Martial Cultivator

Without Zhu Xia, Chen Chao continued climbing the tower alone. Only now, paying closer attention, could he sense the subtle changes in the air. Faint wisps of wind seemed to brush lightly across his body.

While Chen Chao’s physique might not be the strongest of the current era, it was at least unmatched within the Nepenthe Realm. So these currents of air that were actually fluctuations of qi rather than mere breeze were nothing to him. But for other cultivators, it was a different story, which was why so few had reached this height.

He continued his ascent and had now passed the 700th floor.

What shocked Chen Chao was that even at the 700th floor, there were actually still bookshelves here. In other words, Myriad Heaven Palace’s daoist texts continued to be available here.

It had yet to reach the end.

What did this mean?

It meant a collection vast as the sea.

If the Myriad Heaven Palace had so many daoist texts, then what about the Infatuation Daoist Temple, which had remained the leader of Daoism for all these years?

Chen Chao sighed deeply.

The Great Liang Dynasty had only been established for just over two hundred years. In this regard, it truly lagged far behind these foreign sects.

After the 700th floor, Chen Chao still occasionally encountered daoists of the Myriad Heaven Palace, though they were few and far between. It was perhaps one every twenty floors or so.

And without a doubt, those who could reach this height were already Nepenthe cultivators of the Myriad Heaven Palace.

Which was also daoist sages.

Though there were a few, Chen Chao had already seen five or six of them.

After reaching the 900th floor, things were no longer as calm and effortless. Chen Chao clearly sensed a strange aura within the tower, making it noticeably harder to continue climbing.

It felt as though a great stone was pressing down on his shoulders.

Still, Chen Chao paid it no mind. If that was all, it was not worth concern.

Pressing on, he soon reached above the 1000th floor. There, he paused for a moment, then walked to the window and looked outside.

Outside the window, white clouds swirled, and he could no longer see the ground below.

This Three Thousand Storeys seemed now to truly belong among the clouds.

People often spoke of ”castles in the air,” and at this moment, the Three Thousand Storeys looked very much like a real one.

Chen Chao withdrew his gaze.

He continued to climb.

One thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three...

......

......

Half an hour later, Chen Chao had reached the 1,700th floor.

Sweat had begun to seep from his back, and his legs were starting to feel sore. What he did not know was that for an ordinary Nepenthe cultivator, this was usually the highest point they could reach in the tower.

Still, Chen Chao could faintly sense something, because from that point on, he had not seen many daoists along the way.

When he reached the 1,730th floor, Chen Chao saw a middle-aged daoist sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. The daoist’s eyes were shut tight in deep cultivation, but as Chen Chao arrived, the man slowly opened his eyes and glanced at him. Upon noticing that Chen Chao was a martial artist, the daoist furrowed his brow slightly, seemingly puzzled by why a martial artist would be climbing the Three Thousand Storeys.

But he did not say much, he simply gave Chen Chao a slight smile before closing his eyes again and returning to his cultivation.

In truth, the matter was simple. Since the Myriad Heaven Palace was not in a state of emergency, regardless of who came here, they were guests. And if one were a guest, there was no need to be worried.

Chen Chao glanced at the cushion beneath the man. It was already worn and frayed; likely aged with countless years.

There was a saying often heard among cultivators on the mountains: Time does not flow on the mountain, while a thousand have passed in the world.

Though this was not quite so exaggerated, it was not far off.

Chen Chao continued climbing and gradually found that there were fewer and fewer bookshelves on the upper floors. There were only one or two rows remained.

This time, Chen Chao climbed another three hundred floors in one go.

He reached the 2000th floor.

He began to breathe heavily, great gulps of air escaping his mouth, and sweat soaked through his clothing.

That formless pressure had grown so immense, even someone with a martial artist’s physique like his could barely endure it.

Chen Chao exhaled a turbid breath.

The white mist within his body began to circulate, easing the pressure weighing down on him.

And so, he continued climbing the tower.

With a thunderous boom, it was as if a bell resounded in his mind. An indistinct sound of the Great Dao began to linger in his mind. The bell clearly had not sounded out within this building, and yet he heard it with perfect clarity.

The bell’s sound enveloped his entire body, like a gentle breeze surging through his ears and nose, and then quickly coursing through his entire body.

The bell echoed within him. It was the first time Chen Chao had experienced something like this, and it felt strange, as though it was a strangeness that defied description. As the sound of the bell made a full circulatory through his body, Chen Chao suddenly felt a heart-piercing pain, as though someone was wielding the sharpest flying sword in the world and slicing his flesh off piece by piece.

This pain was no less than the punishment of death by a thousand cuts.

Beads of sweat covered Chen Chao’s forehead, as if they might fall at any moment.

Each breath he took now felt like it was burning his internal organs, as though his viscera were being boiled alive in hot water.

Yet amid this torment, Chen Chao quickly noticed the benefits. Enduring such pain, with every breath he exhaled, the turbid qi in his body poured out like bubbles rising in a bucket of water, completely expelled at this moment. His entire body’s perception became clearer and sharper than ever before.

Chen Chao had always believed he had never neglected tempering his body. His physique was a top-tier existence among Nepenthe martial artists. But under the cleansing of the bell’s resonance, he realized at this moment that the physique he had believed to be flawless, was actually not truly without flaws.

