Pathway

"Spiritual training develops the health and strength of the soul. It increases its ability to delay gratification and deny lower impulses in favor of higher ones. Weaknesses and temptations, are conquered by spiritual training. And most importantly, Ju Feng, it helps you to make weighty decisions with dexterous wisdom, and to willingly serve other people."

Zhang Wang Jing moved her hand to form the shape of a human as she was speaking.

"Your character is built in the course of your soul spiritual training, inner confrontation. Character is a set of dispositions, desires, and habits that are slowly engraved during the struggle against your own weakness. You become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment."

Waving her hand gently, Zhang Wang Jing manifested fire in the shapes of beautiful fire-flies that captured the attention of her grandson. She watched the mesmerized look on her grandson's face as the fire-flies settled on his body without burning him.

"If you make disciplined, caring choices, you are slowly engraving certain tendencies into your mind. You are making it more likely that you will desire the right things and execute the right actions. If you make selfish, cruel, or disorganized choices, then you are slowly turning the soul inside yourself into something that is fragmented. You can do harm to your soul with nothing more than ignoble thoughts, even if you are not harming anyone else. But if you do behave with habitual self-discipline, you will become constant and dependable."

With compassionate eyes, she continued to observed her grandson.

""Which brings us to Karma. Do you know what karma is, Ju Feng?"

"Good and bad?"

"Close."

Zhang Wang Jing nooded her head with a bright smile.

"It's the principle behind the good and bad things we do or say. Everything you do now will have effect on your life in the future. Law of karma is a law of creation. It affects everybody in the universe. Good karma will bring good effects and bad karma will bring bad effects. We cannot escape it. That's why having a proper frame of mind will help in cultivating good karma. Remember that every thing you do, good or bad, you will face the consequences in the future."

Pointing to the fish in the pond, Zhang Wang Jing smiled assuringly at her grandson and continued with her words.

"Look at the fish in the pond. Do you see the way they move about in the water peacefully? It's in their mind to do that since they were born. Now they do that as part of their living. Everything you put in your mind from young age, will continue to grow there if you continue to nurture it. A seed will germinate and grow if properly nurtured. Now, free your mind as before and let your mind be at peace. After that, start the soul pith technique."

Ju Feng quickly closed his eyes and freed his mind of any distractions. Gradually, just like the peaceful pond, he felt his mind at peace as he started practicing the soul pith technique. He remembered what he had discovered before, his soul was getting more and more stronger whenever he practiced this technique followed by the astral fetal breathing technique. The two techniques were from the same manuscripts, and no wonder why they complimented each other.

The more stronger his soul, the more clearer he was seeing the universe. He continued to practice as sparse threads of positive energy continued to stream into his soul. Gradually, he was lost in meditation and saw himself being sorrounded by a faint white light and flickers of lightning. After regaining his awareness, he narrated his experience to his grandma who responded mildly.

"That's your astral sphere, Ju Feng. What sorrounded you are your elemental energy. Light element energy and lightning element energy. Although there are four primary elements as you are aware of, these four have many other variant elements. In your case Ju Feng, you have lightning and light, which means that you can use light but not fire, because you need heat and light to make fire. But since your affinity is not attuned to heat, you can only use the light. Same thing with lightning, you can use lightning even if you can't conjure the mystic power of air. Light and lightning are really great energy. I'm really proud of you, my grandson."

"But no fire grandma."

"Yes, no fire. But you have two affinities, that's a blessing. None of us has two affinities, not to mention lightning. It means you are special, very special. And it's not the affinity you have that matters, it's your heart that does. Now, lighten up and appreciate the gifts."

"Okay, grandma. Thank you."

Ju Feng nodded his head and smiled at his grandma. Oh, how he wanted to be able to make ribbons of fire or fire birds like his mother. He would have prefered fire to a thousand other elements. But light and lightning it is and he had to make do with them. And two of them? His smile brightened as he considered himself fortunate.

Leaving the pond area, they walked slowly while enjoying the gift of nature. Halfway back, his grandmother told him she wanted to check the goat farm, so he decided to follow her. They collected some goat milk and headed back towards the cave.

Several minutes later, Zhang Li Qiang was in the small book chamber, going through some manuscripts while Zhang Wang Jing and Zhang Xiu Ying were discussing about the upcoming village event. Seeing that everyone was occupied, Ju Feng quietly left for the cultivation chamber where he sat down in a lotus position and started practicing the astral primal technique. Already at this stage, his meridians were exceedingly wide and his dantian was extremely large.

The heavenly spiritual energy was always needed in large quantity to advance in cultivation stages. Cultivators would always look for places that were rich in heavenly spiritual energy to cultivate, considering that these places helped in supplying the needed energy. But he had the blue crystallines containing pure refined chi that could replenish an exhausted dantian.

His dantian was exceedingly large, yet, it was still absorbing the crystals energy, continuosly. The amount of Chi in his dantian was ridiculously high for a cultivator of his age and cultivation level. Right now, he only needed his elemental energy to get stronger. For in as much as he continued to connect to his affinities, it would be easier to advance in stages, he had learned.

Not long after that, his mother found him in the cultivation chamber just as he was breaking through to the Chi refining stage — Lianchi stage — some minutes later.

"Congratulations son, It was about time. You are now at the Chi refining stage."

Zhang Xiu Ying sat down in front of her son, briefly staring at him with her divine sight. She watched the ripples of energy coming from his body and smiled.

"As you refine the Chi in your body, you can continue to gather Chi into your dantian. Your grandparents and I, are still gathering Chi energy into our dantian also. My soul's avatar will continue to benefit from the Chi that I'm still gathering. So, you can continue with your Chi gathering too."

"Okay ma."

"Tomorrow, there will be antique sellers displaying their goods in the market place. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yes, Ma! I've not been at the market place for some time now. Thank you, ma."

They continued to cultivate together but his mind was on the market place and the antique goods. After calling it a day, Ju Feng went to his room and crashed on his bamboo bed. He was about to sleep when he remembered his white pagoda and quickly brought it out. Still holding the pagoda in his hand, he slept off without knowing any better.

That night, he had a strangely weird dream.