The Rolling Mortal World

"Fellow Daoist, did you just come from Luyu Port?"

On the high-speed train he had transferred to for Luzhou, another cultivator shared the first-class carriage Jiang Wangxuan had booked.

The cultivator looked to be in his thirties and wore a plain indigo Daoist robe, though dense dark-red flame patterns were "embroidered" on its cuffs and lapels.

The man had a square face, broad brows, and wide-set eyes. At Wancheng Station, a cultivator in his twenties had boarded, dressed in Lüyu clothes and looking like a student. His peach-blossom eyes, alluring without even trying, immediately piqued the man's curiosity.

"Meeting is fate, fellow Daoist, so let's get acquainted. Fang Lin, cultivator of Hearth Fire."

Fang Lin freely held out his hand. The corners of Jiang Wangxuan's mouth lifted as he forced a smile. "Jiang Wangxuan, from Lüyu. I cultivate the path of Clear Water."

"So you're an immortal cultivator of the Clear Water path. That's not something one often sees out here. I'm fortunate to have met you today."

"Brother Fang, are you traveling through the world?"

Only after sitting down did Jiang Wangxuan take a close look at Fang Lin across from him. His rich, robust cooking-fire true essence carried a strong scent of earth. He should be a Hearth Fire cultivator already at the Late Qi Refining Stage.

"Brother Jiang, the moment you open your mouth, you sound utterly removed from the mundane world. I suspect you haven't left your grotto-heaven and blessed land in quite some time!"

Fang Lin laughed heartily. "Brother Jiang, you cultivate Clear Water on the immortal path, so there are things you don't know about our Hearth Fire path. Ever since True Lord Miaosui transformed Soaring Fire into Hearth Fire and attained the [Hearth Fire] fruition rank, this lineage of fire virtue has been a path of the mortal world, and also our path of human virtue."

"Of course, most outsiders now think our Hearth Fire is simply standard equipment for restaurant chefs, the foundation of nourishment through food. Little do they know those cultivators have only grasped its techniques, never understood its method, much less glimpsed its Dao."

Jiang Wangxuan shook his head. "Flying into the homes of millions upon millions of common people-this was True Lord Miaosui's supreme achievement."

"Wonderful!"

Fang Lin clapped his hands in praise. "With those words, you've grasped a little of the true essence of our Hearth Fire. You must accept a bow from me."

Jiang Wangxuan stared in astonishment as this social terrorist gave him a deep formal bow, then sat down beside him without the slightest hesitation. "I never expected that Brother Jiang, dwelling high in Xuantian, would have such understanding of the Dao. This trip has already been worthwhile."

"Brother Fang, you're doing me harm. I'm just a little Qi cultivator who hasn't even left school yet. How could I be said to dwell high in Xuantian? Where would that leave my teachers and their True Lord? You really mustn't say such things."

Hearing this, Fang Lin praised him all the more. "Brother Jiang has the courtesy of an ancient cultivator. I misspoke. I hope you won't take offense, fellow Daoist."

With that, Fang Lin bowed again, then sat down, even closer this time.

"Brother Jiang, there's something you may not know. Today, thirty-two Xuantian stand towering over this world. Our Qinghuan honors two emperors who govern six realms. It took a thousand years of conquest to establish such a foundation. How could the great immortal sects outside the Ring have any words of resentment?"

"If they did, we would simply dispatch the Thunder Palace, raise giant stone-and-metal statues, break their mountains and destroy their temples, obliterate their lineages and wipe out their masters' teachings, following the precedent of Southern Fire. Thus the world has grown arrogant, and empty boasting has become the fashion."

"Ordinary folk all yearn to honor immortals and revere the Dao, spending their entire fortunes to purchase one or two Spirit Roots to pass down to their descendants. But immortal affinity has been hard to come by since ancient times. Most affinities obtained by force come to grief. Those with Spirit Roots acquire one or two spells, swallow a wisp of mixed Qi, and pass their lives in obscurity."

"Yet once they've glimpsed the boundless splendor of the immortal path, how can they bear the loneliness? And so their hearts soar higher than heaven, but their lives are thinner than paper. Before their deathbeds, they cry out in grief: how the immortal path has let me down!"

"And so everyone takes pride in claiming connections to Xuantian. If they speak two or three sentences without mentioning Xuantian, it's as though they're beneath everyone else."

"Naturally, they gather in little groups, and the practice becomes all the rage. They savor immortal delicacies and admire beautiful women, and all the guests rejoice, so happy here they forget the mortal world. Then they wake from their drunken dreams to a mess on the floor, their ancestral fortunes gone, their homes stripped to four bare walls, their wives and children scattered, and they take one leap to their deaths."

