Confucian and Taoist Cultivation Starting from the Equipment Slot

"Is the order of cultivating these five characters fixed?" Gu Qing'e asked, pointing to Wang Shouyi's annotations next to the sketch.

Chen Zhuo looked at it carefully and nodded:

Wang Shouyi speculated that one must first master the second form of the character "噬" before unlocking the next character.

Because the character '噬' (shì) is the beginning of the entire system and the entrance for energy.

If even the entrance can't be opened, then there's no way to talk about the rest of the path.

Chen Zhuo noticed a note at the bottom of the page that was almost completely blurred by ink, and deciphered it word by word:

The character "噬" is divided into three levels. The first level is "粗噬" (crude devouring), which can devour physical objects and low-level literary energy, but consumes a huge amount of resources.

The middle layer is called "Essence Devouring," which can devour the essence of the target without damaging its form, consumes half the resources, and can perform initial transformation.

The higher level is called "Spirit Devourer," which can devour spirits, cultural veins, and even the primordial energy of heaven and earth, with consumption and benefits tending to be balanced.

"I have devoted my entire life to this, yet I have only reached the peak of the initial stage, failing to even glimpse the path to the middle stage, which is truly regrettable."

Since Wang Shouyi stopped at the peak of the first level, it means that he never managed to cultivate the "Devouring" script to the second level before his death.

The prerequisite for unlocking the next four characters is that the "devour" character technique reaches the second level.

This explains why the Wang family has been studying stone inscriptions for over a century, yet has never made a breakthrough.

It's not that they don't work hard, but the cultivation threshold of the "devour" character itself is extremely high. Without the foundation of the second level, everything else is out of the question.

"How do we practice the second level?" Gu Qing'e asked疑惑地.

Chen Zhuo shook his head; he didn't know either, so he continued flipping through the pages.

The last dozen or so pages of the manuscript record the scattered attempts of the Wang family's descendants, and the content is quite disorganized.

Clearly, no one can carry on Wang Shouyi's systematic research.

But a few pages caught his attention. These pages were written by Wang Zhongting, and the handwriting was less heavy and more sharp compared to that of his ancestors.

Wang Zhongting wrote in his record:

"My ancestor Shouyi said that the character '噬' (shì, meaning 'to devour') has three layers, but unfortunately, he did not reach the middle layer. After studying the writings of my ancestors and combining them with my own personal experience, I realized that the key to the middle layer lies in 'moderation'."

The initial stage of consumption is like chewing on a mountain, indiscriminately accepting everything, resulting in enormous consumption. The middle stage of consumption requires selection and abandonment, taking the essence and discarding the dross.

"Using limited energy to devour limited goals, so that input and output are balanced, is what constitutes 'energy devouring'."

The following line adds: "A month ago, I attempted the 'Essence Devouring' method, using Source Stones as an aid, and successfully devoured the inner core of a Sequence Nine Demon Beast."

During the process of absorption, a faint aura of a second character was sensed on the inscription, seemingly the character "消" (xiāo). Although the fluctuation was extremely subtle, its direction was clear.

Gu Qing'e frowned slightly: "So Wang Zhongting has already reached the second level? Then why did he test you and my father at the banquet?"

"Because he has only touched the threshold, but hasn't crossed it yet." Chen Zhuo turned to the last page of the manuscript.

"Moreover, his reliance on Originium to barely perform 'Essence Devouring' is a completely different concept from truly reaching the second level without external force."

He needs more Originium, and better quality Originium, to support his cultivation. The Xie family's mines are the stepping stones for him to reach the second level of the 'Devouring' realm.

Gu Qing'e remained silent for a while, then reached out and held the carved stone up to the candlelight, carefully examining the sixteen strokes on it.

The candlelight flickered on the surface of the stone, and as the light and shadow shifted, the character "噬" (shi, meaning to devour) seemed to come alive, its strokes slowly wriggling on the stone surface.

"Instructor Chen, why do you think the character '噬' has four extra strokes? What is the relationship between these four strokes and the main body of the character?"

He pointed to the character "噬" (shì) with several extra strokes and said.

Chen Zhuo looked down at the carved stone.

The four extended strokes present a strange sense of flow.

"I think it's not just a simple stroke, but more like a passageway."

Chen Zhuo paused and considered his words carefully.

"Like the root system of a tree, the trunk is the 'stem,' but the roots extend out and connect to the nutrients in the soil."

The other four words, "消" (disappear), "融" (melt), "化" (transform), and "归" (return), represent the nutrients that these roots need to reach.

