Wisdom Sword Entangles the Ghost, Path-Seeking Steps Beyond the Ordinary

"..."

Chen Cuo was speechless at Zhou Youzi's answer. So you'll kill the problem but leave me to bury it?

Then he thought again. He had written the article himself, and it seemed he had brought about the Evil Ghost's birth. He could hardly blame someone else.

But on second thought, hadn't Daoist Zhou been the one who started all this by setting him on the path of gathering hope?

Then again, Daoist Zhou had told him to gather hope, not to write an article. Besides...

Who could have imagined this world was so dangerous? Copying an article had somehow led to a threat like this!

Chen Cuo clutched his head, feeling profoundly out of place.

But Zhou Youzi misunderstood the gesture.

He thought the young lord was worried about what lay ahead. He felt guilty too. When all was said and done, this had happened because he had been too confident.

So Zhou Youzi gave a rueful smile. "You needn't worry too much, my lord. At least for a little while, the Evil Ghost won't trouble you."

Chen Cuo looked up, puzzled.

"When the Evil Ghost lunged at you," Zhou Youzi said, "I expended a Mindfield Seed to form the Wisdom Sword. It wounded the ghost and drove it back."

Chen Cuo felt somewhat reassured. Then a thought flashed through his mind: when the ghost had lunged at him, hadn't something strange happened to his body?

Perhaps Daoist Half-Heart had placed some sort of protection on him?

Before he could think it through, Zhou Youzi's next words made his heart sink again—

"I wounded the Evil Ghost and drove it back, but I didn't damage its foundation. Though the Evil Ghost has a main body, it remains rooted in the human heart. The Wisdom Sword only broke off a fragment of its will. Given time, it will repair that injury. When it does, it's certain to attack again. It will also know what I'm capable of, making it hard to fend off." Zhou Youzi smiled bitterly as he spoke.

Chen Cuo's anxiety surged back. "Just now, couldn't you have made a few more Wisdom Swords...?"

Zhou Youzi sighed. "To condense a Mindfield Seed, one must accumulate Merit, then sever the worldly ties formed while accumulating it. It's no easy task. My cultivation is modest, and I've planted only two seeds to this day. They're the foundation of my Path-Seeking. I used one in the urgency of the moment, losing half my cultivation. If I used the other, it wouldn't merely mean the loss of my powers and my path. My life might be at risk!"

Chen Cuo had no answer to that.

If Zhou Youzi was telling the truth, then he clearly regretted his recklessness. At the crucial moment, he had even risked his own foundation to help.

Yet for all that, he had only driven the Evil Ghost back temporarily. That alone showed how dangerous it was.

"Then I'll have to find another way." Chen Cuo took a deep breath and said no more.

"Rest assured, my lord," Zhou Youzi said. "With the Wisdom Sword lodged in it, the Evil Ghost will need at least several days to recover. It won't seek you out before it has worn the sword away completely. The sword can't cause Annihilation of its body, but it leaves the ghost flawed, no longer whole. If it faces you like that and anything goes wrong, you could seize on its weakness and subdue it!"

"How do I subdue it?" Chen Cuo perked up at once.

The Evil Ghost was a calamity, but their earlier conversation had made it clear that there might be a way out. If he could absorb and refine it, he might even turn disaster into good fortune and step onto the path of cultivation in one leap!

Unfortunately, Zhou Youzi only shook his head. "That's merely a possibility. As for how to do it, I know little about the Way of Incense."

Chen Cuo was bitterly disappointed.

“In any case,” Zhou Youzi continued, “the Wisdom Sword came from my Mindfield, so I remain connected to it in spirit. I'll sense it when the Evil Ghost wears it away completely. Before then, I'll seek help from fellow cultivators. Jiankang City is the heart of the Southern Heaven, full of hidden talents. An ordinary Evil Ghost can't run wild here. Try to set your mind at ease, my lord.”

Chen Cuo said nothing.

After what had just happened, he had no wish to entrust his fate to someone else. However slim his chances, he wanted to fight for himself. More than ever, he wanted power of his own.

"Daoist," Chen Cuo said after weighing his words, "the Evil Ghost arose because of me. The main problem now is that I have no method to contain and refine it. Could you give me some guidance, or help me find a cultivation method so I can try?"

Zhou Youzi hesitated a moment. "Cultivation sects guard their teachings closely. The Incense Way follows a different path from ours, and even among those of the Guangcheng Dao Lineage, the various sects are wary of one another. I'm afraid I can't help."

"What if I joined your sect?" Chen Cuo asked tentatively. "Could I learn even a little of its teachings?"

He knew little about Zhou Youzi, and joining his sect might not be the ideal choice. But how easy would it be to find another chance at cultivation?

At the thought, he sighed inwardly.

If Chen Fangqing had not driven away the old beggar who had left Chen Jiao the paper crane, perhaps he would have had another choice.

