Chapter 77
Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Condensing the Cyan Elixir
The cultivation steps of the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art were extremely methodical: first refine qi with the three lights, then refine the holy embryonic body, followed by the Big Dipper Seven Refinements, and finally the Golden Elixir Nine Revolutions.
Its corresponding realms were Qi Refining, Body Refining, Foundation Building, and Golden Core—these four realms.
The traditional realms, however, consisted of Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Divine Restoration, Divine Embryo, and Golden Core—these five realms.
There was clearly something wrong here!
Chen Shi's expression turned grave.
A major problem!
Though the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art included Body Refining, it lacked the Divine Shrine and Divine Embryo realms, so its magical power was undoubtedly less robust than that of the traditional path.
"Moreover, after forming the Golden Core, one can use it to temper the body. The Body Refining realm is encompassed within the traditional path; it's simply not listed separately. Thus, by the Golden Core stage, the traditional Golden Core would far surpass that of the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art—by a wide margin."
He mused inwardly: "These techniques are engraved outside the Tomb of the True King, obviously harboring ill intent. Any tomb-robbing gentlemen who reach this place would see the stele, start cultivating the techniques, and end up destroying their own foundations."
But he let out a sigh. Though he was no tomb-robbing gentleman, without a Divine Embryo and with no other options left, he had no choice but to cultivate the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art—this glaringly obvious trap of a technique.
The optimal location for Golden Core cultivation was the Mountain Lord Temple.
Chen Shi packed his things, grabbed some dry rations, and instructed Blackie Pot, who was in the middle of eating a rat.
"Blackie Pot, I'm heading to the Mountain Lord Temple to cultivate for a day. If anything happens, use the Galloping Horse Talisman right away to notify me there. I've left you two jin of exotic beast meat hanging on the wall. Eat it if you're hungry. If you want it cooked, start a fire yourself."
Blackie Pot couldn't help but shake his head. His little master didn't treat him like a dog at all, actually expecting him to build a fire and cook.
As if I couldn't get up and stir-fry a few dishes?
Besides, he was eating a rat right now—not that he'd go hungry in a day or two.
Chen Shi arrived at the Mountain Lord Temple and set down his books.
It had been some time since his last visit, and the sunlight within the temple had vanished.
Chen Shi circulated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, his feet tracing the Big Dipper's seven stars. Big Dipper star talismans detonated one after another beneath his soles, tempering his fleshly body. At the same time, his internal qi and blood churned, surging toward his dantian.
The so-called Golden Core was the great medicine of the human body. This medicine could not be sought from without; it was refined from one's own essence, qi, and spirit.
Forming the Golden Core required undergoing the Nine Palaces—also known as the Nine Cauldrons—for tempering.
The first palace was the Elixir Origin Palace, also called the Elixir Origin Cauldron. The Golden Core took form here, and when refined to flawless mastery, the elixir would complete—cyan in hue.
The second palace was the Crimson Mound Palace, also called the Crimson Mound Cauldron. The Golden Core was tempered here, turning red.
The third palace was the Orchid Terrace Palace, also called the Orchid Terrace Cauldron. The Golden Core turned white.
The fourth palace was the Heavenly Need Palace, also called the Heavenly Spirit Cauldron. The Golden Core turned black.
The fifth palace was the Yellow Court Palace—the central palace—also called the Yellow Court Cauldron. The Golden Core turned yellow.
The sixth palace was the Spirit Symbol Palace, also called the Spirit Symbol Cauldron. The Golden Core turned purple.
The seventh palace was the Minister's Palace, also called the Minister's Cauldron. The Golden Core turned green.
The eighth palace was the Jade Chamber Palace. The Golden Core turned verdant.
The ninth palace was the Vermilion Palace, also called the Vermilion Cauldron. The Golden Core turned ochre.
(Compiled from the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir chapter of *Dao Pivot*. The Golden Core described in the book refers to the Daoist internal alchemy Golden Core, not the Golden Core from traditional xianxia novels; it may conflict with common understandings.)
Chen Shi had unwittingly stepped through the gateway of this dao. His internal qi and blood condensed, using spirit and qi as the medicine, the dantian as the furnace, to begin forging the Golden Core.
Cultivating a Golden Core without a Divine Embryo was a desperate measure, yet Chen Shi's progress was remarkably smooth. Soon, the Elixir Origin Cauldron took shape—like an endless sea of fire within his dantian—where essence, qi, and spirit converged and coalesced into an elixir.
This elixir was boundless and perfectly attuned to the natural order.
With essence, qi, and spirit condensed within the elixir, it became something indeterminate, unnamed.
