It is said that one should judge by actions rather than intentions, for if judged by intentions, there would be no perfect person in the world. Although this saying is somewhat biased, it does contain a certain truth. Everyone has dark corners in their hearts, including selfish instincts and various ugly thoughts influenced by the outside world. Most people merely think such thoughts and quickly forget them. If these thoughts were openly exposed to others, the sense of shame would be self-evident, akin to running naked through a bustling street, or even worse!
Looking at his face in the gently flowing stream, sometimes distorted and sometimes normal, Meng Qi saw the sinister and dark version of himself. As this other self voiced his innermost dark thoughts, Meng Qi’s sense of shame and anger overflowed. Instinctively, he resisted, denied, and rejected them.
However, upon hearing the words, “Sentiments are gone, benevolence no longer exists,” he suddenly laughed softly and murmured, “Yes, I am not a purely good person.”
His previously normal face became distorted, slightly stunned, seemingly unprepared for how quickly he would admit such a thing.
Relaxing the distortion, Meng Qi’s eyes no longer showed resistance. Gazing at the stream, he said calmly, “I am not a good person.”
“I love showing off, enjoy displaying my abilities in public, and easily become conceited and proud.”
“I have a narrow heart, seeking revenge for every grudge, and when someone suppresses me, I always plan to retaliate in the future. I refuse to accept any loss.”
“I am greedy and crave perfection, often clinging to wishful thinking. At times, my judgment becomes clouded—I recognize certain dangers yet still plunge in recklessly, convinced that with capable allies and high-level backing, I can navigate treacherous waters unscathed.”
The face in the stream twisted again, revealing a cruel smile: “You know that already.”
The smile faded as Meng Qi’s expression calmed further, continuing, “I have not yet severed all six roots and often experience various desires.”
“Regarding Gu Xiaosang, she is full of schemes, unpredictable, and an enemy. It is only right to oppose and defeat her. However, wanting to subdue and discipline her stems from my own dark desires, because of her extraordinary beauty, her cleverness, and her enigmatic nature, which are highly tempting. If she had a face full of pimples and behaved vulgarly, I would certainly not feel this way.”
“Regarding Zhiwei, it is normal to admire beauty and be drawn to youth. After she chose the path of the sword, my resentment and dislike were purely selfish and had nothing to do with her.”
“Regarding Yushu, Qishixiong, and Zhao Laowu, feeling that their progress is too slow, that they cannot keep up with me and have become burdens, also stems from my own selfishness, unrelated to them.”
…
He dissected his inner darkness sentence by sentence, revealing the roots of these thoughts, facing himself directly, and growing calmer with each word.
His face was no longer so grotesquely twisted, but his eyes remained black as he spoke in a low voice, “What are you trying to say?”
Meng Qi straightened his back, hands behind him, walking toward the stream:
“I am saying that selfishness and greed are inherent in every person.”
“Yes, so entering this door and seeing the inner demons, no matter how sentimental or righteous a person might be, cannot face themselves,” said the evil Meng Qi.
Meng Qi’s eyes no longer held the previous shame and anger:
“I have many flaws, I have many dark thoughts, but I am not their slave!”
“Victory over others is easy; victory over oneself is hard. It is a long and recurring process, not something that can be permanently resolved with a single awakening. One must constantly remain vigilant, examine oneself in every matter, and reflect thrice daily!”
“As for dark thoughts, as long as I can control them, letting them pass transiently without disturbing my true nature, why worry? Zhiwei has chosen her own path; I am happy for her and feel comforted. My resentment and dislike are only momentary, and knowing they are wrong, they will dissipate like the wind.”
“Qishixiong, Yushu, and Zhao Laowu have not improved their strength as quickly as I have, but I will help them, because they have helped me as well. I have also been someone else’s burden. I have selfishness, I have feelings, and I have the ability to discern right from wrong!”
“Gu Xiaosang is beautiful, clever, and charming, but I know life is precious. I know her ruthless methods beneath her beauty, and I have no feelings for her. I do not expect to be someone special to her, so I can control my fantasies, seeing beauty as bones, and act decisively when the time comes!”
