Feet as the ruler, heart as the mirror

Ruined walls and broken masonry lay everywhere on North Spring Mountain.

The once-broad Stone-paved paths were covered in moss and weeds.

"This should be the former Sword Collection Pavilion of the North Spring Sword Sect."

Gu Yuanqing stood before a ruin, looking at a trench more than a hundred feet long and thirty feet deep.

"A Grandmaster's power is truly terrifying. They say Sword Saint Qin Wuya left this with a casual stroke of his sword."

The North Spring Sword Sect had once been a great sect of its era. Even when it was destroyed forty years ago, it had an expert of the profound martial ninth heaven holding the line. It had simply backed the wrong side!

Supposedly, the North Spring Sword Sect had built its foundations upon a Secret Sword and a Spirit Spring.

The Secret Sword contained the mysteries of the ultimate realm of Sword Dao. The sect's founder had comprehended the Big Dipper Seven Swords from it and become a Grandmaster. Seven True Martial Realm Cultivators practicing the technique together could defeat a Grandmaster.

After the Great Qian Wang Dynasty destroyed the North Spring Sword Sect, the Secret Sword vanished without a trace. That was why the mountain had been declared forbidden ground.

Gu Yuanqing had read all these rumors in miscellaneous accounts at the Prince's Wang Manor. They might not have been entirely accurate, but there had to be some reason behind them.

He stood there for a long time, carefully examining every part of his surroundings. Then he looked inward at his sea of consciousness. The phantom image of the area within a hundred-foot radius had become much clearer.

This was spirit imbuing: matching the phantom image in his mind to North Spring Mountain, detail by detail.

With his feet as the ruler, he measured this stretch of heaven and earth.

With his heart as the mirror, he imprinted this place upon his sea of consciousness.

This was the necessary path to turning his Residence into a cultivation sanctuary!

"On to the next place. Over these past few days, I've covered a tenth or two of North Spring Mountain. At this pace, I'll only need a month or two to complete the initial spirit imbuing!"

"Misfortune and fortune really do lean on each other. Even if that old emperor let me leave the mountain now, I wouldn't want to!"

A smile shone in Gu Yuanqing's eyes. His Vital Essence and spirits were worlds apart from what they had been a dozen or so days earlier.

He visited the Scripture Collection Pavilion, the Skill Transmission Hall, and the Founder Hall. All were empty. Presumably, everything inside had been hauled back to the Great Qian Dynasty's storehouses.

Passing through the Sword Casting Hall, he reached the rear of the mountain. There should have been a Spirit Spring here, but it had long since dried up. Broken Stones and dead leaves littered the ground.

"They say this spirit spring water could nourish the body and was highly beneficial even to those in the True Martial Realm."

Seeing that dusk was approaching, Gu Yuanqing headed back to his lodgings. The two Old Servants had already prepared his meal and were waiting outside his door.

It was a simple meal of two dishes and a soup. Though it could not compare to what he had once eaten at the Prince's Wang Manor, this still counted as generous treatment for someone imprisoned here.

At midnight, a wisp of Spiritual Qi gathered within the North Spring Mountain phantom.

Gu Yuanqing circulated the cultivation method of the Profound Heaven Art. Another acupoint glimmered as his true qi nourished it. Two hours later, he stopped cultivating and stood up.

"I've tempered fifteen acupoints. Just three more, and I can enter the origin warrior seventh level. But without medicinal herbs, I can only cultivate with this wisp of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi each day. Otherwise, my progress would be a little faster."

At the thought of cultivation, Gu Yuanqing frowned again.

He was not a legitimate son of the Gu Family, nor did he have Cultivation Talent. He had only learned the first four levels of the Profound Heaven Art. He had never learned the Profound Martial Spirit Refining Method or the method for opening the martial dao secret treasury.

"Forget it. There's no use overthinking it. I'll worry about that when I reach the Origin Scholar Ninth Level."

After washing with clean water in the courtyard, Gu Yuanqing lay down to sleep.

The next day, he woke at first light. Brimming with Vital Essence and spirits, he could not have slept even if he wanted to, so he got up to practice his fist techniques and Sword Practice.

The Wood sword in his hand whistled through the air, each stroke faster than the last.

Point, thrust, cleave, intercept, slice—every stroke was perfectly placed, fluid without losing its sharpness.

With a soft whistle, the Wood sword swept across a mountain stone, splitting it in two.

