Demon Capital Slayer

Chapter 92 The Myriad Phenomena of the Universe (Seeking First Subscription)

Throughout his journey on the sword, he wondered what cultivation would feel like.

Unfortunately, aside from the occasional fragments of classical Chinese texts I've seen in Chinese and history textbooks, I have very limited knowledge of classical Chinese literature.

Most of his stereotypes about spiritual practice come from novels. Such as a feeling of light between the eyebrows, a cool or warm sensation in the body, or a surge of hydrogen gas into the head, with the internal organs being enveloped by a warm current, and so on.

When actually practicing visualization, Yu Jian felt as if his thoughts were fighting each other!
All sorts of thoughts and ideas came rushing in, running around like monkeys with their tails on fire, or like wild horses that had broken free of their reins and were hard to control. It was as if there were a thousand versions of myself in my head having a debate, each with their own ideas and opinions, and no one could completely convince everyone.

but……

With one sword, he stabbed down the naked boy who was shouting "pervert!" with another; with another sword, he stabbed down the red-bottomed monkey that was running around wildly; with another sword, he knocked over the mad horse that was galloping wildly.

The unwavering will forged through countless deaths and resurrections in his dreams prompted him to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

It's a fight, isn't it? Killing one of them doesn't matter.
What we fear least is fighting each other!

Come! war!
Time passed, and all distracting thoughts were swept away.

It's not about killing; distracting thoughts will always exist, but these thoughts that dare to exceed one's control are all pinned to the ground by the sword's spirit, making them unable to move at all.

Finally, the image of that ancient scroll came to mind.

"Birds and Beasts Playing with Paintings"—no, it should now be called "Immortal Arts: All Things in the Universe."

This visualization method, sealed within the dream of Asura, does not involve visualizing animals, divine beasts, or gods and Buddhas.

Rather, it is one person, one mountain, and one world.

Tao follows nature!

This is immortal magic!
The all-encompassing law!

When Yu Jian opened his eyes for the second time, he saw that he was surrounded by countless rough-looking golden parts, like a golden mountain range that stretched as far as the eye could see, occupying everything around him and even extending into the sky, turning into a floating golden river that stretched across the entire sky.

Is there something wrong with this?

Yu Jian began to wander aimlessly among the mountain range of parts, while pondering what kind of thing he had cultivated his visualization technique into.
Pick up a part at random; its shape seems vague, as if you can make out some outline, but upon closer inspection, it's nothing at all.

Tweet!

A familiar cry came from overhead.

As he looked up from his sword, he saw a golden divine eagle land on his shoulder.

It is somewhat different from other coarse products in the area, but it's hard to say exactly why.

This creature looks familiar, but it's impossible to tell what species it is. It has all sorts of features, as if it's a collection of all the concepts of eagles, falcons, and birds of prey.

As for that sense of familiarity...

"Ah, I forgot to feed the birds." Yu Jian slapped his forehead, finally remembering what he had forgotten.

Peregrine Valkyrie, or simply Cherry, is a little bird that Mitsurugi and Yurika rescued from a flock of crows two days ago.

Birds shouldn't starve if they're not fed for a day...

Yu Jian muttered to himself, then realized that this golden eagle was different.

It is exquisite, like a spare part that has been carefully polished and repaired.

and many more!

Yu Jian couldn't help but swallow hard. Could it be that his visualization practice required him to continuously extract parts from the endless mountain range of components around him, polish the sprue, and refine the details, ultimately combining them all to form... to form a world.

I get it, this magic is for the glue enthusiasts.

While laughing and crying at the same time, Yu Jian casually picked up a part and unsurprisingly pulled out a variety of wonderful tools from his pocket. He sat down on the spot and began to do clumsy but skillful repair work.

It's clumsy because no action here requires the use of muscles; it's all done through thought, so it takes time to get used to.

This shows that the practice of visualization takes place in the spiritual world, and it must be inextricably linked to the netherworld.

The reason he was skilled was that, in his previous life, Yujian was not only a third-rate painter, but also a model enthusiast.

She is particularly skilled at hand painting, and her QQ signature is a copy of the prayer of the god of thin painting: "You must dilute the paint, apply it thinly, twice."

"My heart is the light that makes O magic shine, reaching a magical world..." Mitsurugi hummed the theme song of a robot anime he watched as a child and began to organize his thoughts.

He gradually came to his senses.

The Netherworld is a spiritual dimension, and perhaps everyone's method of cultivation is different.

When Mitsurugi listened to Motoko Hideya's explanation of the general principles of training, he developed some very unique understandings.

For practitioners, acquiring images is like obtaining individual parts, while the Dharma body is like assembling these parts together to create a perfect finished product.

A special image that can serve as the prototype of a Dharma image is probably a semi-finished product with a high degree of completion.

The idea that the soul can only hold a limited number of images can also be understood as the limited space in a display case for models at home. Since there is no way to expand, one has to be frugal and not be able to accumulate them indefinitely.

Furthermore, parts between different product lines are naturally not interchangeable, so visualization techniques cannot be practiced simultaneously most of the time because parts of different specifications cannot be directly interchanged. As for immortal techniques, they are probably product lines with extremely high freedom of choice, similar to the 30-minute super-loose mission series or the Dia super-expensive clone series, emphasizing the universality of parts across the entire series.

