Chapter 6: The Breeze Soothes the Soul and the Moon Illuminates the Soul
The method of visualization is not to visualize the shape of the breeze and the bright moon, but to visualize their divine intention.
The breeze is refreshing and caressing, but not violent, refreshing but not hurting the soul; the bright moon is in the sky, eternal and everlasting, the essence of the moon nourishes all things.
Shi Xuan's soul seems to be sitting cross-legged on the sea of consciousness, and the surroundings are like going out in the morning, with a breeze blowing in the face, refreshing the spirit. The breeze blows through the soul, taking away all the acquired impurities that are usually contaminated. At the same time, anxiety, uneasiness, excitement, anger and other emotions come because of things and disperse because of the wind. They no longer leave a mark and obscure the original spirit, and gradually a thorough and clear soul appears.
The bright moon on the top is like a wheel, slowly turning, driving the internal energy into it, and then it seems like a sweet rain from the sky, falling down strands of the essence of the bright moon, pouring on the soul. Shi Xuan's soul absorbs the essence of the bright moon that falls on it with the rhythm of the breeze, nourishing his soul, and then the breeze takes away the impurities.
After an unknown amount of time, when Shi Xuan felt that his soul had grown a lot and that the absorption of essence had reached saturation, he ended his visualization and exited from his concentration.
The soul is invisible and intangible, while the internal qi is invisible and substantial. There is a huge gap between the two. It is difficult for the internal qi to directly nourish the soul. Even if the qi and blood nourish the soul, it can only be accomplished because of the mysterious connection between the body and the soul. Therefore, it is necessary to build a bridge between the soul and the internal qi through visualization to transform the internal qi into essence that the soul can absorb. Of course, this is only some of the effects of visualization at this stage. When the realm is advanced in the future, the internal visualization will lead to the corresponding laws of heaven and earth, and then the essence of heaven and earth can be directly absorbed and the laws of heaven and earth can be comprehended.
After Shi Xuan woke up from his concentration, he adjusted his breath slightly and found that the internal qi accumulated today had been consumed. He hurriedly began to move the internal qi according to the qi circulation route of the "Secret Record of Qi Circulation in the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes and Seventy-two Great Rivers of Yushu" in the "Baolu". Of course, now he can only practice the small Zhoutian route contained in the two parts of the twelve main meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians. Shi Xuan concentrated his mind and controlled the internal energy to flow out of Dantian. He felt that after this visualization, the control of internal energy became more handy after the soul was strengthened.
After several small cycles of Qi circulation, the internal energy continued to absorb the heat dissipated from various parts of the body, and it had doubled. Compared with the previous Qi circulation method, the efficiency was several times higher.
In this way, Shi Xuan stopped after 365 small cycles of Qi circulation. This number of large cycles of Qi circulation was just right. The dissipated heat was just absorbed. If Qi circulation continued, it would probably transform the body's essence.
Based on the internal energy accumulated from this large cycle of Qi circulation and the internal energy consumed by visualizing the strengthening of the soul, Shi Xuan roughly estimated that it would take more than four months to accumulate the twelve main meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians, and the time to open the seventy-two small meridians according to the "Secret Record of Qi Circulation in the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes and Seventy-two Great Rivers of Yushu" was about seven months. In addition, how long does it take for the soul to grow to the peak of the Strong Soul Stage? Du Bai had no experience before, so Shi Xuan couldn't estimate it either, because he didn't know what the strength of the soul at the peak of the Strong Soul Stage was.
The troublesome problem now is that it costs about two taels of silver to replenish the consumed food every day, which can be used to prepare a table of good banquets in a restaurant. Now Shi Xuan doesn't require good skills or good ingredients, but he wants two taels of silver. You can imagine how much he eats. The neighbors are amazed at Shi Xuan's appetite, which is more than doubled than before.
According to the time, Shi Xuan needs about 700 taels of silver to reach the peak of the Yangqi Stage, and now he only has less than 400 taels of silver left after buying medicine and forging his body, plus the consumption in the past few months. There is a gap of 300 taels of silver. You have to know that the annual income of ordinary people in the prefecture is only 20 to 30 taels of silver.
But at this time, Shi Xuan doesn't want to go out to find a job to make money. He is now at a time when he can see obvious progress in his daily practice, and he wishes he could practice one day as two days.
Shi Xuan thought about it and decided to sell the small courtyard. Anyway, when he was fully nourished, he would travel around the world to seek immortals and seek the Tao. In addition to asking the old Taoist Xu to look after the small courtyard, he still had to sell it. The value of the small courtyard was about 280 taels. He was not in a hurry to sell it. The silver in his hand was enough to last for seven or eight months. He would slowly look for a buyer and should be able to sell it at a good price. After deducting the fees of the brokerage, the government and the deed tax, he should be able to get 240 taels of silver in the end.
