Under One Person: Starting with the Dual Cultivation of Body and Soul.

He is no longer a virgin, so even if he wanted to learn Yang Five Thunder, he couldn't. Now he can only cultivate Yin Five Thunder.

Zhang Zhiwei nodded: "Lingyu, don't think that Yin Five Thunder is inferior to Yang Five Thunder. Do you know why Yin Five Thunder is black?"

Zhang Lingyu shook her head.

"Yang Wu Lei is pure, it is thunder from the sky, it travels through the heart and lungs, it is sincere and open."

"Yin Wu Lei is turbid, it is underground water, it flows through the liver and kidneys, it is deep and introspective."

“It’s not something dirty; it’s your own desire, a part of your own body that’s always been there. You didn’t want to look at it before, but now that it’s out there, you have to accept it.”

The old celestial master looked into Zhang Lingyu's eyes and said in an unusually serious tone, "I passed on the thunder technique to you not because you made a mistake, but because you finally admitted your honesty to yourself."

“When practicing thunder magic, regardless of whether it is yang thunder or yin thunder, the most dangerous thing is not sincerity. You used to be too perfect, so perfect that you didn’t seem like a real person. Now you have impurities in you, desires, and flaws. This is what makes you a real person.”

"Get up, stop kneeling. Go back and take a good bath to get yourself in the right state. Tomorrow morning, I will personally teach you the Yin Five Thunder Technique."

…………

…………

Meanwhile, Li Chang'an's training continued.

More than half a year later.

He arrived at Wuqi Town in northern Shaanxi. Standing on the Loess Plateau, he looked at the undulating gullies in the distance. The wind, carrying yellow sand, blew against his face, bringing a rough and real feeling.

Here, he silently recited the mantra again and released his senses.

This time, he did not hear the deafening gunfire on the banks of the Xiang River, nor the painful, desperate gasps from the snow-capped mountains.

He heard a loud Shaanxi folk song, the voice rough and the melody high-pitched, as if it were roared directly from the depths of the loess.

In that rugged singing, he felt a powerful hope that had finally been reborn after overcoming countless hardships.

Li Chang'an closed his eyes, sat cross-legged on the yellow earth, and recalled the various experiences he had had along the way.

The blood of the Xiang River, the wind of Loushan Pass, the cold of the snow-capped mountains, and the mud of the grasslands.

All the Alaya consciousness he had collected along the way—the obsessions, pain, confusion, and faith—were now gathered together in his mind.

All these Alaya consciousnesses converged and collided in his mind, and through these collisions, Li Chang'an came to understand many things.

Those things that I used to be so fixated on and couldn't let go of, I've come to terms with now.

He suddenly felt lighter than ever before.

I felt like I had come back to life.

That's right, it has come to life.

This word might sound strange on others, but it fits him perfectly.

Previously, Li Chang'an exuded a cold and aloof aura wherever he went. Many people who met him for the first time thought he was "inhuman."

This isn't meant to be a criticism. It's because he exudes such an inhuman quality, lacking any sense of humanity, devoid of emotions and human warmth.

But now, the coldness and desolation emanating from him has vanished. In its place is a vibrant realm of life, where all things flourish.

He was no longer that aloof immortal. He became a real human being with flesh and blood, capable of laughter and pain.

The specific reason is that through this experience, he made a fundamental revision to his philosophy of spiritual practice.

Previously, he had been using the awareness of the intermediate state (bardo) to observe himself. He was constantly adjusting himself, eliminating all distracting thoughts, and reaching a state of profound stillness.

This practice benefited him greatly and gave him an astonishing speed of cultivation, but in the long run, it was actually a flawed method of cultivation.

Because he was deliberately pursuing a state of stillness, the very thought of seeking tranquility was itself a very large subjective delusion.

He presupposed that having no thoughts was good, and believed that everything that disturbed tranquility was bad. So he began to force himself not to think of good, not to think of evil, and not to have any delusions.

But now, he understands.

The so-called "absence of delusions" is merely a temporary tool in the early stages of spiritual practice, a convenient method to break through illusions.

why?

