Breaking the Obstruction of Knowledge and Views

"Lei Ge, how has cultivating that Basic Meditation Method felt these past couple of days?"

In Shan Hai Village, beneath the corner of the wall in Ling Yi's courtyard, Ling Yi opened one end of the bundle wrapped in a Cooling Mat and evenly scattered the Blue Silver Grass seeds inside into the long Wooden Water Trough.

Beside him, Zhang Lei used the Dark Yellow Gourd Water Ladle to scoop water from the Water Bucket by his feet, then slowly poured it into the trough.

Hearing Ling Yi's question, Zhang Lei kept moving. He thought for a moment and said, "It's all right, I guess~"

"I can already mobilize the soul power in my body and circulate it along the routes described in the Basic Meditation Method~"

At this point, Zhang Lei's hand gripping the ladle paused. With a slightly awkward expression, he grumbled, "It's just that Basic Meditation Method—I don't know who created it. I recognize all the words written in it, but when you put them together, well! It took me a ridiculous amount of effort—!"

"This meditation method is way more troublesome than the Hoeing Form you taught me, A Yi—!"

Over these years, Zhang Lei had spent the most time with Ling Yi. Even the couple Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Xiaoyu, Ling Yi's own parents, had not spent as much time with their son as this cousin had.

So, whether in the way he spoke, his understanding of things, or his style of doing things, Zhang Lei had been deeply influenced by Ling Yi.

Clearly, the descriptive terms in the Basic Meditation Method that left many Six Years Old newly awakened Soul Master apprentices completely lost had not stumped Zhang Lei, this country kid. They had only made him rack his brains for a while.

Clatter—

With a neither loud nor soft sound, Zhang Lei tossed the ladle into the Water Bucket, which was already nearly empty. He shook out his arm, then stretched out his right hand. As a gray light flashed, a Hoe as tall as he was finally appeared in Zhang Lei's hand.

Thud—

Zhang Lei turned his Martial Soul, the Hoe, upside down and planted it against the ground. His right hand's web between thumb and forefinger formed a half-circle, his palm pressed against the long handle, and his five fingers spread open toward Ling Yi.

"A Yi, look~" Zhang Lei raised his left hand and extended his index finger to point at the middle finger of his right hand. "Right now, I can more or less control my soul power starting from here, pulling along those green and yellow specks of light outside... Mm~ Those white, black, and red specks of light are few, and they don't listen either..."

After casually throwing in that digression, Zhang Lei continued moving his hand. From the tip of his middle finger, he traced along the pad of the finger to the center of his palm, then all the way to his wrist, arm, elbow bend... With an upward stroke, he finally returned to the side of the hollow in front of his elbow and tapped it, continuing, "By the time it gets here, I feel like the soul power doesn't obey as well. It carries those outside green and yellow specks of light and still moves upward, but they go their own way. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Every so often they twist around a few times, just like fish in the water—"

Listening to Zhang Lei's words and watching him point here and there, Ling Yi's hands, which were rolling up the Cooling Mat beside him, moved more and more slowly.

That handsome little face, which seemed forever as Clouds Light | Wind Gentle, now had its brows slightly furrowed, carrying a few traces of gloom.

Over here, Zhang Lei had been talking with growing enthusiasm, his little mouth chattering away. When he caught sight of Ling Yi's expression, his voice grew quieter and quieter. In the end, he asked softly with some worry, "A Yi, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Hah—"

Ling Yi let out a long breath and struggled to bind the ripples surging through his mind deep in his heart. His expression returned to calm, and his voice was as indifferent as ever. "It's nothing, Lei Ge—"

"It's just that after hearing what you said about your cultivation situation with the Basic Meditation Method, I had some new thoughts..."

"Never mind me~" Ling Yi changed the subject. "I'm fine. Don't worry~~ Tell me in more detail about some of the specifics when you meditate and cultivate—"

"Oh~"

Seeing Ling Yi say this, and seeing that his expression did not seem off either, Zhang Lei, who was only nine years old now, did not think too much about it. He nodded and continued sharing with Ling Yi in high spirits, describing his cultivation situation in every detail, bit by bit.

Before long, Zhang Lei had finished saying everything he had noticed and could remember.

After all, he had only just come into contact with cultivating the Basic Meditation Method less than two days ago, barely reaching the threshold. Naturally, there was only so much he could explain.

After listening to Zhang Lei finish, Ling Yi nodded and reminded him, "Lei Ge, I told you before that cultivation needs moderation. When you feel mentally drained, or when the channels your soul power runs through feel uncomfortable, you have to stop. Don't rush for results and end up hurting yourself..."

"We're only a few years old right now. Take it slowly. Don't rush. Seek progress while staying steady—"

"Mm~" Hearing this, Zhang Lei nodded obediently in agreement. He trusted this cousin of his the most. Even his own father, Zhang Dahe, did not stand as tall in Zhang Lei's heart as Ling Yi did.

