Chapter 9: Burning Incense To Protect The Soul

“How did your soul run out……”

Just when Hong Yi could not have his spirit return to the body and his soul was about to collapse, he saw a girl, dressed completely in white from head to toe, run in and hug him, pushing herself onto his body.

Soon after, Hong Yi suddenly felt at ease. He sat up all of a sudden. There wasn’t a girl in white, just a small white fox. On the stone table lay a fruit pot with some snacks and a cup of steaming hot tea.

The small white fox was looking at him with its blinking eyes.

“Did you just save me?” Hong Yi faced the snow-white fox and asked.

“Ji, Ji.”

The white fox nodded her head.

Hong Yi knew that just a moment ago his spirit had escaped his body and hadn’t been able to return. It had been extremely close. Fortunately, the little girl in white had shoved Hong Yi’s soul back in. The little girl was the soul of the little white fox.

“No wonder people say the world is an ocean of bitterness, and flesh bodies are the vessels. Leaving the flesh body is like jumping into the sea with the naked body. Life will be over in a second.”

Hong Yi finally knew the danger of leaving his body.

“Ji Ji, Ji Ji, Ji Ji…..” The small white fox cheerfully circled around Hong Yi and pointed to the snacks and tea on the floor with her claws.

“What is this?”

Hong Yi found the dried fruits inside the plate to be very strange. One was some kind of fruit that was slightly larger than a bean, with a wrap of red film on the outside. The others were large pieces of fruit. They were very burnt on the outside, but after peeling off the shell, the insides were golden yellow emitting a sweet aroma that really whetted his appetite.

Hong Yi had never seen such things and he didn’t know what they were.

The small white fox uttered “Ji, Ji” again, as if to answer his questions, but since they spoke different languages, Hong Yi found the whole act incomprehensible.

The small white fox tried a bit longer and seemed disappointed by the failed attempts, so she ran out and brought back a long stick in her mouth and lit a fire on the floor. After a while, incense smoke gathered around Hong Yi.

“Ji ji, Ji ji.”

The small white fox squatted down on the ground and pointed at her head with her claw. She pointed at Hong Yi as well, as if she wanted him to imitate what she was doing.

“You want me to performing mortal shedding again? So we can talk? But…” Hong Yi had just experienced a taste of the danger of performing mortal shedding,. He was feeling a little bit hesitant.

“Ji ji, Ji ji.” The small white fox used her front paw again to point at the flaming incense on the ground, suggesting that with the incense, there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Okay.” Hong Yi sat straight, closed his eyes, performed the Pagoda Visualization Method, and jumped.

Boom!

He saw his own body again. His spirit was out of its shell.

“Have you practiced before? How can your spirit exit so fast?

Hong Yi heard a voice.

At the same time, he saw a 12- or 13-year-old girl who appeared to be floating on top of the little white fox. She was in white from head to toe, with her long cuff fluttering. Her face looked like it came out of a meticulously drawn painting, refined and spiritual.

“My name is Hong Yi. May I have your name?” Hong Yi saw the curls of smoke around him coming from the burning incense. He felt like his soul was taking a warm bath. It was nothing like the frigid cold from the first time that his spirit came out of the shell.

“We thoroughbred foxes have the same surname: Tushan. My name is Tushan Sang, just call me Xiao Sang. So, your name is Hong Yi, can I just call you Big Brother Yi from now on? “ Xiao Sang was full of innocent love. “My body still cannot speak human language yet, so I can only communicate with your soul. This is sandalwood; it can protect your soul from being dispersed by the wind. This is what most of the temples use.”

“No wonder the gods all like burning incense…..” Hong Yi laughed. “Big Brother Yi…Did you just called me Big Brother Yi?”

Pleasant surprise flickered in Hong Yi’s eyes. He had never been addressed with such a close and sincere name. Although Xiao Sang was a fox, her spirit was no different than a cute little girl.

“You still haven’t told me why you exited so fast. Weren’t you practicing the Pagoda Visualisation Method just a moment ago? It took me a full month of practice to do that.” Xiao Sang fiddled with her own head.

“The concept of that method is very understandable with nothing strange. It takes the idea of taking a leap after climbing up to some place high. People climb mountains and jump off the cliff. They are already dead before they hit the ground. That’s because the soul has already left the body. Visualising the process will allow the spirit to come out of its shell.”

Hong Yi thought, “I just saw the Entering Immortal, Mortal Shedding, Night Roaming, Day Roaming, Matter Manipulating, Soul Manifestation, Body Steal, Reincarnation and Tribulation techniques recorded in the book. The concepts of each stage are simple, but they are hard to actually realise. Thankfully, as a studied scholar I can always calm down; normal people have their mind running wild like a capering monkey and a galloping horse. If they cannot control their souls, they shouldn’t even be thinking about performing Mortal Shedding. The greatest ways above all are always simple. Spiritual cultivation is so much easier than bodily practices.”

