Shi Feiyang spent more than half a year on Mount Wutai, devoting most of his energy to compiling the Taiyi Hunyuan Scripture. Its core remained the Wutai school's original collection of teachings, supplemented by the Jin slips and jade pages Fang Ying and Yuan Hao had brought. Shi Feiyang integrated them into a coherent whole, reorganized them, and added some material of his own.
The book was vast and profound. Not only would it serve as a "textbook" for future Wutai disciples, but some of its contents required diligent study and contemplation even from Grandmaster Taiyi Hunyuan, Xu Feiniang, and Sikong Zhan. This was especially true of the upper volume's exposition of the Way. Their levels of attainment differed, and so did the insights they gained.
Shi Feiyang returned Chiyou's Heavenly Demon Immortal-Slaying Sword to Grandmaster Taiyi Hunyuan, instructing him to refine it carefully and avoid using it whenever possible. Even if he did use it, he must not lightly undo its seal.
He added a particular warning: "When the ancient Human Sovereigns opened up the Primordial Wilderness, their understanding of the Way was profound, but their techniques were few. By observing the Way of Heaven, they developed hundreds of methods and thousands of techniques, giving rise to the hundred crafts. Today, we possess advanced Taoist arts, yet our understanding of the Way is shallow. Alchemy, artifact refinement, and all manner of other Spells bloom like a hundred flowers, almost without end.
"The Way is the substance; techniques are its application. Someone with the Way but no techniques is a useless fool whose ambitions outstrip his abilities. Someone with techniques but no Way is a wicked demon with a crooked heart. In applying and innovating spells and artifacts, we have already far surpassed the era of the Three Sovereigns and