Chapter 336 - The Missing Principle and the Unbound Heart

Chapter 336: Chapter 336 - The Missing Principle and the Unbound Heart

Ji Ruyue became still.

Shen Youran had practiced the Heartless Sutra far longer than her disciple. Whatever doubts Ji Ruyue was only beginning to discover, Shen Youran had spent decades approaching from different directions.

"The inheritance we possess has always been incomplete," Shen Youran said. "Several portions were lost long before it reached us."

Shen Youran continued.

"For a long time, I believed the missing portions merely contained deeper stages of the same principle."

Shen Youran looked toward the quiet orchids surrounding the courtyard.

"What we inherited teaches us how to cut attachment, quiet desire and silence disturbances within the heart. It is extremely effective at doing so."

She returned her gaze to Ji Ruyue.

"A person without desire cannot easily be tempted. A person without grief cannot be broken by loss. A person without affection cannot be controlled through attachment."

Ji Ruyue listened without interruption.

"That is why even the incomplete Heartless Sutra is powerful."

Shen Youran paused.

"But a stone possesses those qualities as well."

Ji Ruyue fell silent.

"A stone does not favor anyone. It does not become angry. It does not grieve, desire or fear."

Shen Youran’s voice remained calm.

"Would you trust a stone to judge right from wrong?"

Ji Ruyue’s eyes lowered.

"No."

"Neither would I."

The answer came without hesitation.

Shen Youran folded her hands loosely before her.

"Heartlessness does not mean having no heart. It means allowing nothing within the heart to become its master."

Ji Ruyue looked up.

"The complete path should not turn a person into something incapable of feeling. It should allow them to understand joy without chasing it, grief without drowning in it, affection without being enslaved by it, and hatred without surrendering their judgment."

Shen Youran’s gaze remained calm.

"To feel everything and still remain master of oneself."

Ji Ruyue repeated those words silently.

Something about them felt strangely distant.

Yet another part of her recognized them immediately.

"That is the missing portion?"

"I cannot say for certain."

Shen Youran did not pretend to possess an answer she had never found.

"But after practicing this sutra for far longer than you have, I no longer believe greater severance is the destination."

Ji Ruyue thought about that.

The principle she had recited throughout her life suddenly sounded different.

To enter, sever attachment.

To complete, return all things to the heart and remain bound by none.

They had always placed nearly all their attention on the first sentence.

Perhaps because the surviving method taught them almost nothing about the second.

Ji Ruyue’s fingers tightened slightly.

Another question surfaced.

"Master, if a thought returns after the emotion behind it has already been cut away... what remains?"

Shen Youran looked at her disciple.

"Perhaps what you cut away was never the emotion."

Ji Ruyue’s eyes shifted faintly.

"Then what was it?"

Shen Youran remained quiet for a moment.

"Your ability to recognize it."

The words settled between them.

Ji Ruyue did not know how to respond.

For years, whenever an unwanted emotion appeared, she had known exactly what to do.

Observe it, suppress it, sever its influence, and continue cultivating.

She had never once wondered whether the feeling itself remained beneath the silence.

Shen Youran released a soft sigh.

The sound was so unusual that Ji Ruyue immediately looked at her.

"It’s partly my fault."

Ji Ruyue’s gaze sharpened.

Shen Youran continued before she could object.

"I placed you on this path when you were still a child."

There was no visible regret on her face, yet Ji Ruyue had known her master long enough to recognize the weight behind the words.

"At the time, I believed it was the best path available to you."

She looked directly at Ji Ruyue.

"Your questions do not mean that your Heartless Path is collapsing. They mean you have reached a place where the incomplete answers you were given are no longer enough."

Ji Ruyue listened carefully.

"The insight you obtained from the Heavenly Law may help you understand your path more deeply."

Shen Youran paused.

"It may also destroy you if you continue forcing the old method against an understanding that no longer agrees with it."

Ji Ruyue understood.

That explained the unstable circulation.

Her Heartless Sutra was trying to suppress the very question her comprehension had created.