Zhou Youzi was about to refuse on instinct, but a thought occurred to him. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "This is a weighty matter. You are a member of the imperial clan, my lord, with the True Dragon Bloodline. Whether you may join my sect is not for me to decide. I'll have to ask."

Since Zhou Youzi had not refused outright, Chen Cuo felt a flicker of hope. But nothing concrete had been settled, and he could not help feeling dissatisfied.

Just then, Zhou Youzi coughed softly twice. He took a deep breath, brought out a small bottle, and swallowed a pill.

Only then did Chen Cuo remember that Zhou Youzi had been pierced through. His worry over the Evil Ghost, coupled with Zhou Youzi's calm expression, had nearly made him forget. Now that he looked, he saw that the bloody wound had already closed.

"Do you need to rest, Daoist? I can find some physicians."

Zhou Youzi waved a hand. "There's no need. Ordinary physicians can't treat this injury of mine, and it needn't be dealt with immediately. I can see you have something to ask, my lord. Say it, and I'll explain while I have the chance."

Chen Cuo nodded. "With the Evil Ghost lurking nearby, I can't feel at ease. Mostly, it's because I know so little about gods and ghosts. If you could explain a little, perhaps it would ease my fears."

Zhou Youzi considered it. Fear sprang from the unknown, and since the Evil Ghost had arisen from Chen Cuo, it made sense to calm his mind first. He nodded. "Ask away, my lord."

After some thought, Chen Cuo said, "You said that if the evil ghost devoured me, its cultivation would soar and it would reach the second step of Path-Seeking. You've also mentioned the first and second steps several times before. What exactly are they, and how do they differ?"

Zhou Youzi frowned slightly and touched his chest. At last, he said solemnly, "I swore an oath in my sect not to speak lightly of gods and ghosts. But with the Evil Ghost attacking and you caught up in it, this concerns you directly. Many matters are bound up in it, and explaining the mysteries of Path-Seeking may ease your mind. In that case, it would not break my oath."

Chen Cuo immediately grew attentive.

Zhou Youzi did not beat around the bush. "The first step of Path-Seeking is to shed the mundane and cast off worldly dust. It is about becoming unlike ordinary people, and is also called the Transcendent Realm. In truth, it's a process."

"What does becoming unlike ordinary people mean?" Chen Cuo asked.

"Each sect describes this realm differently. There's no single answer." Zhou Youzi thought for a moment, then offered a simple example. "In the Mind-Calming Gate, the Transcendent Realm is the process of cultivating the Mindfield until it is firmly established."

Chen Cuo hesitated, then asked, "What is a Mindfield? If it's something you're forbidden to discuss, you needn't explain in detail."

"A Mindfield isn't a physical thing. It lies between the real and the unreal." Zhou Youzi did not shy away from the question. "In the Mind-Calming Gate, we open our Mindfields through meditation and will. We sow Merit as seeds and water them with essence, qi, and spirit. Only after weathering the trials of life can we cultivate them fully. Once complete, the Mindfield takes shape and reaches perfection. Then there's no need to worry, as I do, that using too many seeds will cause one's cultivation to regress or even collapse."

“A profound Legalism indeed.” Chen Cuo tried to understand, but could not quite grasp it. He could only commit the words to memory and ponder them later.

"You needn't memorize the specifics. Every sect has its own methods." Zhou Youzi shook his head. "In the Mind-Calming Gate, the Transcendent Realm means opening a Mindfield where none existed before. The mark of completing the first step is establishing it for good. Other sects do things differently."

"Could you tell me about some of them?" Chen Cuo asked. "It would give me something to compare."

Zhou Youzi nodded. After some thought, he said, “Take the Kunlun Great Sect. Its first step into the Transcendent Realm is to open the Dantian Sea of Qi. That means bringing the sea of qi into existence. When it becomes stable and can remain within the body without conscious effort, the first step is complete. I don't know the exact stages, though.”

"The Kunlun Great Sect..."

Chen Cuo committed the name to memory. A sect that came to Zhou Youzi's mind first could hardly be an insignificant one. Besides, Kunlun figured prominently in many myths. It was certainly worth paying attention to.

As Chen Cuo compared the two methods, his thoughts gradually grew clearer.

"If I understand you, the first step is to create or open something ordinary people don't have?"

He touched his chest, then his lower abdomen.

"The Mindfield lies between the real and the unreal and involves the mind and will. The sea of qi must hold something like true qi, almost like an organ inside the body." Insight flashed through Chen Cuo's mind, and he seized on the key point. "Could the first step, the Transcendent Realm, be the process of becoming different from ordinary people in mind or body, then strengthening that difference through various methods?"

Zhou Youzi's eyes lit up. Then, as he looked at Chen Cuo, his expression grew increasingly uncertain.