Chapter 6: The Clear Wind’s Formless Spirit; The Bright Moon Refines the Soul
The visualization method was not about visualizing the form of the clear wind and bright moon, but about visualizing the intention of their spirit.
The clear wind was refreshing and unbound, yet when it brushed against one, it was not fierce; it roused the mind but did not harm the soul. The bright moon hung in the sky, existing eternally, and the essence of the supreme yin nourished all things.
Seokheon’s soul was as if seated above, overlooking the sea. His surroundings were as if he were stepping out the door in the morning. A clear wind gradually blew forth, invigorating his spirit. The clear wind swept past his soul, carrying away the various acquired impurities accumulated in ordinary times. At the same time, it carried away various emotions such as anxiety, unease, excitement, and anger. They came due to affairs and were scattered by the wind. No longer leaving their mark, they vanished into the spirit, and a gradually clear and pure soul emerged.
The bright moon at the zenith slowly moved like a wheel, dissolving internal qi within it. Then, as if sweet rain were falling from the sky, it dropped the bright moon’s essence drop by drop, moistening the soul. Seokheon’s soul absorbed the bright moon’s essence that fell upon it according to the rhythm of the blowing clear wind, nourishing the soul, after which the clear wind carried away the impurities.
Not long after, Seokheon felt that his soul had grown significantly. Only when he had absorbed the refined essence to saturation did he end his visualization and withdraw from the meditative state.
The soul was formless and without substance, while internal qi was formless yet substantive. Because there was a great gap between the two, internal qi had difficulty directly nourishing the soul. Even though blood and qi could nurture the soul, it could only be accomplished through the mysterious relationship between the physical body and the soul. Therefore, through visualization, one had to build a bridge between the soul and internal qi, converting the internal qi into refined essence that the soul could absorb. Of course, this was merely one of the functions of visualization at this stage. Later, when his realm deepened, internal visualization could receive the corresponding heavenly and earthly principles, directly absorbing the essence of heaven and earth and comprehending the laws of heaven and earth.
After waking from his meditative state, Seokheon found that through slight adjustment, seven or eight parts out of ten of the internal qi he had accumulated today had already been consumed. Following the qi circulation route recorded in the Jade Pivot Twelve Principles, Eight Apertures, Seventy-Two Great Earths Qi Circulation Secret Record stored in the Treasure Records, he began to transport his internal qi. Of course, for now, he could only circulate the Small Heavenly Circuit route recorded in the two sections of the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. Seokheon focused his mind, suppressed his internal qi, and drew it from his dantian. He felt that after his soul had grown through this visualization, his control over internal qi had become even smoother.
After several minor cycles, as celestial qi circulated down, his internal qi constantly absorbed the heat radiating from every part of his body and had already doubled in size. Compared to his previous qi circulation methods, the efficiency had increased several times over.
Only after passing through 365 minor cycles did Seokheon stop. A qi circulation with this high number of major cycles was just right. The dispersed heat was just absorbed; if he circulated the qi again, it would probably transform into the body’s fundamental source.
Seokheon roughly estimated that, for this major cycle of celestial qi circulation and the internal qi consumed to nurture his soul, filling the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians would take four months, and the time to open the seventy-two minor meridians according to the Jade Pivot Twelve Principles, Eight Apertures, Seventy-Two Great Earths Qi Circulation Secret Record would be about seven months. Furthermore, since he had no experience of how long it took for the soul to grow to the peak of the Soul Refinement Stage, Seokheon could not predict what intensity a peak Soul Refinement Stage soul possessed.
The current troublesome issue was that it cost approximately two taels of silver each day to replenish the consumed food. One could arrange a good drinking session at a tavern for that. But Seokheon currently required two taels of silver not because his culinary skills were good or because he demanded fine ingredients. One could tell just how much he ate. The neighbors could not hide their surprise that Seokheon’s appetite had more than doubled compared to before.
Calculating by time, to bring his Qi Nourishment Stage to great completion, Seokheon would need about seven hundred taels of silver. Adding the consumption over several months for purchasing medicinal pellets right now, not only would he not have four hundred taels left, but he would be short three hundred taels. One had to understand that ordinary people in Bucheng earned only twenty or thirty taels a year.
However, at this time, Seokheon did not want to go out and find some work to earn money. He was at a stage where he progressed noticeably even by cultivating every day. He found it regrettable that he couldn’t treat one day as two and cultivate.
After much deliberation, Seokheon decided to sell this small courtyard house. Anyway, once his Qi Nourishment was properly completed, he would have to travel the world seeking the Dao of Immortals. He had no intention of selling the small courtyard to anyone other than entrusting it to the Seo Nodosa clan. The small courtyard was worth about two hundred and eighty taels, and since he was not selling in a hurry, the silver in hand would last seven or eight months. If he found a buyer slowly, he could sell it at a good price. After deducting the brokerage fee, the shop tax, and contract tax at the government office, in the end, about two hundred and forty taels of silver would come in.
