Chapter 81 The development of contradictory things is a spiral ascent.
"Cang Yu is leaving Wanqi and returning to Xin," Qiu Sheng said.
"Leaving Wanqi Guixin? Where is she going?" The sect leader turned to look at her. The setting sun shone through the entrance of the main hall, illuminating half of his face, while the other half was in shadow, making his features unclear.
"She said she was going to the newly built Taoist temple in Shui Linglong, the one called the Heart Sutra Hall."
The words "intellectual manipulation" lingered on the sect leader's tongue.
When Shui Linglong first announced her intention to establish the Heart Art Hall, many people criticized her actions. After all, she was one of the most promising disciples of the Incense Hall in the past. Now that the Incense Hall had collapsed, she left the hall before the other disciples to create her own Taoist practice. This behavior was like that of a former courtier who had betrayed his country, earning her a bad reputation.
The sect leader neither approved nor disapproved of Shui Linglong's actions, but felt a pang of regret that the creation of the Heavenly Secrets had been destroyed in this moment after hundreds of years.
But he didn't expect that Shui Linglong would not only create the Heart Art Hall, but also take away their disciples from the Myriad Weapons Return to the Heart Sect, including Shen Cangyu, who inherited the Kunlun Sword.
"Didn't you tell her about the Kunlun Sword and the inheritance of the Myriad Weapons Return to the Heart?" the sect leader asked, frowning. Since ancient times, the inheritor of the Kunlun Sword has been implicitly considered to be the inheritor of the Myriad Weapons Return to the Heart.
“I already said that.” Qiu Sheng repeated Shen Cangyu’s words to the sect leader, whose face darkened.
Originally, the sect leader wanted to tell Shen Cangyu her true identity before her coming-of-age ceremony, to bring her back to the Shen family, and to hold the coming-of-age ceremony and the inheritance ceremony together.
Now that Shen Cangyu is about to leave Wanqi Guixin, there are still several months before Shen Cangyu's coming-of-age ceremony. The sect leader hesitated for a moment and said, "It seems that this matter cannot wait. We will hold the inheritance ceremony immediately after the disciples' competition ends."
In Kunlun, there is freedom of belief in Daoist practices; anyone can create their own, and Kunlun will provide them with the space and will not restrict them. Shui Linglong said that establishing one's own Daoist practice does not require the sect leader's approval. It is precisely because of the diverse and flourishing Daoist practices in Kunlun that cultivators are willing to stay in this place.
Shui Linglong established her own base on a mountain peak between Kunlun and Xiaokunlun, and began to preach and teach. She held her lectures on time every day, regardless of how many people came to listen.
At first, her audience consisted only of Shen Cangyu and Ming Zhao, but gradually more people joined in.
Under the pretext of discussing mental techniques, Shen Cangyu obtained numerous handwritten copies of these techniques from Shui Linglong, all of which were created by Wan Qianzhong. Shui Linglong was overjoyed to see Shen Cangyu diligently studying mental techniques and produced many of her own treasured possessions. Shen Cangyu glanced at them and, sure enough, many of the mental technique manuals Wan Qianzhong had hidden in the library were now in Shui Linglong's hands.
Shui Linglong gave the secret manual to Shen Cangyu, who then copied it over the night and sent it to Jiang Qian, thus obtaining countless answers in return.
They tacitly understood each other, each with their own agenda.
Later, some outer disciples happened to pass by and came across Shui Linglong's lecture platform. They watched from afar, absorbing knowledge as if it were a long-awaited rain after a drought. Seeing that Shui Linglong did not stop them from listening to the lecture, they gradually approached the platform and finally mustered up the courage to sit on the ground in front of the table and listen to Shui Linglong's words.
This is exactly the result of the Water Crystal Project.
She knew that the number of inner disciples was small because Kunlun's inner sect always valued quality over quantity in selecting people. But the outer sect was different. Kunlun's outer sect had many disciples, like busy ants or bees, working for the inner disciples and connecting Kunlun with people from the outside world.
Shui Linglong wanted to incorporate this group of people into her Daoist arts.
When Lu Yuan heard Shui Linglong's plan, he felt his blood boiling, but Ming Zhao felt it was not appropriate: "People are very different. We who follow the same path can gather together because we share the same ideals and beliefs. But your path only teaches people how to use their minds and give them more abilities. What are your ideals? If the people you gather have different ideals, conflicts will arise, and I'm afraid every day in the future will be unsettled."
Having come all the way from the outer sect, Mingzhao understood the outer sect disciples far better than Shui Linglong. It wasn't that she wanted to block others' paths after entering the inner sect, but rather that she understood that clear lines were drawn, and some people simply couldn't get along; those who walked different paths could not make plans together.
“Isn’t that perfect?” Shui Linglong said. “Conflicts lead to contradictions, and contradictions drive everyone to strive for improvement in order to prove their abilities.”
She had no interest in the self-praise, mutual flattery, and polite deference of those small circles. She was more interested in seeing what sparks would fly when everyone was really going all out and clashing head-on.
