After dinner, Anji bathed and was immediately ushered back to bed by her worried mother, even though she spent most of the afternoon sleeping away. Zhao Wanting refused to let her youngest daughter out of sight and insisted on sleeping beside her that night. Unable to refuse, Anji had to postpone her plans to talk to Yan Ping till the next day.
As the night passed without an event, Anji woke up early as if she hadn't been spirited away last night. Zhao Mingfeng ordered all the servants to remain silent about Anji's collapse. The other sect leaders of the Rainbow Alliance still resided within the Celestial Dragon Sect, and he did not want to trouble them with his family's personal matters. There was still a martial arts exchange contest for promising disciple representatives from different sects to host.
While her father was busy attending to official business, Anji and her mother spent the morning eating breakfast and going to the garden for a walk after the family physician declared that the youngest princess was fit enough to walk.
During their leisurely stroll, Anji's eyes caught a figure in white, sitting at the pavilion. She instinctively pulled her mother towards her, her heart pounding with a mix of excitement and nervousness. Unaware of Anji and her mother's presence, Yan Ping sipped her tea, lost in her thoughts. The steam rose in delicate wisps in the same pavilion where she had met Anji yesterday.
"Anji greets Elder Yan!" the little girl greeted from a respectful distance excitedly before her mother could stop her.
Startled by the lack of presence and warning, the porcelain tea cup fell from Yan Ping's hand. It shattered into shards on the floor, startling Zhao Wanting, who immediately instructed a servant passing by to assist with cleaning up.
"Sect Leader Yan, would you mind joining me in another room while the servants tidy up? Anji has been eager to learn more from you since she woke up from a sudden coma. Could we impose on some of your time?" Wanting quickly offered a change of location to accommodate the inconvenience caused by her daughter's mistake.
Unfazed by the scalding tea she spilt, Yan Ping healed the minor burn using qi and thanked the heavens for arranging such a wonderful opportunity. Unlike the other sect leaders, who arrived with their prized disciples to engage in a martial exchange competition, the Mystical Qilin sect did not permit disciples to leave the mountain until they reached a suitable level of cultivation that Yan Ping approved.
Since last night, Yan Ping had been pondering about Anji's strange condition. She had no interest in attending the martial arts exchange competition and was looking for an excuse to escape official duties. Anji's presence made the perfect reason for skipping that meaningless event. In her opinion, those disciples would be better off using their spare time to improve their insight rather than travelling mountains just to show off.
"It's no trouble," Yan Ping smiled. "I've been thinking of talking to the child myself. However, I thought she would need more rest after such a traumatising experience yesterday."
After speaking with Zhao Mingfeng, Yan Ping learnt two things.
Firstly, Zhao Mingfeng's seal comprised two distinct arrays. The first array hindered Anji's cultivation core by depriving it of qi, while the second seal secured the first seal by absorbing any qi Anji might inadvertently attract. A cultivator's body automatically seeks out qi to harness, even if the core is unawakened. It was what set apart a mortal from a cultivator.
Despite having two seals, all the energy contained within Anji's cultivation core remained untouched within her small vessel. Anji's frail health and slow physical growth were a side effect of Anji's cultivator core working behind the seal. While few knew the precise level of Anji's cultivation, Mingfeng believed it to be at least a fully functional Radiant Core. In essence, Anji was born more powerful than everyone else in her sect, apart from her father.
Secondly, the young princess had a gift that Yan Ping envied. Her clairvoyance ability was part of the soul arts many cultivators could not obtain. There was a difference between potential and ability. Even after training for more than two hundred years, Yan Ping could not achieve a fraction of what Anji easily accomplished.
In the cultivator's world, many martial techniques were designed after the Trinity of Cultivation. In the beginning of cultivation, there were no techniques or sects. However, as cultivators fought among themselves to prove who was better, they derived different methods of cultivating and taught them to others who wished to follow their teachings. Yet, all cultivators followed the same cultivation principles of training the body, mind and spirit.
