Crossover: In Little Garden, Becoming a God Through Once Proven, Forever Proven

The Old Celestial Master still gave Zhang Lingyu lessons from time to time. After all, Zhang Lingyu was no Zhang Zhiwei. Back in the day,

Zhang Zhiwei had already taught the arts on his master's behalf at his age, but Zhang Lingyu was a long way off.

"It's all right. It's perfect to have a classmate to study with, and we can exchange ideas after class."

"Master Lingyu, I'm a newcomer, so I might have trouble keeping up with the lessons. Please look after me from now on."

Qin Qi spoke with a smile.

"Of course. Layman Qin Qi, if there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me anytime. I'll be sure to answer."

Zhang Lingyu hurriedly replied. Ordinarily, he really was a good, polite kid. Ah, lust led people astray. One mustn't be horny.

[Over the next while, the Old Celestial Master began explaining what lay at the foundation of nature and life, their refinement, and the arts.]

[Three hours passed in the blink of an eye, and you understood every word the Old Celestial Master said.]

[At least, you felt you understood, though it might not have been what the Old Celestial Master understood, but rather the principles you had drawn from his words yourself.]

"Lingyu, let me test you. What do you think nature and life actually are? Why do we cultivate and refine them?"

The Old Celestial Master picked up his teacup and took a sip. Today's lesson was nearly over, and he asked one final question before ending it.

Chapter 51: Those Fed by a Hundred Households Have Friends Everywhere; Those Taught by a Hundred Masters Have Great Talent!

"Life is all visible matter: the tangible substances of our own flesh and skin, blood and vessels, sinews and bones, and so on."

"Nature is an intangible existence, like our mind, soul, and will-things that have no form but do indeed exist."

"Cultivating nature and life means refining and enriching the body and soul."

Zhang Lingyu answered without hesitation. He had studied all this since childhood and had long since committed it to heart. He couldn't possibly forget it.

"Hmm... then let me ask you, what is the relationship between nature and life?"

The Old Celestial Master's expression betrayed neither sorrow nor joy. He didn't say whether the answer was right or wrong, but immediately asked a second question.

"Hmm... as this disciple sees it, life is a house, and nature is the person inside it. Tangible matter protects the intangible."

"The intangible soul is the foundation of our existence. What we of the Daoist schools pursue is the day when we can cast off the shackles of the house and live free and at ease as intangible souls."

Zhang Lingyu's answer was textbook-perfect, essentially matching what was written in the Daoist scriptures.

"Mm."

The Old Celestial Master still gave only a single word and offered no assessment. Instead, he turned to Qin Qi. "What do you think?"

"What do I think? I think sitting down."

No sooner had Qin Qi finished speaking than the Old Celestial Master glared at him.

"I'm asking you a serious question."

The Old Celestial Master glared at Qin Qi. You think sitting down? Why don't you think lying down instead? You brat, you're infuriating.

"I was only joking."

"As for nature and life, I think Master Lingyu explained them very well and thoroughly. As expected of the Old Celestial Master's disciple."

Qin Qi spoke.

"You flatter me, Layman Qin Qi. My cultivation is still quite shallow."

Zhang Lingyu hurriedly returned the courtesy.

"You're too modest, Master Lingyu. I agree with most of what you said, but there's a small part I understand a little differently."

"First, nature and life shouldn't be discussed separately. They should be considered together. Nature and life are nature and life; there's no distinction between the two."

"You're born with both a soul and a body, and together they make you who you are. So nature and life can't be separated."

"It's like chopsticks. One chopstick is no use at all when you're eating; only when the two are joined together are they useful."

Qin Qi's understanding wasn't as profound as Zhang Lingyu's, and he didn't use any abstruse explanations. He used the simplest analogy instead.

Being easy to understand was enough. There was no need to bandy clever words.

"And what about refining nature and life?"

The Old Celestial Master listened to Qin Qi with the same expressionless face, but he took the initiative to press him further.

"Refining nature and life isn't simply about strengthening them either... Let's use chopsticks as an analogy again."

"You've all seen the disposable chopsticks that come with takeout, right? To make them easy to split apart, there's a perforated line down the middle."

"I think that's like the soul and body. They look tightly joined, but there's actually a hidden perforation between them."

"Because of that perforation, the soul and body have a weakness, no matter how strong you train them to be."

"You can turn the two chopsticks into two big wooden clubs, but the middle is still weak, keeping you from unleashing your true strength."

At that point, Qin Qi saw Zhang Lingyu silently raise his hand. "Master Lingyu, do you have a question?"

"Um, well, I've never been out, and I've never ordered takeout. What do those disposable chopsticks look like?"

Under the gazes of his master, his martial uncle, and Qin Qi, Zhang Lingyu couldn't help shrinking back. He felt as though he had picked the wrong time to ask.

"Send him down the mountain."

Qin Qi spoke to the Old Celestial Master.

"It'll happen sooner or later."

The Old Celestial Master replied.

"H-hold on!"

Zhang Lingyu panicked. Was he really going to be sent away just because he had never eaten takeout?

"All right, never mind him. Go on."

The Old Celestial Master looked at Qin Qi. He had grown interested in what Qin Qi was saying and had realized that the boy wasn't merely reciting what he had been taught.

He had truly understood its fundamental form in his own way and formed his own understanding of it.

