vncnus Chapter 23 Entering the Interior
Chapter 23 Entering the Interior
Three days later, in the forbidden area behind the Wuhou Sect's mountain, in the alchemy room.
The alchemy room is not a single room, but a grotto embedded in the mountain wall, with an entrance that is only wide enough for one person to pass through sideways.
Ventilation holes were carved into the stone wall, and the afternoon sunlight leaked in through the holes, cutting out several thin stripes of light on the bluestone floor.
The air was thick with the scent of herbs, mixed with the dry smell of wood ash that had accumulated over decades or even centuries.
In the very center of the ground is carved a Bagua diagram that is even older than the one in the training ground. The carvings are deep and coarse, and two old jade pieces whose original color is no longer discernible are embedded in the eyes of the yin and yang fish.
Zhuge Yan sat cross-legged in the very center of the Bagua diagram, with his legs crossed and his hands forming a mudra in front of his navel.
His eyes were closed, and his breathing was long and even, rising and falling slightly only once every ten or so breaths.
Zhuge Duan sat three feet directly in front of him, while Zhuge Zhong and Zhuge Ji sat on the left and right sides, at the positions of the Gate of Death and the Gate of Life, respectively. The three of them formed a triangular formation to protect him in the center.
In each of the holes carved into the stone wall, a thin incense stick, as thin as a bamboo chopstick, was inserted. The incense flames flickered in the dim light, like sixteen silent eyes.
"The first step in cultivating the Samadhi True Fire is not lighting the fire."
Zhuge Duan spoke slowly.
"The first step is to enter the inner vision. You have to see what's in your heart before you can decide what to burn."
"Calm down, quieter than ever before."
The so-called inner vision is a secret spiritual world belonging exclusively to the sorcerer, a realm of consciousness.
It is both an ultimate information repository containing the general trends of the world and a clear mirror reflecting the inner essence of a practitioner.
In essence, the inner vision is a projection of the sorcerer's spiritual world.
Its foundation is based on "the trend of the world itself", but it can be distorted by the observer, that is, the sorcerer who enters the inner vision.
If we consider this world as a huge "information repository," then the Heavenly Dao is the program that maintains the operation of this information repository.
The sorcerer uses unorthodox methods to approach the Dao of Heaven from various angles, and eventually, like a hacker, he can "hack" into this database, which is the inner world.
The interior views vary from person to person, but the underlying operating rules are the same for all.
Rule 1: There is no fixed form within; it is what the mind manifests.
In the interior, the concepts of space and time are not fixed, and the physical laws of the world can be replaced or rewritten.
It can be as free as a dream, with directions that can be changed at will, and even personal inner worlds can be customized.
Rule Two: Heart Ball Quiz - Highest Bid Wins.
To obtain the answer to a question, you must destroy a "light orb" in the interior that corresponds to the difficulty of the question.
The size of the light sphere directly reflects the "impact" carried by the answer to the question.
The more significant the event, the larger the sphere of light manifested in the interior, and it may even be a giant fireball capable of destroying everything.
The difficulty of shattering the orb of light depends on two factors: the importance of the answer to the questioner and the magnitude of the answer's energy, i.e., its impact on the future direction of the world.
Rule Three: Heavenly secrets must not be revealed.
Even if one obtains the secrets of heaven at a great cost, one should not easily reveal them.
This forcibly revealed "heavenly secret" will have a strong karmic retribution on the person who revealed it. At best, everything will go wrong; at worst, they will suffer karmic backlash and die a violent death.
Rule 4: Sharing and Danger.
Although the inner world is a world of complete freedom, if you are injured in the inner world, that injury will also affect your physical body in reality.
Forcibly obtaining answers that are incompatible with one's mindset and cultivation level can have a powerful backlash that could even turn one into a walking corpse in reality.
To enter the inner realm, the first requirement is the meditative skill that Wuhou School disciples are strictly required to practice from a young age.
It's not about overclocking, it's about entering a meditative state.
The starting posture of Samadhi Fire is to eliminate greed, dispel delusions, and extinguish inner demons.
To extinguish inner demons, one must first achieve inner peace, being free from desires and fears.
Three years of training in the Mysterious Mystery had made Zhuge Yan accustomed to a state of rapid brain activity, but now he needed the opposite.
He slowed his breathing and gradually withdrew his consciousness from the Qimen Dunjia divination, from the Qian character method, and from the four plates of Heaven, Earth, Man, and God.
First, let go of the magic, then let go of the Qi sensation, then let go of the body, and finally let go of the mind.
Zhuge Yan said nothing more. He let his breath sink inch by inch, sinking to his dantian, sinking to the Yongquan point, sinking beneath the bluestone ground.
Gradually, the boundaries of consciousness began to blur.
It's not drowsiness, but a clarity that gradually contracts from the outside in.
First, the light bands from the holes in the stone wall disappeared, then the breathing of the three elders, then the medicinal fragrance lingering in the air, and then one's own body.
In the end, even the act of "disappearing" itself disappeared.
When Zhuge Yan opened his eyes again, he was already standing on a body of water.
This is his interior view.
Not much has changed since my first visit many years ago. The endless water surface is as calm as a mirror, and there are no sun, moon, or stars in the sky, but a uniform, soft light shines from all directions at the same time.
His own reflection was mirrored in the water, but this time, Zhuge Yan did not look down.
He had been here many times before. Occasionally, he would relax and fantasize in the interior, which helped him de-stress and also helped him strengthen his resistance to the temptations of the interior.
After all, even if you know it's a dream, what's the difference between a dream that's almost identical to reality and allows you to do whatever you want with it?
Without specialized training in meditation, most ordinary people, even knowing it's all an illusion, will become deeply immersed in the inner world the first time they enter it and won't want to wake up.
The result is that the boundary between virtual and reality gradually blurs, eventually leading to complete immersion in the inner world and becoming a "living dead"!
"I seem pretty calm, so I guess I'm in pretty good shape right now~"
Zhuge Yan glanced around his inner world, then casually waved his hand.
The next second, three flames slowly lit up on the water's surface, hovering around him.
The first one is below, its color a deep blue, as cold as phosphorescence in the deep sea—the fire of the lower elixir, refining essence.
The second one is in the center, its color is crimson, warm but not scorching, like charcoal fire held in the palm of your hand in winter—the fire of the middle elixir, refining qi.
The third one, pure gold in color, hangs three feet above his Baihui acupoint on the top of his head—the fire of the upper elixir, for refining the spirit.
The three flames correspond to essence, qi, and spirit, respectively.
The Bagua diagram in the alchemy room was no longer within his perception range, but he knew that the three elders were protecting him outside.
Thinking of this, Zhuge Yan slowly stretched out his hand.
The fire of the lower dantian drifted into his palm, sank into his body along the Laogong acupoint, and descended along the Ren meridian, settling into the lower dantian.