Chapter 6: The World in the Sleeve

Xu Changqing added two more bags of glutinous rice to the bath of the old Taoist and the others, and replaced the green jade gourd hanging from the roof beam. After everything was settled, he returned to the main room and put down the bamboo curtain at the door. He then placed the two green jade gourds filled with corpse qi on the altar in the inner room and went back to the side room where he sat cross-legged on a seat cushion made of century-old green vines. He took out the Hetian jade pendant that Shawn had given him from his chest and examined it carefully. The pendant was not large, only the size of a quail egg, heart-shaped, and felt very smooth to the touch. However, upon closer inspection, it had a series of tiny spots, as if something had been deliberately carved into it. The spots were so fine that they could only be vaguely felt as something unusual.

Seeing that he could not discern anything with the naked eye, Xu Changqing placed the Hetian jade pendant on the small incense stand in front of the seat cushion. He then closed his eyes, embraced the circle and guarded the one, and silently circulated his true essence to the spirit eye on his forehead. As his pure and refined Shangqing Golden Elixir true essence circulated in the spirit eye, a vertical red birthmark on his forehead emitted a crimson light, and the skin gradually bulged outward as if something was trying to break through. When a large lump formed on his forehead, the skin around the red birthmark suddenly stretched out to the sides, and a colorful, glass-like eye appeared on his forehead at the spirit eye.

After Xu Changqing's innate spirit eye opened, a beam of light shot out from the spirit eye and hit the Hetian jade pendant on the small incense stand. The jade pendant was immediately enveloped by the light, slowly rising and suspending in the air, rotating continuously in front of the spirit eye. As the number of rotations increased, although Xu Changqing had his eyes closed, the light from the spirit eye projected a magnified image of the jade pendant in his mind, and the spots on its surface appeared as large as a human head. As the spirit eye exerted its power, Xu Changqing's face turned extremely pale, and he seemed to be in great pain, as if he were experiencing intense agony.

This spirit eye was something Xu Changqing was born with, and according to his master, it contained the resentment of his mother. Originally, it was a malformed and inherently evil eye, but after his master refined it with Shangqing secret techniques, it transformed into a spirit eye that could see the thirty-three heavens above and the nine netherworlds below, and could break through all kinds of magic. Xu Changqing had not yet seen the abilities his master described, which were similar to those of the spirit eye in mythological stories. This might be related to his current level of cultivation. With his current cultivation, he could only use the spirit eye for two abilities: one was to see the three thousand small worlds, and the other was to see the flow of earth qi. Using the spirit eye also caused a pain that felt like being flayed and skinned, which was not something ordinary people could endure.

While enduring the pain of opening the spirit eye, Xu Changqing carefully examined the magnified spots on the jade pendant, feeling increasingly surprised and excited. He discovered that the spots were all seal script characters used by alchemists during the Qin and Han dynasties, and the content described an ancient cultivation method. The jade pendant did not name the ancient cultivation method, but the effects of its successful cultivation were similar to the Daoist technique known as "The World in the Sleeve." When fully cultivated, it could create a world within the sleeve, capable of swallowing mountains and seas and trapping the heavens and earth. Any living beings trapped in the sleeve, no matter how powerful, could be destroyed with a light flick of the sleeve.

After a period of time, Xu Changqing finally memorized the entire ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique. By then, he was in so much pain that he was drenched in cold sweat. He quickly withdrew the Golden Elixir true essence from his forehead and circulated it nine times through the eight extraordinary meridians in his body to replenish the true essence he had consumed. However, as soon as he withdrew the true essence from the spirit eye, the light from the spirit eye faded, and the hard Hetian jade pendant was crushed into powder. The seven-colored spirit eye then slowly closed and retreated into the depths of his forehead, returning to its original red birthmark.

