Chapter Ten Transformation

  The human forehead is also called Yintang, a place where the essence of the spirit gathers. In ordinary people's cognition, it is an important acupoint, known as the Mansion of Destiny in physiognomy, and is also referred to as the Sea of Consciousness by those who practice spiritual cultivation.

  At the beginning of the Qi Refining stage, cultivators form a Sea of Consciousness in their Indigo Bridge, where their divine consciousness gathers and their soul resides. Only after forming the Sea of Consciousness and learning to freely enter and exit it with their divine consciousness can they communicate with Heaven and Earth, absorbing spiritual energy from between them or from spirits into their body, then refining it according to their cultivation method, borrowing the Spiritual Root to cultivate it into magical power. By the ninth layer of Qi Refining, the divine consciousness is strong enough to envelop the soul, initially condensing it to form the earliest stage of the Primordial Spirit. At this point, the Primordial Spirit is merely a combination of the three souls and seven po and does not possess magical powers or spiritual abilities. Only after reaching the late stage of Foundation Building, attracting the Earthly Fiend, and completing the Heaven Defying Seal can the Primordial Spirit be considered truly formed. Then, it's about merging the Primordial Spirit with magical power to form the Golden Elixir. Using the Golden Elixir to protect the Primordial Spirit, they proceed to nourish it. Once the Primordial Spirit becomes even stronger, breaking out of the elixir and becoming a spiritual embryo, they enter the Embryo Refining stage. At this point, the Primordial Spirit can act independently and possesses magical powers and spiritual abilities but is still relatively weak and vulnerable to being harmed by powerful artifacts if it leaves the body. To have the Primordial Spirit freely soar through Heaven and Earth with boundless magical powers and spiritual abilities is something that can only be achieved during the Immortal Transformation stage. By this point, one has basically become a deity, and there are no more opponents in the mortal world. Therefore, when Yuan Xing, at the eleventh layer of Qi Refining, attempted to seize control, it was merely his divine consciousness enveloping an intact soul, rushing into Yuan Fugui's body, intending to destroy Yuan Fugui's uncondensed spiritual soul and occupy his body to complete the seizure. Because his Primordial Spirit was too weak, he didn't dare let it leave his body and instead directly charged into Yuan Fugui's Sea of Consciousness with his Indigo Bridge facing theirs.

  Yuan Xing's soul successfully entered Yuan Futong's sea of consciousness, surrounded by a chaotic aura, but with boundaries. This was clearly a fully formed sea of consciousness. Yuan Xing was overjoyed, this meant that Yuan Futong's body could withstand his soul and wouldn't collapse from accepting too strong a divine sense without forming a sea of consciousness. He quickly searched for Yuan Futong's soul to rapidly destroy it.

  In an instant, Yuan Xing found the soul of Yuan Futong in a corner of the sea of consciousness. Yuan Futong appeared very dull in the sea of consciousness, because he had not cultivated any methods to exercise his divine sense, and his divine sense could not freely enter or exit the sea of consciousness. He also couldn't let his soul fight with Yuan Xing. Yuan Xing pounced on him, wanting to use his divine sense to destroy Yuan Futong and seize the origin of his soul.

  The Primordial Spirit is the most delicate thing. Many things can contaminate, devour, and harm the Primordial Spirit. Once the Primordial Spirit is injured, it is extremely difficult to recover. To seize a soul, one must separate the memories, experiences, and emotions contained within the opponent's soul from the soul itself. If these things are absorbed, they can easily cause mental fragmentation, severe cases leading to idiocy or even self-destruction. Therefore, thinking that seizing a soul allows for the absorption of the opponent's experience, heart method, and realm is impossible. The only thing that can be absorbed through soul seizure is a tiny bit of pure origin within the soul; only after absorbing this origin can the Primordial Spirit control the body and complete the soul seizure.

  Yuan Futong's soul reacted slowly, he had never entered the sea of consciousness, and could not command his own divine sense. Although he felt Yuan Xing's harm to him, he had no way to resist. Just as he was about to be separated from his soul by Yuan Xing and become an idiot, a flame burst out of his soul and surrounded Yuan Xing's soul. Yuan Xing's soul let out a long sigh in the sea of consciousness, but made no sound. His divine sense and nascent primordial spirit were refined by the flame, leaving only a round bead floating in the space of the sea of consciousness after a brief moment. After refining Yuan Xing's primordial spirit, the flame seemed to expand slightly before returning to Yuan Futong's soul. Yuan Futong's originally dull soul was now much more agile, he reached out and picked up the bead left behind by Yuan Xing, swallowed it in one gulp, and sat quietly in the sea of consciousness.

  At this time, Yuan Futong outside regained his consciousness and his body returned to normal. It turned out that in the critical moment, Yuan Futong finally borrowed the power of Huoyu to enter the sea of consciousness, and the firelight transformed by Huoyu killed the primordial spirit of Yuan Xing.

  The Huo Yu is after all a unique treasure. Its function is not only to refine the invading yuan Shen, but also to enter Yuan Fu Tong's Shi Hai space with this refining, and settle in Yuan Fu Tong's soul, starting to warm up Yuan Fu Tong's soul. The miscellaneous impurities of Yuan Xing's yuan Shen were refined, leaving the most primitive power, which was absorbed by Yuan Fu Tong, strengthening his soul and divine consciousness. After this adventure, Yuan Fu Tong also knew how to enter Shi Hai, command divine consciousness, and understand how to communicate with heaven and earth, attracting spiritual energy into his body.

