Chapter 105: The Golden Toad Bites the Money

The deity in the moon descended, and Xu Jia was able to observe it.

Perhaps because his Primordial Spirit was like a bright moon, as Xu Jia introspected his Divine Nature, what he saw was precisely a compassionate deity wearing goose-yellow divine robes, whose gender was indistinguishable, descending to bestow Qi.

It turned out that Xu Jia had formed karmic ties with various demons and ghosts; the cultivation of demons and ghosts involves worshipping the moon to seek essence, and Yuejun is compassionate, so all spirits that receive grace would be grateful to him. Thus, this time when he observed the deity and drew the Talisman, the deity in the moon possessed a bit more vitality.

Moreover, by summoning both the sun and moon deities in a single day, he was able to have the two coordinate yin and yang; the yin and yang Qi within Xu Jia's body became balanced, and his state of mind grew increasingly stable.

To refine and ferry a Soul, one requires this very state; it is using one's own "clarity" to awaken the clarity of the ghost spirit, combined with the Water Pool and Fire Swamp to temper its form and quality, purge the yin-evil and resentment, restore it to the state of an infant, remove the acquired six senses, leaving only the innate Primordial Spirit and a point of spiritual brightness, and borrowing the Lotus Platform of Taiyi Qingxuan Shangdi to ferry it into a "Ghost Immortal."

This process is not suitable for outsiders to see, so after Xu Jia drew the Talisman, he waited until the dead of night, and after confirming that everyone was asleep, he cast the Sleep-Inducing Dream Spell before officially beginning the refining and ferrying.

One could see a peck measure on the Dharma Altar, filled with rice, as well as a bowl filled with sweet dew, along with fresh flowers and fragrant fruits of various kinds.

Xu Jia first took the Sun True Fire to ignite the pine needles prepared in advance within the Rigan, and lit the dry firewood gathered in a sun-facing spot; immediately, it crackled and burned very vigorously.

He then cast the "Supreme Pure Brightness Yuyi Sunlight Talisman" into it; the Talisman immediately burst into flames, the solar essence rippled, and the courtyard became as bright as day.

He then held a Wind Fan and gave it a slight wave, and the wind aided the fire's intensity.

Seeing the flames soar and heat waves roll, Xu Jia threw the golden toad biting the copper coin into the jar.

Just as it entered the fire jar, he heard the original Soul scream: "It's burning me to death! It's scalding me! Mother, come save me..."

Xu Jia recited the secret spell, mobilizing his clear spiritual consciousness to guide it: "Your fate is bound by Tushi; now the True Fire is refining the earth, forging it into gold. Why would you fear the tempering of fire if you imagine yourself to be a piece of gold?"

The original Soul was still wailing, but after hearing Xu Jia's words, it began to imagine itself as golden and brilliant...

Xu Jia was afraid it would truly burn into fly ash—after all, the yin-demon Primordial Spirit of the evil Daoist had burned away after only a short while—so he picked up the water bowl, took a mouthful, and sprayed it around the fire swamp jar.

The water fell like sweet dew; though it could not extinguish the fire jar, a sense of coolness protected the original Soul.

Not until several moments later did a golden light suddenly appear, and a golden toad leaped from the fire swamp and jumped onto the Immortal Bridge.

It turned out that the Tushi tomb-storehouse had all been transformed into wealth and absorbed by the golden toad, which thereby gained spiritual intelligence and "came to life," jumping out of the fire swamp.

The golden toad itself was still golden yellow, but the copper coin in its mouth had been burned bright red.

The firewood temperature was not high, but having been tainted with solar essence by the Sunlight Talisman, it was no longer ordinary fire; it was Dharma fire, divine fire.

Xu Jia then cast the "Supreme Pure Brightness Moonlight Talisman" into the water pool jar; immediately, this Talisman burned with white yin-fire, fell as talisman ash, and the lunar essence merged into the pool water, illuminating the moon in the sky and transforming it into the moon in the water.

Xu Jia gave another wave of the fan, driving the golden toad into the water pool. The shock of cold and heat caused it to hiss and bubble, and the original Soul shouted: "So cold! So cold! I'm going to freeze to death!"

He also faintly heard weeping: "Mother, I'm cold, bring me clothes to wear! My clothes were burned away..."

Xu Jia sighed, grabbed a handful of rice from the peck measure, began to recite a spell, and after finishing, scattered it into the two pools: "Eat the rice well and replenish your strength. This is only the first round; you must undergo nine fire-refinings and six water-refinings."

