Previously, having meditated under the repeated threats of death by the Mountain God, Lin Xing's spirit and will had already been tempered to become incredibly strong.
Even if he were about to be engulfed in a sea of flames right now, with soldiers prowling around like wolves and tigers, he could still maintain his meditative state and practice little by little.
After all, compared to being tortured and killed by the Mountain God, being killed by these soldiers was far too easy for Lin Xing.
And in his perception, his meditation skill slowly grew with his practice.
Meditation (Level 1 0.1%)
Soon after, two soldiers discovered Lin Xing in the courtyard; one of them drew his sword and approached.
"Hey, is there still someone sitting here?"
With a swoosh, as the long sword pierced Lin Xing's chest, he collapsed into a pool of blood once again.
According to Bai Yiyi, meditation was a slow-grinding skill, typically practiced by monks and Taoists in temples, and the improvement often took years.
Lin Xing felt the same while practicing. The effects of meditation were not as immediately apparent as other martial skills, and it took much longer, seeming not as cost-effective as practicing physical combat skills.
If it were not for the purpose of comprehending the Daoist Child's inheritance, he probably would not have chosen to practice meditation voluntarily.
Fortunately, he was able to practice meditation by going through life-and-death battles, repeatedly reversing time.
Right now, through being killed repeatedly by the soldiers, Lin Xing could sense that his progress in meditation was steadily increasing.
And thanks to the effects of reaching the first level of meditation, he could even quantify this progress with precision using numbers.
Meditation (Level 1 11.8%)
Meditation (Level 1 26.3%)
Meditation (Level 1 33.7%)
As his progress in meditation continued to rise, Lin Xing felt, with each breath, his thoughts spreading throughout his entire body, gaining increasingly comprehensive control over his physical form.
However, this time it obviously took longer than when he reached the first level of meditation before the Mountain God.
Although there was no physical wear on Lin Xing's body, the sense of mental exhaustion grew heavier, and the pace of progress seemed to slow down.
Finally, after countless reversals of time and feeling utterly exhausted, a hint of a smile appeared on Lin Xing's face.
He sensed a ray of light in his mind that symbolized meditation.
Meditation (Level 2 0%)
"I have finally mastered it."
At the same moment meditation reached the second level, Lin Xing felt his thoughts spreading to every corner of his body with each breath.
At the same time, he gained a deeper insight into the quality of his physical body.
The most obvious aspects for him seemed to be strength, speed, and stamina.
At this moment, he could clearly sense where he stood in these three aspects.
Lin Xing thought to himself, "This could also be quantified in numbers, right? The more detailed, the better."
"Then…"
His mind recalled the first opponent he had defeated after arriving in the Mirror World, which he had always used as a standard to measure combat strength.
This standard had always been useful, thus becoming his usual tool for quantifying the combat abilities of others and himself.
"Then let's take Old Man Chai Dao's strength, speed, and stamina as 1."
As Lin Xing's thoughts solidified, the abstract sensations gradually transformed into concrete numbers.
Thus, in his perception, apart from the original skill progress, there were now additional numbers that gave insights into his physical body.
Strength: 2.6 times Old Man Chai Dao
Speed: 1.8 times Old Man Chai Dao
Stamina: 2.5 times Old Man Chai Dao
Scythe Technique (Level 1 2%)
Taiqing Long Fist (Level 2 0%)
Meditation (Level 2 0%)
Talisman (Level 1 0%)
"With the improvement of my meditation skills, my control over my physical body has become more and more incredible, allowing me to clearly grasp every bit of refinement of the physical body."
"Now that the requirements for the fist technique, meditation, and talisman have all been met, am I now able to comprehend the Daoist Child's inheritance?"
Simultaneously, as all the requirements for the Daoist Child's inheritance were met, another wave of memories began to awake in Lin Xing's mind.
"Is this the way to comprehend the Daoist Child?"
"Why do I remember all these things?"
Lin Xing murmured as he felt the surging memories in his mind, "I feel that if I keep training, I can awaken more and more memories until I finally understand what all this is about."
At that moment, Lin Xing suddenly became eager for stronger skills and higher legacies, unable to wait to revive more memories and find out what was really going on.
Bai Yiyi said incredulously at his side, "Is there really such a thing? Could it be related to your time reversal?"
