'How laws work?... What are they? They're the way of the world, why anything happens.'
"Laws work by...I don't know"
"That's okay, I didn't assume you could explain why they work, so let me explain. Laws are not only the 'why' things happen, they are the the things that happen. Fire is not created by heat laws, fire is created by fire laws. Laws are both cause and effect. That's the first thing you need to understand. Now how can you use the laws without them being used, and since we can do that why do they get used up in external cultivation?"
"Because of the world, it assimilates the laws, creating the effect right?"
"Exactly. So when we do internal body cultivation, the laws are not assimilated with the world so why do they do anything at all? That's because they vibrate!"
'Vibrate... That sounds familiar, similar to how Flowing Divine Script works.'
"Laws resonate and their vibrations induce sympathetic vibrations in neighbouring laws, temporarily manifesting effects. Like plucking a zither string creates vibrations on the string which causes vibrations in the air as sound."
'So Flowing Divine Script is like an advanced body cultivation technique...' Hou was constantly thinking in his head about the lesson he was being given.
"I understand, and so the more laws you have, the more the vibrations can induce other laws and so the stronger the technique."
"Exactly, but now think of something else. Why do the laws do what you say, what is mental energy to command laws? Mental energy is above laws, it is the fundamental specialty of life. Life begets consciousness and consciousness can control laws. This is seen even without any cultivation. A strong desire can slightly alter the world. This is why a huge amount of mortals can think one thing and it can manifest in the world. Things like horseshoes provide luck. At first it was superstition, but through continuous belief it has woven actual luck laws into horseshoes. This shows how consciousness helps to sculpt reality."
"That's...amazing. so even without directly using mental energy, just thought could accidently manipulate laws!"
"Yes, it's a beautiful thought. That's why even in hard situations, by remaining level headed or better yet positive is a requirement for cultivators. Without doing this you could accidently manifest your own bad luck, dooming yourself for failure."
"Mindse-" as Hou was speaking, he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Mo Huai closed his eyes briefly and smirked. He sat up and stretched, saying to Hou,
"You should go check the door, put on your disguise though"
Hou nodded and grabbed dhis ring with his fingers. He closed his eyes and poured his mental energy into the ring, transformation laws activating and he turned into a scholar.
His robes transformed into a light blue scholar uniform and he grew a slight but taller. He had a book and brush on his belt and he walked over to the door.
He opened the door and was greeted by Xiao Ye,
"Hi Daizi, here's the two Clean Body Pills Sir Zhao ordered,"
She held out a tray with two blue pills on top. They looked like an ocean in an orb, even a salty smell emanated from them.
Hou picked them up and placed them in his robe, his ears already slightly blushing at his earlier actions.
"Thank you Xiao Xiao, you look really nice by the way," Hou, despite his shyness, decided to compliment Xiao Ye anyway.
Xiao Ye chuckled and winked one eye,
"See you later, little Daizi."
She pressed her finger to her lips and pointed it at Hou. A spark of harmless heat law resonance made its way through the air and tickled his nose. This was an application of the few heat laws she had in her body to use the Red Heat Flush technique she bought.
Hou watched her from behind as she walked away, his face already blushing, only added because of the heat she expelled to him.
'She teases me too much!!'
Hou closed the door and brought the pills back to Mo Huai, who had already undone his disguise. When he saw Hou walk back in with a blush he hid his face with his hand, hiding his smirk.
Hou undid his disguise himself, shrinking again, his body returning to the look of the Celestial Law Amplifying Physique. His red blushed turned into a multi-coloured flush because of his galaxy-like blood.
Hou held out the two pills. Mo Huai took one pill and held it up with two fingers,
"This is a Clean Body Pill as you heard, and as you can guess it cleans the body. This could be used for our lesson actually. Don't absorb the pill yet, we'll use it for study first."
Hou picked up the remaining pill and held it in his fingers,
"So what do I do instead of absorbing it?"
"We'll learn how to detect the laws. To detect laws, you can use your consciousness in the astral world as I saw you did before. But there's an easier way, inject mental energy straight back into the consciousness and expand your consciousness around what you want to observe."
"Okay,"
Hou injected his consciousness with mental energy and imagined himself forming around the pill. He got some sort of knowledge about the pill, he felt a sense of being inside water.
"You should feel it, this is your intuition being strengthened. Not as much as the Vast Eyes technique, but much simpler. This is how you can detect different laws. As you learn as experience more laws you'll naturally be able to intuit more. Now we can absorb the pill"
"So I can eat it now?"
"No no, I should've explained. This pill isn't eaten, it's crushed. You strip yourself and crush the pill above your head and water wraps around you, cleaning you. I did a more advanced version of this before, remember? That one ignored your clothes, but this is a low grade pill and requires you to be nude"
Hou nodded, remembering when Mo Huai cleaned his body with a blob of floating water. It went past his clothes, making sure they were dry. It must've required a lot of control to only clean the body.
He then stripped while turned away from Mo Huai, and while fully nude he crushed the pill above his head. Instantly a huge amount of water gushed out of the pill. It then slowed in the air and turned into a large snake or tentacle.
The water serpent coiled around him, not too hot but noticeably hot enough to open his pores to clean properly. It flushed his now open pores with precision, even drawing out the dirt from underneath his fingernails. Then it pushed into his mouth, scrubbing his teeth and removing a thick layer of plaque. His teeth now shining white, the water all surged from his body and coalesced.
The water formed a new condensed pill, filled with impurities and surely not usable again. It was filled with all the dirt that has accumulated since he begun his journey to accept the inheritances.