Chapter 67: The Sect’s Past

Having laid bare the matter of the Chaos remains, Ding Songyan watched his master’s expression with extreme care, ready at any moment to disrupt the Six Directions, affect the Four Seasons, and flee to the ends of the earth.

The usually composed Tao Wenshu showed a rare flicker of emotion across her face as she looked at Ding Songyan as though a candle flame had lit in her eyes and said nothing for a long while.

Skilled at reading people, Ding Songyan saw frustration and loss in her face—which eventually settled into relief and gratitude.

Once the horses descended from the stone bridge, the iron-crowned Tao Wenshu let out a long breath.

"You were right to conceal it yesterday. Otherwise I cannot be certain I would not have given in to greed and done something shameful. Had that happened, years of cultivation would have been ruined in an instant, and half a lifetime of good name washed away."

She went on to explain, "My predicament resembles Zhen Qianfan’s. If I could consume the Chaos remains, every problem would resolve itself at once. How could I not be tempted? How could I not feel any greed? Back at Chengyu Lane, I thought you had eaten something else."

"Your foundation is unstable as well, Master?" Seeing Tao Wenshu speak so frankly, Ding Songyan set down his guard and turned his concern to her.

Tao Wenshu held the reins with one hand and smoothed a stray lock at her temple with the other.

She gazed at the stretching green fields along the road and the fortified villages and hamlets in the distance, and sighed.

"It is a long story, and it begins with the dynasty’s southern migration more than two hundred years ago.

"Our Brightnight Sect’s arts are special, and we have long been a thorn in the side of heretic factions. When the calamity struck, our losses were worse than any other sect’s. By the time we reached Ning Province, only two Grandmasters and a few dozen disciples remained. Even the cultivation-teaching Elders had died. A handful of disciples who had learned from them survived, but none had completed their training.

"Of the three fundamental scriptures, the Brightnight Grand Method was lost entirely. The Celestial Stars Scripture and the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra both had gaps in their aperture forging and viscera installation sections. Without completing them, once the two remaining Grandmasters died, the Brightnight Sect would have gradually declined, sink into obscurity, and eventually be reduced to a footnote in a history book.

"Our forebears were grief-stricken and discouraged, but none gave up. One disciple who had only recently joined later became the third sect master after the sect was re-established in Ning Province—Patriarch Pei Yuan. He had a sudden inspiration one day.

"He reasoned that in the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas, the goddesses Brightnight and Candleflame are described together as one. And every past patriarch had said that the three fundamental scriptures ultimately converge into a single whole despite taking different paths. Was it not possible, then, to use the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra to complete the Celestial Stars Scripture, and the Celestial Stars Scripture to complete the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra?"

That’s right, in the Secret Classic, Brightnight and Candleflame share a single description: "Starlight, candleflame, illuminates the long night, penetrates the deepest dark"... Ding Songyan listened to the sect’s history with great interest.

Tao Wenshu glanced at the few late-ripening yellow plums visible in the forest ahead, and her expression grew solemn without her noticing.

"It was extremely dangerous. But for the survival of the sect, many Great Proliferation Realm disciples stepped forward of their own accord to make the attempt. Some suffered deviations and ended up bedridden. Some suffered recurring hallucinations and hanged themselves years later. Some made no further progress at all. Some even regressed in their martial arts. But all of them reported their experiences faithfully to the two Grandmasters, who compared what they heard against their own memories of aperture forging and revised the relevant techniques accordingly.

"By the time both scriptures were provisionally fixed and ready for cultivation, only a handful of the original disciples who had not yet begun aperture forging were left unscathed.

"Patriarch Pei Yuan lived up to everyone’s hopes. More than ten years later, he reached the Dharma Realm by cultivating the restored Celestial Stars Scripture, though he remained forever confined to lesser mastery. Based on his own experience, he made further refinements to both arts.