The evil Meng Qi remained silent, his face dark.
Meng Qi crossed the stream without looking back:
“Behind the Shaolin Temple lies the saying, ‘Sentiment, righteousness, and benevolence must not enter this door.’ Inversely practicing the Yijin Jing will cause one’s dark side to grow. I have always had doubts about this.”
“Before entering, I asked myself, if I had inversely practiced the Yijin Jing, what would happen?”
“What would happen?” the evil Meng Qi instinctively asked.
“I once told Duan Rui that everyone’s heart contains darkness, a coexistence of good and evil, just like the division of the universe into yin and yang, transforming into each other. Just like walking in sunlight, there will always be shadows.”
“To resist it, to reject it, to try to eliminate it, is the worst strategy, because they are one and the same. The shadow is formed by the body; it cannot be removed. Perhaps one might succeed today, but when the sunlight returns tomorrow, it will reappear, affecting the mind, making one feel inherently evil, and the two sides will grow increasingly opposed.”
Meng Qi’s voice was calm as he gently brushed aside branches before him, saying, “Facing darkness, as long as one can control it and not be influenced by it, breaking free from attachments and fixed thoughts, one can still be a ‘good person’!”
His expression suddenly became solemn, with a faint air of transcendence, as he softly recited, “At the beginning of heaven, there was no yin or yang.”
“At the beginning of man, there was no good or evil!”
As he chanted, his body’s acupoints opened, revealing the complete “Immortal Primordial Form” within. Everything became dim and indistinct, with no distinction between yin and yang.
The evil Meng Qi let out an unwilling cry, his distorted face returning to normal, his pupils deep, his whites clear, good and evil unified, the true self prevailing!
Without turning back, Meng Qi strode toward the mountain at the heart of the ruined ancient temple.
If not for cultivating the “Immortal Primordial Form,” which embraces change, and having previously interacted with Duan Rui, contemplating such matters beforehand, it would have been difficult to control the evil self.
A single misstep could allow darkness to expand, the evil self to truly emerge, and he would join the ranks of Gu Xiaosang, Senior Brother Gao, and Duan Rui as yet another mentally ill person suffering from split personality.
…
The Gui Shu floated above, illuminating the four individuals, but aside from Duan Rui, the others showed various abnormalities.
Wang Siyuan was no longer his usual elegant and frail self, polite in speech. He sneered, glancing sideways at the old man with white hair and no pupils: “Born with unique talents yet refusing to cultivate the ‘Suanjing,’ you disgrace the Wang family!”
The old man with white hair snorted: “Arrogant, mentally ill, and inwardly deranged, you are simply disgusting.”
A middle-aged man resembling Wang Siyuan glared at him: “In your heart, you probably despise me, your uncle, a cultivator of the ‘Suanjing’ destined for a short life!”
Wang Siyuan smiled lightly, his expression slightly mad: “How can you understand my ambition—to take the world as a chessboard, all beings as pieces, to play against ancient masters and place moves with future immortals and Buddhas?”
“Can all the changes of worldly affairs be calculated?” He gazed upward at the blood-streaked and dark-qi-filled sky, his eyes deep with inquiry.
Duan Rui watched in astonishment, unable to understand why the three Wang family members had suddenly started arguing, exposing each other’s weaknesses and displaying shameful behavior.
Suddenly, Wang Siyuan’s slightly deranged expression calmed, and he smiled faintly: “Don’t worry about it; just get used to it. Everyone has darkness in their hearts, inevitably harboring ugly thoughts.”
As he spoke, his face twisted slightly again, and he resumed arguing with the other two.
Duan Rui suddenly understood, looking at the collapsed Buddhist temple, the rotten seven treasures, and the withered Bodhi tree, exclaiming, “There’s something strange here!”
