The Path Toward Heaven

This passage is very puzzling, and there is no logical relationship there; it seems to have no beginning and end.

It was hard to tell whether Liu Shisui understood what Jing Jiu had just said or not, but he did not answer his question.

He bowed his head and did not speak, his lips sealed tightly like a stubborn child who did something wrong but did not want to admit it. Yet the more they behaved this way, the more parents knew that their child had certainly done something wrong

It was obvious that he understood what Jing Jiu had just said.

Jing Jiu did not ask him again.

The next day they woke up to a lovely spring morning, Liu fetched some water for Jing Jiu to wash his face, and then combed his hair.

The wooden comb slipped through his dark hair.

“Young Master, the other Brothers also have lots of questions they would like to ask you and get your insight on,” Liu Shisui finally summoned enough courage to say, after a long debate and hesitation.

Jing Jiu turned his head and glanced at him.

“Yesterday we were discussing the instructions we don’t quite understand, then you taught me in the evening, and I went back and told them. But they still have some questions, some of them I can answer, and some of them I don’t know how to answer, so…” Liu said with a lowered head.

It didn’t surprise Jing Jiu at all. He didn’t tell Liu to keep his teachings to himself last night, and this was the natural outcome for a warm-hearted child.

The rules of the Green Mountain Sect had always been like this. It was harder for the external disciples to get much guidance from the teachers; they had to rely on their own diligence and comprehension to move forward, so it was quite understandable that they would cherish the opportunity to have some advice and help with their questions.

“But it’s kind of troublesome…”Jing Jiu sighed.

Liu realized Jing Jiu wasn’t angry at all, and he saw this as an opportunity, hurriedly saying,. “Back in the village you were always willing to teach us when we don’t understand the contents in the books, right?” he said.

“Yeah, you are right. For the sake of your wholehearted service, and also…because I am really bored; and besides, if I don’t do something, I’m afraid I’m going to be expelled

It seemed Jing Jiu was talking to himself, though he was looking at Liu the entire time.

Liu lowered his head shyly, for he knew Jing Jiu had already figured out his intention.

“You are still a child. You should focus on practicing from now on; don’t think too much about other stuff,” Jing Jiu reminded Liu while rubbing his small head lightly.

Liu Shisui mused. He isn’t that much older than me, so how come he always likes to talk to me like an elder.

…

…

Walking into the training hall, Jing Jiu saw a few young disciples waiting there.

They were there yesterday as well. Being able to discuss topics related to Spiritual Stability with Liu, they proved themselves to be the more talented external disciples for this generation.

There was a hint of awkwardness in their expression upon seeing Jing Jiu.

They had also joined in on mocking Jing Jiu on the hillside grounds at the South Pine Pavilion.

“You are an idiot and the attendant is a genius, your positions should be reversed, how can you have the ‘face’ to stay here?”

Now, these statements seemed like a heavy, hot, stinging slap to their faces.

Not all of them here were waiting for Jing Jiu to answer their questions, like Xue Yong’e.

His grand-uncle was the grandmaster of the Sixth Peak, the Shiyue Peak, so he had some knowledge of Cultivation since his childhood, and the entry-level methods were not difficult for him. “Someone who has a rich and powerful family and reads a few books thinks he can actually manage the world, right?” Xue derided Jing Jiu as he looked at him. “I mean, after all, who actually has the natural Dao quality?”

Jing Jiu did not pay attention to him. “Ask me then,” he said to the young disciples.

Being ignored only made Xue Yong’e angrier, but jut as he was about to start his ridicule again, he suddenly saw Liu’s eyes.

Those eyes were pure and clean, and somewhat naive, though at this moment, they were particularly focused with a sense of viciousness, like the eyes of young tigers ready to pounce on their prey.

Somehow, Xue Yong’e felt a chill going through his whole body. He knew that Liu was possessed natural quality favored by the sect; if Xue insisted on making a scene, the advantage would not be his, so he just sneered twice, turned around and walked out the training hall.

Jing Jiu didn’t pay attention to what Xue had just said or noticed the emotional changes in Liu’s eyes; when he saw those young disciples somewhat dumbfounded for some reason, he asked again, “Any questions?”

Now they seemed to have returned to their senses.

Had Liu Shisui himself not admitted that Jing Jiu had answered all those questions last night, they would not have come here to get guidance from Jing Jiu. Yet, they were a bunch of seekers of Cultivation with one-track minds; as long as they had made a decision, they would carry it out without hesitation, so pretty soon they handed over the notes prepared beforehand with adequate courtesy.

Jing Jiu took the notes, skimmed over them, then raised his head to face the crowd, “You don’t all understand these?”

His tone was fairly even and the emphasis wasn’t placed on the word “all”, and he didn’t mean to ridicule anybody.

His “all” meant “all of them,” not “all the questions”.

But his even tone and puzzlement in his eyes still revealed a feeling which could not be described and explained.

It seemed hard for him to understand that they could be troubled by the questions in the notes.

To put it plainly, it was hard for him to imagine that such stupid people existed in the world, or that there were so many of them.

The disciples felt rather uncomfortable.

Jing Jiu took a note of the pile and looked up at them.

“Brother Jing, I wrote the note,” admitted a young girl with much hesitation.

Without looking at her, Jing Jiu said squarely, “Your idea here is totally wrong; the relationship between the “spiritual fountain and the State of Fruition is way beyond your current grasp, so don’t worry too much about it for now, otherwise your preoccupation with this will affect your understanding of zhenyuan at the earlier stages, which will result in deviations. I will write something for you later about how we should deal with these subjects.”

Then he took out the second note.

A male disciple raised his right hand, feeling nervous.

Jing Jiu looked at the question in the note without gazing up at the disciple raising the hand, commenting, “In the textbook, it describes how to use the heavenly spring water to clean the head, but doesn’t say anything about using the energy of heaven and earth; moreover, to feel and perceive the energy of heaven and earth, you have to achieve the integration of body and will. Consequently, it is of course wrong to attempt to separate the divine perception from the body when you haven’t achieved this step. As for how to achieve this, I will paint a picture for you later.”

He then took out the third note.

…

…

“It is a complete misunderstanding of this statement; it’s impossible.”

“You are completely mistaken; otherwise the Dao quality will dry up and die.”

“You didn’t draw the meridian correctly, they would be paralyzed.”

“You are correct here in the first part but wrong here in the last part.”

“The first part is wrong, so naturally the second part is also wrong.”

“You were wrong from start to finish.”

…

…

Jing Jiu’s voice echoed throughout the training hall.

What Jing Jiu said to them were straightforward; some of his comments were even kind of mean, but the tone of his voice was very steady, or even smooth without any fickleness to it, and no emotion could be detected in that voice.

Yet the way Jing Jiu carried his tone made his statements even clearer and more persuasive, and was totally convincing.

The heads of these young disciples were lowering more and more, and their faces were turning redder and redder.

They could not figure out why he could use the simplest words to explain things so clearly and let the other person recognize they were wrong?

Now Jing Jiu walked behind the desk and took a pen handed over by Liu Shisui, and started writing his ideas on a piece of paper, which was something he promised these disciples he’d do.

These disciples were standing around and watching attentively; nobody spoke, and even the breathing was deliberately eased.

The training hall became even quieter.

The dawn had arrived, and the morning sun had just peeked behind the mountain peaks.

A voice sounded all of a sudden in the hall.

“What are you doing here?”

Master Lü walked into the training hall and frowned slightly after seeing Jing Jiu sitting in the middle surrounded by many disciples, and asked him, “What business do you have here?”