qingzhou, but Su Yu cursed every one of them back with a single word: "Scram."

Shen Qingzhou could only smile wryly at that, though he was happy enough to have some peace and quiet.

"Come with me."

Su Yu carried the wine gourd and staggered ahead. Rather than returning to the courtyard of the Kan Water Lineage, she circled around to the back mountain behind Wind-Listening Hall and stopped at a cliffside from which most of Sword-Coming Peak could be seen.

The night wind sent her robes fluttering, scattering some of her drunkenness as well.

"Do you know what those words of yours today meant?" Su Yu did not turn around, her voice scattered somewhat by the wind.

"They meant I got full marks in questioning the Dao and debating methods," Shen Qingzhou said calmly.

Su Yu gave a snort of laughter and turned around. "What ambition. Is that all you saw—those contribution points and that ranking?"

"Do you know why the Kan Water Lineage is clearly not weak, yet still looked down upon?"

She walked over to a green stone by the cliff's edge, sat down, and patted the spot beside her.

Shen Qingzhou went over and sat beside her.

"You said today that the root of the Rainmaster Stele lay in the heavens, and that it shattered because it no longer echoed with the Lunar Stellar Force. That reasoning was correct."

Su Yu gazed at the lights of the disciples' cave dwellings below, seemingly lost in thought. Only after a long while did she speak softly.

"But have you considered why that echo was lost?"

"Oh?" Shen Qingzhou was interested.

"Because the Rainmaster who held that authority fell."

Su Yu pressed her lips together.

"Just as you said, heavenly stars fell, and authority shattered. The decline of the Bi-Moon Path is considered an event from a very distant past, even in the sect's records."

She paused, took a swallow of wine, as though considering how to phrase it—or perhaps gathering courage for herself.

"And our Kan Water Lineage... once also had a being... who held dominion over everything."

When she said the words "a being," she lowered her voice especially low, her tone carrying reverence, as though afraid of disturbing something.

"Oh, right. Do not think of Its name, and do not think of what It looked like."

Su Yu's expression turned grave as she spoke earnestly.

"Everything about It was erased. It cannot be spoken, cannot be seen, cannot be mentioned."

Shen Qingzhou's heart skipped a beat.

A being that needed to be avoided so thoroughly?

"Ancient legends say that in that era, the Kan Water Path was the orthodox path of the Heavenly River, boundless and vast. Its existence was the ultimate expression of the very concept of water. With a single thought, It could make the sea flow backward; with one finger, It could freeze everything solid."

Her tone brimmed with awe and yearning, but her gaze soon dimmed again.

"Unfortunately, later..."

Su Yu's voice lowered, her eyes somewhat lost.

"No one knew what happened. They only knew that on that day, the skies over the entire Northern Wastes shattered, stars fell like broken rain, and the Heavenly River overturned—and ran dry.

A grief upon the Great Dao infected everyone. Every law related to Kan Water was affected."

Su Yu spoke faster and faster, her emotions growing more agitated.

"From then on, everything changed."

"Most paths of Kan Water became incomplete, even contaminated. Forcing oneself to cultivate them could lead to cultivation deviation..."

"Moreover, spiritual resources related to Kan Water became scarce throughout heaven and earth. Some simply vanished altogether."

"And this was the damage to a Dao lineage."

Shen Qingzhou fell silent, his eyes flickering.

"Master... used to be Sword-Coming Peak's once-in-five-hundred-years genius."

Her emotions having calmed somewhat, Su Yu's voice was dry.

"A heaven-blessed prodigy. He comprehended the sword at twenty, reached the completion of Qi Refining at thirty-five, touched the threshold of Foundation Establishment at forty, successfully achieved Foundation Establishment at forty-five, and by one hundred and eighty, he was preparing to condense a divine ability and charge into the Purple Palace."

"When fortune ran dry, the Purple Palace became hard to reach; when life was shallow, divine abilities could not be formed!"

"Only when he reached that point did he discover that the road beneath his feet had inexplicably broken off."

"Sigh... That failure did not merely damage the foundation he had cultivated painstakingly for years. His Dao heart collapsed as well."

"There was no road ahead."

"From then on, he became the way you see him now. He cared about nothing and slept all day, as though nothing in the world could interest him anymore."

Shen Qingzhou remained silent. At last, he understood why Cloudveil True Person had become so disheartened.

It was like climbing halfway up a mountain... only to discover that the entire mountain was collapsing beneath one's feet.

"So, do you understand now?"

Su Yu turned to look at him and could not help letting out a long sigh.

"Our Kan Water Lineage... sigh!"

"This is also why no one thought highly of your choice to join the Kan Water Lineage. In many people's eyes, this road has already been severed."

"Then why can the Kan Water Lineage still restrain the Wèi Earth Lineage?" Shen Qingzhou asked another question. Logically speaking, if its Dao lineage was incomplete, it should have been even weaker.

"Ha, that is the one bit of family wealth our ancestors left us."

A hint of pride appeared on Su Yu's face.

"Because before our dead ancestor died, he crippled a mighty expert of the Wèi Earth Dao lineage. Heaven and earth acknowledged that merit, so from the very roots, we suppress them."

"This matter is recorded. It is called Earth Granary Sinking Current!"

"The Dao also follows reason. I may not be able to beat you, but my ancestor could beat your ancestor to death. From then on, whenever you see me, you are naturally a head shorter. Why could I slap Huang Shi to death with a single leaf?

"Cultivation was one aspect, but more importantly, this was merit carved into the Dao lineages themselves. He could not resist it."

"If not for what happened later..."

Su Yu stopped halfway through, shook her head, and wore a complicated expression.

"If not for the Wèi Earth Lineage later producing another overwhelmingly powerful expert, it could never have become Manifest Dao. Who knew... it might have ended up even worse off than our Kan Water Lineage!"

In cultivation, whichever Dao lineage one chose was equivalent to choosing a side.

If one's ancestors won, those below could benefit from their glory and might even naturally restrain other Dao lineages.

If one's ancestors lost—or even died—then the entire inheritance would suffer misfortune, and the road ahead might be severed.

Personal effort, talent, and resources were of course important. But compared to the overarching momentum of an entire Dao lineage, they suddenly did not seem quite so important.

He thought of his profession panel.

Others could only struggle onward along a broken road, but he...

If...

If he could rely on the profession panel to complete the imagery and perfect the Dao methods?

Would that mean... he could raise the Kan Water Dao anew by himself alone?!