Cinnabar gathered, mercury stilled, ranks of true rosy clouds arrayed in Supreme Clarity.
Clouds rose through the Palace Breakthrough to offer essence, settling upon the cloud bed, where immortal sprouts brimmed.
The Peach of Immortality ripened, golden fluid entwined, Elixir Fire streamed radiance into the Crimson Capital.
Dragon and tiger coupled, lead and mercury appeared, forming a Fate Embryo to dwell within the precious vessel.
Focus the intent, empty the nature; the Purple Tower opened wide, one yang shone bright.
Divine light shone and the fetus appeared; only after ten months safely borne would it attain spiritual awareness.
Set the furnace again, erect the cauldron anew; blend heaven and earth to obtain a Nascent Soul.
Myriad transformations came to court, heaven and earth held a feast; Penglai lay within arm's reach, a single journey away.
A "Womb-Bearing Song," merely a hundred and eight characters long, yet it told fully how difficult it was for cultivators to bear a fetus.
The "White-Flow Control" method, passed down by the remnants of Heavenly Scabbard Mountain as though it were their very lifeblood, amounted in this song to no more than the three characters for "mercury stilled" in the first line.
How many Golden Core cultivators beneath the heavens washed their Golden Cores again and again? Elder Jingsi of Sword-Casting Mountain, for instance, had washed his Golden Core six times, yet with his lifespan nearly exhausted, he still had not lived to see "the Peach of Immortality ripened," nor witnessed "golden fluid entwined."
But from what Master Wen had said, he had already grown an immortal sprout and formed a Fate Embryo, completing half the work of forming a Nascent Soul. Now he was about to open his Purple Mansion and draw divine light down upon the Fate Embryo to bring about Fetal