After the heavy snowfall, there were several sunny days. The overcast clouds dispersed, and the night sky revealed sparse stars, but it was far from the brilliant Milky Way on summer nights. "The spirit and soul should be imagined in the Heavenly Court. The Heavenly Court is where all gods return and where all Buddhas' spiritual platforms exist. Imagine the qi of the celestial stars penetrating the top of the head and entering inch by inch, combining with the spirit and soul. Visions are reborn. The spirit and soul can feel cool, hot, sour, and spicy. One can also see the jade maidens in the celestial palaces, the asuras and evil ghosts, the celestial maidens and Bodhisattvas, the gods of heaven and earth, the ancient sages, and feel oneself falling into the cycle of rebirth, or engaged in battle, or embraced by soft and gentle beauties, or experiencing strict fatherly and kind motherly love, or feeling oneself possessing overwhelming power, capable of overturning rivers and seas, or seeing one's body rotting all over with bones exposed. Regardless of all these visions, one must keep the mind steady and imagine there is a Buddha in the void, named Amitabha, and form the Amitabha Dharma Seal. This Buddha represents the true nature of all beings in heaven and earth. Guard the original thought and remain unmoved by everything to avoid disasters. Suddenly, one feels that the qi of the celestial stars has touched the spirit and soul, pulling it upward with great force, giving one the intention of ascending to heaven during the day. At this time, one must use great determination to stabilize the mind and float within the body. One must not let the true intention leave the body. All of these are illusions......" At midnight, when there was no one around and everything was silent, Hong Yi stood in the middle of his courtyard, looked up at the sparse stars in the sky, took a few deep glances, then closed his eyes and recited the cultivation method described in the scriptures. After studying intensively for a day, he had roughly understood the original method for strengthening the spirit and soul in one of the scriptures of the "Amitabha Sutra". After silently reciting it once and feeling that he had completely comprehended the meaning of this scripture. There was a simple cushion laid on the ground. Hong Yi sat cross-legged on it, looked up at the sky again, stared and memorized. After half an incense stick's time, it seemed that he had memorized the entire starry sky in his mind. Suddenly, he closed his eyes again, imitating the sitting position of the Buddha in the "Amitabha Sutra", held his hands in front of his abdomen, with the thumbs facing each other, and formed the Amitabha Seal. After imagining the starry sky in his head and closing his eyes, Hong Yi sat quietly, imagining the starlight in the sky shooting down and entering the top of his head, inch by inch. Because Hong Yi had the experience of cultivating the "Pagoda Meditation Method" and was able to stabilize his spirit and calm his mind. When he was calm, he had no distractions. Cultivating this method of strengthening the spirit and soul in the Amitabha Sutra was not very difficult. At the same time, he was well-versed in Taoist scriptures and also knew that the methods of cultivating the spirit and soul were basically through visualization, treating the false as the real. Although visualizing the starlight pouring down on the top of the head was like imagining there was a plum in one's mouth and saliva would fill the mouth. In fact, there was no plum in the mouth. It was just an illusion. However, this illusion could trigger various reactions in the spirit and soul, and even the body. Hong Yi sat for an incense stick's time and visualized. Gradually, he entered a state. In the imagination of his mind, all the stars in the sky flickered from the extremely distant void and shot down endless rays of light, all landing on the top of his head and penetrating inch by inch. As soon as the illusory starlight entered his brain and reached the skin membrane, Hong Yi suddenly felt a coolness throughout his body, as if bathing in a gentle breeze. The pores of his entire body were breathing in the pure qi, and the entire person felt as if he were about to ascend to immortality, extremely comfortable. This comfortable feeling made Hong Yi have a feeling of moaning with pleasure. This comfort penetrated deep into the bone marrow, similar to the "Longevity Ointment" that some noblemen of the previous Zhou Dynasty described in the "Notes of Thatched Cottage". This comfortable feeling was irresistible even for warriors, martial masters, and even congenital martial masters and grandmasters with firm minds. Hong Yi also had a feeling of indulgence. Fortunately, he had read the scriptures and knew that visualizing the starlight entering the brain would produce many illusions. The gentle breeze touching the body and the feeling of being about to ascend to immortality was the first level of sensation. Just when he was about to indulge, Hong Yi became alert in his heart and suddenly visualized a golden Buddha emerging in the starry sky. This Buddha was kind and amiable, as if it were his previous life from countless generations ago. This Buddha was the one depicted in the "Amitabha Sutra". The scripture stated that visualizing this Amitabha Buddha could suppress all kinds of inner demons and understand one's true nature from countless past lives. Hong Yi knew that what was said in the scripture was not an exaggeration. Because the artistry of this Buddha painting concentrated all the Buddhist doctrines within it. Not to mention the Buddha, just the characters depicted had reached the peak of painting. This realm could rival the Human Immortal in martial arts and the Yang God in immortal arts. Hong Yi had a feeling that if Bai Zixue saw this Buddha, he might be able to make further progress without even practicing the methods described in the scripture. As soon as this Buddha appeared in the starry sky in his mind, immediately! All the comfortable feelings of Hong Yi disappeared, replaced by regaining his senses. The heaven and earth remained the same. There was no starlight entering the body either. Everything was an illusion. "What a