Most people are not unwilling to endure hardship; rather, they fear enduring hardship that proves meaningless, or yielding no positive return.
Having received tangible positive feedback, Yang Tieying was firmly resolved to cultivate with all his might.
Zhou Wuji naturally supported him wholeheartedly. When it came to cultivation, one ultimately had to rely on oneself. He could not watch over Yang Tieying all day long, and cultivating of one's own initiative was a world apart from being forced to cultivate.
Compared to the clever Shangxing, Zhou Wuji actually appreciated Yang Tieying more. Though the boy seemed simple and naive on the outside, he was actually quite bright; he simply had never experienced much hardship and remained pure-minded.
Returning to the stone cottage, Zhou Wuji shared the good news with the old Daoist Yiping.
Daoist Yiping was delighted, though he cautioned, "Then we must prepare for his ordination and register conferral as quickly as possible. If Yizhen is no longer Hall Master, things will become troublesome."
The Grand Hall of the Arctic Celestial Emperor was the central core of the Branch Abbey; not just anyone could use it at will.
Zhou Wuji nodded in agreement. He too felt these matters should be settled without delay.
Moreover, once Shangbing completed his qi refining, he would also qualify to be listed as an inner sect disciple.
Wasting no time, Zhou Wuji immediately headed to Tianshu Hall to find Daoist Yizhen.
Upon arriving at Tianshu Hall, he saw people bustling to and fro, many clutching large bundles of belongings as if in the midst of moving.
Zhou Wuji sensed that something was amiss. Inquiring of someone nearby, he tracked down Wuming in a room within a side hall.
Wuming sat upon her embroidered bed with a crestfallen expression. She had lived here for ten years, and this place held all the memories of her youth. Today, she had to move away. Even if the bed itself could be carted off, she felt the beauty of the past had been shattered.
"Junior Sister..." Zhou Wuji gently rested a hand on Wuming's shoulder and asked softly, "Are you all right?"
"It's nothing. Just a bit sorrowful. After all, I've lived here for so long and grown accustomed to everything."
As Wuming spoke, her lips pouted slightly, and tears welled in her eyes. Moving was one thing, but feeling that her family had been forced out left her deeply aggrieved.
Zhou Wuji did not know how to console her, so he could only pat her back gently to offer comfort.
Wuming leaned against his shoulder and wept for a while. Once she had composed herself, she whispered with some bashfulness, "Senior Brother, I got a bit too emotional."
Zhou Wuji gently wiped away her lingering tears. "I understand. The Yuheng lineage acts so despicably, utterly disregarding fellow disciple affection. They truly are a scourge upon the sect."
Zhou Wuji had genuinely grown disgusted by them. Factional struggles between lineages ought to have a bottom line. Yizhen possessed both ability and seniority; removing him as Hall Master without any legitimate justification was truly crossing the line.
Zhou Wuji asked, "How did Zhihe arrange things for Martial Uncle?"
Wuming shook her head. "My father resigned voluntarily. He plans to take us to the Yunze Branch Abbey."
"What?"
Zhou Wuji had still been feeling indignant on Daoist Yizhen's behalf, never imagining that rather than Zhihe making a move, Daoist Yizhen had chosen to leave of his own accord.
One had to admit that Daoist Yizhen was indeed decisive. Leaving under his own power was far more dignified than being squeezed out.
With Daoist Yizhen gone, Zhou Wuji would lose a powerful ally, and he would also have to part from Wuming, which made him all the more reluctant.
Zhou Wuji took Wuming's delicate hand. "With you leaving like this, I will truly miss you..."
Hearing this, Wuming's eyes turned watery again. Pouting her lips, she whispered, "I'll miss Senior Brother too."
"Sigh..." Zhou Wuji truly hated to part with her, but he could hardly keep Wuming behind by herself—what would that look like? Nor was it possible for him to take a wife at present. He had too many affairs to handle, too many secrets to keep, and too many enemies, making it utterly impractical.
