Learning Universe in the Palm

"This Immortal feels you have great natural aptitude for the Dao of Space. Think about it: Inches to the Ends of the Earth isn't something someone at your cultivation stage should be able to master, yet didn't you learn it all the same?" As the head of the Five Ancient Celestials, the Immortal Fairy held Lu Yang's talent in spatial spells in very high esteem. In ancient times, if anyone had earned praise from the Immortal Fairy, it would have surpassed ten thousand lucky encounters, enough to let them ascend to the heavens in a single step. Lu Yang possessed no such awareness whatsoever; he felt the Immortal Fairy had brought him nothing but trials and tribulations. Had this been the ancient era, people would have surely branded him an ungrateful fool who failed to recognize good fortune. "Fine, I'll learn it." Lu Yang figured he had been cultivating for so long anyway, so he might as well treat this as a break to relax his mind. "I didn't expect you to truly master Universe in the Palm anyway. Even if you only learn the principles behind the spell, it will be of immense benefit to casting other spatial spells—whether in learning speed or casting speed, you'll see a tremendous boost!" The Immortal Fairy knew it would be difficult for Lu Yang to master Universe in the Palm, but she simply wanted to teach it. And if she wanted to teach, who could possibly stop her? Lu Yang leapt down from the sword-qi boulder, flipped three times in midair, spread his arms, and landed smoothly. The Immortal Fairy pulled Lu Yang into his spiritual space. With a thought, she swapped her pajamas for the scholar's robe commonly worn by private school teachers, instantly making her look several notches smarter. "Heh-heh, now it feels right." "Before I teach you, this Immortal shall give you a demonstration!" Before Lu Yang could react to what the Immortal Fairy was doing, he felt his four-bedroom, two-living-room spiritual space expand endlessly into a pitch-black void. Most prominent were several massive stars right before him, while farther away glimmered specks of light from exceedingly distant stars. Standing before Lu Yang, the Immortal Fairy extended her small hand and pressed it down hard! Lu Yang looked up and narrowed his eyes. The cosmos was too dark for him to see clearly; he only sensed something looming overhead. "Huh?" Lu Yang noticed the stars overhead had vanished without a trace, as if blocked by something! A colossal hand emerged from the darkness, completely filling his entire field of view—Lu Yang couldn't see anything beyond the palm! The lines on the giant palm were crystal clear, the whorls of its fingerprints resembling celestial orbits, while stars within the palm were like mere grains of sand! Lu Yang had experienced collapsing mountains and the terrifying pressure of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, but compared to this gigantic hand, all of those were utterly beneath mention, completely beyond comparison! Oppression, suffocation, despair... All manner of emotions sprouted in his heart, growing uncontrollably with wild frenzy! "Watch closely. This is Universe in the Palm." As the giant hand pressed down, Lu Yang's vision went black, and his consciousness scattered. When he awoke, the upper half of the Immortal Fairy's body was hovering horizontally above Lu Yang, her big eyes blinking as she watched him intently. "Did that scare you?" "No, I was smacked to death by you." "Oh, true enough! So, did you see the might of Universe in the Palm?" Lu Yang still had lingering fears, deciding that being politer to the Immortal Fairy in the future would be the safest course of action. "Fairy, you can expand my spiritual space?" Lu Yang remembered the Immortal Fairy complaining before that his spiritual space was too small to let her stretch her limbs properly. With hands on her hips, the Immortal Fairy said proudly, "I can expand it temporarily. I couldn't do it before, but lately this Immortal has been sleeping every day and recovered some of my strength." "As the saying goes: a world in a flower, a fleeting life in a tree, a Bodhi in a blade of grass, a Tathagata in a leaf, ultimate bliss in a grain of sand, a pure land in a small quarter, mortal ties in a smile, and tranquility in a single thought. Even the minutest things are still worlds." "Universe in the Palm stems from precisely this concept: within the palm lies a world as well, and an immense, boundless world at that!" Lu Yang gained some insight. He had heard that spatial spells flourished in