The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

The City of Luoyang was bustling – the perfect place for foreign Martial Artists to hear news and gossip.

A man with a blade scar pushed down his bamboo hat, threaded through the crowd and found himself a vacant table.

Whilst waiting for service, he puckered up his ears, trying to discern useful information from all the gossip and chatter.

“If we’re talking about heroes, Killing Blade is the one who incurred many wounds. While being entranced, he still managed to slice Fan Changmiao – the heir of the Destruction Sect and the next Six-annihilation Devilman! After his death, the trance broke and only then were the men in the Political Affairs Hall able to break loose and stop the schemes between the dismal leader, the Luo Denomination, and the Destruction Sect. In desperate moments, heroes are made and justice always prevails!”

As the storyteller mesmerized the audience with his “wake-up block” and masterful use of language, the gap between tables was shortened because people did not want to miss a word.

Killing Blade …murmured the man with the blade scar, he frowned and neared the storyteller with a large piece of silver in his hands. Cupping one hand in the other before his chest, he said, “Sir, I’m from Xiliang and I sensed a lot of tension during my trip here. Has something happened?”

As he said those words, he pushed the piece of silver into the storyteller’s hands.

The storyteller quietly felt the weight of the silver and answered with a smile, “Let me tell you about seven days ago at the Sumptuous Fruits Banquet…”

When the storyteller finished describing the incident at Luoyang, the man with the Blade Scar heaved a sigh of relief, “Phew! Thank God my business will not be affected. What about the state of the imperial court?”

“The storyteller then lightly pounded his “wake-up block” and explained, “The powers of the Political Affairs Hall are of the attitude that maintaining peace is the utmost priority. Therefore all the positions below Chief Arrester of the Six Fan School are untouched, but they have been fined. Then there are the two grandmasters of the Zhao family from Luoyang, who have probably changed their allegiance. Also, there is no shortage of Peerless Master Pros of the aristocratic families joining the Six Fan School, taking up positions like Gold-badge Arrester.”

These rumors had spread all over town, and though they were just speculations, anyone with half a brain could figure out what was happening.

The man with the Blade Scar nodded, “Have you any idea which Imperial Prince is next-in-line for the throne?”

He used an aristocratic tone to cover up his crudeness.

“The Crown Prince seems to have gotten entangled with the dismal emperor, so he can’t take the throne. Now, he’s turned to Buddhism for a life of peace and serenity.” Recalling the Crowning Ceremony that took place three days ago, “Though there had been rumors of Prince Jin being linked to the scary ‘Myths’ and killing his father, due to the lack of evidence, he was eventually crowned Emperor.”

Since there must be a reason for abrogating a Crown Prince, him becoming a monk had been kept under wraps, otherwise, people would figure out that he had something to do with the old emperor.

“Things are indeed hard to predict…” Sighed the man with the blade scar.

“Tell me about it!” As the storyteller agreed, “Do you know who the incumbent Crown Prince is?”

“Incumbent Crown Prince?I’m aware that Prince Jin is married, but I haven’t heard that he has any sons!” The man with a blade scar answered in a shocked tone.

Since everyone already knew about this, they laughed at his ignorance and the fact that he was confused by the title Crown Prince.

“Though Prince Jin, pardon me, Emperor Jin, has no children of his own, the Zhou County Lord was afraid that he had been involved with ‘The Myths’. As a result, he decided to choose a Crown Prince to rule, thus Prince Wei was the lucky one to have been chosen for the position!” Explained the storyteller, “Having stumbled upon the position of Crown Prince, pardon me, the emperor’s younger brother, he has maintained the ‘respectable custom’ dating back to ancient times…”

The man with the blade scar took in every word because this information would affect his power in the future.

“…Apart from that, the sword of the Emperor is no longer in the hands of the imperial family but placed inside the Political Affairs Hall. It is each minister’s responsibility to keep guard of the sword and give it to the emperor in moments when it is needed.” The storyteller spoke very fast and told him the remaining incidents of Luoyang in one breath, “Tomorrow, the dismal emperor is to be buried with the title ‘Li’.”

