The Fish Becomes a Peng, the Fish of the Supreme Yin

Zhou Tianchen rubbed the space between his brows.

This was where the Niwan Palace lay, the dwelling place of the Primordial Spirit.

He thought he might have been too tired lately, and had therefore seen it wrong just now... Was that possible?

He could not help falling into thought.

In theory, whatever the "principal form" of a visualization diagram looked like, that was what should emerge from visualizing it.

At most, there might be a few minor differences. There was no reason for it to be completely different.

For example, the principal form of the Heavenly Peng Bearing the Azure Diagram was the Heavenly Peng. Ever since the founding patriarch established the Dao, the Primordial Spirit Inner Form fashioned by every generation of disciples had been a magnificent Heavenly Peng, without exception.

As for the azure firmament it bore on its back in the diagram, that was the secondary form.

Though secondary, it was just as important. What mattered was its "imagery."

Generally, the loftier the conception and the grander the vision, the better.

The reason this visualization diagram of the Heavenly Peng Daoist Temple could stand alongside the core inheritances of the great Martial Dao sects under heaven was precisely its uniquely transcendent imagery.

The Heavenly Peng bore the azure, and the azure it bore was the firmament transformed from the Great Dao!

But then again, how strong could the Primordial Spirit of a martial artist who had only just begun cultivating a visualization diagram be?

How could it possibly support the shaping of a vision as vast and boundless as the azure firmament?

Even their eldest senior brother back then, who had entered Meditative Concentration before cultivating the visualization diagram just like Yu Tunzhou, had merely visualized a Heavenly Peng with fuller wings and a somewhat more magnificent bearing.

There was absolutely no way he could have manifested the vast blue sky at the start of his cultivation, much less an ocean that had come from who knew where.

At that thought, Zhou Tianchen spoke again. "I'll help you manifest your Primordial Spirit Inner Form."

Seeing the astonishment on Yu Tunzhou's face, Zhou Tianchen had no choice but to explain in detail first.

"The words 'Primordial Spirit Inner Form' weren't chosen at random. Do you know the five realms of cultivation?"

Yu Tunzhou nodded. "Qi Ingestion, Form Refinement, Divine Ability, External Scenery, and Dharma Aspect."

Zhou Tianchen nodded and said:

"Qi Ingestion is followed by Form Refinement. The foundation of both realms lies in tempering the body and shedding one's mortal flesh."

"After that, in the Divine Ability Realm, one copies the true form to forge a Dao Embryo, and in External Scenery, one unites with the Spirit Aspect. The key to these two steps lies in nourishing and refining the spirit."

"Upon reaching Dharma Aspect, one possesses both spirit and form, and the Great Dao is within reach."

"My master told me those things when I first joined, and they sum up the five realms of cultivation. You should commit them to memory."

Yu Tunzhou nodded solemnly.

Though brief, those words were concise and comprehensive, laying bare the essence of the five realms of cultivation.

"Once you reach the Divine Ability Realm, you can begin tempering your Primordial Spirit. Since you've mastered the visualization diagram, you should already have experienced the mysteries of perception through the Primordial Spirit, and that is only the most insignificant of its mysteries."

At this, Zhou Tianchen murmured with feeling,

"No matter how strong a martial artist's physical body is, it's still hard to achieve longevity. Only by using the Primordial Spirit to suppress the physical shell and attain a body without leaks can one live long and see far, breaking free of the cage of heaven and earth. It's said that the founding patriarch was only one step away back then..."

He shook his head and returned to the subject, his expression serious.

"Once the Primordial Spirit is strong enough, it can leave the body to attack. It's an extremely difficult method to defend against."

"That's why those in the Divine Ability Realm almost always crush those in Form Refinement. If the latter have no means of defending their Primordial Spirits, they have no power to resist at all. You must remember that."

Zhou Tianchen smacked his lips, feeling that he had gone off on a damn tangent again.

His aptitude for cultivation was ordinary, and the Divine Ability Realm was as far as he could go. So, over the years, he had devoted himself to selecting and nurturing disciples for the temple.

He was used to guiding disciples, and he could never resist offering a few extra words of advice about everything, making him seem a little long-winded.

"In any case, once you reach the Divine Ability Realm and temper your Primordial Spirit, your Primordial Spirit Inner Form can be manifested outwardly. The reason visualization methods are important is that the Primordial Spirit Inner Form affects cultivation later on."