The original Soul's Tushi mud-shell shattered, revealing a scorched and frostbitten phantom image, and it begged: "I won't refine anymore, I won't refine anymore!"

"The Dharma Altar has been opened; how can you say you won't refine just because you want to?" The Dharma rice, offered as food, transformed into a wisp of smoke-Qi, entered the soul-body, and rapidly repaired it.

Xu Jia waved the fan again, and the golden toad leaped out of the water pool, heading from the Immortal Bridge toward the fire swamp. The result was another round of miserable wailing, and Xu Jia could only continue to spray water to turn it into sweet dew, helping it purify... and reducing its suffering.

After repeating the water and fire refining six times each, the original Soul had become much clearer; the Tushi had been burned away and entrusted to the golden toad, though its form had also become much smaller.

"Finally, three more separate fire-refinings to extract the yin-dregs!"

The original Soul no longer screamed; the extraction of the evil was basically complete, and the flames were only slightly hot, no longer as unbearable as if it were going to be burned to death. Its surface seemed as translucent as a thin layer of white glaze.

The original Soul responded with a murmur and threw itself into the fire again. Once the copper coin was burned red, it jumped out with the golden toad to cool, and thus, the third time, it was complete.

One could see that the copper coin had been refined until it was golden and brilliant, and the original Soul had completely detached from it.

Its form was illusory and weak, only three inches tall, and it had returned to the image of an infant. However, the cinnabar mark between its brows indicated that the refining and ferrying had succeeded; this was a point of yang-quality, the mark of becoming a Ghost Immortal, from which point it could even move about in the daytime without fearing sunlight.

However, a Ghost Immortal in the infant state is still very weak and needs to be slowly nurtured to adulthood before it can be considered a proper Ghost Immortal.

The Yin Masters of the underworld that Xu Jia oversaw in his previous life mostly had soul-quality that did not even reach the state of those refined by a high-ranking Daoist master.

A portion of them could only be considered "wandering masters," fighting with lonely ghosts and wild spirits for food.

Seeing that he had succeeded in the refining, Xu Jia began to recite the name of Taiyi Qingxuan Shangdi, the Savior of Suffering, sensing the green lotus lifting him up.

This was the final step of the ritual, to send him into the Qinghua Jie to cultivate.

However, Xu Jia made a change, borrowing the power of the green lotus to send him into the Xinjiao and Xingong. This lotus flower was equivalent to a free "Lotus Platform." The main deity of the Danyuan Gong in the Xinjiao voluntarily left the body, embraced the green lotus that was about to ascend, entered through Xu Jia's mouth, descended the Twelve Heavy Buildings, and entered the main temple of the Xingong.

In an instant, Xu Jia naturally gained many memories; these were the memories and Cause and Effect of the original body.

Immediately, a powerful heart-fire circulated, reverse-refining the Primordial Spirit; the Primordial Spirit Xu Jia had cultivated in his previous life completely melted, completing the body-cleansing and performing the final "balancing."

In an instant, a large amount of innate essence and Heavenly Qi was returned and generated from the melted Primordial Spirit.

A portion of the innate essence returned to the brain, which is the Dao of Returning Essence to the Brain. Many classics he had seen in his past life were recalled word for word with clarity, and his understanding of them became increasingly profound.

Things he lacked the wisdom to comprehend before, or thought were wrong and did not pay much attention to, now, when recalled, had another possible explanation, capable of verifying what he was currently cultivating.

A portion of the innate essence returned to the left kidney god, Chunyuan Zhen. Chunyuan Zhen's kidney essence was full and was about to be distributed to Xiangtamu to transform into acquired essence, but it was quickly suppressed by the heart-spirit.

The heart is the ruler of the five viscera, and the others are ministers. Now that there was an additional heart-general helper, it began to assist in transporting this innate essence.

Thus, the innate essence nourished the liver, lungs, and spleen in turn, building the palaces and waiting for the right moment to give birth to the Body Gods.

As for the spleen, it is the Earth Palace, which governs the refining of all "acquired primordial Qi." It is also the central coordinating organ for Xu Jia's practice of Water Fire Already Balanced.

If this organ is not strong and is offended by water and fire, it easily causes problems in the digestive system, such as loss of appetite, bloating, nausea, or diarrhea and vomiting.

Therefore, Xu Jia kept a portion of the rare innate Heavenly Qi that had been nourished as Fetal Breath seeds, transported a portion into the brain's Primordial Spirit for warming and protection, and the rest entered the Spleen Palace, catalyzing the birth of the Spleen Palace's main deity, "Precious Origin Spring."

