They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

Therefore, the true transformation of the spirit should be the method of "concentrating on inner scenes" recorded in the Taoist "Huangting Jing".

"Found it," Wazhu opened a book called "Huangting Neijing Yujing Zhu".

"…Thus, the inner part of the Huangting is the heart. Jing is image. External images refer to the sun, moon, stars, clouds, and mist; internal images refer to the blood, flesh, tendons, bones, and internal organs. The heart resides within the body, observing the images and colors of the whole body, so it is called the inner scenery."

So that's how it is. What Emiya was talking about as mental scenery is actually referring to the inner scenery of Taoism!

As the source of the Taoist inner alchemy in later generations, the "Huangting Jing" particularly emphasizes the unity of man and nature, that is, the corresponding theory of "the human body as a microcosm and the heaven and earth as a macrocosm". Through the "contemplation method", one can construct an internal mental landscape with a spatial structure similar to the outside world.

The voice of the Wa Lord echoed within the scroll, "Shirou, I've found a viable solution. Listen carefully..."

She spoke a little quickly, a little excitedly. It was as if she had seen the so-called ethereal immortal path, which had once been hidden and invisible beyond the mountains, but now had transformed into a broad and open road!

Since my personal cultivation path can refine this kind of "inherent barrier" inner scene cave heaven...

So, what if they collectively embark on the path of immortality, choose "harmony between man and nature", and combine the inner scene with the external world, so that the thirty-six caves and seventy-two blessed places in the vast continent are integrated into one, forming a super-large "inner scene cave heaven" that is connected to thousands of practitioners?

This is the Thought Plate! Concentrate on the inner world, cultivate your body and live in the world, and unite yourself with nature! The universe is in your hands, all changes are born from your body, and the path to immortality is within sight!

----

"Huh? Huangting Sutra...?"

Emiya thought, no way, is he really going to play the immortal cultivation game?

...The Red A Sword Immortal meme used to be just a joke among netizens. It turns out that this thing can really be accomplished using Taoist practice methods?

However, it does not seem difficult for immortals to create something similar to an inherent barrier. After all, they are beings whose scale rivals that of gods, and opening up a "small world" is just a manifestation of their method of hiding the universe.

If he could figure out how to open up a permanent barrier, it would be reasonable and there would be nothing to be dissatisfied with... But I feel like the style of Infinite Sword Works seems a bit off?

"Okay, I've taken note of all this. They do share some similarities... Eh? Airlift the family's Taoist scriptures over here?"

Emiya heard Wazhu planning to pack up these books and send them to him again. "Thank you so much...but these things should be very important, right?"

"What's so important? These ancient books are just sitting in the attic gathering dust. If you hadn't called me, who knows how long they would have been forgotten. You don't need to thank me. I should be the one to thank them, and them too..."

The mood of the Wazhu on the other end of the phone seemed to suddenly brighten up, and her little mouth seemed to be smeared with honey and kept spouting compliments. Emiya struggled awkwardly for a long time before finally ending the topic hastily and hanging up the phone.

"Hey! Why do I feel like there's always a strange enthusiasm in Lord Wa's attitude? This time the situation seems even more serious..."

Emiya couldn't help but complain bluntly. Could it be that Wa-sama was experiencing a puberty attack? He was a little afraid that the next time they were alone, Wa-sama would openly broach the subject, venturing into unspeakable matters.

Before, his mind was still filled with the Taoist theories told by the Lord Wa. As for the classics of the Lord Wa, it didn't matter whether they were sent to him or not.

Emiya was the master at turning his wildest ideas into practical applications. As for theory, it was enough to understand the essence and grasp the key points. It wasn't an exam, so why bother memorizing trivial points that wouldn't be used?

"But I see you two seem to be having a great time chatting. She's so excited, she almost wants to pack herself up in a courier box to come see you, right?"

Nuonuo pouted beside her and tapped the floor with her feet, making a very strong thudding sound to show her dissatisfaction.

"...I guess your understanding of happiness is probably different from what makes Wa and I happy."

Emiya spread his hands and said, "I'm not sure what exactly Wa is so happy about. At least I'm happy because of the problem just now. Thanks to Wa's help, I found a solution to the inherent barrier."

Nuonuo chuckled, and a slight coldness gradually spread across his face.

