Because the front hall was under renovation, Li Chu could only cultivate the New Cultivation Method in his own bedroom.
The small room had poor lighting and was somewhat dim, but Li Chu did not care much about that.
He carefully took the copy of Mind's Eye Art: From Beginner to Mastery from his pocket.
His movements were exceedingly gentle, as though a slight pinch of his fingers might rub a page into ash.
After all, from its book cover to its pages, the entire book had turned completely yellow.
There in the dim small room, he read through the Yellow Book.
The book was old, but he read it with great focus.
The principles behind the so-called Mind's Eye Art did not seem all that complicated.
Heaven and Earth, all things, breathed.
According to the book, one was to close one's physical eyes and use one's body and mind to sense the breathing of all things—their "Qi."
This "Qi" could not simply be explained as scent, breath, or aura. It was an abstract kind of Intangible Spiritual Essence that living beings naturally emanated simply by existing.
Just as no two leaves in the world were alike, no two streams of "Qi" were alike either.
Yet because of their differing types, states, and emotions, these "Qi" could gather into various collections—such as good Spiritual Qi, Good Fortune, Joyful Qi, and bad Yin Qi, Killing Qi, Resentful Qi... and so on.
The world seen by the "Mind's Eye" was a world of "Qi."
According to the book's description, this art was extraordinarily difficult to cultivate.
The first threshold was talent. Some people could spend their entire lives in Meditative Sitting and still fail to sense the existence of "Qi."
The second threshold was time. Even after sensing "Qi," spreading it across a radius of three zhang would take at least three years and as long as ten.
As for what Li Chu wanted—to sense the entire town—at this pace of cultivation, it might take several hundred years.
However...
Li Chu was not worried about speed.
As everyone knew, he had always been a very fast person.
Just like how his high school textbooks had said three years were needed to learn them, yet he had finished them in less than a year. Or how Iron Cloth was said to require thirty days of cultivation, yet he had needed only one afternoon.
So how long it would take could only be known after trying.
After reading the entire book, he flipped back to the beginning and followed its instructions, sitting cross-legged in meditation, Five Hearts Towards Heaven, sinking into a Meditative State.
Feeling the breathing of Heaven and Earth, all things...
Finding their rhythm...
Breathe... in... breathe... out...
Then, he had a good dream.
He slept soundly.
He had barely slept these past few days. Even if his spirit was vigorous, his body would still enter a dormant state at the appropriate time.
One hour later, he opened his eyes again, which gleamed with brilliant light.
"I actually fell asleep... I clearly didn't feel sleepy." Li Chu murmured.
Recently, he had felt that his body was somewhat strange. No matter how long he went without sleep, he never felt tired and remained full of vitality. Yet if he was in a familiar sleeping state, he could also fall asleep quickly within a breath.
His feeling of fatigue seemed to have disappeared.
His hunger had disappeared as well. He had tried skipping several meals, yet he never felt hungry. Likewise, eating rarely made him feel full; he could merely taste the flavor.
It was as if he no longer needed to eat.
A hidden worry rose in his heart. Could something have gone wrong with his cultivation?
He remembered his master once saying that Grain Avoidance had always been an illusory legend. In this world, even Earthly Immortals had to regularly replenish energy.
They might eat a vast amount of food in one meal and then go without eating for a long time, but Grain Avoidance was impossible.
If even Earthly Immortals could not do it, then he certainly could not.
He could not make sense of it.
But these questions were not urgent. His top priority was to master the Mind's Eye Art first.
He entered meditation once more, sensing the breathing of Heaven and Earth, all things...
Breathe—
All of a sudden, he discovered that the entire room had turned into misty smoke—black, white, yellow, mostly pale and dusky colors.
No, he was meditating right now. He had not opened his eyes at all!
Could this... be "Qi"?
Hadn't it been said that many people could never sense it even after a lifetime?
It had appeared after he merely slept?
Mm... not bad.
There was nothing much to be surprised about.
He tried his best to focus his spirit, wanting to "see" more clearly. Sure enough, beneath the smoke lay the hazy outlines of objects.
This room had an aura, and its aura was very old.
The flowers and grass before him had auras, and theirs were very lively.
His sword had an aura, and its aura was very... exhausted?
As if its body had been hollowed out.
Had he been using it too excessively?
