Chapter 494 "Crossing"
Chapter 494 "Crossing"
"The human world? Is this name related to the realm of 'the world'? Why is it the name of the mural that should be contemplated after advancing to the heavenly realm?"
Zhao Duan did not hide his doubts and asked Zhenbao.
On the small building, the night was as dark as thick ink, closing in from all directions. The palace maids and servants were cut off from outside. On the third floor of the restaurant that had been ravaged by wind and rain for six hundred years, only the hexagonal palace lanterns in the hands of the emperor and his minister emitted an orange-red halo.
Xu Zhenguan stopped with the lantern, thought for a moment, and shook his head:
"I don't know either. Taizu has always had a certain method for naming people."
Do you want to say that Old Xu is a bad namer? Well, I should have known that. After all, the murals that carry the "God of War" heritage are all painted like "matchstick men"... You can't expect to come up with a good name... Zhao Duan was frantically making up stories about the ancestor of the Xu family.
"As for why I want you to see two floors in one night... it's because you are special," the empress seemed to see the confusion in his heart and took the initiative to answer:
“You are very compatible with my royal family’s practice method. Whether it is the dragon soul choosing to inhabit you, or your rare visualization of Pei Niannu in the Six Chapters Sutra, these are all unprecedented in the past six hundred years.
So, I was thinking, maybe if I let you see the higher-level murals earlier, maybe they will be different from others."
Zhao Duan was silent. He once again recalled what Zhang Yanyi had said about his “specialness”.
Obviously, as the distance between the monarch and his subject narrowed to a negative number, the empress became more and more concerned about the peculiarities of her "imperial husband".
"Two questions," Zhao Duan held up two fingers, "First, what will happen if we look at the painting of the next realm in advance? There must be a precedent."
Xu Zhenguan nodded slightly:
"You will fail in visualization. Only when you reach a certain level can you visualize the corresponding scroll. Otherwise, you will fail."
"The second question is, since we are going to test it, why don't we look at the fifth floor as well?" Zhao Duan raised his doubts.
Xu Zhenguan raised his head and looked towards the top floor of the restaurant.
The fifth level, in theory, corresponds to the realm of "human immortal".
She shook her head and said:
"There is no scroll on the stone tablet on the fifth floor. It is a blank tablet. Emperor Taizu never became a human immortal in the past, so naturally he could not leave a scroll on the fifth floor. However, he placed a blank tablet on the top floor, perhaps hoping that if his descendants could become celestial beings, they could complete the inheritance."
Is that so... Zhao Duan nodded slightly, stepped forward happily, handed the lantern to his left hand, pressed his right hand on the door leaf, and pushed it open with force: "Then let's start."
He was also looking forward to this experiment.
The sharp old door was opened, and the darkness in the room was quickly dispelled by the lanterns in the hands of the two people.
A stone tablet was displayed alone in the middle of the room, with two cushions placed on the ground in front of it.
There are faint and fuzzy inscriptions on the stone tablet, but it is difficult to distinguish the content.
"Whoosh-"
The empress in white put her fingers together like swords, pulling at the air.
Immediately, the palace lantern in her hand burst into crackling sounds, and a long dragon of flames rushed out from the palace lantern cover, circled the room, ignited the extinguished floor-standing candlesticks in the room, and then returned to the palace lantern.
On the lampstand, white candles were burning, lighting up the room like day.
Zhao Duan looked at the empress's micromanipulation with envy, then looked away and looked at the stone tablet curiously:
"What is the content of this "Big Dream Scroll"?"
Xu Zhenguan explained:
"As the title of the painting suggests, if you contemplate this picture, you will have a 'big dream' in which you will experience another life that is indistinguishable from reality. However, that life was about 600 years ago, during the time of Emperor Taizu.
Every person who meditates has a different identity and experience in the dream. After waking up, that is, after each visualization practice, everything that happened in the dream will quickly become blurred, and only a few memories will remain. However, the martial arts and techniques learned and mastered in the dream will be inherited after waking up. "
What kind of ancient life simulator is this? Zhao Duan was amazed.
Lao Xu is really interesting, each of his paintings is a new way of playing.
