Chapter 58

All day, Zhou Shuo stayed in the study, finished reading the annotated Journey to the West in its entirety, and his worldview was completely refreshed. Originally, when he read Journey to the West, he focused solely on the monkey, witnessing his journey from a stone monkey cultivating to become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, then to the Fighting Victory Buddha, never imagining the cultivation path hidden within him.

Ordinary people reading Journey to the West mostly see the monkey daring to rebel, finally tempered, and with the flow of time becoming a Buddha and a saint; but Zhou Shuo, from the annotated Journey to the West, saw instead a genius's tragic tale: endowed with extraordinary talent, he sought the lower dantian (Water Curtain Cave) and self-cultivated to talent, went to the Fangcun Spirit Terrace to learn Wukong, then to the Dragon Palace obtained treasure certifying pure yang, received heavenly investiture, rode the fine horse, awaiting completion of his nature cultivation; yet he stole and rebelled against the imperial horse, stole peaches breaking his cultivation, then rebelled against heaven proclaiming himself Great Sage Equal to Heaven, reaching the vigor of the Yang Dragon; the Great Sage confronting the Lesser Sage was defeated and captured.

After being captured and taken to heaven, originally the heavenly Way would strip away, needing only forty-nine days of quiet refinement in the furnace to re-certify pure yang; but he, with anger burning through his spirit terrace, caused havoc in heaven, all his past efforts wasted to flowing water, was pressed by the Tathagata under Five-Finger Mountain, and only after five hundred years, when he met Tang Sanzang journeying west, did he cut away the six thieves, restart on the cultivation path, transforming the mind-monkey into the Traveler, cutting away the demons formed from various vexations, until obtaining the true scriptures and again attaining proper fruition, experiencing many rises and falls, undergoing numerous trials.

Besides Sun Wukong's cultivation experience, the entire journey west to obtain scriptures is also a cultivation process, just as the five-person scripture-obtaining team (including the White Dragon Horse) is implicitly compared to the essentials of cultivation: the monkey representing mind-intent-qi is called Wukong, the essential of cultivation is to comprehend the character 'emptiness'; the pig representing the seven emotions and six desires is called Wuneng, also known as Bajie, representing self-restriction through precepts, comprehending the character 'ability'; the divine Tang Sanzang is called Tripitaka, meaning the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit; he cannot be without the White Dragon Horse, the dragon and horse being symbols of utmost yang, the hidden dragon should not be used, storing essence, qi, and spirit; the sand monk representing innate nature is called Wujing, he mediates between pig and monkey, comprehending the character 'purity', and carries Tang Sanzang's luggage.

The five on the westward journey each have their duties, representing the 'body-mind-emotion-intent-nature' on the cultivation path; each person's position is a key point of cultivation, for example Zhu Bajie, he can serve as a pathfinder because his thoughts are slick, but one cannot entrust him with the luggage pole and the intent-horse to lead, for he is easily tempted and would lead the group into a ditch.

Sun Wukong has the ability to subdue demons, but he is prone to stray and impulsive, more likely to give rise to a doubting heart that harms the spirit, requiring the tightening hoop spell to restrain him; the White Dragon Horse carries Tang Sanzang, an intangible core that must exist—without him, Tang Sanzang relying only on his two feet could not reach the Western Heaven nor obtain the true scriptures; Sha Wujing, besides harmonizing pig and monkey, also carries the pole, the luggage containing the passage-verification document, at every place he must seek the treasure seal for clearance—this is cultivation's pursuit of genuine meaning, not blind.

With the Journey to the West internal alchemy system as guidance, Zhou Shuo readjusted his cultivation, no longer pursuing the Celestial Master's Mansion thunder method, but directly seeking to gather the Five Phases, as taught by Patriarch Bodhi to Sun Wukong in Journey to the West: discard licentious desires, invert the Five Phases, making kidney water ascend, heart fire descend, liver wood sink and condense, lung metal generate hair, using spleen earth to harmonize.

To practice the inverted Five Phases, one must discard licentious desires; although Zhou Shuo had already obtained the pass apertures and also had experience cultivating the Innate Yin Divine Chapter and subduing the Eighteen Great Strength Golden Gods, he still expended considerable effort, naturally comprehending quiet work, letting the five qi settle successfully, the previously leaked primal yang naturally replenished, while simultaneously using the Celestial Master's Mansion thunder method combined with the Innate Yin Divine Chapter's technique, he innovated a new Yin Divine Thunder.

"Zi—!" a cyan arc leapt from his fingertips; Zhou Shuo gazed at the lightning in his hand, a smile appearing on his face, taking the Yin Divine Thunder's heart method as foundation, then combining the Celestial Master's Mansion thunder concept, he stirred kidney water and lung metal, gathering the five qi to refine into lightning.

"Sister Xia, thank you this time!" Zhou Shuo circulated his qi to compress the cyan arc, condensing it into a lightning ball in his palm; this thunder method of his, aside from being executable with his own true qi, can also draw on sun and moonlight to increase power, its power absolutely not lower than that of the Celestial Master's Mansion thunder method, and is the greatest power he has achieved in his cultivation after modification, all thanks to Xia He's help—without her getting Hu Lin to produce the scriptures, he would have had to expend much effort gathering materials.

He slowly dispersed the green lightning ball; Zhou Shuo tried several times the controllability of the Yin Divine Thunder—this thunder method can not only be released outward but also drawn inward, circulating qi within the body, and can even liquefy into green viscous water adhering to fists and feet, thus serving as 'fist intent', though he does not know what it feels like to strike a person with it, at least he himself feels nothing.

