Learning and Deconstruction

Liu Suxin stood at the lectern, trying to use the simplest, clearest language to help the students understand some of the concepts and principles behind the Meditation Method.

This was not the first time she had covered this point. The Meditation Method concerned the very foundation of a Soul Master's cultivation, so she never tired of emphasizing it, but many of the students were growing drowsy as they listened.

It was not that they were being lazy; they simply could not understand. Even though Liu Suxin had explained it in what she considered the simplest possible terms, her words still left them wandering in the clouds.

Only Zhou You listened attentively and realized that what she was teaching was itself rather vague.

Liu Suxin was drawing on her own bodily sensations to describe her state and feelings while cultivating the Meditation Method.

In other words, she was trying to convey her own experiences and sensations to the students, but those sensations were hazy, like flowers glimpsed through fog.

Something like Mental Power could not be seen or touched, and even the sensations associated with it were indistinct, making it difficult to describe in words.

Thus, describing it was like blind men feeling an elephant: it was always hard to grasp the whole picture, and this was one of the difficulties in teaching it.

Liu Suxin was a Soul Douluo, and it was hard to say how much guidance her experience cultivating the Meditation Method could offer a group of students whose average cultivation was only at the Soul Grandmaster level.

So it was only natural that the students could not understand. Most of the time, they had to figure things out for themselves. If a few words from Liu Suxin gave them even a little insight into questions they had encountered while practicing the Meditation Method, then her lesson had not been in vain.

For Zhou You, however, this class was anything but ordinary.

As Liu Suxin spoke, Zhou You gradually lifted the veil over Mental Power.

Drawing on his own knowledge, he began trying to analyze a Soul Master's Mental Power by placing it within a framework familiar to him.

As a disciple of the Mystic Sect, Zhou You naturally used its theories as his foundation. Thus, he first established the core of cultivation: a person's fundamental self was rooted in the [Primordial Spirit], and the foundations of both [nature] and [life] arose from it.

Mental Power clearly belonged to the category of [nature]. At the beginning of a person's life, the Primordial Spirit was the first to emerge from Innate One Qi, and it was the foundation of all consciousness and the soul.

But it had no thoughts or worries. Still and motionless, it merely existed.

Next, the person's five viscera and six bowels took shape. At this point, the Primordial Spirit governed the physical body, instinctively directing the organism's physiological processes and maintaining its metabolism, growth, and development.

As the person was born, the senses began to receive information from the outside world, and the physical body began to take in external substances. The acquired six roots gradually developed, and at this point, the person would subconsciously use information from the outside world to shape another "self."

This "self" was a new system of consciousness that evolved from the six roots. It encompassed a person's likes and dislikes, thoughts, emotions, obsessions, and discriminating mind. This "self" was the Consciousness Spirit.

The relationship between the [Primordial Spirit] and the [Consciousness Spirit] was one of "essence" and "function." The Primordial Spirit was the master, while the Consciousness Spirit was the steward who helped it manage the physical body and interact with the outside world. It was responsible for thinking, planning, and acting, but final decisions should have been left to the Primordial Spirit.

In reality, however, this was often not the case. People frequently believed that their thoughts and consciousness were the masters of the self, and so they often fostered obsessions that grew into delusions, taking these to be their true hearts.

As a result, the Consciousness Spirit grew stronger and turned from guest into master, while the Primordial Spirit was concealed deep within, unable to manifest easily.

Daoists often used "sovereign" and "minister" to explain the relationship between the Primordial Spirit and the Consciousness Spirit. Ideally, sovereign and minister each knew their place, and the sage emperor ruled with folded hands.

But in reality, the ministers' power often superseded that of the sovereign.

Anyone who had studied history knew that, as time passed, a vast organization would inevitably descend into corruption, yet the system it administered could carry on for a long time through sheer inertia.

At such a time, an individual's clarity of mind was powerless before the greater tide. This was also what the Primordial Spirit faced, and it was the normal state of ordinary people.

Mental Power, in this analogy, was the concrete manifestation of the organization's strength. In Daoist terms, it represented the movement of the Consciousness Spirit given tangible form.

With that, Zhou You finally understood why Soul Masters did not cultivate nature: their cultivation fundamentally depended on the movement of the Consciousness Spirit.

