Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Path of Emotionless

Lin Qing Ling smiled from ear to ear: “Good, good, finally something I like to hear.”

“I… I want to help too,” Jiang Yi said softly.

Luo Ming Yue rolled up her sleeves like she was ready to rush out and fight.

Li Shuang felt lost for a moment. Normally, Immortal Ling Xu and the others did not interfere in fights between disciples. Back on Ling Xu Peak, she had been the First Senior Sister who handled everything up and down the peak. If she did anything slightly poorly, she would be called in and scolded.

Here, she had become the one everyone wanted to protect.

This change was hard for her to get used to.

After a quiet pause, Li Shuang suddenly asked: “Did none of you ever wonder if I lied? What if what Ye Zhao Zhao said was the truth?”

Lin Qing Ling’s eyes held a smile: “You finally asked.”

Li Shuang hesitated and said nothing.

Sitting straight, Lin Qing Ling showed a rare serious look: “The Supreme Emotionless Art used to be a brilliant art. But now, only Emotionless Peak has even a little written about it.”

“The Ancestor said: to enter this Emotionless Art, one must first have feelings, and those feelings must be pure and good. If one day those pure feelings collapse, the person who suffers that deep wound may rise from despair and realize the Path of Emotionless.”

If Li Shuang were truly the shameless villain some called her, how could a villain have feelings that deep? How could she transform after those feelings broke?

Li Shuang must have poured too much of herself into Ling Xu Peak. So when that love was betrayed, she fell into despair. That despair was like dying once. Entering the Emotionless Path now was like being reborn.

Lin Qing Ling sighed. She had always known this way of entry. But they were cultivators; asking them to give such deep feelings to someone was very hard. Now, the only people she truly cared about were these few disciples.

To give with all your heart and still be betrayed, and then to be reborn from a dead end, even with only a tiny chance — the conditions were harsh.

Yet Li Shuang met those conditions.

How much must she have hurt? Lin Qing Ling did not dare imagine it.

The room fell silent.

Thinking of this, Luo Ming Yue and the others felt their hearts twist. As outsiders, they had still seen how much Li Shuang had given to Ling Xu Peak.

And yet those people had thrown her away so easily.

Did they even deserve her past devotion?

Li Shuang’s face stayed calm.

So that was it.

In a way, it was a blessing in disguise.

As the Emotionless Art flowed slowly within her, she knew they were feeling sad for her. But she herself truly felt nothing now.

Seeing Li Shuang so calm, Luo Ming Yue was both relieved and curious: “Junior Sister, under the Passion-Severing Mantra, can nothing in the world stir your heart anymore?”

Li Shuang thought, then shook her head: “If you are human, you must have feelings.”

Luo Ming Yue was surprised: “But the Supreme Emotionless Art is called the Path of Emotionless. If it is emotionless, how can there be feelings?”

Li Shuang’s gaze grew deep: “The Supreme Emotionless Art begins with a clear line: ‘The Dao gives it its look, Heaven gives it its form. Do not let likes or dislikes hurt you inside.’”

“The Path of Emotionless discards the feelings that harm oneself. If you don’t rise and fall with like or dislike, you won’t injure yourself.”

“If anything, what remains after you throw away the feelings that hurt you are the feelings that are truly precious. So the Path of Emotionless is also a path with feeling.”

She shared her understanding of the Path of Emotionless. She believed she was right. After she entered this path, the people of Ling Xu Peak no longer stirred her mind, but when she thought of her late Mother, she still felt tender love that had not faded at all. This showed the Path of Emotionless rejects only harmful feelings, not all feelings.

A bright light flashed in Lin Qing Ling’s eyes.

Though Li Shuang had only just entered, her grasp of the Path of Emotionless was already deep.

For the first time, Lin Qing Ling felt a firm certainty.

After this rebirth, her disciple would go very far on this path.

She would shine even brighter than the Heaven’s Proud Daughter from ten years ago.

Li Shuang was destined to soar.

Those ten silent years had been ten years of gathering strength for her true takeoff.

“Did I get it wrong?” Seeing Lin Qing Ling lost in thought, Li Shuang asked in Dao Questioning.

Lin Qing Ling returned to herself and smiled: “You are the only one walking this road. Right or wrong, Little Shuang, you will have to explore it yourself.”

Li Shuang nodded calmly.

Lin Qing Ling took out two jade slips and handed them to her.

“What I taught you before was only the entry chant of the Supreme Emotionless Art and the layers for the Qi Refining Stage. This jade slip holds the complete art. As your realm rises, you will be able to access later parts.”

“This jade slip records a sword art. Back then, the founding Ancestor left two supreme arts: one is the Path of Emotionless, and the other is Nurturing the Sword Spirit and Union of Man and Sword.”

“Li Shuang, you are a once in a century genius. You know the benefits of the Sword Spirit.”

Li Shuang nodded.

“The Sword Spirit is the spirit of the sword. The sword cannot speak, but the Sword Spirit can. With a Sword Spirit, we can control our blade far better and form a deep bond with it. If the fit is high enough, we can use the Union of Man and Sword. Then your sword arts grow much stronger, and fighting above your level will not be a problem.”

Thinking of Li Shuang’s former Dragon Roar Sword that betrayed her, Lin Qing Ling paused before saying: “Now that you’ve lost the Dragon Roar Sword, you should find another treasure blade. But the Ancestor also said: once you enter the Sword Pavilion, fate decides, and you can only obtain one sword from it in your lifetime. If you can’t get a Sword Pavilion sword, you have to use a forged sword from outside. Without the Pavilion’s nurturing, an outside sword almost never grows a Sword Spirit, though chance and luck might make it happen.”

Lin Qing Ling offered comfort.

“Master, I have a sword,” Li Shuang said, and with a thought, the Black Abyss Sword appeared in her hand.

“That used to be Ye Zhao Zhao’s sword. She held it for years and still never woke its Sword Spirit,” Luo Ming Yue said. “I wonder if its spirit is flawed.”

“It’s possible,” Lin Qing Ling said to Li Shuang. “If the Sword Spirit refuses to wake, this Black Abyss might be worse than a random outside sword.”

“It’s fine. Black Abyss is good,” Li Shuang said calmly. [A sword that, once absorbed, could directly open the Heaven and Earth Furnace is no common blade. The Sword Spirit likely wasn’t flawed; it probably just looked down on Ye Zhao Zhao.]

“Try it and see. If you want to change swords later, tell me,” Lin Qing Ling said. “The second jade slip holds a sword art that matches the Supreme Emotionless Art. It can only be opened with energy from the Passion-Severing Mantra. So I don’t know what the sword art looks like. You’ll have to study it yourself.”

Li Shuang accepted both jade slips with respect.

Lin Qing Ling thought for a moment, then said: “Good timing. Today is the monthly Grand Bazaar. In this storage pouch are three hundred mid grade spirit stones. Go see if there are any tools or treasures fit for the Qi Refining Stage.”

She handed Li Shuang a storage pouch.

Li Shuang grew uneasy: “Master, how can a disciple accept your things so freely?”

Lin Qing Ling froze, then said: “Your cultivation is still weak. It’s only right for your teacher to help.”

Something struck her, and she looked at Li Shuang in shock: “That old Ling Xu—did he give you nothing at all?”

Li Shuang fell silent.

The idea of the Path of Emotionless comes from Zhuangzi’s thoughts about having feelings and being without feelings.