Gateway of Immortality-Chapter 804: Azure Luan
The Heavenly Demon Dharma Lakshana required the fourth stage of the art, equivalent to the Spiritual Infant Realm, still far beyond his reach. Qin Sang’s attention was on the first three stages, carefully weighing whether he could cultivate them.
He went without rest for several days.
That day, he suddenly left Tianxing Island, distancing himself from the island chain. Flying for an entire day, he arrived at an uninhabited, desolate island, intending to attempt cultivating the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement here.
This art drew upon the power of the cosmic orbit’s stars. Qin Sang was uncertain how much commotion its practice would cause, so he decided to conduct a trial outside first.
He casually set up a large array. Because this art required facing the starry sky directly, there was no need for a cave dwelling.
Qin Sang sat cross-legged on a boulder, waiting for nightfall.
In the day, the scorching sun brimmed with the power of the sun. Although this too could draw upon the cosmic orbit’s stellar power, it was not a good time to cultivate.
At that time, the sun’s power was at its peak, blazing and violent. Cultivating then made it all too easy to burn oneself, and a single lapse could even lead to being incinerated, threatening one’s life.
Only with a sufficiently high cultivation could one withstand it.
It was only in the coolness of night that one could link to the stars.
The sun set in the west, and darkness gradually descended. A thin veil settled over the world, and the light dimmed.
Finally, night fully fell. The moon in the sky mirrored the moon in the sea, while the starry rivers above and beneath the waves shone in Qin Sang’s sight, scattering starlight everywhere. The ethereal serenity made for a scene of breathtaking beauty.
After taking in the scenery, Qin Sang set the bone flute across his knees and slowly closed his eyes.
Cut away distractions, guard the true self, visualise the heavenly demon... Like a bright lamp suspended high above, dispersing the clouds, revealing the path ahead...
Qin Sang silently recalled the scripture in his heart as he understood it.
The Heavenly Demon Body Refinement contained subtle and profound principles, each word and phrase requiring careful reflection. Fortunately, Qin Sang had been born into an righteous sect and possessed a deep foundation.
Visualisation methods were often found in Buddhist scriptures, and Qin Sang had never encountered them before. Yet whether in Buddhism, Daoism, or demon cultivation, there was the same teaching of guarding one’s true self and abandoning distractions, making the first steps not difficult.
Cool moonlight draped over Qin Sang.
The bone flute lay upon his knees.
Qin Sang remained still. It was as if even the wind had stopped, the sea surface lay calm without a ripple, and Qin Sang seemed to have transformed into an ancient pine, rooting itself deep into the island.
His thoughts moved as he attempted visualisation.
This step was the most puzzling part of the art for him.
A cultivating demon did not need to dwell on it; it only had to rouse its bloodline and visualise its own ancestor, whose deep imprint lingered in its bloodline.
Under the ancestor’s guidance, it would follow the path the ancestor had trodden, undergoing one metamorphosis after another until finally becoming a heavenly demon.
But Qin Sang, as a human, did not know whom to visualise.
This was a lost world. Qin Sang did not even know the true names of Mahayana Realm cultivators, let alone use them as subjects of visualisation. In the end, he settled on a target:the Jade Buddha.
He was unsure whether this choice was right or wrong. He could only find out by trying.
Within his upper dantian, his primordial spirit already glowed faintly with a yellow Buddha light. The image of the one-armed Jade Buddha had long been etched deep into his mind.
Jade Buddha... Qin Sang murmured the name once in his mind.
He lifted his head, opened his eyes, and gazed toward the heavens.
The night sky’s myriad stars shimmered with endless mystery.
He did not know how much time had passed before he had imprinted the whole starry sky into his mind. Then, closing his eyes again, he imagined the starlight gathering, the constellations shifting. In the starry expanse of his consciousness, the golden figure of a Buddha slowly emerged.
Everything arose from his own will.
According to the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, once this step of visualisation succeeded, the bone flute would respond, aiding the practitioner in entering the path. It would guide the practitioner to absorb the starlight, beginning the first step of body refinement.
At the same time, the bone flute was not, as Qin Sang had once believed, merely a jade slip and a trigger.
It should have been personally refined by the great demon who created the art. When held during cultivation, it provided constant assistance. While not absolutely required, cultivating without it would be far more difficult.
Qin Sang cast aside all else. In his heart there remained only the image of the Jade Buddha as he waited for the bone flute’s reply.
Time in cultivation passed without notice. In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by.
By day, Qin Sang pondered; by night, he cultivated, never once slacking.
Yet to his disappointment, not only did the bone flute give no response, but the art showed not the slightest progress.
"I have never been troubled by heart devils. From the very start of my cultivation, I learned how to cut off stray thoughts and long ago reached the state of a mind as still as water. The Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment is no lesser than the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, and it was never this difficult. If this art’s requirements were truly so exacting that even my state of mind could not pass the threshold, then those witless, muddle-headed demonic beasts could never hope to cultivate it..."
Recalling the past few days, Qin Sang pinpointed the problem. "Visualising the Jade Buddha will not work! Then I can only attempt the heavenly demon..."
The heavenly demon was known only from scattered words in ancient texts.
Some of these records described in detail the great and famed sacred beasts and great demons such as dragons, phoenixes, and Qilin. But Qin Sang had never seen them with his own eyes, and visualising them from nothing would make it hard to grasp their true essence.
The only one he had ever witnessed was the Azure Luan!
Back in the Chaotic Island Waters, when Granny Jing had summoned a wooden Luan puppet to fight, the sight had been etched deep into Qin Sang’s mind.
He remembered Granny Jing saying she had once been fortunate enough to see a real Luan and had personally felt its aura. Although she had not touched the true body of the sacred beast, the wooden carving she made had perfectly captured the Luan’s essence, far more vivid than the accounts in the old records.
At the time, he had seen no flaws at all, and had even mistaken it for a living Luan.
Visualising the Luan was the best choice.
However, Granny Jing’s carving was, in the end, not a true heavenly demon, and whether it could stir the bone flute was still uncertain.
"No harm in trying..."
Qin Sang had long prepared for this moment. In recent days, whenever he was free, he would recall every detail of his encounter with the Luan, not letting a single moment slip from memory.
The Luan’s lively grace when first seen; the divine might it displayed when controlling the azure flames against Yu Shanting; the heroism when it perished together with its foe...
In his heart, he had already sketched a clear image of the Luan, making the visualisation smooth and effortless.
In the realm of thought, countless stars cast their light from afar, brilliant beyond comparison. A majestic Luan soared freely through the sea of stars, stretching its form to the fullest. Azure flames clung to its feathers, making it seem like a divine bird bathed in fire.
Suddenly, the bone flute in his hands moved.
It was as if an immense pull arose within Qin Sang’s body. The Luan soaring in the starry sea opened its divine eyes and looked at him, then spread its wings and sped toward him.
Whoosh!
In the visualised starry sky, the wind roared, and he felt as if he could not breathe.
The Luan’s speed was astonishing.
Before Qin Sang could react, it descended from the heavens.
His thoughts had already slipped from his control. In his imagination, the stars above all flickered, sending down slender beams of light from the heights, descending together with the Luan onto the crown of his head, flowing in through his Baihui acupoint[1].
In an instant, Qin Sang felt a cool, ethereal force enter his body. Along with it came an indescribable sense of bliss. A breeze surrounded him, light and transcendent, as though he might float away. It was intoxicating beyond words.
1. This is an acupoint on top of the head. ☜
