Chapter 569

Lu Hua gazed at the boy in the courtyard, who sat quietly, gazing up at the bright moon hanging high in the azure sky.

The moon was only half-full, yet its light made the courtyard even colder, adding a touch of chill.

It further highlighted the boy's otherworldly aura.

A thought suddenly struck Lu Hua—she recalled the Sanzhen Sect's teaching of "the Descent of the Fate Star."

Each time the Fate Star descends, a great calamity arises: heaven stirs wrath, shifting stars and altering constellations; earth stirs wrath, dragons and serpents rise from the land.

In ages past, the Sanzhen Sect's founder, Lu Chen, was one such Fate Star. In his lifetime, the world unified, the Heavenly Gate opened, and he ascended.

That era gave rise to transcendent talents like the Demon Master, the Female Emperor, and Lu Yu.

Now, according to the Sanzhen founder's calculations, the Purple Micro Star has completed one full cycle—exactly three thousand years.

And now, a new Fate Star is about to descend; the Gate of Heaven shall open once more.

This lifetime holds another chance for ascension.

The Sanzhen Sect, blessed by the legacies of Founder Lu Chen and Lu Yu, has thrived for three thousand years through dynastic changes, never declining.

With this calamity now upon us, the elders have once again taken to the world, widely recruiting disciples.

Lu Hua herself entered the Sanzhen Sect thanks to this very wave.

In this world, only the Zhongnan Mountains' Sanzhen Sect can stand as an equal to the Academy.

A thousand years ago, the Master appeared out of nowhere, overshadowing all under heaven. The Sanzhen ancestors mistakenly believed him to be the chosen one—the Fate Star descended.

Thus, several founders broke their seclusion to fully aid the first Master—yet he was not the "Heavenly Person" destined for ascension.

After the first Master's death, the Sanzhen Sect retreated into seclusion once more for a thousand years, until four hundred years ago, when Master Zhongtong glimpsed the heavenly pattern and bet on the Sui Dynasty.

What immense legacy could a sect that had flourished for three thousand years wield? With full support, the Sui Dynasty rose to dominance in the western lands.

Countless Sanzhen founders had strived in vain for ascension, dying with regret, eyes still open.

Three thousand years of sea changes passed in the blink of an eye—and now it is Lu Hua's generation.

In ages past, Founder Lu Chen died peacefully in the mountains; after generations of calculation, they realized he had transcended mortal bounds, ascending in another form.

On the second day after his passing, at noon, his "relic body" reversed aging, returning to youth.

By dawn of the third day, his relic body ascended in radiant light, shocking Zhongnan Mountain.

Even stranger: Liu Jinchan, the founder who had guarded the relic body, immediately entered a death-seclusion. A year later, when disciples of the Living Dead Tomb opened the seal, they found Liu Jinchan's relic body gone.

Only one phrase remained, carved into the stone wall.

"When your disciples ascend, report to the Sanzhen Gate—celestial immortals shall bow to greet you."

This was the deepest secret of the Sanzhen Sect; Lu Hua only learned of it after receiving the Heavenly Master's talisman.

The true oral transmission is known only to each generation's founder.

Just one phrase: "Sanzhen Gate."

It made "transcending this world" the lifelong dream of every Sanzhen disciple—Lu Hua's private secretary, even on his deathbed, refused to leave, tears streaming as he spoke to her.

"I am a man without talent, seeking my whole life without ever seeing the founders' true faces."

"Lu Hua, your master was like me—but you, you are the hope of our generation. If you ever meet the founders, carry a message for us."

"I have no regrets toward Sanzhen, only shame toward the founders."

When her private secretary passed, Lu Hua was still naive, unaware of the lineage's sacred burden.

Only when her cultivation surpassed her master's, when she passed the Three Heavenly Master Trials and formally graduated, receiving the Heavenly Master's seat from her white-haired master, did she understand.

She understood the meaning of "ascension" to the Sanzhen lineage.

It was the unfulfilled will of fifty-seven generations of founders since Lu Chen.

Success need not rest on me—but success must include me.

Lu Hua's journey to Bianjing was, in truth, Sanzhen's test directed at the Academy—and the Master.

Where is the Master truly?

The world claims he has sought immortals in the Eastern Sea for over two hundred years—but Sanzhen's divination masters insist he hides within Bianjing.

As the greatest force of destiny in the mortal realm, the Master's location must gather heaven and earth's qi. Under Daoist qi-seeing arts, he shines like a beacon—yet he conceals himself, unseen by mortals.

This was the conclusion reached by the Heavenly Pulse Master, who exhausted his lifespan in divination: "The Master is indeed within Bianjing."

Yet, perplexingly, if the Master is in Bianjing, why has the Academy fractured?

The First Master serves the Sui Dynasty; the Second Master lies gravely ill; the Third and Fourth Masters are bitter enemies.

