Nine-Faced Divine Fire

Liu Jin didn't say much. He sat cross-legged on the futon and closed his eyes.

The test of meditation is not who can sit the longest, but who can enter a state of deep concentration and cultivate their mind. It emphasizes "letting go of thoughts and achieving tranquility," where no thoughts arise and no distracting ideas are generated.

However, for ordinary people, a state of undisturbed tranquility is merely the initial stage of stillness, a mere beginning, known as: joy arising from detachment. Liu Jin reached this stage on the very night of his transmigration: with the aid of an automatic cultivation device, he attained Qi through this realm.

After enduring the torment of the three stages of reversal and rebirth, he barely reached the second stage: a state of tranquil joy, undisturbed by external circumstances, and a heart as deep as an abyss.

The most dangerous stage of meditation, the reason why nine out of ten practitioners of Qimen Dunjia go mad, is the third stage: Detachment from Joy and Bliss. This state involves deep inner vision, where one is omnipotent and extremely prone to greed for meditation. Yet, it brought Liu Jin no danger whatsoever.

After all, with the help of the cheat system, there has been real progress being transmitted to Liu Jin's soul. This progress is real and uncontrollable. Greed: there is only so much, and fear: will not decrease.

Through this refinement, Liu Jin repeatedly grappled with greed and fear amidst the omnipotence of his inner world and the unchanging nature of his cheat ability. Finally, after this refinement, he entered a state of perfection: a state of detachment and purity.

To be precise, it's a pseudo-perfection. Without the golden finger, he still has to undergo another tribulation. But who knows? All we can see is his selflessness, his emptiness, and his complete lack of emptiness.

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Jin was woken up.

"Your composure isn't something you developed through the Reverse Life Triple Cultivation. The Reverse Life Triple Cultivation focuses on transforming Qi into the physical body, not on cultivating the inner vision."

"I attained Qi through meditation." Liu Jin neither denied nor explained the details. "That's why I came to ask my senior brother for guidance. Reversing the third level of life to the peak of the second level is almost impossible with the technique itself. It requires drawing inferences from one instance to another, and Samadhi True Fire is the closest to the word 'pure' among all the inheritances."

Zhuge Ming put down his teacup and pondered for a moment. "The Samadhi True Fire isn't a technique, it's a state of being. What do you think Samadhi is? It's the upper level of mind fire, the middle level of life fire, and the lower level of essence fire. Only when these three fires unite is it true fire. Its essence isn't burning others, it's burning oneself. It burns away greed, anger, ignorance, pride, doubt, fame, profit, desire—all things that aren't 'pure,' one by one." He looked at Liu Jin. "The three essential elements of reversing birth are the physical body transforming into Qi; the Samadhi True Fire requires the mind and spirit to transform into fire. Aren't you afraid of burning yourself to ashes while cultivating two kinds of purity simultaneously?"

"I'm afraid," Liu Jin said, "but I'm even more afraid of staying in the same place."

Zhuge Ming stared at him for a long time, then stood up, walked to the offering table, took out a yellowed silk scroll from under the statue of Zhuge Liang, and placed it in front of Liu Jin.

"I can give you the formulas and insights from the ancients. But to ignite the true fire of Samadhi, you need to focus on practice, not the formulas. You may be able to pass the test of stillness, but you may not be able to ignite the fire. If you can't ignite it, today's events will remain unresolved. If you do ignite it, you won't owe me anything, but you will owe the Zhuge family a favor."

Zhuge Ming was too embarrassed to say that nowadays no one in the Zhuge family can light it.

"Thank you, senior brother, I understand."

Liu Jin sat in the quiet room of the Zhuge family for a whole day and night.

He didn't rush into action. He recited the mantra of the Samadhi True Fire no less than twenty times, gleaning something new each time. The upper Samadhi Fire is the Heart Fire, fueled by the mind and spirit. The middle Samadhi Fire is the Life Fire, fueled by the life essence. The lower Samadhi Fire is the Essence Fire, fueled by the essence and vital energy. When the three fires unite, impurities are burned away, leaving only the pure essence.

