Chapter 74: Entering The Celestial School At This Point

　　Shen Lian and Lu Shouyi were outside and they did not know what had happened in the main hall. They only waited for a while when they heard the voice of the headmaster Daoist. It was asking Shen Lian to enter alone.

　　It did not allow his new disciple, Lu Shouyi to enter together with him.

　　Once Shen Lian was inside, Daoist Sanwen was not there anymore.

　　The headmaster looked at Shen Lian and pointed at him simply. With Shen Lian’s sharp senses, he could not respond at all to this one point. This seemingly easy point of a finger had penetrated through time, not allowing him to escape.

　　The headmaster was sitting on the stone couch and he did not get up, but that index finger was definitely touching the center of his brows that was really far away from him.

　　A cool breath of air invaded the center of Shen Lian’s brows. There was a paragraph of text and image that emerged in his mind, it was the complete version of the Xuanji martial art that he had picked up from the chessboard. It even had some more annotation and knowledge to it.

　　There had been sayings of ‘Furyu monji’ in the traditional heritage of Dao, this was the first encounter for Shen Lian.

　　He could not tell whether he was happy or surprised. He had cultivated using The Mastery of Senses for so long. This method allowed him to recollect himself and steady himself. Whenever he encountered huge matters, he could stay calm instead.

　　Shen Lian closed his eyes for a while and then opened them. He bowed slightly. The virtue disseminated in the dharma mentioned that one could not be impolite.

　　The headmaster finally showed some admiration on his face and he said, “To not be angry without a cause and to not panic in the face of adversary. Shen Lian, you truly live up the phrase ‘profound moral character’.”

　　“I’m afraid you allowed me it is to not only compliment me.” Shen Lian’s face was serene. The way a cultivator deal with matters could not be guessed based on the average. But as long as there are intention and emotions, there would be traces of it whenever anyone was doing anything.

　　He walked through the Wenxin Road with an extremely quick speed, even the elder in red would give anything to have him as a disciple immediately. He had even passed on his martial arts beforehand. It can be said even within the celestial school, his potential was one of the best selection. The headmaster was a Daoist and he controlled the celestial sect, so he would definitely not purposely mistreat him. Shen Lian was sure of this.

　　Regardless of a human or demon, or any other living creatures, as long as there were emotions, there will be needs and desires. It was naturally no exception for the cultivators. Shen Lian would not worry about his personal gains and losses. Just like when he encountered the fox deity Xin to get rid of the illness, whatever may come comes.

　　He had a steady heart and was indifferent in terms of getting along, he did not even pay mind to it.

　　“For those who are pursuing Dao on my level, it is nothing if he destroys and belittles me or he praises and honors me. This sect had opened its doors for the first time in fifty years to allow one to examine oneself during cultivation and ten people were selected. Even though there is fate, but they were selected for the sake of being new blood. For someone like you to be able to perform astral projection before the breakthrough, Qiaodong state, is really rare. Any celestial schools outside of Qingxuan would want you.” The headmaster’s face was plain, but his words were more than complimenting Shen Lian.

　　“Since I have joined Qingxuan, I do not wish to go to other places,” Shen Lian answered.

　　“Actually, for someone like you, either you had a profound cultivation in your previous life and you were above Huandan, or you have other wonderful Dharma to cultivate. However, as the Qing Xuan grandmaster Yuanqing once said ‘I will not ask about your past since you’ve entered my school’, so I will not ask about your secret. I am not purposely making it difficult for you by having you go to the River of Spirits to collect the Yin Jade. When that time comes, you will personally understand my purpose.” The headmaster still remained unreadable as ever.

　　…

　　The Spirit of River was located way further than the Qing Xuan celestial school.

　　The water in the river was not the water of ponds or oceans but the water of the netherworld. It has the shape of water but not the substance.

　　So even when a feather lands, it sinks. There was not a piece of wood on it.

　　That was the information that Shen Lian acquired from the Qing Xuan sect’s Taiwei pavilion.

　　Shen Lian did three things before that.

