Multiverse: In Little Garden, Becoming a God Through Once Proven, Forever Proven

[In the blink of an eye, evening came. After eating as the Old Celestial Master had told you to, you went looking for him again.]

[It was night now, and the weather had grown a little cooler. Up on the mountain especially, a slight breeze made it quite refreshing.]

[As soon as you entered the courtyard, you saw the Old Celestial Master sitting outside at a stone table, drinking tea. You walked over.]

"Old Celestial Master, you're drinking tea in the middle of the night? Aren't you afraid you won't be able to sleep?"

The moment Qin Qi opened his mouth, the whole atmosphere of an eminent master drinking tea beneath the moon at night was shattered. He had already begun cultivating immortality, and Qin Qi was still asking if tea would keep him awake!

"If you were my disciple, I'd slap you across the face right now."

The Old Celestial Master spoke irritably. Although the atmosphere had been ruined, things between the two of them had also become more relaxed and cheerful.

"All right, Old Celestial Master, stop joking. What exactly did you call me here for in the middle of the night? Could it be that you're going to secretly teach me some secret technique?"

Qin Qi smiled as he spoke.

"In your dreams. Secret technique? I've got some special homemade pickles here. Want some?"

The Old Celestial Master spoke.

"Sure. Pickled vegetables with millet porridge taste pretty good too. I like them."

Qin Qi spoke.

"Go on, go on. Stop joking around with me."

"I called you here this time to make up a gap in your training and teach you the basics of entering meditation."

"I heard from Old Lu that you haven't been in the Three-One Sect for long. You're talented, so you probably started straight off with Reversal."

"There's nothing wrong with that, but as I see it, entering meditation is the foundation of everything. If your skill at entering meditation is good enough,"

"Then you don't even need to cultivate any techniques. Just by entering meditation, you can constantly train and temper your nature and life."

As the Old Celestial Master spoke, he began explaining how to enter meditation to Qin Qi, then had him give it a try.

[You sat down cross-legged and began trying to enter meditation, but after trying for a long time, you still couldn't find the so-called feeling of being centered that the Old Celestial Master had described.]

[You didn't think your talent was lacking. You thought your method was wrong: you had no understanding of what being centered meant.]

[You had no idea what you were supposed to do sitting there, and that was why you couldn't truly enter meditation.]

"Entering meditation isn't about thinking of nothing. Emptying your head is just sleeping or staring into space. Entering meditation... the centered state..."

"Old Celestial Master... what exactly is the state of meditation?"

Qin Qi didn't just plunge blindly into practice. He held to one fundamental understanding in everything he did: persistence only counted as persistence when it was headed in the right direction.

Persisting without finding the right direction was nothing more than indulging in self-congratulation and burrowing into a dead end.

"What is entering meditation? Although the Daoist scriptures all say it's a state in which the mind is empty, that isn't how I understand it."

"Everyone has their own meditative state. Simply put, it's about finding the state in which you're most comfortable, where your heart and consciousness are in accord."

"Be true to your own heart, and that is entering meditation. Being centered means leaning neither to one side nor the other, lacking nothing and having nothing in excess."

The Old Celestial Master didn't play word games with Qin Qi. He put it plainly: do whatever felt comfortable. That was how he understood entering meditation.

That was how he had done it when he was learning, too.

"Do whatever feels comfortable."

Qin Qi nodded, then tried again to enter meditation. He stopped trying to control his thoughts and let them flow naturally instead.

[You gradually began to enter a meditative state. Countless thoughts surged through your mind, but they didn't affect you.]

[Find what you wanted to do and rule out what you didn't. Once you made a decision, stop hesitating and don't needlessly drain your spirit.]

[Gradually, you found that the things you needed to think about were being resolved one by one. You had made a decision on each of them.]

[Your mind began to empty. In this state of having nothing to do, your perception began to expand.]

[You could clearly feel the flow of your blood, the beating of your heart, the rhythm of your cells, and even the fluctuations of your life energy.]

