Chapter 87: The Four Symbols Gather, the Martial Body is Formed, the Imperial Ultimate Governs the World!

The images that had surfaced in his memory faded away; the woman's appearance and voice vanished.

Li Guanyi felt that he was very calm.

Strangely, his emotions were steady at this moment; the temperature within his heart was like Pinghu, without the slightest ripple, and in his heart at this time there was only that sudden-awakening feeling of so that's how it was, and even the stabbing ache in his chest was fading.

As if nothing had happened, he raised his hand; the residual toxin was churned apart by the Dharma Aspect, and Li Guanyi could perceive the power of this Blue Bird's Dharma Aspect — a power representing endless renewal circulating within his body — the toxin being carried away, expelled through the Hand-Shaoyin Heart Meridian.

Jiquan, Qingling, Shaohai, Lingdao, Tongli, Yinxi, Shenmen, Shaofu.

In the end, this stream of toxin was carried to Li Guanyi's Shaochong acupoint.

His fingers visibly swelled and turned a bruised purple.

Master Siming, who had been watching the blue luan bird that had emerged from Li Guanyi's body as though he'd seen a ghost, immediately realized he had been poisoned upon seeing this anomaly. After a moment's thought, the old man shouted without the slightest hesitation: "Mo Juzi, throw over something you have that can hold poison!!!"

The Mohist Mo Juzi, who had been waiting outside, raised his hand and tossed without the slightest hesitation.

A bottle made of obsidian flew over; the old man looked as though he didn't understand any Wu Gong.

Yet he caught the thing in one swoop, then tossed it in front of Li Guanyi. Li Guanyi took out the Mo Blade at his waist and, pressing it against his own finger, made a light cut.

That weapon, refined three hundred times, was like cutting against soft armor — it didn't even leave a white mark.

Li Guanyi pressed down harder; it felt as though this blade had never been sharpened at all.

Just like an ordinary person pressing a finger against an unsharpened iron sword.

He felt something, but knew it couldn't wound him no matter what.

Li Guanyi had no interest in exerting too much force to break his own defense. Reversing his grip, he drew the Murong Qiushui sword at his waist; under the Murong Qiushui sword, his skin seemed no different from usual, parting naturally. The black-tinged blood fell into that bottle, and a sweet fragrance welled up, making Li Guanyi a bit dizzy and dazed.

The remaining poisonous blood was carried out several times, and that obsidian bottle was about one-third full.

Li Guanyi took the stopper and plugged it shut.

The Blue Luan Bird Dharma Aspect turned once.

The wound on Li Guanyi's finger began to stop bleeding at a speed visible to the naked eye; in just the span of sixty breaths it had already fully healed, not even the wound could be seen. And at this moment, Master Siming had already darted forward, staring at the Dharma Aspect on Li Guanyi's body.

He grinned.

The Blue Luan was originally of the fire attribute, yet now it was a wondrous wood and wind, flapping its wings around the youth. Bai Hu lay quietly on the left, the Taigu Chilong on the right, and the Black Tortoise kept its eyes calmly shut. Li Guanyi closed his eyes, urging his own qi, expelling the residual toxin from his body.

Master Siming paced quickly around him, not at all looking the way he had when first activating the formation, his mouth opening and closing in constant muttering. The old man's expression grew more and more Solemn: "This, this is too, too…"

It was the Four Symbols — Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix, Tortoise.

Yet it was not the usual Four Symbols; what had changed were the fire and wood attributes.

Zu Wenyuan said softly: "Among the seven mansions of the east, the one originally seen first is the Dragon's Horn; the sun and moon pass through the Heavenly Gate, and this star is called the Gate of Heaven. But now, the Azure Dragon has transformed into crimson fire — it is the fifth star that has blazed bright, surpassing the others, so the Azure Dragon has become a Fire Dragon."

"That is the Dragon's heart — it is the Great Fire."

Master Siming's mouth twitched: "It is…"

Zu Wenyuan looked at the sky: "Does Master Siming still remember what the companion star of the Heart mansion is?"

Master Siming's expression grew grave, and he said:

"The Dragon's heart is called the Great Fire, and there is another star of the same attribute, called —"

"Yinghuo."

"When the two appear together, it is the omen of Yinghuo Shou Xin."