The man with the blade scar turned to leave, wearing a smile of satisfaction. Whilst walking, he mumbled, “No wonder…the powerful attacks and weird phenomena I witnessed in Luoyang the last couple of days were the results of Dharmakaya masters…No, that was six days ago!”

Clearly, he had been in Luoyang for a while.

Shocked, he turned around back to the storyteller and asked, “What about the weird phenomenon from six days ago?”

The storyteller was initially taken aback before he then laughed, “Ah, you mean Killing Blade sending shock waves all over Luoyang with his power and might, then breaking through the Exterior Level!”

The man with the blade scar took in a deep, cold breath, then he gathered himself, “Please tell me more.”

The storyteller laughed, “I was there that day and I witnessed the whole event!”

“Killing Blade sent out many invitations. We all thought he, like many others before him, wanted to challenge masters on the Ranking List of Young Masters. By doing so, he could become well known. Who knew that compared with Shapeless Sword, Killing Blade was superior. He didn’t need to oppress others with a death battle, instead, he sat among them as though discussing the latest affairs. This was the act of an extraordinary young man!”

The storyteller became excited the more he talked about Killing Blade, and eventually, he hit the table, “Darkness had fallen upon Luoyang, stars hung in the sky like flowers in bloom, Grand Sun was rising, Golden Crows were flying across and a Chaotic Hole had appeared. Killing Blade had suffered through Heavenly Thunder Disaster, Nether Fire Disaster, and Golden Gale Disaster. It was not until Chaos Disaster had befallen him did he give it his all and cut through the Chaos while bearing countless wounds.”

“Even so, he still changed back into new robes and continued chatting with his guests. Everybody was in awe of him.”

“Hang on, do you mean the four-fold heavenly disasters?” Asked the man with the blade scar in a shocked tone.

“Of course!” Confirmed the storyteller. His face was still red from excitement, “Do you know the last person that managed to endure the four heavenly disasters?”

“Even Outer-sky God Sword only managed to endure three…” commented the man with the blade scar, shaking his head.

The storyteller smashed his “wake-up block” and screamed the name, “Human Sovereign!”

“Human Sovereign!” Repeated the man with the blade scar in both shock and concern as if he could not believe what he had just heard.

“Yes, it was the Wang family of River East that spread this piece of information, and are they ever wrong? Even if they were wrong, and Killing Blade could not match Human Sovereign’s achievements, there should not be any doubts about Killing Blade reaching the Half-step to Dharmakaya level right?” Asked the storyteller rhetorically.

The man with the blade scar stood in silence.

“As for the Outer-sky God Sword, according to my relative in the Six Fan School, Fairy of the Extinctive Sword escaped from the death trap six days ago. Her sword light covered over a hundred miles, and it seemed she too endured three heavenly disasters!” Commented someone in the audience.

The storyteller took a deep breath and added, “If you think about it, Demoness of Grand Luo probably reached the Exterior level overnight as well. Six top-notch masters on the Ranking List of Young Masters, Shapeless Sword, Demoness of Grand Luo, Ledgerkeeper of Lives, Fairy of the Extinctive Sword, Wolf King, and Killing Blade – except for Wolf King who died – had all reached the zenith overnight. This had never happened since the beginning of the Ranking List of Young Masters!”

“Could this be an omen that something bad is about to happen?”

“I sure hope not! We folks would rather be a dog during peaceful times than a man during chaos. Looking back in history, every time there’s chaos, cities have been destroyed and millions have died! Even if we escaped the wrath of the Exterior level masters, we’d still die of hunger!”

In times of peace, by contrast, even if mother decided to take revenge upon us, we would just need to send out a few exterior-level experts and invoke the Force of Heaven and Earth. Then. things would settle. And each year we’d yield a good crop to feed our stomachs, but in chaos, which exterior level master would be willing to help others?

The man with the blade scar walked out of the restaurant during all the gossip.

“I must inform Master Luo at once about Killing Blade reaching the zenith overnight. After all, they are sworn enemies! I’m glad I could gather all this information on Killing Blade…” He sped up as he became more concerned.

