Deriving the Dao and De

After everything settled, the part of Ding Songyan’s consciousness that had been drawn out and looked down at himself returned to his body, enveloped by the dark, blurred Hundun covering his face. His spirit naturally spread outward, but, pulled by the Hundun within himself, it stopped at five zhang, a clearly small range. Beyond that, he could only rely on his eyes to see, his ears to hear, and his nose to smell. This weakness came from Hundun’s nature. Yet within five zhang, together with the apertures beyond his body, Ding Songyan’s grasp, influence, and alteration of his surroundings, even his ability to turn the illusory into the real, were somewhat close to the state he had once had when he used the Heaven Heart to pry at the qi mechanisms of heaven and earth. It should surpass the vast majority of Dharma Realm grandmasters. With no time to explore anything else, Ding Songyan first examined his current state. His spirit left the Mystic Gate, his intention rested in the dantian, and his qi roamed through his body. Gradually, he gained a series of not entirely clear understandings: “I suppose it counts as Dharma Realm consummation, but, as I thought earlier, this fragment of Hundun’s remains is clearly insufficient. At the shortest, three years; at the longest, five. Then my power will fade, and my realm with it. Before then, I must walk the corresponding martial path and stabilize my realm and power, making them truly belong to me... “The demoness’s portion is certainly sufficient, perhaps even a little more. Though only a little more should not matter much, I still hope eating it gives her some trouble, that she does not come looking for me for three to five years... “My body has been enhanced and remade by Hundun, and the apertures belonging to humans have been successfully condensed. These are real changes. Even if my strength regresses right now, they will still exist, and I will still have the realm of Human Realm consummation... “What is unstable are the foreign apertures, strange qi-circulating channels, inhuman organs, and apertures beyond the body that were forcibly condensed by Hundun’s power. If I do not work out a cultivation method to fix them in place, in three to five years they will gradually disperse... “From this, even if this world has acupoint-striking techniques, they cannot be very strong. After all, from the Dayan Realm onward, martial artists of different schools possess different acupoints and qi channels. Striking the same human acupoint would surely produce different effects... “As expected, just as I wondered before... What if the corresponding apertures are outside the human body? Naturally, one condenses apertures in the void. Being able to roam the spirit around oneself, sense heaven and answer earth, find a place in the void closely connected to oneself, and complete an aperture crafting—that is the dividing line between the Dharma Realm and the Dayan Realm. It really is an essential change... “The apertures I formed in the void are four legs, four wings, and a patch of darkness... “The four legs, combined with my original two, correspond to up, down, and the four directions, the six directions. They are the embodiment of ‘Establishing the Six Directions,’ involving the power of space, that is, yu... “The four wings correspond respectively to spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the four seasons. They involve the power of time, that is, zhou. They are the embodiment of ‘Dividing the Four Seasons’... “That patch of darkness, together with the Hundun on my face, corresponds to ‘returning all things to one.’ The former limits the range of the void outside my body and my spiritual sensing, so I cannot evolve a starry sky covering twenty or thirty zhang like Master... “I still do not know how ‘Deriving the Dao and De’ and ‘Quelling Demons and Dispelling Evil’ will manifest... “I have gained one yellow-sac organ, and two other sets of inhuman organs—one set has two, the other has three... Does this represent the Dao giving birth to one, one giving birth to two, two giving birth to three? “The qi roaming through my meridians is dark and blurred, bearing Hundun’s traits... It seems this world’s martial path also has true qi. Uh, I will name my true qi after I figure out its specific effects... “True qi is stored in the middle dantian, the Crimson Palace. Spirit and intention reside in the upper dantian, the Ancestral Aperture, also known as the Mystic Gate or Mud Ball Palace. The lower dantian is where the root source resides, storing essence and gathering the origin. What is obtained from daily food, breathing, and circulating qi is stored in the lower dantian through cultivation. The root source generates true qi itself, which flows to the Crimson Palace... “For an ordinary martial artist, if true qi is exhausted, they can consume the root source for temporary replenishment. Consuming too much of the root source should damage lifespan, and it is difficult for them to reverse it on their own. They can only rely on external objects or a breakthrough in realm... “I am temporarily different from ordinary martial artists. If I want to replenish true qi quickly after it is exhausted, rather than slowly recovering through meditation, rest, and other methods, what will be consumed is Hundun’s power. Every bit of Hundun’s power consumed will reduce the years my strength can be maintained at Dharma Realm consummation...” At a thought, Ding Songyan made the extra legs and gorgeous wings that had been revealed vanish in an instant. They were hidden within the void. Ding Songyan walked out of the western side room, took the bronze mirror from the main room, and carefully examined his current appearance: His face was dark and blurred, as if covered by a layer of black gauze. The skin on his neck was clearly yellowed, as if waxed to prevent freezing. Apart from those two points, the rest was fairly normal. “I was a little too optimistic before. I thought the external abnormalities brought by eating Hundun’s remains were nothing much, that I could conceal them like Brother Youyang... It seems this cannot be hidden from others... Concealing...” Ding Songyan suddenly envied the demoness’s ‘Heaven-Earth Shifting Divine Art.’ It could bring transformations and conceal external abnormalities. Unless a grandmaster was present in person or someone possessed a special technique, it was difficult to see through. At this thought, Ding Songyan remembered that within his sea of consciousness there was still a wisp of Yan Changqing’s ‘qi.’ With Yan Changqing’s essence-soul annihilated by the yin thunderbolt, this ‘qi’ had become completely ownerless, and it had been derived from the ‘Heaven Heart imprint.’ Ding Songyan quickly settled his intention in the Ancestral Aperture and guarded the Mud Ball Palace with his spirit. For the first time, he examined the sea of consciousness through his own power. This vast, boundless, undulating illusory ocean should originally have shone with golden light, but now it was completely covered by darkness, making it difficult to see even a single ‘wave.’ “Have the thoughts in my sea of consciousness been hidden in Hundun? That means, in the future, unless I encounter a technique that can counter this or am overwhelmed by a superior realm, no one will be able to read my mind or search my soul?” Ding Songyan felt a burst of joy. He could still think normally, unaffected by Hundun, but those thoughts did not leak beyond the darkness at all unless he himself permitted it. At this time, above the dim, dark ‘sea,’ beneath the high-altitude mist enveloping this place, that misty ‘seed’ still existed. Ding Songyan already knew that if he drove the dark power covering the sea of consciousness, he could easily dissolve the remaining wisp of Yan Changqing’s ‘qi,’ return this external thing to Hundun, and never again manifest Heaven Heart characteristics. However, he quickly recalled that Yan Changqing had told Ji Hanyi that Hundun’s special nature could contain the Scripture of Heaven Heart Wisdom. “Contain? Is this a manifestation of ‘Deriving the Dao and De’?” Full of interest, Ding Songyan drew out a thread of dark true qi and let it rise like curling blue smoke, approaching the illusory ‘seed.’ That thread of true qi silently drilled into the misty ‘seed,’ and before Ding Songyan’s eyes appeared a strange scene shaped like a honeycomb but considerably simpler. The ‘honeycomb’ was formed of misty qi, which wove into several strange imprints. There were cloud patterns, thunder patterns, all sorts, like different ‘rooms.’ “Huh...” Ding Songyan tried to merge his own intention, the will of ‘Breaking Falsehood.’ The thread of dark true qi immediately began roaming within several ‘rooms,’ quickly drilled out of the misty ‘seed,’ and arrived at Ding Songyan’s eyes. Ding Songyan’s vision instantly became extraordinarily clear. He had once again gained the power of ‘Breaking Falsehood.’ He finally understood what ‘Deriving the Dao and De’ meant: “Dao is the innate Dao; De is the acquired De. When the two are united, it is deriving heaven and earth, deriving all things, deriving all methods!” Worthy of the remains of the most ancient Heavenly Emperor! Ding Songyan could not help but marvel in his heart. Though he had not read the Scripture of Heaven Heart Wisdom and could not fundamentally derive the corresponding abilities and techniques, as long as Yan Changqing’s ‘qi’ remained, he could rely on the misty ‘seed’ to make his own qi derive corresponding transformations and accomplish the same things, only two or three parts weaker. And this would not consume Yan Changqing’s ‘qi.’ It was only an object for him to copy. Ding Songyan, always possessing a spirit of inquiry, tried again and again with bright eyes. He found that after the dark true qi used the misty ‘seed’ to complete its derivation, it could indeed accomplish things such as ‘Breaking Falsehood,’ protecting the body, leaping, sensing heaven and answering earth, and triggering the yin eye. What it could not do was ‘infusing Heaven Heart into the human heart’ or granting qi to others through the ‘Heaven Heart imprint.’ “So the ‘Heaven Heart imprint’ really does infuse one’s own thoughts and thinking into the target by borrowing Heaven Heart, thereby influencing the other party, without involving reading minds or memories... No wonder each time I think about it, I remain normal, and only when I plan to do it will I be affected. Hm, there is also the thought of not thinking about certain things... It seems that for the ‘Heaven Heart imprint’ to reach its best effect, either the user must stay beside the target and observe the situation at all times, or the user must have a very deep understanding of the target...” As Ding Songyan thought, he discovered there was one more thing he had not tried. He again had a thread of dark true qi seep into the misty ‘seed,’ along with the thought of ‘concealing transformation.’ When it drilled out of the misty ‘seed,’ that thread of true qi had already derived the same color. As it roamed through his whole body, Ding Songyan saw his complexion in the bronze mirror quickly ‘return’ to normal, and his face became clear again. “It really works... “Master Yan is truly a good person. This ‘qi’ is so useful! “My ‘Deriving the Dao and De’ is even more useful!” For a while, Ding Songyan was full of pride and satisfaction, and both his body and mind relaxed considerably. Since transmigrating to this world, he had finally come to feel somewhat that ‘his body belonged to him.’ Changing out of the now rather soiled clothes, Ding Songyan put on the pale moon-colored scholar’s robe he had originally worn. Thump-thump-thump! Someone was pounding on the courtyard gate outside. Because the distance between them was less than five zhang, Xu Chang’an’s figure naturally appeared in Ding Songyan’s mind. Why is he here again? Ding Songyan stepped over, lifted the door bolt, and opened the courtyard gate: “Something the matter?” “It’s... it’s that girl who listens to your storytelling every day, the one beautiful as a celestial fairy. She entrusted me to give you a letter.” Xu Chang’an looked at Ding Songyan as if looking at an immortal. Zheng Zhuxi of the Xiaoming Sect had come to see him, and the girl as beautiful as a celestial fairy outside Kangdang Temple had written to him again! His sister was also a peerless beauty in the human world! Miss Xiaoqing? Ding Songyan hurriedly took the letter and unfolded it to look: “Ding Erlang, my Second Uncle says we must set off at once. I cannot bid you farewell in person, so I have left a letter. Please ask the one who often goes with you to Kangdang Temple to pass it on. I hope we can meet again in the jianghu someday! “Su Qingli.”