Chapter 31: Founder Commemoration Ceremony
Zhang Sheng picked up a blank piece of jade paper and spat out a wisp of blue sword qi from his fingertip. A painting instantly appeared on it. He then handed the paper to Wei Yuan and said, “After a long and careful deliberation, I have decided to teach you the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting. It will become the foundation of your body-tempering. Now, pay close attention to this painting. When you cultivate, you will use this painting to form the bridge between yourself and the world around you. This will allow you to absorb the ambient spirit qi and temper your body.
“The Jade Toad Full Moon Painting allows one to form a connection with the world and borrow strength from fortune at the Body-tempering stage. There is no doubt that it is an excellent cultivation method. However, fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin, and the risks it carries are much higher than other cultivation methods as well. No matter what you see or feel during your cultivation, always be mindful of your true self and consciousness. No matter what happens, never succumb to panic or fear.”
A series of careful instructions later, Zhang Sheng revealed three pills and said, “These are called the Heart Cleansing Pills. I specifically asked them for you because they could potentially improve your foundation and innate talent. There are still three days before you pay homage to the Founder, so you can use one pill per day until the day of the ceremony. It will be beneficial for you when you pray to the Founder’s statue as well.”
After Wei Yuan memorized the painting, he began cultivating as per the cultivation method.
According to the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting, the physical body was the root of everything. The first step to cultivate this cultivation method was to imagine the painting inside one’s sea of consciousness. The size of this image signified the strength of one’s foundation.
Next, the cultivator should absorb the surrounding spirit qi and their own fortune through the image to temper their body. Once the cultivator had fully tempered their body and primordial spirit into an immortal embryo, the image would come alive and become as vivid as a real world. At that point, one had attained great completion of the Body-tempering stage and may begin creating their Dao Foundation.
Wei Yuan possessed an extraordinary disposition. He had lost all sense of himself and his surroundings in just a matter of moments. Seeing this, Zhang Sheng placed a censer in front of his disciple and deposited a Heart Cleansing Pill in it.
There was a bed of charcoal underneath the censer. As the embers smoldered, a wisp of pill smoke drifted out of the vents and coalesced into a single thread. As if it possessed a mind of its own, it flew toward the boy and slipped into his nose.
Wei Yuan could not see anything at first. Then, he caught a whiff of something fragrant at the same time the pill smoke entered his body. In just an instant, it melted into wisps of warmth that slowly spread throughout his whole body. It felt indescribably comfortable. Thanks to the boost, a single dot of light sprouted inside his sea of consciousness and illuminated a tiny world. He could vaguely see a rock lying at the center of the world, and sitting on the rock was a jade toad. Hanging above the creature was a full moon.