Chapter 90: Blockhead

Zora spent seven days here.

Luo Jin was busy every day, giving what little leisure time she had to her three friends. Yun Zhang remained erratic in her movements, yet she was like a bird returning to its nest from a long journey, appearing from time to time to chat with Luo Jin. She was an exceptionally arrogant person, treating others with disdain—though she truly had the ability to be so. Only in front of her close friends would she settle down slightly.

Their meetings took place in remote, unknown locations; few knew the four were best friends. Their bond was not like that of ordinary people; they never mentioned each other when alone, and others had no way of knowing their specific whereabouts.

On another day after Yun Zhang had departed, Zora suddenly looked toward the entrance of Floating Cloud Valley. Inside the valley, the crowd was noisy, a picture of peace. It wasn't until the ground vibrated slightly that Luo Jin realized something was wrong. She turned her head toward the entrance.

Gradually, the healers who possessed even a trace of spiritual power fell silent one by one. For a moment, save for the patients, there wasn't a sound in the valley.

One healer asked, "What is that noise?"

"It sounds like hoofbeats."

As soon as the words fell, several armored soldiers entered on horseback, their faces carrying an aura of slaughter. The leader announced the judgment in a loud voice. Zora listened; the general idea was that Floating Cloud Valley had defied the court and intentionally murdered officials and their kin, thus offending the imperial majesty.

There were many other nonsensical charges. Zora knew of those officials and nobles; they were people the healers of Floating Cloud Valley had done their utmost to save but had been unable to help. When people die of illness, their high-ranking relatives always look for an unreasonable outlet for their grief.

It must be that the healers weren't diligent enough; they must have delayed on purpose. Aren't they said to be the best doctors in the world? How could they not cure them!

To the court, these were just people practicing "crooked ways" who daydreamed about immortality. Even the Emperor hadn't publicized the path of cultivation; what could these people possibly achieve? They lived on the King's land yet did not devote themselves to the King. The Emperor was currently at a juncture where his prestige was damaged; he had to use ruthless methods to make an example of someone. The Floating Cloud Valley—powerless, statusless, and without martial strength—fell into his sights.

This was a vent for imperial fury, and a cold warning from the Emperor on his high throne to all others.

At this moment, there was no option to "possess" Luo Jin. Zora watched as Luo Jin tried to stop them, but it was like an ant trying to stop a carriage. The Son of Heaven's wrath descended abruptly, evolving into a massacre. Blood flowed like rivers, and the wails in the valley were deafening.

A sword pierced a healer who was shielding a patient. The healer grabbed the blade, about to rebuke the attacker, but froze in shock upon seeing the soldier's face. The soldier also faltered for an instant, but the sword was already buried deep; there was no turning back. After the healer collapsed, the soldier hesitated but ultimately threw himself back into the killing.

They had once been doctor and patient. When that healer traveled, he would visit places where people had no money for doctors or medicine; the soldier had been one of them. Many soldiers in the city only needed to follow orders; they didn't care who was in front of them or who they were killing. They killed whoever their superiors told them to kill. That was their duty. If he didn't kill, he would be branded a traitor and executed on the spot.

But most people weren't that conflicted. Zora looked around at the corpses littering the ground. Luo Jin's frantic cries of a trapped beast echoed in her ears; the woman had lost all composure.

"Capture a few alive! A reward of ten thousand gold!" a leader shouted. The Emperor was quite interested in the results of Floating Cloud Valley; even if immortality was impossible, extending life was acceptable.

The sounds of fighting lasted all morning. The people of the valley had at least some spiritual power, but they lacked martial skill, numbers, and combat strategy. It soon became a one-sided slaughter. Her end near, Luo Jin clutched her wounds. When she could no longer outrun her enemies, she was suddenly pulled into a pool by someone; blood spread through the water.

The pursuer looked ferocious, his blade covered in blood. He glanced around; the pool was bloody, but there were also corpses beside it, so he paid no further attention and turned to kill others. There were so many people that no one could distinguish the Valley Master from an ordinary healer.

Zora stood by the pool. She waited for a while, then walked out of the forest. The sound of blades piercing flesh, the sounds of begging, and the angry curses of the righteous as they faced death filled the air. The cultivators of ten thousand years ago were merely mortals at heart; the pioneers were initially just beginners learning how to build sects and how to cultivate.

Zora watched quietly. She had seen the mutual slaughter of two individuals and the back-and-forth of combat, but she had never seen a one-sided massacre of those without the power to resist. It was like chopping vegetables; even the patients in their beds were cut down.

The Emperor and those in high positions hated cultivators, though they feigned indifference on the surface. Those who called themselves superior lacked spiritual roots; the temptations of eternal youth and life were not for them. When the gap between a cultivator and a mortal was not that large, it was the moment of greatest jealousy. Since they couldn't cultivate, why should others be able to?

