The Terror of the Heavens Begins with Gu

Chapter 84: Night Talk and Five Tribulations to Become a God

In the dark night, Li Zhen walked forward alone.

After using the palm leaf whip to absorb another person's memory, his head felt even more swollen and painful.

The original one-eyed wizard's memories have not been fully digested, and now he has gained the memories of another person, which creates even greater pressure on his consciousness.

It’s just that a person’s memory is too complicated. Even if only fragments of memory are obtained, too many useless memories will be seen.

Li Zhen has already summed up some experience and knows how to eliminate some memories that he is not interested in, but he still cannot avoid coming into contact with a large number of useless memories.

But he was indeed very interested in this Taoist's memory.

In addition to the little tricks of folding paper cranes, there is also the basic knowledge of Taoist practice.

The one-eyed wizard was just a wild man from Maoshan, and had not received any systematic teaching. His foundation was definitely not as solid as that of the Taoist priest.

After just reading some of the Taoist's memories, Li Zhen felt that the headache was worth it.

There were a lot of things in it that he found interesting.

From the Taoist's memory, we can know that he is from the Changshan faction.

As far as Li Zhen knows, there is also a Changshan faction in the real world.

When he asked Li Xiangwen to collect information, he saw a book called "Changshan Xuantan Secret Records" on the Internet. It was a book from the Changshan faction.

According to Li Xiangwen, the secret record was written by a person who was well versed in ancient books.

Li Zhen had only a superficial understanding of the real Changshan Sect, but after comparing it with the Taoist's memory, he was able to confirm that the two should be the same sect.

What’s a bit strange is that the secret record exists in reality, but it has been lost in the Taoist’s memory for a long time.

This made Li Zhen more and more confused.

Is the setting of this movie world too perfect?
The original plot only involved Master Miao, the seven people who trafficked duck slices, and the one-eyed wizard and others who came later. This Taoist priest did not appear.

But Li Zhen met the Taoist priest and the soldiers.

This feels like a new world, not a world from a movie...

How big is this world?
What would happen if you never completed the mission and stayed in this world forever?
Many questions appeared in Li Zhen's mind and then quickly disappeared.

The vampire zombie followed Li Zhen closely, his whole body covered in a loose black robe, with a bamboo hat on his head, and exuding a terrible evil aura.

Even if you look closely at it this late at night, it is difficult to tell that it is actually a corpse.

It carries a large backpack on its back.

The small bamboo basket containing the little ghost's heart was inside the backpack.

Li Zhen stuffed all kinds of magical instruments and talismans obtained from the one-eyed wizard and the Taoist priest into several large packages. Some were placed in a large backpack, and some were hung on the chest of the zombies.

This zombie has now become a walking luggage rack, consuming the blood of an adult goat in two or three nights, which is extremely cost-effective.

Passing through a gloomy path, Li Zhen saw a flickering fire in a dilapidated house in front of him.

At this moment, an old voice came from the dilapidated temple: "It's dark and the road is dangerous. Why don't you come in and rest for a while?"

Li Zhen smiled at the ruined temple and walked towards it with the vampire zombie.

Pushing open the broken door, a cold wind blew into the ruined temple, causing the fire inside to shake violently.

An old man with a slicked-back hair was sitting by the fire.

The old man looked to be in his sixties or seventies, with gray hair and wearing a long gown. Judging from his temperament, he looked like a fortune teller.

Next to the old man sat a little boy in a gown.

Seeing Li Zhen coming in, the little boy quickly hid behind the old man and only dared to look at Li Zhen secretly.

The old man smiled and nodded to Li Zhen without even looking at the zombie beside Li Zhen.

At the same time, his fingers began to pinch rapidly, and finally his thumb stopped on the tip of his ring finger.

After Li Zhen sat down, the old man said, "Happy soon! The five elements belong to fire, the color is red, and the direction is south. To seek wealth, to seek official position, to seek a solution, one must also face south... This career of the lay Buddhist will be very smooth."

Li Zhen looked at the old man and asked, "What's your name, old sir?"

The old man smiled and said, "My Taoist name is Heyan, and you can call me Heyan Taoist."

The self-proclaimed "Lao Daoist" seems a bit out of place when put together with his clothes.

"Can Taoist Heyan figure out what I'm going to do?"

"Why would you even bother calculating this? Look at the murderous look on your face, and the place you're heading to is just a single city. There aren't many targets worth killing there."

