Chương 103: Chapter 101 – A Heart to Heart

Heart cultivation was one of those fields that the Heavenly Sword Sect was lacking cultivation manuals in. They weren't utterly devoid of them, as occasionally one would find its way to the sect. But each method was placed under severe restrictions for use, often requiring meritorious achievements to the sect as a prerequisite. The shelves of the Golden Light Monastery were filled with those manuals and techniques.

While Ren was interested in all kinds of techniques that utilized heart cultivation, he first needed to have one. So he forced himself away from the chants, strikes, and armor to focus on the cultivation manuals. There were still a large variety to choose from, and apart from the titles, their descriptions were sparse. Unfortunately for Ren, the titles also included a plethora of unfamiliar terms, and he wasn't willing to gamble with his final choice. That eliminated many options.

Ren continued to look through the scrolls, planks, stone tables, and more. A few manuals were even inscribed on tree leaves! As far as he could tell, there were a few styles and common themes. There were a few that required one to act a certain way to produce certain emotions, such as practicing charity to feel joy. There were a few about suppressing emotions, like that young monk from the dao debate argued for.

Similarly, there were those that required experiencing and severing emotions, which had been the older nun's stance. Those were actually two separate styles. Essentially, the lower tier manuals all revolved around emotions. As for the reward they promised, it was usually the same. Stronger willpower. There wasn't too much elaborated on willpower, but Ren had read up on that topic before. Willpower was too complicated to quantify easily, but one thing was sure.

The most powerful cultivators all had commensurately powerful willpower. It required a certain iron mindset to advance towards immortality while others fell all around you. Willpower allowed cultivators to endure the harshest conditions, defy the heavens, and impress their will on the world around them. At higher realms, it could even change reality! Or so the legends went. Ren's own experiences on the Stairs of Ascension highlighted its importance, the event that had sent him researching in the first place.

Ren now had another example where strong willpower had allowed him to advance through adversity. In the Golden Dharma Trial, he couldn't have practiced the Boundless Space Physique without a strong determination. Even breaking the visions first required him to reaffirm his chosen path. The importance of heart cultivation was clear, and even a low tier manual would be better than nothing. But like any cultivation method, heart cultivation wasn't without risk.

If one's willpower wavered and they succumbed to the heightened emotions caused by the manual, they could suffer cultivation deviation or, in the worst cases, even become demonic cultivators. So Ren took his time searching his feelings as much as the manuals.

'Perhaps there was something to my earlier thought about searching through fate.' He idly mused as he rolled up a scroll.

'I can't just find a strong manual. I'm not sure there is any such thing. Only the manual most suited to me would be most effective.' He had put away a manual that required one to inflict pain on oneself and endure it. He initially thought that pairing it with a body cultivation manual would be like growing two plants with one seed. If he had to inflict pain on himself, then he may as well use that pain. But Ren didn't like pain, and it was a terrible thing to build a heart cultivation around.

The same applied for the one about enduring Dukkha or suffering, a term he had learned recently. Unfortunately, there really weren't any easy paths. The simple ones about experiencing joy warned that without extreme emotion, the resulting willpower would be lacking. That reminded Ren too much about a report he had read about the laughing sickness, a plague introduced by a demonic cultivator that compelled people to laugh themselves to death. Ren was also starting to feel the press of time.

Aware that he had very little time left to make a decision, Ren picked up his pace. He was struggling to find anything suitable. He glanced sideways past the shelves and saw the elderly attendant finishing his tea. Ren couldn't even curse himself because he had wasted some of his appointed time chatting with Subo. He walked back to the shelf he had started with and began again. His hope was that he might have missed something while he was identifying patterns or because he hadn't decided what he wanted.

In that very first shelf, he found it. Like a bolt of lightning, he found his answer. Temptation! The manual was called Reflected Moon of Desire. Just like he had during the trial, he needed to resist temptation of any kind, and he would strengthen his willpower. He had already proved himself capable of staying above temptations, so he knew he could practice this method safely. But there was another big reason to pick this manual. Did you know this text is from a different site?

Read the official version to support the creator. Under the golden waters of the lake in the trial, Ren had seen the source of the red threads, the demonic arm. The destruction of those red threads had caused those tempting visions. And didn't he have a fragment of that very arm within him?! If he was right, then the thumb too might release those strange threads and provide him with an easy source of tempting visions. In this manner, he would grow stronger while limiting the threat represented by the demonic thumb.

Even if he was wrong, he was sure he could find something else to tempt himself with. Ren thought there wasn't a more perfect manual for him at that moment.

