Ball of Nothing

Hua Tuo wasn't joking when he said that Buddha was a cultivation monster. The ideas Buddha kept suggesting were things the physician had never heard of before. He followed very strictly to the books he read and marital manuals. Cultivation was something that progressed by stages through hard work and talent.

The Enlightened One didn't follow the strict conventional rules that Hua Tuo learnt. In fact, the Sage God of Medicine was wondering if he was severely outdated. He never really kept up with the times but this was just too much. It was as if Buddha told him the world was a pyramid and not a sphere as he always knew it to be.

Simply put it, Hua Tuo was overwhelmed. Buddha just came crashing into his world and pointed out everything was wrong. Now Hua Tuo didn't know what to do with the few centuries worth of cultivation he did. After toiling away for so long, Buddha came in to tell him none of those was really required. The doctor felt depression coming for him.

"The basis of cultivation is a journey about finding yourself and going further spiritually. The moment you attained immortality as a Sage God, the rules of cultivation for mortals no longer applies to you. You've never been restricted to cultivate the ways they did. Seven hundred years to develop the full network for chakra and meridians are for humans. Most of them won't live past two hundred so the method is absurd and completely ineffective."

Hua Tuo felt numb on the inside. His world turned to ice at those words. As if to rub salt into the fresh wound, Buddha added that it simply wasn't possible to begin with because he attained enlightenment without following the manual at the age of thirty-five while he was still human and did it after only forty-nine days of meditation.

The physician didn't dare to meet Buddha's eyes. He didn't know what to say. Buddha's stories were widely known to all but Hua Tuo simply never paid any heed to them. Right now, he was paying the price for his stubborn pride. If only he'd lowered his head to ask the conman for guidance, he wouldn't have wasted almost a millennium trying to get to the enlightened state.

The Enlightened One didn't comment about Hua Tuo's silence. His method of cultivation greatly differed from the Chinese philosophers. There were pros and cons about cultivating it the way Hua Tuo did but a stable foundation was not one of them.

"Don't be sad, old friend. Your time was not wasted. While the basis of enlightenment is the same, the different methods will yield different fruits. Cultivating it my way will only make you become like me. Take a look at my followers in Nirvana and you will understand."

Those gentle words were like salve to Hua Tuo's burns and the physician felt slightly better. Zero was still out and the two Sage Gods discussed details on how to break the limits for Zero who wasn't even human enough to practise cultivation in the first place.

"Well, he's already made it this far. What's a little more cheating going to do? He's not going to get hurt even if he finds out."

Hua Tuo stilled. "You mean..."

Buddha smiled. "If the eight extraordinary meridian points don't exist, we can just create them for Zero. To be more precise, we can guide him into creating them on his own."

Hua Tuo didn't know how they were going to do it but that sounded like a better idea than what he had in mind. "How are we going to pull this off?"

The Enlightened One grinned. "Remember that Zero is now the system administrator? Also, the child knows how to use chaos energy to cushion the friction between qi and mana. Not to mention, he has an affinity with all elements."

Hua Tuo nodded slowly. He still didn't know what Buddha was getting at. Being a system administrator didn't automatically mean that Zero had creation powers. As Zero's teacher, he was very aware of that fact.

The Enlightened One smiled. "Do you know what the eight extraordinary meridians are called in my method of cultivation?"

Hua Tuo shook his head. Sure, there should be similarities but what would that change at this point? Zero's body wasn't human and the boy didn't even have a soul. Cultivation was only qi manipulation for Zero at this point. He wouldn't be able to produce qi of his own just like how he wouldn't be able to produce mana of his own.

Buddha picked up a dried twig meant to build a campfire and dipped it into the water before he started to draw out something on the stone floor of the cave. Hua Tuo recognised it.

"Isn't that the Dharma Wheel?"

Buddha smiled. "Also known as the Eightfold Path. Doesn't this seem familiar with the eight extraordinary meridians? Philosophy isn't all that different. Each extraordinary meridian could be linked to one of these practices. Zero might not have a soul nor a human body to develop the physical cultivation aspects but he has emotions and intelligence, doesn't he?"

The physician nodded. Buddha made sense, this could work. However, there was no guarantee that the method would work. Zero had always been a rather intuitive learner. The doctor remembered clearly when he was teaching Zero how to master healing magic. Revival magic was the toughest stage for anyone to master and even Zero struggled with it. However, after the nightmarish days of experimenting it with no success, Zero suddenly had an awakening and never made a mistake from that day onwards when he used revival magic.

It always amazed Hua Tuo that Zero could find a solution that wouldn't work for anyone else but worked perfectly for him. The teen was always overcoming obstacles and staying true to who he was. That was one thing Hua Tuo had always struggled with. Society's expectations always pressured him back when he was a human and that feeling never disappeared even after attaining immortality. On the other hand, Buddha was like Zero. He didn't allow anyone else to influence him. In fact, Buddha kept his personality intact, unlike Hua Tuo who constantly kept himself in check, afraid of offending the more powerful Gods.

