Vol 2 Chapter 83: A Feeling in the Heart
Senior Sister Zhang was always composed, and any flicker of emotion on her face vanished in an instant. She simply shook her head and said to Zheng Fa and the other,
"This Xuanguan Mirror belonged to my master from long ago. Without reaching the Nascent Soul stage, one cannot leave."
"Nascent Soul..." Senior Sister Yuan blurted out. "That's nearly impossible..."
Seeing Senior Sister Zhang fall silent, she seemed to realize she had misspoken and quickly added,
"But Senior Sister Zhang, you're incredibly talented! What’s difficult for others must be much easier for you!"
"No, it's actually harder for me." Senior Sister Zhang said softly. "I cultivated too quickly in my early years, and now I'm paying the price for it."
Even Zheng Fa couldn't help but nod at those words.
He had heard of Senior Sister Zhang's story—
When she formed her Golden Core, she had been cultivating for less than ten years.
Her reputation skyrocketed, and she was hailed as the strongest below the Nascent Soul stage in the Hundred Immortals Alliance.
But after that, for nearly ninety years, she remained stuck in the Golden Core stage, unable to progress even an inch further.
By entering the Xuanguan Mirror, she had managed to escape the pursuit of the Nascent Soul cultivators from the Grand Freedom Demon Sect. But at the same time, she had trapped herself in a situation where she could not leave without reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
"Zheng Fa, remember this—Foundation Establishment must be done with caution." Even in her predicament, Senior Sister Zhang took the time to warn him. "I lacked experience back then. I took a path no one had walked before, and I didn’t fully understand many things. I was young and arrogant, blinded by the title of 'The Number One Genius of the Hundred Immortals Alliance.'"
"Later, when I realized that the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment method was incomplete, I searched through ancient texts and discovered something—if someone truly creates a complete cultivation path, the heavens will respond with an anomaly."
"…Anomaly?"
Zheng Fa was puzzled.
"Not many people know about this." Senior Sister Zhang explained, "Spiritual energy has declined at least five times. No one knows the origin of cultivation methods. It’s possible that they were perfected long before the previous calamities. Because of this, true creators of cultivation paths are exceedingly rare. In the past two calamities, there has been only one person who truly invented a new cultivation method—"
Zheng Fa twitched.
He already had a bad feeling about who it was.
"According to ancient records, after forming his Golden Core, the Celestial River Honored One created the method of Life-bound Spiritual Treasures. It has since become the number one method in the Xuanyi Realm for advancing to the Nascent Soul stage. At the time, the heavens reacted, and anomalies appeared across the entire realm. That was when the Celestial River Honored One said, 'The path is born, the anomaly manifests.'"
As expected—wherever he turned, there was the Celestial River Honored One!
"When I used the ‘Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method’ to form my foundation, no anomaly appeared. Maybe it's because it's just a Foundation Establishment method."
"But it's also possible that the fundamental flaw lies in the very foundation of my Talisman Dao. It was never a complete path to begin with." Senior Sister Zhang sighed softly. "What a shame that I only realized this now."
"In cultivation, a single misstep can lead to endless mistakes." She continued to warn Zheng Fa, "I still haven’t found a way to form a Nascent Soul. Even if I do, there will likely be difficulties down the road. Zheng Fa, if you don’t want to end up like me, be three times more careful when establishing your foundation."
Seeing that even now she was still concerned for him,
Zheng Fa interrupted her, "Senior Sister, do you have confidence in reaching the Nascent Soul stage?"
"……"
Senior Sister Zhang was silent for a moment before saying, "A Golden Core can live for a thousand years. I still have nine hundred years left. There’s no rush."
"……"
That sounded like confidence.
But in reality, it was anything but.
In the Xuanyi Realm, Qi Refinement cultivators had lifespans barely longer than ordinary people—just over a hundred years.
Foundation Establishment cultivators could live up to three hundred.
Golden Core cultivators, a thousand.
Nascent Soul was a major breakthrough. It was said that the Sect Master had already lived for ten thousand years.
But... that was all theoretical.
As far as Zheng Fa knew, very few cultivators lived to their natural lifespan.
Right now, Senior Sister Zhang was only surviving because of the Thunder Pool. But with the Heavenly Stele emerging, the Thunder Pool might not remain stable. The Grand Freedom Demon Sect was lurking nearby. If the Thunder Pool could no longer protect her, she might not even live another nine hundred years.
Even if she could—having a flawed Golden Core wasn’t something that could simply be overcome with time.
With her personality, if she truly had confidence, she wouldn’t have answered in such a roundabout way.
"Senior Sister Zhang, I have a theory about the Yin-Yang Origin Talisman..."
At this point, all he could do was hope that the Yin-Yang Origin Talisman might give her some inspiration.
Senior Sister Zhang’s eyes lit up with interest, and she listened carefully to Zheng Fa’s explanation.
"Handedness?"
"Mirroring?"
After he finished speaking, Senior Sister Zhang closed her eyes and seemed to be simulating the concept internally.
A long while later, she gave a slight nod, then shook her head. Her expression was calm, but there was a trace of disappointment.
"I understand the concept of handedness," Senior Sister Zhang said to Zheng Fa. "The Yin-Yang Talisman Diagram does correspond to the right and left hands."
"But mirroring... isn’t quite right."
Zheng Fa nodded slightly. He had realized the same thing back then:
"If we only consider the Five Elements sub-talismans, the Yin-Yang Talisman Diagram is indeed a mirror image. But the full diagram consists of three types of sub-talismans."
"The other two types differ completely between the Yin and Yang diagrams. They cannot be considered mirror images."
For example, in the origin talisman Zheng Fa had condensed, the Yin-aligned Earth talisman was the Shadowless Talisman, while the Yang-aligned Earth talisman was the Enlightenment Talisman.
