Cultivation
After obtaining his First Soul Ring, Ning Buhui's days became even more monotonous.
He rose before dawn and ran laps around the training ground until his whole body warmed up, then crouched at the foot of a wall to stretch his muscles and tendons. Zhou Qing had taught him several basic Spirit Hall physical techniques. The movements weren't flashy; they emphasized short bursts of power and steady footing. He practiced diligently, repeating each movement until his muscles remembered it. His six-year-old body was flexible, and he was much stronger than other children his age. Within a few days, his movements were looking quite respectable.
Once he had warmed up, he returned to his room and entered the tower to meditate. By day, he trained his physical strength, physical techniques, and Soul Power. When night fell and all was quiet, he entered the tower to train his concentration. Apart from meals and necessary trips, he spent nearly all his time cultivating. It would have been a lie to say it wasn't tedious, but in his previous life, Ning Buhui could lie on the ground brushing dirt away from a small pottery fragment for an entire day. Patience was the one thing he had in abundance.
After absorbing the Soul Ring, he had become a level-fifteen Soul Master. The level restriction was gone, and his Soul Power grew even faster than before. The threefold concentration of Soul Power inside the tower was beginning to show its might. Coupled with his spiritual power, which was already more stable than that of Soul Masters at the same level, one hour of meditation was worth three or four for others. When Zhou Qing occasionally passed his meditation room, he could feel the fluctuations of Soul Power rising and falling inside, as though an invisible well were bubbling over.
"Was this cultivation method of yours taught to you by Her Holiness the Pope herself?" Zhou Qing couldn't resist asking one time.
Ning Buhui shook his head. "Teacher hasn't taught me yet. I just worked out how to cultivate on my own."
Zhou Qing looked at him as if he were a monster. How could he know that Ning Buhui's "working it out on my own" meant testing things bit by bit through trial and error, with an adult's understanding, after reading about the Douluo system who knew how many times in his previous life?
On the evening of the fourth day, Bibi Dong summoned him to the training room behind the side hall.
The training room was small, with four walls of gray-white soft rock and fine grass mats covering the floor. Two sticks of dust-repelling incense burned in a corner. Bibi Dong had him sit in the middle of the room, then sat cross-legged opposite him.
"Although your Soul Power is growing quickly now and your foundation is solid, your understanding of meditation itself is still too shallow." Bibi Dong looked at him. "We won't cultivate Soul Power today. First, I'll explain what meditation is."
Ning Buhui sat up straight and listened attentively.
"Ordinary meditation is what you do every day: close your eyes, quiet your mind, and use your spiritual power to draw Soul Power into your body. If there's a disturbance outside, you can wake at any time. This is a basic skill for every Soul Master. No matter how proficient you become, it's still ordinary meditation." Bibi Dong spoke at an unhurried pace, her voice especially clear in the quiet room. "But there's another state beyond it, called Deep Meditation."
She paused. "You can't deliberately enter Deep Meditation, nor can you enter it just because you want to. No one can teach it to you step by step, either. It's like a sudden enlightenment. You might suddenly sink into it halfway through cultivation, while daydreaming, or even while asleep. Once you enter it, you can no longer feel any sounds or touches from the outside world. Your Soul Power will circulate through your meridians at high speed on its own, and your comprehension will rise to a terrifying level. Many Soul Masters never encounter it even once in their entire lives. It can't be forced."
Ning Buhui nodded. This was much the same as what he had read in books in his previous life.
"All I can do is tell you about some habits that people in the past had in common before they triggered Deep Meditation," Bibi Dong said. "For example, relaxing completely while cultivating, without pursuing any goal; or not forcing yourself to carry on when mentally exhausted, and letting your mind empty instead; or gaining a sudden insight right after absorbing a Soul Ring and advancing. Statistics show the last is the most likely, but ultimately, these things only improve the odds. There are no guarantees. Do you understand?"
"I understand," Ning Buhui said.
"I'm telling you this today first because you've already obtained your First Soul Ring and broken through the level restriction, and second so you know something about Deep Meditation. That way, if you encounter it, you won't be left wondering what's happening. From now on, you only need to become sufficiently proficient at ordinary meditation and let your body and mind grow accustomed to stillness. Only when that stillness reaches its utmost can you hope to touch that door. There's no use thinking about anything else."
