hotmtlnovel Chapter 1107 A Great Fortune for the "Imperial Advisor"
Chapter 1107 A Great Fortune for the "Imperial Advisor"
"Only by letting go can you gain something?" Uncle-Master Zhang Yi still looked puzzled. "Hasn't he already returned to your life and completely disappeared? What else can you gain?"
“Although he returned to my life, some of his things remained with me as a result,” Zhang Zhiwei said.
"You mean he...can be reincarnated?" Zhang Yi asked, somewhat surprised. "Isn't he your inner demon? He's returned to your life, so how can there be any reincarnation?"
Reincarnation is not a taboo word in religions; many religions have reincarnation, and Taoism is no exception.
Many Taoists are quite open-minded about matters of life and death, and Zhang Yi is no exception.
At Zhang Zhiwei's level, he had already mastered many things without a teacher, including the so-called great terror between life and death.
The so-called "cycle of life and death" is explained in detail in various religions and cultures, such as good deeds being rewarded and evil deeds being punished, what punishments one will suffer, the eighteen levels of hell, and so on.
But at its core, it is nothing more than the painful process that a person experiences when their own subjectivity struggles under the constraints of the objective world after being separated from the physical body.
Subjective thoughts and obsessions arise from the shaping of the objective world. These things inherently belong to the objective world, and therefore, after death, they will be forcibly taken back by the objective world one by one. This process is equivalent to returning one's bones to one's father and one's flesh to one's mother; it is extremely painful, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that one has experienced the various tortures of the eighteen levels of hell.
Once all delusions have been stripped away and withdrawn, the subjective mind becomes completely pure and flawless. At this point, if one perceives a wisp of primordial energy, one can be reborn and transform into one of the myriad things in the world. This is the underlying code of reincarnation.
However, if one can rid oneself of one's delusions and strengthen one's subjective consciousness before death, even if the objective part returns to objectivity when death comes, the honed subjective consciousness can be preserved in the form of expectation.
Even when one is reborn and bound by the objective world again, the subjective element remains the same as before and will not be reshaped. This is spiritual practice, and those reincarnated living gods, living arhats, living bodhisattvas... are all examples of this.
Of course, if they can go further and find common ground, they can be completely free from these constraints and escape this sea of suffering of life and death.
In Zhang Yi's view, Zhang Zhiwei's inner demons have completely entered into Zhang Zhiwei's life, and there should be no subjective consciousness left behind, so there should be no reincarnation.
Zhang Zhiwei laughed and said, "That's why I said he 'succeeded.' He did retain some of his subjective consciousness, which is preserved in my life."
Zhang Yi was stunned, feeling somewhat incredulous. Did the subjective consciousness born from Zhang Zhiwei's inner demons still truly belong to Zhang Zhiwei?
If they belong to Zhang Zhiwei, then they haven't gotten rid of him; they're still one. If they don't belong to Zhang Zhiwei, then wouldn't that be creating something out of nothing?
He couldn't figure it out, so he asked Zhang Zhiwei for the reason.
Zhang Zhiwei shook his head and said, "This question is not important. What is important is that he has already 'succeeded'."
"So what are you going to do?" Zhang Yi asked.
"Can he reincarnate?" Yi Qian couldn't help but wonder.
“Of course, his subjective ability hasn’t been perfected yet, but it’s already quite an achievement,” Zhang Zhiwei said. “If we release him out of the body now and let him drift on his own, he might be reborn by some chance.”
"However, unlike ordinary newborns, his honed subjectivity will be preserved relatively intact. He will retain a considerable portion of his memories, and his talent will also be very high."
Yi Qian nodded. Come to think of it, this kind of thing happens quite often in Buddhism, so it's not that surprising.
"So what do you plan to do with him? Keep him inside your body, or release him?"
Zhang Zhiwei paused for a moment and said, "He has always been pursuing so-called freedom. If he continues to stay in my body, it will not be good for either of us. But if we just let him go out into the world to reincarnate, there will be too many variables. We have been cultivating together for so many years, and he is my right-hand man, so I naturally have to give him a good fortune."
"What kind of good fortune?" Zhang Yi asked curiously.
Zhang Zhiwei didn't say it explicitly. He formed a sword shape with his fingers, a wisp of golden light gathering at his fingertips, and then, under the horrified gazes of his senior uncles, he lightly slashed at his own chest!
