Confucian and Taoist Cultivation Starting from the Equipment Slot

Chapter 158 Joint Discussion

The first major discovery was the character "孤" (lonely/isolated) on the page of the Book of Heaven and Earth.

The palm-sized ancient page was now tucked close to his body in his arms.

Even through the fabric, one could still feel that faint resonance of the law.

According to the founder of the Transformation School, this page is one of the first fragments of laws that spontaneously condensed at the beginning of the universe.

It shares the same origin as the Flowing Qigong Method.

However, the patriarch did not leave any record of the method for refining the pages. Even Song Zhiyuan only judged from intuition that the pages could only play a real role in the hands of a successor of the circulating cultivation method.

How exactly to use it, when to refine it, and what effects it will produce are all unknowns.

He took the pages out of the book, placed them on his lap, and examined them for a moment.

The character "孤" (lonely) on the page appeared exceptionally serene under the midday sun, its light restrained, neither glaring nor dim.

Like a bottomless ancient well.

Chen Zhuo gently touched the word with his fingertip, but the page did not respond.

He put it back in his arms and continued to ponder.

The second major achievement is the progress made in the five-character inscription.

He took out the two stone fragments he had just obtained from the secret copper box from his bosom.

The characters "融" and "化" are present. The surface of the fragment is covered with fine cracks, but the imprint of the law has not completely dissipated, and a very faint pulse can be felt under the fingertip.

These two fragments, along with the original "噬" (shi, meaning devour) inscription and "消" (xiao, meaning disappear) fragments, together represent four of the five characters.

Although the whereabouts of the character "归" are still unknown.

However, judging from the inscription left by the founder of the Transcendent Sect, the Dharma Stele was broken during the first war between humans and demons. The five characters were not scattered randomly, but were deliberately dispersed and hidden by the traitor faction.

The "Holy Envoy" has been captured alive. He may still have clues about the whereabouts of the character "Gui" in his memory. We'll have to wait for the results of the interrogation by the Observatory.

The third major gain was a complete rubbing of the Red Serpent Society's altar runes.

He memorized all the runes at the bottom of the inverted tower, combining them with Xie Yun's detailed record of the rune pulsations deep within the mine tunnels in the hunting area's patrol log.

The analysis of the energy conversion process of the forbidden blood sacrifice technique in Shen Du's toxicology notes is enough to compile a complete report on breaking the forbidden technique of the Crimson Serpent Society in the Academy of Arts.

If the Surveillance Bureau wants to completely wipe out the remaining forces of the Red Serpent Society within the Shengtian Prefecture, this report is the most crucial intelligence support.

The fourth major achievement was that all three members of the Demon Hunter Gang were rescued alive.

Xie Xing suffered a broken and dislocated arm but remained mentally alert; Xie Yun's inspection record was far more valuable than expected.

After taking antipyretics and changing the dressing, Sun Kui's fever began to subside.

The apprentice said that Xie Yun made a new copy of the patrol record and handed it over to the Observatory on the night he returned.

Then he slept for a day and a night, and the first thing he asked when he woke up was, "Has Deacon Chen returned yet?"

Chen Zhuo smiled upon hearing this, but said nothing.

But even with a harvest, the insufficiency remains.

The biggest problem is that his cultivation of literary arts has reached a bottleneck.

Chen Zhuo sat cross-legged and focused his inner vision, circulating his literary energy through his meridians.

While his overall literary talent improved slightly during the battle in the mine, his understanding of the written language of heaven and earth had stagnated for quite some time.

The techniques of writing the character "日" (sun), "战" (war), and "快" (fast) are still at the Iv.2 level of proficiency, and there is still a significant gap between them and mastery.

When fighting the "Holy Envoy", the burning effect of the Sun-shaped script had little effect on the opponent's Blood Sacrifice Shield. If Zhan Tiedao had not just broken through to the Life Realm, the outcome of that battle would have been hard to say.