Li Zhen laughed and said, "If he is an important person, then why did my trip go so smoothly?"

Taoist He Yan sighed, "Important people naturally need to be protected by experts, but the experts are dead. Based on the feng shui formations of the mansion, there is no one to control them. What can be done about the important people?"

"Is this important person only protected by a master?"

"Laymen, please do not underestimate that master. Apart from that master, everyone else is not worth mentioning and is not worthy of your attention."

At this time, the little ghost suddenly poked his head out from the small bamboo basket behind the zombie and looked at the Taoist Heyan and the little boy curiously.

The little boy was so frightened that he screamed and hid his head behind the Taoist Heyan.

Taoist Heyan reached out and touched the child's head with a smile.

Li Zhen, who was watching this scene coldly, said, "Since the Taoist priest is good at fortune-telling, could you please calculate my future for me?"

Taoist He Yan shook his head and said, "Fortune-telling is not omnipotent. The more powerful a person is, the more difficult it is to predict their future. If you ask me about my future, it would be better to ask what kind of future you want."

This statement sounded a bit perfunctory, but Li Zhen knew it was the truth.

He looked towards the firelight and said, "The Taoist priest said that to find the answer, we must go south. Now that I am here, I wonder if the Taoist priest can answer a few of my questions?"

Taoist Heyan said gently, "What doubts do you have? Just ask. I will answer everything I can."

Li Zhen said frankly, "I want to follow the path of the Yin God, but I'm very confused about the way forward. I wonder what the Taoist priest can say to me?"

While saying this, he was paying attention to the expression on Taoist Heyan's face, but he didn't see anything unusual on the other person's face. Taoist Heyan didn't seem to be surprised at his words.

"This question, sir, makes me, an old Taoist, tremble with fear." He Yan, an old Taoist, laughed bitterly. "Yin Shen, Yin Shen, after all, has the word 'shen' in it. How can a mortal explain it clearly when discussing gods?"

"But since the layman wants to listen, then I will speak boldly."

"Those who are pure yin with no yang are ghosts, those who are pure yang with no yin are yang gods, and those who are a mixture of yin and yang are yin gods."

"The state that Taoists pursue is to become a Yang God who has completely refined his Yin nature. However, some people have become Yin Gods out of necessity. As for why there is no method to cultivate Yin Gods, it is because this path is not the right one."

"Unrefined Yin Spirits are full of distracting thoughts. They scatter when they encounter the wind and become chaotic when they encounter demons. Most people who embark on this path either become murderous demons or die quietly. Those who manage to make some name for themselves don't have a good reputation."

These are common sense, but that's not what Li Zhen wants to know.

He frowned and said, "This road is not a dead end."

"Of course it's not a dead end." Taoist He Yan said with yearning, "There are people who have cultivated from Yin Gods to Ghost Immortals, and then refined their Yin essence to become Yang Gods, but this only exists in legends. Laymen should know how difficult this path is."

"Yang Shen focuses on eliminating distracting thoughts through methods such as stopping thoughts and observing, so as to bring the mind back to oneness. However, achieving Yin Shen does not require the elimination of distracting thoughts, as it already contains Yin residue."

"In fact, if one can cultivate to the Yin God realm and possesses great perseverance, it is also the perfect opportunity to refine the devil. Relying on the distracting thoughts of the Yin God realm, one can sharpen one's character and eventually break through to the Yang God realm."

Li Zhen, who had been watching Taoist He Yan, suddenly said, "I heard that the Changshan School has a method called 'Changshan Yuanshen Refining General Explanation' that can help people refine their Yuanshen?" Taoist He Yan was startled, then smiled and said, "Changshan does have such a method, but it is an orthodox way to refine the Yuanshen, seeking to unify the mind. It may not be able to cultivate anything in ten or twenty years, so it may not be suitable for lay Buddhists. Besides, why would a lay Buddhist go so far when the near is near?"

Li Zhen's mind moved: "What do you mean?"

Taoist Heyan looked at Li Zhen for a few times and said, "The evil aura and murderous intent in you, sir, are not without reason, right?"

Li Zhen confessed, "I once used visualization to visualize the evil spirit, and my soul was eroded by the evil spirit's will."

"No wonder." Taoist He Yan nodded thoughtfully, "That layman is indeed seeking the far-fetched path instead of the near one. Since he himself has such pure evil thoughts, then isn't there a ready-made path to becoming a Yin Spirit?"