  Wu Tong had mastered the method of using his divine consciousness, and the door to immortality was now wide open for Yuan Fu Tong. After his divine consciousness entered the sea of consciousness, he naturally understood many ways to apply it. A strand of spiritual energy was attracted from the heavens and earth, guided by his divine consciousness into his body, circulating within, merging with the flowing spiritual power in the meridians, and finally stored in the dantian.

  After all this subsided, Yuan Futong, who was still bound by his body, lay on the snowy ground and began to reflect on his actions.

  "It's been too long since the peaceful era." Yuan Futong's experience and memories were mainly from his previous life, where he lived in an era that was basically a prosperous and peaceful world. Having lived at the grassroots level of society for many years, he led a simple and safe life, free from worries and fears. A murder case in a city with a population of millions was a big deal. The country would take notice if several people were killed. Educated by the state and nurtured by society, he had never thought about committing murder or robbery. Even when he encountered such plots in novels, it was just a fleeting glance, completely unrelated to his life.

  In this life, he didn't see much intrigue and scheming in the small village where he lived. In his memories of the Yuan family, he was just a lowly person who suffered some bullying, but no one threatened his life. He always thought that the experience from his previous life would still be useful, and this was also a peaceful society.

  But he was wrong, heaven had reminded him three times, but he didn't notice, perhaps it was his habitual thinking that made him not want to think carefully. Now he finally started thinking about the path of cultivating immortality.

  In his past life, Xuan Xin Dao Ren was a flamboyant and unbridled flame. When faced with national security personnel, he didn't make any excuses, but for the sake of one treasure, he killed Du Chu Zhang and himself. Perhaps there were also others who were secretly protected. Daring to directly kill national security officials, this is something that ordinary people can't even imagine. But Xuan Xin Dao Ren didn't have any concerns at all. Even Du Chu Zhang's life was not a concern for the country's sanctions, but rather another cultivator's reputation. Coming and going freely, looking down on the past. Killing and plundering, all done as he pleased. The overbearing manner of a cultivator was displayed in front of him for the first time.

  When he regained his memory, perhaps to escape or perhaps due to fear, he never deeply thought about the death of his past life. He indulged in the warmth given by Grandma Li and wanted to live like this. As he slowly gained some strength, he wanted to live a freer life. When Grandma Li told him about the death of his parents, he didn't think much about it either. What role did the cultivator play in this matter? Due to the spiritual medicine, his parents were severely injured, not because other cultivators passed by, and they would have been killed at that time, so there wouldn't have been his birth. However, the spiritual medicine was not brought back by his parents, it must have been robbed. The injuries of his parents were nothing significant to the cultivators, especially those from the Liuyang Sect. But no one paid attention to them, and the lives of two ordinary people were not taken seriously by the cultivators. Reflecting on his actions over the past two years, Yuan Futong secretly clenched his fists. Fortunately, he didn't get any top-grade spiritual medicine; otherwise, if he hadn't gone to the market to sell it, his life would have been lost first.

  Up to now, I have heard many stories of their killings and robberies from the conversations between the two people. However, I didn't take it to heart and still went to help them with good intentions. I risked my life to help Yuan Xing, just wanting to obtain the method of cultivating immortality, but I didn't consider their character. Not only did Yuan Xing not teach me anything, but he also turned around and wanted to kill me, taking over my body. And this is still someone from the same sect!

  The path of cultivation is fraught with thorns, and even more so, it's a path of killing intent. The Great Song Dynasty has a population of over 100 million people. Among them, tens of thousands are cultivators who practice Qi refinement. However, those who have built their foundation number less than 2,000. There are only around a hundred Golden Core experts, and only a handful of Nascent Soul experts. Many have died on the path to seeking immortality. How many can truly achieve eternal life? Cultivation is about contending with Heaven and struggling against Earth. It's about seizing the creative powers of Heaven and Earth to make up for one's own deficiencies, obtaining the essence of Heaven and Earth to prolong one's lifespan. For the sake of eternal life, cultivators have developed and employed extreme methods that ordinary people cannot even imagine. Countless struggles have unfolded among cultivators over limited resources. To possess superhuman powers, one cannot have a normal person's mindset. The mentality of cultivators who possess powers beyond the ordinary is fundamentally incompatible with that of mortals. If you still have the mindset of a small-town citizen and enter the world of cultivation while adhering to the moral norms of civilized society, I'm afraid you'll have no hope of achieving eternal life, and your chances of dying an untimely death will be greatly increased.

  "From now on, I'll be cautious of everyone and can't blindly trust others anymore. From now on, if people don't offend me, I won't offend them. If people offend me, I will definitely offend them back. Let my heart start to harden from now on."

  Re-examining himself, Yuan Futong adjusted his mentality. Slowly, he detached from the ordinary person's way of thinking. He began to try to look at problems with a cultivator's perspective. After all, if one wants to obtain something that an ordinary person cannot get, they must give up some things. The duty of being a husband was the first thing Yuan Futong abandoned.

  "The path of cultivation is bound to be long and arduous. But I am unwilling to live a mediocre life, facing the sufferings of birth, aging, illness, and death. I am unwilling to be seen as an insignificant existence by others, I don't want my fate to be easily decided by others. I have my own free will. For my life, for my freedom, I must continue on the path of cultivation. This is my vow."

  After making up his mind, Yuan Futong calmed down and began to guide the spiritual energy into his body with his divine consciousness, starting his cultivation. Gradually, he reached a state of complete absorption, as if he was not lying on the cold snowy ground, but in a celestial cave mansion.

  The sky slowly started snowing again. Slowly covering Yuan Futong's body, and also covering the corpse of Yuan Xing beside him. The heavy snow seemed to want to bury everything that had happened.

  There is a silence between heaven and earth.