Ning Buhui agreed. He hadn't expected to enter Deep Meditation now anyway. Such good fortune could be encountered but not sought. He put more faith in what he could hold in his own hands-like his daily physical training, which he never missed come thunder or rain, and the growth of his Soul Power.
From that day on, he adjusted the way he cultivated. Before, he had always tried to plunge into a deeper meditative state in one go, but now he slowed down instead. At first, stray thoughts surged through his mind. He let them rise and fall, and only when his heart was truly still did he allow his spiritual power to glide slowly into his body with his breathing. He didn't deliberately chase any profound realm; he only sought to sink a little deeper into meditation each night than he had the night before. Bibi Dong occasionally came to check on him without saying a word, sitting for a while before leaving.
He also began practicing Heart Separation Control around this time.
He had already had a feeling that, once he absorbed his First Soul Ring and his spiritual power grew stronger, he would meet the minimum requirement for practicing Nine Orifices Heart Control. Sure enough, things turned out as he expected. He found that controlling three streams of spiritual power at once wasn't too difficult. The hard part was making the three "thoughts" each do their own work without interfering with one another.
Ning Buhui came up with a crude method. He tossed a pebble with his left hand, drew circles in the sand with a twig in his right, and recited entries from the Soul Beast compendium at the same time. He couldn't lose the rhythm of his tossing, draw the circles crooked, or make a mistake in the entries. At first, he was all hands and feet. After only a couple of tosses, the circle on the ground would twist like a braid. He gritted his teeth and practiced for five days before he could barely manage to do all three things smoothly at once.
Then he tried something harder: drawing a circle with one hand and a square with the other while stepping sideways in a fixed pattern. This time, even his legs and feet refused to obey him. His brain felt like three tangled ropes that he couldn't twist together no matter what he did. But he didn't stop. Whenever he failed, he started over. Pebbles rolled all over the ground, and his soles scuffed a patch of sand flat.
Once, Hu Liena passed by the training ground and saw him hopping and drawing by himself in a corner, muttering all the while. She thought he had been possessed, but when she came closer, she saw the ground was covered with densely overlapping lines of squares and circles.
"What are you practicing?" she asked.
"Playing," Ning Buhui said without looking up.
Hu Liena raised a brow, asked no more, and turned to leave. Ning Buhui waited until she was far away before wiping away his sweat and continuing to draw. After another ten days or so, he could finally draw circles and squares, recite entries, and move his feet all at once in one smooth flow. The three streams of thought were like three separate fingers, each able to move on its own. Though his control still wasn't fine enough, he had truly crossed the threshold into the Three-Aperture Control Heart.
That night, he sat cross-legged in the tower and applied the Three-Aperture Control Heart to his cultivation. One stream of spiritual power drew Soul Power into the tower, one steadied his mind, and one sensed his surroundings. All three operated in parallel without the slightest conflict. It was a strange feeling, as though his mind had gained two extra pairs of eyes, each looking in a different direction, yet all belonging to him alone.
Then he also tried using different Soul Skills at the same time, and that went very smoothly as well.
He slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath. His efforts hadn't been wasted; he had finally gained something. His physical strength had also improved considerably, as could be seen from his growing appetite each day.
After leaving the tower, he rolled out of bed. The moonlight outside the window was bright. He walked over to the window. The training ground was deserted, and the night breeze sent a few leaves spinning. He reached out, letting the moonlight fall on his palm and pass through the gaps between his fingers.
Ning Buhui suddenly remembered something. By his reckoning, it had been more than two months since he had begged Ning Laosan to take him into the city from Bluestone Town. And around this time, far away in Fasinuo Province, in a place called Holy Soul Village, a six-year-old child should also have just awakened his Martial Souls-and Twin Martial Souls at that.
Blue Silver Grass, Clear Sky Hammer, Innate Full Soul Power.
Tang Hao, Tang San, Tang Sect.
He lowered his hand and closed the window, shutting the wind and the moonlight outside. He entered the tower again, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes in meditation. The night was long, and so was the road. The road he had to travel would one day cross that child's. Before that day came, he had to seize every opportunity to improve himself.
For now, the only thing he could do was continue growing stronger.