Chapter 71: Been Practicing Daoism For Half A Lifetime And No One Knows

　　Daoist Sanwen mentioned that there were four people in the entire lower house. Ergo, this young Daoist disciple was most probably one of them.

　　“The way of Dao is limitless so how is it possible for him to succeed? Brother Lu only wishes to cultivate until the level of reminiscing about his parents. Perhaps ten years would be too short but it is also not impossible,” Shen Lian said leisurely as he took the heat off Lu.

　　“Junior Shen has a rather profound way of Dao, it would be rather biased to say that it is ‘limitless’. If you were on flat land and you look at the Eastern Sea, it would, of course, look limitless. If you reach thousands of meters high up in the air, the Eastern Sea is nothing but a basin of mud. You cannot imagine what is it to be able to succeed in the way of Dao, surpass and escape a myriad of undesirables.” The young Daoist disciple chuckled.

　　“Senior brother does have a point, could it be that you’ve reached the state of ‘mud basin’,” Lu laughed as he said.

　　The pair of eye-catching thick brows on the young Daoist disciple arched slightly at the tip, like two sharp swords – pressing and dangerous.

　　He wrapped both his arms in front of his chest and spits out a strong gust of wind. Shen Lian felt the changes in vital Qi, like a shapeless tornado that came out of thin air headed toward Lu.

　　Shen Lian knew then this young Daoist disciple was the kind of person who ‘do not need to say much, for the way of Dao is deep’.

　　Of course, he would not do anything to Lu’s provocation.

　　He intended to help Lu out but he stopped. This was because he remembered that while Lu traveled far and wide to come here, he was not even scratched even during admission. How was it that he was only an ordinary scholar when he even got passed Wenxin Road?

　　Even though Lu revealed some true state of mind, he did not get to the main points.

　　Lu reacted immediately while Shen Lian was motionless.

　　He raised himself from the ground at the tip of his toes but he did not fly high. The flow of wind was a tornado, its head was sharp like an invisible drill.

　　A fine layer of cotton-like strong wind formed around Lu, which actually allowed him to stay balanced in midair, temporarily free from the pull of gravity.

　　He even dodged the incoming wind. Like a cicada fluttering its wings, he went to the side of the long corridor and the tip of his toes aimed at the young Daoist disciple’s head as he kicked his leg.

　　The young Daoist disciple was unfazed, his arms still circled in front of his chest. He tilted his head and dodged Lu’s attack.

　　Lu continued attacking with another leg but did not succeed either.

　　His momentum finished as he pounced on the young Daoist disciple with his entire body.

　　The pose was rather particular, with both knees tucked toward the abdomen, both of his elbows hit his chest but his hands were aiming for the other’s throat to choke.

　　He used both his knees to kneel on the other’s chest as he landed and followed the flow to pounce forward, both his elbows hit the other at the chest area. At the same time, his hands got a hold of the other’s throat.

　　It was rare that this move could be done so smoothly with marvelous impulse, it was quick as lightning – hard to guard against.

　　Lu surprised everyone with this one move, but Shen Lian sighed quietly, ‘There is still quite a difference in capability.’

　　The young Daoist suddenly disappeared as Lu covered him with his body. As a result, it seemed as though Lu was hugging the pillar that the young Daoist was leaning on.

　　The scene was awkward and he let go immediately, which caused him to almost topple. However, even though his physique seemed big, his balance was superb. He managed to support himself with one leg without completely falling to the ground.

　　As for the young Daoist, he leaned on the opposite pillar and laughed. “Daoist Baishi’s ‘Ba Bu Gan Chan’, interesting indeed. Just that when you were in your teens, you used this move to kill a witchcraft cultivator of the Westfall barbarians with copper skin and iron bones. Now, you can only use it to pounce on a rotten wood.”

　　Lu’s face was red. He did not use his full force as he did not intend to hurt people, but in the end, he was fooled by the young Daoist. Hence, even if he used his full force, the end results would be the same.

　　Back then, he benefited with this move. Plus, this move was part attack skill and part Qinggong. He used this as a means of self-defense in his journey but he never expected that this was so useless to even catch the corner of someone’s clothes in Qing Xuan.

　　This move could not be used simply. Before doing so, one is required to focus their spirit on the enemy, then launch the attack. The young Daoist deceived his spirit. Even if the force was bigger, it could not land on the actual target.

　　Lu acquired Ba Bu Gan Chan from a Daoist in his dreams. At the same time, he was advised to go to Qing Xuan.

　　Lu said, “You’ve only cultivated a few months more than me, if I was your age, I would not be this bad.”