"And so the Brightnight Sect has passed the flame down, generation after generation, using the lessons of those before as fuel, using that fuel to light the road for those who follow. We now have the Celestial Stars Scripture and the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra as they stand today. The Dharma Realm remains difficult to reach, but a genuine path forward has been carved out.

"Yet a hidden flaw remains. My Dharma Realm has long been at greater mastery, but no matter what I try, I cannot sense the void’s vital energy corresponding to the last three exterior apertures. The perfected Dharma Realm is beyond me, to say nothing of the Heaven-Man Realm. It is like building a tower whose every level leans slightly. Past a certain floor, the accumulated slant becomes irreversible, and no further height is possible.

"Seen in that light, if we wait generations upon generations, each one correcting earlier parts of the scriptures, perhaps the road to the Heaven-Man Realm could eventually be paved. But if I consumed those Chaos remains, I could achieve the perfected Dharma Realm at once, while encompassing all I have already learned, I would have genuine hope of reaching the Heaven-Man Realm through the Chaos path.

"If I truly became a Supreme Master, with the power to Manifest the Way and its Virtue, paired with everything I have learned over the years, I could genuinely derive and complete the Celestial Stars Scripture and the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, freeing future disciples from being trapped at the Dharma Realm and restoring the Brightnight Sect to the ranks of the top sects.

"Songyan, if you had not concealed it yesterday, I truly might not have withstood the temptation."

This was no longer merely Tao Wenshu’s own longing. It was the obsession of generation after generation of Brightnight Sect forebears—an obsession accumulated across nearly two hundred and sixty years.

Before Ding Songyan could respond, Tao Wenshu gave a soft laugh.

"From now on, that burden falls to you."

The Brightnight Sect master wore a look of ease, as though she had broken through some inner barrier in the telling of it.

"I am willing to do so, Master," Ding Songyan said solemnly.

It was not only because of the conduct of Tao Wenshu and Zheng Zhuxi, and what had just been told to him that had given him a sense of belonging to the Brightnight Sect. It was also because he had long wanted to find out just how far Manifesting the Way and its Virtue could take him.

He held the reins and, following the thread of conversation, asked, "Master, I heard Yan Changqing say that seven or eight in ten who become Grandmasters by consuming divine objects end up trapped at the Dharma Realm and cannot achieve the Heaven-Man Realm. Is that so?"

"Yan Yong did not deceive you in that." Tao Wenshu considered it a moment and smiled faintly. "But you—you are not truly a Grandmaster in that sense, are you?"

"In three years at the least, five at most, my realm and strength will recede." Ding Songyan did not hide it.

Tao Wenshu looked out again over the green fields and nodded.

"Three years should be enough. Unlike those who became Grandmasters in a single leap, you must not only probe the changes in your body and create the corresponding techniques, you must also walk the entire cultivation path in reasonably complete fashion. That is your weakness, but it is also where you surpass them. As long as each step is taken with solid footing, and each step is a tempering of mind and self, when you truly reach the perfected Dharma Realm, stepping into the Heaven-Man Realm will be no harder for you than for a Grandmaster from a major sect who cultivated there by normal means.

"During these three years, ensure you guard against arrogance and impatience."

"I was already thinking of cultivating diligently these three years." Ding Songyan relieved some of her worries.

He turned to another matter.

"Master, traits like ’Establishing the Six Directions’ and ’Dividing the Four Seasons’ require me to act deliberately in order to portray them. But ’Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil’ seems to be ever present. How should I rein it in?"

"Many traits are permanently active, taking effect at all times. To rein them in, you must reach the Heaven-Man Realm and achieve complete mastery over yourself." Tao Wenshu’s explanation was brief.

So I need to become a Supreme Master... Until then, I can only exchange letters with Miss Xiao Qing? Ding Songyan slowly exhaled.

Tao Wenshu smiled then.

"I was just about to ask whether you would take the Celestial Stars Scripture or the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra as your primary scripture. Though both ultimately lead to the same place, below the Dharma Realm one cannot cultivate them equally—one must be primary and the other supplementary. I myself only reached Dharma Realm lesser mastery before my Candlelight Sword Intent was able to match my primary scripture without falling short.

