The Years I Spent as a Pearl Spirit

The Years I Spent as a Pearl Spirit Over the course of millions upon millions of years, the Transmigrator Qian Chen silently pondered. The only reason he had not gone mad was that the spirit sense of a magic treasure operated slowly: as the true self's spirit sense of the Dao Dust Pearl, Qian Chen could turn a single thought only once every sixty-year cycle. Merely to grasp that he had become a pearl had taken Qian Chen several thousand years. So simply by reminiscing over his past, Qian Chen whiled away several hundred thousand years. And he had the first half of his utterly impoverished life to thank for it—both parents living, going to school on schedule, an undergraduate degree at a prestigious 211 university, then a graduate degree at a top 985 university, and then he transmigrated just when he was about to go bald from studying. Compared with the plain poverty of his life before transmigrating, Qian Chen's experiences afterward could fairly be called magnificent and turbulent. Unfortunately, he was only a bystander to that magnificence—the Golden Finger in the meteoric advance of the destined protagonist. The spiritual radiance that Qian Chen had become was obtained by the young Taishang Dao Ancestor, who forcibly comprehended supreme Daoist methods from Qian Chen's memories—things like the Daodejing and the Daozang scriptures Qian Chen had leafed through during his graduate years in his previous life. And so the Dao Ancestor went on to kill decisively all along the way, showing off and slapping faces, and attained the Great Dao. All of the above was what Qian Chen heard over the millions of years of his being a pearl spirit, as the heirs of Louguan Dao proclaimed the deeds of their founding patriarch, with a bit of his own imagination and embellishment added in. In truth, during the years of Qian Chen's transmigration accompanying the Taishang Dao Ancestor's attainment of the Dao, owing to some unknown error at the moment of transmigration, his own time was frozen, and he had no consciousness or memory at all. Only when the Taishang Dao Ancestor cut him out could he set his spirit sense in motion and turn a thought. But even that was very slow. A single sixty-year cycle—an enormously long stretch for ordinary folk—was for him the span of a single thought. It was as if time had been sped up countless times over in his eyes: even among the Louguan Dao heirs who took up his main body to comprehend the Dao, only those who comprehended continuously for more than sixty years could earn a single glance from Qian Chen. Even the story of the Taishang Dao Ancestor attaining the Dao with him as his Golden Finger was pieced together only from the Louguan Dao heirs' countless repetitions, added to Qian Chen's later, gradual mastery of the wondrous workings of the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl, which let him hold countless pieces of information within a single thought. Millions of years of tempering, along with the nurturing of the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl, had already enabled Qian Chen to stay calm and unshaken before any shock, and his temperament had been washed clean of impetuousness. So even though the very moment he awoke, someone had laid a vicious restriction upon him, and in the future an enemy awaited to tear open this packaging and take out his main body, Qian Chen could still remain composed. No matter how bad his circumstances, no matter how hard it was to be human, it was still far better than being a pearl spirit that turned a single thought only once every sixty years. So Qian Chen merely basked in the sunlight in the courtyard and laughed for two hours straight; even breathing the air was a joy to him. Yet he indulged in enjoyment for only one morning. By the afternoon he began to rouse himself, for in three days a trial awaited him. "Cultivation, cultivation……" Qian Chen easily gathered in his mind, and within his sea of consciousness the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl gave off a hazy radiance. Miaokong had left him no scripture of cultivation. The Daoist books in the cosmos pouch all recorded quick-and-easy spells; though they could form combat power in the simplest way, they would ruin one's foundation. Qian Chen had held the cosmos pouch for so long, yet he never even looked at what was inside, knowing full well that Miaokong would never have left behind anything that could aid cultivation. They were all treasures for guarding the path, external tools of cultivation, or else spells and martial techniques. "According to the information provided by the Reincarnation Guide, the trial task three days from now is the first gate testing whether a Reincarnator is qualified to enter the Reincarnation Land. The difficulty of the task is decided according to the Reincarnator's strength. I've only just entered the Dao, so the difficulty won't be great…… It's just that this Reincarnation Land of All Heavens is so much like the Lord God's Space of my previous life." "Could it be that while the Taishang Dao Ancestor was using me to comprehend the Great Dao, he comprehended the Gene Lock Dao? And that in order to select