Chapter 14: The Qian and Kun Means |
(Qian and Kun (two opposing hexagrams - I Ching))
Niu You Dao was excited and quickly reached for the mirror.
On the back of the mirror, the images came alive. This proved it was the very mirror Dong Guo Hao Ran had given him. Just now, he had picked it up by chance and stumbled upon its secret under the moonlight. Before this, he had tried everything: examining it under sunlight, boiling it in water, holding it over fire. But nothing had worked. And then, suddenly, it did.
He reached into the earthenware vat and stirred his hand through the cool water. He began to murmur to himself:
— The moon belongs to Yin, the terrain is Kun, Yin gathers in water, Nine Palaces Bagua, how could I not have thought of this... (Kun (the name of the 8th (7th) of the eight trigrams in the I Ching, symbolizing the feminine principle of creation, earth, moon, southwest, mother, wife, subject))
After murmuring, Niu You Dao came to his senses and remembered. Just before entering that ancient tomb, he had broken through a Nine Palaces Bagua barrier. And then, when he encountered the bronze mirror, the recent events had transpired.
Could it be that this bronze mirror and that ancient tomb were truly interconnected? If so, then the person who set up the Nine Palaces Bagua formation must have done so deliberately. So that whoever could unravel its formation would be able to reach the bronze mirror. And whoever could crack its formation would also be able to uncover the secret of the bronze mirror.
Remembering this, he felt a shiver of fear and wiped the sweat from his brow. Alas, if only he had been allowed to take the bronze mirror with him and hadn't been transmigrated to another world, he would have long ago used scientific instruments to uncover more clues to its mystery.
However, the more he thought, the more he was unnerved.
Niu You Dao held the mirror with one hand, while the other gestured in calculation. He walked around the vat, scrutinizing the rays.
Then he slightly angled the mirror towards the moon, flipped it over, and examined the back. He looked at the floral patterns depicted on the mirror:
— Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Zhong, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui!
Having identified the nine patterns, he squatted beside the vat. He placed the mirror on the ground and raised both palms. He spread his fingers and brought his two thumbs together, then pressed them onto the largest pattern. With his four fingers, left and right, he pressed down on the remaining patterns. In total, his two thumbs pressed one large pattern, and the others pressed the remaining eight. That made a total of nine. He then pressed all nine patterns simultaneously.
A faint grinding sound could be heard from within the mirror. Niu You Dao raised his eyebrows. Just as he expected, these nine patterns could indeed be opened. There was no other way.
He relaxed his hands, and it could be seen that the patterns began to protrude from the mirror, revealing a crack beneath them.
Niu You Dao picked up the mirror and noticed that the rays had vanished. He looked up at the sky again, nodding as he muttered:
— Right! Yin has been pierced, Yang is emerging. I'll have to wait until tomorrow. Until the sun rises!
Glancing around, he returned to his room. He didn't want to cultivate today. He was waiting for the next day...
In the morning, he rose, went outside, and saw Su Yi Tian. This guard always disdained Niu You Dao's company and never spoke to him. After merely greeting him, Niu You Dao took his breakfast and returned to the Peach Blossom Spring courtyard.
The sun was already rising, so he went to the peach garden and retrieved the well-hidden bronze mirror. Niu You Dao then found a room whose window faced the sun and opened it wide. He directed the back of the mirror towards the sun, and as soon as the rays fell upon its reverse side, a golden halo appeared on the mirror's surface, covered with various inscriptions. Next to them were three golden characters:
— The Qian and Kun Means!
These three characters invigorated Niu You Dao. He meticulously examined them and determined that this was definitely a cultivation method!
However, there were too few characters. Niu You Dao flipped the mirror over and saw the patterns on its reverse side. Niu You Dao understood that he needed to unravel the enigma of the back. Yet, it wasn't difficult for him. He rotated and rubbed the patterns again, and after a while, clicks of a mechanism could once more be heard. Now, a chapter containing images and text could be seen on the mirror. Niu You Dao couldn't help but chuckle. So, this was how it worked.
All day long, he turned the mirror in his hands, chasing the sun's rays, moving from one sun-facing window to another. He even climbed onto the bridge.
And when the sun disappeared in the west, only then did Niu You Dao close the windows. The protrusions on the mirror restored themselves and returned to their original positions. Who could have imagined that this was how the mechanism functioned?
In just this one day, he had already uncovered an entire book. It turned out this mirror contained so many images and texts. This was definitely a complete set of the method. Far stronger and more comprehensive than the Taiyi method.
So much was hidden within this mirror. Truly, it was countless. And with the Nine Palaces mechanism inside, the mirror could undergo constant transformations, concealing an immense amount of knowledge.
Most of all, Niu You Dao was astonished by the mirror's intricate mechanism. Even with the advanced technology of his past life, people would hardly be able to create something similar. Moreover, even with this mirror in hand, people would likely be unable to replicate it!
