Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 295 Heaven-Man Methods

Twelfth Madam Luo walked between the two rows of statues of ancient sages to the far end of the side hall and said to Ding Songyan with a faint smile, "In one of those tribes, servants couldn’t curse, commoners could say a few filthy words, full citizens could insult anyone they liked but couldn’t show disrespect to the elders, and the elders and the chieftain could curse whoever they wanted however they wanted. Aren’t those rites?"

"If rites refers specifically to the ancient rites the Confucians revere, then definitely not. But if you take it as ’rectifying names and statuses, establishing superiors and inferiors,’ then it is." Ding Songyan had learned quite a bit from Twelfth Madam Luo these past days.

Twelfth Madam Luo withdrew her gaze and fixed it on the path leading from the side hall to the rear hall, her voice dropping slightly.

"From that time on, I kept thinking about what rites really are.

"After that, I saw more groups far removed from the mundane world and went through many things. Gradually I grasped the essence of rites: they exist to govern, to create order. Each name calls for its own rites. Based on that, I improved my own Rites Blade art and tried to civilize some of the villages and tribes, guiding them to change, steering their rites toward greater virtue and kindness."

So Twelfth Madam Luo, the Cheap Wine Shop’s shopkeeper, can curse people with a mouthful of filth, but rarely swears around those who know she has a hidden identity? Ding Songyan suddenly understood.

"After nearly two years like that, I became a Heaven-Man." As she spoke, Twelfth Madam Luo turned her body and took a step toward Ding Songyan.

Ding Songyan suddenly felt the whole side hall become extraordinarily grand. The statues of the ancient sages stood in perfect order, and Twelfth Madam Luo stood among them. Though not tall, she gave him a feeling that he dared not offend, dared not be disrespectful, and wanted only to obey.

Superiors and inferiors had their place with distinct levels.

The aura vanished in an instant, and Twelfth Madam Luo went back to being the sharp-tongued, brisk shopkeeper. She turned and slowly walked toward the entrance of the side hall, saying casually, "What you just felt was my Heaven-Man might, but it isn’t complete.

"After becoming a Heaven-Man, I could rein in my own traits and finally return to the mortal world. That’s when I had the fortune to meet Daoist Mingyu. The reason she taught me the Name and Reality Chapters of the Nine Canons was that she saw I had already gained some inkling of the Way of Name and Reality through the single word ’rites.’

"Later, I also cultivated the Name and Reality Chapters to the Heaven-Man Realm and used them to encompass the Rites Blade. So although I became a Heaven-Man through the Rites Blade, it’s only a small part of my current Heaven-Man Way."

Hearing this, Ding Songyan asked thoughtfully, "To become a Heaven-Man, you need a Way of your own?"

Twelfth Madam Luo tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and nodded gently.

"To help you understand the nature of the Faith-Slaying Sword, I once told you ’Heaven and earth hold the Way, and all things respond.’ To become a Heaven-Man, you have to go the opposite way. ’All things hold the Way, and heaven and earth respond.’

"First, you come to understand certain principles that come from your own martial art, grasping and mastering it more thoroughly. Then you adjust, even improve, that martial art accordingly to fit what you’ve understood. Besides blending your own Way into the martial art, you also have to put it into practice in daily life, unifying knowledge and action. And last and most important, your own state of mind has to fit as well, reaching Arcane Accord.

"The Arcane Accord required at the Heaven-Man Realm is not the accord in which heaven and earth are impartial and treat all things as straw dogs. Nor is it the accord of falling into line with the mundane world while hiding one’s true self. It is an accord that suits one’s own Way, one in which one is in full accord with it and yet not losing their true self.

"When all three are fulfilled, heaven and earth respond, and you can sense that Way in some subtle unknown. Mm, it can’t really be called a Way, only a method, but since the heaven-earth severance, people in the martial world have gotten used to calling it a Way. It’s a specific method that can resonate with your own Way. Through it, you entangle your spirit and true qi with it, rely on it in part, and merge with it. Then you’ve entered the Heaven-Man Realm.

