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

In this state, he can explore the world of dreams, even control the dreams he wants to have; he can reunite with deceased relatives, and he can fly and travel through the earth...

This was a great comfort to him at the time. After studying some experiences in lucid dreaming forums, he even mastered a method for entering lucid dreaming.

That is to set a low-volume alarm at a certain time in the morning to wake yourself up briefly, but not so much that you are startled awake, leaving you in a half-awake state, and then go back to sleep.

In this state, the chances of entering a lucid dream are much higher.

Through deliberate practice, he was able to get in almost every day.

The prolonged lucid dreaming inevitably had some impact on his reality...

In Li Chang'an's view, the current state of greed for meditation, and even the inner vision state that the sorcerer enters, is actually very similar to lucid dreaming.

Li Chang'an had extensive experience dealing with lucid dreams, and with the intermediate state of consciousness allowing him to see himself clearly, it was actually quite simple for him to get rid of the state of greedy meditation.

The appearance of a state of greedy meditation is ultimately just a result of insufficient stillness and the presence of distracting thoughts.

Under Li Chang'an's deliberate control, the pleasurable feeling brought about by greedy meditation disappeared.

He entered a state of pure meditation once again.

However, this state is stuck between the second and third levels of stillness practice.

To enter a state of complete absorption in the external world.

In Li Chang'an's view, one must at least reach the fourth level of the meditation technique.

The fourth stage of meditation is called "abandoning thoughts and achieving purity," which means that even the pleasure brought by purity has been abandoned.

However, this state of mind only abandons the feelings of a state of tranquility, but does not abandon "things" and "self".

Therefore, Li Chang'an guessed that the state of forgetting oneself and the external world is above the fourth level of stillness cultivation.

Perhaps it is precisely because the forgetting of self and external things transcends the four realms of stillness that it is called sudden enlightenment.

A kind of enlightenment that can only be encountered by chance.

"So, I was really lucky before. Because I never considered this state, I stumbled into it by accident. Once I realized this state, it became much harder to enter," Li Chang'an thought to himself.

This is somewhat like daydreaming. Because you don't realize you're daydreaming, you can daydream.

When you realize you're daydreaming and want to daydream again, you can't daydream anymore.

Thinking of this, Li Chang'an ended his meditation and opened his eyes.

It was pitch black all around.

He did not rush to enter meditation again, but instead gazed quietly into the darkness.

Do nothing, just watch quietly.

Not only his physical body is watching, but his intermediate state (bardo) is also watching.

I watched it for a long time.

There was clearly nothing in the darkness.

"If there's nothing there, why be uneasy?"

"There is nothing in the first place, so how can it cause dust."

With this thought in mind, Li Chang'an once again entered a meditative state.

Having confronted his unease and fear, he was much calmer this time and did not fall into a state of greedy meditation again.

He began to try, as Lu Jin had suggested, to return to his mother's womb and become a baby again.

But he soon felt somewhat lost.

What is the baby's condition like?

He doesn't have the experience of being an infant in the womb, so he can't empathize with the situation.

He only felt like a corpse.

"and many more……"

"A corpse!"

A sudden inspiration struck Li Chang'an.

"If a baby won't do, how about a corpse?"

At this thought, he began to imagine himself as a corpse.

He had no experience with infants, but Li Chang'an had extensive experience with corpses.

"As for a corpse, the body is dead, the consciousness is chaotic, suspended between life and death, unable to reach either side."

Li Chang'an began to immerse himself in the role. Because of his rich experience, he quickly entered the state of the corpse and entered a deeper state of meditation.

He is now a corpse.

Isn't this darkness, this cave, just a tomb?

The initial unease has now turned into a sense of peace.

They're all dead, they're all corpses now.

What's there to be afraid of? What's there to be anxious about?

Why care about quiet? Why care about your health?

What Li Chang'an has now is unparalleled relaxation and eternal tranquility.

He cut off all physical sensations of tranquility.

Only a few faint thoughts still lingered in my mind.

He is now a corpse, but he is still alive, living out his true self as a corpse, as a dead person.

In this strange state, Li Chang'an broke through his meditative skill.

The "abandoning thoughts and achieving purity" in the four realms of meditation simply means abandoning the concept of purity.

But now, Li Chang'an has not only given up even peace and quiet, he has even given up his own body.

He reached a level even higher than the fourth stage of meditation.

