The Modern Martial Immortal

During Yaoguang's rule over the Southern Capital, he had purged several hundred merchant guilds that defied his orders, and all the territory those guilds had occupied was reclaimed by the domain lord's estate. As a result, within the Southern Capital, which stretched roughly fifteen thousand kilometers, the domain lord's estate now directly covered an area of three thousand kilometers.

Within that three thousand kilometers region, part of the land was public ground, including many outward-facing shops, cave dwellings, and the like. But roughly half of it was occupied entirely by members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

In that area stood several hundred peaks, great and small, every one of them inhabited, and Nine Heavens Peak was one of them. It was also the tallest, spanning more than three hundred kilometers.

Those who dwelled on it were those closest to the domain lord, Yaoguang, and the very core of the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

At this moment, in a pavilion atop the peak, Su Yaoqin leaned against the balcony railing, watching the endless sea of clouds in the distance.

Within it, all kinds of spirit beasts soared and danced through the air, and now and then a carriage or a streak of sword light flashed by like a startled swan.

Just then came the sound of footsteps. It was Su Yaoshuang, dressed in white with a long sword on her back, looking like an ethereal immortal.

"I didn't see you at the lecture today. What's on your mind?" Su Yaoshuang sat down beside her.

Su Yaoqin didn't answer, only glanced at her. "You're still the same as before, paying such close attention to your looks and your appearance. Even the cultivation path you chose centers mainly on shaping your features and nurturing qi."

"Before?" Su Yaoshuang blinked, then quickly recalled something.

The "before" Su Yaoqin meant was the days in Dayu, back in the Yaoguang World. Back then, as a daughter of the Su family, she really had placed a lot of importance on her appearance and figure. To maintain her shape and complexion, she had been ruthlessly strict with herself in food, clothing, and every part of daily life. But now...

She smiled. "What made you bring that up all of a sudden?"

"Just feeling a little sentimental, that's all," Su Yaoqin said.

Su Yaoshuang fell quiet for a moment. "Thinking of the Yaoguang World? Of Grandfather and the others?"

"Not exactly thinking of them. It's just that ever since we followed the Nine Cauldrons Sect to the North Sea Star, everything about our lives has been like a dream, a legend. What we've been through would have been almost unimaginable in the Yaoguang World, in Tiannan Province..."

Su Yaoqin's tone grew heavier here. "Yes, unimaginable. The girls we were back then could have racked our imaginations to their limits and still never pictured that we'd one day reach such heights."

She reached out, and a flame condensed in her palm. "Not only does each of us hold within her body the power of nearly a small star, so that a single gesture, outside the North Sea Star, could move mountains and fill seas, but we've journeyed who knows how many light-years across the cosmos, from the Yaoguang World to the Cangwu World, and from the Cangwu World to the North Sea Star. All of it, every bit, still feels like a dream! These experiences, this constant flood of new things, long ago washed away the grief of losing our family..."

She paused. "After all, back in Tiannan, it was us sisters who depended on each other. The others, Grandfather included, never cared much for us."

She let the flame in her palm fade and smiled. "I even feel that as long as Big Sister is here, home is here. Big Sister has always arranged our lives so neatly, and even now that we've come to the North Sea Star, that hasn't changed."

Listening, Su Yaoshuang thought of all the little ways their eldest sister had looked after them, and she couldn't help smiling too, a smile gentle and warm.

"Remember how, back in Tiannan, we used to resent Big Sister so much, thinking she fussed over everything like some old nanny?" Su Yaoshuang said with a smile.

"We did. But that was our rebellious phase, wasn't it? We were so disobedient. Looking back now, I'm really grateful that Big Sister was always there to keep us in line. Otherwise, I can't even imagine what would have become of us," Su Yaoqin said.

"What a pair of little rascals..." Su Yaoshuang nodded with a smile.

Their faces no longer held any trace of the proud, rebellious willfulness of the Tiannan days. Even the old frictions the two sisters had once had toward each other were entirely forgotten, leaving only the warmth and closeness of family who had stayed by each other's side.

Just then, something seemed to occur to Su Yaoqin. "Speaking of Big Sister being like an old nanny, Third Brother, he... Isn't he a bit like..."

"He is." Su Yaoshuang nodded with a smile, as though knowing just what she meant to say. "Though we rarely see him, he's already done very well by us. After all, he never owed us anything."

Su Yaoqin nodded. "Back then, the cultivation insights for the Primordial Creation Art were said to come from Second Sister. But Second Sister never had such a deep grasp of that art at the time. They clearly came from Third Brother. He just didn't want us to grow dependent, so he passed those insights into our hands through Second Sister. Compared to Big Sister, who filled every corner of our lives, he taught us nothing else, yet he taught us what it means to grow independent. He armed us, doing all he could to make sure that even alone and far from home, we'd have the ability to protect ourselves."

Su Yaoshuang looked at her and said with a smile, "You've grown up."

"I've only come to understand how hard things are for others, and begun trying to see things from their side," Su Yaoqin said. She lifted her head, gazing at the distant sea of clouds. "I've seen it more times than I can count, but every time, I can't help marveling. It really is beautiful."

"Very beautiful." Su Yaoshuang nodded, gazing into the distance as well, and up at the patterns flowing across the vault of heaven like a transparent river.

Those were the traces left by spiritual qi condensed to its utmost, made visible.

