Chapter 393: Eight Legions

"A single grain of golden light, round and plump; subduing the dragon and taming the tiger, kneaded into harmony."

Huanglian Daoren did not step forward, but only watched the gathas on the eight gates from afar.

The eight gates correspond respectively to: the Heavenly Legions, the Dragon Legions, the Yaksha, the Gandapo, the Ashuluo, the Garuda, the Kinnara, and the Mohuoluojia.

They also vaguely align with the Eight Trigrams of Taoism: the Heavenly Legions are Qian, the Ashuluo are Li, the Garuda are Xun, the Dragon Legions are Kan, the Mohuoluojia are Kun, the Yaksha are Gen, the Kinnara are Zhen, and the Gandapo are Dui...

This gatha is also a fusion of Buddhism and Taoism, mixed with the idea of "the convergence of Buddha and Dao to attain Golden Immortal."

Among them, the one that attracted Xu Jia the most was this one, as if it were speaking of the "Dao of the Inner Elixir."

As the saying goes, for the Dao of the Inner Elixir, refining oneself comes first; how could a gatha of the Inner Alchemy Dao appear in this Buddhist Daochang?

Looking again, this gatha corresponds to the "Heavenly Legions" among the Eight Legions.

Looking again at the gatha for the "Dragon Legions," it is written: "The Azure Dragon hides in the East Sea, the Dantian warms and nurtures the true pearl."

The gatha for the "Yaksha" is: "The heart-monkey and mind-horse are tethered to the Great Dao, the central Earth Virtue clarifies itself."

The gathas of the Eight Legions, when combined, form a complete "Great Dao of the Inner Elixir."

Inside, it explains the Eight Trigrams and the Five Elements, but what it displays are the Buddhist Eight Legions and the Sarira.

Only a few here are true practitioners; some have inheritances and know some secret words, while those of the Leftist Path have average levels of education, just like how the "Jiuyin Shenzhua" can be refined into the "Jiuyin Baiguzhua."

Not to mention them, even Xu Jia back in the day, even with the true Dharma before him, could not cultivate it completely and took the path of the Leftist Path, lacking a clear master.

Xu Jia immediately transmitted his voice to Huogong Toutuo: "You go and contemplate the Ashuluo Gate."

Here, he ordered Huanglian Daoren to contemplate the "Mohuoluojia" gate; this gate corresponds to the "Kun Hexagram," and this legion represents the "Earth Dragon" in Buddhism, which is the counterpart to the Heavenly Dragon, with an external image similar to the great python god, and after all, Chang Yu was enlightened in this way.

Apart from Gouchen, beneath the Thick Earth of Dimu, there is a beast that guards the central Earth Virtue, which is the Tengshe, and it is also the Earth Palace.

On the Kun Hexagram, it is written: "White descends and red rises to blend the mud and water, the Innate One Qi refines the Golden Elixir."

Xu Jia pondered slightly and taught Huanglian Daoren to strike out a burst of Dharma Power; this was as it should be, since the Babao Gongde Chi inside had an affinity with him, and if Huanglian could transform into a "Golden Lotus" and sit on the Golden Lotus Platform, wouldn't that be "attaining Buddhahood"?

The matter of mud and water originally refers to the affairs of men and women; it is said that men are bones and flesh made of mud, and women are bones and flesh made of water, but in Yin and Yang, men are Qian Yang and women are Kun Yin, so this Yang mud and Yin water, embracing and creating, gives birth to a "fetus."

A portion of the theory of the Inner Alchemy Dao always uses "conceiving an infant" to metaphorize the care and hardship of the Inner Elixir, and also likes to use an infant to metaphorize this Innate One Qi, which is the initial state of a person; if one can always maintain the state of an infant, one can achieve Longevity, which is "embracing the infant," and the infant state neither increases nor decreases, which is the "Elixir."

The Elixir and the infant are spoken of as one; in fact, they are one realm, or two states of one realm.

Huanglian Daoren's Thick Earth True Qi was clearly insufficient for certain conditions and could not blend the mud and water, like refining porcelain, to refine a hard Golden Elixir, which is the Sarira of the "convergence of Buddha and Dao" here.

