TDFM Chapter 124

Way of One Mind Scripture 

Yun Qing’s mind and spirit were both shaken, and she stood there in a daze, unable to speak for a long time.

The winter wind blew harshly, making people’s cheeks numb and their hands and feet ice-cold. After an unknown period of time, someone suddenly took her hand.

The familiar warm and dry touch brought her back to her senses, and she said in a daze: “Are you Xi? Are you the Goddess Shen Xi?”

“The human race indeed liked to address me this way.”

“How could this be? A deity was living inside my body?”

“Strictly speaking, not exactly a complete one.”

“……What do you mean?”

“I am only Xi’s ethereal soul, what you humans call the ‘earth soul.'”

“……What exactly happened? Why did Xi’s earth soul enter my body?”

Another sigh followed, and Xi slowly explained: “Back then——“

Back then, she had already sensed that she was about to perish—it would only be a matter of thirty to fifty years.

Due to her weakening divine power and the depletion of the Wish Power Pearl’s energy, although she had thought about making a desperate last stand and fighting Qiguang Zi to mutual destruction, things ultimately went against her wishes.

Qiguang Zi imprisoned her and demanded she pass on the Wish Power Pearl.

She knew Qiguang Zi’s cruel methods and that he would definitely use the people she cared about as leverage without hesitation. Therefore, before her defeat, she transferred Shenle Valley away, thinking this would eliminate her worries.

Who would have known that Qiguang Zi had lost all humanity and turned to threatening her with the mortal world she protected! He created disasters one after another, deliberately collecting people’s painful wails to show her, completely forgetting that he too had originally been of the human race!

Xi seized an opportunity—her ethereal soul escaped and left her body.

The ethereal soul governed consciousness. Without her ethereal soul, she would fall into a coma, and then Qiguang Zi’s evil deeds would have no one to “appreciate” them. She hoped this could stop him from continuing his wickedness.

Unfortunately, she underestimated Qiguang Zi’s madness and cruelty. After discovering that Xi’s ethereal soul had left, seemingly to show her specifically, he became even more excessive.

He released many demons into the mortal world, with drought demons causing the greatest harm. For those years, chaos erupted everywhere in the world, disasters continued endlessly, and one-third of the world’s population perished!

Only when he seemed to confirm that Xi truly wasn’t “appreciating” his evil acts did he finally stop.

But Xi had actually been watching his harm to the mortal world all along—she was just powerless to do anything.

At that time, she had taken refuge in a little girl’s soul.

Her ethereal soul had accidentally fallen into this little girl’s body. Unwilling to usurp the little girl’s earth soul, this remnant soul dispersed on the surface of the little girl’s soul to form a “shell,” and the two souls miraculously coexisted in this way.

The price was that she lost the ability to communicate.

She could only quietly observe everything happening in this world through the little girl’s eyes.

This continued for nearly twenty years, until just now when Qiguang Zi attempted to use the crystal lens to strip away her ethereal soul, and only then was she able to reunite and recover her ability to communicate.

“That’s what happened,” Xi’s tone became quite embarrassed. “It’s really rather shameful. After all, I am a dignified deity, yet I was trapped by a human immortal and couldn’t gain freedom. If the previous generation of gods knew about this, I don’t know how they would laugh at me.”

Yun Qing listened to her account as if in a dream. After hearing it, she asked, “So my special constitution was also because of you?”

“I’m sorry……”

Yun Qing quickly shook her head. “Don’t say you’re sorry. I should thank you. If it weren’t for you, I would have already drowned in the Fulong River. You were the first person to save me, even earlier than my master.”

Hearing this, Xi wasn’t so downcast anymore. Her voice lifted slightly as she said, “Because my ethereal soul wrapped around your soul, it reformed your body to a certain extent.

Your physical body was equivalent to that of an immortal, and your qi sea and consciousness sea were equivalent to those of a deity—though both were among the weakest of immortals and deities.”

