Chapter 10
A week flew by in a flash. Li Jie briefly went back to the mansion where his mother lived to check on her health. Her condition had improved immensely with the help of some medicinal pills that his master had procured for her. Nevertheless, his master’s hopeless prognosis stood: She would likely die in less than two years. All they could do now was soothe her pain. Li Jie, however, hadn’t given up hope. He had already thought of a few ideas to pursue in order to find a cure.
Speaking of his master, Zhu Que visited both Li Jie and Zhu Hao a few days ago to congratulate them on entering the sect, which was pretty much a given considering that they were disciples of the sect’s Patriarch. The entire sect was abuzz with the news that their Patriarch had returned after a 14 year journey. Numerous rumors spread like wildfire throughout the sect that the Patriarch had been hunting down a Heavenly Thunder Dragon, or that he had gone off to wipe out a rival sect. Only the highest-ranking sect elders knew that their mighty Patriarch had been on babysitting duty for the past decade and a half.
He told his disciples to keep their identity as the Patriarch’s disciples a secret; they were already infamous enough after the exam anyway. In addition, he asked some questions regarding the path of cultivation each one of them wanted to take.
“Alright brats, tell your master what kind of cultivation path you want to take! Hahaha!”
“What exactly do you mean by that, master?” Li Jie asked.
Their master adopted a serious expression for the third time since they had met him.
“Well let’s see. The goal of all cultivators is to find their own Dao and achieve it. Now what this exactly means, I haven’t got the faintest clue. But it seems to point to finding a way to interpret how the world works and then using that knowledge to control nature itself. However there is not a ‘true Dao’, the Dao that is right for you is engraved on your very soul from birth. One could say your Dao is your fate. You can already utilize a primitive version of Dao through your martial skills, and later on when you become a Flowering Realm cultivator, through materializing your qi.”
He paused for a bit, gathering his thoughts.
“For cultivators like us, who haven’t stepped into the the Immortal Realm and beyond, we don’t have the profound ability within us to actually find our own Dao. Instead, we embark on cultivation paths that can be easily defined with words. The idea is that these paths will create a foundation for forming our Dao.”
Li Jie and Zhu Hao were fascined with their master’s words. Realms beyond the Immortal Realm? Finding one’s Dao? All of it seemed like the stuff of myths and legends to the young cultivators.
“Some of those paths are simple, focusing on a single attribute like ‘speed’ or ‘power’. Others may be complex such as ‘Refining the moonlight into endless agony’ and so on. Just like the number of Daos under the Heavens are limitless, so are the cultivation paths. Not many young cultivators know this but training in martial skills that align with your cultivation path will increase your cultivation speed.”
He paused again, this time making sure he had his disciples’ attention.
“The big question is, how do you know what the right cultivation path is? The answer is to feel. Feel your heart, your mind, and your soul. What do they tell you? Many cultivators are never able to perceive their cultivation path in their entire lives, leading to a suboptimal cultivation. But as my disciples I have faith that you two have the soul perception!”
Astonishment filled their minds, the world of cultivation was far more profound than they could have ever imagined.
“I’ll give you the length of 10 breaths to tell me your cultivation path. Trying to search for it any longer won’t make a difference. It’s not something that you can find just through effort.”
Both of the cultivators immediately sat down and began meditating. Even before meditating, Li Jie had a pretty good idea of what his cultivation path would be. He thought back to his ancestor’s request to burn the Heavens to the ground. At that time, the words resonated within him like no other words ever had before. Now he knew why.
After 10 breaths passed, Li Jie stood back up, facing his master with determination.
“Oh ho? Looks like you found your path. Tell me my disciple, what is your cultivation path?”
A small fire ignited in Li Jie’s heart as he said, “Master, my cultivation path is ‘Upon blazing wings, burn the entire Heavens to the ground!’”
His heated words carried a profound might that shook Zhu Que’s heart. He stared at his disciple for a few seconds before giving a deep nod, an unreadable expression in his eyes.
He then turned to his other disciple who had slowly stood up after Li Jie.
“Well Zhu Hao? Have you found your path?”
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A demon lingered in Zhu Hao’s heart. It had planted its nasty claws into him during the outer court exam when he heard about the fight between Li Jie and Lily. It only worsened after seeing how brightly those two shined wherever they went.
The demon’s name was doubt. He doubted that he could keep up with his friends. He doubted that they would want to bother to associate with a weakling like him in the future. He doubted his own talent and the hard work he had put in so far.
Over the past week, he deliberated on how to get rid of his demon, but never found any solution. After all, the gap between their talent and their ability to influence the world compared to his was simply overwhelming.
But when he reached into the depths of his body, searching for his cultivation path, he found something. A blurry, white speck. He got closer to it. He could vaguely make out the small body of some white animal. Continuing onwards, he brought his spiritual sense right next to it. To his surprise, it was a cute white tiger cub, its eyes a meteoric silver. When he looked into those eyes, the small tiger cub roared ferociously. The roar that a tiger cub should not be able to make echoed endlessly throughout his body.
