Chapter 57

Although feeling a bit chilly, Zhou Shuo still had to thank Xia He, because if not for her he wouldn't have known about the Celestial Master's Abbey's thunder techniques and the theory of yin and yang; as it turns out, that brat Zhang Chulan really didn't deceive him—the problem lies with himself—but how did that brat preserve his primordial yang in this flowery world? Could it just be because his name means 'virgin'?

"Um, Sister Xia, thank you, I'm going back to cultivate." Zhou Shuo, while maintaining his suspicion that Zhang Chulan's primordial yang remains intact, bade farewell to Xia He, preparing to return to his quiet chamber to continue; he understood the principle, and with Yang Five Thunder as reference, he could figure out how to study it on his own when he went back.

"Cultivating again? You're really a total cultivation maniac!" Xia He watched the guy turn and walk away, her eyebrows slightly rising; this guy really has a unique personality!

"This is all the fun I have right now." Zhou Shuo shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"Men should seek a bit more fun…." Xia He watched Zhou Shuo shrug, couldn't help curling the corners of her mouth, revealing a smile that sparked plenty of imagination.

"Hehe, Sister Xia, uh, nothing, I'll head back first." Zhou Shuo looked at the woman laughing ambiguously, glanced at the flower‑crazy old man Hu Lin beside her, expressed his thanks, but before he could turn around, Xia He spoke up.

"Wait…"

"What's wrong, Sister Xia?" Zhou Shuo looked at the woman who had spoken to detain him, his heart on alert, for the Quanxing sect is hardly a united, friendly organization—not only do its members harbor different thoughts, but internal conflicts often arise; given any pretext to act, they would not hesitate to kill a comrade in the shadows. Years ago, one of Quanxing's sect leaders was deemed a traitor simply for sworn brotherhood with an upright outsider; had that outsider not been immensely powerful and prestigious, with a loyal following, he would have been immediately besieged.

"Nothing, you've already gone berserk from practicing thunder techniques earlier; it's not suitable to continue. Instead, go enrich yourself elsewhere—Hu Lin, I recall you have quite a collection of books, right?" Xia He could sense the wariness of her nominal companion but didn't mind; after giving two reminders, she turned her gaze to the flower‑crazy Hu Lin.

"What, Xia He? Do you want them? If you do, I'll give them all to you." Seeing the beauty inquire, Hu Lin nodded repeatedly and eagerly asked.

"No, just lend those books to him to have a look." Xia He pointed at Zhou Shuo.

"Sure, sure, give them to whoever you say!" Hu Lin, completely enslaved by lust and desire, was even willing to steal thunder techniques from the Celestial Master's Abbey for Xia He; what were a few of his own books in comparison?

"Thanks, Sister Xia He." Zhou Shuo looked at the utterly composed woman, his eyebrows slightly rising; this woman seemed to be courting him—but for what purpose?

Although he didn't know why Xia He suddenly helped him, Zhou Shuo didn't care about such details; a benefit placed before him had no reason to be refused. Besides, he had no other thoughts about the Quanxing sect—joining it was purely out of necessity. His sole aim now was to oversee his own cultivation, and whenever the chance arose, to pay attention to something interesting.

In the study of the Hu family villa, an antiquarian desk held the four treasures, while rows of bookshelves bore volumes covering medical hygiene, economic philosophy, and martial arts manuals, but the majority were Buddhist and Daoist scriptures: Zhongli Quan's 'Numinous Treasure Completed Method', Lü Dongbin's 'Nine‑Grade Immortal Scripture', and Qiu Chuji's 'Great Elixir Directives'.

"Kind of interesting!" Zhou Shuo flipped through a frequently read Daoist scripture, then put it back on the shelf; although he had also read the Dao De Jing, Zhuangzi, and Liezi, compared to those works that point directly to the Dao, the later Daoist alchemical texts were truly incomprehensible to him—too much jargon and allusion.

The collection was rich, but he didn't know where to start. With Hu Lin absent, Zhou Shuo browsed two Daoist and Buddhist texts, then launched a wide‑ranging search for books free of dust, frequently handled, comprehensible to him, and engaging; ultimately he found on the desk a volume of Journey to the West placed face‑down.

"Journey to the West…" Zhou Shuo turned the face‑down volume upright, looking at the cover with a hint of bewilderment, for the books in this study were mostly about the cultivation path, their themes solemn; one would find no half‑volume on cooking, gardening, or fictional biographies here, yet the Journey to the West lying on the desk was an exception.

Zhou Shuo sat at the desk, glanced at the hardcover—this was a deluxe edition of Journey to the West, clearly valuable at a glance, its pages very thick; flipping open a few pages at random showed it had been frequently used, the edges worn, yet what he hadn't expected was that the book also bore marginal notes.

Coincidentally, the page he turned to contained the episode 'The Mind‑Monk Returns to Righteousness, the Six Bandits Leave No Trace', where Sun Wukong cudgels six bandits, is rebuked by Tang Sanzang and departs; the passage describing Sun Wukong's cudgeling of the six bandits is circled in black ink, with a note written beside it.

