At this moment, Ye Qin stuck his head out as if possessed. Although the writing was somewhat blurred, he could barely make out the contents.
"Nature is the thief of all things; all things are the thieves of man; man is the thief of all things as well."
"When the Three Thieves are properly aligned, the Three Powers are at peace."
These words slowly seeped into his mind, taking root and sprouting with astonishing speed, never to be cast away again.
Ye Qin stood rooted to the spot.
"How familiar... It's as if I've heard this somewhere before."
Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember where he had heard these words. Had it been at the moment of his death? Or perhaps in his previous life?
That strange feeling surged into his heart once more.
Ye Qin was certain that he had never read this ancient book before.
But where, then, had this sense of familiarity come from?
A voice in his mind kept urging him to read on. His hazy consciousness gradually cleared, and he was pulled back into the world of the living.
The more Ye Qin read, the more engrossed he became. Those few short sentences seemed to reveal the boundless mysteries of the universe, inspiring a shock that words could not describe.
It was as though someone had parted the fog before his eyes, revealing an entirely new world. It was also like a flood of insight pouring into his mind, to the point that he could even ignore the pain in his body.
Ye Qin's wounds were still bleeding, but by this point, he could no longer feel them at all.
For some reason, these words should have been obscure and difficult to understand. After all, he had always dreaded reading classical Chinese.
Yet now, he could easily understand their meaning, as if some crucial trick had suddenly been unlocked within him.
According to the ancient book:
The Way of nature is still, and thus Heaven, Earth, and all things are born. The Way of Heaven and Earth permeates all, and thus yin and yang prevail.
Since both animals and plants possessed spirituality, why could they not assume that the boundless atmosphere filling Heaven and Earth also contained a kind of Spiritual Energy?
Or perhaps the life-giving origin shared by Heaven, Earth, all things, and mankind was one and the same?
Animals were naturally close to nature and possessed rich senses. Yet from ancient times to the present, although animals had spirituality, they lacked wisdom.
Humans were precisely the opposite. Although they possessed wisdom, they ate the grains of the earth and constantly reincarnated amid the mortal world, having already lost their spirituality.
All things in the world generated and overcame one another. When one waned, another waxed. Nothing could be perfect in every respect; only this accorded with the Way of yin-yang balance.
The more Ye Qin read, the more astonished he became. The contents could be called unprecedented, and their ideas provoked deep thought, stirring up stormy seas in his heart.
Most importantly, the book also mentioned a crucial concept—cultivation.
Since ancient times, there had been no shortage of people who sought immortality and asked after the Dao, but he had never heard of anyone who succeeded.
Perhaps it was because they were shackled by Heaven and Earth, as well as by the limitations of their own species.
Take humanity, for example. Although humans were the noblest of all living things, they themselves possessed no Spiritual Energy and were even unable to draw close to nature.
Animals, though favored by Heaven and Earth and able to display their own innate abilities and strengths while remaining incomparably close to nature, lacked wisdom and acted entirely according to instinct.
Thus, whether animals or humans, all were born with flaws, yet this still formed a balance of yin and yang, conforming to the cycle of growth among all things.
It had to be said that although ancient times had no science, the thoughts of the ancestors had been earth-shaking. Many modern scientific views might not even have penetrated to the source as directly as ancient ideas had!
"The sun and moon have their measures, and great and small have their fixed proportions. From this, the sages' achievements arise, and divine illumination emerges. The workings of this secret are visible to all under Heaven, and known to all under Heaven. The gentleman who gains it firmly cultivates himself; the petty man who gains it lightly throws away his life."
As the wind stirred the pages, Ye Qin recited the words one by one. They were almost deafening, as though a taut string deep in his heart had been fiercely plucked.
The sun and moon had fixed measures. Only by understanding these principles could great achievements come into being. This was the so-called "Heavenly Secret."
Yet these things could not be glimpsed by ordinary people. Only those with enlightenment could see them.
"I was once human, but now I've been reborn and transmigrated into a snake. I possess both human wisdom and an animal's spirituality. So is this my Heavenly Secret?"
Ye Qin's breathing grew rapid. His bright-red forked tongue trembled back and forth in the air, revealing the turmoil in his heart.
A shocking, earth-shattering thought emerged within him.
This was his "Heavenly Secret." Could it mean that he possessed an opportunity unseen in a thousand ages—the conditions for cultivation?
Humans and animals were unable to cultivate or use the Spiritual Energy between Heaven and Earth because of their innate limitations. But none of that applied to Ye Qin.
Because he was both human and animal!
He knew he was being wildly fanciful, but even transmigrating and being reborn as a snake had become reality. Compared with that, cultivation did not seem especially outrageous.
It was merely that no one had accomplished it from ancient times to the present!
"Observe the Way of Heaven and carry out Heaven's actions; that is all. Heaven has five thieves; those who perceive them prosper. The five thieves lie in the heart and are enacted upon Heaven. The universe lies within the hand, and all transformations arise from the body."
As he looked at the contents of the ancient book, Ye Qin's determination to cultivate grew even firmer.
Observe the course of Heaven's workings and fulfill the mission Heaven has bestowed.
All things in the world had their own affinities. In the unseen darkness, it was as though invisible threads linked everything together.
Ye Qin had originally already resigned himself to death, but now his state of mind underwent a heaven-and-earth-shaking transformation.
He had thought that transmigrating into a dying snake was a joke played by Heaven. Who would have thought it was a unique bridge—or, more accurately, his opportunity?
If he seized it, the snake could transform into a flood dragon; if he let it slip away, both body and Dao would be destroyed.
If he could truly cultivate, perhaps he could heal his injuries. He had waited for death before because circumstances had forced him to, but now hope for life lay before him.
Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, even if it was nothing more than an impractical fantasy, Ye Qin would still give it his all.
"Since I'm going to die anyway, why not give it a try? What if I manage to survive?"
Even if he failed, Ye Qin would lose nothing.
People sought life, not death.
He had previously had no choice. After all, there had been no hope of surviving at all. But after reading the contents of the ancient book, Ye Qin was suddenly enlightened, blazing a new trail and finding another way.
Besides, he had a feeling that he might really be able to cultivate successfully.
Ye Qin was a man of action. Once the thought entered his mind, he immediately put it into practice—and he did not have much time left.
"But how exactly am I supposed to cultivate?"
The book contained no record of this, so Ye Qin could only explore it on his own.
People said that everything was difficult at the beginning, and this saying truly was no lie.
Ye Qin recalled the novels and television dramas he had once watched. They all talked about sinking one's qi to the dantian, sitting cross-legged in meditation, and drawing qi into the body.
But that raised a question: where was a snake's dantian?
The structures of humans and snakes were completely different. They were not even the same species.
The path of human cultivation had been passed down only in theory since ancient times, yet none of the sages had ever successfully put it into practice. Needless to say, the same applied even more to snakes.
His cold, beastly eyes looked somewhat vacant. The natural cold-bloodedness and viciousness of a snake had vanished, replaced by a touch of humanity.
Only then did Ye Qin realize that cultivation sounded easy enough, but was extremely difficult to put into practice. It was nothing like he had imagined.
Everything required him to grope his way forward, investigate, and blaze a path of his own!
(End of Chapter)