IS Chapter 106

Yun Xiangzhuo’s time passed quickly.

The sun rose and the moon set, the moon set and the sun rose, the winds of the four seasons blew across Illusion Cloud Cliff, but could not blow into his heart. When he looked up, he saw Yun Xiangxi’s calm eyes. Every day was no different from the last, a repetition of the previous day.

Yun Xiangzhuo’s time also passed very slowly.

The sound of swordplay echoed in his ears along with the wind. Within the sword techniques, he saw the myriad aspects of the world flowing away like a fleeting rainbow. He learned the purest swordplay, and he was so close to the Great Dao that he could reach out and touch it. When he closed his eyes, it felt like a thousand years had passed, but when he opened them, only a day had passed in the mountains.

Yun Xiangzhuo grew accustomed to this kind of life. The voices of the people below the mountain were very far away, only Yun Xiangxi’s voice, as if from another world.

Yun Xiangxi would talk to him about the Dao, the Dao of nature. He would also talk about Buddhism, the emptiness of conditioned arising. He understood the ways of the human world.

Yun Xiangzhuo asked, “Father, what Dao do you cultivate?”

Yun Xiangxi said, “The Dao of Emotionlessness.”

Yun Xiangzhuo said, “Then what Dao do I cultivate?”

“You don’t have a Dao yet,” Yun Xiangxi said. “Wait two more years.”

So Yun Xiangzhuo stopped asking. He hadn’t learned enough yet. When a person doesn’t understand the world, they can’t have a “Dao.” The Dao would only become clear after he had seen everything clearly.

Yun Xiangxi also told him about the hundred schools of the Immortal Sect. He wasn’t teaching him how to deal with them, but how to deal with them with the sword.

He never taught Yun Xiangzhuo how to exploit their flaws and weaknesses. He only cared about their most brilliant aspects. A swordsman had to be even more brilliant than their most brilliant aspects.

The Martial Sect was fierce and vigorous, using force to break through. The Dao Sect was profound in its Dao techniques, using the Dao to break through. The Sovereign Sect schemed the world, moving with the times, so he would use the power of the world to break through.

Yun Xiangxi never taught what to do if he lost.

Because Yun Xiangxi himself had never lost. Yun Xiangzhuo had his blood flowing in his body, and his bones beneath his flesh. What he could do, Yun Xiangzhuo could also do. And no one other than Yun Xiangzhuo could do it.

Sometimes Yun Xiangzhuo felt that Yun Xiangxi was not in this world. Yun Xiangxi stood in a very high place, looking down at the affairs of the world, like looking down from the highest point of Illusion Cloud Cliff at the mountains and rivers that had become smaller.

How did his father look at him then? Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t know. Sometimes he would look into Yun Xiangxi’s eyes, and maybe he could see his reflection there, but it wasn’t as clear as looking in a mirror.

He just didn’t have to look up to his father like everyone else. Yun Xiangxi would look down to meet his gaze, and he didn’t have to stumble and follow in his father’s footsteps. Yun Xiangxi would wait for him ahead.

He only needed to reach out and grab the corner of his father’s clothes, or hold his father’s hand. Yun Xiangxi would lead him forward, with the pace that suited him best. But he didn’t know where Yun Xiangxi was going to take him.

He was just with Yun Xiangxi.

It seemed that not much communication was needed. When Yun Xiangxi told him things, he knew what Yun Xiangxi wanted to say. When he had doubts, he didn’t need to explain them clearly. Yun Xiangxi knew what he was confused about. It was as if their minds could communicate.

In fact, Yun Xiangzhuo vaguely knew what Dao he would cultivate in the future, and what kind of sword he would eventually become. He also knew what Yun Xiangxi wanted.

He would cultivate the same Dao of Emotionlessness as Yun Xiangxi, and he would become the same Emotionless Sword as Yun Xiangxi.

Because Yun Xiangxi stood at the highest point of the sword Dao. What is the highest point? The place that cannot be higher is called the highest point. No one else can reach that place, but he can, as long as he follows the same path.

Sometimes others asked Yun Xiangzhuo, what kind of person is your father?

Yun Xiangzhuo felt that there was nothing to answer. He was a person just like him.

To completely put everything aside and make his sword Dao his only pursuit, that is the kind of person he would become.

The ancestral teachings of the Mountain Villa said that the Dao heart is unique, and the word “one” is easy to write, without any superfluous branches, that is “one.”

There are sixty-four hexagrams in the Daoist sect, and the first hexagram in the sixty-four hexagrams is “Heaven.” The shape of Heaven is also like this, without any discontinuity or response.

This is Yun Xiangxi’s Dao, and it is also the Dao he will cultivate.

However, Yun Xiangzhuo always felt that there were some things he hadn’t figured out, but he couldn’t say what they were. Occasionally, a thought would flash through his mind: in Yun Xiangxi’s “Dao heart is unique,” where was Yun Xiangzhuo? If Yun Xiangzhuo’s Dao heart was also “unique,” then where would Yun Xiangxi be?

