“Refining the Spirit?” Su Ming’s heart stirred.

“Correct. The fundamental essence of a human lies in essence, energy, and spirit. The tempering of your body you are doing now is refining essence; drawing energy into the body is refining energy; and this Refining the Spirit is tempering your soul, your will, your perception.”

Lin Yu’s voice became ethereal: “A strong spirit leads to a firm will. A firm will leads to keen perception, photographic memory, and a mind as clear as a mirror. In battle, it allows you to foresee the enemy’s moves. In cultivation, it doubles the results with half the effort.”

(Inner thoughts: “Finally, we’ve reached my area of expertise—the mystical packaging class! Packaging modern meditation, concentration training, and sensory enhancement into the grand-sounding ‘Refining the Spirit’ method. I give myself a hundred points for this move!”)

“Master, teach me!” Su Ming became excited.

“Don’t rush.” Lin Yu said leisurely, “The methods of Refining the Spirit are numerous and complex, but they all share the same core. Today, I will only teach you the first step—’Listening to Sounds’ and ‘Observing the Flame’.”

He paused, then continued, “Right now, calm your heart and listen.”

Su Ming immediately obeyed, pricking up his ears.

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

“Not enough.” Lin Yu said lightly, “These sounds are too close, too noisy. Forget them. Listen for sounds that are farther away, more subtle. Listen… to the cricket chirping under the eaves of Limping Wang’s house at the east end of the village. Its left third antenna just twitched.”

Su Ming was stunned.

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

Hear a cricket’s antenna? How is that possible?

(Inner thoughts: “Hehe, exaggeration, understand exaggeration? First set a small goal, like listening to a hundred million of them… ahem, first set an impossible goal to maximize the stimulation of his potential. This is called expectation management!”)

“Focus your spirit. Don’t listen with your ears, use your will to ‘capture’ it.” Lin Yu guided, “Your spiritual sense 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, dismissed distracting thoughts, and tried to disperse his mental energy outward.

At first, his mind was a cacophony.

The sound of wind, the barking of dogs, the drunken sleep-talking of villagers in the distance… countless sounds mixed together like a pot of boiling porridge.

He simply couldn’t distinguish any specific sound.

“Master, it’s too chaotic.”

“Then learn to find order within the chaos.” Lin Yu’s voice held not a trace of emotion, “On the battlefield, amidst thousands of troops and horses, can you fail to hear the enemy general’s command just because the sounds are chaotic? Calm your heart. Filter out those useless noises. Keep only what you want.”

Gritting his teeth, Su Ming tried again and again.

He imagined his will as a sieve, trying to sift out those “big” sounds, leaving behind the “small” ones.

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

He didn’t know how long it had been. Just as he was about to give up, the cacophony of sounds in his mind suddenly seemed to be smoothed over by an invisible hand, gradually calming down.

In the ensuing silence, an extremely faint “chirp” abruptly jumped out.

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

He could even “see” it—in the darkness under the eaves, a glossy black cricket was vibrating its wings, its two long antennae gently swaying in the air.

“I… heard it.” Su Ming’s voice trembled with disbelief.

“Good.” Lin Yu praised, “This is ‘Listening to Sounds’. Next is ‘Observing the Flame’.”

He had Su Ming relight the oil lamp.

“Look at it.”

Su Ming opened his eyes, his gaze focusing on the bean-sized flame.

“What do you see?”

“A flickering flame, yellow, with a reddish top.”

“Wrong.” Lin Yu calmly negated, “What you see is merely the surface. You need to see its ‘birth’ and ‘extinction’. Every instant, old lamp oil is vaporized, burned, turning into light and heat; meanwhile, new lamp oil climbs up the wick to replenish it. This is an unceasing cycle.”

“You must use your will to feel the temperature of the flame, to ‘see’ clearly the tremor of every strand of light, to understand why it shines and why it dances. Immerse your mind completely into this bean-sized flame, until you feel… you have also become this flame.”

(Inner thoughts: “Come, young man, feel the charm of micro-physics! Energy conversion, matter combustion, how wonderful! Much more interesting than memorizing those ‘zhi hu zhe ye’, right?”)

Su Ming stared at the candle flame.

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

He saw the faint blue color in the flame’s inner layer, saw each subtle sway of the outer flame caused by air currents.

He could almost feel that scorching temperature, not through his skin, but through his spirit.

In his world, only this one ball of light remained.

When Su Ming snapped out of that wondrous state, the sky outside the window was already turning pale with the dawn.

He only felt mentally exhausted, but his mind was unprecedentedly clear.

He picked up a copy of the Analects from the table and randomly opened a page.

Passages that in the past required reciting three to five times to memorize firmly, now, with just one glance, the words seemed to be branded, deeply engraved into his mind.

He closed his eyes. Every character appeared vividly and clearly.

He turned to the next page, looked again, memorized again.

A quarter of an hour later, he had memorized the entire chapter, word for word, without a single mistake!

“Master! This…” Su Ming was so overjoyed he almost jumped up.

“The effects of Refining the Spirit have only just begun.” Lin Yu’s voice carried a hint of amusement, “The Four Books and Five Classics are dry and dull. Finish memorizing them sooner, and your master can have some peace and quiet sooner too.”

(Inner thoughts: “My goodness, finally I don’t have to listen to these ‘zhi hu zhe ye’ anymore! For a soul from the 21st century, listening to this stuff every day is pure mental torture! Quick, disciple, use your photographic memory, hurry up and get all this nonsense sorted out.”)

However, Su Ming took his master’s “disdain” as motivation. He clenched his fist, his heart filled with unprecedented drive.

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

He also wanted to use this extraordinary memory to cram all knowledge into his mind.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep