Chapter 759 The Trouble with Cultivation Lies in Oneself
Xiang Bao returned home with full determination, vigor and steady steps, and he was completely different from the day before. Fortunately, it was late at night, otherwise if acquaintances saw him, they would probably think he had some adventure.
After closing the door, Xiang Bao took out the "Sword of the Stars" and immersed himself in the "Ten Thousand Stars Chart".
The stars shone, rising and falling with brilliant light, drawing a mysterious and complex trajectory, forming a picture scroll that looked like the reflection of the starry sky, deep and brilliant.
After just one look, Xiang Bao felt dizzy, his temples were swollen and his ears were buzzing, but after his previous epiphany, he did not retreat, but focused his mind on the most eye-catching Big Dipper according to his previous thoughts, carefully observing and memorizing the trajectory of the seven stars.
After a few breaths, Xiang Bao suddenly lay down from his cross-legged position. His face was pale, his eyes were dull, and his mind was almost exhausted. He felt so tired that he could hardly move a finger. He felt so dizzy that he wanted to hit the wall. It seemed that he would faint soon, but he still forced himself to hold on and recalled the star trajectories he had just observed in his mind one by one, so as not to forget them.
Bright lights appeared in his imagination, but he could only remember less than one-tenth or one-twelve of what he had just observed. When he finished recalling, Xiang Bao finally couldn't hold on and fainted.
When he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. His head was swollen. After a brief recollection, he found that the trajectories of the stars he remembered had not been forgotten. He jumped up happily and danced with joy.
In a cheerful mood, Xiang Bao took the medicine soup and began to exercise his body. After a punch and kick, suddenly there was a burst of heat in his bone marrow, breaking through from the peak of body exercise to the stage of nourishing qi.
Good things happened one after another, and Xiang Bao was really overjoyed. In the evening, when it was quiet, he began to try visualization.
The visualization method of the Iron Sword Sect is to visualize a giant sword that stands tall in the Purple Palace, which transforms the internal energy and emits a sharp golden energy to nourish the soul.
Xiang Bao finally visualized the giant sword, but suddenly found that there was a hideous and disgusting black centipede coiled on the giant sword, baring its fangs and claws, and instantly made it withdraw from the visualization.
"Could it be that the external ghosts and gods invaded the soul?" Xiang Bao remembered the records in the exercises and decided to go to the sect to ask the elders tomorrow.
…………
After a few days, Xiang Bao was happy and worried. He was happy that he finally practiced the "Injection of the Big Dipper" in the "Immortal Sword of Stars" by visualizing the Big Dipper. He was worried that if there was something like incense sticks to calm the mind and spirit during the visualization, the black centipede would not appear, but if there was no incense sticks, it would definitely come.
"My family has limited money, and the food that nourishes the qi alone is a huge expense, and these things that calm the mind and spirit are not cheap. If I follow what Uncle Wang said, I can't afford to rely on these things until my soul can leave my body, unless I halve the time I spend practicing swordsmanship and do those high-paying sect tasks." Xiang Bao was walking on the street and thinking, and he suddenly found that he was near the City God Temple.
Xiang Bao immediately laughed at himself: "That senior Taoist priest is a wandering Taoist priest, why would he stay here and let you ask for advice?" Although he thought so in his heart, Xiang Bao couldn't help but walk in, even if it was just to take a look.
But as soon as he entered, Xiang Bao found that the young Taoist priest was sitting quietly under the statue of the City God. Seeing him coming in, he said humorously: "My dear Taoist, your forehead is black again. It seems that you have encountered a disaster again."
Xiang Bao scratched his head, his face flushed, and said embarrassedly: "Master, I have some doubts about cultivation that I want to ask you. May I ask you?"
"Tell me about it." Shi Xuan replied indifferently.
Xiang Bao quickly told the story of the black centipede he encountered in his visualization, and finally said: "I don't know which foreign ghost or god it is. Master, do you have any way to get rid of it?"
"If you want to get rid of it, you need to find the foreign ghost or god first. Take a charcoal stick in your hand. When you visualize, once the black centipede appears, immediately imagine hitting it with the charcoal stick. In this way, the charcoal stick in your hand will be swung out and hit it to determine its location." Shi Xuan said calmly.
Xiang Bao had never heard of such a method to find the gods and ghosts of the outside world. It was so mysterious. However, with the "Sword of Stars Granted by the Immortal" in the past, he trusted the Taoist priest very much. He quickly took a piece of charcoal stick left in his hand, adjusted his mind, and began to visualize.
As expected, the black centipede was still entrenched on the giant sword. Xiang Bao followed the Taoist priest's instructions, visualized a charcoal stick, and hit it.
As soon as it hit, the world spun, and Xiang Bao withdrew from the visualization.
He quickly looked at what the charcoal stick in his hand hit, but what shocked him was that the charcoal in his right hand only made black marks on his left hand and clothes, and there was no other foreign object.
"Taoist priest?" Xiang Bao looked at Shi Xuan in confusion.
Shi Xuan smiled lightly: "Don't you understand yet?"
Xiang Bao was at a loss, lowered his head and looked again, and suddenly a flash of inspiration came to him: "That outsider god and ghost is me?!"
Shi Xuan smiled and said nothing.
Xiang Bao quickly visualized again. This time, when the black ferocious centipede appeared, he thought it was himself, so he was calm and continued to visualize.
In a calm state, the black centipede gradually became docile, retreated from the giant sword, and then became fainter and fainter until it disappeared completely.
