Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 246: Ambition

Empty Compassion was even harder to understand than Anji initially thought. Yan Ping mentioned geniuses had to be at least forty to understand the gist of it. However, even after experiencing a millennium’s worth of memories, Anji still could not comprehend it. The only silver lining was that she did not need to spend three weeks writing reflective journals to recover from the mental discrepancy.

Yan Ping was unsurprised that Anji became more confused about Empty Compassion after seeing another sage attain enlightenment with a completely different method and personality. Compared to the bloodthirsty Crimson Sword founder, the Lotus Sage was a smart woman who desired nothing in comparison. Yet, this was the exact contradiction she needed Anji to realise.

Compassion was different for everyone. It was not something she could define for her student. Yan Ping’s compassion was distinctly different from that of her own teacher. Although she harboured the heavy burden of duty as the sect master, her own empty compassion was a desire for something else. Unlike Anji, who was raised in a loving family, Yan Ping was a ruffian who grew up in the cruelty of the streets. As a result of their environment and upbringing differences, their personalities also differed. Anji was a warm-hearted person like the gentle morning sun. On the other hand, Yan Ping had sharpened herself into an icicle. They could not be more different in their ideals and idea of compassion.

After listening to Anji’s thoughts about what she experienced observing the most boring sage ever to exist, Yan Ping hid her amusement.

"It felt like the six hundred years the Lotus Sage lived were a waste of time," Anji frowned. "She did many good things and many right things. However, it felt as if I were reading a book about a princess instead of a sage. How can anyone not need or want anything? Why would they not have any desires?"

Unlike before, Anji did not have any side effects from sharing memories with another sage. Her mannerisms were closer to the impatient Grim Reaper of Duan City even after spending six centuries with the Lotus Sage. It seemed to have become a personality integrated with Anji’s rebellious self.

"Everyone has desires," Yan Ping corrected. "Even the Lotus Sage had desires. However, it was just a different type of desire compared to others. What you refer to is ambition. Not everyone has ambition. The Lotus Sage was someone who valued living in the simplicity of the present over ambition. She did not seek to create change, did she?"

Pausing, Anji thought hard. Throughout her early life as a courtesan and all the way until the end as the founder of the Emei Sect, the Lotus Sage never once coveted what was not hers. She would only step up when something was requested of her, never once offering help first. The change was a side effect of the favours she granted.

"Is it truly possible for anyone to harbour zero ambition?" Anji blinked. The idea was so foreign to her.

Yan Ping hummed. Personally, she could not relate to it. To live without purpose was like a boat setting sail without a direction. Unless the person on that boat intended to live their whole lives in the ocean and eat nothing but fish, ambition was usually required. However, there was one person who fitted the strange, ambitionless character even before she reviewed the Lotus Sage’s memory crystal.

"If you read the story about my shifu, you will not say it is surprising. She was someone who ascended similarly. The moment she handed over the troublesome position of sect master to me and taught me everything I needed to know, she ascended almost immediately. There was no time to bid goodbye or ask questions."

Anji knew a few things about the Mystical Qilin Sect’s longest reigning sect leader, who was the seventh sect leader. She was the person who waited over five hundred years to find the next successor. Yan Ping once told Anji that the people who were born with unique eyes were chosen to become the next sect leader of the Mystical Qilin Sect. However, Yan Ping was not the only person born with clairvoyance at a time when her teacher was still alive. She was simply the one her teacher decided to choose because the other candidates did not have the correct elemental eyes required to lead the next generation of the Mystical Qilin Sect.

"She was seeking someone with Piercing Eyes or Healing Eyes to entrust the sect’s future to. The Wonder Eyes that my teacher possessed helped to grow the sect’s potential. However, potential without discipline would not bear any fruit."

Anji agreed. Given the disorganisation of its internal operations, the Mystical Qilin Sect would have likely collapsed under its unstable structure. If not for Yan Ping, the sect would be in complete chaos in the war. Once again, Anji realised just how amazing Yan Ping was. Yet, it made her curious. Why would someone like the seventh sect leader not have any ambition? Anji, like Yan Ping, had a burning passion to achieve something. Previously, Anji’s goal was to live as long as she could. After the spiritual operation, it was to end the war. There was always a goal, even if it changed.

"Shifu, do you have an ambition? I don’t understand why someone like the seventh sect leader would live eight hundred years without one. She was the longest-reigning sect leader, too."

Humming, Yan Ping agreed. Most people would think that people without ambition would fail and die early. She once thought that way too. However, she came to realise after spending many years with her teacher that people without ambition actually lived longer because they were better at conserving their energy and going with the flow.

"Ambition is not something that you find or inherit," she explained. "It is something you create and chase. It is similar to giving birth to a child. You have to carry it for ten months and suffer a lot for a child to be born. Raising a child is easier than giving birth to one because you don’t have to do it alone. Ambition is similar. However, like childbirth, it has its risks. Some people get burned by the fire of ambition before they can live it. Others let the fire of ambition die out too quickly because they run out of energy. However, those who lack ambition tend to live longer lives because they do not have to face the same risks. Instead of living for others, they live for themselves and are happy doing it alone."

On that topic, the blind prophet let Anji in on a secret.

"I have an ambition that does not belong to the Mystical Qilin Sect," she confessed. "That is why my teacher locked me up with all the memory crystals. She needed me to understand that my ambition would kill me before I could realise it."

Eyes widening, Anji waited for Yan Ping to reveal her secret. She did not think many people knew this much about the blind prophet and rumoured half-sage of the Murim World.

As it turned out, Yan Ping was not very different from the Grim Reaper of Duan City when it came to ambition, even if her demeanour was closer to the untouchable Lotus Sage in how she dressed and her mannerisms.

"That was only something that happened when I was younger," Yan Ping quickly clarified. "They should already be dead by now. I outlived the very people I wanted to bury alive. In a twisted way, my revenge is complete. You could say that I am currently taking a break from ambition and learning to see past it. Empty Compassion is different for everyone. It is not something to be achieved or waited for. It already exists inside everyone, waiting to be realised."

The more Yan Ping shared, the deeper Anji’s brows furrowed.

"Anji is not a genius," she apologised. "Shifu, please recommend the next memory crystal so that I may understand what your words truly mean. I might need forty thousand years to comprehend its meaning at this rate fully."

Chuckling, Yan Ping patted her student on the head.

"Come back again tomorrow morning. You won’t need forty thousand years to comprehend it. You only need to live differently from the way you always have to experience what you can never relate to and draw the conclusions from those similarities."

Even though the explanation made little sense to Anji, she nodded and trusted her teacher. If the wisest person in the world told her not to worry, it would be unwise to do otherwise.