infodatos Chapter 6 The Emergence of Authority
Chapter 6 The Emergence of Authority
To enhance the level of control over the authority of Heaven and Earth, and to improve the understanding of the laws and principles of Heaven and Earth?
Xiong Zhou nodded thoughtfully. So it turned out that [Power: Abundance] could also be added. He would try it out when he returned to Chenming Mountain.
Senior Sister Baiyu gave Xiong Zhou a deep look, then waved her delicate hand. With the power of heaven and earth she held and the laws of heaven and earth she had cultivated, she performed a ritual for this true disciple who was only at the first level of Qi Refining. With her sixth level of Qi Refining, she led Xiong Zhou to stand on the edge of her path to sainthood, gazing at the shimmering scenery along that path.
After a few breaths, the ritual ended.
Senior Sister Baiyu asked, "Did you understand the direction we're going to take next?"
Xiong Zhou nodded blankly, then shook his head.
It's all so blurry, so vague. I have no memory of what just happened, but it's not like I didn't understand anything either.
Senior Sister Baiyu didn't mind and waved her hand.
"It's normal not to see clearly. If you can get a general idea and have a vague sense of it, you won't make irreparable mistakes on your future path."
"Furthermore, although the path of sainthood is not my main cultivation, it is not something that can be clearly understood by someone who has only reached the first level of Qi Refining."
"If you can truly see the scenery within, you are either a direct descendant of an immortal... or some old codger who has possessed another body and returned to this world."
Xiong Zhou was startled when he saw Bai Yu's ambiguous smile.
That sounds like you have a lot of experience, doesn't it?
Could it be that some old guy actually possessed another body, was reborn, infiltrated the Tai Li Immortal Sect, and then just happened to be caught by Senior Sister Bai Yu?
Xiong Zhou was actually quite curious about the "body possession and rebirth" thing, after all, his "time travel" and "body possession" had some commonalities.
Unfortunately, such methods that destroy people's spiritual practice and are extremely harmful to others for personal gain cannot be found on the Tai Li Tian Net.
There is content related to possession, but it's all about how to prevent others from possessing your body and how to avoid falling into this unfavorable situation from the source.
Once Xiong Zhou entered the keywords "[Body Seizure Technique]" into the Tai Li Tian Wang network, he was 100% certain that he would be placed on some of the sect's key observation lists.
Now that Senior Uncle Lu has been transferred to be the elder in charge of Qianyuan Hall, it's not really appropriate to trouble him to come to Chenming Mountain every day for special instruction.
so......
Xiong Zhou turned his gaze to Senior Sister Bai Yu.
Senior Sister Bai Yu chuckled softly, her gaze revealing an even deeper meaning.
"I have explained the Dharma to you. You should go back now. Next time you encounter a problem involving totems, contact me directly through the True Disciple Token and then come to the Tianli Dojo."
Xiong Zhou blinked.
Is Senior Sister Baiyu kicking people out?
Following proper etiquette, Xiong Zhou bowed to Senior Sister Bai Yu, bid farewell, and left.
Several hours later, on Chenming Mountain, a small flying boat slowly descended into the courtyard, shrank, and was stored in Xiong Zhou's storage bag.
Arriving at the center of the courtyard, a blue futon was spread out. After sitting down and entering a meditative state, Xiong Zhou couldn't wait to open the information panel.
[Power: Abundance]
The moment the panel appeared, it began to blur, revealing more detailed information.
[Power: Abundance]
Level: First Stage of Qi Refining
进度：Lv.4（100，000/100，000）
Condition: Incomplete
Looking at the panel, Xiong Zhou was stunned for a moment, then a look of understanding appeared on his face.
"No wonder there was no information on how to allocate points for [Power: Abundance] before. I had to explain all the information to Senior Sister Baiyu so that I could gradually form a coherent understanding."
"The moment I was granted the [Power: Abundance] by the 'Mountain and Sea Realm', my progress reached 100,000 points, and the progress bar for [Lv.4] was completely full."
"In this situation, if you want to further improve your control over the power of heaven and earth and enhance your understanding of the laws of heaven and earth, the only way is to break through the [Lv.4] bottleneck and upgrade to [Lv.5]."
-----------------
The boundary between mountains and seas.
Xiong Zhou stood up and looked around.
There, large dogs frolicked about on clumps of pixelated wheat, chasing each other, their loud calls echoing across the nameless plain.
Bai Yi, leading the pack, was shouting merrily, leading hundreds of large dogs as they frolicked freely across the plains.
Xiong Zhou's lips twitched, and he sighed inwardly, "My retinue, the future saints on the path to sainthood, are these guys."
