owlsbooks Chapter 7 Daoist Guidance and Dharma Altar
Chapter 7 Daoist Guidance and Dharma Altar
Xuanzhen Workshop.
Chen Bai, carrying large and small bags, had just stepped out of the courtyard gate.
"Bang!"
Then I heard the wooden door behind me being tightly closed.
"Is Fairy Yueyi angry?" Chen Bai turned around, a hint of embarrassment on his face, staring at the closed courtyard gate, pondering to himself.
I only borrowed a little something; I shouldn't be so stingy.
Besides, Fairy Yueyi is quite wealthy; these talismans and spirit ink are nothing more than a drop in the ocean to her.
That's right, I must have wronged Fairy Yueyi again!
Chen Bai felt quite ashamed of his previous guesses—he had taken such a big advantage and was still so ungrateful.
They absolutely deserve to be beaten.
After he figured it out, he felt much clearer-headed, and then turned around and left happily.
After Chen Bai left, Fairy Yueyi behind the door was still sulking and fuming.
It's not that she's stingy; asking for some cultivation knowledge wasn't a big deal.
This was something she could do effortlessly. With a series of quotations, metaphors, and insightful observations, she explained the key points of "entering a state of tranquility" in one go.
Even some of the key techniques for achieving "fetal breathing" were revealed to her without reservation after a moment's thought.
During this sermon, Chen Bai sat upright and did not dare to be distracted in the slightest.
I forced myself to memorize all the key points, and after comparing them with the old Taoist's cultivation experience in my mind, I gained a lot! I couldn't wait to meditate and try it out right away.
From this, we can see the fairy's noble character and uprightness!
Then, Chen Bai hesitantly asked to borrow some talisman paper and ink to practice drawing talismans.
Fairy Yueyi was engrossed in preaching at the time and didn't pay much attention, so she casually agreed and told him to go to the next room to get it later.
The art of talismans has always been considered a noble and refined path, so it is not easy to enter into.
Without a teacher, if you try to study on your own, you may never achieve anything in your entire life!
Not to mention that most complete and high-level talismanic inheritances are controlled by immortal families, and very few of them have ended up on the market.
Even if they exist, they are often unsystematic, low-level talisman inheritances that are unreliable and have a pitifully low success rate.
Even after she became a Nascent Soul Immortal and established her own sect, she only chose a miscellaneous skill within the clan—making talisman paper and ink—as her resources and foundation.
She guessed that Chen Bai had only acted on a whim, having obtained a fragmented talisman inheritance by chance in the market, and therefore wanted to try practicing it to see if he had any talent in this area.
After all, youth is restless and unpredictable.
Wanting to try everything, you eventually hit a wall before you learn to face reality.
Who would have thought that Chen Bai would be such a heartless person!
After finishing his sermon, he leisurely walked into the private room and swept away most of the talisman paper and ink that Fairy Yueyi had painstakingly accumulated over this period.
Then, to her astonishment, he said goodbye and prepared to slip away.
Unfortunately, Fairy Yueyi had already agreed to his request, so she couldn't very well refuse. She could only sit alone in the pavilion, sulking.
It was 3:45 PM. Inside a small wooden house in Mingzhenfang.
Chen Bai lowered the curtain and closed his eyes, sitting cross-legged on the bed.
The reward for this "gift-giving" was extremely generous!
The pile of talisman paper, brushes, and ink he used to practice drawing talismans under his bed alone was worth as much as a spirit stone.
In addition, the greatest help to Chen Bai came from Fairy Yueyi's sermons; she truly lived up to her status as a member of the immortal race.
She explained the vague and fragmented cultivation knowledge passed down by the old Taoist priest in plain and simple language, connecting it into a complete system that directly helped him clear away obstacles.
Clear your mind of all distracting thoughts.
"Inhale...exhale...inhale..."
As his breathing gradually calmed down, Chen Bai tried to enter a state of tranquility again, but he no longer felt lost.
The Tao Te Ching says: "All things flourish and then return to stillness. Returning to the root is called stillness, and stillness is called returning to one's destiny."
