Pathway To Eternity

It was the day the Last-Sword sect officially set for their admission with the teaching and learning process to start the following day. There were two sect acolytes standing in front of two metal golems, welcoming and directing the new disciples what to do and where to go.

Several minutes later, after his continuos delaying conversation with his mother and grandparents, he finally bade farewell to them and entered the sect premises.

He noticed that the monolith was no longer there, but, terra"s might, how had he forgotten about how big the premises of this sect was until now. Anyways, he had only entered once before, that was the day of the trial and had been anxious that day. But now, he actually had the chance to observe it and it was extremely big. Hundreds of kilometer in size, covering mountains, hills and valleys.

Entering the premises, he was directed towards the main hall by the acolytes who were having a good but busy day.

He was very apprehensive by the time he reached the main hall. It was the first time he would be living away from home, he was feeling the anxiety of missing his family but he was acting relaxed on the outside.

He had to maintain inner peace. He who was not everyday conquering some fear had not learned the secret of life.

He would pretend he had been doing this since he was born. Since he was born? That didn"t really sounded sane but still sounded good. He would take the words.

When he reached the main hall, he was sent in the direction of the acolyte scribe who was scribbling off on a parchment.

"Your identificaion badge, please."

"Yes, senior. Here it is."

Haider presented his badge and his ident.i.ty was confirmed.

"You will need to swear the blood oath of allegiance, of justly fair actions and of good conduct and behaviour. If this bode well with you and you accept, we will proceed. If not, you may turn back now and forget about this."

"Blood oath.... okay. If those are the words involved, i can live with that, i accept."

"Please, place your hands on the stone of oath and repeat after me."

Subsequent to the swearing of the oath, he paid his twenty five gold coins for admission and recieved a welcome bag containing two sect"s robes and a manual of conduct before he was sent to the dormitory. More robes could be purchased from the sect at a bit expensive price. The reason for this? Disciples would be able to appreciate what they have in life and maintained it.

Fair enough. He wouldn"t need more than two anyway. He could even live on one.

On his way to the male disciples dormitory, he checked the manual of conduct and he was fine by what he saw. They were reminder of the oath of allegiance he swore. He could definitely live with this, no problem for him at all.

Trust and truthfulness, as long as you have them, life will be much easier and better. He sighed and continued towards the dormitory.

He came to the desk of the senior acolyte in charge of the general dormitory.

"Can i have your badge, please."

"Yes senior, here."

He gave him the badge he was already holding in his hand.

"Haider Amynthas. Section two, room sixty eight. Welcome, young man."

"Thank you senior."

The male disciples dormitory was divided into four sections with huge corridors, with each section containing one hundred rooms. Acolytes were a.s.signed to supervise each section in maintaining orderliness and cleanliness on the section. The acolytes would also be dealing with the issues an problems of the disciples directly before informing the elders if it was too big to handle.

He saw an acolyte on the corridor who directed him to section two. It took a few minutes to locate his room. As a new disciple of two elements affinity, he would be having the room all to himself.

He entered the room, closed the door behind him and laid in the bed to relax his apprehensive mind.

At long last, he was here. HERE! He was very happy yet a bit sad, quite sad. Life away from home, his mother, his grandparents, his uncle Primus, all of them, but he knew he had to do this. If he wanted to be strong enough, then, he would have to live with this types of sacrifices.

After resting his mind a bit, he sat up. Left for his body, not much things could make him tired.

He looked around the room and could see the whole place clearly then. Apart from the bed, it had only a single chair and a single table. That was all. Well, that would do just fine by him.

He removed the new sect robes from the bag, folded them and put it to the sides by the corner of the room. Then he sat in a lotus position to meditate for few hours, when he open his eyes it was getting towards late afternoon.

He decided to check the sect library to see if he could find any manual to study. The libraries in the sect were divided into two, the opened library for general and the closed library for the sect elders and core disciples. Although, there were good technique manuals for martial arts and cultivation in the general library, The most powerful ma.n.u.scripts were inside the closed library, only for the chosen ones.

