Sword of Coming

Inside an old and refined Daoist temple that was covered in peach trees, a healthy-looking old Daoist priest was currently sitting opposite a wizened Buddhist monk. The old monk was nothing but skin and bones, yet he was wearing a surprisingly large and loose-fitting Buddhist robe.

”How was his punch?” the old Daoist priest asked with a faint smile.

”Extreme rigidity begets brittleness,” the old monk replied slowly.

The old Daoist priest glanced at a cup of tea on the table and asked, ”Do you think we should leave this cup of peach syrup tea here? Do you think that young man will return to the peach tree forest and visit this temple to gulp down this tea?”

”Excessive talk begets mistakes,” the old monk said with no expression on his face.

The old Daoist priest wasn’t wearing his Daoist hat, and he only had an unfettered headpiece tied around his head and an old and ordinary Daoist robe on his body. He didn’t possess an impressive immortal demeanor.

He sighed softly and said, ”The three female heavenly officials of Mural City had already left their murals and each chosen a master. An Upper Five Tier cultivator from another continent has also barged into Malicious Ghost Valley with He Xiaoliang, with the two of them traveling together to Skeleton Wall City. At the same time, Yang Chongxuan is showing signs of being able to obtain that fated opportunity. If Pu Rang causes some commotion as well at this moment, causing Zhu Quan to personally lash out, then Malicious Ghost Valley will truly enter a state of utter commotion. When that time comes, our last remaining otherworldly paradise might also lose its peaceful and tranquil nature.”

”Impressive foresight, True Lord,” the wizened old monk said with a nod.

The old monk silently chanted ”Amitabha” in his mind when he heard the mention of Pu Rang.

The old Daoist priest had actually detected the fluctuation in the old monk’s mind already, but there was no need to say anything since the two of them already knew everything about each other.

The old Daoist priest gazed into the distance and said, ”To cultivators like us, even the border between life and death is fuzzy, so what place in the world isn’t a cage? The more oblivious we are, the more we feel at ease. But once we become knowledgeable, how can we truly feel at ease?”

The old monk contemplated this for a moment before lowering his head and holding his hands together in a prayer, revealing his hands that were dry and shrivelled yet covered in a golden yellow luster. ”My Buddhist knowledge is not yet able to hold up my Buddhist robe, so how can I seek an audience with Buddha? How can I ask about this ancient dilemma?”

He slowly stood up, his hands still held together in a prayer as he bowed in respect.

The old Daoist priest didn’t stick to those complicated sets of etiquette and formality when interacting with his old friend, so he simply nodded in acknowledgement.

The old monk took a step forward and vanished into thin air, returning to the Great Round Moon Monastery. Just like the Small Mystery Capital Temple, this was also an immortal abode that formed its own small world in the peach tree forest. Unless one were at the Nascent Tier, one wouldn’t be able to see or enter these immortal abodes even if one wandered around the peach tree forest for one thousand years.

There was the sound of Buddhist chants in the temple, and there was an old monk sitting still on a straw mat and several monks walking slowly with their heads lowered through the corridor. There were also young monks diligently sweeping the ground under the trees, with each monk busy with his own task. They didn’t talk to each other as they worked.

As the wizened old monk stood still and looked around, the many monks in the monastery were actually nothing but racks of white bones.

After walking around the main hall that was filled with clouds and mists that concealed the golden statues of Buddha, the wizened old monk held his hands together in a prayer, his expression devout as he quietly walked forward.

Several monks who looked similar in appearance to the wizened old monk yet were vastly different in age slowly materialized and gathered around him, someone who had almost reached a consummate level of the Golden Arhat. They were all wearing different Buddhist robes, and there were forty of them in total, with each asking a different question as they appeared. However, the wizened old monk ignored their presence and paid no heed to their words as he continued to walk forward.

