Chapter 16: Heart Facing The Blue Sea (2)
After listening to his lucid explanation, Miao Yi finally understood. He began to comprehend with his heart, immersing his body and mind into this world. During a tidal change, Miao Yi finally felt the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
Besides the daily meditation and cultivation, Lao Bai also made Miao Yi exercise continuously.
For example, he was ordered to create a trench, intercepting a river’s flow and thereby creating a waterfall on the mountain.
Lao Bai said that the scenery would look better with a waterfall on the mountain.
This was a huge amount of work. After suffering terribly for his efforts, Miao Yi could only think that this was a useless task.
Miao Yi seized the chance to ask, “Lao Bai, don’t you think that doing such strenuous work is just a waste of time? I think I should be using all the time I have to cultivate and gather enough Spiritual Qi as quickly as possible to cultivate the first wave of transcendence energy.”
Lao Bai shook his head and said, “Your cultivation has not yet reached the level where you’re able to ignore the fundamental body. What if one day in the future, you couldn’t use your transcendence energy because of an accident? By then, your neglected body wouldn’t even be able to walk without transcendence energy and even an ordinary woman could kill you. Wouldn’t that be pathetic? At this stage of your cultivation, strengthening the body is equivalent to strengthening the Essence, Qi and Spirit, thus, maintaining a healthy state of these elements can only be beneficial. Even if someone were to meditate every day, if his spirit is weak, he would only get half the results with twice the effort. Would that be preferable to the alternative; getting twice the results with half the effort? Most importantly, with a strong body full of Essence, Qi and Spirit, you would not easily fear an enemy encounter holding a powerful aura. This is very important to a beginner!”
In any case, whatever Lao Bai said seemed to make sense. It was as if whatever Lao Bai wanted Miao Yi to do had a reason behind it and therefore, Miao Yi could only continue in earnest.
A year later, a waterfall appeared on the mountain, a splashing, silver dragon. Carrying a stick, Miao Yi wrenched out the last big rock and placed it in the waters. He then climbed onto the shore from within the torrents, the fierceness of the water currents almost pushing him down. Some way or another, he had finally constructed the waterfall that Lao Bai wanted.
Lao Bai had gone sightseeing again. Thus, he did not see the result of Miao Yi’s work at the time it was fully completed.
During the third day after the waterfall was constructed, a barefooted and half-naked Miao Yi sat cross-legged on a reef beside the sea. The sea breeze blew by as he meditated with his eyes closed. His chest, palms and soles faced the heavens as he gathered the True Fire of Supreme Yang. This was a necessary process for his cultivation of the Fiery Star Technique.
The past year spent in labor was not in vain. Miao Yi appeared a lot more mature, and his body was covered with hard muscles. His skin color had turned slightly tanned from his time under the sun.
According to Lao Bai, Miao Yi was tanned because he wasn’t able to absorb, use, and control the True Fire of Supreme Yang in its entirety.
However, after many months and days, Miao Yi still managed to absorb an abundant amount of True Fire of Supreme Yang within his body.
At this moment, with the Spiritual Qi he had absorbed, there was already an adequate amount of True Fire of Supreme Yang in the meridians of his body that he could utilize.
As long as he was able to fuse the Spiritual Qi, which is the omnipotent energy of the stars, with his cultivation method and thus control this energy, he would be able to create his first wave of transcendence energy, the sole source of his arts. After that, he would no longer need to exert time and effort fusing the Spiritual Qi and his cultivation method in future. The energy of the stars he absorbed could fuse directly with his cultivation methods. Therefore, this step was important.
“What is transcendence energy? What is art? And what is energy? Art comes from the cultivation method you have cultivated and is also the means for control. The energy is the power you control, also known as the omnipotent energy of the stars. To have arts and no energy, you will have the will but no power. To have energy and no arts, you’re no different than a dead man. It doesn’t matter how strong the energy, it will be useless to you. Only when arts and energy are merged into one, then it will become transcendence energy. Those with profound transcendence energy can change the positions of the stars; they’re able to do anything!”
