Chapter 63: with translation of chapter title

In the quiet chamber, Zhou Shuo sat still on the futon, spreading his true Qi and thoughts outward together, forming a Qi field, taking himself as the center to set the central palace, feeling all people and matter within the Qi field, experiencing the flow of time and space, sensing the state of unity between heaven and man.

Regarding the central palace deployment of Qimen Dunjia, the difference between Zhou Shuo and the Qi cultivators of the strange-person world truly shows: ordinary diviners mostly set the central palace based on the enemy, then match the eight palaces to the eight gates, casting arts according to the direction they stand; for example, to perform earth techniques, it is best to rely on the Gen eighth palace, placing the life gate in the Li ninth palace, using fire to produce earth; if switched to other palaces, the technique's power would be greatly reduced, or even unusable.

Unlike other diviners who set the central palace based on the enemy, Zhou Shuo can separate his spirit and transform his thoughts; he can directly take himself as the central palace, lay out a Qi field, then, using the central palace as direction, freely seize the palace gates, employing the method of riding auspiciousness to greatly boost his spell power—but these are merely superficialities of Qimen Dunjia; Zhou Shuo values more the essential nature of the world that Qimen Dunjia explains.

The human body contains Qi, and moreover various kinds—meridian Qi, viscera Qi, and so on. Qi cultivators only regard Qi as the characteristic of life and non-life, but in Zhou Shuo's view this statement can go further: the world is entirely composed of Qi, merely that Qi varies, just as the types of Qi in the human body differ.

"Hu!" Zhou Shuo felt the world around him, having the sensation that looking at a mountain it is not a mountain, yet looking at it again it is a mountain; he exhaled a long breath, and the thoughts that had scattered outward all turned into yin wind, like all rivers returning to the sea, gathering toward his crown; at the same time his spirit leapt out of his body in one breath, catching those returning thoughts, forming a transparent silhouette.

The transparent spirit trembled, crackling and breaking apart, forming a flower-palace city, visualizing the Jade Pool world. As the Jade Pool world formed, Zhou Shuo's spirit-flesh united body began to autonomously circulate Qi, moving the local Qi field of heaven and earth; this practice is like acupuncture, but he acts as the heated needle in the Way, moving the qi and blood of heaven and earth.

The invisible Qi field rotated; Zhou Shuo sat upright within the Jade Pool world and instantly felt a mingling of cold and heat—that was the effect on his spirit when the heaven-earth Qi field turned; he had expected no mistake, indeed there is an overlap between heaven and earth and the human body; the key to the spirit's tribulation is to accept the tempering of heaven and earth's will, and he absolutely could not withstand the bombardment of a lightning tribulation of that magnitude, but this sort of heaven-earth Qi field is trivial.

Within the rotating Qi field, the flower-palace city formed from his spirit became increasingly distinct; a faint floral fragrance began to seep out; at the same time, a clear water stream appeared within the flower-palace city, green lotus leaves and lotus flowers grew in the water, and the flowing water beneath the leaves chimed ding-dong, playing a melody of the winding water goblet ceremony.

As the contemplation world grew ever more real, Zhou Shuo's soul and the Jade Pool World became ever more closely united; the incarnation seated as the divine king manifested in the Jade Pool World began to fade slowly, and every flower, every brick and tile of the Jade Pool World appeared fully in his thoughts.

The ever-more-real Jade Pool World appeared above Zhou Shuo's physical body, clouds swirling, winding water flowing, sacred and remote; as the heaven-earth qi field turned, this misty fairyland, following Zhou Shuo's will, shattered with a crack like a mirror, and amidst the flying shards, one after another pure, bright spheres—some whole, some broken—appeared, like bent fangs of varying thickness, emitting a sinister chill and flying outward; these were Zhou Shuo's thoughts after cultivating the Great Yin Innate Divine Chapter.

The Great Yin Innate Divine Chapter takes Great Yin as its symbol; this Great Yin, besides indicating the winter season, also refers to the bright moon in the sky; after successful cultivation, the soul's thoughts manifest as moon phases—a full-moon thought is pure and complete, while half-moon, crescent, and quarter-moon thoughts indicate incomplete thoughts, flawed.

The eighty-one scattered thoughts flying outward: only nine are full moons; the remaining seventy-two are deficient—some as thin as eyebrow crescents, varying in thickness, some only one-third or half moons—this is why Zhou Shuo's soul-thoughts are not pure enough.

In an instant the scattered moon-phase thoughts gathered together, forming a luminous human body, facial features exceedingly clear—indeed it was Zhou Shuo.

"Finally succeeded, possession perfected." Zhou Shuo lowered his head to look at his own radiant hand, a faint smile appearing on his icy face; his theory was correct, although he had not yet stepped through the life-and-death mystic gate nor purged the yin qi from his soul, yet his soul had become pure as he wished, able to condense into a moon phase, his dao arts advanced another step; once he breaks through the life-and-death mystic gate, his foundation establishment cultivation will be considered completely perfected, and he can begin to work on forming a golden core.

Having returned his soul to his body, Zhou Shuo then tried to circulate the qi field, familiarizing himself with the characteristics of the heaven-human qi field, and pondered how to apply it to martial techniques and qi refinement; he had studied widely, though none deeply, yet he could pursue both tracks to achieve parallel progress.

