Shen Lian released his spiritual consciousness and scanned the place inside and out. There was nothing there. Perhaps too much time had passed, and not even the Taoist intention left by Patriarch Qingshui in the past was found.
He walked out of the house and saw that the wooden house was like bluestone with no texture. If he hadn't felt the aura of Muyi inside, he would have thought it was a stone house.
But no matter how good the quality of this wooden house is, he can't dismantle it and use it to refine weapons or the like.
A circle of breeze slowly surrounded Shen Lian's body. His whole body slowly soared into the air, getting higher and higher, a hundred feet above the ground, and then he felt a powerful restraining force that hindered his movement.
This prohibitive force is not extremely rigid, like a sponge, no matter how hard he exerts it, it will be absorbed.
Shen Lian stopped in the air, with a long sword in his hand, drawing a mysterious trajectory containing the truth, and the tip of the sword trembled.
Qingxuan's superb swordsmanship is 'shattering the void with one sword'. This sword has been practiced to the extreme, which is enough to realize the way of immortals and escape from the universe. Even if Shen Lian is far from this realm, he can still shake the void and create cracks in the outside world.
It's just that even if the space of the vast world is broken, there will be no gap that can escape from this world. Because the real world in the outside world actually has countless spaces in itself, layer upon layer. It seems that sometimes powerful force can break the void, but in fact it is just one layer in countless spaces. It has no impact on the vast world.
These insights were gradually felt by Shen Lian. As the realm gets higher, the same things now seem to be very different from the past. Because one thing, viewed from different angles, will give rise to many different understandings. To truly look at everything comprehensively without omitting anything, perhaps only Taoists and Buddhas can do it, and there may even never be any kind of existence. can do it.
Shen Lian's sword can only break a layer of skin against the space of the vast world, but he believes that this independent space should be affected by his superb swordsmanship.
The tip of the long sword touched the sky. The trembling power was like a stone thrown into the calm sea water, causing ripples. Finally, a huge backlash force was generated, which fed back to Shen Lian, making him directly fall from the sky. The void fell down and hit the soil hard, because he released all his strength to the ground, and finally the soil under his feet was pierced by him, and Shen Lian kept sinking deeper.
With a thought in his mind, he knew that the sky was unreachable, so he wanted to know what was deep underground. At first, he made a deep pit, and then he began to use the power of earth to escape into the earth.
Suddenly he sensed great danger, and he felt alarmed. It turned out that there was fire, water, and wind raging not far away. If he went inside, at least his physical body would not be saved.
Ten days later, Shen Lian tried countless ways to find a way to leave this space, but in the end he couldn't succeed.
He seemed to be locked in a box and could not feel the passage of time, and time flowed like water.
He just silently calculated the time based on his own energy and blood.
Now he wasn't going to do anything anymore and started to calm down his emotions and calm down his mind.
He began to enjoy the fragrance of plum trees that came secretly to refresh his heart and lungs. He also silently observed the flowers blooming and falling. Finally, the petals rotted in the soil and turned into nutrients. He heard the sound of roots absorbing moisture from the soil, and saw the buds of the plum tree gradually growing.
Every flower falling is the beginning of new life.
He remembered a poem - "Falling red is not a heartless thing, it turns into spring mud to protect flowers."
Life and death itself are part of the cycle of heaven and earth, two sides of one body, indivisible. Just like the life of a plant, it blooms and bears fruit. The seeds fall into the soil, are nourished by the nutrients of the fallen flowers, and then take root and sprout, gradually growing until they bloom and bear fruit.
As far as heaven and earth are concerned, there is no life or death for living beings, they just change one form after another.
But for Shen Lian, there is still a difference after all.
Seeking immortality is not just about seeking a long life. Because the plum trees have fallen and even if they bloom again, they are no longer the same ones.
He wants to retain the 'me' at this time, instead of waiting for 'he' to become 'me' again in the next life.
Shen Lian contemplated this carefully, and in the end he didn't even know that he was sitting cross-legged under the plum blossom tree, with the poem behind him:
The earth's lungs are called Chongyangzi, calling him a king will cause him to go crazy.
It lasts as long as the sun and the moon when it comes, and it lasts as long as the west and the east when it goes.
Accompanied by clouds and water, they are adjacent to emptiness and emptiness.
The true nature of one spirit exists and does not agree with the minds of others.
The handwriting of this poem is very plain, and there is no intention to invade nature.
As time goes by, it will eventually disappear.
Shen Lian didn't care about this, and even forgot about the poem behind him, and sat quietly, leaning against the trunk of the plum tree.
Just like the Buddha who was ignorant and unconscious under the bodhi tree, wisdom suddenly emerged.
He can't compare to Buddha, but Buddha won't be him either. He is just Shen Lian.
The powerful power of the soul spreads throughout the body, flowing naturally into the flesh and blood, surging like a rushing river.
Gradually, the power of the soul began to flow out of the body, and shadows appeared around Shen Lian's body.
Different clothes and even body shapes are different.
He didn't open his eyes, but he saw everything clearly.
