Chapter 1556: Dominating the Inner Realm for Ten Years

"His name is Wang Lin," Su San quickly said.

"Give me his examination paper." The old man in green robes, Su Dao, had a look of joy in his eyes.

Seeing the other party speak thus, Su San smiled and took the examination paper from his bosom. The purpose of his visit to the teacher was precisely to let the other party take a look at this extraordinary examination paper.

However, after arriving here, Su Dao simply wouldn't look at it, until today.

Holding Wang Lin's examination paper, Su Dao looked at it carefully and nodded.

"This young man is the last disciple I will ever take." With a smile, Su Dao glanced again at the receding silhouette of the painted boat. A cluster of willow catkins floated in the moonlight, seemingly drifting eternally between his gaze and the painted boat. It was unclear if Su Dao was looking at the willow catkins or the painted boat as he turned and left.

Time flies like a shuttle; once it flows away, trying to pursue it leaves no trace.

Several days later, Wang Lin took Da Fu and left the painted boat. He stood on the shore, gazing at the painted boat where he had lived for over a month, gazing at the river he had waited by for over a month, remaining silent for a long, long time.

Half an hour later, Wang Lin shook his head with a sigh. Just as he turned to leave, a cry faintly drifted down from the sky. Wang Lin's body trembled, and he suddenly looked up.

He saw the familiar white bird circling in the sky. Slowly, the bird descended and landed on a distant stone bridge. After exchanging a glance with Wang Lin, it flew up again and soared into the clouds, its white figure looking just like a willow catkin.

"Is it you…" Wang Lin murmured.

Wang Lin did not participate in the imperial examination. On the day he left the painted boat, he was invited to the residence of the great Confucian scholar of Su City, Su Dao. The person who brought him there was the old official from the county.

Su Dao's residence was not large, but it was very elegant. In the quiet atmosphere, there was a sense of peace that put one's mind at ease. In the courtyard here, Wang Lin saw the old man who had questioned him on the bridge earlier.

Da Fu was left outside the courtyard. Wang Lin and Su Dao drank osmanthus wine in the pavilion within the garden, the old man and the youth slowly conversing in the tranquility.

Until the bright moon hung high, Wang Lin bowed to Su Dao.

"I have had many disciples in my life, but only three true pupils. From now on, you are my last pupil. I do not wish for you to enter officialdom through the imperial examinations; your Heart-Nature is not suited for it… I wish for you to become the great Confucian scholar of my State of Zhao after I am gone!

Not just the State of Zhao, but on this Vermilion Bird Star, there are many nations. I hope you will become the great Confucian scholar of my Vermilion Bird Star! This kind of life cannot be called wealthy or glorious, nor does it have overwhelming power, but it allows one to understand the principles of heaven and earth and possess one's own thoughts!

In this world, we are Mortals, and naturally, there are also those who cultivate immortality. Several Cultivators have come to me in my life, inviting me to join the Dao, but I refused them all.

I smile as I look at the sky, my mind containing its own universe. What I pursue is not the Dao, but the thoughts of heaven and earth. I have understood the principles of this world; although my body is fragile, my thoughts can be passed down for generations and can break through the cages of heaven and earth. Even those Immortals, even if they could destroy us Mortals with a single finger, must still lower their noble heads before a great Confucian scholar of this world!

Cultivating immortality is Heaven-Defying, but after we Confucian scholars understand the paths of heaven and earth, are we not also defying Heaven and treading upon the earth!

If heaven and earth have spirits, in their eyes, those Cultivators are the same as us—all are Mortals! They are Mortal, and we are also Mortal. The difference is that they possess the power of Mountain Collapse, while we possess the thoughts to understand heaven and earth. All of this eventually has an intersection.

In my life, many of my disciples were Cultivators. They came to me to ask about Concepts, wanting to reach that Realm where thoughts become divine. Some pursued it even deeper, asking what the Dao is!

Such a life is ordinary, yet not ordinary. Wang Lin, are you willing to choose it?" At this moment, under the moonlight, although Su Dao was merely an ordinary old man, Wang Lin clearly felt an indescribable, vast aura coming from him.

This aura was one of looking proudly at heaven and earth. After understanding the principles, he had developed thoughts that belonged to himself. It was precisely because of the existence of these thoughts that Su Dao stood at the Peak.

Those thoughts were like a flame burning within Su Dao, sufficient to shake the heavens and move the earth.

"Confucian scholar, great Confucian scholar, and finally, Teacher of Sovereigns!" Su Dao stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at Wang Lin.

Wang Lin was silent, and after a long time, he bowed to Su Dao once again.

With this bow, Wang Lin had just turned nineteen, while Su Dao was already eighty-three years old.

Su Dao laughed heartily, took Wang Lin's hand, and helped him up. In the pavilion, his words echoed in all directions.

"I entered officialdom in my youth and resigned to return home in my middle age. I traveled throughout the State of Zhao and visited many other countries on this continent, watching the mountains and rivers, observing the myriad states of human life. It was not until my wife passed away when I was fifty that, in my grief before her grave, I understood heaven and earth and sighed at the nature of life, always recalling the scenes of our early acquaintance.