"But no matter how you look at it, these guys have nothing to do with the 'power of abundance'."
Shaking its head, Xiong Zhou walked towards the stream, stretched out its paws to pick up the lotus flowers that were a mix of green and white, removed the lotus seeds inside, and put them in its mouth.
"I didn't notice it when I ate them last time... It turns out that each lotus flower contains at most nine seeds, and at least just one."
"I don't know how this thing's growth cycle is calculated."
As he chewed and swallowed more lotus seeds, a terrifyingly bitter taste, so intense it made Xiong Zhou want to vomit, began to linger in his mouth, and tears welled up in his eyes.
It was too bitter. This terrifying bitterness was even more exaggerated than the last time he ate it. No amount of sweet aftertaste or coolness could suppress the urge to vomit.
"Gurgle... gurgle gurgle..."
After swallowing more than three hundred lotus seeds, Xiong Zhou's entire dog face scrunched up. He had no choice but to lower his head, shove it into the stream, and gulp down water.
[Power: Abundance]
Level: First Stage of Qi Refining
进度：Lv.4（100，000/100，000）
Condition: Incomplete
The "+" sign is not displayed when the panel is expanded.
As Xiong Zhou sensed the waves of clarity and enlightenment swirling in his mind, the corner of his mouth twitched violently.
The lotus seeds from this unknown lotus flower have no diminished medicinal effect. The feeling of being so close to the Way of Wood and the Way of Earth is as effective as before, and even more so because more of them were swallowed, the feeling of sudden enlightenment is slightly stronger.
However, even so, the medicinal power was still insufficient, far from sufficient.
"This is terrible! More than three hundred lotus seeds, this medicinal power is almost equivalent to three hundred Lesser Enlightenment Pills."
In order not to waste the medicinal power, Xiong Zhou endured the bitterness in his mouth and walked along the stream, grabbing one lotus flower after another and forcing himself to swallow more lotus seeds.
Until the five hundredth.
The panel still doesn't light up [+].
But Xiong Zhou's dog-like face revealed a slightly distorted smile.
-----------------
Chenming Mountain.
Sitting cross-legged on the blue futon, Xiong Zhou, with the blessing of this enlightenment artifact, temporarily enhanced his consciousness by two major realms. Within the "Qi Refining World," he captured the principles of the Dao of Abundance and the corresponding authority of Heaven and Earth.
[Power: Abundance]
Level: First Stage of Qi Refining
进度：Lv.4（100，000/100，000+）
Condition: Incomplete
"Add some points, add some points quickly!"
"Holy crap, what kind of creature is this lotus? Eating too many of its seeds has made my mom almost unrecognizable as her own son!"
Xiong Zhou's consciousness slammed hard onto the "+" sign.
In an instant, a hazy feeling of being half-awake and half-asleep surged up from the depths of my heart.
"Splash..."
More than 10,000 phantom images of earthen blocks covered with wheat faintly emerge behind the bear boat, and the pixelated interior scene of heaven and earth materializes in the sky above the courtyard.
A gentle breeze swept by, and the golden wheat rustled as it swayed. A sense of tranquility, with its unique charm, silently spread from these pixelated blocks throughout the entire Chenming Mountain.
The [Power: Abundance] from the "Mountain and Sea Realm" resonated actively with the myriad principles of the "Qi Refining World" under the guidance of Xiong Zhou's self-enlightenment.
"boom!"
At a certain moment, a thunderous roar rose in Xiong Zhou's mind, and a sense of intimacy from heaven and earth surged forth from all things in the universe.
One after another, sentient spirits seemed to transform into a powerful hand, lifting him high, raising him from Chenming Mountain to a higher "position" so that he could see a more complete world.
"I see it! This is the Wood Path and Earth Path of the 'Qi Refining World'!"
In an unknown "location," Xiong Zhou saw two principles of heaven and earth that were relatively close to him, and even bits and pieces of information about two paths he had inherited from his parents were rapidly manifesting, laying out two seemingly heaven-reaching paths that could allow him to ascend to immortality.
In addition, Xiong Zhou also saw a corner emitting a faint white light, like a long river reflecting a hazy scene, running through the sky and earth, connecting all things.
Within this long river, fragments of fireflies are embedded, overlapping in nameless ways with the paths of wood, earth, and the two paths of my father and mother, creating indescribable interweaving.
"The River of Time... The Sea of Void..."
[Power: Abundance] The instinctive trembling allowed Xiong Zhou to obtain fragmented information about them, as well as what people called them.
"It seems I can directly step into the path of wood, the path of earth, and even directly follow the paths of my father and mother..."
"These are all 'paths to heaven,' and I only need to choose one. As long as I am willing to step onto one, I can attain immortality..."
