Uncanny Immortal 111

Chapter 111

A look of bewilderment appeared on Xie Qingzheng’s face.

—The Way of Transcending Emotion, to be entangled in karma, yet able to let go of everything, not to deliberately suppress the seven emotions and six desires, everything is allowed to develop naturally, but like a wild goose flying past without leaving a trace, not to be moved by emotions, not to be troubled by feelings, even if there are feelings, it is as if they have been forgotten.

This was what Senior Sister Min He had told her.

Xie Qingzheng’s gaze moved to the two characters for “Yaoguang,” and she suddenly thought of a person. The probing intention in her heart cooled a little.

She said with some disappointment, “Senior Mu Ning of the Yaoguang sect also cultivates the Way of Transcending Emotion. I can guess the choice of people like you.”

People like them, who were heartless yet seemed to have feelings, and who had feelings yet seemed to be heartless, even if they were entangled in private feelings, could in the end let go.

Thinking of Mu Ning, she naturally also thought of Tan Yuan. Xie Qingzheng shook her head. “It’s not as good as the Way of Heartlessness. Don’t give people hope from the very beginning. Someone like Senior Mu Ning, who gave people hope, and after a lingering entanglement of love and hate, in the end, she herself let go and ascended to the upper realm, leaving Tan Yuan alone in the mortal world…”

No matter how that Miao woman who went by the name “Tanluan” had deceived and teased her, she still had a trace of pity for the young Tan Yuan.

Mo Jiangxue stared at her and suddenly reached out, her index finger bent, and knocked her on the head with her knuckle. “Do you have an opinion on the Dao I cultivate?”

The look of bewilderment on Xie Qingzheng’s face faded. She raised an eyebrow slightly and blurted out, “How could disciple dare? Disciple just saw the Yaoguang sect and thought of them, and was just moved for a moment.”

“Although the Dao is the same, people are different. You cannot generalize.” Mo Jiangxue knocked Xie Qingzheng on the head again and, without waiting for her to say anything, she turned gracefully and walked forward. “Let’s go. You can rest for three days. In three days, you will continue to practice with me.”

She was clearly unwilling to discuss this topic any further.

Xie Qingzheng rubbed her own head and looked at Mo Jiangxue’s retreating back.

She was always following behind her master, and she was very familiar with her master’s back. Before, she had thought that her master’s back was tall and graceful, like a crane, elegant and noble. Now, looking at it again, it seemed to have a bit of an ethereal feeling.

She didn’t know if it was because the great battle between the righteous and demonic paths was imminent, or because she was watching her master’s cultivation weaken day by day. This rare peace actually made her feel a little uneasy, and she even felt a palpitation.

Xie Qingzheng withdrew her gaze, swept over the portraits on the stone wall one by one, and first gave a deep bow. “Ancestral Masters, please bless us in this siege of the Ten Directions Domain, that we can successfully retrieve the Yuheng Cauldron.”

Then she caught up to Mo Jiangxue and said, “Master, the spiritual energy here on the main peak is abundant. I can recuperate in these two days.”

There was no need to wait for three days. She was willing to be by her master’s side at all times.

“The alliance ceremony is the day after tomorrow.” Mo Jiangxue reminded her.

Xie Qingzheng followed closely behind her. “I’m not a sect master. I don’t have to attend. You, Master, are a guest elder. You don’t have to attend either. Anyway, the Sect Master is here. We’ll just focus on practicing.”

“You don’t want to go and see the excitement?”

Xie Qingzheng said, “No, no. In those days when I was down the mountain, disciple has seen enough of the excitement. Now I just want to be by your side.”

Although the bustling mortal world was prosperous and lively, it was not as carefree as the two of them, master and disciple, being together. Before, she had been thinking of entering the mortal world for training, but after a trip outside, she felt that the peace and quiet of now was the most precious.

Mo Jiang hummed in acknowledgment and said, “Then you can grind the ink for me.”

“Alright.” Xie Qingzheng followed her and went back to her room. She saw that the desk in her room was covered with paper and a brush.

These past few days, she seemed to have been writing something all the time. The content was very mixed, with both the art of war and the eight trigrams.

Xie Qingzheng ground the ink and personally handed the brush to her. “Master, why are you writing these? Can’t you wait until your body has recovered?”

“I’m just writing to pass the time.” Mo Jiangxue held the brush and began to draw on the snow-white paper.

Xie Qingzheng stood behind her to serve. She saw that her hands were as white as snow, and her ten fingers seemed soft and boneless. But when she held the brush, it was as sharp and decisive as when she played the qin.

Watching her write was as pleasing to the eye as watching her play the qin.

As she was watching in a daze, she suddenly saw her stop her brush and say slowly, “I remember, you owe me twenty copies of the Tao Te Ching.”

Xie Qingzheng retorted, “It’s times!”

Mo Jiangxue ordered her, “Sit opposite me.”

Xie Qingzheng let out a soft snort, slowly moved to the opposite side of the desk, and Mo Jiangxue handed her a few sheets of white paper.

The two of them sat opposite each other. She took a brush and wrote the Tao Te Ching from memory. She wrote until she was dizzy and had no time to look up at her master.

Although there were few idle people on the main peak of the Tianshu Sect, there were many rules. As a junior, Xie Qingzheng had to go with Xie Hanlin to pay her respects to Xie Youke every day.

Xie Hanlin also took Xie Qingzheng to see the sect rules carved on the mountain wall. Besides the usual sect rules of abstaining from killing and theft, and from licentiousness and false speech, there were also prohibitions on alcohol and meat, on noise, on fast walking, and on playing… There were a full thousand sect rules carved on the mountain wall, more than the number of characters in an introductory heart incantation.

