Chapter 27: Guishui True Scripture
The Guishui True Scripture is the most powerful and fundamental immortal technique of the Guishui Immortal Sect.
It stands alongside the Ethereal Wood Immortal Drawing Method of the Yimu Immortal Sect, the Ding Fire Heaven-Burning Art of the Dinghuo Immortal Sect, the Ji Earth Mountain-Bearing Technique of the Jitu Immortal Sect, and the Xin Metal Thousand-Army Breaker of the Xingin Immortal Sect. These five techniques are the oldest and most formidable in the Immortal Spirit Realm.
Countless people have longed to join these five ancient sects, yet no one has ever found the location of their mountain gates.
The Guishui True Scripture begins with these words:
"Heaven possesses the Five Elements, Water, Fire, Metal, Wood, and Earth. They alternate and transform, nurturing all things. They generate and counter each other in endless cycles. Of them, Water is the foundation of the Five Elements: as hard as metal, as weighty as earth, as combustible as fire, as light as air!"
The Five Elements are mutually generating and counterbalancing; only through balance can the Five Elements achieve harmony. In the beginning of chaos, however, they were born in sequence.
Chaos first gave rise to Water. Water became the source of all things. Only afterward were Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal born, gradually forming the interwoven system of mutual generation and restraint that governs the natural order and allows life to flourish.
Water is the foundation and the first of the Five Elements.
It can be as unyielding as eternal ice, its hardness rivalling the strongest metals. It can weigh as heavily as mountain-crushing floods. It can be as cold and extreme as yin energy that ignites all things. It can become vaporous as mist, nourishing forests with verdant energy.
Even among the five ancient immortal sects, their techniques vary in power. But this difference only exists below the Mahayana stage.
If all five techniques are cultivated to the Mahayana stage, assuming equal talent and skill, their powers and divine abilities are considered equal in might. This reflects the ultimate ideal of the Five Elements: unity and harmony.
Cultivating the Guishui True Scripture requires a Water spiritual root as the foundation. Each level must be cultivated through the balance of the Five Elements in their natural generating sequence in order to advance.
Take the first level of the Qi Condensation Stage as an example: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal generate one another. Imagine them as five large vats of different heights. Water is the highest, followed by Wood, Fire, Earth, and finally Metal, the shortest vat.
When beginning cultivation, one starts with Water, the highest vat. As cultivation proceeds, Water spiritual energy fills the vat. When it reaches the brim, instead of breaking through to the second level of Qi Condensation as with other techniques, one must continue.
Once the Water energy overflows, it spills downward into the next vat, Wood and the generating cycle begins again. Water nourishes Wood, creating Wood energy. This continues until all vats are filled and Metal energy is complete.
Only when all five elements have been generated and balanced can the practitioner break through to the second level of the Qi Condensation Stage.
In each subsequent stage, the Five Elemental energies within the body rotate in a similar fashion, though in different forms.
Because of this, the Five Immortal Sects are extremely selective when accepting disciples. The order and strength of a person's elemental spiritual roots must align with the generating sequence.
If the sequence is broken, for example, if a person has strong Water affinity but their next strongest is Fire, followed by Earth, Metal, and Wood then when Water energy overflows, it will pour into the Fire vat, which is incompatible.
Fire does not generate from Water. The result? Rejection, resistance, and chaos among the energies, leading to internal rupture and death.
For example, someone with mixed roots who senses Water energy best must cultivate the Guishui True Scripture. But if their next strongest root is Fire instead of Wood, then when their Water vat overflows, the resulting power enters the Fire vat, causing a backlash and explosive death.
These Five Immortal techniques seem notoriously difficult to practice. Others may only need to cultivate one attribute of spiritual energy to quickly level up. In contrast, disciples of the Five Sects must cultivate all five elemental energies fully before progressing.
In the world of cultivation, time is everything. If you can't reach Foundation Establishment within a few decades, your lifespan might run out before you can extend it by breaking through.
But for the Five Immortal Sects, it's different.
They follow the law of mutual generation. Only the first level of Qi Condensation requires building the five elements from nothing.
Once you've cultivated all five, ending with Metal, a complete cycle is formed: Metal then generates Water once again. This creates a self-sustaining loop, where Water production accelerates, speeding up the entire cycle.
As the Water element flows faster, it energizes the other elements as well, making cultivation speed up significantly.
The second advantage of the Five Sects' techniques is the sheer density and volume of spiritual power within the same stage. A disciple of the Five Sects will often have three to five times the spiritual power of other cultivators at the same level.
Of course, this depends on the individual. There are many techniques that can produce thick spiritual power.
Still, denser spiritual power means longer endurance during battles, and greater strength when casting spells.
The third advantage is the ability to cultivate techniques of different elemental attributes. Most other sects rarely allow disciples to learn techniques outside their main attribute.
Unless one possesses a Sacred Spiritual Root, most cultivators have multiple attributes but they usually only practice their strongest to avoid slowing their progress.
The Five Sects, however, train in all five elements. If, during combat, your Earth spiritual power is insufficient, you can pour Fire spiritual power into the Earth vat to convert it into Earth energy. Then, Wood replenishes Fire, and Water replenishes Wood…
In this way, there is no fear of running out of a particular element's power and weakening your techniques, as long as you've invested time in cultivating all five elements.
This is what makes the Five Ancient Sects truly terrifying, and why the rest of the Immortal Spirit Realm has never fully understood them. The secret lies in the Law of Mutual Generation.
At this point, Li Yan suddenly recalled Dong Fuyi's strange smile when he mentioned Li Yan reaching the peak of first-level Qi Condensation.
Now he understood the meaning behind it.
