Chapter Seven: Even Mother Earth Is Just a Weapon in Your Hands
"Everything in heaven and earth came into being naturally from Chaos, and from it all living creatures evolved. Within each living creature, there is a small world made up of blood, bones, muscles, organs, and meridians, which echoes the world at large. Cultivation means absorbing the vital energy between heaven and earth, and using it to drive the evolution of the small world within you from Chaos, allowing living beings to break through the limits of life and death, live as long as heaven itself, and roam free—or even leave this world."
Bai Qiuran found a rock on the mountaintop and sat down. He drew an immeasurable surge of True Qi from his Qi Sea and poured it into the earth, then said to Tang Ruowei, "Ruowei, how much do you understand about the stages of cultivation and the attributes of spiritual roots?"
"You've gotten so absorbed in training that you can't pull yourself away... If Jueyun had possessed even half your determination back then, he might have ascended to immortality in broad daylight by now."
Bai Qiuran planted his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow. "If you keep training like this, what good will it do to learn to change your body before your lifespan runs out? Once your years are up, you'll still have to lie in a coffin with those newly freed, big, pale, soft breasts of yours."
Bai Qiuran raised one hand.
One morning, three months later, Bai Qiuran dragged Tang Ruowei out of the training room.
"This mountain hasn't been shaped yet, so I'll teach you while I work on it."
"So it's only about compatibility. That means a person's spiritual root doesn't determine everything."
"People without spiritual roots are just less compatible; it doesn't mean they can't come into contact with the Great Dao and its laws."
After a moment's thought, Bai Qiuran replied, "Metal represents the Dao of change, the power of transformation and progress. Fire represents the release of energy, the process of giving off heat. Water represents changes in temperature and transformations in the state of matter. Wood, which I began cultivating first, represents the endless cycle of life. If you're interested in the future, I can teach you the divine arts and cultivation methods of the other five elements, too. But you have to take it one step at a time. For now, practice the technique I gave you."
"Master, where are you taking me?"
Bai Qiuran looked Tang Ruowei straight in the eye. "Once you reach a high enough level, you'll be able to control gravity at will. Then Mother Earth will be no more than a weapon in your hands..."
Tang Ruowei thought that made sense, so she said no more and obediently followed Bai Qiuran. They crossed a stone bridge built just the night before and arrived at the mountain made of black stone.
Tang Ruowei answered obediently, looking especially well-behaved.
As Bai Qiuran dragged her out of the training room by the collar, she was still complaining, "What are you doing, Master? Don't interrupt my training, okay?"
Bai Qiuran replied, "Besides, there are countless Great Daos and laws in the world. Even after all these years of tireless investigation, the cultivators of the Cultivation World still haven't understood them all. The five-element spiritual roots exist only because our predecessors could detect a limited number of the laws between heaven and earth and sorted them into five categories. In fact, the Cultivation World has recently discovered many other spiritual-root attributes, such as lightning, poison, and wind. I used a Heaven Mending Pill to complete all the spiritual-root attributes we currently know of, but there must still be laws and principles in this world that I don't know about. I've been trying to find them, too."
"Whether it's earth and stone, mountains, or the dragon energy hidden deep beneath the earth, our predecessors all classified them under the earth attribute. And once you control the force of gravity that affects all things, you can control everything at will. Why can't people fly freely through the sky? Why do objects fall when no outside force acts on them? It's all because of the fundamental power of the earth attribute."
"That's just the surface."
"I'm taking you to your future training ground and passing on the cultivation arts."
Tang Ruowei gazed at him in fascination, then asked curiously, "Then, Master, what Great Daos do the other five elements represent?"
"I only know the five elements when it comes to spiritual roots."
"Anyway, I digress. The first reason I'm telling you all this is to keep you from getting arrogant about your talent. Guarding against pride and impatience is the proper way for a cultivator."
Bai Qiuran continued, "The second reason... is to help you understand that you should look beyond appearances to see the essence of things. The stages of cultivation are determined above all by how deeply a person understands the worlds within and outside them. From Qi Refining to forming a Golden Core, and then cultivating a Nascent Soul, you form another you inside your body, with your Nascent Soul and soul echoing in harmony with your physical body. As for the attribute of your spiritual root, take your earth-type root as an example. What divine arts do you think you could perform after cultivating an earth-attribute technique?"
"The true Great Dao represented by the earth attribute is gravity, known in the Cultivation World as Primordial Magnetism. Watch closely."
Tang Ruowei pursed her lips, still unwilling to give up on the Fortune Body Forging Technique, which could help her defy fate.
Bai Qiuran sighed. "All right, all right, come with me. This Fortune Body Forging Technique of yours can't be mastered in a day, so don't rush it."
Tang Ruowei listened, fascinated.
"The other five elements?"
He gathered a surge of True Qi and formed a Magic Incantation in his palm. Tang Ruowei immediately felt the earth tremble. In the distance, the vast land below the mountain rolled like waves, endless masses of earth and stone rising and falling, as if countless dragons lay beneath the earth, converging beneath the mountain where they stood.
"The technique I scribbled out that night... the one I created for you, focuses on controlling the power of Primordial Magnetism."
Tang Ruowei recalled the night Bai Qiuran had carried a mountain back. "Moving mountains and filling seas? Controlling earth and stone?"
Bai Qiuran continued, "This technique was distilled from the earth-attribute methods I've studied over three thousand years. It has just one drawback: it's weak in the early stages. Your cultivation is limited, so the Primordial Magnetism you can control won't be enough to affect other things. Its combat potential is limited, but that will improve once you reach Foundation Establishment and obtain a Flying Sword..."
"I've only heard the names of the stages. The Martial Arts Grandmaster stage is equivalent to the Qi Refining Stage. After that come Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and so on."
Bai Qiuran handed Tang Ruowei a scroll thicker than the Fortune Body Forging Technique.
"But the only question is, Ruowei: can you really reach Foundation Establishment by cultivating my technique?"
"Oh."
After several seconds of shaking, Bai Qiuran lowered his hand. Tang Ruowei keenly sensed that the aura on the mountain now felt gentler and more familiar to her.
"Um..."
The girl's long black hair was in disarray, her eyes bloodshot. Sweat had soaked through her clothes, which clung tightly to her body. Clearly, she had either gotten up very early or simply stayed awake all night.
At this point, he hesitated.
Bai Qiuran divided his attention, changing the terrain as he spoke. "And what spiritual roots represent is a person's compatibility with each of the Great Dao and its laws in the world."
"That's right. That's why I told you and the other child with a Heavenly Spirit Root not to get smug about your spiritual-root attributes. Jueyunzi of the Azure Nether Sword Sect was an ordinary disciple with no aptitude or spiritual roots when he first joined. Besides, there's a pill called the Heaven Mending Pill that can increase someone's compatibility with a particular attribute."
Tang Ruowei was clever, too, and immediately understood why Bai Qiuran had said all that.
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