Taiyin Body Refinement

(A fresh new book, soft and tender, looking for support. Two updates a day for now; once the contract is signed and recommendations come in, that'll rise to three...) Even in the remote forests of Yin-Yang Mountain, in the world Tang Changsheng came from, one could rarely see a night sky with stars so bright.

Not to mention that many of the stars in this sky differed from the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions of his own world.

More striking still, Tang Changsheng stood in the courtyard with two shadows!

Two moons hung high in the night sky, one in the east and one in the west...

If this was not crossing into another world, what was?

Tang Changsheng stood in the courtyard, facing the newly risen moon, seemingly lost in a daze.

Only someone close to him could faintly hear his lips moving as he chanted, "Spirit of the sun, spirit of the moon, meet and merge beneath the Dipper... Moon-soul, dim and desolate; fragrant radiance, veiled in emptiness; gentle void, spirit orchid... Swiftly, by the law!"

Tang Changsheng suddenly moved, forming the seal of the Moon Lord Mantra. Then he drew a sharp breath through his nose toward the sky. Five-colored light descended from the moon and poured straight into his mouth.

Moonlight in the sky narrowed into a slender thread and entered his mouth and nose. As he swallowed, it made an audible gurgling sound; when it sank into his belly, it rumbled like thunder.

He shuddered, his whole body nearly frozen stiff.

Both bright moons sent down their radiance, pouring it into Tang Changsheng's mouth.

Power dozens of times stronger than the sun-and-moon radiance he had gathered while cultivating in his original world crashed down through his throat and into his five organs.

Like a thread of ice slipping down his throat, it seemed to freeze all five organs...

His hands and body never stopped moving. Beneath him, his feet followed the steps of Zhen's ascent and Gen's rise, Kan's flow and Li's brightness, the gate of heaven and door of earth, the gate of men and gate of ghosts. The patterns shifted endlessly, flowing like drifting clouds and running water.

Anyone who knew the art would have recognized it as an extraordinarily advanced method of inner refinement.

He gathered the essence of the sun and moon even as he circulated and refined it, until sounds arose from within his belly. That alone showed how formidable Tang Changsheng's inner refinement was: even his most vulnerable organs were many times stronger than an ordinary person's.

As Lü Yuanhua had said, although Tang Changsheng had only just lit his Heavenly Heart, he had practiced the orthodox methods of the General's Temple since childhood, laying an exceptionally solid foundation in inner refinement.

After he had followed those ritual steps for a while, the bitter, freezing cold gave way to an incomparable freshness. He even felt as though he might float up to the heavens, his body seeming to grow light and agile.

"Clear, cold jade liquid, sweet dew..."

As Tang Changsheng chanted and formed seals, the moonlight within him rippled like water. In the sea of consciousness behind his brow, shimmering light seemed to spread in layer after layer.

He did not know how much time passed before he finally came back to himself.

"This world truly is an immortal realm. Its spiritual energy is ten, even a hundred times richer than in my old world... If the General's Temple didn't hold me there, I really wouldn't want to go back..."

Awakening from that wondrous state of cultivation, Tang Changsheng thought this to himself.

Then he said ruefully, "What a pity, what a pity. I was only a little short of washing away the impurities and seeing the fetal light..."

In all his years of cultivation, this was the closest he had ever come to seeing the fetal light. Yet he had still fallen short at the final hurdle. His disappointment was easy to imagine.

"There's no need to rush, fellow Daoist. Lighting the Heavenly Heart depends on a stroke of fortune."

Xin Chengying came out smiling. The more he looked at Tang Changsheng, the more pleased he became. "If you're willing, you can come with me to see my master tomorrow. He happens to be ascending the altar to lecture on the Dao. You could ask him for a pointer or two..."

"If so,

sorry to trouble you with the arrangements, fellow Daoist!" Tang Changsheng said, a glimmer of hope rising in his heart. Early the next morning, Tang Changsheng had barely gotten up and had not yet performed his method of gathering sunlight when Xin Chengying dragged him away.

Tang Changsheng regretted it. This world could practically be called an immortal realm; its spiritual energy was ten, even a hundred times richer than that of his original world.

The moonlight he had gathered the night before had given him a sensation he had never experienced in all his years of cultivation at the General's Temple.

He had wanted to test the power of this world's sunlight, but Xin Chengying had dragged him away.

The Primordial Yang Abbey occupied an enormous tract of land, dozens of mu in all. To people from Tang Changsheng's original world, it would have been the size of a park.

Yet it was only a private Daoist abbey!

Still half in a daze, Tang Changsheng let Xin Chengying pull him into the abbey. After winding this way and that, they arrived outside a courtyard.

Twelve young Daoist attendants stood in two rows, chests thrust out and bellies tucked in.

If not for their Daoist robes, one might have taken them for haughty servants at some wealthy household's grand estate.

Dozens of carriages stood to one side, and tall, fine horses were tied to every hitching stone.

How did this look like a Daoist abbey? It could just as easily have been the bustling mansion of a powerful household.

But when the attendants saw Xin Chengying, each of them put on a fawning smile. "Senior Brother is here..."

"Thank you for your hard work, Senior Brother!"

Xin Chengying put on airs. With a grand wave of his hand, he said, "I'm taking this fellow Daoist Liu inside to hear Master lecture on the Dao!"

"Then you'd better hurry, Senior Brother. The True Person has already begun!" the other Daoists said eagerly.

They passed through the doorway into a spacious courtyard. A Daoist sat high upon an altar, expounding the teachings to several dozen men and women seated quietly below.

Their clothes, bearing, and manner made it clear that each was either wealthy or noble.

Yet every one of them sat in rapt attention, listening to the Daoist on the altar.

Needless to say, the Daoist on the altar was Xin Chengying's master, Lü Yuanhua.

Just then, Xin Chengying led Tang Changsheng inside.

Without a change in expression, Lü Yuanhua glanced their way. His gaze was like lightning, almost tangible. At that single, casual glance, every hair on Tang Changsheng's back stood on end.

A master!

A true master of cultivation!

Though he had never met Lü Yuanhua before, Tang Changsheng knew it with absolute certainty. No one without great attainment in spirit refinement, whose mental power far surpassed an ordinary person's, could possibly have such a gaze.

He had reached the realm where an empty chamber filled with light and lightning flashed within the eyes!

Tang Changsheng's heart tightened. Then he noticed that Lü Yuanhua was holding a bronze lamp.

He was holding a bronze lamp in broad daylight. That alone was odd enough, but its glow was clearly visible even beneath the sun.

Its tiny, bean-sized flame gave off a halo of five-colored light!