This set of mantras shares the same ultimate pursuit as the Threefold Reversal of Life in the Sanyi School: purity. The Threefold Reversal of Life starts from the physical body, gradually refining the mortal form back to the primordial Qi; the Samadhi True Fire starts from the mind, burning away everything that doesn't belong to oneself. Two paths, one seeking inward, the other seeking inward, but both point in the same direction at the end. The difference is that the Threefold Reversal of Life tells you "what you want to become," while the Samadhi True Fire tells you "what you are not." Once everything that isn't yours is burned away, what remains is your true self.

Liu Jin closed his eyes and went over the incantation in his mind one last time. Then he began.

Automatic cultivation device, start!!! Following the incantation, he first sank his consciousness into his lower dantian, finding the pure qi he had condensed over two years of cultivating the Reverse Life Triple Stage. Using this qi as a catalyst, he ignited the lower dantian's essence fire. A warm sensation rose from his dantian, like the first match lit on a winter night.

Then comes the life-fire, fueled by the vital energy and blood of the middle dantian. This step is the most dangerous, as vital energy is not qi, but life force itself. Burning too much will shorten one's lifespan, while burning too little will prevent it from igniting. However, with the help of the golden finger, everything proceeded smoothly, taking neither too much nor too little, and the life-fire ignited in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Finally, there is the fire of the heart. The fire of the heart is the hardest to find; it is not hidden in the body, but in every thought, every obsession, and every definition of "self."

Just as the fire in his heart was ignited, Liu Jin's inner vision suddenly unfolded.

The inner landscape is a cultivator's core spiritual world, a space at the deepest level of consciousness. Everyone's inner landscape is different; some are mountains, some are seas, and some are starry skies. Liu Jin's inner landscape is a boundless, pale red void. Three newly formed flames slowly rotate, gold, red, and blue, each only the thickness of a finger, eventually merging into a single, ghostly blue flame, yet radiating a light sufficient to illuminate the entire inner landscape.

As Liu Jin predicted, this was not the legendary Samadhi True Fire, lacking its domineering power that could burn anything. Rather, it was more of a reflection of the soul. Liu Jin preferred to call it: Samadhi Divine Fire.

But that's not what he noticed.

Under the radiance of the Samadhi Fire, his inner vision was fully illuminated for the first time. Previously, when he entered his inner vision, he could only see the central area because his divine soul light was not strong enough to reach that far. Now, the light of the Samadhi Fire illuminated the entire void. He saw something beyond the edge of his inner vision, deeper into the void.

He wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't Qi, it wasn't fire, it wasn't anything he had cultivated. It hung silently in the void, not belonging to his inner vision, yet there was a faint, almost imperceptible connection between it and his inner vision. That connection was so thin, almost nonexistent, but it was flowing. Something was flowing along that connection, from that thing towards him. The flow was extremely slow, the amount extremely small; if the light of the Samadhi True Fire hadn't completely illuminated his inner vision, he would never have been able to perceive it at all.

It was not obtained through cultivation. It is not an innate thing. It is not something recorded in any of the scriptures of the Sanyi School.

Liu Jin guessed it was an automatic cultivation device.

The cheat system implanted in him during his transmigration had always existed outside his inner world, in an unknown place, in a way he couldn't comprehend. For the past two years, he had used it daily, becoming so familiar with it that he almost ignored its existence, yet he had never truly "seen" it. And it was working, not just driving the flow of Qi, but slowly, continuously, and silently transforming a mysterious energy into his being.

Liu Jin opened his eyes, and the light of the Samadhi Divine Fire slowly receded into his body from between his brows.

When Zhuge Ming saw Liu Jin push open the door and come out, he noticed the light between Liu Jin's brows, paused for a moment, and then said, "Congratulations."

Liu Jin thanked him but didn't explain further. He stayed another night at Zhuge's house, writing down his insights on igniting samadhi. He figured Zhuge's family wouldn't lack anything, but since he had benefited from the deal, he still had to show some appreciation. He took his leave the next morning.