CHAPTER 685: 564 DUAL CULTIVATION OF LIFE AND NATURE

Listening to Shi Feiyang, Deng Yin suddenly awoke to realize that his mind indeed had been influenced, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

Every aspect of Demon Path Technique could influence the human heart, targeting areas most difficult for a person to detect, causing one to be manipulated unknowingly, to act according to the will of another.

For instance, previously, Wan Zhen and Golden Cicada were not confused when they became demonized, they were actually in a very clear state of mind, but their thoughts had changed. The resentment incited by the Demon God was not something forcefully instilled from the outside, but something they had always believed in, merely suppressed from being expressed.

Even those who frequently deal with demons, no matter how cautious, could unwittingly fall into their traps, for while one can be a thief every day, one cannot guard against a thief forever. Demons may not take souls or control someone directly, but they can subtly and silently exert influence.

Just like with the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword, even the Chuanxin Monk was tricked!

Deng Yin’s Dao Level and Mana might have been high and strong, but he still fell for the unnoticed schemes of others.

This is the most brilliant Demon Path Great Technique among the myriad Heavenly Realms!

People of the Orthodox Sect understand the dangers, which is why they treat Demon Path Technique like a venomous snake, never allowing their disciples to be contaminated.

Not only do they refrain from cultivating it themselves, they would also take action to eliminate it if they see others practicing it, knowing that its existence in the world would be a never-ending source of harm.

Every cultivator who practiced Demon Path Technique thought they could control the demons, regarding them as mere bloody ghosts, manageable with Demon Refining Technique and a Magical Treasure designed for that purpose.

In the end, the result was being subtly influenced by demons, step by step sliding further into the Demon Path, ending with self-destruction and harm to both themselves and others.

Deng Yin truly desired the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword; this was his inner demon. Grandmaster Ha Ha calculated this desire, gave him a drop of Chi You Blood and helped him cultivate the "Blood God Scripture." Now, as the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword was calling out to him from afar, it was the external demon working in tandem with his internal ghost, leading him to be influenced by it, one step away from direct control!

Deng Yin was aware that being controlled by a Demon God meant becoming someone else’s Devil’s Child or Grandchild, to be exploited at will, like poultry or livestock reared by others, with one’s fate entirely in their hands.

When he initially cultivated the "Blood God Scripture," it was out of sheer necessity, believing himself to be a rare Daoist prodigy. If the Palace Master of the Stone God Palace could safely achieve it without harm, then so could he. Yet, he nearly became a puppet of the Demon God.

Later, when Red Flower Princess entered the evil annals of the "Blood God Scripture" and they cultivated together, they thought they could fully control it with ease, unaffected by it. It was only now, with Shi Feiyang’s timely reminder, that he abruptly realized he might indeed fall under Chi You’s control in the future!

He asked Shi Feiyang, "Right now, I particularly want to go to Jiuhua Mountain, wishing I could immediately get there and get my hands on the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword. How can I rid myself of these demonic thoughts and desires?"

Shi Feiyang said, "You must first eradicate the desire to possess that sword. The human spirit is naturally clear, but it is the heart that stirs it; the human heart is naturally calm, but it is desire that tugs at it. Constantly dispel your desires, and your heart will become calm; clear your heart, and your spirit will become pure; then, naturally, six desires will not arise, and the three poisons will be eradicated..."

Deng Yin bitterly smiled and sighed, "Listening to your words is better than reading books all night. I just don’t know how to cut off that desire."

Shi Feiyang said, "There are many ways to start; you can contemplate emptiness, combat it with a heart of compassion, or a heart of fear. The desire to possess that sword lies within you, its roots are in your own heart. If you want to break that desire, you must first refine your heart. Daoism talks about the dual cultivation of life and nature; how to cultivate nature and life, do you really need me to explain in detail?"

Deng Yin remained silent after hearing this.

Jiang Shu, who was beside him, suddenly spoke up, "True lead captures true mercury, true mercury captures true lead."

