Yan Shanshui stood quietly to one side and watched. Once the Dharma Body inheritance was complete, she put away the Heaven-Praying Altar and studied the little pine tree's new appearance.
It had undergone an enormous change. First, its needles had become greener, with a faint glow shimmering over their long, sharp tips. It had also grown roughly fifteen meters taller, turning from a little pine just over ten meters tall into a "big pine." Its trunk had thickened considerably, and its bark had darkened slightly.
"You've gotten bigger."
With her arms folded, Yan Shanshui asked with interest, "How do you feel?"
A patch of bark on Qing's main trunk slowly began to change. The rough, hard bark gradually twisted into a face.
Unlike the previous face, which had consisted of nothing more than three slits for eyes and a mouth, this one had eyes, a nose, eyebrows, and a mouth, all clear and finely detailed. Only its color remained unchanged, making it look like a relief carved into the bark.
-it was the face of a very young little girl, with delicate, dainty features. Its lack of expression gave it a rather endearingly vacant look.
"I feel very good. My sensing range seems to have grown a lot," Qing said slowly.
The voice was no longer rough, hollow, and deep. Instead, it was soft, youthful, and sweetly innocent, though speaking still seemed somewhat laborious.
"Wow." Yan Shanshui's beautiful eyes lit up, and she smiled. "Is this the face and voice you'll have when you take human form?"
"Is it bad?" Qing asked.
"No, it's lovely," Yan Shanshui said with a smile. "But why a child?"
Qing thought for a moment, then said, "He doesn't seem to mind children. When I thought about that just now, I turned out like this."
"So it follows your wishes?"
Understanding dawned on Yan Shanshui, and she nodded. "That's true, though. Senior Lin seems friendly toward us cultivators, but he actually keeps his distance. How do you know he doesn't mind children?"
"A child came to the shop once. Master treated her very well and even held her," Qing recalled, fine, pale eyebrows furrowing. "But the second time that child came, she had become a woman who looked to be in her twenties, and Master kept his distance from her."
Yan Shanshui was baffled. "You mean the child and the woman were the same person?"
"Yes." Qing nodded.
"Switching between a child and an adult? What kind of Dharma Body is that?"
Yan Shanshui was a little puzzled, but then shook her head and stopped dwelling on it. Since this was Senior Lin's guest, he surely knew all about her already. It wasn't her place to worry too much.
"Oh, right," Yan Shanshui asked. "Can you take human form now?"
Qing thought for a while, then shook that little head. "Right now, I can only shrink back to my original form. According to my inherited memories, I have to break through the second heavenly pass before I can create an external incarnation. If I want my true body to become human too, I have to break through the five passes and survive the heavenly tribulation."
"An external incarnation?"
Yan Shanshui suddenly smiled. "That does seem to be how plant spirits work. In that movie mortals made, A Chinese Ghost Story, the thousand-year-old tree demon Granny seemed to use an external incarnation too."
"A family nearby played that movie on their computer. I've seen it," Qing said. "But Qing only needs to absorb wood-aspect spiritual energy."
"Of course. It's the Dharma Body inheritance of Fuxi, the Heavenly Sovereign, after all. Naturally, it's an orthodox path of the Great Way."
Yan Shanshui smiled and nodded. "Then take your time cultivating. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask me. Even if I don't know, I can ask my master. There's no need to bother Senior Lin with little things like this."
"There are things I don't understand right now," Qing said at once.
"What don't you understand?" Yan Shanshui asked, puzzled.
"I don't really understand any of the cultivation part..." Qing admitted honestly.
Yan Shanshui smiled and folded her arms.
"It's actually very simple, so don't worry too much. In plain terms, each heavenly pass can be divided into two stages.
"The first stage is accumulating Spiritual Power. After all, the Dharma Body bestowed upon you by the upper realm is only an empty shell. You need to fill it with Spiritual Power to bring it to 'life,' much like charging a battery. This stage is purely about accumulation. It's very simple."
"The second stage is awakening the Dharma Body. Since you didn't cultivate this Dharma Body yourself, it's essentially asleep, making it difficult for a cultivator to control. That's why you have to wake it up. This is the most crucial stage."
Then she held up two slender fingers and said:
"There are two ways to awaken a Dharma Body.
"The first is to control it directly through your level of understanding. If your understanding of the principles contained within the Dharma Body and the 'Way' it represents is deep enough, you can naturally awaken it with ease. But this method is rather difficult. Almost no one can control a Dharma Body through understanding alone.
"The second method is the most common: let the Dharma Body gradually grow familiar with you and acknowledge you. After all, its power comes from the Immortals and Gods of the Heavenly Realm, and they all had their own experiences in the mortal world. As long as you learn from their mortal experiences and follow the paths they walked, the Dharma Body will gradually acknowledge you."
After explaining, Yan Shanshui gave an example:
"For instance, I inherited the Dharma Body of Gonggong, the Water God. Early in his cultivation in the mortal world, Gonggong had an experience similar to working at the 'Celestial Observatory,' so the Dharma Body of the first heavenly pass is also called the 'Celestial Observatory.' Hmm, in modern terms, that would be a 'weather presenter.' The name of each heavenly pass represents both a divine ability and an experience."
She paused, then couldn't help asking, "By the way, what is the first heavenly pass of the Fuxi Dharma Body called?"
"The Wood-Shaped Person," Qing said.
"The Wood-Shaped Person?"
Yan Shanshui smiled. "I understand now. The texts passed down through the Defiled Earth Jianmu lineage also record the true experiences of Fuxi, the Heavenly Sovereign. They mention that early in his cultivation, Fuxi spent long periods sitting motionless on the ground, observing the changes of yin and yang between heaven and earth. That was how he created the Eight Trigrams. As he sat there motionless, he looked just like a 'Wood-Shaped Person.' Simply put, a block of wood."
Qing froze for a moment. "But I'm already wood. How am I supposed to imitate that?"
"That's why you don't need to," Yan Shanshui said with a smile. "I imagine you only need to follow Ancestor Fuxi's example and observe the sky more. Hmm... in other words, gaze at the sky."
"Oh... gaze at the sky." Qing nodded, only half understanding.
"All right, start cultivating."
Yan Shanshui patted the pine's trunk. "I'll go back and look through the texts about Fuxi for you. For now, you just need to accumulate Spiritual Power and bring your Dharma Body to life."
Qing hesitated for a moment. "But it's already full of Spiritual Power."
"Huh?"
Yan Shanshui stared. "How is that possible? Didn't you only just receive the Dharma Body inheritance?"
Qing thought for a moment, then said, "The inky water left whenever Master washes his brush is actually concentrated Spiritual Power too. He always uses it to water me. Over these past few months, I've already stored up a lot of Master's essence in my body. After receiving the Dharma Body inheritance just now, I only put a small portion of that Spiritual Power into the Dharma Body, and it filled up completely."
The corner of Yan Shanshui's mouth twitched. That hurt.
Back then, even with plenty of spiritual pills, she had spent over two years cultivating diligently to accumulate enough Spiritual Power for the first heavenly pass and fill her Dharma Body.
Yet Qing had filled it on the spot?
She sighed helplessly, her face full of envy. "It is Senior Lin, after all. With his boundless magic power, I imagine he only needs to infuse a little into the ink while writing to give it an extremely high concentration of Spiritual Power. After three months of watering you like that, of course you've accumulated an absurd amount..."
"So now I just... gaze at the sky?" Qing asked.
"Gaze at the sky."
Yan Shanshui nodded emphatically. "I'd like to see just how quickly you can cultivate your way to the third heavenly pass! Surely you can't be faster than me?"