Since then, my thoughts have been about Karma.

What is this Karma, and why is there this cycle of Karma in the world…"

A night passed, and Wang Lin's life changed during this night. He no longer held the thought of taking the imperial examination to enter officialdom, but instead, in silence, quietly pursued the life he wanted. Apart from fulfilling his filial duties to his parents, what he wanted was to comprehend heaven and earth and pursue the voice that existed in his mind.

"What is Karma… what is life and death… what is true and false…"

He and Da Fu lived in Su Dao's residence, listening to Su Dao's teachings every day. Gradually, the aura of a great Confucian scholar grew thicker and thicker upon him.

In that year's imperial examination, dozens of people became successful candidates and finally entered the capital. From then on, some soared to the skies, while others returned home in dejection. Wang Lin saw all this, but it could no longer move his heart.

Though he did not enter officialdom, Wang Lin's reputation rose in the State of Zhao, even surpassing those few successful candidates who had soared to the skies. As Su Dao's disciple, as time passed and the years went by, although Wang Lin never left Su City again, whenever someone came to visit Su Dao, it was often Wang Lin who appeared on behalf of his teacher.

Be it Mortal students, wealthy royalty, or even Cultivators, in these few years, Wang Lin had seen many, many of them. He became more and more calm, more and more fond of wine, and more and more free and easy.

In the blink of an eye, several springs and autumns passed. In this year, when willow catkins flew and flowers filled the city, Wang Lin was about to enter middle age. He stood in the courtyard where Su Dao had taken him as a disciple ten years ago, letting the willow catkins fall and cover the bluestone.

Su Dao's body had grown even older. Time had taken much from him and left much behind. At this moment, he could no longer drink and chat with Wang Lin all night as he had ten years ago. Instead, he sat in a wooden chair, pushed by two servants, looking out with Wang Lin amidst the flying willow catkins.

Wang Lin's expression was calm. After dismissing the two servants, he pushed Su Dao's chair.

"Lin'er, look at these willow catkins. They are here year after year. Even if I am gone, they will appear every season, as if they have an ancient agreement with heaven and earth." Su Dao's voice was hoarse, but his spirit was still good. As he raised his right hand, a cluster of willow catkins landed in his hand and stopped moving.

"These willow catkins are life." Wang Lin said softly.

"Isn't life just a cluster of Karma? It drifts past you, and though you raise your hand to catch it, you ultimately cannot grasp it, unless it is tired itself and lands in your hand." Su Dao looked at the willow catkins in his palm and spoke slowly.

Perhaps because there was a gentle breath of Qi released when he spoke, the willow catkins in his palm flew up again, drifting further and further away.

"Karma, Karma. Wang Lin, if one day you can find your own cluster within these willow catkins filling the heavens, then you will understand what Karma is." Su Dao smiled and pointed his right hand at the sky.

"That cluster of willow catkins is me!"

Wang Lin looked up, following Su Dao's finger, but the willow catkins in the sky were like snowflakes—so many, so many—that he could not distinguish which one Su Dao was pointing to.

"You cannot see it, because that willow catkin is my life…" Su Dao closed his eyes, and two lines of tears fell.

"Those are two clusters of willow catkins. They were blown by the wind and stuck together. That is the life of me and her…" In Su Dao's mind, the willow catkins in the sky all disappeared, leaving only those two stuck-together catkins, swaying and flying further and further away.

"That year when the willow catkins were dancing, I saw you. I stood on the bridge, watching your eyes filled with confusion, and I thought that you, Wang Lin, were a rootless willow catkin—very helpless, very lost, as if there was some question in your mind that you could not figure out.

I watched you, watching the willow catkins flying before you. Among them was one that was your life. It circled before you several times, but you could not see it, so it came to me.

I was looking at the willow catkin, but you must have thought I was looking at you… The question I asked was also asking that willow catkin, but you must have thought I was asking you…

At that time, I thought that I wanted to help you." Su Dao sat in the chair, turned his head, his aged face revealing kindness, and looked at Wang Lin.

Wang Lin's body trembled.

"You are the last piece of Karma in my life. I always feel as if I have seen you somewhere before." Su Dao turned his head and looked at the sky.

"Year after year, every time this season arrives, people see the city filled with willow catkins, but they do not understand, do not know, that every willow catkin arrives at this time to find the person connected to it, because each of them is a person's life…

But in the end, they fall onto the water, fall into the dust, and vanish from our eyes… It is not that they did not find it, but that we cannot find our own."

Wang Lin silently raised his head, looking at the willow catkins dancing in this year, just like ten years ago.

Gradually, he seemed to see a cluster of willow catkins stuck together. It was two of them, as if they were mutually dependent, stuck together, slowly drifting silently amidst the endless willow catkins. No matter how strong the wind was, it could not blow them apart, as they were stuck tightly together.

By his ear, it seemed that the sound of a zither drifted from somewhere unknown. The zither sound revealed a sense of loss, as if a woman was waiting in solitude, accompanied only by the sound of the zither.