Yang God Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Spirit Entering Mortal Shedding

Compared to the <> , the <> was much more ambiguous.

Every page was filled with deep teachings that were difficult to comprehend. A large portion of the text was about virtue and discipline. It warned that if one wished to be a master, one must not have distracting thoughts or wicked intentions. One must have discipline, be faithful to one's country, not teach martial arts unauthorized or reveal the cultivation methods, and not break the law or commit crimes. There was also a lot of stuff about karmic retribution.

Hong Yi merely skimmed this information because he knew that the true ancient Daoist teachings did not contain such passages. These commandments and virtues had been added by sects to appeal to the imperial power, mixing in scholarly principles.

Hong Yi knew the teachings of scholars  like the back of his hand. What he wanted to see now was the quintessence cultivation methods of ancient cultivators. In his view, these virtues including discipline were all pointless, and since they were different from the original teachings, reading them wouldn't bring many benefits, because, in the end, those were just add-ons.

Those who read more are naturally able to eliminate the parts that were written carelessly. That is why Hong Yi was able to read so fast.

"Huh, the  Pagoda Escaping Method? Incantations? Gestures? Reading scriptures? These techniques can fix the state of mind? And then allow the spirit to perform mortal shedding?"

As Hong Yi was reading rapidly, a long piece of text about practicing cultivation entered his line of sight.

The Buddhist practices recorded in the text were very complicated. It was named the <>.

It's a method where the state of mind is opened up. First, one needs to clean his or her body  through bathing,and then sit down and meditate while chanting incantations and performing runic gestures with one’s hand. After waiting for his or her own heart to calm down, one must then visualize a 7-floor pagoda and walk up step by step, then jump up suddenly at the top floor, thus letting the mind leave the shell.

The incantations above and the runic gestures were both very complicated, with dizziness and lightheadedness arising from just  looking at them. It was evident that they would take a very long time to be practiced.

"These are very complicated incantations and runic gestures. However…."

Even if Hong Yi saw these gestures and incantations, those incantations are still topics on discipline. Just thinking about them caused headaches. It was  simply impossible to read and memorize them for cultivation.

"Eh?" Hong Yi suddenly remembered the grass halls' notes taken down during discussions.

"The main paths of cultivation are actually simple, but the Daoist priest just has to make complicated runic gestures and incantations. In truth, immersing oneself in incantation and runic gestures is an act of becoming tranquil. Scholars, once they sit down, can naturally be as calm as water in an instant. They don't need those things.

After remembering this, Hong Yi had a insight that caused the corners of his mouth to slightly turn upwards.

The side of the cave had a table with paper, ink and a writing brush on the surface of the table.

Hong Yi sat on the stool in front of the table and poured water into the ink, listening to the "huo huo, huo huo, huo huo…" sounds of grinding the ink. His mood gradually calming down.

As he was calming down, Hong Yi spread open the paper and wrote the character meaning "calm" ( "静") three times in succession.

While he was in the middle of writing, his entire demeanor exuded an aura of tranquillity.

Although Hong Yi couldn't completely reach the realm of having his heart as calm as water like some of the master scholars could in an instant, he could use grinding ink and writing to calm his mood.

After fully calming down. Hong Yi closed his eyes and imagined that he was climbing a 7-level pagoda on the top of his head. After reaching the top floor, he suddenly strived and jumped.

"Huh?" The spirit can't seem to leave the shell and perform mortal shedding? Why is it still there?"

After Hong Yi imagined himself jumping, he opened his eyes. He didn't notice any sort of abnormality. He was still himself. He tried raising his hands–he could feel himself as before.

His surroundings didn't experience any sort of change either.

"How come the spirit cannot exit the shell? Could there still be another crucial part? Could it be that…" Hong Yi pacified his heart once more, readied his soul, and tried once again, but it still didn't work.

And so he started contemplating again.

"Treading up the pagoda, leaping outwards…..the critical part should be here….." Hong Yi contemplated the method of practicing.

"I got it….." Hong Yi suddenly understood.  

He closed his eyes, remembering the time when he had followed his mother to climb the Jade Capital's primary pagoda, the "Treasure Moon Pagoda." The "Treasure Moon Pagoda" has a total of thirteen floors. Moving up floor by floor, one can almost overlook the entirety of the Jade Capital. At that time, his mother had held him by the hand, and when they arrived at the top of the building, a heavenly wind had blown by. The people down below had only been  as big as a single fist. The sight  caused a burst of dizziness, and weakness in his knees.

"That was the feeling…"

Hong Yi chanted silently: "a single leap to leave, a single leap to leave….."

Although it was a memory, Hong Yi still trembled when he recalled the environment of that time.  He set his mind to it and leaped upwards! His entire body left the building!

Rumble!

Heaven and earth were no longer heaven and earth!

Just this single intention of leaping, imagining jumping off a cliff, Hong Yi abruptly felt a soothing feeling, like floating to and fro in the wind. The scenery his eyes saw was still the same–books in all directions, the cave in plain sight.

But, there was one difference!

Hong Yi could see his own body!

It should be said that, his entire person was as light as a feather. There was not a single bit of weight on his head, when he saw his own body.

His body was breathing weakly. His two eyes were tightly shut, like he had fallen asleep or fainted.

"My soul has left my body!"

A thought started surfacing inside Hong Yi.

Hong Yi wasn't flustered, as the idea slowly revolved in his head: "Rumor has it people with weak bodies can have their soul leave their body when they're sleeping and dreaming. It shouldn't be a big deal."

After looking around and seeing the scenery was normal, he used his hand to flip through the book only to find out his spirit wasn't strong enough to move the book. It was very obvious that one's state of mind was part of the invisible quality of thought.

He looked again.

There wasn't a shadow under the light, so it appeared as if it didn't exist.

An invisible quality.

"Am I dreaming, or did I just perform mortal shedding?"

Hong Yi once again suspected that he was sleeping and dreaming.

Because when one is in the middle of sleeping and dreaming, sometimes one can see their own body.

However, in the middle of sleeping and dreaming, one isn't conscious, and the soul leaves the body for only a split second, which doesn't give one enough time to realize what's happening. But what's happening right now is actually done by oneself, where one can experience the feeling of one's spirit jumping out of one's body.  

It was  a very obscure feeling that was hard to believe.

Hu hu! Hu hu!

Suddenly, a gust of extremely cold wind from outside the stone room blew in.  

After being hit by wind, Hong Yi felt that he was standing naked in a world of snow and ice, trembling in the cold and ready to die!

At the same time, he seemed to be a drowner that had fallen into the ocean without knowing how to swim and capable of drowning at any time.

Helpless and powerless.

The feeling was very unpleasant and frightening.

"No wonder the scriptures state that flesh bodies are the treasured vessels in the bitter sea, one's state of mind leaving the fleshly body is like leaving the vessel and falling into the ocean, so horrific!"

Now, Hong Yi's mind is focused on one thought: to return to his own body.

The state of the spirit breaking through the physical body isn't an easy level to reach, not to mention it was a surprise that the outside of the shell was so dangerous!

However, he can't move himself, like he was  frozen or like he was exhausted and drowning while swept up in a whirlpool.

His consciousness gradually faded.

"So the danger of the breaking through the mind's shell was this……" Hong Yi felt his soul desire to fly away.

Chapter end