Chapter 98: Understanding One's True Nature, Illuminating the Spirit (Third Update)
“Uncle Yuan Wang, you’re here too!”
Hearing the voice, Lu Hongjin whispered awkwardly.
Not only was he a generation junior to Lu Chunyuan in terms of seniority, but years ago, he had once been taught by Lu Chunyuan.
Therefore, even now, having passed fifty and risen to the position of Deputy Director of the Martial Academy, Lu Hongjin still showed no trace of temper before Lu Chunyuan.
Although Lu Chunyuan had yet to appear, Lu Hongjin knew for certain that his “Uncle Yuan Wang” was nearby.
“Hurry up and settle this matter. Bring Lu Sheng to me!”
Lu Chunyuan’s voice came again, forcing Lu Hongjin to end the martial arena’s affair and bring Lu Sheng to Lu Chunyuan’s courtyard.
Under Lu Hongjin’s guidance, Lu Sheng could only apologize to the young man who had come to speak with him and then follow him back to Chunyuan Pavilion.
“You brat, you sure are scheming. I only stepped away for a moment, and you stirred up such a big commotion!”
“The title of the foremost young talent of the Lu family of Dajing—how important is that to you?”
Seeing Lu Sheng return, Lu Chunyuan ignored Lu Hongjin and immediately began to reprimand Lu Sheng.
Originally, he had arranged many tasks for Lu Sheng to help him quickly integrate into the Martial Academy.
Now, with just one grand battle, Lu Sheng had forced everyone in the Martial Academy—and even the entire Lu family of Dajing—to acknowledge his presence.
Though this saved Lu Chunyuan much effort, it also left him feeling a sense of defeat.
Especially watching Lu Sheng’s seemingly respectful yet genuinely composed expression, Lu Chunyuan realized:
“This young man truly has his own convictions—”
“Even the Grandmaster commands only his power, not his reverence!”
Recalling the middle-aged man he had just met when visiting Lu Wanshan, and the conversation between himself and Lu Wanshan, Lu Chunyuan pointed at Lu Sheng and said to Lu Hongjin:
“Look—this is what it means to possess a warrior’s heart!”
“You have failed to become a Martial Patriarch all this time because you lack this mindset—”
“Today, I will show you what it means to understand your true heart and illuminate your spirit!”
------------
To understand one’s true heart and illuminate the spirit marks the beginning of a warrior’s active manipulation of spiritual power and is the first step in opening the Divine Sea.
Simultaneously, it is one of the essential conditions to become a Martial Patriarch.
Only by reaching this stage and refining the spiritual power through the Divine Cultivation Technique can one fully merge spirit and profound energy, achieving the unity of divine energy.
Otherwise, even if one opens all nine spiritual orifices and perfectly fuses the spirit and profound energy within, one would at best remain at the peak of a Grand Warrior, unable to ascend to Martial Patriarch.
Lu Hongjin had been stuck at this stage, unable to break through.
Hearing Lu Chunyuan’s words, Lu Hongjin scrutinized Lu Sheng as if seeing him anew, astonished:
“To understand your true heart and illuminate your spirit—”
“Could it be that this kid has already begun Divine Cultivation?”
No one understood the difficulty of Divine Cultivation more than he did.
Having reached the Grand Warrior level more than twenty years ago, Lu Hongjin had lingered at that peak for over two decades.
During that time, in pursuit of becoming a Martial Patriarch, he had journeyed extensively across the martial world, even fought in the military. Ultimately, he returned to the Martial Academy under Lu Chunyuan’s invitation, becoming Deputy Director.
Yet, despite all this, he had never understood his true heart nor stepped into Divine Cultivation.
He had nearly given up on this ambition, preparing to seek other ways to ascend to Martial Patriarch. But upon hearing Lu Chunyuan say that this eighteen-year-old had already reached this stage—
Now over fifty, he truly felt he had wasted his life!
All these years, he had been chasing a destination others had long reached.
------------
“Enough with the ‘this kid’ and ‘that kid’! Call him junior brother!”
“You don’t think you’re really his uncle just because you’re two generations older, do you?”
Patting Lu Hongjin on the head, Lu Chunyuan scolded him.
Though Lu Hongjin was indeed senior to Lu Sheng by generation, they were not direct elders, and such terms were never used in the Martial Academy.
As a place of teaching, the Martial Academy emphasized master-disciple succession. It was common for someone younger in age but senior in generation to call an older but junior-generation person “Master.”
Lu Chunyuan himself had taught many students senior to him in generation but never addressed them as “uncle” during instruction.
To correct Lu Hongjin’s mindset, Lu Chunyuan immediately adjusted their forms of address, requiring Lu Hongjin and Lu Sheng to call each other junior brother as fellow disciples.
“Yes, junior brother, it was my offense!”
Lu Hongjin took a deep breath and admitted.
“Learning has no precedence; the knowledgeable become teachers.” Though he wished to learn from Lu Sheng, harboring a condescending attitude was clearly unwise.
Thus, after Lu Chunyuan’s admonishment, Lu Hongjin quickly corrected his attitude and humbly apologized to Lu Sheng.
“Senior brother, you are too kind!”
Changing his form of address as well, Lu Sheng returned a salute to Lu Hongjin, then looked at Lu Chunyuan with curiosity.
“I have heard of understanding the true heart and illuminating the spirit.”
“But my spiritual power awakened by chance through the Three Treasures Wish Technique.”
“Could it be that I have reached this stage after Divine Cultivation as well?”
His control over spiritual power stemmed from practicing the Three Treasures Wish Technique, but he had barely encountered the world’s concept of “understanding the true heart and illuminating the spirit.”
Just now, hearing Lu Chunyuan’s implication that he had already reached this realm, Lu Sheng was puzzled and unsure how to explain it.
Lu Chunyuan chuckled and said:
“To understand your true heart and illuminate your spirit—you have long since achieved this with your martial will.”
“It’s just that, because you have already begun Divine Cultivation, you are unaware of it!”
“Just now, when I went to see the Ancestor Wanshan, guess who else I met there?”
“Who else did you meet?” Lu Sheng did not think Lu Chunyuan was asking him to blindly guess. Recalling their previous conversation, he was startled and said in surprise:
“Duan Zhengfei!”
“Could it be that Duan Zhengfei was also visiting Ancestor Wanshan?”
In the world, besides Duan Zhengfei, Lu Sheng knew no others renowned for martial will who would be qualified to visit Lu Wanshan.
“It was him! It must have been him!”
“Presumably, Duan Zhengfei learned of yesterday’s battle on Snow Mountain and realized that even becoming a Grandmaster could not truly free him from danger—”
“So, after weighing his options, he came to seek refuge with Lu Wanshan, who had once been to the Mountain River Sect and acted more moderately.”
“That was a decisive move!”
Although joining the Lu family of Dajing cost Duan Zhengfei some autonomy, the looming peril brought by the prophecy of “Dragon Rising in the Great Wilderness” was largely borne by the Lu family.
Moreover, whether by ancestral ties or Duan Zhengfei’s potential, even knowing the risks, Lu Wanshan had no choice but to accept him—
A man destined nearly certainly to become a Martial Patriarch, possibly possessing unparalleled strength. The Lu family of Dajing would never abandon such a valuable alliance!