Chapter 36: Empathizing

In the study, Zheng Fa opened the cover of The Spirit Crane Body, and as if still echoing in his ears was Xu’s final words, devoid of any clear emotion:

“Don’t learn from me.”

Even without hearing Xu’s story, Zheng Fa felt he would never waste half his life on The Spirit Crane Body.

For he had already found a better path to enter the Immortal Sect: becoming a Talisman Master.

For Xu, The Spirit Crane Body was his only chance to transcend the mundane—he naturally could not let it go.

But according to the Young Master, becoming a Talisman Master also offered a path into the Immortal Sect.

The greater reason Zheng Fa did not value The Spirit Crane Body as Xu did was the Lady’s actions—once he showed even a hint of talent as a Talisman Master and deciphered just two of the simplest Yuan Fu, she immediately bestowed The Spirit Crane Body upon him, clearly indicating that in her eyes, this martial art for entering the Dao was far inferior to Zheng Fa’s Talisman Master talent, even inferior to those two simplest Yuan Fu.

Another thought made Zheng Fa deeply skeptical of the so-called martial path to the Dao:

If practicing The Spirit Crane Body granted entry into the Immortal Sect, why was the Young Master laboring over Talisman diagrams?

There must be some issue Xu never knew about.

Yet these thoughts did not diminish Zheng Fa’s interest in The Spirit Crane Body itself, the legendary martial art of the mortal world.

Beside him, the Young Master leaned over, joining Zheng Fa in paging through the secret manual of The Spirit Crane Body.

After glancing at two pages, the Young Master frowned: “This guy talks too much.”

Zheng Fa nodded—he hadn’t yet judged the martial art’s power, but he had clearly sensed the author’s self-absorption.

The Spirit Crane Body consisted of four volumes; Zheng Fa assumed all were about martial techniques, but the first—and thickest—volume was nothing but the author’s own preface!

The man rambled on, detailing every aspect of his life in the preface.

He claimed he had once been a martial artist, later entered an Immortal Sect, yet still loved martial arts, so he created The Spirit Crane Body, hoping future generations would carry it forward, and so on.

Most of it was boasting about how powerful he was in martial arts, how highly regarded he was in the Immortal Sect, how ingenious his techniques were…

“Could he have created this art just so people would listen to his bragging?” the Young Master muttered, stroking his chin.

Zheng Fa found this idea—that the art was a gift for listening to boasts—had a strange sliver of plausibility…

He flipped through the later volumes and was surprised: the second volume contained the martial art Zheng Fa had already begun—The Pine and Crane Stance—so was this why the Lady had ordered him to study The Spirit Crane Body?

Because he had shown some talent in The Pine and Crane Stance?

He skipped the second volume and turned to the third and fourth.

The fourth volume was a martial technique: Spirit Crane Piercing the Clouds Hand. The text claimed it was immensely powerful, but it was not the core of The Spirit Crane Body.

Only the third volume, its cover inscribed with The Spirit Crane Heart Scripture, contained the essence of this art.

But when Zheng Fa opened the third volume, he unconsciously frowned; beside him, the Young Master also looked utterly baffled, muttering: “What the hell is this?”

On the page was a human figure with a human head, wings sprouting from the shoulder blades, and lower limbs transformed into crane legs, covered in feathers—an unknown creature—assuming postures impossible to decipher, with no annotations or explanations.

Zheng Fa stared for a long time, unable to grasp anything, but he was not discouraged; if Xu had spent twenty years without understanding this art, it was natural that Zheng Fa could not see its meaning at once.

…

In the Lady’s pavilion, the Young Master pulled back the curtain and strode in.

“Oh? Who’s this?” The Lady smirked with mockery: “A rare visitor!”

The Young Master’s face flushed: “Isn’t it natural for me to visit my mother?”

“Natural? Over these past years, who’s been avoiding me?”

“I was just…”

“Enough. You never come unless you want something. Just say it.”

“I’ve been trying to learn The Spirit Crane Body, but I can’t make sense of it at all. Mother, do you know any secret?”

“You want to learn?” The Lady raised an eyebrow at her son: “Didn’t I give The Spirit Crane Body to Zheng Fa?”

“I’m the Young Master—I want to read and learn, can he stop me?” The Young Master wore a haughty expression.

“Is that so?”

“I figured Zheng Fa’s such an idiot he’ll never learn it anyway—if there’s a secret, I’ll learn it and drive him mad!” The Young Master cleared his throat.

“I see…” The Lady nodded, seemingly convinced.

“Mother? The secret?”

“Secret?” The Lady tapped her forehead. “I seem to recall someone saying the creator of this art once claimed the key to mastering The Spirit Crane Body lies entirely in the first volume.”

“Really?”

“Would I lie to you?”

“Mother, I’ve got things to do—I’m off!” The Young Master turned and bolted; the Lady watched his retreating back, a faint, knowing smile on her lips.

…

“Zheng Fa! My mother says to master The Spirit Crane Body, you must read the first volume!”

The Young Master burst in, eager to speak.

“You asked the Lady?” Zheng Fa was surprised.

“Just casual chat—it came up,” the Young Master waved his hand. “Quick, bring out the first volume. Let’s study it properly.”

Zheng Fa glanced at the Young Master and pulled out the first volume of The Spirit Crane Body.

Gao Yuan stood far away, deliberately avoiding looking at The Spirit Crane Body, yet his eyes still curiously drifted toward them.

Zheng Fa and the Young Master carefully flipped through the first volume, both frowning.

It was nothing but an ordinary autobiography, and since the author was a martial man with little formal education, the writing was crude and dull.

“Could there be hidden code?”

The Young Master guessed.

Zheng Fa shook his head: “It’s not impossible, but to decode hidden messages, we’d need to know the pattern.”

Hearing this, the Young Master did not give up; he dragged Zheng Fa through the book again and again, searching for patterns.

After a long while, the Young Master flung the book down in fury and launched into a personal attack on the author of The Spirit Crane Body:

“What trash! Worse than a third-rate romance novel!”

“I’m sick of reading this!”

“Was this guy bored out of his mind? He claims he attained his ultimate technique by observing a thousand feathers on Mount Qianshan—why didn’t he just go to school and learn how to write properly?”

Zheng Fa shook his head, laid the book flat on the desk, yet inwardly had to admit—the book revealed no cultivation secret whatsoever.

Nearby, Gao Yuan, seeing their gloomy expressions, could not help but smile faintly.

The Young Master noticed and asked: “What are you smiling at?”

“Nothing,” Gao Yuan shook his head.

“You think it’s funny that even I, the Young Master, and Zheng Fa, who has more talent than you, can’t understand it?”

Gao Yuan blushed and whispered honestly: “I’ve been struggling with my martial training lately. Now it seems… everyone’s about the same.”

Zheng Fa understood Gao Yuan—he was the type who constantly compared himself to others, easily influenced, and prone to anxiety.

He even believed Gao Yuan harbored no ill will toward him; jealousy was too strong a word.

But from Zheng Fa’s observation, when someone failed an exam, no comfort was as effective as seeing his best friend’s failing test paper…

“About the same?” The Young Master glanced at Gao Yuan: “Have you even mastered The Pine and Crane Stance?”

“Not quite.”

“You haven’t mastered The Pine and Crane Stance, and he hasn’t mastered The Spirit Crane Body—it’s like one failed the Tongsheng exam and the other failed the Top Graduate exam.” The Young Master’s face wore a genuinely cruel, puzzled expression: “How can you… feel the same?”

The smile slowly vanished from Gao Yuan’s face, then appeared on the Young Master’s dog-like one.