Li Zhen watched without saying anything.

After a light cough, Taoist He Yan continued, "The evil demon that the layman is visualizing should not be an ordinary evil demon. This kind of evil thoughts and evil thoughts are extremely pure. As long as the evil thoughts of the evil demon are used as fire to refine the Yuan Shen, you can naturally achieve the Yin God."

Li Zhen became interested: "How to cultivate the spirit with evil thoughts?"

Taoist Heyan did not answer but asked, "How do you visualize the evil spirits, layman?"

After a slight hesitation, Li Zhen repeated his method of visualization.

This is not a specific technique, so there is no problem of being restrained if it is revealed.

Moreover, he can leave at any time, so even if Taoist Heyan has other ideas, he can't do anything to him.

After hearing Li Zhen's words, Heyan Taoist took a deep breath. "A layman actually used the Maoshan School's visualization method to visualize evil spirits. This is truly... bold. I, Taoist, have never seen anyone dare to do that."

After a pause, allowing his surprise to settle in, he continued, "There's nothing wrong with the Maoshan method of visualization. However, the righteous gods visualized in the righteous path are naturally aligned with the Five Elements. How can the evil demons visualized by the layman be strictly aligned with the Five Elements?"

"If you continue to practice like this, there will definitely be a day when evil demons will rampage and devour the layman's soul."

After years of practice, Taoist He Yan's understanding of practice is far beyond what Li Zhen, who has gained some memories, can compare to.

Even if Li Zhen did not explain in detail how he visualized the evil spirit, the old Taoist He Yan could guess a little bit and pointed out the pain points.

Seeing Li Zhen remain silent, He Yan said, "The original method of visualization relies on visualization to clear one's mind of distracting thoughts. It also relies on the mutual generation and mutual restraint of the five elements between the objects of visualization to elevate one's primordial spirit, ultimately reaching the highest realm described by visualization."

"The visualization method was passed down by the ancestors and cannot be easily changed, let alone making drastic changes like the layman did. This can easily lead to problems."

"Judging from the layman's appearance, he shouldn't have encountered any major problems in his practice for the time being. However, I suspect that after visualizing the evil spirits according to the method of visualization, he certainly didn't feel the mutual generation and mutual restraint between the evil spirits."

Li Zhen nodded. "Indeed, the demons are influencing each other, but they haven't achieved the mutual restraint I envisioned. Maintaining balance relies entirely on the powerful suppression of my own Yuan Shen."

Even with the state of mind of He Yan Lao Dao, his heart couldn't help but jump when he heard this: "The layman's spirit... is really astonishingly powerful."

Li Zhen sighed, "It's not easy to get to this point."

Taoist Heyan agreed: "Practicing is like rowing against the current. It is not easy if you don't embark on this path."

Returning to the previous topic, he continued, "Since you know Changshan's 'General Explanation of the Refining of the Primordial Spirit', you should know Changshan's most famous 'Scroll of Spiritual Laws and Talismans'."

Li Zhen thought about it before nodding.

Taoist He Yan sighed, "There's a special method for making talismans in the scroll, called the Five Elements Evil Spirit Sublimation Method. It can guide evil spirits to restrain each other, using the mutual generation and restraint of the evil spirits of the Five Elements to improve the quality of the talismans."

Li Zhen pondered, "Master, do you mean this method of dealing with evil spirits can be applied to humans?"

Taoist He Yan shook his head and then nodded: "This was originally a method of cultivation conceived by the ancestors, and was later applied to drawing talismans."

Li Zhen questioned, "There doesn't seem to be such a statement in the Dharma scroll, and the disciples of the Changshan School probably don't know about it either."

"That's because the second volume of the Dharma scroll has been lost for many years, so this saying hasn't been passed down." Taoist Heyan picked up a branch and skillfully drew a talisman on the ground. "Please look, layman, this talisman is a little different from the others. Does this look like the lower dantian? Does this look like the upper dantian?"

Li Zhen had the Taoist's memories and was familiar with most of the talismans of the Changshan faction. Naturally, he knew the talismans drawn by Taoist Heyan, and he also knew that Taoist Heyan did not deceive him in this area.

Combining the Taoist's memories, Li Zhen felt that what Taoist Heyan said made sense the more he listened.

Could it be that this method of making talismans could really be used in cultivation?