After withdrawing all the true essence back to his dantian, Xu Changqing slowly opened his eyes and saw only a pile of jade powder on the incense stand. He was not surprised; he knew the jade pendant would be crushed by the power of the spirit eye, which was why he had endured the intense pain to quickly memorize the technique. He took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and although his true essence had not been greatly depleted, his spirit was extremely fatigued from the intense pain. In this state, he could not begin to cultivate the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique. Like other generations of the Nine Streams, once he found a new technique, he could not resist immediately cultivating it, regardless of whether it was good or evil, or whether it was real or fake!

The Nourishing Spirit Pill was one of the few Daoist pills that his master's sect could still refine. The art of refining pills was not as advanced as it used to be, and most people refined medicinal pills rather than Daoist pills. The Nourishing Spirit Pill could make the spirit clear and sharp, allowing for more efficient cultivation and better understanding of the intricacies of techniques. Xu Changqing took a Nourishing Spirit Pill, closed his eyes, and felt the unique Daoist power in the pill flow into his brain, nourishing the spirit in his upper dantian. A sense of ease and pleasure spread throughout his body.

The effects of the Nourishing Spirit Pill did not last long, and Xu Changqing needed to use this power to enter a state of mind where he could forget the self and the world. In this state, he could understand the subtleties of the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique. Xu Changqing sat cross-legged on the green vine seat cushion and easily entered this state of mind, creating a false spiritual world. He simulated the cultivation process of the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique, carefully calculating the difficulties and finding ways to avoid or solve them. This was a unique secret technique created by the first generation of the Nine Streams, allowing cultivators to integrate various techniques without harming themselves. Subsequent generations of the Nine Streams had worked to perfect this secret technique, and by the time of the first owner of the mortuary, it had reached its peak.

Thus, Xu Changqing repeatedly simulated the cultivation of the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique in his mind, starting over each time he failed. After failing and starting over thousands of times, he finally completed the entire cultivation process of the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique in his mind.

"What a powerful technique!" Xu Changqing withdrew his mind from the state of mind, took a deep breath, and his face showed a look of shock. At that moment, he realized he had underestimated the ancient technique. In the final simulation, he saw the immense power that could swallow stars, the sun, and the moon, and encompass the heavens and the earth. He took several deep breaths to steady his mind, and the effects of the Nourishing Spirit Pill seemed to have worn off. His body had recovered during the time his mind was in the state of mind, and he felt very good physically and mentally. This made him decide to immediately begin the formal cultivation of the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique. He did not arrogantly believe he could cultivate to the level of such immense power, but even a small achievement would give him a small world in his sleeve, capable of holding various magical tools, talismans, and cinnabar, which would be very useful.

The ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique had very strict requirements for the robe worn by the cultivator. The best material was the silk from the ancient Tian Gang silkworm, which had long since disappeared, and the worst was ordinary silkworm silk that had been nurtured by heart fire. The long gown Xu Changqing wore was made from the silk of the Five Elements Ice Silkworm, which was a decent magical robe.

Xu Changqing circulated all the Shangqing Golden Elixir true essence in his body and refined the long gown according to the ancient lost treasure refining technique mentioned at the beginning of the technique. He aimed to make the gown and his spirit one, turning it into a true magical treasure. Although the method of refining a magical treasure using one's true essence was described very simply in the technique, Xu Changqing's current cultivation was not sufficient to make it simple. A large amount of true essence poured into the gown without any reaction, and the Golden Elixir true essence was almost exhausted. He was not the type to give up easily. While circulating his true essence, he used his mind to take out the last seven extremely precious Spirit Gathering Pills from his master's sect. Whenever his true essence was about to run out, he would take one. After taking five Spirit Gathering Pills, the true essence in the gown seemed to have reached its limit, flowing back into his body from his limbs and bones, forming a large cycle inside and outside his body.

After the cycle completed 81 rounds, the magical robe was completely integrated with Xu Changqing's spirit. A Taiji Bagua diagram appeared on the surface of the gown, glowing red, and then quickly disappeared into the gown. At this moment, Xu Changqing could clearly feel every thread of the gown, just as he felt every meridian during his cultivation.

