" Can Senior Brother enlighten me on how to deal with Inner Demons ? .
I couldn't suppress my curiosity and directly asked him about the countermeasures the Practitioners have against their Inner Demons and if possible to even vanquish them completely, senior brother answer left me a bit unsettled .
He shock his head at my question and said in a bitter tone :
It's not that I don't want to answer, it's just that I'm not knowledgeable enough about these matters, I'm taking the path towards ignoring asking about these kind of stuff and hopefully this will be enough to prevent the form of those Inner Demons .
After said this, I couldn't help but look at him in complete disbelief, after all what kind of logic was that, ignorance sometimes is a bliss, I can agree with that, but to think a dignified guy like the guy in front of me will follow such a reasoning was completely mind-blowing .
But as I stared at him in a complete disbelief, he suddenly chuckled and said :
And second Senior Brother really have the nerve to say that I don't have sense of humour, I will be sure to debate him once he come back here .
A joke, so the words he said earlier which almost ended in frying some of the circuits in my brain were nothing but a lame joke he was trying to crack, so other people had already called him out for lacking humour .
I really can't be blaming them for that after I got a taste of his so-called humour myself, if it was up to me, I would have told him to gather his things and get out of here as quick as possible .
The look in your eyes junior brother for some reason, it stings .
Well, as it should, that what was in my thoughts for him, I really almost lashed out now at this, but seeing that there would be no point of doing that, also reminding myself that the guy in front of me was a big benefactor to me also helped in calming me down, I suppressed the urge to slap him or say some really hurtful things and instead said :
" Can Senior Brother continue explaining the matters with the Inner Demons more thoroughly now .
He gave me a weird look then nodded his head and said :
Even though that look in your eyes is still painful to see, I would help you out, listen carefully, my words earlier could be considered a good joke but in fact there were really some truth to them .
At him saying this, my expression couldn't help but become even more weird to look at, I had no clue about what he was saying or trying to say, one thing I know for certain, he still think that the prank he did earlier was funny, I was at loss of what to say in reply to that, so just to be on the safe side, I decided to be merciful and just let him be .
I also couldn't help but be amazed by how people in this world be able to shift their whole character, a few minutes ago that Senior Brother was shining brightly like the sun and steady as a mountain, but then he became like this, if he wasn't right in front of me, I would have kept shaking my head at this .
I can tell that you are excited to hear the answer to your question, but I would still like for you to stop looking at me with that look in your eyes, or I will gauge them out for you .
His domineering self returned again and I was happy than ever at that, even though he had said some very threatening words, I was sure that he won't do something like that, probably, but just to be safe than sorry, I stopped with my judgemental look and listened carefully to what he was saying .
As I was saying earlier, my words just now carried some bits of truth to them, the Inner Demons main focus when assaulting the mind and the heart are the weak vulnerabilities which the Practitioners have, so if they were to start assaulting, the best thing to do was to keep a clear heart and mind and stood to your ground .
The attacks of Inner Demons were consisting of using illusions to persuade Practitioners into falling in their traps, I might have forgot to mention that earlier, but once the Practitioners unable to suppress his Inner Demon or contain it anymore due to let's say being no longer able to have faith in your chances to achieve a breakthrough or failing to carry a few earlier, you know what this lead to ? .
" Complete Doom .
I involuntarily blurted these two words out, my senior brother looked at me with appreciation for my wit and said :
It wasn't a question, but it's great that you was able to reach that conclusion on your own, you are indeed right, being unable to have confidence in achieving a breakthrough, meant that the Inner Demon had already succeeded on putting a shadow of doubt in the heart of the Practitioner .
This was even worse for the Practitioner than failing to achieve a breakthrough even if that happened for a few times and resulted in increasing the strength of the Inner Demon by a huge extent .
But even with this difficult situation, he can still be able to comeback through some fortuitous encounters or making some wilful gains by chance which would allow him to deal with the problem directly or allow him to buy the elixirs and pills that could be of help to him in this depart .
