Chapter 65

Fu Ming had long been expecting Lin Yu's visit. With a composed expression, he opened the door, and Lin Yu stepped inside as if she owned the place—with practiced familiarity—but the moment she entered, she saw a table piled high with documents and diagrams she couldn't make heads or tails of.

The hall was much warmer than the outside, candlelight casting a bright glow throughout the room. Incense burned on the table, and the entire Hall of Manifest Harmony was bathed in a cozy, radiant warmth.

Fu Ming returned to his seat at the desk, lifting his gaze to Lin Yu and gesturing for her to take the seat across from him.

"I heard the Xianzun has you studying ancient texts under Elder Wen," Fu Ming said, breaking the silence.

"Yes," Lin Yu replied, slightly taken aback. "But the books the Xianzun gave me are... rather abstruse."

Fu Ming let out a light chuckle. "If you could learn them on your own, the elders at the Cultivation Academy would have to retire and stop swindling people. Those books weren't meant for just anyone to understand."

Lin Yu had realized that the moment she saw the contents. The noble elite had long monopolized the path to cultivation for ordinary mortals. She didn't argue, but she caught the implication in Fu Ming's words. "You have grievances with them too?"

Fu Ming didn't bother to hide it. "I do."

"So how about we kill them all?"

Fu Ming paused mid-stroke with his brush, then continued annotating the document before him. Vivid red characters covered the original black ink, and only after he finished a line did he reply, "Not yet. Not now."

It seemed he had carefully weighed her words in the time it took to write that single line. "As you can see, the people of this world revere the gods. One step below the gods are the cultivators—through cultivation, one might hope to achieve Ascension and become an immortal. The people hold the same faith in those cultivators. They won't allow their beliefs to be slaughtered to extinction."

"Then why don't you pursue cultivation and walk the path to becoming an immortal?" Lin Yu stared into Fu Ming's eyes as she asked. His lashes were lowered, not meeting her gaze; his attention remained fixed on the red characters on the paper. His lashes were long, and Lin Yu couldn't read his expression.

Fu Ming looked up, and their gazes met. An unexpected confrontation hung in the air, and for a brief moment there was silence. Then he said, "Because I have no faith. I don't believe in the gods."

His tone was calm, as if he were stating something utterly ordinary, but every word struck Lin Yu's ears with resolute weight.

"So that's why you chose me," Lin Yu said. "Not just because I figured out the truth that the Grand Empress Dowager never Ascended, but because you don't believe in the gods, and you happened to encounter another person who shared that disbelief."

She paused, then continued: "You need me, don't you?"

"Yes, I need you." The vermilion brush had hovered in the air too long without touching paper, and a single drop of red ink fell onto the page, blooming like a blood flower. Fu Ming set the brush down.

From the moment he'd first laid eyes on Lin Yu, she had been different to him. Because she appeared, because she was unique, she brought him a flicker of hope. Because of her, Fu Ming seemed to escape the life he could see ending at a glance, no longer trapped in the cage that had confined him.

And now, that uniqueness had taken on a new meaning. Fu Ming watched Lin Yu quietly, and he began to want to understand her.

To understand just what kind of being she truly was.

Fu Ming said, "Perhaps you don't fully grasp my situation, but I imagine you can guess. The people's faith in the gods surpasses their faith in me as their sovereign. Divine authority stands above royal authority. I want to reclaim the power of the throne, but the odds are far too slim. The gods have existed for a thousand years, deeply rooted in people's minds, impossible to uproot. But all of that was mere legend and imagination."

"But since a hundred years ago, when the gods first appeared in the mortal world, setting foot on this land, the stories on paper became reality, and the course of everything began to shift. People saw true immortals. After that, worship of the gods flourished, the teachings of the divine grew ever more fervent, and it evolved into the most commonplace thing of all—living human sacrifice."

"Worshipping the gods has consumed people's lives. No matter what they do, they must pay homage to the deities, begging the gods for guidance. They've forgotten what is real, chasing only ethereal faith."

Lin Yu thought for a moment. "You need cultivation, but you don't want to be ruled by intangible gods. So you knew what the consequences would be, yet you still chose to cultivate the demonic path, willing to pay any price to walk that road—am I right?"

"No," Fu Ming denied.

Lin Yu waited quietly for him to continue, but he showed no sign of elaborating. So she didn't press further.

They fell into a brief silence. It was during this pause that Lin Yu noticed something amiss. If Fu Ming cultivated the demonic path, how could he possibly wield Qing Xian? How could a divine artifact be wielded so effortlessly by a demonic cultivator? And everyone believed Fu Ming was an ordinary cultivator, with no one ever catching anything amiss about his techniques.

Fu Ming had started out as a proper cultivator, but something had happened later that caused him to fall into demonic cultivation? The thought struck Lin Yu as inconsistent—those who fell to the demonic path wouldn't remain as lucid as he had been for so many years.

Her thoughts drifted without anchor, and Lin Yu didn't notice her brow furrowing slightly. But Fu Ming did. He waved a hand in front of her face, and Lin Yu snapped back to attention.

Fu Ming rose and walked toward the door, and Lin Yu stood to follow. He passed behind a folding screen to a bookshelf beside the window, where he pulled out a few volumes from among the rows and handed them to her. "You still have to take the assessment at Heaven's Mandate Tower in a month. No matter how hard you try, you can't possibly master that much in a single month."

Lin Yu took the two thick books, puzzled. She could barely finish the ones the Xianzun had sent, and now she had two more? How was she supposed to get through them all?

"These are my rewrites based on those ancient texts," Fu Ming explained. "They should be much easier for you to understand."

