The Great Way to Truth, Starting from Jiazi Laodao

Chapter 185: Dao Sutra Watering the Huangting Buds and Refining the Eight Diagrams Furnace

Floating Cloud Mountain, Rebirth Peak.

Eighty-seven long swords wailed and fell like a rain of swords, piercing the graves of their respective owners.

From now on, they will sleep here forever, restrain their sword intent, silently accompany their master, and endure wind, frost, rain and snow.

Until it is completely eroded.

This is a sword burial, and also a sword sacrifice:
As long as the man is alive, the sword remains; when the man dies, the sword dies.

After the sword sacrifice, it is the Taoist sacrifice.

Tens of thousands of people came forward, holding bamboo pieces in their hands, and threw them into the fire. Each bamboo piece had a word carved by their own hands. Even the illiterate people were taught by the Taoist priests, and each of them could read a word.

These words form various scriptures for the salvation of souls, which, accompanied by the curling incense, surround the tomb and comfort the dead souls.

The evening drum sounded, a total of eighty-seven times, and Qiu Zhen asked the audience to cut off a lock of hair and throw it into the fire.

A chilly wind blew in the tomb of the hero, and the temperature dropped rapidly. On each of the eighty-seven tombs stood a ghost. They smiled at the audience and the people, then rode on the drumbeats, turned into wind and left, heading towards

Seeing this scene, all the Taoists bowed and the common people suppressed their panic and followed their example.

Xuanming also followed suit and bowed. When he looked up, he felt something in his heart. He looked at the fireworks of scriptures that burned bamboo strips and condensed the people's thoughts. His eyes flickered and he stared at the fireworks intently. He entered a mysterious state and his dantian shook slightly.

This subtle feeling came and went quickly, fleeting, but Xuanming grasped it and an idea suddenly came to his mind.

After the funeral was over and the people were seen off, Xuanming returned to Cangdao Peak, climbed up to the Sutra Library and stood on the third floor. He calmed his mind, closed his eyes and sensed, a mysterious aura emanating from his body.

After nine breaths, Xuanming's eyes opened and closed, and a breeze started from the third floor, blowing through the second and first floors, turning over the Taoist scriptures on the bookshelf.

The sound of reading books rustled and the bamboo slips glowed.

These were all Taoist scriptures that he had read before. Now, each of them exuded a breath, flying towards Xuanming like a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, and transformed into Taoist rain in his dantian, watering the tender buds.

Bathed in the sweet rain, the tender buds stretch out their branches and leaves and grow vigorously. After a cup of tea, the breeze stops, the Taoist scriptures are closed, the bamboo slips are extinguished, the strange phenomenon disappears, and the six-inch tender buds in the middle dantian grow into six-foot seedlings, filled with the rhythm of Taoism and an extraordinary atmosphere.

Walking to the window, Xuanming stroked his beard and laughed heartily. He had tried every means to promote the growth of the buds in the middle dantian, but all his efforts were in vain. The buds remained unmoved. Unexpectedly, when he seemed to have reached the end of his rope, there was always a way out.

It turns out that using Taoist scriptures as nourishment is the correct way for young buds to grow. Looking inward at the Taoist seedling in the middle dantian, Xuanming's smile became even more intense. After the fusion of "Huangting Waijing Yujing" and the Ming character, the Taiji Heaven evolved in the lower dantian.

He has read the "Huangting Zhongjing Yujing" twice, and guessed that after reading it for the third time, this sutra would most likely enter the middle dantian and merge with the Tao seedling, bringing about an opportunity no less than that of Taiji Heaven.

Because of this, Xuanming was looking forward to it and paid more attention to Dao Miao. In his opinion, if Dao Miao wanted to inherit the "Huangting Zhongjing Yujing", it had to grow into a Dao tree.

A blacksmith must be strong himself. Only when you are strong enough can you take responsibility and enjoy good fortune. Otherwise, it will be a disaster rather than a blessing.

---

As the common people and representatives of various forces dispersed, details of the Qiuzhen Temple funeral spread and caused discussion.

Everyone has their own taste. Some people advocate Taoist sacrifices, some people appreciate sword sacrifices, and they argue endlessly about this. However, the most talked about is the beautifully written sacrificial speech, which is appreciated and collected by many literati and poets. Some military personnel and martial artists also like this piece.

Xuanming doesn't care about the outside world's reaction.

After the sacrifice, Fuyun Mountain is both quiet and bustling. The halfway point is the dividing point. Pilgrims gather at the foot of the mountain, and some tourists climb the mountain to enjoy the view. The mountainside is not open to the public, and the environment is quiet and peaceful. The Taoists calm down and focus on their practice.

Rising with the morning bell, breathing in the air and eating the clouds, reciting morning lessons, practicing martial arts and swordplay, falling asleep with the evening drum, meditating and practicing tranquility, Fuyun Mountain presents two completely different life states and peaceful years.