　　The first thing he did was that in the hall of the grandmasters, he paid his respects to the molt that was left behind by the pioneering grandmaster Yuanqing. At the same time, he lit up a lamp of life and spirit. In the future, if Shen Lian passes away, the lamp would extinguish. It was an important method used by the Qing Xuan sect to track their traveling disciples.

　　The second thing he did was he went to the ‘disciplinary hall’ in Tianyuan peak and remembered the rules of Qing Xuan sect. The law enforcer of the disciplinary hall was the elder in grey. His name is Ge Yuan and he was one of the Huandan cultivators in Qing Xuan.

　　Simultaneously, he found out that the elder in the red who wished to recruit him as his own disciple is named Hong Qianya. He was also one of the Huandan cultivators in the sect and the elder in charge if the ‘good deeds hall’ in Tinayuan peak. The good deeds hall is the place where it controls most of the celestial cultivation resources, from the headmaster to the ordinary disciples, good deeds were needed to exchange for some resources. As to how to acquire good deeds, firstly, good deeds were given out every month based on the different levels of the cultivation; secondly, there would be tasks being put up and the people in the sect can attain their good deeds through completing these tasks.

　　Amongst the five peaks of Qing Xuan, except for the main peak, Taiyi, where the headmaster resides, the other four peaks differ from each other.

　　Qingliang peak was where the lower house disciples stay, Yuyang peak was where the upper house disciples stay.

　　The order of the four peaks based on Qi of vitality of heaven and earth are Qingliang, Yuyang, Tianyuan, and Zifu, it is from the thinnest to the thicket.

　　Only the Huandan and above cultivators could carve out a cave in the Tianyuan or Zifu peaks.

　　The number of lower house disciples were extremely small and the Qi of vitality of heaven and earth was the least on the Qingliang peak that they were staying. But there was an advantage, it was that everyone could join the Huandan cultivators of the Tianyuan or Zifu peaks.

　　As for the upper house disciples, they do not have this treatment. Of course, there were a few amongst them who would try to establish a good connection almost every day with the elders of the sect. Innately speaking, there was not a lack of people to teach.

　　At the same time, every two months, there were elders from the school that would answer questions about the mass of disciples.

　　Even though there were many rules in Qing Xuan, but the most important one was that no one could turn on each other. If it was found out, the disciplinary hall would discipline and punish them.

　　It was just that Shen Lian was unclear about that young man, by right he should be staying at the lower house but rumor has it that he was personally brought by Ge Yuan to his cave to be taught about Dao.

　　Besides being the law enforcer of the disciplinary hall, Ge Yuan was also the head of Tianyuan peak. There was only one reason, he was able to go through seven transformations of Huandan by his own accord.

　　His Dao skills and mana were number one in all of Tianyuan peak, which meant he had a chance of becoming immortal.

　　There were many other Huandan cultivators in the sect but for those like Ge Yuan who was able to achieve Huandan by their own were in the rare in numbers. So, to be able to go through the seven transformations of Huandan in the entire cultivation world would be considered outstanding.

　　Even Hong Qianya who was also at Tianyan peak used a celestial core as a divine conductor to achieve the six transformations of Huandan. Nonetheless, he was still nowhere as good as Ge Yuan.

　　The both of them entered the Huandan state in their hundreds so their appearance seemed old.

　　Actually, to a cultivator, it did not matter whether they look young or old. Once achieving Huandan, there were ways to restore youth but the two did not do so.

　　The Qi of vitality of heaven and earth at the Zifu peak was thick, second to the main peak, Taiyi. There were also many Huandan cultivators. The Taiwei pavilion was where the ancient books and records are, there were also the portraits left by the fellow immortals. Inside it, their meaning of Dao was archived. However, on the second floor of the Taiwei pavilion, none Huandan cultivators or those without a higher level than that were not allowed to step foot into it.

　　

1. 不立文字 is a phrase taken from the Four Sacred Verses of Bodhidharma (達磨四聖句) which means non-dependence upon words and letters. The translation is in the Japanese version because the direct translation wouldn’t be able to convey it very well without dragging on.