"By the way."
Hoshino stopped Jingzhe and asked mysteriously, "Do you know about slaying the Three Corpses?"
"The Three Corpses?"
Jingzhe thought back. In Taoist belief, the "Three Corpses" represented the three kinds of "evil desires" within the human body, their original forms being three kinds of worms. The Taoist text Treatise on the Three Corpses said, "There are Three Corpse worms within the human body." Specifically, there were three upper corpse worms, three middle corpse worms, and three lower corpse worms, hence the name "Three Corpses and Nine Worms." Those who cultivated the Dao and sought immortality had to eradicate and destroy the "root of the Three Corpses."
The upper corpse worm was named Penghou. It dwelled within the head, making people foolish and dull-witted, devoid of wisdom.
The middle corpse worm was named Pengzhi. It dwelled within the chest, filling people with worries and delusions, leaving them unable to find peace.
The lower corpse worm was named Pengjiao. It dwelled within the abdomen, making people lust after sex, food, and drink.
"No, no, no. Not something as disgusting as worms. It's the good and evil within oneself, a hurdle people are bound to encounter as they move forward. Once it's severed, your thoughts become clear, and you can follow your heart without overstepping the bounds."
"So..."
"So the immortal you saw might not have been her true self, but the incarnation of an obsession she severed."
Hoshino shook her head.
"Once you've seen enough, it stops being strange. You all really ought to study more." There was no need to explain any further. Hoshino looked at Jingzhe's bewildered eyes. She clearly still did not understand; even from a Yan Kingdom perspective, this was far too much like some immortal-cultivation fantasy.
Still, it was not difficult to understand.
Just