Chapter 42: The Emperor's Past
The night wind swept through the woods, stirring the lingering leaves. Beneath a dim moon, countless stars shone down on the travelers.
After protesting his innocence for a while, Ding Songyan, bamboo basket on his back, asked with undisguised curiosity:
"Besides the 'Name' and 'Reality' chapters, what other chapters are there in the Nine Canons?"
The world knew little about the Emperor Terrace. Previously, Ding Songyan had only known that its lineage descended from the Celestial Emperor and possessed the Emperor's Book, also known as the Nine Canons. Its canon keeper, Tang Yi, was one of the Gan Kingdom's three Perfected Persons, but like Xiong Mo, the guardian of the Emperor's Mausoleum, he rarely involved himself in worldly affairs.
Twelfth Madam Luo followed the stream as it burbled downhill, sometimes walking with dignified composure, sometimes nimbly leaping over stones and roots in her path.
She gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"There are also the 'Way,' 'Virtue,' 'Being,' 'Nonbeing,' 'Mystery,' 'Law,' and 'Supreme' chapters."
Hearing the names of the first four chapters made Ding Songyan all the more certain that Emperor Xuanyuan's cultivation art had grown out of Hundun's. The remaining chapters must have been written after he united with the Way, blooming on another branch and forging a new path.
Twelfth Madam Luo continued:
"In its early years, the Emperor Terrace also split over a dispute in principles. One faction held that the Celestial Emperor governed living beings and could not entirely ignore worldly affairs. When necessary, they should send successors out into the world or choose those with destined affinity to teach their arts. The other faction believed that the severance of heaven and earth was a continuation of the Celestial Emperor's will. With mortals and gods divided, they ought to govern through nonaction.