"Zero will find a way," Buddha said. His tone was so serious that Hua Tuo found himself believing the Enlightened One even if he didn't believe in himself. If it was Zero, the boy just might make it.

"We will try your method. Let me know how I could assist," the physician told Buddha who then elaborated on his plans.

The more Hua Tuo listened to Buddha's plans, the more he was convinced. If there was a confidence meter attached to the plan, Hua Tuo would give it an eight out of ten. It might be unconventional and completely went against logic but everything that his student stood for never followed logic. One must fight fire with fire sometimes and this would be one of the times Hua Tuo agreed with the saying.

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Zero came back without a splash this time and it surprised Hua Tuo. The brunet muttered his greetings and lumbered over to the bedding like a zombie before crashing in the straw mattress. Zero didn't often snore when he slept but this time, Hua Tuo heard the soft snoring coming from the teenager who fell asleep in record time. That had to be less than ten seconds but Zero was completely dead to the world. What exactly did his apprentice do to tire himself out so much?

Then again, it was a rare opportunity and Hua Tuo decided to hurry along with the plans. Buddha marked out the matching meridian points to the emotions and teachings in the Eightfold Path.

Right View = Conception Vessel

Right Resolve = Governing Channel

Right Effort = Penetrating Channel

Right Mindfulness = Yin Regulating Channel

Right Concentration = Yang Regulating Channel

Right Speech = Yin Motility Channel

Right Action = Yang Motility Channel

Right Livelihood = Belt Vessels

"We will start in the order of livelihood, speech, action, mindfulness, concentration, effort, view then resolve. It's what completes the cycle from the lowest stage of awakening."

Hua Tuo took down notes and formulated what was required for the forced cultivation session. The Sage Gods hashed out a few more details about what they would do. This time, Buddha will join in with Zero's cultivation training. According to the Enlightened One, there was no need to split the Trigression Falls training into three like what Hua Tuo intended.

"In terms of awakening, the first three stages are mortal virtues as represented by the Aggression Falls. Livelihood, speech and action make up that tier. Progression Falls is what the meditation stage of awakening is all about. Mindfulness, concentration and effort make up this part of the training. The last stage is the actual enlightenment breakthrough called wisdom or insight. It is usually different for every individual. Some take minutes while other years. Some never make it at all. Regression Falls represent this stage of wisdom. Right resolve and right view are the final trials before one becomes enlightened. Zero doesn't struggle with all of them, only some parts of it. To hasten the training process, one person will have to be Zero's anchor and support and the other has to be Zero's guide."

The physician compared notes. Buddha's Eightfold Path was rather similar to the teachings of Confucianism.

"I think I understand the majority of it. It is very similar to the teachings of Confucianism back in China."

Buddha chuckled. He knew why it was similar. "I know. He was my cultivation friend. We met in the void frequently and shared with each other a lot of things. However, he didn't attain immortality because he had too many earthly attachments even after he died."

Hua Tuo was stunned. The great philosopher was actually Buddha's friend? How uncanny was it?

"I see... how should we do this then? I'll be the anchor and you be the guide?"

Buddha shook his head. "You need to be the guide. I don't know anything about human anatomy."

The physician looked troubled. While it was true that Buddha had no clue about human anatomy, Hua Tuo didn't have a good grasp of the correlation between the virtues and the extraordinary meridians they were meant to match. Confucius' version of the Eightfold Path was very incomplete on the details. the general concept was there but Hua Tuo wasn't confident in interpreting them accurately enough to guide Zero.

"I don't know much about the Eightfold Path. You don't have to worry much anatomically because the cultivation method is non-conforming to logic. If anything, Zero might crate them in his inner dimension instead of an extension of his body."

Buddha's eyes lit up at that. "We can create it in his inner dimension then! Nobody said it has to be outside of his vessel. In fact, this can be used when he transfers vessels. Your suggestion is brilliant!"

"I- no, huh? What?" Hua Tuo was confounded. How did this become a suggestion? Also, was it even possible to create extraordinary meridian points in someone's inner dimension? Wasn't the inner dimension a place to recover, store and generate qi?

"How can Zero use the power of the eight extraordinary meridians if it's not part of his vessel?" the doctor asked.

Buddha just raised a brow. "Amitabha. When there is a will, there will be a way. Zero will find the way, our duty is merely to light the path for him."

Hua Tuo felt his eyebrow twitched. Buddha was obviously dodging the question. If the Enlightened One didn't have an answer, how can the physician know what to do?

Still, they didn't have much of a choice. Hua Tuo could only hope that Buddha's confidence will bring them through this.

No! The physician wanted to slap himself. In times like this, hoping was not the right thing to do. Zero's entire cultivation future was depending on it. As the teacher, he would fake it until it comes true. Even if they didn't know what was going to happen with such a shabby plan, Zero was a miracle maker. He would show them the way and as his teacher, Hua Tuo was going to hold the sky full of flimsy lies for Zero until he succeeds.

As long as one had faith, anything was possible.