The Moon and Bamboo scripture techniques remain at level Iv.1 and have been shelved for a long time. The Group scripture technique, due to its reliance on copied scripture levels, has always struggled to unleash its true power.

He attempted a comprehensive deduction of the sun character script.

According to the previously established improvement plan, two core issues need to be addressed to advance from Iv.2 to Iv.3:

First, the fundamental destructive power has been significantly enhanced, so that the light of the sun character is no longer just a simple burning, but can be condensed into a more concentrated light blade with stronger penetrating power.

Secondly, it releases changes in form, allowing the sun character to switch modes according to the battlefield situation.

He spent more than half an hour meditating and deducing, and found that there were ways to go in both directions.

However, the total amount of literary energy is still some distance from the completion of the simulation, and more literary energy needs to be accumulated and tested in actual combat.

Put that thought aside and continue to consider other shortcomings.

Secondly, there is the bottleneck in the integration of cultivation methods.

The preliminary plan for the Dantian node has been verified to be basically feasible in actual combat in the mine tunnels, and the literary qi and true qi can be exchanged to a limited extent in a short period of time.

However, the Tanzhong point, which is the junction of literary energy and true energy in the chest, has not yet been conquered.

In the inverted tower, he tried to use two sets of techniques simultaneously in battle, but as soon as they met at the Tanzhong point, he felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. The mutual repulsion was far more intense than when the Dantian node was first established.

When Gu Qing'e used the Heart Source Method to help him regulate his meridians, she mentioned that the key to the Tanzhong point lies in "blocking" rather than "unblocking".

It's not about forcibly opening it; it's more like a throttle valve opening and closing rhythmically.

He understands the principle, but how to actually implement it requires repeated exploration in real-world practice.

He re-examined the logic behind the fusion of the two sets of techniques.

"The Record of Mountain and River Amusement" tells the story of integrating the power of heaven and earth into one's own literary energy cycle when observing mountains and rivers, so that the literary arts are connected like mountains and rivers, and flow together in one breath.

"The Initial Explanation of Circulation" transforms the external Qi of heaven and earth, as well as the demonic power of monsters, into one's own usable true Qi and blood through a five-character cycle.

The underlying logic of both is indeed doing the same thing.

It guides external energy into its own energy channels in an orderly manner.

He accidentally achieved a state of mutual transformation between literary energy and true energy when he was shaving his blade in the glacial lake, but that was achieved by chance in a special environment with extremely abundant spiritual energy, thanks to the opportunity of shaving his blade.

To date, it has been impossible to reproduce stably under any circumstances.

The problem may lie in two aspects.

Firstly, one's own understanding of the forces of heaven and earth is not deep enough, and without the support of the earth's spiritual energy, it is difficult to function.

Secondly, the core connection between the two sets of exercises has only been established in the dantian node, while the nodes of the tanzhong and niwan have not yet been overcome, and only a small part of the cycle has been completed.

He needs more real-world experience, especially against higher-level opponents, so that he can truly find a breakthrough opportunity under that kind of extreme pressure.

In addition, he glanced at Nuanyu on his lap.

The warm jade that Gu Qing'e gave him had a remarkable effect on clearing away residual energy in the meridians, but it had limited help in making substantial progress in integrating the cultivation techniques.

Perhaps we can look through the library's collection for rare and precious herbs specifically for the repair and adjustment of meridian points. I'll ask Su Ning about it later.

Finally, there's the Zanetsu-tō (iron-chopping sword).

The Realm of Living Beings has been completely stabilized, and the naming of the Fifth Realm has been completed.

However, after being given a name comes the Transformation Realm. According to Su Ning, this realm requires the blade to temporarily transform into another form under specific circumstances, and each trigger requires a large amount of true energy.

Although his current true qi reserves have increased considerably compared to when he was at the initial stage of Martial Master, they are still some distance from being sufficient to support the consumption of the Transformation Realm.

This problem cannot be rushed; it can only be resolved gradually as one's martial arts cultivation improves.

