Chapter 62 Part 2

Heavenly Punishment lay in its majesty. Summoning lightning to fall, anyone who couldn’t bear it would be reduced to ashes, body and soul.

Since she could see it, of course she would learn it!

But this Dao technique couldn’t be mastered just by sitting in meditation. It required “Phenomenon Observation”—observing the “image of Heavenly Thunder” to cultivate and comprehend the Dao. This Heavenly Thunder couldn’t be lightning generated by great magical power, but lightning that fell naturally. Thunderstorm days were not uncommon in the Nine Provinces, but they came and went suddenly, too brief to easily observe the image of thunder. Perhaps she needed to find a mountain where thunder never ceased—speaking of which, was there such a place in the Nine Provinces?

When in doubt, find Shizun.

As soon as Wei Mingyi came out of seclusion, she didn’t even ask about the Chongyuan Great Marsh. She released her perception and found Wu Chongyun in a pavilion by a pool beneath the cliff, reading a Dao manual.

“So fast?” Wu Chongyun looked up, somewhat surprised.

Wei Mingyi swiftly settled down beside Wu Chongyun. Her gaze swept over the Dao manual for a moment before retracting. She turned to look at Wu Chongyun, her hands naturally wrapping around Wu Chongyun’s waist. She raised her eyebrows in a smile and said, “I missed Shizun.”

Seeing Wei Mingyi, the weariness in Wu Chongyun’s eyes dissipated, her gaze clearing a few degrees. Hearing Wei Mingyi’s words brought her some joy, but she ultimately shook her head and said, “This isn’t good.” She didn’t want Wei Mingyi’s mind to wander during cultivation, nor did she want to become a hindrance in Wei Mingyi’s heart.

“I didn’t neglect my cultivation, nor was I interrupted by this,” Wei Mingyi said, understanding Wu Chongyun’s meaning. She blinked and added, “But whenever I get a moment’s leisure, I think of Shizun.”

Wu Chongyun gazed at her without speaking.

Wei Mingyi was used to her being like this. Before and after the detoxification, whether there were big changes or not didn’t matter. Whatever she was like, she was still her good Shizun. “What has Shizun been doing these past few days? Reading Dao manuals and deducing Dao scriptures? Did Shizun miss me?”

A string of questions entered her ears. Wu Chongyun’s eyes fixed on Wei Mingyi, only watching her lips open and close. As for the questions… they truly registered moments later. She lowered her head and gave a soft “Mn.”

“What does ‘Mn’ mean?” Wei Mingyi asked knowingly. She had said so much, and Shizun answered three questions with a single word—wasn’t that too perfunctory?

“Reading Dao scriptures,” Wu Chongyun answered again. Meeting Wei Mingyi’s burning, brilliant gaze, she hesitated for a moment and then said, “I did.”

She wasn’t stupid; she knew what Wei Mingyi wanted to hear. She could pretend to be deaf and mute, but a sincere heart deserved a response.

She and Wei Mingyi were together day and night. Aside from seclusion, there were few moments of separation.

Perhaps initially she hadn’t noticed, but when sitting alone at night, her heart inevitably felt a bit empty.

Wu Chongyun could very well banish these emotions, not letting them affect her cultivation of the Earthly Dharma Body, but the longing was real.

If one day… the drifting thoughts instantly stilled like water. She wouldn’t think about that “if,” and at the same time, suppressed the surging tide in her heart.

“I knew it,” Wei Mingyi’s joy was written all over her face. She lowered her head and nuzzled closer to Wu Chongyun. When Wu Chongyun’s hand landed on her head and gently stroked it twice, she raised her head and said, “Shizun did very well.”

Wu Chongyun: “…” She sighed softly, feeling somewhat awkward. “No need to coax me.”

Wei Mingyi praised her every time, but they were only small, insignificant matters.

Was it necessary?

Wei Mingyi looked at her with a smile. “Truly not needed?”

Wu Chongyun’s eyelashes trembled, and she made no sound.

The smile on Wei Mingyi’s face grew wider. She let go of Wu Chongyun and lightly flicked the whisk twice. “Shizun, I have a question.”

Wu Chongyun looked at her. “Hmm?”