It was precisely because of this that he finally believed the techniques of this world were far from simple. No wonder Dong Guo Hao Ran hadn't begrudged sacrificing his life for this mirror.
Having grasped the enigma of the bronze mirror, Niu You Dao eagerly desired to comprehend its contents.
In the following days, he constantly read *The Qian and Kun Means*. Only after gaining a slight understanding of its principles did he begin to cultivate.
In less than half a month, he understood just how powerful this technique was. His cultivation progress not only surpassed the Supreme Purity Heart Sutra method but was also superior to the Taiyi method. When he cultivated the Supreme Purity Heart Sutra method, he could barely activate the true Qi of Taiyi. But when cultivating the Qian and Kun Means, the true Qi of Taiyi immediately surged chaotically at the slightest action.
Niu You Dao's only regret was that he hadn't discovered the mirror's secret earlier. Otherwise, he could have remained at the temple and been free to himself.
However, at the temple, he wouldn't have had fellow cultivators and would have faced problems with food. At least here, that brought him some comfort.
A few more days passed, and Niu You Dao felt as if his true Qi began to resonate with the nature of Qian and Kun. A division of Yin and Yang also appeared within his body. Hot and cold Qi emerged within his true Qi.
A few more days later, his true Qi seemed to transform. It became fragile under the tempering of hot and cold Qi. Ultimately, it couldn't withstand it and shattered into four parts. It divided into four streams — two golden beams and two silver beams.
One golden beam began to merge with a silver one, forming pairs. As they traveled along his meridians, they once again encountered the 33 blood amulets of Dong Guo Hao Ran, which had lingered like a web within Niu You Dao's acupuncture points.
Originally there were 36 of them, but when Niu You Dao defended himself against a beast near the temple, when warming himself from the cold by the river, and when protecting himself from Tang Su Su's attack, he had used three amulets. Now, he had 33 amulets remaining!
When the true Qi of Taiyi had attempted to disperse his amulets, the amulets had seemingly defended themselves and would not yield.
Just as before, the blood amulets began to resist again, and under the pressure of the golden and silver streams, they trembled. Under this pressure, the blood amulets were not as strong as last time. The golden and silver rays overpowered them. This allowed Niu You Dao to understand something. He immediately began to control the golden and silver currents and did not immediately unleash them onto the blood amulets. Instead, he rotated the golden and silver rays together. He rotated them above the blood amulets, and as soon as he refined the true Qi of Taiyi, he gradually began to refine the web under the influence of the hot and cold Qi.
Indeed, the blood web could not withstand it, and a blood mist could be seen. This was not Niu You Dao's blood, but Dong Guo Hao Ran's blood.
What delighted Niu You Dao the most was that the true Qi of the Qian and Kun Means not only refined the amulets within his body but also refined the foreign blood and Qi, merging with it.
A blood amulet, passed down to the successor. This was an amulet into which Dong Guo Hao Ran had poured his entire cultivation and, before his death, transferred it into Niu You Dao's body. And now, his true Qi of Qian and Kun was refining and absorbing it. Didn't that mean Dong Guo Hao Ran's cultivation was becoming his own cultivation?
After he ascertained this, Niu You Dao was overjoyed. Dong Guo Hao Ran's cultivation was truly formidable!
He clearly felt that by absorbing Dong Guo Hao Ran's true Qi, his cultivation began to grow rapidly. His cultivation had likely increased a thousandfold!
He examined his cultivation and understood, through his true Qi, that the difference between before and after absorbing the blood amulets was like the difference between an ant and a tree.
It turned out that the 33 blood amulets contained such immense cultivation.
Niu You Dao couldn't have imagined receiving such an unexpected gift. He felt blood begin to seep through the pores of his body. This was Dong Guo Hao Ran's residual blood after he had refined it. Thus, the room once again smelled of blood.
— Elder! I heard that Senior Sister Tang is going to marry Niu You Dao?
Tang Su Su was sitting before the founder's statue, lighting incense. Suddenly, a frantic Song Yang Qing burst in from behind her. He shouted loudly.
After placing the incense stick, Tang Su Su turned her head, glared at him furiously, and said in a cold tone:
— There are rules, what are you doing? Can it be that the rules of our Supreme Purity Sect cannot keep you in check?
As if doused with cold water, Song Yang Qing immediately quieted down. The Supreme Purity Sect truly feared the power of the Song family. But if he behaved like this in front of the Elder, she would kill him as easily as an ant.
Song Yang Qing had already sent them a wedding gift, so he asked:
— Elder, is this true?
Tang Su Su slowly turned and calmly said: — And what if it is true?
Song Yang Qing looked crestfallen and pressed on:
— Elder, but you already agreed to let Senior Sister Tang marry me. Why do you say one thing and do another?