Chapter 708 Acknowledgement of the dao
He remained motionless for almost an hour before he finally woke up from his reminiscent state.
"I am glad I took that step.." Yang Qing said as he stood up, as he placed his hand on his heart sensing the slight change within it. It felt lighter and clearer.
"Bright Lake Dawn Sect, Yun Suifen...junior Yang Qing, pays my respects to you...You must have been an illustrious figure during your time.." said Yang Qing with deep admiration.
Cultivating the art she created he realized how deep her breadth of insight and accumulation had been.
The reason he failed every time he tried to imbue his memory into the blank spiritual essence, those few times, was he kept dissociating himself from his memory every time he tried to act calm and collected. Every time he did so there was a dissonance between him and his memory.
He was separating himself from his memory every time he did so, forgetting what a memory was. A memory was a personal imprint that carried his experience and the emotions that came with that experience, which was why every time someone recalled something, even if it happened years ago, they would feel the emotions associated with that memory despite the time that had passed by.
When Yang Qing left his home he was anything but calm, and him trying to act calm as he poured his memory into the spiritual essence made it impure as it lacked the emotion he had from back then, making it no more than a static recording, hence the failures.
When Yang Qing decided to let himself get absorbed into the memory, it was him just going with the flow to see where it led. He wasn't sure it would work and of the ideas he had on hand, this was the easiest to execute which was why he chose it.
With success in imbuing his memory into the spiritual essence, the next step would be to imbue two more memories into the spiritual essence, and he would keep increasing the memories he imbued by two, with every growing success until he reached one hundred, after which he would blend and refine all those memories into one component.
The preliminary phase of the art was for him to imbue as many memories as he could into the spiritual essence, which would in turn strengthen it and enable it to survive for much longer, and after that would come the nurturing phase which required an assiduous attitude due to how arduous the process would be.
Despite the effort required, Yang Qing was excited to explore it and see the heights he would reach. He also felt the deeper he delved into the art, as his proficiency grew, he would end up experiencing benefits to other aspects of his cultivation, especially when it came to tempering his heart and mind. One of the driving forces of the art seemed to be introspection. The culmination of the art was built upon the summation of one's experiences.
Yang Qing stretched his hands and back with a gleeful smile as he dusted off his robes out of habit despite his robes having self-cleaning arrays and the room being absent of even a speck of dust.
After Yang Qing was sure everything in his grooming was okay, he went by the pillar that contained the fragment of the chime bell and dislodged his token via a set of clicks and patterns that seemed to have lifted the seal placed on it.
The moment the token was in his hand, the glyph-filled veil that had isolated the floor from the outside world receded as it compressed together to form a ward of protection around the chime bell.
Yang Qing cast a brief lingering gaze on the chime bell fragment before he turned to leave the room. Today was likely going to be the last day he would ever be in the room. He had spent close to sixteen hours cultivating the Perpetual Cerulean Weaver's wisdom path to a lifeline, he now had a little over 30 hours as the Branch Chief of the Deer Mountain Branch, and of those hours at least 24 hours were already spoken for. The farewell party would last a full day, even longer if Shi Hai already had all he needed.
"Am I getting more and more emotional with age?" said Yang Qing with a wry smile as he felt out of sorts as he was leaving.
When he ran away back then, neither was he nostalgic or melancholic. He felt like a prisoner who had just been given his release, but now, when it hit him he would be leaving, he had a bittersweet feeling about it.
Though his thoughts about being a branch chief had still not changed, he had a worthwhile experience as a branch chief despite the unpleasant experiences here and there, especially in his interaction with the different parties of the Deer Mountain Range, from the loyal imperial secretary to the steadfast king, to the mercurial aristocrats, to the spirit beasts that inhabited such as Gu Xing, Meifeng and the Mountain Jade Serpent, and experiencing the splendor of a graveyard torch.
He had unique experiences that he would never have had, had he not come here, which created a lingering sentiment from him towards the place.
With a departing sigh, he left the top floor in search of Administrator Mo Guang to follow up on the progress he had made. When he found him, Yang Qing couldn't help but bow to the veteran's abilities. Everything within the list he and Shi Hai had come up with had already been sourced, and Mo Guang had even added a few more that were not on the list but were a great addition nonetheless.
With unconcealed excitement, Yang Qing rushed toward the kitchen where he found Shi Hai cooking up a storm, taking no prisoners with the ingredients. An intoxicating fragrance filled the whole kitchen with every dish that was being produced radiated with a presence that made it seem like it was being prepared for an immortal feast as Shi Hai moved with the grace of an immortal.
Yang Qing stood there with a dumbfounded expression as he saw the sight before him when he came to, he couldn't help but sigh as he sensed the energy within the kitchen.
He could hear the ingredients rejoice, while the aroma that pervaded the area had the aura of the heavens and the earth. His gaze finally fell on the young chef who was at the center of it, around him he could feel a stirring of the dao being molded and melded into everything he did.
"Shi Hai has found his path, the dao has acknowledged him .." he muttered as he saw the golden auspicious that surrounded Shi Hai and everything he touched. It was ethereal, majestic yet gentle and all-encompassing.
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