After saying this, he closed his mouth and did not speak another word, simply lifting the wine in front of him and drinking alone.

Now a person about to ascend, also a grandmaster within the Alchemy Dao, what he quoted was a mantra from Dan Skill, not something overly profound. All three present understood what it meant.

The beauty of it was that he directly pointed out the crux of Deng Yin’s problem.

Daoism talks about the dual cultivation of life and nature, which differs from the Buddhist worldview. Buddhism believes that all phenomena are merely manifestations of the mind and variations of consciousness, with no true material world existing; form is emptiness, and from attachment arises the cyclical existence; life springs from conditions, and thus unfolds the vast world.

Hence they say, "In dreams, there clearly are six realms of existence. Upon awakening, the vast world is void."

Of course, Buddhism also opposes blindly adhering to emptiness; thus, the saying, "Emptiness is also form."

Daoism, on the other hand, holds that human divine sense and the material flesh influence each other, that the state of the mind affects the circulation of qi and blood in the body, the internal secretions of the organs, and so on; this is consciousness influencing matter.

At the same time, the material flesh also affects consciousness—being in different states of the body can cause cravings for sweet or sour tastes, inexplicable happiness, or depression.

The so-called dual cultivation of life and nature is not simply cultivating the mind on one hand and taking care of the body on the other, then combining them in the end.

Dual Cultivation of Life and Nature involves spiraling upwards by influencing the body with consciousness, then influencing consciousness with the body.

In the terminology of Alchemy Dao, during the Upper Lunar phase, one refines their form with the divine, generating a portion of True Yang; during the Lower Sine phase, one nurtures the divine with form, retracting a portion of yin energy.

At last, when the Two Strings merge into one, it signifies a full moon, used to represent Pure Yang.

For Deng Yin, he couldn’t control his heart. At such times, one could start by adjusting the body, with a tranquil body maintaining the divine, thereby calming the heart.

However, True Lead isn’t simply obtained by conditioning the body; it’s the True Gold in the Kan trigram, the True Yang in the kidneys. It is not merely Kidney Energy; it cannot be obtained without reaching a high Realm in Alchemy Dao.

Jiang Shu’s idea is to use this True Gold and True Qi to subdue the desires and devilish thoughts.

This is where the marvelous uses of Daoist Mysterious Sect techniques come in; if it were Buddhism, one would only use psychological means to resolve it, with the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, or perhaps chanting the Buddha’s name or bearing talismans, all of which are heart against heart.

But when a Cultivator’s heart is already in disarray, trying to adjust the chaotic heart with another chaotic heart usually ends up being counterproductive.

By advising Deng Yin to adjust the heart with the body, Jiang Shu often achieves results that are twice as effective with half the effort.

Deng Yin is also an expert in cultivating the Nine Heavens Mysterious Scripture, and upon Jiang Shu’s explanation, he understood. Yet, he remained silent.

Jiang Shu didn’t understand the Blood God Scripture, but Shi Feiyang did. Deng Yin no longer produced "True Lead" because, through his practice of stripping the flesh, he had not only peeled off the skin from his entire body, but he also pierced his meridians with Golden Needles and tormented his body with Demon Fire over a long period, enduring endless pain, till he refined his flesh and blood into a Blood Shadow, achieving his current Dharma Body of the Blood Demon.

But by doing so, he damaged his physical body. In the Dual Cultivation of Life and Nature, he had ruined his life, injured his Dao Foundation, and hence he fell from his Dao Level. Many profound Spells from the Nine Heavens Mysterious Scripture were beyond his reach.

Without "True Lead," he naturally could not capture "True Mercury."

This is one of the fundamental differences between the Demon Path and the Mysterious Sect. The Cultivators from the Mysterious Sect’s Orthodox Tradition typically have a stable Dao heart. Why stable? A good mental state is only one aspect; their bodies are well cultivated too. Form and spirit unite, always congealed as one, internal demons hardly arise, and external demons are even less likely to invade.