Yun Qing murmured to herself, “Because my physical body was equivalent to an immortal’s, I could resist attacks from all mortal weapons but couldn’t resist immortal power, even the weakest immortal power.

My sea of consciousness was equivalent to a deity’s—no wonder Master said my sea of consciousness was golden, though I didn’t feel anything myself.”

“How could you not feel anything? Have you forgotten? When Qiguang Zi interrogated you about Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book in the dream realm, you could resist his Incantation of Truth—that was all because your sea of consciousness was at the deity level.”

Yun Qing suddenly understood and embarrassedly scratched her head. “Right, I almost forgot. I really should thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I should thank you too. If it weren’t for you, I still wouldn’t know where I’d be wandering.”

Yun Qing smiled and said, “Speaking of Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, what was that all about?”

“This book was originally created by a deity from my clan named ‘Kao’ based on the Eight Trigrams, after Fuxi had drawn the trigrams. Fuxi praised it highly after reading it.

But because some of the formations in it were too powerful, Fuxi felt they would harm the natural order, so he forbade the god clan from reading this book and only selected some more practical formations to pass down.

Later, when Fuxi perished, our clan built a cenotaph for him, and this book was left in the tomb. If it weren’t for your blessing, I wouldn’t have had the chance to read the original manuscript of the formation book!”

“Could only deities see the contents of this book? Because my sea of consciousness was equivalent to a deity’s, I could also see it?”

“That’s right. Precisely because he wasn’t worried about other races seeing it, Fuxi ultimately didn’t destroy it. He really loved this book.”

Yun Qing touched her chin and remained silent.

Xi became somewhat sorrowful again. “Fuxi probably never imagined that a deity would be defeated by a human immortal. If he had known, he probably wouldn’t have forbidden us from reading this book.”

Yun Qing asked curiously, “Do you deities all call immortals ‘human immortals’?”

“Because immortals aren’t only humans. All living beings in the world can ascend to become immortals through cultivation, so immortals are divided into many types—demon immortals, ghost immortals, devil immortals. Qiguang Zi naturally counted as a human immortal.”

Yun Qing unconsciously nodded. “I see. I have another question.”

“Go ahead, we two don’t need to be formal with each other.”

Yun Qing took out the Wish Power Pearl from her treasure pouch. Under the night sky, the Wish Power Pearl still emitted pure white light. She looked at the countless tiny points of light within the Wish Power Pearl—they were more brilliant and beautiful than the stars in the sky.

She asked Xi: “Can you now control the power within the Wish Power Pearl?”

“I cannot. Not to mention I’m now only a fragment of a remnant soul—even with a complete soul, I couldn’t. Because wish power needs to work through my body.

Although the god clan’s bodies differ somewhat from the human race’s, power must still rely on the body—this point is consistent. Unless one practiced specialized soul-body training techniques like Qingcheng Zi, one cannot fight while separated from the physical body.”

Yun Qing pondered for a long while, then asked, “Then where exactly is your body? If we found your body and sent your earth soul back to it, you could use the Wish Power Pearl, right?

Combined with the formations from Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book, I think your chances of winning would still be quite good.”

Xi’s tone was filled with helplessness. “That place—mortals cannot go there. It’s at the peak of the sea of clouds on Lingcang Mountain.

The sea of clouds on Lingcang Mountain cannot be compared to the sea of clouds you passed through when riding the phoenix. The sea of clouds there is five thousand zhang high. You know what this means, right?”

Of course Yun Qing knew.

At an altitude of five thousand zhang, even if they had a way to reach it, it would be very difficult to survive. Never mind the severe cold—that was actually the easiest problem to deal with.

The most troublesome issue was the air. Since the separation of heaven and earth at the beginning of time, pure qi rose while turbid qi descended, making the content of pure and turbid qi completely different between ground level and high altitude. The ground had more turbid qi, while high altitude had more pure qi.

