Volume 1 Setting Sail Chapter 82 Awakening

  Qin Lao's voice was loud and clear, seemingly she had to expend a lot of energy to bring up the five-element true king tripod, her voice was slightly trembling.

  Xiao Chen and others did not dare to be slow, but instinctively still had some fear of Longchi, however, this fear was eventually overcome by the great temptation. With Yu Chenwei being the first to let out a loud shout, he led the charge and jumped into the Golden Light Cave entrance. Xiao Chen, Ye Heng, Gu Xiuyi, Ximen Wudi and others successively brought their speed to the extreme and jumped into the Golden Light Cave entrance.

  Boom!

  As the last one, Simen Wudi also jumped into the Dragon Pool. Qin Lao's jade hand loosened and covered the entrance of the cave with the Five Qi True King Ding, causing a loud explosion.

  "Qin Shī Mèi, xīn kǔ le." Qī Zhǎng Lǎo said to Qin Shī Mèi, who had just flown back, her whole body emitting rolling steam.

  "If you really think I'm working hard, then you should work harder for your junior sister." Qin Lao said with a tired tone, giving his senior brother a white eye.

  In the Feilong Courtyard, only Qi Changlao could move Qin Changlao. If it were anyone else, even a mid-ranking figure in the Changlao Courtyard, Qin Changlao would treat them as if they were nothing.

  "Absolutely! Absolutely!" Qi Changlao smiled awkwardly.

  ……

  As soon as Xiao Chen and the others jumped into the Golden Light Cave, they suddenly felt a rush of wind in their ears, and wave after wave of scorching heat came towards them, as if to directly roast them into human jerky.

  A surge of heat rose, at the source of that scorching heat was a large golden pool. On one side of the big pool there was a dragon head, from which a liquid like molten gold spouted out and poured into the golden square pool.

  That golden **as soon as it entered the pool, immediately there were gurgling golden water bubbles, and it boiled directly!

  Ah——ah——ah——!

  Xiao Chen and five other disciples, one after another, fell into the golden dragon pool, fell into the rolling and boiling, like boiling water, the dragon pool, splashing a piece of golden water curtain.

  "Ahhh...!"

  The moment he entered the Dragon Pool, Xiao Chen immediately had an urge to scream in agony. The feeling was like being scalded by boiling water, painful to every inch of his skin, every bone, every cell, and every drop of blood, pressing against the sea of his soul.

  This suffering is beyond description, it can be said that the suffering of purgatory is nothing compared to this, and what's more fatal is that this pain won't kill you, but only makes you endure that endless torture, wanting to die yet wanting to live.

  "The black hand that came up with this method to force people awake must be a pervert." Xiao Chen cursed secretly in his heart.

  However, the suffering continues, and that scorching feeling spreads infinitely throughout the body, as if the body has been cooked into a piece of ripe meat by that scorching high temperature, only the soul is still alive, still enduring that endless torture.

  The inertia of jumping down gradually disperses.

  Xiao Chen desperately waved his arms and floated upwards, trying to escape the scorching sea of flames, but the more he moved, the more agonizing the pain became.

  The more painful it is, the more I want to break free and escape this sea of fire.

  Not only Xiao Chen has this feeling, but everyone is the same. Every person in that dragon pool is desperately trying to swim out, but it will only become more and more painful.

  If a suitable metaphor is used, then now Xiao Chen and others are like little white mice, and that piece of scorching hot Longchi is like a rolling cage that traps the mouse. The little white mouse can never escape, it can only make the rolling cage roll faster and faster, forcing itself to run faster, until it dies of exhaustion in the cage.

  Xiao Chen and others are like this at the moment, but Qi Changlao is forcing these disciples to awaken, not forcing them to die.

  Just as Xiao Chen and the others were frantically swimming in the dragon pool, feeling like they were about to be cooked into ripe meat by the scorching high temperature, Qi Chang's voice suddenly echoed throughout this space.

  "This golden liquid is not water, but the compressed essence of heavenly fire. The water contains the true power of thunder. You will only feel endless pain, but you will not die."

  "I now impart to you the sixteen-character mantra, which can ward off suffering and awaken your soul!" Qi Changlao's majestic voice said: "An Rěn Wǒ Xīn, Shēn Rú Wài Wù, Jìng Mì Wǒ Líng, Wéi Hún Yǒu Dòng."

  "Perceiving these sixteen true words, experiencing their essence, can calm the mind, elevate the spirit, transform suffering into joy, uplift the soul, and awaken the power of the original self!"

  At this moment, Qi Changlao's tone was extremely heavy, like a special sound wave that contained infinite mystery, making it impossible for others not to listen, and directly resonating in the minds of people like Xiao Chen.

  "Peaceful and still... quieting my spirit..."

  With Qi Changlao's sixteen-word mantra, it suddenly entered Xiao Chen and others' spiritual sea, and in an instant, the sixteen words were like a warning bell ringing continuously in their minds.

  "Calm my heart, my body is like an external object, quiet and secret my spirit, only the soul has movement!" Xiao Chen's thoughts began to recite along with the reverberating sound in his mind, experiencing the profound meaning within.

  However, the pain that keeps sweeping over my body is simply overwhelming, making it impossible for me to focus my thoughts. Often, just as I'm halfway through reciting the mantra, the endless waves of pain interrupt me, and I'm completely unable to concentrate on grasping the profound meaning within those sixteen characters.