Wei Mingyi asked, “Has Shizun ever heard of the ‘Eastern Lord’?” A Dao manual that could only be read after Skill Approaches Dao—its subject was definitely not an ordinary figure. In the scroll, He existed as a creator deity. But when she looked into the origins of cultivation in the Nine Provinces, she saw it described as: Heaven and Earth manifested the Dao, the Ancient Sages transmitted it. And “Ancient Sages” referred to the Ten Shamans who established Taiyi, the ancestors of cultivators. How did Heaven and Earth transmit the Dao? Were there truly traces of divine beings?

Wu Chongyun pondered for a moment and said, “A hundred years ago, there was still another legend. Heaven and Earth manifested the Dao, and divine beings transmitted it. The Ten Shamans obtained the method and established Taiyi.” Ten thousand years could be said to be long or short. With the disintegration of Taiyi, the rise of the clans suppressing sects, and the struggle between the Wild Domain and the Pure Domain, many Dao transmissions were lost. No one knew how the earliest people had obtained the Dao.

After a moment of silence, Wu Chongyun asked seriously, “Where did you learn this? From Lang Fengya?”

“No.” Wei Mingyi quickly said, “I came to find Shizun the moment I came out.” She thought for a moment and explained, “After thoroughly comprehending the 【Six Classics Unrolled】, a 【Eastern Lord’s Song of Dao Transmission: Heavenly Punishment】 was made manifest.” As she spoke, Wei Mingyi took out a Jade Slip capable of recording Dao techniques. But no matter how she tried to trace it with her magical power, she couldn’t leave a single character related to the content of the 【Eastern Lord’s Song of Dao Transmission】.

“A True Canon Within a Canon?” Wu Chongyun pressed her whisk against Wei Mingyi’s hand, stopping her, and said, “Only the fated can obtain it.”

“A True Canon Within a Canon?” Wei Mingyi heard another unfamiliar term. As an outsider, this was the trouble—many common knowledge things she didn’t know, and Shizun also didn’t know she didn’t know. “Is it common?”

Wu Chongyun said, “Not common. The great Dao is profound and inexplicable. Only Earth-tier and Heaven-tier scriptures have the possibility of containing a canon within a canon. It might be something left by a predecessor, or triggered by heavenly mechanisms.”

With Shizun’s talent, had she also glimpsed a True Canon Within a Canon? Wei Mingyi considered this for a moment but didn’t ask further. She said with distress, “I comprehended a lightning technique called ‘Heavenly Punishment’ from it. But to learn this Dao technique, I need to engage in Phenomenon Observation. The thunderbolts in the mortal world are too fleeting—they’re not convenient to observe.”

Wu Chongyun answered without hesitation, “The Shifang Celestial Palace has a Ten Thousand Thunder Mountain where heavenly thunder never ceases. The Chen Clan Daoists use it to temper their artifacts.”

Wei Mingyi immediately frowned upon hearing it belonged to the Shifang Celestial Palace. She asked, “Is there anywhere else?”

“There are, but not as good,” Wu Chongyun said calmly. Since it required “Phenomenon Observation,” one had to observe the most suitable celestial phenomena. Moreover, they had to go to the Shifang Celestial Palace anyway. “The external medicine you need to condense your Dan Seed requires Pure Yang Essence. It grows at the Edge of Heaven. And the Edge of Heaven is within the Thousand Mechanisms Mountain controlled by the Chen Clan.”

“Then we’ll wait until I’m closer to the Foundation Establishment 3rd Layer to go,” Wei Mingyi said. Shizun had mentioned earlier that the external medicine must be consumed on the spot; it was still too early. As for “Phenomenon Observation,” it could wait. It wouldn’t be too late to go after she’d thoroughly studied the Dao manual.

“I wonder how things are on the Heart-Questioning Steps. I want to go take a look,” Wei Mingyi murmured. She didn’t expect Wu Chongyun to answer. Although the poison was cured, Shizun’s weariness and indifference towards “worldly affairs” seemed permanently etched into her being.

Wu Chongyun frowned. Unlike when discussing cultivation methods, she only said two words: “Too hurried.”

Dao scriptures were hard to interpret, but a Shizun’s heart could be understood.

Wei Mingyi immediately knew Shizun was concerned she was burdened with too much.

There was Feng Cangcang watching over things, and if she couldn’t handle it, wasn’t there still the Sect Leader? It truly wasn’t her place to worry. She was only a bit curious.

But this bit of curiosity, compared to Shizun, could be immediately thrown aside.

