Eight-Nine Arcane Arts

"Teacher, why are you..."

Xiao Yan could not help asking as he ran his fingers over the Mystic Staff. This magical artifact needed no blood to recognize its master, yet in his hands, it moved as naturally as his own limbs, with a trace of sentience. After toying with it for a while, he looked at the old man, brimming with curiosity.

An incarnation formed from a remnant soul was truly... intriguing.

What sort of being could have injured someone like him?

As though seeing through Xiao Yan's speculation, the Old Lord smiled and shook his head. "At my level, who could possibly hurt me? It is merely... that this world's standing is too low, causing this incarnation of mine to grow ever weaker."

Xiao Yan: "..."

Well, never mind, then.

So he simply thought this plane was too pathetic. Still, this was a Lower Plane. If Xiao Yan ascended to the Great Thousand World someday, would it be able to sustain this incarnation of the Old Lord?

"Hehe, how far off is that? Deal with your current predicament first. The Three-Year Agreement alone is enough to give you a headache," the Old Lord said with a chuckle.

This old man can read minds! Xiao Yan rubbed his nose. Before him, none of his little schemes could stay hidden.

"In that case, why don't you give me a few pills?"

Now that they were familiar with each other, Xiao Yan no longer stood on ceremony. He spread his hands brazenly and grinned at the Old Lord. "Something like the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir. Eight or ten wouldn't be too few, and a hundred or two hundred wouldn't be too many. Just give me whatever you think is right."

"Ow..."

A moment later, Xiao Yan clutched his head and grimaced. "You absorbed my Dou Qi for fifteen whole years! Asking for a pill isn't unreasonable, is it?"

"Oh, so that was Dou Qi? I thought it was waste gas." The Old Lord smiled and glanced at the cheeky Xiao Yan. He did bear some resemblance to a certain greedy, unruly monkey with a hairy face and a thunder god's mouth...

"Very well." The Old Lord shook his head and tossed Xiao Yan a crimson-gold Pill Pellet. "This is a Marrow-Cleansing Pill. It can help you reforge your body and establish your foundation."

"As for the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, this Body Outside Body of mine did not bring any. The requirements for refining it are so demanding that this world likely cannot provide everything needed. We can discuss it once you enter that other realm."

"And a cultivation method..."

"Eight-Nine Arcane Arts, Eight-Nine..." Xiao Yan licked his lips, his heart overflowing with delight.

"Ah, you mon... brat, your greed knows no bounds. The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts encompass the Seventy-Two Transformations, the Five-Element Escape Technique, Cloud-Riding and Mist-Riding, the Indestructible Vajra Body, Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation... I am quite willing to teach them, but can you learn all of that?"

Xiao Yan looked a little embarrassed. "Then I'll learn them slowly?"

Smiling, the Old Lord shook his head and gently tapped the boy between his brows. An intricate torrent of cultivation knowledge poured into his mind.

Only after watching Xiao Yan's head droop as he fell asleep, his body going limp and toppling into the clear pool, did the Old Lord clasp his hands behind his back and glance into the distance. "Come out."

"Senior..."

Beneath the shade of a tree, Ling Ying slowly emerged, his hands clasped before his chest and his head lowered. Deep shock lingered in his eyes.

This man was no wandering ghost.

He had an extraordinary background.

Even as a Dou Huang expert, Ling Ying had felt his heart tremble when that sky-obscuring Mystic Staff appeared. Though this world had no clear system of weapon ranks, serving Miss Xun'er had given him the good fortune to see the weapons treasured by her clan.

Yet their might still seemed somewhat inferior to this Mystic Staff's.

"Have you seen enough?" The Old Lord regarded Ling Ying indifferently. Their figures gradually seemed to shift out of proportion, as though a towering Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation had enveloped him, looking down from above at the trembling Ling Ying.

