Visualizing the Divine

Shi Feizhe looked at the Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record with considerable satisfaction. This secret manual was filled with simplified characters, internet slang, and a large number of Pinyin abbreviations.

It even changed "there is" (you yi - there is) into "U1", "unrelated" (wu guan - unrelated) into "no melon" (wu gua - no melon, internet slang for unrelated), and abbreviated "True Qi" (zhen qi - true qi) into "ZQ".

Such a secret manual would be incomprehensible even to aliens.

The Jianghu is fraught with danger. If he were to die somewhere, the expression on the face of anyone who found this book would surely be incredibly entertaining!

Stretching, Shi Feizhe looked at the secret manual with self-satisfaction.

Only then did he look up and see that the sky was darkening. The others in the accounting room were already urging him to leave work and eat.

Unconsciously, he had been copying for a whole afternoon.

Ah, slacking off until it was time to leave work and eat, such comfortable days were truly missed!

Shi Feizhe smiled and went to eat with the people from the accounting room. After a day of work, he also knew that these two people, one named Zhang Lianglong and the other Wang Chengfeng, were both from Three Talents Town.

Having not eaten dinner for a long time, Shi Feizhe ate until his belly was round. He couldn't help but sigh that being full was truly happiness.

After eating, Shi Feizhe walked towards his rented room. Only then did he realize that Three Talents Town became lively in the evening.

Some were people from Three Talents Manor who had spent the day looking at the Stele Forest and returned to Three Talents Town, some were people who worked at Three Talents Manor and returned to Three Talents Town. Coupled with the fact that there was no curfew in the town, hotels, gambling dens, and brothels were also open, making it different from the liveliness in Yi Yang City.

In Yi Yang City at night, the shops were tightly shut and there were sounds of shouting and killing.

Returning to his rented room, the elderly landlord couple had already gone to bed.

With a full stomach, Shi Feizhe could finally officially begin cultivating the Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record!

Escaping from Yi Yang City, encountering Hua Xiaomei by chance, and then coming to Three Talents Town, after many twists and turns, he finally learned about the Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record from Hua Xiaomei. Without Hua Xiaomei, he didn't know when he would be able to obtain a martial arts cultivation method.

Even if he obtained the cultivation method, without the food from Three Talents Manor, Shi Feizhe would not be able to practice the method for the Blood Qi Barrier.

There was no other way, you really couldn't practice martial arts without eating enough.

Poverty for scholars, wealth for martial artists. Tempering blood qi not only required a large amount of meat, but also needed medicinal baths to cooperate in order to cultivate successfully.

Just this one barrier was enough to stop many people. Martial artists were brave and combative, it was hard to say if it was because only by fighting could they obtain cultivation resources.

The Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record corresponded to the Blood Qi Barrier and was divided into four cultivation methods: Reward Good Fist, Punish Evil Leg, Yin Law Stake, and Investigate Course.

Shi Feizhe started with Reward Good Fist. This was a wide-open and closing fist technique, with peaceful internal energy, mainly for strengthening the body and improving physical fitness.

After just practicing the fist technique according to the steps, Shi Feizhe was covered in sweat. His physical fitness was too poor now. It was truly lucky that he wasn't killed by that person's palm strike back then.

Punish Evil Leg was a method that stimulated the body through high-intensity training. It required basic physical fitness and medicinal baths to cooperate so as not to injure the body. Otherwise, practicing Punish Evil Leg for a while might even ruin a person.

Yin Law Stake required practicing Reward Good Fist and Punish Evil Leg to a certain extent, and reaching a certain level of physical fitness and flexibility before one could stand in the stance. Combined with special breathing techniques, it would induce vibrations in the bones and meridians, thereby strengthening blood qi.

Investigate Course was a special fist technique practice that Shi Feizhe had not yet fully understood, to be practiced after the first three had achieved some success. He needed to wait until he reached this step, at which point his mindset and body would be different, before he could understand it.

After just barely practicing the fist technique three times, Shi Feizhe was covered in sweat, his hands and feet were weak, and he could only sit in the courtyard panting heavily.

He knew that he had reached his limit for the day. Martial arts required diligent practice every day, like in the coldest winter and hottest summer, to gain anything. He wasn't the kind of person who could just cheat by adding points and keep practicing like a cheat!

With his physical fitness, it would probably take several months to improve.

Fortunately, he was now a working ox and horse, with a stable environment and income. He figured that after working at Three Talents Manor for a few years, he would have the means to protect himself.

He couldn't practice the Blood Qi Barrier cultivation method, but he could still visualize deities and practice the method for the Spirit Barrier.

He had fallen asleep while visualizing the night before last. This time, no matter what, he couldn't fall asleep!

He went into his room and carefully read the visualization method. How to calm his mind and gather his thoughts, how to visualize his sea of consciousness, how to use his spirit to outline a deity, he read it all carefully, read it several times, and then began to try.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Shi Feizhe's five centers faced the sky, and he silently gathered his thoughts. But a person's thoughts were constantly rolling, only the dead had no thoughts.

There was a clever way to do this step, which was to always think about one thing, to make oneself focus on this one thing, thereby gathering miscellaneous thoughts.

In the visualization method, naturally, he thought of the first hall of the Ten Kings of Hell, King Qinguang.

Slowly, slowly, Shi Feizhe felt himself calm down. There was only darkness in his mind, and a little light was faintly shining.

According to the records in the visualization method, this little light was Shi Feizhe's "light of character," "light of spirit," it was Shi Feizhe's "self," it was Shi Feizhe's "spirit"!

At this time, Shi Feizhe's "spirit" had not yet manifested, it was just a ball of light.

What he had to do was to use "spirit" as a brush to outline the appearance of King Qinguang. Then, by using imagination to embody King Qinguang, he would turn his "spirit" into the King of Hell who controlled life and death in the human world and good and bad fortune in the underworld!

The image of King Qinguang was that of a leopard-eyed, lion-nosed man with a long, bushy beard, wearing a square crown, and holding a tablet in his right hand before his chest. Shi Feizhe controlled the "spirit" light bit by bit, beginning to outline the appearance of King Qinguang.

There were two methods of visualization and outlining. One was to first outline parts of the deity, such as the arms and legs, and then gradually fill in the details. The other was to directly outline a rough sketch and then gradually fill in the details. There was no superiority between the two; the ultimate goal was for the visualized deity to become more and more detailed, eventually becoming lifelike!

Shi Feizhe chose the second method. He planned to first use a few strokes to outline the general appearance of King Qinguang.

The result... he failed.

The "spirit" light moved, gently cutting through the dark sea of consciousness, but it could not leave a trace.

He tried multiple times, even changing the outlining method, but it still didn't work.

What was going on?

Could it be that his visualization method was wrong? Shi Feizhe exited the visualization state, took out the Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record again, and read it carefully. After reading it several times, he finally discovered a few words that had been overlooked.

"Merge with the spirit"!

These four words meant that one's consciousness should merge with the visualized spirit. In other words, their three views should be consistent.

When most people visualize deities, it's very easy for them to immerse themselves in the deity's image. But Shi Feizhe didn't believe in gods!

How could he immerse himself in a deity's image if he didn't believe in gods?

Especially the Ten Kings of Hell. In his mind, there was only one image.

That was a monkey sitting on the King of Hell's throne, stepping on the King of Hell with its boot. The King of Hell repeatedly begged for mercy: "Immortal, please calm your anger, Immortal, please calm your anger!"

What should he do?

He couldn't possibly visualize a monkey!

What to do when encountering difficulties? Activate his astonishing wisdom!