Methods of Enlightenment and the Cycle of Cause and Effect
The Dream Heaven Immortal Sect is one of the top super sects in the Hongchuan Realm: it not only boasts numerous buildings, spiritual veins, mountains, and floating islands, but is also renowned for its vast collection of cultivation manuals. The Dream Heaven Immortal Sect's library alone has nine floors, each with an enormous space and a vast number of books.
Lin Shi and Lian Zheng went together to the ninth floor of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect's library to examine texts related to the methods of attaining enlightenment. In addition, Lian Zheng contacted some old friends to inquire if they had any texts on the same topic.
The library of the Dream Heaven Immortal Sect is vast and contains at least 100,000 books on a single floor. Even with their divine sense, ability to read ten lines at a glance, and photographic memory, it took Lin Shi and Lian Zheng a full month to find the books with relevant records.
Lin Shi and Lian Zheng then compiled all the relevant methods of attaining the Dao. After organizing the information, they concluded that for cultivators, there are three realms of cultivation: seeing the Dao, cultivating the Dao, and attaining the Dao. Seeing the Dao means understanding one's mind and nature; cultivating the Dao means cultivating and improving one's cultivation level after understanding one's mind and nature; attaining the Dao means passing through the Immortal Tribulation and ascending to the Middle Heaven Realm after perfecting one's cultivation through a specific method of attaining the Dao. Common methods of attaining the Dao include: attaining the Dao with the Dao, attaining the Dao with the physical body, attaining the Dao with the primordial spirit, attaining the Dao with magical treasures, attaining the Dao by controlling the power of laws, attaining the Dao by severing the three corpses, attaining the Dao with merit, attaining the Dao with the power of will, attaining the Dao by killing, attaining the Dao with demons, attaining the Dao with emotion, attaining the Dao by forgetting emotion, attaining the Dao with the heart, attaining the Dao with dreams, and so on.
Lin Shi couldn't help but ask, "Lian Zheng, are you proving the Dao through the Dao itself?"
Lian Zheng looked at Lin Shi and replied, "Yes. So, do you prove the Dao with your heart or with your dreams?"
Lin Shi: "It should be."
Lian Zheng frowned: "That's a bit troublesome."
Lin Shi reassured her, "It's alright."
Lian Zheng: "Lin Shi, you were once able to possess nine Nascent Souls at the same time, right? So now, you can actually split your primordial spirit into nine. Besides having one main body with its own memories and primordial spirit, you can also have eight external bodies or reincarnations. Each external body has an independent primordial spirit, but it does not have the main body's memories."
Lin Shi couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Why?"
Lian Zheng looked at Lin Shi and said seriously, "The inner body is the main body, while the outer body is a split or reincarnation of the main body. My earliest past life was one of the outer bodies of a Mahayana cultivator. That Mahayana cultivator has long since perished, but his eight outer bodies entered the cycle of reincarnation. After I became a cultivator and broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, I awakened all the memories of my past life and completely severed the causal connection with my original main body, becoming an independent individual or main body. Now I can also have eight outer bodies with independent primordial spirits but without the memories of the main body."
Upon hearing this, Lin Shi couldn't help but sit up even straighter. Her eyes widened as she looked at Lian Zheng suspiciously, her gaze intense: "Then do you know any other incarnations that share the same original body as you?"
Lian Zheng paused for a moment, then said hesitantly, "I know him."
Lin Shi pressed further, "Who are they? Do I know them?"
Lian Zheng looked at Lin Shi intently for a long time. After a while, he moved closer to Lin Shi, held her hand tightly, and said, "The eight reincarnations of the original body that were the same as mine, as well as Wen Zhao'an and Xu Minghao. You don't know the others. Jiang Huinan was Wen Zhao'an's reincarnation. He has now passed away and merged back into Wen Zhao'an's soul."