"The world all says that when Yinghuo Shou Xin appears it is a sign of great chaos, but how could they know the truth? Yinghuo is guarding the Taigu Chilong omen; the key lies in guarding. It is as when a person is ill and so coughs without cease, but the cough is not the illness — the true cause lies in the wind-cold of the heart and lungs."

"Like pointing at the moon with a finger, the key is not the finger, but the moon."

"In Yinghuo Shou Xin, the key is not Yinghuo, but the Dragon's heart."

"But ah, when the Heart mansion of the Taigu Chilong that sweeps across the world has a problem, how could it possibly be guarded?"

"The Heart mansion points east; the Azure Dragon transforms into fire — it is a sign of great chaos under heaven. If it falls to the mortal world in a time of great peace, the one bearing the Taigu Chilong is either a fierce general or a hero of ambition. But if it appears together with Bai Hu, then…"

Master Siming said nothing more.

The last era in which Bai Hu and the Taigu Chilong appeared together was eight hundred years ago.

The Red Emperor and the Hegemon together overturned the world of that time; the Dukes and Marquises of the realm entered the command tent on their knees. Then they fought among themselves, and the victor of the world was decided — the most magnificent heroic legend of the Eastern Lands to this day. The reason and ambition of the Turkic kings to enter the Central Plains was that they claimed their ancestors had once sought to marry the Red Emperor's daughter.

They too bore the bloodline of the Red Emperor's Fire Dragon sweeping across the world, and had the right to set foot in the Central Plains.

And now, the two destiny patterns that had once overturned the world had converged upon a single person. Master Siming said: "This is not important. If the world is at peace, he is the cornerstone of a prosperous age, but if the world falls into chaos, he may well be the flame that sets the troubled times ablaze."

Zu Wenyuan said: "A destiny pattern is, after all, only a destiny pattern; it does not represent everything."

"Since ancient times, have there been few heroes who bore great destinies into this world yet perished midway?"

They conversed in low voices.

Yet within Li Guanyi's body, things were not so optimistic.

The original Golden Flesh and Jade Bone, Dragon Sinews and Tiger Marrow could withstand the tearing of the Dragon and Tiger Dharma Aspects, but now the Dharma Aspects had directly doubled. The Blue Luan, Taigu Chilong, Bai Hu, and Black Tortoise — Dharma Aspects different from the usual configuration of the Four Symbols — ceaselessly circulated within Li Guanyi's body.

Zu Wenyuan had no way to see the Dharma Aspects.

But he could deduce Li Guanyi's current condition. The old man looked at Li Guanyi, who sat cross-legged with furrowed brows regulating his breath, and said in a gentle voice: "Li Xiao, if you can hear my words, then regulate your inner breath following this old man's words."

Zu Wenyuan calculated, and said: "Among the Four Symbols, take the Dragon as the sun, the Phoenix as the moon."

"The Tiger as the stars, the Tortoise as the chen."

"Your meridians and acupoints are numbered; arrange them according to the order of the most basic medical texts."

"Follow my words."

"The meridian of the sun is jia-one; the meridian of the moon is wu-seven."

"The meridian of the stars is ren-one-eighty-nine; the meridian of the chen is zi-two-thousand-two-hundred-fifty-seven."

Though the old man did not practice Wu Gong, he seemed to treat Li Guanyi's body's meridians as a system of numerology. Li Guanyi fully understood the old man's words, and drove his inner qi to circulate, causing the four Dharma Aspect auras of Dragon, Phoenix, Tiger, and Tortoise to flow and transform in different ways.

What Zu Wenyuan said came rapidly, and precisely matched Li Guanyi's circulation of inner qi.

A full two hours passed, and the Dharma Aspect powers of the Four Symbols had, incredibly, transformed into a state of balance within Li Guanyi's body, coexisting simultaneously. Zu Wenyuan looked at the fish-belly white light rising on the horizon, tossed aside the branch in his hand — beside him were densely packed characters of deduction — and said with a smile:

"The sun passes through the origin of heaven, the moon through the conjunction of heaven, the stars through the movement of heaven, the chen through the generation of heaven. When the sun passes through the sun, the origin of the origin can be known. When the sun passes through the moon, the origin of the conjunction can be known. When the sun passes through the stars, the origin of the movement can be known. When the sun passes through the chen, the origin of the generation can be known."

"The sun, moon, and stars; the dragon, phoenix, tiger, and tortoise—all are like this, flowing and transforming in such a manner. Even if the four dharma aspects are simultaneously within your body, you can still circulate them with ease."

