Chapter 22 The Daoist Arts: Hatred and Jealousy – Swords and Knives
Shen Cangyu propped his elbows up against the railing, watching the crowds of people coming and going on and off the boat.
Some people carried bulging sacks off the boat, filled with goods such as tea and cloth. Others carried several large baskets covered with paper onto the boat, which smelled of freshly dried fish and shrimp.
A man who appeared to be in charge stood beside the gangplank, holding an account book and counting the goods, checking the quantities. The pages fluttered and turned into banknotes, piling up to form trade routes connecting goods from all directions.
Shen Cangyu looked at them and felt a sense of kinship, after all, they were practically colleagues.
The merchant ship had a canteen, but the food there was expensive. Unless they were completely out of food, passengers wouldn't spend money to buy food there. After all, if they ate a few more meals, all the money they had earned on the voyage would be gone.
Whether by land or water, traveling long distances always takes a lot of time. This is why many people wish they possessed the magical power of "Free and Easy Wandering," which allows them to conjure fish-shaped carts and travel freely across the land, unhindered by mountains or seas, without restraint.
However, while the Free and Unfettered Journey is useful, it has few disciples. The Free and Unfettered Journey requires a strict inner state, and the disciples who inherit it must go beyond the Six Extremes, wander in the land of nothingness, and dwell in the wilderness of Kuanglang①.
Daoist teachings have two schools: the one that transcends the world and the one that engages with it. The "Free and Easy Wandering" school belongs to the one that transcends the world. It requires its disciples to live in seclusion, to study the universe and their own hearts, to care about no one else and not to get involved in other people's struggles. They should communicate with the spirit of the universe, not be arrogant towards all things, not condemn right and wrong, and live in harmony with the world.
The Free and Unfettered School is the most inactive lineage, which is why Shen Cangyu was so shocked when she saw Elder Qingxiao of the Free and Unfettered School on Blind Mountain. She didn't know what methods Elder Hongyu, who controls the causal chain, and Hall Master Huang, who holds the Judge's Pen, had used to persuade Elder Qingxiao to leave the mountain and drive the fish cart around the world to find Pei Wenjing.
Logically speaking, Pei Wenjing was a child they had raised themselves; no one should know his character better than them. Why did they insist on his death?
Is it hatred?
But in the eyes of the carefree wanderers, there is no right or wrong, cause and effect, no truth or falsehood, good or evil. They have no feelings, so where does hatred come from?
Shen Cangyu still couldn't understand it.
*
Xu Qiubai knocked on Shen Cangyu's door, intending to invite Shen Cangyu to eat in the cafeteria. But as soon as Shen Cangyu opened the door, he was greeted by the irresistible aroma of meat buns. His eyes widened as he stared at the meat bun in Shen Cangyu's hand: "You went to find food without inviting me! You're eating all by yourself!"
Shen Cangyu immediately clarified, "I didn't go to the cafeteria."
"Then where did you come from?"
Shen Cangyu blinked: "I bought it at the dock."
Xu Qiubai threw a hysterical tantrum, yelling, "You secretly bought food without telling me! You left me to starve all by myself!" Even Lu Yuan, who was lying on the table, was picking at the minced meat in his meat bun. He waited alone in the room for a long time, but no waiter came to ask for food. Only then did he go out to find Shen Cangyu to go out and find something to eat.
But to their surprise, they had already started eating.
"Shh!" Shen Cangyu quickly made a shushing gesture, afraid that he would disturb others. "I have plenty of food here, so you won't go hungry. If you want to eat, you should have come to me earlier."
Xu Qiubai stopped: "Really?"
Shen Cangyu closed the door and used magic to summon a full array of food from the jade pot, placing it on the table for him to choose from: "What do you want to eat? I'll heat it up for you. I thought we'd be traveling for a long time, so I prepared a lot of food, enough to last until we reach the next dock."
She took out a portable small bronze stove, lit it, and the flames heated the stove.
Xu Qiubai stared at the small white jade pot hanging from her waist for a while, then suddenly said, "I want to eat that meat bun in your hand."
