Mysterious mirror hanging high

Song Jianxu thought so in his heart, and he also made up his mind to make friends with Jing Yu, a cultivator with great potential.

In fact, it was because Jing Yu was in an unfamiliar environment and was no longer bound by his original identity. In addition, he deliberately imitated the behavior of the direct descendants of the immortal clan, so he no longer concealed the foundation of his cultivation and finally shined in front of a Jindan Zhenren like Song Jianxu.

"Jinghong, I'm going to discuss the Dharma with Ye Xiaoyou in a moment, so you stay here to guard and protect us."

Song Jinghong agreed, and suddenly a translucent ghost figure appeared behind him. Jing Yu looked closely and found that it was a beautiful woman with picturesque eyebrows and slim figure. The woman was wearing a light green silk dress, with a flower basket on her arm, and riding on the back of a red leopard. She didn't look like a ghost, but rather had some of the fairy charm of a mountain goddess.

Then, the leopard-riding goddess carrying a flower basket behind Song Jinghong shook the basket in her hand, and dozens of fat white mountain elves with a few leaves on their heads, as white as radishes, jumped out of the basket. These little mountain elves jumped and hopped, and each of them seemed to be proficient in the art of earth escape. With a "whoosh", they all drilled into the stone wall of the cave, probably to be on guard.

"I'm afraid this ghost is the Mountain Ghost that accompanied Song Jinghong. It's so majestic and graceful, like an immortal in a painting."

Jing Yu thought to himself, "Compared to this, Song Jinghong actually looks like one of the zombies that this goddess commands."

"I bother!"

When Jing Yu thought of this, he felt that this idea was a bit harsh. The physical appearance of a cultivator was determined by heaven. Even if he refined his immortal body when building his foundation, he could only slightly adjust his appearance. If his foundation was too poor, there would not be much improvement.

Even if the body is refined to the point where it can change at will, the "true appearance" of this Dharma body will not change, unless one completely discards the physical body like the Nine-Life Taoist Lord, leaving only a soul to roam the world. The soul has no form and can be manipulated at will, and only then will there be a chance to get rid of the trouble of the original appearance.

Song Jinghong secretly raised her eyes to glance at Jing Yu, and suddenly found that this heroic young man seemed to be apologizing to her, which was somewhat baffling. However, she raised her eyes to look at the Mountain Ghost that accompanied her, and then looked at Jing Yu's sharp face, and a trace of jealousy arose in her heart for no reason:

"Ah... what a pair of immortals and immortals! Even a ghost is a perfect match for Fellow Daoist Ye."

On the other side, Song Jianxu had already sat down cross-legged. He gently raised his arm, palm facing upwards, made a "please" gesture to Jing Yu, and said with a smile:

"My friend, please."

Jing Yu knew that Song Jianxu was going to preach seriously, so he didn't dare to be arrogant. He immediately knelt down respectfully on the cushion, placed his hands on his thighs, and waited for his teachings with the etiquette of a disciple.

"Young friend Ye, do you know what [divination] is?"

Jing Yu had previously learned some divination techniques on his own, and knew that Song Jianxu was testing his own divination skills. He pondered for a moment and said slowly:

"How to predict the future good or bad fortune?"

Song Jianxu smiled and nodded. "My friend, your summary is good, but it all comes down to two words: [prediction]."

"Since it's a prediction, then divination is actually just a means of speculation. If that's the case, then it must have a probability."

"It's hard to say anything in this world is destined. Some people once thought death was inevitable, but how could we know that no one among us cultivators could ever reach that supreme state of immortality, where even if heaven and earth crumble, I remain unbroken?"

"Therefore, many cultivators who study divination regard the results of divination as a certainty. In fact, this is actually a step down. At least in my opinion, divination can only approach certainty infinitely, but it can never make the probability of this certainty 100%."

"But then again, if we could improve the accuracy of divination to 99%, then there wouldn't necessarily be anything wrong with always trusting the results of divination. But the prerequisite is that you have absolute confidence in your own skills."

Song Jianxu became very excited when he talked about divination, and said:

"What is the so-called hexagram obtained by divination? It is actually composed of a series of small hexagrams."

"For example, if you want to predict whether an uncivilized native will go out today, you have to calculate their status, ethnic customs, and even the current weather conditions."

Song Jianxu gave a specific example and explained:

"The four outer regions of the Falling Star Sea have very different environments. Our South Sea region is often hit by heavy rain. If the natives make a living by growing fruits, rice, or trees, they can only rest at home during the rainy season and can only go out to work in the fields during the sunny season. The same is true for the natives who make a living by fishing. They can only go out to sea to fish during the sunny season."

"But the natives of some islands in the South China Sea make a living by hunting animals on the islands. And many of the animals on the islands only appear in large numbers during the rainy season. So these natives have to go out hunting on rainy days."

"But what about the native priests or nobles? They are the rulers of their tribes and are not naturally engaged in production. In fact, regardless of the weather, they can stay at home and enjoy the fruits of others' labor. Therefore, their status also determines whether they will go out that day."

"The reason many unskilled fortune-tellers give inaccurate divinations is that they don't have sufficient information to predict all the variables involved. This often leads to errors of a thousand miles."

"Why do I say that divination itself is the most accurate? It's because the person who knows oneself best is often oneself. For example, when refining an elixir, even an alchemist who knows nothing about divination will usually have a rough idea of ​​the quality of the elixir by the second half of the process. Isn't this a kind of primitive divination?"

Jing Yu listened quietly, taking notes. When he first entered the immortal path, he was very cautious and never had too many causal connections with high-level cultivators. The opportunity to be personally taught by a great immortal was extremely rare, so he naturally would not miss the opportunity. When he had doubts, he asked directly:

"Master Song, there's something I'm confused about. Divination has always been closely related to lifespan. Why can consuming one's lifespan increase the accuracy of divination? What's the secret behind this?"

Song Jianxu was startled when he heard this, then he smiled and said, "This question really stumped me. Actually, I don't understand the principle behind this either."

"Ok?"

The old man continued to explain:

"For example, if a cultivator burns his mana, he can make most of his spells and magical powers even more powerful."

"Body cultivators consume blood and energy to temporarily increase their physical strength."

"Burning mana and consuming blood can both enhance certain effects. This seems natural to us, right? But what's the principle behind it? Can you explain it?"

Song Jianxu said leisurely, "Consuming lifespan to improve divination accuracy is essentially a natural law, or an equivalent exchange. As for why, I don't know."

"Perhaps it's some kind of heavenly rule, or perhaps it's a rule established by some powerful being beyond our imagination. It's all possible. There's actually not much point in dwelling on it."