After sorting out his gains and losses, he drew water from the well, washed his face, and draped the old cloth he used to wipe his face over the well's edge.

He went back to his room, took out paper and pen, spread them out on the table, and began to list out the key points that urgently needed to be addressed.

The deduction of the art of writing the character "日" (sun) from mastery to mastery is ranked first, and the breakthrough of the "膻中" (Shanzhong) node is ranked second.

Although the Moon-shaped script is still at level Iv.1, it can indeed be surprisingly effective in certain scenarios when combined with spatial awareness.

It's also worth making time to improve.

As for refining the pages and transforming the Iron-Cutting Blade, these can only be put on hold for now, and will be addressed after their respective literary and martial cultivation levels have broken through.

He put down his pen, folded the paper he had filled with writing, put it in his pocket, and picked up the bearskin knife sheath again.

"Young master, young master! Someone is looking for you outside."

A crisp sound woke Chen Zhuo from his drowsy state.

"What's wrong?"

"A person dressed in strange clothes has come in and specifically asked for you. They're waiting in the lobby now."

Strange clothes? After thinking it over, Chen Zhuo decided to go and see them.

A premonition told him that the person who came was not simple.

Upon entering the hall, I saw a person sitting upright in a uniform with the character "山" (mountain) embroidered on it.

"Who are you?"

"Mr. Chen, I am a representative of the Guanshan Society, and I have come to invite you to participate in the annual joint forum of the four societies. We have invited all the young talents of Qingshan County to celebrate this grand event together."

"At the same time, this kind of discussion is the highest-level exchange among the younger generation of literati in each place, and Qingshan County is no exception."

""

The visitor placed a gilded invitation card on the table.

A joint discussion? Or four schools of thought coming together in succession?

Chen Zhuo seemed to have heard his master mention this kind of activity before.

At that time, Qingshan County was a remote county town and did not have the corresponding strength. Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, it has become such a prosperous place.

However, he is absolutely right. The union of four different schools of thought is definitely worthy of being called the highest level of exchange.

"Okay, I'll be back then."

Hearing Chen Zhuo's reply.

The visitor nodded in satisfaction and left.

The next day, Chen Zhuo arrived at the College of Arts early.

The site has been almost set up. The viewing platform is located halfway up the mountain behind the College of Arts and Sciences. It is a natural, protruding giant rock.

The platform was leveled by the predecessors of the landscape painting school, and several rough stone railings were built along the edges.

Standing on the platform and looking out, the remaining ridges of the Qingshan Mountains unfold layer upon layer in the thin mist of late autumn.

The Yi River meanders down the mountainside like a silver thread.

This is the place where disciples of the landscape painting school observe mountains and rivers and comprehend the power of heaven and earth on a daily basis.

Today, the Guanshantai has been temporarily converted into a forum for philosophical discussions.

The four societies held a joint discussion, marking the highest-level exchange among the younger generation of literati in Qingshan County.

Representatives from Guanshan Society, Ruhua Society, Mingfa Society, and Wendao Society were present, and the audience was filled with teachers and students from the Faculty of Arts.

After emerging from seclusion, Gu Qing'e joined the Daoist sect as a representative of the Xinyuan school.

She pulled Chen Zhuo to sit down here.

The reason given was, "You've been holed up in the Demon Hunter Gang practicing your sword skills for half a month; it's time to come out and listen to what others have to say about the Dao."

Chen Zhuo sat by the stone railing on the west side of the Guanshantai, leaning against a rough stone pillar.

The iron-chopping sword was wrapped in a bear-skin scabbard and placed at his feet.

His position wasn't particularly conspicuous.

But the view is excellent, allowing you to see the entire text being presented on stage.

The head of the Guanshan Society is standing in the center of Guanshan Terrace, demonstrating the literary techniques of the "Mountain" character from the landscape school.

This person, surnamed Lu, was one of the few scholars from the Qingshan Academy who passed the imperial examinations in the eight major landscape painting schools.

He had been traveling around for most of the year, but this time he was specially invited back by Song Zhiyuan to help with the discussion.

