Travel through the heavens

Chapter 161: Refining the Spirit and Returning to Emptiness

Taoism says: "The three treasures of heaven are the sun, moon and stars; the three treasures of earth are water, fire and wind; and the three treasures of man are essence, energy and spirit."

The Huang Ting Jing says: "The immortals and Taoists are not gods, but they accumulate essence and energy and regard them as true."

The founder of Chunyang said: "Spirit, Qi and blood belong to the three essentials, and the north, south, east and west are all one family."

These are nothing but spirit, energy and essence. If these three interact with each other, one will become a human if they are in harmony, and will become an immortal if they go against the harmony.

What is compliance?

One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things. Therefore, emptiness turns into spirit, spirit turns into qi, qi turns into essence, essence turns into form, and form turns into human being.

What is reverse?

All things contain three, three return to two, two return to one. Those who know this way can calm the mind and guard the body, nourish the body and refine the essence, accumulate the essence to transform it into Qi, refine the Qi to combine the spirit, refine the spirit to return to emptiness, and then become a celestial being.

Therefore, those who practice Taoism and seek the truth are only concerned with refining the three things: essence, qi, and spirit.

In order to break through to the realm of refining the spirit and returning to the void, the three dantians, namely the Niwan Palace, the Jiang Palace and the Huangting Palace, need to interact with each other, and take the three substances of invigorating spirit, qi and essence as the great medicine, and then conceive a holy fetus and nourish the primordial spirit.

In a blink of an eye, five days had passed since Lei Qianhu's viciousness was completely eliminated.

During these five days, Fang Muye has been practicing sitting meditation in the Tianpan posture, cleansing his heart and thoughts, embracing the Yuan and keeping one, not letting his thoughts arise and his mind wander, practicing the method of non-action, observing within and nourishing the three elements, qi and spirit, to achieve the foundation of full essence, sufficient qi and strong spirit, in preparation for the next breakthrough.

When he had reached the right stage, in a state of emptiness, darkness, and chaos, Fang Muye felt a burning sensation in his dantian. Suddenly, thunder sounded in his body, and the rumbling sound was like tearing silk. It passed through the coccyx, the lumbar spine, and the occipital bone, and gathered in the Niwan Palace.

This is a hurdle that must be overcome to break through the realm of refining the spirit and returning to the void, the thunder tribulation.

Those who practice Taoism can only be regarded as mortals during the stages of refining essence into Qi and refining Qi into spirit. But once they reach the realm of refining spirit into emptiness, they can be called immortals.

But it is not easy for a mortal to become an immortal.

As the saying goes, "Those who seek the truth are numerous, but those who find it are rare", because there are bound to be tests and tribulations between humans and immortals.

From ancient times to the present, the five words "cultivating immortals requires overcoming tribulations" are often seen in numerous scriptures, vernacular novels, and they are certainly not fabricated out of thin air.

As I just said, going against the flow is the way to immortality.

Cultivating immortals is a process that goes against the laws of nature and seizes the fortune of heaven and earth, so God will send down disasters. Only by overcoming these disasters can one continue to cultivate, and this is called overcoming the disaster.

Taoism has the "three disasters and eight difficulties" test of practice, and in modern novels about cultivation, the most common saying is that when a cultivator reaches the tribulation period, heaven will send down nine levels of thunder tribulation. If the cultivator succeeds in overcoming the tribulation, he will ascend to heaven, but if he fails, both his soul and body will be destroyed.

The thunder tribulation sent down by heaven can be called "heavenly thunder", but the thunder tribulation that Fang Muye experienced at this moment came from his heart, which is called "heart thunder".

The heart is a yang organ, governing yang energy, while thunder is yang qi, so the thunder in the heart is the yang among yang.

The heart thunder first arises in the Crimson Palace, and after traveling through the Nine Palaces, it gathers and roars in the Niwan Palace. The sound of thunder is the sound of yang. The sound of thunder shakes the soul, which means using yang to refine the spirit. Therefore, a little thunder yang generates the yang of the inner spirit.

This is the first step for a mortal to become an immortal, refining the spirit through thunder.

If a cultivator's inner spirit is not strong, his soul may be shattered by the thunder of the heart, which may lead to dementia at the least and death of the soul at the worst.

Fang Muye's inner spirit was full of energy and he had no such worries.

