Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 523: Chapter 319: Outcome

“Is that so?”

Hearing this, Xu Yang still chuckled lightly, “You only know what is not me, and have not experienced what truly is me. How can you assert that the past me is not me, and that the me of today is me?”

“…”

These words left Meng Fanying silent for a long while before she finally spoke, “In this life, Fanying has resolved to always accompany the Green Lantern. All affairs of the past are like clouds and smoke, already severed with a single sword strike. I’ve seen through my heart and grasped my nature; only the Buddha Fruit remains!”

“Accompany the Green Lantern?”

Xu Yang smiled calmly and said, “The Tao speaks of the Supreme Forgetting Emotion, still and unmoved. Those who speak of it cling to it in their minds, forgetting a single word when their goal is met. Without having achieved the emotion, how can one forget? Without cause, how can there be fruit? Such cultivation methods are like castles in the air, forsaking the essence for the branches. This Buddha is not a Buddha, this fruit is not a fruit; it is merely an obsession, indeed a demon of the heart!”

“…”

These words once again rendered Meng Fanying silent for a long time, at a loss for a reply.

The Supreme Forgetting Emotion isn’t about being emotionless, but about experiencing emotions while remaining still and unaffected, submerged within them yet also detached.

She merely sought to forget, but had not truly achieved it; she only wanted to sever the past ‘not-me,’ yet she did not understand what the past was. Is it me or not me? Without cause, she sought fruit, naturally constructing castles in the air, forsaking the essence for the branches.

Perhaps this was the reason her master sent her into the world. Through the tumult of the mortal realm and experiencing it firsthand, could this be the way to comprehend Manjusri’s Wisdom Seal, recall the past memories, see the heart and find the self, and then activate the Wisdom Sword to sever cause and effect?

The complications were difficult to resolve and separate, and for a long time, she struggled to make sense of it, let alone respond.

In the end, she could only feign composure, “Senior’s wisdom is extraordinary, beyond Fanying’s reach.”

Xu Yang shook his head calmly and said, “I am not here to debate the scriptures with you, nor do I wish to.”

Meng Fanying’s expression gradually returned to calm as well, not arguing anymore but merely asking, “Then, senior, what brings you here?”

Xu Yang looked at her, his eyes momentarily tumultuous before returning to calm, “To see if you are well.”

“Thank you, senior, for your concern.”

Meng Fanying slightly bowed her head and softly said, “Fanying is well, there’s no need for worry.”

“Is that so?”

Xu Yang smiled and then raised his hand, extending a finger out.

“!!!”

Meng Fanying’s gaze sharpened, instinctively wanting to resist, but her body froze inexplicably just like before, unable to move as his finger reached out and touched the center of her forehead, right atop the dot of cinnabar red.

“Om!!!”

The moment the fingertip touched, the sound of a sword artifact gently chimed, her twin swords on her back reacted, nearly breaking free from their confines.

However, Xu Yang paid it no heed; his Divine Consciousness probed in, only to see a lotus blossoming with a seal within, radiating a floating brilliance.

The light flowed, the wisdom seal ebbed, like the sun in the sky, yet carrying the sharpness of a sword, with the faint sounds of a lion’s roar in the background. There were many extraordinary visions, the Wonderful Skill of the three thousand.

Such a wisdom seal, anchored in the Divine Soul, encountered Xu Yang’s probing Divine Consciousness with a head-on impact, making him feel as if the Wisdom Sword was descending upon him and the lion’s roar was severing his Divine Consciousness, shattering his thoughts.

“Bang!!!”

A resounding clang, the fingertip exploded, and Meng Fanying was jolted awake, quickly retreating.

Xu Yang stood in place, not chasing after her, just looking at his right hand where a wisp of green smoke was rising from the tip of his index finger. Over a hundred magic artifacts, thus damaged.

“Manjusri’s Wisdom Seal!”

Xu Yang muttered to himself, then looked up again at the retreating Meng Fanying, “No wonder it’s like this.”

…

Her state was clearly unusual; she didn’t recognize him, and she couldn’t remember things from her past.

Why didn’t she recognize him?

Was it an issue with him, his appearance different from his main body?

No, it wasn’t.

Zhuangzhou Mengdie didn’t take over someone else in the traditional sense of body snatching but as the literal meaning of Zhuangzhou dreaming of the butterfly; the butterfly is Zhuangzhou, Zhuangzhou is the butterfly.

Therefore, regardless of the earlier stages, after Zhuangzhou Mengdie, the appearance of the transformed soul gradually morphed to resemble the main body. Whether it was Li Qing Shan or Xu Qingyang, their appearance in the end was no different from his original body. There was no chance of a change in appearance making him unrecognizable.

If it wasn’t his issue, then it must be hers.

Reincarnation and the mysteries of birth, latent wisdom unawakened?

This was the only explanation; without memories of past lives, naturally, she wouldn’t recognize him.

This was one of Xu Yang’s previous concerns. With reincarnation, there was the danger of obscured latent wisdom, making it difficult to recover past life memories or even splitting a person into two, resulting in the contradictory notion of ‘past me is not me.’

Xu Yang didn’t have much experience in this regard. Although he was also a reincarnation, the process of regaining his past life memories was very smooth, without any contradiction of ‘the original self or the other self, the past self or the present self’ occurring.

He is him, cogito ergo sum!

But her journey wasn’t as successful. Her past life and present life seemed to be separated, faintly dividing into two selves: ‘Shi Feixuan’ and ‘Meng Fanying.’

Such development could be for two reasons. One is the danger of reincarnation, which clouds latent wisdom. The other is the addition of external forces, sealing off past memories.

Manjusri’s Wisdom Seal!

In this era, the inheritance of the Brahma Sect speaks of “two sects, three veins, four sources.”

The two sects are easy to understand, being the two main Brahma Sect sacred places within Buddhism.

As for the three veins, these are the sectarian divisions within the Buddhist Brahma Sect, comprising the “Tathagata,” “Bodhisattva,” and “Vidyaraja” as the three primary branches.

Purity Temple belongs to the “Bodhisattva” vein of the Brahma Sect, inheriting from one of the four great Bodhisattvas, the “Manjusri Bodhisattva of Wide Dharma” of the Tao Lineage, famed across the Northern Domain cultivation realm with the “Manjusri Wisdom Sword.” In this era’s Brahma Sect, it holds an exceedingly high status, having produced several Tribulation Passing Immortals and Ascended beings to the Upper Realm to attain the status of Bodhisattva.

Currently within Meng Fanying’s Divine Soul lies a “Manjusri Wisdom Seal,” suppressing it, a work of the Mahayana created with the power of a True Immortal imbued with the force of the Manjusri Wisdom Sword. It can sever any invasion of External Demons or unnamed afflictions with a single sword strike.

The latent memories and past experiences of Shi Feixuan are also sealed by this imprint, leading to her conflicting cognition.

With his current Deity Transformation cultivation, facing this Mahayana True Immortal’s creation of Manjusri’s Wisdom Seal, he’s essentially powerless, with no chance of undoing it. Forcing the issue would only result in mutual destruction.

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