The Fus engraved on the stone by the shore made the surroundings all the way into the waterfall and wild sea filled with thousands of needles and leaves, which caused great damages to Ning Que’s physical and mental health. In this kind of simulative confrontation with this nature, the tougher he behaved, the more terrifying power would be shown by those engraved Fus. Although he had not been beaten up till now, he was extremely weak at the moment.
He raised his arm to wipe the bloodstain at the corner of his lip. Then he walked over to the bridge and went through it. All of a sudden, the surrounding pressure, which was invisible yet existed everywhere, disappeared. He turned around and looked at the long mountain road. Knowing that he had finally passed the first level, he sighed with his heart still fluttering with fear.
Two young cultivators were sitting beside the mountain road at the end of the bridge, who looked pale, and even a little desperate. While they heard the sound of Ning Que’s footsteps, they did not look up at him as if the world had been meaningless for them.
Ning Que walked towards them and said seriously while looking at them, “You should give up. It is not a shame.”
He did not stop when he passed Xie Chengyun. Nor did he have a conversation with the talented student, who was loved by all people in the Academy.
Xie Chengyun’s gaze was lifted up from the pair of feet on the mountain road. Then he looked towards the shadow, with which he felt familiar with confusion.
Ning Que did know that the following mountain road was still weird as the three climbers, including Xie Chengyun, sat at the end of the bridge desperately and leaned on the tree. But he did not stop to observe or do anything else. Instead, he directly went up.
The end of the mountain road, full of twists and turns, could not be seen. He walked silently and slowly while looking down, along the bluestone road which divided the wood and flowers in half. He turned several corners, passed by several lakes, and crossed over several flower fields. After climbing over a steep cliff, the sloping hill suddenly slipped downwards. He continued to walk through several fields, went by several lakes and made several turns.
Then he looked up and saw the wooden bridge, the tree at the bridgehead, and the three lonesome climbers.
…
…
While the mountain road forward obviously led to the direction of going up the mountain, he finally turned back to the place where he started climbing. It was like the legendary ghost wall in forests to some degree. There came cold wind from the forests at the bridgehead and the day was getting darker, creating a gloomy atmosphere.
Ning Que was not shocked or horrified, judging from his expressions. He just hesitated for a while as he was looking at the tree and the people under the tree at the end of the bridge. Then he turned around and stared at that mountain road, which he had climbed for once, and closed his eyes silently.
After seeing the picture of the bridgehead before, he had guessed that the road might bring people back.
The reason was very simple. Even if there was an abyss or beasts eating souls ahead, which might stop the three climbers, including Xie Chengyun, from continuing climbing, it was unreasonable that all three just gave up at the end of the bridge. And the look on their faces was not as tragic as they had been torched. It was more like a vainly lost futility.
So why would the mountain road bring people back to the original place? This was the problem that Ning Que now needed to figure out. Closing his eyes, he silently stood under the mountain road behind the bridge, with his hands reaching outside his sleeves to gently feel the wind.
…
…
The seemingly forward mountain road could only lead people back to the original place. If the secrets could not be discovered, then climbers could only try over and over again and then desperately turned back.
The three morose climbers at the end of the bridge eventually gave up in such a dull and desperate cycle. They showed a sympathetic yet irony look as they saw Ning Que, a fellow traveler, stand at the entrance of the mountain road and think. They thought he would later try to go up the mountain road again, and then confusedly turn back like them.
There was no sympathy or compassion on the face of Xie Chengyun. Ning Que was not appalled by this magical mountain road. However, when Xie saw clearly the expression of Ning Que when he came back from the mountain road, he was suddenly unable to speak in astonishment.
After the Academy entry exam, Xie Chengyun had been regarding Ning Que as his strongest opponent in those days when they were trying to climb the old library. However, after that semester exam, he confirmed that he had overrated the lad from the border town. Ning Que was absentminded by students in the Academy afterward. Although Xie Chengyun did not join them, he had indeed forgotten the previous opponent.
After the Second floor of the Academy opened, his goal was to surpass Prince Long Qing. And he had imagined there would be a lot of other strong opponents in the exams. But he just did not think of Ning Que as he thought he had defeated Ning Que, to whom he need not pay much attention. Why bother to distract by someone who had lost the game before?
