Secrets of the Nine Forms

Dead silence. In the study, apart from the clink of a thermos being lifted and set down, there was only dead silence. Ye Xian had barely picked up her cup when she heard about the "glorious achievements" Ji Jue had pulled off out in the world, instantly falling silent as her tactical sip of water failed. Only after a long while did she lift the cup again, staring at the rising steam, unable to hold back a silent sigh. Disaster. It was too late to cleanse the sect— Tell me, in a little over a month, you messed around in Xinquan, kicked up a storm all the way to the Sea of Hesitation, colluded with all sorts of factions, fought head-on against a water ghost chieftain named Pacquiao and a massive swarm of water ghosts, sold your "civilian equipment" all the way to the Thousand Islands and the Mid-Continent, became a defense supplier for the Seven Cities, a strategic partner of the Dragon Bone Fleet, an auxiliary priest for the Red Lord of the Red States, and while you were at it, did a grand spring cleaning of the wasteland and bathed who knows how many settlements in blood? Ye Xian was speechless for a long time. If it were only that, it might still be manageable, but just look at what was tangled up in all of this! The Wasteland Market and the Northern Realm had to step aside. Some mysterious Swarm geezer taught you the secrets of Sheng Xie, gave you a quest to embark on a journey collecting the Six Heavens' Old Ghosts to become the greatest Swarm Trainer; some hidden swordsmith heritage of the Ye clan; and now this videotape, the Abyss Seed in Quancheng, and what the hell, a vile fiend... Each one heavier than the last! After the initial shock and bewilderment, an eerie sense of suffocation welled up. It was like you blinked, and the traveling frog you just sent out the front door slipped back in when you weren't looking, lugging home a bomb with a burning fuse, cheerfully asking you what it was. Her blood pressure was on the verge of blowing through the roof. Her stomach ached! Ye Xian closed her eyes and drew a deep breath— She could hardly resist urging him: *Why don't you just go join Nirvana? At least that's a bit safer than this!* Heaven knew, if she let him keep digging around the wasteland like this, whether he'd dig out a pit straight to the Vortex just like Lu Changsheng did... "Shut the door," Ye Xian said suddenly. "Huh?" Ji Jue froze and subconsciously shrank his neck back. Was a class on spiritus offense and defense about to begin? That didn't seem right! I didn't even do anything wrong, and I saved so many materials! Even so, he dawdled to his feet, closed the door tight—shutting out Ye Chun's gloating gaze—and returned to his chair, gingerly seating himself. Well-behaved. Fortunately, Ye Xian wasn't fooled by this rascal's act of playing cute after digging through a cesspool. Tea mug in hand, she stared straight at him, expressionless. Only after a long while did she reach out, pull open a drawer, and take out an hourglass. She set it down firmly on the desk. The bronze hourglass had an archaic design with a distinct exotic flair, though there wasn't much sand inside—barely enough to fill half the base. Now turned upside down, a crisp ticking immediately rang out and spread through the air, wisps of sparkling light spilling forth and rising in brilliant splendor. Yet as the sand trickled down, Ji Jue felt as if something intangible filled the room, enveloping them both. Every sound from outside vanished. Not just sound—the ripples of the workshop's spiritus flow, the electrical appliances sensed through Deus Ex Machina, and even certain familiar sensations he had grown accustomed to from long exposure to Aether materials all quietly shifted. If he had to describe it, it was like a shield. Like black ink dripped onto paper, burying every trace of writing beneath, beyond anyone's prying eyes, severing every possibility of divination and prophecy. A consumable blessed relic! Seeing his teacher take such grave precautions, Ji Jue sat up straight, not daring to let his thoughts wander. What a joke—his teacher could thrash him like child's play; if she were truly displeased with him, why would she go to this much trouble? "Originally, I thought that the fewer people who knew about the Ye clan's messy accounts and tangled garbage, the better, so I had no intention of telling you. "Yet to my surprise, you grabbed a shovel and dug it all back up on your own—" Ye Xian sighed softly, took off her glasses, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, the heritage recorded in the Mirror of Contained Forms does indeed have flaws. That's the most laughable thing about family legacies: they always love keeping a trick up their sleeve. Clearly members of the same family, yet always drawing lines between 'us' and 'them.' To ensure the advantage of the main branch and suppress artisans from the collateral branches, even a crucial heritage like the Nine Forms had parts passed down strictly by word of