After hearing Teacher Xue's words, Chen Chuan took a few glances at the bowl of living water. He noticed that even as his gaze swept over it, faint ripples stirred across the surface.
When he withdrew and restrained his field, he found it had little effect. He tried altering the permutations of his field, yet the outcome remained the same.
He could not help pondering a countermeasure.
He remembered that when Teacher Xue had carried this bowl of living water and set it before him just moments ago, not a single ripple had stirred.
Yet Teacher Xue had deliberately instructed him to sense it with his field. It was likely that very action which had stimulated the living water, causing it to develop hostility and vigilance toward him.
In other words, the bowl of water had "remembered" him.
A kind of mental entanglement had likely formed. Eliminating it would not be easy; perhaps as long as he was physically present here, accomplishing this task would remain difficult.
In truth, if it were merely to achieve the result, the simplest method would be to directly use his Second Self to screen off external disturbances. Then this living water would likely fail to detect his existence at all, and he could pass in an instant.
However, he was here to learn how to govern his inner spirit. Doing that would not help train the technique in the slightest, and this was not a life-and-death battle, so there was no need to take such a shortcut.
Thus, he steadily gathered his thoughts. This step was not overly difficult; after all, training in breathing techniques required focusing one's spirit and stilling one's breath, inherently demanding control over one's psyche.
Furthermore, he had an immediate point of reference before him, making it obvious at a glance whether he had done it properly.
Yet after trying, he found it was not very effective. The ripples indeed grew fainter, but they did not disappear because of it.
He was certain that without proper technique, even if he continued trying, he could not achieve better results. Perhaps given a few days he could weaken them a bit more, but relying solely on this approach would never sever the mental entanglement between them.
He pondered further. Teacher Xue had just said he needed to rein in his thoughts, suggesting that merely following this path would suffice, yet he sensed it was likely not that simple.
Teacher Xue spoke in a seemingly casual manner and carried an easygoing air, but traps were buried within his words. If Chen Chuan followed them blindly, he would inevitably fall into a preset trap. Having suffered a loss once, he could not make the same mistake again.
Thinking it through carefully, he concluded that reining in thoughts was only one part; there had to be other aspects to pay attention to.
Teacher Xue had specifically mentioned field techniques earlier—that could not have been without reason.
Altering one's field was also a way of applying mental force. The reason altering the field proved ineffective now was likely that a field was a multi-informational expression. Perhaps only by finding a way to strip away other expressions and focusing purely on the spirit, thereby causing the gathered mental force to undergo a similar transformation, could he achieve this.
Whether that was the case or not, he could give it a try.
In truth, if one had never done this before, accomplishing it right away was difficult. Fortunately, the bowl of living medicine before him served as the most direct reference, allowing him to constantly adjust himself.
Teacher Xue had been observing him from the side, tapping his fingers slowly against his knee. His eyes held a hint of anticipation amid keen interest, as if waiting for something.
With Chen Chuan's steady efforts, after only a few minutes, the ripples in the bowl of living water abruptly vanished. Yet after just a single breath, they began to stir once more.
At this point, he discovered how difficult it was to maintain such a state. Just as Teacher Xue had said, anyone without prior training would find it very hard to govern their own spirit properly.
He could indeed simulate and alter it. If it were a full field, that would be easy to handle, something he could accomplish effortlessly. But if it were purely spirit, it was extremely difficult to grasp.
To succeed, there had to be some specific technique involved—something he could not just figure out out of thin air.
Yet he faintly felt that there might be another way.
Xue Shou smiled faintly. In truth, by reaching this point, Chen Chuan had already barely met the requirement. He had only asked Chen Chuan to make the ripples disappear, without specifying how long it had to be maintained; even a mere instant could be considered acceptable.
Yet it appeared Chen Chuan wished to continue. In that case, he would wait and see just how far this trainee could go.
Chen Chuan pondered. Since he could not restrain it, he might as well not try to restrain it at all. There was no need to maintain a single fixed state.
Taking inspiration from field shifts, he could try continuously altering the mental manifestation, changing it frequently enough so that this bowl of living water could no longer sense his presence beside it—making him a "stranger."
However a stranger changed, it shouldn't trigger a reaction from it.
With that thought, he immediately began trying, gradually adjusting himself throughout the process.
The difficulty with some things in this world lay in not knowing where one was wrong or where to direct one's efforts. Having this object before him was equivalent to having a clear direction, so he naturally ought to make good use of it.
Xue Shou then watched as ripples constantly stirred on the surface of the living water—sometimes stronger, sometimes very faint, and at times disappearing for a stretch of time.
After this cycle repeated many times, just as the one-hour mark was approaching, the water finally went completely still, remaining that way until time was up.
