Master of the Stars

The mind and the heart gives birth to conceptions, but the mind and the heart also kills conceptions. The flexibility lies in the eyes.

Luo Nan seemed to be asleep yet not asleep, awake yet not awake. It was as if he entered a still state of mind.

He could truly see the visualization diagram rotating in the void, yet there were also countless specious shadows diffused inside and outside of it. Every shadow was a copy of his figure. They were practically everywhere, yet none of them was real.

Then Luo Nan’s mind sunk downward directly into the heart of the inscribed sphere. He fell into the center of the deep prison. The shadows were truly like shadows of his body; they followed him inside.

Thousands upon thousands of dark chains moved simultaneously with a rattling vibrato. They weaved together into something like a net, and the light of a flame lacking all heat flickered in the deepest regions. The light illuminated layers and layers of chaos as it fused and overlapped with the myriad of shadows. It was hard to distinguish between the shadows, for they were like flocks of bats. These wraiths danced bewitchingly like clouds and waves.

’Me’. Which one is ’me’?

Luo Nan’s viewpoint changed amid his daze. It was as if he was looking down from high above. He saw the rays of light pierce upward and combine with the flames in his eyes into one. Great amounts of light was released, suppressing the wraiths, and Luo Nan was suddenly awoken.

Luo Nan opened his eyes. His vision was a bit fuzzy at first; part of it was due to the dusky lighting of the room. The light of the sun could not be seen, so only the lights of the humanoid stone lanterns illuminated the entrance to the room. Light and shadow were jumbled together, and they formed outlines upon the random items within the room. The normal and ordinary image gave Luo Nan a feeling of inexplicable novelty. It could not be determined if this was a psychological effect.

Luo Nan flipped over and sat up, the blanket covering him sliding off. The slight chill of early morning came flowing in from the opened entrance. It made him huddle his shoulders to cover his neck.

A husky voice suddenly vibrated from the corner of the room. It was none other than Xiu Shenyu. "Falseness has energy. Darkness has knowledge. There exists fields of blessing in the heart. All without raising a thought.... You should go through morning procedures. Follow what you did last night."

Luo Nan closed his eyes and opened them. This time the aftereffects of his dream-state were wiped away. He was truly clear-headed now. Luo Nan looked at his wristband; it was now a bit over 4:30 in the morning. No wonder it was so dark outside.

Xiu Shenyu did not say anything after that, but Luo Nan was able to feel his gaze resting upon his body. Xiu Shenyu was supervising his task.

Yes. Luo Nan’s bitter days have begun starting last night.

Luo Nan did not waste time talking. He settled his mind and began performing the breathing technique. The breath in his mouth and nose gradually possessed a sense of density.

Luo Nan did not take the next step in circulating after finding the right tempo of breathing. He first massaged the acupoints surrounding his eye sockets. He extended his hands while sitting cross-legged, clasped them together, and massaged his feet using a special technique. Everything was done in special positions; it was just a bit ugly to look at.

"Harder!" directed Xiu Shenyu in a timely manner....

Luo Nan unconsciously exerted more force with his hand. Soon his hands and feet had warmed up, and his tendons and muscles had loosened up. Then, his hands went to his back to press against its two sides. Luo Nan looked like he was doing some sort of exercise with these series of movements... exercises for old people.

Luo Nan back was in pain as he did this, for Xiu Shenyu pressed his finger into a spot. Xiu Shenyu’s voice entered his ear once more. "Here. Put more force here."

Luo Nan’s breathing was chaotic, but soon he adjusted. He bent his hand in accordance to Xiu Shenyu’s request and continued to apply force. He did this until the spot felt achy and hot.

This was not the end of it. Luo Nan then sat on the cork flooring, twisted his body, and stretched his hands and feet. The most important thing was for his gaze to follow his movements, regardless of his body’s position. Every time there was something the least bit wrong with Luo Nan’s positions and movements, Xiu Shenyu would instantly correct him with words, or even use his hands to adjust Luo Nan himself.

Luo Nan went through the exercise nine times. It might look like he never left his original position, but Luo Nan used up a great amount of stamina. A layer of sweat covered Luo Nan’s body.

What was especially taxing was paying attention to the position of his eyes. They always had to move along with his hands and feet. They were massaged in this way as well. Right then, Luo Nan’s eyes were a bit hot, as if there was steam rising from his eye sockets. Luo Nan was on the verge of crying.

Luo Nan gently closed his eyes, withdrawing and concealing his mind. His exercise only counted as a success at this point.

Luo Nan had learned this series of movements last night. It was a hands-on instruction from Xiu Shenyu. Luo Nan learned to massage his head, hands, feet, and torso in this way. Luo Nan learned to stretch and twist his limbs along with a supplementation of breathing in this way. This involved positioning, strength, feeling, response, and so on. Xiu Shenyu was meticulous down to the smallest detail.