mouth, never committed to writing." The Nine Forms were vast and profound, and the heritage and mysteries behind them were enough to occupy a craftsman for a lifetime. Yet so what? The Ye family had researched them for so many years, with so many people spending their entire lives circling around the Nine Forms, patching and mending, and didn't the Ye family still perish? Four hundred years, and had they produced a single Grandmaster?! If they were really that incredible, Ye Xian, born of a collateral branch, wouldn't have walked away from home. Fed up with the stench of seniority, the infighting between branches, and the repulsive sight of useless elders flaunting their age, the rising genius junior back then had shaken her head without hesitation when faced with the main branch's magnanimous "charity," walked out the door, and set off on the path she chose. Even though, after all these years of twists and turns, this heritage had found its way back into her hands, Ye Xian still held no great reverence for it. What was the point of picking apart phrases from piles of obsolete papers? The Nine Forms were merely a stepping stone for Ji Jue; there was no need to pour an entire lifetime into them. By contrast, Fluid Alchemy suited him far better. Learning it was enough. Knowing such a thing existed, using it as nourishment to explore, digest, and master, making it one of countless accumulations to eventually take his own step forward. Yet since Ji Jue had asked, as his teacher, she had no reason to conceal it. Rather than letting him blindly mess around and bring her more "surprises," it was better to be frank and save herself some grief. "As you've seen, the connection between the Ye clan's swordsmiths and the Eternal Empire was even closer than you imagine—so close that even the Ye clan had to conceal part of the heritage. "To sever the ties, they naturally had to hide their heads and show their tails." Ye Xian let out a mocking sigh. "The variation of Pan Ying is indeed incomplete. "And not just Pan Ying; the transformations of the Nine Forms each have their own hidden aspects. "The peril of Pan Ying lies in the Six Evils gathered whole, the Three Heavens striking down rebellion; the essence of Chixiao lies in grasping paramount authority, wielding sovereign might; the subtlety of Yuchang lies in assassinating monarchs and slaying sovereigns, a white rainbow piercing the sun; the steadfastness of Juque lies in connecting with the earth veins below, echoing the celestial stars above; the crux of Zhanlu lies in binding wasteland calamities, harboring a pool of thunder within—" A true transmission is but a single line; false teachings fill ten thousand volumes. With utter nonchalance, Ye Xian spoke aloud secrets that only the inheriting swordsmith and the family head were permitted to know. Without the slightest hesitation. A single point of guidance at the crucial juncture, even without detailing every essential technique, had already pointed out a vital direction for Ji Jue. His eyes went wide, and he held his breath, committing every single word to memory. In his mind, the mysteries of the Nine Forms' transformations surged endlessly. As they collided, links formed one after another; previous structures shattered under the weight of comprehension, reassembling into configurations he had never imagined. Just a few brief sentences were like a flare suddenly arcing into the night sky, illuminating the landscape and the road ahead for Ji Jue. Even if it burnt out, he would no longer fear the dark. Ji Jue's eyes shone brightly, his heart surging. In the end, he couldn't resist pressing: "Then what about Chunjun?" "Chunjun—" Ye Xian looked at Ji Jue with an odd expression. "Didn't you stumble upon the right path by accident all on your own? "The loftiness of Chunjun lies in naming through the blade, the unity of object and self. "No matter how agile and versatile the sword spirit's transformations, it is an external object after all; those were just superficial tricks meant to appease the collateral branches. "The true key lies in using one's own spirit to enlighten the spirit of the creation, bestowing the swordsmith's own name upon Chunjun. Man and blade are inherently one, so naturally there is no division between them. "From then on, the artisan possesses a pair of eyes that never rest, a pair of hands that never tire, like creating another self..." Having briefly explained the crux, Ye Xian said no more about it, only adding: "As for that mysterious Swarm you mentioned, I have a rough idea of what's going on. It's likely a Swarm legacy from the former Eternal Empire. As for the Chief Priest, it's nothing more than a wisp of spirituality anchored in Supreme Virtue. Being able to rely on other mediums to occasionally pop its head up in a blood descendant is already its limit. There's no need to care about it." "Then... Sheng Xie?" Ji Jue asked tentatively. "Whether you want to gather the Six Evils and the Six Calamities is up to