51: Refining the Spirit

"Spirit Refining?" Su Ming's heart stirred.

"Exactly. The foundation of a human lies in essence, Qi, and spirit. What you're doing now, tempering your body, is refining essence; drawing Qi into your body is Qi Refining; and this Spirit Refining is about tempering your Divine Soul, your will, your perception."

Lin Yu's voice became ethereal: "When the spirit is strong, the will is firm. When the will is firm, perception is keen, one remembers everything at a glance, and the mind is like a clear mirror. When facing an enemy, one can discern opportunities in advance. Cultivating will also yield twice the results with half the effort."

(Inner thoughts: "Finally, it's time for what I'm best at—the Metaphysical Packaging Class! Packaging modern meditation, concentration training, and sensory enhancement into a high-end 'Spirit Refining' method. For this move, I give myself a hundred points!")

"Master, teach me!" Su Ming became excited.

"Don't rush," Lin Yu said slowly. "There are thousands of methods for Spirit Refining, but they all return to the same principle. Today, your Master will only teach you the first step—'Listening to Sounds' and 'Observing Fire'."

He paused, then continued: "Now, calm your mind and listen."

Su Ming immediately complied, perking up his ears.

He could hear the faint snores from his parents' room, and the rustling of leaves as the night wind blew through the old pagoda tree outside the courtyard.

"Not enough," Lin Yu said indifferently. "These sounds are too close, too noisy. Forget them. Listen for sounds further away, more subtle. Listen... to the cricket chirping under the eaves of Cripple Wang's house at the east end of the village; its third antenna on the left just moved."

Su Ming was stunned.

The east end of the village? That was seven or eight houses away from his, at least half a li!

Listen to a cricket's antenna? How was that possible?

(Inner thoughts: "Hehe, exaggeration, you know exaggeration? First, set a small goal, like listening to a hundred million... *cough cough*, first set an impossible goal to maximize his potential. This is called expectation management!")

"Concentrate. Don't listen with your ears; 'capture' it with your Divine Thought," Lin Yu guided. "Your Divine Thought is like an invisible net. Cast it out, covering the entire village. Then, on this net, search for the faintest vibration."

Su Ming took a deep breath, cast aside distracting thoughts, and tried to spread his Mental Energy outwards.

At first, his mind was a cacophony.

Wind sounds, dog barks, the drunken villagers' dream talk in the distance... countless sounds mixed together, like a pot of boiling porridge.

He couldn't distinguish any specific sound at all.

"Master, it's too chaotic."

"Then learn to find order in chaos," Lin Yu's voice was devoid of emotion. "On the battlefield, with thousands of troops, can you not hear the enemy general's command just because of the noise? Calm your mind, filter out the useless Noise. Only keep what you want."

Su Ming gritted his teeth, trying again and again.

He imagined his will as a sieve, trying to sift out the 'big' sounds and leave the 'small' ones.

Time passed bit by bit. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and intense concentration brought waves of fatigue and dizziness.

After an unknown amount of time, just as he was about to give up, the chaotic sounds in his mind suddenly seemed to be smoothed by an invisible hand, gradually settling down.

In the profound silence, an extremely faint "chirp-chirp" sound abruptly emerged.

The sound was so clear, as if it were right next to his ear.

He could even 'see' a shiny black cricket under a dark eave, vibrating its wings, its two long antennae gently swaying in the air.

"I... I heard it," Su Ming's voice trembled with disbelief.

"Very good," Lin Yu praised. "That is 'Listening to Sounds'. Next, is 'Observing Fire'."

He had Su Ming re-light the oil lamp.

"Look at it."

Su Ming opened his eyes, his gaze focused on the tiny flame.

"What do you see?"

"A flickering flame, yellow, with a reddish tip."

"Incorrect," Lin Yu calmly denied. "What you see is merely the surface. What you must see is its 'birth' and 'death'. Every instant, old lamp oil is vaporized and burned, transforming into light and heat; and new lamp oil climbs up the wick, replenishing it. This is an endless Reincarnation."

"You must use your will to feel the temperature of the flame, to 'see' every tremor of light, to understand why it shines and why it dances. Immerse your mind completely into this tiny flame, until you feel... that you too have become this fire."

(Inner thoughts: "Come, young man, experience the charm of quantum physics! Energy conversion, matter combustion, how wonderful! Much more interesting than memorizing all those classical texts, right?")

Su Ming gazed at the candlelight.

Gradually, in his eyes, the flame began to grow larger, clearer.

He saw the faint blue in the inner layer of the flame, and every subtle sway of the outer flame caused by air currents.

He seemed to feel the scorching temperature, not through his skin, but through his spirit.

In his world, only this ball of light remained.

When Su Ming recovered from that wondrous state, the sky outside the window was already turning a fish-belly white.

He felt a wave of mental exhaustion, yet his mind was clearer than ever before.

He picked up a copy of 'The Analects' from the table and casually opened a page.

Paragraphs that used to require him to read three to five times to memorize now, with just one glance, the words were branded deeply into his mind like an imprint.

He closed his eyes, and every single character appeared with perfect clarity.

He turned to the next page, read, and memorized again.

A quarter of an hour later, he had recited an entire chapter, word for word!

"Master! This..." Su Ming was so delighted he almost jumped.

"The effects of Spirit Refining have only just begun," Lin Yu's voice carried a hint of a smile. "The Four Books and Five Classics are tedious; the sooner you finish memorizing them, the sooner your Master will have peace."

(Inner thoughts: "Oh my god, I finally don't have to listen to these classical texts anymore! As a 21st-century Soul, listening to these every day is simply mental torture! Quick, my disciple, use your photographic memory and get rid of all this useless stuff.")

Su Ming, however, took his Master's 'disdain' as encouragement. He clenched his fists, filled with unprecedented motivation.

He not only wanted to earn money to give his family a good life.

He also wanted to use this extraordinary memory to store all knowledge in his mind.