Struggle for Supremacy I

"My own path... indeed." Lin Xin was taken aback, his mind drifting unconsciously.

The tea on the table slowly steamed, turning into white mist before vanishing without a trace in just a few moments.

When he came back to himself and looked again, there was nothing to be seen.

"I have now fused the Array Talisman Dao, sword intent, and attributes—three great parts that can form unique, killing techniques. Whether it is the Mind's Eye Sword Dao or the Red Flower Sword Dao, no one can rival or imitate them. Isn't this a path belonging to me alone?"

"Then where is my own path to Yuan Jing and Nascent Soul?"

"Netherworld Mansion Power belongs to the utmost yin. Perhaps I must first neutralize the power of the Nether Prefecture before I can see the future clearly."

A faint premonition arose within him. When he truly cast off the power of the Nether Prefecture, that would be the day he became qualified to step into Yuan Jing.

The Red Leaf Sword Master was already gone.

He rose, settled the bill, and left the shop. Outside, a gentle breeze blew from left to right across his face, carrying a faint sense of harmony and peace.

Several children with horn-shaped buns tied in their hair were chasing and fighting a little girl who had snatched an embroidered pouch. Their noisy laughter filled the air, yet it was not annoying in the least.

He left the shop and strolled casually along the streets of the small city.

The flagstone road beneath his feet was uneven, and some of the stones had even been crushed and broken by something heavy, exposing the yellow earth below.

The shops on the right stood one after another. Some were open, their attendants yawning lazily under the noon sun.

Other shops had notices pasted on their doors, declaring that they would be closed for a certain number of days.

Dressed in the plain blue robes of an ordinary scholar, he was no different from the scholars occasionally passing along the street.

"What a leisurely life... If I were not living in this era, perhaps I would never have imagined that this was the Nether Prefecture, where dangers and threats lurked everywhere..."

Lin Xin sighed.

He came to a black-lacquered two-story building that seemed to be a tavern, a teahouse, or perhaps a private residence.

At the upstairs balcony, a young man in black was speaking quietly with a woman, occasionally looking down from above to admire the street scene below.

Their soft laughter drifted faintly down.

Lin Xin stopped before a notice board at the entrance to an alley beside the little building.

The board was plastered densely with all kinds of notices and announcements from the surrounding area.

'On the first of May, the Seven Emotions Sword School will drive away exotic beasts in the south of the city. A curfew will be imposed within the city.'

'On the afternoon of the twentieth of May, Wanxi Sand will recruit laborers to excavate ruins. Generous compensation offered.'

'No. 321 Orchid Street for sale. Price negotiable. Interested parties may contact Spring Life Pavilion.'

'One fine horse for sale. Price negotiable. Location: Spring Life Pavilion.'

'A silver-grade convoy will pass through tomorrow. Those who collide with it will be killed without pardon.'

'Seeking one manager for a dye workshop. Excellent treatment offered.'

The notices had been pasted layer upon layer, some even covering one another.

Lin Xin stood there, reading for a long time without realizing it. Perhaps even he did not know why he had inexplicably stopped to look at such irrelevant notices.

"Let's buy some osmanthus cake before we go home!"

A father and son passed by him. The chubby son sat on his father's shoulders, tugging at the cloth strip tied around his father's topknot.

"I want chestnut cake!" the son said in a childish voice.

"Didn't you just eat chestnut cake yesterday?"

"I want it!"

"Fine, fine... We'll buy chestnut cake."

The father and son slowly walked away. Lin Xin slightly turned his head and watched the pair in their washed-faded cloth robes, his heart strangely calm.

"Brother, is there something wrong with those notices? You have been standing there for half a shichen already."

Suddenly, a rich male voice drifted down from the second floor of the black building.

Lin Xin looked up and saw that it was the black-clothed young man from before.

The man smiled warmly at him, clearly speaking to him.

The woman who had been laughing and chatting with him earlier was gone. He stood alone on the balcony.

"Nothing is wrong." Lin Xin shook his head and answered faintly.

The young man in black smiled, not stopping because of his cold attitude.

"If you do not mind, would you come upstairs and share a cup of humble wine with me?"

A slight ripple immediately stirred in Lin Xin's eyes, calm as a lake.

His attire was no different from that of any other ordinary scholar. In the eyes of ordinary people, because he had kept the Concealment Array Disk activated year-round, he looked no different from anyone else.

Aside from a somewhat extraordinary bearing, there was nothing else about him worth noticing. Yet even so, this man had taken the initiative to invite him.

That piqued his interest somewhat.

After a brief pause, Lin Xin met the black-clothed young man's eyes. They were a pair of pure, warm eyes.

"Alright."

He stepped toward the entrance of the small building.

The interior was empty. The doors stood wide open, with no one tending or guarding the place. Climbing the narrow stairs to the second floor, he immediately saw the wine banquet that had just been laid out and not yet cleared away.

The black-clothed young man stood by the window while an attendant wiped down and tidied a low table before him.

"Brother, please sit."

Lin Xin walked over and sat opposite him.

Once the two were seated, the attendant brought wine and dishes. Before long, the whole table was filled.

"Brother, you carry yourself remarkably. You stood before those notices for so long—were you looking for work?" the black-clothed young man asked with a smile.

Lin Xin shook his head, picked up a cup of wine, and took a light sip.

"Then your brow was faintly furrowed. Perhaps you have encountered something difficult to decide?" the young man asked again.

"No."

Lin Xin answered softly.