Corresponding to Mohuoluojia, the so-called "Earth-walking Dragon," it is a dragon that cannot soar into the sky, which also counts as cultivation not yet reached.

Thus, that means "water and fire" are still missing; the red rising and white descending is likely the state of "refining mud," though in the terminology of Outer Alchemy, it refers to the state of cinnabar...

Xu Jia is also considered to be from a "Great Sect," with the Lingbao lineage inheritance, but for this kind of forced connection between the Eight Heavenly Dragons, the Zhouyi Eight Trigrams, and the lead-mercury Inner Elixir, he only wanted to say in his heart: "Leftist Path."

This is fundamentally not the path of a Grandmaster who studies both Buddha and Dao.

"The Babao Gongde Chi is also refined from the mud of the Eight Treasures; I fear this is somewhat similar to the method of turning stone into gold, requiring the help of fire-refining power."

For fire power, there is Huogong Toutuo, but I fear "water power" is also needed, otherwise it is just forging mud into ash.

There are few here who can count as having water power; after all, this is the land of Da Mo, and even Gongye Xingyun has the Tianquan Sword and the Xiaoyue Sword, which are the power of stars and moon...

"Right, moonlight is like water, and the moon phase is Taiyin, which is also in this."

Xu Jia immediately transmitted his voice to Huogong Toutuo, and Huogong Toutuo said to Gongye Lingxue: "I have thought of it."

The crowd was deep in thought, and seeing him say this, they all sneered; they had always looked down on the likes of Huogong Toutuo and had not taken him seriously.

"Miss Lingxue, you go to the Dragon Legions corresponding to the Kan Hexagram, I will go to the Ashuluo corresponding to the Li Hexagram, and together with the Mohuoluojia of the Kun Hexagram corresponding to the Master, we might be able to open the gate."

Gongye Lingxue looked at Huanglian Daoren; Huanglian Daoren was completely bewildered and secretly thought: "How did they know what I just had a flash of inspiration about?"

But he had no choice but to follow suit.

For a time, Dharma Power surged, and the Mohuoluojia gate projected a golden light, taking Huanglian Daoren away, while the tool-man Huogong Toutuo and Gongye Lingxue were still outside.

"We have become stepping stones."

Huogong Toutuo was stunned; why didn't it take him? He immediately had no choice but to ponder the gatha on the Li Hexagram.

Huanglian Daoren entered inside and saw it was resplendent with gold and jade, truly "gold paving the ground," with a golden royal palace there; throughout the palace, one could see stone pillars guarded by four king cobras.

Before the royal palace, there was a "Merit Pool" built of the eight treasures: coral, pearl, giant clam, hawksbill, and agate.

The Merit Pool had already dried up, and underneath was a layer of dry mud; occasionally, golden light could be seen in the mud, which were golden lotus seeds.

Above the Babao Gongde Chi, a golden cobra was circling; it was the Mohuoluojia that intended to "transform into a dragon" with the help of the Merit Pool, and it was also the so-called "Babao Gongde Chi."

This sword already had spirituality; although it was a Buddhist treasure, it always carried some evil nature, and one did not know if it was the "curse" brought by the destruction of the nation here because of the Dharma.

"Mohuoluojia~"

The Babao Gongde Chi emitted a Wonderful Sound.

Xu Jia thought about it and ordered Huanglian Daoren to take out the Golden Seal.

Seeing this object, the Babao Gongde Chi immediately stopped moving, its form dissipated, and it transformed into a floating golden sword in the air.

It turned out that this dragon-snake was also the sword spirit formed by the final National Fortune spirituality of the Huangjin Zhi Guo.

The Babao Gongde Chi fell into the hands of Huanglian Daoren, and Xu Jia also recognized this sword; although it could not compare to his own Weiji Immortal Sword, its quality was much better than the twin swords refined from the flood dragon and silver dragon.

Apart from this sword, the mud and golden lotus seeds in the Babao Gongde Chi were also scraped clean by Huanglian Daoren, leaving only the bare golden walls.

