Martial Cultivator

A young daoist left his daoist temple and headed north. Along the way, he traveled low-key, not only removing the newly donned, pristine daoist robes, but even avoiding his preferred dark red ones. Instead, he wore an ordinary gray daoist robe and tied his hair into the most common of topknots. If not for his face being far more handsome than that of an average daoist, no one would have paid this young daoist any attention.

After leaving the temple, the young daoist first arrived at a ferry crossing. There, he took a ferry northward. On the ferry, he quietly stood at the stern of the boat and spoke to no one, merely watching the boatman cast nets to fish along the river. When a haul of large fish was brought up, the young daoist noticed one carp that, though not especially fat, had a dark red tail. He spoke up, asking to buy it.

Finding the young daoist agreeable and polite, the boatman did not take any silver from him, he just smiled and gifted him the fish.

The young daoist gave thanks without protest, accepting the fish. He borrowed a wooden basin from the boatman, filled with clear water, and watched as the carp swam inside.

For the rest of the journey, the young daoist kept his eyes on the fish, saying nothing. That night, the weather suddenly worsened. Rain and thunder came without warning. Everyone on the boat took shelter inside the cabin, only this young daoist remained seated cross-legged on the deck, unmoved.

After the night’s heavy rain passed, the boatman noticed the young daoist was thoroughly soaked. Out of kindness, he brought him a set of clean, dry clothes, but was politely declined.

The young daoist simply continued to sit in his wet robes, quietly watching the fish swimming in front of him.

When the ferry finally reached the dock, the young daoist stood up, released the carp back into the river, returned the wooden basin to the boatman, and drifted away.

After leaving the ferry, he continued north, eventually arriving at a small town in Xinliu Prefecture. There stood a small daoist temple, with only one elder and one young daoist who was a boy clearly still in his teens.

The young daoist entered the temple and discovered that the incense offerings here were rather sparse. He frowned slightly. The old daoist soon came out to greet him, smiling warmly. “A fellow daoist!”

The elder daoist was not a cultivator; just a common daoist. He had no knowledge of the so-called Longevity Dao or Great Peace Dao, but seeing that the other was also a daoist, he felt a natural sense of closeness.

The young daoist offered a fist-and-palm salute and smiled. “Greetings, Elder Daoist.”

“You look unfamiliar. Where do you hail from, Fellow Daoist?”

The elder daoist waved to the teenage boy in the distance. “Quick, come and greet this fellow daoist.”

The teenage daoist was well-behaved. After walking over, he bowed respectfully, then said a bit embarrassedly, “Master, I need to go wash rice and cook.”

The elder daoist nodded and instructed, “Cook a bit more rice today. This fellow daoist will be joining us for a meal.”

“Then thank you kindly.”

The young daoist did not decline and just smiled.

The elder daoist was in high spirits. Though he did not know which temple this young man came from, just listening to his speech made him feel comfortable. Since he felt pleased, then which temple he came from did not really matter.

Whether one’s origins were humble or not was not important.

Later in their conversation, the elder daoist could not help but ask where the young daoist came from. The young man did not hide it, smiling straightforwardly. “This humble daoist came from Qingshan Prefecture.”

“The very same Qingshan Prefecture where the Infatuation Daoist Temple is located?”

The elder daoist clicked his tongue. “That Infatuation Daoist Temple, this penniless daoist hase always wanted to visit. But when this penniless daoist was young, I couldn’t leave. Now that I’m old, my legs don’t work, so I’ve given up. I’ve heard that temple holds a vast number of daoist texts, many rare and ancient. It’s a great regret not to see them with my own eyes.”

The young daoist nodded and smiled, saying nothing.

The elder daoist soon shook his head. “Even if this penniless daoist did go, it’s not like I’d get to read them. Not just anyone can walk into a place like that. It was just this penniless daoist’s own wishful thinking.”

The young daoist thought about it and said, “This humble daoist knows a few people there. If Elder Daoist truly has such a desire, this humble daoist could help.”

The elder daoist was taken aback, but quickly waved it off. “If this penniless daoist were ten years younger, I might still have that desire. But at this age, I’ve seen through most things. Going or not going isn’t important anymore.”

The young daoist did not quite understand and asked, “Why?”

