Chapter Ninety: The Divine Art of Supreme Goodness Like Water

Under the ebb of one force against the rise of the other, he could only feel his meridians being flayed and carved apart by sword energy, inch by inch, while at moments a cold blaze seemed to invade his organs and viscera, leaving him dazed, as though he had passed through several brushes with death.

His body and soul seemed to have been torn wholly asunder; he was all but on the verge of losing consciousness.

Yet when, in his panic, he caught sight of Brahma Sage’s gentle but unwavering gaze, for reasons he could not fathom, a will to survive stirred once more in his heart.

Though this strength was so faint beneath the dual assault of the Azure Dragon sword energy and the fire-ice qi that it was almost too slight to notice.

At that very moment, however, the tender force flowing from Brahma Sage’s palm had already grown from a trickle into a vast sea, surging with near-unstoppable momentum through the two great points of the Life Gate and the Kidney Hollow.

It passed by the Wind Mansion and Jade Pillow points, then through the Heavenly Court and Crown meeting point, and drove straight into the hollow cauldron in his lower abdomen. As the Azure Dragon sword energy raged wildly throughout his body, that force instantly turned the tide and pressed it back into the hollow cauldron.

And the fire-ice qi that had seeped in from the poolside, upon encountering the gentle force transmitted through Brahma Sage’s hand, actually withdrew docilely at once from the great organs within his body, slowly flowing into White Dusk’s hollow cauldron, where it was ultimately devoured and extinguished by the domineering Azure Dragon sword energy.

As the middle-aged Brahma Sage guided his power through a full cycle, both greater and lesser, within White Dusk’s body, the boy who had moments ago been in agony beyond endurance now felt as though bathed in a warm spring breeze, his whole mind and body indescribably refreshed.

Even his drowsy spiritual awareness began to wake little by little; that consciousness which had already seemed on the verge of slipping free of his body was forcibly pressed back into the Mud Palace acupoint.

Having walked along the edge of life and death, White Dusk finally could not help drawing a long breath, inwardly crying out at how perilous the moment had been.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was greedily curled up in Brahma Sage’s embrace, his own arms still clinging tightly around the man’s waist even while he had been unconscious.

“You’re all right now, are you?” Brahma Sage lowered his head and looked at the youth in his arms, his eyes full of pity.

“I... I’m fine.”

The instant their gazes met, White Dusk’s heart gave an inexplicable little leap. Once again there flashed through his mind the image of the father he had dreamed of as a child, and he faintly felt that an ideal father ought to be just like Brahma Sage: detached yet elegant, possessing profound cultivation, yet also approachable.

“That’s good.”

Brahma Sage instinctively reached out and patted White Dusk on the back, signaling him to stand up.

“Oh, oh.”

Only then did White Dusk realize that his arms were still wrapped tightly around Brahma Sage’s waist. Embarrassed and flustered, he hurriedly let go and sprang up from the ground in a whoosh.

Yet, to his surprise, the roiling Azure Dragon sword energy within him had vanished without a trace, replaced instead by an incomparably serene force.

In a daze, he even felt that this power within him shared the same subtle essence as the gentle force that had struck his back a few days earlier in the Sacred Void Temple, when the Venerable Heaven-Burner had landed a blow on him.

He vaguely remembered Lingyan once saying that such a power, as pure and nourishing as the highest goodness like water, was called the Abyssal Celestial Force.

With that question in mind, White Dusk finally gathered his courage and asked boldly, “Senior, the gentle force you used to suppress the sword energy in me just now—does it have some particular origin?”

“Origin?”

“No.”

Brahma Sage’s expression remained calm as he gave a slight shrug and said indifferently, “This gentle force is the primal power I have cultivated over many years. If one truly wished to trace it back to its source, one would have to speak of a time very, very long ago—so long ago that even I can scarcely remember it now.”

“Senior...”

White Dusk looked at him with some trepidation, then asked cautiously, “Please forgive my boldness, but the primal force Senior used to heal me just now seems to share the same marvelous essence as the celestial force of the Sacred Void Temple. I wonder if this junior is mistaken?”

“Heh heh.”

At that, a faint smile curved Brahma Sage’s lips. “There is perhaps some connection between them. As everyone knows, when heaven and earth first separated, yin and yang arose apart; and the most fundamental Way was comprehended from that yin and yang qi.”

“So all cultivation arts in this world are, in truth, much of a muchness. At their root, none can escape the single word Way.”

“In those days, the War God Brahma Immortal comprehended the Abyssal Celestial Force from the Heavenly Way, while I, too, realized from the Way a cultivation art that can embrace all things. It is called the Supreme Good Like Water Art.”

“I see.”

White Dusk nodded, half understanding, half not, but in his heart several questions had already begun to rise.

If the War God had once comprehended the Abyssal Celestial Force and the Heavenly Sage Sword Art from the Heavenly Way, then risen from the desolate wilds to sweep across the worlds of gods, mortals, demons, and monsters alike, becoming the peerless, eternal, and tyrannical Great War God of the Infinite Celestial Court, that would indeed make sense.

After all, with the War God Brahma Immortal’s talent, it would not be strange for him to realize a cultivation art from the Heavenly Way.

But this middle-aged man before him, known as Brahma Sage, had also managed to comprehend from the Heavenly Way such an extraordinary art as the Supreme Good Like Water Art, and by all appearances its wonders seemed in no way inferior to the Abyssal Celestial Force. That was truly beyond belief.

If he were truly that formidable, would this man not be of the same generation as the War God, perhaps even one capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with him?

There was another point that puzzled him deeply: Brahma Sage seemed to know Lingyan, and called her a little girl at every turn, as though the two were quite familiar with each other.

Brahma Sage, whose insight was keen enough to perceive the smallest detail, naturally saw the confusion in White Dusk’s heart. Yet for reasons unknown, he did not seem able to speak plainly just then, and could only change the subject. “White Dusk, when you and Lingyan went up to the Abyss, were you seeking the War God’s help to sort out the Azure Dragon sword energy within you?”

“That is so.”

White Dusk nodded solemnly in reply. “Originally, we went to the Sacred Void Temple with sincere hearts to pay our respects to the War God, but before we even reached the sword pavilion, we were intercepted by the two holy sons of the Sacred Void Temple, along with eighty-one disciples.”

“Though we initially broke their Ninefold Ultimate Demon-Subduing Sword Formation, in the end we were still grievously injured under the combined assault of the two holy sons. Especially Lingyan—she was struck in the back by the innate Abyssal Celestial Force...”

“You’re saying that little girl Lingyan broke the Ninefold Ultimate Demon-Subduing Sword Formation?”

Brahma Sage stared at White Dusk in disbelief, and a trace of anxiety flickered across his face. This was perhaps the first time since White Dusk had known him that he had seen Brahma Sage visibly moved.

“Lingyan and I broke the formation together. Of course, Lingyan was absolutely the main force, while I was more like a burden to her,” White Dusk said with a light smile toward Brahma Sage, his face the picture of humility.

As for Brahma Sage—who was he? Though White Dusk had emphasized that Lingyan was the chief force in breaking the formation, the man’s keen and discerning gaze plainly sensed that White Dusk was the true center of it all.