"Zhiwei! What are you doing?!" Zhang Yi exclaimed in shock.
The other senior disciples were also puzzled. They were talking peacefully, so why did he suddenly want to harm himself? What kind of good fortune is this?
“He is the embodiment of a wisp of resentment in my heart, the true nature of my soul,” Zhang Zhiwei said calmly. “His subjectivity resides within my heart.”
"You're going to give him your heart?!" Zhang Yi shouted incredulously.
"A vegetable can live without a heart, but a person will die without a heart! What a foolish thing you are doing!" Yi Qian rebuked sharply.
"Absolutely not!" The other senior disciples also tried to stop them.
"Don't worry, my fellow disciples, I know what I'm doing!" Zhang Zhiwei said.
Although 99% of his strength is currently locked in "Nurturing the Holy Embryo," he still has the ability to use some basic spells.
Zhang Zhiwei reached into his chest and slowly pulled out a crystal-clear heart, as dazzling as a ruby.
He held the still-beating heart in his hand, making his fellow disciples grimac and feel a chill run down their spines.
Not only the senior disciples, but also the believers of the Tiantong Church below the altar all stared in astonishment at this scene that seemed like a myth.
Zhang Zhiwei, on the other hand, remained calm, clutching his heart and looking it up and down. Then, he formed his fingers into a sword shape and, like a hot knife through butter, cleanly and decisively sliced it in two.
This scene made the martial arts masters' hearts tighten again. But strangely, the heart that had been cut in two did not bleed at all; instead, it continued to beat at the same frequency.
Immediately afterwards, they saw the golden light at Zhang Zhiwei's fingertips transform into a soft red light brimming with vitality, which then entered the two halves of his heart.
The next moment, the blood vessels inside the two halves of the heart sprouted out like bamboo shoots after a spring rain! After the blood vessels grew, the surrounding flesh also began to grow on its own.
In just a few seconds, the two halves of the heart actually regenerated into a complete heart!
Zhang Zhiwei examined the wound from all sides and nodded in satisfaction. He put one of the hearts back into his chest, then gently wiped his chest with his hand. A red light shone from the wound, and in the blink of an eye, it was completely healed without leaving a single scar.
Holding the other heart, he turned to his uncles and said, "Uncles, our trip to Shanghai ends here. You all tidy up this altar, and then we'll prepare to return to the mountain."
"Where are you going now?" Zhang Yi asked, looking at the still-beating heart in his hand.
Zhang Zhiwei weighed the heart in his hand and said, "I'll go and arrange things." "Arrange things?" Zhang Yi said, "I thought you could regenerate flesh and blood like before and turn this heart into a person directly."
"Restoring half a heart into a complete heart isn't difficult. But creating a person from scratch is exponentially more difficult. If I were in my prime, I could try. But now I've lost more than a tenth of my strength, so there's no need for that!"
After Zhang Zhiwei finished speaking, he turned and walked down from the altar, heading towards the Tiantong Cathedral.
He didn't walk fast, but each step covered a great distance, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from everyone's sight.
……
Zhang Zhiwei, carrying the heart, arrived at the main hall of Tiantong Cathedral.
The church enshrines the various deities of the Tiantong Church. At the very center is, of course, the "Tiantong Master," and to his left is the statue of the "Vice Master," also known as the "National Preceptor."
Zhang Zhiwei walked up to the statue of the "Vice Leader" and stared at it for a moment. These statues were all meticulously carved by master sculptors from the world of supernatural beings at Wang Ai's expense.
The painted images above were painted by Wang Ai himself. As a successor of "Danqing Shentu", Wang Ai's paintings of deities are naturally extremely lifelike. At first glance, one might really think that a living divine ape is standing here.
Zhang Zhiwei placed the heart in his hand against the chest of the statue and gently pressed it down.
On the chest of the statue, the hard stone surface, instead of resembling stone, rippled like water. Then, the heart sank into it without any hindrance.
After the heart entered the statue, it began to emit a soft red glow and pound violently. With each beat, a large amount of blood gushed out. This blood spread like a spider web, forming thick blood vessels that began to extend outwards from the statue.
Initially, the red light on the heart was injected into it from Zhang Zhiwei's hand, and the heart was able to beat because of the continuous infusion of power from Zhang Zhiwei.
