Techniques and Dao

Chapter 40 Time Bodhi
The Academy of Arts and Martial Arts. The Imperial Immortal Pavilion.

"Are you referring to Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals?"

“That’s right. He is also a celestial master from the Academy of Arts and Sciences, but he has been wandering the mortal world for many years. Now that you have used a celestial technique with his mark, you must have met him before.”

Hua Sheng couldn't say she'd never heard of Lan Caihe, whom Master Yu Ran mentioned. But her impression of Lan Caihe mostly came from books and movies about the legends of the Eight Immortals.

Hua Sheng thought, if Lan Caihe truly existed in this world, how could she possibly have the chance to meet him in the mortal realm? It is said that immortals descending to earth must transform into various forms, indistinguishable to the naked eye. Even if an immortal revealed their true form, how could mortals possibly recognize them?

"As for Lan Caihe's name, I've heard of him since I was a child. But I really don't know what he looks like, and I never thought I would be able to meet him." Hua Sheng was telling the truth.

The three immortal masters exchanged a glance.

Immortal Master Jueguang asked Immortal Master Huolei, "Can you confirm that the Samadhi True Fire released by Huasheng is from the immortal Lan Caihe?"

"Absolutely no mistake! If it were a commoner's magic in Shengping Ning, there might be a chance of mistaking it. But the Samadhi True Fire is an extraordinary immortal technique, and it was performed by one of the Eight Immortals. How could I, an immortal, be mistaken?" The Fire Thunder Immortal Master still spoke in his usual loud and fiery voice.

“If it were truly the Samadhi True Fire, any mortal who touched it would have been burned to ashes long ago. How can we explain that Hua Sheng was able to seal it within his body for so long?” Master Yu Ran said. “It seems necessary to discuss this with the Dean.”

Master Jueguang pondered for a moment and said, "It is indeed necessary to meet with the Dean. Moreover, Lan Caihe rarely stays in Shengpingning, and only the Dean himself can find him. But we suddenly lost contact before, and I heard that we have been unable to find him for a long time."

Then, Master Jueguang spread his fingers upwards and made a gesture of rotating and gathering petals. All the light spots in the magic array on the entire floor gathered together and merged into a small light spot that disappeared into the air.

"Tianjizi and Weiyu, you two must be exhausted from guarding the formation! Get up!" Master Jueguang said to the two guardians.

Tianjizi and Weiyu slowly brought their outstretched palms together, and the protective array around the Yuxian Pavilion platform gradually closed behind them.

Then, Tianjizi stood up and asked impatiently, "Just now, the immortal masters mentioned Lan Caihe. Is there any news about my father?"

Master Jueguang said, "There is still no trace of them. But it seems there are at least some clues. Hopefully, we can start from these clues and do some investigation."

Tianjizi glanced at Huasheng suspiciously and asked, "Have you really met my father? Don't hide anything from us."

Hua Sheng cupped his hands in apology: "I'm so sorry, I really don't remember anything about it..."

At this moment, Master Yu Ran said to Hua Sheng, "Hua Sheng, Wei Yu, you may step back for now. We have a few more words to say to Tian Ji Zi."

After bowing respectfully, Hua Sheng descended the wooden stairs of the Imperial Immortal Pavilion.

After leaving Yuxian Pavilion, Hua Sheng didn't go far. Instead, he found a large sycamore tree to sit under and waited for Wei Yu to come downstairs.

But after sitting for a while, there was still no sign of Wei Yu.

Hua Sheng suddenly realized that Wei Yu might have flown away from the other side, and he had missed it. The immortals and spirits might not have the habit of going down the stairs to the bottom like he did; perhaps they turned around and flew away on the clouds.

He was feeling frustrated when he suddenly saw Wei Yu walking slowly down the stairs, and he breathed a sigh of relief!

Could she be deliberately trying to catch up with me? Hua Sheng's heart skipped a beat, and he stepped forward to call out to her. But then he thought, what if she's still angry? Wouldn't that just be making a fool of himself? But he couldn't let this drag on; he had to face it eventually. He might as well take this opportunity to break the ice.