As he immersed himself in cultivation, losing all sense of self and surroundings, a faint *click* echoed from the book. A subtle cyan glow faintly emanated from it.
The cyan light stemmed from the jade seal. The stone box resonated in response, radiance also gleaming from within.
The sound originated from deep inside the stone box—crisp and clear, as if some internal lock had just sprung open.
Moments later came another sharp *click*, followed by increasingly frequent sounds, like countless locks within being undone by a mysterious force.
Suddenly, the stone box vanished, replaced by a perfectly square little stone block lying quietly in the book.
A beam of cyan light shot skyward from the book, bursting open in silence—merging seamlessly with the temple's extraordinarily dense otherworldly power before vanishing tracelessly.
Sunlight poured into the temple, and the boundless azure sky of Huaxia Divine Province materialized overhead.
"The seed I left behind has finally been released. My power can at last flow freely."
A faint sigh echoed through the temple, laced with delight.
"Finally, I can condense my true form to greet the upheavals of heaven."
Chen Shi remained utterly oblivious, focused intently on his cultivation.
The sun and moon lights from Huaxia Divine Province grew ever more intense, transforming into vast torrents of qi and blood within him. Undergoing the Big Dipper Seven Refinements, they fused into his flesh, nourishing his essence, qi, and spirit.
His essence, qi, and spirit grew heavy as lead and mercury, then within the Elixir Origin Cauldron, they endured the furnace fire's tempering—forged into a Golden Core.
He was not seated in meditation but treading the seven stars in ceaseless motion, eyes half-lidded, steps growing uncanny. At times he walked upon walls, pillars, even the temple ceiling—his form steady, never faltering.
Unbeknownst to him, twelve full hours had passed, yet he showed no sign of stopping.
The inner furnace fire gradually purified to pure cyan, and the Golden Core shifted hue accordingly—pure cyan, like the flames themselves.
Only when the cyan Golden Core could absorb no more essence, qi, or spirit did Chen Shi's internal qi and blood roil, his spirit brimming full. Only then did he slowly open his eyes.
The temple blazed with sunlight; the doors and windows could scarcely contain the radiance from the ancestral land.
Chen Shi's heart clenched at the sight. He rushed outside and gazed skyward.
No meteorites hurtled from the heavens, allowing him a slight breath of relief.
"Were the outer-heaven true gods to sense this sunlight, they'd likely hurl a meteorite to obliterate the Mountain Lord Temple—along with the entire mountain—in a puff of smoke."
Returning to the temple, Chen Shi ate some dry rations and packed up. Spotting no trace of the stone box, he froze, frantically searching. No box—but he found a tiny square stone, strikingly similar, though shrunk to the size of a thumbnail, a hundredfold smaller.
"Why has the stone box shrunk?"
Chen Shi marveled, pinching the stone between his fingers. It resembled any ordinary pebble, save for faint, intricate patterns hinting at its extraordinary nature.
But how had the stone box shrunk?
And why?
Clutching the stone, he scrutinized the Mountain Lord Temple, circling it once. His instincts told him something had changed since his arrival, though he couldn't pinpoint what.
Chen Shi shook his head, carefully secured the doors and windows, and departed the Mountain Lord Temple.
A proper Golden Core was nurtured in the Divine Shrine, held in the Divine Embryo's mouth.
Why was *his* Golden Core trapped in the cauldron?
Chen Shi shook his head again. His Golden Core had yet to undergo nine revolutions—merely completing the first. It wasn't a true Golden Core, just an inner core.
He simply called it a Golden Core out of habit.
Circulating the Righteous Qi Art, a Divine Shrine materialized behind his head as he summoned the core.
The Golden Core rose slowly from his dantian but halted at his throat, unable to ascend further.
It felt as though the core at his neck had instantly swollen it thicker than his waist.
Should that qi and blood surge upward into his head along with it, his skull would likely burst with a bang.
"Golden Core cultivation isn't achieved overnight. It requires refining through the seven returns, eight transformations, and nine restorations."
Chen Shi walked onward, recalling what he'd seen on the stele.
The stele described the seven returns as: returning to the meridians, qi, blood, essence, bones, form, and spirit.
The Golden Core's power was immense; without a sufficiently robust body, a cultivator couldn't withstand it.
Hence the seven returns: the Golden Core nourished the body in reverse, strengthening the meridians, qi, blood, essence, bones, form, and spirit.
The eight transformations arising from the seven returns were: meridians stilled, qi condensed, blood transmuted to milk-white, essence crystallized into jade pearls, bones like crimson jade, marrow to profound frost, form clarified to wondrous purity, spirit boundless and formless.
