lerbook #143 - The Fountain of the Spiritual World
#143 - The Fountain of the Spiritual World
Chapter 142: The Spring of the Spiritual World
Let's talk about Little Bean. She arrived at the courtyard of the Taoist temple, which was in charge of preparing medicinal herbs. From afar, she saw an old man wearing a robe with five rice ears, standing in the courtyard and fiddling with the herbs.
"Grandpa Zhang," Little Bean called out crisply as she saw the old man.
"Oh, it's Cheng Yu! You haven't been here for a while, little girl!" The white-haired old man had a smile on his face, but the next moment he turned around and shouted into the house, "Quick, put away those Polygonatum, ginseng, and He Shou Wu!"
"Grandpa Zhang!" Little Bean immediately muttered unhappily upon hearing this, "Your behavior makes me feel insulted. Who are you guarding against?"
"I'm not preventing you from eating the medicine, I'm preventing you from being poisoned to death by the medicinal herbs," Elder Zhang said with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face.
"Wasn't it just that I ate one of your Polygonatum last time? Is it necessary to be so stingy?" Little Bean pouted.
Hearing Little Bean's words, the elder's mouth twitched: "You call that eating one? Every time you're not full, you come to the courtyard to freeload, eating Polygonatum as a meal. You've eaten almost all the edible medicinal herbs. It's a miracle you didn't die."
Little Bean snorted upon hearing this, but didn't feel embarrassed. Instead, she said, "Grandpa Zhang, if someone gets a mental illness and always has delusions, how should it be treated?"
"You have a mental illness?" The old man was stunned upon hearing this.
"No, it's a friend of mine," Little Bean said.
The old man relaxed upon hearing this: "So it's just a friend of yours. This matter is simple. Just stabilize the soul, and the symptoms will naturally disappear. I'll prescribe a few packs of medicine for you, and I guarantee it will cure the disease."
Meanwhile, Zhang Chen was practicing calligraphy in the house. Before long, a fragrance of herbs wafted from the courtyard.
"What are you doing?" Zhang Chen followed the scent of the herbs and walked out of the house. He saw Little Bean brewing medicine. At this time, Cheng Yu was covered in ash and holding a cattail leaf fan to fan the fire.
Cheng Yu looked at Zhang Chen, her eyes darting around. She thought to herself, 'If I tell him that he has a mental illness, he will never be willing to drink the medicine. I might as well think of a way to coax him into drinking it.'
Then, Cheng Yu cleared her throat: "Do you know why I have cultivated Hua Jin at such a young age?"
"Why?" Zhang Chen asked with a surprised expression, wondering if there was really some secret method.
"It's because of this medicinal soup! I figured that the competition doesn't know when it will start, so I decided to take out my secret recipe to cultivate you into a great expert," Little Bean said very solemnly, "Let me tell you, this secret recipe is passed down from my ancestors. I wouldn't even tell my master. If it weren't for you stewing meat for me, I would never give you this medicinal soup to drink."
Zhang Chen looked at Little Bean's pink face, which was covered in soot, and couldn't help but feel moved. The look in his eyes was full of warmth: "Little Bean, thank you! I will definitely live up to your expectations. I will win the top spot on the day of the competition."
"Hehe, I'm happy that you have this ambition. Now is our chance. That noble lady lives in the Taoist temple. It is impossible for the Taoist temple to hold a competition. In this way, the time will be delayed, which will buy us a lot of time. Our chances will greatly increase," Cheng Yu said, picking up the medicinal soup, pouring it into a bowl beside her, and then beckoning to Zhang Chen: "Come and drink the medicine quickly."
Zhang Chen looked at the medicinal soup, feeling a little inexplicable, but he didn't think much about it and chose to drink it.
The taste of the medicinal soup was naturally not good, but Zhang Chen was able to drink it.
After the two of them finished drinking the medicinal soup, they stared at each other with wide eyes. Little Bean carefully observed Zhang Chen for a while, and after seeing that Zhang Chen didn't have any reaction, she didn't say anything more and cleaned up the dregs.
An hour later, Zhang Chen looked at Little Bean who was reading:
"Speaking of which, why don't I have any reaction after drinking this medicinal soup? Besides feeling dizzy and wanting to sleep, there are no other abnormalities."
"You've only drunk one bowl, what effect can it have? This medicine subtly changes your aptitude and increases your Qi and blood. Don't think too much about it," Little Bean said vaguely, "You have to drink it for at least half a month to see the effect."