"Among all the realms attainable since the heaven-earth severance, the others are described with words like ’accomplish,’ ’become,’ ’find,’ and ’reach.’ Only the Heaven-Man Realm is conventionally described with ’validate.’

"To validate your own Way is to be a Heaven-Man."

So this is the Heaven-Man Realm... It feels a lot more mysterious and profound than the Dharma Realm, even harder to fathom... Ding Songyan sighed silently.

He remembered the Sutra of Celestial Heart Wisdom. Ordinary martial arts needed the Arcane Accord mindset to validate a Heaven-Man, and the Celestial Heart Method or the Heavenly Secrets Method would surely have even stricter requirements on temperament.

That was also a case of you can’t have it all. The Sutra of Celestial Heart Wisdom could, at the Dharma Realm, use one’s own heart to imprint the Celestial Heart and, through it, sense the changes in heaven and earth’s energy, experiencing a bit of Heaven-Man ability early. Validating a Heaven-Man on that path must be that much harder.

Heaven and earth have no favorites, and neither does the Celestial Heart. Perhaps that is why cultivators of the Scripture of Celestial Heart Wisdom must cut off their worldly ties. Mm, that is the demonic way. For an orthodox path, it would probably be to treat all beings alike, feeling without being burdened by feeling. But the Scripture of Celestial Heart Wisdom is the legacy of Taowu, one of the Four Perils, so the demonic way may well be the correct way to cultivate it... Many thoughts flashed through Ding Songyan’s mind, while Twelfth Madam Luo’s next words echoed in his ears.

"So before the heaven-earth severance, the Heaven-Man Realm was also the first gate separating human from divine.

"The second gate was from the Spirit Platform to the Mystic Realm."

Hearing this, Ding Songyan asked with interest, "Before the heaven-earth severance, was the Spirit Platform Realm not so special compared to the Heaven-Man Realm?"

Twelfth Madam Luo murmured her agreement.

"It’s the same today. The gap between Dharma Realm and Heaven-Man is bigger than the gap between Sage and Heaven-Man.

"But for someone who has already touched the limitations of the heaven-earth severance and can faintly reach the Mystic Realm, it’s different. Well, not so different as to be exaggerated. They’re still restrained by the heaven-earth severance."

The shopkeeper swung her arms slightly and turned toward the main hall.

"Each legacy has several Heaven-Man methods. It isn’t just one trait for one Heaven-Man method. Sometimes one trait can correspond to several methods, and some traits can’t be used to validate a Heaven-Man at all."

Like how the Five Virtues could have five Heaven-Man methods, while Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil couldn’t be used to validate a Heaven-Man? Ding Songyan nodded slowly to show he understood.

Twelfth Madam Luo continued, "Your Unified Way Sword is in fact a Heaven-Man method. It holds the principles you grasped from Manifesting the Way and its Virtue and Bringing All Things Into Unity, along with your own knowledge and understanding, and the process of creating and perfecting it is both a more thorough understanding and mastery, and also practice.

"If you can gradually hone your mind to fit this Way while keeping your true self, and act on it in some of your daily affairs, then the day your Unified Way Sword reaches initial mastery is the day you become a Heaven-Man."

"The Unified Way Method?" Ding Songyan was delighted at first, then began to think.

He had always regarded the Unified Way Sword as an extension of Manifesting the Way and its Virtue, with a single sword strike that countered all methods being the embodiment of Bringing All Things Into Unity. But from Twelfth Madam Luo’s words, the Unified Way Sword combined some of the principles of both.

That makes sense. Isn’t breaking down, distilling, and summarizing martial arts a kind of "unity" too? From "all methods" down to "three," then to "two," then to "one," and finally to the "Way"—why can’t that count as an embodiment of Bringing All Things Into Unity? And what supports that framework, or model, is Manifesting the Way and its Virtue, "three begets all things"... From this viewpoint, Manifesting the Way and its Virtue and Bringing All Things Into Unity are in some areas two sides of one whole... Ding Songyan looked at Twelfth Madam Luo and asked, "A single Heaven-Man method can correspond to two traits?"

