Lone Moon

A cultivator surnamed Hua who cultivated Yi Wood had the Daoist title Zhuohua?

He was a Foundation Establishment expert who had ordered the generation names of the Hua Household's direct line changed. He must have known something about the Name and Nature Method, so how could he have committed such a taboo?

He had been burned to death by Li Fire. On closer thought, there was something of his fate answering to his name.

Now Hua Chunning had entered Supreme Mystery Mountain, and the bamboo slips recording the Name and Nature Method had happened to fall into Li Chengxuan's hands.

Li Chengxuan's face remained calm, but his thoughts churned like rivers and seas.

Hua Chunning studied Li Chengxuan carefully and asked in a low voice, "May I ask, sect leader, is something wrong?"

"Heh... it's nothing."

Li Chengxuan suppressed his doubts, chuckled, and shook his head. "I was just thinking that High Person Zhuohua was skillful and took great pains, especially for you of the direct line. He clearly had high hopes for you."

Hua Chunning nodded silently. "Quite a few people in the direct line wanted to join the Azure Cloud Sect too. But Grandfather kept our ancestors' dying instructions firmly in mind and steeled himself to purge them, bringing the family into order."

Li Chengxuan nodded slightly, considering whether he should put Supreme Mystery Mountain in order as well and purge Hua Chunning and the Hua Household.

Seeing Li Chengxuan's kindly manner, Hua Chunning gathered the courage to speak. "This disciple is slow-witted. Yi Wood is difficult to cultivate. If this disciple were willing to endure the turbid filth of the mortal world in the Grotto-Heaven, could this disciple enter the Dao through Mortal World Turbid Qi?"

After all, the sect leader had entered the Dao through Mortal World Turbid Qi.

If Hua Chunning switched paths, not only could it bring Hua Chunning closer to the sect leader, but there would also be no need to worry about having no one to offer guidance or finding the path blocked.

Li Chengxuan smiled and shook his head. "Switching paths is not so simple."

"I dared to enter the Dao through Mortal World Turbid Qi because my fate is peculiar and lies outside the calculations, allowing me to escape the turbid filth of the mortal world."

"Your Manifestation, however, is shallow, and your fate has yet to reveal itself."

"Mortal World Turbid Qi would scatter your Manifestation and wear away your heart and nature."

"In time, you would become foolish, greedy, and dull-witted. Even your appearance would become hideous."

"By then, never mind your cultivation path being cut off. I fear many things too terrible to speak of would happen as well."

Hua Chunning was stunned. What rose in Hua Chunning's heart was not fear, but despair. Unable to hold back, Hua Chunning asked, "The Yi Wood path has been severed, and other paths are difficult to walk. Is this disciple truly fated to have no chance at cultivation in this lifetime?"

Li Chengxuan thought for a moment, then made up his mind and sighed. "Not necessarily."

Whether it was coincidence or scheming, he no longer cared.

The Yi Wood lineage had already been severed, and even the Old Method was dying out.

He possessed the supreme treasure, the Two Worlds Pearl. If he still hesitated and held back, how could he speak of a Dao Path?!

Duanmu Ren's High Shaman remained out of reach.

Whether or not there was a plot, he could not let Yi Wood escape now that it had come knocking at his door.

Hope rose in Hua Chunning's heart. "Please guide me, sect leader."

Li Chengxuan shook his head, suppressing his various suspicions without mentioning them. "I have some ideas about your future cultivation path."

"I cannot yet say whether they will succeed."

"But for now, I cannot reveal them."

"Otherwise, you would surely become trapped by the barrier of your own perceptions and knowledge, and that would only harm you."

Spring had ended, and the first heat of summer had arrived.

The buzz around Hua Chunning's video had died down.

The people of the secular world were already chasing the next sensation.

Though Duanmu Ren urged him several times, Li Chengxuan did not let Hua Chunning return. Instead, he confined Hua Chunning to a side hall of the Ancestral Master Hall and threw down a pile of Yi Wood lineage texts to read aloud.

At first, Hua Chunning was deeply uneasy, thinking some sect rule had been broken and the sect leader had imposed confinement as punishment.

Only after Li Chengxuan came to test Hua Chunning at intervals did that unease gradually fade.

After months of arduous study, Hua Chunning began to sense that these Daoist scriptures and texts had all been carefully selected.

