Qin Mu's heart seized with a profound shock: "Bearing this stone statue on one's back is akin to carrying a god?"
The blind man spoke faintly, "To bear a god is to carry an unbearable weight. That year, to rescue you, Granny Si and the others, Village Chief instructed Old Ma to carry a stone statue, bringing Granny to the riverbank. Even that short distance nearly brought Old Ma, with his immense strength, to his knees."
Qin Mu's scalp prickled. These stone statues in the village were that heavy?
Then who could have carved these stone statues?
Which gods were depicted on these statues? Why did carving them into their likenesses render them so heavy?
When he was young, clambering onto the stone statues to relieve himself, would the gods have taken offense?
"Rest assured, the god who carved this statue is already dead. Mu'er, I have you gaze upon the stone statues not merely for practice, but to cultivate your sight. What I have you see are no ordinary stone statues, but the images carved by gods, for gods!"
The blind man's voice boomed, shaking Qin Mu's eardrums until they buzzed. The blind man turned his roar towards a bamboo basket beside the stone statue: "Mu'er, the Nine Heavens Open Eye Law opens the eyes of a god! And since they are the eyes of a god, they are naturally meant to behold gods! Use your eyes to see the god, to see the god's momentum, the god's charm, the god's *qi*, the god's presence, the god's god!"
Qin Mu's mind reeled: "See a god? See the god within the stone statue?"
"Let your *vital qi* enter your eyes, and open the first heaven of your mortal gaze!"
The blind man's bamboo staff lightly tapped Qin Mu's chest, this time with unnerving accuracy. Qin Mu immediately felt his vast *vital qi* surge, rushing towards his eyes!
Cultivating one's eyes was fraught with peril. Qin Mu's *vital qi* was already forging his body, expelling impurities and excess fat, but the eyes were the most difficult places to refine, practically forbidden zones. A slight misstep could lead to blindness!
Qin Mu had once inquired of the Village Chief how to refine his eyes, but the Village Chief had offered little, simply cautioning him not to attempt it lightly.
And yet, the blind man was now urging Qin Mu's *vital qi* towards his eyes with fierce, overbearing momentum, defying all common sense!
Qin Mu felt a searing, drilling pain in his eyes. His *vital qi* had indeed surged into them, vast and abundant, but it was being compressed to an extreme fineness by the blind man's terrifying cultivation.
How large could eyes possibly be?
But in that moment, Qin Mu felt his eyes were immeasurably vast, as boundless as the sky!
His *vital qi*, like a dragon, a colossal dragon, entered the vast, sky-like eyes, then abruptly burst forth. The *vital qi* surged upwards, like a pillar piercing the heavens and grounding the earth. Then, the rolling *vital qi* flowed across the sky, forming strange patterns on the celestial curtain, weaving into a net, like heavenly principles, covering the firmament.
The searing pain of moments ago suddenly vanished, replaced by an incomparable, unprecedented comfort.
"Mu'er, remember the patterns in the sky. That is the first heaven of the Nine Heavens Open Eye Law, the Divine Firmament Heaven Heavenly Gang Array Patterns." The blind man's voice drifted from outside the sky, seeming distant and high.
Qin Mu hastily committed them to memory. His *vital qi*, urged by the blind man, had formed the Divine Firmament Heaven Heavenly Gang Array Patterns within his eyes. He could clearly perceive the paths, structure, and details of these array patterns, but the Heavenly Gang Array Patterns were too cumbersome and complex; memorizing them required time.
The blind man urged his *vital qi* again and again. After a long while, Qin Mu's *vital qi* was nearly depleted. Only then did the blind man move the bamboo staff from Qin Mu's chest.
"How much have you memorized?" the blind man asked.
"Sixty to seventy percent."
The blind man's face showed pleasure. He said, "In such a short time, memorizing sixty to seventy percent is already extraordinary. Recover some of your *vital qi*."
Qin Mu immediately circulated his *vital qi*, activating the Overlord Three Dan Skill, allowing his *vital qi* to recover rapidly.
Once his cultivation returned to its peak, the blind man said, "Activate the Heavenly Gang Array Patterns I've taught you, and look at the stone statue again. See if there's any difference from before."
Qin Mu immediately urged his *vital qi* into his eyes, forming the Divine Firmament Heaven Heavenly Gang Array Patterns. He had only learned sixty to seventy percent of the array patterns, incomplete as they were, but as his *vital qi* covered his eyes, that cool, all-seeing sense of comfort returned.
He lifted his gaze towards the dragon-headed old man stone statue before him, and his mind was involuntarily struck with awe. The stone statue, which had once seemed so ordinary in his eyes, suddenly became resplendent and vibrant!
The stone statue seemed to come alive, as if it had transformed into a god piercing the heavens and grounding the earth!
