Chapter 44: 44. Chapter Forty-Four

44. Chapter Forty-Four

Guan San is currently stroking the server; please complete your subscription to defeat him! Harmonizing with the Dao.

A topic that no cultivator can bypass.

When attending the Enlightenment class in the Classroom, Li Ke had once spoken of it briefly, and later, when Luo Li was disrupting the class, she also mentioned it in passing; therefore, although Atian was still far from the point of considering the issue of Harmonizing with the Dao, she was not completely ignorant of it.

The ultimate goal of a cultivator's practice is to attain a lifespan equal to that of heaven and earth and to shine as brightly as the sun and moon, and Harmonizing with the Dao is the final means for them to achieve this goal.

In the understanding of the world, becoming an immortal is the ultimate success, but for cultivators, becoming an immortal is still limited by lifespan; Ascension is merely the conclusion of the first stage, and the next stage is to seek to Harmonize with the Dao.

Harmonizing with the Dao, Harmonizing with the Dao—what one harmonizes with is the Heavenly Dao; by walking one's own path to the extreme and thoroughly comprehending the ultimate truths of heaven and earth, one can become one with the Great Dao, thereby achieving true immortality.

However, cultivation has never been an easy matter; the path always grows narrower as one walks it, and even with the Three Thousand Great Daos, there are very few who can walk any single path to the end, and there can only be one person who finally Harmonizes with the Dao.

Of course, it is not easy for anyone to reach this step, and since their character has also been cultivated to the extreme, they would likely sit down and discuss the Dao properly, debate until a first place is decided, and let that person try first; if they fail, the next in line will fill in, which is not at all like the life-and-death struggle of a Dao Lineage.

In fact, the greatest possibility is that when you reach the step of Harmonizing with the Dao, you discover that someone has already occupied the position, and you can only aggrievedly step back and wait for the next opportunity.

In the cultivation world, most people stop at the first stage, and only after the Ascension hurdle filters out a large group of competitors will the fortunate cultivators who have been reborn begin to consider the issue of Harmonizing with the Dao, but even for them, Harmonizing with the Dao is too ethereal; it is more like an unattainable goal that motivates everyone's ambition.

Having just stepped into the cultivation world with one foot, Atian naturally could not judge Bai Xinli's current cultivation level; a Sword Cultivator is different from a Dharma Cultivator, as there are no clear level boundaries after Foundation Establishment, but just from the fact that Bai Xinli was still sitting in front of her, although this youth who had just turned twenty was indeed very powerful, he was still far from the realm of Ascension.

Therefore, it was very strange that Bai Xinli would know he had forty-eight fellow travelers and would also be assassinated. Could it be that these forty-eight people all believed they could successfully Ascend and cultivate to the end, so they inquired in advance about who else was like them, just to eliminate their competitors? In Atian's view, this could no longer be described as "having confidence"; it was simply baffling self-confidence, purely a sign of having a hole in one's brain.

However, the path Bai Xinli walked was inherently very special, and there are always things in this world that cannot be measured by common sense; this matter could only become, like the "Tianxing Sect disciple who assassinated Zhao Kuo," a mystery that could not be solved at the current stage.

For Atian, thinking about such problems as Harmonizing with the Dao was truly too advanced; she hadn't even found her own Dao yet, and besides, there was a more important problem waiting to be solved—her appearance and grooming.

Bai Tian had been fighting at the bottom of the sinkhole for three days and three nights; even without looking in a mirror, she could imagine how disheveled she looked and how unpleasant the smell of blood, sweat, and monster pus mixed on her body was, yet Bai Xinli sat in front of her without changing his expression and even leaned in to help her wipe her face—one really had to admire his self-restraint.

Atian hesitated repeatedly but swallowed the "Hero!" that had reached her throat; as a qualified young lady of a noble family, it was truly distressing to be seen in such a state by her fiancé; she wanted to let out a "Ying" in courtesy, but she could not ruin her lady-like image any further.

"Um... Senior Brother," she said stammeringly, "how long until we reach that Qingtan Assembly?"

"About another half a day's journey," Bai Xinli replied after wiping her face clean.

"Then... can I freshen up?" Atian asked this with great trepidation; they were currently thousands of feet in the air, and she couldn't delay the journey just because she wanted to change clothes; besides, she had been squeezed in by Luo Li at the last minute, and she had nothing but a Sword on her person, making it impossible to even tidy up simply.

Bai Xinli frowned upon hearing this, though his thoughts were different from Atian's. Also raised in the Beihai Sword Sect, Bai Xinli's life spells were no worse than Zhao Kuo's; he could have cast a few Dust-Clearing Spells on Atian, but the problem was that the dress she was wearing had become tattered, and without the cover of mud and bloodstains, there was a real risk of exposure.

Admittedly, on the road, she could wear his outer robe, but once they reached the Qingtan Assembly, this would inevitably invite criticism and gossip.

The best way was to borrow a set of clean clothes for her, but whether it was him, his master, or Junior Uncle Li Ke, they were all grown men; where would they have a dress for a girl to wear?

Bai Xinli frowned and pondered for a moment, and he actually thought of someone.

"Let's go ask Junior Sister Liu," he said.

