"In the end, it was you who finally unleashed the pseudo-elixir fire and defeated it." Xiaocao's tone was somewhat fearful. "Fortunately, our performance before was too weak, and fortunately, Mingjin was unwilling to temporarily give up his close connection with the primordial witch power, which is why we succeeded. Otherwise, we would both be dead."
"What's going on?" Lin Yao interrupted, sounding impatient.
"Actually, if Mingjin had temporarily given up his connection with the primordial witch power back then, he could have easily defeated the two of us, swallowed me whole, and then controlled or replaced you, becoming a true 'person'." Xiaocao's earth-shattering words made Lin Yao stagger and almost fall on the grass, so he simply sat down to listen attentively to avoid falling again.
"Now I've also learned that method of applying witch power, which can be used for defense. I estimate that this kind of defense wouldn't even be effective against your pseudo-dan fire. Let's try it out in a bit and verify it after we finish talking about these things."
“Mingjin has mastered four methods of applying witch power: absorption, control, attack, and defense, though most are rudimentary. For example, it can only absorb witch power that has already taken shape; it cannot absorb external witch power. This is why it has been attached to that bull hoof.”
"The control is somewhat similar to the principle of your attribute true qi, except that there is no mental technique. It is just used to send witch power into other creatures for control. Perhaps it is similar to the method you told me about learning from the Miao people, which uses witch power to enhance the physical strength of others."
"The attack is also very simple. Just use your magic power to form thin slices and sharp cones to hit people. The defense is to use your magic power to lower the pressure. It is very likely that it can withstand the burning of the pseudo-elixir fire."
"That's amazing?!" Lin Yao exclaimed dumbfounded, thinking that if it were true, then he and Xiao Cao had really escaped with their lives. He never expected Ming Jin to be so powerful.
“Of course. I rely on medicinal energy and spiritual energy for cultivation, and I have achieved such success in such a short time. Of course, it is thanks to the fusion with Timu.” Xiaocao said matter-of-factly. “Although Mingjin absorbed and fused with a kind of witch power that is completely different from what we control, the witch power itself is at a very high level. We don’t know how many years it has lived on that cow’s hoof. It is normal for its strength to surpass ours.”
"Let's give it a try." Lin Yao still couldn't believe it. In his mind, when faced with a life-or-death situation, Ming Jin should have given up on the connection with the remaining primordial witch power as soon as possible, dealt with himself and Xiao Cao first, and then everything would be itss.
The benefits of simply devouring a small blade of grass are immeasurable, not to mention that it might even obtain Lin Yao's body and become a "person". Therefore, Lin Yao put aside everything else and let the small blade of grass try out the pseudo-elixir fire. He had nurtured enough pseudo-elixir fire during this period of time. This kind of "divine fire" that can both refine pills and destroy bright metal is becoming more and more important to Lin Yao.
"Alright," Xiaocao said, reminding Lin Yao to begin.
Focusing his mind on his body, Lin Yao channeled the pale blue pseudo-elixir fire towards the small grass on his chest.
After emerging from the pass, Lin Yao could sense the grass again. At this moment, a thin layer of mist surrounded the grass, spherical in shape and black in color. However, this black was rather light, allowing Lin Yao to vaguely "see" the grass in the very center. The grass's leaf axis had returned to its original state, no longer curled, but stretched out like a large brush, because it had many long fine filaments.
The biggest change was that Lin Yao vaguely saw the grass sprout a second leaf. This leaf was slightly shorter than the first and also produced numerous willow-like leaf filaments. These two leaf axes and leaf filaments, as well as the clump of "soil" at the base of the grass, were all a deep black, so black that the surrounding black mist could not conceal their shapes.
Rushing forward, the pseudo-elixir fire surged fiercely towards the black mist. Lin Yao was confident that he could control the pseudo-elixir fire to stop just before it touched the leaf axis of the small grass.
An immense resistance suddenly arose, and Lin Yao felt that his pseudo-elixir fire could not penetrate the black mist, nor could it even melt it. Previously, when fighting Ming Jin, he could feel his pseudo-elixir fire burning away a significant amount of his original witch power, but now he was powerless against the much thinner witch power.
After a long while, Xiaocao's voice rang out again, "Yaoyao, that's enough, stop trying. With your current pseudo-dan fire ability, you can't burn through this defense."
Lin Yao did as instructed and withdrew the pseudo-Dan fire. He felt no joy at the improvement in Xiao Cao's abilities, but rather a deep sense of lingering fear.
The situation was really critical at the time. Fortunately, Mingjin wasn't very intelligent, otherwise he and Xiaocao would have really been killed!
The grass instantly withdrew its magical power and returned to its lush green state. The vibrant green color lifted Lin Yao's spirits, and as he carefully examined the grass's shape, he felt it was incredibly beautiful.
"Now you know, my judgment was correct. Mingjin made a big mistake back then, and it's fortunate that it made a mistake, otherwise we would both be dead," Xiaocao said with a sense of relief. "If Mingjin had gotten Timu first, we wouldn't have needed to even think about it; we could have just let it eat it without any chance at all."