[Power: Abundance] The trembling intensified, and the shouts of the large dogs echoed from within, shaking Xiong Zhou's slightly hazy consciousness.
"Uh... wait a minute, wasn't I supposed to upgrade [Power: Abundance] from [Lv.4] to [Lv.5]?"
"What about the principle of abundance in the laws of heaven and earth?"
A series of questions arose from the dreamlike ocean within the Bear Boat's inner world, transforming into a powerful knock that shattered a barrier resembling transparent glass.
The sound of shattering glass reverberated through my consciousness and spread throughout my inner world.
The Way of Wood, the Way of Earth, the River of Time, the Sea of Void, and the paths of my father and mother—all are fading away, all are disappearing, transforming into dreamlike bubbles that vanish into nothingness.
In an instant, beads of cold sweat appeared on Xiong Zhou's forehead.
"Was everything that just now an illusion?"
"No, it doesn't seem like an illusion. I can clearly feel that if I really ignore the vibrations and calls coming from within [Power: Abundance], I can truly 'enter' these principles of heaven and earth, and even walk the path of my father and mother, and then cultivate to the sixth level of Qi Refining at an extremely fast speed."
"But in doing so, I've deviated from the original plan, and what I'm repairing isn't my own anymore."
Xiong Zhou shivered and swallowed hard.
Hypothetically speaking, just hypothetically, if he hadn't received the reminder from [Authority: Abundance], hadn't hesitated, and hadn't persisted on his own path of cultivation, and had actually embarked on those manifested "paths to heaven"...
After reaching the sixth level of Qi Refining, what he cultivated was precisely these "Great Paths to Heaven" themselves.
"Having cultivated myself to the end, am I no longer myself?"
Is this the reason why Grandmaster Tai Li created a basic Qi-refining method specifically for cultivating both body and mind for his own lineage of disciples?
Is it to prevent this problem that all the Qi cultivation methods taught to Tai Li disciples are the "Tai Li Qi Cultivation Method"?
At the same time, Xiong Zhou's mind flashed back to Bai Yu's ambiguous smile and her mention of "body possession"...
"Holy crap, how can there be such a huge pit on this path of Qi cultivation!"
"Wouldn't a Qi Refiner with enough talent but lacking sufficient guidance from a cultivation lineage become a backup plan for the big shots as soon as they reach the first level of Qi Refining?"
"That's so insidious!"
Even when he was in a state of enlightenment, Xiong Zhou had an urge to curse out loud.
After catching his breath, Xiong Zhou finally regained his composure and looked ahead.
A vast "Road to Heaven" appeared before my eyes, and a lush vitality rose up, emanating a wonderful ripple that captivated my soul.
Xiong Zhou's eyelids twitched repeatedly. Without a doubt, this was definitely the path to enlightenment for some big shot.
There is no doubt that if he were willing to step forward and offer up his [Power: Abundance], it wouldn't be impossible for him to attain immortality in an instant.
But the cost...
Naturally, he became a backup option for some big shot.
To comprehend the Way of Abundance and upgrade [Authority: Abundance] to [Lv.5], it is extremely difficult without stepping into it.
Xiong Zhou's noodles twitched slightly, then his expression returned to calm.
You have your clever strategies, and I have my shortcuts; let's see who has the bigger advantage.
Xiong Zhou calmly approached the "Road to Heaven," and just as he was about to step onto it, he pulled out a tattered yellow cloth and "padd" it onto the path.
As he expected, the tattered yellow cloth was extremely sturdy and was not affected in the slightest by this "Great Road to Heaven." It floated steadily on the road, as if it were eternal.
Xiong Zhou plopped down on the tattered, yellow cloth, and the principles of the universe concerning the Way of Abundance emanated from beneath him. They were completely devoid of any individual characteristics, extremely pure, and extremely fragmented.
"It's okay, it's just a jigsaw puzzle, just do it and you'll be fine."
Xiong Zhou raised his hand and copied two simple Daoist characters, pixelating them with his innate supernatural power, and then splicing them with his own [Authority: Abundance] to fill its current gaps.
Time passed slowly, and as the moment of enlightenment was about to end, a subtle point of light rose from the inner world.
[Power: Abundance]
Level: First Stage of Qi Refining
Progress: Lv.5 (0/Max)
Status: Prototype
"It's done!"
On Chenming Mountain, a hazy ray of light shone down from the mountaintop, covering the entire authentic Buddhist temple.
The mountain began to undergo subtle changes. Countless rocks and boulders became regular, and clumps of flowers and grasses growing everywhere shifted and grew in an extremely orderly manner, giving each place a subtle pixelated feel.