William Grant ignored all of this. He knew that the ancient Daoist immortal arts never included such things. These precepts and morals were all added by Daoist sects to curry favor with imperial power, mixing in the reasoning of scholars.

The reasoning of scholars, William Grant had already mastered thoroughly; there was no need to review it. What he wanted to read now were the essential principles of ancient Daoist cultivation. In his view, these morals and precepts were ambiguous and differed from orthodox teachings; reading them was ineffective, as they were a muddled hybrid.

The more books one reads, the more naturally one discards the superfluous parts. That’s why William Grant read very quickly.

“Huh, Pagoda Visualization Out-of-Body Method? Bathing, hand gestures, chanting scriptures? Incantations? Mudras? Can these methods really calm the mind? And then the spirit leaves the body?”

As William Grant continued to skim through the text, suddenly, a lengthy section on a cultivation method caught his eye.

The method described was quite complex, named “Pagoda Visualization Out-of-Body Method.”

It was a technique for the spirit to leave the body. First, one must bathe and cleanse the body, then sit quietly, chant incantations, form hand seals, and wait for the mind to settle. After that, one visualizes a seven-story tall pagoda, climbing it step by step, and at the top, suddenly leaps upward. The spirit then leaves the body.

The incantations were very complicated, and the hand gestures were also intricate—just looking at them made one’s head spin. It was clear that it would take a long time to master.

“Such complicated incantations and mudras. But…”

Even for William Grant, seeing these mudras and incantations—especially since the incantations themselves contained precepts and moral reasoning—was overwhelming. It was simply impossible to memorize and practice them.

“Hmm?” William Grant suddenly recalled a passage from the Grass Hut Notes.

“The Great Dao is supremely simple, yet those Daoists insist on creating complex mudras and incantations. In fact, bathing, chanting, and hand gestures are all just ways to calm the mind. When a scholar sits down, his mind naturally becomes as calm as still water; there’s no need for all that.”

Remembering this, William Grant suddenly felt enlightened, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

Beside the stone chamber was a table, and on the table were brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

William Grant sat on the stool in front of the table, added water to the inkstone, and ground the ink, listening to the “huo huo, huo huo, huo huo…” sound of the ink being ground, his mood gradually settling.

Once calm, William Grant spread out the paper and wrote the character “静” (“calm”) three times in a row.

While writing, his demeanor was completely serene.

Although William Grant could not achieve the state of great scholars who could instantly calm their minds upon sitting, he could, through the process of grinding ink and writing, bring himself to a state of tranquility.

Once settled, William Grant closed his eyes and visualized a seven-story pagoda above his head. When he reached the top, he suddenly leapt upward!

“Huh? My spirit didn’t leave my body? Everything’s still normal?”

After imagining the leap, William Grant opened his eyes but found nothing unusual. He was still himself; he pinched his hand and could still feel it.

The surroundings remained unchanged.

“Why can’t my spirit leave the body? Is there some crucial step I’m missing? Could it be…”

William Grant calmed himself again, focused his mind, and tried once more, but it still didn’t work.

He fell into deep thought.

“Climb the pagoda, leap out at the top… The key must be here…” William Grant pondered this cultivation method.

“I’ve got it…”

A flash of insight suddenly struck William Grant.

He closed his eyes and recalled a childhood memory of following his mother up the first tower of Yujing City, the “Baoyue Pagoda.”

The “Baoyue Pagoda” had thirteen stories. Climbing up floor by floor, one could almost overlook all of Yujing. At the time, his mother held his hand, and when they reached the top, the wind blew, and looking down, the people below were only the size of fists. He felt dizzy and his legs went weak.

“This is the feeling…”

William Grant thought to himself, “Leap out, leap out…”

Though it was just an illusion, recalling his childhood experience still made William Grant shiver involuntarily. Suddenly, he steeled his resolve and leapt upward with all his might! His whole being jumped off the tower!

Boom!

Heaven and earth were no longer the same!

With that leap of thought, as if jumping off a cliff in his mind, William Grant suddenly felt his body become light, as if he were floating weightlessly. The scene before his eyes was still the same—books all around, stone walls on every side.

But there was one difference!

William Grant could see his own body!

To be precise, his whole being was floating lightly above his own head, completely weightless, and he could see his own body.

His body was breathing faintly, eyes tightly closed, as if asleep, or perhaps unconscious.

“My soul has left my body!”

A thought surged up in William Grant’s mind.

William Grant was not alarmed; he thought, “It’s said that people with weak bodies can have their souls leave their bodies in dreams at night. It’s nothing extraordinary.”

He looked around; everything was as usual. He tried to flip through a book, but found that his soul couldn’t move the book at all. Clearly, the soul was just an intangible, formless thought.

He looked again.

There was no shadow under the lamp, as if he didn’t exist at all.