The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

“The First Stroke: The Thunderous Advent, Let All Begone!”

The booming voice of the Overlord thundered across the sea of raging thunders. The echoes of his voice shuddered back and forth in limbo across the dark void and across all three realms. The saber that he held in his grasp came to a sudden rest as if it had been sheathed by a scabbard!

“Boom!”

A split second later, the saber broke out of its ‘scabbard’. Bursting from an imaginary harness that bridled its hungry aggression, the saber shattered the momentary, absolute silence that had only descended moments before and unleashed all the power that it had mustered. From below and upwards, the slash of the blade was unimaginably swift that it left a purple afterimage of its destructive motion, majestic and yet terrifying. Heaven and earth trembled in fear, and the weather stirred uneasily as the clouds crawled menacingly over the sky.

The blow had left a crack in the fabric of space as if the sky had been split into half! The first stroke held such powers that all deities and immortals would indeed flee from the first glimpse of the blade as it left its scabbard!

Repressing the peculiar sensation that rose within him, Meng Qi focused all the concentration that he could muster and watched. All strength and powers drawn from the Dharma and Logos of Nature before the drawing of the saber were accumulated and the sheer amount of force caused the “absolute silence” for a slight moment. Deep and great was the wisdom that was hidden in the stroke that Meng Qi could not yet learn anything for now. What followed would undoubtedly be the full exertion of “speed” and “dominance” once the blade has left its sheath.

“If only I can integrate the core techniques of the Chaos Vortex, a Dharmakaya-leveled discipline of the Eight Nine Mysteries… With it, I might be able to understand and study the intricacies of the stroke… It might serve as an additional inspiration for something new…” Meng Qi thought suddenly.

The hairs of the Overlord flailed and lashed wildly as the bristles of his beard and brows stood on their ends. Power pulsed angrily through the veins in his muscles, a fitting testament to the invincibility of the Overlord who took a step forward and bellowed,

“The Second Stroke: The Holy Mountain Invasion, The Fall of The Buddhas!”

With a tilt of the blade, there came a simple slash that contained countless hidden countermoves. Like a whisking wind that swept all fallen leaves, the slashing stroke came with the dominating authority of Death and Carnage, without even a shred of softness!

Purple lightning bolts danced around wildly with exact precision that struck at every inch of the void without fail, extinguishing every speck of life!

A fitting name indeed for a stroke that destroyed all life: The Fall of All Buddhas!

Meng Qi could vaguely notice the similarities between the stroke and the disciplines of the Virtual Purity Sabersmanship and the Five Thunder Bombardments. The principles of the Outline of the Heavenly Knife and the teachings of all other blade disciplines that he had ever learned could be seen; every simple knowledge and every complex understanding of wielding a saber could be seen within the stroke itself. The stroke held all essences of blade-wielding skills that Meng Qi had ever come across!

Meng Qi could perceive only a mere ‘shadow’ of the true stroke, for his current skills with the saber didn’t allow him to truly comprehend the full capacity of the stroke. Yet, from the mere ‘shadow’, Meng Qi could also feel the ghastly chill of Death that came with the wind!

The Overlord’s eyes gleamed proudly as if he was looking at foes with contempt. His voice resounded icily,

“The Third Stroke: The Abyssal Plunge, The Doom of Demons!”

He swung his saber in an upward motion and slashed down again furiously. The heavy force of the stroke struck at the void before him to the verge of collapse while the speed of the stroke was as quick as lightning, a true unyielding manifestation of brute strength and power!

“Boom!”

Down came the merciless hew of his saber with a gigantic and insurmountable aura as if all lightning bolts of the Heavens have been imbued into the blade.

“Boom!”

The downward hack fell with a deafening explosion as the energies contained in the blow was discharged instantly in the blast. Crackling electric bolts scattered and spread in all directions, engulfing the vast Heaven and Earth!

Most martial practitioners of the Exterior possessed the ability to do large-scale attacks upon selected areas. But the attacks from this stroke could destroy everything within a certain area except for the centermost point of the strike’s impact where the fabric of space collapsed. The bolts of lightning that dispersed from center spread far and wide, obliterated everything in their path without any reduction in power and intensity.

Moreover, the stroke could be used delicately. The strike itself would be most devastating if the blade itself had smote upon a foe instead of an empty void!