A young monk said with an expression of pity, ”Why didn’t you drink that cup of peach syrup tea? Drinking it could have saved many years of cultivation! You would have taken one step closer to the Western Pure Land, and even half a step closer would have been better than nothing.”

A middle-aged monk was boiling with anger as he bellowed at the wizened old monk, ”Just what kind of Buddhism are you cultivating? There are so many ghosts and spirits in Malicious Ghost Valley, so why aren’t you releasing any of them from their state of suffering?!”

A monk wearing an extravagant Buddhist robe had a haughty expression as he peered at the wizened old monk out of the corners of his eyes and scoffed, ”This kind of ascetic cultivation is not the proper Dharma.”

An elderly monk who appeared closest in age to the wizened old monk asked in a quiet voice, ”You are me, and I am you?”

In the end, a young and slender monk stood with his back facing the wizened old monk who was slowly walking forward in a firm and resolute manner. The young monk looked toward a bamboo fence that was decorated with luxuriant peach blossoms and said in a daze, ”Beautiful peach blossoms smiling through the fence, appearing most touching as they verge on blooming.[1]

The wizened old monk paused slightly, but he quickly strode forward again before recovering his normal gait.

If a mortal human entered this monastery and didn’t look up, they would feel as if they were bathing in warm sunlight.

If they looked up, however, they would see a crescent moon hanging above their heads.

Inside the Small Mystery Capital Temple, the old Daoist priest walked over to a peach tree that towered into the clouds and squatted down, pinching up some soil and gently rubbing it between two fingers.

The soil between his fingers was ten-thousand-year-old soil, something that many cultivators in the mountains dreamed of obtaining. This soil was as heavy as gold and iron.

The old Daoist priest remained silent.

In reality, the notion of age also applied to soil, and it could also be separated into the four stages of birth, old age, disease, and death. People in the world all liked to use the saying ”immovable like the mountains,” yet this saying didn’t necessarily hold true. At the end of the day, this saying was born from the fact that mortal humans had a limited lifespan and could only see things in a hazy manner. They couldn’t see the true essence of things, nor could they see far into the future.

Because of this, there was the Buddhist saying: ”When Buddha looks at a bowl of water, what he sees is an innumerable amount of organisms.” The wizened old monk of the Great Round Moon Monastery used this principle as the foundation of his Chan meditation, but what he observed was slightly bigger than a bowl of water. He was observing the moon instead.

As for the old Daoist priest, he was observing something slightly closer than the moon. He was observing the gradual transformation of this lifeless soil over time.

The Daoist temple and the Buddhist monastery were neighbors, and the two old cultivators had engaged in debates for more than one thousand years already. However, they were still unable to settle on a victor.

Right now, they were competing to see whether he would become a Heavenly Lord first or whether the old monk would become a Bodhisattva first.

The young Daoist priest, Xu Song, trembled with fear as he walked to his master’s side, and he kept silent and didn’t dare to speak when he saw that his master was deep in thought.

The old Daoist priest didn’t turn around as he asked with a smile, ”Not only were you unable to show off your might outside the temple, but you were even given a lecture by a young martial artist. What did you think about his words? Were they reasonable?”

Holding the horsetail whisk in his arm, the young Daoist priest replied in low spirits, ”What does it matter to me even if his words were reasonable?”

The old Daoist priest nodded and tossed the soil away, using his smooth and jade-like palm to gently flatten the ground. He then stood up and said, ”As the myriad beings with spirit and the countless humans with emotion gradually ascend to higher levels, they’ll become increasingly aware of the ruthless nature of the Great Dao. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for you to learn from the Daoist priests of Mount Longhu, slaying demons and performing good deeds every day to accumulate merit and virtue. However, learning about the principles of apathy from me and pursuing the truth while seeking Dao is even better.”

The old Daoist priest smiled and continued, ”The principles of apathy don’t teach you to act violently and wantonly, killing innocent people without batting an eyelid. Rather, it teaches you to observe the cycles of the four seasons and the permanence of heaven and earth.”

