Chapter 53: 53. Chapter 53

53. Chapter 53

Guan San is currently stroking the server; please complete your subscription to defeat him! Logically speaking, having successfully reached Foundation Establishment, she should already be able to withstand the power of "White Colt," but the problem lies in the fact that she is an amateur who reached Foundation Establishment in a muddled state. She possesses the cultivation of a Foundation Establishment practitioner but has no idea how to use it at all, and the direct manifestation of this is—Wanjie has no scabbard.

A Life-bound Sword without a scabbard proves that a Sword Cultivator cannot freely control their own power. Furthermore, Wanjie does not look like a pushover at first glance; if Su Ying were to strike her with a sword at this moment, the consequences would truly be unpredictable.

In any case, either she will be unlucky, or Bai Tian will be unlucky. Judging from the gap in strength, the latter is more likely to be unlucky.

Of course, such a small matter cannot stump the Beihai Sword Sect. Since she cannot control it freely, wouldn't it be fine to just practice until she can?

"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 female 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 sleeve scroll. Seeing her bite the tip of her brush and hesitate, she 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 after all."

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

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

"So?" Atian tilted her head in confusion.

"So..." Su Ying became hesitant for the first time in her life. "Is it because he was too heavy-handed... that you didn't choose him?"

This island of bachelors in the Beihai Sword Sect has always been a difficult problem for the cultivation world. Having finally waited for a cooked duck to arrive, she almost wanted to give Lady Bai a thumbs up. 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 going 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 rosy clouds, and she actually became shy all of a sudden.

"Actually..." Atian covered half her face with her sleeve, "... I joined the 'Worship Senior Brother' cult, so if I have to face him every day, it would be 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 her whole person became sharp and dangerous in an instant, just like the black sword she held in her arms.

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

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

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

"Yesterday, I spoke about 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 you could all have such an easy time having your potential unlocked, how much worry I would save!"

The male disciples who were Senior Brothers hung their heads, looking like frost-bitten eggplants. Thinking of their own scorched courtyards, their sorrow deepened.

Although he was also a Senior Brother, Song Zhicheng, who was completely out of the line of fire, took advantage of everyone not paying attention 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 your sword, it does not mean you can relax. Sword Cultivators often face a more important hurdle, which is determining your own path."

Li Ke's eyeballs rolled around.

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

Caught off guard and named, Zhao Kuo had no choice but to let go of the hand pinching his nose. A sour, foul odor immediately hit his crown, yet the culprit was still looking up at him with an innocent face.

Zhao Kuo, whose brain ached from the stench, swayed his body and used his willpower to blurt out 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 your Life-bound Sword is indeed the most efficient method."

Having said this, he changed the subject. "However, those of us in this generation, besides seeking longevity, must also comprehend the Dao. And the Dao is the ultimate principle 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 at one of them. "Like me, comprehending Life and Death, or Senior Brother Tan Tianming, who comprehends Fate, we are all 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 pulled a small booklet from his bosom 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 most could not help but wail when they heard what he said. The old disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect all knew that once this monster Li Ke took 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 people who yearn for it include..."

As one name after another was read out, the disciples who were named covered their faces one after another, looking as if they wished they could crawl under the table. Even Zhao Kuo, who was beside Atian, 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 understand, I understand," Song Zhicheng turned his head, looking like someone who had been through it all. "When I was young and read those storybooks, the immortals in them also said they practiced the Heartless Dao. But 'heartless' is clearly a state; 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 damage 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 named once again, was about to cry. He deeply suspected that his own master had told Li Ke something because he was afraid that he was having too comfortable a time with his punishment.

"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 'Supreme Forgetting of Emotions' of the Taixuan Sect. It is not a principle, nor is it a cultivation method; it is 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 state of being that has feelings but is not tied down by them, not trapped by them—a state of being carefree and transcendent."

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

The disciples who were angrily scolded as having "water in their brains" almost buried their heads into their knees.

"There are Three Thousand Great Daos, and the path to the heavens also has ten million variations. However, a man of honor 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 very heavily. Aside from his love for Eight Trigrams, this sickly Elder was a good-tempered senior most of the time, but this time, he was clearly angry.

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

"Because of the dispute over Sword Technique that has continued since the ancient times," Zhao Kuo said in a low voice while covering his face, "the Heartless Dao is a bait deliberately tampered with and cast out by the Dharma Cultivators, specifically to mislead 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 such a malicious idea was the work of the Fangxian Dao."

The Heartless Dao, which promotes being free of desire and peerless in power, is a dark horse that has suddenly emerged in recent years, and it 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 future is ruined—for a cultivator, this is a despairing future that cannot be described in words.

This is also the fundamental reason why Sword Cultivators and Dharma Cultivators have been clearly divided for thousands of years; even though the Beihai Sword Sect and the Taixuan Sect are on good terms, the two sides 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 its own sect-protecting techniques and ten-thousand-year reputation, so the only ones who know the Taixuan Sect's mental cultivation methods and could achieve this level of deletion are the Fangxian Dao, who share the same origin as the Taixuan Sect.

Fangxian Dao.

This was not the first time Atian had heard this name; she recalled that when Zhao Kuo was sending her to Shengxian Town, he had been pursued by people from the Tianxing Sect, and behind the Tianxing Sect was none other than the Fangxian Dao.

"Why?" she asked, puzzled.

"Because the struggle for the Dao Lineage is a fight to the death."

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

Atian turned her head at the sound; the first thing she saw was a pair of boots resting on the desk, and looking up along these boots, she realized that at some point, the Senior Brother sitting behind her had been replaced by a woman with ear-length short hair, who was leaning lazily in the seat, while the original owner of the seat stood to the side, nodding and bowing in a way so sycophantic it was hard to look at.

"Of course, this doesn't mean the struggle can stop," the woman grinned upon noticing Atian's gaze, the scar on her left cheek curving with her movement, the top of it nearly touching her eye, "People fight for a breath of air, trees fight for their bark; shaking hands and making peace is so beneath one's dignity. Even if you don't go to provoke others, others will come to provoke you—that's just how annoying they are."

She shrugged, "The struggle for the Dao Lineage is inherently a matter of life and death; if your skills are inferior, you deserve to die. At the end of the day, this isn't some personal grudge, but merely a bottom line that neither side can touch."

"Senior Sister Luo," Li Ke spoke up to interrupt the woman, frowning with some helplessness, "This is my class..."

"Don't say that, Junior Brother Li," the woman's feet, resting on the desk, swayed, "I reminded them one by one when they entered the sect that if they violate the sect rules, the Law Enforcement Elder will come to teach them how to behave; isn't that exactly what I'm doing now?"

Atian understood; the short-haired woman with the scar on her face before her was Elder Luo Li, whom Su Ying had mentioned, and also her future instructor.

Just as Li Ke pursed his lips, Luo Li jumped up from the seat all of a sudden, her movement so fast that even Bai Tian, who had been staring at her, was startled.

"Hey, you little brats," Luo Li stepped onto the desk and said viciously amidst the tearful expressions of the disciples beside her, "To fall for such a low-level trick—all of you, go back and reflect on yourselves!"

This sentence meant she was chasing them away; seeing that Li Ke did not speak to stop her, the terrified disciples vaguely understood that today's class ended here, so they scrambled to pack their things and leave the Classroom.