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The roar was mighty but that was not why it was unique. The true power of the roar was in its supremacy, as if the tiger knew he was the sovereign of the entire universe. Its tyranny would never lose to any other creature, even to the mighty dragon.
Zhu Hao felt his mind being cleared of doubts. In just a short span of time, he understood many things. He understood that his friends would never leave him behind. He understood that he had to try his best to bridge the gap with pure effort. And most importantly, he understood his path.
His eyes shot open and he slowly stood up.
-----
“Well Zhu Hao? Have you found your path?”
“I have, master. My cultivation path is... ‘Domination’.”
His voice was the opposite of Li Jie’s passionate declaration. It was cold and carried an enormous oppressive force. A slightly puzzled expression appeared on their master’s face. When he looked at Zhu Hao’s silver hair again, suddenly his eyes flickered, as if he had just realized something important. He expression changed into a smile and he nodded, then patting both his disciples on the shoulder.
“Good, good! I knew my disciples wouldn’t fail me. I will be back in a few days with some techniques to study. Don’t bother with that Crescent Moon Treasure Pavilion. It’s full of trash skills anyway.”
He vanished through the air like always, leaving the two friends behind. Both of them laid out their cultivation path for the other to see. One might even say that they now knew each other better than parents knew their child. Understanding this, they simply looked at each and gave a single nod. A nod which held profound feelings that were impossible to describe.
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Despite the three friends only being outer court disciples, they still had access to some of the sect’s facilities and resources. One of the major buildings was the Crescent Moon Treasure Pavilion. It housed thousands of martial skills for the disciples to learn. In addition, it was the location of the armory where every single inner court disciple was allowed to choose a single weapon to keep.
In regards to the martial skills, the first floor of the Pavilion was open to outer court disciples and held up to rank 3 skills. The second floor required a cultivator to be an inner court disciple and held up to rank 4 skills. The Pavilion seemed to have a third floor as well, but it was only open to core disciples and elders. None of the outer or inner disciples knew exactly what was up there.
Just because a martial skill was readily available, however, didn’t mean that a disciple could learn it. Rank 1 martial skills could be used proficiently after a day of practice and rank 2 martial skills would take a week at most. But the difficulty kept increasing exponentially as the rank increased, not to mention that some martial abilities, regardless of rank, were inherently difficult to learn.
Other than the Pavilion, disciples could access one of the many cultivator towers and training fields throughout the sect. The towers increased the density of world qi, increasing cultivation speed. The inner and core disciples, of course, received the best towers. Likewise, the training fields, which could simulate various fights with magical formation-powered dummies, increased in quality the higher the disciple’s ranking.
Li Jie, Lily, and Zhu Hao had spent the past week relaxing and touring their new home. They were now seated at one of the many restaurants, paid for by the sect, eating lunch.
“Say Lily, I never got to ask you about your family.” Said Li Jie, after swallowing a bite of his pork bun.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. You two idiots probably already forgot but my family’s name is Yao. I’m the heiress to the Yao Clan.” Lily boasted, putting an emphasis on “the” while puffing out her chest with pride.
“As in, the richest clan in the entire empire? That Yao Clan?” Zhu Hao managed to sputter out, almost choking on the water he was drinking.
She grinned, “Yup that’s right! Praise me!”
“Wait, then why are you at the Soaring Flame Sect?”
“Well you know, Huo City is arguably the most important city in the empire. Ever since the original royal capital was lost a long time ago, all the emperors have refused to declare a new capital as symbolic gesture that one day they will reclaim the capital. Thus Huo City eventually became the de facto capital of the empire. I mean, the imperial family even lives here.”
She took a gulp of water and continued, “And this sect is one of the major sects in the city. Doesn’t that make it actually a top-tier choice for anyone?”
Li Jie thought that her words held merit. Both him and Zhu Hao knew only a little about the politics and geography of the world since they were both of the poor class. But the incredible wealth of the Yao Clan was part of that knowledge.
“What about you two? As the boss, it’s my responsibility to know about my underlings.”
Li Jie gave an empty smile, “Nothing special here, just a poor kid who grew up with my mother.”
But Zhu Hao, who now radiated confidence after discovering his path, dropped a bomb on them by saying, “I’m actually an orphan. My current family were the ones who found me in the wreckage of a raided caravan. From what I heard, it seems that my original parents were killed by bandits.”
“I-I’m sorry to hear that...” Lily said, her heart full of regret for bringing the topic up.
“No need for that! I’m happy with my life as it is and my family has never treated me wrong. Plus we all get to live in the sect now so everyone’s happy!”
The three wrapped up their meal and prepared to go to class. Lectures were completely optional and most cultivators chose to take advantage of this rule. The vast majority of them had come from noble or merchant backgrounds, thus they already had the education the sect provided. They preferred to spend their time relaxing or cultivating.
Li Jie wondered why Lily, who had obviously received an elite education, was following them as well, but decided not to ask her in case she turned violent to cover up her embarrassment. He could swear that her punches got stronger each day.