Chapter 382: Breaking the Array

That massive Dharma Image was, in truth, not Xu Jia's Primordial Spirit, nor even a Body God; it was merely the image of a deity as perceived in the hearts of the masses, manifested by summoning the Quanshen of the Nine Rivers of this realm.

These Nine Rivers are not the original Pearl River, Lancang River, and other such rivers, but rather the nine waters connected by this Nine Rivers Array.

They are the Gan River, Po River, Yu River, Xiu River, Gan River, Xu River, Shu River, Nan River, and Peng River.

The gods of these Nine Rivers all belong to the ranks of Earth Immortals, each nourishing a stretch of land, and can be considered the parent rivers of their respective regions; it is just that they are currently being captured by the "Nine Rivers Map," causing a temporary struggle for authority.

The Nine Rivers Map is the draft of the world's water vein atlas drawn by the ancient Great Yu; it is the original version of the ancient Water Classic Commentary and is a treasure of ancient Merit.

History in this realm deviated after the Qin Dynasty; the ancient Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and the various masters of the Spring and Autumn period were all one and the same, so in this realm, Great Yu is also the Lower Yuan Water Official Great Emperor among the Three Primes and San Guan Da Di, the Lord of Dongyuan.

Xu Jia's Talisman Edict naturally cannot compare to the power of Great Yu, but no matter how powerful a treasure is, it depends on how one uses it; furthermore, that was an object from before the ancient Great Yu attained Didao, and it is not currently being personally blessed by the Water Official Great Emperor, so while it gains glory through its wielder, its limitations are also great.

For a time, most of the power of the array was held in check by Xu Jia's Jiujiang Shuidi incarnation, forcing the Five Immortals to take action.

The old man with hair in bangs held a bright green leaf banana fan, the Confucian scholar controlled several pure white immortal swords, the red-bearded Daoist released his fire Gourd, from which flew out flocks of fire crows, fire Flood Dragons, fire foxes, and fire tigers, baring fangs and brandishing claws, the butcher carried a heavy, man-sized broadsword, and the immortal maiden held a pair of water-parting Emei piercers.

Each stood in a position, yet they held the momentum of the Five Elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

In an instant, the entire array, beyond the cold and heat changes of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms' Water Qi, gained the movement of the four seasons and the Five Elements.

Xu Jian then commanded: "Shen Bao, Jiang Qi, you two, take the Raw Rice Bowl to the Summer Solstice solar term, operate this Magic Tool to devour the array's Water Origin, then drill the Six Harmonies Array and blast the foundation of this bird-brained array with cannons."

The Five Immortals steered nine Qi dragons, and for a moment, they also possessed a "Nine-Five configuration."

Xu Jia always felt that these five had something of the "Middle Cave Eight Immortals" style about them, and secretly thought: "These fellows, they wouldn't be trying to clear me like a villain, would they?"

The Eight Immortals fought the Dragon King; his own Jiujiang Shuidi Dharma Image had a dragon head and human body, an eight-tasseled crown, and wore nine-dragon dharma robes—from a mortal's perspective, it was indeed a "Dragon King image."

But the Jiujiang Shuidi is one of Great Yu's Dao images. Of course, Xu Jia did not invite Great Yu's will; this Jiujiang Shuidi is essentially still a Body God within the three hundred and sixty-five major acupoints governed by his Primordial Spirit, presiding over Water Luck. If he truly invited Great Yu's will and consecrated it, that would be using his body as a temple and inviting an external god.

Many people get tattoos of deity images; unless they truly have a lineage, practice the attendant-body method, and have a specific method for offering Incense Fire, they are otherwise using their own fortune, status, and longevity to add three sticks of incense to honor the deity. Furthermore, where gods and Buddhas reside is always a solemn Pure Land; if the human body does not hold precepts and is always laboring in the pursuit of sensory pleasures, even if the deity image on the body is consecrated, it will not be efficacious and will instead easily attract dirty things. Such people often have "yin affinity," unconsciously liking strange and bizarre yin objects, wearing them on their bodies, or even liking to wear things like fur; they wear necklaces of Kuman Thong and handle prayer beads... for a time they may have yin wealth, but it is all a case of paying it back a hundredfold later. Although Xu Jia in his previous life was not quite like this, the essence was much the same: inviting the spirituality of the True Gods of the Three Mountains and Five Peaks to reside in his Body Temple—although the True Gods did not mind and even provided some support, it was ultimately like the moon in the water or flowers in a mirror, ending in nothingness.

