After leaving Yanmen Pass, Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin followed Cen Bao En at a gallop toward Haojing. They pushed on for several days until both men and horses were exhausted. When their provisions ran out, they stopped at a nearby town for the night.
Cen Bao En went out to replenish their supplies. Fu Xi Yan leaned over the windowsill, looking down at the people passing back and forth along the street.
Pei Yuan Jin stood behind him for a while, then unexpectedly reached out and felt his forehead.
Fu Xi Yan sighed softly.
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Tired?”
“I’m contemplating a very profound question.”
“Hm?”
Fu Xi Yan opened his mouth. He had thought about so much over the past few days, but now that he wanted to explain it, he had no idea where to begin.
Past and present lives, with all their tangled thoughts, had forced him to reorganize an already confused outlook on life and the world. Before meeting Pei Yuan Jin, he thought, he had been very good at reflection, examining himself several times a day. These days, he had less time to reflect and more things to deal with. Thoughts of every kind, half-formed and fully developed, large and small, churned together like silt and sometimes left him caught in pointless mental loops.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, abandoning any attempt to dissect his state of mind and going straight to the conclusion, “that I used to believe reforming and developing this world was my inescapable responsibility.”
Pei Yuan Jin frowned slightly, as if wondering where such confidence had come from.
Fu Xi Yan continued, “It’s as if everyone else is walking forward step by step, while I can overtake them on a bend because I already know what the scenery ahead looks like.”
A long moment passed before Pei Yuan Jin gave a small “Mm” to show he was still listening.
“But when I really think about it, I’ve been worrying over nothing.” Fu Xi Yan seemed to be talking to himself. “It took me years just to make soap. The road of technological progress is a dead end for me. And reforming the system… forget it. I don’t have the heart of a great saint, and this age doesn’t necessarily need my one-sided sacrifices.”
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him and could not resist feeling his forehead again.
Fu Xi Yan caught his hand. “I don’t have a fever. I’m extremely, unbelievably clearheaded.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Drunk people never admit they’re drunk.”
“…But sick people have no reason to deny they’re sick.”
Pei Yuan Jin raised an eyebrow. He did not look entirely convinced.
Fu Xi Yan said, “What I just mentioned is only a tiny fraction of all the things I’ve been considering these past few days.”
“What else?” Pei Yuan Jin wanted to see if there was something he could understand.
“For instance, humanity is obsessed with passing civilization down to future generations. Yet heaven and earth will ultimately come to an end, and civilization will perish with them. Is humanity’s obsession nothing more than a beautiful illusion?”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
He tried a different approach. “Did you eat something by yourself today?”
“…I haven’t been poisoned.”
Pei Yuan Jin was already considering taking him to see a physician.
Fu Xi Yan suddenly threw his arms around him. “So many terrible things have happened lately. I blame myself.”
Pei Yuan Jin did not know where this was coming from, but he still reassured him. “It isn’t your fault.”
“I know. But I still blame myself.” People tend to place special importance on the things that make them different, sometimes even overestimating them. Fu Xi Yan had lived in this world for a long time and found family, friendship, and love here. Deep down, though, his memories of his previous life still made him expect more of himself. Take the recent war. He was merely a member of the jianghu and, at most, half a court official. Yet without realizing it, he had shouldered the responsibilities of Northern Zhou’s emperor and secretly blamed himself for not seeing through Mengwu’s and the Northern Alliance’s conspiracy sooner.
It was utterly unreasonable!
Pei Yuan Jin embraced him, gently patting his back in silent support.
Fu Xi Yan buried his face against Pei Yuan Jin’s chest. “We might not be able to leave for a while.”
Pei Yuan Jin frowned, genuinely worried. “Are you unwell?”
Fu Xi Yan lifted his head. His eyes were shining.
…
When Cen Bao En returned from shopping, he intended to ask them downstairs for dinner. Instead, he found Pei Yuan Jin sitting alone in the common room, leisurely drinking tea. Curious, he approached. “Has Mirror Master Fu gone to sleep?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll call him down to eat.” Cen Bao En was about to head upstairs.
“There’s no need.” Pei Yuan Jin paused, then said something seemingly unrelated. “I’ve rented the entire inn.”
Cen Bao En stared, then hurriedly apologized. “My apologies. I have not been a considerate host.” They had spent the past several days eating and sleeping in the open, so he had no idea what accommodations the pair preferred. He assumed they had reserved the entire place because they disliked being disturbed.
Pei Yuan Jin shook his head. “We’re staying here for a few days.”
“A few days?” Cen Bao En’s voice rose slightly. Remembering that he was asking them for a favor, he softened his tone. “May I ask why?”
Pei Yuan Jin glanced up. “Secluded cultivation.”
Cen Bao En was stunned.
As a disciple of the Qinling Sect, he naturally knew what secluded cultivation was and how important it was to martial artists. But now? Here? The timing was terrible. Yet there was nothing he could do. Enlightenment and breakthroughs were not things people could schedule. Otherwise, there would not be so many mediocre martial artists.
He set his purchases on the table and let out a quiet sigh.
Advancing to the Martial King Stage brought no lightning tribulation. From the street outside the inn, there was no sign that a new Martial King was about to emerge within. Pei Yuan Jin, however, could clearly feel the spiritual qi of heaven and earth surging wildly toward the inn to help Fu Xi Yan make his final push.
At first Cen Bao En stayed in the inn sighing over their delay. Later, perhaps he had come to terms with it, or perhaps he recognized a rare opportunity. In any event, he took advantage of the dense spiritual qi to shut himself in his room and cultivate. By the day Fu Xi Yan emerged from seclusion, Cen Bao En had advanced a minor stage himself.