“Xiao Sang, what are these edible things? How come I’ve never seen them? Are they something only foxes eat?” Hong Yi pointed to the two dishes on the floor.

“These are seeds we took from the Da Chan Temple. I think the monks got them overseas. The ones with the red film are called Luo Huashang, also known as peanuts. The one that’s been roasted is aromatic and soft. It is called sweet potato, or yam. After Da Chan Temple was burnt down, we brought a variety of seeds over here and planted them ourselves inside of the mountain. These two are easy to take care of and have high yield. They also taste good.” Xiao Sang chuckled.

“Peanuts and yam?” Hong Yi looked at them and reached out his hand to twirl it, but it was like twirling thin air.

“Ha ha, Big Brother Yi, how come you’re this stupid? Souls are intangible and cannot pick up stuff, unless, of course, you have reached the Matter Manipulation realm. Only then can you pick things up. However, since Big Brother Yi reached the Mortal Shedding this quickly, it shouldn’t take too long for you to perform matter manipulation. Humans are the primates of living creatures. They learn much faster than foxes.

“Xiao Fei, Xiao Shu, come here, Big Brother Yi is performing mortal shedding and is talking to me now.” Xiao Sang suddenly called Xiao Shu and Xiao Fei.

As she said this, two more small white foxes entered through the door and saw the sandalwood incense burning in the stone room. They let out a sound, and then curled up on the floor and stopped moving. Suddenly, Hong Yi saw two more little girls dressed in white from head to toe.

“Oh well, This is getting fun. Being inside of the mountain everyday is boring us to death. Unfortunately, Big Sister Yuan Fei forbade us to go outside, since humans might kill us.”

“Last time Big Sister Yuan Fei also brought back a few scholars. She said they were going to teach us how to read, talk and write, but they were so scared they fainted upon seeing us.”

“Really, what’s so scary about us? Those people can kill us but are scared of us. How strange.”

“Big Brother Yi, can I call you Big Brother Yi? Having a person here is so nice, we can all have fun together later on. I have always wanted to leave the mountain range and enjoy the human world.”

These two small girls revolved around Hong Yi while chatting nonstop. Hong Yi felt the cute side of these girls. They weren’t like the servant girl in the Marquis’ Manor; all of them, even the youngest one, were trying so hard to elevate their status.

“People say foxes are deceitful succubi, but the reality is, men are so much more deceitful than foxes.” Hong Yi sighed.

“Oh right, what level of cultivation are you all at?” Hong Yi asked.

“Xiao Sang and I just reached Mortal Shedding. Xiao Shu is a bit better. She can travel at night, but before Day Roaming. Big Sister Yuan Fei said we cannot leave before we are able to perform matter manipulation, because we won’t be able protect ourselves with flying needles and swords before then. People outside of the mountain, especially those with exuberant blood and Yang energy, can easily harm our soul. We aren’t strong enough to influence their mind with tricks either.” Xiao Fei shook her head.

“Needle and sword of flight?” Hong Yi was puzzled.

“Yes, once one has reached the matter-manipulating realm, one can utilise swords and needles for killing. One can also manipulate rocks to attack, thus allowing them to protect themselves.” Xiao Sang said.

“Then if you haven’t reached the matter-manipulating realm, what abilities are available for protection?” Hong Yi asked.

“Only some confusing techniques. However if the other person has a strong physique with staunch willpower and broad knowledge, it’ll be very difficult to confuse him. For knowledgeable scholars like you, brother Yi, we won’t be able to affect you at all. Last time a group of hunters entered the mountains, there were a few among them with a exuberant blood and Yang energy. My soul saw them coming from the distance: their vigorous aura felt like a burning fire, and we didn’t dare to get any closer. Thankfully, we hid ourselves and weren’t discovered.

Of the three girls, Xiao Shu was relatively more mature. She talked with her words organized and coherent.

“Huh? If demons want to confuse people, the person needs to have either a weak mind or weak body.” Hong Yi recalled from the Grass Halls’ notes.

For a demon to confuse a person, the first requirement was that the person must be harboring evil intentions, so he’d worry about karma or retribution, and his willpower would get weak. The second requirement was to have a weak body with low vitality and blood. Demons can also exploit people at their weakest. People who are about to die can always see spirits and ghosts.

Hong Yi understood the reasoning very well.

“No wonder people say the way of the demon is not elegant. It has so many taboos.” Hong Yi, hearing these comments, had a deeper comprehension of spiritual cultivation.