In addition, after selling the small courtyard, he would need to rent a quiet house for about four months, which would cost more than ten taels of silver. Alas, it seems that he still needs about 80 taels of silver. Well, if he steals from the rich, it is not difficult to do it with his Taoist skills, and there will be no clues left. It's just that he is used to abiding by the law, and it seems difficult to make up his mind to do this unless he is at the end of his rope. This method will be saved until the end. If it really comes to that, he will not have any psychological burden.
In this way, while Shi Xuan hung up a sign in the shop to sell his courtyard, he asked the shop owner Liu to help invite his friend who worked in the government office to have a meal together. They got to know each other better, and when he sold the house and went to the government office to register the house deed and pay the deed tax, he would not be cheated.
Of course, Shi Xuan's main energy is still on cultivation. He never slackens off in practicing "The Secret Record of Qi Circulation in the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes and Seventy-two Great Rivers of Jade Pivot" and "The True Method of Clear Wind and Bright Moon Shining on the Gods" every day. In the past five months, his soul strength has improved by leaps and bounds. He is no longer exhausted after performing one or two spells when he first came. He has also made great progress in internal energy. Not only has he accumulated twelve meridians and eight extraordinary meridians, but he has finally successfully opened up a small meridian after several failures. He is unstoppable and has opened up twelve meridians in succession.
At noon that day, Shi Xuan returned to the courtyard after lunch. Before he had time to sit down, he heard the knocker of the courtyard door. Shi Xuan thought it was the people from the dental shop who brought people to see the courtyard. Because he had to practice every day, Shi Xuan and the people from the dental shop agreed to bring people to see the courtyard after noon, and it would not exceed one hour.
The dental shop had brought people to see it several times before, but they had never reached an agreement on the price. Shi Xuan was not in a hurry, as the money in his hand could still be used for two or three months.
Shi Xuan opened the gate. Unexpectedly, the person outside the door was not a pawnbroker, but an acquaintance, a handsome young man in his twenties wearing a brocade robe.
Before going out to look for immortals, Xu Laodao had created a martial art called "Guizhen Gong" based on the "Guizhen Jing" that cultivated both internal and external skills and left it in his family. The Xu Laodao family was just a relatively wealthy merchant family before, and was often blackmailed by the gangsters. Later, based on this martial art, they collected some tricks and secrets, and produced several masters. They gradually became famous in the world of martial arts, bought land in Xia'an Prefecture, operated silk cloth and private salt in secret, and were considered a local tyrant. It was just because Xu Laodao himself was not very good at martial arts, the secrets he wrote were still insufficient in terms of hurting people, and there were no good matching tricks, so the Xu family could only be regarded as a third-rate family in the world of martial arts.
Ten years ago, when Master Xu returned to Xia'an Mansion, although he did not return to live with his family, he did not break off contact with the family. The Xu family was very flattering to this ancestor. Not only did they send him tributes every month and on festivals, but they also selected many high-quality children from within the family to teach this immortal ancestor. It was a great blessing to be able to learn a little bit of the immortal method from the ancestor.
Unfortunately, although these children were talented, they did not seem to have a great understanding of Taoism. Instead, they learned things like strengthening the body and nourishing qi very quickly. Master Xu himself had great expectations for his family to have another monk, but this situation continued and he gave up the idea and concentrated on teaching Du Bai. As for the group of children, after they reached the inner family master of the nourishing qi period, they were sent back to the Xu family, and the Xu family was not allowed to send any more children.
However, based on his experiences of fighting or discussing with martial arts masters in recent years, Master Xu revised the content of "Return to the True Truth" and added the secrets and tricks he collected, so that he could be considered to have an explanation to the Xu family.
The young man who came today was the most talented one among the children back then - Xu Tianqi, who was sent here when he was ten years old and entered the Qi-nourishing period in just six years. Unfortunately, after entering the Qi-nourishing period, he was completely indifferent to the practice of visualization, and only focused on the practice of internal Qi. In addition, he was practicing the new Qi-nourishing method of "Return to the True Truth". After two years, he did not make much progress in Taoism, and was subsequently sent back to the Xu family by Master Xu.
In the martial arts world, those who can enter the Qi-cultivation period before the age of 20 are all talented disciples of famous sects, so Xu Tianqi's realm as an internal master at the age of 18 is very impressive in the martial arts world. Xu Tianqi likes this feeling very much, and has been wandering in the martial arts world since then. He has had some adventures and has made a great reputation - he is praised by many people as a master who can be ranked in the top 20 among the younger generation. Xu Tianqi is actually not very convinced secretly, thinking that if it weren't for his family, the Xu family would only be considered second-rate now (after having "New Return to True Skill"). Although I haven't been able to open the first two meridians of the eight extraordinary meridians, but with strong internal strength, I am at least in the top ten, and the title of the four young masters of the martial arts world is not impossible to think about.