Chapter 66: Mingjing

Cultivation was a path that relied heavily on talent. The simple requirement of possessing a spiritual root barred the vast majority of people from its gates.

But those who made it past the threshold knew that this was only the beginning of the journey.

Spiritual roots varied in quality and rank. Mutated Spiritual Roots and single spiritual roots naturally allowed for the fastest cultivation speeds, whereas multiple spiritual roots required cultivating all attributes simultaneously, making progress much slower.

Low-level cultivators often placed too much importance on their spiritual root, believing it determined their upper limit. But in truth, this was not the case. Cultivation relied on talent, but that talent was twofold.

The first was physical talent, and the second was comprehension and temperament.

One only had to look at the high-level cultivators on the Hengze Continent today. While single and dual spiritual roots made up the majority, there was no shortage of venerables with multiple or even five-attribute spiritual roots. Yonglu Mountain alone had two Soul Transformation venerables with four spiritual roots. When they first began cultivating, perhaps even they did not know they could walk so far on this path.

The quality of one’s spiritual root could certainly determine a cultivator’s height, but it was not absolute.

In fact, the further one progressed, the less impact the number of spiritual roots had. What truly determined whether a cultivator could stand above tens of thousands of people was their Dao heart.

When the Dao heart was sufficiently firm and whole, one could break through any predicament. Just like now, Junior Sister Jiang had relied on herself to step back onto the path of cultivation.

Her spiritual root was rapidly repaired, and her soul achieved perfect compatibility with her body. With her original body combined with her comprehension, her cultivation level jumped four times in a row, instantly reaching the peak of Qi Refining. Or rather, she did not even need a full step to reach Foundation Establishment; she was only half a step away.

And she had intentionally stopped before this final half-step. The path of cultivation was long, and there was no need to rush her advancement now. In fact, she knew very well that her current state was already enough to make Jiang Fengnian and “Jiang Ying” on the ground red-eyed with envy.

While one’s own failure was painful, the success of someone whose fate they had once toyed with was far more agonizing.

Jiang Fengnian, who had seemed emotionally stable just a moment ago, had now also descended into madness.

As expected, one could not afford to take a single wrong step. She was right.

“Little Grand-Uncle Master, what name do you think would suit me?”

Wen Xu was suddenly put on the spot: …

How should he put it? In the past, he had indeed named newborn babies in his village to earn a bit of pocket money, but… was naming someone in the cultivation world usually this casual?

“Why ask me? Junior Sister, you are the one who knows yourself best and knows what kind of path you want to walk in the future.” Although Wen Xu asked this, with his intelligence, it was not hard to guess that Junior Sister Jiang felt a sense of belonging to Yonglu Mountain. Since he held the highest seniority here, she had approached him for a name.

But in truth, Wen Xu had only guessed half of it.

She had not read many books in the past. Madame Jiang would never have allowed her to stand out. If she had not been able to cultivate, she might have remained an illiterate orphan her entire life. The knowledge she possessed now had all been acquired after entering Yonglu Mountain. As for poetry, literature, ethics, and morality, all her time had been spent on cultivation, so she naturally had no time to study such things.

To put it simply, the Little Grand-Uncle Master looked like someone who had read a great deal, and she wanted a nice-sounding name too.

“Besides Jiang, what other surname could I take?” She was thoroughly disgusted by the surname Jiang.

Wen Xu had always been good at reading people. Out of respect for this junior sister’s courage and Dao heart, he did not refuse again. “Cultivators cultivate their bodies and minds. They must examine themselves and understand their Dao heart. How about using ‘Ming’ as your surname? What do you think, Junior Sister?”

“Then… from now on, I shall be called Mingjing.”

Although she had not read many books, before entering Yonglu Mountain, she had once heard a passing monk recite a verse. Even now, she remembered it clearly.

[The body is a Bodhi tree, the mind like a mirror bright^[1]. The mirror is originally pure; where can dust alight?]

She hoped that her future Dao heart would be like a bright mirror, no longer bound by the mortal world and blood ties. To her, a surname was of no consequence, and a name was nothing more than a symbol.

If possible, who would want to live burdened with dust? From this day forth, she was Mingjing, and nothing else.

The surname Ming was bright and clear. She liked it.

“Junior Sister Ming, I didn’t introduce myself earlier. I am Bian Chunzhou. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Wen Xu.”

“Chen Zui.”

The female cultivator who had renamed herself Mingjing finally showed her first smile of the day. It was faint, but she now possessed the strength to embrace freedom. “Thank you, Junior Brother Bian, Senior Brother Chen.”

Then, she bowed respectfully to Wen Xu in a disciple’s salute. “Yonglu Mountain outer sect disciple Mingjing pays respects to Little Grand-Uncle Master. Thank you.”

…There was really no need to be so formal. As expected, no one called him Senior Brother.

Wen Xu admired her greatly. Her severing of family ties had even given him a new idea. His master had said that his relatives were still alive. Perhaps when the time came, he would also need to… sever his family ties.

Cultivation was truly wonderful. It could actually sever the ties of blood and kinship that the mortal world could not. This was truly excellent. Wen Xu decided that he would add another two hours to his cultivation when he returned.

With this matter settled, True Monarch Zhao, the sect master of the Yunxia Sect, finally arrived, accompanied by his eldest disciple.

Sect Master Zhao was a mid-Nascent Soul True Monarch. He looked elderly, clearly having surpassed nine hundred years of age. A Nascent Soul cultivator had a lifespan of one thousand years, and only in their final hundred years would a cultivator who had retained their youth begin to age.