He even saw fine rays erupting around the stone statue, rays upon rays, setting off the statue's sacred solemnity!
His mind was suddenly crushed by the stone statue's pressure!
In his eyes, the stone statue was no longer a stone statue, but a living god!
The god's godhood, presence, *qi*, charm, and momentum pressed down on his mind, threatening to collapse it, then seeking to press down on his body, making his knees involuntarily buckle and yearn to kneel!
"Keep looking, do not close your eyes, and do not kneel."
The blind man's voice was icy. "When you were young, you would even climb onto the stone statue to relieve yourself. You dared so much as a child, so why would you kneel now that you are grown? Mu'er, the Nine Heavens Open Eye Law is not merely about opening your eyes; it is also about opening your mind, allowing you to face the strong and the dangerous in this world!"
"A true warrior's strength is not solely in the power of their moves; the strength of their mind is even more crucial! If your heart is defeated by a pile of broken stones, then no matter how great your strength, you will accomplish nothing!"
The blind man's bamboo staff thumped the ground, and he roared, "If you confront the stone statue, and resist its oppression, your mind will also grow strong! To strengthen your strength, first strengthen your mind, be your own god, and be fearless!"
Cold sweat streamed down Qin Mu's forehead. He fiercely resisted the urge to kneel. The sense of oppression brought by the stone statue was truly too powerful, simply impossible to withstand.
The blind man spoke of being fearless, but he simply could not achieve it.
Not opening his eyes and opening them were two entirely different things.
Without opening his eyes, the stone statue was just an ordinary stone statue, and relieving himself on it was not something to dwell on. But with his eyes open, the stone statue was a god, and any action, even gazing upon this god, was an act of profanity!
The blind man said, "A god in a broken temple is easy; a god in a broken heart is hard. Do you know who spoke these words?"
Qin Mu's soul was shaken by the stone statue, unable to reply.
"The one who spoke these words, which seemed greatly rebellious, is none other than the current National Teacher of Yan Kang Country outside the Great Ruins, an existence praised as the foremost person under heaven!"
The blind man was majestic, and he bellowed, "Mu'er, the gods that exist in your heart are all foreign gods, false gods. Break them! Only then can you erect your own divine image! Do not speak of a stone statue; even if a true god stood before you, you absolutely cannot kneel!"
He planted his bamboo staff to the side, untied his belt, and laughed heartily: "Not only can you not kneel, you should instead relieve yourself on it!"
"Relieve myself on it?"
Qin Mu was stunned: "Relieve myself on a god?"
The blind man relieved himself towards the stone statue, laughing heartily: "Right, relieve yourself on it! When you were young, you did it on it no less than a hundred times, and now you dare not?"
Qin Mu gritted his teeth, untied his belt, and a stream of hot liquid rushed out, splashing onto the stone statue.
This act of relieving himself was not ordinary. In Qin Mu's eyes, the god statue remained sacred and solemn, filled with a sense of oppression, but that oppressive feeling that compelled him to kneel vanished without a trace!
The old man and the young man exchanged "gazes," and laughed uproariously, filled with mirth.
The Village Chief, basking in the sun by the door, heard the two laughing and turned his head to look. Seeing the scene, he couldn't help but shake his head: "The blind man is a lecherous and talented eccentric, actually using this method to break the god within Mu'er's heart and strengthen his mind. Others wouldn't think of such a strange method, but Mu'er, strangely enough, actually joined him in relieving himself, displaying extreme boldness. His having Mu'er relieve himself on the stone statue is both to break the god within Mu'er's heart and to break the god within his own heart. The 'god' who dug out his eyes... the god within the spear has returned."
He knew why the blind man was doing this.
The bamboo staff in the blind man's hand was not a bamboo staff, but a spear.
That year, when the blind man had walked into Disabled Elderly Village, both his eyes were destroyed, his body was severely injured, and he was miserable beyond compare, like a beggar, covered in filth.
But the blind man's steps were incredibly steady, and the bamboo staff in his hand was also very steady.
When he walked into the village, the Village Chief felt as if an enraged dragon, sweeping in all directions, had rushed into this small village. The blind man's spirit, in the Village Chief's eyes, was like a pillar supporting the heavens.
Under heaven, such spear skill and spirit could only belong to the god within the spear!
But the most powerful aspect of that spear god was not the spear itself, but his eyes – they were a pair of divine eyes, eyes that could see through the flaws in all moves!
And now, the blind man was passing on these divine eyes, passing them to Qin Mu.
To practice the spear, one must first practice the eyes; to practice the eyes, one must first practice the heart!
The blind man's eyes were divine eyes. The stronger the eyes, the more one could see reality, and the more reality one saw, the more one could behold the great terror.
