Chapter 9: Refining the Spirit Melody

  The Tianlei Taoist Temple has an unwritten rule that most of the disciples who were given a Dharma name by their master are very powerful. For example, Zhenru, the head of the temple, Zhentian, the great monk of the Purple Light Pavilion, and Hongcheng Hongtu, the top disciple of the Purple Light Pavilion's Refining Qi stage. In short, these people are either the current elite core of Tianlei Mountain or the future elite core, so they were given a Dharma name to distinguish themselves.

  As the largest sect of Yueguo, Tianlei Daoquan naturally wants to maintain its infinite glory by cultivating its elite direct disciples. Looking around the world, any sect would do this, it's just that the methods are different.

  However, Zhang Pa is one of the few exceptions. Some orphans were adopted by Taoist temples, nameless and surname-less, and were given names by the master, Zhang Pa being one of them. As for the origin of the two characters "Zhang Pa", it is said that he would shout "Pa" as soon as he opened his mouth.

  Zhang Pa was so famous on Tianlei Mountain that Liu Qi had naturally heard of him. He looked around and asked in a low voice, "Brother, are you really afraid of everything?"

  Zhang suddenly understood what Liu Qi's expression meant earlier, his face changed slightly, and he said coldly, "I'm leaving."

  Liu Qi pulled him back: "Senior brother don't misunderstand me, I didn't mean that, just a little curious."

  Zhang's voice was icy cold: "What does it mean?" With that, he turned and left.

  He stormed off quickly, drawing attention to himself. Someone recognized him and asked in surprise, "Isn't that a waste of a talent? What is he doing at the main peak?" He called over his companions to take a look, and they were also puzzled: "The highest level of cultivation? How did he achieve it?"

  For a moment, the streets were filled with discussions: "Has that waste finally reached the top?" "That waste, even if he reaches the end of the Dan stage, what's the use? He's still afraid of everything and is just a waste."

  Zhang was extremely sensitive to the humiliating words, and every sentence was heard clearly in his ears. His face turned even redder, his eyes colder, and he walked even faster. However, his heart felt deeply humiliated, and the short distance seemed like a long and arduous journey.

  It's easy to leave the street, and the hustle and bustle of the streets is no longer relevant to oneself. The jade and stone in the shops can't even arouse interest. The anger in my heart turns into a strong ambition: "One day, I'll make you know that I'm not afraid of anything! I want to be more powerful than the master!"

  Ziguang Pavilion is located on the right peak of Tianlei Mountain, turn right at the street alley and there is a stone slab path about three miles away. A thousand-step stone ladder appears, climbing to the end is a group of buildings, large and small, with dozens of pavilions, vaguely surrounded by purple air and white light, so it's called Ziguang Pavilion. This is where the elite disciples of Wando Gate on Tianlei Mountain are located.

  Zhang's arrival shocked the disciples of Ziguang Pavilion, for two reasons: firstly, a waste material had actually cultivated at an incredible speed, and secondly, a waste material had also entered Ziguang Pavilion.

  Zhen Tiandao sat cross-legged in the main hall of the Purple Light Pavilion, accepting Zhang's kowtows. Zhang had to kneel down with both hands on the ground and reluctantly let go of the three small dogs. The little dogs ran wildly around the hall, even lifting their hind legs to pee and mark the territory. This made Zhen Tiandao very angry, scolding: "Ridiculous!" He slightly raised his right hand, conjuring a seal in mid-air that shot out and pinned the three small dogs to the spot.

  "Master uncle spare my life."

  Zhen Tian grew even angrier and coldly said: "Do you think I would stoop to the same level as a beast like you?"

  Zhang was afraid and didn't know how to explain himself, so he kept knocking his head: "Disciple knows his mistake, please Master forgive the crime."

  Zhen Tiandao Ren coldly hummed: "Let Hongyuan come." A disciple outside the door went to summon Hongyuan.

  Before long, Hongyuan flew in swiftly and entered the door, knocking to see: "Disciple pays respects to Master."

  Zhen Tian didn't want to talk to Zhang Pa anymore and instructed Hong Yuan, "Take him away, you're still in charge of passing on the skills." After finishing speaking, he got up and entered the back hall.

  Zhang was familiar with Hongyuan, one of the few foundation-building disciples in Ziguang Pavilion, a direct disciple of True Heaven Daoist, and a disciple who had received transmission from Tianlei Mountain. He was also examined by Hongyuan during his time in Wan Shou Cave.

  Zhang Pa stood up and saluted respectfully: "Greetings, senior brother." Hongyuan waved his hand and said: "Follow me." He turned around and walked out, Zhang Pa hurriedly picked up the three small dogs and followed.