The cultivation and mortal realms were not yet clearly divided. Ordinary people and cultivators lived together for too long, and cultivators were no different in temperament from ordinary people; this inevitably sparked resentment. Only the hazy, remote cultivation atop the mountains was something to be longed for; only the ability to fly or tunnel through the earth was something to be feared and respected.

When the night wind blew, soldiers held torches, searching through the corpses for the Valley Master and other named figures. They occupied Floating Cloud Valley, monitoring and patrolling closely. The souls of the cultivators who died with their eyes open became a gust of wind, blowing fierce clouds through the valley. This final cultivation was born of anger and helplessness.

...

Zora followed a few surviving cultivators through the forest. After walking a great distance, they stopped in exhaustion. Chi Ting’s fish tail had turned into legs. Beside him was an ordinary-looking young girl; she had supported Chi Ting, dodging pursuers and finding the Valley Master.

Luo Jin was covered in filth and blood. Her expression had shifted from grief to a deathly calm.

This was bound to happen.

She suddenly realized this. Cultivators were in the way; cultivators without martial force would naturally become targets. And they could never truly bow and scrape before an Emperor. As the Valley Master, she had failed to realize this. She was a sinner.

Zora looked up. Purple lightning flickered in the clouds—the tribulation for a cultivator’s sudden enlightenment, the first glimpse of the truths of the path. Luo Jin gazed upward. After a long while, she handed the sect jade pendant to the thin girl and smiled: "If you want to be the Valley Master, you are the Valley Master. If not, go your own way, Ning Chi."

The girl was stunned. She was of a resilient nature; her parents had come to the valley for treatment but could not be cured. After they passed, Ning Chi was taken in. Even after the great upheaval, she remained silent in the valley, picking herbs before every sunrise and following Luo Jin’s teachings.

Ning Chi wanted to speak, to say "don't go," but looking into the Valley Master’s eyes—as calm as stagnant water—she said no more. A moment later, her face grew even more resolute. She slowly bowed her head and took the white jade pendant with her dirty hands.

Chi Ting sobbed: "Valley Master, don't go."

Luo Jin: "This is my punishment."

She patted Chi Ting’s head, then Ning Chi’s. She looked around at the silent cultivators, their faces covered in blood and filth, only their bright eyes visible. Occasionally, a suppressed sob broke the silence.

"You have done nothing wrong. It is I who failed my duty as Valley Master."

One person spoke urgently: "No! Without the Valley Master, we would have died in this chaotic world long ago. Even if healing cultivators didn't come to Floating Cloud Valley, they would easily lose their lives elsewhere. It was the Valley Master who gave us a place to stay..."

Luo Jin said no more, only shaking her head gently with a smile.

Thunder and lightning lingered in the distance. Luo Jin walked toward the open ground, moving further and further away. The others did not chase her, knowing she did not need them to. Only Ning Chi stubbornly followed her for a distance. Her shoes were long gone; the girl was barefoot, her soles covered in small bloodstains.

Luo Jin looked back at her. In the past, she would have noticed easily, but her mind had been so distracted on the way that she hadn't realized. Luo Jin stopped and crouched down amidst the rolling thunder.

"Val... Valley Master...!" Ning Chi was still young but already unwilling to be treated like a child, shrinking back slightly. But Luo Jin was like gentle water, easily prying open the closed shell. Ning Chi could only watch as Luo Jin wrapped her feet with a clean handkerchief so she wouldn't have to step on the ground bare.

Zora didn't look at them; she was looking at the lightning tribulation. It wasn't just breakthroughs that brought tribulations, but also those who reached sudden enlightenment and glimpsed the Heavenly Dao. For someone like Luo Jin, who was exploring a new path of cultivation, facing a lightning tribulation was almost certainly a death sentence.

Zora had no particular opinion of Luo Jin. She knew a secret realm of this level was meant to be this difficult. She took off her Snow-Mud Fish jade pendant and held it up to look at it. The fish nuzzled her fingertip affectionately, as if trying its best to comfort her; its color hadn't changed since entering the realm.

She perhaps understood why Luo Jin stayed in the valley, but her state of mind was never shaken by Luo Jin’s experience. Even when the valley was massacred, she did not feel sorrow.

On the open soil, dark clouds gathered, and the thunder grew closer. Ning Chi finally spoke her heart: "...Valley Master, where are you going?"

"I don't know either," Luo Jin stood up and said. She looked to her side, exactly where Zora was standing. Zora was startled, almost thinking she had been seen, and moved slightly. Seeing that Luo Jin's pupils didn't follow her, Zora stood still.

Luo Jin: "I understand now. 'Healer' and 'cultivator' were never meant to be the same thing."

"A healer is a healer; a cultivator is a cultivator. Practicing medicine is actually of little use to cultivation."