"Gulp..." Ling Ying swallowed, his face turning faintly pale. "Please judge fairly, senior. I have never harbored the slightest ill will toward Young Master Xiao Yan. I was only... only worried that he might stray down the wrong path and be deceived. That was why I followed him in secret."

Ling Ying dared not raise his head, yet he felt the man before him loom as majestically as a mountain.

Not even the Clan Leader had ever made him feel this way.

"..."

After a long while, the Old Lord finally spoke, his voice unhurried. "If that were not the case, do you think you would still be standing here, speaking to me?"

"Th-thank you, senior."

Ling Ying wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, inwardly lamenting his luck.

Had he known Young Master Xiao Yan would encounter such a tremendous opportunity, why would he have come to meddle? He had nearly been crushed like a bug.

Still, for a remnant soul to exert this kind of pressure on the very depths of his soul, it was no longer a matter of strength, but of "standing."

Could the man before him be the remnant soul of a Dou Di?!!

The Clan Leader had said that although the Dou Di had vanished from this world, many Cave Abodes they had left behind still remained...

"You cultivate the Shadow Art?"

Just as cold sweat streamed from Ling Ying, the Old Lord spoke quietly.

"Yes! My cultivation is shallow, senior. Over the years, I have only acquired a little proficiency in this path," Ling Ying hurriedly replied.

"You employ form and shadow as an art, but do you know that shadow is no empty illusion? It is the pivot of yin qi and the emissary of the yang spirit." Intending to offer a few pointers, the Old Lord spoke calmly.

"..." Ling Ying stood rooted to the spot.

"The Dao gives birth to a single qi, and qi transforms into yin and yang. Yang governs growth and emergence, manifesting as form; yin governs return and concealment, hiding as shadow..."

His voice rang in Ling Ying's ears like a great bell, yet also like a voice from beyond the heavens, shaking him until he felt he was discovering this world anew.

Only after an unknown length of time did he slowly open his eyes. His face alight with excitement, he looked toward where the old man had stood, only to find it empty. Drawing a deep breath, he knelt and kowtowed heavily three times.

With complicated feelings, he glanced at Xiao Yan, who still lay unconscious, half his body resting against the edge of the pool.

Those few words had seemed like the very truths of heaven and earth, deepening his understanding of his own Dou Qi and even allowing him to break through two stages in succession...

With a teacher like this, Young Master Xiao Yan's future achievements would surely be extraordinary.

Miss Xun'er could rest easy.

Though he had fallen asleep, Xiao Yan was not idle. He was absorbing the cultivation method the Old Lord had imparted.

The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts.

The greatest yin number was eight, and the greatest yang number was nine. Their product was the greatest number in Daoism, symbolizing the ultimate evolution of the laws of heaven and earth.

To master it, one had to cultivate from the first revolution through the eighth, refining form into qi, qi into spirit, and spirit into union with the Dao.

Then the eighth would transform into the ninth revolution, suffusing the body with pure yang.

Finally came three flowers gather at the crown and five qi returning to the origin, marking complete mastery.

As for its divine abilities, the Old Lord had only given him the [Vajra Art], a body-refining method, and a set of [Darksteel Staff Technique] that he had never heard of. Beyond those, the Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation, samadhi true fire, and Seventy-Two Transformations he coveted most were absent.

It was essentially a stripped-down version of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts.

Though he felt some regret, for Xiao Yan as he was now, it truly amounted to divine assistance.

"Pfft..."

Xiao Yan spat out a mouthful of pool water and abruptly sat up. As his senses gradually returned, he hurriedly checked his Storage Ring. Only after finding both the Mystic Staff and the golden pill inside did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Teacher? Teacher?"

"Cultivate. Do not bother this old man unless it is important. Once you reach the first revolution, or become a Dou Zhe, come find me, and I will teach you pill refining..."

The Old Lord's languid voice came from within his body.

"Will do!"

Xiao Yan smiled, swallowed the Marrow-Cleansing Pill in one gulp, and began cultivating the first revolution of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts right there in the pool.