Empowered, the won in the monastery grew. The Lotus Sage shone like never before. Under the tutelage of the abbess and the guidance of her seniors, she proved to be more than just a pretty face.
With her sharp mind that surpassed everyone else, the Lotus Sage quickly broke through the Solid Core foundation in just six years. What she lacked in muscles, she made up for with her wits. From a new recruit, the Lotus Sage rose in importance with her contribution to the all-won cultivation sect. The abbess empowered her to teach all the won how to count and read. In charge of education, the Lotus Sage discovered her love for teaching. The mories of her life before she entered the sect beca foggier with each day that she spent in it.
Anji watched as the Lotus Sage blossod. Before becoming a nun, she was a beauty. However, after embarking on the path of enlightennt, she transford from a courtesan into a fairy. There was nobody in the empire who did not know about the Lotus Sage. Nobody looked down on her low birth, and everyone praised her for her wisdom and compassion.
Yet, sothing struck Anji as odd. The Lotus Sage did not thank or reject the praises. She simply smiled serenely and moved on after helping those who crossed her path. She never once rejected any plea for help at their temple and never asked for paynt. It was as if she were moving through the motions. It struck Anji as odd, even if she was executing the teachings of their sect perfectly.
In a way, she saw similarities with the Lotus Sage and Yan Ping. They were often emotionally neutral in matters of the world. The only true emotion on the Lotus Sage’s face was when she taught other sect mbers. Likewise, Yan Ping was most passionate when it ca to research. All the Elders and Senior Researchers could attest to her superior research skills.
Perhaps it was through experiencing the Lotus Sage’s life that Yan Ping beca apathetic. Her calm exterior was like the surface of a lake, reflecting the moon. It was both alluring and foreign, like an invisible wall nobody could climb. The Lotus Sage rely did as expected of her, no more and no less. Similarly, Yan Ping channelled her visions through her actions in a precise manner to achieve maximum efficiency.
Anji did not have a job. However, she witnessed the courtesans feigning smiles for their patrons during working hours. The Lotus Sage was exactly the sa. A deep sense of duty that did not reflect her beliefs created a strange gap. No matter how long Anji observed, she could not understand why the Lotus Sage would continue repeating the sa thankless cycle of helping those who were only seeking to use her without making any effort to improve themselves. However, whenever she taught those in the sect, she would never give them answers, only questions.
What was it about the Lotus Sage that gave her the strength to perform aningless actions repeatedly? It was not as if she were unaware of other people’s ulterior motives. She was very clever. Even Anji could tell that many simply asked for her help because they wanted to leer at her beauty. It was disgusting, and even the abbess wanted to turn them away.
"If we accept their money, we must help them. The sect does not have many streams of revenue, and we need money to buy more ink and brushes for the students," was the Lotus Sage’s reply when the abbess approached her in private to discuss the increasing number of ridiculous requests for her.
For many decades after the conversation, the Lotus Sage continued to serve the community and accept all job requests without cherry-picking. The abbess grew older and eventually handed the position of the sect to the Lotus Sage, who looked not a day older than twenty springs. Due to her rapid cultivation progression over the years, the Lotus Sage stopped ageing after reaching the Enlightened Core stage before she turned a hundred years old.
After receiving the new role as the sect leader, Anji watched as the Lotus blossod fully. She felt as if she was looking at her shifu’s unrecorded history when she first took over the ssy Mystical Qilin Sect.
The first thing the Lotus Sage did after becoming the sect leader was to migrate the sect from a shabby temple to a proper mansion in the mountains that was difficult to traverse using the money she had saved from taking on all the mundane jobs previously. Roles were now properly divided, and the sect had a proper training curriculum. In addition, Anji witnessed how the Lotus Sage implented new rules for their sect and expanded the library to beco more than a shelter for scorned won.
In the next two centuries, Anji watched as the Lotus Sage established the na of the Ei Sect in the murim world. It beca one of the most stable rising stars of the orthodox factions. Unlike other cultivation and martial sects, the Ei Sect created its unique martial arts to maximise the flexibility and agility of won who had smaller fras and less strength compared to n. The rapid developnt of light and hidden weapons made the Ei Sect a deeply respected one.
More importantly, under the Lotus Sage’s training regi, every single woman who entered the sect beca known for their wits as much as their beauty. The beauty, Anji noticed, was a side effect of the strict and healthy training in the Ei Sect. With daily exercise, a healthy diet and a balance of the inner and outer cultivation, every lady who chose to be part of the sect blossod beautifully.
In those two centuries, Anji noticed how many n tried to pursue the Lotus Sage without success. There were great n and suitors. However, no matter how many chances the Lotus Sage gave, she could never find as much fulfilnt from a romantic relationship as she felt for empowering won. Hence, after establishing the sect’s fa, she passed on the position of the sect leader to a fad hero’s daughter, who made the Ei Sect prosperous with its new famous Heaven Reliant Sword technique. The Lotus Sage entered isolated training to seek understanding of her true purpose.
Here, Anji waited for three centuries until the Lotus Sage found her peace in not wanting the ordinary things. She was content with not wanting a perfect life that others envied. If anything, she was happier to know that she had finally found imperfection in herself from not being unable to need anyone. She enjoyed her ti alone the most, lost in books. She enjoyed the gas of chess without conversation. She enjoyed watching the clouds and sipping tea to feel the sun on her face, the simple pleasures in life over the luxurious pearl necklaces and big, bejewelled rings.
After learning what true happiness was and how unfortunate everyone else was, needing soone else and sothing else to create happiness, the Lotus Sage finally reached the Divine Core stage and erged from her isolation.
Although the Ei Sect had changed drastically into a feminist sect that prioritised the superiority of females in a male-dominated murim world, the Lotus Sage remained indifferent and refused to participate in any martial exchanges. She refused to participate in any charitable deeds and instead chose to wear only white garbs, similar to the clothes Yan Ping wore. She hid her face from the world and chose to travel it, indulging in the simplicity of life.
After spending another decade travelling wherever the wind took her, the Lotus Sage finally found it in herself to truly love who she had beco. As a parting gift to the world that taught her who she was, she left a highly sought-after manual known as the Mourning Crane. In there, she wrote about the techniques won could use to accelerate their cultivation by living a virtuous life after grieving for a dead husband.
It was highly controversial at that ti, and many widows were accused of murdering their husbands if they possessed the Mourning Crane Manual. The situation had beco so bad that a travelling graduate of the Mystical Qilin Sect had to intercept and confiscate all the versions of the Mourning Crane manual, including the original, in circulation and negotiate with the Ei Sect to safely keep it with the Mystical Qilin Sect. Needless to say, the soul fragnt left behind in the Mourning Crane’s original manual was converted into a precious mory crystal.
Anji ca back to the forbidden library and blinked. Unlike before, she was even more confused about what she had witnessed. Six hundred years passed almost aninglessly. There was no grand ambition, no great desire for revenge or thirst for knowledge, no direction in life. The Lotus Sage rely floated like a cloud and ascended after six centuries.
What was that all about?
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