In Luo Bei's world, the word "currying favor" had never existed. Before Yuan Tianyi brought him to Luofu, no one would have been foolish enough to curry favor with a beggar who could drop dead in the wilderness at any moment from hunger or illness. Even after arriving at Luofu, all Luo Bei had faced was wasteland that had remained unchanged since ancient times. He had never known what a Luofu disciple meant to the cultivation sects of the world.
Yet although Luo Bei did not understand what currying favor was, he could clearly sense that Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan treated him entirely differently from how they treated Lin Hang. And Luo Bei's nature made him dislike the way Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan acted. Seeing Lin Hang lower his head beneath their contemptuous gazes, appearing even more humble and slight, Luo Bei suddenly asked, "Senior Brother Lin Hang, have you had dinner?"
"...?" Lin Hang raised his head in astonishment.
"Thank you for bringing me meals these past few days." Amid the equally astonished gazes of Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan, Luo Bei stood up. "If Senior Brother Lin Hang has not eaten, how about we eat together?"
"Luo... Luo Bei... Junior... junior brother... you..." His heart shaken violently, Lin Hang could not even finish a sentence. Over the past two years, apart from Luo Bei, few other fellow disciples had ever treated him as kindly as Luo Bei had, much less invited him to share a table and eat like a friend.
Human feelings were thin as paper! Though Lin Hang was not old, he had already seen the warmth and coldness of human relations. When he first came to Shushan two years ago, his stutter had not been so severe, nor had he been lame. Otherwise, he would never have been selected as a Shushan disciple. Though he stuttered somewhat, Lin Hang was gifted and clever, with a memory that ranked among the best of his martial brothers. He was often among the first one or two to recite the day's assigned scriptures. One day, in a valley within Shushan, he discovered a medicinal herb that closely resembled the Seven-leaf Vermillion Grass described in the Pill Scripture, a herb remarkably effective at dispelling cold poison. So he wanted to pick it and bring it back for Senior Brother Qinglian, who taught the Pill Scripture, to see whether it truly was Seven-leaf Vermillion Grass. But when he went to gather it, he failed to notice a green venomous snake coiled in the bushes beside the herb. By the time someone found him, he was already unconscious. Although the teacher quickly purged the snake venom, too much time had passed, and the venom had seeped deep into his marrow and meridians. Some of the muscles and meridians in his bitten right leg had necrosed, leaving that leg lame.
Shushan's basic Foundation Establishment lessons included not only memorizing scriptures and understanding principles, but also strengthening the body and training the skin and bones. Apart from daily physical exercises meant to temper one's will, these lessons consisted of certain boxing forms—profound to ordinary mortals, yet rudimentary to cultivators.
With Lin Hang's talent, even if he could not leave others far behind in cultivation, he at least would not have fallen too far behind. But after one of his legs became lame, there were movements in certain boxing forms that ordinary disciples found very simple—waist turns, chicken-back stances, bear stretches, and the like—that he found difficult to perform.
As a result, his cultivation progress fell far behind that of all his martial brothers.
When he could not complete his lessons and was still practicing things that others had long mastered, he often became the target of his martial brothers' ridicule. Even his stutter, which they had not mocked much before, became another thing for them to laugh at.
His martial brothers gradually distanced themselves from him. He became increasingly inferior and withdrawn, and his stutter grew worse. The more it worsened, the more he became an unsociable... worthless piece of trash in their eyes!
For the past two years, the other martial brothers had exchanged insights with one another during cultivation. Yet he was solitary and self-abasing. After cultivating for two years, his results were truly worse than those of a disciple who had entered the sect merely three months ago. Even the teacher responsible for instructing them in Foundation Establishment and introductory techniques had already given up all hope for him, gradually becoming accustomed to ordering him around like a kitchen hand or little servant.
Even many disciples newly admitted into Shushan looked down on him. Yet now Luo Bei was inviting him to eat with him.
Moreover, Lin Hang could see that Luo Bei's eyes were utterly sincere, without the slightest trace of pretense or hypocrisy.
With a "gurgle," Lin Hang's stomach growled. He truly had not eaten yet. He had heard that Luo Bei was a disciple valued throughout Ge Li, even throughout all of Shushan. These past few days, afraid of delaying Luo Bei's meals and bringing a teacher's reprimand upon himself, he had always delivered the food before eating himself. Now, with indescribable feelings in his heart and unable to stammer out a single word, his stomach cried out instead.
"Senior Brother Lin Hang, it seems you have not had dinner." Hearing the sound from Lin Hang's stomach, Luo Bei said sincerely, "If Senior Brother Lin Hang is willing, then whenever you bring the food in the future, you can eat with me."
Why is this Luo Bei treating that piece of trash so well?
Those who had never experienced the hardships of the world often possessed an innate sense of superiority. It was like how some great sects, even those far inferior to Shushan, contained cultivators who had practiced for a long time and should have understood many principles, yet still unconsciously looked down from above when facing lesser sects. In truth, the laws of the Heavenly Dao Yuan Tianyi had instilled in Luo Bei held that the strong devouring the weak was, to a great extent, not wrong. The Buddhist saying was that all living beings were equal, but when had all living beings ever truly been equal? Even in Shushan, regarded by the people of the world as an immortal paradise, Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan, though both Shushan disciples, possessed such an inborn snobbery.