  "I endure! I endure! Even if you scald me into a pig's head, my soul remains, my body is but an external thing, originally just yellow earth. As long as the spirit is in me, I will not die; as long as the soul is in me, I will not perish! Pain...! Pain...! What can you do to me now?!"

  Xiao Chen was engulfed by the endless pain, unable to focus his mind and furious, the thoughts in his soul's sea roared out, hysterical roars, as if this could disperse the eternal, hellish pain.

  "What? Wait a minute, what did I just say?" Xiao Chen shouted after suddenly realizing that his previous nonsense seemed to have hit the key point of the sixteen-character mantra.

  "Ah, that's it! The body is like an external object, the soul has movement!" Xiao Chen suddenly enlightened, "The body is a dead thing, how can a dead thing know pain? It feels pain because of the soul's reaction. The soul is a virtual spiritual body, how can material things harm it?"

  "Calm the mind and don't move, let the soul relax and move, forget the self, abandon the dross, and then ascend to sublimation!" Xiao Chen suddenly enlightened, understanding the meaning between the sixteen words.

  "Set the soul aside, abandon this wretched body. It's just like watching a pig being slaughtered, the pig is scalded in boiling water and is on the verge of dying, but the onlookers don't feel any pain. The principle is the same, treating oneself as an existence outside of one's own self, this is what it means to forget oneself."

  Xiao Chenming suddenly came to his senses, but he could still feel the endless pain sweeping over him, as if all the skin and flesh on his body had been boiled by the scorching hot dragon pool water, layer by layer peeling off, leaving only a skeleton that was still being simmered in the water, with even the bones about to dissolve...

  "Patience! Patience! External things! External things! Stillness in movement! Movement in stillness!"

  Xiao Chen began to recite with strong willpower, after understanding the true meaning of the 16 words, Xiao Chen finally found a breakthrough point and could concentrate his mind to recite.

  "Calm and patient in my heart, my body is like an external object, quietly hiding my spirit, only my soul is moving..."

  Repeating the incantation over and over, the pain wouldn't stop, and neither would the incantation. Even Xiao Chen didn't know how many times he had recited it. Gradually, the pain began to subside, weakening a little with each repetition.

  Even until the end, with continuous chanting, Xiao Chen could feel himself completely detached from the sea of flames, as if he had arrived in a place with green mountains and clear waters, where the wind blew against his face, refreshing him.

  Xiao Chen's soul directly ascended and entered another brand new realm, his body was boiled in water and burned by fire, but he could still feel as gentle as a spring breeze.

  This sounds somewhat ridiculous, but it is sublimation on the soul, awakening of the soul!

  Xiao Chen thoroughly entered a state of self-forgetting, but if you say that's all it takes to succeed, then you're only halfway there.

  Now, Xiao Chen can only reach the state of selflessness on his own, but he still needs to reverse it and find himself back, that's when the soul truly transcends, that's a perfect awakening.

  Only forgetting myself, unable to know myself, that way I will only become a lonely ghost wandering between heaven and earth, not knowing who I am, not knowing where I come from, that is more terrifying than endless pain.

  And this is exactly the sixteen-character mantra, the last two sentences are "Quietly keep my spirit, only the soul has movement."

  It's really hard to achieve these two sentences, even harder than forgetting me. Because he needs to forget me first and then find himself, that is to say, he must clearly feel the pain spreading on his body, but can endure it without moving, as if nothing happened, using a strong soul to restrain the pain, doing what he should do, just like Guan Yu scraping his bones to cure his wounds, still drinking and playing chess, as if nothing had happened.

  This is the true ascension of the soul, achieving spiritual awakening and stepping into the threshold of spiritual awareness.

  "My body is still, but my soul is stirring!"

  "My body is still, but my soul is stirring!"

  Xiao Chen had reached a state of selflessness, but the sixteen-character mantra in his mind still lingered, echoing like a bell, keeping Xiao Chen alert and his thoughts following the recitation.

  "I'm moving! I want to move! I want to find myself, I want to get moving!"

  Xiao Chen felt that his spirit had lost all its power, as if it was being tied up with chains. He struggled to control his body with a surge of thoughts.

  The soul and spirit are inseparable, when the soul leaves the spirit, it loses its power, without the soul, the spirit becomes a lifeless object.

  The soul is the spirit, the body is the flesh, they are mutually inseparable, only then is it life!

  "I want to move..."

  Xiao Chen's dormant roar burst forth, his soul stirring the sea of consciousness. At this moment, the effect of Xiao Chen's long-term cultivation with starlight to refine his soul was revealed, and his powerful divine soul burst out with great power, allowing Xiao Chen to find himself.

  At this moment, Xiao Chen, who was wrapped in the scorching hot water of Longchi, suddenly moved his fingers, and his soul found himself again, returning to his body once more.

  However, this time the return, the scorching high temperature in Longchi, can no longer bring unbearable pain to Xiao Chen. What Xiao Chen can feel is only a faint pain, and the pain has been infinitely weakened. The sublimation from the divine soul automatically filters out the pain.

  If one's spirit is even stronger and more refined, they can reach a state where they can feel pain or joy at will.

  That's why people yearn for that highest realm and call it ultimate bliss. Only when one reaches that realm can they experience true joy and freedom.