Chapter 451 All Things Must Come to an End (1/2)

Step by step, Yan Xu tentatively approached, the Grotto-Heaven shook, and he knew that his next attack would be a successful strike.

This was the essence of who Yan Xu is, that despite his respect for Chen Lian, he would never hesitate in the slightest.

He was the only person in the world who caught Shenyang's flaw unmistakably, that is his ever-growing nostalgia and limitless desire for the mortal realm.

Shen Lian culminated and attained immortality, though he did not regard mortal beings as weak and with contempt, and found the aspiration of seeking relief from endless suffering akin to a hobby, unlike learned Buddhist and Daoist masters who were willing to forsake everything in order to attain nirvana.

This was not who Shen Lian is. He shared a love for life that was actually similar to that of YanXu. The both of them threw themselves into the unknown, braved new challenges and fulfilled their curiosity with high spirits.

It was impossible to detect Shen Lian's love for life through his indifferent demeanor. YanXu knew to take advantage of Shen Lian's deep-seated love towards life, how he regarded mortals as equals, to draw out his demonic obstacles, and trap it in a demonic cocoon.

Shen Lian soon realized the reason for the appearance of his demonic obstacles. He should have abandoned those weaknesses and became a pure celestial, complete without hindrance, with complete freedom. He felt that the void in his soul can even be cured after abandoning what he always considered to be a 'human' part of himself.

But at that time, he would be a different Shenlian, a 'Shenlian' that was truly rid of all emotional attachment.

Only he did not even have the slightest hesitation, he reminisced every person and incident worth remembering - encountered throughout his lifetime and the night where he drank with Bai Yufei on Qing Xia Temple.

'How often does one get to drink with the accompaniment of song and dance; like the morning dew that dissipates, how fast days go by'

Although life could be a bitter thing, he was happy.

In life laid finite joy, amongst it, an infinite joy.

He, Shenlian, lived a life pursuing that infinite joy, being the person he truly wanted to be.

Shen Lian's mind became enlightened towards this. His thoughts have seemingly transcended through endless time and space and caught a glimpse of Mount Lun Tai Fang cun, and Cave Xie Yue San xing.

Above the Yaotai, manifested an old man with white beard and hair, and immediately he understood the old man's identity as the 'Patriarch Bodhi'.

Seeing the grandmaster, his first impression was that the grandmaster will never change, in another word - everlasting.

When Shen Lian stared at the grandmaster above the yaotai, the grandmaster seemed to be staring back, he then glanced at the disciples under him and said, ”This time we will talk about how to conquer your mind.”

All the disciples nodded, composed themselves as they awaited his sermon.

Awed, Shen Lian waited eagerly to hear what the Patriarch would say next.

The Patriarch started by talking about the ”mind”. He said that the mind was the origin of all spiritual power: limitless, capable of surpassing time. Conquering it, one would naturally have boundless spiritual power to deal with the world's disasters.

After the Patriarch finished speaking on this, he began to talk about mantras.

The start of the mantra enlightened Shen Lian once again, it began with a quote 'To stop is to have stability, to have stability is to have found tranquility.'.

This was a classical phrase of Confucianism, but it has been adopted by the Patriarch Bodhi as a mantra. Of course, ultimately, it was not only limited to that well-known classic. With the narration of the mantra, Shen Lian's thought seemed to enter an unknown place. He could not describe it. He felt his thoughts were increasingly drifting away, slowly fading into oblivion. He found himself unable to form concrete thoughts.

All of a sudden, yanked from that state of mind, his mind roiled like water. Bodhi's grandmaster looked at him and said: ”Is it understood? This is how you conquer your mind”

Of course, Shen Lian did not fully comprehend what was said, he did not understand what he meant by ”this is how”, but still he vaguely understood some parts of what has transpired, but his understanding was murky and lacked clarity.