Chiyou Threefold Scripture

Geng Peng explained to Daoist Cold Light, "The Chiyou Threefold Scripture was left behind by Chiyou of Ancient Times. Chiyou the Great belonged to the Eastern Yi, excelled at commanding beasts, and loved keeping company with birds and animals. When he fought the Yellow Emperor in years past, the Seventy-Two Demon Kings raised their armies to aid him. The Threefold Scripture consists of three volumes. The one we brothers obtained deals exclusively with combat. It contains many ancient formations and methods of cultivation for humans and demons. Humans can cultivate into demons, and demons can cultivate into humans. You can cut off a man's arm and attach a Long's claw, or even graft a human head onto the body of a tiger or leopard."

His words were casual conversation with Daoist Cold Light, but also an explanation of the origins of his cultivation arts for the Black Dragon on the table—Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang was no longer on his palm, but had plunged into a bowl of hot tea. Though the tea was scalding, he found it extremely comfortable. It had been brewed with ice spring water drawn from thirty-six hundred zhang beneath a glacier, and the leaves had been picked on Eternal Night Island.

Eternal Night Island lay at the North Pole, where the sun never appeared, through millennia and countless ages. Yet when yin reached its utmost, yang was born. Nourished by a current of true yang energy, the island had bred many rare flowers, exotic plants, Flying Beasts, and Land Beasts. These tea leaves were among them, possessing an unusual fragrance, crisp, sweet, and pure.

Shi Feiyang did not drink his own bathwater, but he liked soaking in good water. In the past, he had often rested and recuperated in the springs of Dinghu Peak. Later, he had gone to sea, but although the ocean was boundless, its water was too dirty. Now, soaking in this warm tea, he felt incomparably comfortable.

Geng Peng continued, "The scripture does indeed contain many powerful Magic Treasures and Spells, but most require slaughtering great numbers of people to refine them. In Ancient Times, the world was a primordial wilderness, and humans and beasts waged war. Humans constantly killed Monster beasts and invented many ways to refine Magic Treasures from the souls of great Monsters. Monsters slaughtered humans as well, devising methods of refining Magic Treasures from human Primordial Spirits. They would massacre entire cities at the slightest provocation, killing a hundred thousand people to consecrate a Formation. Most of what this scripture records belongs to that category. So although their power is vast and boundless, we cannot actually bring ourselves to practice them."

After hearing this, Daoist Cold Light nodded. "So that is how it is. Then... this will be difficult. I heard that the Demon Fox's father, Old Man Xuexue, ascended to the Purple Palace many years ago and manages secret manuals for the Heavenly Emperor in the celestial realm. He must have passed down quite a few arts of the Immortal Realm to her..."

"That Magic Treasure of hers, the one that specifically counters me, must have come down from the upper realm," Geng Peng said bitterly. "I must hurry back and discuss a countermeasure with my elder brother. We also need to devise a Magic Treasure that can counter that Demon Fox in turn."

Geng Peng rose and carried Shi Feiyang out of the cave. Daoist Cold Light came out with Chichengzi to see them off.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Geng Peng asked Shi Feiyang, "Will you still have me carry you, or will you fly there yourself?"

Clinging to the edge of his thumb, Shi Feiyang looked out and said, "I fly too slowly on my own. I won't try to put on a brave front."

Geng Peng laughed heartily. He spread his wings and was about to take off with Shi Feiyang when he suddenly turned his head toward the southwest.

Shi Feiyang had already spotted them as well. Three people were hurtling through the icy clouds on the horizon. Two were Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo, whom they had just fought, while the third was a woman dressed in red. Wrapped in a mass of fiery red cloud, the three traveled at an astonishing speed, crossing hundreds upon thousands of li in an instant to arrive before them.

The red cloud spread out, and the three stood upon it.

Shi Feiyang studied the woman in red. She looked to be only in her thirties, her beauty brimming with mature charm and her expression radiant. Half her hair was pinned up with a golden hairpin, while the rest flowed over her shoulders behind her. Her clothing, too, had a languid, effortless air.

Geng Peng did not recognize this woman either and asked Lady Baoxiang, "Where did you, Demon Fox, find these reinforcements?"

Lady Baoxiang shouted abuse at him. "Pah! Are those bird eyes of yours blind? This is my dear and trusted friend, Old Lady Red Flower of Blessed Immortal Pool on Osmanthus Mountain. She came out to sea to gather medicinal herbs, and I happened to meet her. After hearing of your vile conduct, you feathered beast, she shared my hatred of our common enemy and came with me to take your bird head!"

Old Lady Red Flower was an exceedingly formidable unaffiliated immortal of the unorthodox paths. She had always cultivated in the vast mountains of the southwest of the Central Lands and rarely ventured out.