The young Daoist priest solemnly bowed to his master.

The old Daoist priest turned around and looked in the direction of the Great Round Moon Monastery, saying in a soft voice, ” Desire, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. If one cultivates in earnest without eliminating these five poisons first, then one ultimately isn’t cultivating the proper Dharma and attaining Chan meditation. Rather, one will be attaining sinister meditation.”

The old Daoist priest then turned his gaze to the area north of the peach tree forest, continuing, ”Xu Song, if you’re temporarily unable to comprehend the Great Dao, then it wouldn’t hurt for you to try another method and become a good person according to the standards of mortal people. However, it’s important to keep in mind that entering the world to do good deeds is largely unrelated to the good and bad that you’ll receive back from the world. This is a different path with the same destination, and... this is also one aspect of the principles of apathy. The Dao also adheres to nature.”

However, the young Daoist priest shook his head and replied, ”I can’t become that kind of good person.”

The old Daoist priest didn’t offer a response to this.

”Master, does the genuine Mystery Capital Temple also enjoy eternal spring and have ever-blooming peach blossoms like here?” the young Daoist priest asked carefully.

The old Daoist priest smiled and replied, ”If you want to know, then you shouldn’t stay here in the Majestic World. You should travel to the Heavenly World ruled by the Daoist Sect and personally discover the truth for yourself. If you truly have such intentions, then I’ll instruct this peach tree spirit to leave with this mountain. After you leave Malicious Ghost Valley, you can first cultivate with that young sect leader with the surname He, and you can look for an opportunity to travel to the Heavenly World after that. That way, you’ll naturally have a better opportunity to visit the Mystery Capital Temple.”

The young Daoist priest earnestly shook his head and exclaimed, ”No, I won’t go, I won’t go! I’ll cultivate wherever Master is cultivating!”

The old Daoist priest lightly smacked the young Daoist priest’s head.

The young Daoist priest smiled with squinted eyes.

The old Daoist priest suddenly sighed with emotion and said, ”I just remembered that it’s already been a very long time since I last drank a bowl of gloomy tea from the Swaying River. One thousand years have passed already, so I surmise that the taste will only be richer and mellower.”

The twilight sky was dark and gloomy, and Chen Ping’an was already quite close to Green Cottage Town. There were only one hundred kilometers left as Chen Ping’an walked past a dark green lake.

When traversing across a mountain peak in the distance just then, Chen Ping’an had seen the flickering flames of a campfire over here. He had hurriedly made his way over, thinking that if he came across a wandering yin spirit, he could dispose of it and make some money from its skeleton.

He hadn’t engaged in much training yet on this trip to Malicious Ghost Valley, and he had only been involved in a single fight at Crow Peak before. Afterward, he had only thrown a single punch in the peach tree forest. On the other hand, he had already made quite a bit of money.

To say nothing of the snow-white Dao robe from Meticulous Skin City’s Lady Bai, he had also obtained a dozen or so sets of valuable skeletons. As for exactly how much these sets of crystalline white skeletons would sell for, this was quite difficult to say.

Meanwhile, even though the stream water from Treasure Mirror Mountain wasn’t especially valuable, it could at least save Chen Ping’an from some small troubles. After drinking one liter of stream water in a single breath before, Chen Ping’an had performed breathing techniques and calmed his mind, after which he had used an internal observation technique to enter his water palace. What he had seen was the green-robed children jumping in joy.

What Chen Ping’an saw near the lake was quite unexpected. There was a handsome young man dressed in dull gold robes being accompanied by two subordinates. By the looks of it, they were most likely planning to rest beside the lake for the night.

Quickly calculating their speed and the routes in Malicious Ghost Valley, Chen Ping’an guessed that they had probably visited Orchid Scent Town first, following which they continued to travel along the so-called official road after they finished sightseeing around the town. They were making a beeline for Green Cottage Town, and it was because of this that Chen Ping’an, who had taken many detours, had encountered them here.

