Chapter 21
There was no sound within the Saint Hall's great chamber, because Saint Chang Gen's consciousness could not produce voice—all information was directly transmitted into his disciples' minds.
What Yu Sui perceived was also not sound, but "information."
But this didn't prevent her mind from automatically adding audio.
"Five Elements power creates 'arts.' When people materialize 'arts,' what operates is Five Elements energy."
"Your Light Cores contain Five Elements energy that can absorb and refine. When connecting with external energy and internal energy, you can use 'arts.'"
Yu Sui looked straight ahead, listening attentively.
Mei Liangyu sat quietly beside her, thinking whether this Junior Sister even had Five Elements Light Cores was still questionable.
Saint Chang Gen said: "Qian, Kun, Xun, Zhen, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui—Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams. Take its fifty-two trigrams. Xun is wind, creating arts, Wind-Riding."
A black and white Eight Trigrams diagram slowly rotated beneath Yu Sui's feet. Following Saint Chang Gen's instruction, when the character Xun on the diagram turned to directly face Yu Sui, it stopped.
"Mobilize your Light Core's Five Elements energy, take Nine Schools Arts from the Eight Trigrams—Wind-Riding."
When Yu Sui closed her eyes to concentrate and connect with the Five Elements Light Cores in her body, three hundred cores responded simultaneously. In that instant, the Light Cores competed with each other, determined to carve a path through the pile of three hundred equally powerful cores.
It was precisely because there were too many Light Cores that they couldn't respond to give Yu Sui power when she needed it most.
Because every Light Core had the same level of power.
They competed with each other without result.
Yu Sui had tried before, but just couldn't handle the ever-increasing number of Light Cores.
In the past two years, when she tried to forcibly connect with the Light Cores, she would instead feel a power blocking her.
That wasn't Strange Fire, but another force from within her body that was both strange and familiar.
Strange Fire wasn't the only thing that coexisted with her.
There was also the incomplete Breath Soil.
This time was the same. In the deepest part of her consciousness, Strange Fire illuminated a small patch of darkness, and within that darkness hid other things that couldn't devour the entire area because of Strange Fire.
"Focus."
Saint Chang Gen's reminder startled Yu Sui.
This statement was ambiguous and could lead to many interpretations.
Did it mean focus on one Five Elements Light Core, or focus on learning Wind-Riding Techniques right now and not think about other things?
Yu Sui could only control the Five Elements Light Cores individually after separating them from her body. When the Five Elements Light Cores existed within her body, there would be a "one call, hundreds respond" situation—she couldn't achieve individual control.
Seeing Yu Sui fail, Mei Liangyu asked Saint Chang Gen: "Does she have Five Elements Light Cores?"
Yu Sui opened her eyes reluctantly, looked at Mei Liangyu, and said sullenly: "I do have them."
Too many of them.
Mei Liangyu stroked his chin thoughtfully: "That's truly strange."
She had Light Cores but tested at ten percent talent compatibility. If it was incompatibility with the Ghost Way School and unsuitability for cultivating this school, then all the other schools were also at ten percent.
Or maybe none of the current mainstream schools suited her?
Saint Chang Gen said: "No rush."
Yu Sui thought that if she couldn't learn tonight, she'd have to walk back to the residence in the dark, and tomorrow she'd really have legs too sore to get out of bed. She might as well stay here and study all night.
She couldn't sleep well at night anyway.
Yu Sui adjusted her mindset and stood in the Eight Trigrams diagram to continue communicating with her Five Elements Light Cores.
Mei Liangyu looked for a moment, feeling that her cultivation would have no progress for quite a while, so he lowered his head to play with his Wind-Listening Ruler again.
Xing Chun was eating dinner with Zhongli Shan and Cang Shu tonight, so he didn't send bombardment messages.
He generally looked at messages from others and replied to those he could respond to.
Yu Sui asked Saint Chang Gen many questions over there.
She asked: "Master, are the arts created by Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams universal across all schools?"
Saint Chang Gen answered: "Different schools have different cultivation methods, and the arts derived from Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams are also different. The arts within the sixty-four trigrams are universal, while arts beyond the sixty-four trigrams differ."
Yu Sui suddenly understood. She crouched down to tap the Eight Trigrams diagram on the ground, and the diagram rotated following her finger movements.
"Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Five Elements are the foundation of Nine Schools Arts. Because different schools have different pursuits, beliefs, and rules, the Nine Schools Arts they develop are also different." Saint Chang Gen said, "The Ghost Way School pursues the highest realm: 'physical dissolution, consciousness eternal, unity with heaven and earth.'"
