Ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and peace reigned over Taiqing Palace.
The seventh-day mourning rites for their martial uncle Li Xuanzhen were over, and the heads of the various Taoist schools had all departed with their disciples.
The new head, Wu Miaoxin, moved into Laojun Terrace, and everything settled into tranquility.
Zhang Junbao plunged into the ocean of Taoist scriptures and could not pull himself away. In Taiqing Palace's scripture repository, he drank his fill of nourishment from the Taoist canon, replenishing his impoverished soul.
Zhang Qingyuan was reading too, but the insights he gained differed from Zhang Junbao's.
Whenever Zhang Qingyuan read the scriptures, a question would arise in his mind: what was Profound Comprehension?
And what exactly had Martial Uncle Xuanzhen meant by those words before he passed away?
He had said that those who attained Profound Comprehension possessed exceptional gifts and were all extraordinary people capable of divining past and present, but among those who could perceive the universe, there was only him, and no other.
The words seemed simple, yet they also seemed to contain some deeper meaning.
First, one thing was certain: Martial Uncle Xuanzhen had indeed seen through his origins.
When he spoke of the three thousand Great Daos and the countless worlds created by sages, he had already understood Zhang Qingyuan's concerns and pointed out his origins.
Zhang Qingyuan understood this, because the concept of a multiverse had not originated in later ages. The ancients had entertained such conjectures too.
For example, Taoists said that sages created three thousand universes, while Buddhists said that a flower held a world, and a tree held enlightenment.
They believed that all universes were created by gods.
The rules governing each world might be the same, or they might differ.
There was another account that said the Jade Emperor had endured seventeen hundred and fifty tribulations, each lasting a hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years. According to this account, the Jade Emperor had not undergone his tribulations in the main world. Instead, he had created a realm where time flowed faster than in the main world, and undergone his tribulations there.
That was why Martial Uncle Xuanzhen, who had attained Profound Comprehension, could sense his identity and Zhang Junbao's.
But what exactly did Profound Comprehension feel like, and what sort of realm was it?
Unable to understand, Zhang Qingyuan spent his days clutching scriptures, searching their pages for an answer.
He called it searching, but in plain terms, he still had to reach enlightenment himself.
The two settled down on the mountain. Senior Brother Miaoxin strictly followed Martial Uncle Xuanzhen's decree: take no initiative, impose no restrictions, and refuse nothing.
He greeted them when they met and otherwise left them alone.
Every day, the two rose early to practice, joined the Taoist priests on the mountain for morning devotions, and spent the rest of the morning immersed in books in the scripture repository. After lunch, they continued reading through the afternoon. In the evening, they took a stroll, practiced again, and joined the others for evening devotions before bed.
They were never late for morning and evening devotions in particular.
Sometimes Zhang Qingyuan also discussed martial arts theories he had seen online in his previous life with Zhang Junbao, saying whatever came to mind, because he feared he would forget them as time passed.
Zhang Junbao did not immediately try to create something after hearing them, either. He recorded them first and looked them over when inspiration struck. Who knew when they might prove useful?
Summer departed and autumn arrived; winter left and spring came.
A year passed just like that.
That day, Zhang Qingyuan watched the disciples on the mountain practice their fist forms. They practiced health-preserving fist arts with little power, but prolonged practice really could extend one's life. Zhang Junbao had even found inspiration in these forms and used it to supplement part of Taiji Fist.
Over the past year, Zhang Junbao had not created many martial arts. Aside from refining the Purple Firmament Thunder Ultimate Sword Technique, he had only created one finger art, which he named the Primordial Unity Finger.
He had created this finger art using inspiration from the Great Desolate Heaven-Imprisoning Finger and One Yang Finger that Zhang Qingyuan had described as its foundation.
It transformed innate True Qi that had returned to its original simplicity into force, unleashing it through the index finger in a tremendous surge of finger force.
That was his only new martial art, but he had created two internal cultivation methods.
There was no helping it: he was exceptionally gifted, and Zhang Qingyuan had given him far too much inspiration.
Taiqing Palace held countless scriptures and texts, and original versions of the classics from every Taoist school could be found there.
Thus, as Zhang Junbao's knowledge grew, so did his insights.
Using the Yellow Court Scripture as his guide, he created the "Yellow Court Qi-Refining Art," also known as the "Great Yellow Court"!
It used the elephant and tortoise to draw Qi to the spiritual root, employing tortoise-breathing guidance techniques to bring True Qi into harmony with heaven, earth, and nature.
The difference between Imperial Court True Qi and Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang lay in its gentler nature, high explosive power, and strong staying power.
Of course, that did not mean the Supreme Yin Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill and Supreme Yang Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill were inferior to the Great Yellow Court. Each had its own merits, and practicing any of them could make someone an expert.
