Chapter 91: Zheng Jian: I Have Reached the Innate Realm

Under the bright moon atop Blackwood Cliff, a scarlet blur flashed across the night, moving at unimaginable speed. Opposing it, Zheng Jian’s Tear-Trace Sword was a streak of blue light.

Before either man realized it, the moon had drifted westward, and a pale strip of dawn had begun to appear in the east.

The two had fought through the entire night.

Dongfang Bubai’s face had gone pale, no longer as fierce as at the beginning, yet his spirit remained at its peak. His eyes shone brilliantly, reflecting the sword light in Zheng Jian’s hand.

Zheng Jian still had considerable stamina. At times like this, the advantage of the Primordial Art became clear. Even after battling all night, he did not feel tired; instead, he remained in that profound and mysterious state, alert and invigorated.

The Sunflower Manual did include internal cultivation methods, otherwise Dongfang Bubai would not have been able to touch the realm of transformation beyond the mortal, but its attainment was still far inferior to the Primordial Art.

At some point, a mass of dark clouds had gathered in the eastern sky, spreading gradually across the heavens. The moon was swallowed by the cloud cover, and the summit of Blackwood Cliff plunged at once into darkness.

So dark one could not see even five fingers before one’s face.

Yet within that darkness, the two still did not stop. Sword and needle clashed unseen. Dongfang Bubai’s speed had reached its limit, especially with his embroidery needle. In a sense, as a weapon, it met far less air resistance than a long sword and similar arms, and so it was even swifter.

Yes, martial arts could sometimes accord with science after all; it was not all mysticism.

Zheng Jian, swallowed by darkness, unknowingly entered once more that profoundly mysterious state of realization. Every move he made was without trace, without pattern, without warning, yet each strike was exquisite, exact to the last degree, perfectly blocking the embroidery needle or forcing Dongfang Bubai to turn back in defense.

After fighting all night, Zheng Jian’s body was riddled with needle holes, blood staining nearly every inch of his collar, and Dongfang Bubai too bore several sword wounds, most of them the result of Zheng Jian trading injury for injury.

“Listening to a nameless tune, one understands the hidden workings of creation…”

Suddenly, a verse from the third level of the Primordial Art surfaced in Zheng Jian’s mind.

His spirit shook. He abruptly repelled Dongfang Bubai’s incoming embroidery needle, threw his head back, and let out a long cry that rang through all of Blackwood Cliff.

“White clouds rising over the crown of the head, sweet dew sprinkling Mount Sumeru…”

“Drinking the wine of immortality, who can know such carefree freedom…”

Dongfang Bubai’s face was the first to show astonishment. Staring dumbly at Zheng Jian’s transformation, he unconsciously ceased pressing his attack and watched with growing expectation.

“Within yin and yang, endless reversal; a single thunderclap in universal transformation…”

At that moment, inside Zheng Jian’s body, the primordial true qi in his dantian became perfectly balanced in yin and yang. Flowing through the Conception and Governing Vessels, it grew ever more abundant, surging past the three passes at the tailbone, spine, and jade pillow, crashing straight into the brain palace. The qi transformed into sweet dew and descended, while within his body, tiger and leopard thunder reverberated through the twelve layered towers.

A transcendent yet oppressive aura spread outward from Zheng Jian as its center. Then Zheng Jian slowly opened his eyes. Deep and unfathomable, they seemed impossible to ignore even in the darkness.

“Only today do I know the labor of refining spirit and returning to emptiness…”

Zheng Jian sighed long and deeply, and clear tears unexpectedly flowed from his eyes. That instant, the feeling had been beyond words. From within to without, he had undergone a complete cleansing, even feeling as if he had been reborn with the realization: only today did he truly know himself.

This was the genuine gratitude owed to the Great Dao upon returning from the acquired to the innate, the emotion stirred by unlocking the hidden divine treasures within his body.