“Spiritual cultivation has too many limitations. It is hard to get a start on, and too dangerous. No wonder it is not so popular among ordinary people. On the other hand, physical cultivation–martial arts–is very much in the mainstream. ”

So the first step to training the spirit was calming the heart, stabilizing the mind, and removing all distracting thoughts. Only then could you execute Mortal Shedding. These actions were not achievable by an ordinary person.

Even if they could accomplish the actions and perform Mortal Shedding, it would be like a person who doesn’t know how to swim jumping from the boat into the ocean, to immediately suffer the disaster of drowning if they have no guidance.

Hong Yi reckoned that a lot of cultivators might have died when they perform mortal shedding the first time without any supervision.

And even if they do accomplish the breakthrough, they wouldn’t have much means to protect themselves. It was only after matter manipulation that one could have the ability to protect themselves. This is definitely very different from training in martial arts. Even by training with just  basic techniques for one or two months, one could easily take on and beat one or two people.

“No wonder the Dao Scripture doesn’t contain any warnings on lighting incense. I think the writer wanted all cultivators following this book to die.”

Hong Yi found some other drawbacks on following the Dao Scripture exactly verbatim. Some of the mistakes seemed intentional with the intention to hurt the user.

All the books used in the making of the Dao Scripture had been collected by the Great Qian Dynasty. The authority clearly didn’t want anyone practicing spiritual cultivation. Spiritual cultivation weakened the whole foundation of Qian’s reign.

“If the same logic applies, there are probably a lot of other intentional mistakes as well. I suppose that there should be two versions of the Martial Scripture and the Dao Scripture–the Imperial Library should have one correct version, while the one spread among common people is another version. Even with those obstructions, the emperor still did not feel so comfortable with the two books, so he had them completely banned all together.”

Hong Yi never completely believed any book he read, but rather analyzed the books for the author’s intent and the author’s life. One needed to completely understand the story’s timeline, examine the environment in which the author wrote the book, and see what conditions the author was born into and what made up the inner feelings of the author. Only by doing this could one completely and thoroughly understand a book, by making a deepest connection with the writer.

After thinking for a bit, Hong Yi now understood: although the Martial Scripture and Dao Scripture of the Great Qian Dynasty were certainly broad and deep, among these were also a lot of uncertainties, parts that were basically death traps.

“No wonder, the highest level of the Martial Scripture is the Martial Saint. The fact that there is a Corporeal Immortal above all is completely not mentioned.”

Figuring out the problem, Hong Yi’s mind became clear.

“Xiao Sang, Xiao Shu, Xiao Fei, you are all thoroughbreds of the fox clan. Did you all follow the practice of the Dao Scripture?” Hong Yi suddenly asked.

“Yeah, certainly when we started. However some elders died practicing. Later on Mr. Bai came over and took a look. He told Elder Tu that there was something fishy about this book and gave his opinions.” Xiao Shu replied.

“Mr. Bai? Who is this Mr. Bai?”

This is the first time Hong Yi had ever heard of Mr. Bai.

“Mr. Bai is Mr. Bai Ziyue. He should be quite famous, and is one of the Eight Demonic Immortals under heaven.”

“What are the Eight Demonic Immortals under heaven?” Hong Yi asked.

“Besides human beings, they are the eight most powerful cultivators. I also don’t have too much knowledge about the title, I just heard it once when I eavesdropped on Mister Bai and Big Sister Yuan Fei talking last time.” Xiao Shu shook her head once again.

“Oh, the incense has been burned, Big Brother Yi should probably return to the physical shell, otherwise it’ll be unbearable. Wait till your spirit is stronger. Big Brother Yi can still have fun with us then. Also, in the future, Big Brother Yi, could you please go to the cities and bring us something fun that we can play with? I really want to go to the cities to do some shopping. “

The three fox’s spirits returned to their physical bodies.

Hong Yi opened his eyes and there was nothing before him. There were only three foxes looking at him, their eyes blinking. The three small girls chatting just a moment ago seemed a like a dream.

“Ji ji, ji ji.”

The three foxes called out once again, held up the dried fruits from the stone table, and brought it before Hong Yi.

Hong Yi pinched open a peanut, and his mouth was full of its crisp aroma. After peeling the sweet yam, his mouth was also full of sweet aroma. Never before had he eaten anything this good.

After taking a sip of the steaming hot tea, Hong Yi saw the three small foxes jumping around, and thought of the time when each of them called him Big Brother Yi with their spirit caused warmth to surge through his heart.

This kind of warmth couldn’t be felt in the Marquis’ Manor, where the coldness and frost of human heart was as sharp as a blade.

 

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