cold.
A chill that penetrated to the bone marrow clung tightly to Jiang Chan's consciousness.
It wasn't the cold of ice and snow, but more like a piece of ancient jade, emanating a continuous chill that enveloped her and squeezed her into a small space.
She felt as if she were encased in a block of ice.
She can "see" the outside world, or rather, perceive the outside world.
The view was strange, as if there was a slightly glowing, warm green barrier in the way.
Outside the barrier was a person's chest.
The white fabric, with its subtle wrinkles and the warmth of body heat.
With each rise and fall of his chest, the cold jade swayed gently.
A sound rang out very, very close to the outside of the jade.
That voice was so beautiful.
Clear, gentle, neither too high nor too low, like spring water flowing through a mountain stream, unhurried and eloquent, each word clear and smooth, carrying a soothing power.
"...When the Tao follows its own way, and the mind is clear and pure, external demons cannot invade, only then can one reach the state of enlightenment..."
The voice was conveying profound truths.
Accompanying this sound were many intertwined emotional fluctuations coming from below.
It was an almost fanatical worship, reverence, and obsession, like countless gentle streams flowing devoutly towards the source of the sound.
This is Ling Xiao, the senior disciple of the Tianyan Sect.
Those emotions outside belong to the disciples listening to the lecture.
This cold jade was the jade pendant that Ling Xiao wore day and night.
At this moment, Jiang Chan is a pitiful wisp of consciousness within this piece of jade, or rather, an unacknowledged "illusion of inner demons".
I'm like a little snack inside a piece of jade, about to be eaten!
As Jiang Chan looked at the two task descriptions in her field of vision, a violent fluctuation ran through the depths of her consciousness. She was almost frozen to pieces by the omnipresent chill. The difficulty was like asking an ant to trip up a giant dragon!
Just then, a vast, powerful, pure, and icy thought, like an invisible millstone weighing millions of pounds, suddenly pressed down!
Slowly, yet with an undeniable grinding force, it repeatedly crushed her consciousness, again and again!
This is Lingxiao's "Dao Thought"!
He was unconsciously, or perhaps instinctively, clearing away this "impurity" from her!
Jiang Chan felt like a tiny insect thrown into a millstone. Each crushing motion brought a sharp pain and a sense of emptiness, as if her thoughts were being torn apart and her existence was being eroded.
That cold jade pendant seemed to be the base of this millstone, clearly conveying the pain of grinding to her.
"Ugh..." A silent groan of pain escaped her consciousness. She felt herself growing weaker and weaker, and her consciousness becoming increasingly blurred.
no!
We absolutely cannot let ourselves be worn down like this!
A strong will to survive, like a red-hot needle, pierced through the ice of despair!
Soaring to the heavens? Perfect? A clear and enlightened Dao heart?
fart!
Is there really such a thing as a truly perfect person in this world?!
The more perfect the facade, the more filthy the filth hidden beneath may be!
The more he suppressed it, the more his dark thoughts resembled a powder keg being smothered!
Jiang Chan's consciousness spun wildly amidst the excruciating pain. To resist this Daoist thought? She had no power whatsoever; that would be suicide!
The only way out... is to take advantage of the jade pendant being so close to Ling Xiao, find the darkest corner he's hiding in, locate the fuse, and then, at the most crucial moment—during the sect competition—detonate it! Let him explode on his own!
"A clear and enlightened mind"? She wants to peel off this layer of skin and see if a person or a ghost is underneath!
[Amplification of Mindfulness and Perception]!
This thing flashed through her mind.
start up!
Buzz...
A strange power instantly flowed into Jiang Chan's weakened core. Her senses seemed to be forcibly expanded, breaking through the cold barrier of the jade pendant and probing into the vast and boundless external world—Ling Xiao's sea of consciousness!
It was like falling into a terrifyingly calm silver ocean.
The sea surface is as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the orbits of the sun, moon, and stars, and is filled with an orderly, rational, and cold radiance.
This is Ling Xiao's conscious state: cultivating, preaching, handling sect affairs... everything is in order and flawless.
But what Jiang Chan wanted was not the bright surface of the sea; she wanted to dive into the seabed and find the hidden currents and silt!
Her senses, like an invisible probe, carefully avoided the cold, gleaming light on the sea's surface that represented "perfection," struggling downwards, downwards, and downwards still.
The pressure is immense!
The deeper you go, the stronger the grinding sensation of the cold Daoist thought becomes!
Each step deeper was like dancing on a knife's edge; the slightest misstep could result in being crushed or bounced off by that powerful will.
She can "see" fragments of images:
Ling Xiao was instructing a junior sister in her cultivation, his tone gentle and his gaze focused.
Ling Xiao was reviewing the sect's documents, his expression calm and meticulous.
Ling Xiao was practicing his swordsmanship; his movements were fluid and flawless.
Ignore the superficial glamour and focus all your efforts on capturing the extremely subtle emotional ripples behind these images.
When a junior brother offered Ling Xiao a family-secret spiritual tea, Ling Xiao accepted it with a smile, but Jiang Chan's sensory probe suddenly trembled...
The moment I received the teacup, a faint, almost imperceptible sense of "taking it for granted" swept over me, only to be quickly replaced by a deeper sense of "humility."
When an elder praised him for handling a recent sect dispute, Ling Xiao bowed respectfully, but his probe caught a more subtle, perfectly concealed indifference of "taken-for-granted" indifference.
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