Chapter 101

Zhou Shuo inspected everything inside the Qiankun pouch, people and objects alike, then stored his own Heavenly Corpse and miscellaneous items within, and together with Chan Yinsha they resumed their journey; though the barren lone island could provide shelter, it was no place for long stay, so he still had to go to Outcloud Country to impose a bit, and Chan Yinsha did not reject the request.

Although they had not yet collected the Three Supreme Sutras of the Great Chan Temple, Chan Yinsha had already obtained half of the three sutras before heading to the Wasteland to seize the Qiankun pouch; Zhou Shuo held half of the present Tathagata Sutra, plus the Past Amitabha Sutra he had exchanged with Hong Yi, which was already sufficient; if anything was lacking, it was the unfinished transaction with Zhou Shuo and their ambiguous relationship.

After returning to Outcloud Country, Chan Yinsha selected one of her manors for Zhou Shuo to reside in; Zhou Shuo could only shamelessly live off her, since at this moment the Ru Ting residence was no longer safe, finding a secure place to stay was difficult; anyway he felt he could not now give his all to Chan Yinsha, but trusting her a little posed no problem.

Upon settling in Outcloud Country, Zhou Shuo's first move was to pull the monks of the Great Chan Temple and the Daoists of the Witch-Ghost Dao out of the pouch; he handed the Daoists to Chan Yinsha for management and control, while the monks were detained for a period—not because he had gone back on his word, but because those fellows' attire was too conspicuous; releasing them now would surely draw attention.

After transferring the contents of the Qiankun pouch out, more or less, Zhou Shuo began to study the sacrificial refinement pouch carefully; this pouch contains a Small Thousand World, forged by pouring thoughts into it and refining it by experts who had survived four heavenly tribulations; what it holds far surpasses offensive treasures like the Heaven-Shaking Bow and the Peach God Arrow.

The first step in studying the Qiankun pouch was for Zhou Shuo to examine thoughts; a cultivator's thoughts, as the name suggests, are formed from the cultivator's heart-mind; thoughts are actually a kind of Qi, possessing temporality and substantiality; the number of thoughts one possesses cannot be reckoned purely by count, yet the count also reflects the cultivator's strength of practice—more thoughts mean greater strength.

When Zhou Shuo was in the Strange-People World, he once used the Yin-Yang Born Divine Chapter to thoroughly refine his thoughts into lunar-phase shapes; back then there were eighty-one in total, now they have reached one hundred eighty; these one hundred eighty thoughts do not mean he possesses exactly one hundred eighty thoughts, but rather that the upper limit of thoughts he can use is one hundred eighty; thoughts are not eternal, his thoughts must be expended according to his spirit-soul; of course, there are also eternally shattered thoughts, reducing the thought limit to gain great combat power, and there are methods to seize others' thoughts; moreover, when a ghost-immortal dies and decays, its thoughts turn into something akin to animal fossils—the Primordial Stellar Crystal Stone; at that point the thoughts lose temporality but retain substantiality.

The structure of thoughts consists first of a product of the spirit-soul intent combined with heaven-earth primordial Qi, unique due to each person's method and cultivation; second comes a person's memories and emotions, which determine the thoughts' affiliation; the so-called sacrificial refinement treasure is actually just infusing one's thoughts, carrying memories and emotions, into the treasure, suffusing the treasure's internal thoughts, and leaving an imprint within those thoughts.

The thoughts inside the Qiankun pouch carry a sense of the four directions, above and below, ancient and modern; this arises from the cultivation of the masters who refined the pouch; after ghost-immortals who have survived four heavenly tribulations pass the tribulation, their thoughts gain spatiotemporality, and it is precisely by borrowing this spatiotemporal quality that the thoughts within the Qiankun pouch arrange themselves into trajectories, thereby opening up a Small Thousand World.

Zhou Shuo carefully studied the thoughts within the Qiankun pouch, combining them with his prior learning, and discovered that the thoughts therein, along with their trajectory arrangement, not only connect to the Way of Talismans but also embody a principle of arcane arts.

Arcane arts entail viewing the universe as a spatiotemporal model, using the cyclical alternation of the sun, moon, and stars as time, and the directional palaces as space, with the foundations of yin-yang and five phases, heavenly stems and earthly branches, the River Chart and Luo Book, etc., establishing all things; the causes and effects of all things can likewise be calculated clearly within this model.

Usually arcane arts begin with the motion of the sun, moon, and stars—that is, with time—but this Qiankun pouch works the opposite way: it uses thoughts to fix the four directions, above and below, and through regular motion forms an independent space; because of its unique regularity, this space lacks the temporal motion of the sun, moon, and stars, so anything placed inside is protected by substantiality; the grain stores that the Great Chan Temple had managed to bring out when it fled have, even to this day, not suffered the slightest spoilage.

Knowing more is advantageous; Zhou Shuo, from the Qiankun pouch and arcane arts, has grasped some ideas; if these ideas are verified, he will possess the ability to independently refine spatial artifacts, and unlike the Qiankun pouch—which uses the skin of an immortal as its vessel, with unknown numbers of four-tribulation experts pouring their thoughts into it over decades to reach its present state—his method would be different.

If Zhou Shuo's experiment succeeded, he could construct space using innate primordial Qi to forge artifacts, which would be far easier than creating space with thoughts, though it would likely have flaws; however he has no time to experiment, for Chan Yinsha is calling him to cultivate; these days of seizure and studying the Qiankun pouch have been sleepless, to the point that even his alchemical herb-gathering practice has lapsed.

