Chapter 00176: Opening the Heavenly Eye
# Opening the Heavenly Eye
Chapter 176
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 176: Opening the Heavenly Eye
"Madam, we are going to establish a foothold in Xiazhou, recruit troops and gather resources, and we need a good Dan Master who is indispensable for achieving great things."
He Chunhua naturally knew how to placate his wife.
"Shihuan City is filled with Daoist sects and talented individuals. Finding suitable candidates here will make it easier to hire them once we get to Xiazhou. From this perspective, Chuan'er is not necessarily ignorant."
Madam Ying trusted her husband the most, and her anger turned into doubt at this moment: "But it's just a monkey. Can it really refine good pills?"
"I have indeed heard of the reputation of the Qianxin Sect."
He Chunhua, ambitious for the world, had certainly studied various Daoist sects.
"They are renowned for their pill refining skills. Although they are a demon sect, the pills refined by their Medicine Ape are not inferior to those made by human alchemists. This is called specialization in one's craft. If we were to invite a reputable Dan Master, we might not even find one at double the price."
Highly skilled talents have never been cheap, especially since the talent was applying for a job in the capital city of Shihuan but would be working in Xiazhou, which meant the salary would also need to cover relocation fees and various hidden costs.
Of course, He Chunhua did not know that the low price of this Medicine Ape from the Qianxin Sect had its own reasons.
Cheapness comes with its own tricks.
Madam Ying had long resided in Qiansong County, and her impression of demons was that they were fierce and brutish, only engaging in acts of robbery.
Hearing that a monkey could perform such delicate tasks was quite refreshing.
……
He Lingchuan returned to his guest room and stuffed two jin of fresh honeydew melon and a batch of medicinal materials to the monkey: "Please help me refine Soul Hooking Incense."
As the name suggests, this incense is used to lure the souls of the living, often employed by those with ulterior motives.
Ordinary pharmacies and Dan Masters do not sell it, and if one expresses an urgent desire to purchase it, they might even be reported.
However, the Medicine Ape Lingguang clearly did not possess such a strong moral compass.
After taking the items, it said, "It will be ready in an hour."
It was not in a hurry to start refining pills but instead took the melon to wash it clean in a basin and slowly tasted it.
He Lingchuan ignored it and took out the tofu he had bought from the market, heading outside to practice his knife skills.
He had exchanged military merits for a set of body techniques and a set of knife techniques from the Merit Department of Panlong City.
Although these two would eventually need to be combined, at his current level, he could only practice them separately for now.
He could not even think about flowing like clouds and water with his knife techniques or earth-shattering moves at the beginning.
He could only practice with tofu.
He placed a whole block of water tofu in the palm of his hand and sliced it with his long knife.
The basic requirement was to slice it thin as a cicada's wing, with each piece being translucent.
Before obtaining the key techniques, He Lingchuan had no idea that the prerequisite for being a good knife master was to first become a good cook.
However, the knife technique manual clearly stated that "stability" and "precision" are the foundations of martial arts, and one must not be lazy, just like the foundation of a hundred-foot tall building.
As for moves, skills, and divine abilities, and the notion that the fastest martial arts are invincible, those are merely the upper structures.
If the foundation is not solid, the upper structure will be unstable.
He Lingchuan sliced ten times, and the tofu pieces were basically as thin as leaves.
Mao Tao clapped from the side: "Young Master is impressive! This is your first time slicing, and you already have this level of skill!"
He Lingchuan shot him a fierce glare, holding the tofu slice up to the light—
Opaque, failure!
This was not his first time.
He had practiced for five days in his dreams, especially the first day, which was a disaster; he had even sliced off a layer of skin from his palm.
Now, as he reached the thirtieth slice under Mao Tao's watchful eyes, his knife blade trembled along with his hand, and the tofu was sliced into serrated edges.
So damn difficult.
After he ruined a block of tofu, Mao Tao quickly handed him another one.
Today's task was to slice fifty blocks of tofu.
Of course, the military and civilians in Panlong Dream did not want to waste food like this, so there was another option: to stack a hundred sheets of thin paper together and slice them with the knife.
Each time a sheet flew away, the ones below could not be moved.
This method sounded much easier than slicing tofu; the paper could be reused.
He Lingchuan had practiced this way in his dreams as well.
The first two months of living in this world had indeed made him develop thoughts of idly eating and waiting for death, thinking it was too difficult to strive for success.
After all, who would want to lie flat and be comfortable?
However, the two thrilling adventures later, whether being tricked by Master Sun into the Panlong Desert or fighting fiercely at the Xianling Lake against the righteous army, made him see the gap between himself and his opponents clearly.
He could win and survive, but it was mostly due to luck, unrelated to strength.
Even though He Chunhua believed that his eldest son was a blessed general, He Lingchuan understood that one could not rely on good fortune forever.
This world was far more perilous than his previous life, and the ordinary beings were all struggling in the mire.
If he wanted to live long and prosper, he could only rely on the knife in his hand to carve out a path.
Half a year ago, he was still slacking off at work and wasting time during his leisure, most troubled by not having enough salary to spend, rather than life and death or his future.
Now, looking back, it felt like a lifetime ago.
…No, he had indeed been reborn.
By the time He Lingchuan finished slicing forty-nine blocks of tofu, his right hand could no longer lift the knife.
In this freezing winter, he had actually broken into a sweat.