Precious Origin Spring looked like a yellow-robed boy, holding a pottery tripod in his hands, with heart-fire descending to refine and kidney-water rising to boil.

At this point, Xu Jia had initially built the mud tripod and could begin gathering medicine and refining pills.

However, such changes consumed a great deal of energy. Once the spleen became strong, his stomach felt empty, and in a daze, Xu Jia felt as if he could swallow an entire cow! By the time he opened his eyes again, the morning sun was rising, just in time for practice! Xu Jia's eyes seemed to contain light, absorbing the purple Qi from the east through his eyes, clicking his teeth seventy-two times, swallowing his saliva nine times, then stopped his practice and exhaled a long breath of Qi.

Now, only the liver and lungs were missing, and then the five elements could be fully adjusted, allowing him to enter the "internal refining cycle" completely.

After finishing his practice, Xu Jia picked up the golden toad. This little thing seemed to have come to life last night, but now in the daytime, it had become a hand-held ornament again, though its eyes were much more lively and its form was more like a real golden toad, no longer just vaguely resembling a toad shape.

The "Pressing Money" in its mouth had also completed its transformation, becoming a "Wealth God Magic Tool."

This was exactly the result Xu Jia had expected.

When he tried to pry the Pressing Money out of the golden toad's mouth, the golden toad refused, so Xu Jia said: "This is just one copper coin; next time I'll give you a gold coin!"

The golden toad still wouldn't let go—do you think I'm stupid? Where would an ordinary gold coin be as important as a Wealth God Magic Tool? Xu Jia added: "I'll carry a string of gold coins on your back!"

Fine! You win!

The golden toad loosened its mouth, and the Pressing Money was successfully retrieved.

He placed the golden toad back onto the roof beam of the Ming Tang, aligning it with the water luck and wealth Qi of the Four Waters Returning to the Hall to create a configuration where metal and water generate each other. However, one could not simply place a single golden toad; it would be best to pair it with a water-element base.

Xu Jia chose to pair it with a small basin filled with some ordinary copper coins piled into a small mound, placing the golden toad inside to create a "Golden Toad Absorbing Water" formation.

As for this Wealth God Magic Tool, it had to be taken to the Fox Immortal Hall and buried inside the Incense Burner to allow the Wealth God Authority to take up residence in the entire Fox Immortal Hall.

Of course, Xu Jia's ultimate goal was to refine his Heart General into a "Wealth God," such as Longhu Xuantan Zhao Gongming, who was initially a Dharma Altar Spirit of Longhu Mountain, hence the title of Orthodox Unity Dragon-Tiger Mysterious Altar, and later became the "True Wealth God."

Having money and being able to fight.

This time, he was originally going to refine and ferry the Condolence Guest Sha, but that Condolence Guest Sha had entered the Stele Immortal Lineage and did not want to clear away the Sha Qi from its body; instead, it learned Xu Jia's "Method of Refining Chang" and transformed its own Sha Qi into Wood Sha vine armor, heading down the path of becoming a "Chang General."

Xu Jia refined one less, consuming less Dharma Power and mental energy, and at least a little bit of the Dharma Power he had borrowed remained unspent.

Thus, Xu Jia quickly drew three more Talismans: one was a Huohai Diyu Talisman, one was a Fire-Avoiding Talisman, and one was a Lushan Beheading Evil fu.

Centipedes fear fire, and since Xu Jia now possessed a Heart General, he could practice Fire Method; within the Five Elements, the heart belongs to fire, so naturally, he had to practice the "Huohai Diyu Great Method" from the Lushan Five Prisons Great Method.

This was precisely the method of restraint Xu Jia had calculated; originally, centipedes also feared chickens, but where could one find a powerful chicken to restrain the giant centipede-dragon transformed from the Yushan Mountain God? The previous Inverted-Feather Pheasant Spirit would likely be insufficient.

Or perhaps the "Wood Bird Wind Egg" it left behind, but who knows when that will hatch!

Having finished drawing these three Talismans, that bit of Dharma Power was finally exhausted. Xu Jia carefully folded the Talismans, ate some breakfast, and then went out.

Yesterday was the fourteenth, today is the fifteenth; Dizang An opens its mountain gates on the first and fifteenth of every month, allowing pilgrims to make and fulfill vows. Even though the Longevity Sect has occupied Dizang An, they still observe this rule, precisely so that others do not notice anything unusual.

(End of chapter)