Without roots, even the thickest trunk is just a lone tree; without the four subsequent characters, even the strongest "devour" character is only a half-finished product.

He gently placed his palm on the carved stone and slowly infused it with literary energy.

This time, he did not choose to activate the "Devouring" script, but instead quietly felt the flow of laws within the carved stone.

With the aid of spatial awareness, he saw things he hadn't noticed before.

The spiritual energy inside the stone is not static, but flows slowly along a certain fixed trajectory.

The trajectory followed the same pattern as the five-character circular structure drawn in Wang Shouyi's manuscript.

At the position of the character "消", there is a very faint halo, so faint that it is almost imperceptible.

That means the character "消" was once activated, but the person who activated it couldn't maintain it, leaving only a wisp of residual energy.

The "faintly perceived fluctuations in the aura of the second word" that Wang Zhongting mentioned in his record should be the resonance of this halo.

"The character 'Disappear' is still there; at least its imprint of laws remains inside the stone. If we can activate the second layer of the character 'Devour,' we should be able to awaken the character 'Disappear.'"

"But this is the Unknowable Realm," Gu Qing'e said softly.

Chen Zhuo was deeply shaken and looked at her in disbelief.

"What did you just say? Do you know where you are?"

"It was just a vague vocabulary that popped into my head. By the way, what exactly is the unknowable realm?"

Chen Zhuo stared into her eyes, trying to ascertain the truthfulness of her words.

But I didn't see anything.

"It's nothing. The Unknowable Realm is just a mysterious place; I don't know the specifics either."

Hearing Chen Zhuo's words, Gu Qing'e did not press the matter further.

Chen Zhuo looked down at the last page of the manuscript.

Wang Zhongting's handwriting appeared somewhat hasty under the candlelight, but the content was exceptionally clear:

"Our ancestor, Shouyi, once said that the complete form of the ancient method is to 'devour' it, 'dissolve' it, 'merge' it, 'transform' it, and 'return' it to complete it."

The five characters cycle repeatedly, forming a complete energy loop. If one can master these five characters, the "Devouring" script will not need to rely on source stones and will become an independent system.

However, only the character "噬" (shi, devour) remains on the stone inscription; the trace of the character "消" (xiao, disappear) is barely visible, and the remaining characters are even more difficult to find. Seeking the Great Dao is indeed difficult!

Chen Zhuo closed the manuscript.

"Disappear", "Melt", "Transform", "Return".

Wang Shouyi spent his entire life deducing only the location and general outline of four characters. Wang Zhongting barely sensed the aura fluctuation of the character "消" (xiāo), but he was still far from truly activating it.

The stone in his hand was five times larger than the one in the real world.

The small stone in the real world corresponds to a small part that Wang Zhongting separated from this large stone.

Perhaps it was a fragment from here, or a piece that broke off during a failed rubbing process.

This means that in the real world, the stone he obtained was just the tip of the iceberg.

The real core is what he holds in his hands right now.

He picked up the stone again and activated the "Devour" script once more, attempting to devour a nearby object.

He immersed his consciousness into the carved stone.

With the aid of spatial perception, Chen Zhuo saw a complete diagram of the laws.

The five ancient characters each occupy a corner, with the character "噬" at the top, emitting a dark golden light.

The character "消" is located in the upper right corner. The light is faint, with only a few strokes being bright, while the rest is semi-transparent.

The character “融” is in the lower right, the character “化” is in the lower left, and the character “归” is in the upper left. These three characters are completely dark, with only very thin outlines.

He tried to control the flow of his internal energy into a slow, circular pattern.

Starting from the character "噬", passing through the characters "消", "融", "化", and "归", we return to the character "噬".

However, the flow of literary energy stops at the position of the character "消" (xiāo). Each time it passes through that point, most of the energy dissipates, and only a very small portion can continue to move forward.

This is the bottleneck that the Wang family has been unable to overcome for a century.

The energy of the character "噬" cannot be transformed when it enters the character "消", causing the entire cycle to break.

The key to repairing this break lies not in the character "消" itself, but in the precise control of the character "噬".

Only by purifying the energy absorbed to a certain degree can it successfully pass through the narrow channel of the character "消" and enter the subsequent transformation stage.

The existence of Originium helps this energy skip over the cumbersome stages.

It's just that there's a significant energy loss.

Having figured this out, Chen Zhuo felt a surge of excitement. This was all valuable knowledge that could be taken out of the unknown and put into practice!