Zhang Chen didn't think much about it upon hearing this. He didn't believe that Little Bean would harm him.
Zhang Chen practiced calligraphy for a while, and suddenly felt sleepy. He fell asleep again in a daze. When he woke up, it was already late at night.
"How strange, why am I so sleepy today?" Zhang Chen opened the window, a look of contemplation in his eyes.
The moonlight filled the sky, flowing down like water, all absorbed by Zhang Chen and transformed into nourishment for Zhang Chen. The crystal nucleus was beating in Zhang Chen's body, seemingly undergoing some kind of subtle change to Zhang Chen.
Time passed quickly, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Life seemed to have calmed down. In the past half month, Zhang Chen had been meditating and practicing Qi, and his martial arts training had been mostly put aside. It was rare that Little Bean didn't say anything when she saw Zhang Chen slacking off in his martial arts practice. Instead, she comforted Zhang Chen to sleep more, which made Zhang Chen feel very strange.
Inside the first heaven of the spiritual world, Zhang Chen stood on the ruins, looking at a damaged rune in front of him, and couldn't help shaking his head: "The runes engraved on the buildings don't seem to have any special use, at most they deepen my understanding of the runes. I don't know if there are any treasures buried under this palace."
Fox Fairy Nannan was meditating. Hearing Zhang Chen's words, Fox Fairy Nannan immediately perked up: "Is there any need to say? This palace looks very grand, but it was suddenly shattered by someone. There must be treasures hidden under this palace."
Zhang Chen pondered upon hearing this: "You said that there are thirty-three heavens in the spiritual world. Are there also lives in the thirty-three heavens of the spiritual world?"
"Of course not! This is the spiritual world, everything is illusory, everything is fake, how can there be life? There are only two things inside, one is the legendary great medicine, and the other is the legendary mysterious object," Fox Fairy Nannan said.
Zhang Chen pondered upon hearing this, looked at the ruins of the palace, and then looked at the overwhelming black sand. After a little thought, he said, "If there is no life, then how did this palace come about?"
Fox Fairy Nannan was silent for a while upon hearing this, and then said after a long time: "There is another possibility, that is, the powerful ancient gods and demons entered the spiritual world and then left behind traces."
This explanation is very reliable!
"You see, the reason why this palace is broken must be because this object was built by a powerful ancient god and demon, which distorted the laws of the spiritual world, so it was rejected and corrected by the spiritual world, and then it was broken. After the ancient god and demon died, this palace lost the blessing of the power of the gods and demons, and was corrected by the power of the spiritual world, so it was abandoned," Fox Fairy Nannan speculated.
“According to your statement, it is quite interesting. Your fox clan truly has a profound foundation. In just sixty years, you've even managed to unearth such secrets,” Zhang Chen said, looking at the fox spirit Nannan.
Speaking of which, a doubt arose in Zhang Chen's heart: “I have a question. Why were these secrets only unearthed sixty years ago? What about the era even further before that sixty years?”
The fox spirit Nannan looked at Zhang Chen with a pair of eyes, as if looking at a bumpkin: “Sixty years ago was the era of mystery. Mysterious power was constantly flowing between heaven and earth. Mortals who obtained mysterious power could gain incredible strength. Sixty years ago, someone unearthed the tomb of an ancient god and demon, and from it, they excavated a acquired cultivation method that could continue the path of martial arts, allowing people to have the opportunity to rival mystery without needing to obtain it.”
“In other words, before sixty years ago, there were no cultivation methods circulating in the world. All the strong who could obtain that level of power had to rely on the level of mystery they obtained. If they obtained twelfth-order mystery, as their understanding and mastery of the twelfth-order mystery increased, their level would naturally increase. However, mystery consumes people. They devour people's vitality and require human lives to be supplied in order to obtain extraordinary power.”
“It wasn't until sixty years ago that someone discovered the secret method of spiritual cultivation that humans gained the power to resist mystery. They could use spiritual power to control or suppress mystery, slowing down the rate at which mystery devoured their lifespan. For example, my fox clan has a ninth-order mystery. Every generation of fox clan members who mastered that mystery did not live past sixty years old. It wasn't until sixty years ago, when the secret method of the spirit was born, that my clan's ancestor stepped into the Yin God realm, shaking off his fate, breaking the shackles, and gaining the ability to fight against mystery,” said the fox spirit Nannan.
