What Xue Huai didn’t expect was that Yun Cuo really did what he said.
The next day, Yun Cuo went to worship an illusionist master. Xue Huai tried to persuade him, saying that his senior brother Sha Hua, who lived next door, was an illusionist, and Yun Cuo would go there to learn from him because it would be convenient and he would not be scolded, but Yun Cuo was unwilling to go there to learn from him.
He said, “Xue Huai, you also said that he is an illusionist. I don’t want to see him at all. I will never be friends with an illusionist again.”
Xue Huai almost laughed out loud, but seeing Yun Cuo’s serious face, he promised: “Then I won’t get too close to the illusionist in the future. You can supervise me. I’ll give you more authority on this one.”
It’s a pity that Yun Cuo’s progress in learning illusion is about the same as that of the gluttonous ghost in learning to write—because Yun Cuo’s obsession is too strong and his inner demons are too deep, he can’t even create the most basic small illusion, and he is laughed at by Xue Huai for a long time.
The gluttonous ghost has controlled itself and stopped eating the brush, but it always accidentally bites the brush off. It is very strict with itself. Every time the brush is accidentally bitten off by its sharp teeth, it comes to Xue Huai crying, and he has to kiss and hug it before it has the confidence to continue writing, and then it repeats this cycle over and over again.
Yun Cuo was busy with his schoolwork, so Xue Huai stayed in the cave to coax the gluttonous for several days. Finally, he felt that it was too boring when Yun Cuo was not around, so he also followed him.
Since the cultivator who taught illusion was a handsome young man, Yun Cuo firmly refused to allow Xue Huai to come and learn with him: “What if the fortune teller happened to be talking about this teacher, and you fall in love with him at first sight after you go there. What should I do? Xue Huai, don’t go.”
Xue Huai glared at him, “Am I such a casual person? But you, you hid it from me and didn’t let me learn with you. Did you fall in love with someone else at first sight and want to have a forbidden love affair that violates Shizun’s rule? I tell you, Surname Yun, there is no way.”
Every time he pretended to be angry, he would imitate the characters in the picture book, learning the arrogance of a street woman who dragged her husband. Yun Cuo happened to like him like this, and after a good scolding, he agreed to let him come with him.
You won’t know the result until you try. Xue Huai finally understood why Yun Cuo couldn’t even grasp the basics of illusion—this course was too demanding on one’s character.
Take the master who taught them this course, for example. He was someone with an extremely indifferent personality. To say indifferent was almost the same as being lazy. His name was Xuan Qing, and he had no desires or requests. He was more immortal than all the immortals and practiced the principle of governing by inaction.
Classes? If he wants to cancel it, then he just cancels it. If he is free, he will come. If the disciples really have a strong desire to learn, then he will just teach them.
Eating? If he is hungry, he will eat, if he’s not hungry, then he won’t eat. Sometimes he was even too lazy to eat when he was hungry, and he just let himself go hungry. There was even a legend that “he was almost starving to death and was found by his disciples, and he was saved by the infusing Qi he was forced to drink.”
Xue Huai asked, “This disciple is very courageous, but the method of ‘infusing Qi’ is…?”
Xuan Qing Shizun said, “It’s like dual-cultivation.”
Xue Huai: “……”
Yun Cuo: “……”
Xuan Qing Shizun remained calm: “I am also troubled. That disciple said that he saved my life in this way and must be responsible for me, but I don’t think it is necessary. But he insisted, so I just…”
“Kicked him out of the sect?” Xue Huai guessed.
Xuan Qing said calmly, “I just agreed to it and became his Daoist partner.”
……
This is too casual!
Looking around the cultivator’s sect, there are strange people everywhere. There is a girl who completely refuses to communicate with others but has extremely high intelligence, and there is a wild boy who is arrogant and firmly believes that he is the way of heaven. Thousands of words can be summed up in one sentence—they all look like people with mental problems.
Xue Huai felt deeply worried about this.
However, Yun Cuo enjoyed it, and Xue Huai followed him to learn, and he also found it quite interesting.
The requirements for cultivating the mind by illusionists here are different from the “cultivation of the mind” requirements they usually accept. Murong Jinchuan usually asks his disciples to “get rid of desires and calm their minds” and not be moved by external things. Xue Huai thought that this meant that everyone should be like Xuan Qing Shizun, who had no external things in his mind. As a result, he now realizes that this is not the case.
Xuan Qing closed his eyes and dozed off. He threw an ancient book to them and asked the green bird to read it out: “To build an environment, as long as your mind is strong and not easily shaken by external things, it will be fine. Of course, you can have no desires or demands. This is the best state, but other states can also exist.”
“As long as this state can support your whole being completely, that is to say, it is strong enough—strong enough to be almost without desire—then it is also possible. For example, the young man over there who thinks he is the way of heaven—he believes from the bottom of his heart that he is the world, and he can justify it. No one can refute his statement.”
