Nature Dao Makes Gods, Life Dao Makes Immortals

After the light had shone upon it, he knew the book's contents by heart. Those rays had imprinted every word within the book into the depths of his mind. But after this, the Divine Power attached to the book had completely dissipated. From now on, it would no longer shine with light and grant the effect of remembering everything at a glance.

"Nature Dao makes gods, Life Dao makes immortals."

As he chewed over these words, Qiu Yan's gaze swept across the book, and a realization flowed through his heart.

"The 'god' here does not refer to deities or divine spirits, but to the mind and spirit. And 'immortal' does not mean one who has ascended, but is a metaphor for climbing a mountain—the physical body reaching the summit, the mortal shell becoming imperishable."

The opening pages of the book contained something like a general outline. They had all been imprinted into Qiu Yan's heart by the light, yet now, as he opened the book, he still read them aloud, uttering each word one by one—

"Nature is Principle, heart, spirit, intent, and virtue. Life is law, breath, qi, form, and accomplishment. Nature and life are the foundation; seek preservation, seek survival."

"Those who cultivate seek the Dao, but must first seek endurance and longevity. If one's Dao Fruit has not yet formed, yet one's spirit is extinguished and form dispersed, then there is no hope of attaining the Dao in this life. Thus, one must first prove endurance and longevity before one may have the chance to achieve the Dao."

"As the saying goes, live long and see far. If you do not live long, no matter how far or deeply you see, you are but a rootless tree, water without a source, destined in the end to become flowers in a mirror and moonlight on water."

The book's opening stated its purpose plainly, directly naming the goal of cultivation: first, to endure and live long. Even the pursuit of the Dao could be set aside for the moment.

"Nature and life... if one has neither, what can one use to seek the Dao? What this book says is blunt, but true."

With that thought, Qiu Yan turned past the opening and examined it carefully.

The book offered some explanation of cultivating Nature and Life, including methods of cultivation.

"Nature Dao makes gods; it cultivates the mind, thoughts, and soul."

As he read line after line, verifying them against the memories he had just acquired, Qiu Yan gradually grasped the crucial points of cultivating The Way of Nature and Life.

"This book says that Nature Dao cultivates the soul, divided into the Aperture-Opening Realm and the Soul-Congealing Realm. The first step is Aperture Opening. Only after entering the Aperture-Opening Realm can one be considered initiated. Then one directs one's thoughts, touches the essence of the mind and spirit, and advances into the Soul-Congealing Realm once the Three Souls manifest. Aperture Opening and Soul Condensation are the two realms of Nature Cultivation."

Qiu Yan slowly turned the pages, scrutinizing every word and sentence.

"There are actually many different schools for cultivating Nature, such as the Guarding the One Method, Spirit-Preservation Method, Inner Observation Method, Meditation Method, Silent Recitation Method, and Sitting-in-Oblivion Method. The book does not introduce them in detail, but it records a soul-cultivation method called the Lying God Inner Art, involving the three schools of Spirit Preservation, meditation, and silent recitation."

Further on came the specific contents of the Lying God Inner Art. They were mysterious beyond mystery, but as Qiu Yan read them and reflected them against his memories, something stirred within him.

The entire method was profound, yet contained few words—only several sparse lines occupying two pages.

After the method came the next realm of soul cultivation: the Soul-Congealing Realm.

"The Three Souls differ from one another, each with its own distinctions... The account of the Soul-Congealing Realm is clearly not detailed enough. It does not even list a specific method of Soul Condensation. Still, that is understandable. Soul Condensation is a further step forward, and plainly holds deeper mysteries. It should not be something a mortal can learn so easily."

This book had not been meant for his divine true body, but for the scholar incarnation, this "mortal." Qiu Yan still remembered that. As he thought, he turned several more pages.

"Life Dao makes immortals; it cultivates flesh, sinews, bones, and physique."

The contents had now reached the portion on Life Cultivation.

"The book's introduction to Life Dao is very specific. Unlike the Lying God Inner Art, it is not mysterious beyond mystery, and its language is plain."

But after flipping through a few pages, Qiu Yan shook his head.

"Still, compared with Nature Cultivation, this introduction to Life Cultivation is detailed but not deep. Most of it consists of simple methods for strengthening the body and fortifying the physique, without touching upon specific techniques. Yet it does provide some direction for future cultivation. Cultivating Life Dao chiefly means tempering the physique. The first step is the Foundation Establishment Realm. Once one cultivates Hidden Force and Internal Force, stimulating the flesh throughout the body and causing the Seven Souls to stir, one can advance into the Soul-Refining Realm, refining the Seven Souls in sequence. Unfortunately, it does not say what use refining the Seven Souls has."

"The Foundation Establishment Realm and Soul-Refining Realm seem to correspond to the Aperture-Opening Realm and Soul-Congealing Realm of Nature Cultivation, but they lack a method as rigorous as the Lying God Inner Art..."

After pondering briefly, realization dawned on Qiu Yan.

"Of course. The City God gave me this book for my flesh-and-blood incarnation. In her eyes, this incarnation is merely a scholar, his physique insufficiently robust and past the ideal age for Foundation Establishment. No matter how he trains, he probably cannot accomplish it. So although the book introduces both Nature and Life, and includes techniques for cultivating strength through Life Dao, its emphasis still falls on Nature Cultivation and cultivating the heart."