Mortal flesh was accustomed to the turbid qi at ground level. Suddenly being placed in the pure qi environment of high altitude was very difficult to adapt to—mild cases would result in fainting, severe cases in death.

Although the several of them hadn’t yet transcended mortality to become immortals, their situation might be somewhat better than ordinary mortals, but it was still dangerous.

While Yun Qing remained silent, Xi added, “Hey, shouldn’t you explain to your friends? They must be getting quite anxious waiting.”

Yun Qing looked intently and saw four faces with different birthmarks, all looking at her curiously.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Yes.”

****

Afterward, Yun Qing carefully explained the whole story to the other four.

Everyone found it incredible. Fu Xue clapped her hands excitedly and said: “So the Goddess Shen Xi’s earth soul was living in my senior sister’s body! I knew my senior sister was extraordinary from birth!”

Jiang Baiyu asked, “Yun Qing, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere now?”

Yun Qing shook her head. “Only my brow center feels warm. Although it feels somewhat strange, it’s not really uncomfortable.”

Cheng Suiyan listened with amazement, but was also somewhat puzzled. “The entire Shenle Valley appeared on Liuyun Mountain overnight. Even if there were maze formations and thick fog around it, the terrain would have changed. Wasn’t the Goddess Shen Xi worried about being discovered?”

Jiang Baiyu said, “This isn’t hard to understand. There were few people in the deep mountains to begin with. Most of those in Liuyun Mountain were low-level cultivators who weren’t really familiar with the terrain.

Although Shenle Valley wasn’t small, compared to the eight-hundred-li expanse of Liuyun Mountain, it was like throwing a mustard seed into a flower pot. Such a change actually wasn’t very noticeable.

Even if careful people noticed, they would only think they had remembered wrong and wouldn’t think in terms of moving mountains and seas—that would be too inconceivable after all.

Even if cultivators did think of such things, they probably wouldn’t want to share such important information with others.”

Cheng Suiyan nodded. “Baiyu, you’re still the most thoughtful.”

Ci Li asked Yun Qing: “You just said that the Goddess Shen Xi’s earth soul reformed your body, and now your body is at the immortal level?”

“That’s right.”

“Then can you use immortal power?”

Before Yun Qing could answer, Cheng Suiyan said, “To use immortal power, you’d first need to have immortal power, right? Where would Yun Qing find immortal power now?”

Fu Xue nodded. “Right. So my senior sister has an immortal body, but immortal power still needs to be cultivated slowly and can’t be rushed. Is that what you mean?”

But Yun Qing’s eyes lit up. “No, Little Cat means that I might now be able to inherit the Wish Power Pearl?”

Cheng Suiyan smiled. “Right! You could first borrow the Wish Power Pearl from the Goddess Shen Xi, deal with Qiguang Zi, and then return it.”

The others all looked at Yun Qing expectantly. Yun Qing smiled and asked, “Xi, what do you think?”

Xi let out a long sigh, and Yun Qing’s heart sank.

Xi said: “Yun Qing, I would very much like to pass the Wish Power Pearl to you, but I can’t do it right now. Completing the inheritance requires the power of my complete soul, and most of my divine soul’s power is concentrated in my celestial light. In short, I need my ethereal soul to return to its place first.”

Yun Qing was inevitably disappointed. “I see.”

Jiang Baiyu gently pressed her shoulder. “This isn’t a place to linger. Let’s find somewhere to hide first.”

Fu Xue shook the Six-Path Sealing Bell, summoning a little rabbit. The little rabbit hopped along, leading them to an abandoned grass hut in the forest.

The five sat in the grass hut. Afraid of attracting attention, they dared not light a campfire. Fortunately, the hut had no enclosing walls, so they could barely make out objects by the dappled moonlight.

Fu Xue finally emerged from her excitement about “my senior sister being extraordinary from birth.” She sighed sadly, “Who knows when Qiguang Zi will catch up. Fortunately, that person isn’t very good at divination.”

