Soul Leaving the Body

"Climb the pagoda, leap out... the key must be here..." Hong Yi pondered this method of cultivation.

He read through the Daoist Classic, but compared to the Martial Classic, this book was far more cryptic.

Hong Yi skipped over most of it. He knew that ancient Daoist immortal arts did not contain such things. These precepts and moralities were merely additions made by Daoist sects to curry favor with imperial power, blending in the principles of scholars.

To him, these moralities and commandments seemed contradictory and differed from orthodox scriptures; reading them had no effect, as they were merely a muddled, inconsistent mess.

"Huh? Pagoda Visualization Soul-Exit Method? Bathing, hand seals, chanting scriptures? Spells? Gestures? Can these methods really settle the mind? And then allow the soul to exit the body?"

As Hong Yi scanned the text ten lines at a time, a cultivation method that took up a significant portion of the page suddenly caught his eye.

The spells were intricate, and the gestures were complex; just looking at them made his head spin. It was easy to imagine that it would take a very long time to master.

"Such complex spells and gestures. However..."

Hong Yi suddenly had an epiphany. "The Great Dao is simple. Those Daoists insist on creating complicated gestures and spells. In reality, bathing, chanting, and hand seals are all just methods to calm the mind. When a scholar sits down, their heart naturally becomes as still as water; they don't need any of those things."

"The key is to calm the mind."

Hong Yi sat on the stool in front of the table, poured water, and ground the ink. Listening to the "hiss, hiss, hiss" sound of the inkstone, his mood gradually settled.

He spread out a piece of paper and wrote the character "Quiet" three times in a row. While writing, his expression was entirely peaceful.

Even though Hong Yi could not reach the state of the great scholars who could calm their hearts like still water the moment they sat down, he could achieve a tranquil state of mind through the series of actions involved in grinding ink and writing.

After settling down, Hong Yi closed his eyes and recalled the time he had followed his mother to climb the "Precious Moon Pagoda," the tallest tower in Yujing.

The "Precious Moon Pagoda" had thirteen stories. Climbing up level by level, one could almost overlook all of Yujing. At the time, his mother held his hand as they reached the top. The wind blew, and looking down at the pedestrians who appeared only the size of fists, he had felt dizzy and his legs had gone weak.

He closed his eyes and visualized a seven-story pagoda above his head. When he climbed to the very top, he suddenly leaped with all his might!

"Leap out, leap out..."

With this leap of thought—a leap off a cliff in his imagination—Hong Yi suddenly felt his body lighten, as if he were floating.

Boom!

Hong Yi felt his body go light, as if he were floating.

"Eh? Did my soul not exit? Am I still perfectly fine?" Hong Yi opened his eyes after his imagined leap, but he didn't find anything unusual. He was still himself; he pinched his hand and still felt sensation.

Hong Yi sat on the stool, feeling a bit frustrated. "Why can't my soul exit? Is there still a key point I'm missing? Could it be..."

He tried again, calming his heart and spirit, but it still didn't work.

He fell into deep thought.

"The text says the physical body is a raft for crossing the sea of bitterness. It turns out that once the soul leaves the body, it is like a person who has fallen off a boat into the vast ocean—it is terrifying!"

He recalled the passage from the Caotang Notes. To be precise, the entire method of soul-exit first required bathing and cleaning the body, then sitting in meditation, chanting spells, and forming hand seals. After waiting for the heart to become completely still, one had to visualize a seven-story pagoda, climb it step by step, and suddenly leap from the highest level. The soul would then leave the shell.

Hong Yi had read many books, so he naturally knew how to discard the superfluous parts. That was why he read so quickly.

He closed his eyes, thinking of the scene from his childhood.

Suddenly, a strong, cold wind blew in from outside the stone chamber.

Although it was an illusion, Hong Yi still shuddered at the memory of his childhood. Suddenly, he steeled his heart and leaped upward with all his might!

He leaped into the floor below!

"My soul has left my body!"

Hong Yi saw his own body!

His physical body was breathing weakly, eyes tightly shut, as if he were asleep or had fainted.

But he couldn't move at all. He felt as if he were frozen stiff, like a drowning person caught in a whirlpool, exhausted.

Hong Yi wasn't panicked. He thought to himself, "It is rumored that people with weak bodies can have their souls leave their bodies in their sleep. It's nothing to be afraid of."

However, the only difference was!

He felt like a drowning person who couldn't swim, dropped into the middle of the ocean, about to be submerged at any moment.

"Is this a dream, or has my soul actually exited my body?"

The scenery before him was still the same; he was surrounded by books and stone walls.

He looked around. The scenery was as usual. He used his hand to flip through a book, but discovered that his soul couldn't move the book at all. Clearly, the soul was just an intangible, formless thought.

He had no shadow under the lamp, as if he didn't exist at all. The surrounding environment hadn't changed because of this.

"So this is the feeling..."

Suddenly, a strong, cold wind blew in from outside the stone chamber.

Hong Yi felt as if he were about to have his soul scattered.

"Soul-exit is actually this dangerous!"

At this moment, Hong Yi had only one thought in his head: to return to his body as quickly as possible.

Because in dreams, such things sometimes happen, where you see your own body. But now, it was artificial. He could experience the feeling of his thoughts and soul jumping out of his body.

The wind blew against him, and Hong Yi felt as if he were standing naked in the middle of a snowy wilderness.

He was shivering from the cold, about to freeze to death at any moment!

"Huh?" Hong Yi suddenly remembered a discussion in the Caotang Notes.

He felt helpless and powerless.

"Am I dreaming, or has my soul really exited?"

The world was no longer the world!

He looked around again.

He felt as if he were floating above his own head, light as a feather, without any weight, seeing his own body.