The Path Toward Heaven

The heavenly destiny concerned heaven, which usually has nothing to do with the human world.

Except for the emperor, whose destiny was closely related to the future of mankind, only matters related to the emperor could be called the heavenly destiny.

The young man in embroidered cloth wanted to ask about the inheritance of the emperor’s position, and Royal Concubine Hu wanted to ask about the emperor’s offspring; they were all related to the heavenly destiny.

Yet, Tian Jingren used the same statement to decline both of theirs’ requests. What profound meaning did the statement contain?

“This is the trick often used by the fortune-tellers. As I said, the one in the nunnery knows how to deceive people,” Jing Jiu told Zhao Layue.

Zhao Layue wondered if it actually was that simple.

The child became irate, saying, “The Emperor himself or the Godly Swordsman would treat my master with a great deal of respect. Who are you?! How dare you show such disrespect to my master!”

Jing Jiu responded with a composed tone, “If it isn’t your master’s trick, how would you explain these two statements?”

The child sneered, “My master knows the secrets of heaven and humans, so his statements have deep meaning. They are of course beyond the comprehensive ability of common mortals like you people.”

Jing Jiu said, “The heavenly destiny has only one resource. If your master has hidden deep meaning in those statements, I suspect that he intends to instigate conflict in the royal palace.”

Upon hearing this, the child didn’t know how to respond, as he had no idea what was actually on his master’s mind. Grunting once, he toward the young girl Se Se, ignoring Jing Jiu.

Seeing the child’s expression, Se Se had already guessed what he was about to say, and felt quite disappointed. She didn’t plan to leave without getting what she was here for, so she arched her eyebrows, ready to make a fuss.

Child said, “My master has said that the time when your mother will marry again depends on when your grandma will be tired of the human world.”

Having heard of this, Se Se’s eyes lit up, asking, “When would that be?”

Being tired of the human world was the same as the beginning of autumn.

Se Se didn’t like her grandma that much, but she didn’t wish her grandma to die soon. She wanted to know something else.

The child said, “At least ten years from now.”

The young girl figured that she would be grown up by then, and she would be capable of verifying the suitability of her mother’s future husband if her mother decided to remarry, or even stop it,

Se Se became very cheerful as she had gotten the answer to her question. She exchanged a few words with Zhao Layue, promising to meet again later, and left the plum forest with the middle-aged woman.

Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue were the only two people left in the plum forest now.

The child gestured Zhao Layue with his hand rather than speaking to her.

This time Zhao Layue didn’t glance at Jing Jiu, walking directly into the nunnery.

Time had passed slowly, and the sunlight had been changing its shapes in the midst of the tree branches.

Jing Jiu stood in front of the nunnery, having nothing on his mind at the moment.

After a long while, the same child walked out of the nunnery, coming to Jing Jiu’s side.

Jing Jiu looked at him with one glimpse, saying nothing.

The child understood what Jing Jiu was thinking, and said, “Your companion has left the nunnery already, and is waiting for you on the other side.”

Jing Jiu walked toward the outside.

The child was taken aback, and recovered his senses after a while, yelling after Jing Jiu, “Wait!”

Jing Jiu stopped short.

The child caught up with Jing Jiu, and said with a displeased tone, “You’re very lucky today. There is an extra spot for you.”

The child didn’t quite understand why his master hadn’t become upset and had instead asked to meet Jing Jiu after being informed of this young Cultivation practitioner’s impoliteness.

Even those state dukes of the imperial court wouldn’t get special treatment from his master.

To the child’s surprise, Jing Jiu didn’t turn around after hearing what he had said, continuing to walk to the outside of the plum garden.

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

The child was surprised and perplexed, thinking Jing Jiu’s behavior absurd as he constantly yelled after him

Jing Jiu didn’t listen to the child. He arrived at the lakeside shortly after, ready to pass the pavilion with dozens of green leaves on its roof.

It was then that an aged and deep voice rang out by Jing Jiu’s ears.

“Are you really sure that you don’t want to know what has happened to Jing Yang?”

…

…

Jing Jiu stopped short, looking at the green leaves ruffled by the wind, remaining silent.

