Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 107 Observing Heaven and Earth, Witnessing the Final Test

The perspective shifts to the north. As Xuan Chong leaves Donghua County and travels north, the types of vegetation outside the window gradually change, and the feeling of heat and cold also changes as he moves further north.

In the past, Xuan Chong didn't feel much for such scenery. In his previous life, he was so captivated by the rushing past the train window with the passing of vegetation that he would fall asleep while watching it.

After arriving in this world, I'm so busy dealing with increasingly complex interpersonal relationships that I don't even have time to look up at the sky.

Now that I finally have some free time, I can clear my mind and use the system to stop all those complicated thoughts and processes with a single click. Then I can look up at the surrounding world and nature.

One day, two days, three days...

Every day at the same time, Xuan Chong would look up at the sky, and he could remember the exact moment of the previous day, with the stars hanging high in the dome like nails. Each day provided Xuan Chong with a sense of his current location on Earth.

Furthermore, Xuan Chong reminisces about yesterday's starry sky every day, just like when he was a child recalling yesterday's lunch, the day before yesterday's lunch, and the day before that's lunch, comparing the tastes.

Of course, when gazing at the stars, one must also think about something. Simply looking at the stars is like counting goats. However, Wu Fei had slept enough every day, his mind was clear, and he had plenty of energy. So he began to calculate the distance he had moved on the earth.

In this moment of leisure, Wu Fei began to ponder how he, a speck of dust, could drift slowly northward on such a vast planet. Following his established understanding of planets, a curved grid map stretching from the Southern Frontier to Yaodu appeared in his mind.

This is the effect of the Body Fixation Technique. During daily training, the system systematically and data-driven annotations are applied to every muscle, bone, every nerve response, and even visual and auditory resolution. — While Wu Fei may be seen as practicing "unorthodox methods" by cultivators in this realm, in reality, a series of precisions within his body are constantly improving.

…the sparrow flew north…

On the other side, Gong Qian stared at Wu Fei with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty. Back in the Southern Frontier, a cloud of interwoven red and black had hung above Wu Fei's head, but after entering the Great Yao realm, that cloud had vanished. Now it was almost nonexistent. He had become a commoner.

The imposing presence that Wu Fei once possessed vanished from his brow; now, stripped of his noble bearing, he exuded a pure and unassuming aura.

Gong Qian had never seen anyone like Wu Fei, who, after stepping down from a high position, concealed his aura so completely that it seemed as if gains and losses were as insignificant as clouds and mud.

Regarding the auspicious clouds overhead, cultivators regard them as a manifestation of "fortune," but in reality, they are an unusual phenomenon resulting from cultivators using a certain person as the "core of humanity" and the people's beliefs as fuel to perform divination on the interaction between the human world and the mountains and rivers.

Finally, Gong Qian couldn't help but probe, "General, are you used to the climate and water here in the north?"

Wu Fei paused slightly: "Imperial Envoy, here I am not a general, but an ordinary subject of His Majesty; as for the water and soil..."

Wu Fei considered the intensity of the fluctuations in his body's balance after the dietary changes and gave a cautious answer: "I'm getting used to it so far."

Wu Fei currently acknowledges that he experiences abnormal fluctuations in his physical condition, but believes he can still control them.

…Nanny dividing line…

That night, Xuan Chong was stargazing again. In his mind, the positions of the stars and the regional climate information he had studied countless times were now connected. All the "information blocks" were linked together, forming an "information database." Throughout the entire Da Yao territory, for 396 days a year, the clouds flowed from west to east daily on the land of Da Yao. When they encountered mountains, they were separated, either flowing south or north.

Thus, under Xuan Chong's vision, a model of heaven and earth under the vast sky emerged.

And in this model, I am now an ant. But not an ordinary ant, but an ant with a broad vision, witnessing the grand "breathing" of heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, from sunrise to sunset, from morning dew to evening dust.

However, Xuan Chong gradually discovered that the magnitude and brightness of the starlight in this world are influenced by the elements of the earth. That is, the consciousness of the human realm on the ground, as a significant physical quantity, can interfere with all physical phenomena, including starlight.

After realizing this, Xuan Chong felt that the world was being disturbed by "noise".