Naturally, Fu Xi Yan had gained the most.
The saying “Enter the Martial King Stage, and heaven and earth are transformed” was no exaggeration. After reaching the peak of the Dao-Entry Stage, Fu Xi Yan had already been confident that he was a truly formidable expert. Only when he actually crossed the threshold did he realize that his former understanding had been that of a frog at the bottom of a well.
His range of perception alone had expanded tenfold, and he could manipulate spiritual qi as effortlessly as moving his own limbs. Every bit of spiritual qi around him was like his own beloved child!
His Object-Commanding Art had also improved enormously. Were it not such a shocking and costly disturbance, he would have liked to find out whether he could lift the entire inn off its foundations and send it flying into the sky.
His triumphant enthusiasm soon faded when he realized the next step was the Golden Core Stage and that he was still only at Foundation Establishment, figuratively speaking. Still, he could not resist showing off a little to Pei Yuan Jin. “Who would’ve thought we’d be standing on equal footing so soon?”
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile.
Fu Xi Yan recalled Pei Yuan Jin’s glorious record of cutting down Martial Kings as easily as chopping vegetables and immediately straightened his expression. “You will always be my role model! Behold the power of a good example!”
The three of them set out again.
Fu Xi Yan resumed his constant chatter.
“Actually, I think the so-called martial Dao is a method, not an end in itself. The real goal is to attain peace and clarity of mind and cast out our inner demons.”
Fu Xi Yan had evidence for his theory. “Look at me. The martial Dao I chose was to seek the One That Escapes, yet the enlightenment I just experienced had nothing to do with one, two, three, or four. I simply stopped tying myself in knots.”
The opportunity to hear a Martial King explain his experience was rare indeed.
Cen Bao En listened attentively. “But many experts use their martial Dao to improve their state of mind, which lets them advance to higher stages.”
“Which is why I said it’s a method. Take Yuan Jin, for example. His martial Dao is to press forward without hesitation…” Pei Yuan Jin’s martial Dao was common knowledge, so Fu Xi Yan felt free to use it as an example. “That’s the way his personality shapes his behavior. If one day he began shrinking back out of fear, he’d surely feel frustrated. His mind would no longer be clear, and his path would no longer be unobstructed.”
After some hesitation, Cen Bao En said, “My martial Dao is fair exchange. No debts owed in either direction.”
Fu Xi Yan had never heard of such a martial Dao. “So you can’t have people owing you money, and you can’t owe them money either?”
Cen Bao En smiled bitterly. “Whether I’ve lent or borrowed, if a debt goes unpaid, it disturbs my state of mind.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
That was certainly not a martial Dao just anyone would come up with.
He asked sympathetically, “Before you settled on your martial Dao, did a lot of people owe you money?”
Cen Bao En replied stiffly, “My family originally owned a moneylending house. I started helping my father balance the books when I was very young. Every time I saw a bad debt, my heart would ache terribly. My father thought I was in poor health, so he sent me to the Qinling Sect to learn martial arts.”
Fu Xi Yan imagined a little Cen Bao En already counting every coin and burst out laughing. “Well, actually… ahem, that’s a pretty good excuse for refusing to lend money to your martial brothers.”
Cen Bao En: “…”
While the little party returning from Yanmen Pass raced beneath the stars to make up the days they had lost, Pei Yuan Jin’s letter had already reached Jing Luo on Mount Fujun.
Yu Su Huan and Jiang Xiu were absent. Pei Xiong Ji, Yi Jue, and the others were in secluded cultivation. Zhao Tong Qu had been stripped of real authority, while Tan Bu Ju and his peers belonged to the younger generation. The entire Immortal Treasury Palace now rested on Jing Luo’s shoulders alone.
Nevertheless, Jing Luo looked perfectly in control. After reading the letter, he pondered briefly, tucked it into his sleeve, and went to see Pei Xiong Ji and the others in seclusion.
Fu Xi Yan had provided a great deal of information about advancing to the Golden Core Stage, but reading about something was never the same as practicing it. Once they tried for themselves, the difficulties proved far greater than expected.
Following the information Fu Xi Yan had left, Yu Cao and Tan Chang Gong had cautiously repaired their true essence and worked to return to the proper path, until they summoned the lightning tribulation again. This time they did not panic. They gathered their concentration and faced it with all their strength. Everything went smoothly at first. But just as their true essence was about to condense into a core, the lightning tribulation suddenly vanished. Their cultivation rapidly regressed, showing signs of dissipating entirely. Fortunately, Pei Xiong Ji and the others took turns pouring true qi into them and forcibly held the collapse at bay.
It was only a temporary remedy, however, not a cure. As soon as the transfer of true qi stopped, their cultivation would begin to disperse again. Pei Xiong Ji and the others tried every method they could think of without success. They were considering asking Jing Luo to recall Fu Xi Yan and Jiang Xiu when Jing Luo appeared.
Pei Xiong Ji happened to be resting between shifts and explained what had happened.
Keeping his expression neutral, Jing Luo said, “Then the Palace Lord and the elders cannot leave Mount Fujun for the time being.”
Pei Xiong Ji had not lost heart because of this setback. “We’ve waited so many years. Now that there’s finally hope in sight, staying here is no hardship. I’m afraid you’ll have to keep managing palace affairs for us.”
Without drawing attention to it, Jing Luo pushed the letter deeper into his sleeve. “Mm. I’ve been saddled with that trouble for years already.”
Pei Xiong Ji flushed and gave a couple of embarrassed chuckles.
After returning to his quarters, Jing Luo thought for a moment, then summoned a subordinate. “Ask Team Leader Zhao to come here.”