"Hey!" Hua Sheng forced a smile and greeted him, his expression slightly stiff.

Wei Yu looked up and said, "You're still here?"

"I’m waiting for you."

"Hmm," Wei Yu replied, but didn't continue the conversation.

Hua Sheng's mind raced, trying to figure out how to break the awkward silence. He quickly said, "The occasion was inconvenient, so I didn't talk to you much earlier."

Wei Yu replied coldly, "There's nothing inconvenient about it. Is there anything you couldn't say earlier?"

Hanamori felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, and he forced himself to say, "But I was still surprised to find you there."

“Whenever there are occasional ceremonies held in Xi’s academy, our student committee is often called upon to help the immortal master with some protective work.”

"A Dharma Protector isn't someone an ordinary disciple can be!"

"Only disciples who are thoroughly familiar with both the Illusion-level and Profound-level immortal arts, and even those who have mastered some of the Soaring-level immortal arts, are eligible to meet the requirements."

Hanamori seemed to have been hit where it hurt.

"It's nothing really, just some trivial tasks," Wei Yu said, then changed the subject. "How are things between you and Mieying?"

"what are you talking about?"

Wei Yu said, "Qingmiao Immortal Master, the elder sister of Mie Ying, has also been kind to Wei Yu. If you get along well with Qingmiao Immortal Master's sister, the Immortal Master will naturally be happy."

Would you be happy then?

"Whether I'm happy or not is none of your business," Wei Yu said, glancing at Hua Sheng.

"Alright, Weiyu. It was my fault, okay? But you know I went to participate in the Tianmu Trial because I didn't want Tianjizi to cause us any trouble."

"Qingmiao Immortal Master's sisters are all stunning beauties, and they are also 'royal relatives' of Nezha, the Fire Wheel Heavenly King. How can Weiyu compare to them?"

"Why can't they be compared? No matter how beautiful they are..."

"So you're admitting her sisters are pretty?"

"No, no, no! I was just using an analogy. In my eyes, those sisters are like nine talking parrots!"

The usually aloof Wei Yu finally burst out laughing: "The Mie Meng Bird is also a member of the Spirit Clan, and you, on the contrary, call them parrots. If Mie Ying heard this, he'd tear your shameless bones apart!"

Hua Sheng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Wei Yu smile, and said, "Sigh, I was indeed a bit reckless going to the Tianmu Trial this time. I didn't expect there to be so many experts in the Arts Academy. If I were alone, I probably wouldn't have even passed the first round." "Don't underestimate yourself! Wasn't today's incident caused because you used a Lingxiao-level immortal technique?"

"Stop teasing me."

Wei Yu smiled sweetly and said, "But you are very brave! Courage is not about how strong you are, but about bravely challenging things that are beyond your ability."

"What? How do you know I'm brave?"

Wei Yu leaned closer to Hua Sheng's face, looked directly into his eyes, and said, "How could I not know? Actually, you have quite a few good points, you just don't realize it yourself."

Hua Sheng suddenly blushed and interrupted, saying, "However, it seems we haven't found the reason for the Samadhi True Fire yet. On the contrary, the mystery is getting deeper and deeper."

Wei Yu seemed to have thought of something, and frowned without saying a word.

"What are you thinking about?" Hua Sheng asked.

"Actually, I've thought of a way that might help you recover the memories you've lost." Wei Yu hesitated for a moment.

Hua Sheng was overjoyed upon hearing this and said, "Why didn't you say so earlier? What exactly is the method? We should have tried it sooner."

"But I'm afraid there might be danger."

"Danger?"

"Ah."

"Tell me about it first. Let's see if it's worth the risk."

“I know of such a treasure, called Time Bodhi.”

"Time Bodhi? What's that?"

"The so-called Time Bodhi can enable people to manipulate the time of something. For example, if you use the Time Bodhi to cast a spell on a sapling, the sapling can instantly grow into a towering tree, or the tree can instantly turn back into a sapling."