Unbeknownst to them, the environment around Xuan Chong began to distort, and the evil moons hanging high in the sky took notice of this reckless man who dared to "open his mind and look up to observe".

System: "Would you like to spend 0.3 credits to eliminate noise interference?"

Xuan Chong was slightly taken aback and asked, "What are the effects of this exchange?"

The system states: "It will create satellite reference points outside the planet, helping you to more accurately determine the scale of the universe."

Xuan Chong: "Oh, the immobilization technique requires a satellite."

The system states: "From the 30s onward, when activities occur in outer orbits, satellites are needed to digitize and label the outer orbital space."

Xuan Chong glanced at the diagram and got a general understanding. In Earth's outer orbit, the space is vast. Because the area is so empty, after a human walks a meter or two, the surrounding celestial bodies remain unchanged, giving the impression of stillness.

However, after the 30th century, with the digitization of the vast near-Earth orbit space using artificial celestial bodies, humans now know their own scale of advance and retreat, as well as their direction of travel, even on a vast and empty spatial scale.

Xuan Chong: "Why didn't you let me exchange it before?"

System: "Previously, you weren't looking up at the sky, so your perception was based on the mountains and rivers on the ground. Now, you're observing the sky for more than eight hours a day, and some noise interference from the sky is distorting the accuracy of your perception."

Xuan Chong: "Then if I don't look at the sky, won't everything be fine? (The starlight in the sky is too abstract and has a psychedelic quality.)"

System: "Yes."

Xuan Chong paused for a moment, then said, "Exchange." — During such a long and boring journey, it was impossible not to look at the sky. Xuan Chong checked his credits; he currently had 5.86 credits, so it wouldn't hurt to exchange them.

As the exchange began, the system prompted Xuan Chong to focus his attention on his body.

With a deafening roar, a massive bolt of lightning poured into his previously dulled senses.

These acupoints include sight, hearing, and every sensation on the skin, such as hot and cold, and touch.

Taking hearing as an example, when the system began calibrating hearing perception, Xuan Chong's ears immediately buzzed, which was a pleasant sensation. It felt like his previously dull and insensitive ear canal had been tickled, and then large chunks of earwax were removed from the most sensitive part of his hearing. The feeling of "a slight movement causing a rustling sound in the ear" was suddenly cleared away.

The thunder that could normally shock a normal person's mind is like this "ear pick," instantly "washing away" the thing that "produced noise" in one's perception.

Then comes the visual aspect; it's as if it's been restored to factory settings, with a significantly improved sense of color, distance, size, and brightness.

As for the other senses in the body, this thunder was also adjusting, and various "uncomfortable" sensations in the body were being brought to the surface through the acupoints.

…System: The child is too naughty and senses dirt; they need to be washed…

In space, millions of standard reference points flashed out and then began to split exponentially, spreading throughout space.

These reference points, during the expansion of the orbit outside the Xiren star, made no attempt to conceal the presence of the Evil Moon, and even emphasized and densely marked the distortion of the space field caused by the Evil Moon.

The two evil moons sensed this existence and attempted to infiltrate it, but these reference points were completely unaffected. Instead, they acted like black holes, unilaterally acquiring all spatial matter information, including that of the evil moons.

On the ground, the Evil Moons originally admired Xuan Chong's "daring to look directly at the world" and cast out beams of power that could distort the environment. Now, all those tentacles have withdrawn.

…System: How do you meet Cthulhu's gaze when he's staring at you…

Outside the post station, a spiral of clouds gradually formed. At the center of the spiral was Wu Fei.

Gongshu Wang, who had accompanied him, watched this scene and murmured, "Sudden enlightenment upon entering the Dao?"

This way of cultivating the Dao involves using the transformative properties of Yin and Yang within the universe to perform divination. Based on the principle of "reducing excess and supplementing deficiency," one aligns the imbalances within their own body with those of the universe. This is what it means to "enter the Dao."

Once the divination link is completed, the transformation of the cultivator's body is equivalent to the external natural phenomenon of the switch knob in the "electric control room" connecting to the "large mechanical equipment".

As for how that tiny knob starts the massive machine, it's through the complex wiring between the knob and the machine, the so-called "electronic control level," while the cultivator's ability to manipulate the massive external natural phenomena is what's commonly known as cultivation.