Cheng Suiyan held a powder compact, scooping out globs of face powder to smear on his large black birthmark. Using face powder for the first time, he wasn’t very skilled, his movements broad and sweeping like he was plastering a wall.

While plastering the wall, he asked the question Yun Qing had been curious about earlier. “If we hide our birthmarks like this and Qiguang Zi sees us again, we should be able to resist his Dream Weaving technique, right? At least we wouldn’t be so passive.”

Yun Qing shook her head. “It’s not that simple.” She then explained Xi’s reasoning.

“Ah?” The plastering motion stopped. Cheng Suiyan disappointedly withdrew his hand and returned the powder compact to Fu Xue. “Then why bother hiding them?”

Jiang Baiyu said, “Would the Goddess Shen Xi know any methods to resist dream entry techniques?”

Xi then said, “Although I only half-understand cultivation matters, I have done some research on the Way of Butterfly Dreams. Your thinking is correct—the Way of Formlessness indeed naturally counters the Way of Butterfly Dreams.

Now that you’ve learned the Tianyan Shape-Shifting Technique, you can supplement it with appropriate mental cultivation methods to create a state where the Tianyan Shape-Shifting Technique constantly operates on your bodies. At this point, your ‘reality’ would be in constant flux.

Like a constantly changing cloud, even if Qiguang Zi saw your reality one moment, you would change the next moment. This way, even face to face, he couldn’t weave dreams for you.”

“What kind of mental cultivation method should we supplement it with?”

“For such a mental method, the most suitable would naturally be the Way of Formlessness’s fundamental mental cultivation method.”

Yun Qing felt the hope wasn’t great. Baiyu cultivated the Way of Longevity—having him practice other ways’ techniques was still manageable, but cross-way mental cultivation was truly unheard of. It would be both a waste of energy and unnecessary, with a high risk of qi deviation.

Sure enough, when she asked Baiyu if he had practiced any Way of Formlessness mental methods, Baiyu shook his head with a completely puzzled expression.

So Yun Qing said, “Besides Way of Formlessness mental methods, are there any other approaches?”

“There are. There’s a very special mental method that not only meets the requirements but can also be practiced across ways without causing cultivation deviation, and it’s easy to learn. It’s the Way of One Mind’s fundamental mental cultivation method—the Way of One Mind Scripture.”

“Way of One Mind, of all things it has to be Way of One Mind.” Yun Qing felt a headache coming on. This feeling of having some hope yet also some despair was really unpleasant. She raised her hand to support her forehead and muttered to herself:

“To learn Way of One Mind, we’d need to find Master, but we’re trying to learn this mental method precisely to find Master. This is like running in circles.”

“But you’ve already learned it.”

“What did you say?!” Yun Qing was stunned, then suddenly understood like lightning had struck her mind. “You mean the ‘Small Twelve Heavens Technique’?”

Xi’s voice contained faint laughter. “That’s right. You’ve been studying the ‘Small Twelve Heavens Technique’ for so long—it’s actually the ‘Way of One Mind Scripture.’

Your master was probably afraid of revealing his identity, so he packaged the ‘Way of One Mind Scripture’ as the ‘Small Twelve Heavens Technique’ to teach you.

This mental method’s brilliance lies in focusing on cultivating the mind. Unless you comprehend the Way of One Mind, others can’t identify that you’ve practiced it.”

“How do you know so clearly? Do you recognize the ‘Way of One Mind Scripture’?”

“Ah, to be honest, Yixin Zi had a premonition that she would be killed by Qiguang Zi, so before her death she used a fish scale to transmit a message to me, telling me methods to counter the Way of Butterfly Dreams, hoping it might help me somewhat.

She probably thought I could eliminate this menace. What a pity—I disappointed her.”

“What else did she say in the fish scale?”

“Let me think. Oh right, she also said——“

“Said what?”

“She said, cultivating immortality again would make one a dog.”

“……”