Chapter 5: Method of cultivation, black-clad girl

On the mountain, night fell.

It was dark, the wind howled outside the window, and not a single light could be seen, all was dim.

Returning to the room, Zhang Fan still recalled the words of the old god-stick who sold courses, then lay on the bed and took out his phone.

"What? Can't help but want to contact her again?" Li Yi saw this and couldn't help but despise him.

"Some people are only suitable for meeting, some stories are only suitable for treasuring." Zhang Fan said expressionlessly.

As soon as the words fell, Li Yi stood up abruptly and actually bowed deeply to him.

"Why are you bowing to me?" Zhang Fan asked, puzzled.

"I beg you to stop being so sour, okay!? I'm about to vomit my overnight meal."

"People are only this sour when they pass the trial of love. You will feel that all the love songs in the world are written for you... too rare a state." Zhang Fan said lightly.

At this very moment, his mood didn't seem as uncomfortable as it was before going up the mountain.

"People's consciousness spirit is most restless only when they pass the trial of love and the trial of life and death."

Suddenly, the old Daoist priest's words rang in Zhang Fan's mind again.

"How to enter stillness and meditation?"

Just at this moment, Li Yi leaned over, looked at the search term on the phone, and couldn't help but reveal a strange expression.

"What are you doing? We are here for tourism, you don't really want to be a Daoist priest, do you?"

"The old tradition of the Chinese people, since we are here, of course, we must experience it immersively."

Zhang Fan didn't raise his head, looking at various posts on the Little Yellow Book, while Li Yi was rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for the hotel's flashlight, we'll go for a night tour of Zhenwu Mountain later." Li Yi drilled into the cabinet.

"The old saying goes, returning to the root is called stillness, which is called restoring life... if you want to get to the bottom of the essence of life, only stillness can achieve it..."

Just at this moment, a post caught Zhang Fan's attention. The poster's ID was 【Millennium Old Demon】, but the avatar was pitch black.

"The alchemy books say, suddenly realizing the true self, the heavenly cycle descends and transports fire, burning to see the golden body, the Dao proves the fruit of non-action."

"The true self here is the primordial spirit..."

"The primordial spirit is not refined, longevity is refined. The primordial spirit is innate and resides between the eyes. This square inch of land is called the mysterious pass by the Daoist sect, the emptiness center by the Confucian sect, and the spiritual platform by the Buddhist sect. In essence, it is the same thing..."

"There are many metaphors for both Buddhist and Daoist families in Journey to the West. The Spiritual Platform Square Inch Mountain refers to this part of the human body. Therefore, only when Sun Wukong reached that place could he hear the Dao and practice cultivation..."

"Mortal cultivation is also like this. Only by entering stillness and reviving the primordial spirit can one talk about cultivation."

"There's something to this." Zhang Fan became interested and continued to read.

"In recent years, many novels and TV shows have mentioned the recovery of spiritual energy. In fact, spiritual energy has never been cut off, but ordinary people can't see it. Scientifically speaking, the human eye has 125 million photoreceptor cells, which generate signals and transmit them to the brain through the optic nerve to be processed into images..."

"However, the range of light wavelengths that humans can distinguish is limited, and even the sounds heard have frequency limitations..."

"So the Buddhist sect says that the world perceived through the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, body, and mind is false, which is that sentence 【All phenomena are illusory】..."

"If you see all phenomena as non-phenomena, you see the Tathagata."

"What is Tathagata? It is the true nature, it is the primordial spirit... that is, seeing the essence through phenomena. Viewing the world with the primordial spirit, one can see many things that could not be seen before..."

"When you truly enter stillness, not a single thought arises, and that heavenly light shines through... which can also be called spiritual energy, or Buddha nature... the name is just a name... reaching that realm, you will know what the real world is..."

Zhang Fan stared at the phone, becoming more and more absorbed. It had to be said that this poster named Millennium Old Demon had an extremely deep understanding of the essence of the three cultures of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

"The Daoist sect emphasizes the dual cultivation of nature and life. Nature cultivation is self-realization, life cultivation is master-taught. The so-called nature cultivation is the method of entering stillness and cultivating the primordial spirit..."