"If it is neither something difficult to decide nor anything else, then why the worried frown?" The young man lifted his cup and drained it in one gulp. "Forget it, let's not speak of that. Drink!"

He merely wanted to find someone to drink with. Nothing more.

Song Yuanchao had friends and brothers across the five lakes and four seas. In Deer City, he had earned a reputation for loyalty that reached the clouds. To outsiders, he was a man whose hands and eyes reached the heavens—any matter that came to him could always be resolved.

Yet now, he too had an unsolvable problem, just like anyone else.

Both men harbored their own thoughts and said nothing, only drinking steadily.

Jar after jar, without pause.

Neither of them spoke. They only drank.

The sky gradually darkened. The sun sank westward, and red light slanted into the little building, falling across the dishes in the middle of the table and making the green vegetables appear even fresher.

"Drink..."

Song Yuanchao was already drunk, yet he still kept urging Lin Xin to drink heartily.

Setting down the wine jar, Lin Xin casually wiped the liquor from his lips.

"You are drunk."

"Am I drunk?"

Song Yuanchao's drunken eyes were hazy.

"Yes. You are drunk," Lin Xin answered with certainty.

"Life is like a dream. What difference is there between being drunk and not being drunk?" Song Yuanchao chuckled. "Perhaps being drunk is better."

"Perhaps." Lin Xin could tell that the other man had encountered some troubling matter as well.

He suddenly recalled how the Red Leaf Sword Master had once demanded that he bear that karmic debt. Once he severed his connection to Netherworld Mansion Power, he would have to shoulder a karmic debt for him.

"What exactly is karma?"

Without realizing it, he murmured the words aloud.

"Where there is a cause, there is an effect. One is a seed, the other a fruit. Plant the seed, and there will be fruit. Is that not karma?"

Song Yuanchao laughed drunkenly. Though drunk, his speech remained clear, unlike some drunkards who could not even speak properly.

"Then what does it mean to bring karma to an end?" Lin Xin asked casually, his expression calm as he glanced at him.

"Bring it to an end? From beginning to end, letting the cause you received bear the fruit you desire—is that not the end of everything? The Buddhists say: when causes and conditions converge, the fruit lies within one's own heart."

Song Yuanchao smiled almost madly.

"To bring karma to an end is merely to bring one's own heart to an end. Nothing more. Whenever you yourself believe it has ended, then it has ended."

"That is quite a novel argument." Lin Xin's eyes shifted slightly. For the first time, he regarded this man seriously. Though the other man possessed no cultivation, his words carried a distinctive insight.

"There is a Dao in the world, and there is also a Dao in my heart. Wherever my heart remains incomplete, there must be longing. Measuring the world with my heart, there will always come a day of peace and great freedom." Song Yuanchao swayed his head, seeming both to lament and to speak of some hope.

"A day of great freedom... perhaps." Lin Xin turned his face and looked down from the second floor. People came and went in the street below, while some shops began closing up their stalls in the evening.

Several sedan chairs carrying officials passed by slowly, followed by men carrying baskets of vegetables.

"You and I sit here drinking together. Is that not also a karmic connection? I called to you first—that was a cause. Our moods rarely happened to align—that too was a cause. Meeting here, at this place and time, was likewise a cause. And the fruit that came from it was that you and I now drank together. That was the effect."

Song Yuanchao seemed to be a believer in Buddhism. Even with his unfocused gaze, his reasoning remained clear, and he never strayed far from Buddhist principles.

"Then what is the path of utmost yang?" Lin Xin asked casually again.

"As for the path of utmost yang, among Buddhist and Daoist teachings there is the path of utmost hardness, the path of primal life." Song Yuanchao smiled and grabbed a jar of wine, tearing off its seal.

"The purest thing under heaven is nothing more than that instant of light appearing within endless darkness. As a child, I read through scriptures and Dao Canons. Although I could not enter the cultivation world I longed for, I still came to understand some truths on my own."

"What truths?"

Lin Xin already had an answer himself, but his heart still felt somewhat lost. In truth, he merely wanted to hear someone speak it aloud.

"Utmost yang and utmost yin are like the Taiji Diagram. Only by placing people in their darkest, most painful, most difficult times can one give rise to the purest yearning and longing for beauty and peace."

"It can also make people fall forever into the abyss and hell," Lin Xin interjected faintly.

"Yes. Everything depends on the heart." Song Yuanchao gave two soft chuckles.

Thump.

His head crashed directly into the dishes before Lin Xin, and he did not move again.

Lin Xin lifted the wine jar and drained it in one breath, then looked at Song Yuanchao before him.

"Clearly, I already knew the answer. I simply could not make up my mind, and still needed someone else to say it aloud. Heh heh..."

He rose and set down the wine jar.

"We met by chance. You and I drinking together was a cause, so I shall give you an effect."

With a flick of his finger, a small black pill bottle appeared in his palm.

The words 'Five Senses Pill' were clearly written on it.

It could temporarily heighten one's perception of Inner Qi. Its medicinal power could also strengthen a person's essence, vitality, and blood qi. It was an excellent improved version of the Blood Pill.

It was also one of the miscellaneous pills he had casually refined while making pills for others in the Nether Prefecture.

It could allow ordinary people to enter the Inner Qi cultivation stage, much like the effect of the Blood Pills he had refined many years ago. Its side effects were smaller, though failure was still possible.

"Your fate is in your own hands."

He tossed the pill into the other man's sleeve. Then Lin Xin slowly went downstairs, no longer harboring any hesitation, and headed toward the city gate.