"I can probably guess what's exciting about Lord Wa—she's got her eyes on you again. The way she's talking to you is like a long-suffering housewife desperately trying to seduce a handsome man out on the town! It's just a pity that someone understands her intentions but doesn't take any action."

Although she said so, the girl's tone was quite sour, like a loser who was trying to be stubborn and refused to admit defeat.

Emiya bent down to pick up the empty beer can that had rolled to the bottom of the shelf, then he brushed past Nono sideways and cleaned the aisle floor without looking back. When his toes kicked the display shelf next to him, the treasured sword hanging on it made a buzzing sound.

"If I really get along perfectly with Lord Wa, then someone else will start getting anxious again, right?"

The coldness on Nuonuo's face quickly melted away, transforming into a blush of embarrassment. She folded her arms and turned away from Emiya, her smooth right wrist resting in the undulating folds of fabric across her chest. "Never mind the urgency, just tell me whether this matter has been resolved or not. Who was it that just said that no one else could help with their own problems?"

"Well, you're right."

Emiya threw the can into the trash can and turned to look at Nono. Her fair and flawless right wrist suddenly caught Emiya's attention.

He reached out his hand as fast as lightning and grabbed Nuonuo's right hand.

"What are you doing!"

Nono was startled for half a second by this "sneak attack", but she didn't resist hard because she was just talking nonsense. She pretended to pull her hand back, but when she found that she didn't move, she let Emiya hold her hand.

The reason was simple: they had spent enough time together that even if she had gone to the Genji Building to ambush for a few days, their trust wouldn't have declined at all. Nono didn't believe Emiya would harm her.

Emiya grabbed her right hand and looked at it, then glanced at her equally smooth and flawless left hand. His eyes swept back and forth before he finally let go of Nono. "Strange... you haven't had any Command Seals until now?"

"Command Seals?" Nono understood Emiya's intention. "Are you referring to the seals that can enforce orders?"

"Yes. That thing is the qualification for a Master. Although you have a contract with Melyusina, the Command Seals are the proof of your participation in the Holy Grail War."

Suspicions welled up in Emiya's mind. No matter how special their identities—even the Lesser Holy Grail Illya—they all possessed Command Seals.

However, Illya's entire body of magic circuits have been specially adjusted. The number of them is extremely large and the magic power is abundant. They can also be used as Command Spells, but in essence they are still Magic Circuits. Their main purpose is to serve as magic crystals to assist and supplement the servants, but they do not have the compulsory command effect of the original Command Spells.

"Strange, isn't it? Perhaps it was because I was unexpectedly summoned early that I wasn't chosen by the Holy Grail to be included in the list of masters."

Nono nonchalantly turned his wrist and flexed his arms twice. "So, Melyusina, the Lancer, is a Servant who is independent of the Holy Grail War? There are other main characters in this ceremony who didn't have time to enter?"

"Yes, it's very likely. I originally thought that the Holy Grail War was already full... Let's sort out the Servants who have appeared so far. We are all familiar partners. Caster Anastasia, who was summoned by the trio, is responsible for protecting Eri."

"Then there's Genjiro's Saber Watanabe Tsuna, Kazama Ruri's Berserker Ibaraki Douji, plus the Rider Sima Yi, Archer Hercules, and Assassin Mochizuki Chiyome whom I met before..."

Nono immediately realized the situation. "If you count my Melyuchina, we should have seven servants of different classes. But now that Melyuchina is not counted, it means there's still a strange Lancer who hasn't appeared yet?"

"Yes," Emiya nodded.

"The reason I can determine that Melyusina is an Extra is because Saber Attila appeared before the Holy Grail War began. In other words, this Holy Grail War was designed from the very beginning to allow Extra Heroic Spirits to roam freely."

Chapter 218: The chicken feet are finally exposed

As we all know, shady dealings and illegal operations are essential elements of the Holy Grail War.

Do you think everyone is like an honest person, playing according to the rules?

That doesn't exist.

In the normal world line, the Einzbern family has been illegally summoning Angra Mainyu since the Third Holy Grail War, resulting in the contamination of the Greater Holy Grail.

In other world lines, there is also a situation where the entire Holy Grail was snatched away by the magician Danic. The Thousand Worlds Tree family founded by Danic directly occupied all seven Master positions, resulting in the Thousand Worlds Tree family having seven servants. This kind of combat power is more than enough to sweep the Magic Association.