Having tempered his soul by turning the qi field with the will of heaven and earth, Zhou Shuo already had some experience with the qi field; he quickly figured out a countermeasure, sprang up from the spot, then leapt down and halted ten centimeters above the ground, his body standing suspended in midair without relying on any material support.

"Surely I succeeded; a qi-refiner who can move and circulate qi—how could he not control qi?" Zhou Shuo felt his levitating body and couldn't help but smile; although he was standing in empty space, he was actually standing upon the heaven-earth qi field, the invisible heaven-earth qi obeying his command, forming an illusory step beneath his feet.

Having just entered the gate of qi control, Zhou Shuo, taking advantage of his enthusiasm, began practicing the Nine-Twists Linked Steps; but the invisible qi step beneath his feet could not withstand the force of his steps, collapsing and disappearing, and he also stepped onto the ground with one foot; yet he was not discouraged, after a moment's thought he began practicing again, each failure prompting him to find the error and correct it.

After about half a day, as night approached, Zhou Shuo completely combined qi control with the Nine-Twists Linked Steps, eager to further combine qi control with the Spirit-Link Bone-Strengthening Technique, but a sudden intrusion of aura into his perception interrupted his enthusiasm.

"An outsider has come." Zhou Shuo opened his Heavenly Bright Aperture; the formless sound fell into his ears, instantly appearing in his mind as an image: in the corridor of the Hu residence, Hu Jie and Hu Lin were shouting at each other before Xia He and Shen Chong, nearly coming to blows, even Xia He could not calm them, and behind Shen Chong two unfamiliar auras stood there, continuously releasing an unknown power.

"What are they doing?" Zhou Shuo felt the unknown power, frowned involuntarily, ceased his cultivation, clenched his hand, the silent chamber's door pushed open automatically, then snapped shut—inside, no one remained.

Rushing out of the silent chamber, within three breaths Zhou Shuo was already standing in the corridor, facing the confronting father and son, and Xia He, who had failed to mediate and was preparing to step forward to stop them, but saw Hu Lin violently swing his hand, driving Xia He back, then his eyes turned red and bloodshot, losing all former obsession, leaving only frenzy.

"You keep causing trouble outside, disgracing Grandfather's face—you're just a plaything of us men; once I deal with this brat, I'll deal with…." Hu Lin's words had just finished when his eyes rolled upward, he collapsed helplessly, revealing Zhou Shuo standing behind him, hand raised.

"Old man tells you, old man has had enough of you…." Hu Lin stared at the sudden appearance before him, the one who had knocked out his father, his eyes reddened, his hostile aura multiplied several times, he bared his teeth like a wild beast about to pounce, but then a pain struck his lower abdomen, his whole body kicked far away.

Xia He watched as Zhou Shuo instantly knocked out and kicked away the Hu father and son, then instinctively turned around, looking at the tall and short figures emerging from the darkness behind Shen Chong; the tall one wore an open-front robe, white belly exposed, a fat belt tied around his waist hanging below his belly, a string of red prayer beads around his neck, big-headed and big-eared, face with two red patches, mouth small, eyes narrowed up and down—just like Maitreya Buddha.

"Thunder Smoke Cannon, indeed it's you."

"Great Master Yongjue, you just arrived and already joke with me like this!" Zhou Shuo glanced at Hu Jie, who had risen in the distance and now stared at him like a wild beast, then looked toward the great monk resembling Maitreya, Thunder Smoke Cannon Gao Ning, dharma name Yongjue, one of the Four Madmen of Quanzhen, his ability the Twelve Labor Emotion Array, the twelve meridians corresponding to six emotions, and this monk's method specifically torments others' emotions through the twelve meridians; he already felt a force drilling into his twelve meridians, constantly striking, many emotions rising in his heart.

"No, I merely heard that patron say the hunt failed, so I wanted to help him a little." The big-eared monk's voice was extremely soft, his tone still carrying a faint smile.

"One day without hunting won't kill you, Elder Sister Dou, you agree!" Zhou Shuo raised a foot, firmly stepping on the old man Hu Lin trying to get up, simultaneously flicked his finger, shifting his gaze from the big-eared Gao Ning to the woman beside him; this woman had ordinary features, wearing a suit dress, a pearl necklace around her neck, Dou Mei the Poison-Injecting; besides the force drilling into his twelve meridians, he also felt his own strength being dispersed by a power—this was Dou Mei's power; the Four Madmen were now all present.

"A pitiful child." Dou Mei, standing beside Gao Ning, lifted her eyes, looked at distant Hu Jie and sighed, as if Hu Jie were an orphan unloved by mother and father.

"Indeed quite pitiful." Zhou Shuo followed Dou Mei's gaze toward Hu Jie, nodded his head; this boy was truly sitting at home when disaster fell from the sky; describing his fate with the two words "pitiful" absolutely falls short.

"I suppose you are the newly joined Quanzhen devotee Zhou Shuo—congratulations!" Gao Ning glanced askance at his companion, his round face bearing a smile.

"Yes! From now on we are fellow disciples, we must look out for each other." Zhou Shuo looked at the smiling-but-sinister monk, withdrew his foot that had been stepping on Hu Lin with a smile that didn't reach his eyes; the old man had already stopped struggling, and the opposing pair's power also withdrew silently.