Teaching Senior Sister Rongrong a Supreme Skill: Fenghou Qimen

One day.

Dawn broke.

When the first ray of sunlight brushed across Tang San and Xiao Wu's faces at the foot of the mountain.

A massive water ball and fireball exploded in the clouds above Immortal Mountain one after another, drawing even more attention than the sun.

Tang San and Xiao Wu stared at each other wide-eyed, utterly stunned.

Early in the morning, Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were already waiting for their lesson at the Immortal Residence.

Su Chen, dressed in spotless white, brought his two students to the mountaintop. Pinching a crystal-clear Elemental Stone between his fingers, he held it out before Ning Rongrong. His voice was calm, carrying a hint of laziness.

"You have been back at the academy for several days now. You should be quite familiar with your own spirit skills and spirit bones by now."

"Today, it is time to teach you better cultivation methods and techniques."

"Let us start with senior sister."

Su Chen glanced at Ning Rongrong and said.

"I mentioned before that your Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda has evolved into its second form, the Seven Treasure Mysterious Yellow Pagoda. Its power is already quite impressive."

"So next, I want you to make full use of the Taiji Bagua knowledge you have learned and attune yourself to the elements of heaven and earth—metal, wood, water, fire, thunder, wind..."

"This supreme skill is called Fenghou Qimen. It is one of the Eight Strange Skills."

"Ordinary Five Element techniques only involve controlling the power of a single element. Following the Bagua directions, moving the Five Elements of heaven and earth, and casting Qimen techniques all adhere to one principle: adapt to the time and direction, borrow the momentum of heaven and earth, seek fortune, and avoid disaster..."

"But Fenghou Qimen is different. It can establish its own central palace and freely shift the four plates of Heaven, Earth, Man, and Spirit. Within the expanded Qimen formation, it can rewrite the elemental generation and restraint of this space, the fortune and misfortune of its directions, and the flow of time. I am the direction. I am fortune and misfortune. Within the formation, time and space, and the generation and restraint of the four plates, are all decided by me."

"Mastering Fenghou Qimen is extraordinarily complicated for you. That is why I am only teaching it to you gradually now. With the Mysterious Yellow Pagoda as your axis, you possess a uniquely favorable advantage in cultivating Fenghou Qimen. Watch carefully—"

As he spoke, Su Chen stood in the air. His black hair was gently lifted by an invisible gale, while his features remained cool and tranquil.

Ripples spread through the void beneath his feet. An immense, profound Fenghou Qimen formation rose slowly from the ground, its Bagua and four plates revolving in midair as golden runes drifted and flowed. Within this heaven and earth, he was the central palace, commanding fortune, misfortune, and time itself.

With a casual movement, he shifted the Bagua positions beneath his feet and reversed the gates of life and death. For a moment, time across all of Immortal Mountain seemed to come to a halt.

"Pre-Heaven commands the Zhou Tian, encompassing its transformations and making myself king. The Bagua falls into place, the four plates twist and turn; in this heaven and earth, there are no longer any shackles of the Heavenly Dao. Fortune and misfortune follow my heart, time follows my thoughts. At a thought, wind and thunder rise; at a thought, mountains and rivers shift. Disorder the golden clapper, and all techniques slow; all living beings rise and fall within a single pagoda and formation."

"Water technique, arise. Draw forth the waters of heaven and earth."

"Fire technique, move. Gather the blazing heat of heaven and earth!"

His voice was calm, yet it struck Ning Rongrong's heart like an evening bell. "You have not yet absorbed elemental Spirit Rings, so you possess only the form of the Five Elements, not their essence—but form is the root of essence. You can first use these Elemental Stones to practice water and fire."

Ning Rongrong's eyes sparkled. She took the Elemental Stone in both hands, and the flowing light within instantly illuminated the meridians along her wrists.

Following his instructions, she stepped onto the Xun position at the base of the pagoda. The Qian, Kan, Gen, and Zhen gates beneath her feet lit up in sequence. A breeze rose from the smallest place and swirled around her skirt. Closing her eyes to focus, she activated the power of Kan Water according to the Qimen Formula and pushed forward with her right hand in a hand seal—

With a splash, only a fingertip-sized water ball emerged from her palm. It wobbled along for several yards before scattering into tiny droplets, pattering onto the bluestone. The droplets were clear, but they carried no force at all, not even washing away the moss marks on the stone.