Meng Qi observed closely the demonstration of the third stroke. It seemed to illustrate and accentuate some of the techniques of the Divine Nine-Annihilation discipline. Thus, the third stroke of the Six Cutting of the Overlord was the only stroke that he had been able to partially comprehend!

A strike most brutally commanding: The Doom of Demons!

Meng Qi assimilated what he could from the demonstration and compared it with the Cleansing Radiance technique. He fell into a delirium as the effect of the overwhelming sensation impaired him momentarily. But the Overlord waited no more for him. He gave a long and deafening howl into the air and looked with a proud disdain in his glance.

“Boom!”

The sea of lightning thrashed and churned like the raging waves of a sea in a thunderstorm. Angry crackles and riotous explosions erupted incessantly like a chain reaction, rupturing the empty void as darkness grew and expanded. All Heaven and Earth that were drawn from around them began to shrink as if being concentrated on a single point!

The Overlord stood tall and proud in the center of the tumultuous storms of explosions, watching the spread of darkness from the crack in the fabric of space. The darkness devoured everything in its path, throwing the surroundings around him into blackness, not unlike the Chaos in the Primordial Beginning with everything nearing the state of immateriality.

Filled with swelling arrogance, he announced,

“The Fourth Stroke: Without Both Heaven and Earth, I Alone Reign Supreme!”

There was a bright glimmer of the slashing blade like a simple and straightforward hack. But under the indomitable and forceful demeanor of its wielder, the darkness and the Chaos were forcibly torn asunder! By the sheer will of the unstoppable strike, a gap was torn open in the midst of woe and panic like a path!

This… Meng Qi was stunned as if he was witnessing a display of his own Big Bang technique, for the two techniques seemed to share considerable similarities!

The thought had barely registered when Meng Qi noticed a huge change in the disposition of the stroke which turned mellow. The blade swung smoothly, fusing both distinctly dissimilar styles as one. The area in which the Overlord stood appeared to turn into a separated dimension as he stood tall and proud amidst the enormous burst of destructive power that laid waste to everything save for the spot that he stood on.

This was the second half of the Big Bang technique that he had yet to master! Meng Qi’s eyes widened with shock as he took in the unbelievable spectacle.

The multitudes of diverged paths to Enlightenment, all merged and returned as one!

The area which the Overlord stood at grew and gushed forth in a blinding flash, restoring the sea of lightning to its former state. The color of the water gradually took on a darker shade. The Overlord’s gaze turned stern and cold, his expression neither grim nor fearful. With a twist of his right arm, his blade shimmered! Meng Qi could not see the direction of his stroke, for it did not swing forward nor did it swing backward. It was not on the left, not on the right, not above and not even the bottom!

Meng Qi failed to see the trajectory of the swinging blade. Then, he heard the mocking sneer of the Overlord,

“The Fifth Stroke: Let Bygones be Bygones!”

Meng Qi’s view of his surroundings sharpened suddenly. The Overlord towered over him with an air of unbridled vanity. His jet-black saber had returned to him.

Meng Qi felt only confusion. He could observe nothing from the display of this stroke. Unlike the strokes that he had seen earlier, Meng Qi could at least read the paths of the blade’s movements through the cold glint of its steel and the resulting aftermaths of the techniques even if he could not assimilate anything else.

The Overlord gave a heavy and deep breath and his body enlarged. Towering like a colossal giant, he held the saber across his chest in a most scornful manner as he uttered word by word,

“The Sixth Stroke: Into The River of Fate, The Uncertain Destiny!”

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The mirage of an imaginary river, glimmering with a silvery sheen. The river stretched far and wide from his sight. Despite being uncorroded by the torments of Life, it looked as if it was blanketed by dust, giving off a presence of timeless perpetuation despite the decay of Time. A presence that watched quietly at the “elders” wading through the torments of the mundane.

From both sides of the river, there appeared many doppelgängers of the Overlord. Some appeared in his black armor of war, some appeared as a man who wielded a halberd while embracing a lady clothed in white, while some appeared as a young man lifting a cauldron over his head. Many more appeared and stood around Meng Qi, the multitudes of the Overlord’s possible destinies manifested and surrounded him, remaining still.

