Chapter Fifty-Four: Abiding in Unity
“I have fully grasped the essence of the Yellow Dragon.”
Xu Zhong’s heart was attuned, and he sketched Yi Xuanji’s likeness on the painting, then rose to his feet.
He gazed at Crown Prince Zhu Zhen and the others, who were still before the divine egg of the Yellow Dragon, gathering its divine essence and refining their arts.
He pondered, “Those three are all born of the divine race, each with their own background. The Black Mountain Old Demon fears their status and likely won't stoop to bullying the weak with the strong.”
“Only I am without background. If I were to die, I doubt anyone would stand up for me.”
His acquaintance with Jiang Xuan was a fleeting one; though they had journeyed ten thousand miles together, their bond was not deep enough for Jiang Xuan to offend the innate gods for him.
As for the Primordial Holy Emperor, there was even less to say.
After much consideration, his heart settled on a decision.
“At present, among my Five Luminaries, only the Water Luminary remains unopened. I shall proceed to the northern Golden Platform to contemplate the statue of the Black Tortoise.”
“Friends Bai Ze, Bai Heng, and Fa Zhang, would you care to accompany me?”
“No,” Bai Ze put away the Bai Ze painting. Hearing Xu Zhong’s words, he immediately understood the implied meaning and politely declined.
“No,” Fa Zhang and Bai Heng shook their heads as well.
Without guidance, relying solely on their own wisdom to gather divine essence and refine their arts, their speed could not match Xu Zhong’s.
“Well then! Farewell, everyone. May fate bring us together again.”
Xu Zhong promptly rode the wind away.
“I wonder if the Black Tortoise of the northern Golden Platform will attack me, as the White Tiger and Yellow Dragon did.”
He had no treasures left to protect himself.
Even Bai Zhaoju’s scale had already been used.
Xu Zhong felt a pang of unease.
“I lack a Yin Aspect, so what they see is the Yin Aspect of the Thunder Ancestor,” Xu Zhong mused. “Now that I have cultivated my own Yin Aspect, they should no longer see the Thunder Ancestor.”
Yet he reconsidered—the Thunder Ancestor was not the Heavenly Dao.
The so-called Heavenly Dao was ultimately a heart demon born from his contemplation of the heavens.
Xu Zhong’s mind stirred, and his soul transformed into a Yellow Dragon, coiling within the Niwan, suppressing the heart demon.
Before long, Xu Zhong reached the edge of the northern Golden Platform.
His gaze swept over the scene.
Few people were present.
As he drew closer, the Black Tortoise did not react with sudden violence as he had imagined.
“Is it the Yellow Dragon’s influence, or the effect of the Yin Aspect?” Xu Zhong wondered as he advanced.
Few cultivators of Qi were found here.
These cultivators stood motionless, their bodies desiccated as if their essence had been lost, vacant as if their souls had departed.
They had sealed their own vitality, placing themselves in a state of half-life, half-death, suspended between chaos.
“This Black Tortoise’s divine egg possesses such marvelous effects?”
Xu Zhong’s heart skipped as he gazed at the divine egg.
Without the concealed Dao rhythm of the Black Tortoise’s egg, even placing one’s face against it would yield no sense of Dao.
Only the Seven Lodgings of the Black Tortoise shimmered.
Dou, Niu, Nu, Xu, Wei, Shi, and Bi—these seven constellations flickered softly in the sky, hundreds of stars showering endless starlight upon the divine egg, forming a sea of radiance.
The Black Tortoise was a fusion of serpent and turtle, the snake and turtle subtly embodying the dual aspects of Yin and Yang.
Xu Zhong looked to the Dou constellation.
Dou, also known as the Southern Dipper, comprised six stars, shaped like a dipper, forming the serpent’s body and head of the Black Tortoise.
“Ancients say the Southern Dipper governs life, the Northern Dipper governs death. These six stars of the Southern Dipper conceal infinite vitality—it is the first constellation of the Black Tortoise.”
Yet the Black Tortoise dwells in the north, associated with water, old Yin.
Wu signifies the underworld.
Black Tortoise is also called Black Darkness.
Black Darkness refers to the realm of the dead.
The Black Tortoise is more like the death god of the north.
“Once again, the dual aspects!”
