Chapter 87: The Xun Hexagram Autumn Wind Lesson

Hu Jinhua entered the bamboo forest to clear away traces, when suddenly yellow smoke emerged; it was none other than Huang Laotai.

"Brother Hu!"

Hu Jinhua stepped back a few paces; he did not have a very good impression of this Huang Laotai. Originally, within the Fox Immortal Hall, their Old Crooked Neck Tree Lineage of Wild Fox Zen was considered the dominant force. Those who joined later were all either well-connected or had been personally subdued by them, such as tree spirits, infant spirits, or cow ghosts.

You lot of weasels, you didn't come to pay your respects at the pier, yet you want to get on the Immortal Register directly? Doesn't that mean you don't hold us Fox Immortals in your eyes?

Moreover, the Fox Immortals had nothing—they were penniless and destitute. This old thing came up and offered a treasure right away, which made Hu Jinhua feel a sense of envy and jealousy.

"Master Xu told you to go scout for information; how dare you deceive Master Xu and pretend to leave?"

"How would this old one dare? It was just that halfway there, I remembered a matter and turned back. This is a small affair, not worth disturbing the Superior True One."

Hu Jinhua sneered: "So seeing me is just a small affair?"

"Fox Immortal, do not take offense. This old one also rushed over in a hurry. I have no other treasures to gift you, but thinking that the Fox Immortal might look after my descendants, I thought, I still have a skill here, specifically used by the demon race to divine heavenly secrets, which I can pass on to the Fox Immortal."

"Other spells, this old one must condense into a Talisman Seed and strike into the minds of descendants. Only this one requires a person with virtue and wisdom to learn; otherwise, one remains ignorant and muddled, and will still encounter calamities."

"What does your spell have to do with me? Wouldn't Master Xu teach us?"

"My lifespan is running out, so cultivation base no longer matters. By consuming my Daoist Practice, I can condense the essence of the spells I have learned into a Talisman Seed. Although the Superior True One only said I should scout for information, I know that if I do not die, the Superior True One will not accept those descendants of mine."

"Shut up! Is Master Xu the kind of person to do that?"

"Without means, without character, how can one cultivate the Immortal Dao? How can one protect one's Longevity?" Huang Laotai said: "Pity my dead ghost of a husband, who could have revived our Tianliang Lineage Yellow Immortal Temple..."

Regardless of whether Hu Jinhua agreed or not, a Yellow Profound Light Talisman flew out from her eyes, entered through Hu Jinhua's eyes, and was branded into his soul; it was precisely a Spirit Calculation Method.

This method is called the "Autumn Cicada Lesson," taking the meaning that the cicada senses the autumn wind before it even moves. Observing the wind to cast hexes, it is a divination method with the "Xun Hexagram" as the lead.

By feeling the wind blow across one's fur, one can sense the information within the wind, or analyze the hexagram through phenomena like leaves blown down by the wind.

This type of numerology method is close to "Plum Blossom Numerology," but this method was not created by humans; rather, it is because animals, when hunting or being hunted, need to obtain information about prey or enemies through the wind in order to survive.

Coupled with the fact that Huang Laotai had condensed her insights into a Talisman Seed, and Hu Jinhua already possessed some Fox Divination Method, he entered the door instantly.

Now, even if he was unwilling, he had already received the favor.

By the time Hu Jinhua reacted, Huang Laotai had already escaped again.

Hu Jinhua sighed. He had cultivated for fifty years, and counting the bit of Golden Light Dharma Power gifted by Xu Jia, he had only eighty years of Daoist Practice. This old woman claimed to be over one hundred and ninety years old, yet her Daoist Practice did not look like two hundred years. Presumably, she had not put much spirit or energy into cultivation; otherwise, after passing a Calamity, she would have had more time to live.