The Junior Sister Liu he spoke of was none other than Liu Yan, one of the three great female disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect; this woman stayed in the Beihai Sword Sect's Sword Scripture Pavilion year-round, which was why Atian had only heard her name but never seen her until now; she hadn't expected that Duan Xuan would have brought her along this time.

As soon as Bai Xinli said this, Atian clearly felt the Wuo Sword beneath her speed up; it was evident that it had deliberately slowed down before to accommodate her while she was asleep.

As the number one among the young disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect, for Bai Xinli to catch up to someone was truly a matter of the blink of an eye; while Atian was hiding herself in the outer robe, they were already riding side-by-side with a wooden sword, and sitting on the wooden sword was a woman also wearing moon-white attire—it was the legendary Liu Yan.

"Senior Brother, is something the matter?" Her voice was as gentle as water.

"Junior Sister Liu," Bai Xinli nodded, "I have something I would like to trouble you with."

Hiding behind Bai Xinli, Atian curiously stretched out her head to look at Liu Yan; excluding herself, there were four female Sword Cultivators in the Beihai Sword Sect, and she had already seen Su Ying and Luo Li among them—these two could be said to have their own styles, but Liu Yan was very different from them—she wore a matron's bun.

The moon-white sect dress combined with the high-coiled hair bun, paired with her gentle demeanor—this was probably the first female cultivator Atian had seen who could be associated with "gentleness," although she had only seen two others before.

The moment Liu Yan saw Atian, she understood the reason why Bai Xinli had broken his usual habits to seek her out; she gave him a teasing look and beckoned to Atian, "Junior Sister, look at how careless you've been; come here to Senior Sister quickly."

Atian subconsciously glanced at Bai Xinli, and seeing that he did not object but instead moved the Wuo Sword closer to the wooden sword, she boldly stood up draped in the outer robe; just as she reached the edge of the two swords and prepared to jump, she saw the Wuo Sword slightly increase its height, steadily maintaining itself just above the wooden sword so that she could step onto the wooden sword as smoothly as walking down a step.

Having calmly switched to the wooden sword in this way, Atian turned her head to thank him, only to see the Wuo Sword slow down slightly and follow behind the wooden sword at a distance neither too far nor too close, while Bai Xinli himself took off his hair ribbon and blindfolded his eyes with it.

Atian felt from the bottom of her heart that Lady Bai should embroider a silk banner for Senior Sister Su Ying; just as she was considering whether to find an opportunity to write a letter home to suggest this, her attention was drawn away by Liu Yan.

"Speaking of which, this is the first time I've met Junior Sister," she said with a smile, "I stay in the Sword Scripture Pavilion year-round and didn't even know there was such a lovable Junior Sister in the sect; Senior Sister's surname is Liu, with the given name Yan, and I am responsible for guarding the Sword Scripture Pavilion; if you ever have the chance to enter the pavilion in the future, you must come find me for a chat."

In the Beihai Sword Sect, the Sword Scripture Pavilion is a very special place; it preserves the swords left behind by generations of Ascended disciples, which are condensed with their respective Sword Intent, specifically for later disciples to contemplate; it can be said to be the most important and valuable place in the Beihai Sword Sect.

And Liu Yan was the gatekeeper of the Sword Scripture Pavilion personally appointed by Sect Master Duan Xuan; the strength of her prowess is evident.

After simply and efficiently casting a few Dust-Clearing Spells on Atian to remove the filth, Liu Yan pulled a dress from somewhere, "I happen to have a spare set of clothes here; I see that Junior Sister is of a similar build to me, so it should fit perfectly."

Atian took the clothes and placed her hand on her chest, hesitating for a moment; was she really going to undress without any cover? Lady Bai would definitely cry if she knew!

Seeing her hesitation, Liu Yan smiled slightly, took the dress, and hugged Atian all at once; after the latter opened her eyes in surprise, she gently let her go, and then Atian was astonished to find that the dress in Liu Yan's hand had turned into a tattered mess, while she herself was wearing a brand-new set of clothes.

"A very useful little spell," Liu Yan winked at her, "I used it often when I used to change my son's clothes."

"Son?" Atian was truly surprised this time.

"Yes, I was chosen when I was sending my son to participate in the Ascension Assembly," Liu Yan straightened her collar for her, "but it turned out he couldn't be a Sword Cultivator and had to be sent to the Taixuan Sect; thinking about it now, he should be about the same age as Senior Brother."

"The boundary between Dharma Cultivators and Sword Cultivators is too distinct, and I haven't seen him for some years; if only I could see him at the Qingtan Assembly."

Although Liu Yan said this, in her heart, she didn't have much hope for a mother-son reunion—not because she lacked confidence in her son, but because the Beihai Sword Sect's attendance at the Qingtan Assembly was not well-intentioned.

The Qingtan Assembly, the premier event of the cultivation world, where all sects and factions set aside disputes and conflicts to sit together, analyze and debate the Great Dao of heaven and earth, cast aside the prejudices brought about by their respective schools and Dao Lineages, and let go of past grievances and grudges; even if they would cross swords the moment they left the venue, they still had to coexist peacefully at the Qingtan Assembly.