Despite leaving as soon as she could, Yan Ping ran into many unexpected delays on returning to her sect. With Bai Dajin and Zhao Mingshen leaving so abruptly, there was nobody else to clean up after the trash lying around in the lawless territory.
According to other sects, the Mystical Qilin Sect had a huge territory. However, following the teachings of the founder, the only territory they had existed within the barrier. Nobody in her sect was bothered with worldly affairs, hence the birth of a lawless zone.
In the past, entering the Mystical Qilin Sect was a privilege, and the clans with descendants who entered the Mystical Qilin Sect would work on behalf of the sect to maintain the territory outside the barrier. However, as not many people who entered the sect left it, time eroded the glamour and those living outside the barrier became tainted by greed. Corruption spread amongst the people who claimed to be affiliated with the Mystical Qilin Sect, doing whatever they pleased in the name of protecting the territory. Yet, the Mystical Qilin Sect never stopped it from happening. Instead, Yan Ping’s shifu turned a blind eye to everything, neither admitting nor denying their actions.
Initially, Yan Ping did not understand why her teacher sought to remain an observer of the chaos outside their territory. However, after fifty years, she finally understood why.
Just as how people easily condemned the Mystical Qilin Sect for allowing misfortune to befall them by not stopping the affiliated clans from abusing power, others were also quick to label them as saints for upholding the true essence of cultivation and fought against corruption in the name of protecting peace. The area outside quickly became drenched in blood as clans dwindled in a civil war. Once all riches were gone, so did most of the self-proclaimed supporters. Eventually, those who came to settle were outlaws and refugees who ran away from other places.
People were quick to judge others without finding out the truth and abusing power when they wielded it. The founder of their sect had lived for long enough to see the ocean dry and refill itself. The rise and fall of dynasties was not new to a sage. If anything, it was recorded as an observation about the cycle of life. The reason why their founder erected a barrier was to become frozen in time, isolated from the chaotic world outside. To all who were accepted into the sect, they should abide by the same practice of inner cultivation without external disturbance. That mentality remains true even to this day with all the catastrophic inventions that cause daily mayhem.
Yet, it was Yan Ping who decided to break the neutrality first. There was no other sect leader who had taken a side in humanity’s struggles outside the barrier. All chaos happened within the barrier. Her shifu might have been the laziest and most chaotic sect leader ever to assume the position in the Mystical Qilin Sect. However, she refused to participate in politics outside. It wasn’t to say she wasn’t knowledgeable about what was happening. Yan Ping remembered how often she had to chaperone her teacher when she felt like sneaking out. Even though Yan Ping was the blind one, she had to babysit her teacher, who often became drunk in gambling parlours. There was no shortage of suffering everywhere, yet her teacher taught Yan Ping one thing that demystified why the Mystical Qilin Sect’s neutrality.
Once. Just once, Yan Ping’s teacher allowed her to help a dying beggar child. The blind prophet remembered nursing that child back to full health and raising him. Like all children, he was pure and innocent. Yan Ping grew fond of him and taught him many things, even if he had no aptitude for cultivation. Everything seemed great, and Yan Ping thought she was doing the right thing, making a difference for this child who would have died if she had not helped. However, one day, she found the child dead in the same alley she found him. Apparently, he was beaten up by the other older beggar children who harboured a grudge and were jealous of his sudden fortune.
Yan Ping did not often cry. Yet, for a child she spent less than a year with, she did. Her shifu told her something she could never forget.
"The Mystical Qilin Sect does not help anyone because we cannot afford to. If we help one person, we must help an entire village. If we help an entire village, we must now help the county. If the county prospers, we must now help the country. If we help a country, we must now help every single living being in the world. Do you know how many living creatures there are in this world? How can we possibly achieve something even Gods have failed to do? Our founder erected a barrier to create a different kind of world. If we cannot help the world because it is too vast, maybe we can still help those in a much smaller world. The barrier acts not only as a defence but also as a boundary for who we can choose to help."
The sense of helplessness Yan Ping felt when listening to those words became her goal when she became the sect leader. The world they had was too small. Hence, she built the strength of their sect, nurturing the most promising young saplings to become a forest. With more than enough knowledge, resources and ability to help others, Yan Ping wanted to expand the barrier a little more. Even if she could not save the world, she still wanted to save more people. The rightful source is Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
On her journey to seek people to invite to her sect, she became involved with the first murim war. In turn, she learned about Zhao Mingfeng, someone with a similar vision. Yan Ping thought he would make a great comrade bridging the Mystical Qilin Sect and the outside world. Yet, when Anji was born, Zhao Mingfeng’s world came crashing down. Her existence reminded Yan Ping of the child she once failed to save, and she understood the pain he was experiencing. Saving Anji became the only natural course of action.
To protect the child she chose to save, Yan Ping decided to bring Anji back to her sect, where she could protect and watch over her more closely than she did with the beggar child. However, Anji was not a caged bird. She cannot remain in the Mystical Qilin Sect forever. A child as brilliant as her must venture into the world eventually. With her family embroiled in the murim war and a traitor from her sect, Anji had more reason than other disciples to leave the safety barrier. It was the only reason why Yan Ping finally decided to do something about the extended territory they had.
The last criminal in this area fell to the ground heavily, snoring away. Yan Ping took a while to move all the sleeping crooks away from the shabby houses before setting fire to everything they owned. It was a rather crude eviction notice but it would be the most effective.
Feeling the heat of the fire consuming everything dirty in its path, Yan Ping basked in the warmth for a while before mounting her staff and taking to the skies.
Now that she had finished her clean-up, it was time to return and officially announce Anji’s position as a successor.