"Why?" Lin Yao now completely believed Xiao Cao's words and was secretly glad that Ming Jin had made a mistake. However, he had questions about the Earth Mother's influence and wondered why Xiao Cao had suddenly mentioned the Earth Mother.
"Because getting Timo will make you smart, don't you think I'm smart?" Little Grass said proudly. "Although Mingjin has awakened its intelligence, it's not smart enough, which is why it might make that kind of mistake. If I were it, I would never make a mistake, you damn moss."
"Oh," Lin Yao replied blankly. "Why is she called Dead Moss? Does Mingjin have any other names?"
“Didn’t you teach me? The moss you described is exactly the shape of Mingjin, the form is almost identical.” The grass said somewhat far-fetchedly, “That’s why I call it moss, which means green moss.”
Lin Yao knew what Xiao Cao was talking about. After Xiao Cao gained sentience, she was very curious about the world. So Lin Yao kept telling her stories and introducing her to things in this timeline. He even bought popular science books for children and systematically introduced them to her. Xiao Cao was very interested in the content about the origin of species. She even asked him to describe the creatures that appeared in the evolutionary history, including moss.
moss?!
Lin Yao suddenly paused, remembering the shapes of the grass and Mother Earth.
The grass looks a lot like a fern, especially when those leaf filaments disappear; it's exactly like a fern sprouting leaves.
Mother Earth is a type of lichen, and the shape of it clinging tightly to the rock is exactly like a huge, emerald green lichen.
This bright gold is actually shaped like moss!
In this way, the stages of biological evolution are well reflected in these three "people". Leaving aside single-celled organisms, besides single-celled organisms, algae appeared next, followed by lichens, then bryophytes, then ferns, and finally, the most widespread category of gymnosperms in the world today.
"Could these ancient creatures be related to the evolutionary structure of species origin?" Lin Yao wondered to himself.
"The origin of species? That's right, very likely." Little Grass clearly received Lin Yao's thoughts, and recalling what she had learned, she immediately affirmed it.
“I do look like a fern, and Mingjin is obviously dead moss.” The grass still harbored resentment towards Mingjin, which almost killed it, even though it had to add the word “dead” before describing it. “Timu is a lichen. I almost forgot if you hadn’t mentioned it. It really does look like a lichen, very much so.”
"Yaoyao, you don't know, when I merged with Timu, it disguised itself as a tree. I didn't think much of it at the time, I just ate it." The little grass was very proud, and for a moment forgot to use the word "merge", finally using "eat". "Now that I think about it, I realize that Timu is not simple. It actually disguised itself as a gymnosperm, a tree, which is more advanced than me. Did it also read the Origin of Species?"
Tree?
Lin Yao was instantly inspired again, his whole body trembled, and he suddenly thought of a classical allusion.
There is a story in Buddhism about two eminent monks from different eras who left behind verses.
Shenxiu said, "The body is a Bodhi tree, the mind a bright mirror stand; constantly wipe it clean, lest it be covered with dust."
Huineng said: "Bodhi is not a tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand; originally there is nothing, so where can dust alight?"
The Bodhi tree and the Mirror Platform—wouldn't that perfectly fit the descriptions of Timu and Mingjin? The Yi family has always referred to Timu as Earth Mother, which sounds very similar. If we consider the dialects and accents of different regions, it might indeed be Timu, which could very well be Bodhi. The little grass's description of disguising itself as a tree perfectly illustrates that Bodhi has a tree-like characteristic or feature.
The name Mingjin was given by Xiaocao, perhaps a coincidence that it was taken from the Buddhist phrase "bright mirror platform." What a coincidence!
“Oh, that’s possible.” Xiaocao “heard” Lin Yao’s thoughts again and couldn’t wait to speak up. “I think what Huineng said makes more sense, because I know other names, such as Wuyi and Chen’ai, which are words in the four sentences he mentioned, although they are not quite right in the literal sense.”
Xiaocao had received early childhood education from Lin Yao. At that time, Lin Yao was extremely excited and would fulfill any request Xiaocao made. So he patiently taught her to read and write.
"What are the dancing clothes and the morning mist?" Lin Yao asked immediately with concern. Although these things were also ancient beings and had some connection with the grass, after encountering Ming Jin, Lin Yao no longer dared to regard them as gentle and harmless. They might very well take his and the grass's lives one day because they wanted to devour the grass. Therefore, he needed to understand the "enemy" in advance.
"This... I don't know yet, I can't remember. I'll only know it's them when I get closer. I only have a vague impression." The little grass's tone was hesitant. It seemed that she was also very troubled. There were two potential enemies among them. How could she be at ease?
Xiaocao felt the hostility more deeply than Lin Yao, because the instinctive urge to devour each other was uncontrollable. This also meant that these ancient creatures would never have a good attitude when they "met," and the only outcome would be a fight to the death or mutual destruction.
Lin Yao had studied Zen Buddhism. During his most difficult times, the ethereal Zen brought him peace of mind. He also learned that some wise people often had flashes of insight into the past and future. Perhaps Shenxiu and Huineng saw certain things and even knew the names of Xiaocao and the others. However, the vagueness and ambiguity made them eventually downplay their perceptions and only write those perceptions into Buddhist verses.