The only similarity between them was the Earth sub-talisman.
The other two types were completely different.
To call them mirror images was a bit of a stretch.
Senior Sister Zhang nodded slightly. Noticing the hint of disappointment on Zheng Fa’s face, she suddenly smiled.
"The mirror image theory might not be entirely wrong."
"Mm… but it didn’t help you, Senior Sister," Zheng Fa said in a low voice.
Last time, as soon as he proposed the Five Elements sub-talisman theory, Senior Sister Zhang had made progress.
But this time, it seemed she hadn't gained any new insights.
"No, you’ve done well." Senior Sister Zhang suddenly said, "Zheng Fa, do you know what I thought of when I first sealed myself inside the Xuanguan Mirror?"
"What?"
"I felt relieved." She spoke softly. "Relieved that I went to the Zhao Estate that time."
"Relieved that I brought you into Jiushan Sect."
"Relieved that I passed the
to you."
Zheng Fa was stunned as he listened to her continue.
"Because of that, I met you. Because of that, Jiushan Sect has its most suitable future sect master. Because of that, the
has found its best successor."
Senior Sister Zhang was unusually talkative today.
Zheng Fa felt a strange tightness in his chest, but he didn’t know what to say.
"Zheng Fa, even the Celestial River Honored One perished, body and soul. How could I possibly escape that fate? But if, one day, you truly perfect the
, the world will know—there was once a Zhang Wuyi in the Xuanyi Realm."
"The Thunder Pool is unstable. You two should return," she sighed softly, seeing their silence. "I'm safe inside the Xuanguan Mirror for now. Zheng Fa, you should check out the Heavenly Stele instead. There's no need to visit me every day."
"Besides, I need to cultivate as well."
As she said this, her expression was eerily calm.
Hearing her words, Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Yuan exchanged glances and had no choice but to take their leave.
The next day.
Senior Sister Zhang was meditating beneath the Xuanguan Mirror when she saw two familiar figures approaching from afar.
"Didn't I tell you two to come less often?"
There was a faint smile at the corner of her lips as she asked.
"I'm just here to keep you company!" Senior Sister Yuan’s voice was sweet and clingy. Then she added, "Besides, I don’t practice lightning techniques. That Heavenly Stele or whatever has nothing to do with me!"
Senior Sister Yuan had always been simple-minded. Perhaps because of that, her cultivation progress wasn’t actually slow.
Senior Sister Zhang shook her head and turned her gaze to Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa, however, reached into his storage bag and pulled out several thick books.
The covers were inscribed with titles that even Senior Sister Zhang couldn’t understand.
,
,
...
Noticing her puzzled expression, Zheng Fa explained, "Senior Sister, these are some research methods that might relate to talisman diagrams. I thought they might be of some help to you."
The study of talisman diagrams was best aided by topology.
But topology required some foundational knowledge.
For example, even the most basic
required an understanding of mathematical analysis. And while
was considered an entry-level course for university mathematics majors, it still required prior knowledge of functions and set theory.
That was why Zheng Fa had brought this
textbook, which contained some of the necessary prerequisite knowledge.
Senior Sister Zhang's eyes sparkled with interest, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
"This is similar to those secret techniques you shared before?"
"It's something even more fundamental," Zheng Fa said as he opened one of the books. "Those techniques were just methods. These are the foundations that generate those methods."
Senior Sister Zhang nodded lightly, visibly intrigued.
Even Senior Sister Yuan leaned in with curiosity.
"First, we need to understand the classification of numbers…"
Zheng Fa flipped open the book and began explaining.
Two hours later.
Zheng Fa had just finished covering the basics of functions from the high school syllabus—
Senior Sister Yuan was already at her limit.
She stared blankly at Zheng Fa’s moving lips, her expression slowly shifting into one of resistance, as if her brain was activating some kind of self-preservation mechanism.
"I…" she suddenly blurted out, "I'm going to check out the Heavenly Stele!"
"…"
Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang both turned to look at her.
She lowered her voice and muttered, "I suddenly feel a connection… I think that stele and I are fated to meet!"
"Didn’t you just say you don’t practice lightning techniques?" Zheng Fa asked.
"Who can truly predict the will of Heaven?" Senior Sister Yuan shouted as she ran off. "Senior Sister Zhang, I’ll come keep you company after Zheng Fa finishes his lecture!"
Watching her fleeing figure, Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged glances and couldn’t help but chuckle and shake their heads.
"Junior Sister Yuan really lacks a bit of insight in this area. You go on," Senior Sister Zhang said, eyes gleaming with excitement. It seemed that rather than being intimidated, she actually found the subject fascinating.
"Alright, let’s start with some fundamental functions…"
One explained, one listened.
Both were cultivators. Once truly immersed, they lost all sense of time.
Zheng Fa finished teaching
and even made it halfway through
.
He was completely absorbed in the process. He had learned all of this before under Old Man Bai, but it was his first time trying to explain it to someone else.
And in doing so, he gained a new perspective himself.
"Junior Brother Zheng?" Senior Sister Zhang suddenly called out.
"Hm?"
"Shouldn’t you go check out the Heavenly Stele too?"
"…Huh?"
"I suddenly have a feeling… that the Heavenly Stele is connected to you."
She pinched her temples as if she had a headache, but her expression was completely sincere.
Me and that thing are
? You
it?
That sounded even more far-fetched than Senior Sister Yuan’s excuse to escape.
Seeing the apprehension in Senior Sister Zhang’s eyes as she looked at the books in his hands, Zheng Fa finally understood—
When passing down knowledge, it was important to pace yourself.
Even Senior Sister Zhang… was completely
.
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