Afterward, drawing on the healing theories Zhang Qingyuan had described and the ideas in the Cave Profundity Scripture, he created the "Taiqing Cave Profundity Skill."
The True Qi produced by this art was pure and natural. It governed Qi through virtue, keeping True Qi clear and free of dust. Once the art reached major completion, its True Qi could not only repair the practitioner's injuries but also be released to heal others.
However, this internal cultivation method had a requirement for its practitioners: only those pure of heart could practice it.
If someone impure of heart practiced it, someone who spent all day thinking of harming this person or that, or thinking of what they had to obtain for themselves, the mildest consequence would be an inability to cultivate True Qi; in severe cases, they would suffer a backlash.
Because the True Qi cultivated was pure, it required a pure heart.
The two still primarily practiced the Supreme Yang Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill, with the Supreme Yin Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill as a supplement.
These two arts did not interfere with each other, so even cultivating both to major completion was possible.
But the other two arts could not be practiced recklessly. Their True Qi differed, so switching to Imperial Court True Qi required removing all the True Qi cultivated before. Cultivating Cave Profundity True Qi was the same; these different kinds of True Qi were incompatible.
The two still tried practicing them in moderation, not daring to go too far.
They cultivated only a strand of Imperial Court True Qi and a strand of Cave Profundity True Qi.
The two strands were as fine as silk, insignificant before the vast Yin Qi and Yang Qi. It was like adding a drop of cola and a drop of Sprite to a water vat, so they had no effect.
Neither could bear to discard his cultivation and start again, so this was all they could do.
But Zhang Junbao had an idea. He felt he could devise a way to cultivate these kinds of True Qi together.
After a year of cultivating themselves and nurturing their dispositions, both had undergone considerable changes in their outlook.
Zhang Junbao had grown more cheerful, while Zhang Qingyuan had become somewhat quieter.
Zhang Junbao's cheerfulness came from Zhang Qingyuan's influence; the longer he followed him, the further he strayed. Besides, after showing off before the heads of the various Taoist schools a year earlier, he had suddenly discovered that showing off really was rather beneficial to both body and mind.
Zhang Qingyuan had grown quieter because he spent so much time reading, and because he still could not understand those two remarks from Martial Uncle Xuanzhen.
Over the course of that year, both of them had cultivated the Supreme Yin Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill and Supreme Yang Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill to the seventh level.
There was no helping it. They were geniuses, after all.
The two streams of True Qi flowed ceaselessly through their meridians, and they felt their current selves could take on a dozen or more of their selves from a year ago.
As Zhang Qingyuan watched them practice their fist forms, he pondered.
Just then, a few leaves fell to the ground, forming a divinatory pattern.
A flash of inspiration struck him, and he instantly understood the true meaning of Martial Uncle Xuanzhen's words!
He understood exactly what Li Xuanzhen had meant by saying that those who attained Profound Comprehension possessed exceptional gifts and were all extraordinary people capable of divining past and present, but among those who could perceive the universe, there was only him, and no other.
First, Martial Uncle Xuanzhen had made it clear that this world had no gods or immortals; martial prowess reigned supreme.
Yet Taoist cultivation, Buddhist cultivation, and worldly faiths all existed.
That meant the gods and immortals of the "main world" could cast their reflections into this world, but would not descend into it.
It was like his previous life: materialism was professed, yet inexplicable phenomena, mysterious beyond mystery, still occurred.
This world was the same.
Those who attained Profound Comprehension, like Li Xuanzhen in this world or Daoist Zhang Zhishun publicized online in his previous life, acquired a trace of the mysterious through cultivation while remaining human.
They were not gods or immortals and knew no spells, but their souls had transcended.
Martial Uncle Xuanzhen had said that those who attained Profound Comprehension could observe past and present.
That meant people in this world really could divine fates and reckon past and present through cultivation and certain methods. All of this truly existed.
But even such geniuses of Profound Comprehension could, at most, observe the principles of this world. It was like the Tui Bei Tu of his previous life, which predicted events several hundred years into the future of a single world.
Daoist Li Xuanzhen's soul, however, had transcended this universe and perceived his existence.
Reaching that point required not only talent, but guidance from heaven.
Just as he had seen through Zhang Junbao and known that Zhang Junbao needed help, and thus attained sudden enlightenment.
Otherwise, even a great fortune-teller could, at most, divine that Zhang Junbao had an extraordinary fate, or that the heavenly secrets surrounding Zhang Qingyuan were in disorder, and so on...
Mind you, Profound Comprehension was not immortal cultivation. There were no spells!
It was like the Mud Bodhisattva in the world of Wind and Cloud: his predictions were accurate, but he still could not defeat Xiongba.
So I can attain Profound Comprehension too.
Zhang Qingyuan seemed to glimpse a great door, but that door remained closed.
He smiled. It will open!