Xu Zhenguan paused for a moment and continued:
"But it's hard for me to guess what will happen to you. After all, your state is significantly different from that of others after you entered the world."
Zhao Duan retracted his gaze and turned to look at her: "Your Majesty, are you talking about Pei Niannu?"
Xu Zhenguan nodded:
"Others in the Divine Chapter Realm will visualize an ancient person from the Six Chapters Sutra as a 'master'. After entering the Secular Realm, this ancient person will gradually merge with themselves. For example, Tang Jinzhong has not yet merged, so when fighting, the visualized Buddha General will appear.
But when the practice becomes deeper, like me, like Eunuch Hai... they will be completely integrated. At that time, the 'ancient man' visualized will completely disappear, shrinking back into the Qi Sea Dantian, becoming a prototype of a god in the warrior's 'divine furnace', and his appearance will become more and more similar to the practitioner himself..."
In the practice of this world, the worldly realm is a major watershed.
After a sorcerer enters the human world, he will become closer and more in tune with the "god" he is cultivating.
After a warrior enters the world, the qi sea in his dantian will change and become called the "divine furnace". The martial arts energy in the qi sea will turn into a state like an illusory flame, like a blazing furnace fire, penetrating into the sea of consciousness and the soul, refining both the body and the mind.
The Emperor Taizu of the Yu Kingdom embraced both systems. In the "Martial God" system, the ancients visualized in the Six Chapters would first possess the body and then sink into the "God's Furnace"...
In this way, as a warrior, the martial arts you perform will have additional magical effects, but martial arts will still be the main focus.
The sword energy similar to that of others is just sword energy.
The sword energy of the martial god monks has an additional layer of magic damage...
"But you are particularly special. After Pei Niannu descended from the sky, he shared your body, and you mastered martial arts and magic at the same time... This is unheard of. So, I am not sure what path you will take in the future." Xu Zhenguan sighed softly, his eyes somewhat resentful.
As the empress, Zhen Bao was unwilling to admit that she was a little jealous of a sorceress who had been dead for six hundred years...
Zhao Duan looked aggrieved: "I didn't expect it to turn out like this..."
He was not worried about his own practice for the time being. The further he progressed, the more difficult it would be to advance, and he didn't know how long it would take him to become a celestial being.
You can slowly explore...
“Well, you try to visualize. It won’t take too long for the first time. I will protect you.” Xu Zhenguan turned his head away, his white clothes fluttering, and sat on a cushion by himself, ignoring him.
He thought to himself: Xu Zhenguan, oh Xu Zhenguan, you are an emperor, a great man, how can you be as ignorant of the overall situation as an ordinary woman?
No, you shouldn’t.
Zhao Duan hesitated for a moment, but finally sat cross-legged on another cushion and tried to visualize "The Great Dream Scroll".
The candlelight flickers and the night is quiet.
In a daze, the familiar feeling of falling asleep came over him. Zhao Duan closed his eyelids heavily and felt his body sinking.
My consciousness gradually drifted away from the current world, and I heard the sound of wind in my ears, as if falling from a high altitude.
……
Zhao Duan heard a woman's "shrill" scream, accompanied by other people's shouts of "pull harder". He felt himself sinking into the water, and the sounds he heard were blocked by a layer.
The warm and moist force around him continued to accumulate, causing him to sink... He wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn't.
After an unknown amount of time, he felt a strong hand grabbing his ankle and pulling it hard.
"Wow!"
Like a drowning man being pulled out of the water, he breathed deeply and cried uncontrollably.
The midwife's joyful voice came to my ears: "It's born! It's born!"
A few days later, when Zhao Duan finally opened his eyes, he saw the smiling faces of a young couple.
And the slightly shabby houses, whose roofs and beams were filled with straw by the lower-class people.
He went back six hundred years to the end of the previous dynasty "Qiguo", the first year of Tianshou.
Born in a village somewhere in the Central Plains, his parents are a pair of simple farmers.
"Is this the 'Big Dream Scroll'? Experiencing another life?" Zhao Duan lay in the cradle in amazement, looking at the world.
He found that his mind was still clear, but all his strength had disappeared, as if he had traveled through time again.
I don’t know if it’s because of the big dream or because the baby’s brain capacity is insufficient and needs a lot of sleep, but the following time is jumpy.