Since they were travelling along the so-called official road, this seemingly unremarkable small lake was probably the Copper Green Lake described in the Be At Ease Compilation. Like a pair of Dao partners in nature, this lake formed a natural pair with the nearby Copper Official Mountain.

There were two species of incredibly famous fish in Copper Green Lake, but trying to catch these fish was no easy task. There was a huge list of rules, and after Chen Ping’an read through the complicated reasoning detailed in the book, he could only abandon any thoughts of trying to catch these fish himself.

There was a species of Luo fish with golden scales in the lake, and these fish had a pair of wings and a voice like mandarin ducks.[2] They were extremely exotic and precious, and one could perhaps only catch a glimpse of them once every one hundred years. It was rumored that Luo fish would always appear in pairs, and as long as one was caught and brought ashore, the other would automatically jump ashore into the fish basket as well. Luo fish were only as big as a person’s palm, yet their entire body was filled with treasures that could sell for two grain rain coins. It was said that one could become immune to the harassment of nightmares if one ate a Luo fish.

Apart from the Luo fish, there was also the silver carp. This species of silver carp was incredibly large, and it was said that they would gain half a kilogram every single year. After one hundred years, these silver carp would gain impressive strength as they roamed through the lake. Unlike the Luo fish, however, these silver carp weren’t unique to Copper Green Lake, and cultivators referred to them as small lake flood dragons.

There was nothing special about the scales and flesh of silver carp, but as branch descendants of flood dragons, the only special thing about them was that they would grow two flood dragon whiskers measuring one inch long after living for one hundred years. Afterward, these flood dragon whiskers would grow one inch every three hundred years. If these flood dragon whiskers grew to one foot in length, then they would become truly valuable natural treasures. When crafting demon-binding chains or horsetail whisks, adding such a flood dragon whisker was the best way to add icing to the cake. There were many other wonderful ways to use them.

In saying this, Chen Ping’an had fought the Flood Dragon Trench and visited Stalactite Mountain before, so he was aware that there were still Daoist priests in the world who used genuine flood dragon whiskers to craft a complete, pseudo-celestial grade horsetail whisk.

Because of this, Chen Ping’an didn’t especially covet the Luo fish and silver carp that were extremely difficult to encounter in Copper Green Lake.

Trying to catch them would be far too big a waste of time.

Looking at all of the catch records listed in the Be At Ease Compilation, the successful fishermen had all spent an exorbitant amount of time, ranging from one month to half a year. During this time, the fishermen even needed to have battles of wits and courage with the two species of immortal fish in the lake, and there were many times when they would come close to success but ultimately fall short.

Compared to Copper Green Lake, Chen Ping’an was more hopeful about his chances at Copper Official Mountain. Over there, there lived mountain-moving apes and mountain-chasing dogs with impure bloodlines.

The young man appeared unfazed at Chen Ping’an’s appearance.

The female sixth tier martial artist carrying a bow on her back and a saber by her hip shifted her feet slightly, positioning herself between her master and the uninvited guest.

Meanwhile, the elder in black remained expressionless the entire time, holding an apricot-yellow porcelain wine pot in one hand and a large piece of braised pork in his other hand as he chewed slowly.

Chen Ping’an collected dry branches in the distance and also started a campfire.

The young man and his two subordinates were clearly here for Copper Green Lake. After the elder in black finished his meat and wine, he retrieved segments of verdant green bamboo from his pocket treasure before connecting them together to make an extremely long fishing rod. The fishing line was as thin as a hair, while the golden fishing hook was as large as a palm.

The young man didn’t idle around either, and he rolled up his sleeves and squatted down beside the lake, preparing the ground bait and kneading earnestly in a wooden bowl. From time to time, he would add a scoop of lake water and retrieve a porcelain bottle to add a few drops of extremely fishy vermilion liquid.

Chen Ping’an also liked to fish, so he couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.

