Chapter 12: The Fish Leaps Through the Sea at This Moment

Lin Jiufeng had always intended to pass on cultivation techniques to the three youngsters.

Some techniques were created by those who came before, while others were comprehended by Lin Jiufeng himself. But regardless of their origin, techniques needed to be practiced and passed down in order to truly shine.

If he hoarded these techniques and never shared them, he would be doing nothing more than entertaining himself.

As for the possibility that someone who learned his techniques might one day surpass him?

Lin Jiufeng wasn't worried in the slightest.

A heart as vast as the earth brings clarity; conduct as straight as a plumb line brings distinction.

Those who walk the path of cultivation must keep an open mind and never be shackled by petty, short-sighted gains.

If one lacked even that much breadth of spirit, how could they ever aspire to higher realms?

The path of cultivation was, by its very nature, an increasingly solitary journey.

Moreover, the true power of a secret technique depended entirely on the will of the practitioner. The same cultivation technique, in the hands of different people, would manifest in vastly different ways.

By the time the three youngsters grew up after learning the techniques he passed on, Lin Jiufeng would long since have comprehended even more formidable ones.

So from the very beginning, Lin Jiufeng had never intended to hold anything back.

He had originally planned to wait until the three youngsters broke through the Third Seal before teaching them, but since they had asked so earnestly, there was no reason not to teach them now.

Wen Xinyun came from a Cultivation Clan, yet had never been valued there. She had endured hardship since childhood, and though she was a woman, her character was resolute and unyielding — she was perfectly suited for the [Grass-Wood Sword Art].

Zhou Tianzi's entire family had been destroyed, and he carried a blood feud on his shoulders. Cultivating the [Ten Kings of Hell] could not have been more fitting for him.

As for Yue Dashan — Lin Jiufeng could only say that the [Dragon-Elephant Power] had been tailor-made for him.

Over the past year and more, Yue Dashan had eaten and lived well within Yuhua Sect, and his body had grown increasingly powerful. At eleven years old, the boy stood nearly six feet three inches tall and showed no signs of stopping. Wherever he stood, he looked like a magnificent mountain of flesh.

But his bulk was not loose, flabby fat — it was steel-forged muscle, tempered through countless trials.

He was even better suited for the [Dragon-Elephant Power] than Lin Jiufeng himself.

Lin Jiufeng was genuinely curious to see what level Yue Dashan would one day cultivate the [Dragon-Elephant Power] to.

After teaching each of the three youngsters their respective techniques one-on-one, Lin Jiufeng sent them off to study and comprehend on their own, telling them to come back if they had any questions.

Lin Jiufeng then quietly sipped his tea and gazed out the window.

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, early spring was approaching.

The snow melted and flowed into the mountain streams, following the veins of the great peaks to nourish the forests.

Plants and grasses that had stored energy through the entire winter eagerly drew in nutrients and burst forth with fresh green life.

Beasts and serpents that had been hibernating awakened one after another, and the mountains that had been silent for a season came alive once more with vitality.

But Yuhua Sect had no such vitality.

Instead, the crisis was drawing ever closer.

Of the six months remaining, one month had been spent reading through books, and another month had been spent cultivating the [Ten Kings of Hell] — only four months were left.

Yet Lin Jiufeng had still not broken through the Sixth Seal.

Four months from now, the Dao Ancestor of the Eighth Seal from Taishang Sect would come to annihilate Yuhua Sect. If Bai Yunfei had not broken through by then, Lin Jiufeng would have to take the three youngsters and slip away ahead of time.

Thinking this, Lin Jiufeng looked toward the golden peak of Yuhua Sect.

Atop the golden peak, a deep and steady aura was breathing in and out with Spiritual Energy — there was no sign of an imminent Breakthrough whatsoever.

Lin Jiufeng let out a sigh, abandoned his expectations, and focused wholeheartedly on his own affairs.

He had already stood at the very pinnacle of the Fifth Seal's peak, wielding the terrifying strength of forty dragons and forty elephants. Even a cultivator at the Sixth Seal would die on the spot from a single punch of his.

Yet even with such monstrous power, Lin Jiufeng still could not break through the Sixth Seal.

The Sixth Seal — comprehending the Dao Rhythm.

Lin Jiufeng had never truly comprehended the Dao Rhythm. Even now, after all his cultivation, he still didn't know what the Dao Rhythm actually was.

He had pored over Daoist scriptures, searching through the records within for information about the Dao Rhythm of the Sixth Seal.

The Dao Rhythm, it was written, was a form of the Great Dao born from the laws governing the movement of heaven and earth. It was something cultivators had to comprehend on their own. Once a cultivator grasped the Dao Rhythm, they could weave it into their own techniques, aligning those techniques with the Heavenly Dao and unleashing tremendous power.