Because the vast majority of people are long blinded by various worldly prejudices and desires, it is necessary to use strong negation to help them temporarily escape from the chaos of prejudices in order to begin to recognize their true nature, that is, their id.

However, now that we have recognized our id-centric thinking, we should no longer cling to this tool.

Neither thinking of good nor evil, without giving rise to delusions, it is simply that finger pointing at the moon.

A practitioner should look to the real moon, rather than clinging tightly to that finger.

He suddenly realized that the human heart is like a living spring.

It needs to keep gushing out spring water and constantly generate various thoughts. This is normal, healthy, a manifestation of vitality, and a law of the universe.

If you insist on blocking the spring and trying to eliminate all thoughts, you are essentially turning yourself into a lifeless piece of dead wood.

In Buddhism, this is called severing one's inherent nature, cutting off the life force one should have as a human being.

His previous methods of spiritual practice, that deliberate pursuit of purity, actually turned him into a pure ghost detached from the world.

This is a very bad situation.

True spiritual practice must be honed through real-life experiences.

In the hustle and bustle of life, experience and feel, allowing your true self to shine through the trials and tribulations, ultimately achieving a state of complete freedom and spontaneity.

There's no need to deliberately maintain tranquility or think about what should and shouldn't be done. Just let all your actions be based on your subconscious reactions and judgments.

Only in this way can one truly achieve unity of knowledge and action, and truly attain purity and non-action.

Chapter 171 Breakthrough in Cultivation

Li Chang'an sat cross-legged on the loess plateau of Wuqi Town for seven days and seven nights.

The morning of the eighth day.

The first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone on the Loess Plateau.

Li Chang'an shook off the thick layer of dust from his body and slowly stood up.

The moment he stood up, the Reverse Life White Qi within his body automatically accelerated its circulation. Like the water level in a reservoir, after years of accumulation, it silently crossed a critical bottleneck and began to overflow, filling every meridian and acupoint in his body.

There was nothing earth-shattering.

The flooded white energy, driven by inertia, smoothly traversed complex yet coherent new routes, constructing a completely new ritual within his body.

The moment the ritual was completed, his reversal state, which had not been activated for more than half a year, automatically started.

The reversible white qi within the body rapidly arises like a tide, permeating from the bone marrow to the bones, then spreading to the flesh and blood, and finally emerging through the skin.

After more than a year of arduous training, Li Chang'an found his waist-length hair inconvenient to walk around in and troublesome to manage, so he casually took a sword and cut it off on the road.

Even though it grew a bit longer during the journey, it's only just long enough to cover my shoulders now, and because of all the wind and rain, it's become a mess.

At that moment, the messy hair suddenly moved without wind, shedding all the dirt and becoming white and shiny.

At the same time, his weathered, sun-darkened skin instantly turned white, no longer a healthy bronze color, but a flawless, crystalline jade color.

Layers of dense, auspicious white qi, reminiscent of auspicious clouds, began to emanate and appear around him.

Li Chang'an slowly opened his eyes, and white light burst forth from them.

In an instant, he completed his transformation from mud to clouds, from beggar to immortal.

"Is this the second stage of reverse rebirth?"

Li Chang'an closed his eyes and activated his long-dormant awareness of the intermediate state, viewing himself from a godlike perspective and carefully examining the trajectory of his Qi in his current state.

In fact, before he decided to go out and train, his great-grandfather had already told him about the Qi cultivation and foundation-seeking of the second level of Reverse Life, as well as various precautions, but he had never tried to break through.

After examining it, he discovered that the natural flow of Qi he was currently exhibiting was quite different from what Lu Jin had taught him.

Although the main pathways of Qi circulation are the same and the general direction of future cultivation is the same, there are essential differences in the connections between some subtle branches of the meridians and acupoints.

"The future direction..."

As Li Chang'an examined himself, he muttered to himself.

The second stage of reverse rebirth is completely different from the first stage of reverse rebirth.

Reversing the cycle of rebirth is a long and arduous journey.

Although the second level of Reverse Rebirth can transform bones and internal organs into Qi, it doesn't mean that you can do this immediately upon entering the second level of Reverse Rebirth.

This process usually involves a gradual one, starting with the bones and then working your way up to the internal organs. It requires years of painstaking effort to cultivate oneself step by step.