The stronger the Consciousness Spirit, the stronger the Mental Power; the stronger the Mental Power, the more efficiently a Soul Master could gather Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

The purpose of cultivating the Nature Skill, on the other hand, was to transform consciousness into wisdom, returning the Consciousness Spirit to its proper place and letting the Primordial Spirit take charge once more.

This was far too advanced, and before one became an immortal, cultivating the Nature Skill offered almost no apparent benefits. Aside from allowing one to project the Yin Spirit or Yang Spirit, it did relatively little to improve actual combat power.

For Soul Masters, among whom a wolfish culture prevailed, this naturally held little appeal, so no one pursued it.

But at the higher stages of a Soul Master's cultivation, at the level of a Soul Douluo or Douluo, for example, the side effects of an excessively powerful Consciousness Spirit would become increasingly apparent.

Their Mental Power grew stronger, but the efficiency with which it actually operated did not improve qualitatively. Thus, once Soul Masters reached this stage, the difficulty of accumulating Soul Power and bringing about a qualitative change in it would rise sharply.

Judging by what was shown in the original story, even when people in this world cultivated to the level of gods, their states of mind were not much different from those of ordinary people.

It was merely that the leap in power gave some of them the illusion that they could control everything in the world. So they took the feeling of standing high above and looking down on all living beings for a kind of transcendence or elevation of consciousness, believing their state of mind had already reached the realm of a god.

As Zhou You now saw it, they were nothing more than people controlled by their Consciousness Spirits without realizing it. Still, they truly wielded the power of gods, could move the laws, and enjoyed eternal life.

Yet at the end of the original story, both the Rakshasa God Bibi Dong and the Angel God Qian Renxue fell in cultivation after their Godheads shattered, and they could die.

This proved that so-called gods were no different in essence from the Soul Masters' advancement system, which relied purely on piling up energy.

Thus, becoming a god was merely a matter of giving a Godhead a new host. Who the host was did not matter at all; what mattered was the Godhead.

Zhou You wrote his insights in his notebook. Beside him, Yan simply could not take in Liu Suxin's lesson, and out of curiosity, he glanced at the page.

Just one glance left his head spinning, and he hurriedly looked away.

Mm, I can't understand it. Not a word.

Then he shifted his attention and secretly peeked at Hu Liena, only to suddenly discover that she was looking this way too.

His heart leaped with joy.

Could it be—has Nana finally understood how I feel?

Heavens! Earth! Have you finally heard the cry of my heart?

Next time, I definitely won't curse you as thieving heavens!

Yan hurriedly straightened his appearance, lowered his head and exercised his facial muscles, then put on what he considered a perfect smile. Raising his head, he cast a smoldering glance at Hu Liena.

But he soon discovered a cruel fact: Hu Liena's gaze was not focused on him at all...

Zhou You suddenly noticed someone breathing heavily beside him. He frowned and turned his head to see Yan's face flushed red, veins bulging in his neck and eyes wide and bloodshot.

He looked just like a bull that had turned against the herd.

"Did you take the wrong medicine?"

Yan glanced out of the corner of his eye at Hu Liena, who was stealing peeks at Zhou You, and said through gritted teeth, "No!"

"Then keep it down! What's wrong with you?" Zhou You could not be bothered wasting words on this brute. He lowered his head and continued refining his theory.

Yan did not listen. He stared fixedly at Zhou You as if he were looking at a mortal enemy, the resentment in his eyes even stronger than it had been before their first fight.

Just then, a dark blur came flying down and smacked Yan on the forehead.

"Ow—" Yan clutched his forehead and looked over, only to find Liu Suxin gazing at him with a "gentle" expression. He immediately shuddered.

"Teacher Liu, I..."

"Yan, why don't you go outside and run a few laps? Come back to class when you've calmed down, all right?"

"Teacher Liu, let me explain..."

"Hmm?"

"...I understand."

Yan walked out of the classroom with a look of grief and indignation and began racing around the Teaching Building.

Xie Yue happened to be sitting by the window. He glanced at the figure running outside and cursed inwardly, You complete idiot!

You dare covet my little sister? Pah!