Zhou Tianchen reached out and touched the space between Yu Tunzhou's brows. "Calm your mind and enter Meditative Concentration now, then visualize your Primordial Spirit. I'll use the power of my own Primordial Spirit to help you manifest your inner form outwardly ahead of time."

Yu Tunzhou nodded, closed his eyes, and entered Meditative Concentration.

Zhou Tianchen watched Yu Tunzhou enter Meditative Concentration in an instant, without even going through the steps of calming his body and mind.

A complicated look appeared in Zhou Tianchen's eyes. Sure enough, he had ascended to heaven in a single step, reaching Embracing the Origin and Guarding the One.

He thought no more about it. Using the power of his own Primordial Spirit, he nourished Yu Tunzhou's Primordial Spirit and helped him manifest its inner form ahead of time.

A moment later.

A faint light bloomed between Yu Tunzhou's brows, as though a heavenly eye were opening, and the power of his Primordial Spirit slowly spread outward.

Zhou Tianchen was somewhat surprised. He had expended considerably less Primordial Spirit power than expected, which meant Junior Brother Yu's Primordial Spirit was already quite strong.

That level of Primordial Spirit power was probably above average among the Innate Ones, inferior only to those with exceptional natural gifts.

Junior Brother Yu really was especially gifted in Nature Cultivation...

Zhou Tianchen's pupils suddenly widened.

A little fish, ink-black all over, swam leisurely out of the Niwan Palace and hovered in midair. Its eyes darted about as it curiously surveyed the world outside.

At the same time, a chill swept over him, like the biting cold of early spring.

The chill even traveled along the Primordial Spirit power Zhou Tianchen had released, spreading toward his Primordial Spirit Heaven and Earth.

But Zhou Tianchen's attention was entirely elsewhere at the moment.

"This is the Primordial Spirit Inner Form you fashioned?" Zhou Tianchen could not hold back. "Where's the Heavenly Peng?"

He stared at the pitch-black little fish. Yu Tunzhou had visualized the Heavenly Peng Dharma Form, yet the result was this black fish. How did that make any sense?

Could it be a mutation?

But going back thirty-seven generations to the founding patriarch, there had never been such a case.

Only after a long while did Zhou Tianchen say, "Junior Brother Yu, are you sure you visualized the Heavenly Peng Bearing the Azure Diagram? If you really did..."

His lips moved, and he did not know whether to feel bewildered or helpless. In the end, he squeezed out a sentence:

"You can't have turned what you visualized into a fish just because your surname is Yu, can you?"

Yu Tunzhou said, "..."

He held out his palm, and the black fish swam happily into it. It had no tangible substance, but he could feel a distinct chill. This already counted as the Primordial Spirit interfering with reality.

He said helplessly, "Senior Brother Zhou, do you think it's possible this little fellow is a Kun?"

"Which Kun... You mean a Kunpeng?!"

Zhou Tianchen's gaze sharpened, and he instantly understood where Yu Tunzhou's conjecture had come from.

But the next moment, the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Junior Brother Yu, do you know how big the Kun Fish in the depths of the Northern Dark Sea are? They can bear mountains on their backs from birth. Beings born and nurtured by heaven and earth like that are on the level of Terrestrial Immortals the moment they're born."

"And this little fellow of yours..."

He shook his head.

According to the founding patriarch's notes, the patriarch had once found a Kun Fish that had not long been born. He had followed it from afar and witnessed the entire process of its transformation into a Peng, ultimately creating the Heavenly Peng Dharma Form.

During that time, the Kun Fish had merely caught sight of him by accident, yet the founding patriarch, who had already reached the peak of External Scenery by then, had still been forced to flee in disarray.

"There's always some difference between a visualization diagram and the real thing, isn't there?" Yu Tunzhou ventured quietly.

Zhou Tianchen ignored him and mused, "Could it be because of the original diagram? I remember the founding patriarch was trying to turn the Heavenly Peng into a Kunpeng back then, to elevate its imagery... What did you see in the visualization diagram?"

For now, he could only shoot the arrow first and draw the target afterward.

After all, as things stood, the greatest "variable" compared with their experience back then was that Yu Tunzhou possessed the original visualization diagram left by the founding patriarch himself.

"An untamable Heavenly Peng, far superior to yours, Senior Brother," Yu Tunzhou said without concealing anything.

"Did the Heavenly Peng True Intention within it speak to you?"

