I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World

Chapter 189: Chapter 161: Confronting Heaven (Monthly Ticket 400 Bonus)

Jiang Yuebai smiled and said, ”I originally escaped from the Drunken Immortal Tower on my own, and ran into the mountains where a traveling... female hero saved me. Later, I joined her sect and learned some skills. This time, I’m out traveling, so I came back to visit.”

Shen Jinghao was skeptical but didn’t ask further. She simply nodded and invited Jiang Yuebai to sit in the hall, pouring a cup of tea with both hands and offering it.

”Shen Jinghao gives thanks for the life-saving grace.”

Jiang Yuebai stood up and held her hand, ”It’s a trifling matter, not worth mentioning.”

Shen Jinghao insisted on bowing, ”It’s not only to thank you for saving my life but also to apologize for my careless words years ago, which caused you to be sold and almost lose your life.”

”Fortune and misfortune are intertwined. If not for the calamity back then, perhaps I wouldn’t have met the female hero later on, nor had the life I have now. That’s why I’ve never blamed you and only feel grateful for you teaching me literacy and reasoning.”

Shen Jinghao shook her head, ”No, I was too young then. I thought you would be favored by the Lin Family, but instead, I harmed you. Only today do I understand, being plotted against by the Lin Family after a compliment from the current Right Minister, how great my harm to you was. Now, all of this is my retribution!”

Jiang Yuebai sighed and said, ”There’s no need to bring up the past. I wonder if you need my help to escape from here?”

Shen Jinghao considered for just a moment before nodding firmly.

”Cheng Lang and I have similar aspirations. He’s been tirelessly trying to help me for more than a year. We agreed that he would wait at the Daoist Temple outside the city for me. Though I’m nearly thirty, I still want to pursue the imperial exam path. If I can’t be a female general like Yun Country’s War God, I also wish to strive for a higher status for the women of Yun Country.”

Jiang Yuebai retrieved some silver coins she had casually taken earlier, thought for a moment, and then searched through her Storage Bracelet to find three Low-Level Qi Nourishing Elixirs, handing them over along with the Detoxification Pill to Shen Jinghao.

”You only need a little of the Detoxification Pill each time to cure most poisons in the Mortal World. The Qi Nourishing Elixir is the same; taking a bit daily is beneficial to the body. Treat these as my gift to you. If you want to face challenges and enter the court as an official, first take good care of your health. When you’re better, trying out martial arts training wouldn’t hurt either.”

Shen Jinghao accepted the pouch and medicine bottles with gratitude in her eyes.

Rumble!

Heavenly thunder rolled, and a bolt of silver lightning suddenly struck, breaking an old tree in the courtyard, igniting a fire.

Shen Jinghao trembled all over, not knowing why.

Jiang Yuebai rolled her eyes inwardly. Instead of striking the local demons causing trouble, it used thunder to scare her while she was saving someone. That was truly a thieving Old Heaven!

”Teacher, this is a sign from Heaven for you to break and then establish anew. Your path as an official will surely be as fiery as the flames on that tree!”

”Re...really?” Shen Jinghao asked with eyes full of doubt.

”Please gather your things while I deal with the servant at the door.”

Jiang Yuebai took the Thunderstruck Wood from the courtyard, knocked out the servant at the door, and sat on the doorstep of the residence, crafting a dagger from the best part of the Thunderstruck Wood.

For her, it was useless, but for mortals, it was quite useful. The breath of Heavenly Thunder on it could deter evil and bring good luck while avoiding misfortune.

”Look at you, claiming you wouldn’t interfere with mortal fate, yet personally bringing Thunderstruck Wood to ward off misfortune, so inconsistent, even worse than Zhao Tiezui.”

Rumble!

”What? You think I gave too little Thunderstruck Wood? Otherwise, just strike me directly!”

Jiang Yuebai rebuked the heavens, and the rumbling ceased, leaving the world in silence.

Shen Jinghao, carrying a bundle, emerged dressed as a man, giving Jiang Yuebai a helpless smile.

Before departing, she made a point of visiting the widow of the Wang family at the alley’s end to bid farewell, then left the city with Jiang Yuebai.

”Teacher, I suddenly have a question to ask you.”

Shen Jinghao lowered the conical hat, carefully avoiding the shops belonging to the Lin Family on the street, ”Go ahead.”

”Then I may be presumptuous, but in reading and gaining understanding, understanding bears virtue. You are a person of virtue, yet right now, I feel you’re less than the fearless ignorance of the Wang family widow. As widows, she clearly disregards worldly prejudices, and when faced with grievances, she dares to strike back in the moment.”

