Chapter 40: What Is Illusion? Phantom Divine Ability

Rumors come quickly and go just as quickly.

What's more, it's just a few small animals gathering together—not having seen any true mountain sprites or goblins, and there's nothing particularly supernatural about it; at most it's just a bit eerie.

Over time, the villagers also forgot about this matter; their after-tea-and-meal gossip was quickly replaced by the romantic scandals of the widow Li from the eastern village.

But Ye Qin's cultivation never stops.

The bright moon on the mountaintop remains as before, shining on the stones like a reflection in water, faintly revealing a long shadow coiling within.

Even if it occasionally clouds over, it does not affect Ye Qin's contemplation now, for the bright moon has already been etched in his heart.

Ye Qin cultivated as usual; after a while, various small animals gathered again behind him.

They were like pilgrim saints, bowing and paying homage to Ye Qin on the great stone.

Having always been governed by their instincts, they faintly formed a very vague concept in their minds, but this was only a rough outline.

They also didn't know why they did this, but an inexplicable instinct drove them.

This is the animals' spirituality—innately close to nature, keenly perceptive of all things, an innate spirituality that humans completely lack.

Even so, for ordinary creatures to cultivate like Ye Qin is fundamentally impossible.

Because spirituality alone isn't enough; wisdom is also needed, and only their combination allows one to step onto the path of cultivation.

Thus Ye Qin is a variable under the so-called Great Dao, or put another way, an anomaly among all natural things, and the sole exception among myriad beings.

According to his current Realm, he still cannot, like the sages of folk legend, set up an altar to lecture and teach the masses.

These animals gather here merely because the surrounding magnetic field is influenced by Ye Qin, giving them a very comfortable feeling, so they unconsciously want to draw near.

The moonlight is pale and soft, like rippling water, as if one could reach out and touch it.

As Ye Qin gradually entered a favorable state, at some point a thin mist arose around him.

The mountain highlands are high in elevation and low in temperature; due to the terrain, mountain fog occasionally forms, but this mist is clearly different from the usual mountain fog, appearing somewhat mysterious.

The hazy moonlight is like gauze, intertwining with the mist and enveloping Ye Qin, as if he were swallowing clouds and exhaling fog, stirring all winds and clouds.

After who knows how long, Ye Qin slowly opened his eyes; the surrounding mist had not yet dissipated, faintly forming a crescent-shaped trace, which then gradually faded in midair.

Ye Qin, lost in thought, had earlier faintly sensed that his body had undergone some change; after observing these few cultivation sessions, he could finally be certain.

During his cultivation, some phenomena would unconsciously manifest, but all of this occurred in Ye Qin's unconscious state, entirely beyond his control.

He guessed that the police who had approached him earlier left for no reason, possibly because they were bewildered by the phantom illusion.

"It seems I have reached the second Realm, possessing some special means—not quite a spell, but for now I can call it a 'Divine Ability'; however, given the current situation, I still cannot wield this Divine Ability at will."

No one is born knowing everything, and cultivation is no different.

Moreover, Ye Qin is the sole cultivator; to understand how this Divine Ability works and to fully master it, he may need to dig deeper.

Ye Qin pondered deeply and decided to go to the library again.

Although he is an anomaly, actually going into the city poses little risk, for he is too insignificant for anyone to think of him as a so-called monster; people will rationally explain things on their own.

Furthermore, if he didn't go to the library, Ye Qin would truly have nowhere else to acquire knowledge; relying solely on 'my own pondering power' is unrealistic, so study is very important.

This time he was familiar with the route, spending less time than last; seeing the familiar building ahead, by evening when everyone had left the library, he quietly slipped inside.

He headed straight for books on spirit and hypnosis, after all, whether phantom realm or hallucination, both are closely tied to the human mind.

After this period of cultivation, the changes it brought him were not only physical but also mental; now he can read ten lines at a glance, and even achieve total recall.

However, Ye Qin kept a low profile, not acting overly extravagant; even reading seemed like an unconscious nap, so no one noticed anything odd.

Having obtained the answers he wanted, this time Ye Qin did not linger but left swiftly.

The mountains are lush and verdant, stretching endlessly; as night gradually falls, like dark ink spreading, a sliver of silver light climbs the treetops, as if adding the finishing touch to a dragon, infusing this ink-wash mountain-and-water painting with a soul.

The moon sets over the mountain ravine, silent and still, lighting Ye Qin's way back.

Once again leaving the steel-and-concrete city to return to the great mountains, it felt as if stepping into another world.

Here there are no neon lights and wine, no car horns, no worldly hustle and bustle—only endless tranquility, accompanied by insect chirps and bird songs.

And that unchanging bright moon.

Ye Qin slowed his pace, his serpentine body winding as he crawled, recalling what he had seen in the library, and inevitably fell into thought.

Seeing false things with the eyes is an illusion; when the five senses are shrouded by falsehood, it is a phantom realm.

A phantom realm can influence a person's perception of things through vision, smell, and all the senses.

Then what is 'phantom'?

From a scientific perspective, the universe is merely an illusion, and the world is a projection of consciousness.

In Buddhist terms, this is: 'Dependent origination is emptiness; all phenomena are consciousness-only; outside the mind there is no dharma; the one and the many are identical.'

Put more plainly, when we look at something, what we see before us is the 'appearance,' belonging to the form and dharma aggregates among the six sense objects.

It is due to the eye's contact with light-and-shadow refraction; via the pupil and optic nerve, the signal reaches the brain, so our consciousness-eye awareness lies at the point of contact in the occipital lobe.

Consciousness and eye awareness thus arise, enabling us to distinguish an object's color, as well as text, and the meaning, beauty or ugliness, length, width, distance, etc., represented by that image.

Eye awareness and consciousness are both deluded minds, phenomena arising from conditions; thus they can be altered by external forces.

It is somewhat like hypnosis; in modern times, phantom realms and illusions are altogether blended together, all manifesting in hypnotic techniques.

The Divine Ability Ye Qin possesses leans more toward using his own powerful mental intent to influence those around him and even create a special magnetic field—that is what is called a 'phantom realm'.

Hypnosis requires external aids, but he does not, for he uses himself as a bridge and can release it anytime, anywhere, as he wishes.

"The Yan Family Instructions·Returning Heart' once recorded: 'There exist ritual masters and all kinds of illusion arts, who can walk on fire and tread on blades, planting melons and moving wells...'"

From this we can see that illusionists have existed since ancient times, though back then such people were called fangshu practitioners.

Among the better known is the Han person Fan Ying.

"The Book of Later Han·Treatise on Fangshu' records: 'Once a violent wind rose from the west, Ying told his students: \"The fire in CD city is blazing, \" and having them hold water in their mouths facing west to rinse, he ordered the recorder to note the time. Later, someone from Shu arrived and said: \"That day there was a great fire; black clouds suddenly rose from the east, and soon after a heavy rain fell, extinguishing the fire. \"'"

Regarding these cloud-swallowing and fog-spitting illusion arts, later generations hold various views: some say it was coincidence, some say the illusionists colluded, and some say Fan Ying possessed a special ability.

Besides that, there was Eastern Han's Sun Nu, skilled in the head‑cutting technique, and Jin dynasty's Guo Pu, adept at illusion arts, able to make people see soybeans as tiny figures.

During the Five Dynasties, illusionists could summon birds; in the Northern Wei era, the distant Yueban Kingdom in the northwest presented illusion arts, and many more such accounts are found in wild histories, too numerous to list.

(End of Chapter)