Fan Xian stood under the great green tree, one hand on his hip, the other gently patting the trunk. Though he spoke of reluctance, his eyes twinkled with amusement. He was as shameless as could be, every inch of him seemingly divided into small squares, each bearing a large character that screamed "shameless."

A perfect example of a despicable character. This young man from Nan Qing, in the presence of Si Gu Jian, was not just annoying, but downright offensive.

The little Emperor of Bei Qi, who had been silently listening to their conversation, digesting the shock and trying to seize an opportunity, could no longer bear it. She looked at Fan Xian and sighed, "How can a person be so shameless?"

Fan Xian glanced back at her, offering a self-deprecating smile. "You should know that I've studied the Heavenly One Path, and you should know that I'm familiar with the Ba Dao manual. If I were to learn from Si Gu Jian as well, while it might be said that it's good to have more skills, I feel like I would become a monster, and perhaps destroy all future possibilities... The most important thing is, I've never believed in love or hate without a reason."

He turned to Si Gu Jian in his wheelchair, and said softly, "You still haven't given up on your idea, have you? Do you old fellows want to create an opponent for my imperial father before you die?"

Si Gu Jian’s face was impassive as he said, “Among the three of you, I used to have the least expectations of you. But I didn’t expect that in the past two years, you’ve changed a lot, improved a lot, which is quite surprising.”

Fan Xian lowered his head slightly and replied, "One always learns something from experiencing life and death."

He knew that Si Gu Jian was referring to himself, Haitang, and Wang Shisanlang, the three young people most likely to approach the Grandmaster realm. After thinking for a moment, he continued, "Thirteen should have studied it, but even he couldn't grasp its true meaning, let alone me."

Si Gu Jian remained silent. The little Emperor of Bei Qi smiled slightly and said to Fan Xian, "If you really don't want to learn, why not give the opportunity to me?"

"You?" Fan Xian laughed heartily, saying, "Your Majesty truly acts unlike ordinary people."

The little Emperor pursed her thin lips and replied with a smile, "Sword Saint Si Gu Jian only wants to create more trouble for Emperor Qing after his death. You're his illegitimate son, so I'm afraid you won't be able to bring yourself to do it. Passing it on to me seems more direct."

Hearing this, even Si Gu Jian couldn't help but rasp a laugh, saying, "I never thought there would be so many interesting people in the world."

"Alright, no need to mention irrelevant matters." Fan Xian stood seriously behind Si Gu Jian, gently holding the back of the wheelchair with both hands, and said, "Since I'm going to learn, I have to seize the time. Do I need to bathe and fast for a few days?"

Si Gu Jian's expression was a little strange. He looked back at Fan Xian and said, "A sword is used to kill people. Even if you wash for a hundred days, you'll still end up covered in blood. Why bother washing?"

Fan Xian shook his head and said, "Since you want to teach me, you have to act like a teacher."

"You should have learned quite a bit about swordplay from him." Si Gu Jian narrowed his eyes slightly and said coldly, "A sword is just a dead object. The hand holds it. No matter which direction you thrust from, or which way you slash, no matter how varied the changes, you can’t exceed ten thousand possibilities… After all, space is limited."

Fan Xian listened silently and attentively. The little Emperor closed her eyes tightly, unwilling to miss a single word from Si Gu Jian. Even if her realm wasn't high enough for her to understand much, she still forcibly memorized everything. There were still many talented experts in the Bei Qi court, such as Haitang, who was far away on the grasslands.

"How a sword is thrust to kill a person is a matter of swordsmanship, and the variations in swordsmanship are always finite. Over thousands of years, countless predecessors have put in tremendous effort. As the saying goes, there's nothing new under the sun. No matter how much it changes, it has already been deduced."

"So swordplay is never the most important part." Si Gu Jian's only remaining arm rested calmly on the armrest of the wheelchair, slowly stroking it as if stroking the hilt of an ancient sword. "When you feel a certain realm, you should understand that what a sharp sword for killing needs you to consider isn't how to kill, but that... you should kill."