[In this state, your thinking became exceptionally sharp. Your comprehension, wisdom, and perception of the outside world were magnified who knew how many times over.]

[You cultivated Threefold Reversal faster, and you also understood and absorbed knowledge more quickly and keenly.]

[You had succeeded in entering meditation. At the same time, under the influence of Once Proven, Forever Proven, you only had to do it once to maintain it indefinitely.]

"Whew, I did it."

Qin Qi looked at the Old Celestial Master and smiled. He had entered meditation, but on the surface, nothing much had changed. Entering meditation wasn't a complete transformation; it merely kept him in his most comfortable state at all times.

There are several more updates coming. I'm working myself to the bone today! I'll make sure you guys get to read to your hearts' content in one go!

Chapter 53: As Though We Were Young Again, Yet We No Longer Share the Same Feelings About the Passing Years! (Fourth update)

"Good lad, you really do have a bit of what I had back then."

The Old Celestial Master watched Qin Qi, who had opened his eyes not long after sitting down. He keenly noticed that Qin Qi's bearing had grown more peaceful.

The light in his eyes had also grown calmer. Unless one looked closely, it couldn't be seen at all. His spirit and brilliance had been drawn inward.

At the same time, he gave off a faint aura that made people want to feel close to him, and coupled with that smile,

Anyone meeting him for the first time would probably have a very good first impression of him.

"Sitting is the simplest way to enter meditation. Once you've mastered it further, you can enter meditation in all sorts of positions."

"Standing, lying down, even while moving or fighting, you can maintain a meditative state."

The Old Celestial Master explained this to Qin Qi.

"Mm."

Qin Qi had already reached the highest level, maintaining meditation at every moment, but the depth of his meditation could actually be increased further.

Making his reactions faster, his perception quicker, and his thoughts faster were all things meditation could accomplish.

Moreover, while he remained in a meditative state, his body grew stronger every moment, and his life energy slowly increased as well.

"Originally, I thought teaching you to enter meditation would be enough for today, but your talent is so good that even I'm tempted."

"What a pity. If you hadn't joined the Three-One Sect, it's not as though I couldn't make an exception and take another disciple."

The Old Celestial Master shook his head, then said with a mischievous grin, "How about you talk it over with Old Lu and become my disciple instead?"

"Old Celestial Master, stop messing around. I'm not that kind of person. I've taken a master, learned his techniques, and made use of his connections."

"Naturally, that means taking on his responsibilities too. I've always placed the greatest importance on keeping my word."

Qin Qi spoke with a smile. For a merchant, keeping one's word was most important of all. After all, your credibility determined how much your promises were worth.

"Good lad. All right, no more joking. Next, let me teach you a few little tricks I worked out myself."

The Old Celestial Master looked at Qin Qi's unwavering eyes and nodded. He really hadn't been joking just now.

He genuinely thought highly of Qin Qi. Whether in talent or temperament, the lad was outstanding, and he truly was tempted.

But if Qin Qi had agreed, then he definitely wouldn't have. The Old Celestial Master certainly wouldn't accept someone who could take a master and then turn around and join another.

A double standard, an outrageous double standard. Just as the saying went, what you couldn't have was always the best.

[Over the time that followed, you learned the Old Celestial Master's so-called little tricks. In your meditative state, your thinking had become sharper.]

[You learned faster, too. It didn't take long before you had learned most of the Old Celestial Master's so-called little tricks.]

"This lad... his learning speed seems to have improved a lot."

The Old Celestial Master narrowed his eyes as he watched Qin Qi. By his reckoning, Qin Qi should have needed at least a full day to absorb what he had just explained.

But only a few hours had passed, and the lad already looked as though he understood it all.

"All right, let's see just how much you can learn, lad."

"Back in the day, Old Lu and I sparred, and I also met Sect Leader Zuo. I know a little about Threefold Reversal."

"At its core, Threefold Reversal is very similar to the Golden Light Mantra. In fact, most techniques are fundamentally applications of Qi."

"Once you understand that, whether you're learning techniques or breaking them, it'll be as easy as reaching out and grabbing them."

