It took three weeks for Anji to examine herself. Ordinarily, a child like her would be unable to differentiate reality from illusion. However, with the inherited and lived experience of a four-hundred-year-old sage, it was possible.
Yan Ping did not rush Anji for the apology letter or the report. She let her student do as she needed, including redrafting the contents of her letter back to her family several dozen tis. She kept a close eye on Anji’s progress throughout from the shadows.
Slowly but surely, Anji learned to disassemble herself and differentiate which parts belonged to her and which were from the Grim Reaper of Duan City. However, she quickly ca to understand that the differentiation could not be made that simply.
Assimilation.
That was what Anji figured she would do after two weeks of sorting through her mories and emotions. With the clear and surgical logic she learned from her teacher, the young girl learned to stitch back an open wound with clarity about who she wanted to beco, not just who she was.
The result?
Yan Ping could not have asked for better. The rebuilding of oneself required the death of the old one. Like a caterpillar erging from the pupa to beco a butterfly, Yan Ping could only watch as Anji chose how she wished to erge from the murky swamp.
After three long weeks, Anji finally approached her teacher with a thick report and a letter of apology that was even thicker. Her logs were so comprehensive that Yan Ping decided to include them in the logs of the forbidden library under a new lost history of a sage. Although Yan Ping knew the Grim Reaper of Duan City’s mories were recorded with the sect, she had never experienced it for herself. Anji was the first person who viewed it firsthand, and her report was extrely valuable for the archive.
If Yan Ping had to grade Anji’s report and self-reflection, she would give her successor nothing short of the top marks. Anji’s reflection bore the semblance of an educated scholar who reflected the Celestial Dragon Sect’s eloquence and the influence of the Mystical Qilin Sect’s structure. However, her brush strokes and choice of words had beco even sharper, like the Crimson Sabre that she had lived with for four hundred years. Even if the young girl could not comprehend what empty compassion ant, she had mastered the art of uncompromising integrity.
Anji had always been an honest and upright child. However, she was also a little timid, often doubting herself and trying to avoid conflict. It was not a flaw. However, becoming a leader required an unwavering sense of decisiveness. Anji lacked that previously.
Now, in her reassembled sense of self, Yan Ping could tell Anji had fully discarded her childish innocence for sothing stronger. Although Anji did not carry the Crimson Sabre or master its art, she inherited the sharpness from him. She no longer hesitated over consideration when she decided on sothing. Anji’s knock on her door reflected her new change, sothing Yan Ping felt proud of.
For now, Anji was sent back to help the dical centre in the sect while Yan Ping reviewed her progress. She was finally able to re-discipline herself and her emotions. The rude behaviour was nowhere to be found, even if she had a new sense of calm and sharpness surrounding her. Even if anyone noticed, nobody comnted on it. They simply assud it was from Anji’s stress from the special successor’s training program. In a way, it was. Anji found the short break working with sothing she was once familiar with very therapeutic. Being surrounded by people she found familiar made her more grounded in the reality that she was an eight-year-old child and not a murderous sage.
Yan Ping browsed through the archive after binding Anji’s report and approving her apology letter. It was very lengthy, and Anji self-reported even more acts of rudeness than Yan Ping recalled. Needless to say, there was no need for the girl to redo the report.
After claiming that she would select the next mory crystal for Anji, Yan Ping revisited the catalogue. In her ti, there was one particular sage that she learned a lot from, whom Anji might benefit from similarly. The art of empty compassion is very vast, and many tis, the contradictory concept eludes those seeking it. Enlightennt often cos to those who are not actively seeking it but experiencing it. Even if Anji still does not comprehend the vastness of the concept of mastering the Heart Sutra, she could still benefit from understanding the value of self from this particular sage.
After another week, Yan Ping finally found the mory crystal she had been looking for. It had been way too long, and even the all-knowing half-sage had trouble locating it.
Anji was nervous. After settling into a comfortable rhythm of getting reacquainted with the people she was once familiar with, it was ti to bid them goodbye again temporarily. Even if it only felt like a few weeks apart, Anji had no idea how much she would forget about herself after viewing a new mory crystal. The last ti, she spent four centuries apart. Although sages typically lived for a long ti to attain enlightennt, Anji hoped the new sage would ascend sooner rather than later.
"Anji is here," she bowed after entering the forbidden library.
Yan Ping did not seem angry or disappointed. Although Anji still could not read her teacher’s emotions or expressions as well, she understood that her teacher was a benevolent person and had already forgiven her rudeness. In her hands, there was a yellow glowing mory crystal.
"You’re here," Yan Ping noted duly, sending out energy threads to probe at her successor’s cultivation. Anji did not disappoint and tangled her own energy threads in greeting.
"It’s good to see you still have good control over your qi," she smirked. "You’ll need it for this mory crystal. The sage is known to a Fallen Flower. The Lotus Sage is a woman born into a brothel who left to beco a nun and cultivated herself to the highest level, the opposite of Sect Leader Hong. Most people do not know this, but she was the inspiration for the Founder of the Heavenly Phoenix Sect."
Lotus Sage! Anji had never heard of her, but she was very curious. Her shifu seed very knowledgeable about this particular sage.
As if reading her mind, Yan Ping explained that this sage was one she had also personally experienced and had docunted in the archive.
"If you prefer to choose a different sage, I will not stop you. I recomnded the Lotus Sage because you and I are sowhat alike when it cos to looking at the bigger picture for the greater good."
Shaking her head, Anji imdiately refused. Having a similar experience to Yan Ping’s was sothing Anji never thought would happen. After all, her teacher was soone who seed otherworldly. They barely had anything in common before. Now, she would finally get to peek into a slice of Yan Ping’s mind to understand why she beca the person she was.
"I’ll do it!" Anji insisted. "How long would I take to complete viewing this mory crystal?"
According to the records, the Lotus Sage lived for about six centuries, even longer than the Grim Reaper of Duan City. However, her mory crystal was condensed even more than the Unfilial Sage due to the lack of complexity in her cultivation path and history.
"Maybe two days," Yan Ping frowned. "It has been a long ti, I do not recall."
Two days. Anji nodded in gratitude. That, she could do. The Lotus Sage sounded less intense as a character. Anji hoped the ti she took to reflect and recalibrate herself after viewing the new mory crystal would be shorter than before.
"Anji is ready," she stepped into the array and made herself comfortable.
Sensing how eager her successor was, Yan Ping set up the spell and waited until Anji entered a deep trance. Likewise, she looked forward to seeing what Anji would take away from this new simulation.
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