If the Clock Tower had not utilized the special mechanism of the Greater Holy Grail system to summon seven servants from the other camp and start the Holy Grail War, they would have been swept away by the Thousand Worlds Tree Family.

Therefore, Emiya felt that it would be unreasonable for this Holy Grail War not to have some shady characters. Even in the HF storyline of Fate/Stay Night, there is an active appearance by the must-eat Holy Grail War villain, Mushi-sama.

He pondered over it, wondering if it couldn't be that Wang Jiang who had died so suddenly upon his debut. While using the clapperboard to control a specific group of people was a bit strange, this guy's death was incredibly fast.

Moreover, Emiya always feels that this Holy Grail War, which has lasted from the beginning to now, seems to be missing something?

The king, the clone, the masked man...oh, Odin!

----

"Has there been another accident?"

After a busy whole day, Yuan Zhisheng sat down in his office chair and just closed his eyes to rest for three hours. When he opened his eyes the next day, he saw a mountain of news, which instantly made him frown.

On the personal computer in front of him, reports of "unnatural deaths" compiled by the super AI "Kaguya" continued to pop up. The successive "accidental" deaths of people were like a bloody rain slamming into his face, just like the dark, heavy rain clouds outside the window, occasionally interrupted by thunder.

"A fuel tanker truck exploded in Bunkyo Ward, caused by a rear-end collision, resulting in over 100 deaths in the local area..."

"In Shinjuku, a tube trailer carrying compressed hydrogen suddenly swerved and crashed into a shopping mall, causing an explosion that killed over 300 pedestrians on the spot..."

"Under the influence of continuous heavy rain, a large-scale landslide and mudslide occurred on Mount Takao in Hachioji City, causing the destruction of numerous nearby homes and the death of many people. The exact number of casualties is still being counted..."

Yuan Zhisheng sat upright, his slender fingers operating the mouse wheel up and down. Accidents like this actually happen every day.

More than 2,000 people die in traffic accidents in this island country every year. If other accidents such as drowning, falling from heights, and fire are included, the annual death toll will be around 20,000 to 30,000.

However, judging from the continuous collection and collation of Kaguya-sama in recent days, this number has shown signs of soaring dozens of times more than in previous years in just three days.

Explosions caused by traffic accidents, landslides and mud-rock flows, earthquakes, and strange shipwrecks of some ships at sea, in addition to miscellaneous accidents such as construction site accidents, objects thrown from high places, fires in residential buildings, etc., are complicated, chaotic and varied... They have woven a tight and terrifying web of death that has enveloped this island nation.

Emiya once said "the myth is coming", and he didn't know how many times he had thought of it in Minamoto Chisei's mind... God, the pace of destroying everything is getting closer and faster. After Eri's judgment was taken away, it seemed as if she had transformed into an irresistible fate of death in God's hands.

...I have to say, it is really ironic that in such a terrifying and depressing environment, even the natural gas company that was pushed to take the blame in the "Shinjuku Incident" a while ago received much less negative public opinion.

After all, worse times are coming. In comparison, people would rather go back to the previous day - at least in the Shinjuku incident, only the people in Shinjuku were unlucky, and other places were basically safe, right?

The phone on the desk suddenly rang.

"Hello? Crow?"

Gen Chisheng answered the phone and subconsciously wanted to pick up the cup of coffee from his hand, only to find that the cup was already empty. Usually at this time, Yabuki Sakura would tacitly come over and pour him some ground black coffee.

But now, Sakura had already been sent by him to take care of Eri, so he had to do some things himself.

Gen Chisheng stood up, his eyes wandering, and began to search for the coffee machine he had never paid attention to before. Suddenly, the next sentence from the crow on the phone made him freeze in his tracks, "What, there are rumors about Eri in the family?"

"Yes, the rumor is quite convincing. It says that the Uesugi family's bloodline has gone out of control and unexpectedly ran rampant," Crow lowered his voice into the microphone. "The accidents in recent days are actually a fabrication created by the family to cover up the Uesugi family's murder."

"..."