"There's such a powerful treasure?"

"I think if there were a Time Bodhi, it could restore your mind to the time when you had amnesia, and help you recover your lost memories. Then, by returning to the present, you could solve the mystery and find out why you met Lan Caihe."

"Then why don't we hurry up and go find this Time Bodhi?" Hua Sheng couldn't wait.

Wei Yu said, "The Time Bodhi grows on the Time Bodhi Tree, and only one fruit can be produced every thousand years. Moreover, each one can only be used once."

"If someone had taken it in the past thousand years, wouldn't it still be standing now? The probability that no one in Shengpingning has taken it in such a long time is too low." Hua Sheng felt hopeless upon hearing how rare the Time Bodhi was.

"Not necessarily, because the Time Bodhi Tree is hidden deep inside a cave, and legend has it that it is protected by immortal magic, making it difficult for outsiders to approach. So it's not impossible that it exists." Wei Yu pondered, resting her chin on her right hand.

Where is this cave?

"The Bodhi Tree of Time grows at the bottom of a cave called Panxian Cave."

"Panxian Cave? I've only ever heard of Pansi Cave." Hua Sheng felt like he had learned a lot of new terms today.

"It is said that the reason it is called Panxian is because it has many strings inside."

"Strings? Could it be the strings of a musical instrument?" Hua Sheng laughed. "Then, if we walk up to them, won't we be able to play music?"

“It’s not strings. How should I put it…” Wei Yu gathered her thoughts and said, “Do you know what all things in the mortal world are made of?”

"To put it on a smaller scale, it's a cell?"

"What if the cells are even smaller?"

"Atoms? Or even smaller protons? Neutrons?" Hanamoto racked his brains to recall what he had learned in class.

"Then what makes up protons and neutrons?"

"This..." Hua Sheng was stumped by the test.

"A neutron is composed of one top quark and two bottom quarks. There are many particles lighter than a neutron, such as electrons, positrons, and neutrinos."

Hana started to feel dizzy.

"Even smaller are strings, also known as energy strings. Strings are the foundation of the world. In fact, inside every elementary particle, there is a thin string vibrating. Because it is so small, it looks like a dot. The more violently the string vibrates, the greater the particle's energy. The gentler the vibration, the less energy the particle has. Energy and mass are like two sides of the same coin; the greater the mass, the greater the energy. Countless vibrating strings make up the universe, and the universe is like a symphony of energy strings. The motion of strings is very complex, so three-dimensional space cannot contain its trajectory; higher-dimensional space is required to satisfy its vibration."

"I don't understand anything you're saying. Weiyu, are you saying the world is made up of strings?"

"It is composed of energy strings, so people can always see different things that have similar forms. For example, typhoons are round, sound waves are round, and water waves are round. This is because the basic particles that make up all matter are vibrating energy strings, and these strings determine the ten-dimensional space in which the universe exists."

"Ten-dimensional space?" Hua Sheng was even more incredulous. "What are you talking about?"

Wei Yu crossed her arms and explained, "The so-called 'spacetime' in the mortal world is composed of two parts: time and space. Ten dimensions are nine spatial dimensions plus one time dimension. Didn't the immortal master say in class before that the world is the way it appears now because mortals' perception is limited to these dimensions?"

Hua Sheng asked, "It seems we've gone off on a tangent. So, what is this Panxian Cave you mentioned?"

"The Panxian Cave is filled with one-dimensional primordial bodies of these energy strings. These energy strings have two states: static and strings with unified vibration patterns. These one-dimensional strings that make up the world combine to form a three-dimensional network. It sounds like the Pansi Cave, which is in a state of parallel fusion of time and multi-dimensional space. And only in such a place can the Time Bodhi, which can reverse time, be conceived."

Hua Sheng's eyes widened: "Although I didn't fully understand, after your explanation, I feel like Panxian Cave is the most dangerous place I've ever been to! It feels like I could be broken into protons or neutrons at any moment, or even torn into thin threads!"

(End of this chapter)