Chapter 635: The Benevolent, the Way of Being Human

Jiang Guo, Qiao Gu, and the others also saw Chen Shi battling the sword marks on the cliff face, but their impressions were quite different from his.

“Back then, by the time I reached this point, I was already covered in wounds and could barely go on. Junior Brother hasn’t been injured at all so far.”

Qiao Gu praised him. “His foundation is incredibly solid, and his understanding of the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture far surpasses mine.”

Jing Mei said, “I was even more badly injured back then. I could barely keep going. It was only because my senior brothers and sisters encouraged me from outside that I managed to press on.”

She felt this deeply.

Uncle Jiao suddenly shook his head. “No. Something’s wrong.”

The others were puzzled. Jiang Guo asked, “Uncle, what’s wrong?”

Uncle Jiao said, “His moves are flawless and seem to flow as naturally as if they were heaven-made. Yet he still gets struck by the sword. Something doesn’t add up.”

Qiao Gu said, “Uncle, what’s wrong with that? His moves have no flaws at all. He’s already grasped the true essence of the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture. Even I can’t do that now. You couldn’t reach his level even if you performed the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture yourself.”

Uncle Jiao said, “It’s true that I couldn’t. But there is definitely a problem with his swordsmanship.”

As they spoke, Chen Shi had reached the eighth move at Dao-Contemplation Cliff, facing Heaven’s Net Smashing the Sundered Sky on the cliff face.

When he faced Clouds Unfurl and Mists Disperse, the fifth move, he had already been slightly injured. The sixth and seventh moves had worsened his injuries, but they had not yet affected his movements.

Very few of Golden Turtle Island’s disciples could make it this far.

Though the space between the cliffs was extremely narrow, Chen Shi and the divine ability on the cliff face conjured a terrifying scene of heaven and earth collapsing, with a blood-red sun. It was even more dangerous, as if two crumbling worlds were hidden between the cliffs, crashing into each other with a thunderous roar!

Before Chen Shi’s eyes, the red sun streaked chaotically across the sky. The setting sun was like blood, and all of heaven and earth seemed to be turning to ashes in an apocalyptic scene.

His moves were flawless. He had displayed the Great Dao of heaven and earth at the end of the world to perfection. The power of this move blossomed beneath his sword, dazzling beyond compare. But the instant it collided with Heaven’s Net Smashing the Sundered Sky bursting from the cliff face, his swordsmanship was inexplicably broken. In the next moment, streams of sword qi came at him. Some stabbed toward his throat, some toward his heart, some pierced into his Dao Field, some entered his Sea of Consciousness, and some had already reached his Primordial Spirit!

Chen Shi retreated at top speed, driving the mysterious yellow sword qi into his Dao Field, Sea of Consciousness, and even his Dao Realm, doing everything he could to fend off the invading sword qi.

By the time he had blocked those streams of sword qi, he had retreated all the way to the entrance of Dao-Contemplation Cliff.

Chen Shi’s expression darkened. He was about to charge back into Dao-Contemplation Cliff when Uncle Jiao’s voice came from behind him. “Chen Shi, come with me.”

Chen Shi did not continue forcing his way into Dao-Contemplation Cliff. He turned and followed him.

Uncle Jiao hobbled ahead, leaning on his cane. Suddenly, a cloud of auspicious mist appeared beneath his feet. It rose into the air, carrying the two of them away and leaving Qiao Gu, Jing Mei, and the others staring at one another.

“Junior Brother Chen’s swordsmanship really does seem to have a problem,” Qiao Gu said, scratching his head.

Standing atop the cloud, Chen Shi saw that it was moving swiftly. Before long, it had flown over countless mountains and rivers and reached the remote western frontier of Penglai.

Though this was also part of the Earth Immortal Realm, it was extremely desolate. Spiritual energy had been corrupted by the external Dao and was no longer usable. The calamity of years past had turned this place into somewhere nearly impossible to live. And yet people still lived and multiplied here. Chen Shi saw villages scattered like large and small game pieces across the shattered landscape.

The cloud slowly descended. Chen Shi’s feet touched the ground. He looked around and saw a bitterly cold land, with snow still lying on the ground. In the distant fields, green wheat shoots looked as if they had been frozen beneath the snow.

“Your swordsmanship has a problem. It doesn’t seem like your own.”

Uncle Jiao spoke with grave seriousness. “You seem to understand those principles naturally, but in your heart, they don’t move you at all. There’s no feeling in them.”

Chen Shi frowned slightly. “Uncle, what do you mean?”

“You haven’t understood what it means to be benevolent.”

Uncle Jiao said, “Benevolence is the relationship between people and heaven and earth, and between people themselves. This is the key to the Master’s philosophy. It is called benevolence by name, but in truth, it is the way of being human. You feel the changes in heaven and earth and understand life and death; you sense the changes in worldly affairs and understand rise and decline; you feel human relationships and understand yourself. Your understanding of swordsmanship is already unmatched, but your swordsmanship is just an empty form. It has no human way, no feelings, experiences, or awareness of your own.”