"For thousands of years, the Yin-Yang School has been exploring the ultimate mysteries of the universe."
"The Taoist School seeks immortality, which is exactly opposite to our Ghost Way."
"The Military School hovers between life and death, pursuing the extremes of both life and death."
"The School of Names chooses to bestow belonging to all things, exploring all nameless things on Xuangu Continent."
Master's explanation perfectly described what it meant for arts to arise from the Way.
Yu Sui traced the Eight Trigrams diagram, pressing down with one finger when the character Xun turned to face front.
She again drew Five Elements energy from among the three hundred Five Elements Light Cores. However, the Light Cores responded simultaneously, competed simultaneously, plus partial power suppression—the final result was the same: none could lend power to Yu Sui.
Yu Sui couldn't help but feel her daily regret.
Should she not have crushed that first Light Core back then? But thinking again, as long as she could continue generating new Light Cores, this situation was inevitable.
But how to resolve this predicament?
Yu Sui opened her eyes, gently tapping the character Xun on the Eight Trigrams diagram while lost in thought.
Neither Saint Chang Gen nor Mei Liangyu disturbed her.
When night deepened, Mei Liangyu looked up from his Wind-Listening Ruler toward Yu Sui, who was still crouched on the ground studying the Eight Trigrams diagram. He said leisurely: "You probably can't return to the residence tonight."
Yu Sui didn't look up: "Is Senior Brother leaving?"
Mei Liangyu stood up and walked toward the door: "If you're not sleeping, I need to sleep."
Yu Sui scratched her hair, still staring at the Eight Trigrams diagram, speaking somewhat absently: "Goodbye, Senior Brother."
What time is it and you're still being polite?
Mei Liangyu at the doorway looked back to see Yu Sui turn her head to look at the other side of the Eight Trigrams diagram. In the warm light, he could see her profile revealing her pale neck with a fine layer of perspiration.
Was it hot?
Mei Liangyu didn't feel it. He fully opened the great hall doors that had been closed, and the cool night breeze rushed in all at once, making the scrolls on the desk rustle.
Yu Sui paused when she heard the sound, looked up, reached up to brush back fallen hair from her temples, and turned to see Mei Liangyu standing at the doorway with his back to her.
Mei Liangyu looked at the Milky Way in the sky for a while, squinting. He turned back to Yu Sui and said: "I'm hungry. What do you want to eat? Considering how studious you are, I'll bring you a portion too."
Yu Sui's stomach happened to gurgle softly.
When no one mentioned eating, the completely focused Yu Sui couldn't feel hunger. But when someone asked what she wanted to eat, her body immediately gave an honest response.
Yu Sui thought for a moment and rattled off a list of meat dish names to Mei Liangyu.
Mei Liangyu listened quietly to the end and said coldly: "I'll choose myself."
Yu Sui: "...Alright, thank you, Senior Brother."
Mei Liangyu walked out, messaging Xing Chun: "Asleep?"
Xing Chun: "Not yet."
Mei Liangyu: "Late night snack."
Xing Chun: "I'm coming, I'm coming."
He was staying up late at the Yin-Yang School watching stellar changes. Hearing Mei Liangyu mention late night snacks, he perked up and went to the dining hall.
The dining hall stayed open twelve hours a day, never closing.
But late night food prices were higher than during the day. Because the prices were ridiculously high, students would use their various skills to steal food from the dining hall at night.
Following Mei Liangyu's menu, Xing Chun used his excellent movement techniques to silently pack and take food from the dining hall.
The two met at the Yin-Yang School entrance.
Xing Chun carried two large food boxes, saying to the late-arriving Mei Liangyu: "Why did you order so much meat?"
"There's someone else," Mei Liangyu said.
Xing Chun asked curiously: "Who else? Isn't it just you and me?"
"Nangong Sui." Mei Liangyu took one of the food boxes. "I'm eating at the Saint Hall."
Xing Chun was full of question marks: "If you're going to the Saint Hall, where do I go?"
Mei Liangyu looked at him.
Xing Chun asked again: "You can enter the Saint Hall but I can't?"
Mei Liangyu said nothing.
Xing Chun quickly compromised: "Fine, let's eat at the Saint Hall. I don't want to eat alone."
There was some distance between the Yin-Yang School and Ghost Way School. The two traveled by Wind-Riding Techniques. On the way, Xing Chun heard about Mei Liangyu watching Yu Sui learn Wind-Riding Techniques from their master.