“This corrupted pure land amplifies the dark corners of everyone’s hearts. If you resist, reject, and try to eliminate them, the darkness will self-preserve and grow stronger, gradually opposing the self. Therefore, allowing it to act freely and slightly controlling it will suffice to leave unharmed,” Wang Siyuan smiled normally during a brief pause, looking at Duan Rui. “Precisely for this reason, I only brought along the two elders in the family with the worst relationship, since it couldn’t get any worse anyway.”
“If not for the Patriarch’s command, who would bother with you, a short-lived ghost!” the white-haired old man without pupils angrily said.
Duan Rui was momentarily stunned—wasn’t this exactly his own reflection?
He looked at the stream beside him and saw his own face, eyes black and features twisted.
Beside him, Wang Siyuan alternated between madness and mockery and a calm demeanor, softly chanting:
“The essence of mind is neither good nor evil.
The movement of will involves good and evil.
Knowing good and evil is innate knowledge.
Promoting good and eliminating evil is the investigation of things.”
…
After mastering his inner evil, Meng Qi smoothly reached the foot of the mountain, encountering no more Tianmo or zombies.
Before him, a towering mountain clearly divided into seven levels, each level smaller than the one below, with ancient rocks and withered trees. Meng Qi took a deep breath, prepared to interrupt and retreat at any moment, and stepped forward onto the mountain path.
The scenery changed, the surroundings becoming hazy and indistinct. Suddenly, terrifying auras emerged, each capable of oppressing the entire heavens, making Meng Qi’s heart tremble.
A figure sat cross-legged by the roadside, his face blurred, faintly showing a bitter expression, sighing, “So this is how it is.”
Meng Qi tensed, nearly shouting out the name “A-nan”!
Fortunately, he quickly steadied himself, realizing it was merely an illusion, somewhat similar to the aura of the ancient Human Emperor’s path.
Looking further ahead, a copper-skinned giant towered skyward, covered in thunder patterns, surrounded by lightning, each birth and death representing a world.
“The Thunder God,” Meng Qi remained alert, puzzled as to why he was seeing them.
Further still, there was a Daoist figure wearing a robe, the True Martial Pacifying Demon Venerable, and a mysterious Buddha surrounded by golden lotuses.
In the deepest place, faintly and indistinctly, a Daoist figure seemed to be present, but there was no up or down, no front or back, no yin or yang, making it impossible to glimpse.
Beside this Daoist figure, a golden Buddha appeared, one finger pointing to the heavens, the other to the earth.
Were these all ancient masters connected to himself? Meng Qi suddenly realized.
This was his greatest concern, the worst of his attachments that could disrupt his peace. The ancient masters were mysterious, their intentions unclear, making it impossible not to be cautious and fearful!
Precisely for this reason, Meng Qi insisted on cultivating “Karmic Involvement.” Besides auxiliary techniques, it was one of the few direct karmic martial cultivation methods available at the Exoteric Realm.
—”The Eight-Nine Profound Skill” and “Primordial Golden Scripture” Exoteric chapters only contained related karmic theories, without direct cultivation methods.
Meng Qi suspected that various entanglements might erupt when he achieved the Dharmakaya form, and no matter what countermeasures the ancient masters left behind, they would ultimately relate to karma. Only by understanding karma and preliminarily cultivating his own karmic skill could he be prepared for the future!
Perhaps this was just his own fear, imagining that they were long dead, but Meng Qi dared not be careless, preferring to be prepared for any eventuality.
Meng Qi advanced cautiously, finding that the ancient masters’ illusions remained inactive until he climbed to this level and saw a broken string of prayer beads.
This was the treasure that suppressed the formation’s core?
It had already been destroyed, explaining why only illusions remained, with no movement.
…
Wang Siyuan and the others also arrived at the foot of the mountain, gazing at the white mist above and the faint figures within, smiling as he warned Duan Rui, “This is a barrier set up using A-nan’s ‘Breaking Purity’ technique from the Broken Precepts Sword Method. It seems the formation’s core has not yet been damaged. Be careful and prepared, do not be affected.”
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