During the period when Zhou Shuo was sleeplessly researching the Qiankun pouch, Chan Yinsha was also busy; she had someone cast a golden pagoda, then, taking advantage of thunderstorm weather, she placed the Immortal Capital Jade Disc atop it and drew down a thread of heavenly thunder to infuse into the disc, restoring the Immortal Capital Jade Disc to wholeness.

In the secret chamber, Chan Yinsha suspended the Immortal Capital Jade Disc in midair; after receiving Zhou Shuo's nod, she flicked a finger, releasing a bolt of electric light that struck the disc; the thunder stored within the disc instantly burst forth, a blinding radiance that filled the room, illuminating everything, and Zhou Shuo even saw his own muscles and bones turn transparent under the electric light.

Although the sight of his transparent muscles and bones was astonishing, Zhou Shuo had previously received a hint from Chan Yinsha and was already familiar with the Lightning Body Illumination Technique; he did not delay, but immediately projected his spirit-soul outward, enveloping his body in it, for otherwise letting that bolt of lightning continue to shine would not only make his flesh and bones transparent but could even cause them to vanish forever.

After projecting his spirit-soul outside his body, Zhou Shuo immediately felt that heaven and earth were somewhat different—it was the boundless yin-yang qi, churning with life-and-death consciousness, far subtler than positrons and electrons; the agitation of the yin and yang qi grinding against his spirit-soul gave it an indescribable tingling numbness, as if his whole person were about to dissolve.

In that tingling numbness, Zhou Shuo sensed time seeming to slow; in his mind he could feel his thoughts being shattered one by one like needles of electric light; seeing this, he no longer dared to be lax, he aroused the meditative method he had learned from the Past Amitabha Sutra, without needing to visualize Amitabha Buddha, but simply purifying his heart-mind, letting his spirit-soul emit boundless light, causing his thoughts to continually break apart and rebirth under the thunder.

After hundreds of cycles of life and death, Zhou Shuo's one hundred eighty thoughts, originally in the crescent-moon state, all transformed into full-moon states, like glowing night pearls; Zhou Shuo also directed his primordial spirit inward, locating within the intestinal tract the minute, indivisible Grain God Aperture, like a speck of dust, and then slightly relaxed his spirit-soul, allowing a faint thread of lightning arc to pierce that aperture.

Once the electric current entered the Grain God Aperture, it instantly coursed through his entire body, passing through skin, bone, muscle, membranes, etc., purging the impurities from his blood, marrow, flesh, and tendons; his whole person was renewed, yet he felt a hunger in his belly, akin to the ravenous appetite after a severe illness when the body desperately craves primordial Qi, as if he could devour an ox—this is the sign that the Grain God Aperture has been fully opened; the Grain God Aperture represents a person's digestive and absorptive capacity, and opening it not only cleanses internal impurities but also enables efficient absorption of nutrients from food.

Although the Grain God Aperture's opening brought hunger, Zhou Shuo also experienced a novel sensation: he felt as if, while sitting still, he could perceive the celestial bodies, his qi and blood surging like a tide, much like the season when alchemists gather medicinal herbs; acting on this, he tried the alchemy method, drawing small elixirs from his heart and kidneys, channeling them into the Mysterious Pass Aperture to be forged into great elixirs, whereupon a warm current immediately arose in his meridians.

Feeling the warm current arising within, Zhou Shuo promptly gathered his spirit completely, paying no heed to his hungry entrails, entered the meditative state of sitting and forgetting, no longer attending to the external lightning and light, but fully drawing his spirit-soul awareness inward; yet his mind entered an ultimate state, making contact with the heaven-earth qi field—not as superficial as his earlier inquiry in the Hu family's Strange-People World, this time he penetrated far deeper, the qi field of the Yang-Spirit World becoming finely delineated before him, to the point that he could even sense the motion of the celestial bodies.

"Mm!" Zhou Shuo withdrew his heart-mind from the operation of the cosmos of heavenly bodies and myriad things, opened his eyes, gazed upon the limpid autumn-water eyes before him, and blinked them slightly.

"You've finally awakened; it's already been three days." Chan Yinsha looked at the fellow who had suddenly opened his eyes, her face flushing involuntarily, and handed over the prepared elixir she had set aside.

"This is… well, I don't need this." Zhou Shuo looked at the thing Chan Yinsha handed him, blinked his eyes, feeling a bit uncertain what to ask, but as soon as he spoke he recalled: these are Pearl Pills refined from the Primordial Yin Heavenly Pearl, meant to replenish him after cultivating his Grain God Aperture, yet he seemed to have no use for them!

"After you've cultivated the Grain God Aperture properly, you'll feel extremely hungry—don't you have that sensation?" Chan Yinsha naturally explained, but seeing Zhou Shuo's expression, she couldn't help but blink her eyes.

"I feel no hunger, well, perhaps I'm just full." Zhou Shuo closed his eyes to sense himself; he felt no hunger at all, because his Mysterious Pass Aperture had already accumulated nearly four-tenths of a great elixir, and this batch of herb gathering amounted to five times what he had previously collected, likely because having these great elixirs inside meant he needed no external food to supplement his Grain God Aperture.

"Full?" Chan Yinsha widened her eyes slightly, "Has the cultivation of the Grain God Aperture failed?"

"Uh, beauty enough to eat." Zhou Shuo's round-eyed younger sister—she couldn't resist making a joke, then snatched a few pearl pills and tossed them into her mouth.

"Cut the nonsense." Chan Yinsha, hearing this, was slightly annoyed; her gaze unconsciously drooped, and her ears felt hot and soft.