Pulled by the thunder and yang, the yang of the inner spirit burst into action, and a vortex seemed to form in the center of the Niwan Palace. The inner spirit was quickly sucked together, and after a short while, it condensed into a drop of golden liquid mixed with colorful charm, shining brightly in the scorching sun.

At this time, the Huangting waves in Fang Muye's body surged, the crimson palace was blowing, the moon was bright in the moon cave, and a round light surged between his eyebrows, just like a fifteen-day full moon, shining on his forehead. The golden liquid swirled in the Niwan Palace for several circles, and then fell directly into the lower Dantian.

The lower Dantian is where the human body stores essence. When the golden liquid enters the Huangting, it enters the sea of ​​​​essence.

It's like the universe is at peace, a dragon is entering the palace, mysterious and natural.

Under the continuous nourishment of the Yuan Jing, the shape of the golden liquid gradually changed. First, a head grew, then limbs grew, and in the end, it was shaped like a fetus, curled up in the Huangting, just like a pearl in a jade plate.

At this point, the second step for mortals to become immortals, the holy fetus, which can also be called the immortal fetus, is completed.

Once the holy fetus is formed, it will directly jump out of the Huangting and move to the middle dantian, Tanzhong.

Dan Zhong is the place where the human body stores Qi. Once the holy fetus enters Dan Zhong, strands of internal Qi will continuously penetrate into it, first circulating along the small circulation, then along the large circulation, and finally the small and large circulations circulate together. The true Qi in Fang Muye's body also circulates automatically along the route in the holy fetus.

As the internal energy continued to circulate, the holy fetus gradually changed. After the small and large circulations had circulated 365 times each, the holy fetus had changed from a fetus to a little man with closed eyes, and its body shape and appearance were exactly the same as Fang Muye.

At this point, the holy fetus becomes the primordial spirit, or the yang spirit.

This is the third step for mortals to become immortals, the transformation from a holy fetus into a god.

The Niwan Palace on the head, also known as the Tiangu and Shenfu, is the purest and most spiritual place in the body. It corresponds to the Zhenxing in space and is the palace of the primordial spirit.

As soon as the soul was formed, it immediately flew from the Crimson Palace to the Niwan Palace. As soon as the soul returned to the Divine Palace, the tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, and at the same time, Fang Muye, who was sitting cross-legged, also opened his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes, the whole room was filled with lightning, and the world where Fang Muye was seemed to be shaken. For a moment, there was thunder, wind and clouds, and after a few breaths, the sky returned to clear.

A huge amount of Yuan Qi from heaven and earth swarmed in and poured into Fang Muye's body, providing endless warmth and nourishing his body and soul.

In a short while, the spirit, energy and essence in Fang Muye's upper, middle and lower dantian were filled to the brim, reaching an unprecedented peak state.

The upper, middle and lower dantians interact with each other, yin and yang alternate, and spirit, qi and essence are integrated into a great medicine, constantly warming and strengthening the primordial spirit in the Niwan Palace.

Fang Muye smiled knowingly, finally reaching the realm of refining the spirit and returning to emptiness. From then on, he truly embarked on the road to ascending to heaven.

As the saying goes: "The baby moves to the upper Dantian, stands upright and calms his mind to be in harmony with nature; when he has cultivated for three thousand merits and completed his practice, he can become a Buddha or ascend to heaven."

As long as Fang Muye continues to nurture his primordial spirit and practices the skill of returning to emptiness with a harmonious union of self and other, he will be able to attain the divine power of the void and become a celestial being.

Although the Yang Soul was just beginning to form at this time, it could already leave the body. Fang Muye's mind moved, and he saw another "him" coming out from the top of his head, who was the same size as him. This was his soul that had left the body.

After his soul left his body, he flew straight upwards. The roof in front of him seemed to be non-existent and he passed through it directly.

When the soul rose to a height of tens of meters, the entire Leijiabao was in sight. The soul saw Lei Hong standing at the gate of the courtyard, and also saw Lei Qianhu rushing towards this side. It was obviously the movement of the heaven and earth's primordial qi pouring back that attracted their attention.

Fang Muye took his soul back to Tiangu and said, "Brother Lei Hong and Brother Qianhu have arrived. Please come in and chat." Then he stood up and walked out of the room to greet them.