Only then did he understand why all cultivators were so eager to obtain magical treasures that could integrate with their spirits. This essentially doubled the power of the owner of the magical treasure. Moreover, if he carefully used his true essence to carve magical arrays or talismans on the unformed magical treasure, the power of the magical treasure would be even greater. Although his cultivation had not shown any signs of breakthrough, he could clearly feel his true essence becoming more refined. The gaseous true essence, after completing the large cycle, began to transform into a higher-level Shangqing Golden Liquid, which was stored in his dantian. Once the heart fire further refined the Ice Silkworm gown, he could carve the array.

This phenomenon was very promising for Xu Changqing. The originally distant path to the Golden Elixir now had a glimmer of hope. Once all the Golden Elixir true essence transformed into Shangqing Golden Liquid, he would have the opportunity to enter the stage of refining qi into spirit and forming the Golden Elixir, although this process would be very long.

Xu Changqing liked to let things take their natural course and did not think much about it. He began to further refine the ancient "The World in the Sleeve" technique. He separated yin and yang qi from his true essence and used this yin and yang qi to draw a magical array in the space between his arm and the gown. He then used the force of the collision of yin and yang qi to create a space, which was stabilized by the circulation of true essence in the outer cycle between his arm and the gown sleeve. The true essence drove the array to gradually stabilize the newly created space and incorporate it into his arm, completing the initial "The World in the Sleeve."

After recovering from his cultivation state, Xu Changqing eagerly wanted to test the effect of "The World in the Sleeve." He reached out and swept his hand over the incense stand in front of him, and the incense stand instantly disappeared from his view. He could clearly feel that the incense stand, which was much larger than his sleeve, was now inside the sleeve. He looked at his sleeve, which appeared empty, but he could indeed feel the incense stand inside. With a slight thought, the incense stand reappeared in his palm, as if it had always been there.

"Ha ha! This pocket is quite useful!" Xu Changqing smiled to himself.

At this point, "The World in the Sleeve" was only in its initial form, not even reaching the small success stage. Only when the space in "The World in the Sleeve" was fully stabilized by the true essence and a second magical array was added, could it reach the stage of containing all things and capturing the essence of living beings.

Although the power of "The World in the Sleeve" was far from what he had seen in the state of mind, even this basic form satisfied Xu Changqing. This technique was only possessed by the major orthodox Daoist sects and was a secret technique not shared with outsiders. When the first generation of the Nine Streams was a disciple of the Shangqing Sect on Mount Mao, he was expelled from the sect for trying to secretly cultivate this "The World in the Sleeve" technique, and ultimately lived a miserable life in the lower Nine Streams. For the generations of the Nine Streams, finding the cultivation method of "The World in the Sleeve" was a lifelong wish, and now that Xu Changqing had cultivated it, he had fulfilled the wish of the first generation of the Nine Streams and severed a karmic bond.

Xu Changqing looked out the window and saw that it was already night, but he knew it was not the night of the day he had started cultivating. Although he had woken up several times during his cultivation, and it was always night, the positions of the stars had shifted, indicating that at least three or four days had passed. He used the "One Palm Determines the World" technique to calculate the events of the past few days and quickly had a clear understanding. He then stood up, raised his hand, and swept his sleeve, gathering all the magical tools, talismans, and various items used for exorcism into "The World in the Sleeve," and turned to leave the bedroom.

After leaving the main room, Xu Changqing saw the old Taoist and his disciples standing in the courtyard, pacing anxiously and occasionally looking in his direction. When he saw Xu Changqing, the old Taoist hurriedly approached and said, "Why did you come out so late? With that ghost bamboo curtain in front of your room, I couldn't even get in! Do you know what happened these past few days...?"

"Stop talking, I know what happened!" Xu Changqing said calmly. "It's just that the Nine Lives True Lord took the souls of two of the people who left from here that day. There's no need to be overly alarmed; everything is under my control."