Seeking the Tao in the Mortal World

The following days returned to the same state as when they lived together in the small courtyard of the crown prince mansion.

Ming He sat on the green stone by the pool for days and nights without moving at all.

Qin Yi had also been seizing the time to cultivate, but his cultivation was not pure meditation.

The schedule was usually as follows: meditate at night; practice stick technique in the morning to strengthen muscles and bones; practice transformation spell in the afternoon.

This kind of cultivation was actually the real sense of dual cultivation of both movement and stillness, rather than the tainted concept of dual cultivation (consummation)… Although within the dozen meters between the tomb and the pool, there were the yin and yang of humans, the two sides have been in constant contact for several days.

Ming He had been inedia for a long time and did not need to eat or drink.

Qin Yi hadn’t reached this state originally. He not only needed to eat, but also needed to take in a lot of nutrients to provide him with what he needed for physical training. But he had elixirs to replenish the energy his body needed, which was somewhat more effective than eating, so he didn’t need to hunt for food.

It was just that his mouth was too plain.

The so-called cultivation means gradually eliminating all kinds of desires, from the desire for food and drink to lust, power, greed, and even sex. So, cultivating means getting closer to having no desires and no pursuits, right?

He couldn’t help complaining to Liu Su, “So this is no gain without a loss? In order to pursue immortality, I can’t even touch delicious food. I’m even more bored than when I was in the village. No wonder you said I’m suitable for cultivating.”

Liu Su smiled and said, “This is a misunderstanding.”

“Huh? Tell me more specifically.”

“Take the desire for food as an example. If you are inedia for a long time and do not need to eat, you will gradually lose interest in food and this desire will fade away. But it does not mean that you must abstain from eating. That will become an obsession instead. True cultivation is to eat when you should, sleep when you should, don’t deliberately pursue food, and don’t deliberately prohibit yourself. That is the way.”

Liu Su paused and then explained, “And I think you are suitable to cultivate because you have no obsession and enjoy a comfortable life, but you do not pursue it deliberately. You like good food and wine, but you won’t be too greedy. You like beauty, but you won’t lose your sanity over that. When cultivating, you have no distracting thoughts in your mind. You are focused but not stubborn. You are simply born with a tao heart.”

“So I’m quite awesome.” Qin Yi touched his chin and thought for a moment, “Then why do Buddhists emphasize the precepts?”

“At the beginning of cultivation, desires cannot be indulged, so they keep the precepts. At a certain point, one should know what to refrain from and what to let nature take its course. If no, one is just cultivating falsely. Of course, there are still differences in their respective ways. Some people practice joy zen, but they don’t eat meat. I don’t want to go into details.”

“I think you are instigating me, but I have no proof.”

“Not necessarily instigating, but aren’t you feeling more at ease now?”

“Yes.” Qin Yi said with a smile, “Maybe I’m really secular. I still can’t understand that kind of detachment, and I’m a little worried about that state. When you say that, I feel a lot more at ease. I feel like I’m being myself.”

“You still feel like Ming He is not a human being.”

“Yeah…”

“Actually, she may not recognize herself clearly. I wonder if her sect has a Heart Revelation Mirror that Cheng Cheng owns, otherwise it would be interesting for her to look into the mirror.”

Qin Yi didn’t say anything. He just punched out with a shout.

There seemed to be a sound of air exploding with this punch, carrying the power of wind and thunder. At the same time, there was a slight crackling sound of the muscles and bones just like ordinary people pressing their knuckles.

It had just been ten days, and Qin Yi had advanced to the later stage of the Innate Stage. The effect was even better than training in the previous months.

Although he had just broken through to the Innate Stage not long ago, training in this blessed land full of immortal aura would qualitatively shorten the time needed to reach the perfect stage. This cave house could even benefit the Radiant Yang Stage cultivator. Ming He at the Cloud Riding Stage was reluctant to leave too. The aura quality between this place and the mortal world was too far apart.

In the mortal world, it might take more than ten or twenty years to cultivate to the perfect true qi, but here it only took a few days.