the strong from among all the heavens, he created this Reincarnation Land of All Heavens? If that's so, then didn't those two Reincarnators wipe out one of his lineages right under the big shot's nose? Well, it makes no difference to me—Taishang is a big shot now. Considering how long the two of us have been together, and that I'm his most beloved Golden Finger, there ought to be some bond between us. If he ever appears before me, I'll just go up and cling to his leg." "But the people of Louguan Dao seem to have said that after the Taishang Dao Ancestor merged with the Dao, for nearly the last several million years there have been very few holy signs and descending voices." "The current head of the Daoist orthodoxy is the Yuanshi Tianzun, whom the Taishang Dao Ancestor promoted later. That said, this native protagonist has a bit of questionable taste! He just had to assemble the full Three Pure Ones set—and I hear there's a big shot in the West whom he enlightened, who opened up the Buddhist Gate…… This Lord God's Space…… no, it's now the Reincarnation Land of All Heavens—most likely it's something he, or his disciples and descendants, cooked up." Qian Chen let his thoughts wander, yet it did not affect his gradually emptying of his mind. In Louguan Dao, countless disciples had stepped onto the path of the Dao beneath the clear radiance shed by the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl. Over these years, Qian Chen had long since grown thoroughly familiar with the way of entering the Dao. To step into the Mysterious Gate, one must first build the Dao foundation, then sense the primordial qi of heaven and earth, refining the void into the real, and step into the realm of Qi Refining; then, following the methods for cultivating spells, refine magical power and achieve the realm of Spell Comprehension. Foundation Building, Sensing, Qi Refining, Spell Comprehension. These were the four gates at the very beginning of cultivation…… Foundation Building takes several years at the longest, a hundred days at the shortest. Inhaling and exhaling spiritual qi, purifying body and mind, cultivating and maintaining the Dao body—with this, in eighty-one days one can shed the root of turbid evil. The Hundred-Day Foundation is the process of adjusting body and mind, shedding the acquired turbid evil, and regulating body and mind to the state most suited to cultivating the Dharma. According to the different methods of each school, the way of the Hundred-Day Foundation also differs. Among them, Louguan Dao, which arose from the Daoist orthodoxy, is naturally the orthodox lineage of the Mysterious Gate, building a superior-grade foundation; while Buddhism, Confucianism, and even the Red Lotus, White Lotus, Joyful, and Great Luo sects—denounced as heretical cults and deviant creeds—though they have their deviations, the Dao bodies they build are still roughly the same: all shed turbid qi and draw near to spiritual qi, and with a little adjustment they can cultivate other methods besides. But the various sects of shamans, demons, and monsters went in the opposite direction. They either nourished evil roots, grew obsessed and fell into demonic ways, and defiled the Dao body; and having built their foundation in such a manner, they actually hindered the orthodox path of Foundation Building. After many demonic Foundation methods succeeded, they would pollute one's very essence, bringing upon them the loathing and rejection of the orthodox sects. The Foundation method Qian Chen used was Louguan Dao's entry-level authentic teaching, the Innate One Qi Art. Generation after generation of Louguan Dao disciples entered the Dao through it, and Qian Chen had watched for millions of years and long since committed it firmly to memory. This scripture builds the foundation upon the mouthful of innate one qi that the human body carries into the womb; its guiding principle comes from the Daodejing: "Can you embrace the soul and hold to the One, and never let it depart? Can you gather your qi to utmost suppleness, and be like an infant?" It transforms the body as though returning to the womb, so that one's sensing of primordial qi is the purest. At the breakthrough to Sensing, it was as if being reborn from the womb, breathing in the first mouthful of primordial qi. So the primordial qi sensed was the purest, the true qi refined was of the very highest grade, and even the true power contained in the magical power one cultivated was somewhat greater than that of other schools…… The Dao body built in this way had a name among the Daoist orthodoxy: it was called the Innate Dao Body. Alongside the Serene Dao Body, the Chaotic Origin Dao Body, the Pure ** Dao Body, the True Yang Dao Body, the Cinnabar Cauldron Dao Body, the Mystic Feminine Dao Body, the Non-Action Dao Body, the True Martial Dao Body, and the Five Elements Dao Body, it stood as one of the ten finest Foundation methods of the Daoist orthodoxy. Following the method, Qian Chen inhaled and exhaled, and his breathing gradually formed a peculiar rhythm. This breathing rhythm was exceedingly awkward: a single breath had to be drawn in over nine separate pulls, in fits and starts, now continuing, now breaking