Chapter 141: 141. Chapter One Hundred and Forty-One

141. Chapter One Hundred and Forty-One

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Logically speaking, having successfully reached Foundation Establishment, she should have been able to withstand the power of "White Colt," but the problem lay in the fact that she was self-taught and had reached Foundation Establishment in a muddled state; she possessed the cultivation of a Foundation Establishment practitioner but did not know how to use it at all, and the direct manifestation of this was—Wanjie had no scabbard.

A Life-bound Sword without a scabbard proved that a Sword Cultivator could not freely control their own power. Furthermore, Wanjie clearly looked like trouble; if Su Ying were to strike her with a sword at this moment, the consequences would truly be unpredictable.

In any case, either she would be unlucky, or Bai Tian would be unlucky. Judging by the gap in strength, the latter was much more likely to be unlucky.

Of course, such a small matter could not stump the Beihai Sword Sect. Since she could not control it freely, she just needed to practice until she could!

"There are two paths laid out before you now: one is to accept special training from Elder Luo Li, and the other is to follow Senior Brother to learn the Sword-Nurturing and Blade-Concealing Technique," Su Ying said, counting on her fingers.

"Elder Luo Li?" Atian blinked her eyes.

"Oh, right, I forgot you haven't met her yet," Su Ying patted her forehead, the expression on her face quite complex. "Elder Luo Li is the only woman among our sect's five Elders. Her Life-bound Sword is a very rare dual sword. As for her personality... you'll know once you meet her in person."

"Oh, then I choose her." Atian gave her answer readily.

Such a swift decision made Su Ying pause. Only after she reacted did she write a few strokes on her scroll. She bit the end of her brush, hesitated for a moment, and then asked the question anyway, "Speaking of which, you and Senior Brother have a marriage contract, right?"

"Mm." Atian nodded.

Su Ying sighed upon hearing this.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm just lamenting that even though I raised him, Senior Brother is indeed a disciple of the Beihai Sword Sect."

She had a complex look on her face when she said this.

"Meeting his fiancée, the first time he scared her until she collapsed, the second time he beat her up—this is just so Beihai Sword Sect."

"So?" Atian tilted her head in confusion.

"So..." Su Ying became hesitant for the first time in her life. "Are you not choosing him... because he was too heavy-handed?"

The island of bachelors that was the Beihai Sword Sect had always been a difficult problem for the cultivation world. Having finally waited for a cooked duck to arrive, she had almost wanted to give a thumbs-up to Lady Bai. If the duck were to fly away just because Bai Xinli didn't know how to control his strength, she would definitely rush to the Martial Arts Arena and strangle him.

"No." Atian shook her head decisively.

"Then why?" Now it was Su Ying's turn to be confused.

Just as Su Ying thought Bai Tian was about to spout some nonsense like "fiancés should see less of each other before marriage" or "a young lady from a good family shouldn't spend long periods with men," she saw her cheeks suddenly flush with two streaks of red, and she actually became shy all of a sudden.

"Actually..." Atian covered half her face with her sleeve, "... I've joined the 'Worship Senior Brother' cult, so if I have to face him every day, it's just too embarrassing."

"... Huh?" Su Ying was truly dumbfounded this time.

"Because I like Senior Brother very much," Atian said with a smile, her eyes curving. "I like him so much that I want to beat him flying."

Although she looked like a girl in love when she said this, her eyes were frighteningly bright, and in an instant, she became sharp and dangerous, just like the black sword she held in her arms.

Su Ying opened her mouth, but in the end, she kept it shut. A woman's intuition told her that this matter should not be probed further.

Although she had made the bold declaration of wanting to beat Bai Xinli flying, the chasm-like gap between the two still remained, and the first thing Atian had to do was go to class obediently.

Thus, with Wanjie on her back, Zhao Kuo held in her left hand, and Song Zhicheng held in her right, she appeared once again in Li Ke's class under the terrified gazes of the other senior brothers.