But as a major blood vessel connecting the head of the statue to its heart was connected, Zhang Zhiwei's power dissipated.
And the heart, relying on the power of the statue itself, began to beat on its own!
Seeing this, Zhang Zhiwei nodded in satisfaction. What keeps the heart beating is Qi, and the source of Qi is the immense power of faith accumulated within this statue.
As the "Vice Leader" of the Tiantong Church, the "National Preceptor" possessed considerable faith power. However, he had never used it before, accumulating it all within his idol. Now, it finally had a chance to be put to use.
For a long time to come, this power of faith will be the source that sustains the "National Preceptor's" heartbeat, until the stone statue grows flesh and blood, becoming the true vice-leader of the Heavenly Tong Church.
This idea was inspired by Ma Xianhong's "self-cultivation furnace".
The core of the Body Cultivation Furnace is a piece of flesh and blood with a complete Qi circulation system.
After all this was done, the once lifeless statue suddenly blinked, revealing a hint of lively light in its eyes.
At first, her eyes were somewhat confused, but she quickly realized what was happening and her gaze became clear and bright.
A voice came from the idol.
"Big-faced thief, what's going on with me?! How am I still here?"
"Why don't you exist?" Zhang Zhiwei retorted.
"Wasn't I burned to ashes by that fire? Didn't I completely merge into your body and become a part of you?"
“You have indeed merged into my body and become a part of me, but your subjectivity has remained. Now, you have left me, but you are still yourself!” Zhang Zhiwei said.
The "Imperial Advisor" remained silent for a moment, seemingly processing the information. After a long while, he spoke in an extremely complex tone: "You mean, what I... what I painstakingly wanted to do, I accomplished so easily after giving up?"
Zhang Zhiwei nodded: "If you want to accomplish something, you have to put something else down first. In layman's terms, the thing you treat as a goal to accomplish will often put you in a state that is the opposite of that goal."
“In this state, you are not enough, you are lacking, you crave more... The more you crave, the more you cling to it, the further you are from your goal.”
"Therefore, you must release a desire without desire, you must be in a state of obtaining without obtaining, you must have a kind of nonchalant deliberation, and finally, you obtain without asking for anything, just like you are now."
After listening, the "Imperial Advisor" was stunned for a long while before exclaiming, "It sounds... really complicated!"
“It is quite complicated, but it is also a way to break free from objective constraints. Only by breaking free from objective constraints can we use everything in the objective world to shape the subjective self,” Zhang Zhiwei said.
The "Imperial Advisor" seemed thoughtful, but then he noticed Zhang Zhiwei's unusual behavior: "Big-faced thief, you've survived two tribulations in a row, you should be even stronger now. Why do I feel that you are... very weak?"
After all, they once shared the same origin, so he could vaguely sense something. But he wasn't too sure, because Zhang Zhiwei was simply too unfathomable.
"Oh, it's nothing, I'm raising a 'Grain God'."
Although they had already taken the final step, Zhang Zhiwei, still a big mouth, gave the "National Advisor" a brief explanation of what was going on.
After listening, the "National Preceptor" remained silent for a long time. He knew about the period of weakness of the Valley God when Zhang Zhiwei and Zhang Jingqing had talked about it.
He chuckled self-deprecatingly: "Heh... I see. I remember for a while, I pretended to be stupid in front of you, and even actively cooperated with your cultivation, just to wait for you to reach this period of weakness before suddenly launching an attack... But I never expected that when this time really came, I would become your ally."
“As an inner demon, you originally intended to cause trouble, but in the end you helped me. Doesn’t this show that the rules set for you by the objective world cannot bind your subjectivity, and that your subjectivity is as it pleases?” Zhang Zhiwei laughed.
The "Imperial Advisor" paused for a moment, then asked, "How long will this state last?"
“It’s up to you,” Zhang Zhiwei said. “You build your own body. If you can get more faith power, you’ll build it faster. If you can get less faith power, you’ll build it slower.”
“But… Big-faced thief, I have no strength left!” the “Grand Preceptor” said again, this unprecedented feeling of weakness was hard for him to adapt to.
“It’s normal to lack strength. Your previous strength all came from me. Now that you’ve separated from me, do you still want to take a share of my assets?” Zhang Zhiwei asked.
"It's not that I don't want to," the Imperial Advisor muttered softly. (End of Chapter)