Discard appearances and get straight to the essence.
After an unknown amount of time, from the outside, the boy's figure sitting cross-legged on the bed appeared motionless, his breath almost stagnant. Only by listening closely could one hear a faint, almost imperceptible breath flowing slowly between his chest, mouth, and nose.
This is already the state of "great samadhi" as described in Buddhism.
Although I have not yet reached the state of embryonic breathing where "ordinary breathing ceases and true breathing arises naturally," there is still a small amount of ordinary breathing that has not been cut off.
But for an ordinary person to reach such a level after only one or two days of "entering stillness" would be enough to make monks and Taoists of similarly low aptitude, who meditate for decades without any progress, feel ashamed to death.
Before heaven and earth were born, in the beginning of chaos.
Unbeknownst to him, Chen Bai fell into a hazy, indistinct state. In his perception, everything was gray and chaotic, as if there were no concepts of time, space, or matter.
He knew that this scene was projected from that point of innate spiritual light.
The term "innate" refers to things that existed before heaven and earth, and are formless yet have substance.
Chen Bai's goal was to capture it.
Seemingly sensing the intrusion, wisps of gray mist around him gradually rolled in, expanding and contracting, as if trying to assimilate him. He remained calm and composed, like the most patient old hunter, quietly waiting for his prey to appear.
And so, it seemed like several dozen breaths had passed, yet also like a hundred years...
Time doesn't really mean much here.
By this time, most of his body had been dissolved by the surrounding gray mist, leaving only his right hand, most of his chest, and his head.
"I'm afraid that when this illusory physical body is completely dissolved, my consciousness in reality will also disappear, and I will become a living corpse."
For some reason, this message came to mind.
Between life and death lies great terror.
A long-standing sense of fear suddenly erupted from the depths of his heart, as if urging him to return quickly.
This fear seemed to materialize, making Chen Bai's situation even worse, as if he were sinking into a quagmire. Even the wisps of gray mist around him became more active, accelerating their climb and erosion of his body.
Chen Bai remained unmoved, maintaining a sliver of clarity in his mind, and continued to wait for the appearance of innate spiritual light.
"What a joke! We've finally made it this far... Die? It's not like we haven't died before."
Chen Bai sneered, immediately suppressing any distracting thoughts in his mind, and silently contemplated: "Even if I die nine times, I will not regret it!"
Just then, a wisp of innate spiritual light suddenly appeared before his eyes, like a dancing firefly, swelling and shrinking, shimmering faintly, and carrying a faint sense of familiarity and intimacy.
It appeared—my own innate spiritual light!
"I don't know why this step is so difficult for me, and it is very different from what Fairy Yueyi described."
Wasn't this thing supposed to be of the same origin as me? How could it have waited until it was almost annihilated along with me before finally appearing?
Chen Bai stared at the ball of light radiating a faint white glow before him, somewhat puzzled.
His physical body was rapidly disintegrating, yet he seemed unhurried. Gazing thoughtfully at the flickering, seemingly anxious, innate spiritual light, he mused, "Or perhaps, this is the real me?"
Reach out, take it, and place it between your eyebrows.
All sorts of past events flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
A feeling of sudden enlightenment welled up from my heart. In a daze, I realized that after living in this superficial body for more than ten years, I could finally see my true face!
The unprecedented clarity made his perception of the world much sharper.
Whether it's the rustling of insects scurrying through the grass dozens of meters away, the murmurs of fledglings in their nests atop the elm trees, or the faint clattering of blood flowing through the body, all these sounds are exceptionally clear and distinct at this moment.
On the bed, Chen Bai suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze sharpening, and he almost couldn't help but let out a long howl.
He grinned and said, "Following the law and following the clouds and grasping the moon, a flash of inspiration is revealed."
With the help of this innate spiritual light, the knowledge and skills extracted from his mind, including the old Taoist's life experience [Initial Explanation of the Mysterious Talisman], seemed to be truly understood and absorbed at this moment, like a tidal wave flowing back, a burst of spiritual light, and many similar insights were generated.