Although he has not yet forgotten himself and the world, he has forgotten his body as a "thing," but he has not yet forgotten "self."

However, Li Chang'an was hesitant to continue.

His intermediate state gave him an intuition.

If he forgets "I" in this state, he might perish and become a true corpse.

So he didn't want to try it, but even so, it was still a breakthrough.

In this state of being a living dead, the speed at which his life cultivation improved reached an incredible level.

Of course, he is not aware of this yet.

Because he is now a corpse, he has no delusions and no emotions.

He lost track of time, sitting there quietly, his own presence almost imperceptible.

until……

"Boom!"

A loud bang was heard.

The large rock at the entrance of the cave was moved.

The light pierced through, like a knife cutting through the darkness.

Footsteps echoed through the cave walls.

Lu Jin walked in, his eyes gleaming with white light. Seeing Li Chang'an still meditating calmly in the cave, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"Chang'an, do you know how much time has passed?"

"do not know."

Li Chang'an opened his eyes and shook his head.

He was a corpse.

He has no concept of time...

"Two days and one night have passed."

Lu Jin stared at Li Chang'an's expression and found him to be unusually calm.

In fact, Li Chang'an had been cultivating in the cave for a whole day and night, and he had been sitting in front of the mountain wall the whole time without leaving.

After all, being locked in a dark room is a form of torture. If someone is locked up for more than three days, most people will experience severe psychological symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, confusion about their self-perception, and extreme panic.

He didn't want this ordeal to cause Li Chang'an any psychological trauma.

If Li Chang'an does anything wrong inside, he will immediately move the large stone.

He originally thought that Li Chang'an would only last a few hours before becoming impatient and starting to pound on the wall, begging him to open the door.

Unexpectedly, he sat at the cave entrance for two days and one night.

Inside the cave, however, there was no sound at all.

This made Lu Jin a little impatient.

Fearing something might happen to Li Chang'an, he quickly moved the boulder away.

After moving the object, Lu Jin saw Li Chang'an sitting cross-legged on the ground, meditating peacefully. When he came in, Li Chang'an blinked at him.

His eyes were so clear that they left him a little bewildered.

Chapter 39 The Root of Life and Death

Lu Jin exclaimed in surprise, "Chang'an, is your temperament so calm and composed?"

Li Chang'an stood up and said with a smile, "Grandpa, this is indeed a very good form of cultivation."

At this moment, Lu Lin peeked out from behind Lu Jin, looking at Li Chang'an with a surprised expression:

"Senior Brother Chang'an, you entered a meditative state for so long on your first attempt at cultivation. Didn't you feel scared at all?"

Lu Lin would go back to cultivate with Lu Jin at night, and since Lu Jin had been guarding outside for two days and one night, he naturally followed suit.

Li Chang'an looked at Lu Lin and smiled, "It was a little bad at the beginning, but it got much better after you entered a meditative state."

Upon hearing this, Lu Lin said with admiration:

"Wow, that's amazing! When I first went in, all I felt was anxiety and unease, and I couldn't enter a meditative state properly."

Li Chang'an laughed and said, "Actually, I was also influenced. When I entered meditation, I entered a state of greedy meditation."

Lu Lin looked at him in shock: "Greedy meditation is a state that only occurs in the state of detachment from joy and bliss in stillness. Senior Brother Chang'an, is your stillness really that advanced?"

Here we go again, that feeling I had when I first met Lu Lin.

Li Chang'an looked into Lu Lin's eyes.

He quite appreciated those genuinely admiring glances.

This benefit is not a feedback from the conscious mind, but a feedback from the primordial spirit.

Do I care about what others think?

No, that's not right. Li Chang'an overturned his previous idea.

He doesn't care about what others think.

Instead, they enjoy the respect of others.

He feels a genuine joy when he is admired.

Thinking of this, Li Chang'an suddenly remembered Liang Ting.

That eccentric, perverted man from Quanxing who spent his entire life pursuing pleasure.

He enjoyed too much sensory stimulation, but perhaps his threshold was set too high; he always felt that the pleasure was fake and lacked something.

Therefore, in order to find the most genuine and heartfelt joy, he sought help from Wugensheng.

To make him feel good, Wugensheng used the Heavenly Demon Spell on him, making him immerse himself in the inner world and enjoy extreme bliss, but even so, he still felt it was not enough.