"Yes."

It really was the original diagram!

Understanding dawned on Zhou Tianchen. That was it-the original diagram still contained an imprint of the founding patriarch's Primordial Spirit.

Now he felt the dark chill permeating Yu Tunzhou's Primordial Spirit power.

In this short time, a faint layer of frost had already formed on the wings of the Heavenly Peng in his Primordial Spirit Heaven and Earth.

Although he had not deliberately resisted it and could disperse it with a flap of the wings, this power of dark cold was still extremely formidable.

He could not help feeling a surge of doubt and surprise. Could this truly be the form of a Kun Fish, corresponding to the origin of the Supreme Yin above?

"Was it the voice contained within the Heavenly Peng True Intention that guided you to create the black... Kun Fish form?" he could not help asking.

Yu Tunzhou shook his head. "He did give me some guidance, but I don't know why the form I ultimately created was a Kun Fish either."

Zhou Tianchen's brows knitted tightly.

Throughout the generations, starting with the founding patriarch, quite a few predecessors had indeed tried to take another step beyond the Heavenly Peng Bearing the Azure.

His senior brother, for instance, was also trying. In addition to the Heavenly Peng and the azure firmament, he had added nine great suns to his Primordial Spirit Inner Form, intending to take another step beyond the utmost yang and hardness and ascend to the realm of the "yang extreme."

The predecessors of past generations had done much the same. Some sought things of yin and softness, such as hanging a clear moon in the sky, in an attempt to harmonize yin and yang.

But no one had ever changed the principal form from the very beginning, replacing the Heavenly Peng with a transformed fish.

The reason was simple: there was no Kun Fish on the visualization diagram, so how could anyone visualize one?

Surely it could not be that he had resonated with the Great Dao, and the Kunpeng had reversed its Peng form into a Kun Fish...

Just as Zhou Tianchen was racking his brains to no avail,

A wisp of breeze blew gently past, circling Yu Tunzhou as though greatly gratified. At last it circled the black fish in his hand, and the two chased each other.

At that sight, Zhou Tianchen suddenly let go. The knot in his heart abruptly dissolved, and he stopped trying to get to the bottom of it with his own meager understanding.

His eldest senior brother had once said: Just because no predecessor had done it, did that mean those who came after could not do it either?

Perhaps...

The youth before him, chosen by the founding patriarch's spirit, really had relied on himself to perceive the Spirit Form of a Heavenly Peng and attain the Spirit Form of a Kun Fish!

If the fish later transformed into a Peng, would that not be a Kunpeng?

It was the Kunpeng Dharma Aspect that their Heavenly Peng Daoist Temple had dreamed of for countless years!

His senior brother was still struggling to work out how to turn a Heavenly Peng into a Kunpeng, yet here in this grotto-heaven, a country youth had already set foot on the broad road of a fish transforming into a Peng.

Meanwhile, in the Daoist temple not far away,

Li Jingxuan gently exhaled a breath of turbid Qi in the study.

Was this a Kun Fish?

He preferred to call it the Fish of the Supreme Yin.

Having entered this grotto-heaven, he should have been like a Celestial Person descending among mortals, viewing a lesser dao from the Great Dao.

Yet, unexpectedly, in the space of a single morning, Senior Brother Yu, whom he had only just acknowledged, had given him a third indescribable shock, following that strange set of fist techniques and his subjugation of the original Heavenly Peng diagram in a single night.

It was like beholding the Great Dao.

To behold the form of the Heavenly Peng of utmost yang and comprehend the fish form of the Supreme Yin-another step forward in the future would bring yin and yang into balance and turn the Kun Fish into a Peng. That vision far surpassed the Heavenly Peng.

The great undertaking Heavenly Peng Daoist had left unfinished was now something to look forward to in Yu Tunzhou's future.

He wondered whether Senior Brother had foreseen this moment long ago as well...

Fortunately, as the saying went, things never came in threes.

Otherwise, if he were shocked four times in one day, he would start to suspect that Senior Brother Yu was the same kind of person as him.

Li Jingxuan rose to his feet and cupped his hands in a bow, utterly convinced.

"Senior Brother Yu."

In the main hall next door,

The old Daoist priest's hand had stopped stroking his beard and frozen in midair at some point. He murmured inwardly:

The Fish of the Supreme Yin...

Young Friend Yu, how did you give this old man a fright too?