For demon beings, cultivation is a constant series of Calamities. From birth, it is a Calamity; the weak are abandoned by their parents. Growing into a complete individual is another Calamity. Afterward, every hunt is a Calamity. Finally, in old age, whether one can open one's wisdom is another Calamity. Once wisdom is opened, as long as one understands how to breathe and cultivate to nourish the five viscera and six bowels, one can extend one's life a bit, but from here on, there are all sorts of tribulations... calling it "Hundred Tribulations" is no exaggeration.

After starting cultivation, there is the Human Tribulation at fifty years, where one must be hunted by humans to kill the demon and extract the essence, or other demons will come to hunt you for nourishment. The hundred-year bottleneck is the Cultivation Tribulation; if one cannot break through the bottleneck, one will die and the Daoist Practice will dissipate.

The five-hundred-year Heavenly Tribulation is when a demon has achieved success in cultivation and incurs the jealousy of Heaven.

After passing it, one is like a Human Immortal breaking through to become an "Earth Immortal," capable of dwelling in the world for Longevity.

A five-hundred-year-old demon is equivalent to this realm, occupying a mountain to be king, opening a cave to become an ancestor. At this time, Human Tribulations and Cultivation Tribulations can rarely threaten them.

They only wait for the Thousand Year Tribulation, or if they have committed too many evils, there is the Heavenly Punishment Thunder Tribulation, or the Hooked Document Tribulation where the underworld forcibly hooks the soul... Therefore, the greater the Great Demon, the more cautious they are; they must cultivate external merit, or even build temples to become gods, longing to enter the system.

Finally, cultivating into a "God Immortal" is considered a good ending, and one can ascend.

Or something like a "Loose Immortal."

If one has such a calculation method to understand heavenly secrets, it can indeed assist in cultivation. It is just that most demon beings find the true scriptures before them and cannot understand them, and numerology is obscure and difficult to grasp. Studying it for ten or twenty years, one might only just be entering the door; with those ten or twenty years, cultivating other spells might have already brought them to completion.

This numerology was actually passed to Huang Laotai by Huang Tianliang before he died. Huang Laotai is now seeking death and has given it to Hu Jinhua.

Hu Jinhua sighed secretly: "If you could abandon your children and grandchildren and stop worrying about their affairs, you would certainly be able to focus on cultivation and pass the Calamity."

As for looking after her descendants, Hu Jinhua could only say that limited help would be provided, and not ostracizing them would already be good.

On Xu Jia's side, he had already told the foxes and weasels to carry these domestic chickens and wild chickens back together to process them. However, the weasels were not returning to the Yellow Temple, but instead following Xu Jia back to the Fox Immortal Hall.

Xu Jia tacitly consented, after all, Huang Laotai had gone to run errands for him.

There were at least eighty or ninety chickens here. The other birds did not rest in low places and had all been frightened away, including that female falcon.

"I'm afraid we can't finish eating them, we can only make them into cured chicken. No, the timing isn't right either, this weather isn't right for curing things..."

Xu Jia only told Niu Congcong to put the chicken demon carcasses on the previous donkey cart and move them back. He also plucked the tail feathers from the wild chickens that had bright feathers, and left the rest for the foxes and weasels to handle themselves.

Those that had become demons and could transform into human shapes liked to eat cooked food, so they carried three in their left hand and three in their right, heading back.

Those that had not become demons were not so particular; those who liked to eat internal organs would drill open the bellies and eat the organs in one go, and those who liked to drink blood would just have a feast of blood-drinking.

After Xu Jia and the others returned to the Fox Immortal Hall with the chicken demon carcasses, Hu Jinhua still had to go to Qingfeng Pavilion to carry more chickens.

"We can't finish those chickens, we can take them to the market tomorrow morning to sell. Pluck the feathers, drain the blood, and then braise them. Besides, we must also promote Master Xu, telling the commoners that the chicken demons at Qingfeng Pavilion have been eliminated. This is the Merit of our Fox Immortal Hall, I must also entrust this to their dreams!"

Xu Jia laughed and said: "You certainly have ideas, but I do have a recipe for brine here, take it and use it!"

(End of chapter)