After a while, Xiang Bao opened his eyes. In his opinion, the young Taoist in front of him was really omnipotent. He thought to himself: "Could he be a master of the soul, or a senior of the level of the Golden Elixir Grandmaster?"
After thanking him happily, Xiang Bao really couldn't find anything he could do to repay this senior Taoist priest, so he could only secretly make up his mind to spend an hour every day to listen to the Taoist priest's instructions and serve him.
After solving the hidden dangers of visualization, Xiang Bao happily returned to the sect and met Uncle Wang who had given him guidance before.
Uncle Wang saw Xiang Bao's happy look, which was so different from his dejected look just now, and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Xiang Bao, aren't you worried about the centipede anymore?"
Uncle Wang is young, elegant, and easy-going. Many disciples ask him for advice. He is the most popular elder in the sect. That's why Xiang Bao specifically went to ask him for advice before. Now that he is the one asking him, and he is almost a child, He was not wary, so he happily replied: "It has been solved."
"How did you do it?" Uncle Wang was very surprised. Could it be that Xiang Bao met some kind of master? This kind of inexplicable visualization problem is not something that little Yunliucheng can solve.
With a bright smile, Xiang Bao recounted the process of consulting the Taoist Priest on this issue: "...The Taoist Priest's method is really mysterious and unexpected, but the effect is surprisingly good. The nephew immediately understood that the centipede was himself. Confused by distracting thoughts.”
Uncle Wang frowned while listening. After hearing what Xiang Bao said, he shook his head: "Xiang Bao, you were deceived. You unconsciously waved the charcoal stick in your hand when you were visualizing. There is more than 80% chance that you touched it." To yourself, you can be considered a blessing in disguise and have completely solved your major worries."
Xiang Bao was speechless for a moment. He recalled how he held the charcoal bar at that time. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. Apart from throwing it forward, no matter how he did it, he would get a black mark on his body.
He couldn't believe it, and murmured to himself in frustration: "The Taoist Master is actually a liar...how could he be a liar!"
Uncle Wang looked at Xiang Bao's appearance, sighed, and thought to himself: "It's not a good thing for a senior monk to meet a wandering Taoist by chance."
Xiang Bao walked to the City God's Temple in despair. The image of the tall Taoist priest in his heart suddenly collapsed. He wanted to ask himself whether the Taoist priest's advice was a scheming trick from beginning to end, and he was deceiving himself.
When Uncle Wang saw this, he was afraid that he would suffer from the Taoist priest just because he was nourishing his qi, so he followed quietly so that he could rescue him at the critical moment.
When he arrived at the Chenghuang Temple, Xiang Bao saw that the young Taoist priest was still sitting upright, so he walked up to him and asked with some trembling and expectancy: "Senior Taoist, the charcoal stick just pointed out the magic of heretic ghosts and gods, was it a trick on me? Come to think of it, kid. Go, the charcoal strips will most likely be on your body, and it’s not just the ghosts and gods of heretics that you transformed yourself into?”
"Don't you understand yet?" Shi Xuan asked without answering.
Xiang Bao was stunned: "What?"
"Which problem in visualization is not your own?" Shi Xuan stood up leisurely.
Xiang Bao and Uncle Wang who came from behind were stunned for a moment, recalling the exercises and records in the classics. It was clearly stated that as long as you focus on yourself and do not have distracting thoughts or random thoughts, there is no way for outsiders, ghosts and gods to take advantage of the gap. But if you really practice cultivation, At this time, most monks tend to forget this point and resort to things that calm the mind and calm the energy. Anyway, they can practice until the soul leaves the body.
"It turns out that what the Taoist Master wants to tell me is that since the charcoal sticks will most likely get on your body, then the problem of visualization is naturally your own." Xiang Bao suddenly realized, and Master Wang remembered what happened during the visualization and began to I feel like I'm on the wrong track.
Shi Xuan put his hands behind his back and walked towards the door of the City God's Temple, leaving his last words: "From the beginning of physical training to the integration of Taoism, are all the problems in cultivation really the same?"
"The trouble of practicing lies in yourself!"
Xiang Bao's mind was buzzing, as if he had suddenly realized something, but also as if he didn't understand anything. Uncle Wang was sweating profusely and his face was pale.
The trouble in practicing is one's own. Shi Xuan's words were not just a reminder to Xiang Bao and Master Wang, but also to himself.
After Shi Xuan left for a long time, Xiang Bao and Uncle Wang came back to their senses. They looked at each other. For a while, they felt that this sentence was really a small statement with infinite meaning. For a while, they felt that it was easy to understand. It was as if it had not been said. Who said it? all know.
"From body training to harmony, it's such a big tone." Uncle Wang remembered Shi Xuan's words just now, and said in confusion and shock, "Who can have such a tone, could it be..."
"True immortal, or heavenly immortal!" Xiang Bao took over the conversation and muttered to himself in a daze.
Scenes like this happened everywhere in Yu Yutian, sometimes it was a young Taoist priest, sometimes it was a white-haired old man...
…………
Inside Shixuan Cave.
After three hundred and ninety years of collection, countless "auras of enlightenment" gathered in Shi Xuan's chest, and the talisman and seal characters were surrounded by each other, falling into them from time to time, causing them to emit a light that seemed black and white.
When the last two Taoist characters flew in, the formless aura immediately twisted and changed, gathering and taking shape.
After burning a stick of incense, the entire quiet room was filled with the light of smart wisdom. A thin book appeared in Shi Xuan's palm. The simple patterns on it merged into three seal characters: "Tao Te Ching".