23 My Tao of Swords
Wei Gaoyuan had once heard about the introduction to the system of cultivation in the world of Taoism Followers from Mu Yunyi in Qizhou City. In the system, one at the Heavenly Judgement was a very powerful being, second only to the top stage, the Full Completeness. Yet it was incredible for Lie Qianshan,at the Heavenly Judgement,to skip huge distance between levels and kill a few mighty forces at Full Completeness. That made Wei Gaoyuan thinking whether the strong senior Lie was still alive in the world.
From his diary, Wei Gaoyuan could not tell the times when Lie Qianshan lived but estimate that it might had been quite a long time since the Magin Island was called the Trial Island.
Wei Gaoyuan had to admit that it let him down a little that such a strong Sword Taoist senior had not left any secret scrolls about his cultivation methods and tips or any powerful talismans.
Although found no way to open it, Wei Gaoyuan still wanted to take the odd small bag away. It was not strange for him as his parents had died since he was a little child, and he got no access to receive a good education in school and even had to move around the markets and the teahouses every day to feed his sister and himself.
As he was about to leave the temple with the bag hanging on the belt, Wei Gaoyuan glanced at the portrait on the wall again, which reminded him of that slow sword strike in blur white space.
What a fascinating sword strike!
"Well, still don't know whether the man in this painting is the senior Lie Qianshan before leaving..." Wei Gaoyuan thought. It must have a relationship, more or less, with Lie Qianshan even if it was not him.
He turned at the front door, came in front of the painting and made a respectful bow as a junior. Raising his head, he suddenly got a strange feeling of being watched. He looked around cautiously and got nothing unusual.
"Illusion? Again?" Wei Gaoyuan thought. This place was most mysterious beyond his imagination, he dared not have any disrespect accordingly even in his heart.
Just as he turned and was going to leave, the surroundings suddenly darkened and next moment he found himself in the previous blur white space.
"This place is…" Wei Gaoyuan talked to himself with a curious look on the face.
"It's your Sea of Consciousness," a low voice came and the middle-aged man in light blue robe appeared again in front.
"Sea of Consciousness? Mine?" Wei Gaoyuan did not understand it.
"In your head," said the middle-aged man on the painting.
"In my head?" Wei Gaoyuan touched his head, full of question marks on the face.
"You'll comprehend it later," the middle-aged man smiled lightly and said, "I am Lie Qianshan. If you've read my note, you get my past."
The middle-aged man was Lie Qianshan indeed.
Wei Gaoyuan could hardly suppress the shock in his heart even though he sort of guessed it. He bowed immediately and said respectfully, "Junior Wei Gaoyuan, bow to senior!"
"No need to bow again, boy…" Lie Qianshan said with a smile. "You've taken the initiative to give my portrait a sincere bow just now, which shows that you respect me in your heart, boy, I felt no hostile intention from you towards the Magin Religion. Therefore, you've got the opportunity to get my legacy…"
The opportunity to get the legacy of the mighty senior at the Heavenly Judgement?
Wei Gaoyuan's heart leapt fast— did the chance meant he was most likely to cultivate into a Sword Taoist? Storyteller in teahouse always told it.
Lie Qianshan continued," Before I flew into the Word of the Immortals, I've left my legacy at three different places; getting any one of the three means probably getting the clues of the other two. You'll get the location of the other two places once you're able to open the Universe in Bag.
(The World of Immortals: another world parallel to the World of Humankind. Taoism Followers will have the opportunity and capacity to fly into it after completing the stage of the Full Completeness.)
The Universe in Bag?
The small bag he took was the Universe in Bag the storyteller often mentioned?
Although Wei Gaoyuan had never seen the Universe in Bag ever, he had heard of its magic in story. It was told as a small bag with considerable space inside, which was used to store kinds of items by the Land Taoist, no, the Taoism Follower exactly.
Thinking of it, he subconsciously reached out to his waist, then his heart sank with astonishment.