He might still have a chance to make a comeback and might even become stronger than he was ever before due to how the struggles he was forced to deal with, might have given some more benefits in terms of experience or removing the weaknesses in his heart as well .
As for the previous mentioned state where the Inner Demon had already succeeded in leaving a shadow of doubt in the Practitioner's heart, well, at that stage, all that he can do was try to struggle as much as he could for the chance of being able to break free somehow, otherwise his Path in Martial Arts is considered over .
That shadow of doubt will become his bottleneck going further, he will need to remove it out of the way, then he will need to deal with the Inner Demon that have already become a strong obstacle almost as strong as the original bottleneck needed to be passed cleanly to achieve a flawless breakthrough without leaving hidden injuries .
After overcoming the obstacle of Inner Demon, the Practitioner will finally able to reap some of the fruits of all his struggles, the last bottleneck will be quite easy to pass and then the Inner Demon will be weakened by a lot, paving the way to achieving more breakthrough in the future, all under the premise that the Practitioner have the will and the clear heart and mind to pursue higher Practice Realms .
So as I said earlier, ignoring its efforts to make you slip in your practice and dealing with it as nothing might be a good solution to stop it from successfully exploiting a weakness in your heart, in the process of breakthrough and once the assault of Inner Demon if one had already formed, then your only solution is to discard of all the distractions it will try to throw at you .
After the breakthrough is achieved, the Inner Demon will retreat and wait for the second chance to strike you dead, the people who fell under the influence of their Inner Demon, tends to go berserk from time to time, destroying and attacking everything and everyone they happened to see in front of them without any clear mind at all .
So ignoring the inner demon was really one of the good solution for those who don't have the ability to buy Pills that should be able to help them out, the other solution would be to clear your heart from doubts, if the Inner Demon formed due to for an example, you being uncertain of doing something like beating an opponent .
Then by still challenging that opponent and killing it, you will be able to reduce the effectiveness of the Inner Demon ability to influence you, keeping a clear heart and conscience while also having unyielding spirit and having a steady foundation, all these things could help you in trumping over your Inner Demon .
If you have those things, even the chances of forming an Inner Demon will be reduced greatly .
Senior Brother returned to his serious guiding mode and explained to me all sorts of things about the Inner Demons, but after listening to all that he said about them, I couldn't help but ask :
" Senior Brother is there a way to vanquish those Inner Demons once and for all ? .
His answer to me with him shaking his head then he said :
Other than stopping it from forming by discarding of obsessions, guilt, doubts and desires, once the Inner Demon form, it can only being contained each and every time, as for completely subdue it, I have never heard about something like that Senior Brother .
You would be surprised at how many Practitioners have Inner Demons, the reson was simple but also not, the reason for this was because it's difficult to find a person who had completely let go of his desires and come in terms with all his past actions and empraced his regrets, otherwise that guy might as well be labeled as a Monk or a Saint .
I guess for most knowing about stuff like that was quite alarming, but I can see that you're quite composed and that enough to tell me that you will keep a clear head about how you will go on and walk towards the Peak of Martial Arts Path, I hope that you don't have to deal with Inner Demons along the way, but if you did, don't fret too much about it .
Instead steady yourself and strengthen your resolve, then you will certainly able to beat it every time, focus on practicing and keep trying to fortify your foundation and always keep it stable as for it to not becoming a weakness in your heart .
Also if this old tree were to release more of that magical mist, be sure to be there, after it stop being beneficial to you, that should be happening after you reach the Late stage of your practice in the Flesh Tempering, or you beginning to think that it no longer can benefit you, I would still tell you to continue to come here .
The illusion that this mist make you fall in was good for you to temper your heart, even though it's a bit tiring and mentally consuming, it can still help you in tempering your resolve and heart without being under the constant threat of Inner Demons and what might be the consequences of losing to it, do you understand ? .
