Chapter 403: Gushing Spirit Spring

The Chicken Juezi Mountain Deity, Luejue Shen, is also a general under the command of Xu Jia's Three Primes Bingtian, the Marshal of the Earth Office. He leads a host of Ghost Soldiers, or is otherwise known as a "Qingfeng Immortal" in the various Immortal Halls—what is called a "Stele King." In essence, he is still of the "Ghost Sha" variety, yet he possesses some skills, being adept at rice-divination, gathering intelligence, and Walking the Nether.

Luejue bowed to Xu Jia: "This minor deity pays respects to the Dharma Lord."

This was different from how others addressed him.

Xu Jia had not summoned Luejue for a long time; in truth, he grew too slowly. Of course, this was in comparison to Xu Jia's own growth speed. In several years, Luejue had risen four levels, from a non-ranked, unranked Ghost Official to a Ninth Rank Mountain Deity, which was already a leap across classes.

"How is the Dharma Realm?"

Xu Jia asked directly: "What is the situation like now?"

"Although every village has connected to an Immortal Hall, the laws have not truly linked up. Within the villages, the Dharma Realm is fine, but on the small paths, wild trails, and between the fields, there are still many lonely souls and wild ghosts. Places near water or forests are not very clean either; it's just that the powerful ones have been driven away, and those remaining are the weaker ones, the ones easy to subdue."

Xu Jia nodded and said: "All sentient beings, including those hungry ghosts, lonely souls, wild ghosts, and masterless infant spirits... treat death as life. Do your best to build Blessed Fields in the Dharma Realm to provide for their survival. As for the wilderness of the Dharma Realm, that is a matter for another time."

Having said this, Xu Jia personally entered the Dharma Realm. Although the Dharma Realm is an illusory place of Yinming, Xu Jia had long ago mastered the method of "entering with a physical body," using the Sword Immortal's technique to escape into the Dharma Realm and break open the passage between Yin and Yang. With his intent, he could arrive in an instant.

At this moment, he entered the Dharma Realm with his true body, not his Primordial Spirit.

Within the Dharma Realm, all color was lost, leaving only black, white, and gray. If one saw a hint of color—such as red, a scarlet red meant a Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost; a pure red meant Official Qi; pink meant Lustful Qi. All techniques for observing Qi were based on this.

The Dharma Realm's Chicken Juezi Mountain was just as it had been seen before: a giant, black chicken foot. This was determined by the perception of the common people. Because a Mountain Deity had now been decreed, this giant chicken foot had a bit of the aura of Incense Fire. The atmosphere was not as sinister as it had been in the past, but it could not be called kind, either.

Shadows swarmed all over the mountain; these were the manifestations of the Ghost Soldiers. Occasionally, a fox-faced monster could be seen, which were the projections of the fox demons in the Dharma Realm.

"Where is the Yin Pulse of the Chicken Juezi Mountain Dharma Realm?" Observing a Yin Pulse is the same as observing a Yang Pulse; both require the skill of Seeking Dragon through Feng Shui.

It is just that Yin and Yang are opposites. A lucky site or Yang Dwelling in the world of the living is a cursed site in the Dharma Realm. One must follow the Yinzhai method of selecting graves for the dead to find it, as these are the best places for gathering Yin.

Luejue led Xu Jia to the Yin Pulse of the Chicken Juezi Mountain Dharma Realm, which was actually the location of the "chicken foot sole"—in barbecue, this is called "Palm Treasure."

"The Yin Pulse of Chicken Juezi Mountain has one part connected to the sky of the Dharma Realm, which is the Heavenly Spirit, and one part connected to the depths of the Dharma Realm, which is the Earthly Machine. But Chicken Juezi Mountain is too short and has not received a heavenly seal, so the Heavenly Spirit part is average. However, it is still illuminated by the sun and moon of the Dharma Realm—the Yin sun, Yin moon, and so on. The weather changes as the living world changes; the wind is like a knife, the rain like a sword..."