Lin Xing shook his head and said, "I don't know, but as long as I keep improving, there must come a day when I'll know."
Thinking of this, Lin Xing wanted to first try to comprehend the Daoist Child inheritance.
But just as he thought about it, the mental exhaustion made it increasingly difficult for Lin Xing to keep going.
"Never mind, this meditation between life and death is like doing what takes ordinary people many years of hard work."
"This diligence is already rare in the world, continuing like this, I might go mad."
Bai Yiyi exclaimed, "How many times did you reverse time just now? It has been that long?"
Lin Xing casually said, "At least a few months in time, but meditating between life and death is more effective than meditating on a bed, possibly equivalent to several years of bed meditation."
Thinking of this, he sighed, "Perhaps to those of you without the ability to reverse time, each of my improvements seems instant, progressing rapidly in a short time, as if I'm cheating."
"But in fact, each of my advancements, my current strength gains, are all grounded, relying on my own bit by bit effort, dying over and over."
"And the best thing I can rely on to increase more strength and revive more memories in the future is still to honestly die over and over."
Yiyi thought to herself, "No wonder there is such a big change, dying over and over, for such a long time... I wonder if people really can stay sane doing this?"
Meanwhile, Lin Xing stood up, walked to the door of the firewood room, planning to try to open the portal using the Secret Technique.
He used scissors to cut his finger and dripped a few drops of blood on the door frame.
Then he put his hands together and chanted, "When two heavens meet, show my true self, open the gate of immortals, and let the five qi surge."
As he finished chanting the spell, Lin Xing pressed his palm on the door, continuing to chant the spell.
As the spell was chanted over and over, a familiar feeling gradually emanated from the door in front of him.
By the tenth repetition of the chant, the door suddenly loosened, and with one step forward, Lin Xing found himself back in the hospital room.
Lin Xing happily said, "Am I back?"
The cat doll also exclaimed, "The Secret Technique is real, but it can only be opened from the Mirror World and not from our side."
Back in the hospital room, Lin Xing lay on the bed, and based on his experience, Wei Zhi should soon come to check on his condition.
But after waiting a long time and not seeing Wei Zhi, Lin Xing suddenly realized, "Right, Captain Wei said he was going out for a while—is no one looking after me now?"
Thinking this, the worn-out Lin Xing unconsciously fell asleep.
The next morning, as soon as Lin Xing got out of bed, he felt the portal opening again.
He changed into clothes, slung on his backpack, and with one step, disappeared from the hospital room again.
...
What now appeared in front of Lin Xing was a narrow, muddy street.
He turned around and saw that he had come out of an abandoned old house.
Continuing along the narrow street for more than ten meters, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a much busier main road in front of Lin Xing.
On both sides of the road were rows of uneven wooden houses, seemingly containing tea houses, pubs, pharmacies, and various other shops from a distance.
Although the street was not crowded, and one could occasionally smell a stench in the air, this place still appeared much more prosperous compared to Jiang Family Village.
The only strange thing was that there were hardly any young women to be seen on the entire street.
Lin Xing looked at the scene in front of him, puzzled, "I… had clearly left from Jiang Family Village previously, how did I end up here this time?"
Yiyi said, "When we left, Jiang Family Village had been burned down. Could it be that there was no gate left there, so you were sent to the nearest place?"
Lin Xing said, "Ah? Then where is this place?"
Lin Xing was dressed in a white T-shirt and long pants, which, although still somewhat different from the attire of the passersby, would not stand out as much as his previous hospital clothes.
He also specifically stuffed his cat doll into his backpack to avoid attracting attention.
Next, he walked around the muddy street asking people for information. Few responded, but it was still much better than when he was in the isolated Jiang Family Village.
After about half an hour, Lin Xing finally learned that this was Taiping County town, the largest county town in Dongya Prefecture, with Jiang Family Village located to the south of the town.
Yiyi exclaimed, "So this is Dongya Prefecture?"
"What are you, this is Lin Xing voiture then?"
Yiyi said, "That's at least a few thousand miles away."
Just then, a procession paraded through the street, with people's heads displayed on the lead cart, drawing whispers from the onlookers.
Seeing the familiar heads, Lin Xing thought darkly, "Is that… the village chief? And the villagers from Jiang Family Village?"