Chapter 47: The Demon Spirit

  "Many people ask this question, as far as I know, the cultivators of Qingxiu have no desires and no demands, they are like a stone. During the great war between the evil path and the righteous path, the cultivators of Qingxiu from both sides did not resist at all, they just sat there quietly, allowing their enemies who were much lower in cultivation to behead them. However, the cultivators of Qingxiu also have different levels, some beginners may know fear, be afraid, and have a desire to survive. They may even get angry or resist. It's ridiculous, the original purpose of cultivating was to live forever, but in the end, these cultivators are not afraid of life and death."

  Lin Fan asked: "If so, why go and become a Qingxiu?"

  "Haha, this question is too low-level." Ximen smiled: "A hermit is not necessarily a deliberate hermit. Let's take Nan Gong Wu Hen for example. He had a brother named Nan Gong Wu Yuan who also participated in the great evil war 300 years ago. His wife and children all died on the battlefield. He was very despondent, helpless, and turned to being lazy and no longer wielding his sword. Gradually, he rarely went out and didn't accept any miscellaneous tasks. After thirty years passed, he became a true hermit."

  Lin Fan said: "My master says that those who cultivate their minds are just being possessed by evil spirits."

  Ximen nodded after a moment of contemplation: "San San Zhen Ren said it well. In Buddhism, there is the concept of 'ye zhàng' (业障), which is similar to Daoism's 'heart demon'. As for me, I think there are several types of cultivators who have achieved clarity. One type is those whose hearts are like dead ashes; they immerse themselves in their original selves and view the world through that lens, thinking that worldly affairs are nothing more than fleeting trifles. Another type is those who are too clever; although their cultivation hasn't kept up, they've already grasped the ultimate truth of the Dao, enjoying the tranquility of contemplation and becoming immersed in it, seeing all things around them as mere plants and trees. And then there are those who have transcended life and death; unafraid of birth or death, they already have an answer to these questions in their hearts, so when they look at the world again, they find that it's nothing special."

  "How can one avoid becoming a hermit?" Lin Fan asked.

  "You fear becoming a Qingxiu, so you won't become one, because you have fear. My master and I said that fearing death is normal, but when the day comes that you neither seek life nor death, that's when you've gone crazy. In Mo Jiao, there's also the saying 'fearing death but not fearing to die'. It means that being afraid of death is normal, but don't be afraid of it. For us, in order to deal with the thousand-year-old demon fox, she too fears death; otherwise, she wouldn't use the hearts of young people as medicine. However, when benevolence and righteousness are hard to reconcile, she's willing to choose death."

  Lin nodded slightly as if he understood but didn't really understand.

  After leaving the pass, people began to thin out. Except for mining areas and places rich in medicinal herbs where people gathered, other places usually had only one or two villages within a hundred miles. The villages themselves were not populous either. However, due to the vast land and sparse population, these people lived relatively affluent lives. Because of this, many people were also unwilling to move to the unfamiliar inside of the pass. As for the talk of demons and monsters, everyone had a lucky heart.

  Here, the number of Demon Sect disciples began to increase. There were two reasons for this: one was that they were patrolling the area daily, and the other was that many disciples had entered the Cang Mang Jue Di to hone their skills. Due to the second reason, a buffer zone of about 100 miles in diameter appeared between Xizhou and Cang Mang Jue Di. This region had no sects or gates, and was covered with ice and snow for thousands of years, also known as Da Xue Shan.

  The Great Snowy Mountains have a special product that is not found in the Twelve Continents: the Youling. Most of them are made up of Bingpo, which are formed over thousands of years and absorb the essence of heaven and earth to become Youling. They sometimes gather in groups, sometimes wander alone, and will attack without hesitation any non-Youling object that approaches them. Because Bingpo is a high-quality material for refining elixirs, equipment, and swords, many masters also search for them in the Great Snowy Mountains. As a result, orthodox and evil cultivators often clash with each other over this reason, immediately engaging in bloody battles.

  ……

  "Is that Frostbite?" Lin Fan looked ahead at a distance of a hundred feet and saw a snowflake the size of a palm dancing lightly in the cold wind.

  "Today's luck isn't bad, there's actually a solo one." Ximen Shuai took out a cloth bag from the Qiankun Ring: "Wait for a moment."

  Ximen Shuai held a bag in his left hand and floated over to the left side of Bing Po, who immediately lay down on the snowy ground, hiding himself. When Ximen Shuai was close enough, he suddenly shot out a spiral of icy cold air towards Ximen Shuai, but Ximen Shuai was prepared and used his ancient sword to deflect the attack. Ximen Shuai quickly charged towards Bing Po. Bing Po didn't feel afraid and shot out another spiral of icy cold air, which Ximen Shuai avoided by stepping on the Qian Kun circle. After avoiding a third attack, Ximen Shuai had already arrived in front of Bing Po and opened up the bag, covering Bing Po inside it.

  Is this all right? Lin Fan was curious and looked at the cloth bag of General Ximen.

  Ximen said, "It will still take some time to refine it into a spirit and attach it to something, such as when you want to refine a sword, you can attach the spirit to cold iron, and then refine the sword. The power of the sword will greatly increase, and its uses will be endless."

  "Why is it called a demon spirit?"

  "Stones, ice and snow, etc. originally have no spirituality, because they seize the creation of heaven and earth, but have their own spirit. Among the three souls, there is only the soul of heaven and earth, but not the soul of fate. Humans have seven po, joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred, desire, while they have no po."

  This is known, the three souls are heaven, earth and human. Among them, the human soul is also called the life soul. After a person dies, the heavenly soul returns to heaven, the earthly soul returns to the grave, and the human soul returns to the underworld. The heavenly and earthly souls will not be lost, but the human soul can be lost. Without the human soul, one can eat, drink and sleep, but cannot think. The heavenly soul has high and low levels, which determines a person's reaction ability, judgment and logical thinking ability. The earthly soul refers to likes and dislikes. For example, some people like a woman, while others do not. If everyone's earthly soul were the same, they would all either like or dislike her. The earthly soul gives rise to all kinds of people in the world.

  Ximen Shuai was very generous and taught Lin Fan the method of capturing the demon, which simply used the five elements to restrain each other. The ice sludge was water, and the cloth bag was earth, so it could be captured directly. Lin Fan cut a piece of Taoist robe and made a cloth bag, then quietly pounced on an isolated ice sludge. Then Lin Fan fell into the trap.

  Unexpectedly, there was another Ice Shard on the ground, attacking from both sides. Lin Fan didn't notice it and was hit by a cold ice beam, which directly struck his Dantian, causing his True Qi to rapidly dry up, and his body couldn't move either. Ximen Commander saw this and hastily threw out the Seven Breaking Flags, shouting: "Break the air!"

  Seven broken flags swept past, dispersing the cold air of Lin Fan's Dan Tian, and Lin Fan hastily retreated. Ximen Commander chased after Lin Fan with his flag: "I thought you were clever, but I didn't expect that in just one encounter, you almost lost your little life."

  Lin Fan's heart was worried: "What a severe cold air."

  "That's natural, these are thousand-year-old ice devils, their chill can't be withstood by anyone who hasn't reached the later stages of Golden Elixir cultivation. But it's simple to say, just don't let them hit you."

  As they spoke, a cultivator suddenly flew up from the mountain ridge hundreds of feet away, with dozens of icy spirals bursting out of the ground to chase after him. One of the ice shards hit the cultivator's foot, and without hesitation, he turned his sword around and cut off his own foot. However, he still couldn't escape, and in the brief moment he paused, dozens of ice shards struck his body, freezing his expression, before he plummeted straight down from mid-air, motionless.