As the sun's crown slips back into its nest, the beautiful evening glow started to fade bit by bit.
A maid rushed through the hallways, her pace hurried as she approached a clear crimson palace of astounding beauty. The beautiful handiwork of carpentry can be seen on the door, adorned with golden outlines. Inside is a large double-eaved building with a hip roof, covered with magnificent glazed yellow tiles, signifying its imperial status.
The canopies of tall trees that were growing in the courtyard and the small miniature trees that were lined up on a step-by-step holder made a huge contrast.
Its hanging windows and closing doors, with peculiar designs, are laced with thin, almost see-through fabric, but resilient enough to withstand wind and rain.
In the central hall sat the noble consort Ping, busy with her daily schedule. She looked at the memorials presented by the ministers in the imperial court.
The maid entered calmly, leaving behind her rushed manner, "Your Highness, the prince has collapsed on the ground, not out of weakness but seemingly distressed", she spoke.
"What was he reading before staying in the grounds for almost nine hours?", the consort spoke with a hint of worry.
"Someone saw him reading a book called 'The Ways of the World'", she replied.
"Alright, you may disperse", the consort relieved her.
"Tch, who kept that heretic book in the pavilion?" she questioned.
Her personal maid, Yunu, came from behind the curtains as she replied. "It was placed in the section of myths and stories to relieve the boredom of the young'uns. The words written in there are not meant to be taken seriously."
"Isn't it written by that madman from a thousand years ago. It is said that every kingdom back then hunted that person to the death. What happened to him remains unknown," the consort spoke, looking at Yunu with a hidden meaning behind her gaze.
"I understand," she replied, bowing her head.
"I specifically asked his majesty to give him access to all tiers, even the forbidden fifth floor. Only a few ministers with first and second rank were allowed access, including his majesty and that empress", she continued.
"Indeed, we have to give up this magnificent palace to the empress and shift to the palace of eternal harmony as a result. The emperor's meaning is apparent. It's not that we wish to fight, but we had no choice. It was clearly her...", Yunu spoke with anger dripping out of her face, only to be interrupted.
"Enough. I thought he loved reading, so I gave up this palace to negotiate with his majesty to give him access to that floor, but I suspected the emperor had some hidden tricks, as he gave up easily. I left those tricks for Chen'er to solve, but before even accessing the fifth floor, his mind was fettered", the consort said.
Li Chen looked at the round sun that was shying away from the world, and now below the world.
"Hahaha", he let out a crazed laughter.
"How ignorant I was," he spoke, looking at the red hue intensifying as time flew by. Here, the sun revolves around the firmament and not the earth around the sun; it does not rise in the east nor does it set in the west. It simply arrives and leaves. He never noticed this phenomenon until today.
'The familiar is never seen,' he remembered this saying. He thought sunrise and sunset were normal, even here, so he never truly noticed it.
His thoughts raced to see how many of these familiar things he didn't notice.
He suddenly remembered gravity, looking down at the earth, he spoke as if analysing it, "This world is a plane, so there is no dense earth's core that pulls us down and keeps us pinned to it. So, if this world is indeed a plane, then there must exist an infinitely dense mass at almost infinity perpendicular to the plane at its centre of gravity. Wait, no, then the plane will fall towards it slowly but surely. For the plane to be stable, it must revolve around this mass to balance centrifugal and centripetal forces. That is gravity as a centripetal force and centrifugal force. The centrifugal force of the Earth comes from its axial revolution, but where does this world's centrifugal force come from, and infinity is just theoretical."
"Then the world is not a plane but slightly curved, and this dense mass exists not at infinity but close. Even then, it all comes down to axial revolutions and orbital revolutions", he felt a tremor pass through his back.
His mind chose to forget that this world's position is fixed in the void. So, it does not revolve around anything nor itself.
"Then that can only mean one thing: there is no force pulling us down from below, but something pushing us down from above," he looked at the almost dimmed out sun and the newly arrived moon and stars.
"Of course, it's the heavens' breath pushing us down. This qi is weighing us down; no wonder the cultivators can fly. They are using their own qi to resist this weight, or they resonate with the heavenly frequencies or qi to merge with this breath and stand in the air unimpeded." Li Chen stood up, brushing his shoulders as if wiping away the weight of truth he faced today.
His essence surged once more, opening Mingmen and Tanzhong acupoints simultaneously, pushing him to the peak of the human layer — the middle stage.
He turned around to leave this place, but his eyes caught sight of his mother walking towards him. He had been in this place for too long; he knew this would draw attention, but he didn't expect her to come directly to him.
Her phoenix eyes looked at the book in his hand as she spoke in a low voice, "Hide it first".
Although he didn't understand why she said so, he tucked it into his sleeve. He did not see Yunu with her, questioning where her usual partner in crime was.
He saw the gravity of his actions in her eyes. He moved his hand towards his residence's direction as he spoke, "Why don't I welcome imperial mother to have some tea?"
"Very well, seeing that you are very filial, it puts my mind at ease." Then she sighed as if she did not intend to say these words.