The heavy and black Extinctive Blade slashed forth in a tilted angle. From all angles and all directions around him, Meng Qi could see that all the doppelgangers of the Overlord attacking with their own weapons. The glints of steel and flashes of iron came at him, a dense blizzard of weapons from every direction!

“Boom!”

The gleaming flashes that denoted death and destruction rained from everywhere, sealing of all avenues of escape!

A huge gleaming flash filled Meng Qi sight and blinded him. Once again, the proud and unequivocal voice of the Overlord rumbled,

“The mark of the impartation is not yours to have for now. Aside for the Primary Instruction of the discipline, take in what you have been able to glean.”

The myriads of light shimmered and the illusions of the six strokes converged as one, manifesting as the Primary Instruction that displayed an inexplicable expression of Enlightenment and Virtue as well as the embodiment of all Dharma and Logos of Nature.

Meng Qi’s eyes could barely handle the intensity of what he was looking at. He took in what he could, and slowly understood little by little the Primary Instruction of the Six Strokes of the Overlord discipline, the introductory to the cultivation of the discipline.

The brute force of a thunderclap had inspired the Overlord to diverge from the path of the Thunder God of old and created a martial discipline that focused on a domineering style of offense in its poise, manner, and all other aspects of the Vital Spirit and the physique. There were tales about a warrior who had stood before the Overlord. He had powers and strength that dwarfed the Overlord who then had yet to reach the peak of his abilities. But he was paralyzed by the commanding stance of Overlord who then slew the warrior.

Meng Qi assimilated the Primary Instruction bestowed to him. But he received only two strokes: “The Abyssal Plunge, The Doom of Demons” and “Without Both Heaven and Earth, I Alone Reign Supreme”. He had been able to learn a little of the two strokes from the demonstrations earlier. But Meng Qi had acquired nothing from the last two strokes of the discipline of the Six Strokes of the Overlord, yet from the other two strokes which he had yet to master, he had gleaned enough to improve his understanding to better wield the saber.

“Total domination indeed…” Meng Qi shuddered, imagining himself wiping away cold sweat from his heart as he repressed the rising irritation.

From the words of the Overlord, Meng Qi understood that not only that he had not yet earned the right to the mark of the impartation, but also the control to the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord that possessed its own sentience.

“But why not now?”

“Is there anything that I should be careful and wary of?”

Meng Qi thought curiously, but at the same time, he felt as if a weight has been lifted off his body and his Vital Spirit renewed with vigor. The Karmic burden of the Thunder God from the Nine Heaven had been lifted. He could feel a refreshed and strengthened harmony with the Dharma and Logos of Nature, the view of all nature seemed clearer to him now. The attunement with Nature fueled the manifestation of his Dharmic Forms, with apparent augmentation to his grasp of elements involving lightning and brute strength.

He wallowed in the relief at the weariness of the Karmic burden leaving him when he felt himself being forcibly drawn back into reality. He found himself back in the Mystic Fairy Hall and saw the long and black saber resting quietly on its stand as if it had never left its place of slumber.

He knew, without sufficient powers and strength of his own, he would never be able to tame the Peerless Godly Weapon into submission. None would be able to wield it without its approval!

Liu Shuyu staggered backward, keeping a distance between herself and the Extinctive Blade. She called out to Meng Qi via telepathy, “A grandmaster is coming!”

She could not let Meng Qi’s presence here be discovered lest she incriminated also herself!

With the burden of Karma lifted from him, in addition to the obtainment of the Six Strokes of the Overlord and another four skills of the Dharmakaya level which had also heightened his skill with the saber were more than enough to satisfy him and leave him without yearn and greed for more bounty.

He was prepared to make use of the Reincarnation Charm to escape to safety. He had hoped for the Mystic Fairy to pursue his trails around the outer barriers at the sight of him vanishing. He would then slipped away quietly but this would depend on impeccable timing which was hardly under his control. With the identity of Liu Shuyu still undiscovered, he could readily use her help to mount his escape!

The slender hand of Liu Shuyu reached and lifted the male disciple. She stepped backward and reached the doors of the hall.

The Nirmanakaya incarnation of the Mystic Fairy and two other grandmasters of the order entered the hall. Liu Shuyu spoke hastily to them, “Master Mahant, I was afraid that he could be trying to lay his hands on the Extinctive Blade when we are still busy dealing with the ruckus outside. Therefore I tried to first throw him out of the hall.”