He hobbled across the snow-covered ground. “Look at this snow. It seems bitterly cold, but spring is actually near. The world is no longer as cold as it was. Don’t hover above the ground. Set your feet on it and feel.”

Chen Shi landed and relaxed his body, walking slowly.

The soil beneath his feet was softer than he had expected. Though snow and ice still remained on the ground, they were only in the shaded places. The soil itself was not frozen, and the weather was beginning to warm.

He looked back and saw his footprints in the earth.

Uncle Jiao led him onward. “Earthly Qi’s Cold Greeting, you’ve practiced it well. I can’t find a single fault with it. But why do you still get struck by the sword? I think you’ve never truly seen Earthly Qi’s Cold Greeting or Heaven’s Inverted Cycle of Life and Death. Only after truly seeing them can you understand the benevolence and the human way the Master spoke of.”

Chen Shi followed him, thinking, “Benevolence? The human way. Could that really be why I get struck by the sword?”

They came to a nearby village. The people there seemed to know Uncle Jiao and greeted him. “Immortal Master Jiao, come to teach a disciple again?”

Uncle Jiao smiled and replied, “Jiang Guo is from this village. He used to live here, though that was more than five hundred years ago.”

Chen Shi looked around the village and saw many villagers sitting beneath the sun, soaking up its warmth. They wore thick clothes and squinted, their cheeks reddened by the sunlight.

For beings like them, who had already become immortals, five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. But for mortals, it meant countless cycles of life and death. The affairs of past lives had all turned to ash.

“I was the one who brought Jiang Guo into Golden Turtle Island. He was a prodigy and learned everything quickly. Even in a place like the western frontier of Penglai, where cultivation was nearly impossible, his progress was astonishingly fast. Before he joined the sect, I taught him the Primordial Chaos Dao Scripture and the sword scripture, and made an agreement with him: once he reached the Celestial Immortal Realm, he would come to Golden Turtle Island to find me. Later, I forgot all about it.”

Uncle Jiao found some bamboo and began shaving it as he told Jiang Guo’s story. “By the time I remembered him, several decades had passed. When I went back to look for him, I found that he had already become a Celestial Immortal. But he hadn’t come to find me. Instead, he had stayed home to care for his parents until they passed away. I didn’t force him to come with me, so I left. After his parents had lived out their long lives, he came to Golden Turtle Island as promised, and I brought him into the sect. He has a jade pendant at his waist. It’s poor in quality, but he has always worn it. It was left to him by his parents.”

As he spoke, he shaved twelve bamboo tubes of different lengths. The longest was nine inches, and the shortest was four inches and seven-tenths. He planted them in the soil so that they all protruded the same distance above the ground.

Uncle Jiao then gathered some inner membrane from reeds, burned it to ash, and carefully sprinkled the ashes into the bamboo tubes.

Chen Shi squatted beside him and watched him work.

Uncle Jiao said, “Stay here and keep your eyes on these bamboo tubes. You’ll naturally come to understand the human way contained in Earthly Qi’s Cold Greeting.”

Chen Shi stayed by the twelve bamboo tubes, while Uncle Jiao hobbled away with his cane.

Evening fell. The villagers had all gone home, and soon wisps of cooking smoke rose from each house. The air filled with the aroma of food.

Chen Shi continued staring intently at the twelve bamboo tubes. Before long, he heard soft footsteps behind him. A child carefully approached, carrying a bowl of food and two coarse-grain steamed buns.

“My mother told me to bring this to you. Eat, eat.” The child’s face was wreathed in an innocent smile.

Chen Shi paused, then accepted the meal. He thanked the child solemnly, picked up the bowl, and squatted like the villagers. He took a bite of bun and a bite of food, quickly finishing the meal.

He wanted to return the bowl, but worried he might miss something, so he set the bowl and chopsticks beside him.

A little while later, the child returned and took them away.

The moon rose, beautiful in the night sky. Beneath its light, shadows mingled with patches of snow, and the air grew colder and colder.

It was extremely quiet here. Now and then, a dog barked or a wooden gate creaked open.

Chen Shi kept his eyes fixed on the twelve bamboo tubes. Without realizing it, he watched until dawn. The village gradually came to life again. People rose early and greeted one another, and soon cooking smoke curled from every home.

The child came to bring him breakfast again, and Chen Shi still didn’t refuse.

After breakfast, the villagers grew curious about this stranger. Many watched him secretly from a distance and whispered among themselves, but none dared approach.

The children were bolder. They would run over and squat beside Chen Shi to look him over. The bravest even reached out to touch his Purple-Gold Crown.

Before long, their parents called them away and gave them a scolding.

Chen Shi simply kept watching the twelve bamboo tubes, endlessly patient. After only a few days, the villagers had grown used to his presence, and their curiosity about him faded.

Chen Shi, too, became completely absorbed, as though he had blended into the village.

Six or seven days passed like this. The weather warmed, the snow and ice in the shadows gradually melted, and the soil grew softer and softer. Tiny green shoots had emerged in some places by the walls.

