Book 2 Chapter 16.1 – Seven Astral Heavenly Extremes
Li Yang continued to immerse himself in his memories, closing his eyes as he played the flute…
“Going forward silently, to share a cup with him. Hidden within the clear water lies deep emotions, and from it drunken love. Be it good or bad affinity, even without the dream of b.u.t.terflies, I’ll return to you in this lifetime. Be it life past or present, the pair flies through many lifetimes.”
TL: Thanks to Raynor for making sense of this
The song ‘b.u.t.terfly lovers’ was played through the flute, and the music filled up the interior of the Taibai Restaurant. The deep yearning of the flute music carried with it a wave of emotion, making those who heard it want to shed tears.
The green-robed elder listened. He slowly walking over, arriving at a table nearby Li Yang before sitting down. As if he also began to reminisce, the elder sat there like so as Li Yang played with his eyes closed.
Ge Pu slowly walked towards the green-robed elder before sitting down near him. Watching Li Yang, he sighed and said, “Brother Mu Yi usual puts on such a cold and unyielding character. Who knew he would also be such a heart-broken person!”
“Be it life past or present, the pair flies through many lifetimes. The road of cultivation is endless and remote. The heavenly tribulation is a terrifying display of heaven’s might. To successfully undergo tribulation is difficult enough, yet even after pa.s.sing the tribulation, no one knows whether the road to the Ghost Realm will be peaceful. I truly don’t know how many months and years it will take before I can see Xue again ah!” Li Yang lamented within his heart. He slowly put away the flute, and when he opened his eyes, he noticed that tears had already flowed down into his bosom. He couldn’t help but shake his head. As if he didn’t mind it at all, he laughed, but his smile became even more bleak.
“Which cultivation realm have you reached already within the Three Great Heavenly Realms?” Suddenly, an aged voice sounded from beside Li Yang’s ear.
Without thinking, Li Yang replied, “Despair boundary.” After replying, Li Yang was immediately alarmed, and his eyes shot towards the green-robed elder beside him. The ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’ was a rare text that only he, Li Shuo, and their mother knew about. How could anyone else know about this?
“Who are you?” Internal qi immediately surged from within Li Yang’s body, locking in the elder in front of him.
Expert, an exceptional expert! This was Li Yang’s immediate reaction.
“Mid-stage Nascent Soul level expert! However, he shouldn’t have any ill intentions. If he wanted to deal with you, he would have done so already. Moreover, there is an excessively terrifying wave of oppressing blade qi around his body. You probably won’t even be able to take a single strike from him, so just relax for now. Being so alert is also rather pointless, but since I am here, Overlord won’t allow anything to happen to you!” After hearing Xiang Yu’s voice, the muscles in Li Yang’s body began to relax.
“Right now, you don’t need to ask who I am, you only have to tell me whether or not your surname is Li. Don’t worry, I have already placed restrictions in the surroundings, so no one will hear our discussion.” The green-robed elder did not mind Li Yang’s reaction at all.
“It is!” Li Yang nodded.
The green-robed elder’s eyes immediately lit up, because Li Yang’s qi completely returned to normal. The qi was no longer prepared to attack at a moment’s notice like before.
“Is your father called Li Fengshu?” The green-robed elder continued.
At this moment, Li Yang’s mind immediately became utterly chaotic. He and his brother never saw their father before, and based on what their mother said, their father wasn’t even aware of their existence. Their mother becoming a workaholic was also related to their father, later on going to a mountain village to live alone.
However, Li Yang did indeed know his father’s name, and it was precisely — Li Fengshu. He immediately looked at the green-robed elder and nodded his head.
The green-robed elder began to laugh. “It really was my junior disciple Fengshu’s child! No wonder you look so much like my junior brother Fengshu when he was young
“You know my father?” Li Yang heart immediately began to shake. As a son who never met his father, how could he not be shocked to suddenly receive news related to his father?
The green-robed elder nodded his head and said, “Correct, your father and I were fellow apprentices.” Suddenly, the green-robed elder sighed. “Seems like you were also deeply emotionally wounded before you reached the Despair Boundary. This ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’ ah! It really is the cause of my Great Heavenly School’s ruin!
