"How dare you, you wretched creature!"
Wudang a clear shout, Wu Dang's voice, as sharp as ice striking stone, instantly silenced the cries of the villagers and the roars of the ferocious beasts.
Without her moving, a chilling, tangible sword aura burst forth from the void!
That sword energy was not purely the killing energy of metal, but rather a condensation of the ever-renewing natural essence from the <Qing Yuan Sutra>, carrying a pure power of the revival of all things and the sprouting of life. It struck first after being struck later, and pierced with unparalleled precision into the pair of scarlet and savage eyes of Zaochi!
This ferocious beast had thick hide and was not afraid of ordinary weapons, but its eyes were its weak point. Before the sword energy arrived, the sharpness containing the vitality of Creation had already made its eyelids ache. It instinctively let out a roar filled with fear, and its huge head suddenly shrank back.
Just as the ferocious beast retreated in fright, the Gui Ling made her move. She took a step forward, and her figure seemed to instantly merge into the earth beneath her feet, becoming incredibly heavy and stable.
His hands moved swiftly, forming hand seals like butterflies flitting among flowers, and brilliant golden runes flowed from his fingertips, carrying the profound Daoist rhythm of the earth, shooting into the land surrounding the settlement like raindrops.
"The Kun trigram carries all things, the Eight Trigrams form the foundation! The formation begins!"
The Gui Ling's clear voice echoed across the earth.
Buzz--!
The ground where the entire settlement was located suddenly trembled! A visible, earthy-yellow light surged from the depths of the earth like a living thing, rapidly spreading and intertwining along a mysterious trajectory.
The phantom images of the eight trigrams representing the most fundamental forces between heaven and earth—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui—suddenly lit up in the eight directions surrounding the settlement!
These hexagrams are not static, but rather flow slowly, echoing each other and drawing the earth's vein power within a radius of tens of thousands of miles to converge wildly.
The earthy yellow light grew stronger and stronger, eventually forming a thick, solid light barrier several meters high, like a giant inverted glass bowl, firmly protecting the entire settlement within.
On the light screen, the runes of the Innate Eight Trigrams slowly rotated, radiating a protective will as heavy as mountains and as flowing as rivers.
Boom!
Startled back by the sword energy Zaochi charged forward in a rage, its massive body slamming into the light barrier with a fierce gust of wind!
The force, powerful enough to shatter cliffs, struck the Bagua light screen, yet only stirred up violent golden ripples, like a boulder thrown into a deep pool.
The light screen fluctuated violently a few times, and the hexagrams and runes flowing on it instantly became several times brighter. A continuous stream of earth vein power was drawn in, forcefully dissipating the violent impact into nothingness.
The ferocious beast was thrown back several feet by the recoil, letting out a painful and confused roar. Its scarlet eyes were fixed on the seemingly fragile yet indestructible light barrier, filled with savagery and bewilderment.
The people in the settlement who had narrowly escaped death were already stunned by this sudden miracle.
The fear on their faces had not completely faded as they stared blankly at the barrier above them, which was filled with mysterious runes and emitted a warm, heavy light.
The ferocious beast charged and roared in vain outside, but could no longer budge the barrier in the slightest.
An elderly man with white hair and beard, clearly an elder of the clan, was the first to recover from the shock.
His cloudy old eyes stared intently at the mysterious hexagrams on the light screen, then looked at the two ethereal female immortals in the sky, their robes fluttering and their figures graceful. His body trembled violently.
Finally, the old man's knees buckled, and he knelt heavily in the direction of the Gui Ling, his forehead pressed deeply into the warm earth, his voice hoarse and distorted with immense excitement and awe:
"Immortal... Immortal! It was the Immortal Lady who saved us! We thank the Immortal Lady for saving our lives!"
His voice was choked with sobs, filled with the ecstatic joy of surviving a disaster and an indescribable gratitude.
This kneeling acted like a spark igniting a prairie fire.
All the survivors in the settlement, regardless of age, gender, or injury, followed the old clan chief and knelt down in the direction of Gui Ling and Wudang with utmost piety and gratitude.
At that moment, without any Human Teachings, a pure gratitude for their protectors, stemming from the deepest instincts of life, welled up from the depths of their suffering souls like the purest spring water.
Countless strands of invisible, yet perceptible to the Dao heart, warm and resilient spiritual light of faith, accompanied by their most genuine gratitude, rose up, traversing space, and slowly merging into the ancestral apertures between the eyebrows of Gui Ling and Wudang.
Gui Ling's heart trembled violently, as if the most primordial earth mother energy had merged into his primordial spirit. The mental energy that had been consumed by setting up the Bagua formation was instantly soothed and nourished, and even became more harmonious and transparent.
She even felt that the heavy spiritual tortoise essence she carried seemed to become more vibrant and closer to the pulse of the Primordial Earth under the nourishment of this pure humanistic belief. Wudang's feeling was even more mysterious, with strands of faith light merging into his primordial spirit, like spring rain silently nourishing his parched heart.
She clearly felt that the trace of life -Creation essence she had stirred when she unleashed the Qing Yuan Sutra Scripture had become more active and stronger after being nourished by these pure beliefs, as if it had found a source of resonance.
What shocked her even more was that when her gaze swept over the mother who had desperately protected her child again, the despair and deathly aura that had filled her had quietly transformed into a hopeful vitality in this brief moment of peace and the ecstasy of being redeemed!
The child nestled in his mother's arms, tears still wet on his face, but he had stopped crying and was gazing curiously at the celestial beings in the sky, his clear eyes rekindling his longing for the world.
The transition between life and death, the alternation between despair and hope, became clearer and more profound than ever before after she witnessed and participated in them. She instantly gained a deeper understanding of the profound principles of Creation contained in the two characters "Qingyuan" in the Qing Yuan Sutra, which represent the cycle of life and death and the alternation of prosperity and decline!
"I see..."
Wudang murmured to himself, his eyes shining with a Pure Light.
"This act of sheltering the weak, igniting hope, and bringing forth life is the beginning of Human Dao Merit! It is also the opportunity for our path to be proven!" She looked at the Gui Ling, and both of them saw the same shock and enlightenment in their eyes.
"Fellow disciples, this place is protected by the Eight Trigrams Array, which is difficult for even a powerful demon to break. The human race is newly born and its wisdom is still obscured. The profound meaning of the <Qing Yuan Sutra> bestowed by our master needs to be widely disseminated so that they can become strong."
"Gui Ling said in a deep voice."
Wudang nodded.
"Senior Sister is absolutely right. I should go to a more prosperous human settlement and pass on this Mysterious Method of Longevity."
The two understood each other's feelings and decided not to delay any longer.
The Gui Ling condensed the simple method of operating the Eight Trigrams Array formation and some basic knowledge of insect-repelling and beast-avoiding talismans into several Spiritual Sense, imprinted them into the minds of the old clan chief and several young, strong, and clever clansmen, and told them how to maintain and simply control the formation.
Wudang left behind a scroll containing the * Qing Yuan Sutra *, written in simple pictographic characters, which contains Breathing and Guiding Technique sufficient for cultivation to reach the Golden Immortal...
Having done all this, amidst the even more devout and fervent worship and gazes of everyone in the settlement, the two female immortals transformed into two streaks of light and sped off towards the direction where the human race's aura was even more abundant.
The earthen-yellow Bagua light screen left behind by the Gui Ling, like a huge protective totem, steadily enveloped the settlement, isolating it from external dangers, and also deeply planting in the hearts of these newly born humans a primitive belief in "immortality" and "protection".
This light of faith, in its countless strands, transcends space, continuously nourishing the two departed preachers.