After leaving Flat-Top Mountain, Cheng Xinzhan first returned to Bright Governance Mountain.
When he saw his master, he briefly recounted what had happened in Qingzhou and mentioned that the sect leader had unexpectedly asked him to stay for a talk.
Wen Sukong smiled. "He is the sect leader. Nurturing disciples and finding a successor are naturally his greatest concerns.
"When he sees a promising seedling, of course he has to have a talk. In fact, Tongxuan Patriarch spoke to me about you too. I was afraid it would affect you,
"so I simply did not tell you."
She paused, then continued, "On this assignment, you managed to find the source of the damage to the earth veins. That means you have read the portion of the Qingfu Rebirth Scripture on locating burial sites and finding corpses. Then let me ask you: have you read the portions on nourishing, refining, and controlling corpses? Can you establish a colony with the insect colony I gave you?"
Cheng Xinzhan shook his head and said,
"Master, I have skimmed some of it, but I have not put it into practice yet. From what I read, the scripture's methods of corpse nourishing mainly concern nurturing vitality and the transformations of life and death. As I understand it, nurturing vitality should correspond to earth and water, while the transformations of life and death should fall under wood.
"I opened my Heart Mansion first. After listening to Senior Jin Mingzi last night, I also gained some understanding of Golden Immortals. I have decided to visualize a qilin golden corpse as my Inner Landscape Deity and open my Lung Palace next. Only afterward will I address earth, water, and wood.
"Once I have opened all Five Palaces, I will use Xin Metal insect corpses as the foundation, nourish