Chapter 42 Two Geniuses of Literature, One Pure and One White

"How did you learn so many mental techniques?" Lu Yuan looked at Shen Cangyu and couldn't help but ask.

Lu Yuan grew up in Kunlun and was exposed to far more mental techniques than Shen Cangyu. Even so, it still took her more than ten days to learn a new mental technique.

Shen Cangyu was different; among this group of people, she was like an anomaly.

Once her teachers demonstrated the art of manipulation, she could learn about 70% of it.

Lu Yuan scratched her head, feeling strange. She was the one who had attended the retake class, so how come Shen Cangyu was the one who amazed everyone?

Lu Yuan guessed that Shen Cangyu must have used some method to secretly look at the teachers' lesson plans, otherwise how could she have learned so quickly?

"Separating hardness and whiteness?" Lu Yuan felt a headache coming on as he listened to Fang Bushou's description.

Everyone knew that Fang Bushou liked to invent strange and useless mental techniques, but no one paid him any attention. Unexpectedly, Fang Bushou actually used it in class as a test for his disciples.

Looking at the principles and luck flow of this mental technique, Shen Cangyu knew that it was a mental technique derived from Daoist Wenxin Diaolong.

Every cultivator possesses the ability to create mental techniques. They condense the essence of their own cultivation methods into universally applicable spells, which are called "mental techniques."

Anyone can learn psychological manipulation; the key lies in one's understanding of the principles behind it.

If someone can understand a certain type of mental technique more quickly, it means that he is suited to that path.

Fang Bushou stroked his beard, looked at his disciples below the stage with worried faces, and revealed a satisfied smile.

Normally, if the disciples below couldn't learn the mental techniques, he would definitely feel frustrated and curse in his heart: "These are just small things like reciting incantations and making gestures, how come they still can't learn them after studying for so long? How come they can't understand anything? They say that if you kill pigs in your past life, you'll be a teacher in this life. It seems that he killed people in his past life, which is why he ended up teaching pigs in this life."

But Li Jianbai is different. This is a mental technique he painstakingly researched some time ago, and only disciples of Wenxin Diaolong can comprehend its mysteries and use it.

The essence of "Li Jian Bai" and the core of "Wen Xin Diao Long" are consistent, both believing that the world should be coded with words to see through the attributes of every object and decompose the words on it.

Fang Bushou's gaze swept over the Wenxin Diaolong disciples in the hall.

It's perfectly normal if other disciples can't learn this mental technique, but if a disciple of Wenxin Diaolong can't understand it, then they should wait to be beaten when they get back.

He snorted, picked up the teacup on the table, and took a sip of tea.

Shen Cangyu looked at the incantation Fang Bushou had written on the curtain, and recalled the hand seals he had just demonstrated, and fell into deep thought.

Why did Fang Bushou entrust this mental technique to them?

She looked at Lu Yuan beside her.

Since there was no assessment, Lu Yuan was even less inclined to study.

But Mingzhao behind him kept staring at the incantation on the curtain, muttering to himself.

For a disciple of Wenxin Diaolong, every word has a unique meaning, and different combinations of words can play different roles. She began to scrutinize the words, constantly trying to figure out Fang Bushou's intention in writing down that formula.

Shen Cangyu didn't think that much about it.

She recited the incantation and recalled Fang Bushou's gestures as she performed the mental technique.

She waited a while, and when she felt that nothing was happening, she became certain that this mental technique was not like other mental techniques, which could be used as long as the incantation, hand gestures, and energy circulation were used correctly.

It requires some skill level.

The higher the barrier to entry, the more it fuels her competitive spirit.

Simply imitating won't work. Shen Cangyu thought that she needed to see through the essence of "separation of hardness and whiteness".

She looked at the small stones on the table; these were the stones Fang Bushou had given them before class. Small white stones like these were common in Yunmeng Marsh, nothing unusual about them.

She closed her eyes and reached out to touch the small stone.

It is thus evident that the "hardness" and "whiteness" of a stone are two separate and independent attributes.

Similarly, the various attributes of every thing exist independently in human perception and can be discussed separately...

Judging something based on only one perception will only yield a partial understanding. This is why different people will always have different views on the same thing.

Shen Cangyu's heart skipped a beat.

She glanced at the novel plot unfolding beside her and suddenly realized that there were gaps in her understanding as well.

She placed too much faith in the narrative, but the story before her was merely words. The words were only what she saw, blinding her to her other senses.

This is a living, dynamic world, not just words.

She cannot rely solely on one side of the story in the novel.

She held the stone in her hand. In the novel, it was just the word "stone," but in reality, it was a complete object with many meanings beyond the word "stone."

"Bang!"

A voice suddenly rang out, and before he could recover, he stared in disbelief at the scene inside the room: "This... how is this possible?"