The words seemed profound, yet Fan Xian understood them. Wu Zhu had once talked to Fan Xian about the so-called "substance and momentum." Substance referred to the level of true qi cultivation within the body, while momentum included too much, such as aura and specific techniques. Swordsmanship was undoubtedly included in the word "momentum," but what Si Gu Jian was talking about had already exceeded the scope of "substance and momentum."

"It's intent, it's will. When your substance and momentum have reached their peak, what needs to be broken through is intent and will."

Si Gu Jian spoke coldly, then looked up at the great green tree above. In an instant, a sword intent filled his eyes, piercing the sky. Countless birds and insects within the great green tree sensitively felt the killing intent that filled the air. They fled in panic, emitting countless shrill chirps and calls. The birds turned into countless black dots, flying out of the deep, wide green canopy, heading straight for the clouds under the sky, wanting to get as far away from this place as possible.

Si Gu Jian's voice grew lower and lower.

"Humans aren't gods. Their physical bodies are containers, which ultimately have limits. The cultivation of true qi, the increase in real realms, will stop at a certain stage, a stage that the physical meridians cannot accommodate."

"If you forcibly cultivate and improve, you can only cause your meridians to break and become a cripple. Of course, raising another foot above the vast sea, having reached the Ninth Rank, is already extremely difficult to improve further."

Si Gu Jian's eyes were still quietly watching the green canopy. Fan Xian and the little Emperor listened quietly by the side. The atmosphere in the arena was a bit strange. The little Emperor was not a martial arts expert, so she didn't understand some things. However, Fan Xian immediately grasped the true meaning—whether it was Lang Tao, Yun Zhilan, or himself, they had all entered the Ninth Rank, but they could no longer improve their cultivation. This was because they had reached the limit of the human body. No matter how hard they cultivated, they could only maintain themselves in this realm.

"Substance is like water in a jar, and momentum is like the way the water is sprinkled." Si Gu Jian said leisurely, "A jar of water can never irrigate tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. This is the so-called limit. If you can't break through the scope of momentum, you can only sprinkle water one ladle at a time. You can't change your petty ways. No matter how many techniques and swordplay you learn, the roots are still the same. Of course, you can't experience the feeling of a major river breaching its banks."

"So the key is still the true qi in the body." Fan Xian subconsciously added, thinking of Emperor Qing's unfathomable Kingly true qi, which was like the Eastern Sea.

"There is always a balance and mutual restraint between realms... Substance is certainly the most important thing, but if you can't master a method to release the substance in your body, you can't possess substance beyond the ordinary."

"It's like if a big river breaches its banks, if you can't control the direction of the river, the mysterious heavens will definitely not bestow you with a big river." Si Gu Jian sneered and said, "Because heaven has a love for life, it won't let a person die easily."

"This statement is too idealistic, and I suddenly discovered that although you have cultivated the most experts in the world, when it comes to the level of teaching students, it's actually about the same as Uncle Wu Zhu." Fan Xian sighed, thinking that what Si Gu Jian said was all very reasonable, but it was just nonsense. Without a method to control the true qi in the body, the self-imposed limitations within the human body would certainly not allow the true qi to expand without limit. But if the true qi couldn't be improved and exceed that critical point, it would be impossible to master that mysterious method.

It was really nonsense, and a proposition that was logically inconsistent.

"Because the true qi in the body is no longer at a level that the human body can handle, it has already broken away from the scope of the human world. Therefore, correspondingly, the method of controlling this true qi should not be something that humans possess." Si Gu Jian withdrew his gaze from above and looked at Fan Xian coldly. "This is a very natural principle."

"Then how do you solve this problem?"

"So you must first find a method that doesn't belong to the human world." Perhaps it was because Si Gu Jian had withdrawn his gaze, but the wind on the great green tree had also stopped. The leaves swayed gently, and the young birds and insects that had not had time to escape from the tree fell silent, with a sense of joy at surviving a close call.

"It's also the intent and will that I mentioned earlier."

Si Gu Jian looked into Fan Xian's eyes, wondering how much this young man could comprehend, and said slowly, "Extraordinary strength must appear in this world through extraordinary means. You must forget everything you have ever learned, small tricks, great coffin splitting, Si Gu Jian, the Ba Dao method, the Heavenly One Path method... You must forget all these methods that can capture traces."