Lin Yu's face brightened with sudden delight, but Fu Ming quickly dashed her joy. "Every book on those two shelves is the same. Twenty-one in total. Once you've gone through them all, you should be about ready."

Lin Yu: ?... She should have known it wouldn't be that simple.

...

The next morning, Lin Yu and Chen Lu left the courtyard together. Lin Yu was off to study with Elder Wen, while Chen Lu was formally accepted as an apprentice disciple under Elder Fu Zhu, beginning her training in talisman drawing.

Before they parted ways, Lin Yu patted Chen Lu on the head. "Our little Chen Lu is going to be a formidable talisman cultivator someday. Study hard—learn what you can, and if it's too tough, take a little break and try again."

Chen Lu smiled, her excitement palpable, as if she were brimming with energy. "Alright! You too!"

Lin Yu waited until Chen Lu had entered Elder Fu Zhu's palace before she turned and walked away. In no time, she arrived at Elder Wen's courtyard.

Elder Wen had always been a loner. At his age, he took no disciples and never left his residence, spending his days in solitude working on who knew what. The other disciples regarded him as a peculiar old recluse. He hadn't appeared at any of the past few sacrifices, which was why Lin Yu had never met him in person.

Lin Yu stood by the door, about to knock, but before her hand could touch it, the door swung open on its own. A crisp, cheerful voice called out from within: "Come in, little girl!"

Lin Yu was taken aback for a moment, but quickly stepped over the threshold and entered. She finally laid eyes on the legendary odd old man. His skin was dark and weathered, and despite looking no older than fifty-something, his hair was stark white, bound high atop his head with a single wooden hairpin. His face bore faint spots and a few wrinkles etched into his world-worn features. If no one told you he was a venerable elder, he could easily pass for a wandering swordsman who'd spent years roaming the jianghu.

Seeing Lin Yu enter, he flashed a friendly grin. "Come, sit. No need to stand on ceremony with this old man."

Elder Wen's appearance and personality were a jarring mismatch. A stern-faced old man grinning like a fool all day—it was utterly at odds with his status and position.

"Greetings, Elder," Lin Yu said with a smile as she took a seat.

Elder Wen opened a new book and placed it at an angle before him, positioned so Lin Yu could see it too. "This is the Myriad Swords Manual," he said. "Do you know it?"

Lin Yu shook her head earnestly, indicating she'd never seen it nor understood its contents.

Elder Wen remained patient. "In cultivation, all knowledge is interconnected. If you master one field, the others naturally follow to some degree. And as for the basics, we should start with what you're best at. It doesn't matter if you don't know the Myriad Swords Manual."

"Do you know this one?" He pointed to an illustrated compendium of the gods, asking Lin Yu. Though she'd never read this book, as Elder Wen flipped through a few pages to show her, Lin Yu skimmed it briefly. It was a record of all the gods of the Nine Heavens since ancient times, with neat rows of small text detailing each deity's duties, biography, temple defenses, and the domains they governed.

This time, Lin Yu nodded, though her tone was hesitant: "I suppose I know a bit?"

Hearing this, Elder Wen was delighted. "I knew you were a clever girl. Then we'll start with this one. I'll first tell you about the gods of the Nine Heavens. Once you've got a good grasp of that, I'll expand into their divine artifacts, spirit beasts, dan pills, formations, and such."

"By the time we've gone through everything, you'll have learned it all. Then we can start on the Myriad Swords Manual I gave you earlier. After that, we'll move on to the auxiliary subjects—spirit herbs, elixirs, the origins of all spiritual energy in the world—and then I'll teach you how to use spells. Don't worry, with me as your teacher, I guarantee you'll be unbeatable in the world!"

Elder Wen grew more animated as he spoke, stroking his stubble and beaming at Lin Yu, as if he could already envision the day he'd finish teaching her and finally leave Heaven's Mandate Tower to roam the world in his old age.

Seeing his exuberance, Lin Yu smiled and nodded. "Alright..."

"Then let's begin at the very start—the tale of the beginning of all things, when Tian Zun established heaven and earth and created the gods and all living things."

"Good." Lin Yu sat up a bit straighter. She remembered that in the dream of the previous Divine Maiden, A Si, she had gone to pay respects to Tian Zun, but unfortunately, he had never appeared.

"In the beginning," Elder Wen began, "the mortal realm was called Chaos. Back then, Chaos was ruled by the Demon Gods. The Demon Tribe oppressed all living beings, and the Human Tribe suffered terribly. But mortal flesh and blood were no match for the ferocious Demon God race. This state persisted for a hundred years, until a single figure appeared in the boundless chaos."

"Tian Zun?" Lin Yu asked.

"Yes. You're quite perceptive—you guessed it right." Elder Wen's face showed a hint of appreciation as he praised her.

Lin Yu felt somewhat flattered. Wasn't a story that predictable to guess? She could've made up something similar on the spot to tell Elder Wen.

Elder Wen didn't notice her expression and continued. "Tian Zun started out as an ordinary mortal, but he cared deeply for the suffering of all beings. He alone crossed a volcanic inferno to find a legendary artifact—the artifact that later became widely known as the Heaven-Subduing Halberd. It's said the halberd was over nine feet long, red as blood, and would summon a fire dragon at Tian Zun's command."

At that point, seeing Lin Yu listening intently, Elder Wen deliberately paused for dramatic effect. "Guess what happened next?"

"He used the halberd to slay the Demon Gods and save the people from their suffering?" Lin Yu guessed.

"Not at all!" Elder Wen said. "That guess is far too cliché. He's Tian Zun—can't you think of something more unusual?"

Lin Yu tried again: "He subdued the Demon Gods and made them his subordinates?"

"Wrong."

Guessed wrong again, Lin Yu gave up speculating. Curious, she asked, "So what did he do?"