The Daoist’s eyes were not especially striking. They were not like Xin Qubing’s eyes, eyes that experienced vicissitudes of life.
He had the elegant demeanor of a celestial, yet it could not rival that of Mister Su. However, Shen Lian’s subconscious told him that the Daoist was unpredictable and mysterious. He even felt like worshipping him.
He closed his eyes as the ray shone on him.
Shen Lian could feel a stream of heat traveling through his meridians and headed for his Ancestral Cavity.
On the bier, the statue of the deity appeared quietly. The stream of heat seemed to be frightened by its presence and left without a trace.
Before Shen Lian could give further thoughts to it, an invisible force pushed him toward the edge of the hall. The force sent him crushing onto the pillar.
He looked right ahead and saw the young person named Xiao Hei. He was covered in black flame, and there was a mirror shining on top of him. The ray encapsulated him, but some invisible force still seeped through.
The elderly in red and the elderly in gray positioned their index and middle fingers in the form of a sword, and a massive amount of heaven and earth Qi gathered at the direction they pointed.
The sheer size of it was beyond Shen Lian’s imagination.
He could feel all the Qi present between the sky and the ground. He was also clearly aware of their scary attainment in cultivation.
The Qi was instilled into the bronze mirror, and the black flame weakened. Eventually, the black flame was put out.
Shen Lian heard the two elderly gasping and knew that the act earlier had taken a toll on them.
He found it strange that the Daoist who was sitting cross-legged – the headmaster of Qing Xuan, did not lend a helping hand.
The mirror fell into the Daoist’s sleeve. He took out a Dao talisman and pasted it on the young person’s forehead.
Shen Lian and Lu walked forward. Shen Lian saw that there were black lines on the young person’s exposed arm, which slowly subsided after the Dao talisman was pasted on him.
“Jingqing, bring Shen Lian and Lu Shouyi to the bamboo hut to have a rest,” the Daoist spoke slowly.
The Daoist did not have to ask to know Shen Lian and Lu’s name. Shen Lian was impressed by celestial techniques as such, techniques that could tell the cause and effect. However, Shen Lian was not sure if the Daoist found out about the training he had from The Mastery of Senses.
Jingqing was the name of the Daoist child who opened the door. Shen Lian and Lu knew that the young lad had a complex background, and the Daoist probably sent them away so that he could discuss it with the elderly in red and the elderly in gray.
After coming out from the hall, the Daoist child smiled at Shen Lian and Lu. He had turned into a green python. There was a gold line stemming from his lower abdomen all the way to the end of his tail. What was stranger was the fact that he had a pair of wings.
“Two senior apprentice-brothers, please sit on me,” the giant python spoke in human tongue in the voice of the Daoist child no less.
Shen Lian thought of the phrase, ‘The flying serpent has no limb and yet it flies’. This python must be the true form of the Daoist child. Who would have thought that it was born a monster?
Judging from its species, the python seemed to be the ‘flying serpent’ from the legends and fables.
Shen Lian and Lu sat on it and a gust of cloudy mist appeared. Their surroundings were clouded and they could no longer differentiate between east, west, south, and north.
Finally, they landed before a building. It was a delicate-looking bamboo hut.
The sea of clouds floated behind and the ray was ever-changing. The bamboo leaves danced and swayed in the wind.
There was a bamboo forest not far away.
The bamboo hut was built at the hillside. The mountain was especially tall, towering over the sea of clouds.
The location they were at was almost at the same height as the sea of clouds.
Shen Lian and Lu Shouyi came down from the back of the snake, and the snake returned to its human form.
“Two senior apprentice-brothers, there are five peaks at Qing Xuan, namely Taiyi, Qingliang, Zifu, Tianyuan, and Yuyang. We were at the main peak, Taiyi. We are now at Qingliang Peak, which is the residence for the lower house disciples,” said Jing Qing.
“Since there is a lower house, I assume that there is an upper house?” Lu Shouyi queried. He had always been straightforward, which was why he did not think twice before posing the question.
“Definitely.” Jing Qing nodded.
“What is the difference between the lower house and the upper house? Could it be that the upper house is better?” Lu seemed to be displeased. He thought that if celestial schools like Qing Xuan were to differentiate between class and social status, it would be really disappointing.
“Those who are in the upper house are considered Qing Xuan disciples too. However, most of them had some form of connection with the cultivators here. Some might be related by blood, some might be the descendants of an old friend. They were accepted into Qing Xuan due to their potential in cultivation. However, if one were to talk about the treatment of both houses, there are not many differences. Previously, one of the senior apprentice-brother had approached the headmaster about this. He questioned why the cultivators were differentiated as ‘lower’ or ‘upper’. The previous headmaster sent him to the bamboo forest, and for seven years, he had been cutting stone bamboos. The previous headmaster remarked that he did not appreciate his blessings and overlooked the worth of being ‘lower’.”
Despite being a monster, Jingqing was delicate and fresh. Even in his python form, Shen Lian did not feel the uncomfortable vibe like those that came from the Wutong Gods. There was no unpleasant scent from him either.
“The senior apprentice-brother did not understand, ‘a lower status is as good as a higher status’, which was why the headmaster thought that he failed to appreciate his blessings,” Shen Lian remarked casually.
Shen Lian thought the previous headmaster probably was thinking of ‘regardless of being the upper or lower stream, water is virtuous and carries everything; It closely resembles Daoism.’ ‘Water’ had the qualities of Daoism, as it passed through tens of thousands of creatures without being caught in the web of wealth and fame.
To be fixated on the difference between upper and lower would not be a good thing when cultivation was concerned.
Jing Qing was surprised. “No one knows for sure what the previous headmaster meant, but someone did bring up something similar,” he said.
Lu Shouyi was curious. He was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, but not the Daoist classics. The reason why he pursued Dao was because of an incident that led to an epiphany, and he was determined to learn about Daoism to attain immortality.
As for the phrase, ‘water is virtuous’ that Shen Lian mentioned, he was not sure what connection it had with the story.
It was even more interesting that someone had said the same thing back then.
“Who would that person be? As the celestials live long, could it be that he is still alive in this world?” Lu Shouyi queried.
“I cannot expose the identity of that person. However, in the long history of the Qing Xuan Sect, he is ranked in the top three. Right now, he is probably at some corner in the world,” Jingqing replied.
Jingqing wore complicated emotions on his childish face as he spoke, and Lu stifled a laugh.
However, Jingqing was a monster. He was probably born earlier than Lu’s great great grandfather.
“Putting that person aside, guess who was the person cut the stone bamboos for seven years?” Jingqing smiled.
“Who?” Lu Shouyi asked.
Shen Lian did not ask. He laughed in his heart and guessed that he knew the answer.
“Both of you have met him earlier,” Jingqing smiled and turned into a python. He wagged his tail and brought upon dust and sand.
He leapt into the sky as a ball of cloudy mist and blended into the sea of clouds.
“Brother Shen, who do you think the person was? Could it be the elderly in red or the elderly in gray, or even the headmaster?” Lu Shouyi asked Shen Lian.
“Brother Lu, aren’t you tired after all the time we spent on the Wenxin Road? I went through a lot of hardship on the peak, and would like to sink into deep slumber now,” said Shen Lian as he evaded the question.