The Path Toward Heaven

It would take a lot of effort to turn a useless person to a normal man.

Liu Shisui sat in the waterlogged field, pondering.

His father didn’t pay attention to his fall. He planted the seedlings silently, his back bent very low.

“Why are you still sitting here?!”

His mother pulled him up from the watery field and hit him twice, tears welling in her eyes.

The fourth day, Liu Shisui didn’t go out.

He woke up before dawn. After briefly washing and brushing his teeth, he started practicing the lunge step.

This was an entry level method of the Green Mountain Sect.

He knew he couldn’t use this practice to get back on the path of Cultivation, but he thought this might be able to help him recover his strength.

Soon his forehead was covered in drops of sweat the size of peas.

He knew he was still quite weak, so he shouldn’t push himself too hard. He decided to take a break.

He cleaned the courtyard during his rest time.

The fifth day, Liu Shisui resumed practicing the lunge step. He felt quite pleasant after wetting his clothes with sweat.

During the intervals of rest, he went to the backyard, picked some peppers and cabbages and washed them clean.

His mother came back to cook the meal and rubbed her eyes when she saw the clean kitchen and the vegetables on the table.

The sixth day, Liu Shisui started practicing boxing, along with the lunge step. Unlike when he was at the South Pine Pavilion, he thrust his fists forth without any sound, very quietly.

He went to the vegetable garden and picked a handful of daylilies. When he came back to the kitchen, he saw a slice of pork, and chopped it to a size suitable for cooking.

He had seldom visited his family in the last seven years that he was on the Green Mountains. But he listened to Jing Jiu and often sent money to his family, so his family led a relatively easy life.

His mother got home and saw the steam coming out from the steaming pot. After being briefly dazed, she yelled through the window. “You will cook from tomorrow on, so I can help your father do some more field work.”

The seventh day, alongside practicing lunges and boxing, he started running. In the backyard, he discovered the eaves of the roof had been damaged by the last year’s heavy rains.

After having cooked rice and fish, and adding some pickles, the meal was done. He dragged a ladder to the backyard and spent the entire afternoon there fixing the eaves.

The eighth day, along with all those things he had done the previous day, Liu Shisui chopped some firewood, and piled it in a nice-looking pile, like he had done when he was a small kid.

The ninth day, he went to the field. The sowing season was almost over. If he didn’t go now, it would be too late to offer any help.

His father didn’t say anything, and simply handed him a towel, motioning for him to wear it on his neck. He wasn’t sure whether it was to guard against the wind or the insects in the field.

Liu Shisui started working the field with his head lowered, quite focused on his task.

The blue sky and white clouds reflected on the watery surface of the field had been replaced by the sunset. Liu Shisui lifted his head, feeling pain in his shoulders and back. Looking to one side, he found he had merely done one-fifth of what his father did.

He wasn’t worried about his slow work pace. It was better to take it easy at first. And he was satisfied with his planting work, as all the planted seedlings were in a straight line.

“Why did you plant them so straight? Looking pretty doesn’t help produce more rice.”

His father commented as he walked past.

Liu Shisui laughed. Was the guy born so beautiful that he was the only one who could pursue perfection?

He looked unthinkingly at the mountain path on the outskirts of the village. There was nobody there.

In the following days, Liu Shisui worked the fields just like the other young men in the village, and his physical strength gradually recovered, and his face turned a healthy darker color once more.

In the first few days, he would stand up in the field and look at the entrance of the village once in a while. Nobody appeared there.

After that, he didn’t look at the entrance of the village again.

Following the spring sowing season was the summer harvesting season. The unbearable winter followed the storage season of the autumn. It was truly boring to stay in the village all the time in the winter, so Liu Shisui went hunting in the mountains with some friends.

His parents had accepted the reality, and the laughter returned to his family. The villagers acknowledged him as their own now. Some even wanted to introduce him to a future wife, but he refused.

Liu Shisui almost forgot all the events of the past. The Cultivation in the Green Mountains was like a surreal dream.

As he walked amid the mountains and forests, he could occasionally see flashes of sword light in the sky.

At that moment he would stop walking and look at the sky silently until the sword light disappeared. No one could tell what was on his mind.

The spring arrived again after the winter. One year had passed.