　　The young Daoist bellowed out in laughter. “It is not easy to go into trance and it also difficult achieving perfection. There is always the calamity that comes with the doubt when loyalty is not understood .”

　　The young Daoist disappeared from the long corridor amongst the rolling holy songs.

　　Lu turned to Shen Lian and asked, “What was the fuss about?”

　　Shen Lian shook his head. Suddenly, he turned to Daoist Sanwen who unknowingly appeared by the side and asked. “Senior Sanwen, who was that senior brother just now and what did he mean by what he said?”

　　Only then, Lu felt Daoist Sanwen’s presence. The other came silently to the point that Lu could not detect him at all.

　　There were many hidden talents in Qing Xuan. He could not help but glance at Shen Lian. This same-aged peer was more mysterious than the other people in Qing Xuan, he was not inferior to Shen Lian at all.

　　“Someone would explain to you when the time comes if you did not ask, but since you asked, there is no harm in telling you two.

　　“‘Trance’ and ‘achieving perfection’ that were mentioned by Junior Chen just now are two states in the practice of Dao.

　　“Since the beginning, there were thousands upon thousands of dharma to the cultivation of Dao. It wasn’t enough to have one state of mind, and it didn’t matter the sequence of pursuing. It wasn’t until afterward, the Daoist master disseminate dharma that decides the cultivation state for our Dao school division. Ever since then, the cultivation used by our celestial school division is according to the Daoist master’s setting in every corner of the world. This action is known widely in the cultivation world as the ‘law of the eternal given word’.

　　“Before achieving longevity, there are approximately nine states, which were: Yangqi – to cultivate Qi, Tongmai – to unblock vessels, Qiaodong, Yunhun – to gather soul, Chushen – to enter the state of trance, Ruhua – to achieve perfection, Huandan, Buxu, and Powang. Only after Powang can one be called a celestial and achieved longevity.

　　“Junior Brother Chen’s original name is Zhongxin, nickname Jianmei. Fifty years ago when he entered the sect, he did not have any foundation in cultivation. Although within three years, he crossed five states and reached Chushen. He then entered Ruhua within ten years. Recently, he’s been cultivating the Shapeless Sword Formula, he was only a half-step away from Huadan. He would soon go through the nine transformations of Huandan and embark on the road to achieve longevity. Before this, Jianmei was just teasing you all. If he was serious, even I could not stop him.

　　“The headmaster is close to being a celestial and controls Tiandi Jian which gave him a vague glimpse of the future. It gave him a remark. ‘No one knows when one has been cultivating for half his lifetime, the world is amazed once he gets the knack of it in one day.’ Therefore, the sect’s senior is still waiting for Jianmei’s Huandan to be completed so that he could go down the mountains and re-establish Qing Xuan’s prestige.

　　“However, he had been in Ruhua for forty years and had not reached Huandan, which created a buzz through the mountains that he was an early bloomer and expired early. He was a let down to the headmaster who favored him. These slanders had most likely made their way to his ears and because of that, Junior Brother’s Lu words may have provoked him which caused him to retaliate.

　　“Otherwise, based on his character, he would not be this irritable and rash. It was because he had been stuck at this point for so long that it was hard for him to control himself at that moment.”

　　

1. 泽陂 is one of the poems in China’s first anthology of verse, Book of Songs (Shi Jing) “诗经”. It is thought to be a love song where someone misses someone by the water side, in this context however, it is interpreted that Brother Lu misses his parents.

　　

2. 八步赶蝉 (Ba Bu Gan Chan) is a unique martial arts skill to describe the expert use of Qing Gong (轻功) to catch up with a flying cicada.

　　

3. 忠信事不显,乃有见疑患 is a verse from this poem ‘Resentment Chant'”怨歌行” by Cao Zhi (曹植).

　　

4. 法门 is translated to dharma which (originally) means the initial approach to becoming a believer of Buddhism but in this context, Daoism.

　　

5. 窍动－we couldn’t really find the exact meaning of this term but ‘qiao’ (窍) means ‘hole’. Here probably means the seven orifices on human face.
   

   　　‘dong’ (动) means ‘move’. Here probably means ‘unblocking’.
   

   　　Hence, our best guess is ‘unblocking orifices’.

　　

6. 还丹－A Daoist term to describe a state where mercuric sulfide (丹砂) was smelt into mercury, and return back to the form of mercuric sulfide after putting aside for a certain period of time.

　　

7. 步虚－ is a ceremony of pacing around an altar to express gratitude and admiration toward Daoism.

　　

8. 破妄－ to attain breakthrough from absurdity.