Millennium he shou wu and black wind grass, both Spiritual Herbs, grew in Blessed Immortal Pool on Osmanthus Mountain. She had claimed the place, established a Cave Abode, and cultivated there in pursuit of immortality and the Dao.

Then Elder Longbrow, the founding patriarch of the Emei Sect, had come to her door and accused her of seizing heaven-sent treasures as her private property, refusing to share them with the world, and behaving with excessive tyranny.

Old Lady Red Flower refused to accept this and fought Elder Longbrow with her magic. Naturally, she was no match for him, and all the Formations and restrictions she had laid were broken. She could only argue with him again, saying that spiritual treasures of heaven and earth could not be left for anyone to pick at will, or they would long since have been uprooted into extinction. Only those truly destined for them, blessed with profound fortune, should be able to obtain them.

She set her conditions: only boys and girls with a three-lifetime virgin body and innate spiritual roots could descend into the pool to gather the grass. The pool held deadly poisonous rocks and crocodiles and was shrouded in toxic mist. Anyone who came must also possess inborn eyes of wisdom that could see through the mist, be able to defeat the Divine Crocodile, and withstand the poisonous rocks.

Only then did Elder Longbrow say with satisfaction, "Seventy years from now, disciples of my teaching will come who meet these conditions of yours and gather the grass. I hope that when the time comes, you will honor the oath you made today and not break your promise by putting further obstacles in their way."

In truth, Elder Longbrow could already have broken the Spells in her pool, and killing the Monster crocodile would have been effortless for him. But he had no use for black wind grass at the time, nor could he take it away and transplant it on Mount Emei. He had deliberately used her narrow-mindedness to have her guard it for him until his juniors needed it in the future. The minor setbacks they would encounter in the process would also help them grow quickly.

Because of this, Old Lady Red Flower had bitterly hated Elder Longbrow and the Emei Sect. But later, as her cultivation grew ever deeper, she gradually realized that many tribulations still awaited her and that her own abilities would hardly suffice to overcome them. On the other hand, if she followed this thread of affinity and obtained the Emei Sect's help in the future, she might pass safely through those tribulations... Thus, as the days and months flowed by, the hatred and anger in her breast gradually subsided.

That day, she had gone out to sea to gather medicinal herbs and happened upon Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo fleeing after their defeat. Lady Baoxiang was very close to her. Old Lady Red Flower was also known as a "Monster hag" and behaved in a most eccentric and perverse manner. Apart from Elder Longbrow, who had beaten her into submission, she seldom regarded anyone as worth her notice.

Lady Baoxiang did not dare return to the Central Lands with Zhuge Jingwo like this. She was still wavering between slipping away secretly and accompanying him to Turtle-Fishing Rock to confess their failure to Xuanzhenzi when they encountered Old Lady Red Flower. Knowing her powerful magic and the several formidable Magic Treasures she had refined, Lady Baoxiang invited her to help kill the Monster dragon and Geng Peng and recover the Millennium Purple River Grass.

After considering it, Old Lady Red Flower nodded in agreement, and the three came in pursuit once more.

Lady Baoxiang, a Demon Fox, had an extraordinarily keen sense of smell. While conscious, she could detect scents carried on the wind from thousands of li away. By casually catching a few wisps of wind and tasting them, she could tell whether it was windy and rainy or brilliantly sunny upwind, and whether seabirds circled or pods of whales drew in water along the way. With Old Lady Red Flower's skill in divination as well, they soon found their way to Daoist Cold Light's abode.

Daoist Cold Light tried to mediate. "Feuds should be untied, not knotted tighter. None of you has had an easy time cultivating through these hundreds and thousands of years. Do not let a single hateful thought turn all those years of toil into a painted cake..."

Lady Baoxiang and Geng Peng were enemies whose eyes burned all the redder at the sight of one another. How could they listen to anything he said? One unleashed the Red Cloud Needles and Rainbow Silk, while the other shook his wings and released thirty-six Golden Light Divine Feather Arrows. Amid a ringing clash, they launched into a fierce battle.

Zhuge Jingwo searched for the Black Dragon. Shi Feiyang had been hiding motionless at the base of Geng Peng's wing, but when he saw Old Lady Red Flower send a flying sword at Geng Peng, joining Lady Baoxiang in a pincer attack, he hurriedly flew off him. With a shake of his body, he grew back into a gigantic dragon more than ten zhang long and spat out two inner cores. They transformed into the Taiji Diagram and intercepted Old Lady Red Flower's flying sword.

When Zhuge Jingwo saw him appear, he too unleashed the Invisible Sword to join the attack.

Fearing that Shi Feiyang could not withstand them, Geng Peng pointed and diverted twelve Feather Arrows toward Old Lady Red Flower. Seeing the ferocity of their approach, she brought out her mountain-guarding treasure, the Bingling Shuttle, to intercept them, while continuing to use her Immortal Sword to help Zhuge Jingwo slash at Shi Feiyang.