"In this world, life are meaningless.

Struggling for half a life time

For fame and wealth

Looking back, half a life of fighting and lost.

In this world, life are meaningless. Drowning in pain, the only escape is the Dao.

The truest law of the world is the Dao"

It was the opening verse to the Steel Heart Manual, even at the opening, there was already problems.

To submit one self to the Steel Heart Manual mantra is to submit one self to the mercy of an uncaring world, to accept that there was nothing you could do.

For a prideful lots such as cultivators, how could they accept it? How could they accept that all of their fighting was meaningless?

To give up wealth, to give up fame, it is easier to be said than done. That was only the artificial layer.

The deeper meaning is even harder for the cultivators. Fighting is meaningless, fame is meaningless, wealth is meaningless, that was the first layer of the verse, how what they all lead to was the conclusion that "lives are meaningless" and that all should be cultivating.

While it makes sense that the Dao is the most important thing, however being important to the point that "lives are meaningless" is a bit extreme.

It was not that everyone else' lives are meaningless, it is that "life" in general is meaningless. And because of that, life or death held no meaning. What the manual encourage is self sacrifice for the art, even if you give up your life, you have to follow the Dao. You have to live according to its laws. Life itself has no meaning, only by cultivating does meaning form. It also encourage humility in the practitioner. There will always be something you cannot forsee. You won't live forever. What will you be doing in your life than?

The answer is to follow the Dao.

It is that harshness that cause no one to practice the Steel Heart Manual. However those characteristics was also what are required from the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect. The leader of the cultivation world has to know when to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world, has to follow the laws without deviation, has to know that life and death is a common matter so as not to put much importance on it.

The Sect Master of the Heavenly Sword Sect is a person like that. The man, Zheng Jie was also like that.

When his stomach was on fire, worriedly waiting for the sect master of the Free Travel sect to come back and stop some horrible things to happen to a young man far away.

Suddenly

The Heaven Saint saw a ghost.

With a stroke of his sword, the world moves. The law that was written was that those who has departed should not be in this world. All their grievances and worldly business should be let go off now.

It was something that come naturally to him.

Ghost is an unnatural existence that was not life but "death". When you crossover to that other side without returning to nothing, you start living an opposite existence, because death is the opposite of life. It could be said that ghosts are the opposite of life, the antithesis of all that living. Just being in the general proximity of the ghost is harmful to the living. Cultivator too, have their cultivation harmed by that kind of dirty existence. However, for cultivators, they have the power to hurt ghost.

It was because ghosts was also cultivating too.

They use their characteristic ghost Qi. The purplish Qi could not be mistaken for anything else. It is the resentment and lingering attachment written to the world.

But this ghost does not seem to have ghost Qi.

It was a strange matter, enough that the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect stay his hand to allow the ghost to explain itself.

Having a ghost in the Free Travel sect is an inauspicious sign for the Free Travel sect, if it is not taken care of, bad thing may happen to the sect in the future. They say that to send off a guest, you have to send them off right back to the place they want to go. Now that he is a guest in the Free Travel sect, he shall help them with their endeavor. Just as now that he has crossed path with the ghost, he shall move to help it as best as he can.

That is what an upstanding cultivator under the heaven should do, always strive to balance the world and right injustices.

However, there was something strange about this ghost.

There was no ghost Qi. There was no attachment to the world, than why is it here.

Perhaps it is because when it was alive, the ghost practice an extremely rigid Dao. It is aware of the laws of the heaven and earth.

It is aware of its mortality, and held no meaning in life and death. If it is so, the ghost is a rare specimen that should be admired.

Something that understand the law of the heaven and earth even among the living cultivators are rare, and here a ghost understand it.

Perhaps it was a ghost of one of the previous senior of the Free Travel sect, though in the last 300 years, there has not been good news from this sect, perhaps the ancestors are getting angsty.

However, moment later, the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect, Zheng Jie realizes something.

For a while, something so familiar has been on the edge of his sense. Something that was so familiar that he forgets to even put his guard up or detect. It has been following him.

Something that understands the law of heaven and earth from a young age, the perfect candidate for the next sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

And she was not alone, for a while, she has been sheltering other people.

Other ghosts.

It was Lang Li and the other recently dead disciples.

"Master-"

Before she opens her mouth, he has already moved his sword to cut

Zheng Jie closes his eyes for a moment

"Sect master-"

"Sect ma-"

"Se-"

"S-"

He only spares one. His sole disciple, as a ghost.

As a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, you have to understand the law of the living and the dead