Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 205: A Piece of Twisted Truth

The journey back home became smoother after meeting up with Mingshen at the Eternal Night Valley. Mingshen grew even taller than Anji remembered. The siblings spent a lot of time talking to catch up on the missed time while Gu Ying drove the carriage. It took merely a week for them to reach the Celestial Dragon Sect’s territory as they made fewer detours and stops along the way. Anji still remembered as clearly as yesterday how they initially took about a month to reach the Mystical Qilin Sect. The journey away from home was longer than the one returning.

"I’m nervous," Anji admitted. "What would mother and father say?"

His younger sister was hiding something. Mingshen could tell. He was no fool. However, he did not pry for details. Anji must have her reasons to withhold it from him for now, and he would wait until she was comfortable to reveal it. This unplanned trip back home with Yan Ping’s permission could only mean it was something serious pertaining to the Celestial Dragon Sect as well. While Anji was the Mystical Qilin Sect’s successor, she was also Zhao Mingfeng’s youngest and most cherished child.

Instead of mulling over the secret Anji was hiding, Zhao Mingshen played the role of that witty older brother. Yan Ping sent word ahead that it was important to gather the entire family. However, Yihao was still in seclusion. According to Bai Dajin, he was close to breaking through, and it was the most important stage of body tampering. Hence, their father decided not to disturb their family troublemaker. Mingshen would fill him in after he exited isolated training.

From sunrise to sunset, Anji shared all the crazy stories about the Mystical Qilin Sect behind the scenes. Although Zhao Mingshen knew that everyone had at least one skeleton in the closet, he thought the Mystical Qilin Sect only had one such skeleton, going by the name of Pu Jianming. However, her vivid description of how the guest accommodation was built upon rubble sunk at the bottom of the lotus pond made him reconsider many things.

"Do father and mother know about this?" he asked cautiously. "Apart from your shifu, nobody else sounds sane."

Shrugging, Anji threw her hands up in the air.

"If it works, it isn’t stupid. That’s what they all say. It would seem crazy at first, but not everyone is as smart as shifu to be able to know what would work automatically. Even shifu has to take risks sometimes. However, she understands what limits are and always has a backup plan. That’s the only difference between her and everyone else."

The more Anji talked about the Mystical Qilin Sect, the more convinced Mingshen became that his little sister would soon join those loony researchers in the loony bin. The only thing preventing her immediate corruption was Yan Ping and her strict mentoring. Anji adored her teacher. Zhao Mingshen prayed that her admiration for Yan Pin would save her from becoming entirely unhinged.

"It was a great thing that they sunk that academic central. It sounded like a madman’s slum. How can they willingly live in such a place?"

Truthfully, Anji had the same thoughts initially. Normal people would find willing social exile weird. Yet, after spending more time with the researchers, she could relate why they would go to such extremes.

"There’s a state of mind similar to enlightenment that causes them to live in a madman’s slum," Anji explained. "It’s like isolated training, but for the mind instead of the cultivation progress. The Mystical Qilin Sect treats its advanced knowledge of spells and arrays very seriously. It’s a different form of cultivation that does not focus on martial arts."

Hearing that, Mingshen had to agree. Of all the cultivation schools and sects, the Mystical Qilin Sect had the most disciples above the Enlightened Core stage. It is with this number that many people exercised caution. He witnessed with his eyes how a senior librarian, an equivalent to a senior inner disciple, was easily an Enlightened Core cultivator. Whatever odd methods they were using to raise their cultivation base, it was working.

"Only the martial arts are lacking," he commented. "Why doesn’t anyone else in the Mystical Qilin Sect focus on martial arts? Shouldn’t cultivating be harder than martial arts?"

Traditionally, cultivating was all about soul enlightenment. Based on the texts in the library in the Mystical Qilin Sect, martial arts was simply one of the ways. However, due to the difficulty of comprehending profound scriptures, those texts were translated into movements through generations, embedded with verses, making it easier to understand.

"It’s misinformation that became accepted as a norm," Anji explained. "Martial arts started as an exercise routine and a dance. It was not meant to be the only method of cultivation. The progenitors of cultivation did not promote violence. However, it was soon popularised during the revolution when monks stood up to defend the innocent people against tyrannical imperialists. It was Shaolin that popularised the practice of martial arts in cultivation." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This new piece of hidden history intrigued Mingshen. Even with all his network to scout for information, nothing could beat the thousand-year archives in the Mystical Qilin Sect. Many pieces of history were missing, and the information they knew had been fabricated or twisted without their knowledge.

"Just how much of what we know now is false?" he wondered aloud after Anji explained the origin of cultivation.

Here, Anji fell silent. It was more than anyone knew. Even when she first read about it, Anji found it difficult to stomach how different reality was. Of course, there was always more than one side to a truth. What they knew was only a fraction of it. Yet, people tended to hold onto their piece of truth so tightly and argue that the other piece another person holds is wrong when in reality, neither piece is completely the full truth.

"Everything is real but also false," Anji replied cryptically. "The truth is only true when it is what you seek. For the truth we find but do not seek, we discard. Such is the way of narrow-minded humans like us."

Mingshen stared at his sister, who was looking out of the window in the distance. Ever since becoming the Mystical Qilin Sect’s successor, she has become stranger and was resembling Yan Ping more. Yet, nothing that Anji said was false. Her wisdom was beyond her years, and he was unsure if she truly understood what she was saying or merely parroting others.