"Since you consumed the Chaos remains and can encompass all methods, there is no need to distinguish primary from supplementary. Simply cultivate both. Your Senior Sister Zheng majors in the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, and Senior Brother Xu takes the Celestial Stars Scripture as his primary text. The other senior brothers and sisters each have their own strengths. If I am away from the sect, you may seek guidance from any of them."

Hearing this, Ding Songyan recalled something else and spoke up quickly.

"Master, I would like to conceal my current realm for the time being, keeping it from fellow disciples until I truly reach the Dharma Realm or the perfected Dharma Realm before making it public. First, if it were exposed, the imperial court and other sects might suspect that what I previously said was not entirely truthful, and draw unwanted conclusions. Second, I have no martial arts yet matching my realm. If challenged by a young Grandmaster, I’ll be severely disadvantaged, making steady step-by-step cultivation difficult."

Tao Wenshu paused, the corners of her eyes softening.

"This was precisely my intention."

Though she was past forty, as a first-rank Grandmaster with a lifespan of over 120 years to a maximum of 150 years, her face bore not a wrinkle, and she looked no older than a woman in her early thirties.

Tao Wenshu said seriously, "As I mentioned just now, the Brightnight Sect’s arts are special, and we are a persistent thorn in the side of many heretic factions. If they learned that a disciple of ours had a genuine prospect of reaching the Heaven-Man Realm and completing the Celestial Stars Scripture and the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, they would move to eliminate you without delay. Expect major figures of the heretic path to come looking for trouble.

"While you remain within the sect you will be safe enough. But the later stages of tempering mind and self will require you to travel the jianghu. If the truth has already spread by then, the danger will be excessive.

"I will inform the other four Grandmasters within the sect; otherwise, they might allocate resources by rank and shortchange you. I will help you conceal it for as long as possible."

Ding Songyan breathed easier at that and followed his master in quickening their pace, heading toward Alpine Lake Mountain more than a hundred miles southwest of Dingjiang Prefecture City.

To the rhythm of hoofbeats, Tao Wenshu continued to think, sometimes mentioning how she would use the submission of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas as a pretext to grant her disciple Grandmaster-level treatment, and sometimes introducing him to various matters of the sect.

Ding Songyan took the opportunity to observe the landscape outside the city.

The roads were flat and the fields plentiful, but every village and town had fortified itself into a walled enclave. Manors and earthen towers appeared one after another. They were small but complete in every function. Few people lived in isolated dwellings outside these communities.

This was the other face of a flourishing martial world—banditry that could never be fully stamped out, and heretic practitioners everywhere.

A little over two hours later, as they alternated between galloping and resting the horses, the two of them arrived at Alpine Lake Mountain.

At the foot of the mountain on the left stood a sizable town, its walls built high.

"Life on the mountain is austere. Many disciples find it hard to remain there long-term once they’ve started families, but they cannot stray too far from the sect either. So they settle in the villages at the foot of the mountain and come up only when needed. That is how Alpine Lake Town gradually took shape." Tao Wenshu gave a brief introduction. "There are community theaters, martial arts halls, acrobatic troupes, taverns, and all manner of shops."

Ding Songyan glanced at the bustling town gate, then followed his master in handing their horses to several disciples at the mountain entrance, and they began climbing the rough and difficult road upward.

Along the way they passed Brightnight Sect sentries at intervals, and the dense mountain forest seemed to conceal hidden lookouts as well.

Ding Songyan observed as he walked, drawing on his Grandmaster realm to keep pace with his master without falling a single step behind.

After one incense stick’s worth of time, the view before him suddenly opened wide.

There at the mountain’s waist lay a flat lake, its waters crystalline and clear. Tall and short buildings, pavilions and courtyards surrounded it on all sides. The lake itself mirrored the deep green of the mountains and the brilliant blue of the sky. It was dreamlike, otherworldly, and breathtakingly beautiful.

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