Pei Xuanjing was leading a relatively peaceful life in the Martial Academy. At least for the past half month since he joined the academy, he had been having a comfortable life.
After blindly exchanging many achievements for the skills he held in the Scripture Pavilion, he also borrowed several skills from the Scripture Pavilion.
The martial skill, "Giant Spirit Suppressing Mountain Skill, " which he is currently studying, is one of the top-tier martial studies in the Scripture Pavilion, other than the extraordinary skill "Innate Gang
It's not as if Pei Xuanjing didn't want to borrow the extraordinary skill, but unfortunately, it wasn't available for borrowing yet. So, he settled for the next best thing and chose the skill "Giant Spirit Suppressing Mountain Skill"
Pei Xuanjing is currently cultivating the "Four Spirits Skill", which only has a technique at the seventh tier, but he already has a clue on how to theorize it.
In the previous life simulation, the direction of the "Four Spirits Skill" had changed.
He no longer pursued the path of the Four Spirits evolving into the Five Elements. Instead, he borrowed from the Four Symbols Sword Sect's approach by having the Four Spirits evolve into the Four Images' Five Elements and then into seasons in conjunction with the five planetary cycles.
Wood belongs to spring, fire to summer, metal to autumn, and water to winter, with Earth prospering in all seasons.
With the foundation of Earth, wood, fire, metal, water, spring, summer, autumn, winter, and the four seasonal changes make the cycle complete.
Early in the morning, Pei Xuanjing, clad in a dark brown robe and holding an ordinary long sword, was practicing swordsmanship on the Practice Martial Arts Field in the yard.
His sword moves were sometimes fast, sometimes slow, showing the softness of spring at one moment, the explosion of summer in another, the bleakness of autumn now and again, and the coldness of winter at times.
Pei Xuanjing symbolized the seasons' cycle with the essence of spring breeze, summer rain, autumn frost, and winter snow, experiencing the changes of the four seasons and five planetary cycles.
On the side, Pang Hong was meticulously cleaning the yard, but he could not help but steal glances at Pei Xuanjing from time to time.
His eyes were full of envy and longing.
He knew that being able to stay here was already his great luck, so he did not dare to ask for anything else and only focused on his work.
As they say, poor children become independent early. Pang Hong, who had experienced hunger and cold, preciously cherished everything in front of him.
In these half a month, he diligently cleaned the yard every day. His self-discipline even won Pei Xuanjing's admiration.
Although Pei Xuanjing focused on his sword practice, he did not overlook the actions of the boy.
After finishing a set of sword skills, he sheathed his sword and stood still.
"Come here." He beckoned the young man. Pang Hong rushed over, dropping his broom, "Sir?"
He respectfully stood not far from Pei Xuanjing .
Pei Xuanjing glanced at the boy before asking, "Have you learned martial arts before?"
The young man nodded at first, then shook his head vigorously.
He frowned, "What do you mean by nodding and shaking your head? Did you learn martial arts or not?"
The young man laughed awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head, "When my father was around, he taught me some boxing techniques, but they are not as splendid as sir's swordsmanship."
Pei Xuanjing laughed at his remark and said, "Let me see."
The boy was a bit embarrassed, but under Pei Xuanjing's gaze, he had to brace himself and demonstrate his skills.
Emperor's Long Fist.
This was the most widely practiced technique and one that most people use to build their foundations.
With Pei Xuanjing's discerning eyes, he naturally saw several flaws in the boy's moves.
However, he did not say anything and just watched the boy finish his moves with a smile.
After the boy finished his set of punches, he looked at him expectantly, waiting for his evaluation, with his face flushed and sweaty.
Pei Xuanjing gestured, "Move back."
As the boy stepped back, he sheathed his sword and started to demonstrate a set of boxing techniques. Surprisingly, it was the same as the Emperor's Long Fist that the boy had just practiced.
In his realm, mastery of one method leads to understanding of all methods. After grasping the true meaning of martial arts, he could learn most elementary and intermediate martial skills quickly, and even master them to a certain extent.
Generally speaking, after reaching this stage, the path of a master required refining of all experiences and forging one's unique path.
Even if a master had mastered advanced or extraordinary martial skills, they would only use them for self-defense and protection. Ultimately, they would transcend them and create their own techniques. This was the reason why the martial arts tradition thrived from one generation to the next.
