When Ji Aojian found the ascetic in the deep mountains, he felt that he had only found a "stone".

This is an old man who looks very frail. His hair was very thin, almost bald. The wrinkles on his face are mottled like rocks, his body is so dry that he seems to have no trace of moisture, and his complexion is indistinguishable from his surroundings. As he sat there motionless, no one could feel that he was a living thing.

It's truly one with nature, right?

To be sure, almost all of them are already fossils.

Ji Aojian also stood motionless in front of him, and after three days and three nights, this old man who seemed to be frozen opened his eyes slightly.

It was just a slight point of the eyelids, and the movement was so slow that it almost took a stick of incense. When Ji Aojian saw this rhythm, he felt that all the functions of his body had been seriously degraded, and even his ability to speak had not been retained.

Sure enough, after the old man saw Ji Aojian, there was nothing abnormal in his eyes, as if there was no such person in front of him.

His eyes then closed, and he fell into a granite silence again.

The meaning of the ascetic is very clear: he has no disciples, no companions, no interest in communicating with the people in front of him,

Ji Aojian was still standing in front of him, motionless.

After another three days and three nights, the ascetic lifted his eyelids slightly, saw that the person was still there, and continued to close his eyes.

According to the rules of ascetics, whether they are apprentices or looking for companions, as long as they prove that they also have advanced ascetic practices, they will hope to be recognized.

However, Ji Aojian's goal has nothing to do with either of the above. He was just here to observe the ascetic, so he didn't care what the other party's attitude was, and he had the patience to keep waiting.

Because he had already found the old man. There is not much life essence left, and if he does not make some moves at the last moment, he will have no chance of liberation in this life, and will fall into the cycle of the world.

So far, Ji Aojian has not known what kind of ascetic sect the other party is.

It doesn't matter, though.

In the vast area of the South Asian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau, the Aryans had been divided into two branches since the Aryans came in a thousand years ago, and there was a deep tradition of asceticism among the upper classes.

From an early age, they have received the basic ideas and cultivation system of asceticism. When you have fulfilled your worldly obligations to marry a wife and have children, you can choose whether or not to leave home and become a strict practitioner.

If you really decide to go out and practice, after embarking on this journey. It can be divided into three stages: seclusion in the jungle, wandering in all directions, and ultimate liberation.

This is a pattern of asceticism that has been widely spread thousands of years ago and has profoundly influenced the various religions that have emerged in India and Iran since then.

So it doesn't matter if this old man is a Brahman, a Buddhist, a Jai, or a Zoroastrian, Manichaean, or Mazdaan from ancient Persia, or a primitive Bon or an Esoteric from Tibet, or even from the mystical order of I'slanism and Sikhism. Everyone has the opportunity to practice this ascetic system.

Now that he has taken the path of the "ego" in search of self-liberation. It doesn't matter which sect he comes from.

When the old man opened his eyes again after three days and three nights, he suddenly realized one thing: his psychic sense could have known whether all living creatures within a radius of miles existed, but the person in front of him actually needed to see it with his own eyes to know if he had left.

Could it be that the young man on the other side is also an ascetic who has achieved the unity of Brahman?

The old man's solidified mind suddenly felt a certain touch, and he stood up very, very slowly, and walked in one direction very slowly.

Ji Aojian didn't say a word, and heeled from behind. He could see it. The old man's slow movements were not intentionally procrastinating. Rather, it is the inevitable depletion of mobility after a long retreat.

It was Ji Aojian himself, because he had stood for nine days and nine nights in a row, he felt that his hands and feet had a rusty feeling, and he had to spend a period of adjustment to return to normal levels.

But to keep up with the ascetics who have been sluggish for a long time, it is no problem at all. When Ji Aojian's blood line accelerated and his behavior went as usual, the old man's movements were still slow and staggering.

Ji Aojian pondered: Is this kind of ascetic method really scientific?

Pan-Indo-Persian ascetics tend to see penance only as a means of honing the spirit, but not as a method of refining the body. As a result, years of hard practice can certainly make the spiritual will tenacious and condensed, but the body is also destroyed to the point that it is broken.

Ji Aojian has seen all kinds of penances, some people can adapt to extreme temperature differences and sit and lie down peacefully on the coals, some people can control their breathing and diet, and bury themselves in the ground for many days to sleep, and some people can pierce their bodies with a hundred blades and still not die after suffering all over the world...... If there are scientific and reasonable means of recovery and recuperation, then these methods of ascetic cultivation will not only temper the mind, but also help to cultivate a high-level and superb martial arts.

Unfortunately, although some ascetics consciously or unconsciously control the limits of physical harm, most practitioners do not care about this problem, and often die early due to health problems after a period of courageous cultivation, and have no chance of achieving positive results.

Is this too closed among ascetics? Also, many people have become so enthusiastic that they have lost their ability to speak, and it is really too difficult and difficult to communicate with each other and improve together.

As for the ascetic who is following now, Ji Aojian feels that there is indeed no problem with his spiritual realm and natural communication, but this physical fitness is really worrying.

Therefore, how important it is to have a complete cultivation system. There are also many vicious and cruel and shocking methods of refining the body in martial arts, especially the magic skills of the Demon Gate, well, the specific way may come from India. But there is always a corresponding solution to these practices, and Ji Aojian not only did not practice the disabled, but also became stronger the more he practiced.

Ji Aojian followed the old man for a few days, and he already understood the direction he was going, which was the highest mountain in the world.

If an ascetic wants to be liberated, he has to go to a holy place. See if you have a chance to transcend samsara.