“You’re right, aren’t you, Yu?” Shui Linglong suddenly said.
Shen Cangyu, who was still copying the manual, suddenly heard her words, paused in his hand, and spilled a drop of ink: "Yes."
She did discuss this topic with Shui Linglong.
She wanted to see what kind of motivation could be generated when different people came together for the same goal. Perhaps their methods would be thwarted, they would regress, and they would face rejection and resistance from others, but they would always find a new path through constant friction and collision.
The development of things is a spiral process of continuous progress.①
Shen Cangyu stumbled upon this comment in the live chat. The comments scrolled by so quickly that the message was quickly buried by the others, and she only had time to glance at it. But the style of that comment was different from the others, and she guessed that this profound and awkward sentiment might have been posted by that person again.
Shen Cangyu thought that conflict was so important; perhaps that's why novels need both protagonists and antagonists. An overly comfortable life would bore readers; the plot needs the clashes between protagonists and antagonists to generate excitement.
"Jade," Mingzhao called out to Shen Cangyu, mimicking Shui Linglong's tone.
Mingzhao had said long ago that Shen Cangyu's name was very special, the essence of which lay in the character "Yu" (玉). She sighed, "Yu, remove the dot and it becomes Wang (王), the person who named you has given you a great vision. Your status in your Penglai must be extraordinary."
Upon hearing Mingzhao's words, Shen Cangyu raised her hand to touch the jade pendant she had always worn around her neck. This was the jade pendant she had brought from home after her rebirth; it belonged to her grandmother.
She didn't know if her mother had this thought when naming her, nor did she know if her grandmother had this thought when she bought the jade pendant.
Before it is carved, jade is just a stone. Before it is carved, it is not clear whether it is a beautiful jade or a stubborn rock.
But Shen Cangyu guessed that she was probably a stubborn rock, with a bad temper and a stubborn streak that would never give up until she angered someone to death. The author probably chose her as the protagonist to see what kind of fate would come to her with such a bad temper.
Shen Cangyu thought that since she was not yet able to turn stones into gold, she would add another "point" to help her turn stones into gold.
"You'd better do your best in the upcoming disciple competition and get a good ranking," Shui Linglong said. "Once you become famous, you'll become a living advertisement for our Mind Arts Hall and we can recruit more people."
On ordinary days, Shen Cangyu also needs to take over from Shui Linglong to run the lectures, but when she teaches the art of mind, she only talks and doesn't care whether others understand it or not. She says, "I'll just talk, you just listen. I don't provide after-sales service. If you don't understand, it's your own problem. I'm not your mother, do you expect me to feed you bite by bite?"
Upon hearing Shen Cangyu's words, Shui Linglong pretended to hit her: "The disciples I finally recruited have all been driven away by you."
Shen Cangyu raised his hand to stop her, saying, "No, they didn't leave. Look, they're all still here."
A few days later, when the lecture was held again, Shui Linglong discovered that the number of disciples attending the Mind Arts Hall had not decreased, but rather increased. Although they wore sour faces, they were exceptionally focused when Shen Cangyu lectured on mind arts, and they always seized on minor details to ask her questions, trying to find loopholes in her words. Unfortunately, Shen Cangyu skillfully deflected all their questions, and in the end, they were the ones who suffered the most.
“You see, anger and hatred have become their motivation to study. They hate me, so they will study even harder, just so that one day they can crush me in the areas I excel in,” Shen Cangyu said.
“You’re much better at manipulating people’s hearts than I am,” Shui Linglong said.
She observes and records different people to deduce the path she will take in the future.
Since the author didn't provide her with the main plot or information, she had to rely on her own abilities to deduce it.
After all, they are all in the same world. If all the people, stories, and backgrounds in this world are created by the author, then Shen Cangyu can follow the author's thought process and guess the plot she will set up next.
After all, authors cannot write about things outside of their own understanding.
If this world was truly created by the author, then all the people and events depicted in her writing would be within her wildest imagination.
In addition to characters, a novel also has a plot, and their lives have ups and downs, with various plot points.
According to the plot's progression, the next climax will be the disciple competition. Shen Cangyu thought. In recent years, Kunlun has gradually returned to peace, and many of the Five Evils hidden within Kunlun have been unearthed and killed one by one. The remaining Five Evils suddenly disappeared, and even outside the mountains, no news of them has been heard. They no longer focus on the spirit pearl in the Hall of Good and Evil, perhaps because they have learned about the spirit pearl from within Kunlun.
Even the people of Kunlun couldn't figure out what the spirit pearl was for. They figured that even if they got their hands on it, they would end up with a similar fate. So they stopped trying to seize the spirit pearl and decided to wait until the people of Kunlun successfully deciphered its information before making their move.
The five evils began to lie dormant, and everything was like the calm before the storm.
Only Shen Cangyu handed the book to Wan Qianzhong, from whom he obtained a lot of information about the Five Evils.
"The evil in people's hearts will never disappear; they are just waiting for an opportunity to erupt or for a leader to guide them."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