This was the basic method Xiu Shenyu spoke of. Luo Nan followed a prescribed pattern to the letter, and there was practically no room for meditation and visualization. Nothing fake could be seen from it.

Xiu Shenyu told him the following: "Your form is like a bowl tray. You bear heavy mass, but you’re rejected outside. A strand of your mind is split, existing within this imprisonment. So, a large tail obstructs action. If you want to make it right, first you must break through the layers that separate the mind, energy, and essence. The only way starts from the human body. Strengthen the body’s function to make yourself beautiful inside and out. Cultivate your essence energy.... It’s like adding a flame beneath the bowl tray. Use the heat of your body to melt a corner of the glacial mountains. Separate a cup of soup out from within. If you want to reach sufficient ’heat’, you cannot continue cultivating in a purely still state. You need to exert yourself while walking, sitting, and lying down. You need to activate and circulate the functions of your vital energy."

According to Xiu Shenyu’s words, Luo Nan’s cultivation thus far was confined by the external technique that was Formatting Theory. His fleshly body was weak, and the only thing that connected the inside and the outside of the body were the nine orifices.

The nine orifices of the body were the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, the mouth, and the two lower extremities. The eyes, ears, and mouth were the most important of them, and of these, the eyes were the divine master. There was a saying from the "Scripture of the Hidden Contracts": The mind and the heart gives birth to conceptions, but the mind and the heart also kills conceptions. The flexibility lies in the eyes.

The essentials lay in this saying.

Luo Nan’s cultivation was in the mental plane. It was difficult to utilize his fleshly body. Now, he had to utilize the natural physical nature of his body. This was akin to drawing water from a stream. He had to gradually build the scale, and then seek a breakthrough.

Luo Nan could only understand half of Xiu Shenyu’s theories. He only knew that he had to begin with the eyes, the most important orifices. Now that he thought about it, only minor abilities had manifested during his early years before he achieved his Self-Format. Besides the Appetite King ability that strengthened his digestion and absorption rates, there was also the Hypnosis Master ability. This ability was really apparent. It used the eyes as a medium to terrify a person’s mind.

Luo Nan checked his own experiences and realized that he did make some small gains with his fleshly body.

The morning exercise lasted for nearly an hour, only ending at 5:30. Luo Nan washed his face, walked back into the courtyard, and saw Xue Lei sweeping fallen leaves in the middle of the courtyard. Luo Nan rushed to help, but Xue Lei refused.

"Save some energy. We’re going to school in a bit, but there aren’t any public transport routed there."

"Are we running there? Isn’t today a bit late for you?"

The distance from the daoguan to Acumen College was nearly fifty kilometers. Though Luo Nan had ran such distances before, it was nearly six in the morning now. He did not believe that he could make it in time for his morning courses after assessing his level of energy.

"Duuude. Your resolve is really laudable!"

Xue Lei grinned and laughed as he gave Luo Nan a big thumbs-up. But then he shook his head. "I’m the one running there. Right now your body isn’t suitable for large amounts of exercise. You can put up with the public bike point over here at Boshan Building.... Oh, Nanster. Your complexion is looking a lot better today.”

Luo Nan felt good himself. The aches of his body had yet to fade away, but his mind was resolute and his spirits were clear with energy. He was completely different from yesterday.

He had a general idea why.

It had already been nearly a month since Luo Nan had achieved the Self-Format of ’My heart’s a prison’ and had stopped the consistent process of synthesizing drugs. Since then, he didn’t have a feasible cultivation method. Most of the time Luo Nan had been wearily dealing with the endlessly surging growth of his soul strength. This left Luo Nan in an utterly passive position. The few techniques he polished were scattered and sporadic. It was far from systematic.

Today, he had performed real and true movements in Xiu Shenyu’s daoguan. He had made steady progress in every detail and every node. Though this might be a basic method, it was a starting point.

Luo Nan was not afraid of hard work. He was just afraid of meaningless hard work.

Compared to the big goal of rectifying and verifying the rights and wrongs of his grandfather’s Formatting Theory, the tiny goal marked down by Xiu Shenyu was truly something in reach.

Regardless of whether his goals were now broken down or he was reassuring himself, Luo Nan’s mind became infused with energy. Quite a bit of his worries were alleviated.

"Concentrate the gaze to what is attainable, and light shall illuminate the earth. Do not stray, do not lose, to the end."

It was unknown when Xiu Shenyu had walked out, but he stood at the wooden corridor and was looking at the two youngsters. "Time is getting late. Off you two go then."