Until today, he was shocked the moment he saw Ning Que go up and down from the mountain road. He realized that he had never defeated the opponent, nor did he clearly know him.
As he had experienced in person, Xie Chengyun knew exactly how it felt to climb the mountain. At this moment, he naturally understood a man who could pass through the mountain road would not give up an exam for sickness. He made a sadder inference in his mind. The reason why Ning Que had not made any explanation or challenged him again was that Ning Que did not treat him as an opponent, not for a guilty conscience.
Looking at Ning Que, Xie Chengyun struggled to stand on his feet leaning against the tree, and said after a moment of hesitation, “The mountain road is fake. The primordial Qi is flowing naturally. You cannot find a passage.”
Ning Que opened his eyes without turning around or replying. He was just staring at this mountain road ahead.
He had read too many cultivation books in the old library during the year. Others, Xie Chengyun or anyone else, could hardly catch up with him regarding horizons. He just walked around this mysterious mountain road for a while, then he could judge that the hill was covered with an array tactical, which closely integrated with the cliff stone along the mountain road. It was so strong because of harmony.
Unfortunately, array tactics and Talisman Taoism were the most complicated and difficult to learn in cultivation. Even Chen Pipiif did not know much, let alone Ning Que, who had just read some books and gotten a basic knowledge of array tactics. He definitely could not break an array tactical.
Ning Que thought for a while, then raised his hands to the chest and made a mind bridge with his fingertips. He output Psyche Power through the Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi, feeling the changing of Qi of Heaven and Earth along the mountain road. Then he slowly went up.
…
…
Ning Que again appeared on the road after a time not knowing how long.
He still did not have any expressions. After back to the bridge, he turned around to keep staring at that diagonally uphill road.
This time he focused on feeling the changing of the Qi of Heaven and Earth on the mountain road and tried to find a passage outside the array tactical. However, he found that the array tactical in the mountain was really amazing. When climbers tried to use their Psyche Power to control the Qi of Heaven and Earth and to sense the channels of the array tactical, the Qi of Heaven and Earth that was mobilized by the climbers would automatically make the array tactical change subtlely once it encountered the array tactical. These seemingly subtle changes were like cliffs for climbers.
What more amazing was that the more powerful climbers’ Psyche Power was, the richer Qi of Heaven and Earth that could be manipulated would be. Once it hit the array tactical, the changing of the Qi of Heaven and Earth which covered the real mountain road would become more violent, directly destroying the climbers who just found those channels.
This meant, the stronger Psyche Power of people who wanted to walk through the road was, the richer Qi of Heaven and Earth that could be controlled would be, which made it easier to discover the real mountain road. At the same time, it would accelerate the changing of the array tactical, recovering the real mountain road.
If a climber wanted to pass through this mountain road that was covered by the array tactical, there were only three ways: Firstly, you should be fast enough to turn into a flash and fly through it before the array tactical was triggered when you discovered the real mountain road. Secondly, if you were in a high state, you did not need to mobilize the Qi of Heaven and Earth to touch the Perception State. You just needed to use your psyche for a random look. Then you could break the array tactical and see the flow of primordial Qi on the mountain road and then find that road. Thirdly, you had strong Psyche Power to control the Qi of Heaven and Earth to sense the passages in the array tactical accurately. But at the same time, you also needed to ensure that the Qi of Heaven and Earth would not be felt by the array tactical, thus preventing it from changing.
There definitely were cultivators who were faster than the triggering rate of the array tactical, like those legendary sages who had entered the No Rules state. But apparently, Ning Que was not one of them. There definitely were cultivators who were able to see through the array tactical, too, such as Prince Long Qing who had already entered the fog halfway up the mountain. But apparently, Ning Que was not one of them, either.
For Ning Que and those desperately confused cultivators at the bridgehead, in fact, they could only choose the third way. But it was nearly impossible under careful analysis.
The changing of the primordial Qi, which constituted the array tactical on the mountain road, was like a labyrinth made from things that softer than cream. Like blind people who could only touch those cream walls with their hands very carefully, the climbers had to find the passage in this way without changing the shape of the cream wall. Once it was changed, the labyrinth would change, too.
To do all this, it was necessary for the blind man to have the gentlest hands in the world, which could gently catch the forest wind without being noticed by the wind, could take the clothes of a woman sleeping in the bed off without waking her up, and could brush through an ink stone without being stained.
