The Pure Heart of a Child

From that moment on, Emperor Xia understood that turning hostile toward the Dao Seeking Sect was what would truly fulfill the "Hundred-Thousand-Year Curse." Those lurking in the shadows merely thought Yun Zhi was exceptionally talented and powerful, yet possessed no clear grasp of what her "power" actually meant. Had they known just how formidable she truly was, they would have realized how utterly foolish their scheme of discord was. *** "Eldest Senior Sister, where are we heading?" Lu Yang asked, noticing that upon flying back to the Dao Seeking Sect, she hadn't stopped at Tianmen Peak but continued forward. Lu Yang had never set foot here before. Below them lay grand mountains and vast wetlands, thousands of li of scorched earth, and loess deserts. "Prison Peak." Neither Lu Yang nor Meng Jingzhou had ever heard of such a place. Passing over these regions, Eldest Senior Sister touched down on a bleak, eerie mountain. The peak was wrapped in gargantuan chains, their opposite ends anchored to four surrounding mountains in the four cardinal directions. The hairs on Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou's necks stood on end; they could tell this was no welcoming place. Lu Yang had studied a bit of feng shui and arrays. Feng shui emphasized "unobstructed flow," where at least one of the four cardinal directions maintained an open connection to the outside world to preserve vitality. Yet Prison Peak was hemmed in by mountains on all sides, choking off all signs of life, while the clouds pressing against it resembled a lid that sealed the entire area completely. Prison Peak was a place for confining and interrogating prisoners. The three landed. Yun Zhi opened the entrance to the array, carrying the souls of the two Body Integration cultivators. Entering from the mountain's foot, they headed all the way down, descending roughly five thousand meters before coming to a stop. The prisoners were all kept beneath Prison Peak. Upon entering, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou felt as though they had returned to Buyi Town; they could not muster a single shred of spiritual energy. This was not a Spirit-Restricting Array, but a sort of "Rule." Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou noticed nearly a hundred cages here. Most were empty, with only a dozen or so holding occupants. To be precise, those held inside were not people, but soul bodies. Suppressed by the Rule, these souls were listless, utterly devoid of vigor. Catching sight of the two youngsters, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, some of the soul bodies began to salivate, longing to lunge forward and devour them. But the moment they saw Eldest Senior Sister, they instantly behaved themselves. Lu Yang thought the number of prisoners here seemed far too small. Even the dungeon in Yanjiang Commandery held more than this. "Those imprisoned here are all ancient Body Integration cultivators. Keep your guard up," Yun Zhi cautioned. The pair immediately shuddered, no longer thinking the numbers were small. Good grief, over a dozen Body Integration cultivators locked up here? "Eldest Senior Sister, aren't you worried they might escape?" Lu Yang whispered. "Escape? Kid, you underestimate this old man far too much." A tender, childish voice sounded from behind. Lu Yang turned to look and saw a white-haired child. The child was so short that even standing on tiptoe, his head barely reached Lu Yang's waist. "Grandmaster?" Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were stunned. This white-haired child was actually Daoist Buyu's master! "Grandmaster!" both greeted him. "Heh-heh. Do you think I'm too small?" "No, not at all!" The white-haired child said with the gravity of an old patriarch, "You're still too young and lack experience to understand my state. This is a method of cultivation." A certain legend quickly crossed Lu Yang's mind. "The ancients said: 'Abiding by constant virtue, one returns to infancy,' and 'The multitude are bustling and cheerful, as though partaking of a grand sacrificial feast, as though ascending a spring terrace; I alone am tranquil, giving no sign, like an infant who has not yet learned to smile.'" "Many great cultivators spend their entire lives pursuing the pure heart of a child, yet never attain that realm. Deliberate pursuit is already no longer the mindset of a child, so how could one ever achieve a truly pure heart?" "Could it be, Grandmaster, that you have already 'returned to infancy,' reaching the realm of returning to simplicity, uniting nature and man, and achieving the mindset of a pure child?" Meng Jingzhou was astonished as well. The pure heart of a child had always existed only in legends; not a single elder of the Meng Family had ever attained such a state of mind. Who would have thought the Dao Seeking Sect had one? The white-haired child smiled without a word, nodding gently with an expression that seemed to say, *A boy worth teaching.