The Inner Peaks, a lecture

The flying crane beat its wings, swooped down, and landed on Bluestone Square.

As fierce winds swirled, an old Daoist immediately stepped forward and led it aside.

"From the outer sect?"

"Yes."

"Go register your name at Qigong Court yourself."

The old Daoist was in his early fifties, yet unlike the outer sect's mortal laborers, he showed no decrepitude. Instead, he had a ruddy face and crane-white hair, with abundant Qi and Blood.

Jiang Yi gave a Daoist salute.

"May I ask which way Qigong Court is, senior? This is my first visit, and I don't know my way around."

The old Daoist gave him a sidelong glance, initially disinclined to answer.

After all, that gray robe of an outer sect mortal laborer was enough to declare his status and rob the old Daoist of any interest in conversation.

But Jiang Yi looked quite young and fair, with a lustrous, jade-like sheen between his brows, unlike the short-lived beasts of burden who had toiled for years in the workshops.

The old Daoist paused briefly and asked another question.

"Which duty officer recommended you?"

"Duty Officer Yang of Crimson Flame Peak's Quenching Room was kind enough to recommend me. I've come to the Inner Peaks to attend the instruction elder's lecture."

Jiang Yi spoke in a steady voice.

Yang Xun of Crimson Flame Peak?

So he was a mortal laborer with connections after all.

The old Daoist's expression grew amiable, and he raised a hand to point.

"Go that way. There's a courtyard; just tell the Daoist at the gate. Oh, the elder usually arrives between one and three in the afternoon. You'd best get there between nine and eleven to claim a seat, or you'll have to stand."

Jiang Yi thanked him, then thought:

Just like attending a professor's lecture. Seats are in short supply.

Following the old Daoist's directions, he indeed saw small courtyards with blue-tiled roofs and white walls scattered in a corner of the square.

The main gate stood half-open, with a middle-aged Daoist leaning beside it, dozing.

These "senior brothers" of the Inner Peaks all look so idle and relaxed, as though they're living out their retirement.

With that thought, Jiang Yi slowly approached and called softly:

"Senior... brother, may I ask if this is where outer sect mortal laborers register?"

Perhaps the middle-aged Daoist had been enjoying a pleasant dream. Quite irritated at the sudden interruption, he waved a hand.

"Go, go, go. Write your name over there yourself! Don't bother me!"

Jiang Yi smiled amiably and said, "Sorry to disturb you, senior brother."

He then bent over the long table set up by the entrance, took up a brush, and wrote the eight characters for "Jiang Yi, Crimson Flame Peak Quenching Room."

He had figured it out: the Inner Peaks' attitude toward mortal laborers was roughly, "Those stinking outer sect folk have come begging on our doorstep."

It was not outright loathing, but there was unmistakable disdain.

After registering, Jiang Yi returned to the old Daoist and cupped his hands.

"May I ask, senior, where does the instruction elder usually hold his lectures?"

He did not ask empty-handed. As his words fell, several bright-red notes of Talisman Money slipped lightly into the old Daoist's hand.

An outer sect mortal laborer entering the Inner Peaks was naturally a stranger in an unfamiliar place, with darkness before both eyes.

Who knew how many cold looks He Laohun had endured back then before learning the lay of the land?

"See those steps? Climb all the way up. Once you spot a stone stele about thirty feet tall, you're there."

The old Daoist deftly pocketed the Talisman Money and answered his question.

At the end, perhaps because Jiang Yi knew how to behave, he added:

"You seem sharp, so here's an extra word of advice: use your head when picking a seat. Don't foolishly touch the cushions at the front."

Jiang Yi's heart tightened. Presumably, the Inner Peaks were also a place of strict hierarchy. One careless overstep or offense might bring a fatal disaster.

He gave another Daoist salute. The Talisman Money spent on directions had not been wasted; it had bought him a warning.

Compared with the outer sect, where the Qi was turbid and the noise like a vegetable market, the Inner Peaks really are much quieter.

Jiang Yi climbed the stone steps. After roughly an hour, the view suddenly opened before him.

He let out a long breath, lifted his head, and stepped onto a broad stretch of level ground.

Beside him stood a conspicuous, broad stone stele several dozen feet tall, inscribed with the two characters "Guanlan."

The bells that urge the mortal laborers of the Outer Sect's Four Peaks to work every day ring out from here.

It was just past nine, and few people were present. Only a scattering of figures stood about, all of them dressed in gray robes.

Probably all ambitious mortal laborers from the outer sect.

Jiang Yi stood silently at the rear, looking straight ahead across several hundred feet at a nine-foot-high platform, with bronze chimes, bells, drums, and other such instruments arranged around it.

Above that was a ritual altar built of five-colored soil, with a cushion placed in the center.

Seating had been arranged below the platform, with around a hundred cushions of varying kinds of rattan and grass serving as places for Inner Peaks disciples and outer sect mortal laborers.

Jiang Yi found the most inconspicuous corner and sat down.

As one o'clock approached, more people arrived, and a hubbub arose.

"Elder Xu only lectures once every ten days. What a bitter wait he puts us through!"

"Indeed, indeed. I heard Senior Brother Xu's having an unlucky year. Terrible luck."

"He beat a mortal laborer to death on Crimson Flame Peak a little while ago and paid out quite a lot of Talisman Money..."

Jiang Yi looked up. The Inner Peaks disciples all wore black robes, each brimming with Qi and Blood, their eyes gleaming. Like a pack of tigers and wolves, they cut imposing figures.

They sat below the raised platform, occupying the cushions at the front and chatting merrily among themselves.

Everyone else kept far away, not daring to approach, as though a sharply defined boundary had been drawn.