“Dongfang Bubai, I achieved this realm thanks to your utmost efforts in this battle.”

Zheng Jian spoke softly. It was the plain truth. Without Dongfang Bubai’s pressure, without being driven to continual breakthrough under that great terror, how could he have found this sliver of opportunity in battle and, with one stroke, broken through to the realm of refining spirit and returning to emptiness, thereby becoming an innate master?

Dongfang Bubai stood stunned for a long moment. Then he suddenly staggered back several steps, spitting out a mouthful of blood that splashed across his scarlet robes. This was the realm he had longed for night and day, yet although he too had been advancing in the fight, he had never managed to seize that one chance, only to watch Zheng Jian successfully complete his ascent.

But from Zheng Jian, Dongfang Bubai had finally glimpsed the road ahead.

“Innate… so this is a wholly new realm…”

As if to confirm his thoughts, Dongfang Bubai suddenly pinched the embroidery needle between his fingers, drew upon every trace of the Sunflower true qi within him, poured it all into that one needle, and shot it at Zheng Jian in a flash.

Zheng Jian raised a brow.

Still not giving up?

If this had been the old Zheng Jian, he would most likely have been unable to evade it, but now that he had entered the innate realm, he was no longer what he had been. In the blink of an eye, he shifted several feet sideways.

The embroidery needle passed through Zheng Jian without pause, for what it pierced was only his afterimage.

Then came a soft sound behind him.

A needle entering flesh.

Zheng Jian turned his head. Behind him, near the edge of the retreat, Ren Woxing was already falling backward toward the sky, while Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying hurriedly reached out to support him.

Zheng Jian suddenly understood.

So Dongfang Bubai’s move had been aimed at killing Ren Woxing all along.

He had been entirely focused on Dongfang Bubai, and having only just broken through to the innate realm, his cultivation had yet to be fully consolidated. He had not noticed Ren Woxing and the others quietly approaching.

“Father!”

Ren Yingying cried out in anguish, her voice as sorrowful as the cuckoo’s blood-cry or the shriek of a grieving ape. Dongfang Bubai’s full-force strike, gathered from all his Sunflower true qi, left the defenseless Ren Woxing with no way to resist.

The silver needle pierced in through the center of his brow and out through the back of his skull. Ren Woxing did not even manage a groan before being killed outright.

Zheng Jian looked back at Dongfang Bubai, only to find that he had already exhausted himself completely. In a faint voice, Dongfang Bubai said, “If Ren Woxing and the others could get here, then my Lian Di must have fallen to poison as well… But it does not matter. Lian Di, I have killed Ren Woxing for you. I have avenged you…”

Having said this, Dongfang Bubai looked at Zheng Jian and went on, “Ever since I cultivated the Sunflower Manual, I have made no further progress. Today, I must thank you for showing me the road ahead. Though I, Dongfang Bubai, have lost today and am about to die… I have no regrets. I… I would like to ask you for one favor, if I may?”

Looking at Dongfang Bubai, who was breathing more out than in, Zheng Jian pondered briefly, then still nodded.

“Go on. As for whether I agree, let me hear it first.”

Dongfang Bubai forced out an ugly smile.

“After I die, please help bury me together with Lian Di.”

Zheng Jian: “…”

After hesitating for a second, Zheng Jian inclined his head.

“Very well. I agree.”

When a man is about to die, his words are kindly meant. Although Zheng Jian did not approve of Dongfang Bubai’s twisted affection, without Dongfang Bubai he would not have entered the innate realm so quickly.

Thus the debts of kindness and enmity were both cleared.

So be it.

Dongfang Bubai finally relaxed. His head tilted, and he went still. He had already been close to the end of his strength; upon seeing Ren Woxing, he knew that Yang Lian had most certainly fallen victim to foul play. Thus Dongfang Bubai’s final strike had exhausted every ounce of his spirit and vitality, and with it he had slain Ren Woxing in one blow.

And so it ended.