People like Yihao and Bai Dajin were naturally gifted in the body. Others like Zhao Mingshen and Zhang Mou were better with their agile minds. There was a minority like Yan Ping and her disciples who walked the path of cultivation sages, pouring most of their efforts into enhancing the spirit. However, truly balanced practitioners like Chen Tao believed in evening out the progress of all three aspects.
There were no right and wrong answers when it involved cultivation. Every cultivator had to walk their own path. The only cultivators who shared the same path were dual cultivators. Hence, many pugilists believe the relationship between cultivation partners is more sacred than a marital bond.
Like everything else in the world, there has to be a balance. In the Trinity of Cultivation, the three aspects must work harmoniously together. Unlike a square, the triangle was a flexible shape that could be very stable or very unstable. It could extend long and narrow or grow bigger in size of different proportions at any time. However, the triangle must never overextend, or the weakest corner will break and cease to retain its shape.
Specifically, in Anji's case, her spirit cultivation was overly powerful when she was born. Without a strong enough body and a mind that knew nothing, she was in a very precarious situation. Zhao Mingfeng wasn't wrong in sealing her cultivation core. As there were no precedents to Anji's case, it was the best decision he could make.
Yet, Anji's cultivation core was more powerful than Mingfeng thought. After assessing Anji's potential yesterday, Yan Ping had a suspicion that Anji had transcended the spiritual realm of cultivation and was already involved in soul cultivation. Her suspicions were confirmed after Zhao Wanting begged her for help after Anji entered a coma.
Most people mistake spirit and soul cultivation to be the same thing. For Yan Ping, who managed to climb to the pinnacle of mankind, only she knew how vastly different they were. Mingfeng had only barely managed to enter the Divine Core realm a few years back. He was still a fledgling compared to her and did not understand how truly difficult it was to attain the final stage of cultivation.
If Divine Core cultivators were revered like Gods by mortals, Supreme Core cultivators were true Gods. Even if anyone above the Heavenly core was considered immortal and at the pinnacle of cultivation, Yan Ping thought that was only the true beginning of cultivation. Put simply, if Heavenly Core cultivators could split mountains and Divine Core cultivators could demolish mountains, those with the Supreme Core could create and relocate mountains.
The secret of the difference was in the level of soul cultivation. Unlike spiritual cultivation, which absorbs qi from the external world, soul cultivation absorbs qi from a different dimension and shapes it into something in the physical world.
Not everyone could access a different dimension using soul arts. It was a treacherous journey, and the slightest mistake could kill even an immortal. When Yan Ping was finding Anji's soul yesterday, she was barely able to reel the child back from the borders of a different dimension. Anji's soul accidentally wandered into a different dimension using the remnants of her spiritual energy yesterday. She had no idea how the child managed to do it. Yet, through finding Anji's soul, Yan Ping gained a new insight into soul cultivation. However, it was too dangerous for Anji to remain ignorant about her abilities.
Even if Yan Ping envied Anji's natural talent for cultivating, she felt pity for the child who could die anytime from not knowing how to control her tremendous powers. When she told Mingfeng that she wanted to adopt Anji as her disciple when she turned six, Yan Ping thought there was still time for Anji to enjoy her childhood. However, after last night's spirited-away incident, there was more urgency to educate Anji. She was contemplating how she should bring the matter up without overly worrying the Zhao family. Thankfully, Anji's curiosity created a reason for her to extend her stay at the Celestial Dragon Sect.
"We're at the study," Zhao Wanting announced after a short walk. "Sect Leader Yan, please watch your step."
Using her staff to find the wooden threshold at the door, Yan Ping lifted her leg and stepped over it without anyone's help. However, right behind her, Anji, who tried to do the same, ended up tripping. With a quick reflex, the veiled cultivator scooped the little ball of clumsiness under the other arm that wasn't holding onto her walking staff.
Embarrassed, Anji thanked the blind lady and covered her reddened cheeks behind her little hands. What a great impression she was making already…