…

Over half of the Jade Forest Garden had been destroyed by the effect of the battle between exterior level masters. The lake had become bigger, with light gleaning off the ripples.

A single boat was floating on the lake with Meng Qi sitting on the bow. He watched as Su Ziyue made tea.

A shadow jumped up from the back of the boat. His movements were swift like an immortal, but then he suddenly changed directions.

But the sudden change of direction was clumsy, so much so that he fell right into the lake.

“Second brother, why didn’t you catch Childe Gu…” Su Ziyue asked Meng Qi with confusion.

Meng Qi looked at Gu Changqing, then smiled, “If you don’t feel the pain of failure, how can you learn and improve your kung fu?”

Gu Changqing was dripping wet by now, but he did not show an ounce of pain and just muttered, “So I made a mistake when conducting Qi, or could it be…”

A few days earlier, Meng Qi picked up Gu Changqing from Huan Duke’s Mansion and personally taught him the ” Seven True Scripts”. Additionally, Gu made a Soul-pledging Oath that he would foster and enhance the “Seven True Scripts”, then pass it on from generation to generation.

Being the only blood lineage of the Tang family, Su Ziyue was also taught the “Seven True Scripts” by Meng Qi.

—Meng Qi truly thought that the “Seven True Scripts” was far more superior to Su family’s inheritances.

“Void Flight is much cooler that Kun Wu Steps…” Su Ziyue totally believed Meng Qi, not noticing Meng Qi’s mischief.

Though she did not know where she had really come from, she felt that the person she called “mother” was the legal wife’s daughter of the Tang family. She knew that she had half of the blood lineage of the Tang family, so passing on the “Seven True Scripts” to future generations was her responsibility too.

Gu Changqing kept falling into the lake as he practiced. Meanwhile, Meng Qi was happily enjoying his tea.

A day had gone past, but just as Meng Qi returned to the yard, darkness fell before his eyes and his Vital Spirit began spinning before he appeared at the Samsara Square.

Rays of light flashed, then Ruan Yushu, Qi Zhengyan, and Zhao Heng stepped out. It was, however, a young girl wearing yellow robes that caught Meng Qi’s eyes.

Her eyes were sharper and she was more mature… we could no longer call her a young girl…

Jiang Zhiwei too looked at Meng Qi as a smile began to appear on her face, “You’ve endured the four heavenly disasters, and the milky way spread across Luoyang, congratulations.”

Meng Qi casually laughed, “Your sword light covered a hundred miles, slicing through three heavenly disasters yourself. Congratulations to you too.”

Their awkwardness completely disappeared with laughter!

Ruan Shu Yu was happy too, chatting away merrily with Jiang Zhiwei.

After catching up, they heard their grades were all “average” in the tasks. Everyone had earned 200 karma points except for Jiang Zhiwei. Meng Qi stepped before the Central Light Pillar and placed in it his spoils from the battles.

“Destruction hand, Precious Weapons…could exchange 2000 Karma points.”

“Taiyi’s Relief Sword, the Refined Weapon…could exchange sixty Karma points.”

Sixty? Meng Qi was initially shocked. Then he realized that he and Jiang Zhiwei had reached the exterior level, and Zhao Heng had only reached Half-step, thus his Refined Weapon had dropped in value.

This was to prevent a Samsara traveler from gathering Refined Weapons, which would attract too much attention.

Since Jiang Zhiwei did not participate in this task, they spread the points evenly between the four of them. They each earned 515 karma points, added to the 1700 karma points they had previously earned, each of them now has 2215 karma points.

“Why don’t we exchange for some information about the next task?” Suggested Jiang Zhiwei. She had to complete a task by herself to make up for not participating in their task, but she could still utilize the unused time.

She still had 80 karma points left, which was just enough to chip in for some information about the next task.

“The next task is in 18 months time.”

“Since two of us have already reached the exterior level, there’s too much of a gap in our strengths, so the task will be divided. It is hard to determine the strength of the other three, which is why we want to find some information beforehand.”

“Task background: 500 years after apotheosis, Saints are nowhere to be seen and people are suffering.”

500 years after apotheosis! Meng Qi’s pupils contracted as he saw the information.