off, as it was pulled into the lungs. The breath drawn into the lungs thus became cold and crisp, like the freshest air of a winter morning; all the foulness of the comings and goings in this small city was swept clean away, leaving only the purest breath. This breath gradually formed a single thread, and as it circulated, Qian Chen's breathing slowly grew faint, now present, now absent; his chest no longer rose and fell, and his breathing turned into internal breath. The breath through his mouth and nose became almost imperceptible, fine as threads of silk. Qian Chen sat with both feet crossed in the lotus posture, his legs folded like a lotus, his body naturally relaxed into the seated pose of cross-legged meditation. His thirty-two vertebrae stacked upright like a string of prayer beads, standing naturally erect; his shoulders were to be relaxed, yet without deliberately thrusting out his chest; his hands hung naturally upon his knees; his head was neither raised nor lowered, neither tilted nor askew; his chin was drawn in ever so slightly; his eyes were half-closed; and his tongue touched the roof of his mouth. That single thread of breath circulated within his body along the bridge of heaven and earth formed by his tongue resting against the roof of his mouth. Qian Chen gradually grew drowsy, so he casually lay down, his hands and feet curling into the shape of a fetus, circulating his internal breath and letting nature take its course. In his mouth, saliva secreted, sweet as dew, which Qian Chen swallowed again and again to nourish his body. After two hours he slowly withdrew from the internal breath, and Qian Chen felt his whole body light and at ease. The hunger-fire in his belly, starved for two days, had also vanished without a trace. Qian Chen knew this was only a temporary appearance. Building the Innate Dao Body did not mean truly returning to the fetal stage; there was no umbilical cord delivering nourishment. The golden nectar and jade dew he now held was a mouthful of spirit fluid transformed by his body being nourished by the internal breath. It could wash away evil roots, yet it too was transformed from the essence-qi of the human body—one of the body's minor medicines. It came from the essence of the physical body; if one harvested only this medicine without replenishing the body's nourishment, it would seem harmless for a time, but in truth the source was already hollowed out. So Qian Chen now needed to replenish his nourishment…… But during Foundation Building, one must also avoid turbid qi. Therefore, when sects and clans build their foundation, they keep clear of the turbid qi of the mortal world as much as possible, lest their cultivation regress. They mostly hurry off to places of green hills and clear waters, brimming with spiritual qi—or even into grotto-heavens and blessed lands—where all they eat is spirit grain, Polygonatum, and other spirit medicines, and what they drink is the sweet dew of spirit springs. Only after breaking through to Sensing, able to internally refine the turbid qi, so that the Dao foundation would never regress again, would they descend the mountain. Once Qian Chen had begun building the Innate Dao Body with the Innate One Qi Art, his breathing had already turned into internal breath, and he would no longer inhale and exhale turbid qi. But while the breathing could be managed, eating was not so easy. He was now penniless and destitute—where would he find spirit medicines and sweet dew? As for those spirit pills in the cosmos pouch, Miaokong had left them with ill intent; most were fierce, wolf-and-tiger medicines, with not one of the life-nourishing pills Qian Chen needed. Qian Chen had built the Innate foundation with such difficulty—how could he possibly be willing to take these spirit pills that harbored pill poison within? He had not yet succeeded in Qi Refining, and could not yet refine internally. The stubbornness of pill poison was similar in nature to spiritual qi, making it even harder to wash away than turbid qi; the poison hidden within a single pill, once swallowed, would likely take Qian Chen three or five days of hard labor to shed. Rubbing his empty belly, Qian Chen felt somewhat troubled. Now he would have to make some plans for food and water for the days ahead, and even for the duration of the task. Fortunately, this body had already completed Foundation Building. Though it was no superior-grade Dao body, it was still quite pure and clean, so Qian Chen's switch to cultivating the Innate One Qi went as smoothly as water finding its channel; he did not have to start from scratch. After building the foundation for another month, his mastery would be complete. It was also fortunate that this body had not broken through to Sensing—otherwise Qian Chen's change of cultivation would have been a fair bit of trouble. Pushing open the gate of this courtyard—Miaokong must have swept his divine sense around, discovered this abandoned little yard, and simply flung him here. The yard was full of wild grass, and some odds and ends were piled at the gate…… Qian Chen swept aside the odds and ends heaped at the gate and headed straight into the county town. (End of this chapter)