After the green bird finished reading, Xuan Qing suddenly spoke and casually pointed to a disciple who was practicing on the other side.
“Did you see that boy?”
He pointed to a child with slender bones who looked like he had walked out of a painting. He was meditating with his eyes closed. His eyelashes were surprisingly white. His entire body looked like it was carved out of ice and snow. There was nothing that was not perfect. He was so beautiful that it was hard to tell whether he was male or female.
And strangely enough, after just one look, Xue Huai couldn’t help but develop a liking for him. He was like a seductive ghost that led people to depravity, with a terrifying attraction all his own.
He quickly withdrew his gaze and subconsciously glanced at Yun Cuo.
But Yun Cuo, the blockhead, just glanced at the man briefly, then looked away, waiting eagerly for what Xuan Qing was going to say next.
What a blockhead!
Xue Huai suddenly laughed. Yun Cuo noticed that he was laughing and asked him through secret telepathy, “Xue Huai, what are you laughing at?”
Xue Huai said, “I won’t tell you.”
He refused to tell Yun Cuo that he had just been blinded by the young man. He just relaxed, took a few steps towards Yun Cuo, and meditated with him shoulder to shoulder.
Xuan Qing said, “Did you see him? That boy’s name is Lin Xuezang, and he practices the Path of Mercilessness. His strong belief is his true self. He is deeply rooted in not caring about anything in this world. He only cares about himself and loves himself. This is also the reason why he can cultivate a fantasy.”
Yun Cuo understood: “In other words, as long as the mind is clear enough and the obsession is strong enough and not hindered by others, it is possible to cultivate the inner demon illusion?”
Xue Huai muttered, “In other words, the more twisted one’s personality is, the easier it is to cultivate this spell?”
Xuan Qing Shizun smiled. “You can also say that. Those who are twisted and those who are clear can all come here. Do you know about the great war between immortals and demons 20 years ago? At that time, the illusionists were the ones fighting against the demons on the front lines, because they had the purest minds and would not be infected by the demons. Those people played a great role in that war. This can also be regarded as the role of an illusionist. This course is about fate, and it is also the one that depends most on the disciples’ qualifications.”
Xue Huai held up his chin and asked, “Then, Shizun, what do you think of my aptitude?”
Xuan Qing Shizun looked at him for a while—at that moment, Xue Huai felt that the other party’s clear eyes saw directly into his heart.
“A man of mean talent.”
Xue Huai: “……”
Xuan Qing raised his eyes to look at him: “The wealth of moderation I mentioned refers to the moderation among illusionists. If you have a clean and open mind and can eliminate external interference and not be disturbed by worldly affairs, you will become a very good illusionist, but your problem is that you are tied down by too many things, such as family, lovers, friends… etc. You are restricted by these illusory things.”
Xue Huai held up his chin and said, “Alright.”
“However, I can see that you once went through a period where you were very close to excluding external things.” Xuan Qing used his spiritual vision to look through Xue Huai’s mind, and his eyes also began to grow brighter.
Xue Huai was puzzled and asked, “When was it? I don’t remember a time like this. You are right, I am a layman, and I can’t let go of these ties, but I don’t want to let them go either.”
After a moment, Xuan Qing Shizun retracted his gaze and said, “I found it. It was about two months ago. It took five hours.”
Xue Huai seemed to realize something and blurted out, “That was when I asked for leave to go home.”
It was the time when he heard about the crimes of the Liu family and returned to Dongzhou to kill them with his own hands.
“Hatred.” Xuan Qing uttered these two words softly: “You are flamboyant and open-minded. Hate is a sharp weapon that makes you extremely pure.”
Xue Huai thought quietly, and after a moment, he said softly, “I understand.”
He turned around and held Yun Cuo’s hand, pulling him in front of Xuan Qing like a child. “Then Shizun, take another look at his qualifications?”
Yun Cuo was a little nervous, he held Xue Huai’s hand tightly—
He swore that he must learn illusion well and not let Xue Huai marry another illusionist. If he was slapped in the face at this moment, then he would be in a complicated mood.
Xuan Qing glanced at Yun Cuo and commented without hesitation: “The embroidered pillow is a bag of straw.”
Yun Cuo: “……”
Xue Huai began to hold back his laughter. This statement was too familiar. Murong Jinchuan often criticized Yun Cuo with this every day.
He is a Young Immortal Lord who cultivated both immortal and demonic cultivations. He was not affected by the cause and effect in immortal cultivation and the seventeenth level of demonic cultivation. Yet he is still scolded as a useless person all day long. This psychological trauma is also quite deep.