"They even drag us Hearth Fire cultivators into it, so that enlightened great cultivators berate us for corrupting the morals of the age."

Fang Lin spread his hands and sighed. "Brother Jiang, tell me, what kind of undeserved calamity is this? They ruin the reputation of our lineage. They're utterly unfilial."

Jiang Wangxuan was dumbstruck. What kind of keyboard gremlin was this? He had ranted with such exhilarating abandon, all in one breath.

"Huh? This...!"

Fang Lin patted Jiang Wangxuan on the shoulder and leaned toward him. "It's immortal-path great cultivators like Brother Jiang who should come out and set the morals of this world right, guiding the common people toward virtue."

Inside the Rising Yang Mansion, Big Fat Fish suddenly jumped out. "This fellow has no sense of boundaries. You mustn't let him draw you in."

Jiang Wangxuan smiled wryly, took a tea set from his bracelet, and arranged it on the table. He fetched a pot of clear spring water, rinsed several cups, and added some pan-fried tea leaves. A delicate fragrance filled the air.

"Plain water and common tea. Brother Fang, please."

Fang Lin was taken aback. He shook his head and returned to the seat across from Jiang Wangxuan. "Brother Jiang, you truly are a remarkable man."

He accepted a cup, drank it down, and praised it highly. "Excellent tea indeed. The spring water is clear and sweet. It seems we are the ones who have become worldly."

"The good of the immortal path lies in Huaqi, which opens immortal wisdom and advances Immortal Methods. Thus the people of Xuantian have endured for a thousand years without falling. The evil of humanity lies in desire, and greed in the heart."

"When there are too many gamblers in the world, family traditions and ancestral rules will naturally restrain them. Thus, after two or three generations of teaching, phoenixes come and clouds depart, and worldly customs naturally return to normal. The cycle repeats over the next hundred years, the clear and the turbid twining around each other. It has been so since ancient times."

Jiang Wangxuan took a sip of tea, then said mildly, "As the saying goes, nonaction is itself action."

The carriage, lively and impassioned just moments before, seemed to have been seized by the throat. Only the clear clinking of Jiang Wangxuan handling the tea set could be heard, a most pleasing sound.

Fang Lin sat upright on the sofa, his expression completely different from before. A noble bearing showed in his brows and eyes, and orange-red true essence swirled and surged around him from time to time without harming his surroundings.

"Few can match Brother Jiang's wisdom."

"There are so many extraordinary people in the world. How could I speak of wisdom?"

"You're too modest, Brother Jiang. To possess such Dao wisdom and cultivation at your age, you will surely have a fine name throughout Qinghuan one day."

Fang Lin spoke with unusual solemnity.

"Brother Fang, your true essence is condensed into a seamless whole. You travel through the mortal world without being burdened by karma. I imagine you'll soon forge your immortal foundation. What brings you on this journey?"

Fang Lin sighed inwardly. This man was slippery as an eel, without a flaw in his words or conduct. "Naturally, I'm exploring the past! There's a method of cultivation in my path that involves exploring the past."

"Brother Jiang just mentioned [Huaqi], but few know that [Hearth Fire] and [Huaqi] are closely connected. In the primordial age, [Huaqi] was held by the Divine Court and was the foundation of the gods. After the war between Gods and Devils, Huaqi was lost. Later, when the human race was due to rise, a human emperor re-attained [Huaqi] and conferred titles upon the ghosts and gods of mountains and rivers. That was in the ancient age."

"In High Antiquity, the immortal path was due to rise, and an immortal lord also held [Huaqi], using the path of worship and offerings to oversee the many spirit cultivators of the rivers, lakes, and seas. After the immortal lord passed away, [Huaqi] ultimately fell into the Buddhist path."

"As for the recent ancient age..." Fang Lin gave a cold laugh.

"In the recent ancient age, Buddhists and Buddhist Devils shared the same hall. Devils were originally Buddhas, and Buddhas were also devils. Their Buddhist sons and devil descendants were without end."

Jiang Wangxuan was quite interested in Qinghuan's history and had studied it extensively. "Qingheng Great Luo appeared out of nowhere in the recent ancient age, wielding [Clear Qi] and holding the sun and moon, purging the universe. The first to be judged by Qingheng Great Luo between heaven and earth were the Buddhists and the Buddhist Devils. Huaqi was pulled out of Buddhist lands by the roots, and the Buddha Ancestor and Devil Ancestor perished between the sun and moon."