"Right, Senior Brother, if you ever need to buy anything in the future, go find Jin Ying. Her father is the proprietor of Hengfeng Money Shop. The Jin family is immensely wealthy, prominent merchants in our Chu Prefecture. I have a very close friendship with her, and I made a point of mentioning this to her yesterday. If you ever have business, you can go to Hengfeng Money Shop and ask for Second Shopkeeper Jin, which is her title outside. She will definitely help..."
Zhou Wuji felt a pang of warmth. Even as she was leaving, Wuming was still looking out for his interests.
After chatting a bit longer, Zhou Wuji heard footsteps and hurriedly let go of Wuming's hand. It was Daoist Yizhen arriving.
Though Zhou Wuji could not claim an intimate bond with Daoist Yizhen, he held considerable respect for the man.
He stayed to converse with Daoist Yizhen for a while, learning that the Yunze Branch Abbey bordered the Yunmeng Marsh, where arch-demons roamed and monsters ran rampant—an exceedingly dangerous place. Precisely for that reason, however, it was also an ideal training ground for cultivators.
Daoist Yizhen had advanced to Rank Six years ago and was merely one step away from Rank Five. Originally, staying with Zhiyuan at the Yunlong Branch Abbey was comfortable, so he had never thought of leaving. Yet Zhihe's arrival had forced him to burn his bridges and stake everything on one final push.
Daoist Yizhen said to Zhou Wuji, "We cultivators must ultimately possess a heart that defies heaven if we wish to forge boldly ahead. Thinking too much is the greatest impediment to cultivation!"
Zhou Wuji could tell that Daoist Yizhen spoke from the bottom of his heart, and he felt deep admiration. As a Rank Six Daoist, Yizhen possessed fame, wealth, status, a wife, a daughter, and numerous disciples and friends. To decisively depart for the Yunze Branch Abbey at such a juncture and choose to temper his cultivation against demons, ghosts, and fiends was no rash impulse, but a decision born of thorough deliberation. A remarkable figure indeed!
Zhou Wuji could say little else. He clasped his hands solemnly. "With Martial Uncle's grand spirit, you are bound to attain truth and confirm the Dao!"
"From your mouth to the heavens' ears! Haha..."
Daoist Yizhen laughed heartily. He certainly knew the perils of this journey, yet his heart brimmed with heroic vigor, making him feel exceedingly invigorated instead.
Zhou Wuji had originally wanted to ask about Li Ruyi's situation. The journey to Yunze was long and fraught with danger, and he wondered what choice Li Ruyi had made. As a nominal disciple, Li Ruyi certainly was not obligated to follow. But after considering it, he refrained from asking. Li Ruyi was an adult now; whatever choice she made was hers to weigh.
Returning to the stone cottage, Zhou Wuji told Daoist Yiping about the matter.
Daoist Yiping sighed with great astonishment. "I never cared much for Yizhen in the past, always finding him conceited and arrogant, looking down on others. Who would have thought he possessed such spirit? I truly underestimated him before."
Daoist Yiping then sighed again. "With Yizhen gone, our days will only become harder."
Zhou Wuji laughed out loud. "No matter. Even without Martial Uncle Yizhen, who dares truly walk all over us!"
The Golden Yang Pills were a trifling issue. It was not that he would let it slide, but simply that he did not care to settle the score right this moment. When even Daoist Yizhen displayed such mettle, Zhou Wuji felt he himself had spent the past few days overthinking.
That night, returning to his room, Zhou Wuji completed his daily routine before opening the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment.
The numerous arts he cultivated unfolded across the pages. Hesitating no longer, he directly converted the five liang and six qian into primordial profound spirit and poured it all into the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder.
Zhiyuan had once said that the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder was the Arctic Sect's foremost lethal secret technique, exceedingly profound and harboring the ultimate Dao. Today, seeing Yang Tieying successfully open his divine aperture and achieve Qi Ingestion had shown Zhou Wuji the subtle shifts of heaven and earth, further cementing in his mind the importance of the Yin Thunder. As the Arctic Sect's supreme killing art, even though his current version was capped at Rank Six, it remained a critically vital foundation. Mastering it would never go to waste.