That morning, Chen Shi was still sitting there like a wooden statue. A man who had risen early passed by him, stretching and yawning. He muttered, “It’s the spring equinox today.”

At that moment, Chen Shi sensed yang energy flowing deep beneath the earth. It was indeed the earth’s yang energy: ice and snow melting deep in the soil, roots breathing in and out beneath the earth, and creatures in their burrows sleepily opening their eyes as their metabolisms quickened.

In short, it was as if the earth had awakened.

He was still astonished by what he had sensed when a current of air from deep within the earth suddenly blew upward through the bottoms of the bamboo tubes before him, lifting the reed ash inside.

The incredibly light ashes flew out from the ends of the tubes above the ground and danced through the air, accompanied by a low sound rising from within the bamboo.

The sound was extremely faint, so faint that anyone who failed to listen closely would have missed it.

But it was indeed a melody coming from deep within the earth.

It was the pitch of Huangzhong, the first of the twelve pitch pipes.

Ashes rose from the other bamboo tubes as well. Earthly qi stirred through tubes of different lengths, producing the twelve pitches: Dalu, Taicu, Jiazhong, Guxian, Zhonglü, and the rest.

The sound was like the earth giving voice, announcing to the whole world that spring had arrived.

It was as if this sound had awakened all life in the world. The western frontier of Penglai, once bleak and desolate, now brimmed with the breath of countless lives stirring awake!

This was Earthly Qi’s Cold Greeting. This was Heaven’s Inverted Cycle of Life and Death!

Behind Chen Shi, the village also seemed to awaken from the stillness of night. People went about their business, children played noisily, hens left their coops to forage, and yellow dogs ran everywhere, marking their territory.

The child who often brought him meals came over again, carrying a bowl of food.

Though Chen Shi had already grasped the essence of this move through the Celestial Strategy, when he personally felt the earth revive and all things pass from death to life, he still couldn’t help weeping.

He had understood it.

He had understood the benevolence the Master spoke of. It wasn’t about cutting a person in half. It was about the relationship between people and heaven and earth, and between people themselves.

He had understood the human way hidden within Earthly Qi’s Cold Greeting!

Now he understood why he had been struck by the sword at Dao-Contemplation Cliff.

“Don’t cry,” the child said. “Are you hungry? There’s more at home. I can bring you some.”

“Thank you.”

Chen Shi thanked him and rose with a smile. “I’ve eaten your family’s food for so long, and you’ve taken care of me all this time. How could I leave without repaying you?”

With a thought, he spread his Yin-Yang Dao Field over the little village.

Chen Shi activated his Yin-Yang Dao Field and absorbed and refined the external Dao here. Before long, he had completely refined the external Dao in the village. He said to the child who had brought him food, “If the old man with the limp comes looking for me, tell him I’m going out into the world for a while. I’ll come back once I’ve reached perfection.” With that, he drifted away.

From then on, the little village was rich in spiritual energy, and upright energy remained there. The villagers lived much longer, and their crops grew better.

Not long after Chen Shi left, Uncle Jiao and Jiang Guo came to the village. When the villagers saw Jiang Guo, they hurried over and called him Ancestor. Though Jiang Guo looked like a youth, he was nearly six hundred years old, so it was only natural for the people of his village to address him as their ancestor.

The two looked around the village, both showing surprise.

With their profound cultivation, they could naturally tell that the reason for the village’s earth-shaking transformation was that Chen Shi had changed the Great Dao of this place!

But how had he done it?

“Where is the young man who was watching the bamboo?” Uncle Jiao asked urgently.

The child who had brought Chen Shi his meals repeated what Chen Shi had said. Uncle Jiao and Jiang Guo both furrowed their brows.

“Understanding the Primordial Chaos Sword Scripture takes too long. Who knows when he’ll return from this journey?” Uncle Jiao murmured.

Without realizing it, Chen Shi left the western frontier of Penglai. Along the way, he observed and sensed the Great Dao of heaven and earth, studied the local customs and people, comprehended Wind Lord’s Irregularity, and pondered Drifting Azure Flames. He also went into lands ravaged by war to witness the rise and fall of nations and the change of dynasties.

Sometimes he traveled deep into the desert, where the winds swept away the yellow sand. At other times, he experienced autumn rains and comprehended frost and snow.

He wandered from place to place, traveling who knew how many tens of thousands of miles and for who knew how many days.

Uncle Jiao, Jiang Guo, Black Pot, and the others waited for him on Golden Turtle Island for several months, but he never returned. They waited another two years, and Chen Shi still did not come back.

One day, the Hu dog was lying in front of the mountain gate when its ears suddenly twitched. It lifted its head and saw a disheveled, bearded man approaching from outside, travel-worn from head to toe. He smiled at the dog and walked straight up the mountain.

“Uncle Jiao, I’m back.”

The man smiled at Uncle Jiao. “I’d like to challenge Dao-Contemplation Cliff once more.”