Aspiring to the Immortal Path Chapter 67: The True Intent Revealed

Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr

In his little room, Tang Jie grabbed a steel needle and dipped it in a paint made from powdered saltpeter, mica, and bluefire shards. Tang Jie carefully thrust the needle into the formation lines he had drawn beforehand. He had made this paint according to the secret recipe left by Xu Muyang, and it was uniquely suited for transferring spiritual energy. Once spiritual energy began to flow through the paint along the formations, they would form the corresponding spell as soon as the formation was activated.

In truth, formations, talismans, and spells all shared the same originating principle. They all used circulation of spiritual energy to achieve some desired effect.

Daoist Ku had once asked in class, "Everyone knows that the world has spiritual energy, but what is spiritual energy?"

Very few people were able to say anything meaningful.

According to Daoist Ku, spiritual energy was a sort of fundamental matter that objectively existed in the cultivation world. Just like atoms, it could constitute all things.

It differed in that spiritual energy possessed spirituality.

This "spirituality" was not the same thing as spiritual energy. It referred to a trait that differentiated it from all other kinds of matter in the world.

The wind had no consciousness, the rain had no consciousness, wood had no consciousness, stone had no consciousness, but spirit did have consciousness.

Spirit had consciousness, but it was ignorant and unaware.

Spirit was the origin of all!

It possessed life, yet it was not living. The greatest difference setting it apart from all other things that lacked awareness was that it could react in response to orders. It was like a stone given life, able to listen to orders.

Spirit was this sort of substance.

All spells were fundamentally different orders given to spirits.

All the loops and all the endless changes had their foundation in this.

Thus, spells were just commands—commands meant specifically for spiritual energy so that it would move as the user desired.

Talismans,

…