At this point, the only factors limiting the strength and splendor of the finished product are the size of the display case in the home of the person in question, and the limits of their personal ability and imagination.

Other immortal sword techniques are unknown for now, but the one he has is clearly invented by a squirrel party member, who accepts any imagery without hesitation, much like a hardcore hoarder who always uses an infinite item box mod when playing Monster Hunter.

I initially only saw animals, so the name of the visualization became "Birds and Beasts Playing," which now seems a bit like being teased.

In fact, this picture depicts an entire world.

When Yu Jian realized this, its true name, "Immortal Technique: All Things in the Universe," was finally revealed.

Furthermore, he discovered that none of the scenes in the picture existed independently; for example, the animals in various poses were actually connected by the winding river.

As for what imagery a river that combines the characteristics of various animals belongs to?
Even someone with a limp could figure out the answer.

One can bear the weight of all things within one's power.

This is the dragon of all things in the universe.

There is a folk saying that "a snake is a small dragon, and a large snake is a dragon," so this dragon can also be called the world snake.

This is an image powerful enough to encompass the entire world.

It is difficult to understand what kind of person, what ideas, and what kind of hardships they went through to create such a method, as if they wanted to destroy the entire world and rebuild it.

Strange ideas kept popping up, but Yujian felt like he didn't know where to start.

He felt that he was lacking some kind of key knowledge, like the instruction manual included in the model. Although it might not be necessary for experienced people, newcomers would definitely need the guidance of the instruction manual.

How can this method solve the problem of the soul's limited capacity to bear burdens? And how can it establish the most basic Dharma body when the images one holds are insufficient to constitute a world?
There are many questions, but few answers. Yu Jian sighed helplessly. If completing the visualization requires dealing with the endless number of parts in front of him, it might really take forever to finish. He just didn't know if his lifespan would be long enough to last until then.

The key point is that he discovered something terrifying: no matter how he polished the parts in his hands, they didn't change at all; they remained the same ambiguous shape, and it was impossible to tell what they actually were.

Has Group B switched to ultra-wear-resistant materials?

Even in this situation, Yujian still had the leisure to complain to himself.

Then, he began to think about the problem.

Is the method wrong?

He stopped what he was doing and fell into deep thought.

Indeed, spiritual practice and visualization are not simply a matter of physical strength; one cannot achieve any results by mindlessly working hard.

Although he encountered problems at the very beginning of his cultivation, it was as if a balloon was constantly expanding in his heart. It was an emotion called happiness, and even his troubles were happy troubles.

For the first time, I possessed a top-tier method; for the first time, I discovered that I had a reasonably good talent. With two joyful things happening at the same time, what did encountering a problem matter? It was a million times better than not even having the qualifications to solve a problem!
So, how do we solve this problem...?

Staring at the unchanged parts in his hand, Yujian and the bird perched leisurely on his shoulder stared at each other.

Bird Bird had an expression that said, "I'm just a bird, I don't know anything." which made Yu Jian feel an urge to eat yakitori tonight.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered that he still had some images that had not been solidified.

Confirming an image requires meditation, which involves using the inspiration inward, sensing the marks on one's soul. In Eastern terms, this can also be called "entering stillness" or "entering samadhi."

But when practicing visualization meditation, can one confirm existing images through meditation?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, the surrounding mountain of parts immediately began to collapse, as if some enormous object was rumbling up from the ground.

Yes, I am in the spiritual dimension. What meditation could be more focused on the inner self than this?
Then, Yu Jian stared in disbelief as a giant humanoid statue clad in armor rose from the ground and stood majestically among the mountains.

The statue held its sword high in the sky, its face bearing an exaggerated, almost foolish smile, and its feet rested on the enormous corpse of a dead dragon, but the dragon's eyes were shaped like an X in a comedy comic.

The statue, which was originally clad in pure white armor, is now mostly stained with fiery red dragon blood, as if it is about to fall from a dragon-slaying hero into the next world-destroying demon dragon.

This is the hero who slays the evil dragon, possessing a world-saving sword imbued with the power of steel.

Yu Jian suddenly realized that the essence of this statue was a powerful image that could serve as the prototype for a visualization method.

But this oversized statue, so full of childish gags, looks kind of familiar.

That face...

Isn't that my face? Damn it, what the hell?!
Yu Jian slapped his forehead. This shameful thing must be destroyed! Immediately! Right now! Right now!
Although it was just random thoughts, something began to respond to them.

In an instant, the mountain of parts surged like a river, and this change, comparable to the movement of the earth's crust, was only the beginning.

Yu Jian barely managed to remain still in the center of the world, but then he saw an unimaginably huge shadow descend from the sky. In reality, only a head descended—a dragon's head.

The myriad dragons manifested by the immortal magic descended from the high heavens, and with just a slight tilt of their heads, they swallowed the dragon-slaying hero along with the world-destroying black dragon he was standing on.

Yu Jian stared blankly at the scene before him.

The dragon-slaying hero, possessing the most orthodox steel power, combining the elements of a savior and a world-destroying evil dragon, whose very existence could form the prototype of a contemplation method, was swallowed whole in one gulp...

(End of this chapter)