Chapter 1814 — Tidings from an Old Friend

"A child that passes from conception to birth through sixteen cosmic epochs, and is then given its name by the Master himself."

Nanxiang Yuanjun glanced at Shen Mu and his wife. "Seventh Young Master, what do you two intend to do? Is your child fit to bear such a blessing?"

The long river ran on and on. Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu stood at the prow, gazing down at the vast, surging history of the Sixteenth Epoch. Shen Mu smiled. "The child is certainly not fit for it. But his father can make him fit."

Nanxiang Yuanjun's eyes flickered. "Then on this journey you and your wife will surely meet every manner of peril. I am beginning to regret agreeing to take you to the Miro Palace."

Ling Yuxiu took Shen Mu's arm and smiled. "Set your mind at ease, Daoist Nanxiang. We have walked through dangers past counting; there is little peril in this journey."

Nanxiang Yuanjun said no more.

Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart. A Guixu Lotus flew out from between his brows and drifted lightly into the Primal Chaos River. The lotus revolved, two or three of its leaves floating upon the water, moving along with the World-Ferrying Golden Ship as it sailed for the far shore.

He then called up the World Tree, which took root in the Primal Chaos River as well, letting the Guixu Lotus and the World Tree together draw upon the river's energy.

The World Tree's branches and leaves grew fuller by the day, its roots sturdier, and the Guixu Lotus more and more lusciously bright.

Wisp after wisp of barely perceptible dao light rose from the lotus pedestal and drifted into Ling Yuxiu's belly. At the same time a bud appeared upon the World Tree; vital essence drifted over, and, mingling with the dao light of the lotus pedestal, nourished the child in Ling Yuxiu's womb.

Nanxiang Yuanjun opened her mouth, hesitated, and at last decided to look the other way.

"I am only a Hall Master. What business is this of mine?"

She said to herself, "The Young Masters, and the old monsters beyond the Miro Palace, will never sit by and let this infant be born. This road will be fraught with peril."

The Southern Heaven.

Bai Yuqiong had quelled the chaos in the Southern Heaven, promoted education, and founded colleges and academies. In the war of the Southern Heaven she and Crown Prince Youming had joined forces and smashed the great army of the Heavenly Court; Shang Pingyin had fled, and the remnants of the Heavenly Court had risen in revolt on every side. It had taken Bai Yuqiong and Crown Prince Youming more than ten years to wipe out the rebel hosts one and all.

Even now, however, remnants of the Heavenly Court still lurked in the Southern Heaven; once in a while one or two revolts broke out, but no large-scale rebellion remained.

"Your Highness, I am going to Jingping to have audience with Emperor Yanfeng and report on the war in the Southern Heaven. The Southern Heaven has a hundred undertakings awaiting revival, and education above all has been so deeply poisoned by the Fire Celestial Venerable that it is hard to remedy. My purpose in going to see Emperor Yanfeng is to beg his aid."

Bai Yuqiong said to Crown Prince Youming, "Your Highness's abilities are extraordinary, but you are honest and true-hearted. This journey of mine will take a year or two before I return. Your Highness must beware of Shang Pingyin making a comeback."

Crown Prince Youming said, "Shang Pingyin has neither soldiers nor generals under him; he is not worth worrying over. If he is wise, he will hide himself away and never come out again, and he may yet live. If he comes to attack me, there is only one road for him: death."

Bai Yuqiong took the personal guards of Qionghua Palace, boarded the Heavenly Master's Treasure Carriage, and entered the spirit-energy transit bridge, bound for Jingping.

The spirit-energy transit bridge of the Southern Heaven was small in scale, and could hardly bear a powerhouse such as her; it took more than a month before Bai Yuqiong and her party emerged at the transit bridge of Jingping.

The Heavenly Master's Treasure Carriage flew through the sky, not far above the ground. Bai Yuqiong looked down at the towns and walled cities below, studying the life of the people of Jingping. She was in no hurry to see Emperor Yanfeng.

The ills of the Southern Heaven were far too many. Much as she wished to carry on Meng Yungui's last wishes and awaken the people of the Southern Heaven, after nearly thirty years of bloody war the people there still dropped to their knees at the mere sight of a god, without a spark of defiance in them, and this left her with a deep sense of helplessness.

Another purpose of this visit to Jingping was to observe its livelihood and its education, to absorb what experience she could, and to spread it through the Southern Heaven.

Jingping too had endured a great war, and its hundred undertakings likewise awaited revival; yet in the dozen-odd years since the war's end it had already just about caught up with what it had been before.

"Had it been the Heavenly Court, after a war like that, I fear a thousand years would not suffice to recover its strength."

She traveled in fits and starts, going into the villages to inspect primary education, then up to the Divine City in the heavens to look at higher education. She gained much, and her heart was full of feeling.

Yet she also discovered many problems.

The villages of Jingping had a problem: most of the able-bodied young went to the cities to work for a living, and as often as not husband and wife departed together, leaving only the old and the young behind. This not only drained the villages of vitality, but bred no small amount of disorder.

Emperor Yanfeng had noticed the problem and sent many divine-ability practitioners into the villages to bolster education, compensating them for it; but those willing to go into the villages were usually of no great attainment, while those of real ability generally stayed in the Divine City.

The quality of village education was deeply worrisome, plainly lagging far behind that of the cities.

The children in the villages, with no parents to discipline them, were mostly left to run wild, which boded ill for the next generation.

"How is Jingping to solve this?"

One day she entered a village primary school and found the atmosphere of study there very strong. The school was famous throughout the surrounding villages; the country children studied desperately, wanting to rise in the world, and she was much moved.

"A country child may have to spend ten times the effort of a city child, and ten or even twenty more years, before he can stand on equal footing with them. Still, that road upward has not been blocked, and that is a good thing."

She had only just thought this when she suddenly caught sight of a young village lecturer, and her heart stirred.

The youth was clever and quick, and was instructing the children in divine abilities, with views of his own on how such powers should be used.

What moved Bai Yuqiong was that she felt a sense of familiarity about this young lecturer.

"Learning lies in its use. If you learn and never use it, you have learned nothing. Between learning and using there is a road, and that road is called thought."

The young lecturer spoke fluently and with real insight: "Thinking. Rote memorization of runes is no good; you must think about the principle of each rune, the principle behind their combinations, and from there think about the dao they contain. Then it becomes much simpler..."

Bai Yuqiong waited quietly. Before long the bell for the end of class rang, and the young lecturer came out with his books under his arm.

Bai Yuqiong stopped him and smiled. "Daoist friend, I heard you teach, and your insight is deep. Your gifts and understanding are extraordinary. Why do you stay teaching in this primary school? If you went to a great city, you would surely have a far better future."