Chapter 8: Listening to the Dharma

Yunqi has been in the mountain for more than twenty days.

During these twenty-odd days, reading still occupied the vast majority of the young man's time. During this period, he also went to listen to the lectures of other peaks, and he also went to the discussion meetings on the East Heaven Road once. He paid attention to the class schedule from time to time, but what disappointed the young man was that there was never any mention of eating Qi for entry.

Regarding this, He Bingkun explained that in the past, if there was a large-scale recruitment of disciples, perhaps there would be masters specially enlightening newcomers. But this time, the recruitment time of Mount Mingzhi was not up or down, and only one person entered the sect, so the sect would definitely not set up relevant courses, thinking that it should be enlightened by Master Yu Daoist Sukong personally.

It was just fortunate that Yunqi had excellent comprehension since childhood. He read books by himself and occasionally asked He Bingkun for advice at night, so he gained a lot, which made He Bingkun surprised.

Today is the 9th of the fourth lunar month, which is the day to check in at Mount Mingzhi.

At the second quarter of the Mao hour, Cheng Yunqi was waiting in the courtyard. Having been together for a period of time, he already knew He Bingkun's habits.

Sure enough, not long after, He Bingkun also came out of the room. He patted Yunqi on the shoulder, "Today is your big day, perform well in front of the Master Yu."

Yunqi nodded with a smile.

He Bingkun whistled, grabbed Yunqi's arm, and jumped up. The latter only felt a turn of heaven and earth, and then sat on the back of the thunder sparrow.

The thunder sparrow's back was soft, but the feathers were very slippery. He always felt like he was going to fall. Where his body touched the thunder sparrow, there was a tingling sensation.

The thunder sparrow flapped its wings and flew high. Yunqi was about to slide down, but was grabbed by He Bingkun, "Sit firmly with your legs crossed, five hearts facing the sky. If you can enter meditation on the thunder sparrow, your sitting practice can be considered entry."

Yunqi naturally hadn't entered the sect now, so he held He Bingkun tightly.

The thunder sparrow was indeed extremely fast, flying straight towards the clouds, traveling through the rainbow bridges and neon lights, and soon flew to the end of the East Screen Mountain, then passed through the clouds and went down.

But what surprised Yunqi was that last time he was brought over by Feng Jihu, he felt the cloud layer was extremely thick when falling, and he and the people who came for the assessment fell to Mount Mingzhi in the vast white clouds. But at this moment, the cloud layer flashed by, and the scenery presented in front of him was completely different.

Looking down from the air, Mount Sanqing was layer upon layer, but there was no place with such spirituality:

Eight high mountains rose from the ground, the mountain roots clustered together, but the mountain peaks tilted outward towards the eight directions of east, northeast, north, northwest, west, southwest, south, and southeast. But these eight high peaks were absolutely different. The one in the southwest was as delicate as a snail, covered in clouds and mist; the one in the north was as red as iron, with smoke and fire rising; the one in the northwest was covered in thunder clouds, with purple electricity flashing; the one in the southeast was planted with green bamboos, with bamboo waves surging.

The eight mountains had different shapes, like a colorful glazed lotus seat burned by an immortal craftsman in the sky by mistake.

Between the eight mountains, there was another mountain, shaped like a lotus platform, but this mountain was hidden in the glow woven by the strange phenomena of the eight peaks, and the details could not be seen clearly. The only thing that could be seen was that countless waterfalls and flying streams hung on the mountain wall of this mountain, flying down, like thousands of white silk ribbons.

"This is..."

"This is the Lotus Blessed Land," He Bingkun said.

He Bingkun pointed to the mountain planted with green bamboos and said: "This is Mount Mingzhi, because of the green bamboos all over the mountain, bamboo is elegantly called the Green God, so it is also called Green God Mountain, located in the Xun position of the Lotus Blessed Land."

The thunder sparrow carried the two and flew towards Mount Mingzhi. Yunqi looked carefully, but did not find any other figures on Mount Mingzhi, and even one or two palace temples could not be seen.

He Bingkun drove the thunder sparrow and placed Yunqi on a protruding stone platform on the south side of the mountain waist of Mount Mingzhi, saying that he would pick up Yunqi at this place in the evening, and then rode the sparrow to the thunder-cloud-covered high peak in the northwest.

Yunqi stood on the stone platform and looked around, finding a stone standing beside it, with the words "Liangjun Ferry" written on it.

He explored around and very easily found the small path he walked during the assessment. He walked along the small path into the depths of the bamboo forest. Sure enough, beside the pavilion behind the Zhan Biyun's Bamboo-Hiding Place monument, Yunqi saw Master Yu Daoist Sukong again.

"Come over and sit down."

Master Yu Daoist Sukong said.

Yunqi walked into the pavilion and sat on the mat opposite the Master Yu.

"Is life in the mountain still used to it?" "Used to it, life here is very good."

"That's good. After you eat Qi and your foot power comes up, go back to the town and have a look. It's not far. In addition, Mount Mingzhi is not prosperous, there is no specific rest day. If you miss home, just ask for leave. During the four seasons and eight festivals, the incense offerings for your parents should not be broken. Just follow the secular rules to sweep the tomb when returning to the hometown."

Yunqi's heart relaxed slightly. It seems that the rules in the mountain are not as big as he thought before. As for the Master Yu knowing about the family affairs, Yunqi had no surprise. Presumably, the Yulin Temple in the secular world had already checked him from childhood to adulthood. He bowed deeply and said:

"Thank you, Learning Master."