“Okay.” Shen Cangyu didn’t notice his gaze and only picked out meat, vegetables and baked buns from the ingredients.
She cut the baked bun in half and set it aside, saying, "Wait a moment."
She took out the frozen meat, cut off a portion and threw it into the copper stove, poured in the braising liquid, covered it, and heated it.
Pei Wenjing had a small icebox in his jade pot. She had asked Pei Wenjing about it, and he simply told her to use it as she pleased. Since Pei Wenjing was letting her use it, she didn't stand on ceremony. She prepared a lot of meat and threw it all into the icebox to freeze, so she could eat it on the road.
Xu Qiubai smelled the aroma of the braising sauce and quietly swallowed.
Shen Cangyu then took out several fruits of different shapes, cut them into small cubes, skillfully clipped them together, and stuffed them into the steamed buns.
"What kind of fruits are these?" Xu Qiubai asked, looking at the pile of unfamiliar fruits on the table.
Shen Cangyu gave him instructions one by one, telling him the names of the fruits. Xu Qiubai listened in a daze, but when he sniffed, he found that the fruits were very pungent and did not seem like edible things.
“These fruits are hard to swallow on their own, but they add flavor when added to dishes,” she explained.
Shen Cangyu then took the cooked meat chunks out of the copper stove, chopped them into minced meat on the cutting board, and stuffed them into the baked buns.
She handed the prepared meat bun to Xu Qiubai, who took it blankly and couldn't resist taking a bite.
The first bite was intensely spicy, making him cough a few times. But after the spiciness subsided, the sweet and sour taste of the fruit blended with the minced meat soaked in the braising sauce, and paired with the chewy baked bun, creating a rich and satisfying flavor explosion in his mouth.
Xu Qiubai had never tasted anything so delicious in Kunlun. Since meeting Shen Cangyu, he had enjoyed all sorts of delicacies he had never seen before.
"How can you do everything?" he exclaimed in admiration. "You can cook, you know a lot, and you're skilled in swordsmanship. Are all the people of Penglai so amazing?"
“No,” Shen Cangyu mumbled, taking a big bite of his meat bun, “I’m the only one who’s good at it.”
"By the way, where did Senior Brother go?" Shen Cangyu suddenly remembered. "He probably hasn't eaten yet. I'll go look for him."
Xu Qiubai watched her retreating figure. When he came to his senses, he had already finished the meat bun in his hand, leaving only a thin layer of oil on his hands.
*
Pei Wenjing was standing on the deck, leaning against the railing, enjoying the sea breeze.
Below us stretched the boundless sea, where water and sky met, with no end in sight. Compared to the vast ocean, this large ship was as insignificant as a leaf. And compared to heaven and earth, so too is man.
Shen Cangyu once said that she gets seasick, but Pei Wenjing thought she was lying. How could someone who lives on an island and goes out to sea often get seasick?
When the boat was moored at the shore, Pei Wenjing felt nothing, but now that the boat was moving and swaying with the waves, he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
I feel nauseous.
vomit.
He shouldn't have questioned Shen Cangyu's words; he understood how she felt. So this is what seasickness feels like. Pei Wenjing felt like he was being stuffed into a bucket and constantly shaken, his stomach churning, his head spinning, and even his brain felt like it was being shaken to its core.
The air in the room was stuffy, and even with the window open, Pei Wenjing felt suffocated. Only when he came out of the cabin and stood at the bow of the ship, feeling the sea breeze, did the dizziness gradually subside.
He used to be in excellent health, with a solid foundation and a stable inner core, rarely falling ill. Unexpectedly, this injury damaged his golden core, causing illness to strike like a landslide, as if trying to make up for all the illnesses he had accumulated over the years. Whenever he used his mental cultivation techniques or internal energy, his heart would ache faintly.
He tried to regulate his breathing every day, but the effect was not significant. It seems that he can only wait until he returns to Kunlun to take medicine and recuperate properly.
When he closed his eyes, the fire in his mind surged up again. Originally, after activating the Tai Chi Dao technique, the sea of fire had receded considerably, but now that he was injured, the fire took advantage of his vulnerability and returned, compressing the space to just a foothold.
