Chapter 123 – Blazing Plains (1/2)
Similar to that night in Spring, he closed his eyes and calmed his heart, separating his thoughts and letting his divine sense leave his sea of consciousness; separating from his body, quietly drifting within the space of the underground cavern. The surroundings faintly appeared within his mind; the stone walls and light from the Luminous Pearls reappeared within his consciousness after undergoing some deviation.
Upon closing your eyes, the skies are dark, upon the skies turning dark, stars will start to appear; only through this, could one find their Fated Star, yet, his purpose this time was not to seek his Fated Star, but meditative introspection. His divine sense didn’t continue rising upwards, but acted akin to snow and slowly drifted downwards, returning to his own body.
Divine sense had neither shape nor form, easily slipping pass clothing and skin, entering the innermost reaches of the body and relating back everything it comes across; this was introspection, or self-observation.
The Meditative Realm did not have a clear standard, as long as a cultivator could train their divine sense and easily enter meditative introspection, they could claim to have entered the Meditative Realm. Those who wanted to continue advancing their abilities would have to pay attention to improving the interaction between their divine sense and meridians, but the most basic requirement was self-observation.
All the methods for introspection that were given special attention to by the major sects would have had a single line recorded alongside: “Observation of the self allows one to observe Heaven and Earth.”
Why? This was because the cultivator’s body was a Heaven and Earth. This was distinct from the real world; the world within the cultivator was microscopic, miraculous, if one were to say a cultivator’s energy source came from the natural world, then the method for increasing one’s strength would be to continuously transform their microscopic world.
Purification, this was the cultivator’s first step towards transforming their body, albeit, a rather crude method. Meditative introspection was self-observation, yet it was also a transformation of the body initiated by the cultivator, a more comprehensive transformation; upon reaching the Meditative Realm, the cultivator no longer relied upon the energy of Star Brilliance, but started practising the usage of True Essence that was converted from Star Brilliance.
Star Brilliance belonged to nature’s macroscopic Heaven and Earth, True Essence belonged to the cultivator’s microscopic Heaven and Earth.
In comparison to regular cultivators, Chen Chang Sheng’s situation was a little different; firstly, he had to search for the Star Brilliance within this microscopic Heaven and Earth, then he had to attempt transforming it into True Essence that belonged to himself. The real danger was at this point; without having completed Purification, could his body endure the explosive transformation of Star Brilliance into True Essence? Would he suffer the same fate as the victim recorded in the Four Classics of Meditation and die from self-explosion?
He didn’t ponder upon this question, and had his divine sense enter his body, beginning the self-observation, the searching.
The microscopic Heaven and Earth was still a Heaven and Earth, upon his meditative introspection, his divine sense transformed into a gust of wind within that inner world. His searching tonight, within his own body, for the Star Brilliance, was similar to the searching he had done previously for his Fated Star; it was a search over a vast Heaven and Earth; this process was a slow one, slow enough for him to forget the passage of time.
A murky vision, constantly fluctuating light sources, all came together to create countless bizarre scenes, the vagueness made this Heaven and Earth feel both familiar and unfamiliar.
There were jutting landscapes, akin to towering mountain ranges; were these the bones? Yet, what were these fragmented parts of the ground, ley lines that faintly exhibited the presence of life? Meridian channels?
The wind travelled steadily forwards within that world, his divine sense continually searched within his body, as he gradually adjusted to this sensation, the scene within his consciousness became increasingly clear. He came across fractured cliffs; granite-hard mountains had become twisted, the ley lines were broken; a scene of devastation, giving the observer a sense of desolation.
This was his own body, and it was his first time being able to see so clearly for himself, its actual state, making him feel mournful. These fractured mountain cliffs and ley lines were probably his own broken meridians? This was the shadow of death that was hidden within his own body?
Yet… the fearsome power that had twisted these mountain ranges into these misshapen forms, from where did it originate?
The wind drifted across tens of thousands of miles of wild plains and nine, all-encompassing mountain ranges, before arriving at a plain of snow.
He didn’t know what this place was, just that it extended for tens of thousands of miles and was unbearably cold. The ground had an extremely thick layer of snow that was pure to the point of being eye-piercing.
He didn’t know what this snow plain was, nor did he understand the significance of what this thickness, this purity represented for cultivators. What he also didn’t know, was that whether be it the legendary Junior Uncle from Li Shan Sword Sect or any other peerless expert, if they were to know of him possessing this perfect snow plain, they would do all within their means to have him inherit their legacy.
Finally, he saw a lake.
This was a lake that was suspended within Heaven and Earth, blue and clear, under his divine sense, he could judge its size to be several hundreds of miles in diameter. To be more accurate, this was a sphere of water, that was suspended within Heaven and Earth. The water was free of any impurities; no growths, no earth and no sediment, only crystal clear water was present, allowing light to freely pass through unhindered.
Up to this point, his divine sense had already traversed this microscopic world once; according to the definition of cultivation, he had already entered the Meditative Realm, if this was to be made known, it would definitely shock the world, as it meant he possessed the purest, most tranquil divine sense in the world, one that could surpass the boundary between realms.
The problem was, it had no meaning.
No matter how vast or strong the divine sense was, without True Essence, you would still be nothing more than a normal person, the most it could do was to help extend the reach of what he could sense.
True Essence came from Star Brilliance.
From Spring till Winter, he had guided Starlight for Purification, the Purification wasn’t completed, so where had the accumulated Star Brilliance gone to?
Chen Chang Sheng was getting increasingly nervous.
Contact between his divine sense and Star Brilliance would immediately result in the Star Brilliance turning into True Essence. His body had yet to complete its Purification, but had been toughened through long years of medical decoctions by his Master and Senior; could it withstand the horrifyingly explosive energy that would result?
His divine sense once again traversed the microscopic Heaven and Earth, travelling tens of thousands of miles in a moment’s time.
In the end, he gazed at the plain of snow… whiteness abounded; this was clean; this was a beautiful sight.
His divine sense floated higher and he could clearly see that this snow plain was slowly melting away, but due to the constant falling of snow, the snow plain didn’t diminish in size and was instead constantly growing, thickening; yet, under the light, you could make out places where cracks had formed.
The cracks were small in number, but were dispersed across the entire snow plain, separating the plain into tens of fragments.
Was it this place?
It was this place.
He silently looked at the plain of snow in joy.
The snow wasn’t really snow, but was actually Star Brilliance that had crystallised.
He could cultivate.