"Since she has Five Elements Light Cores, why can't she extract Five Elements energy to learn Wind-Riding Techniques? That doesn't make sense." Xing Chun was also puzzled. "And if she has Five Elements Light Cores, how come Qingyang people all say she's an Ordinary Practitioner? Her family even paid a huge tuition according to Ordinary Practitioner academy admission rules."
Mei Liangyu: "If you ask me, who do I ask?"
Xing Chun: "Ask your Junior Sister!"
Mei Liangyu would never ask.
He wasn't very interested in these questions. Other people's cultivation was none of his business.
Yu Sui was still struggling with Wind-Riding Techniques. Through Strange Fire, she sensed someone approaching—besides Senior Brother Mei Liangyu, there was another person.
When Mei Liangyu called her, Yu Sui came out and saw Xing Chun standing alone at the Saint Hall entrance from afar. Xing Chun stood there forlornly with a food box, looking this way hopefully, afraid that Mei Liangyu would break his word and leave him alone at the gate to eat.
In Yu Sui's eyes, Xing Chun was tall and thin with handsome features. At first glance, he looked like those glamorous young masters from prominent families in the capital. Standing at the distant gate now, he looked like a docile, endearing big dog at a glance.
Mei Liangyu packed Yu Sui's food in one box, handed it to her, and said: "Handle it yourself. I'm going over there to eat."
Yu Sui followed behind him with the food box: "Senior Brother, I also don't like eating alone."
Both walked toward Xing Chun at the gate.
Only then did Xing Chun relax and open his food box to start eating.
All three ate very focused, as if just for eating, with no other chatter. After Yu Sui satisfied her appetite, she cleaned up the remains and put them back in the food box, telling Mei Liangyu: "Senior Brother, I'm full."
Then she turned toward the Saint Hall.
Mei Liangyu didn't mind.
After seeing Yu Sui walk away, Xing Chun turned to Mei Liangyu: "She plans to practice all night?"
Mei Liangyu hummed.
"Hardworking and studious." Xing Chun bit the chicken leg in his hand, saying unclearly: "With her working so hard, how can Sheng Hao have the nerve to call his own sister an idiot?"
Mei Liangyu said: "His sister has problems with her Five Elements Light Cores, not her brain."
Xing Chun looked back to see Yu Sui had entered the great hall before turning back, whispering gossip: "I heard that Sheng Hao previously couldn't stand Gu Qian and repeatedly picked fights with him because his sister likes Gu Qian, but Sheng Hao doesn't like Gu Qian."
Mei Liangyu glanced at him coolly, wondering if this roundabout way of speaking was meant for him to understand or not understand.
Xing Chun didn't care whether he understood, talking freely among acquaintances: "If my sister fell for someone I hated, I'd definitely have a heart attack. Sheng Hao's attitude toward Gu Qian is completely understandable."
Mei Liangyu thought for a moment: "Didn't you say before that Gu Qian likes that someone from the Legalist School?"
"Xun Zhiya!" Xing Chun snapped his fingers, becoming spirited. "Nangong Sui and Gu Qian are childhood sweethearts, Gu Qian and Xun Zhiya developed feelings over time at the academy. Seeing this, wouldn't Sheng Hao be even angrier? If it were my sister, I'd definitely beat up Gu Qian too. Then he got five points deducted—two more deductions and he'll be demoted."
Mei Liangyu: "Don't project onto your sister. You don't have a sister."
Xing Chun: "Why don't I have a sister?"
Mei Liangyu, cold-faced: "Ask your father."
Xing Chun rubbed his chin: "No sister is fine too. Otherwise, if this kind of situation really happened, I'd definitely be too angry to sleep or eat well for three days and nights."
The two buried their heads in eating. After a moment, Xing Chun said again: "When Shi Yuezhen comes back, won't Cang Shu stop eating with us?"
Mei Liangyu asked back: "Do you want to eat with those two?"
"Wouldn't that be pure masochism, watching them feed each other?" Xing Chun shook his head frantically, then continued: "Yesterday I saw Xiao Shan standing at the Technical Arts School entrance without going in. Hasn't he made up with Su Tong yet?"
Mei Liangyu focused on removing chicken meat from bones, not looking up: "Probably not. How long was their cold war last time?"
"About two months, I think." Xing Chun thought carefully. "About that. This time is almost time too. When he makes up with Su Tong, it'll just be us two eating again."