"If not for Third Brother, we'd never have seen such a beautiful sight in all our lives."

"We are but mayflies adrift between Heaven and Earth, mere grains of millet lost in the vastness of the sea."

The two spoke softly together, then simply sat on the balcony, gazing far away.

Ultimately, people must keep moving forward. Separation and death, the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and mortality... all of that is unavoidable. But as long as one lives in this world, the meaning of life is not found only in love and hatred, in personal entanglements and grievances, nor merely in the everyday concerns of family and household.

The heavens and earth, the sun and moon, the cosmos and its stars. Every kind of grandeur and vastness can wash over the smallness of the human heart and truly open it. Drifting between heaven and earth, how small is humanity before the universe.

Rather than sink into the pain of sorrow and parting and be unable to pull free, why not lift one's eyes to heaven and earth and, with heartfelt wonder, embrace the splendor and marvel of all things in the world.

***

Not far from this pavilion, Lin Xia and Su Yaoxue were exchanging pointers. Both had already reached the Blazing White Golden Core Realm.

To rise from the Foundation Building Realm to the eighth realm of Golden Core in such a short time sounded incredible, but the cultivation environment of the North Sea Star was simply too good.

With the Pure Yang Grand Pills that Yaoguang issued and the sect distributed, which could be used almost without restraint, for the two of them to reach the Blazing White Golden Core Realm had been completely natural.

Take officials who stood at the summit of power in ancient times... Their lives might not even match those of an ordinary person today. That was the shift brought by a change in social conditions.

In the same way, if a person from ten thousand years in the future returned to the present, they could display marvels that would overturn everyone's imagination as easily as a myth. The ease of the two girls' cultivation now was much like a modern person studying the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, once regarded by the ancients as the crystallization of mathematical wisdom. Not effortless, perhaps, but smooth sailing all the same.[1]

After a long while, the two finished their bout.

"It looks like you'll reach the Azure Golden Core Realm faster than I will," Lin Xia said.

Su Yaoxue didn't deny it, only said modestly, "Your talent is above mine, Sister Lin Xia. I may have gone a little further in this realm, but it won't take you long to catch up."

Lin Xia smiled. "How big can the gap in our talent really be? A few dozen more Pure Yang Grand Pills would probably close it."

She added, "Still, at this rate, reaching the Azure Golden Core Realm is only a matter of time for all of us. And in the future, there's even hope of making a run at the Void-Piercing Realm."

"You definitely can," Su Yaoxue said. "We can all attain the Void-Piercing Realm and live for ten thousand years."

"Ten thousand years..." Hearing her, Lin Xia felt a touch of wonder. "That humans could live ten thousand years would have been unthinkable back then. Back on the Yaoguang World, civilization wasn't even ten thousand years old according to the written records... Reaching the Void-Piercing Realm lets us live longer than our entire recorded history."

Su Yaoxue nodded too. "Not only can we live ten thousand years, but we can even wield tremendous power. Before we had set foot on the path of cultivation, walking a little too far would leave us weary, eating the wrong thing would upset our stomachs, an irregular routine would make our whole bodies ache, too little sleep would leave us listless, a mere gust of cold wind could give us a chill, and a high fever could make a person wish for death."

She raised her hand and looked at her arm, fair as jade. "But now we're free of sickness and pain, our bodies are healthy, we can live a thousand years, and we command great strength. We're also unafraid of beasts, venomous creatures, flash floods, or raging fire. We can come and go through the sky and roam the seas. All of it is the change that cultivation has brought."

"It is."

Mortals were too fragile. Compared to their mortal days, what the two of them were now was almost beyond imagining.

Just then, Su Yaoyu walked over, her face all smiles. "I just talked with Perfected Lord Li Hanqiu. He plans to go to the Three-Qing Temple to buy a batch of Three-Qing Dao Enlightenment Pills. This kind of pill can easily give a cultivator some inspiration, letting them gain better results in their cultivation. Once the pills arrive, I'm sure you'll soon think of a way to break the Golden Core mass limit and step from the Blazing White Golden Core Realm to the Azure Golden Core Realm."

"Three-Qing Dao Enlightenment Pills?" Lin Xia blinked. "I've heard of those. They sell for over three thousand Pure Yang Grand Pills each, equal to a century's income back in our Cloud Sword Sect days. Is it really appropriate to use such pills on us?"

"Three thousand Pure Yang Grand Pills!?" Su Yaoyu was startled too.

She had also lived through the days when the Nine Cauldrons Sect first came to the North Sea Star, and life around the Yunchuan Mountains had taught her well just how staggering a sum that was. She'd never imagined that a single pill they now took could be that expensive.

After a good while, she said, "This must have already been approved by Yaoguang."

"Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang..." Su Yaoxue echoed the name as Su Yaoyu spoke it.

She, all of them, knew very well that every change in themselves had come because of Yaoguang.

It was because of him that they could behold such a resplendent world, experience it, live a life that could only be called a miracle, and enjoy treatment and a life that even the true disciples of the top great sects wouldn't dare imagine.

Her gaze turned toward the peak at the very center of the domain lord's residence, and in her heart she wanted only to say one thing to him. "We're all doing very well now."

1. The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is a Chinese mathematics book, composed by several generations of scholars from the 10th–2nd century BCE, its latest stage being from the 1st century CE. ☜

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