Chapter 10 — Buddha and Dao

Song Dayi, new to the role of teacher, saw Zhang Qingyue propping his chin on his hand, listening spellbound, and could not help but warm to his subject; he spoke on with great gusto:

The cultivation of the Taiji Profound Purity Way proceeds from the easy to the difficult. Most people can master the first tier of the Jade Purity Realm within a year, but beyond that the steep and arduous stretches begin to show themselves. For the second tier, an ordinary person must train five years; the third tier is the true watershed—those of meager aptitude stagnate there for life, and even for the better sort, fifty or sixty years of training is nothing remarkable.

Zhang Qingyue gaped, speechless. Song Dayi smiled faintly and went on.

The principal methods of the Taiji Profound Purity Way are more or less fully transmitted by the third tier; beyond that, it depends chiefly on one's aptitude and on one's own efforts. A teacher of profound cultivation may offer a pointer or two, but that is merely the fruit of personal experience, meant to spare the disciples a few detours. Of course, the "detours" spoken of here are reckoned mostly in centuries.

To cultivate the Taiji Profound Purity Way to the fourth tier of the Jade Purity Realm is to possess the root of all methods, and one may then begin to practice other wondrous arts and to refine one's own magic treasure. The lore of magic treasures and secret artifacts is of ancient lineage; in myth and legend the gods of heaven all possessed their own divine weapons of peerless might. And in the mortal world, those who cultivate the Way and refine the Dao, wielding such things for the first time, command the creative power of heaven and earth, and their might is immense. At the least, one may ride the void and speed like wind and lightning; at the greatest, one may shake heaven and convulse the earth, shatter mountains and sever rivers.

The materials of magic treasures are likewise multifarious and bizarre beyond reckoning, but one rule holds: the material determines the might the treasure will possess once refined. If one works the "True Formula of the Divine Sword That Commands Thunder" upon common iron, before the sword can strike the foe, it and its master will together be reduced to ash.

As for the Canglan Sect, its founding patriarch, Qingye, in the Phantom Moon Grotto-Heaven obtained the ancient sword Slayimmortal, and with it swept across the world, meeting scarce a match. In their admiration, the greater part of later generations likewise cultivated immortal swords. A thousand years on, sword-heroes have come forth in multitudes, and it has become all but an unwritten rule of the Canglan Sect—one might as well rename it the Azure Cloud Sword Sect and no one would object.

Yet speaking of this, one must mention Tian Buhui, Master of Dazhu Peak. He himself cultivates the sword, and his guardian artifact, the Crimson Spirit, is among the famous swords of the Canglan Sect; yet toward the disciples under him, for some reason, he shows not the least inclination to encourage their cultivation of immortal swords. Not only that—he often "eggs on" them to refine odd and unorthodox treasures, a practice much criticized within the sect. But for one thing, there is no rule forbidding it; for another, Tian Buhui's disciples are of middling aptitude and few in number, so the rest let him be.

Among the disciples of the Dazhu Peak line, the eldest senior brother, Song Dayi, is the deepest in cultivation, having brought the Taiji Profound Purity Way to the fifth tier of the Jade Purity Realm. Next comes the fourth, He Dachuan, who has reached the fourth tier. Though he entered the sect later than Wu Dayi and Zheng Dali, he is the cleverest of all the disciples, and so the latecomer has outstripped the rest.

As for the second, Wu Dayi, the third, Zheng Dali, the fifth, Lü Daxin, and the sixth, Du Biyan, all struggle bitterly at the third tier of the Jade Purity Realm. It is the youngest junior sister, Tian Lingsu, who is surpassing clever. Carefully tutored by her parents from childhood, though she began the bamboo-cutting chores only at ten, she had practiced the Taiji Profound Purity Way for many years already; at the tender age of thirteen she too reached the fourth tier of the Jade Purity Realm and could drive magic treasures—one of the Canglan Sect's famed prodigies, cherished by her parents and cared for by every elder and teacher. Su Wan even gave her the celebrated Amber Crimson Silk as a guardian treasure.

"Senior sister is that formidable!" Zhang Qingyue could not help exclaiming at this point.

Song Dayi smiled. "Indeed. Our junior sister is exceedingly clever, and she has a gift for the Way beyond that. Whatever Master and Mistress teach her, she grasps at a word; her aptitude far surpasses us senior brothers. For now her years of cultivation are few and her mastery not yet seasoned, but given time her achievements will know no limit and far exceed ours. The flourishing of the Dazhu Peak line rests on her."

As he spoke, his eyes were full of hope, and plainly he doted on this charming, winsome junior sister.

Then Song Dayi told Zhang Qingyue a few more things to heed in the course of cultivation, and at last said gravely: "Little junior brother, there is one final matter I must tell you. In the cultivation of this sect, what matters is to advance step by step and keep your feet on solid ground. If you covet merit and press recklessly ahead, I fear your greed will exceed your measure and bring great calamity instead. Whether you succeed or not is fated from the first; there is no need to force it. Demons and heretics, heterodox arts—those whose desires are never satisfied and who grasp at every gain end mostly by incurring heaven's wrath. Pitiable and lamentable. Be careful."

Zhang Qingyue was startled into alarm and said hurriedly, "Yes, eldest senior brother. I understand."

Song Dayi nodded and rose. "Then let it be so for now. The Taiji Grotto is on the back mountain; only disciples who have cultivated the Taiji Profound Purity Way to the third tier or above may enter to train there. Until then, practice in your own room. It is very quiet here, and Master and Mistress generally do not come. Apply yourself."

Zhang Qingyue stood. "Thank you, eldest senior brother."

Song Dayi laughed freely, patted his head, turned, and left.

Zhang Qingyue saw Song Dayi off, then returned to his room, shut the door fast, and felt an excitement beyond words—even the morning's weariness from cutting bamboo was forgotten.

He drew a deep breath, calmed himself, walked slowly to the bed, and sat cross-legged in the posture Song Dayi had taught him. He closed his eyes and went over in his mind, from first to last, the methods of the first tier of the Jade Purity Realm of the Taiji Profound Purity Way as Song Dayi had transmitted them. He was about to begin when something stirred in his heart; he flung his eyes open and cried out, "That's not right!"

The first tier of the Jade Purity Realm that Song Dayi had taught him is in itself the crudest and most elementary method of the Taiji Profound Purity Way, its function contained in a single phrase: refining qi. The cultivator, seated in stillness, releases his mind from the bonds of every vexation and draws the spiritual qi of heaven and earth into his body to circulate the Great Heavenly Circuit, thereby breathing as one with heaven and earth and so coming to perceive the creative workings of the world. If one can draw the spiritual qi into the body and run three full circuits, one's meridians are by then made firm, and one may cultivate a higher realm.