Chapter 91: I Even Deceive Myself

At that moment, a flood of memory returned to him.

So I am not Feng after all. I am Heavenly One, the Daoist of Heavenly One.

The past is gone like yesterday’s dead ashes. Today begins anew.

In an instant, his awakened consciousness linked up with his true body, tens of thousands of miles away.

In the cave, Feng, having received the reply, nodded in satisfaction.

Perfect plan.

To make himself appear flawless, his true body had deliberately altered Heavenly One’s memory with his divine technique.

In that way, he could avoid all tests involving the heart and mind, such as mind stones and heart-seeing steles.

But unexpectedly, the Seven Sects of the Mystic Origin were so careless, or perhaps simply did not care.

They had thrown everyone straight into the outer sect and left time to judge all things.

That had caused part of Feng’s scheme to fall through.

What was so great about deceiving others?

At times, I do not even know what kind of person I am.

I even deceive myself.

This move had originally been reserved for Golden Immortals, and even the legendary Great Luo Immortals.

But for safety’s sake, Feng still used it.

After all, the boundless primordial world was vast. Who knew whether there were a few immortals with deep schemes and city hearts, deliberately hiding themselves in small sects and playing the role of a sweeping monk?

The primordial world was far too treacherous. One had to be careful.

He was still a novice; when out in the world, he had to learn to protect himself properly.

As he continued reading the memories transmitted by Heavenly One, Feng could not help but shake his head.

A puppet was still a puppet. Without the true body’s control, it was not agile enough.

That step of deleting and altering the old Daoist’s memory—

Though it seemed sound, it contained flaws and the possibility of exposure.

This was the primordial world, not the lower realms.

The mistake Heavenly One had made was caution taken to an unnatural extreme.

One must know: the Great Way is as if incomplete; great accomplishment seems wanting; great fullness seems hollow; great straightness seems crooked; great skill seems clumsy; great eloquence seems awkward.

To pursue perfection is, paradoxically, to become imperfect.

After a moment of thought, Feng split off a strand of divine sense and sent it after the old Daoist.

Although the seal was impregnable, and the combined suppression of the dual hands and fortune was not something a single primordial spirit could shake, it was still best to keep watch until the old Daoist’s reincarnation.

Generally speaking, an ordinary primordial spirit lived for about three thousand years. So let him set a small goal: watch for a thousand years.

After perfectly concealing his divine sense beside the old Daoist, Feng nodded in satisfaction.

Just as he was about to enter meditation and draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to fill his tall, bottle-like cultivation vessel, a flash of inspiration struck him.

What if Heavenly One, under his control and memory alteration, deliberately hid things and deceived himself?

Then how could he be sure that he himself was not a puppet?

The true body had altered his memory, and then he had altered Heavenly One’s memory.

Only by stacking layer upon layer like that would it be foolproof.

In the cave, Feng smiled in understanding, causing lotus blossoms in the pool beside him to open one after another, releasing a fragrant scent.

Even I do not know where I am. Who could possibly discover where I am? What is the true self, and what is the false self?

What if the second layer of me, and the true body hidden beneath layers whose number I do not even know, are all false?

If Heavenly One, after joining the Grand Two Sect, altered two layers of memory, then perhaps he was the true body all along.

Perhaps that would be the real safety.

...

The Grand Two Sect stood amid a mountain range, with five peaks towering upward, subtly aligned with the principles of the five elements and concealed by a grand formation.

This was extremely common, and entirely normal, among the many sects of the primordial world.

The Five Elements Grand Formation was easy to learn but difficult to master. Still, once activated, even a novice could hold it for a while.

That was why five-element formations were the first choice of small sects.

After the middle-aged primordial spirit threw dozens of people onto the northernmost peak, he left behind a casual remark.

"This is the outer sect. Your senior brother will explain the rest to you."

Then he mounted his flying sword and departed in haste.

The crowd stood there in confusion. The three wandering cultivators, including Feng, were fine, but the remaining mortals looked at one another in bewilderment.

A moment later, a pale-faced Daoist emerged from a nearby hut, lifted his eyelids to sweep a glance over the group, and then said weakly, "From now on, you are disciples of the Grand Two Sect. Come to me tomorrow to receive your cultivation methods."

