Chapter Ninety-Seven: Realization

"I never expected that the righteous sects of today would come to this. The world has truly fallen into decay. It seems these many years of ease have made them swell with arrogance," sighed the Wolf King.

Long Yun nodded. "Indeed. How many among the righteous have already forgotten their ancestors' agreement, fighting one another without end? How many righteous disciples have died at the hands of their own people?"

The Wolf King could not help but sigh again. "The strange power within your body must be the power of that Heaven-Seizing Pill you spoke of."

Long Yun nodded with a bitter smile. "It was that Heaven-Seizing Pill that shattered all nine of my apertures. Now I possess a full cultivation base, yet cannot use even a trace of it."

The Wolf King's brow furrowed slightly, and he pointed out the crux of the matter in a single sentence: "Your condition is caused by your cultivation method. Now that your nine apertures have been scattered and dissolved, the breathing and circulation technique you used before has vanished as well. If you wish to control yourself again, you must create a cultivation art suited to your own constitution."

Long Yun nodded. He had not failed to think of this, but creating an entire cultivation method was easier said than done. With his own strength alone, he simply could not accomplish it.

He said immediately, "Senior, I have considered this as well, but my experience is still shallow. To this day I have no clear direction. Coming here this time, I also hoped that Senior might offer me some guidance."

"Guidance would be too grand a word. Come with me," said the Wolf King with a faint smile, and at once rose to his feet and walked outside.

Long Yun exchanged a glance with Yan Qingqing and followed behind the Wolf King. They traveled through the stone chambers until they came to the doorway of another room.

With a wave of the Wolf King's hand, the stone door swung open. He stepped inside first.

Long Yun entered after him. The chamber was empty, not even a stone bed within it, yet it was clean and orderly.

The Wolf King stood in the center of the chamber, lost in thought and silent. Long Yun stood quietly beside him.

"Does this chamber seem very clean to you?" the Wolf King asked suddenly.

Long Yun nodded. "It has the most primordial feeling. Though it contains nothing at all, it is filled with a sense of raw and original nature."

The Wolf King nodded and continued, "This chamber feels primordial because it still has no owner, and has not yet been altered according to anyone's will."

Long Yun pondered silently and said nothing.

The Wolf King went on, "If this chamber were mine, I would do this."

As he spoke, his palm moved, and a stream of emerald light burst forth. It slowly gathered in a corner, taking shape as a bed, and remained fixed there.

"And here!" Another surge of true energy formed a table, placing it in the very center of the chamber.

Then, with successive sweeps of his arm, one item after another, all formed from true energy, appeared within the room. The empty chamber gradually grew crowded.

At last, when the arrangement inside matched the chamber the Wolf King had lived in before, he finally stopped and said softly, "Only now does this chamber resemble the home in my heart."

Long Yun shook all over, as if he had grasped something profound. At once he sat cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes, and within his sea of consciousness, boundless spiritual sense began to whirl at high speed.

The cultivation methods he had once practiced passed through his mind one fragment at a time. He understood the Wolf King's metaphor: his own body was now like an empty stone chamber.

If he wanted to make it his home, he had to arrange it according to his own will. His meridians were already in this condition, like a man who possessed a mountain of gold yet did not know how to use it.

But he had to find the most perfect method to make fullest use of that mountain of gold.

"A promising youth can be taught," said the Wolf King with a smile when he saw Long Yun enter cultivation. His eyes were full of gratification.

Yan Qingqing glanced at the Wolf King, then at Long Yun, and muttered to herself, "I really don't know what the two of you are speaking in riddles about. How dull."

Hearing this, the Wolf King burst into laughter. Looking at Yan Qingqing with affection, he said, "Qingqing, when Long Yun comes out of seclusion, you should leave the Wolf Gorge with him."

Yan Qingqing froze at this. She had already had the same thought, but now the Wolf King had voiced it first. Looking at his aged face, her eyes gradually reddened.

The Wolf King said, "You never truly belonged here. Go. Only by staying at Long Yun's side can you live a truly happy life. Your fates have long been bound together."

Yan Qingqing's slender body trembled, and she blurted out, "Uncle Wolf King, ever since the first time I saw Brother, I've always felt that he carried a breath about him that seems familiar to me. You said I lost my memory. Did I really know him before?"

The Wolf King shook his head and smiled. "I do not know what happened to you before, but I do know this: the two of you are destined by nature. Just as he appeared here and then met you."

Yan Qingqing nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "Uncle Wolf King, then where exactly did I come from? Brother said he once saw someone who looked exactly like me."

The Wolf King was first taken aback, then nodded even more firmly. "So he had already seen her long ago. As I thought."

Then he changed the subject. "Being able to come here and meet me is also our destiny. Qingqing, do not think too much about the rest. In truth, Uncle would be very willing for you to remain here forever, to be a simple and innocent child. But since Long Yun has already appeared, you can no longer continue hiding like this."

Yan Qingqing did not quite understand the Wolf King's words, but she could feel his reluctance to part with her. Tears quietly slid down her cheeks.

"Qingqing also can't bear to leave Uncle," she said. "Then Qingqing won't leave yet."

"You will have to go in the end," the Wolf King sighed. "Let us leave for now. Stay with me a while and talk. Let Long Yun gain his own understanding here. His talent is astonishingly good; this secluded cultivation will bring him great rewards."

Yan Qingqing nodded and left the chamber with the Wolf King.

Long Yun, meanwhile, remained within the stone room, all his body and mind focused entirely in his sea of consciousness. He entered the supreme realm of the sword, drawn there by that miraculous longsword from Dragon God Island.

Through it, he had comprehended a full measure of sword intent. And as reality had already proven, sword intent was precisely the sort of thing one could encounter only by chance, never by force. The power within it was being uncovered by him bit by bit.

Within Long Yun's sea of consciousness now stood the illusory shadow of a giant sword before him. It was formed from sword intent, the condensation of a sword of intent and realm.

The Reincarnation Art and the Nine Heavens Demon Art circulated ceaselessly within his body. And there was another cultivation method as well, the Rising Dragon Art inherited from Qiuniu.

The Rising Dragon Art was likewise the life work of Qiuniu. According to its records, this method was born from the Creation Dragon God's Dragon God Art and contained the most primordial aura of the great Dao.

However, Long Yun had never cultivated this method, because once he succeeded in training the Rising Dragon Art, he would himself possess the characteristics of a dragon. That would be far too shocking to the world.

But now, Long Yun needed to create a cultivation method wholly his own, and the Rising Dragon Art was something he had to draw upon, because it contained the aura of the Dragon God Art.

That was the creative aura of the Creation Dragon God, the power of creation itself, the most fundamental force of all. If this creative aura were added to the cultivation method he sought to create, the results would be far greater for far less effort.

These three great cultivation arts were each enough to shake the Dragon Realm. Yet now all three actually existed within Long Yun alone, and even he could not help but feel astonished.

The Rising Dragon Art governed creation. The Reincarnation Art governed recovery. The Nine Heavens Demon Art governed body refinement. Once these three arts were fused by Long Yun and infused with his own elements, then the cultivation method about to be born would stand unrivaled beneath the heavens.

At this moment, however, Long Yun was not thinking so far ahead. Within his sea of consciousness, he was conducting a fundamental analysis of the three great arts, missing not a single detail. The three powers were being continuously broken down and integrated.

Time passed second by second. Long Yun had completely forgotten the concept of time, forgotten everything, as though he had lost his breath and lost his life.