Teacher Xue smiled and looked at Chen Chuan. "Trainee Chen, you met the requirement within an hour. Well done. Especially the fact that you did not cling to conventions and actively sought out a solution—that is very good."
Students like this were his favorite: having already mastered all the requisite capabilities beforehand, possessing everything they ought to possess, and capable of finding a way forward based on a subtle hint rather than blindly hitting a wall. Teaching someone like this was truly satisfying.
He continued, "Trainee Chen, you must have noticed that spirit itself is active and fluid. Governing it is exceedingly difficult. Even if you can restrain the innermost core of yourself, you cannot completely rein in what radiates outward. Pushing it to change, on the other hand, is relatively easier."
Chen Chuan nodded.
Teacher Xue said, "This is hard to avoid, because as long as a person is alive, their spirit possesses this activity. However, if you wish to ascend higher, you must condense your spirit.
"The more condensed the spirit, the more resilient it becomes, and only then can it wield true power—just as scattered trickles of water cannot form a formidable force unless they converge into an ocean. Now, I will teach you the techniques for doing so.
"The first step among them is called 'calming the mind'—which means steadying your own thoughts.
"However, mental techniques are difficult to convey in words, so I will use a method to let you experience it directly.
"No, not through field techniques. Using that approach to convey mental techniques is actually inappropriate; the information is too cluttered and lacks purity, causing unnecessary interference, and at times the spirit may even suffer contamination. Therefore, we can use another method."
He extended a hand and said solemnly, "Trainee Chen, grasp my wrist."
Chen Chuan reached out as instructed. The moment he grasped Teacher Xue's wrist, his body suddenly felt weightless and drifting, as if his entire consciousness had detached from his physical frame. The surroundings instantly fell silent. Everything related to his physical senses seemed to vanish, leaving him immersed in an expanse of void.
Then he heard Teacher Xue say, "Let me demonstrate for you."
In fact, Teacher Xue had not spoken these words aloud, nor had Chen Chuan heard them with his ears; they resonated directly within his mental consciousness.
"To calm, one must first be still. The first step is clearing void and guarding emptiness. Your thoughts are tangled in a thousand strands, leaping erratically like apes; catching them one by one is exceedingly difficult. Yet once they settle into quiet, you can easily bind them one by one. Hence, this concept is also known as 'binding the mind ape.'
"Yet when this step is complete, not all is well and done. Because the mind ape possesses the potential to break free, you must fix your intent upon oneness, visualizing a single object and using it to guard your original thought."
As this voice echoed, he suddenly saw a cluster of radiant light emerge within the void, resembling luminous jade. The instant it appeared, it seemed to draw his entire mind toward it, leaving nothing else behind.
The voice continued, "Once your spirit converges, your heart's intent and intellect, your past memories, your thoughts and temperament—everything will rein in and clasp together into a unified whole, leaving no opening for outside invasion.
"Yet by the same token, if this spirit collapses, a person will likely lose their self. In the best case, they become nothing more than a walking corpse. The offense and defense of the spirit is not in the slightest less perilous than physical combat, and in certain respects, it is even more so.
"Therefore, after maintaining this guard for long, one must temper it repeatedly. Over time, impurities can be quenched away, leaving behind only the pure essence, turning into an exquisite crystalline mass, like luminous jade and colored glaze."
As these words were spoken, Chen Chuan saw that luminous jade grow increasingly clear and transparent, shining brilliantly, as if illuminating everything around it with thorough clarity.
Right then, a jolt ran through him, and he broke away from that state. It felt as though he had plunged straight down from the clouds. His consciousness returned once more to his body, and immediately, thoughts and distractions surged forth together from every corner.
While immersed in stillness moments ago, those thoughts had been like a quiet moon in the night sky, hanging silently aloft; now, it was as if he had abruptly stepped onto a clamorous street, sensations rising and falling without rest or anchor, creating a striking contrast. Only after a while did he return to normal.
Teacher Xue waited until his mind settled before saying with a smile, "That is as far as I will guide you this time. It isn't that I'm unwilling to continue; this kind of guidance also gathers your spirit. Although it is relatively gentle, someone who has never tempered their spirit will find it difficult to endure for long.
"If we went any further, it would inevitably consume your changeless mind. Once your changeless mind is spent, it will not stop there, but will extend further to consume your primordial qi and vital essence. If you still fail to disengage, it will deplete your entire life-mechanism until you perish."
Chen Chuan nodded in understanding. However, with Teacher Xue mentioning this, he gained some clarity regarding why Mashiba Masaru had fallen in defeat and died that day.
His opponent had likely staked everything on an attack purely of the spirit, but failing to destroy the enemy's spirit in doing so would in turn shatter and kill himself—truly an extreme path.
Teacher Xue said, "I have already told you how to perform the method of calming the mind. Once you gain preliminary mastery over this, I will guide you in the next step of the tempering method."
Chapter 473