The cultivation world of the Great Dao is divided into two paths based on the differences in the cultivation process: "Orthodox Method" and "Unorthodox Method".

The "orthodox method" uses the essence, energy, and spirit within one's own body as a measuring stick to gradually achieve harmony with the changes of heaven and earth, and to live in harmony with the sun and moon. Unorthodox methods also aim to establish a "measuring stick," but this stick for understanding and measuring the world is constructed through external objects. For example, the various weights in Wu Fei's laboratory are part of this enormous measuring stick.

The orthodox path is like digging a canal and drawing water at the same time (gradually accumulating cultivation power), while the unorthodox path is like digging all the canals and then drawing water (guiding the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to infuse the body).

In Gongsun Wang's eyes, Wu Fei had spent years in unorthodox practices, indulging in "strange skills and frivolous tricks." He had absolutely no affinity for the Dao.

This is a great opportunity that all those who practice unorthodox methods hope for, but throughout history, very few have been able to obtain such an "opportunity".

Unorthodox cultivators, inherently lacking in aptitude, are unable to establish a sensory connection with the world on their own. They create a mirror through an "external system" to measure themselves, and adjust their internal "moral guidance system" using this mirror.

Once the final step of this system is completed, and the internal Daoist intent can successfully connect with and control external natural phenomena (equivalent to pressing a button to start a ribbon-cutting ceremony), that is commonly known as "sudden enlightenment."

Since ancient times, very few people have entered the Dao through unorthodox methods because unorthodox methods are too easy to become obsessed with the power of "techniques," such as studying thunder and fire bombs, wind-controlling machines, etc., and gradually go further and further astray, neglecting the calibration of their own Dao foundation.

……

The vortex of spiritual energy lasted for three hours, but as soon as Xuan Chong opened his eyes, it all suddenly disappeared, as if the space had instantly absorbed all the spiritual energy like toilet paper.

But looking up at the sky, everything changes immediately. Dense clusters of markers appear in the sky. These markers, like wind field symbols on a weather map, reveal the unevenness of the entire space.

The two crescent moons were originally high in the sky and invisible to the naked eye; but now Xuan Chong saw through the celestial markers that there were two concave areas in the sky above the entire region, and from these two concave areas, several invisible vortex bands hung down.

Then Xuan Chong looked northeast, where what appeared to the naked eye as ordinary mountains now seemed to him as a massive bulge of energy in the sky above. Based on local customs and traditions, he knew that this was the headquarters of the Shangling Sect. Therefore, ordinary people couldn't see it, but through the system's celestial observation system, he could see the object protruding in space.

Of course, this sect is not good. Xuan Chong could clearly see that the protrusion of this sect was being held back by the vortex-like spikes extending down from the evil moon in the sky, and the land beneath the sect seemed to be constantly being pulled and fractured. According to the trend, it was about to break away from the earth's veins.

At this moment, Xuan Chong could see everything that was twisting in space clearly. If he were still in Donghua County, he could even see the connection between the five great lakes.

Just like the "cone-shaped depression" inside a black hole, the depressions at the bottom of each lake are all connected.

Xuan Chong was even able to sense when Wu Hengyu led his army through the area.

Xuan Chong inquired about this spatial flow, but of course, he received no answer. History teachers don't teach physics, do they?
However, this does not prevent Xuan Chong from speculating that the space in this world is distorted; the space we see is inaccurate without a reference point; this can be seen from the coordinate system that the current system has given it.

This is similar to how, before Copernicus' heliocentric theory, people mistakenly believed that the sun revolved around the earth.

In other words, although the Evil Moon and the Xi Human Realm seem far apart now, they are actually very close in some places. For example, the places where the Evil Moon hangs down on the planets are actually within easy reach.

Looking at the several enormous spatial collapse vortexes that were cascading down to the ground, Wu Fei asked the system, "This isn't also a credit task, is it?"

System: "Congratulations, you've learned how to answer first! Your final battle will be here!"

Xuan Chong paused, then pointed to himself: "Me?!"

Then, pointing to the "evil moon" in the sky, he asked the system, "Fight up to the sky?!"

System: It is still in preparation and will not be activated until the two celestial reference points are finally merged.

Xuan Chong: "I mean, is it a bit much for me to lead a bunch of soldiers armed with cold weapons to fight such a bizarre alien object?"