Xu Zhong discerned the underlying truth.
He disassembled the Black Tortoise.
‘Black’ is the rising serpent; ‘Tortoise’ is the divine turtle.
Black governs life, represented by Ren Water, belonging to Yang.
On earth, it is marsh; in heaven, it is cloud.
---
Tortoise governs death, represented by Gui Water, belonging to Yin.
On earth, it is spring; in heaven, it is rain and dew.
Life and death—these, too, are dual aspects.
Xu Zhong’s comprehension deepened.
“They have all drawn upon the Black Tortoise’s divine egg,” Xu Zhong observed the remaining cultivators, “but they do not understand the duality, so their cultivation is muddled, suspended in a state between life and death.”
“If they fail to comprehend the duality of life and death, they may all become seated corpses here.”
Xu Zhong could perceive the duality because he was not born with both aspects, unlike the beings of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, who are born with the Yin-Yang duality of soul and flesh.
Cultivators from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths naturally do not need to contemplate the dual aspects, unlike Xu Zhong, who must forge his own Yin Aspect.
And thanks to his prior experience with the Yellow Dragon in cultivating the Yin Aspect, his understanding of the duality of life and death now came with unusual ease.
His wisdom played a part in this.
Having read many books, he understood much; with a flash of insight, he could draw analogies and grasp the essence.
“The serpent’s lifespan is less than the divine turtle’s, yet it governs life; the turtle’s lifespan is long, yet it governs death. Thus, the duality of life and death can also be inverted.”
Xu Zhong was plunged into a storm of thought.
He ignited his soul, causing his insight to shine brilliantly, his wisdom rising ever higher.
“Bai Ze sent me here probably with this idea of life-and-death inversion in mind,” Xu Zhong considered. “He intends to use this transformation to deceive the Black Mountain Old Demon.”
The brand is able to parasitize Xu Zhong’s Niwan only because he is still alive.
If he were to die, the brand would become rootless, adrift.
The transformation of life and death could help him achieve this.
“But the key is, I have not yet opened the Water Luminary’s secret store.”
Xu Zhong’s Water Luminary remained sealed, preventing him from locking his essence.
If he rashly attempted to invert life and death, without locking his vitality, death would indeed be final.
“The urgent matter is to first open the Water Luminary.”
Xu Zhong closed his eyes, withdrew a pile of dragon crystals, and began to chew them with a crunch.
The dragon crystals, refined by the True Samadhi Fire, were pure and flawless.
These crystals transformed into surging spiritual energy within Xu Zhong’s body.
This energy coursed through the four luminaries, rushing toward the Water Luminary.
The essence of kidney water bubbled and roared, repeatedly absorbing spiritual energy under the barrage.
When all the dragon crystals were spent, the Water Luminary opened completely.
At the moment the Water Luminary was unlocked, Xu Zhong felt he could now control his essence, yang energy, and vitality, and lock them firmly within himself.
Only then did he realize his body had always been leaking energy.
This essence, merging with heaven and earth, became spiritual energy.
Cultivators like Xu Zhong naturally attracted spirits and monsters.
Unable to control their own essence, any monster need only approach to absorb their energy effortlessly, without even needing to harvest it.
“No wonder You Suqiao clings to me.”
You Suqiao was also harvesting his essence, but only what leaked from his body—harmless enough, since she had led him to the path.
Now Xu Zhong had mastered the Water Luminary.
He locked his own essence, achieving a body without leakage.
In that instant, his Five Luminaries shone brilliantly.
The entire Five Luminaries realm was cultivating the body.
The Fire Luminary’s secret store purified marrow and veins, granting purity.
The Metal Luminary’s secret store breathed out pristine air, granting fasting.
The Wood Luminary’s secret store surged with vitality, granting longevity.
The Water Luminary’s secret store locked essence, granting no leakage.
Only with a body evergreen, pure, and without leakage could one master the flow of the “One.”
Xu Zhong now introspected, starting from the Water Luminary.
Within the Water Luminary flowed Ren Water.
The essence of Ren Water streamed ceaselessly, siphoned by the soul’s Qi of Yi Wood in the Niwan, which ignited Ding Fire...
Inside Xu Zhong, the dual aspects fell out of balance, clashing.
This is the principle of the five elements’ generation and restraint.
