Gathering the Five Elements for Reversal, Passing Down the True Formula Within the Eight Trigrams Furnace

"Is this... a Golden Register?"

Li Nanxing's cultivation leaned toward metal arts, and he had much in common with Metallurgy Daoist, so he naturally recognized the Golden Register secretly passed down by Metallurgy Daoist.

"I've fallen into a trap."

Humiliated into rage, his violent divine sense crashed toward Heng Hua. At the same time, Li Nanxing put away the bronze cauldron, intending to sever those threadlike connections.

Heng Hua immediately sat down and employed the marvel of Two Hearts, One Body. He had the Heart Ape confront Li Nanxing's divine sense while his true body continued presiding over the Golden Register's refinement.

Under the pressure of that ocean-like divine sense, the Primordial Dao Seed hidden within the Heart Ape was activated.

The distant, profound Primordial Creation Dao Intent shielded the Heart Ape.

Let raging waves and towering billows come; my Dao heart would endure.

The bronze cauldron ignored Li Nanxing's summons. As the Crimson Origin Golden Register operated, its primordial copper essence leaked out madly. Mixed with the Separation Flame densely spread across the island, it transformed into Crimson Origin Gold Essence of greater purity and higher quality.

"Come back."

Li Nanxing bit through his tongue, forcibly controlling the bronze cauldron and calling back the primordial copper qi.

"Senior, it's useless. The secret of the Golden Register involves the wondrous principles behind heaven and earth's workings. Even I only know how to write it, not its true meaning. You have yet to form a Golden Core and do not understand the Great Dao of heaven and earth, so how can you forcibly seize creation from their workings?"

As Heng Hua spoke, he watched the Golden Register operate.

As the Golden Register ran, Heng Hua gained insight into the works of heaven and earth's creation.

The Secret Mantra Golden Register imitated the operation of heaven and earth, omitting the process by which ordinary materials were elevated into high-grade gold essence and directly deriving the result. This Golden Register itself was an embodiment of creation's mysteries.

Suddenly, Heng Hua's heart stirred.

Since the Secret Mantra Golden Register could refine metal and derive high-grade gold essence, then if one grasped this secret of creation, could one also create other kinds of heavenly treasures and earthly wonders?

Immortal peach fruits, golden ginseng, spirit ganoderma... If one could find the corresponding principles of creation, they could be artificially synthesized too, right?

Seeing Heng Hua remain completely unharmed beneath the pressure of his divine sense, Li Nanxing's face twitched as he swiftly turned and retreated.

"Leave first. Once the formation stops, I'll come back in and deal with them. Even without the bronze cauldron, I'm still a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator."

Yet at that moment, the Windfire Linked Wall continued operating, trapping him within instead.

He tried to split the linked wall with lightning arts, only for the Windfire Linked Wall to send his attack back at him.

"Senior, let me tell you another piece of common knowledge. The Return Wind, Turn Fire Formation's weakness lies on the inside. Once you enter, you can attack it at leisure. But there is one condition: entry is permitted, exit is not.

"Any attack you launch from within toward the outside will also be swept back by the grand formation. Only by breaking the formation can you dispel the Windfire Linked Wall."

Heng Hua walked to Zhou Xiao's side and smiled. "Of course, if you use an escape art to leave, Return Wind, Turn Fire cannot sweep you away. Only..."

Fire escape and wind escape were both windfire Dao arts, naturally restrained by the Return Wind, Turn Fire Formation.

Water escape could not be used before the Windfire Linked Wall. Wood escape and metal escape were restrained by the fire wall. Earth escape and lightning escape were restrained by the wind wall.

Only special escape arts beyond the Five Elements and wind-lightning escape arts could flee the Return Wind, Turn Fire Formation.

Only at this moment did Fu Xuanxing understand why Heng Hua had insisted on bringing out the most precious formation in Fu Heyi's possession.

The Windfire Linked Wall seemed not to prevent escape arts. Yet amid howling winds and blazing flames, ordinary people simply could not perform an escape technique.

"He feared that after Senior Li came in, he would find a way to escape again. So he deliberately used the 'Return Wind, Turn Fire Formation' as a cage to lock him up."