Yet the first two rows remained empty. Those were clearly reserved for the "eldest senior brothers" and "eldest senior sisters."

Rules of rank and seniority really are everywhere.

Jiang Yi remarked inwardly, then reflected:

Not yet eighteen, newly arrived in the Inner Peaks, and no more than a lackey.

I only hope that next time, I can sit a little closer to the altar.

Clang, clang, clang!

The bronze chime rang, its lingering notes spreading in all directions.

Everyone's expression turned solemn, and all fell silent at once.

An old man with a lean face and a long beard hanging to his chest rode the wind over, slowly alighted on the platform, and sat cross-legged on the cushion.

This was the sect's instruction elder. His surname was said to be Xu, and he was one of the foremost "important figures" in the Inner Peaks.

"Last time, I spoke of the customs of Eastern Victory Continent and the monastic Dharma Lineages of Western Maitreya Continent... Today, I will discuss neither methods nor the Dao, only antiquity and history, so that you may understand what our Jambudvipa Vast Land is like."

Elder Xu's voice was sonorous and powerful, like a lion's roar, carrying tremendous majesty.

It made the many disciples and the few mortal laborers attending below quiet their voices and hold their breath.

Jiang Yi glanced over the first two rows before the platform and found their cushions still empty. He thought:

Even with their owners absent, no one dares touch those seats. What a strict hierarchy.

He put aside his stray thoughts and concentrated on Elder Xu's history lecture.

After all, he had spent several hundred in Talisman Money. He could not let his mind wander!

"Jambudvipa Vast Land is said to be the ancestral land of the myriad heavens and myriad Daos, enduring numerous great calamities without destruction.

"They say that in an age more distant than the Early Ancient Era, there were far more than the Four Cardinal Continents..."

As usual, Elder Xu rambled on at length, delivering sweeping reminiscences of antiquity that boiled down to a single statement.

Our Jambudvipa Vast Land had once been wealthy!

He's absolutely padding out the lecture.

Jiang Yi grumbled inwardly.

"Then why are only the Four Cardinal Continents left?"

An Inner Peaks disciple asked.

That was one advantage of sitting at the front: they could have the instruction elder answer their questions.

If a mortal laborer at the back interrupted, however, it would be called "insolent overstepping." Punishment would undoubtedly follow.

"Opinions vary on this matter, and no consensus has yet been reached. I shall discuss only a few of the most widespread accounts.

"One is that a great war broke out, and Immortals, Buddhas, Demons, devils, sages, and Dao Lords smashed it apart. Earth, fire, water, and wind were reenacted and rearranged, leaving only four continents."

Good heavens!

Everyone drew in a cold breath. For lowly Qi Refining cultivators, it was truly difficult to imagine.

Just what sort of great Divine Ability could sink continents and shatter the sun and moon with a raised hand?

"Another account claims that, in the face of the Great Extinction, the sages and Dao Lords used all their strength to protect Jambudvipa Vast Land, preserving the Four Cardinal Continents..."

Elder Xu sounded distinctly mocking at this point; presumably, he did not believe it.

"Lastly, there is a rumor that before the Early Ancient Era, near the Middle Ancient Era, a towering figure of the Demonic Dao defied Heaven, forcibly seized a continent from Jambudvipa Vast Land, and fled beyond the heavens."

Jiang Yi's expression turned odd at this. That truly was "leaving home with the well on one's back," in the literal sense.

"For some unknown reason, this prompted many Dao Lords to follow suit. You took a piece, I took a piece, and so Jambudvipa Vast Land was left with only the Four Cardinal Continents... Of course, this sounds more like a joke and cannot be trusted."

Elder Xu answered a few more questions, slowly steering the topic back to Southern Continent.

"Lastly, let me tell you about the 'struggle of Dao Lineages.' Though today's Jambudvipa Vast Land has only the four great Dao Lineages of 'Immortals,' 'devils,' 'Demons,' and 'Buddhas,'

"in truth, as far back as the beginning of the Early Ancient Era, roughly 128,400 years ago, there was a supreme Dharma Lineage of world-shaking splendor that nearly established a fifth Dao Lineage and opened up another continent."

This grand introduction immediately captured everyone's attention. Inner Peaks disciples and outer sect mortal laborers alike gazed expectantly at Elder Xu upon the platform.

Quite pleased by this, the latter said leisurely:

"Now, 128,400 years ago, there was a Dharma Lineage that relied on the 'sword' to realize the Great Dao and ascend to its station.

"Rising in the east, it cleaved open the Great Void, passed through our Southern Continent, and charged toward Western Maitreya Continent to pit itself against the mighty figures of the Buddhist Dao.

"You and I cannot know the particulars, but from the scattered scales and claws passed down to later generations, we can roughly discern the outcome.

"It ended in the destruction of the 'Sword Dao' and a bitter victory for the 'Buddhist Dao.' They say fragments of the golden bodies of the heavenly bodhisattvas and arhats lay scattered throughout Western Maitreya Continent.

"Tens of thousands of years ago, many predecessors of the Demonic Dao risked sneaking across and seized the chance to 'pan for gold,' making a windfall."

"Yet though the 'Sword Dao' perished, it had, after all, ascended to its station and written a glorious page in Jambudvipa Vast Land's history.

"Even after 128,400 years, among the hundred kinds of weapons beneath heaven today, only the 'sword' can enter the Dao, peerless in killing power.

"This is the rich gift the Sword Dao left to all cultivators, and it is also where the profound mystery of a 'Dao Lineage' lies."

Everyone listened, utterly spellbound. Only when the clear note of the bronze chime rang out, lingering in the air, did they come back to themselves.

When they looked up again, the platform was already empty.

The Daoist attendant below the altar called in a drawn-out chant:

"The lecture is concluded!"