Xie Qingzheng was greatly shocked and thought to herself, No wonder Xie Fuyun was always beaten back then. She asked Xie Hanlin, “Can anyone really do all of them?”

Xie Hanlin said, “Of course. My master!”

Xie Youke, as the head of a sect, not only set an example for ten years as one day, but was also very diligent.

She would walk her dog in the morning, noon, and night. It was the same dog that she had said she would throw away back then. Now, the dog’s soul had been put back into the body of a little black dog, and it was cultivating again.

In the morning, she would handle the internal affairs of the sect and teach Xie Hanlin skills. In the afternoon, she would gather the sect masters of a dozen or so sects for a meeting to discuss the alliance to attack the Ten Directions Domain. At night, she would not forget to practice her sword and sit in meditation to enlighten the Dao… She had set a schedule for herself for every moment and strictly followed it.

Xie Qingzheng observed her for a few days and couldn’t help but say a word of admiration.

Three days later, at the alliance ceremony, the entire sect was filled with the sound of drums and music. Xie Youke led the crowd to burn incense and swear an oath, and to drink blood to form an alliance. The crowd elected her as the leader of the immortal alliance.

The cries of eliminating demons and defending the Dao echoed through the entire sect. At that time, Xie Qingzheng was practicing her sword on the main peak.

Her master had taught her all of the Xiaoxiang Sword Technique, but for the later moves, her state of mind was not there. When she used them, they had form but no spirit, and their power was far inferior to the first form.

Hearing the overwhelming cries, Xie Qingzheng flew to the square on her sword for a look and saw Xie Youke standing at the highest point, a half-golden mask on her face, her thin lips slightly raised, a hint of a determined smile at the corners of her eyes and brows, her hand on the personal sword at her waist, and she had an air of inviolable dignity.

Xie Qingzheng couldn’t help but think of the poem that Xie Fuyun had written for her: Graceful in the cold forest, a jade cluster reflects the pines and bamboos. A phoenix hairpin is slanted, smiling proudly in the east wind.

In this scene, at this moment, it really did fit the phrase “smiling proudly in the east wind.”

Xie Qingzheng’s gaze then swept over the sect masters present, one by one, and finally landed on Xiao Wangqing.

Xiao Wangqing looked at Xie Youke with a smile, her face filled with respect and submission, without a trace of abnormality.

Xie Qingzheng sighed.

She went to the Peach and Plum Hall of the Tianshu Sect, got a peach tree seed, and took Mo Jiangxue to a peach grove in the back mountain of the Tianshu Sect to plant it.

Mo Jiangxue was puzzled. “Why are you suddenly planting a tree?”

Xie Qingzheng said, “I heard from Hanlin that this is their Tianshu Sect’s discipleship tradition—when you formally become a disciple, you plant a peach tree, and then you use the spiritual energy of the master and the disciple to catalyze it to grow. Hey, Master, you don’t need to cast a spell. I’ll do it.”

She dug a pit in the ground, buried the peach tree seed, and then infused spiritual energy into it. The peach tree sprouted, took root, and gradually grew to half a person’s height.

The Tianshu Sect had a tradition of a master and a disciple planting a peach tree together. Xie Qingzheng looked at the half-person-high little tree before her and suddenly thought of the peach grove on West Mountain in Wen Family Village. A thought arose in her heart—

Could it be that the peach trees on West Mountain were planted by Xie Fuyun?

Mo Jiangxue looked at the half-person-high little peach tree and asked, “Is there anything else to do? Is that it?”

“Ah? No, there’s still one more step.” Xie Qingzheng came to her senses, took out a talisman from her bosom, and said to Mo Jiangxue with a smile, “Master, this is a life-and-death talisman. We just need to drip our blood on it and then slap the talisman on the peach tree.”

Her smile was tinged with a bit of a naive and romantic air.

Mo Jiangxue looked at her, her eyes a little puzzled. “A life-and-death talisman, what’s the use of this?”

Xie Qingzheng said with a smile, “If we are both alive, this peach tree will gradually flourish. If one of us is no longer in this world, this tree will be half-withered and half-alive. If we are both no longer in this world, this tree will completely wither. So this kind of peach tree is also called a life-and-death tree. To be together in life and in death, I think it’s very interesting, so I asked Sect Master Xie for a place to plant a tree.”

With that, she cut her fingertip, dripped a drop of blood on the life-and-death talisman, and then handed it to Mo Jiangxue. “Master, it’s your turn.”

Mo Jiangxue slowly shook her head and refused softly, “I don’t want to.”

Xie Qingzheng had clearly not expected to be refused. She was taken aback for a moment, and the light in her eyes dimmed. She asked with confusion, “Why?”

It was just planting a peach tree. Why did she have to refuse her?

Mo Jiangxue’s lips were a little pale. She seemed to have thought for a moment before she found a reason and said in a deep voice, “If one day I want to retire and don’t want outsiders to know about my life and death, wouldn’t this tree reveal my true situation?”

It was true that there were many famous cultivators in the cultivation world who would feign death to retire from the jianghu, but—

“Master, this back mountain is full of peach trees. Only you and I know which one is our tree. If you don’t say it and I don’t say it, how would others know? I specifically chose today to plant it. They have all gone to the alliance ceremony. Besides you and me, there is no one else here—” Halfway through her words, Xie Qingzheng seemed to have thought of something, and her voice gradually grew smaller, her expression more and more dejected.

Mo Jiangxue did not speak, just looked at her quietly.

Xie Qingzheng was silent for a long while. Her chest was tight, and it was as if something were blocking her throat. After a long while, she finally said in a hoarse voice, “Master, the ‘outsider’ you spoke of, is it me?”