"Yesterday, I spoke of liberating one's nature, and that very night someone succeeded in forging their sword. I am very gratified," Li Ke gave Atian an appreciative look. "If all of you could have such an easy breakthrough, how much worry I would be saved!"

The male disciples who were senior brothers hung their heads, looking just like frost-bitten eggplants. Thinking of their own burnt-down dormitories, their sorrow deepened.

Although he was also a senior brother, Song Zhicheng, who was completely outside the range of the disaster, took advantage of everyone's distraction to secretly take off his shoe and pick at his foot.

Zhao Kuo, who also already possessed a Life-bound Sword, pinched his nose with an expressionless face.

"Since someone has taken a step forward, our content today will go a bit deeper," Li Ke sniffed nonchalantly. "The theme shall be 'Breaking Superstition, Walking into Immortal Cultivation'."

"After successfully forging a sword, it does not mean you can relax. Sword Cultivators often face a more important hurdle, which is determining their own path."

Li Ke's eyeballs rolled around.

"Zhao Kuo! You tell us, how does one determine one's own path?"

Caught off guard, Zhao Kuo had no choice but to release the hand that had been pinching his nose. A sour, foul stench immediately hit his brain, yet the culprit was still looking at him with an innocent face.

Zhao Kuo, whose brain ached from the stench, swayed his body and used his willpower to state the answer: "Communicate with the sword."

"Very good, sit down," Li Ke, who had nonchalantly set a trap for his grand-nephew, nodded with satisfaction. "Communicating with one's Life-bound Sword is indeed the most efficient method."

Having said this, he changed the subject. "However, those of us in this profession, besides seeking longevity, must also comprehend the Dao. And the Dao is the ultimate truth of heaven and earth; it is the beginning and the end of all things. Your Sword Heart is closely related to the Great Dao you wish to comprehend."

Atian nodded thoughtfully, yet she did not understand what this had to do with breaking superstition.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough," after a series of coughs that made one suspect he would cough his lungs out, Li Ke extended two fingers and pointed to one of them. "Like me, comprehending Life and Death, or Senior Brother Tan Tianming, comprehending Fate—all are within the Three Thousand Great Daos. Choosing one and walking it to the extreme is the moment one pushes open the Xiuxianmen."

Having said this, he took a small booklet from his robes and said with a smile, "A few days ago, I collected the Great Daos you privately yearn for. Now let us see what they are."

Many people's expressions changed drastically when he took out the booklet, and upon hearing what he said, most could not help but wail. The old disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect all knew that once this monster Li Ke brought out his private notes, a tragic and inhumane humiliation was about to descend.

Sure enough, he opened the booklet happily, flipped to the middle, and even forgot his usual cough. "Let me see, ah, the undisputed top of the list, having won with an overwhelming advantage, is—the Heartless Dao. The aspiring members are..."

As one name after another was read out, the disciples whose names were called covered their faces, looking as if they wished they could crawl under the tables. Even Zhao Kuo, at Atian's side, stiffened his body. Only Song Zhicheng was still happily picking at his foot; these days had been stifling him to death.

Atian, who did not understand the mystery of it, cast a curious gaze toward the nervous Zhao Kuo. The latter, noticing this, squeezed out a stiff smile. "Everyone, everyone has a time of youthful recklessness, Junior Sister Bai."

"I get it, I get it," Song Zhicheng turned his head, looking like someone who had been through it all. "When I read those storybooks as a child, the immortals in them also said they practiced the Heartless Dao. But 'heartless' is clearly a state of being; how can it be a Dao?"

Zhao Kuo buried his head even lower.

By this time, Li Ke had finished reading the long list of names and was very satisfied with the mass destruction he had caused. "Very good, it seems you have all realized your mistakes. I am very gratified. Zhao Kuo! You tell us, where did you go wrong?"