"After that, [Huaqi] returned to Qinghuan, and Qingheng Great Luo established [Huaqi] within the 'Clear Ring Convention.' Over the next thousand years, places across the north and south invited an official and built a small temple. Those with spirit apertures or Spirit Roots came there seeking a mystical power and obtained a fundamental method. Thus the immortal and human paths flourished."

"What about the divine path?" Fang Lin pressed, then answered his own question.

"[Huaqi] was originally the foundation of the divine path, and later came the thoughts of living beings as well. The path of worship and offerings was indeed polluted by the Buddhists and Buddhist Devils. Successive generations of Qinghuan's immortal lords and True Lords were more cautious still, and for a thousand years never changed the function of [Huaqi]. But borrowing [Huaqi] to attain a divine path through empty attainment still held great promise. This was the foundation of [Hearth Fire]."

They borrowed [Huaqi] to attain the divine path through empty attainment? Was that how [Hearth Fire] was attained?

Jiang Wangxuan was greatly shocked. [Hearth Fire] had been attained during the Southern Fire Rebellion three hundred years ago, when a Golden Core True Lord of the luan bird lineage held the rank of [Soaring Fire] and sought to attain the Golden Immortal realm, only to be struck down by Qinghuan's lords.

Afterward, [True Lord Miaosui] transformed Soaring Fire into Hearth Fire and attained the [Hearth Fire] fruition rank. It was written in black and white in Qinghuan's history of Daoist thought. Even when Jiang Wangxuan first read that passage of history, he could not help marveling at Qinghuan's domineering, overbearing ways.

A Golden Core cultivator of the luan bird lineage who aspired to become an immortal lord had fallen just like that. Had Qinghuan really not taken a fancy to [Soaring Fire] and wanted to snatch the fruition rank back?

Yet today's conversation had revealed another account. Jiang Wangxuan suddenly understood what Fang Lin had meant when he said the trip had been worthwhile.

In a world where immortality was cultivated through fruition ranks, histories involving the True Lords of those ranks were often a mighty force more profound than cultivation itself. Every change in a fruition rank would have an indelible effect on cultivators throughout the world.

"After the [Soaring Fire] True Lord fell, the fruition rank stood vacant. [True Lord Miaosui] borrowed [Huaqi] to enter [Soaring Fire], taking the power of worship and offerings from [Huaqi] and merging it with its authority. [Soaring Fire] had lost its lord and gained great authority, so it naturally became [Hearth Fire]. Using the appearance of empty attainment to accomplish a change of rank in truth-this was the work of a True Lord."

Big Fat Fish in the Rising Yang Mansion began drawing in and breathing out Jiang Wangxuan's moonlight true essence. Something this explosive happened too? I, Big Fat Fish, must work it out properly. It doesn't matter if I can't; I can leave it for another day.

This man had casually spoken of a secret involving a Daoist lineage and a True Lord. Just what was Fang Lin's background?

Seeing Jiang Wangxuan, who had remained unruffled all this time, looking as though he had seen a ghost, Fang Lin felt more pleased than words could say.

"The rolling mortal world holds not only humanity and all living beings, but also mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas. As the years change, the mountains and seas remain, and the spirits of days past lie hidden among the soil and stone carvings. Faith expressed through worship and offerings, though formless, leaves traces of those who carried that faith. My path is to seek such traces."

Enlightenment dawned on Jiang Wangxuan. He rose and bowed in thanks. "Such a supreme mystery passed down through your path is truly like the great bells and pitch pipes. I'm fortunate to have received it."

Fang Lin waved a hand dismissively. "Today, I too gained a word or two from Brother Jiang, and found them a wonder in the pursuit of truth. Our discussion of the Dao today is the beginning of an affinity. Though our paths differ, the myriad principles of this world are always connected. That is the truth of seeking the Dao."

"If the day comes when we make names for ourselves, I will surely tell others of what happened today. If our deeds earn us places in the annals of history, today's conversation will surely become a celebrated tale."

"Ding-dong!"

"We have arrived at Luzhou Station. Passengers alighting here, please gather your belongings and disembark safely."

"Brother Jiang, if fate allows, we'll meet again!"

Fang Lin then strode out of the compartment, true essence still swaying around him. He looked thoroughly pleased with himself.

"Big Fat Fish!"

"What is it, foolish master?"

"Wouldn't it be better if we went to a carriage farther up before getting off?"

"Master, you've actually gotten smarter!"

"Get lost..."

"No, wait, you're not allowed to call me Big Fat Fish!"

"You Big Fat Fish who eats without working..."