Secrets of the Eight Characters

Mo Chen secretly reveled in his progress. His cultivation had risen like a boat on a swelling tide, reaching the threshold of the qi refinement eighth layer. His wind-riding and object-manipulation techniques had already crossed the threshold into true proficiency, while basic Five Elements spells were thoroughly familiar to him, ready at his fingertips. The reach of his divine sense had also expanded to twenty-four zhang.

After tidying up his cave abode, Mo Chen began digging up all his spirit plants and carefully storing them away.

Although Yellow Essence hardly counted as a spirit herb, being at most a nourishing medicinal ingredient found in mortal apothecaries, specimens left growing for seventy years were genuinely rare, and these even exuded a faint trace of spiritual energy.

Seventy-year-old ginseng could keep someone clinging to life. Selling seventy-year-old Yellow Essence should hardly be embarrassing. As for the spirit herbs, their quality was good, and since Qi Refining cultivators lived no more than a hundred years or so, seventy-year-old specimens would surely find buyers.

Maozhou City lay roughly fifty li from this desolate mountain. Mo Chen flew there on his sword and arrived in no time.

Maozhou City was even more bustling than Flowing Cloud Immortal City, with fifteen streets running across it and fifteen running lengthwise.

The roads were wider, lined with shops on both sides, and vendors' cries rose one after another.

With his hands tucked into his sleeves, Mo Chen strolled through the crowds, his eyes watching all six directions and his ears listening to all eight.

He had only just arrived and knew nothing about the place. If he rashly approached a large trading house to sell his goods, they would most likely drive the price down to the bone.

After some thought, Mo Chen decided to first visit a few small roadside shops and inquire about the market, getting a clear grasp of the city's prices before doing anything else.

Mo Chen's gaze swept over one shop sign after another. An old man sat outside a pill shop, fanning himself as he dozed. Several feathered beasts he could not name were locked in cages at a spirit beast shop. At the corner stood a teahouse, where a few rogue cultivators sat beside a street-facing window, loudly discussing the latest developments in the Monster Uprising.

Halfway down the street, Mo Chen suddenly spotted an exceptionally grand fortune-telling shop. Its sign read: Complete Guide to Cultivation.

There was even a sign standing out in the street: Ask Anything.

This shop was more than twice the size of the fortune-telling shop in Flowing Cloud Immortal City. Apparently, consulting fortune-tellers about cultivation difficulties was nothing unusual in the cultivation world. It could even be considered an everyday expense.

Unfortunately, Mo Chen had no talent in that area. During his seventy years of lying low deep in the mountains, he had read some books on Destiny Studies, but after studying them intently for more than half a year without making any progress, he had given up.

That made sense. Aptitude, Spiritual Root, Five Elements affinities, breaking through bottlenecks—which of these could someone figure out just by fumbling around on their own? Spending a few Spirit Stones to have an expert take a look saved time and effort, and spared one a few wrong turns.

Ask Anything?

Let me see what you're made of!

When Mo Chen's turn came, a shop attendant led him into a private room.

Inside sat a lean, middle-aged scholar with three long strands of beard and a sharp gaze. His cultivation appeared to be around the ninth layer of Qi Refining. A fist-sized piece of Fluorite and a few copper coins rested on his desk.

"Greetings, sir."

Mo Chen sat down before the desk and inclined his upper body slightly.

The middle-aged scholar spread out a sheet of white paper, picked up his brush, and raised his chin to signal for Mo Chen to give his Eight Characters.

Mo Chen gave his Eight Characters and watched the man write down the heavenly stems and earthly branches. Somewhat skeptical, he asked casually, "Can you really divine the answer to any question here, sir?"

"I can, but each question costs three Spirit Stones."

The corner of Mo Chen's mouth twitched.

Three Spirit Stones for one question. An entire month of work at the Twin Crane Sect's Scripture Pavilion had earned him only three Spirit Stones. This fortune-teller could match a month of his wages just by answering someone's question.

The more he thought about it, the more pitiful that old livelihood of his seemed.

"Isn't three a little expensive? I heard people at the teahouse on the next street say a reading only costs one Spirit Stone."

The middle-aged scholar cut Mo Chen off. "If you don't believe me, you can try me first. I'll divine your recent plans. If I'm right, you can decide whether to ask anything else. If I'm wrong, you can walk straight out without paying a single coin."

Heh heh, you fell for it. A little goading works anywhere!

A free trial reading was exactly what Mo Chen had hoped for.

The middle-aged scholar placed the copper coins inside a turtle shell, shook it three times, then scattered them across the desk with a clatter. His fingers swiftly jotted a few marks on the paper before he shook, scattered, and recorded them again.

"Let me make this clear first. You must not use the Object-Manipulation Technique to interfere with where the coins land during the reading."

"This stone detects fluctuations in Spiritual Power. If anyone casts a spell on the diviner, the Fluorite will shine brightly. The reading will be voided on the spot, and you will have to pay ten times the divination fee in compensation."

"I wouldn't resort to something like that."

The three copper coins rose and fell six times, while the scholar muttered things about young yin, young yang, old yin, and old yang.