That was how Lao Bai explained to Miao Yi about the true meaning of transcendence energy, and this was also what Miao Yi was working hard for.
As the blazing sun hung high up the sky, a thunder-like boom sounded within Miao Yi’s body. The energy of the stars had finally fused with the True Fire of Supreme Yang, forming a shapeless force which puffed out of Miao Yi’s pores.
Miao Yi suddenly opened his eyes, and a glowing budding white lotus appeared between his brows.
To a cultivator, the area between the brows is called a spiritual point and shows their level of cultivation. It is a reflection of the heart, which is similar to the saying ‘the outward appearance stems from the heart’. For cultivators, the appearance relates to the transcendence energy and the heart represents the cultivation.
Even the people of the world would get their fortune told by looking at the area between the brows. For example, if the area has blackened, it means that the person has bad luck, or if the area glows with brightness, it means that the person has good luck.
Through the excitement, Miao Yi stood up and clenched his fists. The transcendence energy surrounding him gave him a feeling of omnipotence.
He poked the surface of the sea and in the next moment, a crystal-clear water dragon burst out from its depths. It was one zhang in length and as thick as an arm.
Miao Yi held up two fingers in front of him and as his transcendence energy moved alongside his mind’s will, the water dragon immediately flew closer and danced around him.
Keeping his transcendence energy together, Miao Yi clenched his fist and thrust it downwards at the sand. The water dragon immediately transformed into a ball of water, rapidly rushing towards the sand.
Boom!
The mixture of water and sand splattered, and the ball of water left a large hole on the shore.
“Lao Bai, Lao Bai, I succeeded! I can exert the transcendence energy!”
Miao Yi jumped down the reef and dashed away, repeatedly shouting in excitement.
He returned to that simple-looking abode of Immortals where he saw Lao Bai lying on a rocking chair. Miao Yi immediately pulled Lao Bai up.
“What are you doing?” Lao Bai asked as he scrutinized Miao Yi.
“Look!” Miao Yi, who was already able to use the Inner Sight, knew that when he exerted his transcendence energy, something would appear on the center of his brows.
After the glowing image of a budding, white lotus flower appeared, Miao Yi stretched out his hand to point at a nearby torch and shouted, “Fire!”
With a “Boom” sound, the torch was instantly ablaze. This was the best trick he knew relating to his fire techniques.
Miao Yi looked at Lao Bai with anticipation, hoping for praise.
However, who would have thought that Lao Bai would reply with a calm face, “Just lighting a fire excites you to this point? The Great Immortal that once lived here could move mountains and seas by just the wave of his hand. And it’s just a budding, white lotus between your brows. It means that your foundation is not yet stable and you have only just crossed the threshold. You haven’t even reached the first grade of White Lotus.”
Miao Yi smiled and said, “I know.” His face still showed that he was feeling very happy.
Lao Bai shook his head and left the abode of Immortals as he said, “Follow me.”
He led Miao Yi to the waterfall that he constructed and stood below the waterfall. As the water rumbled, they felt the mist brushing their faces.
“What?” Miao Yi asked puzzledly.
Lao Bai pointed at the place where the waterfall made contact and said, “Try exerting your transcendence energy there and see how long you can endure.”
Miao Yi nodded. He wanted to try out the transcendence energy that he had just cultivated.
Without saying a word, he ran barefoot and dived into the rapid waters below the waterfall. He then sat on a huge rock beneath the waterfall and exerted transcendence energy to protect his body, forcefully defending against its continuous, heavy force of impact.
However, within less than four hours, the transcendence energy that Miao Yi condensed could no longer withstand the crushing force. As soon as his transcendence energy was used up, Miao Yi was immediately hit and pushed away by the rumbling and strong torrent.
One should not belittle his time of less than four hours. If it were an ordinary person, they wouldn’t even be able to endure it for that long. Walking into the waterfall would have already been a problem for them, let alone enduring for about four hours.
“This fellow is quite useful. It’s just that the current of the waterfall he dug out was a little too strong…” Lao Bai mumbled, glancing at the waterfall.