"No need for thanks. My Mount Mingzhi has very few rules, you will know it in the future."

Yunqi said yes.

"Gather your mind, now talk about practice.

"Mount Mingzhi takes internal alchemy as the foundation. Internal alchemy is the source of all methods and the foundation of longevity. Before becoming an immortal, there are five great realms: Qi Refining, Life Treasure, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Harmony with Dao. And Qi Refining starts from eating Qi, so eat Qi today.

"Heaven and earth spiritual Qi is the treasure of the world and the ladder to become an immortal. Especially for our Daoist sect, spiritual Qi is the only way to open the physical body's treasure house, and it is also the only reliance for performing all kinds of magic.

"The spiritual energy of heaven and earth flows unceasingly, but there is always a pattern to follow. Spiritual energy in deep mountains and great marshes is always denser than in the towns of the mortal world. Under the stimulation of the Sun Star at noon, Yang-attribute spiritual energy is more active; under the illumination of the Yin Star at midnight, Yin-attribute spiritual energy is abundant. In the forests and jungles, Wood-attribute spiritual energy is most plentiful, and above rivers, Water-attribute spiritual energy is vigorous. Although there are exceptions, this is the general trend."

"Heaven and earth spiritual Qi is complicated and numerous. We practitioners naturally cannot eat all of it, not to mention the miasma of wood, the swamp gas of earth, and the sulfur gas of fire are all poisonous things. So first of all, you must know what kind of Qi to eat.

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"What Qi to eat is determined by the innate attributes of the physical body and the practice lineage. The former is actually not worth delving into for the vast majority of people. Like the Pure Yang body and Original Yin body, they are really a very small number. As for you, Yunqi, I have already explored it, and it is also an ordinary physical body, but the meridians are thicker and tougher than those of the same age. I think it is also the effect of clear spiritual Qi body refining.

"I know what you want to ask. Clear spiritual Qi is naturally heaven and earth spiritual Qi, and essentially belongs to a type of Yang Qi. It is rumored in the sect that clear spiritual Qi is a type of clear Qi when heaven and earth first opened, which has the effect of clearing the spiritual platform and stabilizing the primordial spirit. The Vessel-Clearing and Tendon-Stretching Technique you are practicing now is just the most superficial method to eat clear spiritual Qi, and the subsequent ones are naturally other miraculous methods.

"As for the practice lineage, the root of my Mount Mingzhi lineage lies in the Yin-Yang Great Dao, falling on the Dao of the Living Dead, and extending from this to Pure Yang, Corpse Dissolution, Soul Returning, Ghost Driving, Corpse Raising, and other methods.

"In addition, my Mount Mingzhi lineage can practice all five elements, especially focusing on fire method, wood method, and earth method, and based on the above three methods, it has developed heart fire, withering and prosperity, corpse raising, and other methods. Wind and thunder paths can also be practiced, but my sect focuses on wind method, and has developed wind escape, gathering letters, heaven listening, dispelling evil, divine travel, and other methods. Thunder method also has divine drinking, refining gods, tempering body, and other methods.

"In a word, entering my Mount Mingzhi, within the five elements, Yin-Yang branches, and wind-thunder two Qi, eating Qi is without taboos."

Daoist Sukong spoke extremely fast, but fortunately, Yunqi's memory was also excellent. He didn't seek to understand everything first, but remembered everything, and then chewed and pondered slowly after returning.

"There are several methods for Qi consumption: the breathing method, the sitting-in-oblivion method, the pacing-the-dipper method, the hand-formula method, the prayer-curse method, and the external elixir method. The first five are, at their core, body-array methods. The human body forms a body-array through actions such as breathing, sitting in meditation, walking, hand seals, and chanting. Once the body-array is formed, it naturally draws in spiritual energy."

"External alchemy method is to borrow external force, including taking pills, dietary, medicinal baths, etc., no need to say more.

"Contemplation method is quite mysterious. You must know that there is such a kind of Qi in the world that only a special spiritual body of a certain attribute can eat it. Like the Sun True Fire, it has always been the exclusive property of the Golden Crow clan, and it has long since disappeared. Like forest miasma, a poisonous thing, it is extremely difficult for us practitioners to refine it into a magic tool, but the Xiao and python in the mountain can swallow it as usual. Earth clothes green brilliance is a kind of Qi that integrates earth and wood, which is very useful for alchemy. Only the genus of green sheep, green ox, and green deer can eat it.

"For such spiritual Qi, the body array method is useless. So the predecessors created the contemplation method. This contemplation method is actually borrowing the false to seek the true. It observes the essence, Qi, and spirit of other spiritual attributes, among which spirit is the essence. It outlines a virtual spiritual attribute in the dark, placed in the physical body's acupoints. Our Daoist sect calls it the Inner Landscape God, because this method first came from the "Huangting Inner Landscape Classic" of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Once the Inner Landscape God appears, you don't need to be deliberate, you can naturally eat Qi between gestures."

Yunqi listened quietly for a long time. Seeing that Daoist Sukong seemed to have finished speaking, he asked: "May I ask the Learning Master, what kind of eating Qi method is suitable for the disciple?"

This was the first time Yunqi saw the smile of Master Yu Daoist Sukong, only to hear her say, "You must know all of them."

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(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 9 =====

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