Many days passed in the blink of an eye, and my memory became sporadic.
He witnessed his "full moon", called "Mom" for the first time, stood up and learned to walk for the first time... and ate for the first time...
This experience was extremely wonderful and made him feel very fresh. When he was bored, he would think that if he were put in a novel, he should write a book called "Becoming a Martial God from an Infant"...
It seemed like a blink of an eye, six years had passed, and he had grown from a baby to a child. Perhaps because of the dream, his name here was still "Zhao Duan".
As Zhao Duan grew up, his wisdom and maturity, which far exceeded his peers, were gradually noticed by the adults.
After he casually copied a poem one day and was "astonished" by the old teacher in the town's private school, the young Zhao Duan was happily given the title of "child prodigy".
The old teacher of the school came with gifts and made crazy promises. He successfully took Zhao Duan away and traveled around the surrounding towns, showing off his talents beyond his peers to make a profit...
After getting the script of The Story of Zhongyong, Zhao Duan lost interest in it. He ran home to explain the whole story to his parents. When the old master came to his house again, his father in this life picked up a pickaxe and chased him across half the village, beating him.
"Oh, it's so lonely, cold and desolate... No, to describe it in a more poetic way, it should be..."
Young Zhao Duan sat at the window, resting his chin on his hand, watching the scene of his "father" beating the old teacher outside the village. His young face was full of maturity that was not in line with his age.
He picked up a brush and wrote a flirtatious chapter title on the latest title of the novel written on the yellowed, inferior paper:
[A boy as lonely as fireworks]
Then, he put down his pen, glanced at the novel he had made up to kill time, and sighed softly on his face:
"This Great Dream Scroll won't really make me a mortal for the rest of my life, right? No matter how hard I try, I can't sense the energy of heaven and earth with this body. I can't even enter the mortal body..."
"Old Xu wouldn't make up such a boring scroll of transformation, so... according to the routine, I'm already six or seven years old, so it's time for me to change..."
Just as he was thinking, Zhao Duan suddenly saw the swaying rain outside the window.
Outside the village, a mysterious woman wearing a red dress, a "silver" mask on her face, a weighing rod inserted on her waist, a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat came.
It broke the peace of the small mountain village.
Pei Niannu floated straight into the courtyard, looking over the window at the confused child inside.
Under the mask, the willow-like eyebrows raised:
"Are you the child prodigy in the rumors? Are you willing to practice with me?"
Zhao Duan was stunned. He turned his head subconsciously and glanced at the thick stack of novel manuscripts on the table beside him. He seemed to see two big blood-red words:
Please update!
Immediately, there was a strong dizziness and the dream quickly collapsed.
……
On the third floor of the old building, on a cushion in front of the stone wall.
Zhao Duan suddenly opened his eyes, gasped, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"What's wrong? It seems that your dream is not peaceful." The empress's soft voice came from the side.
Zhao Duan adjusted to the candlelight and turned to look at the fairy-like empress in white beside him. Xu Zhenguan's face was full of inquiry.
"I don't know how to put it. I can't remember the details, but it was undoubtedly a nightmare." Zhao Duan pondered for a moment and answered.
Nightmare? Xu Zhenguan frowned slightly, then relaxed and said with a smile:
"When I first entered the Great Dream Scroll, it was also a nightmare. But I got used to it later."
She didn't ask too many questions and didn't inquire about the specific content of Zhao Duan's dream. Firstly, although the two of them were at a negative distance, it was still a matter of personal cultivation, so it was not a good idea to ask too thoroughly.
Husbands and wives have their own privacy.
Secondly, as usual, it is indeed difficult to remember the details after waking up from a dream.
However, she didn't know that Zhao Duan remembered everything that happened in his dream clearly and had not forgotten a single thing.
"Why did Pei Niannu appear in my dream? Yes, the Great Dream Scroll is the sequel to the Six Chapters Sutra, so it is very reasonable that they are related... So, in this life simulation game set six hundred years ago, the character I play is Pei Niannu's disciple?"
Zhao Duan pondered in his heart and felt a strong sense of anticipation.
He was a little curious about how real this dream from six hundred years ago was, and how it compared with the "Picture of the God of War"?