"Also, outer sect disciples must fetch water, chop wood, and clean the sect every day. The outer sect elders will explain the rest later."

One of the middle-aged innate wandering cultivators clasped his hands and asked, "May I ask for your honorable name, Senior Brother? And where are we to stay?"

The pale-faced Daoist raised his head slightly and smiled without expression. "Poor Daoist is Much-Too-Void, the great senior brother of the outer sect."

"There. Your quarters are behind this area. Do not trouble me unless it is important."

Much-Too-Void pointed off to one side.

Feng turned and looked. In the distance, there were indeed a row of dark specks.

His divine sense swept over them: a row of low houses, along with many disciples dressed in Grand Two Sect robes, all busy with their own matters and seldom speaking to one another. Their expressions were just as pale as Much-Too-Void’s.

In short, it was all too plain.

No sect-entry provocations, no factional struggles, not even the classic humiliation-and-face-slapping routines of senior brothers bullying junior brothers and junior sisters.

A faint sense of doubt rose in Feng’s heart.

But someone soon answered his confusion.

A young master with fine skin and luxurious clothes frowned and asked, "May I ask, Senior Brother, how long must outer sect disciples spend fetching water and chopping wood? We still need to cultivate."

Much-Too-Void smiled lightly. "Until you enter the inner sect."

The crowd all breathed a sigh of relief, because the middle-aged primordial spirit Daoist had said that inner sect examinations would come in as little as decades and at most centuries.

For a cultivator, that span of years was nothing.

So long as one entered the inner sect and obtained true transmission, all hardship would be worth it.

Those who had made it this far might not all be geniuses, but at the very least they were not fools, and naturally understood that the Dao of immortality was hard to seek and not lightly passed on.

Much-Too-Void said slowly, "You seem very happy."

The crowd was at a loss. Several of them were just about to say something when Much-Too-Void added, "You are happy too early. Did Fire Cloud Uncle-Master tell you that inner sect examinations come in as little as decades and at most centuries?"

Everyone nodded in unison.

Much-Too-Void gave a miserable laugh. "Do you know how many examinations I have gone through?"

No matter how the others reacted, he went on to murmur to himself, "When I first entered the sect, Fire Cloud Uncle-Master told me the same thing."

"But I went through thirty-six examinations in all. Once every fifty years. For more than a thousand years, I remained on the mountain and never once went down."

"Grand Two Sect rule: if you do not enter the inner sect, you are forbidden to leave the mountain."

The atmosphere froze at once. This was not cultivation at all; it was practically a prison...

After a moment, someone asked, "Has anyone ever succeeded?"

Much-Too-Void looked up at the sky and said flatly, "Two thousand years ago, Fire Cloud Uncle-Master succeeded once."

The crowd breathed easy again. So someone had succeeded after all; it was not a dead end.

Much-Too-Void cast them a pitying glance, but there was one thing he did not say.

In fifty thousand years, Fire Cloud Uncle-Master was the only one who had ever successfully entered the inner sect.

After hearing this brief introduction, Feng kept the same outward expression as everyone else: nervous, yet faintly hopeful, wishing himself to be the exception.

But inside, he was overjoyed.

As expected, the Grand Two Sect was simply made for him.

I got home today after spending the whole day on the road, and I’m a bit dizzy, so the update is late.

Also, here are a few books to recommend to anyone short on reading material.

Xiong Er’s The Celestial Qin Multiverse Empire. He writes primordial-world stories quite well, using the worldview of the Three Sovereigns race. I’ve read several of his books; his new one is about Celestial Qin conquering myriad worlds. Readers who enjoy primordial-world and heavens-spanning fiction may want to take a look.

I Have Survived 999 Heavenly Tribulations is also a steady-style novel, about the Sword God of Ten-Mile Slope. Watermelon’s The Primordial World of the Daoist of Great Yi is one of this year’s primordial-world novels. There is also League of Legends: The Road to the Championship, a League novel; and Soloing Through the Heavens, a heavens-spanning novel now at the Heaven Sword tale arc.

The End