The elder daoist gave him a strange look before saying, “This penniless daoist heard that there are those among daoist cultivators who don’t cultivate the heart, but only seek to become immortals on the mountain. This penniless daoist used to long for that too in my youth, but later I realized, it’s not all that impressive. At best, they live a bit longer. Aside from that, what’s so great?”

“Cultivation... should be cultivation of the heart.”[1. The words for cultivation and cultivation of the heart is very similar, Xiu Xing and Xiu Xing.]

The young daoist muttered two words with extremely similar pronunciations.

“Yes, cultivating the heart is most important, cultivation itself is secondary. This penniless daoist feels that living a long life doesn’t have much meaning.”

The elder daoist smiled faintly, stared at the young daoist before him, and after thinking for a moment, still spoke a few heartfelt words. “If one doesn’t do the right thing, living a long life is actually meaningless, right?”

“Then how do you distinguish right from wrong?”

The young daoist seemed like a schoolchild asking questions, not intending to let this elder daoist off so easily.

The elder daoist said, “Can’t tell clearly, but just follow the heart.”

“The heart determines good and evil, and also distinguishes right from wrong. Don’t kill people without cause, don’t do things without cause. If you can avoid killing, then don’t kill. There’s a saying among scholars, ’Repay grievances with virtue,’ this penniless daoist feels that’s well said.”

The young daoist sank into brief contemplation and said nothing.

The elder daoist sighed, “It’s like two people walking down the road, no grievances between them. You can’t just throw a punch at someone out of nowhere because of whatever you’re thinking, right?”

Seeing that the young daoist still did not respond after this, the elder daoist became a bit uneasy and added, “These are all just this penniless daoist’s own ramblings, not to be fully trusted, not to be fully trusted!”

Only then did the young daoist come back to his senses and was just about to speak when the young daoist boy over there had already called them to eat. The elder daoist took the opportunity to get up and, smiling, invited the young daoist to eat.

The young daoist did not refuse and stood up with the elder daoist.

After a meal, the young daoist bid farewell at the door to the elder daoist. The elder daoist gave a respectful bow and did no say much more.

After the young daoist gave a bow and left, the young daoist boy looked at the back of the departing daoist, then asked curiously, “Master, what were you two talking about?”

The elder daoist shook his head and softly said, “Just casually chatting, but it looked like he was thinking about something important.”

The young daoist boy asked in confusion, “He’s still so young, what important things could he be thinking about?”

The elder daoist raised an eyebrow and scolded, “You don’t understand. The matters of the world can’t be judged by age alone. You should know there’s a saying, ’the young are to be feared.’ Thinking like this means you haven’t entered the Dao!”

The young daoist boy did not dare talk back to his master, so he just muttered, “Then when will I be able to enter the Dao?”

......

......

The young daoist who had left the daoist temple only realized after walking some distance that he had not remembered the name of the daoist temple at all. But after thinking about it, he suddenly felt that it was not all that important.

He left the small town and did not walk far before seeing a stone bridge ahead. Beneath the bridge flowed a small stream. The young daoist thought for a moment and then stopped by the stream, because he happened to see a young man washing clothes there.

That pitch-black robe, as black as ink, when put into the water turned the stream a blood-red hue.

The young daoist stood on the stone bridge, watching the young man washing clothes.

The latter suddenly looked up and glanced over at the stone bridge, then cursed irritably, “Yun Jianyue, are you fucking here to kill me too?!”

So it turned out this young daoist was none other than the young temple master of Infatuation Daoist Temple.

Yun Jianyue shook his head and said, “I was originally going to the Myriad Heaven Palace.”

The young man frowned and said, “Going the long way around?”

The Myriad Heaven Palace should not be on this route. At the very least, one should not be entering Xinliu Prefecture’s territory.

Yun Jianyue did not bother hiding anything, and said straightforwardly, “Heard a lot of people want to kill you, so I came to see whether you’d actually die.”

The young man cursed, “I killed a few daoist cultivators, can’t you damn well do something about that?”

Yun Jianyue said, “Hard to manage.”

The young man shook his head painfully. What the hell kind of response was that?

Yun Jianyue looked at him and smiled. “Since you’re still alive, that’s fine.”

The young man was surprised. “You damn well came all this way just to see if I was still alive?”

Yun Jianyue nodded. “Yes. I was a bit worried you’d die. A guy like you, if you died like that, it really wouldn’t be interesting.”