As Senior Brother said this, I couldn't help but agree, after all what make us humans were desires and hopes, if you stripped away those things, then you would be forced to strip away our feelings as well, or else we will be suffering from being unable to have any satisfaction with the way we live our life, it seemed that this concept was universal as even in this strange world, this was still the same .
It also seemed that there was really no clear way about beating Inner Demons and vanquishing them completely, after I realized this, I become more calm and collected than before, I didn't think that I would have much an issue in dealing with my Inner Demon, I nodded my head at him asking this and said :
" Thank senior brother for clearing this out for me, I will be sure to keep that in mind going forward .
How about we get out of here and I will give you a tour and explain most things about the Dojo, let's go .
Without even waiting for me to say anything at all, Senior Brother Fu directly got out of the Hall and I followed him, after all it was a heaven send opportunity to get him to guide me around, I would be stupid if I were to refuse accepting his kindness, so I too ran after him and got out of the Hall .
But once I passed by the gate, I saw him standing there at the entrance of the Hall and once he saw me, he pointed at two other Halls entrances that were behind the one we were in, those 3 Halls were linked by a corridor, he then told me to follow him and we entered one of the two Halls in front .
After we entered the Hall, I was taken aback by what I saw, I saw a row upon row of disciple sitting in a meditative position and the incense scent in the room was quite abundant, they were closing their eyes and focusing on their practice, seeing them like this, I turned to senior brother and he aware of what I was thinking, directly said :
Well, enjoying that mist of insight wasn't only for us Close Disciple, there is a few good seedlings among Inner Disciples that was giving the right to enjoy this as well after meeting a certain kind of requirements, like talent, discipline and things of this sort .
The amount of mist they have here was more limited than the amount in the other Hall we were in just now, but it was enough to help those guys greatly and these kind of arrangement were made for their sake as well .
If they were to deal with the same level of concentration as us, they might have gone crazy, so they were put in that second Hall, as for The third Hall you see there, this was where the entrance was .
After hearing him say this, I turned my head around to him and looked at him in disbelief, thinking that this guy might have wanted me to suffer some injury or something by the way he just let me go into that Hall where the concentration of that mist was the highest, not only that but he exposed me to this while I was unconscious as well .
Don't look at me as if I was trying to kill you, as long as you aren't weak-minded or fully conscious when absorbing the Mist, you would be quite fine and I told you before didn't I, you just needed to stay still until your injuries heal a bit .
If I thought you were struggling, I would have went and helped you directly, so you don't need to try and make me feel guilty about it .
I kept looking at him with a scrutinizing look, for some time and after hearing what he said, I said :
" I believe that Senior Brother won't be so pitiful and do such a thing .
What followed my words was him coughing and that was all that I needed to confirm my suspicion of him, he really tried to pull a quite dangerous prank on me just now, luckily I had the Panel to help me out in that sort of situation .
Cough, but I have to say, after sparring against you, I can clearly tell that you had your own experience with life-death situations, I won't be intruding further and ask you about it, but I wanted you to have more faith in your strength and fighting skills .
If I was dealing with you while my body was similar to yours, I can't say for certain that I would won, that's much of pressure you were able to put me at the end of our fight, you were quite perceptive of where you needed to strike, but I felt your hesitation after you were a fraction of finishing your attacks .
It's good that you also have an acute sense of danger, what I'm trying to make you understand here is the fact that you can trust your strength a bit more, your moves were sharp, you depended too much on infusing your eyes with Blood Qi, you should have felt some sting in your eyes after using it for so long .
The 5 senses can be optimized using Blood Qi, but there was a catch to this, these senses lay on the main meridians and orifices, meaning that if you overwhelmed them with work, you might end up injuring the meridians and orifices related to them, which might lead to you losing your senses and crippling your own meridians .
That's why without training a specific Martial Skill that you could follow its instructions on how to infuse more Blood Qi in your senses efficiently and effectively .