The young female martial artist quietly said something to the young man.

The young man raised a hand and wiped away the sweat on his forehead, saying something in reply at the same time.

The young woman stood up and walked toward Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an stood up and said, ”Apologies, it wasn’t my intention to pry.”

The young woman’s expression was cold, yet her words were relatively amiable as she said, ”It’s okay for you to watch, but Young Master said that it’s a taboo to make noise on the shore when fishing for silver carp. Just a slight movement or noise can cause the silver carp to flee far away. We’re going to cast a line approximately one hour after we lay the ground bait, so we might need you to extinguish your campfire at that time. You won’t be able to freely walk around either. If Young Master finds this too restrictive, then you can choose to rest further away from the shore.”

Chen Ping’an nodded and extinguished his campfire, deciding to move further from the shore and sit atop a tall tree. He rolled up his sleeves and continued to observe the three people fishing for immortal silver carp at night.

When the young man saw Chen Ping’an directly extinguish his campfire, he was quite surprised and turned around to give an apologetic smile. Chen Ping’an also smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

The young female martial artist returned to the young man’s side and breathed a soft sigh of relief.

The young man smiled and said, ”Big Sister Fan, the water in Copper Green Lake will truly rise by a foot if I pour these bowls of ground bait inside.”

The young woman smiled helplessly.

When trying to catch peculiar fish in large marshes and huge lakes, making ground bait was a critical step that couldn’t be skipped. This would exhaust a large amount of immortal coins, and the more precious the species of fish was, the more immortal coins the fisherman would need to spend. However, her young master was never stingy about these matters, so as word of this spread throughout the mountains to other like-minded people, her young master eventually gained the nickname One Foot Yuan.

Even though Chen Ping’an was far away, he could still tell that the young man exuding an aura of wealth had spent a huge amount of immortal coins simply for the purpose of making the ground bait.

This wasn’t a few snowflake coins he was talking about, but rather one or two lesser heat coins.

The three people started to wait quietly after laying the ground bait.

Chen Ping’an grabbed his Sword Nurturing Gourd and took a swig of stream water from Treasure Mirror Mountain. He then closed his eyes and started to rest his mind.

He only opened his eyes again when the elder in black started to cast the line.

There was a wind-like whoosh.

The fishing line carved a huge arc through the air before landing far away in the central region of Copper Green Lake.

The night was still young.

When trying to catch big fish at night, technique was naturally important, but patience was essential as well.

The young man sat on a small chair and yawned continuously as he held his cheeks in his hands.

The young female martial artist continued to stand behind him, staying guarded against the young wanderer wearing the bamboo hat in the distance. When traveling outside the mountains, one should never intend to do harm to others, but one should always remain guarded against the ill intentions of others.

Four hours later, the young man was already starting to nod off.

The elder in black gently raised the fishing rod and scattered ground bait a few times, following which he would cast the line once again. He was incredibly patient.

Meanwhile, the young female martial artist didn’t move a single muscle.

Chen Ping’an leaned against a branch and gazed up at the night sky.

Bright moon rising above the mountains, over a boundless sea of clouds.[3]

There were countless mountains and waters in the Majestic World, but there was only a single bright moon in the sky.

Chen Ping’an became slightly adrift.

He had heard that the immortal paintings of some immortal artists would have rising suns, setting moons, changing seasons, and blooming and wilting flowers contained within them.

How were heaven and earth so vast, and how were humans so tiny in contrast?

Why would a person feel lonely after growing up?

Chen Ping’an gently pulled down his bamboo hat, causing it to cover his face.

I’m doing very well, Ning Yao. Are you also doing well?

1. This is a line from Wang Zao’s poem, Spring Day. ☜

2. Luo fish (蠃鱼) are a type of peculiar fish in Chinese mythology. ☜

3. This is a line from Li Bai’s poem, The Moon over a Mountain Pass. Li Bai was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the greatest and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and in Chinese history as a whole. ☜