Chapter 108: Qianqiu Festival
Beiping.
Prince Yan's Mansion.
When everyone returned triumphantly, Princess Xu Miaoyun of Yan was already waiting at the door with officials from the palace.
Chang Meizhen was her best friend and was also following beside her. She would stand on tiptoe and look toward the street corner from time to time. When she heard the sound of hooves and saw people, she would immediately say excitedly, "They're back! They're back!"
A figure appeared on the street corner.
Xu Da and Zhu Di led the way, followed by Chang Mao, Zhao Wumian, Fang Rui, Qian Yunze and others. The Yanyue Guards had already returned to the barracks, and the 3,000 elite soldiers also returned to their respective guard posts. They were given extra meals in the evening, and would receive additional rewards after reporting to the court.
Zhao Wumian followed Zhu Di and saw the famous Princess of Yan, who was beautiful and gentle, with the demeanor of a mistress of the house.
"Your Highness, father."
Xu Miaoyun bowed to the two and said with a smile, "Congratulations on your triumphant return."
Zhu Di smiled even more: "Princess, is the celebration banquet ready? I am very happy tonight and I want to drink with you all. I won't leave until I am drunk! Also, have the servants prepare guest rooms for my father-in-law and his family. We will stay in the palace tonight."
"The banquet is ready."
Xu Miaoyun answered, called a maid to clean up the guest room and boil water, and then said: "You have worked hard in killing the enemy, please go to Chengyun Hall to eat, wine and meat are ready, don't be restrained."
"Thank you, Your Highness, and thank you, Princess."
Everyone bowed, and a servant led the way, taking everyone into the mansion.
The Prince of Yan's Palace was the Prince's Palace of the former Yuan Dynasty, the Longfu Palace in the southwest of the Yuan Dynasty's imperial city of Dadu.
Simply to save money on building a mansion, Zhu Yuanzhang directly awarded the Prince's Mansion to Zhu Di. The interior was very large. The front hall, Chengyun Hall, had eleven rooms, the middle hall and the back hall had nine rooms each. Adding all the miscellaneous rooms together, the entire palace had more than 800 rooms. The scale and specifications of the building exceeded those of other palaces.
But today, no one has any objection to this.
Zhu Biao didn't care, Zhu Di didn't think much about it, and no one else had any objections.
After everyone sat down, Zhu Di announced the start of the banquet. The kitchen served braised dog meat, steamed rabbit meat, crispy quail, hericium and bird's nest...
The variety of delicious food and wine makes people salivate.
“Corruption…”
Zhao Wumian was filled with emotion. He picked up a piece of quail meat and put it in his mouth, nodding his head: "It smells so good!"
That night, everyone ate and drank to their heart's content, and the party lasted until the early morning.
Zhao Wumian's alcohol tolerance was average, but he was good at absorbing and digesting alcohol, so in the end, except for Xu Da who could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk, he was the soberest one.
After Chang Mao, Fang Rui and others were helped away, he was still able to stand steadily. Led by his maid, he returned to the guest room, took a hot bath, changed into pajamas, and began to study "The Art of Planting Demons".
"The sky has three treasures: the sun, the moon, and the stars; the earth has three treasures: water, fire, and wind; and man has three treasures: essence, energy, and spirit."
“Qi is generated from essence, essence turns into qi, and when essence and qi are abundant, the spirit becomes active.”
"It is a pity that people in the world only know how to cultivate their essence and nourish their qi, but do not understand the wonders of spiritual consciousness. It is like having a mountain of treasures but not knowing how to find them, or having a fortune but being trapped by a penny. It is a waste of precious things, which is really laughable."
The opening of "The Secret of Planting Demons" is very interesting.
It seems that not only in today's martial arts world, but also in the Warring States Period when Gongshu Ban was active, warriors did not pay much attention to the cultivation of "spiritual consciousness".
Even sorcerers mainly practice Qi training and use Qi to contain spirit. There are few techniques specifically designed to cultivate spiritual consciousness.
"The Secret of Planting Demons" is a perfect way to play with the concept of "God".
Compared with the tangible "essence" and the material "qi", "spirit" is indeed difficult to cultivate.
Because spiritual consciousness radiates from the inside to the outside, it is invisible and intangible, like a ball of mist. It is too illusory to control and understand.
Yin-Yang Dao is certainly a holy land for sorcerers. In their "Five Elements Positioning" and "Nine Palace Soul Transferring Technique", the method of refining the spirit is still the sentence in the "Inner Canon": "The five flavors enter the mouth and are stored in the stomach and intestines. The flavors are stored to nourish the five qi. When the qi is harmonious and the body fluids are formed, the spirit is born naturally."
Ultimately it is about nourishing the blood and qi, and cultivating qi to calm the spirit.
The "Magic Secret" is different.
Its core idea is very simple and crude, which is to use the method of refining supernatural powers to refine spiritual consciousness!
How do warriors cultivate supernatural powers?
Take the essence and blood of strange beasts, plant them in the Dantian, turn them into blood seeds, nourish them with true qi, let them take root and sprout, give birth to divine will, then bloom and bear fruit, turn into magical powers, and then from nothing to something, from virtual to real, combine with true qi, and condense into a substantial Dharma image...
and so.
The first step is to condense the spiritual consciousness into a seed and plant it in the Niwan Palace in the upper Dantian!
The second step is to nourish it with true Qi and wait for it to take root, sprout, bloom and bear fruit!
If we compare the spirit to a tree, then the general practice of nourishing the spirit is like a heavy rain, which falls equally on the tree. Although the tree will grow, it is only incidental and the gain is limited.
This method of "Magic Planting Secrets" is to directly water and fertilize the roots of the trees. In this way, it will be obvious which one grows faster!
The issue is.
This first step has stumped countless people.