He tried extending his spirit outward, and an enormous number of images immediately flooded into his mind.
Every person and every object within Virtuous Cloud Temple... steamed with its own aura, some weak and some flourishing.
Within the entire courtyard, the strongest aura actually belonged to that Old Locust Tree. Its dark green "Qi" nearly blotted out the sky and covered the earth.
There seemed to be a stream of "Qi" faintly flowing beneath the well, but it was blocked by the well cover, and his spirit could not penetrate it.
The workers became figures with interwoven red and blue. This should be the yin and yang energies within the human body: people with predominantly red energy had flourishing yang qi, while those with predominantly blue energy had flourishing yin qi. Beyond the red and blue qi, faint black qi occasionally drifted past. That should be their emotions.
Working beneath the blazing sun, perhaps some of them were in poor moods.
Li Chu suddenly thought, if Black Qi tangled together into a mass, did that mean a person's Resentful Qi was especially deep? Would ghosts then be able to exploit the opening and invade?
His perception was like an enormous Spider Web, covering every direction. With every zhang it advanced, it expanded across a vast additional area.
Gradually, all the "Qi" within several li came into view.
Mountains and rivers, flowers, birds, insects, and fish all possessed their own auras.
Li Chu was shaken beyond compare by this world. So the world had another side like this?
Or was this its truest appearance?
By the time his brain felt slightly dizzy, his perception had already covered half of Yuhang Town ten li away, and he saw its thick Worldly Charm.
Yet he clearly felt that his spirit remained full and had not been depleted.
Perhaps his brain was tired because it was processing such an enormous scene for the first time?
Out of caution, he temporarily withdrew his perception.
It was his first time, after all. It was better to be gentler with his movements.
There was no rush. He could slowly delve deeper in the future.
Opening his eyes, Li Chu looked at the Mind's Eye Art before him, unexpected delight showing in his gaze.
He truly had not expected that he would find such miraculous cultivation methods twice in a row at the Miscellaneous Bookstore!
Compared with the Iron Cloth from before, this Mind's Eye Art was even better.
It did not merely enhance his perception. Saying that it allowed one to touch the essence of the world would not be an exaggeration!
Only after a long while did he finally sigh aloud, "Blind Eye Senior truly is a Divine Person!"
"Achoo—"
Somewhere in Jiangnan Province, an Old Beggar with blind eyes sneezed fiercely.
He rubbed his nose and muttered, "Whose Sesame Seed Cakes smell so good? They've made my nose itch from the scent..."
Following the smell, he arrived before a Sesame Cake Stall.
"Hehe." The blind man revealed a fawning smile. "Boss, have mercy and give me two Sesame Seed Cakes. They smell too good."
The man selling Sesame Seed Cakes was short and waved him away impatiently. "Go beg somewhere else. This is a small business. Where would I get extra grain to give you?"
"Hey, I'm not asking to eat your Sesame Seed Cakes for nothing. I can tell just by listening to your voice, young man, that your bone structure marks you as a martial arts prodigy found once in ten thousand. How about this? I'll pass down the unique secret manual I created back then to you. You don't even need to call me Master. Just give me two Sesame Seed Cakes."
As the Old Blind Man spoke, he pulled a tattered book from his robes: Mind's Eye Art: From Beginner to Mastery.
The short man took one look and laughed. "Just from the title, anyone can tell your broken book is a scam. Not even a fool would believe it, and you want to trade it for Sesame Seed Cakes?"
"If you don't want to trade, then don't. Why call it a scam?" the Old Beggar muttered a few words, then turned to leave.
The short man called after him, "Fine, fine. Leave the book here, and I'll give you one sesame seed cake."
"Alright!"
Clutching the sesame seed cake, the Old Beggar left in high spirits.
"Now you've been taken in." The jewelry vendor beside him laughed. "That Old Blind Man claimed to be some Blind God Sword when he was young, going around as a deceitful trickster all day. Now he hands out that broken book to everyone he meets. Hehe, it's so hard you wouldn't even want to wipe your ass with it."
"Well, I just thought he was pitiful." The short sesame seed cake seller shook his head and smiled.
This week, I got what could be considered a fairly good recommendation slot for the first time. The results at this time are especially important, so I hope friends who are interested will tap Collect and recommend the book. If you have something to say, feel free to leave more comments.
Thank you.
(Sob sob sob.)
Before you continue