Chapter 274: Re-defining the Eight Trigrams and the Thunder Emperor

The notion of orthodox cultivation originated from the infinite multiverse, created by the Human Emperor Fu Xi, who used runes as a foundation to digitally analyze the laws of the world—not the popular misconception that cultivation requires sudden enlightenment or accumulation of resources to advance realms.

For orthodox cultivators, runes are not mysterious abstractions but real, tangible equations and formulas.

Just as we use mathematics and physics to comprehend all things in heaven and earth, runes represent a higher-order formula; orthodox cultivators can decipher the rules, authority, and even the origin of all phenomena by applying these rune formulas, thereby acquiring unimaginable powers.

For instance, Fu Xi attained the Three Virtues: "Four Symbols," "Five Phases," and "Eight Trigrams," then built the orthodox cultivation system upon these three foundations.

It is said that anyone who follows any one of these three paths holds the potential to reach the "Ultimate"—the so-called Inner Universe—a path worthy of piercing heaven.

That is why Fu Xi is called the First Emperor who opened heaven and earth; even without mentioning anything else, the "Four Symbols, Five Phases, Eight Trigrams Great Array" formed by these three Virtues alone is sufficient to suppress all, surpassing the Ultimate without being it.

Yet few know that although orthodox cultivation is immensely powerful—claimed to be able to kill sages with sufficient computational power—it harbors a colossal flaw.

That flaw is this: no matter how far you advance on the path of orthodox cultivation, even if you attain the Ultimate, the final fruit of victory will be seized by its creator—Fu Xi himself.

This is because the foundation of orthodox cultivation lies in the eight runes: "Qian, Kun, Zhen, Gen, Kan, Li, Xun, Dui"—the concrete manifestation of the Great Virtue "Eight Trigrams," equivalent to the primordial "One."

No matter how many branches and offshoots orthodox cultivation evolves into, all variations ultimately return to that "One."

In other words, in the infinite multiverse, every soul who walks the path of orthodox cultivation is essentially working for free for Fu Xi—even after exhausting every strategy, they merely sew the garments for him.

Perhaps because of this, though Fu Xi is the Human Emperor and once made immense contributions to humanity, his reputation among humans is astonishingly poor.

There is no other reason—he is simply too damn treacherous…

Alright, the topic has strayed too far; let us return to the matter at hand.

During this period, Wu Xian frequently fell into deep sleep, guarding the Lunhuizhe Wu Xian in the mysterious space, where he exchanged for a set of orthodox cultivation rune analysis methods from the Main God.

Wu Xian would never give Fu Xi the chance to freeload on him, so he naturally would not practice orthodox cultivation.

Yet in the Main God's exchange list, there existed a complete set of formulaic algorithms for rune analysis—these were still highly useful.

For instance, in the Perfect World—a transcendental realm where runes are also the foundation of cultivation—these methods might prove unexpectedly helpful.

No more delay!

Cut to reality: after roughly mastering the formulaic patterns of rune analysis, Wu Xian immediately applied them to the Original True Interpretation.

Upon testing, the results were immediate.

Among the countless runes of the Original True Interpretation, those once obscure and incomprehensible runes, after being deconstructed and analyzed by the method, began to grow "clear and understandable," as if the profound truths were laid bare, allowing Wu Xian to freely observe and comprehend their depths.

As time passed and Wu Xian occasionally employed the power of the Light of Mind, stacking the attributes of other Wu Xians to enhance his spiritual power and computational capacity, the profound truths of the Original True Interpretation gradually unfolded before his eyes; even runes previously invisible now emerged, as if a vast ocean composed entirely of runes.

Wu Xian's spiritual will swam through this ocean, gaining a more direct understanding of the Great Dao and laws of the Perfect World; his body responded involuntarily, his blood qi growing ever more vigorous, nearly breaking through the boundaries of Blood Mobilization and entering the Cavern Heaven realm.

Fortunately, Wu Xian snapped back in time, suppressing the signs of breakthrough, then exhaled deeply, his gaze toward the Original True Interpretation deepening further.

"The rune analysis method and the Original True Interpretation are perfectly matched—one is the algorithmic formula for deciphering the essence of runes, the other contains the canonical templates of all original runes in this world…"

"Now that I hold both, if I persist in studying them, perhaps one day I too can create my own orthodox cultivation here, just like Fu Xi!"

The orthodox cultivation runes of the infinite multiverse were assigned meaning by Fu Xi through his understanding of heaven and earth, just as the ten digits 0–9 can form infinite numbers, thus generating trillions of vast rune combinations.

In other words, upon leaving the infinite multiverse, the power of orthodox cultivators vanishes.

Because no other multiverse has another Fu Xi—even if one did, the trigram runes he established would not be identical.

Undoubtedly, the runes within the Original True Interpretation point directly to the origin of the Perfect World's Great Dao; if Wu Xian could use these rune analysis methods to create new trigram combinations, he too could freeload…

Cough! He meant he would create orthodox cultivation to benefit the countless beings of the Perfect World, elevate the strength of all life, and end this turbulent, storm-tossed age of war!

Thinking thus, a sense of responsibility arose within him; Wu Xian focused even more intently on deciphering the Original True Interpretation and began attempting to create his own trigram "runes."

…

Cultivation knows no time; in the blink of an eye, another month passed, and Wu Xian's group had traveled over a hundred thousand li through the Wilds.

During this time, Shi Hao, through the trials of the Six Storehouse Thieves and constant battles with mighty ferocious beasts, finally shattered the limit of Blood Mobilization, his single arm wielding a force of one hundred fifty thousand jin—far surpassing even the offspring of the Ten Ancient Fears, truly terrifying.

Meanwhile, Wu Xian made slight progress in creating trigram runes.

Specifically, he had crafted half a rune, related to the "Zhen" trigram, symbolizing the power of thunder.

He chose to create this rune first likely due to the Suanni Treasure Art Shi Hao had given him, for this technique contained potent thunder primordial energy, granting him the inspiration to draw parallels.

But unfortunately, his realm was still far too low; even with the combined spiritual power and computational capacity of many Wu Xians, he could only reach this point for now.

To fully perfect this rune, Wu Xian would need either the complete upper volume of the Original True Interpretation or a stronger Thunder Treasure Art, to comprehend even more thunder primordial essence.

For instance, the Thunder Emperor's Treasure Art from the original story!

(End of Chapter)