It was by bound and leap.

Now Qin Yi had broken through the Muscle Alteration Stage and preparing for true qi transformation.

Among the several stages of his cultivation, body training was the threshold from body training to tendon reshaping. Once he crossed this stage, the Innate Stage true qi would be completely integrated into the muscles and bones from then on. It would be a blend of internal and external.

From now on, it would no longer be called true qi, but qi essence (literal translation: gang qi, also means condensed qi).

This was the pinnacle of mortal martial arts. From now on, there was no Innate Stage, only the Muscle Alteration Stage, the Bone Forging Stage, all the way down, which was the mark of the advancement of mortal martial arts to sword cultivation or martial arts cultivation.

Without the opportunity, ordinary people couldn’t turn true qi into qi essence at all.

Even Qin Yi needed to take advantage of the rich aura here to reshape and temper his muscles and bones. He actually needed some targeted medicinal baths to assist in the cultivating, but where could he find them now? He was better off training hard.

Liu Su just watched Qin Yi sweating profusely and said nothing.

Qin Yi’s martial arts foundation had nothing to do with Liu Su. It all came from the nameless secret manual. Liu Su was just offering some guidance.

Liu Su knew what secret manual it was. It just didn’t want to say it.

Among the martial art cultivation methods that Liu Su knew, none of them was greater than this nameless secret manual. When reaching the final level of this secret manual, it was enough to sanctify one’s physical body. However, this secret manual was only half. Who knows if Qin Yi could get the other part.

In Liu Su’s mentality, she never took the missing part seriously. At worst, Qin Yi could just make up for it later.

“Ha!” Qin Yi shouted. His true qi condensed, and the green shirt was bulging, almost exploding. His true qi was showing signs of turning into qi essence.

Qin Yi breathed a sigh of relief and took off his green shirt.

This green shirt was a gift from Cheng Cheng. It had good spell protection, but the physical protection was average. Qin Yi was really afraid that the shirt would burst, and he would have nothing to wear.

After taking off his clothes, Qin Yi took a look at his figure.

In fact, his figure looked a little thin on the surface, but when he was shirt off, he had compact muscles and very thick biceps. He was not as delicate as he looked on the surface.

Liu Su said casually, “You remind me of a term, ‘animal in clothing’. Isn’t that describing you perfectly?”

“Bah, low culture savage.” Qin Yi didn’t want to bother Liu Su.

He was about to break through, so he didn’t bother arguing.

Just as he was about to continue training, he was suddenly startled. At the entrance of the passage, Ming He stood there a little helplessly with a blush. She accidentally saw him taking off his clothes.

Qin Yi withdrew his fist speechlessly, “Is there anything, tao friend?”

“Um… I heard the explosion of qi essence, so I wondered if tao friend’s true qi is turning essence. I have an elixir that can help your current state.”

Ming He tried to keep calm, but she avoided looking at Qin Yi’s body, exposing her shyness.

Qin Yi stepped forward to take the elixir and looked at her expression with interest, “Thank you.”

“I hope it’s helpful to tao friend.” Ming He fled back to the secret passage, “You can continue training, tao friend.”

“Hey.” Qin Yi shouted into the secret passage, “I’m not as stingy as you, you can see all you want.”

There seemed to be a “dong” coming from the secret passage. Ming He seemed to bump her head.

Qin Yi couldn’t help laughing.

They seemed to be cultivating without interfering with each other, but in fact, an ambiguous feeling was growing between them.

After all those intimate contacts previously, no matter how Ming He convinced herself, she would always feel different when meeting Qin Yi again.

What’s more, although they seemed to have thought it through and were doing their own things, in fact, their words had already pointed out a very important thing, which caused a very subtle change in their relationship. Qin Yi had admitted that he had desires for Ming He.

Living in a cave house with a tao friend who had desires for her was a completely different experience.

On the surface, the nature of their relationship had not changed, but it was totally different from the past.

At least in front of Qin Yi, Ming He was really not that far away.

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