Wu Chongyun asked her, “What are you thinking of?”

Wei Mingyi’s tone was somewhat muffled: “Playing the zither.”

Wu Chongyun stared at her. “You want to learn?”

Wei Mingyi’s eyelid twitched. What joke was this? At best, she could “moo” a couple of notes at the zither.

But learning the zither should involve practicing finger techniques? Taught personally by Shizun…

The thoughts flipped in an instant. Finally, Wei Mingyi nodded firmly, mustering the same drive she’d used for the college entrance exams: “I want to learn!”

Half a day later.

Wei Mingyi stared blankly at the projected figure playing the zither outside the pavilion, pressing both hands on the strings.

She tilted her head and saw Wu Chongyun by the incense burner, calmly and intently deducing Dao scriptures. The complaint that had rushed to her lips dissipated unknowingly.

The zither, she simply couldn’t learn.

Watching Wu Chongyun’s look of total concentration, she also calmed her mind and settled into studying the Dao manual.

Until the moon was at its zenith, and the shadows of flowers were scattered.

“The wind has picked up,” Wei Mingyi stretched lazily.

Wu Chongyun raised her hand to catch a drifting flower petal. She said softly, “The wind never stopped.”

–

A hurricane rose from the flat ground, blowing past the hanging bells under the eaves and producing a string of noisy clatters.

As an increasingly eerie owl-like screech sounded, the atmosphere grew more and more heavy and terrifying.

The sinister shadow of ghosts came and went without form, while the Daoist within, clutching her wound, was clearly at the end of her strength. Just as the slyly grinning shadow was about to entangle the Daoist, a whistling sound rang out. A keenly sharp sword light tore through the thick darkness, chopping onto the shadow. The shadow’s form stiffened. In that pause, the sword’s edge abruptly flashed, beheading it in an instant.

“A Foundation Establishment Daoist? Only at the 1st Layer? Hmm? No, it’s a Wicked Wraith.” As the voice fell, the sword-wielding Daoist stepped out from the shadows. The moonlight illuminated the bright side of her face, revealing a sharpness like a sword’s edge.

“Wu Weibai? Why have you come to the Lifeless Land?” The previously wounded Daoist didn’t answer the question but looked at her in surprise.

“You can come, but I cannot?” Wu Weibai said lazily.

“We’re different,” the Daoist said after a moment of silence.

“Aren’t we all true disciples of the sects?” Wu Weibai reached out and pulled the Daoist on the ground to her feet.

“You came because you lost the Heavenly Dao’s Paragon Debate?” the Daoist spoke again, then after a pause, added, “I’m sorry.”

The Three Sects had, in fact, stayed until the very final moments. No matter the circumstances, since Wu Weibai had decided to withdraw, the ultimate blame fell on her alone. Almost everyone was blaming her.

“It wasn’t because of that,” Wu Weibai said calmly. There were many voices in the sect. The Three Sects lost the Heavenly Dao’s Paragon Debate, true, but weren’t the clans even more humiliated? She had just been confined for a while. As for the Lifeless Land, she had come on her own accord. She had heard Fellow Daoist Wei Wuwang was stationed in the Wild Domain; she felt she could do the same. With her background, she could have cultivated in the safe places of the Pure Domain, but she was unwilling.

“Intelligent Wicked Wraiths have been appearing for a while now. Has no one investigated clearly yet? Haven’t the Shifang Celestial Palace’s artifacts been delivered? What if those Wicked Wraiths cross the Lifeless Land and enter the Pure Domain?” Wu Weibai fired off several more questions.

The Daoist was silent.

She was from the Three Sects, but only had Foundation Establishment cultivation. There were things she wasn’t at liberty to say.

By the time Wei Mingyi arrived in the Wild Domain—

She heard even more about the Wicked Wraiths causing chaos in the Lifeless Land.

Lang Fengya was somewhat worried, afraid Wicked Wraiths might infiltrate the Fire Element Dwelling.

Wei Mingyi was very calm.

On the Public Pavilion’s billboard, she left a message: The Mountain Protection Array can block all Wicked Wraiths.

Did the Lifeless Land still not have a method to distinguish them?

No matter. She could identify them here. There was no need to fear Fellow Daoists degenerating into Wicked Wraiths.

The moment they degenerated, they wouldn’t be able to enter.