For a cultivator, this pair of gentle hands was the Qi of Heaven and Earth mobilized by their Psyche Power.
They must ensure that the Qi of Heaven and Earth mobilized was precise and gentle enough to control fine needles to embroider flowers, allow flowers to stick to bees and allow bees to dance on needles. Only in this way could they achieve what they want.
However, no cultivator in the world would be so bored to use the strong Psyche Power trained through meditation to forcefully turn the Qi of Heaven and Earth mobilized weak and gentle, and then spend countless hours to practice this useless skill for cultivation.
“The man who lays the array tactical must be an old and abnormal man.”
Looking at the mountain road ahead, Ning Que gave a judgment to the man in the Academy who set the array tactical, which he thought was accurate, in his mind. Then he put his hands into his clothes, touching the stack of extremely cool stuff, and silently thought, “But I seem to be abnormal, too.”
…
…
As previously on the mountain road at the other side of the bridge, when he was staring at the sky with his eyes wet and signing, the hardship he had gone through all these years seemed to turn into gift given by the God. A normal cultivator had no way to get through the mountain road in the third way, but Ning Que might give it a try. Although it might not necessarily work out, at least there was a wonderful possibility.
Ning Que kept meditating as long as he had time, whether while he was eating, sleeping, staring blankly or writing, from a very young age. As all his acupoints of Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi were blocked, the Psyche Power obtained by meditation had been stored in Ning Que’s mind, which had grown in
Only an idiot would deliberately change the Qi of Heaven and Earth which he could mobilize weak and gentle with such strong Psyche Power. Ning Que did not want to, either. However, he was different from other cultivators as he was unable to cultivate at all. His fate was changed by coincidence and finally only ten acupoints of the Ocean of Qi and Mountain of Snow were opened in his body. The Qi of Heaven and Earth he could sense was extremely limited.
As it was limited, it was gentle.
In fact, Ning Que had been practicing these bored and abnormal skills for the last half year in Lin 47th Street, controlling the Qi of Heaven and Earth to finish some tiny and useless tasks. As the Qi of Heaven and Earth which he could control was extremely limited, he knew it was very difficult to win in battles. Therefore, he wanted to do it more subtly.
The lad, who had finally entered the cultivation world, kept meditation and sensing the Qi of Heaven and Earth in his room under the candlelight and in the curious sight of Sangsang. He tried to control leaves, tubs, candlesticks, black pens, papers and inkstones, the toilet and anything.
Up to now, he was still not able to find his Natal Item and stuck in the No Doubts State. He still could not control the flying swords like those Sword Masters, who invisibly killed people.
But he was able to control hundreds of fallen leaves under the tree in the courtyard to fly to the hearth and form a hill. He could control the tub to move from one side of the bed to the other side like a fat doll, which made Sangsang exciting and applause. He could control the writing brush to slowly fall into the ink stone and then write on the paper like a child who just began to learn.
Ning Que trained as hard as he was studying to kill beasts and people in Min Mountain. He practiced to control the Qi of Heaven and Earth, making leaves flying in all directions in the yard, water for washing feet splitting all over the room, and ink stains everywhere. These all proved his hard work, including the smell from the falling toilet, and the sweat of Sangsang when she was cleaning up the mess.
It was hard and it was indeed penance. Although this method was very clumsy, hard work made up for lack of intelligence. Despite it was perverted, most people simply could not do it.
Therefore, even the God was touched.
…
…
Xie Chengyun escorted the tree, looking at Ning Que under the mountain, and bitterly said, “Ning Que, I don’t know why you have been hiding your strength. Maybe you look down upon me, but I can see you are just in the No Doubts State, like me.”
“Only cultivators in the Seethrough state can master the rule of the ups and downs of the Qi of Heaven and Earth. You won’t go through this mountain unless a miracle occurs.”
“Mistress Jian once told me that the Academy was a place for creating miracles before I was admitted in.”
Ning Que took a thin layer of silver foil out from his chest, rubbing them into numerous pieces, and then went ahead. The mountain wind blew from the valley under the bridge, whistling in the hills. It blew those thin and light silver-foil pieces to the surroundings, like thousands of silver leaves, which then quietly fell on the mountain road.
“It is a miracle that I am still alive. So I will turn everyday I live into a miracle.”