The Lushan Five Immortals lamented in their hearts: "Isn't this person practicing the Yellow Heaven Teaching Method? The Ancient Luo Shu even shows that he is constrained by the Heavenly Dao and cannot act at will, so why has he entered the fray himself?"

That Five Elements Array was a "water-generating" Five Elements Array: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, and metal generates water, strengthening the nine Qi dragons, each of them fat and large. The cold dragon, frost dragon, sleet dragon, and others formed the yin aspect, while the rolling dragon, warm dragon, and others formed the yang aspect. Old yin embracing young yang was indeed a "Supreme Ultimate" appearance, living up to the poem chanted earlier: "A single Supreme Ultimate suppresses the east wind."

However, can you suppress the magnitude of this east wind? The Daoist soldiers on that side soon encountered the troops within the Iron Chain Linked Ships Array. They raised black flags and immediately began to exchange fire. The other side also used firearms, but they were still relatively backward. However, if the technology leaked out, or if there was "military involution," the imperial court's firearms would certainly be updated. But Xu Jia's side had the support of the Tongtian Temple in America, enough to gradually update technology and stably produce it as if playing a civilization evolution game. For instance, Yushan has already begun building railways; once the railway to Nanchang Prefecture is opened, logistics will be worry-free.

It was just that within the Nine Rivers Array, the gunpowder for the Daoist soldiers' flintlocks was not efficacious due to rule suppression; conversely, the enemy's version-behind firearms on the ships went bang-bang-bang with no effect at all.

But it did not matter; his own side also had bulletproof vests and helmet Magic Tools, and those low-level officers had even entered the early stage of Human Immortal cultivation, making them experts whom even three or five burly men could not approach.

"Deploy the Six Harmonies Cannon Array!"

The cannons entering the array were ignited. Even though they were affected by the rules of the Nine Rivers Array, they were gathered into a force by the Heavenly Stiff Internal Refining Method practiced by hundreds of people. The Heavenly Stiff military momentum poured into the cannon Magic Tools, transforming into a Six Harmonies space, exempting them from the influence of the Nine Rivers Water Qi. Instead, a heat Qi of extreme rigidity and yang rose, connecting with the thunder fire, decomposing the Water Qi, and faintly exploding.

If it were ordinary times, it would not have been so easy; only because the Jiujiang Shuidi held back those five Earth Immortals were they ignored somewhat.

On that side, there was a hail of bullets, but nine out of ten missed, and not only was reloading difficult, but they couldn't hit many people. When the Six Harmonies cannons fired, that pure yang, infinite, and overbearing intent was revealed.

One cannon blast went off, and the rain actually stopped; another blast went off, and the rain fell again.

"Thunder is the pivot of heaven and earth's yin and yang. In the Five Thunders Orthodox Method of Longhu Mountain, there is a saying: when the thunder signal sounds once, the wind comes; twice, the clouds gather; three times, lightning flashes and thunder rumbles; four times, the rain arrives; five times, the clouds open and the rain ends. Our cannons are all refined with Heavenly Stiff Thunder Law; we only need to release the thunder signal at the moment the array's solar terms change to occupy some dominant position. Among the Thunder Laws, the Twenty-Four Thunder Gates correspond to the Twenty-Four Solar Terms; the changes of yin and yang generate thunder—spring thunder, summer thunder, autumn thunder, winter thunder..."

After Xu Jian finished speaking, he threw out one Jade Porcelain Divine Thunder after another. This thing was created by him; before he practiced the Dao, he was a man of ten thousand years whose family was in the fireworks business, and only later did he get the opportunity to practice. He and Chang Yu held firm together, Gen Earth absorbing Qi, Cai Yu taking bait, and thus they attained Earth Immortal; the Jade Porcelain Divine Thunder was the Earthly Fiend External Thunder created by Cai Yu.

Once these thunders were thrown, they snapped iron chains here and blasted through ship hulls there. Even if some were affected by the array's momentum and were silenced or misfired, they were still like muffled thunder gourds, and one never knew when they would explode on their own.

(End of chapter)