Li Guanyi slowly exhaled a breath.

The power of the Four Symbols' dharma aspects slowly dispersed, and he opened his eyes.

He saw Zu Wenyuan before him, who smiled slightly and said, "How was it, little friend?"

Li Guanyi rose to his feet. He leaped considerably higher than before, and he clenched his fist. The Four Symbols within his body fit together like a perfect ring, no longer showing the slightest turbulence. He therefore cupped his hands and said, "Many thanks, Senior!" Zu Wenyuan smiled slightly and said, "No need to thank me. This old man is merely speaking of things that others told me."

Li Guanyi hesitated and said, "May I dare to ask, Senior, how you knew the state of the junior's internal qi?"

Zu Wenyuan said casually, "I calculated it."

Li Guanyi was stunned. "Calculated it?"

Zu Wenyuan laughed and said, "Yes. Internal qi circulates within the body just as rivers flow across the earth. One can read the changes of rivers, lakes, and seas, and know the rising and falling of the stars in the heavens. Using this great Dao to deduce the changes of internal qi within a single person—is that not something as easy as lifting a hand?"

"However, these words were not something I comprehended on my own."

"It was a senior who told me, and because of this, I did not choose to cultivate martial arts."

"Knowing such a principle too early—when I was young and full of vigor, I had made up my mind that either I would not do something, or I absolutely had to do it the best. Once I knew there was a path that could calculate every possibility, how could I possibly hold myself back?"

"At once, I plunged headlong into the art of divination."

"I had originally planned to exhaust the mysteries of divination, believing that I could then forge ahead valiantly upon the martial Dao."

"But when I turned around, a full sexagenary cycle had already passed. The prime time for martial cultivation had long since gone by, yet the profound wonders of divination remained like the stars in the heavens or the grains of sand in the rivers—no matter how hard I tried, I could not exhaust them. It was only at this point that I realized I had been deceived by that senior."

"But upon careful reflection, this life of mine has not been lived in vain. Or rather, if I had become a martial artist and taken up a sword to wander the world as a knight-errant, it certainly would not have brought me the satisfaction I feel at this moment."

Master Siming's expression shifted slightly, and he said, "Such a method—was it him?"

Zu Wenyuan nodded and said, "Yes, it was the guidance of the senior from the Dao Sect."

He explained to Li Guanyi, "He was a once-in-a-generation genius of the Daoist school, one of the Four Great Legends as recognized in the jianghu. He had long since retired from the world as a knight-errant. When I was young, I had the good fortune to hold an umbrella over him during a rainfall. He then transmitted a scroll to me and instructed me for seven days. After that day, I entered the realm."

"The scroll he transmitted to me—I still feel its wondrous uses are inexhaustible to this day."

"It is the sixtieth scroll among the sixty-four scrolls of the Huangji Jingshi Shu."

Zu Wenyuan looked at Li Guanyi. Just as that senior of the Dao Sect had spoken to him many years ago, he bent down slightly. The white-haired old man looked at the youth, just as he had back then. He suddenly understood the joy the Dao Sect senior had felt at that time, and said softly, "This scroll is still in Jiangzhou. If you enter Jiangzhou City, little friend, you may go there. This old man will explain this scroll to you."

"Do not worry. The Dao Sect senior was unrestrained and free, willful and unrestrained."

"Whether hoarding it without transmitting it, or transmitting it to a mediocre talent, he would despise both."

"Besides..."

The white-haired Zu Wenyuan blinked and smiled slightly, saying, "He may have already passed away."

"So you need not worry."

Li Guanyi leaped up. He clenched his fist, unsure where he had reached at this moment. He exhaled a breath, put away the bottle containing the poisonous blood, and wanted to ascertain the origin of this thing. The traces of the surrounding formations had already been destroyed.

Master Siming tossed that royal seal to Li Guanyi and said, "This is yours now."

"The aura of Tuyuhun within it has already dissipated. Consider it a token he left for you. For these three hundred years, Tuyuhun's hegemony dominated the Western Regions, but his descendants have lost the bearing of kings. It cannot be helped if they could not protect it."

Li Guanyi said, "Tuyuhun has perished. Are you not saddened by it?"

Master Siming laughed heartily and said, "Saddened? What is he? Achai was merely a slave by origin. He had no clan, so he used his own name to name his own country, and made that name endure for three hundred years—even people thousands of years later will know the three characters Tuyuhun."

