Nightfall

“The no-boundary spirit of the Academy?”

Looking at this rumpled book in his hands, Ning Que remembered that on the day last spring when the Second floor of the Academy was opened, when he used all of his strength to reach the wooden door down the mountain, he saw the four words “A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” inscribed on the rock. Thinking about that, he slightly frowned and fell into a long period of thinking.

Days before that, he had heard from Second Brother that the four words Prince Long Qing saw at that moment were “A Gentleman Doesn’t Fight”, which was actually the note made by the Headmaster of the Academy for him. Therefore, the four words of “A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” were undoubtedly left by the Headmaster of the Academy for him, or perhaps, the warning for his life.

What did those four words inscribed on the rock mean? What was the relationship between the “A Gentleman Knows No-boundaries” and this old book? Did the Headmaster already know in advance that he needed to learn the no-boundary spirit of the Academy?

Ning Que looked out of the cave and asked, “How should I solve the problems in this book if there are any?”

Chen Pipi said, “I will come up the mountain every ten days, so if you have any questions about this book…”

Before he finished the rest of his words, Ning Que had already realized that these were classes that had been arranged by the Headmaster just like Third Sister Yu Lian had done before. He said while shaking his head, “Dream on, you are not Third Sister. You have to come up the mountain every day, otherwise, I’m afraid that Sangsang and I will be bored to death.”

Chen Pipi mocked him, “Then why don’t you beg me? Where is your previous terrible attitude? What else can you do to me if I leave right now?”

Ning Que said, “Just get out of here.”

Chen Pipi instantly turned and started to go down from the cliff platform.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked back at Ning Que for a long silent moment.

Ning Que looked at him with a slightly odd expression.

Chen Pipi said, “I heard that the teacher will give you three books to learn about. If you still cannot get out when you finish them, you might lose all the chances in your entire life to get out.”

Ning Que slightly frowned and asked, “What is the third book?”

Chen Pipi shook his head and said, “No one knows.”

Ning Que remained silent for a while before he suddenly smiled and said, “If it is confirmed that I can’t get out of this mountain for my entire life, please find a spoon for me.”

Chen Pipi asked with slight surprise, “For what?”

Ning Que pointed to the deep dark inside of the cliff cave behind him and said, “I will use it to dig out a long tunnel and get back to the world.”

Chen Pipi could not help doubting his intelligence and said with empathy, “Don’t feel so pressured.”

Ning Que knew that Chen Pipi was unable to understand what he really meant, but it did not matter, he knew it himself. Then he started reading that book.

Chen Pipi sighed slightly, leaving the plateau without saying anything.

…

…

The Tao is invisible while objects are all tangible.

Objects, as mentioned, referred to all the things without boundaries.

People who knew the Tao would not set boundaries for themselves, and also did not care about the specific forms.

Gentlemen who did not have boundaries would not be stubborn about the established rules.

The no-boundary was a condescending attitude toward rules.

…

…

…

Opening the old book that had no words on the cover, Ning Que was immediately attracted by its contents and could not help continuing to read.

Other than eating and sleeping, he spent most of the following 24 hours reading and thinking. If he began to get bored with one book or his thoughts arrived at a standstill, he would read another book. In this way, time passed as he flipped through the books.

Sangsang cooked, cleaned, and chatted with him when he got bored. After working up the courage to come into the cliff cave once again, Sangsang sat beside him quietly and sewed the soles of shoes.

No matter in which ways these two books would help Ning Que solve those problems and free him from his imprisonment, he had learned a lot from the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient sages in those books.

The book of the Origin on Primordial Qi of Nature allowed him to learn about this brand new assumption of the world for the first time, and he understood more new ideas in the following several sections.

The so-called aura of the world was exactly an invisible particle that existed in nature. It was also called the Qi of Heaven and Earth by cultivators. According to this book, all of the Qi of Heaven and Earth in this world originated from the sun, only a little of which was from the depths of the earth.

These auras that had the same origin started to manifest different features due to the different objects that they coexisted with and the environmental pollution over time.

For example, the Qi of Heaven and Earth in wood was totally different from that in rocks. Such differences were too subtle to be found by general cultivators.

Ning Que remembered the feeling when he first met the Stone Array Tactics before the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine by Daming Lake. He found that the explanation in the book made sense even though it was different from what Master Yan Se had said earlier.

After a while, he took out several Fu papers and cast, using his Psyche Power to carefully sense the slight differences between the fire and the mist in front of him, and then wrote down notes on the paper.

After lunch, he put the empty bowls aside and started casting again. He usually wrote talisman for fun when he was in the Old Brush Pen Shop and, although their power was not strong enough, he had saved a great many Fu papers that were enough for such an experiment.

