Compared to the "Martial Classics", the book "Taoist Scriptures" is much more mysterious. The entire text is filled with abstruse and profound principles, and most of them are about morality and commandments. It warns that if one is a Taoist practitioner, how to have a pure mind without evil thoughts, and to abide by various commandments, such as being loyal to the monarch, patriotic, not spreading the dharma indiscriminately, not revealing immortal arts, not committing evil deeds, and there are many things about karma and retribution. Hong Yi skipped all these. Because he knew that the ancient Taoist immortal arts did not have these things. These commandments and moralities were all incorporated by the Taoist sects to attach themselves to the imperial power and mixed with the principles of scholars. The principles of scholars were so familiar to Hong Yi that he didn't need to review them. What he wanted to see now was the essence of the ancient Taoist immortal arts cultivation. In his opinion, these moralities and commandments were ambiguous and different from the orthodox scriptures. Reading them would have no effect. After all, they were a mishmash. When one reads a lot of books, one will naturally discard the rough parts. So Hong Yi read books very quickly. "Hey, the 'Pagoda Visualization Method for Soul Leaving the Body'? Bathing, hand gestures, reciting scriptures? Incantations? Hand gestures? These methods can stabilize the mind? And then the soul leaves the body?" Just as Hong Yi was skimming through the book at a rapid pace, suddenly, a long cultivation method caught his eye. The cultivation method recorded in the text was very complex. It was called the "Pagoda Visualization Method for Soul Leaving the Body". The method of soul leaving the body was to first take a bath, clean the body, then sit still, recite incantations, make hand gestures. After one's heart was completely calm, one was to visualize a seven-story extremely tall pagoda, and step up step by step. At the top floor, one would suddenly leap upwards. Then the soul would leave the body. The incantations above were very complicated, and the hand gestures were also very complex. Just looking at them made one dizzy and confused. One could imagine that it would take a long time to cultivate. "So complicated incantations and hand gestures. However...." Even Hong Yi felt headache when seeing these hand gestures and incantations, and among those incantations, there were also some principles of commandments. Just thinking about them made him feel overwhelmed. It was simply impossible to remember and cultivate. "Um?" Hong Yi suddenly remembered a discussion in the "Notes of Thatched Hut". "The great Tao is simple. Those Taoists insist on creating complicated hand gestures and incantations. In fact, bathing, reciting incantations, and hand gestures are all methods to calm the mind. When a scholar sits down, his mind naturally becomes as calm as water. There is no need for those things at all." After remembering this, Hong Yi had a sudden realization in his heart. A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. There was a table beside the stone room, and on the table were ink, brush, paper, and inkstone. Hong Yi sat on the stool in front of the table, poured water to grind the ink, and listened to the "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." sound of grinding the ink. His mood gradually stabilized. After stabilizing, Hong Yi spread out the paper and wrote three "calm" characters in a row on the paper. While writing, his expression was peaceful. Although Hong Yi could not reach the state where those great scholars could have a calm mind as soon as they sat down, he could calm his mood through a series of actions such as grinding the ink and writing. After calming down. Hong Yi closed his eyes and visualized that there was a seven-story pagoda above his head. When he reached the top floor and suddenly made a vigorous leap! "Hey? The soul did not leave the body? Everything is still fine?" After imagining the leap and opening his eyes, Hong Yi did not find any abnormalities. He was still himself. He pinched his hand and still felt it. The surrounding environment did not change because of this. "Why couldn't the soul leave the body? Is there any key point? Could it be..." Hong Yi calmed down again, concentrated his mind, and tried once more, but it still didn't work. So he fell into deep thought. "Stepping up the pagoda and leaping out... The key point should be here..." Hong Yi contemplated this exercise method. "Got it...." Suddenly, a realization flashed in Hong Yi's heart. He closed his eyes and recalled a scene when he was a child following his mother to climb the "Precious Moon Pagoda", the first pagoda in Yujing City. The "Precious Moon Pagoda" had thirteen floors. Going up layer by layer, one could almost overlook Yujing. At that time, his mother held his hand. When they reached the top floor, the wind blew. Looking down, the pedestrians were only as big as fists. He felt dizzy and his legs became weak. "This is the feeling..." Hong Yi thought: "Leap out, leap out..." Although it was an imagination, when Hong Yi recalled the situation in his childhood, he still shivered. Suddenly, he made up his mind and made a fierce leap upwards! The whole person leaped into the downstairs! Boom! Heaven and earth were no longer heaven and earth! With this leap of thought, imagining jumping off a cliff, Hong Yi suddenly felt his body become light, as if floating airy. The scenery in front of him was still the scenery, surrounded by books and stone caves. But, the only difference was! Hong Yi saw his own body! To be precise, he was floating airyabove his head without any weight and saw his own body. His own body was breathing weakly, his eyes were closed tightly, as if he was asleep or passed out. "My soul has left the body!" A thought rose in Hong Yi's heart. Hong Yi was not panicked. His thought turned: "It is rumored that people with weak bodies can have their souls leave their bodies during sleep at night. It's not a big deal." Looking around, the scenery was as usual. He tried to flip the book with his hand, but found that his soul could not flip the book at all. Obviously, the soul was an intangible and formless thought. Look again. There was no shadow under the lamp either, as if it did not exist at all. Intangible and formless. "Is this a dream or is the soul really out of the body?" Hong Yi doubted again whether he was dreaming and asleep. Because sometimes in dreams, such things happen and one sees one's own body. However, in dreams, it is involuntary, just for an instant, and there is no time to experience it. But now it is artificial. One can experience the feeling of jumping the thought and soul out of the body. This feeling is very mysterious and unbelievable. Whoosh! Whoosh! Suddenly, a gust of strong cold wind blew in from outside the stone room. When the wind blew on him, Hong Yi felt as if he was standing naked in the ice and snow. He shivered with cold and was about to freeze to death at any moment! At the same time, he was also like a drowning person who couldn't swim and fell into the vast ocean, about to be submerged at any moment. Helpless and powerless. The feeling was very uncomfortable and terrifying. "No wonder the scriptures say that the physical body is the precious raft to cross the sea of suffering. It turns out that when the soul leaves the physical body, it is like a person who has fallen into the sea from a ship. How terrifying!" At this time, there was only this thought in Hong Yi's head, eager to return to his own body. Soul leaving the body is not a simple thing. It is so dangerous outside! However, he couldn't move at all, as if frozen, drowning and being swept into a vortex, exhausted. His consciousness gradually blurred. "Soul leaving the body is so dangerous...." Hong Yi felt that his soul was about to disperse.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.