He flipped back to his original position, lowered his sword, and steadied his breathing.

"I only know the White Cloud Sword Technique and the Cape Cross Sword. What a waste of my empowered Swordsmanship Talent!"

After empowerment, his Swordsmanship Talent was one in a hundred, a grade above his ordinary Cultivation Talent. The two sword techniques he had failed to grasp despite years of practice had reached polished perfection in just a dozen or so days.

At some point, the thin, wizened old man had arrived at the courtyard gate, carrying plain rice porridge and several small dishes. Only after Gu Yuanqing finished cultivating did he bow and enter, set the food down in the courtyard, then bow again and withdraw.

Gu Yuanqing frowned slightly. He noticed that the servant's steps were remarkably steady, nothing like those of an elderly man. While cultivating just now, he had not noticed when the man arrived at all.

As he ate, he thought, I'd better be more careful from now on. After all, I'm imprisoned here. This Old Servant may well be an informant for the Imperial Family. If they learn that my cultivation is advancing, it could introduce more complications.

After eating, Gu Yuanqing did not go out to measure North Spring Mountain that day. Instead, he wandered casually around the front of the mountain.

At around a quarter to eleven, he saw a young eunuch leading several Soldiers up the mountain.

Gu Yuanqing's eyes lit up, and he hurried over.

"Young eunuch, did you bring me any books this time?" Gu Yuanqing asked with a smile, cupping his hands.

The young eunuch lifted a stack of books.

Delighted, Gu Yuanqing accepted them with both hands. "Thank you, thank you. Life on the mountain is austere, and the days are hard to endure. With these books to pass the time, things will be much easier. Please help me bring some more next time you come up. If you could bring paper and a brush, that would be even better."

The eunuch and Soldiers remained silent. Once the Old Servants had received the supplies, they turned and headed down the mountain.

"Go about your work."

Gu Yuanqing waved to the two Old Servants, who were waiting for his instructions, then carried the books back.

Returning to the courtyard, he placed the books one by one on the shelf in his room. There were more than ten in total, all travel accounts and storybooks. They would do nicely for passing the time.

"If I weren't so short of money, I really ought to give him something as thanks."

Gu Yuanqing picked a book at random and began reading. Things he had once seen everywhere now seemed all the more precious here.

Time flew like a shuttle, and another month passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, the young eunuch came twice, bringing Gu Yuanqing a few miscellaneous books on each visit. The bookshelf in his room gradually filled up. Gu Yuanqing felt that he had read more in this one month than he used to read in an entire year.

Cultivating, sleeping, Sword Practice, measuring North Spring Mountain with his feet, and reading in his spare time—this had been the whole of Gu Yuanqing's life over the past month.

Far from the dust of the mortal world, undisturbed by outside matters, his temperament was quietly being honed.

That morning, after breakfast, he went to the edge of the West Cliff.

This had once been where disciples of the North Spring Sword Sect practiced Sword Practice. Sword marks were still visible on some of the mountain Stones and trees.

Gu Yuanqing's long hair was tied casually behind his head. Without his noticing, a hint of natural ease and carefree poise had entered his once-unremarkable bearing.

Standing on a protruding mountain Stone, he looked down along the sheer cliff face. As his cultivation increased, his spirit imbuing had progressed far faster than expected. Today, he would fit the final piece into the puzzle.

As he studied the view, the last blurry section of the mountaintop in the North Spring Mountain phantom within his mind gradually became clear.

Like a breeze scattering a thin mist, the phantom image of North Spring Mountain rippled like water, then gradually solidified. It was as though a static-filled black-and-white television from his previous life had turned into a high-definition projection.

Gu Yuanqing's five senses were magnified countless times in an instant. The entire summit of North Spring Mountain appeared clearly within his mind. With a mere thought, he could inspect everything on the mountain as easily as the lines on his palm.

He "saw" the two Old Servants. One was chopping firewood with an axe, while the other was sweeping his little courtyard with a broom.

He saw a line of ants working together to carry a long worm back to their nest.

This unprecedented sensory experience enthralled him. After an unknown length of time, a sudden wave of dizziness swept through his head, and he nearly fell off the cliff. Only then did he emerge from that state.

He hurriedly retreated several steps to safety and looked inward at his sea of consciousness. The text beside the phantom image of North Spring Mountain had changed...