The five liang and six qian converted into primordial profound spirit, transforming into continuous purple radiance that unfolded an entire realm.
Zhou Wuji cast himself into it, bitterly practicing the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder day and night...
In reality, only a fleeting instant passed before Zhou Wuji opened his eyes, yet faint, thread-like flashes of lightning danced within his pupils. With a shift of his thoughts, the circulating lightning was completely drawn back.
Cultivating for over twenty years within the realm of purple light, Zhou Wuji had brought his Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder to the Perfection realm. This was primarily thanks to Chen Dalu's five-liang-six-qian destiny pattern, but also because the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder he practiced was a foundational thunder art capped at Rank Six. It was precisely that limitation in tier that enabled him to cultivate the Yin Thunder all the way to Perfection.
The Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder Method was more than a mere spell; it involved various essential tenets of cultivation dedicated to the Arctic Celestial Emperor. Among them were erecting altars, performing rites, sacrificing to deities, mobilizing soldiers, and invoking incantations—an intricate series of rituals where every single step held sway over the spell's success or failure.
Without an altar, one could not mobilize the Eight Divisions of Daoist Soldiers, maintain a stable law domain, augment the thunder's might, or even readily unleash the technique at all. Only Rank Six masters of profound cultivation like Yizhen could bypass the altar to cast it on their own, and even then, numerous constraints remained. Furthermore, Yizhen could not cast Yin Thunder instantaneously; he could only store the spell beforehand within the acupoints of his upper dantian.
A Rank Six cultivator refined nine acupoints, and the highest attainment was being able to store spells across all nine. However, storing spells impeded the circulation of true qi through those acupoints, akin to shouldering a heavy burden that hampered the cultivator in various ways.
Through this bout of cultivation, Zhou Wuji had once again reinforced the foundation of his nine apertures. Where an expert like Yizhen could store a single spell within an aperture, Zhou Wuji could store two or three. That was the most direct manifestation of his formidable aperture foundation.
Reaching Perfection in the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder allowed the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Divine Thunder Register in the divine aperture between his brows to integrate fully into the aperture itself. From then on, external forces might destroy his divine aperture, but they could never strip away the Divine Thunder Register nested within.
The scriptures and registers that Daoist sects conferred upon cultivators through rituals could likewise be revoked through rituals. It was through this very mechanism that Daoist sects prevented the unauthorized spread of arts while tightening their control over cultivators. At Zhou Wuji's current level, no ritual in existence could revoke his Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Divine Thunder Register. Not that he intended to defect; he had simply cultivated the Yin Thunder art to its utter peak, naturally resolving the sacred register and converting it into his own inherent power. For cultivation, this held immensely vital significance.
Yet the reinforcement of his nine apertures also made achieving Rank Six perfection considerably more demanding. For ordinary nine apertures, one needed only reach three thousand true qi to attain perfection. Having been reinforced twice, Zhou Wuji's nine apertures required six thousand true qi before they could be fully tempered to perfection.
Now capable of instantaneously casting thunder arts and the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword, and possessing Rank Seven Transforming Jin martial arts alongside consummate swordsmanship, he was fully equipped to handle any sudden crisis. Under normal circumstances, he had no need whatsoever to store spells in his apertures.
Through cultivating the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder, Zhou Wuji had also gained a profound comprehension of rituals. Since he practiced techniques via the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, rituals had never been his forte, but this cultivation session had compensated for that shortcoming. Erecting altars, sacrificing to gods, forming seals, chanting incantations, pacing the Big Dipper steps—all these rituals were specific methods to strengthen one's connection and resonance with the Northern Dipper star domain. Once he understood the purpose of rituals, he could discern which rites were redundant and which were indispensable, allowing him to choose accordingly.
Even without the aid of the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, he could now cast Yin Thunder instantaneously through his own resonance with the Northern Dipper star domain, albeit subject to slight external interference that might cause minor fluctuations in the thunder's power...