Buddhism; perhaps it truly originated from this philosophy. "If you want to cultivate Universe in the Palm, the first step is visualization—visualize yourself, regarding yourself as a great world." "At the same time, you must visualize the true great world, letting every bit and piece of the world appear in your mind, constructing a true great world within your thoughts." "Combining the internal and external, inverting space, mustard seeds and Mount Sumeru, infinite size and infinitesimal scale... If you can comprehend the meaning of these words, you will be just about ready to cast Universe in the Palm." The Immortal Fairy explained the principles of Universe in the Palm in detail. When reaching the profound parts, she even meticulously broke them down into several points, interpreting the concept from multiple angles in an earnest attempt to make Lu Yang learn Universe in the Palm right then and there. "Alright, that's about everything. Go out and give it a try." The Immortal Fairy raised her foot and kicked Lu Yang straight out of the spiritual space. With his consciousness returning to reality, Lu Yang steadied his mind and began recalling what the Immortal Fairy had taught. "Combining internal and external means merging the visualized things with reality... Infinitely large is infinitely small; the transformation between large and small is the essence of spatial spells..." "Combining internal and external means merging the visualized things with reality... Infinitely large is infinitely small; the transformation between large and small is the essence of spatial spells..." Lu Yang held out his palm and examined its creases. Could the palm lines really correspond to celestial orbits? He channeled spiritual power into his eyes to temporarily enhance his vision, looking deeper into the creases—only to see epithelial cells. Tissues were composed of cells, remarkably similar to the human body as a whole. Could they be considered another form of living beings? If there were countless cells in his hand, did that not mean he held innumerable living beings in his palm? "Could 'a world in a flower' actually mean this?" Lu Yang frowned in thought, combining what he had learned in his past and present life with what the Immortal Fairy had explained, gradually puzzling out the Buddhist concept—or rather, the fundamental principles of Universe in the Palm. "The Fairy already showed me that heaven and earth are the world, so Universe in the Palm is a world within the palm—the pinnacle of spatial spells, combining offense and defense..." Lu Yang muttered to himself, turning his hand over and over. Enlightenment gradually dawned upon him, like a ray of morning sunlight piercing the mist in his heart, unveiling the legendary divine ability! "So that's how it is..." Lu Yang stood up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and wore a confident smile at the corners of his lips. "I've mastered it." The Immortal Fairy manifested. Thinking Lu Yang had given up, she consoled, "It's fine. Even if you haven't mastered it, you understand the principles now. Once your cultivation reaches a certain level, you'll be able to learn it." "Wait, did you just say you mastered it?" The Immortal Fairy stared at Lu Yang in astonishment. "Universe in the Palm requires immense magical power to sustain. My spiritual power isn't sufficient to maintain it for long, but I have the Invincible Core, with reserves five to ten times that of peers at my level. It's barely enough to cast it for an instant!" Lu Yang closed his eyes. His body became like a furnace as he outlined the contours of a world. Ordinary people could never accomplish this step, but he possessed memories of his previous life and knew what the universe looked like. With the Immortal Fairy's demonstration to guide him as well, bolstered by all these factors, he could cast Universe in the Palm! Lu Yang spread his hand flat, frantically circulating the spiritual power within his body, and gave a low shout: "Universe in the Palm!" The Immortal Fairy watched curiously. Indeed, a space appeared in the center of Lu Yang's palm, with stars revolving within it, resembling a miniature cosmos! "He actually managed to cultivate it... Wait, why does the space in his palm seem so tiny? It's barely one or two li across, and the stars are pitifully small!" "Well? Did I master it or what?" Lu Yang cast a smug glance at the Immortal Fairy. The Immortal Fairy wore a peculiar expression. If what she cast was Universe in the Palm, then what Lu Yang cast was... Village in the Palm?