The next day was Sunday, and William Jacques arrived early at André's residence carrying four full burlap sacks of newspapers, magazines, comics, and other reading materials. True to his word, he had promised yesterday to help André collect these publications and completed the task without compromise the next day.
However, André declined William's invitation to work at the seafood market together. After William left, he also temporarily ignored those burlap sacks and continued sitting cross-legged. He still had a crucial matter to attend to and had no time to read those materials.
Last night he had been deeply shocked by the cultivation method practiced by the original owner, and without realizing it, had researched it until dawn, nearly causing problems.
This was a supreme cultivation method called the "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method," taught by the original owner's father Li Chunchu.
"Profound transformation" in Confucianism referred to the moral education of sages, while in Taoism it meant miraculous changes.
Used in the "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method," it naturally carried the latter meaning. As for "dual elements," as the name suggested, this method had two transformation forms.
It could be the Eastern-oriented "Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Dual Formless Scripture" or the Western-oriented "Eighty-Eight Constellation Meditation Method."
First, regarding the "Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Dual Formless Scripture" - in Taoism, "Zhou Tian" meant circle. This "circle" signified cyclic repetition and continuity. Small Zhou Tian meant small circle, great Zhou Tian meant great circle. Whether perfect circles, ellipses, long or short circles, the coming and going of true lines, the back-and-forth of curves, vertical connections, or exchanges between heaven and humanity - all could be called Zhou Tian.
Additionally, this was an alternative name for celestial stars, including 14,800 subsidiary stars, 365 primary stars, 28 constellations, the Northern and Southern Dippers, Gouchen and Ziwei, and so on.
Yuan Chen was another name for stars, also representing New Year's Day and auspicious days.
Taoism also had twelve Yuan Chen gods, also called "Twelve Monthly Generals" - deities governing the twelve months, arranged according to the twelve earthly branches.
What the Dual Elements were naturally needed no explanation here. As for "formless," both Taoist and Buddhist teachings had interpretations. In Taoism it was originally written as "imageless," meaning without traces or concrete form or concepts. Originally a Taoist term describing the mysterious formlessness of the Dao, it later generally referred to the mysterious and unfathomable nature of various principles.
In Buddhism, the absence of all appearances of absolute truth was called "formless," corresponding to "with form."
Used here, it should mean having no specific form, or being able to take any form.
Understanding these concepts revealed what kind of cultivation method this was. Roughly, it borrowed the power of celestial stars to cultivate true essence, then visualized constellations compatible with oneself, drawing stellar spirits into the body to condense one's "Yuan Chen Gods" in one's consciousness sea.
These twelve Yuan Chen Gods corresponded to this method's twelve levels and were divided into yin and yang as Dual Elements, forming a yin-yang cycle that completed the Zhou Tian circle.
Cultivating this method not only allowed borrowing the "Yuan Chen Gods'" power to improve one's realm and magical power, but also enabled simulating any techniques, martial arts skills, or even cultivation systems with similar properties.
However, this cultivation method had vast differences in upper and lower limits, with varying power levels depending on the individual.
If the twelve Yuan Chen Gods only originated from ordinary subsidiary stars in the celestial star chart, then this "Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Dual Formless Scripture's" effectiveness would at most rank in the lower-middle tier among various cultivation systems. But if those Yuan Chen Gods were all twelve primary stars, it would be comparable to the highest-level immortal sect secret methods.
If among these Yuan Chen Gods there were Taiyin and Taiyang, Southern and Northern Dippers, Gouchen and Ziwei, Taiwei and Tianshi, plus the Wolf-Breaking-Army constellation, that would be extraordinary - "limitless prospects" wouldn't suffice to describe it. If nothing unexpected happened, achieving the legendary "Great Ascension" realm would be within easy reach.
However, this possibility was extremely slim, one in ten thousand. For a person's soul to simultaneously resonate with top-tier stars like Taiyin and Taiyang - what kind of luck and talent would that require?
As for the other form of the "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method," the "Eighty-Eight Constellation Meditation Method," it was also related to stars.
Constellation, with the Latin name CONSTELLATION, referred to combinations of stars whose projections appeared close together on the celestial sphere. In English it meant "constellation" or "star group," while in astrology it meant "sign," "mark," or "symbol."
André, coming from the Original Dome Realm, knew nothing about Western constellation knowledge. He found this information from the original owner's memories and learned that this "Eighty-Eight Constellation Meditation Method" could similarly use constellation power for self-cultivation, simulating various Western fighting energy and magic properties - incredibly miraculous.
Of course, this meditation method had the same characteristics as the "Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Dual Formless Scripture" - vast differences in upper and lower limits with varying power levels depending on the individual.
After all, among constellations, the status of the twelve zodiac houses differed from other equatorial, southern celestial, northern celestial, and northern circumpolar constellations. Among the eighty-eight constellations, there were gold, silver, and bronze distinctions: 12 gold, 24 silver, 48 bronze, with vastly different powers.
Of course, among silver and bronze there were also individual powerful ones that could rival gold constellations, such as the southern Phoenix and Peacock constellations, and the northern Draco and Cepheus constellations.
Getting somewhat off-topic - in summary, after William's interruption woke André, he had five insights.
First, his body wasn't completely devoid of magical power and true essence.
Second, this "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method" was truly impressive - incredibly powerful by this world's standards.
Third, it still had room for improvement, especially regarding the utilization of elemental essence or magical energy, which could be greatly optimized. For Tao Ran from the Original Dome Realm, who wished he could make one portion of elemental essence serve as two, the "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method's" efficiency in elemental utilization was crudely wasteful beyond description.
Fourth, Li Chunchu's identity was questionable. What was this person's purpose in carrying such miraculous cultivation methods eastward to America?
Unfortunately, the original owner's memories and soul he had merged with were incomplete. Despite prolonged contemplation, André couldn't find specific reasons, though he could sense the original owner had considerable obsession in this regard.
Fifth, the original André had high aspirations. In the "Zhou Tian Yuan Chen Dual Formless Scripture," he chose two Yuan Chen Gods: North Pole and South Pole. In the "Eighty-Eight Constellation Meditation Method," he selected Little Bear and South Pole constellations - though only silver-level among the eighty-eight constellations, these were powerful constellations rivaling the twelve zodiac houses.
André didn't know if this was coincidence or his luck exploding. These North and South Poles, Little Bear and South Pole, perfectly corresponded to his remaining magical treasure, the "Yin-Yang Life-Death Mirror." But the original owner's cultivation was difficult precisely because of this.
Choosing top-tier stars like North and South Pole from the beginning undoubtedly set cultivation difficulty to MAX.
So even with the best cultivation talent and the deepest foundation his father provided, the original owner still struggled on the cultivation path at turtle speed.
Without André taking over, the original owner's fate was predictable. Despite having spiritual bones, whether he could even reach the twelfth level was questionable - he might not even live past sixty.
One should know that though the "Dual Profound Transformation Great Method" was a type of Eastern qi cultivation, it didn't emphasize foundation much or nourish the source. It was more similar to Western cultivation methods, focusing on激发ing one's potential with swift and violent cultivation techniques.
Just looking at America's many magical professionals showed they usually cultivated quickly, with outlaws in their thirties everywhere. But these people's lifespans weren't long unless they crossed into legendary realm, requiring life potions and similar drugs to significantly extend lifespan.
However, life potions were worth tens of millions of gold shields - the original owner obviously couldn't afford such sums.