If an ordinary cultivator at the second level of the Reverse Life stage loses an arm in the early stages, they will truly become a one-armed hero.

Only those with extremely profound spiritual attainments can retract a severed arm and reconnect it using Qi.

The same applies to internal organs. If one's heart is shattered just as one enters the second stage of Reverse Life, there is no way to repair it, and one can only wait to die.

Of course, once you enter the second stage of Reverse Rebirth, the improvement in your physical body is extremely terrifying.

Even if some vital parts such as the dantian and internal organs cannot be fully transformed by Qi, the protective and destructive power of the body solely due to the enhancement of the reverse life state is no less than the world's top external training methods.

Therefore, to shatter the internal organs of a cultivator at the second level of the Reverse Life stage, the opponent must absolutely crush them in terms of strength.

If your absolute strength is completely overwhelmed, then no technique can withstand it; it can only mean that you're incompetent.

"My Qi circulation is indeed more complex than what my great-grandfather taught me. I wonder how it will manifest in terms of specific abilities?"

With this thought in mind, Li Chang'an opened his eyes and looked at the wisps of white energy surrounding him.

He already possessed this white energy during his first stage of Reverse Rebirth. It was precisely because of this white energy that he had a powerful defensive capability that ordinary Reverse Rebirth cultivators at the third stage did not have.

Now that I've reached the second level, the white qi still exists, and it's become even more concentrated and substantial than before.

Will the defense be stronger?

He reached out his left hand and touched the layer of white qi on the outside of his right arm.

The palm passed through the white qi without any hindrance, feeling as if it were passing through a layer of ordinary mist.

But then, with a thought, the originally ethereal white energy instantly solidified, and when touched again, it had a hard, tangible feel, as if a solid wall had appeared out of thin air.

Li Chang'an extended his right index finger, gathered his strength, and pointed it at the Qi wall.

Under the immense force of the fingertips, the Qi wall slightly collapsed inward, leaving a finger imprint.

But the moment he removed his finger, the Qi wall rippled like water, automatically filling in the depression.

"It's very sturdy."

A hint of admiration flashed in Li Chang'an's eyes. Although he hadn't used much force with that finger strike, he was now at the second level of the Reverse Life Realm, and the power in his every move was extraordinary, yet he still couldn't break through the Qi barrier.

This indicates that after advancing to the second level, Bai Qi's defensive capabilities have increased significantly.

Moreover, he discovered an even bigger change.

The coverage of the white qi is now wider.

Previously, this layer of white qi could only cover his entire body and extend outwards by a few inches at most, but now, this layer of white qi can extend outwards by three feet, forming a three-foot qi wall, which is about one meter.

"A Qi wall about three feet high..."

Li Chang'an suddenly had a thought, "When there was only an inch or two of space before, the feasibility was not obvious. Now that there is three feet of space, could we try to achieve 'transformation of Qi' like the Golden Light Mantra of Longhu Mountain?"

Upon realizing this, he immediately began experimenting, gathering his mental energy to cover the emitted white energy and starting to perform precise micro-manipulation.

Transforming Qi into form is a profound application technique of the Golden Light Mantra of Longhu Mountain, but it is something that Li Chang'an can do with ease.

Because his cultivation level was already high enough.

Moreover, when he was in the Lu family compound, he used his Qi to play cat's cradle and Rubik's Cube every day to train his control over Qi.

Therefore, in the blink of an eye, he had already mastered the transformation technique of white qi.

The originally evenly distributed reverse-generation white energy around him suddenly contracted inward, transforming into a solid white sphere of light that floated in his palm.

He gently raised his palm, and the ball of light bounced nimbly, just like a real basketball.

Chapter 172 Greatly Increased Strength

With a gentle push, the ball of light instantly transformed into a white streak of light, spinning rapidly around him like an obedient sprite.

However, the rotation range is limited to within three feet. As soon as it flies out of the three-foot limit, the light sphere will instantly disintegrate into ordinary Qi and will no longer be able to maintain its shape. It cannot cover a wide distance like the Golden Light Mantra of Longhu Mountain.

"That's probably the limitation of this method at present."