The monk stopped for a bit, then made an expression of joy: “For the last few dozen years, I have been collecting sword wills around the world, and finally arrived at two answers”
“This type of matter fully depends on personal preference, yet you say there’s a fixed answer?” Gu Qing Shan disagreed.
The monk stopped him: “Benefactor, do not easily dismiss my answers, I can assure you my answers are what most Sword Cultivators have agreed on for nearly ten thousand years” (1)
“Then please tell me” Gu Qing Shan said with a calm expression.
The monk pridefully nodded: “The first answer is, ‘No matter who it is, my sword will cut them all down, until I cut open a part of the world for my own and re-educate the beings of the world so that my will is the only truth’”
“The second answer is, ‘Cultivation is like swimming against the flow, and sword arts is the same, he who blocks my path of the sword is my mortal enemy, even if he’s god himself, I’ll cut him down’”
Gu Qing Shan listened, then remained silent.
The monk clasped his hand and bow, saying: “The answers are as such, the true meaning of sword cultivation, how does benefactor think? Please also tell me your answer”
Gu Qing Shan accepted the bow, seriously thought and then answered: “The sword and beings of the world aren’t related, it’s only your will that matters”
The monk was a bit confused, asking: “Why do you say that?”
Gu Qing Shan answered: “A hesitant heart makes a hesitant sword, a heart without worry makes a sword without obstacle”
The monk shook his head: “Benefactor please do not use sharp words to confuse me, I beg for a direct answer please”
Seems like it’ll take some real mettle after all, Gu Qing Shan silent sighed, but became calmer.
Then he said: “What I mean is, if you want to kill people, there’s no need to think too much about it”
“Hm?” the monk was unable to follow.
Gu Qing Shan continued: “If you want to save the beings of the world, then just use your sword to save them. If you want to kill the beings of the world, then just use your sword to kill them. If you just stand there thinking back and forth, then you’ve done nothing at all except made things complicated, in fact that’ll make it easier to become fallen instead”
The monk was stunned.
Gu Qing Shan added: “The true moment to use the sword, is always on the verge of life and death, every mistake could mean your demise; and at that point, to make sure all thoughts are clear, that nothing can affect your judgement and your will, then you must only have a single thought”
“What is that single thought?” The monk pursued.
Gu Qing Shan seriously answered: “The thought to kill”
“A-mi-ta-bha, benefactor will definitely gather very heavy karma later” the monk clasped his hand and said. (2)
“You’ve already picked up a sword, to still mention sin and karma, wouldn’t that be hypocrisy?” Gu Qing Shan suddenly said back: “You repay those you owe, and take revenge on those who wrongs you, the world is no more than this. To think too much about karma is to bind your own sword will, then what kind of sword would you be cultivating?”
The monk was speechless unable to say anything.
Outside the scroll, the maid lifted her mouth into a curve.
She grabbed a misty-looking communication talisman from the air.
“Those are great words, you damn baldy used words to block my mouth, now I’ll send them back to block yours, see how you’ll get out of this”
As soon as the maid said that, the spirit energy on her hand infused into the talisman, turning it into a red streak flying across the sky.
The maid’s eyes moved a bit, muttered: “This kid seemed to have fought his way out of a forest of demons, but particularly what happened will have to wait until he successfully attempt the list”
She made a hand seal, and released Gu Qing Shan from the scroll.
“I’ve passed?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The maid answered: “Hm, you passed”
“Then that’s great, the monk looked like he still wasn’t convinced, if I had continued and accidentally broke his Dao heart it wouldn’t be too pretty” Gu Qing Shan nodded in thanks.
As the maid heard that, her mood improved greatly and smiled: “I was going to give you a few more rounds of test, but I’ve decided, you can go straight to attempting the Sword list now”
Gu Qing Shan was also glad: “Thank you very much!”
He didn’t dare to say a single word more.
The maid went toward the green jade screen, putting her hand on it: “Inside this screen is a Hong Huang Sword formation” (TN: lit. Great Flood)
“Hong Huang Sword formation” Gu Qing Shan was shocked, immediately became serious.
In the past life, he didn’t care too much about Bai Hua country, so many of the things he knows about Bai Hua Fairy was heard from others long after they happened.
