Li Chu could only practice the new technique in his bedroom as the front hall was still undergoing renovation.
The small room was dim, maybe too dim. But Li Chu couldn't care less.
He carefully took out The Mind's Eye: From Beginner to Master from his pocket.
His action was gentle, for fear that a slight twist of the fingers would break the paper into ashes.
The book had turned yellowish from front-to-back cover.
He was flipping through this little yellow book in the dim small room.
The book was ancient, but he read it carefully.
The so-called Mind's Eye did not seem to be complicated in the way it worked.
Everything in the world breathed.
What the book said was to close his physical eyes and feel the breath, which was the Qi, of all things with his body and mind.
This Qi was not something explainable using smell, breath, or aura. It was something abstract, an intangible spiritual substance that naturally radiated from the existence of living beings.
Just as there were no two leaves that were the same in the world, there were no two identical Qi in the world.
But because of their different types, states, and emotions, the Qi would converge into different existences, such as good spiritual Qi, blessing Qi, Qi of joy, Yin Qi that was bad, evil energy, resentment, and so on.
The world seen by the Mind's Eye was the world of Qi.
According to the description in the book, this technique was extremely difficult to practice.
The first threshold was talent. Even if some people meditated for a lifetime, they could not feel the existence of Qi.
The second threshold was time. Even if a person felt the Qi and wanted to expand it to a radius of three feet, it could take as short as three years and as long as ten years.
As for what Li Chu thought, it would take hundreds of years to expand his perceptual ability to cover the entire town, according to the progress of this cultivation.
But Li Chu was not worried about speed.
He had always been a fast learner.
Just like how he had finished three years' worth of high school lessons in less than one year back then. It had taken him just an afternoon to master The Iron Robe that would otherwise take 30 days to master.
So he would have to try it before he knew how long it would take him this time.
After reading the entire book, he turned to page one again and got started. He was meditating cross-legged according to the instructions, with his five hearts facing the sky as he immersed himself in meditation.
He was feeling for the breath of all things in the world, finding their rhythm… Breath… breath… breath… breath…
He had a sweet dream.
He slept well this time.
He had slept little in the past few days. As energetic as he was, his body would still enter a dormant state at the right time.
An hour later, he opened his eyes again.
"I can't believe that I fell asleep, even though I didn't feel sleepy," said Li Chu to himself.
He recently felt something strange with his body; no matter how long he did not sleep, he would not feel sleepy, and he was always full of vitality. But if he was in a familiar state of sleep, he could fall asleep quickly in just a matter of a breath.
The feeling of grogginess seemed to have vanished.
The hunger pang had also disappeared. He had tried skipping meals a few times, but he never felt hungry. In the same way, he rarely felt full after eating. He could only get the taste of the food.
It was as if he did not need any food at all.
He was worried now. Could this be something wrong with his cultivation?
He remembered his master once said,
They might eat an enormous amount of food at one meal and then not eat for a long time, but practicing Grain Avoidance was impossible.
When even the land immortals could not do that, less so could he.
He just could not figure it out.
But those things were not urgent; the most urgent thing right now was to practice The Mind's Eye.
He re-entered meditation, feeling out the breath of all things in the world…
The entire room turned into hazy smoke of black, white, and yellow, basically all of the light, dull colors in his vision.
'No, ain't I meditating? I didn't open my eyes.'
'C-C-Could this be the Qi?'
'Didn't the book claim that many people couldn't feel it in their lifetime?'
'But I have only taken a matter of a nap to feel it?'
'Hmm… all right.'
'This is not considered surprising.'
He tried his best to focus his mind and wanted to 'see' things more clearly. Sure enough, there was a hazy outline of the object in the smoke.
This room had ancient breath.
The flowers and plants in front of him had vivacious breath.
Surprisingly, his sword had breath too. But its breath looked exhausted. Why?
It was as if it had been hollowed out.
Was it because he had overstressed it?
As he tried to expand his mind outward, a massive number of images flooded into his mind at once.
Every person and every item in Deyun Monastery was steaming with its own energy, some weak, some strong.
In the entire courtyard, the strongest energy came from the old pagoda tree, the pale green Qi of which almost obscured the sky.
There seemed to be a faint Qi flowing down the well but was blocked by the access hole cover, which his mind's eye could not penetrate.
In his view, the workers became human forms of red and blue. This should be the Yin and Yang Qi in the human body. The red-dominated person was full of Yang Qi, and the blue-dominated person was full of Yin Qi. Apart from the red and blue Qi, there would occasionally be a faint black Qi drifting past, which should be their emotions.
Some people might be in a grim mood when working under the sun.
Something came to Li Chu's mind all of a sudden. 'Does it mean that people's grievances are the most serious when the black Qi blends together? Can this be the easiest moment for ghosts to take advantage of?'
His perception was like a vast spider web, covering all directions, expanding into a massive area with every tenth of a foot.
Gradually, the Qi within a radius of a few miles was within his view.
Mountains and rivers, flowers, birds, insects, and fish—all had their own breath.
Such a world shocked Li Chu; it was beyond words. Before this, he did not know that there was such a side to this world.
Or was this what it looked like in its truest form?
When he started to feel a little dizzy in his head, his perception had covered half of Yuhang Town, ten miles away, and he saw thick human smoke.
But he clearly felt that he was still very alert mentally, not exhausted at all.
Could it be because the brain was tired when it had to deal with such an enormous scene for the first time?
Out of careful consideration, he temporarily withdrew his perception.
It was the first time, after all. So he had better go slow.
There was no need to rush. He could go deeper in the future.
Opening his eyes, Li Chu looked at The Mind's Eye secret manual in surprise.
I did not expect that he could find such magical techniques twice in a row from the bookstore.
This time, The Mind's Eye was far better than The Iron Robe.
It had not only enhanced his perceptual ability but also let him see the nature of the world.
He finally could not hold back his emotion. "Mister Blind Sword is a God indeed!"
...
Somewhere in Jiangnanzhou, an old blind beggar sneezed.
"That bun smells so good!" he muttered to himself and rubbed his nose.
Following the aroma, he came in front of a bun stall.
"Hey," the blind man let out a flattering smile, "have mercy on me and give me a couple of these buns. Would you, master?"
The bun seller was a short man. He shooed him away impatiently. "Go elsewhere. I don't have any surplus bun to give you. This is just my small business!"
"Hey, I am not going to eat your buns for nothing. I can tell by listening to your voice that you are a talented martial arts prodigy. I tell you what, I will pass on to you the unique secret technique I created in the past, and you don't need to call me a master, just give me two buns."
The old blind man spoke as he took out a tattered book—The Mind's Eye: From Beginner to Expert—from his arms.
The short man looked at it and laughed. "I know this is just a gimmick just by looking at the title. Not even a fool will believe it. How can you have the nerve to exchange it for buns?"
"It is okay if you don't want it. But don't call this a gimmick," the old beggar muttered a few words and turned to leave.
"Fine. Leave the book with me and I will get you a bun!" called out the short man.
"OK."
The old beggar took the bun and left happily.
"You got conned, mate." The jeweler next to him laughed. "This old blind man said he was Mister Blind Sword when he was young, and he lied about it all day. These papers are too hard for even wiping your bottom."
"No worries, mate. I just sympathized with him." The short man selling buns shook his head with a smile.