“Concentrate.” Yun Xiangxi’s voice rang in his ear. The coldness of frost and snow brushed against his body. Yun Xiangxi held his wrist, guiding him to connect the front and back sword moves perfectly.

When he grew a little older, Yun Xiangzhuo would spend one day a month with Ling Ye. Ling Ye took him boating on the lake, and she taught him the Spirit Accumulation Art of the West Sea, to cleanse his spiritual energy and wash away the dust.

Just like he had the same sword heart, sword soul, and sword bones as Yun Xiangxi, he also had the same Embracing Bloom Spirit Body as Ling Ye. Only they in the Mountain Villa could practice the Spirit Accumulation Art.

One day each month, he would also be with the Old Master of Illusion Sword Mountain Villa. The Old Master was Yun Xiangxi’s father, and according to human blood ties, he was also his grandfather.

The Old Master and his wife often felt that Yun Xiangzhuo was learning too much. They didn’t teach him to cultivate, but only took him to see calligraphy, painting, chess, and music, to entertain themselves.

Every ten days, there would be elders in Illusion Sword Mountain Villa giving lectures, and the disciples would all go to listen. When Yun Xiangzhuo wanted to go, he could also go and listen with the disciples. They all called him Little Brother.

In fact, it wasn’t that Yun Xiangxi didn’t allow Yun Xiangzhuo to learn other things. He just believed that Yun Xiangzhuo should learn the best, and only what he taught Yun Xiangzhuo was the best.

As for the others, it didn’t matter if he learned them. Yun Xiangxi had also learned many superfluous things when he was young.

But Yun Xiangzhuo wouldn’t spend the night anywhere else. Yun Xiangxi would take him back. Yun Xiangxi rarely cultivated, and he spent more time with Yun Xiangzhuo.

When the night was deep, the lights were off, and everything was quiet, it didn’t mean it was time to sleep. That was what mortal bodies did.

——He should be in a quiet room, observing and meditating, his divine consciousness wandering in the void, and his spiritual energy accumulating in his dantian.

Until the rising sun rose, it was another day of practice.

One day was like this, one month was like this, and one year was like this. Would his whole life be like this?

Yun Xiangzhuo knew that he was growing up. The things he couldn’t see clearly and couldn’t think clearly were becoming fewer and fewer, like a great fog gradually dissipating, and everything revealing its true face.

When the fog in his life had completely dissipated, it would be the time when his Dao heart was completely clear.

It would be the time when he became exactly the same person as Yun Xiangxi.

It probably wouldn’t be exactly the same, Yun Xiangzhuo thought. When he was fifteen years old, he would have his own Life-Bound Sword. There was no second extreme cold ice vein in the world, so there wouldn’t be another Life-Bound Sword exactly like Xiangxi Sword.

Yun Xiangzhuo didn’t know what his Life-Bound Sword would be like yet. He also didn’t know what it felt like for a Sword Cultivator to have their own Life-Bound Sword.

He just watched Xiangxi Sword never separate from his father for a moment, and when he saw Yun Xiangxi use the Flying Sword Technique, Xiangxi Sword flew with its master’s will, but it wouldn’t fly with his own will.

One day, the Swordsmith talked to Yun Xiangzhuo about Life-Bound Swords.

The Swordsmith said that a Life-Bound Sword was a connection of minds, it was as easy to use as an arm, it was an incarnation outside the body, it was a Dao heart outside the heart.

The Swordsmith also said that forging a sword required meticulousness, walking on thin ice, and consistency. He had to find a path that could temper all the varied materials into one. He had to know what he wanted to keep and what he wanted to give up, so he could wash away all impurities in the flames and ice springs. In the end, he would quench the only essence. It was the same for a person cultivating their own Dao.

A person is a chaotic physical body, and cultivating immortality and attaining the Dao is the process of forging a turbid and mortal body into a clear and spiritual sword.

“Then is teaching a person also forging a sword?” When he asked this question, Yun Xiangxi and the Swordsmith were both by his side. The Swordsmith frowned and thought for a while.

“Maybe,” the Swordsmith said finally.

Yun Xiangzhuo suddenly understood.

So he was Yun Xiangxi’s incarnation outside the body, his heart outside the heart, he was the second Life-Bound Sword, and his carving was not yet complete.

But he still felt that there was something he hadn’t figured out.

At this time, Yun Xiangxi grabbed his hand. A little ink had splashed on Yun Xiangzhuo’s finger joints when he was writing, and Yun Xiangxi wiped away the ink for him.

“You know, after having Little Zhuo, I occasionally feel…” The Swordsmith paused before saying to Yun Xiangxi, “Occasionally, I feel that you also have human nature, and you weren’t born for the sword. Maybe you’ve changed.”

Then you’re wrong. Yun Xiangxi wanted to say to the Swordsmith.

But he saw Yun Xiangzhuo’s eyes. Yun Xiangzhuo stared at him blankly, absentmindedly, as if he was comprehending something. Yun Xiangxi didn’t interrupt this process of comprehension.