"Even if later generations do not know that this is actually the name of a small slave, he once pointed at the stars in the sky and said he would make countless people know his name!"

"How could he be saddened? He would only feel that his great undertaking was accomplished, and walk away at peace."

"Boy, do not look down on those old fellows."

The old man pulled out a wine gourd from his bosom, tilted his head back and took a swig, and said softly:

"Besides, Tuyuhun's descendants—his true bloodline—in the one hundred and eighteenth year after his death, was hacked to death by a mob of blades for seizing his uncle's wife and daughters. Tuyuhun's coup destroyed his bloodline. I rode my horse for seven days and seven nights, but by the time I arrived, I could no longer find a child who carried his blood."

"The descendants of heroes are not necessarily heroes themselves."

"Tuyuhun's descendants would ultimately become the very sort of person he, back in his day, would have cleaved in two with a single blade. The heroic spirit in their chests has been exhausted, the bloodline no longer exists, yet the hegemony endures in the annals of history. For Tuyuhun, his life was perfect."

"Even if later there are those who wish to unify the thirty-six tribes of the Western Regions, Tuyuhun remains the original hero."

"It's just that, after all, he helped you complete the Tiger's Roar Bone-Forging Art."

"If you have the chance, let the Western Regions be reunified."

Li Guanyi wanted to say that this matter and this undertaking were far too heavy for him.

How could I possibly do it?

But he fell silent, merely holding the Wang Yin, aiming it at that empty space, and said, "Then, if one day a hero appears, I will hand the Wang Yin to him and let him unify the vast lands of the Western Regions. And if on that land there is no one capable of upholding this flame..."

Li Guanyi held the Wang Yin, recalling the domineering figure he had just glimpsed, and said:

"Then let me become their Great Khan!"

Master Siming burst into laughter, and Zu Wenyuan laughed as well. But Master Siming merely slapped Li Guanyi's shoulder forcefully and said, "Not bad, not bad, ahahahaha, you've learned to brag and shoot the breeze!" These four did not return with Li Guanyi.

They were going to escort Zu Wenyuan back.

The old man was the leading figure of Chen State's great sacrificial formation. Sneaking out this time, there were probably already some problems. Their methods could conceal things for a day or two, but were hard to sustain for long. Once the time stretched out, they would certainly be discovered.

The morning light brightened. Li Guanyi returned to the city on his own. He did not attempt to test his new martial constitution.

Xue Shenjiang would be the perfect sparring partner for the Four Symbols Martial Constitution!

And that highly poisonous blood—with a sample, he could know what poison afflicted his body.

And the characteristics and power of the Golden Muscles and Jade Bones—how much they had truly enhanced.

As Li Guanyi walked across the stone slab bridge, calculating the things he had to do, he suddenly thought of something.

The power of the Qingluan Bird dharma aspect was endlessly regenerative. He wondered if it could be used to heal Aunt's injuries.

But Aunt and Mother were very close. In the past, wouldn't Mother have also used this dharma aspect to heal Aunt? Aunt should be able to sense the familiarity of this dharma aspect at once... For some reason, Li Guanyi's footsteps suddenly halted, and his heart suddenly felt a pang.

The wind of Jiangnan was as always.

He stood there. Beside him was a woman dressed in brown clothes, holding a bamboo-woven winnowing basket in her arms, which contained unpolished rice. She wore a smile. Beside her was a tiger-brained, tiger-looking little boy, tugging at the hem of her clothes and calling out for his mother.

The youth's footsteps halted. He stepped aside to let them pass.

Then he walked two steps forward.

The heavy blade fell to the ground. Li Guanyi's mouth opened slightly. His mother from his past life, his mother in this one — pain, loss, all converged together. He had felt nothing before, but the scene he had just witnessed was like a knife piercing his heart, as if a person's grief lags behind the moment itself.

It is only when one sees the ordinary, everyday things of life that the emotion suddenly crashes over one like a wave.

The youth's mouth pressed downward into a tight line.

Then he squatted against the wall, pressing his palms to his face and rubbing hard.

His palms were wet.

………………

And just before this, at the instant when the Four Symbols gathered and the White Tiger and Crimson Dragon appeared in the sky at the same time, in the distant Taihe Hall of Zhongzhou—

That Chixiao, sealed away for three hundred years—

Sang a long cry from within its sheath!