Twelfth Madam Luo laughed.

"Talking in terms of traits is just easier to understand. In reality it’s ’methods.’ However many methods a legacy contains, that’s how many Heaven-Man methods there can be. It’s just that normally there’s no need to split them so finely. Dividing them roughly by trait is enough.

"And methods come in both large and small. Isn’t it perfectly normal for your Unified Way Method to combine some of the principles of both Manifesting the Way and its Virtue and Bringing All Things Into Unity?"

"I get it." Ding Songyan felt enlightened.

In other words, a legacy’s traits can be broken down into smaller methods, and these methods can be partly recombined into larger methods. The larger methods are still contained within those traits but aren’t limited to a single trait...

As he thought, Ding Songyan couldn’t help grumbling inwardly, Interdisciplinary, huh?

He thought for a moment and asked, "After becoming a Heaven-Man, can you also cultivate other Heaven-Man methods from the same legacy?"

Twelfth Madam Luo shook her head.

"Normally no. Your Arcane Accord mindset fits your own Way and merges with it. How could you then cultivate another Heaven-Man method on top?

"I switched to cultivating the Way of Name and Reality, and it can encompass ’benevolence,’ ’righteousness,’ ’rites,’ ’virtue,’ and ’faith.’ These aren’t a secondary cultivation. And of the Five Virtues, ’benevolence,’ ’righteousness,’ ’virtue,’ and ’faith’ haven’t been fully turned into parts of my Way-validation method yet. ’Righteousness’ and ’faith’ are close.

"Other martial arts of the same legacy can continue to be cultivated to the Heaven-Man Realm too, but none are as powerful as the Way-validation method. They fall well short.

"If you want to cultivate more than one, you have to change your mindset..."

Hearing this, Ding Songyan blurted out, "Unfettered?"

A faint smile appeared on Twelfth Madam Luo’s face.

"Yeah, being able to have it all is a matter for the Spirit Platform Realm."

By now, Ding Songyan basically understood what a Heaven-Man was and how to become one.

If he were given the choice again, he might have preferred to become a Heaven-Man through the Four Seasons Method, since the Way of Time seemed "cooler." However, with the Unified Way Sword now a crystallization of his own effort, he naturally wouldn’t switch to another path. Besides, both Establishing the Six Directions and Dividing the Four Seasons could later be folded into the Unified Way Sword as techniques and wouldn’t go to waste. They just wouldn’t be as powerful as a Way-validation method.

"I told you before that your Unified Way Method is very hard, but if you make it work, it’ll be extremely strong," Twelfth Madam Luo said with a smile. "You’ll have to weigh for yourself whether to take this path. Mm, the advantage of creating your own method is that insight is gained. You can understand the principles more deeply and put them into practice directly. Once the method is created, becoming a Heaven-Man comes quickly. Practicing a Heaven-Man method left by earlier sages, on the other hand, gives insight one level lower, and you have to find your own path of practice, which usually takes a lot of time unless you’re exceptionally gifted.

"I also had my own insights about the Rites Blade and improved my Heaven-Man method myself, which is how I became a Heaven-Man relatively quickly."

Ding Songyan was silent for a moment, then said, "The Unified Way Method it is."

If he switched to the Six Directions Method or the Four Seasons Method, even at the Heaven-Man Realm he would very likely still be one step behind Ji Hanyi.

Only by taking the hardest path could he get the greatest reward and gain a bit more room to maneuver by becoming a Heaven-Man.

Near noon, Ding Songyan and Twelfth Madam Luo left the Confucian temple. At a noodle stall by the roadside, they each ordered a bowl of noodle soup and sat on little stools, eating slowly.

Twelfth Madam Luo picked out the pickled mustard greens and shredded pork, and asked casually, "Are you going back with me?"

Ding Songyan shook his head and said with a smile, "I’m going to the Yin-Yang Temple.

"I don’t have the excuse or the nerve to ask for an audience with Perfected Xiang, but visiting Young Master Jiang is no problem."