Cangdao Peak, Daoyuan. Xuanming resumed his previous practice rhythm, reading scriptures to understand the Tao, walking in the mountains and rivers, studying supernatural powers, deducing formations, observing the sky and the earth, and in his spare time, he would go boating on the lake or ride a deer to relax his body and mind.

Time flies by like running water, spring ends and summer comes before we know it. The sun is scorching outside the mountain, but the temperature is cool inside the mountain. This year's Fuyun County is different from the past. It is located in a basin plain, surrounded by mountains, connected by green waters, and the air is moist. People's lives are much better, which makes other people envious.

In the Floating Cloud Mountain, Feihuo Palace, inside the weapon refining room, Xuanming stood with his hands behind his back, beside the Bagua furnace.

He has been practicing spiritual cultivation for two years. His foundation is solid, his magic power is profound, and his cultivation has improved slightly. However, he only has one magic weapon, the Jingming Bell, which is not in line with his own path. It is difficult for him to fully exert his strength. If he encounters a strong enemy in the future, he will easily suffer a loss. He needs to plan ahead and make preparations early.

In addition, after Fuyun Mountain was promoted, its luck increased greatly, and the two luck-suppressing spiritual instruments were somewhat powerless. Although there were three Xuan-level spiritual roots to help, they could barely suppress the luck, but it was only temporary and only treated the symptoms. If one wants to be worry-free, it is better to have a luck-suppressing magic weapon.

He also threw half of the real dragon's corpse and the dragon bones transformed from the yellow dragon's remains into the earth veins. Sooner or later, the mountains beneath his feet would transform again, and the luck would increase dramatically. In this way, it would be even more necessary to refine a magic weapon to suppress the luck.

However, Xuanming was not in a hurry to refine the magic weapon to suppress luck. A good cook cannot cook without rice. Unlike refining the Jingming Bell, if Xuanming wanted to refine a magic weapon out of nothing or upgrade a spiritual weapon to a magic weapon, the Bagua Furnace had to be promoted to a magic weapon first.

He chose to retreat in the summer to refine treasures, also hoping to get the right time, place and people, so that the promotion of the Bagua Furnace would be more effective.

Thinking of this, Xuanming waved his sleeves to put away the Bagua Furnace and disappeared in an instant. When he reappeared, he was already in the fire vein of Floating Cloud Mountain.

The magma is rolling and the fire is blazing.

As Floating Cloud Mountain was promoted, the power of its fire veins increased greatly, enough to refine magic weapons.

Sitting cross-legged on a piece of fiery red rock, Xuanming flicked his sleeves and released the Bagua furnace. As it spun, the furnace fell into the magma.

He raised his hand and made a gesture, and the sea of fire surged, creating a huge whirlpool. The Bagua Furnace was placed in it and was burned by the fire waves.

As he flipped his palm, a branch of Endless Wood appeared in his hand. Xuan Ming threw it into the whirlpool. The power of the fire increased by another three points in an instant. However, although the outer wall of the Bagua Furnace was burning red, it did not melt at all.

Xuanming was not in a hurry, as he had expected this.

The Bagua Furnace is a fire-based spiritual weapon. The mystery of the Bagua and the principles of yin and yang were incorporated into its refining in the past. Only extraordinary materials can withstand the burning of the Samadhi True Fire.

If you want to melt the Bagua furnace, you need internal and external cooperation.

With a flick of his fingers, the Bagua furnace ignited the Samadhi Fire. He raised his hand and lifted the lid. The Samadhi Fire was drawn out, part of it burned the inner wall, and part of it merged into the vortex of the sea of fire and burned the outer wall together.

Xuanming swung his whisk three times at the same time.

First, the Yin and Yang of the Bagua Furnace were closed.

The second time, he sealed the Bagua furnace.

The third time, invest half of the Law of Fire.

After reading the "Huangting Zhongjing Yujing" for the second time, the power of the Samadhi True Fire increased suddenly, and the Bagua Furnace was already burning red, with signs of melting. Once the law of fire came into effect, the Bagua Furnace could not hold on and melted into liquid in just a stick of incense.

Yin and Yang and the Eight Diagrams merged into one, giving it a somewhat mixed image. The liquid was light grey in color. As it flowed, Yin and Yang intertwined, the Eight Diagrams rotated, and the precious light shone, evolving into the phantoms of hundreds of treasures of different styles:

Swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, mirror beads, flags, seals...

These are all magical or spiritual tools that come from the Bagua Furnace. During the refining process, a ray of precious light was absorbed by the Bagua Furnace, leaving a mark.

The Bagua furnace that gathers the auspicious light of hundreds of treasures has further enhanced its foundation, and the possibility of re-refining it into a magic weapon is higher.

(End of this chapter)