Free Web NovelChapter 383: Chapter 302: Initial Discourse on Alchemy (Part 3)
Hearing what Chen Huicheng said, Fang Qingyuan felt a little ashamed. His own disciple’s cultivation had reached such a level, and he hadn’t even known. ’I’ve been far too derelict in my duties as Sect Leader.’
With this in mind, Fang Qingyuan asked Chen Huicheng if he needed anything. However, Chen Huicheng shook his head, saying he had no needs.
Left with no other choice, Fang Qingyuan gave him a few powerful High-Tier Talismans for self-defense. Then, standing before the sect’s main gate, he and the others watched him depart into the distance.
After he left, Fang Qingyuan went to Nine Stars Square. This newly built Marketplace was becoming increasingly bustling, with Cultivators coming and going in an endless stream. The daily flow of people was over ten thousand.
This was because Nine Stars Square served as the primary transit hub to the nearby Barbaric Wilderness, attracting Cultivators from all over the world who came to hunt for treasure. After arriving at Nine Stars Square and replenishing their supplies, they would plunge headfirst into the Barbaric Wilderness to seek their own fortunes.
However, the Barbaric Wilderness had always been without sentiment. No matter how many Cultivators went in, it took them all, swallowing them whole without even spitting out a single bone.
Fang Qingyuan hadn’t been to this Nine Stars Square in a long time. Looking at the vastly changed Marketplace before him, he felt a pang of envy. ’How nice it would be if I had a stake in this place.’
Mulling over these idle thoughts, Fang Qingyuan arrived at a small shop within the Marketplace. The shop had a small storefront, and the goods it sold were all for use by Low-tier Cultivators; there was nothing inside that Fang Qingyuan needed.
The reason Fang Qingyuan came here was because this small shop was a gift from the Yuanan Alliance Dongming Sect. It was now a property of the Qingyuan Sect.
Upon entering the shop, he saw that aside from a Shopkeeper, there was only a single young clerk. When they saw Fang Qingyuan, they immediately rushed forward to bow.
Fang Qingyuan waved his hand, gesturing for them to carry on with their work and pay him no mind. But with him present, how could the two of them possibly ignore him?
After staying for a while, Fang Qingyuan felt a bit bored. He really had no topics of conversation in common with them.
So, after a moment, Fang Qingyuan left the shop. Only once he was gone did the two inside dare to breathe normally again.
Unaware of the scare his sudden visit had given the disciples, Fang Qingyuan wandered aimlessly through the Marketplace. He couldn’t remember the last time he had walked through a Marketplace so aimlessly.
The last time that stood out in his memory was the experience of shopping with Jiang Kui in Lianshui City.
Watching the surging crowds, the laughter and curses, the full spectrum of human life, Fang Qingyuan was momentarily lost in a trance. Within his ever-active Mind Map, all the sentient beings in the Marketplace were unconsciously reflected in his heart.
The myriad colors of spiritual emotions, each one representing the current mood of another person. Amid this vast ocean of feeling, Fang Qingyuan tried to immerse his own emotions. He was like a lone boat, rising and falling with the moods of the tens of thousands of Cultivators in this Marketplace.
"A lone boat on a sea of endless waves, gazing around at a wall-less sky. The heart is a vast ocean; I ask the hazy expanse, what lies within?"
Fang Qingyuan stood in the middle of the Marketplace and, after a long while, voiced this question. ’The source of spiritual thought and feeling... where in a Cultivator’s body does it reside?’
Passersby saw Fang Qingyuan’s dazed appearance. Some snickered, some were envious, and some paid him no mind, but no one dared to approach and disturb him at this moment.
This was a rare opportunity for an epiphany. To be disturbed by an outside force at such a time would be to make a mortal enemy.
People came and went, all fleeting passersby. Fang Qingyuan stood there from dawn till dusk, his mind adrift on the ocean of thought.
But all things must come to an end. The power of the ocean of thought was infinite, but the reserves of Fang Qingyuan’s own soul were not. He had been dancing dangerously with the tides, and his soul could finally no longer bear the strain.
As his soul was over-exhausted, a single surging wave knocked Fang Qingyuan from its crest. With a muffled groan, Fang Qingyuan opened the eyes he hadn’t realized he had closed and murmured to himself:
"The ocean of feeling is boundless, and all sentient beings are adrift in suffering. If I could command this tide, what great work could I not accomplish?"