After saying these words, Ning Que moved forward while looking at the clear silver road in the mind sea.
He seemed confident when he marched on the road, and then his movements became weird and clumsy.
He lowered his body and crouched down very slowly with the help of the tree and then carefully moved two steps forward.
Then he hurled his right hand into the cliff and struggled to turn right and take another step forward.
…
…
People in the Academy were looking at the sloping mountain road in the twilight. All of a sudden, someone exclaimed. “See! it is Ning Que!”
Somebody mocked and said, “What is he doing? He is lifting his leg while lying on the ground. Is he drilling a dog hole?”
Slightly waving his fan, Zhong Dajun sneered and said, “He is actually good at this kind of things, such as drilling a dog hole to escape.”
Ning Que was the last to climb the mountain, and he held for such a long time, which was beyond most people’s expectations, especially those classmates who thought they were familiar with him. Besides shock, there were emotions of envy and hatred.
Chang Zhengming slightly frowned his eyebrows while he looked at Ning Que, who was struggling to go ahead with ridiculous actions. He suddenly remembered his conversation with Ning Que last year in the Academy and muttered to himself, “I do not sure how long he can stay.”
“He is nothing more than a boorish fellow.” Zhong Dajun snapped his fan with a sound of “pia” and resentfully said.
Situ Yilan turned around and glanced at him, then coldly looking around the classmates wearing complicated expressions, and mockingly said, “He has passed the six winners of the course of magic skills and justifiably become the first in the Academy. Aren’t you now still convinced?
All students were speechless.
…
…
On the sloping mountain road, Ning Que’s Psyche Power was scattered out of his body to mobilize the thin Qi of Heaven and Earth, sensing those pieces of silver foil on the mountain road, and then to find the gentlest passage of the array tactical with those silver-foil pieces.
Ning Que had not been able to determine his own Natal Item. But there was no doubt that silver, apart from Sangsang, could best resonate with his Psyche Power for the time being in the world. He had not tried gold yet as he needed official certificates to exchange gold.
With the silver-foil pieces, he was struggling to move upwards as he crouched, stood up and inclined to climb difficultly and awkwardly on the quiet mountain road. However, at least he was not brought back to the bridge again this time.
Xie Chengyun stood at the bridgehead and confusedly looked at the mountain road. He had no idea how Ning Que had surpassed himself and embarked on the way which he could not make through.
Looking at the ridiculous figure on the mountain road, which was getting increasingly far away, he could not help but think of the fact that he could occasionally see the desolate and lonely figure, who had been forgotten for the last half year, in the meadow in the past six months when he took a walk by the lake with Wucai. He remembered his pride after that exam, and the figure that disappeared in the corridor of rain.
He clutched his right chest tightly and looked Ning Que, who was at the end of the mountain road, reconciledly shouting. “Ning Que, you cannot surpass Prince Long Qing as he has gone in the fog for a long time.”
Ning Que disappeared in the corner of the mountain road.
Xie Chengyun stared at that place blankly.
A voice rang from the turn.
“At least I have surpassed you.”
Xie Chengyun fell to sit under the tree, clutching his chest. A mouth of blood was spit out by him.
…
…
In the peak fog.
“Second Brother, Ning Que is almost into the fog.”
“Has he passed the Wooden Door?”
“No.”
“It is difficult for him to pass the Wooden Door as only cultivators in the Seethrough state can remember the words on it. He cannot rely on luck.”
“Ning Que had been reading books in the old library for a whole year. Can’t he remember?”
“Words carved on stone are deeper than ink on paper. A world will be added as it deepens a degree. Therefore, he may not be able to remember it while he can remember books.”
“Ah… Second Brother, is there a back door there?”
“Pippi.”
“Yes, Second Brother, I know I made a mistake.”
“How far has Prince Long Qing walked in the fog?”
“He has gone through 4,102 stairs.”
“No rest?”
“No.”
“Actually he came so quickly to the twelve years old. It seems that the old priests from West-Hill are indeed talented.”
…
…
Ning Que walked through the twisting mountain road, picking up a thin piece of silver foil, which had flown to the farthest place, beside his feet. Then he looked up and looked at the mountain road, which faintly disappeared into the fog. He could not tell the end.
There was a Wooden Door in the fog.
He came to the Wooden Door and saw a wooden board on it with three Chinese characters.