Reaching the Perfection realm in the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder further solidified Zhou Wuji's insight: to wield the Arctic secret arts, one had to establish a stable circuit with the Northern Dipper star domain rather than passively receive astral power. The Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture and the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder served as the conduits for establishing this circuit with the law domain.
With both secret arts at Perfection, he had laid an incomparably solid foundation, forging an extraordinarily stable circuit connection with the Northern Dipper star domain. From this moment forth, he had become an inseparable part of the Northern Dipper star domain. Casting a spell was communing and resonating with that vast expanse of stars.
On a personal level, this grand cosmic shift translated into a surge in cultivation, with his Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot true qi tempered to an even greater purity. Simply put, augmented by the two perfected arts, his Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot true qi boasted a fifty-percent increase in potency compared to peers of the same tier. This was not a crude fifty-percent boost in striking power, but an enhancement across every level, from the intake and refining of true qi to its internal circulation. It was precisely because of this that he could cast Yin Thunder in an instant...
Viewed from this angle, it was also a divine ability birthed from bringing the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder to Perfection.
Sensing the lively, resilient, and exquisitely pure true qi within his sea of consciousness, Zhou Wuji felt thoroughly contented. Experiencing that formidable power filled his spirit with profound fulfillment. In this moment, the Northern Dipper stars in the heavens seemed to rest firmly within his grasp.
The next morning, outside the main gates of the Yunlong Branch Abbey, a convoy of four carriages stood ready to depart. Mounted upon a horse, Wuming constantly looked back toward the gates, waiting for that person to come see her off.
Watching his daughter, Daoist Yizhen smiled faintly without saying a word. Everything that needed to be said had been spoken yesterday; even if Zhou Wuji did not come, it would matter little.
Suddenly, Wuming's bright eyes lit up as she spotted that familiar green-robed figure.
Zhou Wuji walked out from the gates and approached Daoist Yizhen, bowing deeply with clasped hands. "Martial Uncle, may smooth winds accompany your journey, and auspicious fortune attend all your endeavors."
Daoist Yizhen dismounted, returned the bow with clasped hands, and smiled. "I shall await your good news in Yunze!"
Zhou Wuji nodded firmly, knowing Daoist Yizhen meant awaiting the day he entered the Upper Abbey to make his mark.
Standing nearby, Wuming looked at him with an expectant face, hesitating, unsure of what to say.
Zhou Wuji smiled at Wuming. Reaching into his sleeve, he drew forth a bamboo flute and handed it to her. "Junior Sister travels far; take this bamboo flute as a parting gift."
The bamboo flute had been bought by Zhou Wuji at Tianji Hall, yet it represented his heartfelt regard.
Her heart overflowing with the melancholy of farewell, Wuming could hardly say much in front of the crowd. She could only nod vigorously, gripping the bamboo flute tightly in her hand.
Daoist Yizhen had no fondness for maudlin sentimentality. He nodded to Zhou Wuji, then turned and ordered the convoy, "Move out."
Zhou Wuji also noticed Li Ruyi among the party. The girl had actually chosen to follow them along, showing remarkable courage. He nodded slightly in greeting, but said nothing.
As the convoy slowly advanced, Zhou Wuji drew out his jade flute and played the tune "Iron Blood and Loyal Heart."
The music rose high and stirring, devoid of the gloom and sorrow of parting, brimming instead with the heroic spirit of traversing the ends of the earth and the carefree passion of wandering the martial world...
Listening to it, Daoist Yizhen was thoroughly pleased. He laughed heartily. "A real man ought to be so dashing and free!"
Deeply versed in music, Wuming heard within the melody a lingering, endless sentiment. From the exact same flute notes, every listener drew their own meaning.
Caressing the bamboo flute, she noticed an uneven texture on its surface. Looking closely, she found two lines carved in characters like iron strokes and silver hooks:
"Green hills together share the clouds and rain;
How could the bright moon belong to two separate lands?"
Musing over the meaning of those verses, and wondering when they might ever meet again, Wuming could not hold back her tears as they welled up once more...
Chapter 120