Chapter 9 — The Transmission of Arts
劍問蒼天 · Page 5 of 5
After the meal, Tian Buhui, as was his custom, swung along in his splayed-footed gait, swayed grandly a couple of times, and withdrew to his Shoujing Hall. The other disciples headed off to Taiji Cave, while Song Dayi alone came with Zhang Qingyue to his room. "Little junior brother, the arts of our sect place immense weight on the foundation. Since you've just entered the gate, I'll first transmit the foundational arts to you. Once you've memorized them, practice on your own. If anything is unclear, come ask me. Understood?"
Zhang Qingyue nodded again and again, his heart surging with excitement.
Song Dayi's expression turned grave, and he said solemnly, "There is one other matter I must warn you of: the wondrous arts of our sect are profound and marvelous, and many are the demons and sorcerers who would pry into them. You must swear a great oath: once you have learned them, unless it be a disciple of this sect, you shall never transmit them to outsiders."
Zhang Qingyue's heart stirred, and for a moment he felt dazed; but he came to himself at once, and a look of resolve settled on his small face. "Yes. Heaven above bear witness: should your disciple Zhang Qingyue ever divulge the secrets of the Canglan Sect's arts, may I be struck by the five thunders and die with no place for burial."
Song Dayi smiled and nodded, had him sit before the table, and first taught him how to sit in meditation and still his thoughts. Then he sketched the body's meridians and the circulation of essence and qi, and finally transmitted to him the cultivation method of the first level of the "Taiji Mystic Purity Way."
The "Taiji Mystic Purity Way" is the root of all the wondrous arts and marvelous methods of the Canglan Sect. It was comprehended two thousand years ago by Canglanzi from that nameless ancient scroll; refined through the generations by masters of the Canglan Sect, it has become today a supreme Daoist art that seizes the very workings of heaven and earth, matchless in its mystery.
The Taiji Mystic Purity Way has three realms in all: Jade Purity, Highest Purity, and Great Purity. Among the disciples of the Canglan Sect, including many of keen intelligence and talent, some spend their whole lives without breaking through the Jade Purity Realm. And yet even so, cultivation merely at the summit of the Jade Purity Realm is already rare in this world.
Within the Canglan Sect, whose numbers approach a thousand, those who can break through the Jade Purity Realm and advance to practice in the Highest Purity Realm—counting from the sect leader, Daoist Master Daoyan—number barely more than ten. Yet with only those ten-odd, the Canglan Sect stands as one of the strongest and most profound sects among the cultivators of today. As for the legendary Great Purity Realm, said to be the supreme realm, it is told that only the peerless prodigy of ages past, Patriarch Qingye, ever attained it.