System: "These alien objects are fabricated based on the mindset of humans on your planet, so they won't be anything beyond the era of this planet."

Xuan Chong rubbed his head and tentatively asked, "Okay, can I live for a few hundred years, for example, until I develop tanks and cannons?"

System: "First, there isn't that much time in class. Second, the battlefield environment above will evolve according to the development of this planet."

Xuan Chong hesitated, "What if I fail the exam?"

System: "It's alright."

Xuan Chong couldn't suppress a smile: "That's good."

System: "You can retake or repeat the course if you fail."

Xuan Chong: "I'm so angry!"

…Continue north…

The thunderstorm stopped, and everyone continued on their way; the wheels of the vehicles began to turn again.
The thunder last night kept many people awake, and when they woke up today, some were either blowing their noses or had dark circles under their eyes.

Among this group of people, Wu Fei's exceptionally good complexion stood out. It was like a tall, jade-green bamboo standing out from all the black-spotted, withered leaves on a meadow.

As the carriage moved along, Xuan Chong sat back on a donkey, gazing at the post-rain scenery.

Xuan Chong, now with enhanced perception, was very optimistic: "I am still an ant, but not an ant in a box, but an ant of this world."

In the depths of his being, Xuan Chong could sense the effort each seed in the soil was making to sprout.

He jumped off the donkey and, in everyone's eyes, leaped into the field. Some of the guards in the group saw this and were about to make their move, but Gong Qian stopped them.

A moment later, Wu Fei returned carrying a tuber that resembled a radish. He retrieved a water bag from the group, dipped his finger in some plant sap, and drew a rune on the bag's opening. The rune, imbued with flowing energy, immediately entered the water bag. Wu Fei then handed it to the coachman, a half-smile playing on his lips as he looked at the guards disguised as coachmen.

The dozen or so coachmen in the group were skeptical, but eventually four or five of them drank the "talisman water" at Gong Qian's instruction. These tasters were cautious when they took their first sip, but then they gulped it down like drunkards.

Seeing this, a bystander asked, "What does this taste like?" The drinker smacked his lips and said, "I don't know what it tastes like, but I just felt a sudden surge of energy."

Wu Fei left a message saying that each person should only take four or five sips, as drinking more would be useless and was mainly for regulating qi.

Then, Gong Qian also tried a small sip. He poured out a small cup, looking at the clear liquid; it was just water. But after drinking it, it felt like a long-awaited rain after a drought.

Unlike the groom, Gong Qian had seen and experienced the world firsthand. The chaotic balance of the five elements within his body was regulated after this cup of water entered his spleen and stomach. After entering his stomach, the water nourished his heart, liver, and lungs via a unique pathway, eventually cleansing away dryness and heat.

Gong Qian whispered, "It has similar effects to the Spirit Tea, but it's much stronger."

Tea leaves brewed with spring water, steamed until they reach their optimal aroma, can be placed in front of you. Sipping the tea slowly, following the fragrance, can also help harmonize your body's energy.

However, Gong Qian looked at the water in the cup. It was just a cup of water. It was rune water made by Wu Fei using plant sap to draw runes.

A guard nearby retrieved the dried leaves of the grass that Wu Fei had discarded. Gong Qian sniffed them; they retained a faint fragrance, the scent of life-giving vegetation after a heavy rain. He instantly understood: this was life-giving material that had just sprouted on this land blessed by rain and dew, at the appointed time of day!

Unlike spiritual herbs, the appearance of living things is a matter of chance; they are outstanding plants that suddenly grow out of ordinary grass in a region where life is in full bloom.

Compared to spiritual herbs, which steadily accumulate the essence of heaven and earth, the immense vitality gathered in living things is a matter of chance. Once the opportune moment is missed, the vitality dissipates into the world, making them even more rare and precious than spiritual herbs.

Gong Qian looked at Wu Fei: The journey north was only half a month long. Wu Fei had nothing to do with the decisive young master of the military family in the southern border. Instead, he seemed more like a young master who had come down from a fairy mountain.

Meanwhile, Gongshu Wang, who was following beside him, whispered: "Penetrating stone, generating light, obscuring vision, guiding, ingesting food, opening walls, leaping over rocks."

He listed all the types of Taoist techniques that Wu Fei had just encountered.

(End of this chapter)