Compared with Lingyu, who had always memorized his lessons but had never truly grasped what nature and life were, Qin Qi, who had just taken a single lesson with him,

had understood and absorbed the knowledge he had taught more completely.

"What I consider refining nature and life is the continual process of mending the gaps between them, turning separate chopsticks into a plank."

"Then turning the plank into a block, and the block into a solid piece of wood, until everything is a seamless whole without a single weakness. Only then can it unleash its greatest power."

Qin Qi nodded and continued his explanation. The soul and body shouldn't be separate; their power was strongest when they were joined.

That was the foundation he had learned, and what he considered the foundation of everything. Simply put, be a hexagonal warrior, not a glass cannon.

"Mm, both of you explained yourselves well. How about this, Qin Qi? Come see me again after the sun goes down."

"I'll give you a private lesson to help you catch up."

The Old Celestial Master thought for a moment, then spoke.

"All right."

Qin Qi nodded.

[You finished your first lesson. Though your power hadn't directly increased, you could now clearly see the path you needed to take in the future.]

[After you and Zhang Lingyu left, you went to the dining hall to eat. The food on Mount Longhu was quite good, and you were very satisfied with your meal.]

[Meanwhile, the Old Celestial Master and Tian Jinzhong were discussing a few things.]

"Senior brother... that young man Qin Qi really is talented. He grasped something of his own after hearing it just once."

"Do you know who he reminds me of?"

Tian Jinzhong could move his hands and feet slightly now, though he still couldn't exert himself. He slowly tried picking up his teacup, then put it back down.

"Who?"

The Old Celestial Master narrowed his eyes as he asked.

"It was as though I saw you, senior brother. He reminded me of the days when we attended lessons together."

"Back then, no matter what Master taught, you learned it after hearing it once, while we fellow disciples were still struggling to memorize it."

"You had already cast off the constraints of the words and seen the true principles contained within them."

Back when Tian Jinzhong attended those lessons, his greatest headache wasn't that he couldn't learn. It was that he was sitting next to fucking Zhang Zhiwei!

Every time he sat there with a worried frown, Zhang Zhiwei would grin and ask, "Junior brother, why do you look so troubled?"

He had been so angry he'd wanted to punch Zhang Zhiwei, but he couldn't beat him!

"If Old Lu heard you say that, wouldn't he come running over in the middle of the night to beat me up?"

The Old Celestial Master laughed, then looked outside and said,

"As the old saying goes, someone fed by a hundred households must have friends everywhere, and someone taught by a hundred masters must have great talent. This boy has both friends and talent."

"I really can't help wanting to teach him a thing or two."

After saying that, the Old Celestial Master froze for a moment. He suddenly thought of his own master. Had his master looked at him the same way back then?

Chapter 52: Qin Qi: Old Celestial Master, This Method of Yours Can't Reach Heaven! (Third Release)

[After eating, you spent the afternoon watching the disciples of Mount Longhu cultivate and spar, while considering what to do next.]

"When it comes to understanding the essence of cultivating nature and life, I doubt anyone in this world understands it more deeply than the Old Celestial Master."

"As for Mount Longhu's scriptures... there's no real need to read them. Next... I should go out and look around."

"I need to learn more arts to build up my foundation, and find a way to recruit some talent and expand my influence in the world of Little Garden."

Qin Qi continued to ponder. The Old Celestial Master had lived on Mount Longhu all his life and had probably read those scriptures to tatters long ago.

He didn't need to read them for anything useful to him. He could learn it from the Old Celestial Master, and whatever he couldn't learn from him, he wouldn't find in the books either.

After all, a sect's secret art, such as the Five Thunder Orthodox Method, couldn't be casually brought out for others to see.

"Recruit talent... talent... Ma Xianhong is talented."

Qin Qi wanted to recruit Ma Xianhong, not because of his strength, but because of his ability to mass-produce magic treasures.

Those magic treasures were highly functional. They could be used to equip the employees under him and also sold as merchandise.

On top of that, the boy was a stickler for doing things by the book, a craftsman through and through. Once he was recruited, their community's forging techniques could keep improving.

"And there are Linglong's two good friends, Zhi Jinhua and Bai Shixue."

"Zhi Jinhua is an absolute master of intelligence analysis, known as a living computer. She'd be a great help in business."

"Bai Shixue is a money-grubber, but she has an innate gift for spotting business opportunities. She's excellent material for a branch manager."

Qin Qi began pondering how to get these people to cooperate with him and how to bring them into his community.

While Qin Qi was thinking, Rong Shan, another of the Old Celestial Master's disciples, walked over and spoke in a carefree manner.

"Layman Qin Qi, I've seen you watching from the sidelines for quite a while. How about joining us for some practice?"

"It'd be a good chance for everyone to get to know each other."

Rong Shan scratched his head as he spoke.

"Ah, no need. I was just thinking about the lesson the Old Celestial Master gave earlier. I wasn't looking to spar."

"I don't like fighting and killing for no reason. Well, I won't disturb you. I'll be off."

Seeing Rong Shan approach, Qin Qi came back to his senses. He smiled, offered a few words of explanation, and left.

"Strange. Instead of resting in the shade, he was sitting here under the blazing sun. What a strange fellow."

Rong Shan looked at the blazing sun hanging in the sky and scratched his head. Then he put the matter out of his mind and went back to sparring and roughhousing with the others.