And after selling the courtyard, he would need to rent a clean house somewhere for about four months, which would also require over ten taels of silver. Ah, somehow it seemed he would still be short by about eighty taels of silver. Well, if he were to rob a wealthy man, not only would it not be difficult with his Daoist techniques, but he wouldn’t leave any clues either. However, because he had originally developed a habit of strictly observing rules and laws, unless driven to a dead end, it would be difficult to resolve himself to do such a thing. He would keep this method as a last resort and use it only if it truly didn’t work out. If he truly reached that point, he wouldn’t feel any psychological burden either.
Thus, Seokheon hung a sign at the brokerage saying he was selling the property, and had the tavern owner invite a friend who worked at the government office, treating him to tea and noodles. That was how he found out. Afterward, when selling the house, submitting the deed at the government office, and paying the contract tax, he wasn’t severely exploited either.
Of course, Seokheon’s most important focus was on cultivation. Every day, he was not the slightest bit negligent regarding the Jade Pivot Twelve Principles, Eight Apertures, Seventy-Two Great Earths Qi Circulation Secret Record and the Clear Wind Bright Moon Spirit-Refining True Method. Over five months, the strength of his soul had rapidly advanced, and he no longer looked utterly exhausted after using techniques once or twice as when he had first arrived. His internal qi had also made great strides. Not only were the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians fully filled, but finally, after several failures, he succeeded in opening one minor meridian and, uncontrollably, opened twelve more in succession.
That day at lunchtime, Seokheon returned to the courtyard after eating. Before he could even sit down, he heard knocking on the courtyard gate. Seokheon thought it was the broker coming with someone to see the courtyard. Because he had to cultivate every day, he and the broker had agreed that the broker would bring people to see the courtyard after lunch. And it had not been more than an hour.
Previously, the brokerage had brought people several times to look at it, but they had not negotiated on the price, and Seokheon was not impatient either. The money in hand could last another two or three months.
When Seokheon opened the courtyard gate, the person outside was unexpectedly not a broker but an acquaintance. He was a handsome young man around twenty years old wearing silk robes.
Before going abroad to seek immortals, Seo Nodosa had separately created the martial art 《Return-to-Truth Art》, which he had learned both internally and externally according to the 《Return-to-Truth Scripture》, and left it within his clan. Meanwhile, the Seo Nodosa clan had previously been a relatively wealthy merchant family that had been deceived in the martial world. Later, following this martial art, they collected several secret methods. Many experts emerged, and they gradually became famous in the martial world. Settling in Haanbu, purchasing land, and operating silk stores and smuggled salt, they could be considered local magnates. However, Seo Nodosa himself was not very skilled in martial arts. The secret manuals he wrote were deficient in practical combat substance, and proper techniques were absent, so the Seo family could only be considered a third-rate family in the martial world.
Ten years ago, Seo Nodosa returned to Haanbu. Though he did not return to his family, he did not cut off relations with them either. The Seo household fawned greatly upon this ancestor. They sent gifts every month and on holidays as if showing filial piety, and within the family, they selected many high-quality children and sent them to their immortal-like ancestor to teach. To be able to learn even a little of the ancestor’s immortal methods was truly a great fortune.
Unfortunately, while these children had good innate aptitude, they seemed unable to gain great enlightenment in the Dao methods; instead, they quickly learned things like group qi nourishment. Seo Nodosa himself had high hopes that another Taoist priest might emerge from his clan, but as this situation continued, he gave up and devoted himself to instruction. Those children were all sent back to the Seo family after becoming clan experts within the training period, and he made it so that the Seo family could no longer send children.
However, in recent years, Mr. Seo had restructured the contents of the 《Return-to-Truth Art》 based on experience fighting and discussing with martial arts experts outside, adding the collected secret methods and introducing them to the Seo family as well.
The young man who visited today was the one with the best innate aptitude among those children at the time. Seocheongi had been sent at age ten and entered the Qi Nourishment Stage after six years. Unfortunately, after entering the Qi Nourishment Stage, he paid no attention whatsoever to visualization cultivation. He had devoted himself solely to internal qi training. Moreover, even though he trained in the new qi circulation methods of the 《Return-to-Truth Art》, he had made no great progress in the Dao methods for two years, so he was sent back home to the Seo family by Mr. Seo.
In the martial world, there was not a single gifted disciple of a major orthodox sect who could enter the Qi Nourishment Stage before age twenty. Therefore, Seocheongi showed dominance in the martial world at the level of an internal martial arts expert at age eighteen. Seocheongi greatly enjoyed this feeling, and afterward, he roamed the martial world and obtained strange encounters. Rather, it was through this that he gained such great fame. Many people praised him as an expert who could rank within the top twenty of the younger generation. In truth, Seocheongi was secretly unconvinced. He thought that his own Seo family could only be considered second-rate at present. “(After the 《New Return-to-Truth Art》) Although we have not yet opened the Governing and Conception vessels that branch off from the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, with abundant internal strength, we are in the top ten anyway. The name of the Four Gentlemen of the Martial World is not unthinkable either.”