"The Earthly Machine part is more abundant, but it is unclear where it specifically leads. The Dharma Realm is layered; sometimes a dynasty piles up a layer over two or three hundred years, and sometimes a local disaster piles up another layer. Death and decay form these mounds of earth."

Although what Luejue said was somewhat abstract, Xu Jia could understand it. Generations of historical dynasties were all buried beneath the yellow earth like this. Through the long years of history, they were buried layer by layer, just like the city of Kaifeng—beneath Ming and Qing Kaifeng lies Song and Yuan Kaifeng, and beneath Song and Yuan lies Sui and Tang... These cities were destroyed and rebuilt, rebuilt and destroyed.

Layer by layer, like driving foundations downward. The shallow Dharma Realm is merely a projection of recent times. But what about several decades ago? To ordinary people, that is already "sealed memory." Push back another hundred years, and things are considered "antiques," and those people have long since died. When people die, everything related to them—except for the famous figures recorded in a few lines of text—is nothing but smoke and dust to ordinary people. The Dharma Realm is based on thought and reflection; what is popular stays popular, and what is backward naturally settles into the deeper layers.

The wreckage of the Yellow Heaven Sect's Dharma Realm Cave Heaven, which Xu Jia had sensed in the depths of the Sanqing Mountain Dharma Realm, was at least six to eight hundred years old.

"Is the Yin Pulse actually the historical context of Luejue Mountain?" Xu Jia asked.

"Luejue Mountain has no historical events. The biggest historical event was you decreeing me. Before that, there was only the legend of the Chicken Juezi Ghost, a local piece of folklore made up by old people to scare children. Not even a scholar has climbed the mountain to write a poem. It only exists in the hearts of the villagers, who might go up the mountain to pick some mushrooms, gather some dry firewood, or collect some medicinal herbs."

"Before I was born, there was no Yin Pulse. It only appeared after I was born, and it is very weak. After all, Chicken Juezi Mountain is not a famous mountain or great river; at most, it counts as a small mound."

Xu Jia looked at the Yin Pulse in the Palm Treasure area. It looked like a small ditch, or perhaps a "chicken tendon," with drops of the Yin Pulse Verse gathering on a stone platform the size of a washbasin.

"This is too tiny," Xu Jia complained. "You are a Ninth Rank Yin Spirit, after all; how can you be so destitute?"

"A clever housewife cannot cook without rice. I cannot fabricate history out of thin air. Even if I found some old scholars and asked them to write articles, they couldn't make it sound like anything special," Luejue said helplessly. "This is already quite good."

Xu Jia reached out and pinched it; the Yin Pulse transformed from formless to tangible, becoming a small, black, reverse-furred chick.

This chick, like drawing a snake and adding feet, had an extra pair of tiny "chicken feet," looking like a fried chicken supply body with eight legs and ten pairs of wings, as if it had been injected with hormones in a legend.

"This Chicken Juezi Mountain really has some significance."

This was precisely the "Yin Pulse Spirit."

Xu Jia immediately exited the Dharma Realm to seek the Yang Pulse Spirit of Chicken Juezi Mountain.

Beneath the mud of a pond under an old tree, he pointed out a site, and a "golden chick" sprang from the hole.

This was precisely the "Earth Spirit."

Xu Jia combined the Yin chick and the Yang chick, and they instantly transformed into a "hemp-colored chicken."

The combination of these two Yin and Yang pulse spirits immediately caused the Yin and Yang pulses to connect. A "muffled explosion" from deep underground was triggered, sounding like a grave-robbing gang at work, but this was the very symbol of success.

The hemp-colored chicken escaped from Xu Jia's hand, landed, and vanished. After a while, it appeared on a tree.

Xu Jia took the opportunity to cast a prohibition, which was nothing more than the "Qi Prohibition" technique—condensing Qi into a prohibition. He did not need to borrow external objects, using only his own God Immortal Dharma Power to enter the trees, the earth and stone, or the stream water.

After the set of prohibitions was finished, Luejue let out a strange cry: "It's grown! The Spirit Root has grown!"

