A Good-for-Nothing

167. A Quest for Spirits of Weapons (1)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Xiang Hailou had made it sound quite easy, but when they actually started doing it, they found it rather difficult. He Zheng, recalling Xiang Hailou’s movements just now, concentrated his mind on the Shadow Sword and with that the sword started to sing faintly, but there was nothing else. Besides, the resonance between He Zheng and the Shadow Sword had always been there, not something he should attribute to Xiang Hailou’s demonstration. As regards the so-called “spirit” that Xiang Hailou had just talked about, He Zheng hadn’t even felt anything close to it.

He Zheng felt stuck.

Following Xiang Hailou’s directions, other trainees also tentatively started practicing.

Some were sitting cross-legged on the ground, their weapons beside them; some were standing, holding their weapons in their hands. All of them had their eyes closed, looking as if they were racking their brains trying to figure something out, their foreheads covered with sweat, but there was no response whatsoever from their weapons.

After about ten minutes, someone found this unbearable and gave up. He opened his eyes to look at Xiang Hailou who was standing their, and asked with a bemused face, “Group Leader Xiang, it’s been such a long time, but nothing has appeared in my Consciousness Sea so far. Is it by any chance because I use Fu (a piece of rectangular paper on which magical figures are drawn by Chinese Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune) as weapon and Fu hold no spiritual energy?”

“Fu also have spirits. Fu-craft requires internal energy. A cultivator has to gather their Qi at the tip of their writing brush when drawing a Fu, and recites a spell to communicate with the energy between heaven and earth when casting one. This is the most basic principle of Fu-craft, so of course every Fu holds spiritual energy.

You can’t feel the spirits of your Fu because you don’t know them well enough.

To feel the spirits of your weapons, you need to have enough acquaintance with them first, which is why I told you to concentrate your minds on them.”

After hearing this, all trainees nodded, looking contemplative.

Tianyi said, “Group Leader Xiao, my whip is must a common bony whip. Though I’ve had it for a long time, I’m not sure whether it has a spirit or not.”

Xiang Hailou took the whip from Tianyi and scrutinized it for a few moments, softly fingering the whip. Xiang Hailou was swarthy-skinned, looking like a peasant, and his gentle bearing at this moment struck the trainees as fairly abnormal but also very harmonious.

After a few minutes, Xiang Hailou held the whip in his hand. With a flip of his wrist, the silvery white whip abruptly glared and he swung it at the ground, which cracked instantly. Xiang Hailou gave a second lash and the chasm on the ground closed.

“//To see a world in a wild flower, and a bodhi in a fallen leaf. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.// Power is neither good nor evil. If I use it to do good, it’ll be good; If I use it to do evil, it’ll be evil.”

Tianyi was glued to the spot. Never once had the whip displayed such great power in his hands.

Xiang Hailou returned the whip to him. “Given that you’ve been in possession of this whip for so many years, you should be able to feel its communication with you more distinctly than anybody else could. It’s just that you never paid any attention to it.”

Tianyi had a thoughtful face.

After hearing his words, a trainee instantly went dejected. “My Gu (a legendary venomous insect, or a poison made with poisonous insect, worm or beetle) worms are still in their larval stage. They never came into contact with the essence of the sun or the moon, and neither do they contain any spiritual energy. There are certainly no spirits in them.”

Xiang Hailou sternly looked at them. “The only thing you’ve done so far is complain. If you cannot feel it the first time you try, just do it for a second time; and if you fail again, have a third try. Before you doubt there’s a spirit in your weapon, ask yourself whether you’ve ever taken a real good look at it. How could you expect your weapon to willingly do your bidding when you don’t even have any acquaintance with it?”

The trainees hung their heads in shame at his rebuke.

Among the crowd, Wei Cheng who was always a poised man seemed to have understood something. Stroking his demon-killing staff, he sat down cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating. An approving look unnoticeably flitted across Xiang Hailou’s downcast eyes at the sight of Wei Cheng’s conduct.

Xiang Hailou glanced at his watch and saw that it was 2:00 P.M. He severely ordered all trainees to meditate with their Qi gathered for three hours, saying that he would come up to check their progress when the time was up.

Sure enough the trainees were reluctant to do this at first, but Xiang Hailou’s next remark left them no choice but to subdue their fretfulness and obey.

“Anyone who slacks or talks with others will be directly given a fail and go back to pack their stuff.”

All trainees were inwardly crying foul, only too anxious to go back to the classroom to attend Zu Zhichong’s lecture, which they believed would definitely be less boring than this.

Xiang Hailou walked away after saying this, but none of the trainees dared challenge Xiang Hailou’s authority. They suppressed their fidgetiness and, following Xiang Hailou’s instructions, sat down, squatting on their hams.

All of them had spread out somewhat, sitting in twos and threes.

After Wei Cheng sat down cross-legged, He Zheng also collected his thoughts. It hadn’t been easy for him to get this far, so of course he didn’t want to get washed out. He Zheng sat down under a tree, closed his eyes and started gathering his Qi, meditating.

This was indeed going to be a very tedious process. His Consciousness Sea was totally blank. He Zheng quietly tried to picture the shape of the Shadow Sword in it. Meditation was about concentrating the mind on a single spot and dismissing all distracting thoughts from the head, which was beneficial to cultivation; Qi-gathering meant to gather one’s Qi in Dantian, which was good for cultivation as well.

If a cultivator was good at Qi-gathering and Qi-circulation, both of which entailed communication with the energy between heaven and earth, they would naturally get twice the result with half the effort in their cultivation. Currently these trainees were concentrating their minds on their weapons, trying to use them as a medium of communication with the energy between heaven and earth, which was indeed a very promising method of making contact with the spirits in their weapons.

He Zheng was very good at staying focused when cultivating. Reliving Xiang Hailou’s previous movements, imagining the Shadow Sword, he unconsciously immersed himself in his Consciousness Sea, blocking out all external disturbance.