He arrived at the opened library an hour before the library time was over and he quickly went to the book shelves. He was only trying to see if he could find anything to study that night. If not, he would come back another day, maybe the following day. He didn"t want to just leave empty handed. And as he was glancing through the shelves, he saw the book captioned, "ANCIENT SWORDS". This would be general knowledge but for him, he didn"t know much about this history, he needed to read it.

He informed the librarian who made a copy for him.

That night he was planning on reading the book but was lost in meditation after eating two blue crystalline rocks. His dantian had meridians had been expanding painfully rapidly, he had to quickly circulate the Chi. He was circulating and meditating that he forgot about himself and slept in that position.

The following morning, all the houses" elders would be giving their first lecture to the new disciples. After getting dressed in the sect robe, he headed towards the study hall of the house of light. Arriving at the big area, he searched for some time before locating it with a sigh of relief.

There were five disciples in the hall already, with him making six. Only two other disciples remained to arrive.

"h.e.l.lo." He said as he looked for a seat

"h.e.l.lo." They replied him one by one.

He was doing great. He only needed to continue keeping his calm. With time we would all come to know ourselves more. That was what his family told him. Isn"t it?

The other two disciples arrived few minutes later and was soon followed by the house of light"s sect leader, elder w.a.n.g Xiu.

She was a tall, beautiful and powerful woman, wearing a white silk robe. Looking at her, any cultivator would feel the knowledge and wisdom radiating from her.

She looked calmly with a trace of smile at the new disciples, from one face to the other.

"As you are already aware, my name is elder w.a.n.g Xiu. I am the leader of the house of light. Now, as i welcome you all to the house of light, i want us to be friendly and corteous to one another by standing up one by one and introduce yourselves to your fellow disciples. Let"s start from the right."

"Dishi, house of light."

"Photine, house of light."

"Origen, houses of light and ice."

"Harmonia, house of light."

"Chenric, house of light."

"Da Xia, house of light."

"Haider, houses of light and lightning."

"Holea, house of light.

"Excellent. You all represent the house of light, let your light shine brighter together. Learn from the others, plan with the others begin with what they have, build on what they know. Of the best leaders when the task is accomplished., everybody will remark that they have done it themselves together. Who understands others has great knowledge; one who understands himself has wisdom. Mastering others requires patience; mastering the self needs strength. You are all welcome once again.

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu stared at them thoughtfully.

"Let me start by asking you this, what is a sword?"

"Okay, you Da Xia." She pointed at the girl with bright blue eyes, who was eager to answer.

"A sword is a bladed weapon longer than a knife for cutting, slashing or thrusting." Replied the girl with the blue eyes, Da Xia.

"Yes, Da Xia. Considering the physical meaning, you are very correct." Beaming with smile, she nodded.

"But, what if you now look at it spiritually. What is the true meaning of a sword?" She asked with a raised brow.

"I will tell you. Sword is a symbol of purification. It pierces the spiritual soul of physical bondage to release a path to ethereal and enlightened freedom. Sword as an extension of our beingness, cut away the contamination of ignorance from a soul in order for the soul to achieve universal insight. The very power of life and death, heavens and lorra. When your soul is purified by the sword you wield, you will become one with your sword, then, you will become one with the universe."

She paused, watching their faces, smiled and continued.

"Remember, sword is a part of our existence as sword artists, it purifies our soul in order for us to gain enlightenment. Now let us see what we know about light."

"Light is the first phenomenon of existence, it was with light that the Alpheron, the core of the universe was formed. Light means true life, it purifies our beingness, removing contamination from our ent.i.ties.

"Now, when we combine sword with true light, what becomes? When you combine two sources of purification, what exists? When you combine two forms of life and death, What do you get?

Elder w.a.n.g Xiu materialized her sword. The sword was hanging in midair in front of her radiating brilliant white light. The brilliance was gradually increasing untill the whole study hall was filled with blinding white light making the disciples to cover their eyes in fear. The brilliance then started to decrease and the sword eventually returned to its original form before disappearing again.