  The two of them arrived at a small, two-story building on the outermost side of the Purple Light Pavilion. After entering, there were twelve rooms in total, excluding the large hall on the first floor. Hongyuan said: "All eight rooms upstairs are occupied, you can choose one downstairs to live in, go to the cafeteria for meals, and if you have any questions, just ask me directly, I'll be living in the building next door."

  Zhang was taken aback, and Hongyuan continued, "Master wants me to pass on the skills, apart from the Thunderbolt Heart Method, what do you want to learn?" As he spoke, he tossed out a paper with a directory introduction, "Take a look at this, see if there's anything that interests you, I'll go get the skill for you."

  Zhang Pa took the paper and looked at it carefully, the desktop-sized silk paper was densely filled with words. Zhang Pa's mind was full of thoughts on how to not be afraid anymore, and asked Hong Yuan: "Shixiong, is there a method to cultivate bravery?" Hong Yuan slightly shook his head, sighed in his heart: "What good talent, but just cowardly." He said: "Didn't the Master teach you the Jing Xin Jue? Is it useless for cultivation?" Zhang Pa quickly shook his head: "Of course not, I want to make my will even more stable, and refine it so that there's nothing to fear."

  "Is there nothing to fear? As long as one is human, they will be afraid. The technique you speak of does not exist, but cultivating the mind and tempering the spirit is a valid method. However, this method is difficult to cultivate, and no one has succeeded in hundreds of years."

  Zhang was shocked: "What kind of skill is this? How can no one have mastered it?"

  Hongyuan comforted him: "Don't worry, no one has succeeded because there were few people who practiced this technique in the first place. It's not surprising that they didn't succeed." Hongyuan pointed to a page in the book: "The Refining Spirit Melody is said to be extremely difficult to cultivate, even harder than increasing one's cultivation level. But the benefit of successfully cultivating it is that you can use your mind for multiple purposes at once, and your spiritual awareness will become incredibly strong."

  Zhang was afraid to read the introduction on the silk book, which divided the work into eight methods, all of which were about how to split one's consciousness. After reading it, he spat out his tongue: "Will practicing this method cause people to have a split personality?"

  Hongyuan nodded: "I heard it was like that, Hou Shan's crazy teacher uncle practiced this kind of craziness, but I've never seen it before."

  Zhang was hesitant. Practicing this would drive him crazy, but if he didn't practice, he would be a timid mouse all his life and be ridiculed by others. It was really hard to make a decision.

  Hong Yuandao said faintly: "Are you afraid? Choose another one, after building the foundation, you can go out and practice, the world is so big, there must be a door method that can make you not timid again."

  Hongyuan kindly advised him, but it pained Zhang to be ashamed of his fear. The senior brother said I was afraid, am I? What's there to be afraid of? Even if he went mad, it would be better than being afraid every day!

  He made up his mind: "If I don't choose it, then I'll practice it, Refine the Spirit Melody!"

  Hongyuan looked at Zhangpa with a hint of surprise, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Alright, younger brother, wait for a moment, I'll go get the manual."

  Half a stick of incense time, Hongyuan came back, brought Zhang Pa a white jade: "This is Gongfa Yu Jian, replica, after refining directly destroy." Then took out a storage bag and handed it to Zhang Pa: "There's some money inside, as well as the purple light pavilion Taoist robe and waist card, change into them." Also reminded him of other things, then left.

  Zhang was afraid to return to his own room, took out all the things in the storage bag, a total of two sets of purple silk Taoist robes, as well as underwear, shoes and socks. Then there was a purple jade token with three characters written on it: Purple Light Pavilion. The rest were money, a small pile of gold, and a small pile of various colored spirit stones.

  Jinzi is the secular currency used for daily necessities such as food and lodging. Ling Shi is the currency used in the Xiu Zhen realm, divided into five grades, with a hundred advancing to one grade. Zhang Pa's pile of Ling Shi is the lowest grade of first-grade Ling Shi, totaling thirteen pieces. In other words, he only has thirteen dollars.

  After all these years, Zhang finally had his own money and was very happy. He played with it in his hand for half a day before looking at Yu Jian. At this time, it seemed like someone outside the house, and several small dogs started barking loudly. Zhang patted his forehead, forgetting about the matter, and hurriedly set up a boundary to isolate the sound, lest the three little ones disturb others. Only then did he refine the Spiritual Melody.

  The introduction to the silk book was already terrifying, and now that I'm studying the technique, I'm even more shocked. At first, it's okay, cultivating the spirit and training the spiritual power, condensing it, but later on, it becomes frightening, splitting the condensed yuan Shen into one, two, four, and the most terrifying part is still to come, manipulating the split yuan Shen to cultivate the spirit together, re-training the spiritual power, re-condensing, and then splitting again. Until the yuan Shen can instantly transform into nine, nine into eighty-one, and take the meaning of returning to the truth, the technique is considered complete.

  As for the eight methods of dividing one's work, they are merely eight ways of splitting up the yuan Shen, for practitioners to choose from.