Lu Hua sighed softly. With this great calamity begun, heavenly patterns grow chaotic, demons and monsters run rampant.

In this grand banquet, not only the Academy's shadow looms, but also the high ministers of the Great Qi, the demons of Ze Lake, and the Military Governors of the Thirteen Provinces.

And the Demon Sect, which has endured a thousand years of silence in the martial world, now stirs again.

Behind the former Tang Dynasty stood the Demon Master Huang Dao's lineage—but after being crushed by the Academy and Sanzhen together, the nine demon lines have dwindled to three, lying dormant across the land.

Now, the current Demon Master, Xu Jiangxian, must have secretly infiltrated Bianjing.

The tree wishes stillness, yet the wind will not cease!

Thick white snow fell from the heavens.

Snowflakes swirled in the courtyard but never touched the ground.

A single snowflake gently landed on Lu Hua's hand—she snapped back to awareness.

At that moment!

Lu Hua looked: around the boy beneath the parasol tree, a clear aura spiraled upward like a gentle vortex, drawing in and swirling the courtyard's snow and wind.

The boy smiled, extending his pale, slender fingers—and the snow and wind came to him.

"Internalize the spirit, conceal the marvels, yet command external things."

Lu Hua nodded slowly. Xie Guan had mastered the Yin Fu Jing in a single day, leaping three realms—beyond her expectations.

The Yin Fu Jing's seven arts are: Nourishing Ambition, Enhancing Spirit, Tengshe, Dividing Power, Feasting on Corpses, Turning the Circle, and Damaging the Balance.

These seven arts are seven realms, corresponding to the first seven stages of Primordial Spirit cultivation.

Now, Xie Guan has mastered the first six arts—only the seventh, "Damaging the Balance," remains unlearned.

Yet with his astonishing talent—achieving the "Opening Star" realm in just two months—learning the seventh art is merely a matter of time.

Lu Hua watched you: the snowflakes around you slowly gathered, forming a picture in your hand—a great bear crouched low, coiled to strike, its eyes gleaming with ferocity.

"The Bear-Crouching, Power-Dividing Diagram!"

Lu Hua recognized it—the fourth art of the seven, the Bear Diagram, representing the Daoist art of Earth's Five Phases.

You lightly gestured; the soil in the courtyard stirred as if alive, rising and shifting like a subterranean dragon, finally gathering beneath your feet, gently lifting you.

To render the Bear-Crouching, Power-Dividing Diagram means you have reached the fourth realm of Primordial Spirit cultivation—Night Travel.

Night Travelers absorb lunar essence to nourish their bodies—a crucial stage in Primordial Spirit cultivation.

Yet this realm demands extraordinary talent; without it, one is barred entirely.

Unlike martial cultivation, which relies on relentless effort or ingesting potent elixirs from youth, Primordial Spirit cultivation has an invisible threshold: talent.

Some, even after studying Daoist and Buddhist scriptures for sixty or seventy years, remain stuck at the lower three realms, unable to advance.

The upper three realms of martial cultivation are towering mountains to ordinary warriors—immense barriers that deter countless martialists.

Yet for Primordial Spirit cultivators, every step beyond the third realm is a chasm.

The Night Travel realm is the foundation. Once entered, cultivation accelerates dramatically; one no longer needs sleep, merely moonlight for nourishment.

But prolonged exposure to moonlight risks over-nourishment, harming the Primordial Spirit.

This is the origin of the foxes' moon-worship legend: many fox spirits, upon gaining slight awareness, bow to the moon, yearning to absorb its pure lunar essence.

To reach Night Travel, one may encounter the "Geng Shen Night"—the lunar fifteenth of the seventh month, occurring once every sixty years, known as the "Imperial Dew."

A Primordial Spirit cultivator's one night's practice under it equals absorbing the purest essence of the moon.

The Imperial Dew appears as myriad golden threads, cascading from the moon.

In folk tales, plants touched by the Imperial Dew become spirits; foxes and ghosts who consume it gain supernatural powers. Plants have nature but no life; the Dew gives them life. Foxes and ghosts already possess life; consuming it greatly benefits them.

Though not as miraculous as folk tales suggest, Night Travel cultivators encountering the Imperial Dew often surge directly from Night Travel to the "Commanding Objects" realm.

Cultivators are merely those who ingest solar essence and lunar essence.

The sun is the ultimate yang—cultivators cannot use it.

The moon is yin, resting by day, active by night.

Yin and yang—once a cultivator reaches Night Travel, they absorb lunar essence to form the Yin Spirit.

The Yin Spirit, when leaving the body, fears the Gang wind, morning light, frost, snow, and rooster's crow—each strikes it like ice before the sun.

Lu Hua watched silently as you waved your hand—the rising earth sank back, settling.

The snowflakes forming the Bear Diagram scattered, swirling as a vortex beside you.

