While he was traveling through the mountain, she was waiting quietly in Chang’an City.
Different people in different places felt a different coldness despite experiencing the same winter. Fortunately, the night was fair enough to submerge both the Tianqi Mountains as well as the city in darkness. In the late winter of Lin 47th Street, the Old Brush Pen Shop once again ushered in a typical night.
Sangsang was seated on a small bench in the small courtyard, watching the white light dancing on her fingertips. The light illuminated her little tan face and made her willow-shape eyes look brighter, as if she was longing for something.
The old man looked at her with a smile, his hands hidden in sleeves. The cotton-padded jacket on his body was much cleaner now and his grey hair was combed over neatly. He still looked as ordinary and unassuming as ever, making it hard for people to believe that he was the Great Divine Priest of Light of the West-Hill Divine Palace.
Snow started falling in the city several days ago and stopped tonight, clearing up the dark sky. Million of shining bright stars looked down upon the buildings on the ground, as well as the people that occupied them.
The Divine light gradually disappeared on her thin fingertips. Sangsang looked up at the stars in the sky and asked seriously, “Teacher, the Divine Skill can perceive and control the Haotian Divine light, namely the sunshine. So why can it also perceive and control the star light?”
The old man removed his hands from his sleeves, ready to give an answer with some Haotian doctrines.
Sangsang didn’t notice his movement and squinted at the night stars, her eyebrows remained knitted. “Are these stars in the sky are countless suns? But they’re too far away from us, so they look a little smaller and dimmer. Was that why their aura felt so much weaker at night when I use the Divine Skill?”
The old man lamented how he only thought of this point after cultivating the Divine Skill for three years, yet his new disciple had grasped it so soon. He couldn’t help the many complicated emotions that came to him, like joy, pride, and some disappointment too. “Theoretically, that should be so. But I’ve once seen the appearance of stars years ago and it was different from how I imagined them.”
Sangsang turned her gaze to the old man. “Teacher, cultivators manipulate weapons to attack others by controlling Qi of Heaven and Earth. How can we Divine Skill cultivators attack others?”
The old man shook his head with a smile, thinking that his disciple still wanted to use Divine Skill to attack others. Not knowing the reason behind her obsession, he said softly, “Haotian Divine Light is the most static one as well as the origin of all primordial Qi on heaven and earth. But it’s also the most violent because it can purify all things in the world into nothingness.”
A wilted leaf floated onto her knees. She looked at traces of snow remaining on the leaf and gently wiped them away. She looked at the old man and continued to ask solemnly, “What does Haotian Divine Light use to purify everything in the world? Is it like creating a fire through burning firewood?”
He didn’t expect her to use firewoods as an analogy for the purification of Divine Light and burst into laughter.
He explained carefully, “You can think of Divine Light as numerous tiny particles that can’t be seen by naked eyes at all. These particles can emit light and have an almost unlimited speed. However, when they spread out at such a speed, they’ll lose all their power.”
“The transmission of the Divine Light is more similar to the rippling of the lake water. The power contained in the waves is its power. But your analogy isn’t wrong. Only when the particles in the Divine Light vibrate violently and produce an intensely high temperature that doesn’t exist in the secular world, will it demonstrate its unique power of purifying everything in the world.”
The old man looked at Sangsang’s thoughtful little face and said, after a short moment of pause, “The Divine Skill is a very powerful ability. But the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Anyone who wants to have this ability must have a corresponding moral character. One must be pure in heart and hold an upright outlook so that he won’t become wicked. That way there wouldn’t be any side effects.”
In his eyes, Sangsang was clean and pure from her hair to her toes. That was why he had been loitering around Lin 47th Street for so many days like he had found a treasure. He thought she was the Lucky Chance that Haotian had bestowed him.
The reason why he spoke of the upright outlook so seriously was that he feared his disciple would be tainted by the darkness of the world and be discredited by the dust when he left the world in the future.
There was a well in the courtyard, with a bucket of water next to it. The starlight infiltrated the water but couldn’t linger there.
Sangsang shook her head. “Transparency has no color. Both darkness and brightness are all colors.”
The old man fell into silence as he slowly pondered her words, finding them to be reasonable. He vaguely thought her argument to be right and lamented that perhaps only truly pure people could realize the truth.
Sangsang continued, “Young master once taught me that power was just power without any inclinations toward good or evil. He told me not to believe any sayings like “one is born good or evil.'”
The old man looked into her eyes, seeing nothing but conviction and trust in them. His expression shifted, thinking that the young master she spoke of seemed to be an interesting person.
In his many visits to the Old Brush Pen Shop lately, he came to learn from Sangsang the many nonsensical sayings or epigraphs that young master had once mentioned. He became curious about how the young master could develop such a realistic and certain point of view, lamenting the young master’s luck to have Sangsang to so unreasonably trust and rely on him.
“Since you’re more interested in the power of Divine Skill, then let’s give a try.”
With a smile, the old man stretched out his index finger and a flame of light appeared on his fingertip. There was no temperature to the white flame, but in the next moment the courtyard was enveloped with a dry aura and the flame quickly became heated.
“First, we have to perceive and condense the Haotian Divine Light on heaven and earth as we’ve done recently and ask it to radiate its heat and power beyond its light.”
The white flame of light floated down from the old man’s fingers and fell on the wilted leaf that Sangsang had brushed off from her knees. Following a gentle sound, the leaf and the remainders of snow on it disappeared instantly without a trace.
Looking at the scene, Sangsang lowered her head to mull over it silently. When she looked up, she imitated the old man and stretched her index finger. A round and lovely flame of light carrying an impossibly high temperature showed on her fingertip.
The old man looked at the flame on her fingertip. Though he had experienced too many shocks from this little disciple of his these days, there were hints of exclamation and joyful satisfaction in his old eyes.
Did she really condensed the Haotian Divine Light with just a glance and actually used it after a second glance?
The old man was once praised as the most brilliant Great Divine Priest of Light after the legendary figure a thousand years ago. He was the person closest to Haotian in this world. However, he was well aware that he couldn’t achieve that and that legendary figure wasn’t able to either.
Sangsang looked at the flame on her fingertip, a hesitant look creeping onto her face. She seemed like she didn’t know how to deal with it. She looked at the kitchen, the firewoods under the stove, and the water pot on it. She remembered she was preparing to boil water earlier. Her willow-shape eyes suddenly brightened as she gently flicked the flame on her fingertip into the stove.
That round flame floated into the stove and gently fell on the dry firewoods. The dry firewoods were instantly lit with a sizzle and started burning. Soon, there were strands of steam emerging from the water pot.
The flame that floated into the stove didn’t burn the firewoods into smokes, indicating that the Divine Light condensed by Sangsang was much weaker than that of her master in terms of purity and power. But she showed not a single hint of frustration and smiled happily instead. She thought it was wonderful that she didn’t have to waste any dry firewoods or the flame on her fingertip.
“Teacher, the hot water is ready. You can wash the dishes now.”
The old man stood up and clumsily rolled up his thick cotton sleeves as he walked toward the kitchen. Fortunately what he had was broth fish noodles and not chicken noodles. It would be much easier to wash it as the bowl would not be so oily.