powerful illusion...Fortunately, I was able to visualize the Amitabha Buddha. Otherwise, I would have indulged in it. It's extremely dangerous." Hong Yi knew that if he hadn't visualized the Amitabha Buddha in time just now, he might have truly indulged in the feeling of the gentle breeze entering the body and been unable to protect himself. Chances were that he would have gone crazy in the future. Cultivating the spirit and soul through visualization, stillness, and total immersion, treating the false as the real and the real as the false. A moment of loss of mind would lead to eternal damnation. The danger of cultivation was even greater than that of martial arts. "With the experience just now, I won't be afraid to try again." Hong Yi focused his mind again, sat still, formed the seal, and visualized the starlight entering his brain internally. Sure enough, when he visualized the starlight reaching the skin membrane, his entire body was once again surrounded by the gentle breeze, and he felt comfortable again. Having gained experience, Hong Yi ignored it and did his best to stabilize his mind. Continuing the visualization step by step, sure enough, when the starlight entered his brain and penetrated through the skin membrane, the illusion changed again. Instead, his entire body ached, his head throbbed with pain, and then all kinds of tastes, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy, welled up in his heart. Hong Yi still held his mind firmly. Suddenly, there was another feeling. Evil ghosts were everywhere in front of him. Asuras and yakshas surrounded him from all sides, as if each one wanted to pounce on him to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Hong Yi seemed to have fallen into the Asura Hell, and all kinds of shrill cries seemed to ring in his ears continuously. He ignored them and held his mind firmly. Suddenly, it changed again. It was as if he had fallen into a land of tenderness, surrounded by beautiful women, with their charms partly hidden and partly visible, gentle and charming, singing and dancing. Hong Yi withstood the temptation. Suddenly, it changed again. There was fierce fighting on all sides, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, as if he were in the midst of a battlefield among knives and spears. Hong Yi held on firmly again. Suddenly, his entire body rotted, covered with flies, mosquitoes, and maggots, and bones exposed section by section. Hong Yi still held on firmly, and in an instant, he understood what was meant by the impermanence of life and death, and the terrifying heart dissipated. The illusions changed in various ways. Suddenly: Boom! The visualized starlight seemed to combine with his spirit and soul. Hong Yi felt that in the void above, an irresistible force came from nowhere, pulling his spirit and soul out of his body and floating upward towards the sky. This feeling was very real and very good, just like a seeker of the Dao who had gone through countless hardships and overcome eighty-one difficulties, finally passing the last hurdle and ascending to immortality. Hong Yi's spirit and soul couldn't resist being pulled away from his body by this force and wanted to float towards the sky. At this critical moment, suddenly, the Amitabha Buddha, which seemed to be his previous life, appeared again in the starry sky. The spirit and soul that was about to leave the body and ascend to heaven immediately steadied. After regaining consciousness, Hong Yi broke out in a cold sweat. "The illusion of the last hurdle was so powerful! Indeed, after going through all kinds of hardships and difficulties and finally reaching the goal, no one can control the desire to ascend to heaven. Not even a sage." Hong Yi knew that if his spirit and soul had really left the shell and floated up to the sky just now, he would have already lost his soul. Even if one cultivated to the level of a Ghost Immortal and the soul floated up to the extremely high sky, it would be blown away by the wind in an instant. The feeling of ascending to heaven at the end was just the illusion of the last hurdle. Hong Yi sat down again and attempted this visualization method once more. This time, with more experience, he easily overcame all kinds of illusions again. Hong Yi once again experienced the feeling that a great force from the sky was pulling his spirit and soul to leave the body and ascend. So he struggled to resist this force. It felt like the soul was sinking and floating within the body, like a drowning person struggling. Finally, Hong Yi was exhausted. With a crash, all his thoughts scattered, and his entire body had a feeling of wanting to sleep immediately. He knew that his spirit and soul had consumed too much, just like excessive thinking while studying. "I can't sleep in the courtyard, or I'll freeze to death." Forcing himself to support his body, Hong Yi almost crawled into the room, lay on the bed, covered himself with the quilt, and immediately fell asleep. Entering a deep sleep. A virtuous person has no dreams. When he woke up, it was already broad daylight. The bright sunlight came in through the window. Hong Yi only felt that his mind was quick and his entire body was so refreshed that he wanted to sing loudly. For four or five consecutive nights, Hong Yi cultivated the visualization method in the "Amitabha Sutra". Suddenly, this night, Hong Yi lit an incense stick in the room and occasionally tried to let his spirit and soul leave the body. As soon as it left the body and came into contact with the outside world, Hong Yi had a feeling like a person who had just learned how to swim seeing water and having a strong urge to swim freely. It was recorded in the Taoist scriptures and Bai Zixue had also said that this urge after the spirit and soul leaving the body indicated reaching the realm of night wandering. Hong Yi tried to let the spirit and soul leave the range of the incense. Sure enough, there was no longer the feeling of weakness and coldness as before. Instead, there was a comfortable feeling of swimming freely. With his interest aroused, Hong Yi's spirit and soul drifted out of the door. Wandering at night! Finally, he reached the realm of night wandering.

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