"Then how to self-realize and enter stillness!?"

When the post reached here, Zhang Fan perked up, finally seeing what he wanted to see.

"The following is paid content, please pay 888 yuan to continue watching."

"..."

"I hate the era where knowledge is money." Zhang Fan rolled his eyes, paid 888 yuan in pain, and clicked to continue watching. He was dumbfounded; it actually jumped directly to a link...

"Zhenwu Mountain Stillness Cultivation Class... sign up now and use the 888 yuan voucher?"

"I..." Zhang Fan felt like he had been scammed.

He threw the phone aside and took a deep breath to calm his mood.

"What's wrong?" Li Yi saw this and couldn't help but ask.

"Nothing..."

Zhang Fan shook his head and picked up his phone again, searching on his own.

A moment later, he discovered that there were methods for stillness everywhere on the internet: Zen meditation, meditation, contemplation, yoga, etc., almost hundreds or thousands of kinds.

It seemed that every school of thought and every religion emphasized entering stillness.

In the end, Zhang Fan chose a common Daoist method of sitting and breathing and began to try.

It was simple to say: sit cross-legged, hold hands together, place them three inches below the navel, eyes half-closed and half-open, tongue against the upper palate... the gist of such actions was to listen to the breath...

"Between one inhalation and one exhalation is the breath... when distracting thoughts fly in the heart, put your attention on your own breathing..."

"This is the method of 【One thought resists ten thousand thoughts】."

Zhang Fan remembered the key points, sat cross-legged, and at first, he was worried about whether his posture was standard. Immediately after, various distracting thoughts began to flood in. The time spent on campus, the beautiful memories of the two... came rushing in like a tide, creating a huge gap with his current situation.

Immediately after, pain, sadness, anxiety, fear... and other emotions also flooded in like a flood, making Zhang Fan sit on pins and needles, and fine sweat seeped from his forehead.

"If you enter between the two trials, the consciousness spirit is the most restless..."

The old Daoist priest's words rang in his mind again. Zhang Fan gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and tried his best to put his attention on the rhythm of his breathing. Gradually, the surging emotions calmed down a lot, and the chaotic thoughts dissipated one after another...

Zhang Fan's breathing became steady and long. He felt that his body seemed to have relaxed a lot, soft and warm...

Just as the Daoist books say, focus on the breath to reach softness, can you be like an infant?

Although he hadn't reached this point, it was also a very special and rare feeling. Gradually, Zhang Fan felt a light shining from outside his body, entering his half-closed and half-open eyes.

"Not a single thought arises, the consciousness spirit returns to stillness... when that heavenly light shines through... you will be able to see a world you have never seen before..."

The old Daoist priest's words flowed through his heart.

"I succeeded... I succeeded..."

A voice seemed to ring in Zhang Fan's heart, filled with the joy of hearing the Dao.

"The hotel's flashlight is really bright..."

Just at this moment, Li Yi's voice rang in his ear.

"Damn it... I knew it..." Zhang Fan cursed inwardly and opened his eyes abruptly.

The night was dark and the wind was high, the mountain was cold, and the ancient palace appeared before his eyes like a sleeping beast. There was no light around, and in the chaos, it seemed to hide the unknown.

"Where... where is this?"

Zhang Fan was stunned. Wasn't he just in the hotel? His heart was shaken, and he was dazed, walking toward the palace hidden in the dark night. Looking up, he saw three ancient characters: Nanxuan Palace!?

"This is Nanxuan Palace?"

Zhang Fan revealed a look of surprise. During the day, he and Li Yi climbed for a full three and a half hours to reach the Golden Summit. How did he get from the hotel to here in the blink of an eye?

"This..."

Zhang Fan was a bit panicked. He turned around abruptly. Suddenly, the hair all over his body stood up.

On the mountain path not far away, there seemed to be a figure standing...

Zhang Fan's face changed slightly. Through the faint moonlight, he could see clearly that it was a young girl with shoulder-length short hair, fair skin, an ethereal temperament, and a black brocade outfit.

"Is it her!?" Zhang Fan was stunned. That was exactly the black-clad girl he saw in the worship hall of Zixiao Palace.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 6 =====