Chapter 21 – Way of reading (1/2)

The first page was just an introduction. There were only a sentence in it and the rest of the page was blank. The sentence attracted every reader’s eyes and no one can miss this line when they flipped open the book.

Normally when people read this line, they would first think thoroughly about the actual meaning behind this sentence. Then with their own understanding, they would continue to read. But Chen Chang Sheng was different, he didn’t continue to flip to the next page. Rather he stood up and walked to a bookshelf and searched for couple of other books about Purification and skimmed through them quickly. After realizing every book’s introduction contained the same opening sentence, he returned to his spot and continued reading. His mind was concentrated upon the white paper and there was no other distraction in his eyes except the book.

The wording of“Purification” was simple, but he read very carefully. Not much later he has already finished the first chapter. This chapter talked about the way to nurture one’s spirit and mind. But he didn’t stop after this chapter to think or try. He continued reading and quickly the following chapters’ materials were all memorized in his head – they mainly talked about the way to nurture one’s spirit, finding the Destined Star, and absorbing the Starlight into one’s body.

He only used an hour to finish reading, and then he closed his book and started to meditate.

After taking ten deep breaths, he opened his eyes and started to flip through the pages again and re read the entire book.

This time he finished reading the book faster. It only took the amount of time to burn a few incenses.

Then he once again closed his eyes and thought about the materials in the book.

After a few breathes, he opened his eyes once again and started reading.

Even after repeating this procedure for a few times, the sunlight from outside of the window was still intense and burning.

He closed the pages of “Purification” one last time, however, this time he didn’t open it again.

He took out his ink and brush, but he didn’t open the book’s pages. He started to record his thoughts that popped up during reading and began to memorize the entire book.

Not for long, many words were written upon the white paper.

When Chen Chang Sheng finally set his brush upon the resting stone, the entire book of “Purification” was carved into his brain.

But the most important thing is, it’s not just memorization, it’s understanding.

This is Chen Chang Sheng’s way of reading.

This way was quite unique. His senior and him used almost ten years of continuous reading to create this precious technique. The old temple in Xi Ning Village may be unnoticeable, but the quantity and quality of the books stored in it was as deep and endless as the ocean. If they want to memorize all of them in such a short time, then they must use some special methods.

To use this method of reading, they don’t need to read the book over and over and over until the cover was hanging off the pages. As a matter of fact, the books stored inside the old temple of Xi Ning Village looked just as new as when it was made. However, the contents inside the books were memorized entirely by the two apprentices.

The most important part of this method would be the last step, note taking. It didn’t matter if he wrote the notes on a paper or inside his head. The meaning to it was to reorganize and accept the entire book. Only after completing this step, the reader could say he has completely transferred the wisdom in the book into his knowledge.

After reading “Purification” and closing its pages, Chen Chang Sheng didn’t stop learning. Rather he continued to do so in his mind and notebook. But what is the purpose of learning? It’s to practice. The reason he read “Purification” was to successfully Purify himself and begin the way of xiuxing.

The first step of the Purification stage was to concentrate one’s mind. The mind is the human’s core of spiritual strength. To explain it clearly, “it’s the thought that counts”. If one’s thought was concentrated and strong enough, then it would turn into a certain power.

Although it may sound easy, in reality it’s not. Even if an ordinary person struggled extremely hard and imagine that they can fly freely in the sky, they are still trapped on the ground. This is because the power of mind depends on the strength of one’s soul, and the soul’s strength depends solely on talent and is unrelated to one’s effort. Even if an ordinary person tried his best, how would his soul’s strength surpass that one of the reincarnation of the Sky Phoenix?

Chen Chang Sheng has prepared to xiuxing for many years. To be precise, it started when he was ten years old and an odd occurrence happened to his body. He kept on waiting for this day to come silently. He knew there were some problems with his veins, and that’s why his master said his was ill. His nine main veins in his body weren’t connected and his soul power couldn’t circulate throughout his body. The result of this was that his spiritual power kept on leaking out. Although this occurrence has been suppressed by his master using medicine and herbs, it was still was a problem. Or why else would the black Sensory Stone in the Heavenly Academy’s entrance test not detect any soul strength inside his body?

If his soul was not strong enough, then how could he solidify his spirit?

If there was no spirit, how would there be emission?

The first step of purification, how should he achieve it?

Chen chang Sheng did not feel disappointed like the people who found out they could not xiu xing, and of course he wouldn’t feel hopeless.

He believed that years ago there must have been people with great wisdom that solved this problem beforehand already because there were so many people like him. In the scrolls of the ways he had read, there were often people who couldn’t xiu xing in the beginning. Then they discovered a genius way and eventually became one of the strongest xiu xingists. One such example was Wang Zhi Ce. However he did not prepare to follow their steps because he never saw the same situation he had with in the books. Even his master said it’s incurable then it’s his destiny. He did not have extra time to fight against the destiny, he also didn’t think he could find a new genius method in such a short amount of time he was given. He liked to follow the trend. He thought that even if he followed the existent method in the world, he would also be able to solidify his spirit and begin xiu xing. He trusted the ancients’ wisdom more than anyone else.