Chen Bai sat there, pondering deeply for a while.
Within the sea of consciousness between his brows, the innate spiritual light seemed to have been nourished and grew slightly larger.
Chen Bai had completely changed, even acquiring a somewhat profound and dignified air.
"In the Dao of Immortality, there are concepts of 'innate talent' and 'Dao wisdom.' This innate spiritual light is related to that 'Dao wisdom.' Therefore, it seems my innate spiritual light is twice that of an ordinary person, and it can continuously grow with the help of the knowledge extracted from the small cauldron..."
Even within the realm of immortals, I would be considered a Dao Seed with a severely unbalanced talent.
Thinking about this, he couldn't help but find it a little funny.
Putting all that aside, the most important thing is that with this innate spiritual light as a "guide," he can finally draw qi into his body and try drawing talismans.
"Gurgle..."
When Chen Bai got up from his bed, he saw the pitch-black sky outside the window and heard the protesting sounds coming from his stomach.
Only then did he realize that several hours had passed. "No wonder there's a saying among immortals: 'Time stands still in the mountains, but a thousand years have passed in the outside world.'"
With some time left before the end of the day, Chen Bai hurried to the market, bought some food to fill his stomach, and focused his main energy on preparing materials for the altar.
There are various forms of altars.
The larger ones stretch for miles, magnificent and grand; the smaller ones are less than a foot in size, small enough to fit a single table.
Considering the limited space in the log cabin.
This time, he plans to build a small altar, named the "Pure Jade Essence Gold Altar".
It is recorded in "Canqi Xuanfu Chujie".
This altar is extremely inexpensive, consisting of a single square platform with no canopy or elaborate banners. It is simple, solitary, and requires only gold and jade as its base, along with incense.
It is round at the top and square at the bottom, with pure jade as the body and plain gold as the edge, and the overall color is cold white and light gold.
Gold and jade are readily available in the Immortal Market, and their price is like dirt; the materials for incense offerings, which Chen Bai had previously asked Wei Bo to purchase, are also readily available.
Therefore, it did not take Chen Bai long to purchase the materials for this altar.
On the contrary, making the altar and offering incense took quite a bit of effort. By the time all the preparations were complete, it was already midnight.
On the wooden table against the wall, there was an altar, only a foot in size.
Next to it were some offerings for inviting the gods, as well as ritual implements for consecrating objects, such as a pheasant tail feather, a stack of bright yellow talisman paper, and a talisman brush that Fairy Yueyi had taken.
Chen Bai looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction, yawning from time to time. Several days without sleep had made him look quite haggard.
Although this small altar is simple and inexpensive, it can only draw upon a limited amount of spiritual power.
However, this time he only drew a low-level ninth-grade spirit talisman, which was enough for his needs.
Everything is ready now, except for the final push.
He was still somewhat uneasy, pondering to himself: "Ordinary people need to set up an altar to invite gods when drawing talismans, and they should pay homage to the celestial stars above and the earth gods below."
Gods are divided into celestial gods, terrestrial deities, and incense-burning spirits; the four celestial phenomena and twenty-eight constellations each have their own deities, belonging to the category of celestial gods. This [Qi-gathering Talisman] is primarily for gathering and storing Qi.
To invoke the power of the celestial constellations, one should consult the Metal element, specifically the Stomach constellation, one of the Seven Mansions of the Western White Tiger, and the deity to be invoked should be the Stomach Pheasant.
Therefore, a pheasant tail feather is placed on the altar as an offering to the gods, in order to increase the success rate of drawing talismans.
The placement of offerings, the ritual of bestowing gifts, taboos... all aspects.
If he didn't need to rest up and concentrate on drawing talismans tomorrow, he probably still wouldn't be able to take a break and would be working on it all night.
After all, this matter concerns their own lives, so it's no exaggeration to take it very seriously.
After the second check was completed, Chen Bai finally felt relieved and fell into a deep sleep on the bed.