After explaining this to Li Zhen, Taoist He Yan continued, "Adding one evil spirit to the talisman counts as one tribulation. If the talisman paper doesn't break, its power will increase significantly. After five tribulations, it's said that its power is unfathomable. However, no one in the Changshan Sect has ever created a five-tribulation talisman."

"According to the few words left by that ancestor, there's a saying about five tribulations to become a god. My master guessed this refers to the primordial spirit undergoing five tribulations, using increasingly stronger evil thoughts as fire to refine the body, and ultimately sublimate into a Yin God."

"However, this method cultivates the Yin spirit, and the threshold is high. If the Yuan spirit is not strong and cannot subdue the evil spirits, even the door cannot be entered. It is a useless method. Later, it was lost. I don't know if anyone has successfully practiced it."

"For lay people, this is actually already an entry point. As long as you make some changes to the original visualization method, you can try to walk this path."

"With the strength of your soul, you won't encounter too much difficulty in the first three tribulations."

Li Zhen asked, "Master, do you not know the details of cultivation?"

Taoist Heyan smiled bitterly and said, "I can't help you. You can only rely on yourself to figure it out."

Li Zhen thought of another question: "This method seems to require drawing talismans. Can non-Changshan disciples draw them?"

Taoist He Yan explained, "This talisman is different from the others. Its power doesn't come from the ancestor, but from the evil spirit. Therefore, it doesn't require a response from the ancestor. All that's needed is for the person drawing the talisman to focus their spirit and will on the talisman. The same applies to the following talismans where the person uses their body as a talisman."

The running little ghost appeared behind Li Zhen, made a face at the boy behind the Taoist Heyan, and scared the boy so much that he screamed. Then it laughed triumphantly.

It tried to approach the boy, but was blocked by Li Zhen's hand, so it had to retreat behind Li Zhen.

After gathering his thoughts, Li Zhen asked, "If a person's yang energy is lost, causing the soul to become unstable...does the Taoist priest have any solutions?"

"If it were an ordinary person, there would certainly be a way." He Yan said bluntly, "But you know the problem yourself, I definitely can't do anything about it."

Li Zhen stopped asking questions about cultivation: "Master, why are you still guiding me when you see that I am full of evil spirits?"

Taoist He Yan said with a sincere look: "Although the layman is full of evil spirits, his eyes are extremely pure and upright. I don't think he has done anything that harms the world. I also hope that the layman will not completely fall into the devil's way."

Li Zhen smiled and said, "The Taoist priest is so kind-hearted. I admire him."

"If everyone in the world were like the Taoist priest and didn't judge people by their appearance, there would be fewer disputes in the world."

Taoist Heyan also laughed.

Li Zhen didn't say anything else. He just stood up and walked out of the ruined temple.

The vampire zombie followed Li Zhen.

The little ghost quickly crawled into the backpack behind the zombie.

Taoist Heyan silently watched Li Zhen's back.

When he reached the door, Li Zhen suddenly paused and asked, "Is the paper crane on the Taoist priest?"

The dilapidated temple suddenly became quiet, with only the crackling sound of the burning flames.

After a few breaths, Heyan Laodao sighed softly, took out the small yellow paper crane from his sleeve, and said frankly, "I did receive the letter from Junior Brother Fang."

Li Zhen didn't turn around: "Master, are you not going to take action?"

Taoist He Yan shook his head slightly: "Junior Brother Fang didn't send me a letter asking me to take revenge, but just a reminder for me to be careful."

"Junior Brother Fang has practiced for many years but still hasn't been able to transcend the constraints of fame and fortune. After coming down the mountain, he was dragged into the world of fame and fortune... This is a calamity that Junior Brother Fang deserves. I once told Junior Brother Fang about this when we were on the mountain."

"The Taoist priest is truly open-minded."

"You're welcome. You can take all of Junior Brother Fang's other things, but that peach wood sword was passed down from my master. It's worthless now that it's broken, but it holds great commemorative value to me. I wonder if you could leave it to me?"

Li Zhen took out the broken peach wood sword from the backpack behind the zombie and threw it to Taoist He Yan.

After receiving the broken sword, Taoist He Yan hesitated and said to Li Zhen, "General Wang in the city has killed countless people, and he has taken 20 to 30 concubines. He is not a good man. His death will have little impact. Someone will take over Shancheng. I just hope that you will not commit so many murders and hurt innocent people."

(End of this chapter)