"Wherever there are traces, there must be a reason to follow. However, the substance and momentum of the Grandmaster realm are really unreasonable." Si Gu Jian's pupils gradually shrank, and he looked at Fan Xian sharply and said, "You must forget that you are a person! Forget that you have hands and feet, forget the hairs on your body, the pain in your bones. Don't try to use any method that the body can control to appease the true qi in your body."

"Only intent and will can abandon the limitations of the physical body." Si Gu Jian's voice gradually lowered, but it was like countless bells ringing in Fan Xian's heart, "Take off your clothes."

…

…

"Take off your clothes." Fan Xian's heart was struck by lightning, and sweat suddenly seeped out of his body, drenching all his clothes. He was very familiar with this sentence, because it was a passage from the Five Classics *Su Yu Lu*, when Grandmaster Gen Chen, the ancestor of Bitter Lotus, attained enlightenment, he once shouted: The human body is like a sweat shirt, only by taking it off can you reach the Great Dao!

On the cliff in Danzhou, at the most critical moment of cultivating the Ba Dao Manual, Uncle Wu Zhu struck his brain with a stick, and also shouted this sentence.

He didn't expect that today, he would hear this sentence again from Si Gu Jian's mouth. It seemed that there was providence in the dark, also proving the deep meaning of this sentence to Fan Xian, as if showing him a mysterious and unpredictable, yet extremely charming new realm.

After Si Gu Jian, this Grandmaster, finished speaking this sentence, he never spoke again, sitting quietly and silently under the great green tree.

Fan Xian's body was covered in cold sweat. He vaguely knew that he understood something, but in reality, he didn't understand anything. He knew that what Si Gu Jian said was true, was right, but this method was too ethereal and traceless. Most importantly, this idealistic statement was completely in two directions with the Ba Dao Manual he had cultivated since childhood. Without the human body as a bridge, could he only rely on his heart to affect this real world?

What is it that makes humans different from all things in the world? It is in the words intent. Humans are the spirit of all things, able to speak and think, able to rejoice at the blooming of flowers and grieve at the falling of flowers, able to watch the waxing and waning of the moon, and feel the eternal vicissitudes of heaven and earth, able to watch the rising and falling of the tide, and feel the desolation of the impermanence of life.

The old people bowing their heads in the yellow soil also know the joy of shadow puppetry. Sleeping with Pan Lang for a long time... is an instinctive pleasure, but it can also affect people's minds through ways that are detached from instinct or material things. A treacherous and unparalleled powerful official can also sit in a quiet studio for half a day, write a scroll, and be proud of it for a long time, moving himself to tears.

No creature is more complex than humans. Only humans can possess such rich emotions and unforgettable thoughts. Heaven and earth are indifferent, watching the life and death of the audience, but only humans can look back at heaven and earth, their hearts faintly connected to it.

The sweat on Fan Xian's body gradually dried. He knew what kind of captivating realm it was, but he also knew that this realm was not something that could be reached just by wanting to. He asked in a hoarse voice, "The real Si Gu Jian can do without a sword... How will you teach me?"

"Methods are not passed on to a second ear, not because I don't want to pass them on, but because I really can't." Si Gu Jian broke the silence and said coldly, "You will stroll around Dongyi City with me today. I can only let you see, as for how much you can understand, that all depends on your good fortune."

Fan Xian gave a sincere salute and said, "I am willing to lead the way for you."

The little Emperor was closing her eyes next to the two of them, her eyelids twitching rapidly, as if she was trying to memorize every word of the conversation between the old man and the young man today.

Si Gu Jian ignored what these two young people were thinking. He motioned for Fan Xian to push his wheelchair, leave the great green tree, and head towards the bustling Dongyi City.

From some point in time, perhaps from the moment Si Gu Jian looked up at the sky, the pedestrians and travelers under the great green tree had already scattered in terror. At this time, there was silence under the tree, with only faint shadows covering the land beneath the tree.

With a rustle, the sea breeze blew past, and suddenly a flurry of green leaves scattered under the great green tree. Countless leaves fell, revealing two empty spaces, through which the azure sky could be seen, as if the gaze of a deity had once swept towards the sky at some time.