Li Yang’s heart was shaking incessantly. After hearing the ‘Great Heavenly School’, his mind began to make connections. “Since he is fellow apprentices with my father, then my father should also be a member of the Great Heavenly School. However, why is this ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’ the root of the Great Heavenly School’s troubles?”
“Great Heavenly School? That is my father’s sect, right? Why is the ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’ the cause of its ruin?” Li Yang asked quickly and urgently.
When the green-robed elder heard this, he sighed and said, “The Great Heavenly School is one of the truth cultivation schools within the Kunlun Paradise. Your father and I were disciples of the same generation within the Great Heavenly School. However, your father’s status was different than mine! He was the son of the school master. As for this ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’, heng heng, if it wasn’t for this ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’, you would most likely be cultivating within the Great Heavenly School right now.”
When Li Yang heard this, he immediately furrowed his brows in suspicion.
The green-robed elder looked at his grizzled hair and sighed before saying, “The ‘Three Great Heavenly Realms’ is the rare text that the master ancestor used in the past to enter the dao through emotions. Using one’s emotions to enter the dao allows one to comprehend things more naturally, and absorb the heaven and earth’s spiritual essence at a faster speed. Other schools’ disciples need hundreds of years to pa.s.s tribulations, yet my Great Heavenly School needs less than two hundred. There is one crucial thing, however, and that is that one has to realize the three great realms. What this means is that for every disciple, there must be a girl to feel pain and grief over. Every single Great Heavenly School disciple has to leave and find love. After falling in love, they must abandon the woman and return to the Great Heavenly School. By facing such suffering within their souls, they will realize the Remorse Boundary, and soon after the Despair Boundary.”
The green-robed elder bitterly laughed and said, “Within the Great Heavenly School, as long as you can realize the Despair Boundary, you can leave the Kunlun land once again to find your past love, bringing her back to the school with you. However, only the Remorse Boundary is easy to attain; the Despair Boundary is extremely difficult. Many disciples can’t attain it after several tens of years, and at that time, their loved once have already aged. Even if some of the disciples reached it relatively fast, those girls were all heartbroken after being abandoned. To find them again in the boundless ocean of people is an extremely difficult task.”
When Li Yang heard this, his expression instantly changed greatly.
He never would have thought that the Great Heavenly School would have this type of cultivation method. Using wounded emotion as a way of cultivation; it truly made the two lovers’ feelings undergo torture.
His own mother was probably another one of these unfortunate individuals. As for his father, it was likely that he was still suffering this type of emotional tormenting while trying to attain the Despair Boundary so that he could find his mother.
“Haha, hilarious, too funny! These Great Heavenly School disciples all want to ‘reach the Despair Boundary’ and find their loved ones. With this kind of mindset, how could they possibly reach the despair boundary? Having this type of expectation and hope, yet they still want to attain the despair boundary, what a joke! Haha… To only cultivated for a few dozen years, maybe they can only awaken after they develop despair from never reaching this boundary!” Xiang Yu disdainfully spoke within Li Yang’s mind.
When Li Yang heard this, he immediately trembled. He himself reached it so fast, so he believed that the apt.i.tude of the school’s disciples wouldn’t be that low. However, it seems like it truly was like how Xiang Yu described it, because all of the Great Heavenly School’s disciples still had hope. Hope that they could reach the Despair Boundary, and hope that they could find their loved one afterwards. Having these expectations, they still want to understand despair, that truly was a joke.
“I won’t say any more, let’s stop here!” The green-robed elder suddenly shook his head.
The green-robed elder looked at Li Yang. “The Three Great Heavenly Realms is not a cultivation method for the mind, but rather a cultivation for training oneself. Since you are my junior disciple Fengshu’s child, you can also be considered my Great Heavenly School’s disciple. I will pa.s.s onto you my Great Heavenly School’s Flying Dagger way in the dao, the cultivation sacred canon — ‘Seven Astral Heavenly Extremes’!