you. The Three Heavens perished along with the Empire long ago, so Sheng Xie is destined never to regain its complete form. Besides, don't forget: the more of the Nine Forms you learn, the deeper your entanglement with the Empire becomes." Ye Xian warned him sternly: "Back then, the Ye clan collapsed overnight not only because relentless infighting brought about Stagnant Rot, but also because of their ties to the Eternal Empire, wasn't it? On top of that, there's a bunch of restorationist remnants behind the scenes who dream day and night of restoring the Eternal Empire, constantly scheming. "All these years, A'chun and I have been able to live in peace entirely because I'm not from the main branch, A'chun isn't an artisan, and the heritage of the Nine Forms was severed. "But if you keep swaggering around like this and people discover that a true legacy of the Nine Forms still exists in the present world, you will be targeted sooner or later. "If you get entangled with that bunch of garbage, you won't know a day of peace for the rest of your life. "This isn't your burden to bear, Ji Jue. Do you understand what I mean?" She looked at her student before her and sighed with emotion: "The Ye clan is gone, and they brought about their own demise—honestly, good riddance. "Neither I nor A'chun ever thought of restoring or rebuilding anything. "As your teacher, I will teach you everything I know without holding back, but this karmic burden is the one thing I don't want you touching. It's best if the Ye clan's affairs end here, once and for all." "I understand," Ji Jue nodded firmly. "Rest assured, Teacher." Rest assured, my ass! It was precisely this look on his face that meant she couldn't rest assured in the slightest! Ye Xian frowned, suppressing the urge to split his skull open, feeling like every word had fallen on deaf ears. A response to everything, yet agreeing to nothing. Laying out the stakes was meant to make him understand how massive the trouble was—not for him to step up and shoulder it all himself once he realized how bad it was! Earlier, she had deliberately spoken only of the Ye clan's glory and benefits, precisely because she knew Ji Jue inside and out. If it were purely for money or status, Ji Jue wouldn't have the slightest interest in the Ye clan. Yet if he were to shrink behind his teacher after learning the truth, mastering the Ye clan's heritage only to use his teacher and senior sister as shields... Suffice it to say, if Ji Jue harbored even a shred of such a thought, he'd want to strangle himself. Besides, wasn't it just a bunch of leftover scum from the Eternal Empire? What was there to fear? I learned the Nine Forms in one hand, sure, but do you see the Non-Offensive in my other hand? You delusional remnants are exactly who I'm looking to deal with! Back in the day, Quicksilver dared to cut down even the Heavenly Pillar. While Ji Jue had no interest in the identity of a Mohist now, if a bunch of fools who didn't know their place came knocking at his door, he wouldn't mind expanding his material storehouse and assembly lines. Seeing Ji Jue speaking so solemnly while thumping his chest and spouting swear-to-god bullshit, Ye Xian held her tea mug and sneered: "I don't care how you study the Nine Forms, but if I ever hear of you, Director Ji, brandishing the banner of the Nine Forms heritage talking about reviving the Ye clan or some such nonsense, just wait to be purged from the sect!" Instantly, Ji Jue froze stiff. Silent, completely at a loss for words. Ye Xian took a shallow sip of strong tea and shook her head mockingly. Teacher disciplining student, master beating apprentice—it was child's play. If she couldn't handle that old dog Tianlu, did he think she couldn't handle him? If he wanted to play games of outward compliance and inward defiance in front of her, he could wait until he became a Grandmaster! Having smacked the dog on the head with a stick and confirmed that this fellow would behave for a while, Ye Xian wasted no more breath on useless chatter. Talking was pointless anyway. Her gaze lowered, falling upon another object on the desk. The box of discs Ji Jue had brought. Having taken a single glance, she already understood. "There's no problem or hidden danger with it; don't worry about it." She waved a hand dismissively. "Since those guys came looking for you with benefits to offer, there's no harm in cooperating a bit, as long as you don't get too entangled or stay too close. "What they love most is dragging people into deep water—that troublesome woman Lyu Yingyue has probably already set her sights on you." "Who are they?" Ji Jue asked curiously. "Inside the Federation, is there another secret department besides the Security Bureau? And what exactly is this thing? It can't really just be music, can it?" Ye Xian didn't answer most of Ji Jue's questions. She merely reached out, picked up the disc, weighed it in her hand, and suddenly let out a faint laugh. "Do you know what a 'cognitive hindrance' is?"