Five Chariots Bait

Shi Feiyang's lower body hung in the water while his upper body rested against the rocky bank. Wrapped in pill energy, the jay hovered before him, no longer struggling.

Seeing the bird's vacant eyes, he knew it had fallen under a Soul-Seizing Spell. He gently tapped its head with a Long claw. "Speak!"

The jay opened its beak and spoke in Sikong Xuan's voice. "Uncle! A demonic dragon has attacked me at Dinghu Peak. I've lost my physical body, and my primordial spirit is imprisoned with no way to escape. Uncle, come quickly and rescue me from this sea of suffering!"

After the jay repeated those words three times, blood suddenly streamed from its eyes and beak. A wisp of blue smoke rose from the top of its head, then its legs kicked out, and it died.

This spell used living creatures as messengers, exhausting their Essence Qi and spirit. Once the spell was cast, they became walking corpses, with only a thread of vitality left to sustain their instincts. When the message had been delivered, their lives reached their end.

The Lesser Book of Heaven contained similar spells, more powerful than Sikong Xuan's, which could make a mouse travel ten thousand miles.

Shi Feiyang tossed the dead bird down from the peak, turned, and slipped into the water, swimming back to the lakebed to continue cultivating.

Shi Feiyang had long expected Sikong Xuan to ask his uncle for help. Any normal person would try every possible means of escape.

In his view, Sikong Hu was far weaker than Wei Fengniang, making him just the right whetstone to test his blade against. If he could not even defeat Sikong Hu, he could not wait for Wei Fengniang to arrive. He would have to grab his bucket and run.

Of course, the outside world was even more dangerous. Cultivators of both the righteous and evil paths would almost certainly refuse to let a dragon over a hundred feet long like him go. Everything would depend on luck. Against someone weak, he might preserve his life; against someone stronger, death would be his only road. Such was the law of the strong devouring the weak.

He planned to master as many spells from the Lesser Book of Heaven as possible before letting Sikong Hu come to test his strength. If he could dispose of Sikong Hu with ease, he would have some chance of victory against Wei Fengniang in the future.

The methods in the Lesser Book of Heaven came from a Side Path Earth Immortal. Its spells straddled righteousness and evil, and many of its methods were so cruel that even imagining their practice was enough to make one recoil in horror.

Shi Feiyang mastered the easy ones first, then tackled the difficult ones. At the same time, he refined Sikong Xuan's Flying Sword according to the sword-refining method recorded in the book. Every day, he practiced Swordsmanship underwater. Cold light flashed amid the rippling currents as the dragon followed the sword, twisting and diving. He found it quite entertaining.

He also made time to prepare medicines and refine pills according to the book's formulas. Mount Xiandu was a blessed sanctuary renowned throughout the world, with rare Spiritual Herbs appearing in endless abundance. Sikong Xuan could gather plenty every day.

The pill formulas recorded in the Lesser Book of Heaven were all advanced. Their ingredients were scarce, difficult to process, and even harder to refine. Often, the fire had to be controlled with the mind. The slightest stray thought could upset the heat and waste an entire furnace of medicine.

The summit of Dinghu Peak covered a vast area. Apart from the lake at its center, there were many stretches of rocky ground around it, rising and falling, as well as smaller peaks more than a hundred feet high. Several caves lay between these peaks, all excavated by cultivators who had once practiced in seclusion here.

Most of these caves contained weathered remains, all belonging to people who had failed to attain immortality and eventually died here.

Shi Feiyang carried all their remains down the mountain, clawed out graves on level ground, and buried them. Then he returned to "inherit" their possessions with a clear conscience, including Alchemy Furnaces and cauldrons of various designs.

With furnaces and cauldrons available, he followed the formulas and began with the simplest preparation: Five Chariots Bait.

The formulas in the book included both medicines and baits. Baits and medicines were "the same in substance but different in use," with different emphases. Pills were primarily used to heal injuries and treat illness, curing the afflictions of hunger and death. For example, a healthy person would not take a healing Calamity-Crossing Pill for no reason. Baits leaned more toward food, improving the constitution when eaten and being suitable for long-term consumption. They were generally used to replace meals after one abstained from grain and practiced fasting.

Five Chariots Bait primarily used two ingredients: Great Burnet and Five-Leaf Ginseng.

The book stated that Great Burnet held the virtue of Lesser Yin within and received the energy of Greater Yang without. Below, it belonged to the Gods of Wu and Ji; above, it received the essence of Yinghuo. Within and without, it nurtured the twin energies of yin and yang, its surface and core enclosing the virtues of water and fire.