The bag which should have been hanging quietly on the belt vanished!
It was the first time in his life that he had got such a magical item. Then it just disappeared!
Lie Qianshan continued, "I got access to my Tao in cultivation through swords, thus, without any powerful magic talismans, my swords had been my only friends who'd accompanied me to the end of my life in the World of the Humankind. Different from other Taos, Tao of swords was a towering mountain with a single way to the top; go upwards on this way, not even one step downwards, just break any obstacles you encounter, with the indomitable will in your heart, with the inseparable sword in your hand, even with the numerous scars on your body, that's my Tao of swords! Boy swordsman, are you really ready to stride into this one-way Tao?"
For Wei Gaoyuan, Tao of swords was a completely new concept, but it was obvious that he'd been practicing swordsmanship and with swords for ages, so on the basis of Lie Qianshan's remark, he thought Tao of swords would be the right Tao for his future cultivation.
However, by the end of the last word by Lie Qianshan, the figure of this senior of Sword Taoists had gradually turned blurred and disappeared finally. Before it fade away Wei Gaoyuan had got no chance to consult Lie Qianshan — with regard to Tao of Swords, he'd just got too many questions…
When regretting bitterly, Wei Gaoyuan felt a sudden darkness flash over his eyes and next moment the endless blur whiteness surrounded was gone. He returned to the temple, in front of him was still the portrait on the side wall. Lie Qianshan was still on it but his eyes seemed to lose much of the previous bright, and so did Wei Gaoyuan's eyes: The Universe in Bag disappeared, he turned out to got nothing.
With a big disappointment he throwed himself onto the ground, and his hand touched a soft stuff —
The Universe in Bag?!
He bounced up and looked down, the Universe in Bag was hanging quietly where it had been. Wei Gaoyuan quickly hit upon it: Lie Qianshan might left a beam of his consciousness on the portrait somehow and it just entered — invaded more precisely — Wei Gaoyuan's… Sea of Consciousness, in Lie Qianshan's words, but the Universe in Bag couldn't as it has no consciousness at all…
In a great happiness, Wei Gaoyuan laughed little, also a little laugh at himself.
A moment later, however, he turned disappointed again — with the whole universe in the bag, the bag without the key to open…
Depressed for a little while, Wei Gaoyuan bowed to the portrait again, put the Universe in Bag in his pocket next to skin and grabbed the Night Gem to continue to explore the darkness ahead.
The underworld seemed vast but extremely desolate. It seemed to have been cleaned up, leaving few relics. Wei Gaoyuan walked on for a short time, a large cemetery with lots of tombs appeared in front, row after row, simply chilling in such a darkness.
Ordinarily a cemetery was not that terrible for a martial artist, but with himself alone and alive this gloomy cemetery underground was really like a ghost realm.
He unconsciously wanted to turn back, suddenly a piercing chill wind was blowing over from the cemetery.
Where did the wind come from in such an underworld?
At that moment, a gust of wind also came from his back, feeling like a strong Sword Qi. The chill wind crashed to the strong Sword-Qi-like wind then both disappeared without a trace.
Silence fell again. Holding his breath, Wei Gaoyuan stepped slowly back along the road when a breeze was blowing behind him, gently, toward the cemetery ahead.
Wei Gaoyuan's mind was blank now, his heart was calm, though. As if the breeze behind had brought him peace and courage, he stopped retreating and walked forward by instinct to the cemetery, walking past the rows of graves, walking past the deserted buildings, until he arrived at a tunnel cut simply in the rock wall.
He had no choice but jumped in, and walked along the tunnel for quite a long time before a light came out in front of him. At the same time, he heard the sound of purling stream. He realized that the exit might be awaiting ahead.
After a few minutes' walking, with the sound of water splashing louder and louder, finally he came to the end of the tunnel. Staring at a large water curtain in front with the sun outside shined through, Wei Gaoyuan found himself standing by a large waterfall…