Of course, not everyone aged. Some who cared about their appearance would take Face Preserving Pills, but a cultivator’s journey tested their state of mind, so most chose to let nature take its course. After all, after living for so long, most no longer cared that much about their looks.

Sect Master Zhao was clearly one of them. The eldest disciple beside him had a face as pale as paper and unsteady steps, clearly heavily injured. Even for a cultivator, such a severe injury should have been nursed back to health within the sect rather than traveling all this way. This showed just how highly valued Jiang Baozhu had been in the Yunxia Sect.

The eldest senior brother of the Yunxia Sect was named He Jieyi. He possessed a metal-fire spiritual root and had originally been at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. However, because he had ventured into a secret realm to find a Youth Retaining Bead, his cultivation had fallen to the early Foundation Establishment stage. Seeing Mingjing standing before him with stable breathing and an intact spiritual root, his face was filled with uncontrollable shock. “Baozhu, how…”

Mingjing had no intention of dealing with the people from the Yunxia Sect, so she said, “Fellow Daoist, I am not her. If you have something to say, speak to her instead.”

He Jieyi followed her unfamiliar gaze, only to see a female cultivator covered in blood, her eyes burning with rage.

He was certain he had never met this person before, yet for some reason, he found her eyes inexplicably familiar. It was almost as if he had seen them before.

“Baozhu?” It was simply too absurd. He Jieyi nearly stumbled, but the junior brother beside him caught his arm. This junior brother was the one at the third level of Qi Refining. Seeing that his eldest senior brother had realized the truth on his own, he immediately began recounting the facts, embellishing them with extra details.

In short, Senior Sister Baozhu was not technically an evil cultivator, but she might as well have been one.

He Jieyi had always known that Junior Sister Baozhu was not as gentle and peaceful as she appeared. However, a cultivator needed drive and ambition to climb higher. Furthermore, the Jiang Family had provided the Yunxia Sect with significant financial support in the form of spirit stones, so he had looked after her closely on his master’s orders. Over time, this care had become a habit, eventually blossoming into a deep, inseparable affection.

“Baozhu, why did you do this?”

With her spiritual root shattered, Jiang Baozhu was on the brink of madness. Seeing He Jieyi, she suddenly flew into a frenzy: “Why?! To become stronger, of course! You’re a dual-element spiritual root genius, and the entire Yunxia Sect will be yours in the future! I wanted to join a major sect! What did I do wrong?!”

She did not believe she was in the wrong at all, and she hated everyone present.

But soon, she could no longer screech like a mad dog. Senior Brother Huang had led a search of the entire Jiang Residence, including the private property where Jiang Fengnian had imprisoned Jiang Ying. Cultivators worked with immense efficiency, and they quickly discovered that Jiang Fengnian was indeed preparing for another Soul Swapping ritual. Furthermore, one of the unfortunate targets of this swap was none other than the heavily injured Eldest Senior Brother of the Yunxia Sect standing right before them.

Anyone who heard this couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer audacity of it all!

Although the Yunxia Sect was only a small sect, just as Jiang Baozhu had said, He Jieyi was their most talented disciple. As long as he did not perish prematurely, he was guaranteed to be the next sect master.

If Jiang Fengnian had actually succeeded in the Soul Swapping… No wonder he hadn’t cared whether his biological daughter lived or died. Perhaps from the very moment he settled in Langyuan City, marrying and having a daughter was merely a means to complete his evil art. If Jiang Baozhu had been a son, perhaps his primary target would have been his own child.

Mingjing was right. Even if Jiang Fengnian did not exude a shred of evil Qi, he was an evil cultivator through and through, completely devoid of humanity. It was no wonder a man like him had made absolutely no progress in his cultivation.

Upon learning of this, Sect Master Zhao of the Yunxia Sect immediately expelled Jiang Baozhu from the sect. He assured Yonglu Mountain that he and his disciples were fully willing to cooperate with any investigation, swearing that the Yunxia Sect had absolutely no involvement with any evil cultivation techniques.

As for He Jieyi, he fainted after learning that he had been targeted for Soul Swapping.

*

After returning to Yonglu Mountain, Mingjing first went to Kaiyuan Peak to update her outer disciple identification plaque. With Senior Brother Huang’s report, the process went very smoothly, but her results in the Sect Tournament were declared void.

Strictly speaking, those results had been achieved by Jiang Baozhu after the swap, not by Mingjing’s own strength. Even if Yonglu Mountain had been willing to let her keep the results, Mingjing would have refused.

However, the arena matches for those below Foundation Establishment had already concluded. If Mingjing wanted to participate in the tournament, she could only enter the division for those below Golden Core. With her current strength at the peak of the Qi Refining Stage, she could actually give it a try.

But Mingjing declined. For one, she was not reckless by nature. Secondly, she had originally been at the sixth level of Qi Refining, and now she had jumped four levels at once. She had not yet fully mastered her current cultivation level, so entering the arena now would be highly unwise.

Perhaps because the shackles on her had been lifted, Mingjing’s personality was no longer as gloomy and sullen as before. She even chatted briefly with a senior sister from Kaiyuan Peak: “Are there really many disciples at the peak of Qi Refining who participate in the arena matches for those below Golden Core?”

“Not just many, but most of them. Some do it to challenge those of higher realms, while others want to fight Foundation Establishment cultivators to find an opportunity for a breakthrough. As you know, under normal circumstances, Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators are rarely willing to spar with those in the Qi Refining Stage.”

Mingjing understood. Still, her situation was unique, and it wouldn’t be too late for her to participate in the next Sect Tournament.

“However, there is one person you should know: Junior Brother Chen Zui of Saber Peak.”