Chapter 144: Stabilize Spirit Realm

Liang Qu felt the look Jian Zhongyi gave him before leaving was strange, like the disdain a top scholar might show a beginner.

Thinking of how Jian Zhongyi had been watching him the whole time he was writing his essay, he shrugged his shoulders.

It didn't matter.

He wasn't planning to make a living through the imperial examinations, nor did he intend to participate in the military examinations.

Time to slip away; it was time to go to the medical clinic to learn medicine.

Over the next two days, Liang Qu lived a life revolving around three points.

Every day, he shuttled back and forth between the martial arts hall, underwater, and his home.

In three days, he cleared seven checkpoints. He obtained Water Marsh Essence through Cockscomb Fruit and Sturgeon King meat, rising steadily at a rate of seventy points per day. His fusion rate increased by two-thousandths every three days.

Of the five water beasts under his command, excluding the recently joined Round-Head the finless porpoise, the other four were each only a little over a hundred points of Water Marsh Essence away from their second evolution. Eating two more meals of Sturgeon King meat should be enough.

During this time, Liang Qu also dug up a section of lotus root and handed it to the Registrar.

After comparing it, the Registrar made a preliminary judgment that it was a brand-new variety never seen before. He preserved it using a special method, preparing to report it to the Ministry of Revenue so that the Grand Minister of Agriculture under the Ministry could identify it, cultivate it, and judge its value before merit could be granted.

It was another long waiting process.

Liang Qu always felt this was infuriating; the unit for message transmission was months, especially for things that required constant verification, which resulted in the follow-up rewards for his invention of pinyin still not having arrived.

"Old Li, do you think this Cockscomb Fruit can be grown by oneself?"

Liang Qu held the pit of the Cockscomb Fruit in his hand, curious about this question.

Coming every day to exchange for minor merit, Liang Qu had become quite familiar with the Registrar. He knew the other man's surname was Li, his name was Li Shoufu, and his family was in the capital, having produced a fourth-rank official.

Unfortunately, his father was unpromising, and Li Shoufu himself couldn't achieve anything in the imperial examinations, so he could only barely manage to be a Registrar sent to an external post.

Li Shoufu rolled his eyes: "If the things cultivated by the Grand Minister of Agriculture could be grown by just anyone, the fruits would be everywhere on the market."

The Cockscomb Fruit was cultivated by the Grand Minister of Agriculture using secret methods; the fertilizer ratio and planting techniques were all very particular, and those not from the Ministry of Revenue wouldn't know them at all.

The River-Dredging Office was able to grow Cockscomb Fruit only because people from the Ministry of Revenue had come to provide guidance.

"The effects of this fruit are so good, surely no one has ever had any ideas about it?"

"Oh, they have. People die for wealth and birds die for food, how could they not?" Li Shoufu tapped his pipe. "There are no airtight walls in the world, let alone the fact that growing things requires a lot of manpower, and there's no way to ensure everyone keeps their mouth shut. There are always people who leak it out, but if you leak it out and grow it to eat yourself, that's one thing, but who dares to trade it in large quantities? Do you know about Prince Zhou?"

Liang Qu pointed his index finger at the ship deck above his head: "The older brother of that person?"

"That's right. He was the one who ended up finished because he grew this stuff. They confiscated 120,000 mu of medicinal fields and 60,000 mu of fish ponds, and he was charged with treason!"

Liang Qu clicked his tongue.

After chatting for a while, someone happened to come by to register merit, so he stopped chatting with Li Shoufu and turned to leave.

"Old Li, who was that person just now? I saw him carrying several spirit monster heads over, he looks very young, is he that capable?"

"Heh, are you from the countryside? You only know now? That's the disciple of our Commander Xu's uncle, he's got real ability!"

"Good fellow, I really didn't know that."

Liang Qu returned home. There was no movement in the west wing, and the door was wide open. He didn't know where the old monk had gone.

For the past two days, whenever he went out, the old monk followed, and he couldn't see him at all.

According to the old monk, he might have gone to find that so-called evil monk.

Liang Qu had learned through reading recently that Buddhism was actually a very broad concept.

