It took several breaths for Wu Ling to process everything his Master had just said. More than anything, it made him realize how little he knew about her. From the manual she'd written and the complexity of the inheritance, he knew that she was both incredibly powerful and that she had achieved remarkable mastery of the arts, but what else did he truly know about her?
In his study of Bone Carving, he felt a deep love and desire to support others in her work. When he read about her painting he felt a strong desire for strength that resonated deeply with his own search to transform himself into a capable fighter who could walk next to Su Xiang. In his brief conversation with her when he awakened, she mentioned the need to be a villain to some in order to be a hero to others, and that in order to be a lover he must also be willing to fight for those he loved.
At the time, he'd felt like they were very similar people. Now, hearing that she had once been a feared assassin… it felt almost surreal. How could they match so closely? In the vastness of creation, how many other things that lay on his path were parts of the path his master had already walked to completion? And, if they did overlap so greatly, what did it mean to be her inheritor and disciple?
"Little Ling," Hua Jue said softly. "It seems like I've said things carelessly. It's been quite some time since I had a disciple that wasn't aware of who I was but this Mortal Realm of yours is very hard to reach and quite isolated from matters that affect the Immortal Realms. Here," she said, waving her hand and conjuring a different tea set. With careful, practiced motions, she prepared a cup of soothing, fragrant tea and passed it to Wu Ling.
"This will settle your heart and mind," she explained. "You will need to spend some time thinking things over after listening but the tea will prevent anything you hear from disturbing you so greatly that you cannot listen and ask appropriate questions. Now, please tell me what I said that has sent you into such a disarray."
"Master," Wu Ling said slowly after taking several sips of the faintly floral tea. "I believe in good fortune and luck, but I also believe in destiny. Finding your manual, then hearing that you also lived as an assassin, it feels like," he paused, collecting his thoughts and hoping that his words didn't offend his powerful master.
"It feels like I'm destined to walk the same path as you," he said slowly. "And the last time you spoke to me, you mentioned passing your crown to an Empress that will follow. I'm worried about exactly what it means for me to inherit things from you and what you're preparing me for."
"I know you asked if I would devote my second awakening to becoming a better assassin," he added. "But, I feel overwhelmed by the larger question of who you really are and what you have in store for me."
"This is my fault for offering you so little guidance when you first awakened," Hua Jue acknowledged, her voice mellow and gentle. "I mentioned before that I would pass on my crown to the Empress who follows and I also mentioned that I have words that are different from yours. My words relate to my reincarnation. If you had to guess, how many lives do you think I've lived to reach this point?"
"I imagine more than two," Wu Ling said hesitantly. She'd mentioned living life as an assassin but how many others had she lived? "Nine? No, that feels like too many. Seven?"
"Hehe," Hua Jue giggled musically. "When I was Zhai Xing, the Calamity Star Immortal Empress, that was already my ninth life," she said with a smile. "My words in that life were Seduction, Death, Poison, and Misfortune. It was a hard life and as much as I brought Misfortune to others, it also haunted me for my entire life. I was only six thousand years old when I spent my life in order to defeat an enemy who couldn't be defeated any other way. That was five lifetimes ago."
"You've lived fourteen lifetimes? And six thousand years was a short life? But, you're an Immortal, how could you die?"
"Immortal doesn't mean that a person can't perish," Hua Jue explained. "It only means that you escape the inevitability of death at the end of a mortal lifespan. Still, I am somewhat unique. At the end of my first life, my lover and I were desperate to preserve my life after I was wounded by the most horrifying enemy I have faced in all of my lives."
"In that life, I was a great alchemist, surpassing even my own master in that life," she said, her voice turning a touch wistful. "The pill my lover and I created allowed me to preserve my soul at the cost of my life. Ever since then, I've been tightly bound to the Wheel of Reincarnation. Each life I live is very different and each time I'm reborn, I have to start over from the very beginning before I can reconnect to the pieces of my life and power that survived my passing."
"It's good that you believe in destiny, Little Ling," she said gently. "By inheriting my manual, you are touched by destiny. After all, in this life, one of my words is 'Prophet.' The manual wasn't created randomly but with purpose. You don't need to worry too much about that purpose yet, you'll come to understand it naturally in time."
"For now, I promise you that my motives aren't things that you would find conflict with," she reassured him. While such promises were difficult to trust from most people, when Hua Jue spoke, Wu Ling believed every word she said.
"More than that, however, I want you to understand that you do not follow a simple master," she said with a smile. "I will never judge you for how you choose to stain your hands or your soul because I have very likely done the same or worse than you will ever contemplate. I have also walked enough paths that wherever you choose to go, I may be of some help to you."
"That doesn't mean I wish you to walk one of my paths over another," she reassured him. "It means that you have the freedom to make whatever choice you wish and you will have my support no matter what."
"So, if I had told you that I wanted to dedicate my second awakening to the Martial path, to following a Virtue like Su Xiang, you would have had different advice for me?" Wu Ling asked. If what she said was true, then it felt less like he had been chosen to retread her path and the tragic end of her life as an assassin… and more like he'd found one of the greatest teachers in the world.
"Of course," Hua Jue said with a smile. "I lived a life as a pugilist not terribly dissimilar from your friend Zhang Buyan. One of my words in that life was 'Stone,' and I dare say that my fists were just as heavy when they landed as your friend's fists of gold," she said proudly. "I also lived a life of great virtue, with Purity as one of my words, something I think that your sworn sister's sect would approve of you following."
"Little Ling," she said, reaching out to take his hand gently in her own. "You are my personal disciple, the direct disciple of the Myriad Path's Immortal Empress, founder of the Myriad Path's Divine Sect. While you are not unique, I have taken fewer than twenty direct disciples across tens of thousands of years and more than a dozen lifetimes. You are special and as your master, I promise to help you find the path that truly belongs to you and to give you all of the support I can so that you may walk your path to the very summit. Perhaps, one day, you'll even reach the realm that I never have in any of my lifetimes. If you do, that would fill me with both pride and happiness."