Mao Tao had been watching him intently, and He Lingchuan said irritably, "What are you staring at? You slice the last block!"
"Me?" Mao Tao was taken aback but actually agreed, "Alright."
He also spread out the tofu, drew out a short dagger from his boot, and began to slice with ease.
"…?" Why did Mao Tao's movements look so fluid?
In just a few breaths, the tofu was sliced, and Mao Tao lifted a few pieces with the dagger, grinning, "Young Master, take a look!"
Although it was not yet as thin as a cicada's wing, each piece of tofu was evenly thick like leaves.
It should be noted that he wielded the dagger with ease, completing it in one go without any pauses, which was much more difficult, and his technique was exceptionally skilled.
He Lingchuan grabbed him by the collar: "Did you practice secretly before?"
"Yeah, this is our skill for eating. How could I not practice?" Mao Tao had been a sand bandit before, knowing that he was not as strong as others, so he had to find ways to excel in technique.
He comforted He Lingchuan in a tone of someone with experience: "Young Master, don't be discouraged. With your talent, you'll be able to master it in seven or eight days."
"Discouraged? Which of your dog eyes saw me discouraged?" Young Master He snorted, instructing him to fetch a suspended rope to tie between two trees.
The knife practice came to a close, and the next step was body techniques.
The suspended rope was as thick as a pinky finger, tied according to requirements—neither too loose nor too tight, slightly drooping.
He Lingchuan leaped up and stood on one foot.
With nothing to leverage above or below, he swayed a couple of times before quickly sinking his qi into his dantian, finally managing to stabilize himself.
His original self had practiced on Mei stakes, so his sense of balance was quite good, and this did not pose a challenge for him.
Next, he had to place both hands behind his back and stand with his eyes closed.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt the world spinning.
He quickly opened his eyes, only to find himself falling, nearly landing headfirst.
When a person closes their eyes, their sense of balance becomes poor.
He jumped back onto the suspended rope, but before he could stabilize himself, a strong wind blew past…
"Again!"
Mao Tao looked up eagerly from below: "Young Master, how far do you need to practice this?"
He Lingchuan gritted his teeth: "If I can run freely with my eyes closed on a fine line, that would be considered minor success."
"And major success?"
"Standing on a fine line with my eyes closed, slicing tofu, each piece as thin as a cicada's wing, and continuously without interruption."
"…"
"Young Master."
Mao Tao said cautiously, "Take me along. Even if I can't master the divine ability in the end, I can at least make a living in a circus."
He Lingchuan casually pulled out a piece of Flying Locust Stone and threw it at his face.
Mao Tao yelped and dodged.
This exertion caused the rope to shake violently, making He Lingchuan struggle to regain his balance.
"Hey, this method is not bad; it serves two purposes."
Practicing body techniques while honing throwing accuracy.
Hu Min had said that throwing and archery were similar; both required precision and feel.
"Go pick it up for me!" He took out two more Flying Locust Stones and aimed for Mao Tao's backside.
For the next half hour, the small courtyard was in chaos.
The servants of the He residence came and went, and upon seeing this scene, they either laughed or shook their heads, finding it amusing that the young master had just arrived in Shihuan and was already causing trouble.
Then the Medicine Ape Lingguang appeared, lightly landing on the suspended rope, holding a bundle of black incense: "Master, the incense you wanted… has been refined."
It seemed as light as a feather, and the rope did not even move.
He Lingchuan looked down and saw that all ten of its toes were firmly gripping the rope, stable beyond measure.
How much effort would he have to exert to match the innate talent it possessed?
He sighed and took the incense bundle: "Thank you! If you have time, please help me refine Yin-Yang Powder as well. Here is the prescription."
……
He Lingchuan returned to his room, closed the doors and windows, and lit a candle.
When the candle flame stood straight up, steady and unmoving, he ignited the Soul Hooking Incense, sat cross-legged on his bed, and began to enter a meditative state.
Once his eyes were closed, the world fell into darkness.
He could only hear his breathing, long and rhythmic, and smell the unique fragrance of the Soul Hooking Incense lingering around him.
He silently recited the mental method from the Ziwu Jue, gradually losing even the sound of his own breathing, while vague images began to form in his mind.
It seemed to be the furnishings in this guest room, but there were no colors, no light or dark, only lines and outlines.
He Lingchuan understood that this was because he was not observing his surroundings with his eyes but was attempting to open what the Ziwu Jue referred to as the "Heavenly Eye."
Simply put, it was the divine sense.
This feeling was very strange and hard to describe in words; perhaps it was similar to how bats "see" objects using echolocation?
The Ziwu Jue had a dedicated section in the mental manual that discussed the cultivation and practice of divine sense.
Ancient immortals could expand their divine sense to avoid danger, even more effectively than the five senses.
He Lingchuan treasured this section, as both large-scale battles and personal fights were filled with uncertainties; one could never know who might be lying in ambush, waiting to strike, who was stealthily shooting arrows, or who was about to dump a pot of filth on one’s head…
The first expansion of divine sense was particularly important and difficult.
If one failed, it would take at least three to five months to try again, so He Lingchuan specifically asked the Medicine Ape to refine the Soul Hooking Incense as an aid.
In the silence, the fragrance of the medicine seemed to vanish, yet the things he "saw" in his mind became more and more numerous and clearer.
(End of Chapter)