Under the entire Great Buddhism, there were many different sects. The most common were the Chan Sect and the Pure Land Sect, which were also the most numerous in the entire Great Shun. In addition, there were the Discourse Sect, the Tiantai Sect, the Huayan Sect, and even many sect lineages whose traditions had already been severed.

He didn't know which sect the old monk belonged to.

If one only looked at his wandering everywhere, he should be a wandering monk of the Chan Sect, a traveling monk.

But the old monk's words and actions looked strange, not like an ordinary Chan monk.

The biggest characteristic of the Chan Sect was its fondness for going out to educate others, but he hadn't seen the old monk show any intention of going out to educate others on weekdays.

He couldn't figure it out.

Liang Qu shook his head, opened his book, and continued to study by the lamp at night.

After several days of hard fighting, he had gnawed through one of the three books. Looking at that so-called "Dragon-Subduing and Tiger-Taming Vajra Sutra" again, he could see more and more things.

Originally, he would be confused after one page, but now he could read three or four pages before getting confused, vaguely groping for some methods.

Liang Qu could roughly guess some of the old monk's thoughts; he wanted to cultivate his "interest" through his continuous in-depth study of Buddhist scriptures.

It was a pity.

Compared to a few books, Liang Qu believed more that material conditions determined the basis of consciousness, and he wasn't interested in Buddhism at all, or rather, he wasn't interested in any sect.

What was good were only people.

True masters who could restrain their desires and strictly observe the precepts did exist, but they were one in ten thousand, rarer than Hunting Tiger martial artists.

With this perseverance and kindness, believing in nothing, or believing in anything, could make one a master.

But once believers were allowed to form a force, those fishing in troubled waters would be the majority, and the final nature would be open to question.

According to the records in the scriptures Liang Qu had read, the Louguan Terrace and the Hanging Temple among the five great orthodoxies, including the other three, had caused quite a few scandals over thousands of years.

Either this disciple raped a pilgrim, or that master had an illegitimate child; it was common. It was only because their fists were big enough that they could occasionally produce a true master; otherwise, the walls would have collapsed and everyone would have pushed them over long ago.

Early in the morning, Liang Qu finished breakfast, sat cross-legged in the quiet room, his brow peaceful.

His entire body's Qi and blood circulated according to the "Wansheng Baoyuan" route, faintly emitting a red light.

Daoist terminology had a term called Cinnabar Field, which meant the intention of the heart and spirit, a sincere heart.

The so-called Baoyuan meant guarding the heart and spirit, neither shaking nor swaying.

Ordinary people often felt uneasy when encountering danger, their souls leaving their bodies, scared into making foolish moves, and some even collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

But if one cultivated Baoyuan, the heart and spirit would be united with the flesh, and when encountering danger, one would naturally not be easily panicked, always maintaining calmness.

Just imagine, being able to maintain calmness during a life-and-death struggle, what a huge help that would be?

"Wansheng Baoyuan" had four layers: Stabilize Spirit, Internal Vision, Preserve Spirit, and Steel Refinement, progressing layer by layer. The first layer, Stabilize Spirit, was the same principle.

Reaching this realm, the heart and spirit would be restrained, and all thoughts would be eliminated.

It could even allow the cultivation technique to operate freely while walking, without needing to specifically sit in meditation.

"Diligent as I am, I've finally succeeded!"

The empty room turned white, and Liang Qu spat out a long white breath in the quiet room.

The white breath was like a three-foot long sword, lingering for a long time without dispersing.

Vigorous Qi and blood flowed through his limbs and bones, turning into surging waves. A misty red light permeated his body, weaving a red net on the surface of his body, faintly glowing with a silvery-white layer.

One hundred and eight thousand pores were all rising and falling with breath, air currents were hunting, and the knotted big tendons were jumping non-stop.

After several breaths, the blood light all over Liang Qu's body suddenly dispersed, restrained within his body, his aura mixed and unified as one.

Unprecedented tranquility.

Liang Qu opened his eyes and stood up. He didn't deliberately move his Qi and blood, but the Qi mechanism in his body still automatically cultivated according to the "Wansheng Baoyuan" method, endless and ceaseless.

"Success!" ===== CHAPTER 145 =====