The Newfound Power and a King's Patience
King Ying Ji and his ministers were filled with speculation. In all of Xianyang, the only person who came close to fitting the description of a saint or a Buddha was Ying Zichu's "divine son." Yet, they were still skeptical. The child was barely over a year old, and they couldn't possibly believe that a god had truly descended to Qin. It had to be a coincidence. After pondering for a while, King Ying Ji ordered his guards to treat the foreigners well, to show them the vastness and hospitality of the Qin State. As for the saints and Buddhas they were looking for, he would know soon enough.
The guards took his orders and left. The gazes of the King and his ministers then turned back to Ying Zichu. Ying Zichu, however, was in a difficult position. "I need to ask my son's opinion about the meeting," he said, unsure of what to do. His son's wishes, after all, were more important than the King's.
Meanwhile, in Xianyang City, Sanjay and the other monks were relieved to hear of King Ying Ji's kind disposition towards them. They decided to learn the Qin language and then try to meet with the Qin saint to test if he was indeed the World Honored One, the Buddha.
As they settled in, the rest of Xianyang was abuzz with the new inventions. A large amount of white paper was sold, and Confucianists and other schools of thought began to revise their bamboo slips into books. They were astounded by the efficiency. A few books could now contain the contents that previously required a cart full of bamboo slips. As the paper, books, and brushes were sold, the Qin State's empty treasury was filled, and King Ying Ji smiled from ear to ear.
But the rulers of other countries were not happy. In the palace of the Wei Kingdom, King Wei Yu, who had mocked Qin multiple times, now had a gloomy, ugly expression. "Did Qin gain a new talent, or did it really give rise to a god?" he wondered aloud. The spies' reports had confirmed that the paper and other items had indeed originated from Huayang Palace. The kings and ministers of other states were equally confused. Were the Qin royal family just masters of deception, or did gods truly exist?
A Saint in a Valley
In a misty valley, an old man with a long white beard, Guiguzi, sat in his bamboo house, staring at the new books on his wooden table. "This man is a genius... A saint?" he sighed, a look of curiosity in his eyes. As a grandmaster well-versed in all schools of thought, he thought nothing could surprise him. But now, in the Qin State, a person had appeared whom he could not understand. He felt a sudden urge to leave his retirement and go to Qin to find out the truth. He wasn't the only one; people from Taoism, the Yin-Yang School, and other schools of thought were also curious about the mysterious figure and wanted to spy on him.
The Birth of True Essence
A month passed. While the outside world was in a frenzy over paper, Zane, in Huayang Palace, was diligently cultivating. He had been in a state of absolute stillness, a detached state of unity with nature. He breathed in, and strands of essence and internal energy were rapidly born in his body. The energy circulated, and a large amount of it went to his lower dantian. After a long, silent roar, a large amount of essence and internal energy gathered and formed strands of liquid energy. These strands, much higher in quality than internal energy, were True Essence.
At the moment the True Essence appeared, his body underwent a change. The magnetic field and energy emanating from him intensified, and he began to emit a faint light. Blue, yellow, red, white, green... all of these colors, which are normally invisible, became visible to the naked eye. He had become a person emitting a faint glow. An indescribable aura permeated his entire body.
When he opened his eyes, they were cold and ruthless, like the sky or the gods. He soon broke away from the meditative state and noticed the changes in his body. "This glimmer..." he said, speechless. He had turned into a little light man. How was he supposed to go out and meet people? He tried to control the glow, but as it converged inward, it gathered behind his head, forming a circle of golden light. He shook his head, but the golden halo remained. The corners of his mouth twitched. "No, what is this? Should we do this?" he wondered.