He lowered his head to take two bites of meat, then looked up with a serious face, telling Mei Liangyu: "We agreed—we can't skip meals for women. Cang Shu and Shi Yuezhen, those childhood sweethearts made for each other, we won't talk about. But look at Xiao Shan and Su Tong—breaking up and getting back together, getting together and breaking up, sweet for a while then cold war, troubled by love countless times. Not to mention their family reasons—this isn't advisable. Don't learn from them."
Mei Liangyu had finished eating and was carefully picking out small bones, seriously reconstructing the roasted chicken's original form: "The one girls chase every day is you, right?"
"You have them too, but you ignore them all. Well done." Xing Chun patted his shoulder approvingly.
Mei Liangyu's hand shook from the pat, and the half-assembled body collapsed. He looked at Xing Chun expressionlessly: "Put it back together."
Xing Chun picked up the pieces and reassembled them. The two chatted desultorily.
They talked from good brothers' love stories to dining hall food, from dining hall food to their new roommates, and finally from new roommates to their own cultivation problems.
"I've been stuck at the Ninth Realm for a year, feeling the bottleneck—that feeling of being just short of breaking through, just short." Xing Chun gestured. "I've soaked in the Star Sea Sky for two months and still haven't grasped Tenth Realm Divine Soul."
Xing Chun pressed his palms together then opened them. A Milky Way star map appeared out of thin air, glittering in the dark night. Dense stars on the map flickered with deep blue light.
Mei Liangyu sat beside him, supporting his head with one hand, helping observe changes in the star map.
He asked: "Which direction do you observe stars?"
Xing Chun pointed: "South, the Vermillion Bird Seven Constellations. Its position doesn't change, but surrounding stars have changed three hundred sixty rotations. According to my teacher, when the main star doesn't change but subsidiary stars rotate, however many rotations indicate that many changes of fortune."
Mei Liangyu looked at the star map, saying calmly: "You need to make it stop rotating, or keep it within three rotations to be sure. Your Yin-Yang School emphasizes unchanging stars. Observing Vermillion Bird Seven Constellations with three hundred sixty rotations means too many changes of fortune. Try something else."
Xing Chun sighed: "I've observed all four directional constellations, all above a hundred rotations."
Mei Liangyu nodded, saying methodically: "Go try divination."
Xing Chun: "I won't."
Mei Liangyu: "Then keep observing."
Xing Chun looked at him: "Don't you have any cultivation troubles you can share to make me happy?"
Mei Liangyu thought: "Really don't."
Xing Chun: "......"
Mei Liangyu continued helping Xing Chun observe the star map.
Though he'd also reached a cultivation bottleneck, he wasn't anxious because he'd already found a solution.
The sky gradually lightened, night mist dispersed, and small white flowers on climbing vines were covered with dew that fell from petals to the ground.
Spring morning mist was heavier, and the chill reached the hearts of the two at the gate. Xing Chun, sitting at the entrance, stretched and rubbed his eyes: "It's dawn."
Mei Liangyu stood up: "I'm going back to the residence."
"I'll go back to sleep too." Xing Chun also stood up. He packed up the food box and lifted it, asking: "Your Junior Sister is still studying inside?"
Just as he finished speaking, Yu Sui ran out from the Saint Hall.
The two watched Yu Sui run from far to near.
Yu Sui said in surprise: "Eh, Senior Brother, why are you still here?"
Though she'd always known these two hadn't left, she still had to pretend.
Mei Liangyu didn't answer, only asking: "Did you learn it?"
Yu Sui shook her head: "No."
Mei Liangyu laughed, pointing her in a direction: "The Yin-Yang School is quite far. Run."
Yu Sui ran.
Xing Chun sighed: "Hardworking enough. This child will definitely become a Saint in the future."
……
Yu Sui really did run all the way to the Yin-Yang School.
Dawn was just breaking. Having stayed up all night again, she felt dizzy when she reached the Yin-Yang School and stood against a wall for quite a while to recover.
There were also early-rising students on the road, but they were all leisurely, not rushing. They were surprised to see Yu Sui running.
Yu Sui crouched against the wall, using a tree branch to draw Eight Trigrams diagrams on the ground. When she drew the character Xun, she tapped it with the branch, looking thoughtful.
After repeated trials last night plus Master's guidance, Yu Sui gained new understanding of the Light Cores in her body.
With no one around at the moment, Yu Sui quietly separated one Light Core from Strange Fire, trying to absorb its Five Elements energy. But this power was firmly locked by the Light Core. She could individually control the separated Five Elements Light Core but couldn't extract the Five Elements energy within.
She also couldn't crush all the Light Cores down to just one. Whenever she tried to extract Five Elements energy from Light Cores, she would instantly generate her maximum number of Light Cores.