* Yun Zhi looked slightly puzzled. "That's not what I heard." "Master said that back when Grandmaster was young, you were dissolute by nature, lingering day and night in brothels and neglecting your cultivation. Later, shocked into your senses by some unknown incident, you experienced a sudden awakening and resolved to cultivate diligently. To demonstrate your resolve, you permanently fixed your physical body at the age of six, so that you would never have to worry about your yang qi leaking out." Lu Yang: "..." Meng Jingzhou: "..." Strictly speaking, that truly was a method of cultivation. The two recalled that upon reaching a certain cultivation realm, a cultivator could alter their physical appearance. Was the reason some cultivators chose to maintain the look of young children with tufted hair or decrepit old elders the very same as their Grandmaster's? No, no, no, this was not something they should dwell on. The two hurried to empty their minds. "In any case, with this old man here, not a single one of the Body Integration cultivators locked up in this place can ever dream of breaking out!" The white-haired child forcibly changed the subject. "Girl Yun, you've brought back two more?" "Yes. I want to interrogate them." "Why not just search their souls?" the white-haired child suggested. Yun Zhi shook her head. "Soul-searching damages their intellect. The souls of Body Integration cultivators are prime materials for refining magical treasures. If they lose their minds, the treasures' effectiveness will be drastically diminished." The two Body Integration souls shuddered violently. Hadn't everyone agreed that the Dao Seeking Sect was a prestigious, righteous sect? This was nothing like what a righteous sect was supposed to be! Yun Zhi looked at the two Body Integration cultivators with mild confusion, not understanding what they were afraid of. "You caused so many people to die in terror. Isn't it only natural that you receive the same treatment?" *Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto yourself.* Yun Zhi had assumed they would have learned this principle long ago. Yun Zhi and the white-haired child each carried a Body Integration soul and tossed them into cages. Lu Yang followed Yun Zhi, while Meng Jingzhou followed the white-haired child. Yun Zhi went straight to rigorous torture, cycling through an assortment of implements tailored specifically for soul bodies. The prisoner screamed in agony over and over, making Lu Yang's eyelids twitch. He had never imagined Eldest Senior Sister could be this ruthless. Wait... wasn't this remarkably similar to what Eldest Senior Sister had done to him when he first started cultivating? Could Eldest Senior Sister have taken her experience with severe interrogation and applied it to teaching him cultivation? Each time Eldest Senior Sister brought out another torture implement, the Immortal Fairy shivered. She felt that joining the Dao Seeking Sect had truly been a wise decision. The Dao Seeking Sect surely wouldn't be this brutal toward their own people, right? "Strange. Why hasn't he confessed to anything?" Yun Zhi wondered aloud. Grandmaster had told her that after going through this full routine, a prisoner would confess to everything without fail. Lu Yang asked quietly from the side, "Eldest Senior Sister, you haven't asked him any questions yet." Yun Zhi uttered an "Oh," picking up the first torture implement and preparing to run through the entire routine a second time. Terrified out of his wits, the man hurriedly cried out, "Wait, wait, wait! I'll confess! I'll confess to everything!" "Which era are you from?" "The forty-thousandth year of the Great Yu dynasty." "Have you heard of the Immortal Celestial or the Immortal Fairy?" "Never heard of them." "Hm? Still lying?" The man was on the verge of tears from Yun Zhi's cold, indifferent expression. "I truly haven't! In our era, we only heard that there were Celestials in the Western Buddhist Kingdom and in the Southern Demon Domain, and suspected Celestials in the Eastern Ocean and the Far North. I don't even know a single Celestial's name!" "If you're looking for an Immortal Celestial, you could check the Far North. Perhaps one was frozen solid—that could count as immortal, couldn't it?" The Immortal Fairy grew so furious on the spot that she wanted to roll up her sleeves and pummel him.