Having understood this, Qiu Yan moved his fingers and turned the pages back to the page recording the Lying God Inner Art.

"Since that is so, I should stop dividing my attention and first study this method."

The Lying God Inner Art was couched in mystical language. It touched somewhat upon Daoist Sect terminology and frequently quoted from the classics and historical texts Qiu Yan had read.

Fortunately, Qiu Yan had long memorized its words through the light of Divine Power. After inheriting the scholar's physical body, he could access all of its original memories.

Skipping past the ornate rhetoric, he swiftly seized upon the key points. His finger traced the words across the page—

Preserve the gods, preserve the gods within the body. Every one of man's five organs and hundred joints has gods residing within; lying in thirty-six thousand apertures, ten make one body. Preserve them daily, continue without cease at every moment, never forget them in every thought, and let the original heart remain unmoved.

Staring at these words, Qiu Yan silently pondered them and soon understood their general meaning.

"The gods within the body are not divine spirits, but the mind and spirit. A person has limbs and a hundred bones, all controlled with a single movement of thought. That is the mind and spirit reaching directly into every part of the body. This Spirit-Preservation Method is to make those thoughts and the mind and spirit concrete—to imagine the thoughts controlling the entire body as individual 'gods' spread throughout the body, and then..."

His gaze fell upon the following lines—

Meditate upon my gods. The gods contain light within, illuminating the entire body. Move the thoughts and gather them at the crown of the head.

"Imagine moving all the 'gods' scattered throughout the body to the crown of the head. The mind and spirit are formless, so one must first preserve them in thought as gods, then imagine those 'gods' moving upward and gathering atop the head. Every step is illusory beyond compare, beyond imagination. Had I not come to this world and truly become an Earth Deity, I likely would never have believed it."

With that thought, he raised his hand and turned a page. His gaze settled upon the final few lines, which were mnemonics requiring the cultivator to silently recite them while preserving the gods and meditating.

"This passage is meant to regulate the process of preserving the gods and meditating. These so-called mnemonics are like Shang Jun's Law and Sun Wu's Command: commands are carried out without exception. They restrain the mind and spirit, preventing thoughts from scattering in all directions."

Just as Qi Refiners had to control the qi essence within their bodies, cultivating the heart and Nature also required methods and rules. One could not simply preserve and imagine at random, or one's thoughts could easily fall into disorder. In mild cases, it caused memory loss; in severe cases, it injured the soul.

"This method of restraint is indispensable to both Nature and Life cultivation. The Buddhist School calls it the Dharma Wheel, Daoism calls it the Heavenly Circuit, and Confucianism calls it Conducting the Court."

After reading the Lying God Inner Art several times over, Qiu Yan gradually formed an idea.

"The principles and methods may sound mysterious, but the key lies in putting them into practice. I may as well try it now. The first step is to clear away distracting thoughts..."

He acted as soon as the thought arose. Sitting cross-legged, he clasped his hands firmly and placed them upon his knees. With a turn of thought, he expelled the distracting thoughts from the scholar incarnation's mind.

For ordinary cultivators, this step was exceedingly difficult. They often needed many movements and repeated attempts before they could enter stillness. The City God had even given him a ball of mist to help Qiu Yan calm his heart and steady his spirit. But Qiu Yan's true body was a divine spirit. Extracting the mind and spirit from his incarnation was as easy as turning over his hand, so he accomplished it in one step.

After entering stillness came the preservation and visualization of the gods within the body.

Qiu Yan's thoughts shifted as he first meditated upon the Five Great Gods.

The Five Great Gods came from the True Declarations. The City God had gifted him the passage: "The Five Great Gods are the two hands, two feet, and head."

What the Lying God Inner Art contemplated were the gods within the body. The Five Great Gods formed its general outline: one had to imagine the head veiled in green qi, the hands producing red qi, and the feet stepping upon white qi.

This step was not especially difficult for ordinary people. With the limited capacity of the human mind, they could barely manage to imagine the Five Great Gods of the limbs and head. But once the number increased, they would inevitably attend to one thing and lose sight of another. Yet the Lying God Inner Art required one to preserve and visualize three thousand six hundred gods throughout the body!

This was not something an ordinary person could accomplish. To achieve it, one needed thoughts deep and dim, utterly free of stray notions, while having trained Spirit Preservation and meditation into instinct. Then one had to preserve them daily, keep them constantly in mind, and spend years, decades, or even several decades before it could be done.

If Qiu Yan had merely been an ordinary scholar, then if he wanted to achieve results with the Lying God Inner Art, he could forget about ever having time to study for the Imperial Examinations.

Fortunately, this problem did not exist for Qiu Yan. As he preserved and visualized within his heart, white light radiated from the painting scroll on the nearby table, enveloping his entire body and pouring down like a curtain of water.

The next moment, beneath the flesh, sinews, and bones throughout his body, specks of light appeared, like stars.

Soon, as he silently recited the mnemonics, his thoughts drew them along. Point by point, the lights slowly moved over the surface of his body, swiftly gathering at Qiu Yan's head and condensing atop it.

Beneath the crown of his head, the light grew ever denser.

Gradually, it approached a critical point.

Dazed!

Qiu Yan's true body and incarnation both went dazed at once. The white light shrouding his body swayed, and then a mass of light leapt out from the crown of his head!

The ball of light was bright at first, then dimmed, and finally vanished.