Starting Cultivation During a Trip

The mountain is cold and clear, the night as cool as water.

Silvery moonlight spills over the mountain, illuminating the Wang Family Mansion, the babbling brook shatters the moonlight.

Wang Qingyi sits in a wheelchair, draped in thin clothing, gazing towards the White Crane Temple dedicated to Ancestor Master Chongyang, where incense never stops burning year-round, so much so that the fragrant scent permeates every corner of the mansion.

”Brother Qingyi, the mountain is cold at night, it’s best to go back.”

Wang Qinglian approaches from behind, holding the wheelchair, looking at Wang Qingyi with some heartache.

Once a shining star, now a fallen man; he came here supposedly to recuperate, but truly it’s to escape the disputes and indifferent stares within the family.

After all, the zeal with which some people look up to you can turn into scorn with equal fervor when you fall.

In Wang Qinglian’s eyes, how could someone as proud as Wang Qingyi tolerate such cold human sentiments?

”Sunset, then moonrise; wind stirs, then chill bites; when the sky cools, clothes should be donned...” Wang Qingyi’s gaze is unfocused as he murmurs softly.

”Is this the Dao!?”

”Hmm!?” Wang Qinglian is stunned by the words and can’t help but say, ”Brother Qingyi, what are you talking about?”

”When hungry, one eats; when sleepy, one sleeps; no thoughts arise, naturally, without the slightest depletion of vital energy...”

”If one’s actions in life were all like this, even cultivation, as natural as eating and drinking, without conscious thought, without even cognition, naturally...”

”Wouldn’t that mean attaining the Dao!?” Wang Qingyi murmurs softly, as if talking to himself.

”Brother Qingyi, what are you saying? Understanding the Dao naturally requires thought,” Wang Qinglian shakes her head and whispers.

”Just like the ’Life and Death Mingzhang’ passed down by the Ancestral Master, many have spent their lives studying it, struggling to understand its mysteries; without thinking, they have no affinity with our Dao.”

As she speaks, Wang Qinglian’s gaze towards Wang Qingyi carries a hint of sorrow.

Since being crippled, Wang Qingyi’s mental state has been abnormal, often talking nonsense like this.

”Perhaps, this wasn’t the original intention of the ancestral master’s teachings.” Wang Qingyi murmurs softly.

”Just like modern scientific research, maintaining life requires three elements: glycogen, protein, fat. We obtain these from food to sustain the three components of the human body: fat, muscle, bones...”

”This is systematic and complex knowledge, but when it returns to its most simple nature, it boils down to one sentence...”

”A sentence requiring no study, no thought...”

”When hungry, eat!”

Wang Qingyi’s voice is low and his gaze gradually becomes dazed.

”Brother Qingyi...” Wang Qinglian frowns slightly, seemingly half-understanding.

”Every technique arises from thought.”

”Only non-action approaches the Dao.”

Wang Qingyi murmurs softly: ”Perhaps, eating is cultivation.”

”Non-action is the Dao.”

”Brother Qingyi!”

”What nonsense are you talking!?”

Wang Qinglian suddenly feels a sharp twitch in her brow, her expression changes slightly, sensing that Wang Qingyi’s mental state is indeed unstable; his cultivation was completely ruined, a blow too great for him.

If this continues, he’ll become deranged sooner or later, becoming a madman, an idiot, worse than crippled.

In fact, for many in the Daoist sect, this is their fate: foolish, insane, ultimately having no affinity with Pure Yang.

”Let’s go back.”

At this moment, Wang Qingyi softly speaks, pulling Wang Qinglian’s thoughts back.

”Alright!”

Wang Qinglian turns to push the wheelchair, about to return Wang Qingyi to his room.

”Qingyi...”

Suddenly, a gentle voice rises in the moonlight, Wang Qingyi turns to look, seeing a graceful silhouette slowly descending the corridor, arriving in the courtyard center.

”Yan Fei!”

”Qingyi, it’s been a few years since we last met.” Yan Fei gracefully approaches, her disciple following closely behind.

”Two or three years, I can’t remember.” Wang Qingyi shakes his head.

He recalls the last time seeing Yan Fei was when following the elders of the Wang family to Shangjing, attending the Daoist Alliance’s annual meeting.

At that time, he stayed at the White Crane Temple for three months, and in that time, became familiar with Yan Fei.

”In the span of two or three years, who would’ve thought you’d end up like this, back then you were so dynamic...” Yan Fei laments.

The evaluations from some elders at White Crane Temple about Wang Qingyi were exceptionally high; they said the Wang family might have yet another Celestial Master level figure in the future.

But, unexpectedly, someone like Wang Qingyi ended up crippled.

”What’s the point in talking about the past?” Wang Qingyi shakes his head, interrupting.

”I heard you ended up in this state because of someone named Zhang Fan...” Yan Fei’s gaze sharpens, suddenly saying.

”Who told you? Wang Qingshan?” Wang Qingyi’s eyelids lift slightly.

”He really has a big mouth.”

Saying this, Wang Qingyi shakes his head and says: ”It has nothing to do with him, you should know well who harmed me, otherwise why would White Crane Temple send you here.”

”Human Xiao!”

Beside him, Han Wenlong utters a name.

Being able to seize Wang Qingyi’s ’Life and Death True Seed,’ hidden within the vast Zhongnan Mountain, combined with various other information from White Crane Temple, it is easy to deduce that the mysterious expert that day was undoubtedly Human Xiao.

”The one who harmed you was Human Xiao, but the trouble began because of Zhang Fan.” Yan Fei states calmly.

”You’ve made a feud with him?”

Wang Qingyi is quite perceptive; speaking of which, his relationship with Yan Fei is quite limited, he doesn’t believe she would come late at night just for idle chat.

”You can’t call it a feud, just find this person suspicious.” Yan Fei states seriously.

”Not upright!” Han Wenlong uses the most authentic Shangjing accent to evaluate Zhang Fan.