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. Compared to the pain he was enduring, what concerned him more was reflecting on where exactly he had fallen short.

This time, he was fortunate enough to identify his shortcomings through the bell’s resonance, but what about next time?

What about after he stepped into the end of Nepenthe?

Although Chen Chao did not yet know how one should step into the realm beyond the end of Nepenthe, he understood at least one thing: if he did not achieve grand completion in all the earlier realms leading up to the end of Nepenthe, he would likely never even have the chance to touch the threshold of what lied above.

In the path of cultivation, once one sets foot upon it, who would not wish to reach the very summit?

Giving up halfway was never Chen Chao’s style.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Chao continued forward.

Every step he took was incomparably slow. With each step, it felt as though he might stamp a deep crater into the stairs.

After the 2000th floor, every step became incomparably difficult.

“The Dao that can be spoken is not the Dao...” [1. This is a really famous phrase, from 道德经, Tao Te Ching.]

Amid the haziness, Chen Chao once again heard the sound of the Great Dao. But this time, it was a true passage of scripture that lingered at his ears, and it was delving ever deeper.

Chen Chao listened intently.

His thoughts were pulled along with it, and very soon he could no longer see the staircase before him. The scene before his eyes transformed into a barren wilderness.

There were starved corpses on the road and not a single blade of grass to be seen.

He saw a youth walking through the wasteland, his face sallow and thin, as if he might collapse at any moment.

It was impossible to tell how many days he had been starving.

At that moment, two equally emaciated, skin-and-bone men emerged from the roadside. Their eyes glowed green as they stared at the boy.

Chen Chao also looked at that youth.

What followed was a brutally savage struggle to the death.

It was called mutual slaughter because both sides sought to kill the other.

No one knew how long it lasted. Eventually, the two men fell. The youth stood over them, breathing in the stench of blood. His reason was gradually devoured, and a primal savagery began to seize control of the youth’s mind.

Before being enlightened, humans were nothing more than wild beasts.

Chen Chao looked at that youth and said nothing.

A voice suddenly rang out, “If you had to choose again, would you be able to restrain yourself?”

That voice was very gentle, like a spring breeze.

Chen Chao thought of his heart demon.

It was born due to that young girl, but that did not necessarily mean she had planted it within him.

Chen Chao said, “Do I have a choice?”

“If you did?”

That voice rang out again, and then the scene before his eyes changed greatly. Time had rewound, returning to the moment when those two men approached him.

But this time, Chen Chao had become that youth.

Though to be precise, it was not that he had become that youth, he was that version of himself from the past.

This time, he noticed a saber hanging at his waist.

Glancing at the two men, Chen Chao did not hesitate, drawing the saber at his waist.

Once the blade was unsheathed, he killed.

The outcome did not change.

“If you knew it was wrong, why not choose differently?”

That voice carried some doubt, filled with curiosity.

“The past cannot be changed, so imagining a different outcome is pointless. Besides, I don’t believe the choice I made back then was wrong.”

Chen Chao replied calmly, “Even if I had to choose a hundred more times, it would be the same.”

If he did not eat them, he would die.

And the ones he ate were not good people.

This was enough.

”Looks like your heart is born cold.”

The scene before his eyes slowly dissipated. In its place was a daoist standing before an ancient-looking mirror, its design quaint and archaic. Ripples slowly spread across the surface, and within the mirror, the very scene of Chen Chao killing just moments ago was being replayed.

The daoist looked very ordinary, with strands of white streaking through his black hair. He wore a very old daoist robe, dust clinging to its surface. Looking at Chen Chao, he smiled and said, “It seems whether your heart is cold or not doesn’t matter much, because you haven’t committed evil.”

Chen Chao looked at him, unsure of what to say.

The daoist pointed to the mirror and said, “This mirror is called Moon’s Reflection in Water. It can show many things. It’s been around for a long time. They say some people can see their past lives within it. Would you like to take a look?”

Chen Chao frowned. “Past lives?”

The daoist nodded. “The Dao Ancestor once said that a person’s actions in this life are often linked to experiences from previous lives. Since you are so unique, wouldn’t you like to know what kind of person you were in your past life?”

Chen Chao fell into silence.

The daoist went on speaking in a calm, leisurely tone, “Only once every sixty-year cycle can this mirror be used. It’s a rare chance. Do you really not want to see?”

Chen Chao did not reply. He merely remained silent for a moment, then began walking toward the daoist.

The daoist stepped aside, his expression calm as he gazed at the young martial artist before him. Over the years, many had climbed the Three Thousand Storeys. He had always been waiting for a disciple of the Myriad Heaven Palace to reach this place, but he never imagined that after all these years, the one to arrive would be a martial artist.

Still, he was not too disappointed.

All things in the world arise from fate and karma, why cling to expectations?

Chen Chao stepped up before the mirror and lifted his head to peer into it.

The daoist also looked toward the mirror curiously. Even he wanted to know what kind of past life this Chen Chao had lived.

Perhaps it would be a very interesting story.

In a dull life, to encounter even one interesting moment was a challenging thing.

Hence, every such moment was worth cherishing.

But when he looked up at the mirror, he froze.

Never before had he seen a vision like this in the Moon’s Reflection in Water.