The two principles had begun opposing each other.

"What should I do?"

"For now, continue cultivating."

Ji Ruyue frowned slightly.

Shen Youran noticed.

"Do not misunderstand. I did not say to continue suppressing everything."

She looked toward the sword resting beside Ji Ruyue.

"When a thought appears, observe it. Do not immediately cut it away. Understand where it comes from before deciding whether it should remain."

That instruction alone was nearly the opposite of everything Ji Ruyue had practiced since childhood.

Yet she nodded.

Shen Youran rose.

"I have never attempted to reconstruct the missing portions of the Heartless Sutra."

Ji Ruyue looked up.

"I never had sufficient reason to risk changing a method that had remained stable for me."

Shen Youran turned toward the inner chambers of Silent Orchid Peak.

"It seems that is no longer the case."

Ji Ruyue’s eyes widened.

"Master."

Shen Youran stopped.

Ji Ruyue knew exactly what reconstructing an incomplete cultivation method meant.

It was not simply writing down a few missing sentences.

Every circulation route had to be tested.

Every adjustment to the method could affect the meridians, the mind and even the soul.

One wrong assumption could cause cultivation deviation.

"There’s no need to..."

"I will not act recklessly."

Shen Youran’s voice remained as calm as ever.

That did little to reassure Ji Ruyue.

Shen Youran had considerably more experience than she did, but experience did not make experimentation harmless.

"I was going to study it eventually."

Ji Ruyue knew that was probably true.

It also did not change the fact that her questions had pushed the matter forward.

Shen Youran glanced back at her.

"Do not turn this into another thing to suppress."

Ji Ruyue fell silent.

Apparently, her master had already guessed where her thoughts were going.

Shen Youran entered the inner chambers.

The door closed quietly behind her.

Ji Ruyue remained beneath the orchid tree.

For some time, she did nothing.

Another unfamiliar disturbance had appeared inside her.

Her master was going to place herself at risk while studying the incomplete method.

Ji Ruyue disliked that.

At least, she thought she disliked it.

She no longer trusted herself to name these things so easily.

Her gaze lowered toward her sword.

Once again, there was something she could not solve herself.

The other day, she had stood beneath the same sky while Su Bai was dying and had been unable to do anything.

Now Shen Youran was facing a problem connected to the very path Ji Ruyue practiced, and she could offer little more than questions.

A thought surfaced before she could suppress it.

She stopped.

Shen Youran had specifically told her not to do that.

Ji Ruyue allowed the thought to remain.

For several breaths, nothing happened.

No Heart Demon appeared.

Her cultivation did not collapse.

The world remained disappointingly ordinary.

The thought became clearer.

What was she cultivating for?

Strength should allow a person to act.

Knowledge should allow them to understand.

Yet whenever something truly mattered, she seemed to reach the same conclusion.

There was nothing she could do.

Another image appeared in her mind.

Su Bai.

Ji Ruyue stared ahead silently.

That was becoming inconvenient.

She did not suppress it.

Instead, she followed the thought as Shen Youran had instructed.

Su Bai was unusual.

That observation required no emotion whatsoever.

Methods that harmed others frequently benefited him.

Even death had somehow failed to keep him down.

More importantly, Ji Ruyue remembered Fallen-Star Sanctuary.

Whatever opinion others might have of Su Bai’s strange methods, she had personally traveled with him through circumstances where a single mistake could have killed them.

By her own standards, he was dependable.

Ji Ruyue considered that conclusion carefully.

Going to him because she feared for her master would be an attachment-driven decision.

Going to him because he possessed unusual knowledge, had solved problems others could not, and might notice something Shen Youran had overlooked was rational.

The distinction reassured her.

Probably.

Ji Ruyue stood.

Her sword returned to its sheath.

She looked once toward Shen Youran’s closed chamber before leaving the courtyard.

For the first time since beginning the Heartless Sutra, Ji Ruyue deliberately allowed an unresolved thought to accompany her instead of cutting it away.

Her destination was Clear Cloud Peak.