Feiyang always remembered that the Golden Seal Heavenly Talisman was his foundation, so he had never slackened in his cultivation. Combining it with the inscriptions on the Heavenly Book Jade Casket, the numerological arts he had learned in the past, the shifting star charts on the Dongling Zither, and more, he worked hard every day to fathom its mysteries.
One day, while cultivating in seclusion inside the spherical cavern, he had been working through his deductions for nearly half a month when he suddenly recalled how this cavern differed from the one on Unfixed Island.
The spherical cultivation chamber on Unfixed Island had been built on land, with a tall platform rising from its floor to serve as the Crouching Dragon Stone. Its summit lay precisely at the sphere's center.
This time, he was beneath the sea, surrounded by seawater. There was no platform, only a perfectly spherical space. He floated at its center, his Long body coiling and turning as though in outer space, imitating the earth's rotation as he observed the movement of the celestial sphere around him.
Suddenly, he recalled these words: "The transformations of heaven number thirty-six, and the transformations of earth number seventy-two. For the Heavenly Dao moves, traversing ten degrees to pass through the stations of the celestial stars. Earth models itself upon heaven; the Heavenly Dao gives birth, and the Earthly Dao brings to completion. Earthly qi changes once every five days..."
The transformations of heaven numbered thirty-six, with one transformation for every ten degrees traversed. There were three hundred and sixty celestial star talismans, so ten talismans constituted one transformation. Exactly how that transformation worked, he did not know.
The transformations of earth numbered seventy-two, changing once every five days. In terms of the celestial star talismans, that corresponded to five talismans.