He was fully aware that no one could hear this voice other than himself.

This voice entered his ears through the cracks of earth and heaven by mental transmission. This person had a very powerful heavenly awareness that was even better than those elders in the State of Broken Sea at the Green Mountain Sect.

Yet this fact wasn’t enough to make Jing Jiu stop.

There was another reason he did.

Almost the entire world thought the Immortal Jing Yang had ascended; few knew that this wasn’t true…

Like Zhao Layue, a few big figures at the Green Mountain Sect, and of course, Jiu Jing himself.

If any others knew that Jing Yang had failed to ascend, they were certainly involved in the matter.

Those people were either the masterminds or accomplices; either way, they were the ones Jing Jiu had been on the hunt for.

On the other hand, the owner of this voice might have heard something from somewhere else, using this topic to draw Jing Jiu in, or they wanted to use this question to challenge him. Regardless of what motivations he had, Jing Jiu believed that he had to meet the other party nonetheless.

…

…

Jing Jiu walked into the old nunnery, seeing a dilapidated room through green plants that was plainly decorated, with a flower pot by the window and a hay curtain hanging in the middle of the room.

As Jing Jiu stepped into the room, the hay curtain rose up without aid of the wind and tied itself to the post itself, and though this looked fairly amazing, but Jing Jiu didn’t even glance at it once.

After the hay curtain was hoisted up, it was the aroma that reached the senses first, followed by the scene.

The thin smoke left the burning incense and scattered through the air like light mist.

Sitting behind the incense table was an old blind man with white hair, full of wrinkles and two deep sunken eyes, and exuding an unimaginable and indescribable aura.

In addition to the incense stove on the incense table, there were paper and an ink-stone reflecting the sun light, making it impossible to tell black from white in the ink-stone.

The old man was writing something with a snow-hair pen.

The snow-hair pen was made from the hairs from a large monster’s ears on the Snowy Kingdom, so it was extremely rare, especially in recent years, when the fighting with the Snowy Kingdom no longer occurred, making it was even harder to find such pens.

Yet the old man held such a precious pen in his hand as if it were a common pen made from the hair of a hare.

The old man’s expression was natural, effortless.

The reason might be that he was blind, so he couldn’t see the pure snow-hair pen, but the more likely reason was that he had already totally comprehended the heaven and earth, and this included that pen.

Jing Jiu walked to the side of the incense table, looking closely at the ink-stone.

It was indeed hard to distinguish the color of the ink in the ink-stone, but it became quite distinct after the ink was soaked up by the snow-hair pen and written on the paper.

It was the cooked ink.

The ink lay on the table overnight and became the cooked ink, with ink and water separating, giving the written words a different esthetical feeling.

The inked words were surrounded by little a few water marks, like a paper umbrella caught in the rain, or drops of water on the girls’ hair by the ear.

It looked good, but the mixture of ink and water made it harder to tell black from white.

Jing Jiu didn’t like the style since he was used to seeing Zhao Layue’s distinct eyes.

But matter what, the written words were really excellent.

“The words are well written,” Jing Jiu commented.

A normal person would make a few more comments after that.

Like, even though you couldn’t see a thing, how could you write those words so beautifully?

Then the old man could answer, “I’m Tian Jingren of the White-Deer Institute, and my Heaven-recognition Way is unparalleled. And I have the whole nature in my heart as both my heart and eyes are opened up…”

Yet Jing Jiu didn’t say anything more.

There was no further exchange.

It was embarrassingly quiet in the nunnery.

Jing Jiu didn’t do so on purpose; he simply didn’t care.

He had said in the medical house owned by the Curtain Rollers that Tian Jingren was really good at deceiving people.

He knew this old man had some abilities.

But no matter how capable you were, if you had helped Xilai become a Godly Swordsman, or if you were regarded by the entire world as the person who was closest to the heavenly path…

Jing Jiu was still not interested, not concerned.

The old man lowered his head, which looked like a snow-capped mountain peak.

The room in the nunnery was exceedingly quiet.

After a long interval.

The old man finally spoke.

He asked Jing Jiu a question, “Since you’re not interested in anything in the world, why did you come here?”