Five-Leaf Ginseng was the stellar essence of the Heavenly Five Chariots. Among metals, Jin corresponded to the Five Lakes; among humans, to the Five Virtues. Azure essence entered its stem, becoming the fluid of the east. White energy entered its joints, becoming the moisture of the West. Scarlet energy entered its flowers, becoming the light of the South. Dark essence entered its roots, becoming the substance of the North. Yellow vapor entered its bark, becoming the spirit of Wu and Ji.

Neither plant was rare on Mount Xiandu. Dozens of pounds could be found with little effort, all two or three hundred years old. Seventeen other spiritual ingredients, including lotus seeds, Poria, and Rehmannia, were then added to make medicinal cakes.

Five Chariots Bait greatly replenished the vital energy of the five internal organs. A human could stave off hunger by eating three thumb-pad-sized pieces each day. Long-term consumption eliminated chronic ailments, made the body light and healthy, fairened the skin and beautified the appearance, strengthened the teeth, and brightened the eyes. It was ideal as a supplement to immortal cultivation.

It was not difficult to make. Shi Feiyang experimented with a small quantity first, then produced it in bulk once he succeeded, ending up with over a hundred pounds.

He was a Long more than thirty meters long. Even stuffing all hundred-odd pounds into his mouth would not make a single meal. Besides, he had already cultivated two Inner Cores and could gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and absorb the essence of the sun and moon. He would not go hungry even if he ate nothing for centuries.

He had only made the Five Chariots Bait for amusement and practice, but now that it was finished, he could not waste food. That left him in a quandary.

He soon thought of a solution. The Lesser Book of Heaven contained the Inverted Five Elements Technique. Here, the five elements referred to North water, South fire, east wood, west Jin, and central earth, representing space. Inverting the five elements meant warping space, turning South into North and shifting east into west. In plain terms, it was a spatial spell.

Such a spell was difficult to master. Even after mastering it, one usually needed magical treasures or even formations to put it into effect.

Once he mastered this technique, he could make a "Heaven-and-Earth Bag": a tiny pouch containing a world of its own. At worst, its interior would hold as much as a saddlebag; a better one would have as much space as a room.

Shi Feiyang possessed the magical power the Black Dragon had cultivated over three thousand years. He mastered the spell first, then studied how to refine the magical treasure. He used the Jade Casket that held the Heavenly Book in place of a pouch, intending to refine a "Heaven-and-Earth Box."

The Jade Casket was seven inches long and three inches wide. Its lower two compartments remained unopened, while the first was only an inch deep, just enough to hold a narrow book. He spent seven days and seven nights twisting its internal Five Elements out of their usual order, stretching and expanding the space until it could hold an entire ornamental rockery.

He put all the processed medicinal ingredients and finished Five Chariots Bait inside, with plenty of room to spare.

Shi Feiyang cultivated diligently every day. Meanwhile, Sikong Xuan waited for his uncle day after day until his eyes nearly wore through with longing. He reckoned that with his uncle's Swordsmanship, traveling from Chongming Island to Dinghu Peak should take no more than a few days. Since he had not arrived, the message must not have reached him. Perhaps the messenger bird had been caught and eaten by a raptor along the way. He caught more birds, cast the spell on them, and sent them back with messages. Even after sending five or six birds in succession, his uncle still did not come to rescue him.

One night, while Shi Feiyang was refining pills on the summit, Sikong Xuan hurried back, his face brimming with excitement. "Senior, wonderful news! Wonderful news! I found Queen Mother Grass!"

There was quite a lot of Queen Mother Grass on Mount Xiandu, and he had already gathered plenty, but none of it was old enough. Even the best had only been three hundred years old.

Shi Feiyang asked, "Is this one a thousand years old?"

"More than a thousand! More than a thousand!" Sikong Xuan said excitedly. "I saw it with my own eyes. It has already cultivated a human form and can run all over the ground, almost faster than I can. I didn't dare delay. I noted its location and hurried back to report."

"Good! Lead the way. We'll go gather it right now," Shi Feiyang said. "If you haven't lied to me, I'll set you free once I bring the herb back and let you return home. If this is false, I'll make sure you learn what I'm capable of!"

"It's absolutely true! Not a single word is a lie!" Sikong Xuan declared with ironclad certainty. "If there's no Immortal Herb, may my soul be scattered to nothing!"