Master said: "Your Five Elements Light Cores are opposing some kind of power."
Yu Sui was certain it wasn't Strange Fire.
Excluding Strange Fire, only Breath Soil remained.
The Agricultural School treasure Breath Soil had endless regenerative effects. Using it for Agricultural School Nine Schools Arts was most suitable and what they needed most.
Yu Sui didn't cultivate Agricultural School Nine Schools Arts and only had half the Breath Soil.
Possessing an incomplete treasure might do more harm than good.
Yu Sui's focus had always been on Strange Fire and communication arrays. She'd rarely studied Breath Soil because it seemed to rest quietly in her body without any reaction.
Only in these past two years, when she tried to extract Five Elements power from Five Elements Light Cores, did she feel something was wrong. And this wrongness seemed related to Breath Soil.
She asked herself: What to do? Separate the Breath Soil?
Then I'd die.
Yu Sui supported her face with both hands, frowning in distress.
In the following days, Yu Sui worried about this matter, traveling between the Yin-Yang School and Ghost Way Saint Hall, studying without sleep all day. Mei Liangyu occasionally went to the Ghost Way Saint Hall to chat with his master, and every night he came, he could see his sleepless Junior Sister.
Another night, Mei Liangyu saw Yu Sui turning the Eight Trigrams diagram in the Saint Hall, saying inscrutably: "You can't achieve physical dissolution and eternal consciousness yet. If you die from exhaustion, you're really dead."
Yu Sui didn't look back: "I rested during the day."
Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow slightly: "That little old man from the Yin-Yang School didn't scold you?"
Yu Sui, crouched down fiddling with the Eight Trigrams diagram, paused and touched her cheek: "He scolded me. Quite fierce and scary."
She had to admit that when the old man's knife-sharp gaze looked over, even if Yu Sui wanted to sleep, she'd be scared awake by that look. Previously at the National Academy, the instructors all deferred to her Princess status and no one dared scold her for sleeping in class. After coming to Taiyi Academy, the teachers here were all Thirteenth Realm experts and didn't all come from Qingyang—they wouldn't indulge her.
Mei Liangyu walked to the table and sat down: "What did he scold you for?"
Yu Sui recalled: "Improper study attitude."
Mei Liangyu nodded.
"Acting high and mighty just because I know some basics, not knowing my place, disappointing my parents, terrible behavior......" Before Yu Sui could finish, Mei Liangyu interrupted: "Then complain to Master."
"Eh?" Yu Sui turned to look over. Under the lamplight, perspiration was visible on her nose tip. "Complain about what?"
Mei Liangyu lifted his chin slightly with an imperious attitude. His voice fell into Yu Sui's ears coldly, but unlike Jing Yunkui's aggressively critical feeling, it gave her a sense of security.
"The Yin-Yang School emphasizes propriety and hierarchy. He thinks you don't respect teachers and honor the Way, but doesn't consider that you are Master's disciple. Jing Yunkui's teacher is our Master's grand-disciple who later switched to the Yin-Yang School. If we really count relationships, this little old man should call our Master Great-Grandmaster. His teacher is your martial nephew. It wouldn't be excessive for him to call you Little Grand-Martial Aunt."
The person sitting in the chair spoke lazily but sharp as a knife: "You are his senior. It's not his turn to jump over this fact and lecture you about respecting teachers and the Way, scolding you bloody."
Yu Sui sorted out these relationships and said in surprise: "Can it be calculated this way?"
Mei Liangyu gestured for her to look at Master.
Yu Sui looked up at the portrait.
Saint Chang Gen answered: "Yes."
Yu Sui understood.
She finally knew where Senior Brother's confidence came from. Besides his own rebellious personality, having this hierarchical suppression indeed made one extremely confident.
Jing Yunkui's teaching was indeed strict. For several consecutive days, he publicly criticized the dozing Yu Sui in front of everyone. She was listening, just occasionally nodding off when drowsiness struck.
But being scolded was being scolded—Yu Sui didn't care much.
That night after Mei Liangyu clarified the relationships for her, Saint Chang Gen made a trip to the Yin-Yang School and returned shortly.
The next day, Yu Sui saw Jing Yunkui enter the classroom with an extremely poor expression. He went straight to teaching without any nonsense. She tentatively lay on her desk to sleep for a while and wasn't called out.
Jing Yunkui, who had been watching Yu Sui for signs of distraction in recent days, now acted as if he couldn't see her.
Yu Sui finally felt at ease and could nap briefly during the day to restore her energy.