Ran Deng then turned to the lake and said "Brothers, this twelve-layer golden merit lotus has the chance to advance and become a twenty-four-layer golden merit lotus. I also feel that when the lotus advances, a new law, the Merit Law, will emerge.
Although none of us cultivate it, it will be useful in the future. To nourish the lotus, we need to give it merits. The twelve-layer is the limit of the eight treasures water.
In this world, there are many ways to earn merit, but we can only do a few. Jieyin, your companion treasure is the emotions severing bamboo. You should go to the wilderness and when you see bloodthirsty creatures, seal their negative emotions and preach to them the dharma of saving the suffering.
If they can comprehend, they should be protectors of the suffering, if not, then just not taking action to make others suffer will also be good.
Zhunti, there are many innate creatures that have yet to gain wisdom. I hope you can travel the western land and help every innate creature along the way.
Both of you should keep in mind that good and bad are the same, evil can produce good and good can produce evil. Suffering is not only from those that kill, it also comes from those that help wrongfully, enlightenment shouldn't be biased but for everyone, their paths are theirs to walk, we only open their eyes to it!"
They were somewhat reluctant to already part but thinking it would help them in comprehending their path, they agreed. Still, Jieyin asked "Brother, where will you go?"
Ran Deng shook his head "I will remain here. My cultivation is close to the perfection great golden immortal. After I come out of seclusion, I will leave for the starry sky. Part of my origin was lost when I transformed, it should be on the Ziwei star currently."
The two were shocked about this, but he just waved his hand "I will tell you another time. Some things are better not spoken. Anyways, I know where my origin is, when I regain it, I will be able to reach the primordial golden immortal stage.
Don't worry, I have determined my path long ago and when I preached to you, I reconfirmed some things. Now, I only lack this remaining origin to complete myself and regain harmony."
The two nodded and were secretly happy. Although they didn't know the strength of others, being born at this stage and this late must mean that there are others who are of similar strength to theirs, and it is possible there are stronger ones too.
As long as Ran Deng advanced, they could become stronger and have some say in this world.
Jieyin and Zhunti left, so Ran Deng walked towards the eight-treasure water lake and entered it with his whole body. He was indeed close to the primordial golden immortal stage, but without anything to quickly strengthen his spiritual power and body, it would take a long time.
His soul is strong enough because of his mind, the eight-treasure water can strengthen and purify his spiritual power. As for his body, he had thought about this too.
It isn't difficult for him to create some techniques when he has enough time. Although he was preaching to them, in fact, he had a lot of time to do other things. Only when you truly learn something would you listen with your whole body – as immortals, they are able to do many things at the same time.
The reason some things seem to take too long is also easy to understand.
When immortals think or discuss anything, they not only take into consideration the variables of three, five or even ten years. They take into account all the events for the next thousands of years and have to refine their ideas fully. Mistakes are punished much more severely, so obviously they have to be careful, which lengthens every of their actions.
He had a lot of time and besides contemplating his cultivation, he also created a body cultivation method. The best method to cultivate the body is the nine-revolutions method of the witch clan, but that was not only a body refinement method, but a whole different cultivation system.
Since Buddhism is another system, it doesn't need to copy others. His idea was simple – the future buddhist body refinement methods were split into two categories: Golden Body and Dharam Image.
The golden body is a method of refining the body like a spiritual treasure, the buddhist especially honoured the gold element, which are ores and such. They would consume the essence of gold into their body and strengthen it, making it into a golden body that shines, breaks all restrictions and defends against all weapons.
This method, although good, takes a long time and is generally used by physical cultivators. There is no such branch of Buddhism yet, and Ran Deng doesn't plan to open this branch on his own, anyways, there would be many future monks, they can do their own things.
His method was the dharma image body cultivation. It is to combine the physical body, spiritual power and law into an illusory image that rights for you. The physical strength combined with all things strengthen the dharma greatly, and the dharma image is not only able to perform physical attacks, but it can also use law and spells to fight, making it like an external body.
When it is inside your own body, it will passively strengthen your vitality, like a second pool of vitality. Though this doesn't mean one has two bodies, as the strength of the image all comes from the same source as that of the body, but the combination and technique enhances the vitality at least, which is exactly what he needs to advance in cultivation.
There are different ways to condense images, and different images will result out of this. Since he has an eight treasures water lake in front of him, which is said to be of extremely nourishing qualities, he will naturally use it.
The resulting image won't be strong physically, but it will have great vitality, and all spells used like this will be stronger.
…
Ran Deng spent ten thousand years in the lake until he advanced to the perfect stage. When he did so, a small seed manifested above his head. It was illusory but seemingly full of vitality.
Seeing this, he smiled, then the illusion disappeared, and he left the pool. His image was condensed long before he advanced, but he didn't have the chance to call it out.
He stood in front of the pool and said in his mind 'Dharma Image!'.
A huge golden body shining in eight colours materialised above him, only the upper body materialised, with his face and clothes.
Unlike his normal image, the image had its arms stretched out forward. On the left of his palm laid the three poisons incense burner, while he held the righteous heart candle lamp.
The clear mind bell was hovering above his head, as if to keep his mind clear of all illusions, even those he caused himself.
His image said, "Greed, ignorance, delusions!"
Without even taking out his own treasure, the dharma image condensed an incense smoke that wrafted all around.
He said once more "Righteous heart", the candle lit up and the light that was produced shined on the top of the mountain. These two conflicting forces seemed to try and force the mind. One wanted to make everyone greedy, ignorant of cause and effect and confusing foe and friend.
The other wanted to fill them of righteous indignation, willing them to commit murder in the sight of righteousness, slaying evil for causes unknown.