"Kindness is not a necessary Dao for cultivation. As long as one's heart is firm, even the most selfish person can ascend the path of immortality. It's just that greed makes one's state of mind unstable. If one is an exceptionally calm and rational villain or a person without kindness, why can't they rise step by step?"

Ning Chi looked up at her. Luo Jin pushed her gently and smiled: "Go back."

Ning Chi stood her ground stubbornly. Luo Jin wasn't annoyed; she turned and walked toward the center of the clearing. The thunderclouds were oppressive, and the lightning reflected off her face. Luo Jin murmured to herself.

"Yun Zhang said that cultivation might truly lead to becoming an immortal; that is a corner of the Dao she glimpsed."

Zora nodded to herself at those words. A bolt of lightning suddenly struck nearby, the aftershock knocking Luo Jin to the ground. She was oblivious, her eyes fixed on the black clouds, as if trying to see the immortals behind them.

"...If the Heavenly Dao truly blesses those who serve the people, why would such 'saints' be allowed to abandon the world and ascend? They aren't dead souls; wouldn't it be better to leave them in the world to keep saving lives?"

If she were to be a cultivator, if she wanted healers to cultivate, they had to abandon the identity of a healer, abandon the shackles of a "healer's heart," and abandon the delusion of "saving the world." One could have kindness, but it was absolutely not a necessity. Floating Cloud Valley, as the sect leading healer-cultivators, should lead by example, abandoning the duties of a healer to establish a new understanding.

Lightning bolts fell one after another. Those in the distance watched silently, tears streaming down their faces.

"...If one is to cultivate, they are no longer called a healer."

"—They are a

Medicine Cultivator

."

The final bolt of lightning descended. Zora had moved far away from Luo Jin. She saw Yun Zhang arriving at the edge of the cliff, so she used her sword to fly to her side. Zora simply thought that if the secret realm hadn't ended, she should choose another person to possess.

Sure enough, as she neared Yun Zhang, the scene shifted.

"Senior Yun! Please save the Valley Master!" The cultivators saw her—unaware that Yun Zhang had been replaced—and knelt to kowtow.

Zora felt a surge of indignation in her chest.

—

If it were her. If her friend died.

The figure under that purple lightning could be Yiling Ke, Turi Qi, or Song Zhihuai. The girl's empty heart was stained with a bit of darkness, and the ink-black color of the Snow-Mud Fish quickly spread to the middle of its body.

Zora opened her eyes and said in a calm tone: "Collect the remains." Though there likely were no remains left.

The others were stunned. Only Chi Ting spoke up: "Where is Senior Yun going?"

Zora followed her heart: "To kill people."

She didn't look back at the dead friend, heading straight for the imperial city. Surprisingly, she didn't trigger a punishment. Yun Zhang had done this, and so did Zora.

"Protect the Emperor! Hurry!"

Blood stained the palace. Under the sword of the cultivator, the imperial family had no power to resist, just like the cultivators under the soldiers' boots. The next day, news spread of that single sword strike in the palace. It was said a cultivator's sword could split waves; naturally, it could split palace walls and human bodies.

That

was a cultivator.

Some cried secretly in their homes, overjoyed that the tyrant was finally dead. Others began to revere cultivation; a cultivator's name only carried meaning through strength. Later, Yuan Zhen helped the imperial family select a benevolent new ruler, minimizing the impact of the Emperor's sudden death.

Later still, everyone heard that the venerable Yun Zhang had established a sect named the December Sect. Rather than a sect, it was more like a den of bandits; Yun Zhang was used to doing as she pleased and had no necessary distinction between good and evil. She didn't suppress her subordinates from killing each other for treasures.

In the first year, the cultivation and mortal realms were divided, and her sect recruited disciples extensively.

In the second year, Floating Cloud Valley was rebuilt, and Feng Chenting specifically researched a protective array for it.

In the third year, the missions of the December Sect were mostly to clear the vermin from the outskirts of Floating Cloud Valley.

Floating Cloud Valley modified its sect oath, calling themselves medicine cultivators and no longer taking in irrelevant people everywhere. Buying pills required money, though they didn't stop medicine cultivators from treating illnesses on their own—that was the freedom of a medicine cultivator, but it was no longer the requirement or the mainstream.

Luo Jin's name vanished into the torrent, leaving behind the venerable title of the Map-Dream Immortal.

In the fifth year, Yun Zhang grew annoyed that there were too many people in the sect but they died too fast. She couldn't stop taking people in, but she didn't need so many. So she closed the passage and lowered a Heavenly Ladder filled with obstacles, so those who wanted to go were either intimidated or died on the ladder.

...