Strategist Ji could absorb others' spiritual power, but he had a maximum tolerance: if the other person's power exceeded the peak of first-level Qi Condensation, the excess energy would cause violent backlash, and he would die from it.
But because the Five Immortal techniques generate far more spiritual energy than ordinary methods, even someone at first-level Qi Condensation would have far more power than others at the same level.
Moreover, if Strategist Ji were to absorb Li Yan's spiritual power while Li Yan suddenly switched the attribute of his spiritual energy, outputting something other than the Wood-element energy cultivated from the Dark Night Cyan Curtain Technique, then the result…
But whether the outcome is collapse or backlash, both possibilities rely on Li Yan successfully cultivating the Guishui True Scripture to at least the peak of first-level Qi Condensation Stage, giving him a solid chance of control.
After reading the opening overview, Li Yan couldn't help but sigh in awe: "To think such a monstrous technique exists in this world. Truly a defiance of the Heavenly Dao, no wonder it's so hard to inherit. Heaven has its cycle, and all is balanced under the laws of nature."
Now he finally understood the core principle of the Five Immortal Sects: Mutual Generation of the Five Elements.
Beyond that, for ordinary cultivators, when they speak of spiritual power, unless they specify that it's wood-element, water-element, etc. it usually just means mana. After all, most only cultivate a single element. But in Li Yan's case, his mana would be the combined force of all five elemental spiritual powers.
After the opening overview, only a dozen lines remained, the first-level Qi Condensation cultivation incantation. Li Yan's spirit stirred, his path of cultivation had truly begun.
Li Yan slowly opened his eyes. He was still in his stone room, still seated cross-legged on his bed but now, a mental incantation echoed clearly in his mind.
He had already memorized these dozen lines repeatedly within his Sea of Consciousness. After confirming there were no mistakes, he wondered how to exit that realm and the moment he willed himself to leave, he found himself exiting the Sea of Consciousness.
Li Yan closed his eyes again and focused his mental strength on his forehead. With a flash before his eyes, he was once more above the little black lake. Then he willed himself to exit again, and instantly returned to the stone hut.
He stood up tall, a faint smile forming on his face. He had finally grasped the method for entering and exiting his Sea of Consciousness, and had acquired the method to cultivate the Guishui True Scripture.
Now, the next step was to escape this valley of the beast.
After lunch, Li Yan walked lightly to the door of the first stone room. As always, before he even knocked, Strategist Ji's gentle voice drifted out from within.
Inside, Ji sat cross-legged behind the low table, just as immovable and eternal as ever. But his face carried a flicker of shifting expression. When he saw Li Yan enter, he steadied himself and casually pointed to the carpet in front of him.
"Sit."
Since returning, Ji had once again assumed his usual meditative posture, trying to suppress the growing restlessness in his chest. Lately, the fire poison in his body had become harder to suppress.
If he avoided using spiritual power, it was manageable. But the moment he used it, it felt as if chaotic energy rampaged through his body. Just earlier, when healing Li Yan, he had used his power several times and already felt his energies destabilizing.
"Time is running short. At this rate, I won't last another year or two."
Ji thought grimly, then instinctively extended his left hand from within his sleeve. His eyes drifted toward the two-toned book beside him.
"Still, I can't place all my hopes on that boy… But this book was sealed with profound restrictions. Hm?"
Even as his thoughts wandered, what he saw before him made him freeze.
The book was still the same, two volumes fused together. The top third remained a familiar jade-white, as it always had. But the lower two-thirds had now turned a dull gray-brown, as if it had lost its luster.
All these years, he had never let the book leave his side, studying it day and night. Yet now, the sight before him was no longer what he knew. This unexpected change sent shockwaves through him.
He hurriedly picked up the book, examined it closely, flipping and tilting it from all angles. Finally, he confirmed the book had indeed changed.
Carefully, he flipped to the one-third point and infused it with his spiritual power. After a moment, a clear "pop" sounded. The previously sealed, gray-brown lower half had been successfully infused with his energy.
Ji's joy was overwhelming. He thought:
"Could it be… that the book's restriction has deteriorated with time? This color change must signal the seal's collapse!"
He cautiously extended his divine sense into the book. At first, he approached with extreme care. After some time passed with no reaction, he increased the intensity and fully immersed his spiritual awareness.
What he saw next was completely unexpected.
Inside the book was a vast empty space, and in the center hovered a map, like a painting fluttering and twisting in the wind.
From a distance, he could make out several winding lines and a few markings.
Still vigilant, Ji cautiously moved his divine sense closer to the map, he was meticulous to the extreme.
After a long while, his consciousness finally hovered before the map. Nothing went wrong, so he exhaled deeply in relief.
The lines on the map resembled a route diagram, with several paths converging from different directions toward a central area, where they ended at what looked like a lake.
And there, flashing in bloody red letters, were four shocking words:
"Great Poison Vitality Technique"
Ji stared blankly at those words. A long while passed before he finally muttered aloud:
"Great Poison Vitality Technique… Great Poison Vitality… This must be a poison-based immortal technique or one that uses poison… Heaven hasn't abandoned me… Heaven hasn't abandoned me! Hahaha!"
For someone as calculating as Strategist Ji, he now appeared utterly ecstatic…
After some time, Ji withdrew his divine sense from the jade book. His expression was a complex blend of joy and uncertainty.
He had studied the map in detail. As a member of the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, he had ventured to many places unreachable to outsiders. Some of the areas on the map… looked vaguely familiar.
He recalled a narrow mountain valley over 10,000 li west of the Great Qing Mountains. Turning northward for another 4,000 li, there had been a lake that somewhat resembled the one on the map.
But… the surrounding landscape on the map didn't quite match his memories. For a moment, he wasn't entirely certain.
(Chapter End)