Daoist External Alchemy

Heaven and earth inverted; sun and moon turned upside down.

A sensation of weightlessness struck. Huang Bai seemed to fall into a boundless black hole, his body torn at by some inexplicable force.

After a long while, Huang Bai opened his eyes and arrived in a new place.

The stone chamber was thirty feet wide, brightly lit beneath a golden-tiled dome.

The walls were painted with ancient scenes of ascension: Feathered People driving chariots, immortals riding dragons, Thunder Duke beating a drum, celestial gates flung open, dragons and phoenixes bringing auspicious tidings.

Beside Huang Bai stood a half-human-height bronze-green treasure cauldron with three legs and two handles. Incense within it never went out, and a faint sandalwood fragrance drifted through the air.

On the incense table rested a pure gold talisman edict. Its center was blank, without a single word.

Huang Bai stared at the mysterious talisman edict and was momentarily lost in thought.

"Am I still on the same Earth?"

Huang Bai was a mountaineering enthusiast who had climbed countless mountains, large and small. One day, on a whim, he decided to challenge the Aotai Line.

As expected, although he had prepared in advance, he still could not withstand the ever-changing weather. On the verge of death, he saw a temple on the mountain—whether it was an illusion or reality, he did not know—so he took shelter inside.

When he woke up, he found himself in a scene much like this one.

The temple could not be entered or exited freely. Within it, he felt neither fatigue nor cold, heat, hunger, or thirst. Only when words appeared on the talisman edict could he leave.

Huang Bai set down his suitcase and approached the talisman edict. Its golden radiance cast a glow over his composed face.

"Perhaps I'm dead. Since this is a new life, then I'll enjoy these bizarre adventures to the fullest and experience a life unlike any before."

Thinking back to that night on the Aotai Line, he had felt a trace of regret when faced with certain death, but even more than that, unwillingness. He had yet to reach the summit of Mount Everest or descend into the deepest cave.

A mortal body was still too fragile, vulnerable to water and fire, fearful of blades and guns. Having come to the Twin-Pupil World, the first thing Huang Bai thought of was True Immortal Temple's secret arts.

With that thought, he opened his suitcase. Inside were three ancient books, two bottles, and a three-foot ritual sword covered in bronze-green patina.

"United with the primordial order of heaven and earth, encompassing the essence of sun and moon, crowned above by Qian and aligned below with Kun..."

Huang Bai sat cross-legged on the ground and studied them carefully.

Just as he had guessed, the fungi in Twin-Pupil were actually the External Elixir cultivated by ancient people. External Elixir arts, also known as Huangbai Art, were methods by which ancient people consumed elixirs to become immortals.

The fungal powder was called the [Golden Lord–Wood Mother Five-Mushroom Elixir]. Its main ingredients were lead, mercury, Stone Mushroom, Wood Mushroom, and the other Five Mushrooms. Because it contained a certain degree of toxicity, it produced hallucinogenic effects.

After taking this elixir, Daoists visualized the Five Prisons—ice, fire, disembowelment, heart extraction, tongue pulling, and so on—to temper their Mind Sense.

"So the External Elixir combined with Five Prisons visualization is the proper way to use this pill? Once cultivated to a certain level, the soul can leave the body and ascend as a Feathered Immortal."

Another ancient book recorded the Five-Prison Human-Spirit Method.

This was the murderous immortality method from the original work. By having others endure the Five Prisons in one's place, one could achieve Corpse Liberation. It was an unorthodox path to immortality forged by a different route, likely a secret method discovered through later generations' own experimentation.

"I'll keep it for now. I can use it someday if I have no other way out."

The first path of External Elixir cultivation was rather good.

What remained was the Vajra Divine Sword Technique that allowed Lin Daosheng to cut iron as if it were mud in the story.

Huang Bai pondered for a moment. The Twin-Pupil World truly had plenty of benefits.

In the future, he could cultivate through the External Elixir method while using the Vajra Divine Sword Technique to protect his path. As for obtaining materials, that would depend on the next world.

Huang Bai opened one of the bottles, poured out a tiny amount of powder, and swallowed it.

Boom!

In an instant, countless illusions crashed over him.

Yin winds howled, ghosts wailed and wolves cried, and innumerable demons surged forth from the ancient temple.

Huang Bai sat cross-legged, clasped his hands together, and formed a hand seal. He guided the illusions into an ice hell, tempering his Mind Sense bit by bit.

