Chapter 146: Flexibility Lies in the Eyes (Part 2/2) (2/2)

Xue Lei wasn't quite certain of Luo Nan's comprehension near the end.

Luo Nan grunted. He knew that Xue Lei wanted to let him know a few things. These things were probably focus, perseverance, and so on, but the concrete details weren't clear to him.

Xue Lei smiled. ”I didn't understand when I first heard these words. Then the gym master explained them to me. We're all steering boats, traveling the river of time. It is hard for us to avoid being surrounded by perils. In ancient times, the boatmen of rivers had to spend a great deal of energy to avoid being wrecked when encountering dangerous rapids and torrents. They spent a great deal of mental energy exploiting the nature of water. This was essential.

”Training and cultivation may look like it involves only the tempering of one's strength, but in fact, it demands the forging of one's willpower. The mind is what suffers, and regardless of whether it’s normal training or facing a foe in battle, the mind comes before energy, and energy comes before strength. This concerns the importance of consumption and loss. It is logical for them to go down in this descending order.”

Luo Nan looked at Xue Lei. He was finally able to confirm something this time.

In this bicycle ride, didn't his physical energy consumption far exceed his mental energy consumption? The bodily functions of his entire body had reached their limits, but his mind was still very lively. From Xue Lei's perspective, was his mental concentration lacking?

Was Xue Lei criticizing him?

This was the most tactful Xue Lei could be with his honest nature. Then, the weary feeling through Luo Nan's body became a bit prickly. Even his panting breaths became hot.

Xue Lei was concerned that he spoke too far. He subconsciously waved his hand, but he himself was a bit nervous. ”Nanster, actually I….”

”How should the mind be used for it to be focused? What would be sensible?” asked Luo Nan seriously. He wasn't going to let Xue Lei just say nonsense.

Luo Nan wouldn't be mad at his friend for something as little as this; he just really didn't understand. It was reasonable to say that he had learned and practiced with extreme commitment from last night until now. He didn't let his mind wander, nor did he goof off at all.

Xue Lei let out a breath of relief when he saw that Luo Nan was behaving quite well. He rushed to explain, ”Nanster, you really have been diligent, but you’re not quite familiar with the ways within. Your diligence is crude. You need to know that walking, sitting, and lying down are all forms of cultivation. Every single movement must be made diligently and must be made with intent. You're cultivating in the eyes orifice. The eyes are the light of the mind. The eyes must follow the heart. Every single movement of the hands and feet must correspond with your sight...”

Luo Nan looked at his hands and feet. He laughed bitterly, ”But I'm cycling, man.”

”Everything flourishes, then reverts to their roots. The movements of the hands and feet can all be seen from the dantian, two inches below the navel. These are just small tricks. What is truly hard is to look at yourself, look at your person, without losing a strand, without missing a drop. Look from the outside to in. Return to the roots, and return to destiny. Only then can you know what it means for the heart lantern to shine; what it means for strength to be near-unattainable. Only then can you know where to apply your diligence, and only then can you know true pain and suffering….” Xue Lei coughed. “The gym master forbade me from saying these things until we got to this spot.”

The last few words underpinned the whole explanation.

Luo Nan was dazed for a moment. His gaze moved away from Xue Lei's body, and he first looked at his clothes that were nearly drenched clear with sweat. He then raised his head and looked at the pedestrians coming and going on the road.

Most of the pedestrians were students at this place, but they were of all kinds of figures and colors. There were many, and they were jumbled together. Luo Nan's mental clairvoyance gave an approximate calculation of seven to eight hundred people on this road. This skill of his was rare even in an Awakened. A normal person was far inferior to him.

But if he were to go down in detail, look at the movements of their hands and feet, and observe the changing bodies without missing a single wisp…. Focusing on the five or six people coming and going around him was enough to exhaust him both mentally and physically, let alone the entire street.

Of course, there was himself as well…. The requirement was precision and detail. Did he really have to take every flesh, nerve, reaction, and change of his entire body and incorporate them into his cognitive process?

Was this attainable by a human?

Was this the only way for it to count as cultivation?

Luo Nan had a foot down from his bike. He stood there, lost in the stream of people. Within his contemplation, he gained a whole new understanding of what Xiu Shenyu meant when he said, ”Prepare for some pain and suffering.”