In the thirtieth year, Zhou Huaijin climbed the Heavenly Ladder, changed her name to Zhou Shijin, and joined the sect under Yun Zhang’s mocking gaze. Beside the Sect Leader stood a woman with sword-like brows; she was a mortal Yun Zhang had saved in passing while killing someone.

Clouds billowed on the horizon. Zhou Shijin looked up. Yun Zhang had already vanished; only Ling Zhihuan smiled at her.

"Congratulations."

Congratulations on coming to the survival-of-the-fittest December Sect. Although, eventually, the sect became more like a real sect, no longer killing each other but looking out for one another.

...

Zora opened her eyes to find herself in a cavern. Her soul was recovering, and the phantom pains in her body were easing. Ever since possessing Yun Zhang, she had rarely been punished—only twice or thrice. When she had successfully gone more than five times without failing, she left Yun Zhang and caught a brief glimpse of the December Sect's history.

A lazy voice appeared: "Congratulations, congratulations. You are the sixth person to pass this secret realm."

Zora: "The sixth?"

"Yes. The sixth person with luck, and the ability to grasp it." A phantom appeared—it was Yun Zhang’s silhouette, smiling radiantly. "Don't blame me. After my death, this secret realm was naturally accepted by the Heavenly Dao. According to natural rules, the more precious the treasure in a realm, the harder it is. Five people passed in the past, but unfortunately, one person used my things to enter the demonic path, tainting it with demonic Qi and nearly polluting the Dao. So the difficulty of the realm rose again—though the Heavenly Dao has no personality, you can imagine it as having set a 'dead end'."

Zora said sincerely: "But I didn't die."

"Who told your soul to be so strong? Truly strange." Yun Zhang drifted over the piles of gold and jewels.

The Wave Husk Secret Realm had been elevated by the rules to a "certain death" situation. But the rules wouldn't allow it to be a literal slaughterhouse; it left a sliver of life. It would create an illusion based on a person's weakness. Zora didn't understand the human heart, so her trial was the human heart.

The original intent of the Wave Husk Secret Realm wasn't to help people overcome weaknesses—it wasn't that pedagogical. If Zora had suddenly learned to understand the human heart midway, the realm would have shifted again, turning into another weakness to trap her, starting over. If others entered, it would be a different scene.

The harder the trial, the simpler the answer. She only needed to find a person with a similar perspective to possess. Unfortunately, how could someone who doesn't understand the human heart realize at first glance who was compatible with her? Moreover, there were millions of people in the illusion; even commoners could be an option. So it was a dead end; it required the person entering to have supreme luck and the ability to grasp it firmly.

Of course, the biggest prerequisite was to persist stubbornly, guard one's true self, and not try to be clever. If a "weakness" isn't a weakness in combat moves, then solving it isn't necessary.

"Yun Zhang" laughed: "It sounds simple, but there can't be two identical people in the world, so one only needs to pass five choices. It should have been hard for you, yet you actually had five choices identical to Yun Zhang’s; quite a curiosity."

"Even though the mindset and emotions behind your choices were completely different, and you still suffered a few punishments—you are still quite different from Yun Zhang. Indeed, everyone is unique."

Zora nodded: "Indeed."

"What do you want? You can take any one of my treasures. A spiritual tool that can allow an ordinary cultivator to defeat a Golden Core stage one or resist a strike from a Great Master? Or an alchemical pill that can preserve a dead person’s soul or break a bottleneck to advance cultivation? A sword manual?"

Zora naturally knew the value of these tools. Any one of them could keep her worry-free for hundreds of years.

—

If there were no outbreak of evil. If she didn't want thousands or tens of thousands of years.

Zora thought for a moment, lifted her hand to point at her, and said bluntly: "You."

"Yun Zhang" raised an eyebrow in surprise: "Oh?"

Zora said matter-of-factly: "You are my Master's Master. You can teach me. You are a wisp of a soul left here; if you can't leave, you can teach me here, and then I will go out."

"I'm not your Master's Master. I am the Sect Leader of that Zhou Shijin. Besides, I am only a wisp of Yun Zhang’s soul; even my temperament is different from hers."

Zora repeated: "You."

"I told you, I'm not your Master's Master."

"You." Zora repeated again. "You are already dead. You have no life. You are a treasure."

Unlike other cultivators, the girl didn't kneel respectfully to an ancient master or say moving words—telling her troubles or expressing her determination. Zora simply took "Yun Zhang's" words of "take anything" to the literal end and stated bluntly that she was a "treasure," remaining exceptionally persistent.

"..." "Yun Zhang" was silent for a moment, resting her chin on her hand as she looked elsewhere. "To think Zhou Shijin took such a blockhead as a disciple."

How is your cultivation progressing? It's been quite some time since you entered the secret realm. Since you're currently in a safe zone with an ancient master, perhaps we can discuss what you've learned about the human heart or your plans for when you return to the December Sect.