The sword formation right here that comes from the ancient age of Old.
Gu Qing Shan has never heard of it before.
That era was the age of Divinity, according to old, obscure scriptures, the power of Divinity isn’t something that a mortal – even if they’re a cultivator – can compare to, and so every single object that’s left over from that era contain immense power.
It was an age of great prosperity, yet it was all gone without a trace, a complete mystery without any clues to solve.
Within the span of a single year, all the Divinity were never seen again.
It was like history was cut off overnight.
It wasn’t until the game was already started for 5 years that the first Divinity was accidentally summoned by the players.
The maid continued: “Yet Her Eminence had a problem, even though the Sword formation was already tamed by her, she still couldn’t find the true sword spirit anywhere”
“Your task is to go into the sword formation and find out where the sword spirit is”
“Her Eminence had tamed this sword formation?” Gu Qing Shan suddenly asked “Can you tell me a bit about how Her Eminence tamed it?”
The maid was a bit surprised, but still said: “This was Xuanyuan Tianzun’s gift to Her Eminence, so she had used Lock Seals and tamed it on the spot” (3)
“One of the three saints, Xuanyuan Tianzun? A gift from him?” Gu Qing Shan had a strange look on his face.
The maid answered: “That’s correct”
“Ok then, I’ll try it”
Gu Qing Shan had a thought and gained a bit more unfounded confidence.
The maid lightly nodded, made a hand seal and pointed at the jade screen.
Immediately the green jade screen lightly shook, emitted a blinding spirit light.
In the air, numerous immortal beasts appeared, accompanied with heavenly music and colorful clouds, came and covered the whole upper area of the screen.
A blurred figure appeared on the screen.
Even though his face can’t be seen, this figure was wearing the proper attire for cultivators of the old era.
The figure pointed at the sky, suddenly a crack appeared, as the winds escaping from the Space Vortex created immense devastation.
The figure pointed at the ground, as the earth split apart, the four seas boiled and millions of creatures died off.
By just pointing two fingers, and both heaven and earth were broken part, completely out of any cultivator’s imagination, even the Saints themselves aren’t able to do this.
Such a grand sight really does make any cultivator feel small.
The maid looked at the shifting scene on the screen, thought a bit then advised him: “After you go in there, be careful a bit, even if you can’t find the sword spirit, you can’t drop your etiquette”
Seeing the look of confusion on Gu Qing Shan’s face, the maid patiently explained: “Inside the screen, there are 11 projections of Divinity, the projections include both their memories and personalities from the time they were still alive, you absolutely cannot offend them, otherwise I can’t save you”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the scene on the screen and said: “I understand”
The maid changed her hand seals a bit, and the screen emits a 7-colored spirit light the wrapped around Gu Qing Shan.
A dignified voice can be heard.
“Young one, burn the incense, then you can enter the gate”
As Gu Qing Shan heard that he looked at the maid.
The maid lightly nodded.
Gu Qing Shan went up, lit and incense stick and went into the gate.
As soon as he disappeared, the relaxed look of the maid changed, becoming dignified as she watched the green jade screen.
“10 years and I’ve yet to find any clues. Hopefully, this kid can give me a bit of inspiration” the maid silently muttered.
Note:
(1) Benefactor: 施主 (read as Shizhu), a common title that monks use to refer to everyone else that’s not a monk, even if they’re the enemy or a stranger, literally means donor or benefactor.
(2) Amitabha: A very famous Buddha, check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amit%C4%81bha for more info. Monks usually chant his name as a way to clear their thoughts, or as an exclamation when they hear someone says something blasphemous.
(3) Lock Seals: slightly different from an actual Sealing technique that you’d see in anime like Naruto, Lock Seals in Chinese novels refer to a system of particular techniques commonly used as a security system, they can be used anywhere and everywhere, and not all of them need to actually seal something, sometimes when triggered they only alert the user, other times they’ll actively attack whoever trespasses and kill them.
In many ways, they’re very similar to formations, but the main difference is that Lock Seals are easier to learn, and instead of drawing energy from outside, Lock Seals usually gets their energy artificially from something like a battery left behind by the user.