He looked down at his crotch. What a "Heaven and Earth Spirit Root!"

A part of Chicken Juezi Mountain's waist bulged, and a spring gushed out, which was a Spirit Spring rich in "Spirit Qi."

It was also proof of Xu Jia's successful experiment.

The collision and union of Yin and Yang Qi transformed into the legendary "Spirit Qi"—the "Spirit Qi" that allows one to increase their Dharma Power and realm through breathing and swallowing or consumption, without needing to Borrow the False to Cultivate the True.

Xu Jia sensed this Spirit Qi and felt it was very similar to "Borrowing the False to Cultivate the True," the intersection of heart and kidney, and Drawing Kan and Filling Li. The Yin Qi of the Dharma Realm and the Yang Qi of the living world were thus joined together.

This Spirit Qi was like the "Dantian Cauldron" within the body, refining Small Medicine. It was just that this prohibition imitated the Yin and Yang of heaven and earth to match the operation of human cultivation, or perhaps it was reversing the celestial order, as humans are originally "following the Dao of Nature."

Xu Jia said softly: "So that is how it is. It cannot escape the principles of Yin Yang Five Elements Eight Trigrams. The changes of the entire universe are nothing more than the changes of Yin and Yang."

The Spirit Spring gushed out. Although the Spirit Qi it contained was average, in those worlds where mortals cultivate immortality, this would be a "First Grade Low Rank Spirit Vein," capable of cultivating several acres of spirit fields.

"This thing is good. Although it doesn't follow the route of famous mountains and great rivers, it follows the mass line. Famous mountains and great rivers are rare in the world, but such mounds and hills are numerous. Although this method involves heavenly and earthly prohibitions, it is not difficult to operate. A single Micro Spirit Vein is nothing, but ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand—that is the way of gathering the masses."

Luejue, sensing that he possessed the ability of "natural gestation," said in surprise: "I actually have the ability to become pregnant and nurture Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, just like a mortal conceiving."

"What can you nurture?"

"Spirit iron ore?" Luejue touched his belly: "I don't know until it's born."

Xu Jia recorded this change. At this moment, the little foxes who sensed the changes in heaven and earth ran over, led by Single-Testicle Fox.

Single-Testicle Fox only had one testicle. Back then, he went into a household to steal money and crawled through a dog hole; when he ran out, a dog bit his testicle, and he suffered this disaster, never being complete again.

Now he had a hundred years of Daoist Practice, nearly two hundred years, and his appearance was no longer wretched. When he saw Xu Jia, he immediately bowed: "Master Xu, Dharma Lord, why have you come here?"

Xu Jia laughed: "This is a stroke of good fortune. This is the first benefit for you all. Taste this Spirit Spring and see how it is."

Single-Testicle Fox, Hu Du Xiu, was astonished and sniffed with his nose: "Why is there an aroma like moonlight? No, moonlight isn't this faint."

He cupped some in his hands and drank it. His eyes lit up, and he said repeatedly: "Why is it like eating a pill, increasing my Dharma Power a little?"

The other little foxes also began to drink, their pink tongues licking and licking, and then they happily jumped and hopped around, as if they had drunk wine.

"This is?"

"This is the creation of combining Yin and Yang, obtaining the mysterious mechanism of heaven and earth," Xu Jia laughed aloud: "From now on, you don't have to wait for the old foxes of eight or nine years to gain spirituality before you can cultivate. Newly born little foxes can also drink this Spirit Spring water, and by the time they are two or three years old and just reaching adulthood, they will be able to awaken their intelligence."

"This truly is good fortune!" Hu Du Xiu sighed: "It really is good fortune."

Xu Jia gave a few instructions: "Go and summon Huang Pipo, Hai Sanniang, Kui Qing, Kan Yinwu, and the others. I intend to lecture them on the Dharma and test whether their Daoist Practice is sufficient to cultivate a Spirit Vein within their own Daochang."

Hu Du Xiu nodded repeatedly, then let out a fart and escaped away.

Before long, all the small demons that Xu Jia had first subdued had arrived.