Lin Shi froze upon hearing this. She instinctively tried to pull her hand out of Lian Zheng's grasp, but Lian Zheng wouldn't let her, holding her hand tightly. After a moment of stalemate, Lin Shi finally said, "Terrifying! You and Wen Zhao'an were actually the same cultivator's body in disguise from the beginning."
Lian Zheng held Lin Shi's hand with one hand and turned her face towards him with the other. He spoke slowly and earnestly, "Lin Shi, I occasionally dream of fragments of memories about my original cultivator. As my initial Mahayana cultivator, he had a deeply beloved Daoist partner. His wife and Daoist partner chose to annihilate her consciousness, her original body transforming into a Heavenly Dao of a realm, leaving only an external body to inherit her memories and thoughts. That Mahayana cultivator used a self-inflicted injury to make his wife, that Heavenly Dao's external body, sign a Daoist soul contract with him for all eternity. If the two meet again in reincarnation and are both mortals, they will be entangled for all eternity. If both are cultivators, they will inevitably become Daoist partners." "That Mahayana cultivator failed to ascend, his physical body perished, and his soul dissipated, but his eight avatars entered the cycle of reincarnation. As of the present world, two of his avatars became cultivators and entered the Nascent Soul stage, operating independently—that is, Wen Zhao'an and I. The other six avatars, after their deaths, eventually merged into one avatar, continuing into reincarnation—that is, Xu Xinghao. After Xu Xinghao's death, his soul merged into Wen Zhao'an's soul. That Mahayana cultivator's Daoist partner, the avatar of the Heavenly Dao, that female cultivator, did not wait for her partner's reincarnation to return to her; instead, she ultimately chose to enter reincarnation with her partner's avatar."
Lin Shi frowned: "So the original Mahayana cultivator would like female cultivators like me, and even if the causal connection is severed, his reincarnation would still easily have a slight liking for female cultivators of the same type?"
Lian Zheng nodded: "Yes."
Lin Shi: "Am I the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao's incarnation? Or am I also the incarnation of another Mahayana cultivator?"
Lian Zheng: "You should be the former. Judging from your soul state, you only have your physical body now, only your inner body. Therefore, you need to reincarnate at least eight times before you can truly meet the conditions for transcending the tribulation and ascending to the Middle Heaven Realm."
Lin Shi then asked, "Does a dream within a dream count as reincarnation?"
Lian Zheng: "No, that's more like cutting off obsessions and inner demons. A dream within a dream is something that happens in your heart that you are most afraid of or most looking forward to."
Lin Shi couldn't help but sigh, then frowned and said with dissatisfaction, "If I reincarnate at least eight times, I will really die and my cultivation will be destroyed. Maybe I should just stay in the Mahayana stage and wait until my lifespan of hundreds of thousands of years is exhausted before I die and my cultivation is destroyed."
Lian Zheng was taken aback, but quickly recovered. He hurriedly said, "You can send eight avatars to reincarnate at the same time, which will be much faster. Reincarnation only requires you to maintain your core identity, not lose yourself, and know how to fight for yourself. If you lose yourself in any life, your Dao heart will shatter, and it will be very difficult to transcend tribulations and ascend."
Lin Shi stared at Lian Zheng, half-dead. She pursed her lips, unwilling to speak further.
Lian Zheng was helpless. He pulled Lin Shi into his arms, letting her sit sideways on his lap, their faces facing each other. One hand encircled Lin Shi's waist, while the other gently yet irresistibly caressed her features. His eyes were filled with an undisguised deep affection. The lingering emotions from past lives were slowly revealing themselves in his eyes. Lin Shi felt a jolt in her heart when she saw that look, and wanted to avoid his gaze, but Lian Zheng firmly held her chin, forcing her to look directly into his eyes.
Finally, Lian Zheng suggested, "How about we both transform into external bodies and dream within a dream? After we've gone through all the cycles of reincarnation, we can finally resolve our issues, okay?"
Lin Shi and Lian Zheng looked at each other. She thought about it seriously for a long time, and finally nodded.
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