Chapter 199: Ginkgo Sanctuary
Two hours later, Yan Ping heard her disciple finally hoisting herself over the railing. She smirked behind the teacup. Flying up the tree house was merely a red herring. The true lesson was scanning the tree for hidden footholds carved into it. Over the years, the footholds had been covered over by tough bark. However, Anji can easily kick the bark. The difficulty was in locating the hidden footholds.
Red-faced and exhausted, Anji flopped over on the front deck. She thought she would fall over as she climbed. Looking down halfway through her climb, Anji’s fear propelled her onwards even when her nails were chipped and fingers bled. She eventually realised that the same technique of coating her feet with energy could be used on her hands. After doing so, Anji almost immediately located all the strange carved spots along the back of the tree.
"Don’t just lie there," Yan Ping frowned. "The forest is full of natural energy. If you circulate that, you’d recover within a few minutes."
Exhausted but enlightened, Anji closed her eyes again and meditated. The dense natural energy in the forest was of the purest quality Anji had ever encountered. Her shifu did not lie. After circulating the energy five times, Anji was brimming with energy. The bleeding at her fingertips stopped, and even the torn skin healed perfectly.
"This is amazing!"
Yan Ping offered her a drink, chuckling at how easily impressed her disciple was. Although the tree house did not have spells, that did not mean she would give up on having amenities built into it with clever invention. A water tank collected dew and rainwater from the roof, giving them enough water without needing to head to the river. Additionally, there were candles and piled firewood in the corner.
"Welcome to the Ginkgo Forest of the Mystical Qilin Sect. It was originally a Redwood patch, but a lightning strike started a huge fire and burned down all the other Redwood trees. This is the last remaining Redwood that grew from a sapling that my shifu took care of. It was her sanctuary away from everyone else. She planted many ginkgo trees around it because she needed the ginkgo leaves to make her tonic and keep herself sane. Back in the days when she lived here, the Ginkgo trees were always bare because she took their leaves faster than they could grow."
Those were ginkgo trees? Anji scrambled to the side and peered out. The leaves were green, whereas she had always thought they would be yellow. Maybe the trees did not register that autumn was here due to the difference in energy and climate.
"Did you use the carved footholds to climb up this tree when you were younger too?" Anji asked out of curiosity.
Yan Ping tried to recall. Back during her younger days, she remembered her teacher carving the footholds because she had to carry supplies up into the tree. Even lightweight footwork masters found it difficult to scale a redwood tree vertically with a cart full of alcohol.
"No, that was not for me. It was for the people who needed to carry supplies to the tree house," Yan Ping explained, omitting the names of people who used it.
Satisfied with the answer, Anji finally looked around the tree house. From below, it looked impressively large. However, now that she was in it, the hut was about the same size as Yan Ping’s humble abode. It did not have any spells and arrays, but it was cosy and had all the necessities to live in it for a few days.
"This is the best place to get used to feeling pure energy," Yan Ping explained after Anji had given herself a tour. "However, I’m here to teach you how to undo the seal on your cultivation core if the situation requires it."
Shocked, Anji quickly sat down. What did her shifu mean? Didn’t her father seal her cultivation core because it was too strong for her physical vessel? Her shifu even added a third seal on top of the first two. Why would she give Anji the key to a lock meant to prevent her from accessing a forbidden door?
"Shifu, why are you teaching me this? Shouldn’t the seal never be loosened?"
It was difficult to explain to a child what a desperate circumstance was. Anji was an obedient girl. Yan Ping knew she would never walk the path of evil, even if it ended in her self-destruction. Of all the four children of the Celestial Dragon Sect, Anji was the one who took after Zhao Mingfeng’s kindness the most, while Zhao Ruiting inherited Zhao Wanting’s sense of righteousness. The words ’duty’* were imprinted strongly in both girls, one to pave a way for the sect and shoulder all its responsibilities, the other to heal the world of its pain by taking it upon herself.
"There will always be exceptions to any rule," the blind prophet explained. "I’m not teaching you this so that you can kill yourself. I’m teaching you this so that you can save yourself if I’m not there."
Calming down, Anji listened closely. It was true that there would be situations when her shifu would not be around, and Anji could only rely on herself. While she loved her family, nobody else was more competent at spells and arrays than her outside of the Mystical Qilin Sect.
"Anji is listening," she nodded. "What will happen if you unseal my cultivation core before I’m ready?"
Unwilling to hide the truth from Anji, Yan Ping explained the risks.
"You will have two hours to live and die if nobody else is around to help you seal the rapidly advancing golden core and repair your meridians. That’s why you should never do it unless it is a dire situation."
Presently, Anji was at the Strengthened Core stage. However, Yan Ping told her that her true cultivation level, which was sealed, had to be past the Transcendent stage and had already entered the Heavenly Core realm. Without the seals containing it, she would be dead.
"I was going to loosen the seal bit by bit as you grow up and become stronger to match what your body can handle," Yan Ping confessed. "I thought you would only challenge the successor trials after you became an adult and could contain an Enlightened Core. However, I know you want to help your brothers in the upcoming war."
Ah, no wonder her shifu was teaching her how to undo her seals. Once a successor enters the successor trial chamber, not even the Sect Leader can enter and interfere. More importantly, Anji would be undergoing isolation training with a weird cultivation technique that was neither good nor evil. There was a high chance Anji might experience a qi deviation or heart demons. Learning how her seals worked might save her from dying prematurely.
"Anji was too short-sighted. Shifu, please teach me how the seals work!"
Anji’s quick acceptance of learning the dead man’s switch and failsafe created a complicated feeling inside Yan Ping. Children should have the right to laugh and be childish while they are young. However, Anji was already preparing herself to participate in a war that should have ended decades ago. Feeling proud but resentful, Yan Ping dove straight into it.
AN: Duty in Chinese is 2 characters (ze ren) hence plural form used here.