Hu Jinhua had not come for the time being; he had reached five hundred years of Daoist Practice and was preparing for the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation. Xu Jia had sent Ao Jin to the Wuyue Office to inquire about matters and incidentally invite people over, but the Wuyue Office had not responded, and Taishan Daiyu had not dispatched anyone to give Hu Jinhua a Demon Examination.

Therefore, Hu Jinhua had been silently preparing. After all, the nine tribulations of a fox are basically death tribulations, and having encountered the Five Hundred Year Earth Immortal Tribulation, although Xu Jia could provide a safety net, he did not want to rely on Xu Jia for everything; wouldn't that make him seem too useless?

Huang Pipo's Daoist Practice was also about there, but her virtue was not as good as Hu Jinhua's, so Xu Jia did not place much importance on her. However, two younger descendants, Huang Siniang and Huang Jiulang, were born extremely handsome.

Hai Sanniang was still in the form of a pig, black, but the swelling had subsided a lot, shrinking from the size of an elephant to the size of an ordinary sow, though her aura and momentum were gradually increasing. Lan Shi Huo no longer had rotten persimmons; the persimmon industry was becoming increasingly developed, with brewing wine, making dried persimmons, persimmon frost sugar, dyeing with persimmon leaves... As the "Persimmon God," she also had Incense Fire offerings.

As for the ox demon Kui Qing, his Daoist Practice had not increased much. As Xu Jia's mount, Xu Jia had actually only ridden him once. Most of the time, he was "selling essence," being harvested once every three days—genuine "powerful ox essence"—to breed with heifers.

Not to mention anything else, over these five or six years, his ox descendants numbered at least seven or eight thousand, if not ten thousand. Breeding with yellow cattle, water buffalo, and even yaks and dairy cows, he had improved the cattle breeds and made an indelible contribution to agricultural development.

The one with the greatest change was the inconspicuous Kan Yinwu. As a rat spirit, the "Gray Immortal" among the Five Immortals, he now followed the path of gathering intelligence and being the "Granary God." He had previously walked the "path of ill-gotten wealth," but after being educated, those beggars, hoodlums, and ruffians in the city were all sent by the Golden Toad for labor reform.

He was seen to have about four hundred years of Daoist Practice, his figure the size of a civet cat, wearing gorgeous clothes, with a string of beads hanging around his neck and a bright green fork in his hand, his demeanor elegant and noble. It turned out he had recently moved to Jinshan Temple, eating some lamp oil every day, counting as the first among the demons to "cultivate both Buddha and Dao." Now, his pair of white eyes, which originally had "Rat Eye Short Sight," had sprouted traces of Buddha Nature. If not for the Spiritual Treasure Edict given to him back then still inside his body, Xu Jia would have thought he had betrayed his sect.

Besides this, there was a dog demon from Dexing County named Wangcai. When the Dharma King Lama was causing chaos, he had heroically gone to bite him and was kicked half to death. There were also a radish demon and a cabbage demon, the only two small demons left in Dexing. Now they also had a hundred years of cultivation; the significance of their existence was probably to produce a large number of excellent vegetable seeds every year and then "release a growth aura" for their fellow vegetables.

Xu Jia nodded and then said: "The mountain peaks that nurtured you might be small and weak, but they are basically places of spiritual beauty. Now, look at this Jijuezi Mountain and see how it differs from before. I am going to pass on to you a set of techniques for Seeking Veins: one is the Yang Vein, and the other is the Dharma Realm Yin Vein. Once you find these two veins, you can manifest good fortune. Human cultivation of spiritual perception is dull and may not be as naturally agile as yours. This matter of cultivating a Micro Spirit Vein requires you spirits born of heaven and earth to exert some effort."

The demons sensed the Spirit Qi and felt it was all very fragrant and sweet; they drank the Spirit Spring, which tasted sweet and refreshing.

Although the effect was not great for most of those with over a hundred years of cultivation, they could still sense the benefits, only the amount was too small.

(End of this chapter)