“A gentleman is not… ”
Ning Que slightly frowned while looking at the blank space on the wooden board. He then glimpsed at the powder stone under the wooden board, guessing that he was asked to fill in the blank.
What was the fourth character?
Along the road not far from the Wooden Door, he saw a stone, on which four characters were written.
“A gentleman is not a vessel.”
“So easy?”
He shook his head in surprise and then walked back toward the Wooden Door. However, when he picked up the powder stone and tried to write the fourth character, he stunned to find out that he had forgotten the character.
Words would be forgotten the moment pens were raised.
His fingers, which were holding the powder stone, turned slightly stiff. He walked back to the stone engraved with the words, quietly watching the handwriting. He guessed what the Wooden Door was designed to test. Probably none else in the world would be more familiar with this situation than him.
He had been fighting with the obscure books on the second floor of the old library for the whole year since he was recruited by the Academy.
“Look at my great Eight Strokes Calligraphy of Yong.”
Ning Que chose some dead branches from the roadside and placed them in order according to the fourth character on the stone. He then slowly closed his eyes, expressionlessly disintegrating his memory in his mind. Suddenly he opened his eyes and smiled like an idiot.
“You’re truly an idiot.”
After blaming himself, he raised his right hand to reach out to the stone.
…
…
In the peak fog.
“Second Brother, Ning Que has passed through the Wooden Door.”
“How is that possible? How could he pass through the Wooden Door with his idiot Eight Strokes Calligraphy of Yong?”
“He did not use that way.”
“How did he remember the word?”
“He first tried to dig that stone out directly.”
“Idiot! The Le Stone is an integrated part of the mountain. How to dig?”
“Ning Que found it impossible to dig it out… He pressed the palm of his hand directly on the stone and printed the words on his palm.”
“What?”
“Then he came to the Wooden Door and copied the fourth character over from his palm.”
“… ”
A silence hung over the mountains and mist. Then someone said with emotion, “This approach is really… ingenious.”
“Second Brother, did you use this method when climbing the mountain?”
“What is ingenious? This is opportunistic! Do I look so shameless?”
“Would Ning Que be the first one to open the Wooden Door in this way in the Academy?”
The Second Brother’s voice sounded after a long period of silence.
“No.”
“Well, who is the first?”
“Eldest Brother.”
“Eldest Brother was enlightened when he was thirteen years old, entered the No Doubts State at thirty, and then went into the Seethrough and Knowing Destiny State directly. During this process, he had not been able to get in a state to open the Wooden Door for seventeen years.”
“So during that seventeen years, he used this method to get through the Wooden Door every time he went up or down the mountain.”
…
…
Picking up the powder stone and spreading out his left hand, Ning Que meticulously started writing on the wooden board while looking at the red prints in his palm. Although the handwriting in his palm was in the reverse direction, it was not a problem for him at all as he was good at calligraphy.
He legibly wrote the character, which meant a vessel, down on the wooden board. The moment he finished writing, a ray of smoke appeared.
Ning Que took a step back and saw that the four characters on the wooden board had turned into three characters again as the last character disappeared.
With a sound, the Wooden Door slowly opened in front of him.
The mountain road behind the Wooden Door was straight up to the fog among the mountains, which was steeper and constituted by stairs. He did not know how many stairs he should climb to get to the top.
Ning Que should have gone directly to the road behind the Wooden Door, but he was too curious to turn around and look at the Le Stone. It was not surprising that the characters carved on the stone really changed, from “A gentleman is not a vessel” to “A gentleman is never confused”.
“I wonder what Prince Long Qing saw.”
He curiously thought and walked through the Wooden Door to climb the stairs, disappearing in the thick fog among the mountains.
…
…
The Academy was covered by quietness. No birds were twittering, and none was speaking.
A student turned slightly pale, looking at the mountains, and muttered. “Luck, it must be luck.”
Zhong Daojun held his fan tightly and stupidly said in a hoarse voice, “This guy… How many things has he hidden… He is too insidious.”
No one cared about them, including Situ Yilan.
All people in the Academy cast their sights on the mountain and the misty mountains.
Although they could no longer see the student, they still looked over there.
The student from the Academy was the second to walk into the fog hanging on the mountain.
Some people even began to wonder if this guy could get to the top of the mountain before Prince Long Qing?