Having obtained this treasure, Huanglian Daoren continued forward; after all, he still had a key on him, and this key could open a treasury of the Huangjin Zhi Guo, inside which was some kind of monster.

Passing through the palace, he arrived at a garden, but this garden had no ordinary plants, only trees made of jade and coral, with various gems hanging from the trees.

And Baiyun Chanshi was also in this garden; he was not surprised to see Huanglian Daoren, but he did not sense the "aura" of the real Xu Jia from him, but instead used his Fate-Knowing Ability to see the "past" at a glance. He immediately understood: "The flower is not a flower, the fruit is not a fruit, it is a Transformation Birth Heavenly Being."

Huanglian Daoren was wary of this Chan master, and then wanted to find the gate to the so-called "treasury."

Before long, another person came, who was Gongye Xingyun; he saw Xu Jia's operation and deduced that these eight gates probably represented eight steps of the Inner Elixir, and as long as one activated the eight gates according to the corresponding steps, the gate could be opened, so he entered from the "Heavenly Legions."

This was not difficult; one just had to reason and calculate a little.

Since he had entered, he naturally protected his daughter as they entered; the father and daughter also each obtained a Buddhist treasure behind the gate.

At this time, seeing Baiyun Chanshi and Huanglian Daoren, they were calm and composed; coming here once was already not a loss.

"Greetings, Arhat Baiyun." Gongye Xingyun bowed and asked, "I wonder if the Arhat can discern the mechanism here."

Arhat Baiyun said, "The twin trees of permanence and impermanence wither and flourish; north, south, west, and east are neither false nor empty."

"What does that mean?"

Gongye Xingyun had only a mediocre understanding of the Dharma and found it difficult to comprehend that this was the scene of the Buddha's Nirvana.

The jade trees here were exactly half-bare branches and half-dense with gemstone leaves.

This signified that a being with great Dharma Divine Ability had attained Nirvana here.

Baiyun Chanshi believed that his own Nirvana and Parinirvana could not achieve such a miraculous sign; it was at least the Nirvana of a Bodhisattva (God Immortal Realm of the Desire Realm).

Xu Jia, however, had a realization and immediately began searching for the "place of Nirvana."

That place of Nirvana must contain a "Sarira" or left-behind treasures.

Furthermore, in Buddhism, there are always instances where a Great Being chooses Nirvana to subdue some demon, unleashing extremely formidable power.

For example, in *Journey to the West*, when the Buddha subdued Sun Wukong, he severed his palm and returned to the Western Paradise to enter Nirvana; but for him, Nirvana was not death—after Nirvana, he returned to his position as Fo Zhu.

Therefore, if what the man-made "Golden Light Bodhisattva" said was true, that something was suppressed here, it must be at the place of Nirvana.

Holding that golden key, one could open the treasury of the Huangjin Zhi Guo, obtain the national treasures of the Buddha Kingdom, and acquire the supreme treasure capable of transforming the desert into an Oasis.

To be honest, Xu Jia had only seen such supreme treasures in *Hongmao Lantu Qixia Zhuan*, where the Spirit Spring precious jade of the Shili Hualang had such an effect; otherwise, even the "Rao Pearl" refined by Ao Jin Tongzi, which possessed the Qi of abundance and auspiciousness, would find it difficult to immediately turn a desert into an Oasis.

Moreover, this Huangjin Zhi Guo was so wealthy, with gold paving the ground, that Xu Jia could only think of Saudi Arabia, that major household where oil gushed from the ground.

Could it be that the ground beneath this Huangjin Zhi Guo also produced black gold? But this Bodhisattva was named "Golden Light," and after Nirvana, he likely transformed into "Golden Light." Perhaps this Huangjin Zhi Guo was not gold to begin with, but just a normal palace, and after his Nirvana, it was irradiated by the golden light, turning it into a kingdom with gold-paved floors.

Therefore, searching for traces of Nirvana here was still very difficult.

Especially since the art of divination was almost useless here.

"Is it there in the center?"

There was an open space in the center of the garden, but there were no clues.