”But you, even if facing not a large clan like the Lin Family, but just common folk, surely wouldn’t react as the Wang family widow does to rude public displays. Your morality has instead become a restraint—so is being well-read and virtuous in some ways a shackle?”

Shen Jinghao frowned and pondered, ”You make a valid point, yet you’re wrong too. I certainly can’t be as forthright as Lady Wang, but I don’t feel that reading is a shackle. Look at this market, vendors on the ground, literati in high halls—listen to what they discuss.”

”Vendors bicker about money and ounces. Though it’s a livelihood, it’s also a limitation of vision. For impoverished families, reading is a means to change fate and broaden horizons, allowing their children’s descendants to escape from fields and villages and witness the vast world.”

”Just like those literati in the tower, playing chess and sipping tea. Their concerns are no longer the poverty of one family but the poverty of the world. It’s because of the Saints’ words expanding the people’s wisdom that this world becomes broader and brighter.”

”The way of understanding is like ambiguity; advancing the way is like retreat; simplicity of the way is like complexity. Light has darkness, and sometimes retreat is progress. What seems flat may have undulations. Everything has a Yin Yang duality. One cannot just see one side. Morality is a very high form of cultivation, by no means a shackle.”

Jiang Yuebai nodded thoughtfully, ”Then what is the true supreme morality like?”

Shen Jinghao looked up at the sunset on the horizon and said solemnly, ”Great wisdom is like foolishness; great skill is like clumsiness; great sound is rare voice; great image has no form. Someday, I might become a different kind of Lady Wang, but now my mental realm isn’t sufficient, so I need to read more books.”

Jiang Yuebai suddenly understood, her pupils contracting.

”Husband, grandmother is old and has poor teeth. Let’s buy some soft food for her.”

”Then let’s buy extra; the eldest brother’s son hasn’t grown teeth yet and also needs soft food.”

A couple passed by Jiang Yuebai, and she recalled what was said in the ”Great Derivation Scripture”: the starting point of all things is also the endpoint.

Young children babble, elder speechless in aging; people often say ”old child, old child”, as one grows old they return to infancy, life moving from nothing to something to nothing again.

Reading advances from ignorance to wisdom, ultimately to great wisdom appearing as foolishness.

Great skill looking like clumsiness, great sound being rare voice, great image being formless—all are processes of moving from nothing to something to nothing again.

The former is a muddled nothingness, the latter a clear understanding of the world’s nothingness—one primitive, the other... Dao!

Jiang Yuebai’s Sea of Consciousness trembled, the tender shoot hidden deep within her Divine Soul and the pure white world stretching tall beneath the purple aura of the sky, preparing her for touching the pinnacle of the Great Dao and laying a foundation.

”Thank you for the guidance, Teacher. Coming here to thank you has brought me many benefits.”

Cultivators usually look down on mortals, unaware that in the Mortal World, there are those with great wisdom, as the Supreme Elder once said—this world is full of Dao, she should humbly learn rather than hold the aloofness of a cultivator.

Looking back, she resolved to buy more books by mortal Saints to read.

Having rented a horse carriage at the city gate tower, Shen Jinghao, not wanting to delay Jiang Yuebai’s time, spoke up to bid farewell.

Jiang Yuebai handed her the Thunderstruck Wood dagger, ”It is said that things are not peaceful in Lin’an County recently. Keep this item close for safety, and also here’s a letter—could you please hand it to the host of the Daoist Temple outside the city?”

All Daoist Temples have cultivators from nearby Immortal Cultivation Sects stationed there. She wanted to find someone to ask about the missing children in Lin’an County.

The letter was written in the Cloud Seal Characters of the Daoist Sect, which mortals couldn’t understand.

Shen Jinghao put away the Thunderstruck Wood dagger and letter, glancing at the coachman behind, spoke softly, ”I heard the servant guarding me mention the missing children. I suspect it’s related to the Lin Mansion. After all, for the past half year, only people from Lin Mansion have remained unharmed.”

”Moreover, the Lin Mansion has always been rumored to have an ancestor who entered the Immortal Sect—the Miss Lin, who inexplicably disappeared earlier, was supposedly taken by the Old Ancestor of the Immortal Sect. Since then, the master of the Lin Mansion has been obsessed, seeking immortals everywhere. But due to the Lin Mansion having people in the court, the local government office dares not investigate Lin Mansion thoroughly.”

Jiang Yuebai said no more.

Shen Jinghao clasped hands in farewell, ”Thank you for rescuing me today. I hope to meet you again in this life—I will surely be in Yun Country Capital, drinking together with you under the moon.”

Rising, Shen Jinghao gazed deeply at Jiang Yuebai, eyes full of envy.

”I know, you are an Immortal.”

Having said that, Shen Jinghao resolutely boarded the carriage, pursuing her own path.