"How was it?" Pei Xuanjing asked after finishing his boxing. The boy looked a bit disappointed, "I'm far behind you, sir."
"It would be strange if you could match me." Pei Xuanjing laughed.
Then he asked, "So, do you want to learn?"
"Yes," the boy instinctively blurted out. But then he remembered his uncle's warning and asked hesitantly, "Is it really okay?"
Pei Xuanjing did not know what the boy was thinking, and just replied, "Why not? If you want to learn, I'll teach you. If you don't want to, we'll drop the matter."
"I want to!" The young man answered decisively.
Pei Xuanjing nodded, and then heard the young man ask, "Can I call you master?"
Looking at the boy's hopeful black eyes.
Pei Xuanjing knew what he was thinking, but his next words shattered the boy's aspirations, "No." "Oh," the boy was still too young and his disappointment was hard to hide, even with his cleverness.
"But you can call me teacher for now," Pei Xuanjing suddenly said.
The expression of disappointment on the boy's face disappeared instantly, replaced by surprise and joy. He quickly knelt down and kowtowed, "Pang Hong pays his respects to the teacher."
Pei Xuanjing did not stop him and let him proceed.
Over the past few days, he had also checked the boy's martial arts roots, which were average at best.
His aptitude was hardly any better than Pei Xuanjing's when he started. Without a good teacher or luck, he would probably only stay in the first realm of martial arts.
But the boy's earnestness moved Pei Xuanjing. He decided to give the boy a chance, which might also add some extra spice to his boring life in the academy.
After all, teaching the boy could also be considered as a review of his own learning, and it was not without benefits.
"If you keep bowing, I will leave," Pei Xuanjing said, watching the boy.
Upon hearing Pei Xuanjing's words, the boy promptly got up, his forehead now flushed.
Looking at the boy in front of him, Pei Xuanjing was very pleased. After all, who doesn't like a sincere person?
He felt a mysterious sense of compassion, or so Pei Xuanjing thought..
In the still of the night, with the candle illuminating brightly, Pei Xuanjing quietly flips through the book in his hands.
This is a duplicate of "Records of Strange Tales in Shenzhou" obtained from Wang Yun and was delivered by a messenger sent by Gu Ji today.
The thin book, titled "Records of Strange Tales in Shenzhou – Post-drinking Gibberish Edition" by Bai Xiaosheng, was penned in traditional Chinese script on the cover.
This name has been handed down for a long time, seeming to have existed as long as martial arts have been practiced.
Bai Xiaosheng is a name, a title, but not just a single person.
He claims to know everything, on condition that you pay a high enough price, you can gain any information you want.
No one feels his bold claim is exaggerated, because he can always provide answers to all the questions.
Pei Xuanjing opens the book. The freshly-inked writing in the common Da Xing script is easy to understand.
There is a sentence on the title page of the book: "This book was written after drinking, all its words are delirious, with belief they exist, without belief they do not."
Pei Xuanjing smiles faintly, not taking it much to heart. It's nothing more than an expression of reluctance to commit.
"As the world knows, today, martial arts are flourishing, while immortal path is declining. The discussion of fairy gods has become a myth."
"But why is the immortal path declining? And why are the martial arts flourishing?"
"We have explored countless scrolls left by the Tang Dynasty and traced back to its origins. We discovered that during the reign of the Xuanjing Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, the discussion of fairy gods was not absurd: there was an emperor on the throne, commanding the world; there were swordsmen with divine swordsmanship, whose light covered the Nine Provinces; there were Taoists who lived forever and could travel beyond the heavens; there were Arhats with indestructible golden bodies, and their bodies were immortal…"
"Then, a great chaos swept across Shenzhou, Heaven and Earth were in upheaval, Shenzhou turned powerless, celestial beings disappeared, and traces of gods and devils vanished… Since then, martial arts have come into existence and became popular."
"Thus, we deduce that martial arts originated from the immortal path. It's only because Heaven and
Earth have changed that the immortal path has disappeared and longevity has become unreachable." Pei Xuanjing reads word by word, fearing to miss any word and misunderstand its meaning.
"According to what Bai Xiaosheng said, and my speculation, it seems that in this world, there originally existed the fairy gods, or at least there were eternal beings. But because of a great upheaval during Emperor Xuanjing's rule, Shenzhou fell into a decline, Heaven and Earth drastically changed. Thus, the immortal path declined and was replaced by the martial arts that originated from it." He mutters to himself, storing all these in his mind, and then continues reading.