Lin Jiufeng couldn't help but wonder — where was he supposed to comprehend the Dao Rhythm?

Yuhua Sect was completely sealed off on all sides, not even birds could enter. In this confined little patch of land, how was he supposed to comprehend anything?

Lin Jiufeng couldn't help but feel troubled.

But the days passed one by one regardless, and four months slipped away quickly.

Throughout this time, Lin Jiufeng could sense Taishang Sect drawing closer with each passing day.

From a hundred miles away at first, to now completely encircling the mountain gate of Yuhua Sect — Taishang Sect's intentions could not have been clearer.

And Lin Jiufeng's state of mind had shifted from the initial anxiety, worry, and fear to a calm stillness.

Things had come to this point. Worrying further was useless.

When that moment truly arrived, he would protect the three children and break through Taishang Sect's encirclement.

With Bai Yunfei holding the line in front, his chances of escaping were quite good.

But unless absolutely necessary, Lin Jiufeng did not want to flee and abandon the place where he had lived for a hundred years.

The moon hung high, the stars filled the sky, and the Milky Way was reflected in the stream below.

In the Canon Pavilion, bathed in the soft light of the moon, Lin Jiufeng held an ancient and weathered Buddhist scripture in his hands and slowly turned its pages.

Within Yuhua Sect, there were tens of thousands of books — texts from the Daoist Order, the Demon Sect, and the Buddhist Order alike.

There were even books from the Demon Race and the savage tribes.

The book Lin Jiufeng was reading now had been written by a venerable Buddhist monk.

The monk wrote that the world was a vast sea of suffering, in which all people struggled. Mortals lived a hundred years in mediocrity, and in the end sank to the bottom of that sea.

Cultivation was the act of escaping the sea of suffering and reaching the other shore.

But where was the other shore?

No one in the world knew.

One could only give everything, use every means available, and sail through the storms of that bitter sea to reach the other shore.

The methods were countless, but they all came down to two paths.

Some used the physical body as a vessel to cross to the other shore.

Some used the Divine Soul to transcend and reach the other shore.

Neither path was easy, and so cultivation was like rowing upstream — everyone was fighting for position.

A Daoist sage once said: Of the Great Dao's fifty, Heaven's workings account for forty-nine — and all people in the world compete for that one which escapes.

A Buddhist master once said: Life has eight sufferings — birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from those we love, prolonged resentment, the inability to obtain what we seek, and the inability to let go of what we hold.

Lin Jiufeng read on, gradually losing himself in thought.

If the world were truly a vast sea of suffering, how should he cross it?

He should use his physical body as the vessel, with the Divine Soul at the helm — the two united as one, transcending the sea of suffering and reaching the other shore.

Lin Jiufeng sat motionless through the night, scripture in hand.

The next morning.

At the precise moment when the rising sun and the fading moon coexisted — that fleeting instant when day and night converged — Lin Jiufeng suddenly opened his eyes.

Within his pupils, yin and yang flowed and circled.

That was the accumulation of everything he had built up over the past stretch of time.

Though he had never managed to break through the Sixth Seal, Lin Jiufeng had been making progress every single day — small increments, but stacked day upon day, layer upon layer, until at this very moment they erupted in a flash of enlightenment.

As Lin Jiufeng opened his eyes and felt the convergence of yin and yang in that instant, his mind became utterly clear and luminous, inspiration surging forth, and a line of text appeared before him.

[Your inspiration has erupted. Heavenly Comprehension has been activated. You have comprehended: Fish Leaps Through the Sea at This Moment.]

Rumble!

Outside the Canon Pavilion, among the towering peaks and ridges, white clouds surged and churned.

Like ocean waves, the energy of heaven and earth roiled and shifted in rapid transformation.

It was as though someone had cast a fishing line, and the fish had taken the hook — and now it was being pulled straight up.

All those moments of waiting before had been the time Lin Jiufeng spent accumulating. Once the accumulation was sufficient, the fish would naturally come.

In this moment, every drop of his daily effort surged forth in a torrential outpouring.

With a single thought, Lin Jiufeng was like a fisherman seizing the rod and yanking it upward with full force.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Outside the Canon Pavilion, amid the towering peaks, within the churning white clouds, an enormous white crucian carp was "reeled in."

The great white crucian carp held yin and yang within its eyes, its body leaping upward, gleaming brilliantly in the first ray of morning light.

At the same moment, the energy within Lin Jiufeng's body surged and raged like a tempest, shattering through the barrier of the Fifth Seal.

With that single leap, Lin Jiufeng had leapt into the cultivation of the Sixth Seal.