Yang God is the crystallization of reaching the end in the Dual Cultivation of Life and Nature, the union of form and spirit, culminating in Pure Yang, basically impervious to any kind of magical influence or temptation.

The Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword is so powerful, yet it cannot affect the two elderly from San Xian, the San Ying or Er Yun, still less Li Jingxu. Once one becomes a Heavenly Immortal and attains a Yang God, one is no longer under the sway of all magic.

Now Jiang Shu’s Mana is far inferior to Deng Yin’s, but in this respect, he surpasses Deng Yin because he has a Yang God. He’s immune to all kinds of soul capturing and soul-snatching dark magic, but Deng Yin is not. No matter how high his Mana, his heart is not at Perfection.

Back then, Elder Kuzhu had such great Mana, but because he was from an offshoot and had not cultivated a Yang God, he was covertly bound by Lu Yu, who captured his Primordial Spirit, leading him into the Void Illusion Realm laid by Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang then advised Deng Yin, "You always think that since the Palace Master of the Stone God Palace could attain Dao through the Blood God Scripture, so can others. But do you know, the Palace Master did not practice by stripping the flesh. His approach was different.

His Dao Foundation remained, not easily controlled by Demons, secluded for dozens of years, constantly within the Demon Realm, enduring countless spatio-temporal tribulations, his spirit never dimming, and eventually persevered to achieve Dao. How about you?"

Deng Yin was somewhat unconvinced, "He obtained seven Divine Talismans in the Silver Cicada Reef at the bottom of the sea, and with the help of the Talismans, he managed to practice in seclusion and bypass the stage of skin stripping. Sooner or later, I’ll also find those seven Divine Talismans, and then I’ll naturally attain Dao."

Seeing him obstinately unenlightened, Shi Feiyang shook his head slowly, "During those eighty-one years of seclusion by the Palace Master of the Stone God Palace, he was always within the Demon Realm, his eyes seeing different worlds, his ears hearing sounds from many Heavenly worlds, various sensations of soreness, numbness, swelling, and pain on his body, sometimes tormented by a myriad of ants, sometimes by the scorching fire. It requires tremendous resolution and willpower to get through, how could you with your unstable Dao heart survive that?"

Deng Yin retorted, "When I practiced by stripping flesh, piercing with Golden Needles, and burning with Demon Fire, it wasn’t any easier, yet I safely made it through."

"Enough, it seems you have developed a resistance to the Orthodox Path of the Mysterious Sect,"

Shi Feiyang stopped there and changed the topic. Unable to hold back any longer, Jiang Shu asked, "When do we return to Jiuhua Mountain? Surely we can’t let Chi You kill at will?"

Shi Feiyang put down his wine glass, "Let’s go now. Now, pulling one hair moves the whole body. That Chi You has avoided me for decades, and if I go now, I fear he may run again. We need to use Ayin as bait. Although we can’t eliminate him, we can at least severely injure him so he can’t cause harm temporarily!"

When Deng Yin heard this, he perked up, "How can we use me as bait?"

Shi Feiyang explained to him, "Your desire for the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword is your devilish longing. Chi You also wants you, which is his devilish longing. On the surface, he influences your mind and covertly manipulates your Primordial Spirit. We can also take advantage of this, influencing his mind in return and covertly control his Primordial Spirit."

Deng Yin was greatly inspired, slapping his thigh vigorously, "Exactly, exactly! He thinks he can completely control me, just as I think I can completely control him! Everyone believes they can command a demon without being controlled by it, but the moment they have this thought and intention, they are already under demonic control!"

Jiang Shu was flabbergasted, "Can one deal with a Demon in such a way?"

Shi Feiyang didn’t allow Deng Yin’s thoughts to control him, first fostering an extreme desire in his heart, desiring to possess the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword, then, wielding the sword, embarking on a rampage!