County Town Chapter 27: Initial Understanding of Taoist Nature

  The melancholic summer month only left behind a faint, sparse hook-shaped shadow hanging in the sky, while the fiery red dawn glow was reflected on the small pond's surface. Yi Tian Xing, who had been quietly submerged at the bottom of the water, seemed to be surrounded by the dawn glow as well, his entire body emitting a soft, golden-red flame from within. This flame didn't seem to cause any harm to his physical body; instead, it made him feel extremely comfortable, and he stretched his arms in the water, giving a lazy yawn. His strong arms opened up in the water, but it was as if molten lava had fallen into the pool, causing the water around his skin to boil with a sizzling sound. A string of pearl-like bubbles slowly rose from Yi Tian Xing's side, squeezing through the water and breaking through the surface, which still maintained its calmness, before gently bursting open and smiling at the morning sun.

  Yi Tianxing had jumped from the fifth floor of the Agricultural Bureau building when he was a child and didn't faint, and even when he was hit by a car, he still didn't faint. But strangely, while playing in the small pond beside his house, he fainted. Just now, he seemed to have entered a very strange state, as if he were dreaming or awake, the true words from "The Scripture of Sitting Meditation" kept echoing in his ears.

  "From the soles of the feet up to the top of the hair, there is nothing but uncleanness: a mixture of flesh, blood, sinews, bones and marrow; the liver, lungs, heart, spleen, kidneys, stomach, intestines, excrement, urine, saliva, mucus, tears, skin, fat, brain, and bile. The body is full of such uncleannesses."

  The first thing that came to his mind was this scripture. This is the so-called Thirty-six Unpurities of the Physical Body in the San Wei Jing. The other day, when Yi Tian Xing brought this book to read, he felt nauseous and wanted to vomit, but knowing it was a method of unclean observation to make people disgusted with themselves, he forced himself to memorize it.

  It turned out that after the strange phenomenon occurred in the pool water, this section of the law was like a guide, leading the red light points born in the pool water to enter his body, and then gathered into a small brush-like thing, which carefully brushed his body from toe to hair, not missing any subtle place. All the thirty-six impurities on his body seemed to be thrown out in that instant - to be precise, they should have been thrown into this pool of water. Yi Tianxing's eyes were shining brightly, and he had already seen clearly that there were some dark, ink-like things floating at the bottom of the pool, while the fish and shrimp that had been swimming freely in the pond had long since been poisoned to death by these evil vapors.

  He thinks this is another example of the Buddhist scriptures coming true. Now he can stay in the water without needing to breathe.

  It wasn't that he became a corpse, but rather that his skin, which was emitting a golden red glow, seemed to have turned into an extremely fine filter membrane. He could feel that as soon as he moved his mind, countless fresh breaths were entering his body through the skin on his limbs and torso. Since he had always thought of himself as a monster since childhood, after being slightly frightened at first, he began to get used to this way of breathing, and soon mastered it with ease, even feeling an extreme sense of pleasure from this full-body breathing method.

  "Strange things happen every year, but today there are especially many."

  Yi Tian Xing floated at the bottom of the water, his eyes wide open, occasionally putting his palm in front of his eyes to observe carefully. He saw that the crimson flame was still jumping on his fingertips like a spirit, and he couldn't help but be stunned. He knew that no matter what, he couldn't go out now, or he would definitely be discovered. But he couldn't stay at the bottom of the water forever, could he? Fortunately, this small pond was not too big, but it was also a three-meter-deep pit created by a meteorite from outside the sky many years ago. The pond was often shrouded in the stench of garbage that he had picked up, and there were few passersby. He lay at the bottom of the pit, and the possibility of being discovered by early risers was extremely low.

  Yi Tianxing was worried about how to extinguish the strange flames on his body, worried that he would burn his clothes in the future, and worried that he could only hide in the mountains as a savage without clothes. Suddenly, he thought of a passage from the "Zen Sutra".

  "The Buddha said that unclean thoughts are the seeds of all kinds. The World-Honored One said that greed and desire are deeply entrenched and have no bottom; the right medicine to counter them is mindfulness, which should be cultivated with a sense of detachment. All other afflictions can also be completely cured in an instant."

  Yi Tian Xing sat cross-legged on the bottom of the water, three meters down, his legs twisted together, his palms lightly spread on his knees, calming his spirit and quieting his energy. His lips moved slightly at the bottom of the water, and after a while, his eyes slowly closed, his long eyelashes shining with an eerie golden red light as they came together.

  His eyes tightly closed, he felt the eyelashes on his eyes constantly having water vaporized into bubbles. At this time, his body was like a large red hot iron plate, and the surrounding pool water was boiling due to the rapid rise in temperature. Countless strings of water droplets surged around him.

  He had only read Buddhist scriptures but hadn't practiced Zen meditation, so he was completely in the dark. Since discovering that these strange golden red flames couldn't harm him despite their high temperature, he wasn't afraid anymore. He thought to himself that since he hadn't accomplished anything earth-shaking or done anything terribly evil recently, what was happening to him now must be some kind of opportunity, and it must have something to do with Zen Buddhism.