"Only by casting off the six bandits can one cultivate the Dao; the six bandits originally arise from the six senses, subduing mountain bandits is easy, subduing the heart's bandits hard." Zhou Shuo read the marginal characters aloud, somewhat surprised—he knew the six senses, and the eighteen mighty golden gods of the Jade Pool Dao who subdue external demons are precisely the transformations of the six senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are precisely the six senses, six consciousnesses, six phenomena, and six bandits; thus the annotation means: only by casting off the six bandits can one cultivate smoothly, yet the source of these six bandits is the six human senses, which cannot be fundamentally cut off. Combining this with the Journey to the West narrative, Sun Wukong's slaying of the six bandits is actually him deliberately provoking Tang Sanzang to drive him away, so as to escape the burden of the pilgrimage—this is precisely the resurgence of the inner six bandits, lured by the flowery world.

"Somewhat interesting." Zhou Shuo linked the marginal note with the content of Journey to the West, finding it mildly amusing; in reality, as a code‑slave, he often browses novelties online for fodder for his novels, and occasionally he had encountered such a thing—namely, one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Journey to the West, which was actually written by a Quanzhen Daoist and contains the essential points of internal alchemy cultivation.

When Journey to the West is mentioned, everyone thinks of how powerful Sun Wukong is, then how Buddhism and the heavenly court oppress him, reducing him to a mere enforcer; online wilderness‑style novels basically follow this pattern, and if one tried to write something else, nobody would read it, so Zhou Shuo previously paid little attention to the fact that Journey to the West is an internal alchemy treatise—but seeing this annotated copy today, the idea struck him instantly.

With that thought in mind, Zhou Shuo continued reading; thereafter he saw Sun Wukong, having gotten his wish, ride the clouds away from Tang Sanzang to view the flowery world, while Tang Sanzang went forward on his own, encountering an old lady along the road who gave him a set of bright garments and a flowered hat, and also transmitted a passage called the 'True Words of Stabilizing the Heart', a tightening mantra.

Needless to say, that old lady was an emanation of Guanyin, who taught Tang Sanzang how to subdue the mind‑monk Sun Wukong, lured by the six bandits; Zhou Shuo saw the phrase 'True Words of Stabilizing the Heart' circled in black ink, then read on: after parting from Tang Sanzang, Monkey was drawn to the flowery world, visited the Eastern Sea as a guest, accepted the Dragon King's advice, returned to Tang Sanzang's side, and, because of his greed for beautiful objects, shamefully donned the flowered hat transformed by the tightening curse, thereby giving himself a headache from the curse; this segment too was underlined and annotated.

"Humans possess six senses; because of six consciousnesses come six phenomena, thus six bandits; due to the depletion of six spirits, one falls into the six realms; stabilizing the mind and cultivating nature, with an unbiased heart, the six bandits leave no trace—form is emptiness, emptiness is form; feeling, perception, volition, consciousness likewise."

Reading the annotation, Zhou Shuo felt a sudden enlightenment: the six bandits are the transformations of the six senses, which are innate; without these senses one would cease to be human, and they cannot be eradicated. Since the six bandits consume spiritual energy, to truly cultivate and dispel them one must first stabilize the mind and quiet the nature, keeping the heart from being deluded—then the six bandits pose no obstacle. Indeed, Monkey is precisely restrained by the 'True Words of Stabilizing the Heart' tightening curse, which counts as eliminating the inner six bandits, allowing the mind‑monk to return to righteousness.

"Interesting, interesting." Zhou Shuo looked at the passage, feeling greatly amused, for this segment of Journey to the West coincidentally matches the method used in the Jade Pool Dao to subdue the eighteen mighty golden gods—inner demons cannot be slain by force; only by stabilizing the mind and quieting the nature, maintaining an undeluded heart, can they be subdued. Thus Journey to the West truly is a cultivation manual, and this very copy happens to have its key points annotated.

Since it is a cultivation text, Zhou Shuo flipped through the volume and saw that every page was filled with marginal notes—some critiques, some odd anecdotes; for instance, the passage 'Corpse demons thrice toy with Tang Sanzang, the holy monk hates to chase the beautiful Monkey King' bears the notation 'Western Hunan Liu family corpse‑refining method', with little elaboration, only a line underneath: 'All three‑corpse incarnations are false; love and hatred lie in a single thought.'

Zhou Shuo knew the Liu family's method: they refine corpses or insects, yet cannot truly sever the three corpses, nor can they refine them into incarnations; this aligns with the line 'All three‑corpse incarnations are false; love and hatred lie in a single thought'—no matter how powerful the corpse‑insect incarnations become, they remain external objects.

Finding the marginalia at the chapter's end highly intriguing, Zhou Shuo nevertheless did not continue flipping forward; instead he turned the book to the beginning, intending to read from the start, but saw on the opening flyleaf a short poem of deep meaning: its content reads that a reader may have perused Journey to the West for many years without grasping its source, yet once a teacher points the way and the text is understood, the whole poem expresses the reader's admiration for the author of Journey to the West.

After finishing the poem, Zhou Shuo couldn't help but chuckle; the verse applied to him as well—he had always regarded Journey to the West as a mere novel, but only today did he realize this book weaves the cultivation path throughout. Years ago, seeing Buddhist scriptures conceal martial arts in Jin Yong's wuxia novels had seemed novel, and he lamented why he lacked the protagonist's fortuitous encounters; yet now he could not have imagined that such a commonplace Journey to the West actually contains this cultivation method—life is wonderfully unpredictable.

With a feeling of awe in his heart, Zhou Shuo formally immersed himself in the cultivation path depicted in the novel.