Chapter 224 Unity of Nature and Human (1/2)
Xiao Chen slowly calmed down. He leaned against the rattan chair with his eyes closed and slowly adjusted his breathing. He tried his best to sense the movement of the wind in the air, paying attention to the faint rustling of the wind as it crossed his ear.
Like the flowing of a stream from the top of the mountain, he allowed the True Qi inside him to circulate as they pleased. He put the cultivation methods that he learned out of his mind and forgot who he was. He imagined himself as a leaf that floated along with the flow of the water. His imagination was so vivid that he could even see carps swimming in the river.
He imagined himself as the breeze in the mountains, where he could see a camellia growing by the cliff dancing in the wind.
Gradually, he entered an unprecedented mysterious state in which he seemed to have become one with nature—heaven and earth themselves. He no longer existed in this world, and yet he was everywhere and anywhere in this world. He could be a pine tree towering over a cliff; he could also be a butterfly perching on a camellia…
It was as if he was the world itself, and the world was within him. It was as if the twelve Earth Spiritual Meridians were the twelve Spiritual Meridians that he had cultivated.
Could this be the ”being one with heaven and earth, heaven and earth being one with me” state that his Master told him about? He had never experienced such a strange and wonderful sensation even when he truly attained the Nascent Soul Realm thousands of years ago.
He tried his utmost to maintain this state of mind. His world was no longer confined to the Xianyong Sect alone. To unite his Divine Sense with nature, his mind slowly made its return to the East Continent, where the Jade Qing Sect was. He saw Li Muxue playing the zither under a tree and Moxuan Zi perusing a scroll inside a pavilion.
Then he was back at the Teal Jade Sect. After the Skygale Sect ruined the sect, a group of mountain bandits had occupied the space for themselves. He could see the bandits relishing in their meat and wine in the former main hall of the sect. Seeing this nearly shocked him out of this mysterious state.
Next, he went to the imperial palace of Zhou State, where he saw Princess Xianyue releasing a pigeon into the air. Twenty miles away, someone intercepted the pigeon.
He then made his way to the Heartless Palace in the Falling Flowers Valley. When he saw Huangfu Xin'er sitting cross-legged in a secluded area, he was surprised to see that she seemed to have become a different person entirely. Her gaze was cold and stern, her lips were as red as blood, and her nails were long and sharp. She looked like she was using a nefarious cultivation method.
”Who is it?!” Huangfu Xin'er abruptly turned her head, glaring daggers in his direction.
Xiao Chen's heart leaped in fright. Was she able to detect his probing? He hastily exited the place. This encounter nearly expelled him from the mysterious state.
His last stop was the wild mountains tucked away thousands of miles away from Wu Province that no one knew of. It was where the ruins of the Mystic Cyan Sect were located. This time, he kept a tight leash on his emotions. Otherwise, he would instantly be kicked out of the sensation of Unity of Nature and Human.
He made a round around the Mystic Cyan Mountain. The seven peaks of the mountain stood tall in the past, but the bottom of the mountain seemed to have sunk a fair bit, causing the peaks to mesh into one another.
However, he had a nagging feeling that something was off. He could even detect a strange fluctuation of aura in this place. It seemed to have originated from the depths of the buried cliff.
He slowly incorporated the entire mountain with his Divine Sense. He didn't know how long he spent reaching far beneath the mountain, but in the darkness, he noticed a tall, gigantic silhouette of a Devil. The Devil was eight feet tall, with messy hair that cascaded down his shoulders and closed eyes. Countless seals formed out of mystic arts swirled around his body.
He could distinctly hear the Devil's heavy breathing. Similarly, he could sense the terrifying Devil Qi coming from the Devil. He couldn't help feeling a deep fear. Why was such a ghastly devil imprisoned under the Mystic Cyan Mountain?
It was at this moment that the Devil suddenly opened his eyes. His blood-red eyes emanated frighteningly cold glints.
”Have you returned…?”
Xiao Chen was alarmed. The Devil was using the lingua franca of thousands of years ago.
Suddenly, his surroundings began to blur until it shattered entirely. Xiao Chen had broken away from the mysterious sensation of Unity of Nature and Human. His eyelids abruptly flew open. His back was drenched in sweat.