Inside his residence, he meticulously filled her cup with tea.
She spoke, sipping the tea, looking at the flowers arranged in the courtyard visible from the window by her side, "Your flower arranging art is indeed pleasing to the eye".
"It's just some minor skill to pass the time. You did not come here to just admire the flowers, right?" he replied.
"I heard you have been reading a heretic book, so I came to look at what's so interesting about it. Why don't you give it to your mother to take a look?" she said as if discussing something casual.
What did she mean by heretic, he thought. Looking at her warily, he tucked his sleeves inside as if guarding his treasure. He knew if he gave it to her now, he wouldn't get it back. Although his impression of her was low, he never disobeyed her.
He was not one to just trust words spoken by others, but many evidences of the palace intrigues pointed towards her. He couldn't help but suspect her actions.
He had to reveal it, "What do you mean by heretic? I was able to enter the enlightenment state and reach the peak of the middle stage", he spoke as if rebutting her.
Her eyes now filled with fear and doubt, she came forward as she examined him. She gasped in horror. There were a little over a hundred meridians to open, along with four main ones.
"If you are enlightened, that means the words written inside were probably true. Then, why were numerous kingdoms mobilised to kill him? Who is capable of commanding that many kingdoms? It must be the cultivators' handiwork," she spoke.
"Today, I will send Yunu and one of my guards. You must copy this book tonight and place it in the pavilion tomorrow. Also, you must cultivate in seclusion in the palace of self-reflection; you prefer solitude anyway, this much should be nothing," she spoke with a commanding voice.
Li Chen was surprised. The author of this book was pursued by cultivators with the intention of killing him. It seems they said his book was heretical and filled with falsehood. If someone were to learn that his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, they would connect it to enlightenment. If someone saw him holding this book and interpreted his enlightenment's connection with this heretic book, the next one who would be pursued is him.
"They said this book contains half-truth and half-false, saying that he wanted to mislead people by 'Nine truths one lie'. Many kingdoms back then made a copy of that book. Although we were ordered to burn it, it was secretly copied and placed in the treasury, but who knows how it got into the pavilion? Our kingdom placed the truths on the fifth floor and the lies on the fourth floor. Maybe, everything written is the truth," she spoke.
Yunu just entered the hall as she spoke with a chilling tone, "The witnesses were silenced."
"It is good that we killed them at the first sign; it would have been too late", the consort said.
Looking at Li Chen, "I have arranged a sword grandmaster who is proficient in the way of the sword for you to learn from. He is a loose cultivator with a great reputation, and he will teach you for five years", she spoke, addressing his needs.
"What about the blood cleansing pill promised by the emperor? Who can open the acupoints the fastest will obtain it. What if others obtain it first while I'm confined?" he spoke, although she said it was seclusion; he knew it would be proclaimed as confinement.
"Do you think it is as easy as climbing a few steps? It will take two to three years to open them all. Although it is easy to open them in the lower stages, as your accumulated essence will be able to open them, you would have to practice diligently to open them at higher stages. With your progress, even if you encounter a bottleneck, you will be able to open it in a year. Your seclusion will end by then," she replied as she stood up, making her way through the courtyard, speaking a few words with Yunu.
Li Chen was copying the pages at a fast pace with his neat calligraphy. He felt that his mother's actions were a bit excessive, but necessary for his survival. She said that if she were to eliminate the witnesses a bit later, it would have been too late.
In the novels he read, many cultivators who were not able to progress further would come to the mortal world to enjoy riches and pursue pleasures. From his mother's reaction, it seems there is a huge intelligence network at play, quietly observing everyone's actions and probably presenting it to the cultivators.
To be able to mobilise many nations at once, there must be some hidden secrets behind this book.
Although he will enter secluded cultivation, he can just get the books from the pavilion with the help of his maids by giving them his medallion.
Last time, when he met her after the initiation ceremony, he mentioned his interest in learning the way of the sword.
He just wanted to learn the basic thirteen sword movements to perfection. By building his foundation here, later he can learn sword arts and wield sword artifacts in the cultivation world.
He saw the sun arrive as the birds took flight, chirping to awaken the plants that were slumbering. His hands pained him, but it was well worth it. Yunu left before dawn broke and placed the original in its place. He had to be careful with his every movement and action lest he be noticed by cultivators. He is someone from another world. If they suspected him of anything, let it be his enlightenment, his progress, or anything demonic.
He knew they had a way to read memories, and if his memories were seized, he couldn't imagine what he would go through. It is better to remain low-key and uninteresting.
If he shone brilliantly, maybe he would be taken as a vessel for those old monsters to possess his body. He knew possession was possible in this world, so he better keep note of it.
Also, if he acted arrogantly and offended some cultivator who left the cultivation world to enjoy mortal pleasures, ignoring the face-slapping scene, his life would be in danger.
While copying this book, he read somewhere that more than three out of ten parts of this world are cultivators who came from the cultivation world to reside here. Too many and too powerful.