Su Chen stood beside her with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression unchanged.

He merely slowly shifted the Bagua gate beneath his feet and demonstrated it for Ning Rongrong once more.

"The Kan trigram is attuned to water. While you are still unskilled, you can first learn the trigram techniques while facing a direction rich in water energy. Then, step by step, learn to use the Mysterious Yellow Pagoda as your axis and shift the Qimen Bagua."

"Kan-Character Torrent!"

Su Chen used no incantation. He simply flicked his sleeve casually—

A wall of water suddenly surged up from the open space before the pagoda, more than thirty meters wide. Waves rose and gathered into an enormous water ball that shot into the clouds, dyeing half the sky deep blue.

When the water ball burst, it transformed into countless sprays of water, falling like a torrential downpour. Mist swept across the area, and a rainbow stretched over the mountain ravine.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were both left staring in a daze.

"Watch carefully, Rongrong. The profundity of Fenghou Qimen lies in this: if I want water, there is water. If I want fire, there is fire."

"Li trigram, Great Fireball Technique."

The Qimen formation beneath Su Chen's feet shifted once more.

With a turn of his palm, a crimson flame gathered at his fingertips and rapidly expanded. Soon, a pillar of fire shot into the sky, and scorching waves rushed toward them, making even Ning Rongrong's Mysterious Yellow Pagoda gleam gold and red.

With a gentle push from Su Chen, the fireball tore through the air and exploded thunderously in the clouds, evaporating all the mist from the earlier water attack.

Its power was astonishingly fierce!

Ning Rongrong's heart trembled as she watched, and she thought:

This is what Teacher truly wants to teach me?

This is what I, Ning Rongrong, should be learning!

So strong!

Imitating her teacher Su Chen's stance, Ning Rongrong began merging herself with the Mysterious Yellow Pagoda, absorbing the Elemental Stone's energy and stepping through the Qimen Bagua.

Buzz~

A tiny flame suddenly sprang up in her palm—bright red and flickering, yet only the height of a finger. A mountain breeze blew across it, making it sway crookedly. It sputtered twice and went out at once, leaving behind only a faint spark.

Ning Rongrong stared blankly at the spark between her fingers, which seemed ready to extinguish at any moment. Then she looked toward the lingering radiance in her teacher's palm, growing somewhat embarrassed.

"Teacher, can I... still master this?"

Ning Rongrong truly felt somewhat ashamed. She had always considered herself exceptionally talented, but while practicing Fenghou Qimen, simply locating the Bagua gates and circulating the elements at the same time already took all her concentration. As for the most difficult step, shifting the trigrams, she did not even dare think about it.

Yet Su Chen stepped closer. Looking at the tiny spark in her palm, he smiled faintly. Then he tapped Ning Rongrong between the brows with his fingertip, and a mysterious true intent of yin-yang and Bagua immediately poured into her mind.

At once, scenes of her teacher performing Fenghou Qimen techniques continuously appeared in her mind, leaving an indelible impression.

"The Eight Strange Skills were never something ordinary people could learn. For your first attempt, being able to summon an element is already very good. Keep working hard."

"What you lack is not talent, but time and elemental Spirit Rings. First, use these Elemental Stones to properly comprehend elemental power. Once you can gather water into a ball without dispersing it and keep fire burning three meters high without going out, you will have made a shallow entry into Qimen techniques. Then you can try shifting the central palace."

Ning Rongrong raised her head. Seeing Teacher Su Chen's incomparably handsome face and his approving gaze, light rekindled in her eyes.

"Alright, Teacher. I will work even harder!"

She took a deep breath and activated the Kan Water Formula again—another string of tiny droplets scattered down, but this time she did not pause. Immediately afterward, she formed the Li Fire Seal, and a small flame trembled to life, illuminating her focused profile.

The Mysterious Yellow Pagoda continued to turn slowly, the Mysterious Yellow Stone at its peak flashing without end.

On the bluestone, the young woman in a pure white dress condensed water and created fire again and again. Water droplets and flames intertwined in the morning light, tiny yet stubborn, like two stars refusing to fall.

Seeing Ning Rongrong begin studying in earnest, Su Chen felt somewhat relieved. He then turned to Zhu Zhuqing and began teaching her.