When the Water Luminary was opened, the five elements formed a cycle of generation and restraint, even without Xu Zhong’s intervention—the cycle arose automatically.
In this moment, his body was thrown into turmoil.
Jia Wood, Ding Fire, Geng Metal, Ren Water ran wild, while in the Niwan, Yi Wood, Ding Fire, Xin Metal, and Gui Water did likewise.
---
For a moment, Xu Zhong felt a dual collapse of soul and flesh.
“When earth is empty, it collapses!” Xu Zhong willed.
Wu Earth and Ji Earth in the Earth Luminary’s secret store began to circulate instantly.
At once, the deity of Thunder Marsh in the Earth Luminary transformed into a Yellow Dragon, suffused with lightning, inhaling and exhaling the two essences of mystery and yellow, linking the changes of the other four elements.
On the Yellow Dragon, the transformation of Yin and Yang was also manifest.
The Earth Luminary’s secret store is regulation, moderation, and inclusion.
Yin and Yang, five elements, flow and transform ceaselessly.
The changes of the five elements should occur within the Five Luminaries, the divine radiance manifest and resplendent.
Yet this rising and falling of Yin and Yang had no place to settle.
“The human body is not merely Five Luminaries, but Seven Luminaries,” Xu Zhong whispered. “The flesh is the Sun Luminary, the soul is the Moon Luminary.”
The flesh bears the changes of Yang, the soul bears the changes of Yin.
The flesh becomes the sun, the soul becomes the moon.
Yin and Yang transform endlessly.
In an instant, Xu Zhong’s body possessed the transformation of Yin-Yang and the five elements.
“The five energies return to the origin, guarding the One.”
The Earth Luminary’s secret store governs the four others, embracing all things.
Magical power uses earth-elemental energy as its vessel, melding in the four-elemental energies of metal, wood, water, and fire.
Suddenly, a new force permeated Xu Zhong’s body.
It linked all his secret stores together.
Next, as Xu Zhong inhaled spiritual energy, storing it within, it wholly became magical power.
This power was deep, allowing his arts to reach greater potency; most importantly, Xu Zhong now qualified to wield the Mixed-Origin Five Elements Arts.
At that moment, thirty-six Mixed-Origin Five Elements arts sparkled within him.
He now stood at the threshold of the Unity-Guarding realm, half a step beyond.
“Sun Luminary, Moon Luminary—Yin-Yang transformation, I guard the One.”
Flesh and soul are the transformation of Yin and Yang.
Embracing Yin with Yang, embracing Yang with Yin; extreme Yin gives birth to Yang, extreme Yang gives birth to Yin.
The inversion of dual aspects relies on the immortal spiritual radiance.
Xu Zhong had understood this when contemplating the Yellow Dragon’s divine egg.
Within him, countless starlight surged forth, rising into the Niwan, hovering above the soul, like a canopy.
In an instant, this canopy devoured Xu Zhong’s external fortune.
This fortune was consumed and exhaled within the immortal radiance.
Boom!
Xu Zhong pushed open a door.
He formally stepped into the Unity-Guarding realm.
Magical power flowed like a stream; immortal radiance exhaled in his Niwan.
His level of life was elevated, and his lifespan greatly increased.
Xu Zhong sensed his longevity.
He could live another five hundred years.
The Five Luminaries realm granted a lifespan of two hundred sixty years; entering Unity-Guarding added two hundred forty more.
But this was only the beginning.
The Unity-Guarding realm could further augment Xu Zhong’s lifespan.
“Now, I can attempt to invert life and death,” he looked at the Black Tortoise’s divine egg.
But in the next moment, his body was uncontrollably drawn toward a jade tower.
From the jade tower, a glow emerged, soaring ten thousand miles, wrapping around Xu Zhong and carrying him, as if in ascension, stumbling toward the tower.
“So, these five Golden Platforms correspond to the Five Luminaries realm. Now that I have attained Unity-Guarding, I am naturally received into the Unity-Guarding jade tower.”
Xu Zhong sat within the radiance, contemplating the art of life-and-death inversion.
Suddenly, the radiance halted mid-air.
Xu Zhong looked upward.
He saw a giant hand reaching for him.
“Heavenly Dao, how dare you trespass in my domain?”