"But whether it's Reversal or Golden Light, both are applications derived from nature and life. They are methods of protecting the Dao, not cultivating it."

"You need to understand that."

What the Old Celestial Master meant was much like the Nine Swords of Dugu: no matter how sword moves under heaven changed, none escaped those nine.

The Nine Swords of Dugu needed only nine moves to break every technique, while the Old Celestial Master needed only a glance to see his opponent's weakness.

"Come on, lad, exchange a few moves with me."

The Old Celestial Master extended a hand, ready to spar with Qin Qi and give him a proper understanding of why old ginger was spicier.

"Then I won't hold back."

This time, Qin Qi took the initiative and attacked. The two weren't matching their nature and life against each other, but their moves, combat experience, and fighting instincts.

[You had learned your fighting skills and gained your combat experience from Lisa Lisa and your own subsequent exploration and training. Against ordinary people, they were more than strong enough.]

[But before the hundred-year-old Old Celestial Master, your cultivation of nature and life might have been formidable, yet your fighting skills were still those of a child.]

[Every attack you made was interrupted before you could even execute it. You had strength to spare, but you couldn't bring it to bear at all.]

[You weren't discouraged. Instead, you kept learning and improving, and gradually, your level of meditation continued to deepen.]

"Mm!"

The longer the Old Celestial Master fought, the more tightly his brows knitted. Qin Qi was learning and growing far too quickly. Once a move had been used against him, it was useless the next time.

At first, the lad had been like a little baby, but as the fight continued, his skills grew more and more seasoned.

It was as though every move aged him a year, and in a short time, he had grown into a young man.

But it didn't stop there. He was growing even faster!

As for Qin Qi, he entered a state of deep meditation. At that moment, he was no longer relying on his eyes and Hamon to sense his surroundings.

Instead, he used Mind's Eye, a technique of a realm that could only be discovered by entering deep meditation.

All his attention was focused on himself and the Old Celestial Master. It was as if they were standing on the surface of still water.

Every tiny movement sent out ripples, and Qin Qi caught those ripples the instant they appeared.

"The movement of muscles, breathing, heartbeats, the circulation of energy-it's all right before my eyes!"

"Magnetic Field Rotation, open!"

In that instant, Qin Qi looked at the Old Celestial Master before him and felt it. At that moment, his cells and his will had reached a high degree of unity.

His power gathered completely, and he threw a punch. No energy erupted, but the force of a punch thrown with his body alone whipped up a hurricane!

The house behind the Old Celestial Master was smashed apart by that very punch!

"You can release and withdraw your Qi at will. You threw a punch with all your strength, yet managed to draw your Qi back in at the end, letting only a little of the punch's force escape."

"Very good. Your martial arts realm has already reached the point of complete clarity."

The Old Celestial Master looked at Qin Qi. In the span of just over a hundred moves, the little baby before him had grown into a seasoned martial arts grandmaster.

His talent for learning was simply too strong. He grew and became stronger with every move, and once he had experienced something, he became incredibly seasoned at it.

"It's still not enough. I thought I'd be able to keep it all under control."

Qin Qi shook his head. This still didn't count as the Complete Realm. Some of the power of that punch had leaked out, or there wouldn't even have been any force from it.

"It's fine, just keep practicing. Oh, right, I'll give you the bill later. Remember to pay me to rebuild the house."

Smiling, the Old Celestial Master took out his phone and began calculating the price, adding a few things he wanted to buy for himself.

"I have to pay for it too? Ah, forget it. I'll pay, then. I did learn something, after all."

Qin Qi shook his head. He wondered if the people of the Three-One Sect had some kind of grudge against the buildings on Mount Longhu.

Why else had Lu Jin paid for a pavilion before, and now he had to pay for a house? When Lu Lin came in the future, would he have to pay for a temple?

"All right, that's it for today. Tomorrow, at the same time, I'll teach you one last thing."

The Old Celestial Master looked at Qin Qi, thought for a moment, and spoke.

"What is it?"