"That was the combination of sword intent and true light. And it was just a tiny little fraction of what i can make it produce."

"What?" They shouted at once.

"You will see for yourselves sooner than you think. Study hard and practice harder, and you will find it easier than you imagine."

"We will stop here for today and continue three days from now. There are manuals and texts in the library, you can check them out if you want. See you then."

Leaving the cla.s.s, Haider didn"t pay much attention to his fellow house of light disciples. His mind was on the spectacle of the sword and true light that elder w.a.n.g Xiu displayed. If that was a tiny part, what would the full one be. It was already scary. It reminded him of his mother"s fire display. True powers.

When he got back to his room, he took out his parchment and started writing.

Sword enlightenment, sword purifies, one with sword, one with the universe. True light enlightenment, purifies, first of existence, its the universe core. Become one with it, you become one with the universe. Combine the two?

He stopped writing and took out one crystalline. Crushing it in his mouth, he began to cultivate. His dantian was getting deeper and deeper but he continued to cultivate. Although, he was still at the early stage of Lianchi, his Chi was now at a ridiculous amount and quality. The astral primal technique had expanded and deepened his dantian making him gather and circulate many times the amount of Chi he would have needed.

If it was another technique, he would have advanced to the Zhuji stage already.

He left his room for the evening cla.s.s of elder Ju Long, of the house of lightning.

They were three new house of lightning disciples. The other two had already arrived when he arrived just before the arrival of elder Ju Long.

The other two students had introduced themselves.

"Callidora, house of lightning."

"Horacio, house of lightning."

Elder Ju Long

"If i ask you, what do you understand of sword. You will say for slashing for killing. But, under the Dao of sword. Sword is a symbol of righteousness and justice. It"s a discipline used for conquering, reckless pa.s.sion, ignorance and aggression. We wield a sword with a calm and peaceful mind. That is why the heart of a sword artist must be filled with compa.s.sion and humility, without that the sword will be recklessly dangerous. We don"t see the sword as a killing weapon, but a source of energy that flows through our body parts like the Chi energy. The sword is a way of gaining enlightenment.

Elder Jun Long raised one finger.

"Lightning on the other hand, is a symbol of the might of creation. It"s beautiful yet destructive. That"s why we wield it with calm and peaceful mind, without that, lightning will be recklessly drangerous. Lightning is the image of our countenance, it strikes away the impurities in our spiritual advancement. Accepting lightning, understanding it, will the consciousness shift move you forward into more personal and spiritual freedom, clearing inner violence and living in a state of inner peace."

He stoppd for a minute. Then materialised his sword and it started to produce blue lightning that started to expand making the disciples fearful. Returning to normality, he continued.

"The caveat is that sword is a mighty weapon and lighning is the manifestation of the true power of the universe. Combination of the two? Understanding this will unravel the deeper truth so that you can rise out of not knowing to being enlightened. Embrace the opportunity to expand your consciousness and see things in your life, and your place in the Universe in a totally new way."

He rounded up his lecture.

"Put my words in your hearts. I will see you in the next cla.s.s,"

After the evening lecture of elder Ju Long, Haider went back to his room. He sat down in lotus position, lost in thoughts.

There was no other choice, no other words for it. He had to get more powerful. He would study hard and practice harder. He would meditate hard and cultivate harder.

Snapping back to the present, he popped another crystalline into his mouth and started cultivating using the astral primal technique. He was eating two blue crystalline a day. He could feel that with the way he was getting more chi, he could break to the late stage of Lianchi sooner than he thought before.

He continued doing that for the following two weeks. One of the nights, he felt that the Chi in his dantian was about to explode. His dantian had refined so much Chi and was still refining Chi. With the dantian gathering and refining more Chi, his dantian exploded and golden light emanated from his body.

He had reached the Ningchi stage, the Chi condesing stage. He had pushed past the late stage of Lianchi which had affected the blue crystallibe he had. He only had a few remaining. The blue crystalline of hundreds of millions of years, even at home, not many were left. He had pushed himself hard for the past few weeks, but he had done it.