"Later, we continued to look for records before Tang Dynasty, and found that history seemed to have fallen into a cycle. Going back a few thousand years to the period between the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Immortal Path flourished. But before that, from the late years of the Divine Han Dynasty when the Sima clan unified the empire, the Immortal Path was again in decline. "
"From Pre-Qin to the late years of Divine Han, the Immortal Path flourished, and from the late years of Heavenly Zhou, the Immortal Path declined…"
"Considering these examples, we deduced that Heaven and Earth is in a cycle, continually entering a recurring cycle. When Heaven and Earth decay, the Immortal Path also declines, and longevity becomes difficult to achieve. When Heaven and Earth regain vitality, the Immortal Path flourishes, and longevity becomes attainable, with the fairy gods no longer a fantasy."
"Over a hundred years ago, the previous Bai Xiaosheng and the current Divine Geomancy Master joined forces to hypothesize the changes of Heaven and Earth. The results indicated that Heaven and Earth would begin to recover in about a hundred years, the Immortal Path would flourish, and becoming immortal would no longer be a legend…"
Pei Xuanjing puts down the book, lost in thought.
It must be said that at times, conjectures are just conjectures.
But when a conjecture is confirmed, the feeling is completely different from when it's a mere speculation.
Pei Xuanjing had speculated that this world might be similar to the novels he had read in his previous life, where the spiritual energy seems to be recovering.
But when this result was confirmed by Bai Xiaosheng's book, he had mixed feelings.
Indeed, there were immortals in this world, and even those who had achieved longevity.
But where had all those immortals gone?
Was it because of the great changes in Heaven and Earth that those immortals disappeared?
If they really disappeared due to the great changes in Heaven and Earth, then, were these immortals the same as what he understood? Were they truly immortal?
If they didn't disappear due to the great changes in Heaven and Earth, then where are they?
Would they descend again with the restoration of Heaven and Earth?
Pei Xuanjing, who is now about to reach the pinnacle of this world, realizes that if the fairy gods return with the recovery of Heaven and Earth, the entire world structure would undergo a major shift.
What would these immortals' attitude towards the 'mortals' of this world be like, benevolent or malevolent?
All these were unknown.
Although everything mentioned in Bai Xiaosheng's book might just be speculation and might not really happen,
"But why do I feel that this speculation is not false news, but rather something that is bound to happen in the future?" Pei Xuanjing frowned.
He recalls some incidents.
It seemed that apart from the Mire Sect who were single-mindedly causing trouble and determined to destabilize the Great Ming Empire. Other major forces in the Great Ming seemed to have fallen into a peculiar tranquility.
"Based on what Gu Ji said, this Martial Academy is a test by the Nobles against the Civil Officials. It would become the focus of the conflict between the two major forces and the center of the storm. But I have been here for over half a month, and everything remains calm." Pei Xuanjing reflects on his peaceful life throughout the past half month.
Originally, he was prepared to get involved in the conflict between the two sides, to be cautious and discreet in the Martial Academy, avoiding the storm.
But during this period, the entire Martial Academy remained peaceful, with no unforeseen events occurring.
"Maybe, I should pay a visit to the Deputy Dean," Pei Xuanjing thought to himself.
Sometimes, it was hard to distinguish coincidence from magic. Pei Xuanjing decided to visit Deputy Dean Qingyang Zi actively just last night, and the next morning, Qingyang Zi sent a messenger to invite him.
"I pay my respects to Dean." Pei Xuanjing greets Qingyang Zi with a fist and palm salute.
Qingyang Zi still has the same jovial expression, "Sit down, please. I have some fine tea sent by my senior brother just a few days ago. I'd like you to try it."
After Pei Xuanjing settles down, a young Taoist, who appears to be Qingyang Zi's junior, serves him tea.
Under the warm gaze of Qingyang Zi, Pei Xuanjing takes a sip.
"How is it, how's the tea?" Qingyang Zi asks.
Pei Xuanjing smiles shyly, "I just find it aromatic. But I can't explain why it's good."
His statement is sincere. His mind is focused on martial arts, and he is not good at tasting tea. He just feels the tea is good, but he doesn't know why.
Qingyang Zi was taken aback by Pei Xuanjing's frank response..