The fields were irrigated again. The blue sky and white clouds reflected in the waterlogged fields again. The villagers had to work the hardest during this season.

By dusk, Liu Shisui used his hoe to gather a pile of dirt by the gap, ready to close the gap when the irrigation was done.

Looking at the water in the field and rubbing his sore back, he grew ambitious.

Liu Shisui thought he would do more work than his father tomorrow, and plant the seedlings even straighter than him.

“Once you were a natural who knew the Dao. Now you’re breaking your back to become a farmer. What a pity.”

A gloomy and hostile voice came from behind.

Liu Shisui turned his head and saw a man standing in a tree.

The man wore black clothes and a strange looking hat. Though he looked ordinary, he emitted a very gloomy air.

Liu Shisui didn’t pay him any further attention, and returned to his work.

“You are indeed a disciple of the Green Mountain Sect. Still so proud and arrogant under such pitiful conditions. You don’t even bother asking where I’m from?!”

“I’m from the Mysterious Dark Sect,” said the man in black.

Having heard this, Liu Shisui gripped the hoe a bit tighter.

The Mysterious Dark Sect was a famous deviant sect. It had a confrontational relationship with orthodox sects like the Green Mountain Sect.

Back when he was in the Green Mountains, Liu Shisui would pull out his sword without any hesitation if a disciple of the Mysterious Dark Sect suddenly appeared before him.

However, he didn’t have a sword in his hand, but a hoe. So he didn’t do anything, and instead continued to work the field.

The messenger of the Mysterious Dark Sect found this interesting.

This exiled disciple of the Green Mountain didn’t try to pitifully escape, or bravely mount an attack. Instead, it seemed as if nothing had happened at all in his eyes.

“I like you, so I want to help you.”

The messenger of the Mysterious Dark Sect flew down from the tree. “Though your meridian has been cut off and your Sword Pill has been destroyed, it’s not a big deal as long as you are still alive,” he said. “If you’re willing to come with me, I will help you recover your power. There is no need to collect your stuff. We have everything you need in the Cold Mountains. As it’s too close to the Green Mountains, I don’t want to be discovered by your former colleagues.”

The Cold Mountain was a general name for the snowy plateau and mountain range in northwest of Chaotian Land, including the Kunlun Mountain, the Sky Mountain, and the Crow Mountain, where the headquarters of the Mysterious Dark Sect was located.

Liu Shisui still didn’t pay much attention to him.

The expression on this messenger’s face turned slightly cold. “If you still refuse, I will kill you.”

Liu Shisui knew what he said was true. Killing a man was an easy and simple thing for the disciples of the deviant sects.

“I know that the Devil Fire can’t be put out. ‘Devil Fire Forever’, as they say.”

Liu Shisui put down the hoe. “If I wanted to continue Cultivation this way, I can do it myself,” Liu Shisui said, looking at him.

The messenger of the Mysterious Dark Sect was startled.

He was certain that there was a method to help Liu recover and to continue his Cultivation. Otherwise the sect wouldn’t have sent him here to observe Liu for a year.

Yet he didn’t expect Liu Shisui to know the words “Devil Fire Forever”, which was the key for recovery.

“Since you already knew it, why haven’t you done so?”

He thought it was unbelievable.

For a deposed talent with natural Dao qualities, wouldn’t the most important thing be to resume his Cultivation path? Any other practitioner in Liu’s situation would take the opportunity at any cost. Many people would even kill their parents if necessary to gain such an opportunity.

Why did Liu Shisui seem so unconcerned about it? He spent a whole year working in the field in this small village, and never even gave it a try!

“Because that is a method of the deviant sects.”

Liu Shisui said it as if he was talking about the most ordinary thing in the world.

How could a disciple of the orthodox sect practice the method of the deviant sects?

Well, he wasn’t a disciple of the Green Mountain Sect anymore, not even a Cultivation practitioner, but he would still insist on doing so.

A former practitioner should also follow the correct path.

The messenger of the Mysterious Dark Sect stared at him for a long time. “Are you stupid?” he asked.

After some thought, Liu Shisui responded. “Maybe a little bit.”

“I’ve been always afraid of dealing with your kind my whole life. It’s damned annoying.”

The messenger of the Mysterious Dark Sect left after this remark.