The incarnation of the Mystic Fairy nodded gently in approval to Liu Shuyu’s decision.

She glanced and briefly surveyed the surroundings. But without the skills of a grandmaster and without the help of any detection techniques, she could not look past the disguise of Meng Qi.

Despite having a higher standing than Liu Shuyu, the two grandmasters would hardly search her and incur her wrath when her own teacher was present.

Liu Shuyu took the male disciple to the Shang River Fairy and used the opportunity to leave the Mystic Fairy Hall.

Her eyes widened with shock at the sight of the Fairy turning back to her actual appearance. She discovered she had been tricked by the evil demoness Gu Xiaosang. Suddenly, she felt the divine aura growing in force within her and her Vital Spirit rejuvenated with a fresh spurt of strength. Free from the trappings that restricted her, she assumed her rightful position as the true Successor to the Mystic Fairy!

“She has kept her word, I will concede this much. And she is vicious too, that the girl who calls her “mother” had inherited her brutal ways,” Liu Shuyu thought to herself. She was, after all, a refined lady from the noble families of Luoyang.

The present Mystic Fairy flew up into the sky, racing for the top of the huge tree which she flew beside. Swifty she gained more altitude as she held her former chrysalis with her. The huge tree stretched far into the clouds.

Suddenly, the huge tree withered in mere breaths and turned into a shriveled branch.

“A branch of the Jian Tree?” The voice came from a floating lotus that appeared out of thin air. Frowning curiously the Bliss Bodhisattva peered at the ground.

She had only appeared due to the sudden incident. She had hidden herself to prevent any diversion tactics that the intruder could have pulled off, added with her ignorance of the aura of the chrysalis of the Mystic Fairy.

“It should be,” replied the present incarnation of the Mystic Fairy, her dignified and reserved demeanor restored.

“How was it that such a valuable artifact was left unguarded?” The Bliss Bodhisattva was intensely puzzled.

“The previous Mahant have not left word on the origins of this artifact. We had thought that it was a common trinket,” said the Mystic Fairy darkly.

Knowing better than to continue with the inquiry, Bliss Bodhisattva studied the chrysalis of the Mystic Fairy. Despite the shriveled appearance of the husk, she could feel the huge power it contained.

“The female deity of old who was best known for her prowess in combat indeed. One of the greatest Gods of the Celestial Court…” Withdrawing her gaze, she turned away.

The present incarnation of the Mystic Fairy tried to divine the fates of her quarry. But with the escape of Gu Xiaosang and the Extinctive Blade of the Overlord safety secured, she saw only a gloomy veil that hindered her from inferring their whereabouts. Guessing that Meng Qi had already fled with Gu Xiaosang, she ordered that the magical barriers of the Mistress Su’s Fairyland be lifted.

With the escort of Liu Shuyu, Meng Qi reached the Shang River Fairy’s abode. From there, he slipped away unnoticed.

He left the mysterious Lihua Island and passed through the natural array of trap formations to finally find himself in open sea. He breathed in the salty tang of the sea breeze and enjoyed the refreshing and cool sea-air. Basking in the warm but hardly torrid sunlight, he felt relaxed as if he had been reborn.

His foray into the stronghold of the order of the Method of Mistress Su was successful. But the stress of having to sneak under the nose of enemies as powerful as the Half-step from the Dharmakaya and the anxiety of death which could be caused by a chink in his plans made him felt intensely nervous and tense. At long last, he could rest and breath easily without fear.

He closed his eyes and felt the blowing wind and the heat of the sun, drenching himself with appreciation to the beauty of Nature. He could more readily attune himself with the Dharma and Logos of Nature, his Vital Spirit once again free from any staggering weight of Karmic yokes.

He could feel the manifestation of his Dharmic Forms taking shape almost to the point of materializing with substance. The energies of the Dharma and Logos of Nature seemed to be at his fingertips especially for elements involving lightning and brute strength.

With that, Meng Qi was certain that he had taken a huge step in to climb the First Celestial Ladder. He was sure that he was halfway through the hurdles of reaching the next level of attainment which would require only another six to seven months of dull drudgery.

Over the lapping waters of the sea, Meng Qi flew in the direction of Jiangdong as the red sunrise shone behind his back.