Zhao Kuo, who had been called upon again, was on the verge of tears. He deeply suspected that his master was afraid he was having too comfortable a time with his punishment and had said something to Li Ke.

"Because..." he said with a mournful face, "the Heartless Dao is a term used by Dharma Cultivators."

"Correct, and also incorrect," Li Ke shook his head. "The Heartless Dao that the world gossips about is actually derived from the Taixuan Sect's 'Supreme Forgetting of Emotions.' It is not a principle, nor is it a cultivation method, but rather the ideal state they pursue for their entire lives."

"'The sage forgets emotions, the lowest cannot reach emotions.' This does not refer to a Heartless Dao without feelings, but rather a realm of having feelings yet not being tied down or trapped by them—a state of being carefree and transcendent."

"Counting the successors of the Taixuan Sect, those who have reached the realm of 'Supreme Forgetting of Emotions' can be counted on one hand. You group of Sword Cultivators wanting to imitate them is simply having water in your brains!"

The disciples who had been angrily scolded as having "water in their brains" were about to bury their heads into their knees.

"The Three Thousand Great Daos have millions of variations for the path to the heavens. However, a man of character in this world has things he will do and things he will not do. If you don't even understand this principle, then leave the island yourself!"

Li Ke said this with great severity. Aside from his love of gossip, this sickly Elder was a good-tempered elder most of the time, but this time, he was clearly angry.

His outburst was somewhat inexplicable, yet none of the disciples present were dissatisfied; instead, everyone looked ashamed and unable to show their faces, leaving Atian and Song Zhicheng completely bewildered.

"Because of the dispute over Sword Techniques that has continued since the ancient era," Zhao Kuo said in a low voice, covering his face, "the Heartless Dao is a bait deliberately tampered with and thrown out by the Dharma Cultivators, specifically to confuse low-level Sword Cultivator disciples and ruin their foundations. This matter has dragged both us and the Taixuan Sect into it; killing two birds with one stone and sowing discord—I bet a cucumber that this malicious idea was the work of the Fangxian Dao."

The Heartless Dao, which promotes being without desire or pursuit and being peerlessly powerful, has been a dark horse that has suddenly emerged in recent years and is indeed quite popular among young cultivators; after all, these people have shallow cultivation, unsteady minds, and little experience, making it the perfect time to set them up.

Sword Cultivators cannot practice the Dharma techniques of Dharma Cultivators, and Dharma Cultivators cannot practice the Sword Intent of Sword Cultivators; once this is confused, one may not feel it in the beginning, but in the middle and later stages, one will find the path becoming narrower and narrower until it is completely blocked and the road ahead is destroyed—for a cultivator, this is a hopeless future that cannot be described in words.

This is also the fundamental reason why Sword Cultivators and Dharma Cultivators have been clearly divided for millions of years; even though the Beihai Sword Sect and the Taixuan Sect are on good terms, the two houses have absolutely no intention of visiting each other.

The "Heartless Dao" affair was handled both shrewdly and foolishly; the Taixuan Sect would not joke about their own sect-protecting methods and ten-thousand-year reputation, so the only ones who know the Taixuan Sect's mental cultivation methods and could achieve such a degree of alteration are the Fangxian Dao, who share the same origin as the Taixuan Sect.

Fangxian Dao.

It was not the first time Atian had heard this name; she remembered that when Zhao Kuo sent her to Shengxian Town, they were pursued by people from the Tianxing Sect, and behind the Tianxing Sect was the Fangxian Dao.

"Why?" she asked, puzzled.

"Because the struggle for the Dao Lineage is a life-and-death matter."

Atian was stunned; the one who answered her was not Zhao Kuo.

"Elder Li Ke's Enlightenment class must continue," Su Ying took out a scroll, spread it on the table, and then took a brush to write and draw on it, "Hmm... whoever chooses 'Master's Star Astrology, Eight Trigrams, and Luck Guide' is an idiot; cross it out, cross it out."