"N-no... no need..." How could Lin Hang fail to see Luo Bei's sincerity? The moment Luo Bei stood and asked whether he had eaten dinner, Lin Hang had already sensed Luo Bei's difference. How could he not want a friend like Luo Bei? But after glancing at Luo Bei, he still lowered his head, shrinking back somewhat as he spoke those words.
What a strange man who cannot tell good from bad!
No wonder not a single Martial Brother likes being with him. Upon hearing Lin Hang refuse, Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan snorted coldly to themselves again.
Yet neither of them knew that it was precisely because of them that Lin Hang had rejected Luo Bei's goodwill!
Anyone could see Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan's disdain for him. If he were to eat with them and with Luo Bei, it would surely make the atmosphere awkward.
He refused only because he did not want Luo Bei to feel awkward!
The more one knew the warmth and coldness of human relations, the more one understood the preciousness of sincere friendship. As Lin Hang shook his head bitterly and humbly withdrew from the room, he softly said two words to Luo Bei in his heart: Thank you.
Though his kind and sincere offer had been rejected, Luo Bei felt no displeasure at all as he watched Lin Hang humbly leave the room. He thought of the Two-headed Mountain Salamander that had once given him a stalk of Zhanxikezha Grass. Although that Two-headed Mountain Salamander had also been a lowly existence before Yuan Tianyi, what it had done for Luo Bei made him understand that even the lowliest things possessed their own dignity.
"Do not act for profit or desire..."
Luo Bei suddenly thought again of Yuan Tianyi's words. What I did should have been right, shouldn't it? Though he clearly noticed from the corner of his eye that Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan had become somewhat embarrassed by his attitude, this thought still arose in his heart.
"To cultivate the Dao, one must first cultivate one's original heart. When the original heart is firm, external demons cannot invade."
After Zi Xuangu and Ling Dong Shan left, beneath the dim yellow lamplight, Luo Bei pondered the words Old Zhao Nan had spoken while explaining the Mahākāla Secret Method to him, feeling that his understanding of them had deepened another layer.
"Entering the world... leaving the world... this tempering truly benefits cultivation greatly."
Luo Bei's gaze once again unconsciously settled on the Shushan volume of the Qi Nourishing Chapter that he had casually set aside.
With a thought, Luo Bei quickly washed his hands and feet with water, blew out the oil lamp, and lay down on the bed.
Though it was already time to sleep, Luo Bei had not gone to bed to rest. He had thought of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion that Yuan Tianyi had taught him.
Though Luo Bei still did not know exactly what the Natal Sword Essence Yuan Tianyi had spoken of was, he vaguely understood that it was related to Flying Sword techniques, and Shushan was precisely the strongest sect in the world when it came to Flying Sword techniques. He also believed that his entry into Shushan had been arranged by Yuan Tianyi. Thus, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to learning the Dao at Shushan without dwelling on anything else. Over the past three days, he had focused entirely on the lessons Xiao Xiao taught him and had not had any spare time. But today, he had committed all those lessons to memory. Thinking of the principles Yuan Tianyi and Old Zhao Nan had taught him, he could no longer wait to cultivate this Luofu technique.
"Calm the spirit... Internal observation... visualization... Is the first step of the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion also Qi Introduction, much like the Mahākāla Secret Method?"
Luo Bei carefully reviewed the scripture in his mind and found that the principles at the start of cultivation were not greatly different. Only the visualizations differed, as did the meridian paths through which qi was introduced into the body.
Having experience cultivating the Mahākāla Secret Method, Luo Bei no longer felt the uncontrollable mixture of excitement and apprehension he had felt when first entering the Dao. After taking a deep breath, he steadied his heart, stopped thinking of anything else, and silently recited the scripture once with full concentration. His hands formed a seal, and his heart slowly became as still as water as he entered a meditative state.
Unlike the Mahākāla Secret Method, in which one visualized oneself as a golden Buddha, the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion began with the visualization of no-self.
He imagined himself as a chaotic existence, empty of all things, merging as one with heaven and earth. This initial visualization of no-self was actually still self, because the very thought of visualization remained. But upon reaching great mastery, one would no longer need visualization as a means and could naturally enter the state of no-self.
Under Luo Bei's visualization, his Sea of Consciousness became empty and vast, devoid of all things, as though he had merged with all heaven and earth. Very quickly, the spiritual qi of the outside world began pouring into that Sea of Consciousness, which was empty like a vacuum.
The spiritual qi that poured in began gathering into tiny streams. Soon, it flowed naturally through Luo Bei's meridians, following the meridian routes prescribed by the technique and circulating through nine cycles.
Everything went smoothly. The spiritual qi within Shushan was absolutely no less abundant than that of Luofu, and it was far purer, carrying almost none of the impure, foul mixed qi. After nine consecutive cycles, the gathered spiritual qi seemed to flow through his meridians like liquid, gurgling onward, and Luo Bei encountered no illusory assault from a Heart Demon.
But when the ninth cycle ended and the spiritual qi continued flowing through his meridians, Luo Bei suddenly felt an intense pain in the meridians it passed through, as though he were being slashed by blades and pierced by needles!
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