He formed a hand seal, and literary energy surged from his palms, condensing into a semi-transparent mountain phantom in the air.

Although the mountain was only half a person tall, its texture was clear and its peaks were layered. Clouds and mist swirled around its waist and streams flowed gently at its foot.

It's as if an entire real mountain has been shrunk down and moved to the viewing platform.

Chen Zhuo extended his spatial perception beyond the shapes of the mountains.

He directly touched the internal workings of the literary energy. Then he saw the legal structure of the two-character literary technique.

The two imprints of the celestial and terrestrial characters do not exist independently, but are coupled together in an extremely precise way.

The weighty and steady character "山" (mountain) and the towering and upright character "岳" (mountain peak) are connected by several extremely fine golden connecting lines at the level of law, forming a dynamically balanced three-dimensional structure.

This connection method is exactly the same as the five-word cycle of the Transcendentalist sect that he saw on the secret light screen.

The five-character cycle is a closed loop, while the two-character text is a dual-core coupling.

However, the underlying logic is completely the same: connecting multiple independent law nodes into a complete energy body.

This discovery gave him a sudden insight into the integration of cultivation methods.

When he tried to integrate "The Amusement of Mountains and Rivers" and "An Initial Explanation of Circulation" in the mine tunnel, there was always a strong mutual repulsion reaction at the Tanzhong node.

When literary energy and true energy converge in the chest, it's like two opposing torrents, unable to transition smoothly.

But the word "mountain" in Lu's words gave him inspiration—mountains and peaks can be coupled because "mountain" and "peak" have a natural affinity at the level of laws, and the connection between them is natural and not forced.

If he didn't force the literary energy and true energy to converge at the Tanzhong node, but instead imitated the coupling structure of the two-character literary technique.

Establish a temporary law node at the center of the chest, allowing the two forces to maintain their independent operating trajectories within this node.

Rhythmic exchanges are only performed through nodes when necessary.

Like the golden connecting line between "mountain" and "peak", they can communicate when needed and remain independent when not needed.

When Gu Qing'e was sparring with others on stage, she responded to the doubts by using the word "strength" from the Xinyuan School.

Her attack involved no fancy use of celestial texts or symbols; she subdued her opponent purely through the projection of her own thoughts.

As Chen Zhuo watched Gu Qing'e finish her move and return to her seat, he suddenly connected her actions with his earlier deductions.

The Xinyuan School does not rely on the resonance of the written language of heaven and earth; each person is the "written language of heaven and earth" themselves.

The inscription left by the founder of the Flowing School also contains a similar statement: "The Way of Flowing is based on the solitary and uses the five characters to form a complete system, without relying on the textual lineage or external forces."

"Walking alone between heaven and earth." The source of the heart is sought inward, while the flow turns outward. One draws power from one's own thoughts, while the other transforms energy from all things in heaven and earth, but the ultimate goal is to "become one with oneself."

It does not rely on any external system of rules; it is its own law.

If that's really the case, then the answer to the Tanzhong point problem that he's been obsessing over might not lie in the structure at all, but in the will.

He shouldn't try to "tie" literary talent and true energy together, but should instead, like Gu Qing'e, use his own will as a bridge.

Let the two forces find their own balance at the point of intersection, and let them find their own way of coexisting within their own bodies.

He silently went through the process of this new integration path in his mind.

Under this new approach, several key nodes that were previously blocked showed signs of loosening.

Although we are still some distance from truly achieving full connectivity, the direction is clear.

The discussion on the Guanshan Terrace continued. Chen Zhuo turned his gaze back to the terrace, but his mind had already wandered to the meridian channel between his dantian and his chest that had not yet been opened.

He knew he had reached the threshold of the next level.

It is not a simple accumulation of literary energy, but a deeper understanding of the written language of heaven and earth and its own laws.

This kind of understanding is something he can hardly delve deeper into within the small confines of Qingshan County. It's time to venture into a wider world.