These shadows are fleeting, each one represents his past, and some even represent dreams he has had, or even thoughts at a certain moment.
These are all him and not him.
Shen Lian naturally had a clear understanding in his heart that these were illusions. In his calmest moment, all this flashed out. In this situation, he actually touched the door of immortality.
As long as all illusions are cut through, the true nature will naturally be seen.
He wants to remove all falsehood and leave his own truth behind.
These shadows seemed to have sensed that Shen Lian wanted to destroy them, and they became like a tide, trapping Shen Lian. He seemed to be in a sea of suffering in the world of mortals, about to sink forever.
Shen Lian concentrated his mind and used the Divine Sword of Destruction, stabbing at these shadows one after another. Each time, he spent a lot of energy and destroyed a shadow at the same time.
He felt that his soul was becoming more and more exquisite and clear, as if he wanted to wipe away all the dirt on the spiritual platform, and finally made his nature spotless.
When he was about to kill all the shadows, he suddenly saw that the last shadow turned out to be the innate god he had been visualizing, the handsome and masculine young god.
The sword light shattered, and I felt depressed for a while. Finally, a thought suddenly came out, these are all illusions, so who am I
This thought suddenly occurred, and all the wonderful mental states before were shattered. A mouthful of blood spurted out, and the whole person woke up.
All the shadows disappeared, and Shen Lian felt fear in his heart, because he had not found his true nature at all, and he dared to cut through the illusion, because how did he know that the illusion that was cut off was not his own nature.
Zhuang Zhou was lost in his dream, how could he know whether the butterfly was me, Zhuang Zhou was me, or neither.
For a moment, he was full of falsehoods and almost went astray. With that last sword strike, he might have even annihilated himself.
If this god hadn't appeared, Shen Lian feared that his mind would have been severely damaged, and he might even have been in a coma for years or decades.
I just missed this state of mind, and I don’t know when the next time I will be delusional.
He smiled bitterly. Even if others' epiphany was interrupted, they would still gain something. But his biggest gain this time was to escape death.
At the same time, he also discovered a terrifying fact, that is, the gods he visualized were by no means completely unconscious, and could appear at critical moments to allow him to escape.
At the same time, the old Taoist priest who took Ruoxi out to sea said "Huh" and then said to Ruoxi: "Your uncle is a bit interesting. He can actually wake up at the most critical moment."
He left a ray of spiritual consciousness there, and could clearly see Shen Lian's every move. However, he could not see the innate gods, but felt that Shen Lian had extremely high understanding.
Originally, he wanted to wait until Shen Lian suffered such a big loss, and then this ray of consciousness would awaken Shen Lian again.
Unexpectedly, Shen Lian exceeded his expectations. He could still wake up when he was surrounded by falsehoods, which really impressed him.
Ruoxi said: "Grandpa, what happened to my uncle?"
The old Taoist priest smiled and said: "It's not a bad thing anyway."
Ruoxi felt both respect and fear for this old man in her heart. She wanted him to tell her how her uncle's condition was, but she knew that he was much more powerful than his uncle, so she couldn't force him even if she didn't want to. So she said: "Where are we going now?"
The old Taoist priest whispered: "I haven't been out for many years. I'm just wandering around. By the way, if you want to learn the white flame I used before, I'll teach you."
Ruoxi raised her head and said, "That flame is so powerful, can I learn it?"
The old Taoist laughed and said, "It is very difficult for others to learn, but it is easy for you to learn."
Ruoxi said, "Then I'll learn."
The old Taoist priest smiled: "You just agreed?"
Ruoxi thought to herself: Once I learn how to do it, I won't have to worry about my uncle anymore, and I can also help him.
How could she hide her thoughts from the old Taoist priest, but he didn't tell her.
The two of them were enjoying themselves. The old Taoist priest really planned to teach Ruoxi the True Fire of Samadhi and teach her a set of formulas.
The old Taoist priest's magical power was far beyond Ruoxi's imagination. He could fly with Shen Lian extremely fast before, but compared with the old Taoist priest, it was like crawling.
Based on the position of the stars, she also calculated that it was at least hundreds of thousands of miles away from Qingxuan.
She didn't know where the old Taoist priest and she were. They were surrounded by fog and couldn't tell the difference between east, west, north and south.
She didn't know that this was the Sea of Confusion, a very dangerous place. There was even a real person named Changsheng who got lost here, and it took him more than a hundred years to get out.
At the same time, the Sea of Confusion also blocked Tianhua Continent and Yuan Continent, making it difficult for ordinary monks to travel between them.
The old Taoist priest's body was filled with Samadhi True Fire again, and the mist didn't dare to get close to him. Ruoxi could see very far because of this, but no matter how far away it was, there was still nothingness.
In this sea of confusion, the old Taoist priest is not very fast.
At a certain moment, the fog rolled in front, Ruoxi heard a faint roar, and saw a majestic figure slowly appearing, with a giant beast stepping below.
——
ps Thanks to Forest Tyrant for the 588 reward.