Chapter 165 — The Threefold Establishment

Shen Mu was taken aback. He looked at Si Yunxiang, then at Granny Zhu beside him, and his mind went blank for a moment. He had always assumed that Granny Zhu was Si Yunxiang, and now, of all things, a Si Yunxiang had appeared out of nowhere — and she was none other than the Holy Maiden of this generation of the Dark Demon Cult!

His head felt like a tangled skein now. This Holy Maiden of the present day also bore the surname Si, and with that preconception fixed in his mind, he had all along been probing to see whether she was Granny Zhu; he had even deliberately teased the Holy Maiden a few times, just to see whether she would blush!

It was not until the last time, when Si Yunxiang tested him, that he had become certain Si Yunxiang was Granny Zhu. And now...

"This generation's Holy Maiden is far steadier than the last one. The last Holy Maiden was a veritable demon."

An elder with snow-white hair heaved a long sigh. "They are both of the Si family, it is true, but this generation's Holy Maiden does not wreak havoc upon our Sacred Cult."

Granny Zhu glared at him.

The elder turned his head away and pretended not to have seen.

Si Yunxiang came forward and stood at Shen Mu's side, still a little bashful, and made a graceful curtsy. "Young Sect Master, this Holy Maiden, Si Yunxiang, greets the Young Sect Master."

Shen Mu hastily returned the salute. "Junior sister is too courteous."

"This generation's Holy Maiden carries herself with such ease."

An old man sighed with deep feeling. "Not like the last generation — she was a wife, and she killed the Holy Sect Master."

Granny Zhu flew into a rage and shouted, "This old woman is still standing right here! What exactly are you after, you stinking old man?"

The old man hurriedly shut his mouth, not daring to quarrel with her.

"The Holy Maiden Si Yunxiang is no easy mark."

Shen Mu's eyes flickered. He glanced at the girl beside him, who seemed so delicate and shy, and thought, "Her mind runs deep. She is the one who defeated the Buddha-son; then she came to show off before me, to sound out my depths. She has long known that I am the Young Sect Master, yet she still flaunted herself and tested me — and for what?"

Granny Zhu laughed. "Yunxiang is of my Si family. The Patriarch taught her himself for several years. Before he found her, he had already found you; and after he met her, he sighed and said that had he met her earlier, he would not have chosen you."

Shen Mu looked toward Si Yunxiang, and it happened that Si Yunxiang looked toward him as well. Their gazes met, and in her seemingly gentle eyes Shen Mu saw a spark of unwillingness to yield.

Shen Mu smiled faintly.

Si Yunxiang must have been groomed by the Young Patriarch according to the rules for a Cult Master, and then made to sit the Imperial Academy's great examination in the same year as Shen Mu — surely with the intent of comparing the two.

Shen Mu had never known that there was to be a contest between himself and this girl.

But alas, Shen Mu had dazzled too brilliantly in that great examination, driving Daoist Lingyun all the way before the emperor himself. Whatever Si Yunxiang might do, she would be eclipsed by him; it was impossible for her to shine more brightly.

And afterward, in the Patriarch's great examination, which tested Shen Mu's fitness to be Cult Master, once he had passed it the Young Patriarch's heart had settled on its choice — and the one he had in mind was not Si Yunxiang. Compared with her, Shen Mu was better suited to be Holy Sect Master.

But Si Yunxiang would not have accepted it in her heart. So after defeating the Buddha-heart Buddha-son, she had shown off before Shen Mu and tested him.

The Young Patriarch looked around. "Has the Heavenly King Qian not yet arrived?"

"He has not."

The Young Patriarch frowned. Heavenly King Han had always been a hot-tempered sort; whatever the matter, he was always the first to charge to the fore. That he had not come now meant he could not come.

What could be greater than a Cult Master's enthronement?

There was only one possible reason why Heavenly King Han had not come to the ceremony of the Cult Master's ascension.

"Young Sect Master, from now on you must treat Heavenly King Han's descendants well," the Young Patriarch said in a low voice.

Shen Mu's heart quivered. He was about to ask, when the Young Patriarch said gravely, "Three hundred sixty halls — unfurl the banners! Assemble at Sacred Advent Mountain!"

With a whoosh.

Banner after banner unfurled, blotting out the entire City Lord's manor. The great flags spread and gathered, and the City Lord's manor of Yongzhou City vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind; where the manor had stood, there was now only bare ground.

When the banners that had covered them overhead disappeared, Shen Mu looked around, and his heart was shaken. They had left the bustling city of Yongzhou and come to a place that did not seem to belong to the mortal world.

Here the dome of heaven was round above and the earth square beneath; a mountain range towered in a realm of mist and void, touching neither the sky above nor the ground below.

The peaks were verdant green, yet overhead there was no sun, and beneath no earth. This mountain seemed not to exist in the human world at all.

"So this is Sacred Advent Mountain?"

Shen Mu gazed about him. Range upon range of peaks rose in tiers; palaces were hidden deep in the mountain forests, no doubt the halls built by the Sacred Cult. Yet the Young Patriarch did not lead them toward those halls; instead he brought them to a pine and cypress.

The pine and cypress were dense and green, and had stood in the world for who knew how many years. Beneath them was a thatched hut, very clean, showing no sign of rot despite the passage of time.

The Young Patriarch motioned Shen Mu forward. "This mountain was once in the mortal world. In those years, when the Founding Patriarch of our Heavenly Sacred Cult came here, he saw a woodcutter cutting firewood — and what he was chopping was this very pine and cypress. The woodcutter swung his axe at the pine and cypress with an orderly method that seemed to hold infinite subtle principle; and when the pine and cypress took a blow, another piece grew out and it was restored as before. The Founding Patriarch knew he had met a sage, and so he sought instruction from the woodcutter. The woodcutter preached the Way to him beneath this pine and cypress, and that lecture lasted several decades. The Founding Patriarch gained boundless insight, yet was still not satisfied, and so he asked the woodcutter: how does one become a sage?"

Shen Mu listened closely. The Young Patriarch paused, then went on: "The woodcutter said that to become a sage one must establish virtue, establish merit, and establish words — the three establishments, the three immortalities. The Founding Patriarch asked again: how does one achieve the three immortalities? The woodcutter said: illumine principle, illumine wisdom, illumine teaching — the three illuminations that make one the teacher of ten thousand. At this the Founding Patriarch was greatly enlightened."

The Young Patriarch raised his head and looked at the pine and cypress that had weathered the ages. "The Founding Patriarch knew that to become a sage, he must first be one who illumines principle, wisdom, and teaching, and is teacher to ten thousand. So he compiled the Sage's Instructions, arranged them into chapters, and made them into a record — what the outside world calls the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture."

"The Founding Patriarch wrote the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture; thus he illumined principle."