Zhang Chen's heart suddenly cleared upon hearing this. He felt that the fox spirit Nannan's explanation made sense. Mystery had always existed in this world, but it was simply unknown to most.
“Like the Yellow Dawn Temple you belong to, I think the mystery unearthed by the Yellow Sky Dao should be a special twelfth-order mystery. It's just that the Celestial Master of the Yellow Sky Dao is extremely mysterious. Since he obtained the mystery sixty years ago, no one in this world has ever seen his trace again, so his details are unknown. But the Yellow Sky Dao actually collects the faith of all beings in the world, which is really strange,” the fox spirit Nannan said with a hint of emotion in her voice.
A hint of curiosity appeared in Zhang Chen's eyes, and he echoed, “It really is a wonderful world! Speaking of which, I still have a question. Why haven't ordinary people heard of any news about mystery? Not even related myths and legends?”
“A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime. Even among mysteries, there will be constant mutual hunting and confrontation. After obtaining benefits, who would blatantly expose their family?” The fox spirit Nannan said unhappily.
Zhang Chen pondered upon hearing this. It was the same as some groups in later generations. The truly wealthy are those who make a fortune in silence. Who would shout to the world that they are rich?
“I wonder if it's possible to bring items from the spiritual world back to the real world.”
“Impossible! The spiritual world is like a reflection in a mirror, it's impossible to enter the material world from the spiritual world. People in ancient times had this idea before, but they all failed.” The fox spirit Nannan refuted Zhang Chen's words.
Zhang Chen pondered upon hearing this and looked down at the ruins under his feet: “I'm going to clean up the ruins. I wonder if I can dig up anything good. Come and help me.”
The fox spirit Nannan looked reluctant upon hearing this: “The ruins are so big, when will we finish cleaning them up? It's better to spend the time on cultivation. When we become strong, we can just overturn the ruins!”
Although the fox spirit Nannan was reluctant, she couldn't resist and could only step forward with a helpless look to help Zhang Chen clean up the debris on the ruins.
“It's a pity that I don't have the ability to transform into flowing water. Otherwise, I could drill into the gaps in these buildings to search for treasures inside.” Zhang Chen suddenly froze here, his eyes looking at the spiritual world in front of him, revealing a thoughtful look.
“What are you daydreaming about? Even if you have the ability to transform into flowing water, this is the spiritual world. Do you know what a spiritual world is? Everything in here is made of spiritual power. Even the palaces and buildings you see, and the black wind, are all illusory, all fake. They are only real relative to the soul. How can there be water in the spiritual world?” The fox spirit Nannan suddenly felt that Zhang Chen in front of her was crazy. How could he think that there was water in the spiritual world? What else could this be if not madness?
However, Zhang Chen ignored the fox spirit Nannan's ridicule, and instead looked at the void in front of him: “What if, I mean what if, there really is water in this spiritual world? And it's a spring?”
“I'll give you two bangs to wake you up. You must be under an illusion.” The fox spirit Nannan said.
Zhang Chen ignored the fox spirit Nannan's ridicule, but instead turned his eyes and looked at the ruins under his feet, because he really sensed that there was a spring gushing thirty meters below the ruins.
“How can there be water in the spiritual world?” Zhang Chen murmured, then looked at the fox spirit: “If there really is water, what does it mean?”
“It means we're both under an illusion! There's only great medicine in this world, there's definitely no water.” The fox spirit Nannan looked at Zhang Chen with certainty.
“Then do I look like I'm under an illusion now?” Zhang Chen asked the fox spirit.
“I think you have delusions.” The fox spirit Nannan rolled her eyes: “Instead of wasting your precious time cleaning up the ruins, you should focus on cultivating. It's really incomprehensible.”
The fox spirit Nannan muttered and grumbled, ignoring Zhang Chen's words, and instead moved sand and soil.
“Don't move that there, come and dig here with me! There's a spring underground here.” Zhang Chen walked to a ruin and shouted at the fox spirit.
While speaking, Zhang Chen had already picked up a pillar from the side as a tool and began to clean up the ruins under his feet. He had already sensed the existence of the spring.
“Didn't you master water control? Why dig the ruins? Just control the spring water to flow out, right?” The fox spirit Nannan looked at Zhang Chen, her voice full of strangeness, as if she was looking at a lunatic.