There were no texts on medicine, pills, or poisons, which the Hua Household had passed down and relied upon to survive, nor was there anything on Ancestor Zhuohua's Dao of Withering and Flourishing. They seemed to concern only growth.

Hua Chunning was, after all, intelligent, and silently vowed not to disappoint the sect leader after all the pains he had taken.

Later, Hua Chunning heard that Liu Zhijian, the sect leader's eldest disciple, had also studied here in seclusion and had only been allowed down the mountain to seek a fortuitous opportunity to enter the Dao after gaining something from it. This was even more encouraging.

"I wonder if this senior brother I've never met has found his fortuitous opportunity and entered the Dao to cultivate..."

At the foot of Wild Goose Pond Mountain, beside the White Dragon River.

Liu Zhijian walked slowly along, a fishing rod in one hand and a fish basket in the other.

People stepped aside all along the way, bowing respectfully and addressing him as Second Chief.

Liu Zhijian merely smiled and nodded in greeting.

At last, he reached a thatched cottage halfway up the mountain.

A little girl dressed from head to toe in grayish-white cloth, her hair tied in a small braid, ran out and blocked his path. Gripping the fish basket with both hands, she nearly stuck her head inside. "Let me see, let me see."

Liu Zhijian had no choice but to stop.

The mischievous little girl pouted. "Why are there only a few little fish? They're not even enough for me!"

Liu Zhijian's expression stiffened, but he refused to back down. "What do you know? It's the wrong season. Of course the fish aren't biting."

The little girl had heard excuses like that too often to believe him. She made a face and laughed at him.

A hunched old man sat on a stone stool outside the cottage, smoking a dry pipe. His gaze was distant, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Senior Luo."

Liu Zhijian smiled and nodded in greeting.

"I'm just a dying old man. How could I dare accept the title of senior?"

Old Luo shook his head and stifled a few coughs.

The little girl hurried over to pat his back. She also tossed his pipe into a water jar to put it out, loudly lecturing her grandfather.

Only then did a smile appear on Old Luo's wooden face, smoothing out all his wrinkles. He said nothing, merely watching with a squinting smile as the tiny girl spoke so solemnly like a grown-up.

Liu Zhijian did not disturb the warm moment between grandfather and granddaughter. Carrying his rod and basket, he entered another thatched cottage.

It was another all-fish feast.

Liu Zhijian hurriedly ate his fill, heaved a long sigh, and resumed cultivating the Dripping Water Pierces Stone Meridian-Opening Method.

Though he had already opened his meridians, expanding them further could never hurt.

Evening was drawing near.

A spirited, burly man pushed the door open and entered. It was Deng Gang, the First Chief of Wild Goose Pond Mountain.

Deng Gang wasted no words and got straight to the point. "How did it go today?"

Liu Zhijian knew he was not asking about the catch. He shook his head. "Qi Gathering is difficult. I still haven't found a way."

Deng Gang was even more anxious than Liu Zhijian. He paced about the cottage and slammed a fist into his palm. "Damn it! My cultivation method focuses on refining the body. I'm no good at sensing things with spiritual awareness or searching for spiritual objects, so I can't help at all."

With that, he brought up the old proposal again: the two of them should join forces and pay a visit to the Azure Cloud Sect to trade for the strand of Kan Water Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi from the flood dragon's cave abode.

Liu Zhijian naturally refused.

He understood the tangled enmity between Supreme Mystery Mountain and the Azure Cloud Sect.

If they met outside, the Azure Cloud Sect would most likely give him some leeway to avoid stirring up a dispute.

But if he went to the Azure Cloud Sect himself and demanded a precious spiritual object, that would be another matter.

Deng Gang frowned, tossed out an "I'll think of something else," and turned to leave.

Liu Zhijian knew how stubborn he was. Unable to stop him in time, he let him go.

Night grew deep, the moon bright and the stars sparse.

Liu Zhijian counted the days and suddenly realized, "Today is the beginning of summer."

"Beginning" meant the start.

The original meaning of "summer" was "great."

Together, they meant that the days of spring, when things sprouted and grew, had passed, and all things had begun to grow big.

"I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon; I lower it and think of home..."

"Sigh..."

"I'm all alone. What home do I have to think of?"

Liu Zhijian had spent months rushing about without managing to gather Qi. Now, beneath the light of the lone moon, he could not help feeling a touch of loneliness. He reached for his fishing rod without thinking and smiled. "Luckily, I have you to keep me company."

With that, he picked up the rod and headed down the mountain.