392: Liberation Stage

Liberation Stage

Returning to 4 Times Square, Virus had this strange craving to try the tea prepared by the golden beauty using the 'Water of Life'.2

"Here, master. Although I'm not as skillful as the times I was inside my artificial body, it should be still quite good. Unfortunately, my accuracy has fallen somewhat." Putting a cup of tea on the table before him, slightly embarrassed and disappointed herself, the golden beauty admitted.

Holding the cup, in order to experience the taste and quality for himself, Virus took a simple sip while closing both his eyes. 'Hmm, indeed, although it's not on the same level as before. It's not bad either.'

"I like it, thank you, Lil Belle." Nodding in satisfaction, Virus didn't forget to compliment her efforts.

"You're welcome, master. By the way, when are we leaving New York again?" 

"I don't know. First, I'll need to wait for two more weeks before I can take the Guardian Exam. After that, we might stay here for a while, I'm not sure yet." Getting a whip of the mesmerizing fragrance of the tea which was very helpful in calming one's nerves, Virus responded.

"Oh, right, how's your progress in cultivation? Did you spark your internal energy yet?" Recalling the matter of her cultivation, Virus inquired at once.

Hearing this, a jovial shimmer lit up within her eyes as she answered in utter elation, "About that… I think I'm almost there! I can feel it!!!"

"That's great. It seems you're even faster than what I initially had in mind. Anyway, I'll be entering a session of closed-door seclusion for around two weeks. You should do the same and try breaking through before the time of my Guardian evaluation." Quite satisfied with her progress, Virus patted her head gently.

"Yes, master!" Feeling the tenderness of her master's arm, lowering her head, the golden beauty couldn't stop her cheeks from somewhat blushing.

"Good girl."

"Um, but master, can I ask you something?" Fidgeting her fingers, seemingly curious, the golden beauty opened her mouth.

"Go on."

"U-um, can you please clarify what one needs to do when he or she gets to the stage of [Liberation]? I'm just really curious about it as I keep wondering what I'm going to be doing when I complete my [Energy Disentanglement] stage and breakthrough to the next one. Furthermore, I feel like I'll be able to progress faster if I have a more perfect image of the next stage after the one I'll be entering soon." At this point, her eyes were giving off such intense illumination that Virus couldn't help but smirk helplessly.

"Sure, and it might indeed help a little. So… I'll explain a bit. Listen well and engrave my words to your heart and mind. Is that clear, my beautiful disciple?" Voiced Virus in a teasing tone.

However, hearing this, a strong sense of determination and resolve started to exude from the golden beauty's entire being as she focused her entire attention on Virus' mouth in a very serious yet cute manner. "Yes. Please punish Lil Belle if I don't listen and learn well."

"Cough, alright… well, according to my knowledge of cultivation, it is known that half the pathways of all human beings have the quality of being 'Yin' while the other half is 'Yang'. Meaning, if a person has twelve pathways, six of those pathways are of Yin nature while the other half is of Yang nature, it's like two sides of the same coin."

After a momentary pause as if he wanted the golden beauty to digest his previous elucidation, he went on, "In actuality, if I want to be even more precise, it could be said that a normal human being does not have 12 Energy Pathways, to begin with. Instead, he or she has six divided Pathways, which means when a normal human baby is given birth, he comes to this world with 6 broken and separated pairs of Energy Pathways."

Throwing a brief glimpse at the golden beauty's face and confirming she was still listening very intently, he added after a simple shake of his head, "Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, each of those originally complete and flawless six pathways breakdown to two separate parts of Yin and Yang from the moment a fetus begins to form within a mother's womb. Cultivators believe that this happens because the heavens are jealous of the human race, or that it's a punishment inflicted upon them by the heavens since the times immemorial. Therefore they say the heavens have fragmented mankind's pathways and made them full of flaw."

"What! How can the heavens do that!!! Heavens are really evil then!" Cried the golden beauty while acting in an exaggerated way as if she and humanity have been greatly wronged.

Seeing this, honestly, Virus felt slightly speechless as he swept the beads of sweat from his forehead before continuing, "Calm down. Actually, I don't really believe in the existence of the so-called foolish 'Heavens' which cultivators have blind faith in. So, I won't be commenting on that."

"However, it is indeed true and irrefutable that each of our originally flawless 6 energy pathways is now broken down into two parts of Yin and Yang. It's the same for me." He also said, "Anyway, you asked what we do in the [Liberation] stage, right?"

Seeing her nod repetitively just like a cute cat, he got to the main point of all of his explanations, "Well, it's simple really, we just need to connect each of those divided pairs of Yin and Yang and create a complete whole for every one of them."

"Moreover, the moment we fuse and unite each pair, we would be able to release and liberate our Internal Energy from those respective pathways. That's what the [Liberation] stage is all about."

As if she had been finally enlightened, the golden beauty threw her own new insight into the middle of the conversation too, "Hmm, then, if I'm guessing correctly, that means, for normal people, there are 6 levels to the [Liberation] stage, right? Each time we bond a pair into a single whole, we progress in our cultivation and breakthrough properly."

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