Everything has to start all over again.
Now that he has inherited the Daoist teachings, he no longer wanders aimlessly as before. He has a direction, like a drowning person finding the last rope.
In Kunlun, each elder has a different Taoist method, and their thoughts and pursuits are also different.
The sect leader possesses the bloodline of the Kunlun Immortal Lord. He cultivates the Daoist technique "All Weapons Return to the Heart," seeking the unity of man and weapon. In the end, man transforms into weapon, and weapon transforms into man, the two merging together. The path he wants to follow is that of the Kunlun Immortal Lord.
The deities behind different Taoist practices have different personalities. Some deities will pass on their divine power to all their disciples, such as the Heavenly Fragrance Goddess.
Some of the deities behind certain Taoist practices have long since disappeared, and disciples can only comprehend these practices on their own, such as the Free and Easy Wandering.
Some Taoist practices are backed by countless deities, like a large family, such as Wen Cang Sheng.
The Myriad Artifacts Return to the Heart under the Kunlun Immortal Lord can only be passed on to one successor. Whoever obtains it will succeed, acquire the immortal's remains, and ascend to immortality.
Becoming an immortal simply by inheriting something without cultivating one's mind would be too easy, which is why so many people want to seize this opportunity to ascend to immortality in one step.
Unfortunately, hundreds of years have passed, and the Kunlun Immortal Master has disappeared without a trace, never choosing a new successor.
Back then, the Kunlun Sect Leader relentlessly researched swordsmanship, striving to reach its pinnacle, all in hopes of winning the favor of the Kunlun Immortal Lord and inheriting the Myriad Weapons Returning to the Heart technique. Unfortunately, he has yet to succeed.
The sect leader stayed on Kunlun Mountain for decades, never choosing any other path. He was determined to stick to one path and try to move the Kunlun Immortal Lord with his sincerity.
Unfortunately, sometimes sincerity alone is not enough.
Later, the sect leader took in several disciples, who were just as single-minded as him, only wanting to obtain the return of all things to their hearts.
Perhaps it's because they've started down that path, and they feel unwilling to give up until they've walked it completely. If they give up halfway, all the efforts they've made in the first half of their lives will be in vain.
Pei Wenjing didn't know if they had ever regretted it even for a moment.
When Pei Wenjing was three years old, he went up the mountain. The boundary marker of the Kunlun Immortal Lord lit up, and he heard the message from the Kunlun Immortal Lord. The Immortal Lord personally designated him as the successor of the "All Things Return to the Heart".
But at the same time, in the dazzling light of the boundary marker, he saw the hateful and jealous looks in the eyes of his former senior brothers and sisters who had once doted on him, like countless knives piercing his heart. He was a little scared and turned to look at his adoptive master, only to unexpectedly see the same expression on his face.
He hid it well, but Pei Wenjing still saw it.
At that time, Pei Wenjing didn't understand what "all things returning to the heart" truly meant, but he vaguely knew that if he obtained this inheritance, everything would change. So he kicked the boundary marker down the mountain and ran away amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd.
He thought that as long as he severed his connection with the Kunlun Immortal Lord, his master and his senior brothers and sisters would treat him as before.
Unfortunately, they can never go back.
His biggest regret at the time was that when he was three years old, he went up to the Heavenly Palace on the Cloud Peak, approached the boundary marker, and heard the voice of the Kunlun Immortal Lord inside the boundary marker. He thought, how wonderful it would be if the Kunlun Immortal Lord were not here.
That was the first time he understood what it meant to "possess a treasure and be guilty of it".
He discovered that wherever he went, he could hear the deities behind the Taoist arts extending invitations to him. He became extremely arrogant, telling everyone that he would abandon all Taoist arts and devote himself to the art of the mind, and that he would travel the world through the art of the mind.
In reality, he was afraid that no matter which Daoist method he inherited, he would break off his relationship with the elders and disciples under that method.
If inheriting the Dao means losing something, then he hopes that he can inherit a Dao that no one else has.
In the whole world, there is only one him.
A note from the author:
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