He cast the water talisman this time.

While the light yellow Fu paper disappeared in the air, the Qi of Heaven and Earth in the cliff cave slowly gathered together to form a ball of water and fell into that empty bowl.

After some slight ripples, the water became still.

Looking at the water that was gradually becoming muddy, Ning Que’s face showed some complex expressions. He then opened the book and started to compare it with certain contents in the book.

And then he cast the water talisman once again, letting the water fall down to the ground and keeping his eyes focused on the water that was gradually disappearing along the stone crevices just like numerous invisible snakes.

The bowl was a tangible object, and so were the stone crevices. Even this entire world was also a giant tangible object.

The water became a semicircle when it fell into the bowls, invisible snakes when it flowed through the stone crevices, a bead curtain when it was reflected by the clouds, and numerous particles when it was transformed into rain.

The water itself did not have any tangible shape. It only became tangible when it interacted with some tangible object.

That was what the no-boundary really meant.

“Is the Qi of Heaven and Earth just like water?”

It was not difficult to draw such a conclusion. Looking at that book, Ning Que did not show any complacency. He was trying to find something in this book to prove that the inhibition of the cliff cave was relevant to this conclusion.

After some time had passed, Ning Que woke up from his pondering. He kneaded the spot between his eyebrows exhaustedly and then noticed that Sangsang had come in.

“Do you remember that you said that you were terrible at sewing when we were about to leave for the Wilderness? You sent all the needlework to Xiaocao because you didn’t want anyone else in the city of Chang’an to see your sewing. Where did you get these?”

Ning Que asked.

Sangsang raised her head and scratched her itching temple with the end of a needle, and said, “I got those from Seventh Sister when I went down the mountain yesterday. I have to do something to kill time.”

Thinking that it was indeed boring for her to stay on the cliff platform, Ning Que gave the book to her and said, “You can read this when you feel bored.”

Sangsang was surprised. “Am I allowed to read this book?”

These two books had been secretly hidden by the Academy and were carefully selected by the Headmaster for his disciple. Regular people were not supposed to see this book, let alone Sangsang. However, Ning Que had already gotten used to sharing every good thing with Sangsang, sometimes he even put Sangsang first rather than himself.

The most important reason was that he had grown to be a penny-pincher due to their childhood poverty. Though he did not have to worry about money, he still tended to make full use of everything.

Ning Que said, “These are the best books in the world. You will regret it if you don’t read them.”

Sangsang felt pity and said, “But I don’t understand the contents.”

Ning Que said, “Even the shameless Great Divine Priest of Light wanted to accept you as his successor. You must be very talented in cultivation, maybe even more so than me or Chen Pipi. I should’ve developed your talent during all these years. Maybe you are really a genius in this aspect.”

Sangsang burst into laughter and said, “You’re making fun of me again.”

Ning Que said, “Anyway, just take a look, it can’t hurt.”

Sangsang was convinced. She took the book and started to read it carefully.

Ning Que continued to read the book of the Origin on Primordial Qi of Nature. The more he read, the more sense he thought the book of the West-Hill Divine Palace made because, in that book, the Qi of Heaven and Earth absorbed by the Devil’s Doctrine was regarded as the same as Haotian Divine Light.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

He saw a whole set of skills of Qi refreshing at the end of the book!

When he inherited Youngest Uncle’s skills at the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine, it was the remainder of the sword style in the sword mark left by Youngest Uncle that rushed through Ning Que’s Ocean of Qi and Snow Mountain. Then, the Great Spirit rushed through his body, spinning the Qi in his lower abdomen, and it began to absorb the Qi of Heaven and Earth around him.

At the moment, once Ning Que started to use his Psyche Power to absorb the Qi of Heaven and Earth, he would not be able to control the whole process nor know how to make the process more efficient.

If the skill of Qi refreshing at the end of this book was for real, did that mean that he would be able to speed up cultivating the Great Spirit and improve his capacity in a short time?

Holding the book, Ning Que’s hands were slightly trembling. The suffering of being imprisoned in this cliff cave was immediately replaced by surprise and gratitude towards the Headmaster and Third Sister.

This book had to be shared. Such a discovery and happiness had to be shared! He turned back and wanted to share these with Sangsang.

But Sangsang had already fallen asleep.

Looking at Sangsang, who held the book and had deeply fallen asleep without leaning on the cliff cave, Ning Que could not help smiling. He thought to himself that she indeed did not have the talent for cultivation, or at least, she was not good at studying.

After a while, Ning Que carefully read the part of Qi-refreshing Skill once again. When he was able to memorize every single word in that part, he slowly closed his eyes.

He began to refresh Qi for the first time.

The Qi of the Greatest Spirit.

…