Under the moonlight, your body glowed faintly white, threads of lunar essence flowing into you through your "Heavenly Gate" at the forehead.

The boy slowly closed his eyes; a faint glow shimmered beneath his eyelids.

This process is called "Refining Lunar Essence."

Your forehead grew brighter; you slowly opened your eyes.

Revealing a pair of clear, sharp, luminous pupils.

You lightly pointed—snow and wind responded, swirling around your fingertip, dancing to your will.

A new image formed from snowflakes!

A Vulture Diagram.

The vulture was pitch-black, its eyes sharp and fierce—a predatory bird of great might.

Its head was bare, feeding on carrion, nesting deep in secluded valleys.

It has no hair on its head, feeds on carrion, and commonly builds its nest in deep valleys.

【"Yin Fu's Fifth Technique: The Bird of Prey Feeding on Corpses Talisman."】

【Lu Hua whispered the words, her tone laced with reverence. The Yin Fu Jing was penned by a prodigious elder who, though not born of orthodox Daoist lineage, had attained mastery over creation and destruction, reaching the pinnacle of the Primordial Spirit realm. In his era, even several Daozi of the Three Truths Sect were trampled beneath his feet.】

【Yet this Yin Fu Jing never spread within the Three Truths Sect; it was even classified as a forbidden technique, strictly prohibited for all disciples.】

【The root of this prohibition lay in the Fifth Technique—The Bird of Prey Feeding on Corpses Talisman.】

【The first four techniques of the Yin Fu Jing—"Still the Spirit," "Seek Fortune," "Control Water," and "Control Earth"—each corresponded to one of four divine entities.】

【"Spirit Turtle," "Five Dragons," "Soaring Snake," and "Crouching Bear."】

【These four techniques were upright and even dazzling. In the first four realms of Primordial Spirit cultivators, they nearly crushed martial cultivators of the same level. This innovation granted Primordial Spirit cultivators offensive capabilities, opening an entirely new path for them.】

【But!】

【The Fifth Technique was utterly unlike the first four—it brimmed with gloom and strangeness.】

【The Bird of Prey feeding on corpses was already a cruel and cold phenomenon in nature; this Fifth Technique pushed it to its extreme.】

【It drew "essence-souls" from dead matter or from slain living beings to strengthen the Primordial Spirit.】

【To cultivate by taking life was considered demonic in Daoism.】

【It did not rely on the essence of sun and moon for cultivation, but instead "plundered" the essence and cultivation of others.】

【This was precisely why the elder who created the Yin Fu Jing, despite mediocre talent, could surpass several Daozi of his sect in a short time.】

【The karmic ties he bore—including countless lives of living beings and even fierce beasts of the mountains—were innumerable.】

【Of course,】

【this nearly demonic cultivation method had its drawbacks: the more cultivation he plundered and the more essence-souls he devoured, the stronger his Primordial Spirit became, yet also the more turbid, murky, and clouded it grew—his mind grew confused and unclean.】

【Otherwise, that elder would not have, in a moment of delusion, been swayed by his sect's elders into attempting to devour the Master's Primordial Spirit in pursuit of ascension.】

【In the end, he truly "ascended."】

【Lu Hua suddenly thought: if this technique fell into the hands of someone like Xie Guan—who already possessed extraordinary talent—what great calamity might it unleash?】

【Lu Hua shook her head. This matter could be discussed later. When she bestowed the Yin Fu Jing upon Xie Guan, she had not only observed him, but also felt a mysterious intuition.】

【For cultivators like them, such sudden, instinctive insights were of utmost importance.】

【Perhaps, with you in possession of this technique, a different path may yet emerge.】

【Weapons are instruments of ill omen—they can take life, or save life; it depends on the wielder.】

【Techniques, too, have no inherent good or evil—it depends on the user.】

【As Lu Hua thought this, her heart grew free of worry, her mind clear and serene.】

【You gazed at the image of the bird of prey in the air, waved your hand, and the snowflakes slowly scattered, dissolving into drifting snow.】

【There was contemplation in your eyes.】

【A technique to steal another's cultivation?】

【The bird of prey feeds on rotting flesh; this technique is also a killing art. Humans possess a Primordial Spirit, composed of the Three Souls and Six Spirits.】

【Upon death, these disperse from the body; if they find no resting place, they scatter into nothingness.】

【All one need do is draw this talisman before the soul scatters, using the "Bird of Prey" to swallow its Primordial Spirit and essence-soul, thereby strengthening one's own Primordial Spirit.】

【You murmured slowly: "Observe the Way of Heaven, uphold Heaven's actions—this is complete. Thus Heaven has five thieves; those who see them flourish. The five thieves dwell in the heart, enacted upon Heaven."】

【This is the opening passage of the Yin Fu Jing.】

(End of Chapter)