Could Zhang Dahe say such great truths? No, but Ling Yi could!

Could Zhang Dahe come up with that many ideas to make a fortune? No, but Ling Yi could!

Could Zhang Dahe summarize an effective Hoeing Form for tempering the body based on the villagers working in the fields? No! But Ling Yi could!

And also, When Zhang Lei was declared to have no Innate Soul Power, Zhang Dahe could only accept his lot and accept this result, comforting Zhang Lei and telling him not to be sad. But Ling Yi could encourage Zhang Lei to face it optimistically, saying that maybe the soul power hidden in his body was too little and had not been detected. As long as his body became strong, perhaps his soul power would increase until it could be sensed...

"Eat more, sleep more, train more. It's always good to polish the body well," Ling Yi had said at the time.

And in the end, the result did not go against Ling Yi's guess. Zhang Lei did indeed possess Innate Soul Power. It was just far, far too little. At the moment it was about to be drawn out by the Crystal Ball, his body had reacted physiologically, but because the testing time had ended, everything stopped abruptly. He himself had been too emotionally shaken at the time to realize this at all.

Now, based on Ling Yi's comparison between his own half-level soul power and Zhang Lei's, Zhang Lei's soul power had already reached level two!

Three years, from Six Years Old to nine. Starting from Innate Soul Power that was essentially equal to nothing, he had relied entirely on the Hoeing Form to temper his physique, and occasionally accepted Ling Yi's Hypnosis to enter Deep Sleep and regulate his body, letting his body instinctively cultivate on its own. Only then had he gained this hard-earned level-two soul power!

Of course, over these years, the food standards of the Ling and Zhang families had also kept up. In the middle, there had even been good things like Ginseng Chicken Soup to nourish them, which was also an important factor.

After agreeing with Zhang Lei to go patrol the Old Forest tomorrow, Ling Yi saw him out of his courtyard gate, then turned and returned to his own room.

He heavily threw himself onto the bed and did not bother taking off his shoes, leaving his feet hanging outside the edge of the bed. Ling Yi lay there, quietly staring at the roof beam above.

A long time passed.

Only then did Ling Yi squeeze two words out from between his teeth. "Damn it—!"

It was a rare curse. This was the first time since his transmigration, after realizing he had no golden finger whatsoever and had started with a blank-slate opening.

All because Ling Yi had discovered that, due to arrogance and carelessness, he had trapped himself in a kind of Obstruction of Knowledge and Views.

It turned out that in the Basic Meditation Method, there was a phrase: "the outer side of the end of the little finger." Ling Yi had subconsciously understood it as the end of the pinky, the outer side along the edge of the palm.

Because when he summoned his Martial Soul, the route along which his soul power circulated happened to run through this very route on the little finger, it had made Ling Yi even more firmly believe in his own judgment and understanding without a doubt.

Speaking of which, in these years since transmigrating, although Ling Yi had not deliberately shown himself off much, whenever he wanted to accomplish something, he could always succeed.

Such as the Ling Family raising pheasants and wild rabbits, the Zhang family's Fish Pond, Shan Hai Village reclaiming farmland...

Even though these things were not actually all that remarkable, Ling Yi still could not help feeling a hint of pride and complacency rise in his heart.

Ling Yi never would have imagined that he would make such a low-level mistake. Thinking about it now, he felt a little embarrassed.

Speaking of which, this counted as him making a mistake similar to those two illiterates, Mei Chaofeng and the other one, in Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Those two had taken the "Bone Crushing Divine Claw" from the Nine Yin Manual, the line "the five fingers exert force; nothing solid cannot be broken; crush the enemy's head as though piercing rotten earth," and understood it as using the five fingers to stab into an enemy's skull. They had also thought cultivation required doing exactly that, forcibly turning a superior martial art into the underworld-style Nine Yin White Bone Claw.

Ling Yi had once laughed at them for this. As disciples of Huang Yaoshi, one of the rare top students in Jin Yong's Novels, even if they could not be said to know astronomy above, geography below, and pass the imperial examinations in between, they should at least have had basic reading comprehension, right?

Who would have thought that after transmigrating to Douluo Continent, where cultural literacy was extremely low, he would actually make the same mistake as those two idiots? If the novel-reading friends from his previous life found out, wouldn't they laugh at him for a whole year?

Fortunately, he had transmigrated alone. No one else knew about this dark history. Otherwise, he would have had to think of a way to silence them—by Master Ling's inner monologue.

Thanks to book friend Wenxin Chunfeng, book friend 20170415073356826, and book friend 20200411110011695 for their monthly tickets, thanks to book friend Qixing's Light for the reward, and thanks to all book friends for your support and recognition. Thank you, everyone! (ω)