This fortune-teller looked frail and scholarly, but his ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivation was there for all to see. Moreover, he made his living through keen observation. He might well be harder to fool than those cultivators outside who spent their days fighting and killing.

Clack!

The final cast settled.

The middle-aged scholar studied the hexagram lines on the paper for several breaths, then looked up at Mo Chen, a trace of certainty entering his gaze. "You came to Maozhou City to do business. Judging by the hexagram, you intend to sell treasures of the wood element, and the number seven appears within it..."

"If they are Spirit Artifacts, you will sell seven of them. If they are herbs, they are either seventy years old or amount to roughly seventy jin."

Mo Chen's expression remained unchanged, but inwardly, he received a solid jolt.

He had grown his spirit herbs for seventy years, and the herbs in his Storage Bag weighed just over seventy jin as well.

He can actually divine this shit?

Wait, fellow Daoist, are you cheating?

You must have opened your heavenly eye!

"Your divination is extraordinary, sir. There really is something I would like to consult you about. I've recently encountered a bottleneck in my cultivation, and my progress has been getting slower and slower. I don't know what to do."

The middle-aged scholar accepted the Spirit Stones, spread out another sheet of paper, and began constructing a chart from Mo Chen's Eight Characters.

Before long, the chart was complete. The scholar took a row of palm-sized wooden plaques from the rack behind him, selected four, and arranged them before Mo Chen.

Mo Chen looked down. Four sets of archaic characters were carved on the four wooden plaques.

Earth on the City Wall.

Ocean Water.

Spring Water.

Fire in the Furnace.

Perhaps noticing Mo Chen's confusion, the scholar explained, "These are your five-note resonances."

"Five-Note Resonance?"

"Yes. Let us begin with Fire in the Furnace in your hour pillar. This is your Beneficial Spirit. Fire in the Furnace is fire enclosed within a furnace for refining. Next time, cultivate somewhere enclosed with a fire, such as a pill-refining chamber. You will absorb spiritual energy fifty percent faster than usual. While others complete two Heavenly Cycle circulation cycles, you will effectively complete three."

Mo Chen's eyes lit up at that.

"Fire in the Furnace has other effects on you as well. Your soul can turn its light inward like furnace fire, illuminating your own being. This produces excellent results when cultivating soul-related methods. In addition, if you practice spells that build up power before releasing it in a burst, the longer you charge them, the stronger the burst will be."

"Of course, every advantage comes with a disadvantage. Your cultivation speed will drop considerably in open places."

Mo Chen silently committed this to memory.

The middle-aged scholar picked up the plaque carved with Spring Water. "Spring Water in your day pillar is an Adverse Spirit."

"However, Adverse Spirits are not entirely bad. As long as there is even a trace of Dharma Power in your dantian, it will replenish itself continuously. But if you drain your Dharma Power completely, it will no longer recover on its own. The downside is that when you advance in the future, your thoughts will become excessive, making you more susceptible to invasion by Heart Demons than other people."

Next, the middle-aged scholar picked up the Ocean Water plaque.

"Ocean Water in your month pillar is also an Adverse Spirit. Its advantage is that your innate reserves of Dharma Power are fifty percent greater than those of others, and will continue to expand as you advance. However, if you study only one cultivation method for a stretch of time, your cultivation will stagnate. It will also greatly diminish your fighting strength when you battle on days when water flourishes or in places with abundant water. Exactly how much it diminishes depends on how much water there is."

At this, Mo Chen suddenly recalled his days in the Scripture Pavilion. He had indeed spent a long time practicing nothing but the Black Turtle Breathing Method, leaving everything else untouched. His progress had been as slow as a turtle crawling.

Only after he began practicing fire-element spells alongside it had his progress gradually picked up.

So this flaw was built into my destiny!

The last wooden plaque was carved with Earth on the City Wall.

"Earth on the City Wall in your year pillar is a Beneficial Spirit."

"This gives your soul a stronger foundation than ordinary people's, and makes your body slightly tougher as well. Your Body Tempering should be about twenty to thirty percent more effective than that of cultivators at the same level. Even your earth-element defensive spells will work better."

The middle-aged scholar then turned the wooden plaques over and used Divine Sense engraving to carve a passage onto their backs.

"Also, remember this: when Earth on the City Wall is your Beneficial Spirit, if something on your person is connected to the earth during a battle, you will gain Terrain Advantage, and your other abilities will come more readily than usual."

"Connected to the earth?"

"Inserting a Spirit Artifact or Magic Artifact that has recognized you as its master into the soil will also work."

Mo Chen digested the fortune-teller's words.

There was an enormous amount of information here. Every point matched something he had encountered in his cultivation. Some things he had sensed long ago but could never explain had been laid bare by this man in just a few words.

Three Spirit Stones per question—he felt this was an extraordinarily good bargain.

"Your words have resolved doubts I've carried for decades, sir."

Mo Chen sincerely cupped his hands, then took another three Spirit Stones from his robe and pushed them across the desk.

"Please take another look, sir. Is there anything else I should be mindful of in the near future?"