Lesser Book of Heaven

All mundane fire had a cooler inner flame and a hotter outer flame, hollow within and substantial without, corresponding precisely to the Li trigram, with its hollow center, yin within and yang without. The Pill Fire the Black Dragon had originally cultivated was demonic fire refined through instinct. However powerful his magic or intense its heat, its essence still belonged to this category of acquired, mundane fire.

Through this session of cultivation, Shi Feiyang had drawn the True Yang within Kan into the Li Palace, making it yang both within and without and transforming its fundamental nature. He had turned the inner flame from yin to yang. With enough Azure Spirit Grass and continued cultivation, he would eventually be able to refine Pure Yang Immortal Fire.

His Pill Fire now possessed the seed of pure yang. Its inner flame concentrated more energy, turning pure white and becoming restrained in nature, while its outer flame seemed to have been washed with water, losing impurities and growing purer.

It was this tiny change in essence that stirred the Heavenly Book Jade Casket!

He had hidden the Jade Casket inside his belly, where it had long remained inert. The Black Dragon had deliberately burned it with Pill Fire for years without making any progress. Now, as Shi Feiyang spread Pill Fire throughout his body to warm his bones, sinews, and flesh, the Jade Casket reacted as though it had encountered its key, spontaneously emitting light and heat.

Once Shi Feiyang noticed, he directed his Pill Fire with his spiritual sense to burn it. A moment later, the lid opened on its own, revealing its contents.

He spat out the jade casket. Inside lay a Daoist book woven from silk, its cover embroidered in red thread with four large characters: "Lesser Book of Heaven."

Long ago, Guang Chengzi had passed three volumes of the Elixir Scripture to Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan. The first expounded the Dao, the second explained methods, and the third taught techniques. Before his ascension, the Yellow Emperor had sealed the volumes away separately, leaving them for future generations.

The Jade Casket at Dinghu Peak held the third volume of the Elixir Scripture. It had three layers, with the Heavenly Book at the bottom. The middle layer held Guang Chengzi's supreme treasure for subduing demons, the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Ruler, along with six Soul-Gathering Form-Refining Pills. The uppermost layer had originally contained another demon-subduing treasure: half a Jade Tablet Talisman.

As early as the Eastern Jin dynasty, a Side Path Earth Immortal had obtained this casket. Despite exhausting every means at his disposal, he had managed to open only the first layer and retrieve the half Jade Tablet Talisman. Even when the Great Calamity finally loomed, he had still failed to open the two lower layers.

Before his death, the Earth Immortal had returned the jade casket here and sealed it away again. He had traded the half talisman to someone else for a promise, then compiled the Daoist arts he had cultivated throughout his life into a book and sealed it inside the casket in its place. He called it the Lesser Book of Heaven, offering it as a companion to Guang Chengzi's work for the benefit of later generations.

This earth immortal had thought very highly of himself. He had left no name in the book, instead attributing it to Guang Chengzi. But with his tribulation imminent as he wrote, he had finished in haste, leaving many telltale threads between the lines. As a child, Shi Feiyang had firmly believed in gods and Buddhas and had read all manner of tales of gods and demons, with The Swordsmen of Shu Mountain his favorite. Combining the plot he knew with the clues in the Daoist book, he had pieced together an account that was close to the truth.

The Lesser Book of Heaven was remarkably comprehensive and rich in content. It contained eight methods for refining swords, eighteen for refining treasures, twenty-four formation diagrams, over eighty kinds of talismans, and more than a thousand practical Spells. Its final chapter also included over a hundred pill formulas.

Most of these were practical Spells, such as summoning wind or rain, creating fire, flying, cleaning, and so forth. Only twenty or thirty were meant for attacking or subduing others, but all were quite powerful.

The book could not have come at a better time. Shi Feiyang first read it through twice to gain a comprehensive understanding, then selected the parts that would be useful.

One formula was called the Immortal-Skewering Pill. It combined forty-nine kinds of poisonous insects, herbs, and Poison Stones, with thousand-year-old Queen Mother Grass added as another ingredient. Once refined and swallowed, it made the victim feel as though their organs and skin were suffering the punishment of a thousand cuts. It also specifically dispersed essence, shattered qi, and corroded the roots of immortality. No depth of cultivation could suppress it. Yet because of the Queen Mother Grass, the victim could not die and remained conscious throughout the endless torment.

The book explicitly stated that this pill was intended for torture and interrogation, though it was also highly effective for punishing disciples who betrayed their masters or for dealing with enemies. Once someone swallowed it, they immediately entered a state where neither life nor death was within reach. They could not even faint, much less die, and could only kneel on the ground, weeping bitterly and begging for mercy.

