Twenty-Eight True Scripture

Feiyang swam down to survey the spoils of battle, and the canvas-covered boat and that Jade-Faced Flying Fox, Ma Chengdu, had both been blasted into smithereens without even a hair remaining. The Three Talents Treasure Mirror and Ma Cheng's double-pronged forks had fallen to the bottom of the water.

Sikong Xuan's flying sword, however, possessed a degree of spiritual sentience, automatically flying back to circle and dance around its master. The moment Shifeiyang drew close, that sword spontaneously protected its owner, flashing with light as it stabbed over.

Shifeiyang reached out his claw to grab it. Without the master's True Qi and will to empower and govern it, the sword could not even cut through his Dragon Claw, and it was pinched between two fingertips, trembling like a swimming fish all the same as it tried to break free and fly away.

Feiyang surged his true yuan, using a breath of elixir energy to seal the sword and cause it to lose its radiance, temporarily casting it aside.

Sikong Xuan's whole body's bones were completely shattered, his internal organs damaged, and blood bled from his seven apertures. After losing consciousness, he was in a state of drowning while enduring immense water pressure. Although he relied on having some Daoist attainment, with his True Qi protecting and nourishing his body, he could still survive for a short while, but if not treated promptly, he was already not far from death.

Feiyang cast a spell aimed at Sikong Xuan's forehead, dragging out his Primordial Spirit and Divine Soul in a single move to cradle them in his palm.

Sikong Xuan was still dazed, but he abruptly startled awake. Recognizing his current plight, terror and sorrow showed on his face. Standing upon the Dragon Claw, he bowed solemnly to Shifeiyang in salute. "This Son previously did not know Your Seniority possessed vast magical powers and offended the dragon's majesty, bringing about this calamity. It is entirely my own doing, and I cannot blame anyone else. Now that I have lost my physical body and died once, it can be considered suffering my punishment. I earnestly beg the senior to let my primordial spirit return, with my soul going home to Chongming to see my uncle, that he might send me to be reincarnated. Once I live again in another life, I will certainly feel gratitude for the Daoist friend's great kindness."

How could Shifeiyang believe him? "Let's not be in a rush to talk about these things; I ask you, where were you all heading out to today? What were you going to do?"

Sikong Xuan said, "Because my uncle and Aunt Pu want to refine an Immortal Elixir, they need to use several extremely precious herbs. It just so happens that there are five Azure Spirit Grasses on this Dinghu Peak whose medicinal properties are a perfect match, so he ordered us to come gather the medicine. Having just arrived here earlier and seeing the golden light and red mists within the lake water rolling with the waves, we thought the legendary legacy treasure of the Yellow Emperor had appeared, so we wanted to come down to take the treasure, and in the end we fell into this state!"

Feiyang remembered that the Azure Spirit Grass had a record in the original text, so he asked Sikong Xuan for the specific details.

"That grass's nature is extremely cold and chilling, yet it breeds an aura of primordial yang amidst that extreme cold, which is exceptionally good at neutralizing malevolent poisons. My uncle heard Xu Feiniang, Matchless Chang'e of the Wutai Sect, say that there are five Azure Spirit Grasses here in total. Having rooted for over a millennium, their roots pierce into stone marrow without touching an inch of soil. They appear once every thirty years, bearing only five grass seeds before hiding back into the stone and vanishing. This year is precisely the time when they mature and manifest."

Feiyang nodded, deciding to get his hands on these five Azure Spirit Grasses after dark later.

"I ask you again, what kind of Daoist magic do you two uncles and nephews cultivate? Tell me in detail."

With three parts pride, Sikong Xuan recounted the origin of his lineage.

About sixty years ago, his uncle Sikong Hu was a Jianghu chivalric swordsman who wielded a pair of Cleaving Water Lightning Sabers and excelled at throwing a hidden weapon called the Connecting Ruyi Bead. Quick-handed and sharp-eyed, able to strike and catch alike with a hundred-percent accuracy, he roamed the rivers of Jiangsu and Zhejiang with hardly a match, earning the nickname Eight-Eyed Vajra.

As fate would have it, one year a Daoist nun came from the north with coarse hands and feet, a leopard's head, and round eyes. Claiming to be Matchless Chang'e, Pu Miaomiao, she fell in love with Sikong Hu at first sight and insisted on marrying him.

Sikong Hu disdained Pu Miaomiao for being too ugly and having a crude temperament, so naturally he refused. Pu Miaomiao pestered him relentlessly, and the two sides resorted to violence. Sikong Hu unexpectedly could not defeat her, being captured by her twice in succession with the demand to forcefully consummate their marriage. Sikong Hu entirely relied on scheming to narrowly escape.

One fleeing this way and dodging that, the other pursuing relentlessly, one day they arrived one after the other on Chongming Island. The Chongming Island of this world stretched three hundred-odd li from east to west, with continuous small mountains upon it.

