Everywhere was white as the undulating mountains were covered with snow.
Cold fogs in the snowy sky were blown by the northern wind, and the forest was desolate. Ou Yangming walked slowly in the blizzard. His head had accumulated snow, where frost flowers could be seen on the hair on his temples. The journey was lonely, and the footsteps that he left in the snow were quickly covered by snow again. When the young fellow looked into the distance, he could see that the ground had turned into a boundless white arc that connected to the dusky sky, and it spread far away.
The goshawk, Big Yellow, and Multi-armed King Kong followed closely behind him.
Ou Yangming picked up a dead branch and dragged it behind him, causing a curvy line to be drawn on the snowy ground. He asked with a smile, “Goshawk, you’re at the peak of an Advanced Spiritualist now, right?”
The goshawk was flying in the sky at the moment. It looked at Multi-armed King Kong with a complicated look on its face, then it nodded to respond to the young fellow.
Big Yellow’s fur was shiny and incredibly soft. It curled its lips and revealed its sharp teeth.
“How’s the establishment of the store going so far?” Ou Yangming exerted more force through his hand, by which the dry branch went deeper into the ground. Consequently, the accumulated snow in its path flew to the sides, leaving a clear trail on the ground.
Big Yellow shook its round body to get rid of the snow before it replied to him, “With the Beast King Sect’s support and the Beyond Heaven Pavilion’s promotion, it’s developing quickly in the Beast King Sect’s boundary. On the contrary, it’s being suppressed by the aristocratic families outside of the boundary controlled by the sect.”
Ou Yangming shook his head and sighed. “A cake is only that big, so those local tyrants naturally don’t want to share it.” He paused on purpose then continued with an overbearing look in his eyes. “Since they’re not willing to share it, we’ll just snatch it from them. Since we have the Beyond Heaven Pavilion as our support, we don’t need to be afraid of causing trouble.” A fleeting luster could be seen in his eyes before he sighed and thought, ‘This will be a good opportunity to test the Beyond Heaven Pavilion’s bottom line. Given that they’re an influential force, I don’t believe that they’re really so kind.’
At the end of the day, the great truth was the word “benefit”. If not, the proverb “every hustle and bustle in the world was only for money” would not exist.
Multi-armed King Kong touched its head simple-mindedly and nodded as though it understood what was going on. After becoming a Venerable One, it revered Ou Yangming more because of the natal contract between them. At this point, the king kong truly sensed how exactly mighty the Heavenly Phoenix Fire was. The fire was simply a power that could destroy everything in the world—it was invincible.
Ou Yangming sorted out everything that happened from the beginning of when he entered the Spiritual Realm. No matter big or small, important or less important, he organized them thoroughly. After making sure that he did not miss out on anything, he slowly walked deeper into the snowfield.
The mountains were getting steeper. As Ou Yangming looked at the winding mountain paths ahead, he lamented, “Back in the room by the precipice, Wu Hanning told me that when a person grinds an ink stick, the ink stick polishes the person, and it’s a process that tempers one’s heart. Now that we’re walking on this winding path, we’re neither in a hurry nor slow, and our footsteps move up and down. Aren’t we tempering our hearts too?”
His voice spread far and wide in the barren forest.
He walked in front like an ordinary person while the spiritual power fluctuation on his body slowly dispersed.
The young fellow looked calm and carefree as he dragged the dry branch on the ground.
Big Yellow was about to speak when it was stopped by Multi-armed King Kong’s eyes.
The spirit beasts that follow behind Ou Yangming did not make a sound.
Ou Yangming let the falling snow land on his head. With every step he took, his leg went deep inside the snowy ground. His aura became gently and completely merged with the blizzard, such that it became an inseparable part of the world. Moreover, every step that the young fellow took coincided with the natural law as if this was how they should be taken, to the extent that the slightest difference would make them flawed.
Multi-armed King Kong was appalled. At this moment, Ou Yangming’s aura had completely disappeared from its senses.
Although the young fellow was in front of it, it could not find anything when it searched with its mind.
Master Kurong would be so surprised that he would be speechless if he was present to see this. This was because Ou Yangming was undergoing an instant comprehension of the universe’s maxim, which was something that he had desired for a long time. As long as one entered this state, one would gain unimaginable benefits.
Multi-armed King Kong lowered its voice as much as it could. ‘Let’s follow Master from a distance away and don’t disturb him.”
Big Yellow and the goshawk nodded with grave looks on their faces, then they hid in the dark.
After walking for an unknown period, a big river appeared in front of Ou Yangming. It was the Tianlan River. Cold mists were drifting on the river while it flowed calmly. It did not carry the majestic momentum that it had before when the water surged restlessly.
Ou Yangming wondered, ‘Should I ride my flying carpet to cross the river?’
At the spur of the moment, a small boat was slowly steered to the riverbank, where an old man tied it to a spot. He wore a straw cape, hand fingers that were red due to the cold, and his face was covered with wrinkles. The old man later revealed teeth that had turned yellow due to smoke, and he laughed brightly before he asked, “Hehe, are you getting impatient from waiting? It’s winter now and it’s cold. Since there are lesser people that’ll cross the river, there are lesser ferrymen too. Quickly come on the boar. There’s a furnace here and a warm pot of unstrained liquor. The liquor’s homemade, so it’s neither valuable nor rich in flavor, but it’ll surely warm your body!”