  After reading Buddhist scriptures for so many years, Yitian Xing finally has some understanding of the Buddhism played by Chinese people and knows what the word "fate" that modern people have used to death is all about. From last night till now, it's nothing but the old fox telling himself something about the upper three heavens.

  Isn't this the trigger condition?

  Whatever will be, will be.

  If it's one's own destiny, then one should naturally follow one's own ideas and do things accordingly. Even if mistakes are made, that would be the real destiny.

  Yi Tian Xing smiled slightly, and the pearl-like bubbles on his face floated up again.

  …………………

  At the bottom of a deep pool, a high school student like a fire man kept reciting Buddhist scriptures. On the quiet surface of the pool, the red sun slowly turned white and moved westward, casting the shadow of the trees by the pond on the water's surface, sometimes short and sometimes long. It was unclear what time it was, but a young boy who was completely soaked suddenly broke through the water's surface, made several beautiful flips in mid-air, and landed lightly on the edge of the pool.

  The young man was indeed Yi Tianxing, not because he wanted to show off intentionally, nor was he afraid of startling possible passersby. Instead, at the bottom of the water, he had finally mastered the impure method, and after practicing the decisive trick of converging fire and calming his spirit to perfection, he was just about to slowly swim out when his arm lightly swept across the water, unexpectedly producing a power several times stronger than before! The force was so great that it shook him from the bottom of the water all the way into the air!

  Yitian Xing shook his head, only to find that there were no water droplets on him. He couldn't help but feel a little strange. Upon further inspection of his body, he found that it was completely dry as well. It was then that he realized he had transcended beyond being just the former Iron Monster and had become a "Yao Person" capable of controlling that golden-red flame with his own divine thoughts.

  He was thinking about the future with Leliana, feeling a bit guilty, when suddenly his mind shook and he turned around abruptly.

  "So handsome!"

  "It's so-so."

  ……………………

  He Wei and Hu Yun, the two fighting kings of Chengguan High School in the county town, stared at him with a look of astonishment.

  These days, since Lele's incident, the three of them have been walking closer together. The initial awkwardness has long been forgotten by the young people. Yi Tianxing saw that it was the two of them and frowned, sighing: "How did you guys come here?" In his heart, he secretly rejoiced that he wasn't bursting into flames from underwater, or else these two would definitely be frantically shouting "Save us!" "There's a monster!" - a phrase often seen in Journey to the West.

  "You've been skipping class too many times, and Teacher Yuan wants to invite your parents, but except for Lele, no one in the class knows where you live, so I volunteered to come." Hu Yun said to him.

  Yi Tianxing thought with a bad temper, this kid is just using the opportunity to go to the hospital to see his poor little wife who was injured.

  "And you?" Yi Tianxing turned his inquiring gaze towards He Wei.

  He Weidao said with a big laugh: "I was afraid he would do something bad to you, so I followed him to take a look. Unexpectedly... Ah, it seems that you are indeed a master." He patted Yitian Xing's shoulder enthusiastically. Hu Yun on the side looked disdainful.

  Yi Tianxing shook his head, picked up the clothes he had taken off from the edge of the pond last night and said: "They are all men, I won't be polite. Although my home is nearby, it's too smelly, let's go outside to talk."

  Hú Yún looked at his body and suddenly widened his eyes, saying in a daze: "We saw you come out of the water, how is your body all dry?"

  He Wei also discovered the anomaly and exclaimed: "Is this the legendary internal skill?"

  Hu Yun, who had previously pretended to be unimpressed, couldn't help but exclaim in extreme admiration: "No way, this must be the legendary Innate True Qi!"

  Yi Tian Xing Xin Zhi Jie Shi Ken Ding Shi Jie Shi Bu Tong De, Gan Cui Lai Ge Bu Yan Bu Yu, Zhuang Zhuang Shen Mi, Mei Hao Qi Dao: "Kan Zu Le Mei You?"

  Translation:

  "It's definitely not going to work if we try to explain it. Let's just keep quiet and pretend to be mysterious. Irritated, he said, 'Have you seen enough?'"

  "No." The two said in unison, suddenly looked at each other, and leaned forward to Yitian Xing's face, saying: "Teach us the kung fu, can you?"

  "It won't work." Yi Tianxing replied with a tone of finality, jokingly, he himself didn't know what was going on, how could he teach others?

  Those two seemed to have guessed the answer as well, and they let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, they stared at Yi Tianxing's lower body and said: "Indeed, he is gifted with an extraordinary talent..."

  …

  …

  "Yitian Xing, what were you thinking about just now at the bottom of the water? Were you thinking of Lele?" This is He Wei joking.

  "Cough cough." This was Hu Yun's innermost thought.

  "Just now I was desperately thinking at the bottom of the water about how to avoid going to Shen Nong Jia to be a savage." This is Yi Tian Xing's serious answer.