Under One Person: Starting with the Dual Cultivation of Body and Soul

"Grandpa, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Who told you to calculate it this way?"

"I followed your instructions!"

"Did I say so?"

Lu Jin pointed to himself and said softly, "Did I say that I could complete two cycles in a quarter of an hour? The normal speed of qi circulation is one cycle in a quarter of an hour, which theoretically can generate ninety-six breaths of true qi."

"But practicing continuously for twelve hours a day is impossible, because cultivation is also a mentally taxing thing, and requires rest and some daily chores."

"Therefore, if you cultivate for four to six hours every day, it will take more than ninety days. Rounding up, it will take one hundred days, hence the name 'One Hundred Days to Establish the Foundation'."

After saying that, Lu Jin asked Li Chang'an, "You said you can circulate your Qi twice in a quarter of an hour. Did you miscalculate, or... are you using a Qi circulation technique similar to the Three-Cart Force?"

After spending some time together, Lu Jin had come to know Li Chang'an better. He was a smart and precocious child who would never talk nonsense about such things.

If he can truly circulate his Qi twice in a quarter of an hour, then he must have used some kind of technique.

However, this technique is definitely not the Three-Cart Force, because the Three-Cart Force is prepared for people who have difficulty circulating Qi, and its Qi circulation speed is not fast.

Li Chang'an said, "It used a little technique, but it wasn't a technique similar to the Three-Chariot Force technique."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin frowned. Yesterday, he had clearly instructed Li Chang'an not to use any techniques when his innate constitution was full and his mind was firm. He should rely on his own will to circulate Qi, which would also temper his mind. Why didn't he listen?

However, Lu Jin wasn't too angry. Li Chang'an was young and had some childlike qualities. It was normal for him to want to speed things up in his cultivation. He shouldn't be judged by adult standards.

Lu Jin was about to start lecturing.

Li Chang'an said, "Grandpa, yesterday I had a sudden enlightenment because of something, and I gained some insights. I can see myself clearly, see and eliminate distracting thoughts, so my Qi circulation has also become faster."

A sudden realization? A breakthrough?

Upon hearing these words, Lu Jin was taken aback and swallowed the reprimand that was about to come out.

"You said you had an epiphany yesterday, but what did you epiphany about?"

For an old man like him to talk about sudden enlightenment when a child who has just embarked on spiritual practice talks about it is like a child complaining of back pain. What back does a child have? What kind of sudden enlightenment could a child possibly have?

"Grandpa, I've come to understand some things."

"What lesson have you learned?"

"I don't know myself, so I am who I am. If I knew myself, I wouldn't be who I am," Li Chang'an said.

Lu Jin narrowed his eyes: "Which cultivation book did you see this sentence in, find it interesting, and share it with your grandfather, or have you truly understood it clearly in your heart?"

"It didn't come from a book!"

After pondering for a long time, Li Chang'an organized his thoughts and feelings and recounted to Lu Jin what he had seen, heard, thought, and felt yesterday.

However, he did not say that he had entered a state similar to the intermediate state (bardo), but only that he had understood himself and seen his own self.

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin remained silent for a long time. He never expected that Li Chang'an would think of these things.

This was really too incongruous, because such an understanding is usually only attained by those who have experienced life to the fullest and seen through the world. Li Chang'an was too young, so young that it seemed unbelievable to him.

But he did not doubt its authenticity. This world is full of all sorts of impossibilities, and also full of all sorts of incomprehensible geniuses.

For example, Gauss in the mathematical world discovered the formula for the sum of an arithmetic sequence at the age of ten, and at the age of eighteen, he solved a mathematical problem that had remained unsolved for more than two thousand years in just one night.

For example, there's that guy who said a fourteen-year-old can't learn calculus.

Therefore, Li Chang'an suddenly realized that this was not unacceptable.

But being able to accept it doesn't mean I'm not surprised.

Lu Jin looked at Li Chang'an as if he were a monster: "Little Chang'an, I really didn't expect you to be able to comprehend these things. Understanding one's true nature is a very important step in cultivating both mind and body."

"Many people are stuck at this step for years, decades, or even their entire lives, unable to take it. But you have just stepped onto the path of cultivation and have already seen yourself clearly. This is both talent and opportunity."

Lu Jin sighed and continued, "You were moved by observing the baby, but your grandfather, who is of a certain age, has raised many children over four generations, so he can better understand what you are saying."

"It's like a three-year-old girl crying. This is a normal physiological signal, but when you comfort her and coax her with gifts, you give her feedback, and that's how you shape her sense of self."

"And if a three-year-old boy cries and you scold him, saying that he is crying like a girl and that he should be a man, this feedback is also shaping his sense of self."

"Whether it's a boy or a girl, their true feelings when they cry are masked by this symbolic feedback."

"This coverage doesn't stop at the surface; it seeps into the marrow and becomes part of the 'self.'"

"So you're right, the 'self' doesn't grow from within, but is built up from the outside."

"Moreover, this 'self' cannot be renewed or iterated. It's not that you can become a new 'self' just because you come into contact with a lot of new things."

"It's like building blocks, stacked one layer at a time."

"Therefore, there is a saying that lucky people use their childhood to heal their entire lives, while unlucky people spend their entire lives healing their childhood."

"And to spend a lifetime trying to heal it is, in fact, to be unable to heal it. Based on my grandfather's experience, there is indeed some truth to this statement."

"Because it's like a building block set; no matter how high or how luxurious it's stacked, it can't change the mess at the bottom."

"Therefore, many people who grow up in various setbacks often construct an extremely contradictory and torn 'self,' and such people may do things that are hard to understand."

At this point, Lu Jin looked at Li Chang'an: "Little Chang'an, you should know about the Lu family, where Grandfather belongs, right?"

Li Chang'an nodded: "I know, Grandpa told me about it."

"What did your grandfather say?"

Li Chang'an said, "Grandpa once said that the Lu family is an extraordinary anomaly in the world of supernatural beings. Most supernatural families have methods that have been passed down, and even our Li family has the family heirloom 'Yuyang Sword Manual,' but the Lu family does not."

"The Lu family only has a bunch of strict family rules and an unyielding spirit passed down through generations. Grandpa said he didn't know exactly what these family rules were."

"He only knew one thing: whenever it comes to strange and unusual arts, the Lu family only teaches their descendants how to be good people, not how to use them, and does not continue to enrich their descendants."

"Therefore, all descendants of the Lu family must apprentice under someone else to learn their skills."