In fact, for many religions in South Asia, the most important sacred mountain is Mount Kailash in the Gangdis Mountains, because there is also a sacred lake under the peak. The Holy Mountain and the Holy Lake are the most perfect nature.

Mount Everest is of course considered a sacred mountain due to its high altitude, but it is extremely difficult to climb and the search for relief is even more difficult.

Fortunately, the world's highest peak in this era still has the possibility of spiritual liberation for cultivators, and when the wave of mountaineering teams reaches the peak in the future, there will be no such possibility.

Ji Aojian guessed that this ascetic might be the more difficult it was. The more he could prove the effectiveness of his penance, he chose Mount Everest.

Moreover, even if you climb Mount Everest, you can't get individual relief. There is also an even more sacred Mount Kailash to try your luck and not let yourself completely lose hope.

At the foot of Mount Everest, looking up at the steep mountain wall like a sharp sword piercing the sky, the old man's appearance did not change. Ji Aojian noticed that his mind was much more active. Even the movements are not as stiff and numb as they should be, but they are much more flexible and agile.

Perhaps, his spirit really has a spiritual echo with the mountains.

Seeing the ascetic using his hands and feet together, struggling to climb to the peak, Ji Aojian didn't think much about it anymore, and silently followed from below.

At the base of the mountain, the peak is well above the sea, and after a short time of climbing, the mountain is covered with snow and ice. It's slippery and hard to walk, and it's even more cold and windy. Devil May Cry.

Ji Aojian was behind the old man, which was equivalent to someone leading in front, so he didn't feel any difficulty just following his route.

At an altitude of less than six thousand meters, the ascetic climbed a little slowly, but he was able to rise at a uniform speed without any hindrance, about an hour and a thousand meters. If he can always maintain this speed, Ji Aojian feels that he will have no problem reaching the top in the end.

But when he reached a height of more than six thousand meters, the old man's figure stopped, and his breathing began to be disordered.

Is the altitude still too high?

Ji Aojian thought: There is no oxygen equipment, no thick clothes to keep out the cold, climbing to this scale is already the limit for this ascetic who is not in good health.

The rest of the journey was not only more oxygen-deficient and colder, but also steeper and more dangerous, and it was hard to imagine how this old man could reach the top.

After a long time, Ji Aojian saw that the person above his head had not moved an inch, so he strengthened his hands and feet, and slowly crawled past him and came to the upper position.

In common sense, it is easy to be exhausted when walking alone, but if someone leads the way, you can follow his pace for a longer time.

Although ascetics are usually eccentric and may not be willing to accept help. But Ji Aojian thought to himself: I have already asked you to take a long journey, and now I am leading the way, it is just a matter of coming and going, I don't think you will even have to refuse this, right?

Sure enough, as he expected, as he slowly climbed up again, the ascetics below him followed little by little.

While climbing, Ji Aojian had the strength in his palm, and made pits on the ice shell as hard as iron, so that future generations could use these pits to climb more easily and save some energy.

As much as possible, they followed the rhythm of the old man, and slowly climbed for two hours, and it was already dark, but the two of them rose a thousand meters again, and there was only a distance of more than a thousand meters.

Ji Aojian thought optimistically, even if the speed behind him needed to be slower, at most, after this night, he would definitely be able to take the ascetic to the peak.

Just as he was about to continue climbing, he was suddenly stunned and looked back.

The very old ascetic, with one hand still stretched upward, showed a deep expectation in his eyes, but there was no breath in his mouth and nose, and his whole body was connected to the mountain wall, and it really became a rock, slowly covered by ice.

It's a pity.

Ji Aojian smiled bitterly, now this altitude has reached more than seven thousand meters, which has surpassed the height of Mount Kailash, but this ascetic still did not survive, is it to blame Mount Everest is too high?

He took a long breath and looked at the entire subcontinent beneath the peak, which had been shrouded in night.

Since the Vedic era 3,000 years ago, there has been a mature ascetic tradition on this continent, and generations of ascetics have broken their desires and achieved self-liberation.

In other words, these practitioners do not need to pay attention to the historical changes in the region at all, as long as they focus on their asceticism and liberation, no one will bother them.

In the past few thousand years, groups of outsiders and conquerors have come, turning this continent into an ethnographic museum, a language museum, and a religious museum......

However, this has nothing to do with the world of asceticism, and the way of life of ascetics has been fixed in the years of 3,000 years ago.

Is this the right way to practice?

If the ascetics had not paid so much attention to themselves and exchanged and shared their experiences with their colleagues, would they not have been so sad in terms of physical maintenance?

If ascetics are not so self-conscious and can spread their spiritual insights to the public, can they find a new way to purify sentient beings in addition to self-liberation?

For countless years, there was an outstanding practitioner who, after trying the ascetic methods taught by various masters, finally felt that such a closed path was not the most correct path, and thus proposed that self-liberation is only Hinayana and that educating the world is the greatest merit. This religious culture later went abroad and played an important role in the history of the world.

So the real theme of the practice is not just to solve the question of "who am I, where am I from, where am I going?" but also to find the answer to "what we are, where we come from, where are we going?"

The former is just the positive result of a person, but the latter is the positive result of the world in your mind.

Ji Aojian raised his head and looked at the top of the world, and there was no doubt in his eyes anymore.

――On the other side of the mountain, is my hometown.

――There are people I want to meet.

In the cold night and cold wind, I can clearly feel through the mountain peaks that a bright moon is rising from the east.

Ji Aojian slowly stood up, his body standing straight, as if his feet were not almost vertical frozen cliffs at all, but a flat and open loess avenue.

He walked forward step by step, step by step, and just walked up step by step. (To be continued.) )