Genji suddenly laughed out of anger. Not only was the news of Eri's departure strictly confidential, Emiya and his father wouldn't disclose it to anyone. Even if the family had the organizational skills and energy to quickly cover up a nationwide incident, then...

How did Eri manage to appear in so many places at the same time and commit crimes?

But those who spread rumors and pass on rumors don't care about you. As long as the rumors are about the "adults above", they will spread quickly among the mouths of the people below. As for why Eiry can appear in many places at the same time?

Anyway, most of them have never seen Eri's performance when she takes action. After all, she is the Tsukuyomi of the family. Tsukuyomi can do such a thing... It doesn't seem strange, right?

"Crow, give me a message..."

Gen Chisei paused. He absolutely could not announce the news of where Eri was traveling abroad, even if this was the quickest way to dispel the rumors.

The current situation is that someone has learned a secret that should not be made public.

Those people must know that Eri's Word Spirit Judgment has the ability to bring death, and the characteristic of these accidents is that a large number of people died on the spot. Once Eri has the opportunity to publicly display her ability, she will immediately be regarded as a suspect.

However, these people seem to be unaware of the information that Eri has become an ordinary person and boarded a plane to leave the island nation. They believe that Eri has gone berserk under the control of God. If they knew the truth, they should not have acted without authorization.

Gen Chisei remembered the "Aoiya Daiho" that Kitajima Shino had confessed before, and his brows suddenly relaxed.

The true colors of this group of "black fans" have finally been revealed.

"... Crow, don't make it public for now. Secretly investigate who was spreading this news in the first place. You can discuss it with the head of the Fuma family. His ninja troops are good at this kind of thing."

Yuan Zhisheng walked to the coffee machine, and the voice in the microphone continued to sound.

"I understand, Headmaster... There's one more thing. Ruri Kazama of the Demonic Clan... has woken up."

"I got it. I'll be there right away." Yuan Zhisheng looked at the coffee machine, put down the teacup, and sighed softly.

It seems that I won’t be able to drink the coffee I brewed myself today.

----

The books that Lord Wa arranged to be airlifted arrived early the next morning, and the efficiency was simply amazing.

Emiya moved the entire box of packages into her room. After tearing open the package, she saw a label on the top with a few lines of beautiful handwriting written by her.

As mentioned above, these books are not originals, but expedited photocopies, which only cost some paper and are not worth much money at all, so you just need to keep them well and not pass them on to others, and you don't have to return them later.

Wei Gong took off the label and took out the classics again. In addition to the "Huangting Sutra" which contained basic theories, there were also a large number of Taoist classics such as "Yunji Qijian", "Zhen Gao", "Shangqing Dadong Zhenjing" and other various ancient scriptures.

Many of them are rare copies that have been lost in modern times. Wazhu's statement that they are "worthless" is still modest.

You know, even though some ancient books are still best-sellers in modern times, their original versions may have long disappeared in the long river of history.

For example, the renowned Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) has multiple versions, including Wang Bi's popular edition, the Mawangdui silk manuscripts (A and B), and the Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Guodian. Furthermore, none of these versions contain the original 5,000-word text written by Laozi at the invitation of Yin Xi.

"...Hiss, you sent so many books here to test my quantum fluctuation reading speed?"

Emiya immediately started flipping through the books. Actually, he was not an academic genius who pondered over words, but was more accustomed to doing things with his hands. These books only helped him to look up information and answer questions.

So, Emiya first glanced through these books to understand the general meaning of the articles, and then began to combine the concept of "concentrating on the inner scene" explained in them to explore the method of practicing the inherent barrier.

"The so-called meditation is to concentrate the mind and thoughts, and the objects include the sun, moon, stars, mountains and other external images inside and outside the body, so that the internal mental images correspond to the external structures."

Emiya picked out some sentences and soon understood the essence of the cultivation theories in these books, which pointed him in the right direction.

Using the real world (external scene) as a template, create an "inner scene" or "mental image" structure for your inner self.

In other words, before creating a product, you first need to determine its architecture and design. Conceptualizing something out of thin air is inherently the slowest process, so the way to speed up the process is to draw directly from real-world sources...

Having found the trick, Emiya felt relieved.

Little did they know that the process of constructing the inherent barrier was becoming more and more like the Nibelungen barrier.

Chapter 219 Yuan Zhisheng: Once upon a time, I wanted to be a partner of justice