Xuan Qing spoke very quickly, but without any ups and downs, and continued to speak in a crackling manner: “Indeed, his personality is extreme and simple, seemingly uncomplicated, and his intuition is also very accurate. He has something he wants to pursue wholeheartedly… Let me see.”
As he spoke, Xuan Qing once again opened his spiritual vision and probed Yun Cuo’s heart: “There is someone in your heart… or, to put it another way, your heart is full of one person.”
Yun Cuo glanced at Xue Huai subconsciously.
Xue Huai blushed quickly. After being looked at so suddenly by Yun Cuo, he immediately reached out to turn his face back, cursing in a low voice, “Pay attention to the class. Why are you looking at me?”
Yun Cuo smiled silently, and soon after turning away, he unconsciously looked towards Xue Huai again. He naturally wanted to get closer to him, like a clingy person.
“But,” Xuan Qing’s voice sounded a little illusory, “that person was standing far away from you, and you were far away from him—anything could make you afraid to take a step forward, is that right? I saw that person standing under the frozen snowfield, and there was a lot of broken ice floating under your feet… every step you took brought an inner demon to your heart. You are simply wasting your good nature.”
Xue Huai could hardly hold back any more. After Xuan Qing Shizun finished criticizing Yun Cuo, he burst into laughter and reached out to pull Yun Cuo: “Look at you! What did Shizun say!”
Yun Cuo looked at his face and didn’t understand what he meant for a moment.
He just looked at Xue Huai’s bright smile, then began to daydream again, and suddenly moved closer and wanted to kiss him.
Xue Huai glared at him. “What are you doing?”
Yun Cuo finally reacted and quickly looked for his mistake: “What did you just say, Xue Huai ge?”
Under normal circumstances, Xue Huai would have scolded him if he saw him in such a daze from time to time. But now he has lost his temper. He grabbed Yun Cuo’s collar and said, “Shizun has already seen it all—I am in your heart, and why don’t you dare to take a step? En?”
Yun Cuo looked into his eyes and stammered, “I…”
“Look, how pitiful it is for me to be alone on the ice so far away.” Xue Huai tried his best to imagine the scene described by Xuan Qing Shizun. “Are you reluctant to go over and accompany me? If I fall down, I will also have to fall down alone. If there is no one to keep me warm, I might freeze to death.”
Before Yun Cuo could say anything, Xue Huai had already crawled into his arms, pressed against his shoulder, and whispered, “Come over, alright? I’ll wait for you to come find me. Hurry up, alright? It’s time to grow up, Yun Shidi.”
Yun Cuo reached out and touched Xue Huai’s head and said helplessly, “Alright, I will. Believe me, I will.”
Xue Huai took the opportunity to rub his head and kiss him on the cheek happily. “Be sure to remember this.”
In addition to daily practice, Xue Huai also discovered an opportunity to improve himself.
It all started when he saw Xuan Shizun repairing a spiritual fire gun for a disciple, so he gave it a try.
It was different from what Xue Huai had tried at the Shenhua Terrace before. Although it was also an offensive magic power, Xuan Qing was able to manipulate the shape of the magic power at will. Millions of sharp rays of light were controlled by his thoughts, exploding into beautiful fireworks in the sky.
The female disciple at this side here saw it and shouted, “Shizun! Shizun! Can you set off another phoenix firework?”
The magic in the sky changed in response, weaving into the shape of a phoenix and then changing into various shapes according to the disciples’ needs.
Throughout the entire process, the light from the spells never landed on the ground and never hurt anyone.
This is something Xue Huai has never been able to do. He has the best spiritual fire gun in the world—the first magic weapon made by Bai Yi, the Crown Prince of Fuli Palace—but he doesn’t know how to use it and can only use healing techniques.
If he can successfully create a stable illusion, does it also mean that he is qualified to truly control the magic weapon?
This thought lingered in Xue Huai’s mind.
Originally, he only regarded training the illusion as a pastime, but now he has become serious about it.
Three days later, Xue Huai made a new practice schedule for himself. He plans to ask Murong Jinchuan to adjust the classes and allocate a few sessions of retreat and spiritual cultivation for the illusion classes.
He was also thinking about what Murong Jinchuan had asked him to come over a few days ago.
However, what Xue Huai didn’t expect was that before he even came to look for Murong Jinchuan, something had already happened to him—
The green bird reported that Murong Jinchuan set off yesterday, leaving the manor he had not left for hundreds of years, and went to the Netherworld to meet an enemy from his youth alone.
It is unknown what they talked about, but Murong Jinchuan was sent back seriously injured. At the same time, the Ghost King of the Netherworld was found dead by the Shengyun Sword Technique passed down from the Murong family.
Murong Jinchuan was in a coma. When he lost consciousness, he only left a few words for his grandson.
“Not here. Let Xiao Huai go back to Dongzhou immediately.”