The reason why "The Art of Planting Demons" is difficult to practice, so difficult that no one in the Gongshu family has been able to practice it for hundreds of years, is that the requirements for qualifications have reached an inhuman level.
People who are not spiritual enough will not have a high level of spiritual consciousness, so it is natural that they will have difficulty in controlling their spiritual consciousness. On the contrary, the higher the spirituality, the easier it is to control their spiritual consciousness.
What kind of spirituality can condense the scattered spiritual consciousness into seeds without practicing? Make the negative pole produce positive, and the positive pole produce negative, from the extreme dispersion to the extreme condensation?
the answer is.
Spirituality is greater than or equal to forty-seven.
It is basically equivalent to a natural Taoist body. "This threshold is ridiculously high!"
After Zhao Wumian found out, he couldn't help but complain. Under such conditions, the Gongshu family still had someone who could practice it after hundreds of years. It must have been a sign of excellent family genes. There are only one person in a million who has such qualifications.
This is a martial art that makes the stronger one becomes, and it is only prepared for those with extraordinary talents.
"Luckily it was [God is jealous of talents], otherwise I would have missed this secret alchemy method..."
Zhao Wumian held his breath and began to condense his own spiritual consciousness according to the method in "The Art of Planting Demons", which was not difficult for him.
After just half an hour, a "seed" took shape in the Niwan Palace. As the mind sank into consciousness, one could "see" its appearance: it was the size of a soybean, expanding and contracting like breathing.
Zhao Wumian followed the method of planting blood seeds and carefully moved the seeds into the Niwan Palace.
The seeds are taking root!
At that moment, Zhao Wumian secretly thought that something was not good. His perception of the surroundings decreased instantly, and all his spiritual consciousness was nurtured into this seed, as if all his spiritual consciousness had disappeared. But it didn't matter. The book said that the initial "rooting and sprouting" only takes three hours. Zhao Wumian began to circulate the Qi in his body continuously, mobilizing his true Qi to nourish the upper Dantian.
Three hours later, it was almost dawn.
After six hours of continuous watering, the seeds grew to the size of pigeon eggs, glowing faintly. The outer shell was like thin porcelain, and the curled-up embryo could be vaguely seen inside.
suddenly.
Zhao Wumian sensed the movement of the spiritual consciousness inside the shell, and the outer shell of the seed shattered - the outer shell was transformed by the spiritual consciousness, so there would naturally be no sound when it shattered, but to Zhao Wumian's ears, it was like a thunderclap.
His whole body was shaking as if struck by lightning.
Tender sprouts stretched out from the broken shells, and everything around him came to him like a tide, clear and incredible. This familiar feeling of being in control immediately made him relax.
Divine consciousness!
The hardest step is completed.
Now all of his spiritual consciousness has turned into this bud. From now on, the growth rate of the bud will be the growth rate of his spiritual consciousness.
He could clearly feel that when the invisible and intangible spiritual consciousness turned into a tangible object, not only did the spiritual consciousness have a vein, making it easier to control, but the clarity within the range of ten feet in radius of the spiritual consciousness was also much stronger than before.
This technique is truly magical!
Zhao Wumian was very satisfied with this.
According to the "Magic Seed Art", the day when the seeds bloom and bear fruit is when the "magic fetus" and "soul seed" are formed.
Whether it's investing in weapons to develop spirituality, or investing in spirit cores to develop intelligence, or investing in a person's body to turn that person into a puppet, it will achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Moreover, the two have the same origin. The parasitic soul seed can absorb the souls of others to strengthen itself and feed back to itself, just like the dual cultivation of yin and yang, which complement each other.
You're done!
Time will do the rest.
Zhao Wumian breathed a sigh of relief. After a whole night of hard work, he finally mastered this strange secret technique. He fell onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
……
The next day.
Zhao Wumian slept until the afternoon, and Zhu Di specifically instructed not to disturb him.
Xu Da had already written a document and sent it urgently over 600 miles to the capital. He also wrote a letter to Zhu Biao by carrier pigeon, telling him everything that had happened yesterday.
Zhu Biao wrote a reply on the same day, first praising everyone and promising a generous reward for exposing the conspiracy and capturing Nairbuhua and Wanzhebuhua. He also ordered the Ministry of Revenue to allocate the reward silver and ordered the Jinyiwei to escort it to Beiping to give it to all the soldiers involved. Then he asked Chang Mao to escort the remaining 100,000 shi of grain to Liaodong and gave Zhao Wumian a holiday, requiring him only to return to Beijing before August 5.
"August 5th..."
Zhao Wumian sat in the pavilion of the palace, looking at the reply letter in his hand, a little puzzled: "It's not urgent, there are still nearly twenty days... What day is it?"
"Brother is so stupid."
Chang Meizhen was sitting on a chair nearby eating peaches. Upon hearing this, she said casually, "Even I know that the prince's brother-in-law saw that you had finished your errands ahead of time and asked you to go back to participate in the festival."
Zhao Wumian raised his eyebrows: "Holiday?"
"of course."
Chang Meizhen smiled and said, "That day is the Queen's birthday, the Thousand Autumn Festival."
Zhao Wumian suddenly realized.
It turned out to be Queen Ma’s birthday…
In the 13th year of Hongwu…
Calculating the time, Empress Ma only had two years left to live. According to historical records, she would die in the fifteenth year of Hongwu...
And Zhu Xiongying...
And his own death...
All happened in the fifteenth year of Hongwu!
Grass!
Zhao Wumian felt a headache.
Chang Meizhen said: "This year is not a full year, so there will be no big celebration. His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan can't go back. The prince's brother-in-law invited you, and he really treats you as his own... Brother, have you thought of a gift? If you haven't thought of it, you can ask me~, I know what the Queen likes!"
(End of this chapter)