The final effects of the Immortal-Skewering Pill could be adjusted through the quantities of its ingredients. Among its eight principal, deadly poisons, some contracted the sinews, some shattered bones, some convulsed the flesh, some split the skin, and others burned and pierced the organs... Most important was the Queen Mother Grass. Thousand-year-old Queen Mother Grass could bring the dead back to life and grow flesh upon bare bones. So long as enough was added, the victim would not die. With two more ingredients governing the nerves, qi, and blood, they would not faint either, remaining conscious no matter how terrible the pain!

Shi Feiyang had noticed this formula because he remembered that Queen Mother Grass that had taken human form grew near Dinghu Peak. The greatest danger when he shed his skin was losing consciousness and becoming like a corpse. If he extracted just the ingredients in the Immortal-Skewering Pill that kept its victim conscious and took them separately, might he be able to remain awake?

He immediately found the "Primordial Spirit-Binding Technique" among the book's practical Spells. This Spell could bind a living being's primordial spirit to a magical implement. No matter how far away the target went, casting a Spell upon the implement would draw them before the caster, who could also torment them until they hovered between life and death.

Shi Feiyang possessed three thousand years of magical power, more than enough to cultivate this Spell, and succeeded after only a few attempts. He refined the Three Talents Mirror into a magical implement for binding primordial spirits, then seized Sikong Xuan's soul and bound his primordial spirit to it. "I need you to do something for me. If you do it well, I'll consider letting you go home."

At the prospect of returning home, Sikong Xuan immediately perked up. His soul-body, little more than an inch tall, bowed upon the mirror's surface. "Give me your orders, senior. So long as it's within my power, I'll spare no effort!"

"I know there are spirit herbs near Dinghu Peak that have taken form, including a stalk of Queen Mother Grass. Go and find it for me. Once you do, don't disturb it. Find a way to notify me immediately, and I'll harvest it myself." Shi Feiyang cast the spell upon the precious mirror. "You may only move within fifty li of this place. If you stray farther, the Seal will activate, triggering the Pill Fire I've set in place, and you'll suffer the torment of soul refinement. Take care!"

Sikong Xuan agreed readily, and Shi Feiyang released him to search all over the mountains for spirit herbs.

Now that he had a ghost's body, Sikong Xuan could pass through the forest unhindered by vegetation, earth, or stone. He could even burrow underground and travel through the soil, moving more freely than a fish in water. In less than half a day, he brought back plenty of Solomon's seal as thick as an arm, fleeceflower roots that had grown into human shapes, and Poria the size of washbasins. Xiandu truly was an immortal mountain and blessed land, with spirit herbs everywhere.

Shi Feiyang sent Sikong Xuan to find queen mother grass while he hid at the bottom of the lake and cultivated the Lesser Book of Heaven. The magical power the Black Dragon had amassed over three thousand years of cultivation was vast and profound, but without practical Spells, he could only spit out his inner core to smash people. Now that he had Daoist arts, Shi Feiyang practiced the thousand Spells in the book one by one.

The book also contained methods for refining swords and treasures. He claimed Sikong Xuan's Flying Sword for himself and refined it anew using the methods in the book, then practiced the sword techniques recorded there until he could wield it with consummate ease, moving it at will.

Meanwhile, Sikong Xuan went out every day to search for spirit herbs. As he gradually grew familiar with the routes, he began plotting his escape.

He caught a jay in the mountains, arranged stones into a formation, and placed the bird within it to cast a spell. Once finished, he released the jay and silently prayed, directing it to fly to Chongming Island, find his uncle, and report what had happened to him so that his uncle could hurry to his rescue.

He thought he could deceive heaven and cross the sea unnoticed, unaware of the power of the Lesser Book of Heaven. The Earth Immortal who had compiled it had been a ruthless figure among Unorthodox Path cultivators, and his Primordial Spirit-Binding Technique differed from those of other schools. Shi Feiyang had chosen the Three Talents Mirror as the spell's anchoring implement because this technique could not only bind the target's primordial spirit, but also let him watch what the target was doing from afar!

Wherever Sikong Xuan went each day and whatever he did, Shi Feiyang saw his every move through the precious mirror.

Seeing the jay take flight in the mirror and head straight southeast, Shi Feiyang climbed out of the lake and clung to the mountaintop.

His dragon eyes had exceptional vision, able to see an ant climbing a tree a thousand li away. He quickly fixed his gaze on the jay and let it fly farther southeast. Once he was certain Sikong Xuan could no longer see it, he opened his mouth toward the bird and drew in a breath.

The jay had already flown a hundred li away when its body suddenly tightened, locked in place by elixir qi. It hurriedly beat its wings, trying to break free, but the elixir qi wrapped around it and sent it hurtling helplessly toward the mountaintop.