Chapter 431: The Four ssics (I)


    After introductions, the conversation drifted all over without a specific topic. The Sacred Daughters spoke about their likes and dislikes. They gossiped about their preferences in men as well as talented and famous acolytes. They also chatted about specific cultivation paths of the order that interested them the most.


    Long Yifei became well acquainted with all of thedies at her table. She wasnt one to burn bridges unless absolutely necessary. She even epted Wei Shuangshuangs offer of friendship despite the womans personality. And aside from the outspoken heiress, she was the most prominent one at their table due to her effortless beauty.


    The banquet eventually ended and everyone went off to bed. All the Sacred Daughters had their own dormitory room which was scattered around the main building. Acolytes werent allowed in the dorms except for the Sacred Daughters they were associated with. Even then, they were not allowed to visit for the first two weeks so that the neers could focus on their studies. This was still a school and the order wanted the students to have good start to the school year without distractions.


    The next day, Long Yifei started her sses, following the schedule that had been ced in her room. It was held in arge lecture hall inside one of the white monolithic buildings that lined the main boulevard. The seats were in a concave formation that faced a central stage and increased in height after every row so that everyone would be able to see.


    Long Yifei arrived early and picked out the best seat in the center, on the fourth row. Neers steadily flowed in. Her tablemates from the banquet found her and sat around her. By the time the bell rang, most of the seats were taken and over a hundred pretty faces stared eagerly at the empty stage.


    An immortal aura swept into the room, followed by a tall lithe woman who glided across the floor like a dancer. Her wavy brown hair fluttered behind even though there was no wind. There seemed to be a musical hum in the air even though nobody was making a sound.


    The prioress walked up to the center of the small raised stage and began to speak, New Sacred Daughters of the Virtuous Order, wee to your first ss, Introduction to the Four ssics. I will be your instructor, Prioress of the Order, Immortal Winter Hymn Xuan Xina. Lets get started.


    She took out a small scroll of notes and opened it up, The four ssics. They are the four foundations of womanly virtues. They exemplify everything about what it means to be a woman; to be feminine, elegant, refined, beautiful. Experts and peerless female cultivators throughout the history of mankind have delved into all kinds of immortal Daos and emerged with these four ssics. These four are the most powerful, most effective ways a woman can cultivate.


    The first is song and dance. Singing, utilizing our voices bestowed by the heavens to turn words into melody, cultivates our mind and our spirit. Songs can have all kinds of wondrous effects. It can heal a person''s mind who has suffered hardship or it can strike down an enemy without even the need to get close to them. It can instill hope, draw out deeply hidden emotions, it can even help others cultivate and achieve breakthroughs.


    Dance is the other part of the first ssic. It is utilizing our natural bodies, training them, honing our movements to the utmost. Dance can have simr effects to song, letting those who see our dances receive simr benefits. But different from singing, dancing is also a powerful martial art. It creates some of the strongest fighters of the Order who can go blow for blow with the best cultivators of the continent, including men.


    Xuan Xina went on the exin the other three ssics in great detail. Some of the students took notes while othersmitted everything to memory. Long Yifei had already studied the four sses under the tutorship of two Prioresses but she still paid attention to every word.


    The second ssic was music. It dealt with music that was produced by all kinds of musical instruments including the zither, erhu, pipa, guqin, flute, and bells. Singing wasnt considered a part of this second ssic because it was a natural product of the human body.


    Music was far more versatile because of this fact. Instruments could be made from all kinds of materials to imbue various fantastical properties to the music that one produced. It could heal, it could support, it could defend, and it could also attack. A member of the order wielding a trumpet made from the thigh bone of a me demon had just as fearsome me abilities as any other cultivator that followed the Dao of mes. Another who yed a guqin made from the heartwood of a tree of life could produce tremendous healing spiritual energy unparalleled in the world.


    Music was versatile but it was also expensive. It was highly dependent on ones instrument how far one could progress. It was thus a popr ssic among the legacy students and those whose acolytes had deep pockets.


    The third ssic was literature. This was the intellectual pursuit that was the pr opposite of music. Those that specialized in literature studied ancient tomes and ssical poetry. They tried to seek truths and understanding of the world from the greats of the past. They also sought to create new works by writing their own poems and novels.


    The benefits this ssic provided were a bit more ambiguous but they were no doubt powerful. These members of the order were the smartest of them all. They could provide wise counsel to their acolytes, help them solve difficult problems where brute force was useless. They could use theirprehension ability to help understand the intricacies and mysteries behind a particrly difficult bottleneck. They could also pass on their amazingprehension and intelligence to their offspring, allowing them a massive advantage.


    Long Yifei couldnt help but think of Zhou Ziyun. Her masters second disciple was a prickly woman, highly susceptible to jealousy, and their rtionship was almost nonexistent. But Long Yifei had to admit that Zhou Ziyuns mind was something of a revtion. If she was still a virgin, she would definitely have been able to join the Order simply based on her potential in the third ssic.


    The lecture finished with the fourth ssic which was art. Art included everything outside of the written word or music that could be created by human imagination. It had a variety of forms including paintings, sculptures, flower arrangements, textiles, and even ceramics. It was anything that could be created by hand, infused with the creators intent, their energy, and their dreams. It was also on par with music in its versatility and its benefits were far too numerous to be described in detail.


    These four ssics, song and dance, music, literature, and art, were the four pirs of the Virtuous Order of Chunzhen. They were what built the Order from the ground up many thousands of years ago. Each one represented the epitome of womanly virtue. By training in these ssics, the Sacred Daughters would learn what it meant to be a woman; their beliefs, their values, how they should conduct themselves in the world, and how they should treat their men, their acolytes.


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