While he spoke, he stomped his foot to retrieve a wooden plank to place it ashore. Afterward, he knocked it hard and made sure that it would not fall into the water before he got up.
He looked like an honest ferryman at one glance.
Upon seeing this, Ou Yangming’s heart was as calm as a mirror as though something that could not be sought was ready to come out at his call.
Without forcing it, he went with the flow and his heart, where he slowly walked over and cupped his hands at the elder. “I’ve just arrived. Thank you, elder.”
The elder’s hands were covered with calluses. He removed the straw cape from his shoulders and waved his hand, then he spoke in a low, muffled sound, “I’ll be charging, so you can’t ride the boat for free. Now that I’m old, I can only earn some money by doing this. When I was younger, I didn’t even pant when I rowed back and forth. It would’ve been fine for me to give you a free life back then but now… I need to charge you.” He reminded the young fellow again.
Before his voice died away, a little girl with bright eyes and clear teeth peeped from the cabin. She looked shy but curious, hence she returned to the cabin after taking a look. The old man looked lovingly at her and said with a smile, “That’s my granddaughter.”
He slapped his thigh after a brief moment. “Look, I’m being silly again. Quickly come up, quickly come up.”
Ou Yangming immediately stepped on the plank and paced toward the cabin.
In the corner of the cabin, the little girl fanned the fire, causing hot air to be released. A pot of unrestrained liquor was being warmed on the furnace, where its aroma filled the air. The little girl looked curiously at Ou Yangming before she smiled gently.
The old man was rowing the boat with a bamboo stick as he noted with a smile, “The little girl’s usually shy with strangers, but she actually hit it off with you. She was orphaned at an early age, so she followed me and has been ferrying with me here for years. Due to the wind and rain, she has been suffering a lot. Unfortunately, she’s a girl. If she were a boy, I would’ve sacrificed everything to let her learn how to read. After all, a person that reads sounds great and extremely honorable.”
Ou Yangming seemed to have seen himself from his previous life. A look of sympathy could be seen in his eyes as he approached the girl and pinched her red cheek.
The little girl put down her fan and handed a handful of melon seeds to Ou Yangming. “Here, older brother, this is for you!”
“This little girl’s usually very stingy. Normally, I can’t even have any of her melon seeds. I’ve been ferrying here for 3 decades while she has followed me for 6 to 7 years, but I’ve never seen her share her seeds. In fact, she barely spoke to anyone.” The elder chuckled again.
Ou Yangming looked even more pitifully at the little girl as he accepted the seed. The girl then smiled shyly and pushed her little braid beside her ear to the back.
She took a withered and yellow bamboo stick behind her and stuck it into the river. Before long, she managed to catch a carp.
At this moment, Ou Yangming realized that nothing was on the bamboo, but the carp bit the bamboo and was pulled onto the boat by the little girl.
Ou Yangming was shocked, so he asked, “This little girl’s fishing only with a bamboo stick?”
The old man smiled and answered, “How can there be so much logic in the world? If things make sense, they do. The natural law’s constant yet irregular anyway… For instance, this fight might one day be able to make significant advancement and show its grace extensively.
“However big one’s heart is, that’s how big the universe is. Whether this is a river or an ocean, it only takes a flash of thought for you to decide. You think that the snowy mountain beside the river is only about 333 meters tall because you’re not broad-minded enough to accommodate it in your mind. To me, this mountain can hold out against the vault of heaven if I say it can.” The old man’s voice was hearty, but an indescribable feeling lingered.
The voice roared in Ou Yangming’s mind, and he mumbled, “The natural law’s constant yet irregular? However big one’s heart is, that’s how big the universe is?” As he looked dumbfoundedly at the surging river in front of him, he seemed to have forgotten about the time and place. After an unknown period, the boat finally pulled in to shore. The young fellow then paid for his fare and cupped his hands at the boat as it left into the distance.
Ou Yangming looked like he was pondering. For some reason, the roughly 333-meters tall snow mountain grew taller without a limit in his perspective and his mind. When he stared at the river, his eyes shone brighter, and he kept repeating the old man’s words softly.
All of a sudden, a luster was seen in Ou Yangming’s eyes. The spiritual Qi inside his dantian surged intensely while the shackles in his heart broke into pieces!
From his point of view, the snow mountain beside the Tianlan River grew taller out of the blue from about 333 meters to 3 kilometers, 33 kilometers… At last, it made a hole in the sky.
The reflection of the snow mountain could also be seen in Ou Yangming’s eyes. A 3-kilometers tall mountain appeared in his mind, and it continued to grow bit by bit without a limit. This was the Big Avalanche, and this was the power of comprehending the universe instantly.
If the snow mountain became 33 kilometers tall or even hundreds of kilometers tall, could one imagine how frightening it would be when Ou Yangming used the Big Avalanche to activate path intent with his spear? If the peak was tall enough, he might be the first Spiritualist to kill a Venerable One.
The snow mountain inside Ou Yangming’s spiritual world was magnanimous. It grew taller and stood proudly while the snow at its peak became thinker.
Some day, an avalanche would take place and emit the brightest light ever. The avalanche would not halt, and the spear force would not stop. The spear would be an unstoppable spear that could lift the sky and destroy deities.
In a way, Ou Yangming gained unimaginable benefits from his instant comprehension this time.
The snow mountain in his spiritual world was eventually covered in thicker snow while the peak was surrounded by cold mists. He slowly opened his eyes and bowed at the Tianlan River.