Sikong Hu arrived first, discovering a cave in the southeast of the island. Within the cave were weathered remains of an immortal, and subsequently he found an immortal sword and two scrolls of Daoist books.

Pu Miaomiao pursued and arrived shortly after. Sikong Hu took the initiative to give her one scroll of the Daoist books, saying he had no intentional disdain; it was simply that since childhood he yearned for the immortal Dao, resolving to become a monastic for quiet cultivation, and had long since severed any thoughts of marital fate. Now, having fortuitously obtained the legacy of a predecessor, he could fulfill the aspiration of a lifetime. He wanted to cultivate the immortal Dao and attain the Dao here; if Pu Miaomiao was willing, she could climb the immortal path alongside him, and if she was unwilling, she should please leave—if she tried to force him further, he would fight her to the death.

Pu Miaomiao was still unwilling to give up and attacked once more. With that immortal sword in hand, which could cut through iron like mud and emitted surging Sword Qi, Sikong Hu easily sliced apart Pu Miaomiao's hundred-refined steel weapon. After several aggressive lunges, not only did she fail to gain any advantage, but she almost died beneath his sword, leaving her no choice but to compromise.

From then on, the two cultivated on Chongming Island, one in the northwest and one in the southeast, which had already been a full sixty years up to the present.

Shifeiyang had no interest in the emotional gossip of the two, focusing instead on asking in detail about the contents of those two scrolls of Daoist books they cultivated.

This involved secrets of theirs that were not to be passed on, which originally were things one could not tell even upon death. Yet Sikong Xuan was already dead, like fish on a cutting board atop the Dragon Claw, utterly without the slightest room for refusal.

The Daoist book Sikong Hu obtained had a very strange name called the Twenty-Eight True Scripture.

Feiyang asked what it specifically meant, and Sikong Xuan replied, "Among the ten Heavenly Stems, two represents Yi wood and eight represents Xin metal. Named Twenty-Eight, it is actually Yi-Xin, primarily cultivating metal and wood Daoist magic. The one Aunt Pu obtained is called the Twenty-One True Scripture; three represents Bing fire and seven represents Geng metal, which fundamentally is the Bing-Geng True Scripture, primarily cultivating metal and fire Daoist magic. The Thirty-Seven Wheel she refined according to what is recorded in the scriptures can emit Golden Light and blazing fire, and it is a cave-protecting treasure with boundless might."

Feiyang thoroughly studied the Book of Changes and numerology, being extremely sensitive to such numbers. Vaguely feeling something was a bit off yet unable to figure out what was wrong for the moment, he told Sikong Xuan to continue.

"My uncle said what he obtained was incomplete; a complete book of Daoism should have five volumes, and must also have 'One-Nine', 'Four-Six', and 'Fifty'. In these past years, he and Aunt Pu have gone into seclusion several times, joining forces to comprehend it in an attempt to complete the contents of the other three volumes, but all failed, which they deeply regret."

Feiyang forced him to recount every detail of the entire contents of the Twenty-Eight True Scripture. With no alternative, Sikong Xuan could only tell him whatever he was able to speak of.

Feiyang listened with concentrated focus, immediately interrupting to question him whenever there was a lack of coherence, drawing inferences from one instance to deduce others and constantly generating side details, driving Sikong Xuan to utter misery.

Sikong Xuan was Sikong Hu's biological nephew. Over forty years ago, Sikong Hu returned to his ancestral home to visit relatives and saw a crowd of nephews, finding only this youngest one quite worthy of cultivation, so he brought him back to the cave to teach him properly.

Sikong Hu regarded this nephew as his mantle's successor, imparting the entire Twenty-Eight True Scripture to him without reservation, and this time eight or nine parts out of ten had been forced out of him by Shifeiyang.

Listening and pondering at the same time, Shifeiyang gathered the entire content in his mind to mull it over thoroughly. His current black dragon physique was not only physically formidable, but his memory was also all the more extraordinary; after listening through just once, he remembered it all.

After listening to Sikong Xuan speak for the greater part of the day, the sun set and the moon rose outside, and it had already reached nighttime.

Feiyang swam to the surface of the lake, crawled onto the bank, and asked Sikong Xuan, "Where is the Azure Spirit Grass you spoke of?"

"I don't know the exact location either, but Fairy Xu said that immortal grass grows upon stone marrow without touching an inch of soil. We only need to follow the stone veins and search for places without sand or dirt."

Feiyang had never studied Feng Shui, so he had Sikong Xuan search, also making him explain as he looked.

The two first found the foundation of the mountain's stone veins, discerned the direction of the stone marrow, and then followed the path where the wind's breath flowed back and forth, searching all the way back to the rear of the peak. Before long, they found the Azure Spirit Grass in a hidden corner.