Chapter 167: Small World
Despite leaving as soon as she could, Yan Ping ran into many unexpected delays on returning to her sect. With Bai Dajin and Zhao Mingshen leaving so abruptly, there was nobody else to clean up after the trash lying around in the lawless territory.
According to other sects, the Mystical Qilin Sect had a huge territory. However, following the teachings of the founder, the only territory they had existed within the barrier. Nobody in her sect was bothered with worldly affairs, hence the birth of a lawless zone.
In the past, entering the Mystical Qilin Sect was a privilege, and the clans with descendants who entered the Mystical Qilin Sect would work on behalf of the sect to maintain the territory outside the barrier. However, as not many people who entered the sect left it, time eroded the glamour and those living outside the barrier became tainted by greed. Corruption spread amongst the people who claimed to be affiliated with the Mystical Qilin Sect, doing whatever they pleased in the name of protecting the territory. Yet, the Mystical Qilin Sect never stopped it from happening. Instead, Yan Ping’s shifu turned a blind eye to everything, neither admitting nor denying their actions.
Initially, Yan Ping did not understand why her teacher sought to remain an observer of the chaos outside their territory. However, after fifty years, she finally understood why.
Just as how people easily condemned the Mystical Qilin Sect for allowing misfortune to befall them by not stopping the affiliated clans from abusing power, others were also quick to label them as saints for upholding the true essence of cultivation and fought against corruption in the name of protecting peace. The area outside quickly became drenched in blood as clans dwindled in a civil war. Once all riches were gone, so did most of the self-proclaimed supporters. Eventually, those who came to settle were outlaws and refugees who ran away from other places.
People were quick to judge others without finding out the truth and abusing power when they wielded it. The founder of their sect had lived for long enough to see the ocean dry and refill itself. The rise and fall of dynasties was not new to a sage. If anything, it was recorded as an observation about the cycle of life. The reason why their founder erected a barrier was to become frozen in time, isolated from the chaotic world outside. To all who were accepted into the sect, they should abide by the same practice of inner cultivation without external disturbance. That mentality remains true even to this day with all the catastrophic inventions that cause daily mayhem.
Yet, it was Yan Ping who decided to break the neutrality first. There was no other sect leader who had taken a side in humanity’s struggles outside the barrier. All chaos happened within the barrier. Her shifu might have been the laziest and most chaotic sect leader ever to assume the position in the Mystical Qilin Sect. However, she refused to participate in politics outside. It wasn’t to say she wasn’t knowledgeable about what was happening. Yan Ping remembered how often she had to chaperone her teacher when she felt like sneaking out. Even though Yan Ping was the blind one, she had to babysit her teacher, who often became drunk in gambling parlours. There was no shortage of suffering everywhere, yet her teacher taught Yan Ping one thing that demystified why the Mystical Qilin Sect’s neutrality.
Once. Just once, Yan Ping’s teacher allowed her to help a dying beggar child. The blind prophet remembered nursing that child back to full health and raising him. Like all children, he was pure and innocent. Yan Ping grew fond of him and taught him many things, even if he had no aptitude for cultivation. Everything seemed great, and Yan Ping thought she was doing the right thing, making a difference for this child who would have died if she had not helped. However, one day, she found the child dead in the same alley she found him. Apparently, he was beaten up by the other older beggar children who harboured a grudge and were jealous of his sudden fortune.