'How odd that the scroll I chose was on the first shelf I approached? Or am I reading too much into things to the point I'm imagining signs?' he mused. He heard steps approaching him, and he quickly picked up the scroll and started walking back. The elder had just started to amble towards him, but seeing Ren, he returned to his seat. Ren placed the scroll in front of the elder, who formed a copy of it. With a final nod, the manual was his. Ren left the hall with a pleased smile on his face, but it didn't last long.

Above him, the clouds had grown so dark they had utterly swallowed the sun. It was dark as night, lit only by flashes of lightning, which had increased dramatically in frequency and might in the past few days. The distant echoing booms of thunder picked up to a frenetic pace. They drew nearer, sounding like war drums announcing the descent of a wrathful divinity. Then the sky was ablaze with lightning that spiderwebbed across the clouds and down to the mountain.

Suddenly, the lightning bolts were pouring down all over the monastery. Monks were running about in panic like headless chickens. Ren could see fires flare up all around him, which a few level-headed monks rushed to put out. He picked up his pace, running towards his quarters. But he had already handed in the jade token to the elder at the hall earlier and was unfamiliar with this area. By the time it occurred to him to use the guest token, Ren had stumbled into an unfamiliar section of the monastery.

He couldn't even use landmarks to identify his location, so he just kept running in what he hoped was the right direction. Crack! Boom!! A bolt of lightning struck really close by, the light searing itself into his eyes. Despite being briefly blinded and deafened, he relied on his divine sense to keep moving. He needed to hurry back. He had just identified a familiar building and begun moving toward it when he noticed something else. He was in a blind spot, devoid of all qi.

He didn't know how, but he had been included inside a privacy ward without realizing it! Ren froze where he was. Just then a figure entered the blind spot. A figure he recognized. Elder Jiao Yue. Followed by the vice sect leader! As elder Jiao Yue turned to throw out more array flags, forming security arrays, the vice sect leader's head turned sharply toward him. Before he could speak up and greet them, she threw a talisman in his direction and urgently motioned him to be quiet.

She turned back to face Elder Jiao Yue, who was layering even more security arrays.

'What are the elders doing here when the storm is raging all around us? Shouldn't they be finding and protecting the disciples? And why did the vice sect leader order me to be quiet?' Ren knew how odd the elder's actions were, so he didn't dare make a sound. His instinct was telling him he was in grave danger. What was odd was that even the storm hadn't brought out such feelings of fear in him.

"Curse my luck! Ruined this close to my objective! Now listen closely, vice-sect leader. We won't have an opportunity later, so heed my instructions." Elder Jiao Yue's furious tone froze the blood in his veins. Even more perplexing, there wasn't an iota of respect when addressing the vice sect leader. Instead, there was a mocking, derogatory tone!

"If I follow my original plan now, I may attract the attention of the Heavenfall Legion. Messing with those absolute fanatics is courting death. I'll have to change my plans now. We'll now follow the sect's directives and fly to the Azure Mountains. Shao Jing, your report should conceal nothing, but you will omit anything we learned about the Hidden Sea Sect. Those treacherous bastards are going after my inheritance, left to me by my ancestors, but they won't succeed without me.

Still, their movements can rouse suspicion, so speak nothing of them."

"You would let the disciples we leave behind face their wrath when they fail to realize their goals? They will be eradicated! The sect leader chose to leave them behind so they have a path to survival!" Jiao Yue stepped in close to the vice sect leader, where Ren couldn't see her face. Nor did he dare to use his divine sense for fear of being detected. But it wasn't difficult to perceive the wrath through her voice alone. Her words rang coldly, unmistakably full of venom.

"You, you, you! You dare question me?! Looks like I have to remind you once again just who's leash is wrapped around your neck, bitch!" From his terrified, frozen vantage, Ren saw the traitorous cultivator pull out a small orb. The vice sect leader cried out in anguish and fell to her knees.

"This twin soul devouring scorpion poison means you either obey or become a crippled, soulless husk. Now, are you willing to pay the price for wasting my time any further? No? Then listen. Once at the azure mountains, you will obey previous instructions of secrecy and reveal nothing of our connection. I have allies there too, so if you try anything, I'll know. Once you pass their inspections and trade any merit you receive for these items, you will meet me here."

The traitor threw a jade slip at the elder kneeling at her feet and then turned with a flick of her sleeve and left. Ren was nearly in tears in his hiding place.

'What have I gotten myself involved in?! Is this just my luck, or did I somehow attract the heavens' disapproval?! I wish I could just go back to those peaceful days of farming on my mountain!'