Shen Cangyu sat upright, and the stone in her hand was no longer a stone, but had transformed into golden characters that floated in the sky. The characters were intertwined, like ribbons dancing in the air.

This is Professor Fang Bushou's "Separation of Hardness and Whiteness" of mental techniques, but it is not entirely "Separation of Hardness and Whiteness"; it also carries the aura of the "golden words" of Wenxin Diaolong.

Inside the room, besides the gold characters scattered everywhere, there was also another group of black characters flying around like crows.

Unlike gold characters, black characters are individual characters that float outwards independently. There is no connection between the characters, and they cannot even form a sentence, making it difficult for people to understand their meaning.

Shen Qingyan stared at the stone in his hand, from which black characters continued to emerge, when suddenly his nose tingled. He raised his hand to touch it, finding his hand covered in bright red blood. He stared blankly at the blood on his hand, then suddenly looked up at Shen Cangyu.

Shen Cangyu did not have a nosebleed because her inner core was strong, unlike his.

The two streams of calligraphy in the hall were evenly matched, neither giving way, dazzling the eyes.

"It's one thing that Shen Cangyu could learn this mental technique, but why could Shen Qingyan learn it too...? Doesn't he not have an inner core?" Someone asked, taking a long time to recover from the scene.

Looking into Shen Cangyu's eyes, Shen Qingyan felt a complex mix of emotions.

"Not bad, you actually know how to use this mental technique," the system exclaimed in his ear. "You don't have an inner core, nor have you exchanged for any cheat codes, yet you can still use this mental technique. How did you do it?"

Shen Qingyan thought to himself, "I don't understand what the teacher is saying. I just see this world as a novel, turning everything into words. The stone in my hand is a word, the teacher is a word, everyone in this classroom is a word... Shen Cangyu is a word, and everything happening here is just words..."

He didn't know what "The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons" was, but he stumbled upon its essence: "I treated everything as words in a novel, and the stone itself became like this."

Fang Bushou looked at the scene in the hall and finally came to his senses: "I didn't expect that your class... would actually produce two geniuses of Wenxin Diaolong."

He stroked his beard with feigned composure and said to Shen Cangyu, "With such talent, why are you still staying at Wanqi Guixin? Why not join our Wenxin Diaolong?"

Shen Cangyu dropped the stone in her hand, and the golden characters surrounding her vanished instantly. She said, "I don't want to. I'm perfectly fine staying in Wanqi Guixin. I don't want to leave."

Fang Busou glared and puffed out his cheeks. Seeing that Shen Cangyu ignored him, he could only snort coldly and look at Shen Qingyan.

In his eyes, Shen Qingyan had always been a slow-witted disciple. Not to mention learning the art of mind, several months had passed and he still hadn't even mastered the inner core.

In the past, he couldn't understand how such a disciple had managed to sneak into the inner sect of Kunlun. He really wanted to mention it to the sect leader so that he could be sent back to the outer sect and not be left in the inner sect to waste teaching resources.

But now it seems that Shen Qingyan really does have some skills.

Some time ago, he heard rumors that Shen Qingyan was the "Divine Hand of Shennong," but he just scoffed at it. Now that he has seen Shen Qingyan's talent for literary writing, he suddenly understands Xingxiangtang's feelings.

Maybe this guy really is a genius, but his learning methods are different from ordinary people.

He coughed a few times, cleared his throat, and asked Shen Qingyan, "Your name is Shen Qingyan, right?"

Shen Qingyan came to her senses, put down the stone in her hand, and the black characters scattered to the side gradually disappeared.

He nodded to Fang Bushou.

Fang Bushou asked, "Have you chosen your path? Where are you living now?" He spoke subtly, wanting Shen Qingyan to join their Wenxin Diaolong, but he was too proud to take the initiative to invite her.

He felt that he had now opened the conversation, and if Shen Qingyan was smart and sensible, she would agree with him and say that she had not yet chosen a path.

In this way, Fang Bu Shou can easily mention the Dao. Since he doesn't have the Dao yet, why not join our Wenxin Diaolong?

That would be excellent.

"I want to join the Myriad Instruments Return to the Heart." Upon hearing the words "Daoist Laws," Shen Qingyan seemed to receive some kind of instruction and began to sit up straight and speak.

Fang Bushou choked up; all the words he had planned out were stuck in his throat, making it impossible for him to speak.

Seeing Fang Bushou's gaze, the disciple sitting next to Shen Qingyan quickly nudged Shen Qingyan and gave him a meaningful look.

Unfortunately, Shen Qingyan couldn't grasp the message at all. He just stared at Fang Bushou with unwavering determination in his eyes: "Although I haven't cultivated my inner core yet, I will work hard. I must join the Myriad Weapons Return to the Heart!"

Fang Bushou closed his eyes, rolled his eyes with difficulty, pressed his head which was almost throbbing with a stroke, and uttered two words: "What a sin."