What is Illusion? Illusionary Divine Ability

The rumors came and went quickly.

Besides, it was just a gathering of small animals, not like they had seen any real mountain spirits and monsters. There wasn't anything particularly supernatural, at most it was a bit eerie.

As time passed, the villagers forgot about it. Their idle chatter was soon replaced by gossip about the scandalous affairs of Widow Li's family at the east end of the village.

However, Ye Qin's cultivation would not stop.

The bright moon on the mountaintop was as usual, shining on the stones, like reflections in water, vaguely revealing a long shadow coiling within.

Even on cloudy days, it wouldn't affect Ye Qin's current contemplation, because the bright moon was already imprinted on his heart.

Ye Qin cultivated as usual, and before long, various small animals gathered behind him again.

They were like pilgrims, prostrating themselves before Ye Qin on the giant rock.

Driven by their instincts, a vague concept had formed in their minds, but it was only a rough outline.

They didn't know why they were doing this, but an inexplicable instinct drove them.

This was animal spirituality, an innate spiritual connection to nature, sensitive to all things, a congenital spirituality that humans completely lacked.

However, even so, for ordinary creatures to step into cultivation like Ye Qin was simply impossible.

Because spirituality alone was not enough; wisdom was also needed. Only when the two were combined could one enter the door of cultivation.

Therefore, Ye Qin was a variable under the so-called 'Great Way', or an anomaly in the natural order of all things, the only exception in ten thousand.

At his current level, he couldn't open a lecture hall and enlighten all beings like the saints in folklore.

The reason these animals gathered here was simply because the surrounding magnetic field was influenced by Ye Qin, making them feel comfortable, so they subconsciously wanted to get closer.

The Moon Essence was faint, like ripples on water, as if it could be touched by reaching out.

As Ye Qin entered a state of deeper immersion, a faint mist began to rise around him at some point.

The mountains were at high altitude and the temperature was low. Due to the terrain, mountain fog would occasionally form, but this mist was clearly different from the mountain fog, appearing somewhat mysterious.

The hazy moonlight, like a thin veil, intertwined with the mist, enveloping Ye Qin, as if he were inhaling the clouds and spitting out the mist, stirring up all the winds and clouds.

After an unknown amount of time, Ye Qin slowly opened his eyes. The surrounding mist had not yet dissipated, faintly forming the shape of a crescent moon before slowly vanishing into the air.

Ye Qin pondered. He had vaguely sensed a change in his body before, and after observing it during these cultivation sessions, he could finally confirm it.

During his cultivation, some unusual phenomena would manifest unconsciously, but this all happened while Ye Qin was in an unconscious state, completely beyond his control.

He guessed that the police officers who had approached him earlier and walked away for no reason might have been misled by the illusory phenomena.

"It seems I've reached the second realm of cultivation and gained some special means. It's not quite magic yet, but for now, I can call it a 'supernatural ability'. However, based on the current situation, I can't control this ability freely."

People are not born with knowledge, and cultivation is the same.

Moreover, Ye Qin was the only cultivator. To understand how to use this supernatural ability and to fully control it might require further exploration.

Ye Qin thought hard and decided to go to the library again.

Although he was an anomaly, entering the city wouldn't pose too much risk. After all, he was too insignificant, and no one would associate him with so-called 'monsters'. Humans would naturally come up with reasonable explanations.

Besides, if he didn't go to the library, Ye Qin couldn't find any other place to acquire knowledge. Relying solely on 'my own thinking' was simply unrealistic, so learning was very important.

This time, he was more familiar with the route and spent less time than before. Looking at the familiar buildings in front of him, he quietly slipped in after everyone had left the library by evening.

He went straight to books related to the mind and hypnosis, as both illusionary realms and illusions were closely related to the human mind.

The changes brought about by his cultivation during this period were not just physical, but also mental. Now, reading a thousand words at a glance was no problem, and he could even achieve photographic memory.

However, Ye Qin was cautious and didn't show off too much. Even when reading, it seemed like unintentional absorption, making it impossible for others to notice anything strange.

After getting the answers he wanted, Ye Qin didn't linger this time and left quickly.

The mountains were verdant and stretched endlessly. As night slowly descended, it was like ink spreading out. A touch of silver light climbed onto the treetops, like the finishing touch of a dragon painting, injecting soul into this ink-wash landscape painting.

The moon set in the mountain stream, silent and still, illuminating Ye Qin's path back.

Returning to the mountains from the concrete jungle felt like stepping into another world.

There was no neon lights and bustling crowds, no car horns, no worldly troubles. There was only endless tranquility, accompanied by the chirping of insects and birds.

And that unchanging bright moon.

Ye Qin slowed down, his snake-like body slithering, recalling what he had seen in the library and falling into thought.

Seeing false things with the eyes is an illusion; being deceived by false things through the five senses is an illusionary realm.

Illusionary realms can influence a person's perception of things through their vision, smell, and various senses.

So, what is "illusion"?

From a scientific perspective, the universe is just an illusion, and the world is a projection of consciousness.

To explain it in Buddhist terms, it is 'dependent origination and emptiness, all phenomena are only consciousness, there is nothing outside the mind, and the one and the many are identical'.

To put it more plainly, when we look at something, what we see is the "appearance," which belongs to the form and dharma elements among the six sense objects.

It is due to the eye's contact with light and shadow refraction, transmitted through the pupil and optic nerve to the brain. Then, our conscious eye consciousness is at the point of contact in the posterior lobe of the brain.

Consciousness and eye consciousness arise accordingly, capable of distinguishing the color of objects, as well as text, and the meaning, beauty, ugliness, length, width, and distance represented by the image, and so on.

Both eye-consciousness and mind-consciousness are deluded minds, arising from causes and conditions. This means they can be altered by external forces.

It's somewhat like hypnosis. In modern times, illusionary realms and illusions are all blended together, and these are all demonstrated within hypnosis.

The supernatural abilities that Ye Qin possesses lean more towards using his own powerful mental intent to influence those around him, even creating a special magnetic field, which is the so-called "illusionary realm."

Hypnosis requires external aids, but he doesn't. This is because he uses himself as a bridge, able to unleash it anytime, anywhere, as he pleases.

The Yen-shih Chia-hsün (Yen Family Instructions), in its "Gui Xin" chapter, records: "In the world, there are sorcerers and various illusionary arts, who can still walk on fire and tread on blades, grow melons and move wells."

From this, we can see that the traces of illusionists have actually existed in the world for a long time. It's just that at that time, such people were called artificers.

A relatively well-known one is Fan Ying, a Han Chinese.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biographies of Artificers records: "Once, a violent storm arose from the west. Ying said to his scholars, 'The fires in the city of CD are very strong.' He then held water in his mouth and rinsed his mouth facing west, and ordered the reporter to note the time. Later, a guest arrived from the capital of Shu and said, 'On that day, a great fire broke out. A black cloud suddenly rose from the east, and in a short while, heavy rain fell, and the fire was extinguished.'"

Regarding these illusionary arts of "swallowing clouds and spitting mist," later generations have had various opinions. Some say it was a coincidence, others say the artificers colluded with each other, and still others say Fan Ying had special abilities.

In addition, there was Sun Nu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was skilled in head-severing techniques, and Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty, who excelled in illusionary arts, able to make people see soybeans as small people.

During the Five Dynasties, an artificer could summon birds, and during the Northern Wei period, the Yueban Kingdom from the far northwest presented illusionary arts. There are numerous such records in unofficial histories.