These were the eight transformations.
The nine restorations: restoring the kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, spleen, elixir chamber, qi gates, essence hall, and spirit chamber.
Only upon reaching essence-restoration to supplement the brain, with the spirit chamber ablaze in brilliance, could the Golden Core ascend to the head, breach the heavenly spirit, and exit the body.
"Strange. That Zhao family young master I killed—his Golden Core wasn't much stronger than mine, at most the fifth revolution. How could he project it outside his body?"
Chen Shi was greatly perplexed.
He meant Zhao Ziy u, the eldest young master of the Zhao family's Xuanying Residence. Zhao's Golden Core rested in his Divine Embryo's mouth; the embryo would spit, and the core would fly forth, slaying foes with ease.
Yet Chen Shi had slain Zhao in a single clash. The man's fleshly body was far too weak to support core projection.
Had Zhao forced it, the horrific qi and blood surge from the core's movement would have shattered his brain on the spot.
Yet Zhao *had* projected his core.
Perhaps because they cultivated orthodox methods, while mine is a flawed one!
As Chen Shi traversed the mountains, he circulated his inner Golden Core to cultivate the seven returns, eight transformations, and nine restorations. After a long while, the Divine Shrine showed no signs of dissipating.
Not only that—his true qi persisted as well.
Chen Shi halted, staring blankly.
Without a Divine Embryo or Divine Shrine, how could it not dissipate?
Without a Divine Embryo, how could true qi endure?
This blatantly defied all common knowledge.
He stood rooted, his mind roaring like thunderclaps, bolts of revelation crashing down, leaving him dizzy, parched, and reeling.
"Wrong—everything's wrong. Without a Divine Embryo, true qi *cannot* persist; the Divine Shrine *must* collapse."
"There has to be a mistake somewhere!"
"Either the world's wrong, or the True King's wrong. Or..."
His eyes bulged wide. He lifted his gaze to the sky.
Or the true gods are wrong...
Compared to the world or the true gods, he would sooner believe the True King was mistaken.
Had the world erred after millennia of cultivating this path?
If so, how had no one noticed?
Had the true gods erred in bestowing this path?
If so, wouldn't the true gods know?
No—the one mistaken had to be the True King. Or Chen Shi himself.
Just then, a阴 wind swept past. A voice called from within: "Little Ten! Little Ten!"
Chen Shi turned woodenly. A pair of invisible hands seized his neck at once, intent on snapping it.
Dazed as he was, he didn't summon his Golden Core to his throat. His neck nonetheless swelled thicker than his waist. The malign entity in the阴 wind felt golden light searing its form; its hands crumbled to rot. It fled howling on the阴 wind.
Curses trailed from the阴 wind, fading into the distance.
"Hahaha... hahaha..."
Chen Shi burst into laughter—booming and awkward at first.
"I'm just a country boy. What right do I have to question the world? What right to question the true gods? I'm merely a desperate soul, coerced by Black Mountain Granny into cultivating the True King's techniques to survive."
The awkwardness vanished from his laughter, replaced by unbridled mirth.
Embarking on the Golden Core path had been his act of desperation, with no alternatives.
But having set foot upon it, he would cease questioning right or wrong—and simply press on.
Deer Tail Town bustled even though the Moon Sacrifice Festival had passed and today wasn't market day. People came and went lively as ever.
In the wake of the cataclysm, with all things awaiting reconstruction, word was that the officials had been replaced. Tax season should have brought yamen runners, yet none appeared.
The townsfolk relished the respite.
Suddenly, everyone halted their tasks and turned toward the same direction.
Some boys and girls chasing one another with pinwheels around the peddler's stall sensed the street fall utterly silent.
They stopped playing and looked. At the street's end, dark clouds blanketed the sky, eclipsing the sun.
Beneath the clouds marched gray-clad rats taller than men, arrayed in two columns.
The children's eyes went wide;阴 wind gusted, sending their pinwheels spinning madly with a *whirr*.
At the procession's rear, eight gray-clad rats bore a massive floral sedan. The阴 wind tugged at the curtains, revealing glimpses of a pitch-black statue enthroned within.
"From this day forward, Black Mountain Granny is Deer Tail Town's Godmother."
One gray-clad rat leapt atop a rooftop and bellowed.
"For the first three days of every month, hold a grand sacrifice. Come the first month of each year, offer boys and girls for Granny's enjoyment. In return, Granny grants favorable winds and rains, free of disaster or hardship."
End of chapter.