Having experimented enough with the thunder method's characteristics, given his current status as a Quanxing member, he cannot go outside to find someone to duel for testing; Zhou Shuo can only turn to researching other things, flipping through Hu Lin's books, then thickening his skin to ask Xia He for guidance without shame; as for Lu Liang that little scoundrel, he is currently in closed-door seclusion, deciphering the soul fragments extracted from Zhang Xilin's corpse.

Initially Lu Liang told Liu Yanran, saying that he could not obtain sufficient information from Zhang Xilin's body, so he had her kidnap Zhang Chulan again; this statement is not false, but he did not say that the soul fragments obtained were useless—on the contrary, those soul fragments are very useful, only Zhang Xilin has been dead too long, making it temporarily impossible to clear his memories, while Lu Liang is now carefully using the Soul Clarity Technique to examine within for useful information.

Besides Lu Liang and Xia He, during Zhou Shuo's period of cultivating Yin Divine Thunder at the Hu residence, another Quanxing member arrived—a handsome, refined young man with glasses on the bridge of his nose like Xu San, his face full of kindness, giving a feeling like a spring breeze; however, his identity is actually the calamity seed among the other three madmen of Quanxing's Four Madmen, named Shen Chong.

Shen Chong's ability is called High-Interest Lending; he can form contracts with others, making them his clients, who can obtain that person's qi by killing an aberrant, and for each person killed, Shen Chong automatically gains a portion of qi; as the number of aberrants killed increases, the qi he gains grows, while his clients—the ones who actually do the killing—receive ever less qi, gradually becoming mad, like debtors driven mad by creditors.

Xia He's ability is to control others' lust and desire, merely making them utterly infatuated with her and fall into madness; whereas Shen Chong's ability treats qi as wealth, using contractors to kill and accumulate, although he himself never lifts a hand, he is all the more sinister, a completely callous disregard for human life, yet he happens to have a face like a spring breeze, giving a great sense of contrast, and this is Quanxing.

Zhou Shuo is very wary of Quanxing's members, not really wanting to engage Shen Chong, only asking Xia He for advice; Shen Chong likewise smiles and says nothing, only paying attention to the secluded Lu Liang; the three have no particular gaps, merely dwelling together in the Hu residence, but while the tree desires calm the wind does not cease, the outside world is tumultuous, and the aberrant world's Mount Tai apex, the Celestial Master's Mansion, has issued a summons—the next Celestial Grand Ritual is about to be held.

The Celestial Grand Ritual is Daoism's grandest assembly, originally established to fast and offer sacrifices to the deities of the Celestial Heaven, but under this grand gathering it has become a conclave of aberrants, who mingle within ordinary society, scattered across the south and north, thus there are few opportunities for interaction; the aberrant world's Mount Tai apexes therefore take advantage of occasions to convene meetings, one to create conditions for fellow Daoists to gather, two to promote their own standing—this Celestial Master's Mansion's Celestial Grand Ritual is one such, but this time's Celestial Grand Ritual differs, for the summons issued by the Celestial Master's Mansion proposes to select a person to become the next Celestial Master.

The Celestial Master of the Celestial Master's Mansion holds a position in the aberrant world equivalent to the martial arts alliance chief, the highest peak; in feudal times, the Celestial Master of the Celestial Master's Mansion had the authority to summon all Zhengyi Daoists, but with the passage of time this authority has been invisibly dissolved; nevertheless, even if only summoning the Daoists of Longhu Mountain, even if unable to summon them, being under their protection still places one above ten thousand.

The Celestial Master's Mansion's notice is quite unexpected, for throughout history the position of Celestial Master has never been passed down within the Celestial Master's bloodline, therefore the mansion was once jokingly called the 'Descendants' Temple'; the ancient Zhang clan thereby formed a great house comparable to the descendants of Confucius, people often saying 'North Kong, South Zhang', but this time they suddenly made such an indication, which absolutely carries some deep meaning.

Regarding the deep meaning of the Celestial Master's Mansion, Zhou Shuo has an even greater realization, for Zhang Chulan and Zhang Xilin both bear the surname Zhang, and Zhang Chulan furthermore possesses the Celestial Master's Mansion's orthodox transmission of the Golden Light Spell and Yang Five Thunder; now Zhang Xilin's bones have just been unearthed into the present world, and the Celestial Master's Mansion has issued such a notice—one cannot deny there is a coincidence, and this coincidence foreshadows the next plot development.

Personnel of the Celestial Master's Mansion are posting notices everywhere; as the Hu Lin family associated with the Zhengyi sect, Hu Lin's son Hu Jie will likely be invited to participate in the Celestial Grand Ritual, and if he can win the match, he may succeed as the Celestial Master of the Celestial Master's Mansion—as for his ability…!

"Father, I beg you, I plead with you, I and Xia He are sincere—please fulfill us!"

"Damn it, damn it, old man, I've told you how many times—don't touch my Xia He, you dare touch my woman?" Amidst weeping shouts and angry curses, the man with a face full of flesh curled his body, pleading in tears toward Hu Lin, who was kicking him with a leather shoe.

Zhou Shuo sat on the sofa, watching Hu Lin, who had just returned from greeting guests and showed no mercy, viciously kick his son's abdomen with a leather shoe, and Hu Jie, who could only curl up and beg at his feet; he could only sigh, this is indeed his biological son—no wonder the Celestial Master's Mansion might invite him, for although he gains the right to participate in the Celestial Grand Ritual, he absolutely cannot seize the inheritance of the Celestial Master position, which at a glance is destined for the protagonist.

Although he had a bit of complaint, Zhou Shuo was very curious about where exactly Xia He's control limit over Hu Lin lay, turning his gaze to the seated Xia He beside him; this woman today wore a white shirt, her clean, long legs crossed outward, the delicate feet suspended in the air had taut tendons, her jade-like skin revealed blood vessels, ten toenails gleaming brightly, making one want to seize them in hand and play with them.