Primordial Spirit and Cognitive Spirit

"I think Primordial Spirit is a pretty good name."

When the Primordial Spirit holding the Divine Firmament Sword said this, Li Boyang's main body spoke the same words in unison.

This was the first time he had unified the consciousness of his Sword Pill and his main body.

Before this, every time Li Boyang's Sword Pill left its sheath.

His main body's consciousness would be affected, becoming emotionally indifferent and even developing antisocial tendencies.

Yet after devouring the Heart-Seizing Baleful Intent and receiving a kiss from the Ranyi Fish, a spirituality hidden within Li Boyang's soul had awakened.

That spirituality was the perfect integration of essence, Qi, and spirit.

It was something special that could act upon the mind, the flesh, and even the primordial Qi of heaven and earth simultaneously.

Li Boyang was not even certain whether this spark of spirituality had come from the Heart-Seizing Baleful Intent, the Ranyi Fish, or the talisman left behind by the Witch of the Huai River.

The only certainty for now was that this spark of spirituality had unified Li Boyang's consciousness, leaving him no longer susceptible to interference from outside factors.

Even the incomparably ferocious Sha Qi of the earth behaved quite meekly under this spirituality's control.

As for inner demons?

With his essence, Qi, and spirit completely unified, Li Boyang had long since ceased to have any concept of "inner demons." Even his thoughts had become incomparably pure.

This could not help reminding Li Hao of the Daoist "theory of the Primordial Spirit and Cognitive Spirit" from his previous life.

In the Daoist understanding of his previous life, an innate life force possessing spirituality and wisdom lay hidden within a person's sea of consciousness, serving as a bridge through which humans communicated and aligned with heaven, earth, and nature.

It was regarded as the ruler of the body, governing its various physiological activities and psychological functions.

The body was like a vessel, while the Primordial Spirit was the core force within it, driving its workings.

When the Primordial Spirit was abundant and harmonious, the body was often healthy and full of vigor.

Conversely, when the Primordial Spirit was damaged or weak, the body became prone to various illnesses and discomforts.

Opposed to it was the thinking consciousness that people developed through acquired training and learning-the Cognitive Spirit.

The Cognitive Spirit arose through the reception, processing, and understanding of external information through human senses, possessing strong powers of logic and comprehension.

For that very reason, however, the Cognitive Spirit was highly subjective and limited, easily disturbed and tempted by the outside world.

Ordinary Daoist cultivation involved suppressing one's Cognitive Spirit through visualization and seated meditation, allowing the Primordial Spirit to take charge of the body and achieving harmony and transcendence of body and mind.

When the Primordial Spirit governed the body, the cultivator was not only less susceptible to outside influences.

An innate ability transcending ordinary senses and cognition would also emerge.

Specifically, this manifested as the ability to foresee unfavorable circumstances.

It also helped and guided the cultivator to overcome various difficulties and obstacles in the correct way.

At the same time, as a bridge for communicating with heaven, earth, and nature.

Once the Primordial Spirit manifested, even manipulating the violent Sha Qi of the earth veins to form a self-circulating "body" was no great difficulty.

As I recall, the Primordial Spirit seemed to be something Daoists naturally nurtured in the process of cultivating a Golden Core.

Did I take a shortcut? Or was I misled by those things from my previous life?

Feeling his current state with an odd expression, Li Boyang could not help touching the vertical eye between his brows.

Or does the Sword Pill barely qualify as a type of Golden Core?

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

His powerful Cognitive Spirit once again took charge of Li Boyang's thinking.

As a modern transmigrator from the twenty-first century, Li Boyang found it difficult to maintain this pure, tranquil state of returning to the heart for long.

Fortunately, this did not affect the battle to come.

The spiritual body reconstructed from the Sha Qi of the earth veins was sufficient to carry Li Boyang's manifested Primordial Spirit into battle.

Whoosh!

The four-armed ghost god stood six zhang tall, with rounded shoulders and thick arms.

Standing upon the earth, it towered even above the tallest trees.

To fight such an enemy, Li Boyang's Primordial Spirit likewise rapidly expanded, growing enormous.

Supported by an endless supply of Sha Qi, a giant over ten meters tall soon appeared in midair.

Though still somewhat smaller than the four-armed ghost god, which stood nearly twenty meters tall, the difference was no longer that between an elephant and an ant.

It was not that Li Boyang did not want to grow larger.

Rather, this quantity of Sha Qi was already the limit of what his Primordial Spirit could control.

Handling more was not impossible, but entirely unnecessary.

"This limit is much lower than I imagined."

Looking at the black wisps faintly rising around him, Li Boyang decisively stopped absorbing more Sha Qi.

Compared with the image of a monster wreathed in rolling black clouds, Li Boyang felt that his current appearance, with its immortal grace and Daoist bearing, suited his tastes quite well.

"Starting now... officially entering the second form!"

Raising the Divine Firmament Sword, which had grown along with him, Li Boyang gazed calmly at the four-armed ghost god opposite him.

"Arrogant!"

"Do you think combat is nothing more than a contest of strength?"

With a sudden furious roar, the four-armed ghost god charged straight at Li Boyang in midair.

Whoosh-boom!

In an instant, the explosive report produced by all four arms swinging at once rang out in every direction.

This was the force produced by a massive body paired with extreme speed, and a purely physical sonic boom.

Before Li Boyang could even register what had happened, just under half his airborne body was blasted apart.

"Technique is just as important!"

Taking advantage of the brief interval when Li Boyang could not move.

An undisguised, cruel smile appeared on You Xiao's hideous face.

"Especially in a fight to the death, technique is sometimes more important than strength!"

As the high priest of the Guifang Kingdom, You Xiao had never excelled only at the Guifang Secret Techniques.

Close-quarters killing techniques were also part of You Xiao's daily training.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Heavy punches hammered down without pause, and You Xiao gave Li Boyang no chance to reassemble his body.

For a time, Li Boyang even lost the mobility he had possessed in his earlier flying-sword form, reduced entirely to taking a beating.

Combat techniques?

Despite losing the initiative, Li Boyang was not discouraged.

Quite the opposite: as he continued exchanging blows with You Xiao, Li Boyang was adapting to the rhythm of this battle.

From passively taking a beating at first, to gradually managing to dodge, to occasionally swinging his sword in retaliation...

Li Boyang's rate of growth far exceeded an ordinary person's imagination.

He had to admit that compared with You Xiao, a high priest who had undergone rigorous training since childhood, Li Boyang, a transmigrator, was merely an ordinary person.

Never mind professional killing techniques-he had never even encountered ordinary fighting techniques.

However, the awakening of his Primordial Spirit had granted Li Boyang astonishing powers of learning and adaptation.

Combined with his enormous Cognitive Spirit from the twenty-first century, Li Boyang's counterattacks repeatedly caught You Xiao by surprise.

To use a perhaps less-than-appropriate analogy.

If the Primordial Spirit was the algorithm, then the Cognitive Spirit was the database, while the spiritual body and Divine Firmament Sword were the most basic hardware.

The difference in size is too great. Freestyle fighting and MMA submission holds are no use...

This sword strike... should be swung like this...

His punch has spent its force...

Wait, he has four arms... I can't think in conventional terms.

This is his weak point. I can counterattack now!

In less than a few short breaths, Li Boyang had thoroughly integrated the sword moves and forms from his previous life's memories and put them to fluid use.