Can we use this picture to explore the secrets related to "Tianshu's Destruction of Buddhism" and "Mubei Forest"?
"Is that so? That's good." Zhao Duan breathed a sigh of relief and smiled:
"It seems that the visualization of the third level is going smoothly."
"You have already entered the world, so there will naturally be no problem." Xu Zhenguan glanced at him suspiciously with her beautiful eyes. A woman's sixth sense told her that something was wrong with Zhao Duan's nightmare.
"Ahem, it's getting late. I'll go to the fourth floor to take a look." Zhao Duan stood up guiltily, picked up the lantern, and saw that the candle had become much shorter, which meant that the visualization just now took quite a while.
"...That's fine."
Although Xu Zhenguan was suspicious, he still said "yes" softly, stood up, picked up the exquisite palace lantern with his slender hands, led him out, climbed the stairs, and reached the fourth floor.
When I opened the door, the scene on the fourth floor was nothing special.
There was still only a stone wall in the house and a futon in front.
Xu Zhenguan followed suit and lit the candles in the room. Zhao Duan discovered that the stone wall was dotted with star-like "light spots".
Those light spots are connected by lines, like a net, which is also highly abstract.
Damn it... Did Old Xu learn from Picasso? So abstract? Zhao Duan complained in his heart.
"This painting is The Human World, and it is also the scroll that one should contemplate and practice after reaching the level of a celestial being. I have already stepped half a foot into the celestial being before, and I have contemplated this painting many times, but I could not comprehend it. Now that my cultivation has improved again, perhaps I will see a different picture when I look at this painting again."
Xu Zhenguan's expression fluctuated. Under the light, she seemed to be eager to make a move, and her eyes were shining.
Zhao Duan asked curiously:
"Your Majesty, you couldn't comprehend it before? With my current state, I'm afraid I won't be able to visualize it successfully at all."
"It's okay. We're just trying it tonight. Failure is normal." Xu Zhenguan gave him an encouraging look.
"Okay... tell me, what is the content of this painting "The World"? Tell me in more detail so that I can be prepared." Zhao Duan asked.
Xu Zhenguan hesitated, confusion in his eyes:
"It seems like a strange world. I can't understand it. It's hard to describe. If you can successfully visualize it, you will understand it naturally."
You've aroused my curiosity... Zhao Duan was eager to try, rubbing his hands, and sat on the cushion, cross-legged in meditation:
"Your Majesty, protect me."
As he spoke, he calmed his breath, stared at the painting "The World", and tried to enter a meditative state.
After a moment, he closed his eyes and felt the familiar feeling of weightlessness. He seemed to be in the sky again, falling thousands of feet into the air.
"Is it possible?"
Zhao Duan suppressed his excitement and tried his best to open his eyes. Then he really opened his eyes in a state of visualization.
In my field of vision, it seemed to be night, with thick clouds below, and I was falling to the earth like a meteorite.
However, it seemed extremely bright below the clouds, as if countless stars dotted the earth, vast and magnificent.
"How is that possible? At this altitude at night, even in the capital, there wouldn't be much light..."
Zhao Duan was full of doubts, but the next second, he "whoosh" and completely tore open the clouds. The clouds in front of him quickly dispersed, revealing a prosperous metropolis.
Under the night sky, the urban circle is as bright as circles of light bands. On the ring road, cars flow continuously. The tall buildings in the city are like sharp swords piercing the sky.
On the city streets, countless people dressed in urban clothes were like ants, going in and out of the buildings, and countless riders were riding at lightning speed...
Zhao Duan felt as if his head was hit hard by a stick, and his mind went blank!
With eyes wide open, he stared blankly at the city in his pupils rapidly expanding. He continued to fall and finally appeared above a solemn and dignified building.
Only a few windows in the compound were still lit.
At this moment, in an office.
"Zhao Duan", who died suddenly due to staying up late to prepare a speech for his leader for the next day's meeting, lay quietly in front of the computer desk, motionless.
No one pays attention.
Only the computer screen cast a pale blue light.
Suddenly, the dead "Zhao Duan" moved his fingers, and then...
He slowly climbed up from the table, and his eyes, which had been open to death, regained their clarity...
glory!
(End of this chapter)