North, south, east, and west, with the twin trees withered and flourishing, there was indeed no change.

But the next moment, Baiyun Chanshi walked out, took his Zen Staff, and smashed his own ankle, immediately causing pale golden blood to flow out.

The atmosphere of the Buddha Kingdom began to shift, and the sound of chanting from a thousand years ago arose in the surroundings.

As the withering and flourishing transformed, a place revealed a faint golden light.

This golden light immediately attracted Xu Jia, but he remained still. Firstly, he did not know if everyone who discovered that secret chamber was issued a key, and secondly, this Buddha Kingdom now looked like it actually had some strength—if one truly believed in the Buddha and cultivated Divine Ability and Dharma Power, yet it was destroyed overnight, then whatever monster was inside was quite eerie.

Huanglian Daoren had already obtained the Eight Treasures Merit Sword and was bringing it back safely to offer to the main body; that was what mattered most.

As for the Buddha Kingdom's treasure, Xu Jia was not greedy; he would just join in the fun.

This Baiyun Chanshi clearly had some Karmic Connection with this place; perhaps he would inherit the orthodoxy of the Buddha Kingdom, establish a sect in the Da Mo, achieve the status of a Bodhisattva of the Desire Realm, and re-establish the Buddha Kingdom.

Gongye Xingyun also remained still. At this moment, several people broke in from outside; it was the Desert Three Demons, who had also cracked the verse and entered.

Seeing this place, they didn't say a word, pulling up all the gemstone trees and stripping the golden ground, acting just like locusts.

Upon arriving here and seeing Gongye Xingyun and Baiyun Chanshi, they sneered: "I wonder what treasures you few who arrived first have obtained? Take them out for our brothers to admire and broaden our horizons."

"That's right, that's right, those who see it get a share, how can you enjoy it alone?"

Especially towards Huanglian Daoren: "You brat must know what the opportunity is, otherwise how could your cultivation be so shallow yet you still entered before our brothers?"

It was also the first time Xu Jia had seen rogue cultivators who had already reached the Earth Immortal realm act as brainless as villains in a power fantasy novel.

He immediately thought to himself: "It seems there is a protagonist present here, otherwise why would there be an intelligence-lowering halo?"

In fact, there was no intelligence-lowering halo; these Desert Three Demons were used to bullying the weak. It was merely that they saw the three of them—Gongye Xingyun, though strong, was carrying a weak daughter, and Baiyun Chanshi was self-mutilating to uncover the mysteries of Nirvana. They believed no one here was a match for their three brothers, and in the face of powerful opportunities and treasures, they naturally "revealed the manifestations of Greed, Anger, and Ignorance."

"Once we get the Buddha Treasure, we'll play at being Bodhisattvas and Arhats too. I'll be the Sand Bodhisattva, he'll be the Fire Bodhisattva, and you'll be the Wind Bodhisattva. We'll also protect the peace of this Da Mo and collect some offerings to enjoy; wouldn't that be much more carefree?"

As they were speaking, suddenly a golden light erupted from Baiyun Chanshi, and the golden light from all directions in the void gathered to form a door of pure gold.

Outside the door were Daoist Talismans written in the flesh and blood of a Bodhisattva.

Xu Jia couldn't help but complain: "How is this like in *Ji Gong Subdues Demons*, where Buddhists grind their Golden Body into powder to write Daoist incantations?"

Xu Jia was actually familiar with this incantation; it was the Tianpeng Demon-Slaying Talisman.

But wasn't the Tianpeng technique forbidden for monks to learn? How was this monk using it so skillfully?

Baiyun Chanshi's expression was grave, sweat beads appearing on his head, and before him appeared a skull wearing a crown.

"This is the king of that Huangjin Zhi Guo; he actually attained the status of a Bodhisattva. It is the Golden Light Bodhisattva."

Then, all the mysteries lay behind this sealed treasury door.

But at this moment, the atmosphere turned eerie; Gongye Xingyun's Sword Qi was already manifest, and his killing intent was far greater than when he had confronted Xu Jia earlier.

(End of chapter)