Heng Hua took the golden needle from Xiaoyu's hand and inserted it into Zhou Xiao's Fengchi acupoint.

"Senior, it's your turn."

Creation True Qi flowed through the golden needle into his body, forcing out a strand of elixir essence from Zhou Xiao's hidden acupoints.

"You only have one chance to strike, Senior. Be careful."

"Rise, lightning." Zhou Xiao forcibly controlled the Golden Firmament Mystic Thunder Formation.

Lightning connected heaven and earth, yin and yang qi circulated, and the island's magnetic field underwent a strange change.

Li Nanxing activated the "Duality Stabilizing Talisman," firing silver light once more, but Zhou Xiao quickly detonated the Duality Jade Talisman he had set up in advance.

Once the Stabilizing Talisman took effect, Zhou Xiao's "Duality Reversal Art" struck later yet arrived first, interrupting its effect.

"Fix."

Yin and yang qi became white jade immortal pillars. All metal objects sensed the jade pillars and automatically drew near them.

The bronze cauldron, the Spirit Song Sword, and even the poles of many formation flags—no metal object was exempt.

"Nanxing, watch carefully. This is a true Golden Core wondrous art."

Zhou Xiao clapped his hands. "Come."

Without the bronze cauldron's False Core, Li Nanxing was merely at Foundation Establishment Perfection. Zhou Xiao captured him with effortless ease and locked him beneath the Duality Jade Pillar. His internal organs underwent "metalization," and drawn by the Duality Jade Pillar, he could not break free at all.

After that one strike, Zhou Xiao swiftly wilted.

"Tongjun, join forces and seal his Niwan Palace. Later, I'll have a slow talk with him."

Li Nanxing had targeted Zhou Xiao like a mad dog, yet Zhou Xiao bore little ill will toward Li Nanxing.

He had already attained the Golden Core Realm, the victor in their struggle over the Great Dao. Looking upon Li Nanxing instead, he felt a trace of pity.

The ideal outcome was to enlighten Li Nanxing into relinquishing his resentment and forming his core by another path. That way, neither side would harm their cordial relations; it would be the finest plan.

If he could not let it go, then they could kill him. Zhou Xiao had decided to handle that matter himself, preventing Li Nanxing's friends and family from dragging the Fu Family and Fu Xuanxing into it.

"Understood."

Just as Heng Hua was about to go over, the volcano erupted again. A pitch-black object shot from the volcano, flying straight toward the Duality White Jade Pillar.

"Earthflame Island really has something from the Cloudflame Immortal Palace beneath it?"

Heng Hua and Zhou Xiao were both greatly surprised.

Though they had only caught a fleeting glimpse, they had already discerned that the black object resembled an iron tablet. It should be a dan book used by Divine Land sects to record cultivation methods. What it contained had to be a core inheritance of the Cloudflame Immortal Palace.

Fu Xiangfeng had intended to swing his sword and stop it, but the Spirit Song Sword was not in his hand. He froze for a moment.

The iron tablet was too fast. Everyone could only watch helplessly as it struck the jade pillar.

By sheer coincidence, the iron tablet hit the Spirit Song Sword. The Spirit Song Sword veered aside and knocked down several other metal objects. The bronze cauldron tilted indirectly, and countless streams of Crimson Origin Gold Essence surged out, drowning the white jade pillar, Li Nanxing, the other metal objects, and the iron tablet alike.

"Not good!"

Zhou Xiao was instantly alarmed.

Li Nanxing seized the chance to dive into the bronze cauldron.

Seeing the original "Primordial Copper Elixir" elevated into a Crimson Origin Dao Elixir, his expression turned crazed. So what if the Golden Register had smelted it? This Dao Elixir still bore my mark. Once I refine it, my mana will only become purer. Then I'll come deal with you again.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood essence, Li Nanxing tried to refine it with a blood-refining method.

"Li Nanxing, don't!"

Zhou Xiao's expression changed drastically. "Your body has already begun to metalize. If you forcibly refine it again—"

"Ah—"

A miserable cry came from within the bronze cauldron, then quickly fell silent.

Zhou Xiao hurriedly called to Fu Xuanxing, "Pull him out, quickly."

"Right."

Fu Xuanxing hurried over, but Heng Hua rode the wind and reached the bronze cauldron before him.