In an instant, ice sealed a thousand miles and snow swept across ten thousand. He alone sat amid the frozen world.

The cold pierced to the bone. His body trembled, goosebumps rising across his skin from the chill, as if he would turn into an ice sculpture the next second.

Fortunately, the dose of the Five Zhi Pill was small, and he quickly broke free from the illusion.

"Huff..." Huang Bai gasped for breath, veins bulging across his face as his heart pounded violently, seeming ready to leap from his chest. "The medicinal effect is this strong? I nearly died."

There was neither sun nor moon in the ancient temple.

After a certain period, the incense in the cauldron returned to normal and his soiled clothes became clean. Huang Bai called that one day.

The powder from both bottles of Five Zhi Pill was quickly used up.

One day.

The ancient temple was quiet, filled with curling incense smoke.

The golden talisman atop the spirit altar shone brilliantly, beams of gold illuminating the murals.

Huang Bai sat cross-legged before the altar, his hands forming an unusual seal, his eyes tightly shut, his breathing slow and deep.

Huang Bai had entered an utterly mysterious state.

Without opening his eyes, he could clearly sense everything within five meters in every direction—above, below, left, right, front, and back.

The patterns on the cold floor, the scorching sparks floating in the air, the blinding radiance of the golden talisman on the altar... he sensed them all one by one.

This was Taoism's Mind Sense, or perhaps Divine Sense. It was a supernatural power gradually awakened through the effects of the External Elixir, as well as proof that his soul had grown stronger.

By completing the Five Prisons step by step—ice, blazing fire, disembowelment, heart extraction, tongue pulling—one's soul would become strong enough to survive apart from the physical body. At that point, one could prepare for [Weapon Liberation], allowing the soul to leave the body.

Of course, Huang Bai did not think this path had to be followed exactly. If he had the chance in the future to obtain a method for cultivating the body, he could achieve the fruition of [Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life].

Whoosh!

Huang Bai opened his eyes, and a flash of golden light vanished from them.

He stepped forward and drew the bronze ritual sword. Forming sword fingers with his left hand, he gathered his Mind Sense at his fingertips and ran them from the hilt to the tip of the blade, chanting under his breath.

"Secrets obey my will. I ask heaven and earth: those who defy my command shall have their forms beheaded. By edict!"

The ritual sword gave a low hum. Huang Bai swung it, and its edge shrieked through the air. This was a sword technique that cut iron like mud and could easily cleave a person in two.

At that moment, the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict blazed with light. The incense in the cauldron suddenly burned more vigorously, and a line of text appeared in the center.

"Heavenly Dao Demon-Extermination Order: Travel to The Dragon-Seeking Formula, break the illusion art of the Khitan ancient tomb, and stop the Spirit Cultivation Society's conspiracy."

"Mojin: The Lost Legend?"

The film Mojin: The Lost Legend told of what happened after Hu Bayi and Wang Pangzi washed their hands of tomb raiding and went to the United States. There, they became street vendors, living practically at the poverty line while constantly scheming against the immigration authorities.

Hu Bayi accidentally learned that his former girlfriend Ding Sitian, who had died twenty years ago, might still be alive. With the support of other forces, the trio resolutely decided to return to the ancient tomb in Grassland Hundred-Eyed Cave and uncover the truth of that year.

"Completing the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict shouldn't be too difficult..."

There were quite a few treasures in The Dragon-Seeking Formula: Hu Bayi's Sixteen-Character Feng Shui Secret Art, the Gold-Seeking Talismans of the tomb-raiding trio, and, of course, the extraterrestrial meteorite in the ancient tomb that caused hallucinations—the "Flower of the Other Shore."

In the story, Hu Bayi had essentially washed his hands of tomb raiding. All that remained was this final knot in his heart.

If Huang Bai helped him truly wash his hands of it, perhaps he could obtain the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art.

"Either way, I'll go there first. There's barely any Five Zhi Pill left."

He could not feel hunger in the ancient temple, but supplies would not refresh out of thin air.

After thinking for a moment, Huang Bai had already formed a plan. He picked up the ritual sword wrapped in cloth strips and focused his thoughts on the Heavenly Dao Talisman Edict.

The talisman on his left arm shone brightly. Huang Bai's figure gradually faded and disappeared. The ancient temple returned to silence once more, its lingering incense ash still giving off a faint warmth.