Looking inside, he saw Crimson Origin gold qi continuously pouring into Li Nanxing's body. Apart from his head, every other part had turned into metal.

"Forcibly refining the 'Crimson Origin Golden Elixir,' only to be controlled by its gold qi and turned into a golden man?"

With a point of Heng Hua's finger, Thousand-Coiled Silk wrapped around the Spirit Song Sword and returned it to Fu Xiangfeng.

"Senior Li, if you want to live, disperse your cultivation directly. I'll help you get out."

Li Nanxing kept his eyes tightly shut, still unwilling to give up as he struggled to refine the Crimson Origin Golden Elixir.

He had a premonition that if he could perfectly refine the Crimson Origin Golden Elixir, breaking through to the Golden Core Realm would be right before his eyes.

"Senior Li, if you still refuse to give up, once you truly become a 'golden man,' you can only serve as material for us to make magical treasures. No, if we carve puppet talismans directly onto you, you could completely serve as a Golden Core puppet."

Li Nanxing: "..."

Before long, his head turned to metal, and Li Nanxing's consciousness began to blur.

Heng Hua shook his head. He simply would not listen.

He called to Fu Xuanxing, "You're skilled at artifact crafting. You might as well use this Crimson Origin Gold Essence to upgrade this great cauldron."

"Upgrade it further? If it gets upgraded again, Senior Li may not survive."

Xiaoyu supported Zhou Xiao as she came over.

Looking at the golden man Li Nanxing had become, Zhou Xiao let out a faint sigh.

"Xuanxing, listen to him. Upgrade this bronze cauldron into a Crimson Origin Gold-Essence Cauldron. Once the golden cauldron is complete, it may be able to draw the gold qi from his body back out. But if that happens..."

Li Nanxing would lose all his mana. It would be more painful than killing him.

"Not necessarily. Senior, this golden cauldron might be his opportunity to form a Golden Core."

As Heng Hua spoke, he operated the Primordial Eight Trigrams.

"Eight Trigrams Furnace, rise!"

The Primordial Eight Trigrams turned into a lid that covered the bronze cauldron. An indistinct Immortal Eight-Trigrams Furnace appeared around it.

Fu Xuanxing immediately gained insight. He controlled the Separation Flame scattered throughout the sky and, following the form of the Immortal Eight-Trigrams Furnace, refined the bronze cauldron anew.

Zhou Xiao studied the Eight Trigrams Furnace and nodded repeatedly. This furnace secretly accorded with the mysteries of the eight trigrams. It did seem like something the Fu Family would play with.

Before long, Fu Xuanxing melted the Crimson Origin Gold Essence into the bronze cauldron and rebuilt it into a Crimson Origin Gold-Essence Furnace.

"There wasn't time to alter the formation runes within the furnace and cauldron, so I only replaced the outer material."

"That's enough."

Heng Hua lightly patted the Eight Trigrams Furnace and smiled. "Senior Li, your fortune has arrived."

The Heart Ape slipped into the golden furnace and forcibly moved Li Nanxing to the Xun position.

Outside, Heng Hua sat cross-legged. "Let the heart illuminate the inner landscape, let bright radiance shine everywhere. The body is like sun and moon, Kan and Li entwined..."

As the golden furnace took shape, not only did the Crimson Origin Golden Elixir merge into it, even the gold qi within Li Nanxing's body was drawn out bit by bit.

At the same time, his cultivation realm continuously fell.

Nine-Layer Foundation Establishment, Eight-Layer Foundation Establishment, Seven-Layer Foundation Establishment...

When his mana vanished, Li Nanxing regained consciousness. Seeing his situation, he was filled with bitterness.

At that moment, wisps of regret rose in his heart.

If I had retreated earlier, how would I have ended up in such a state?

Between life and death lay terror beyond all terror.

Recalling the moment when his consciousness had been on the verge of fading away, Li Nanxing no longer dared experience it a second time.

At that moment, Heng Hua's recited formula sounded outside the furnace.

Upon hearing it, Li Nanxing initially wanted to curse him. But he soon calmed down and carefully contemplated it, realizing that this was a profound qi-refining method. It was even more mysterious than his own Grand White Mystic Gold Art.

He cautiously circulated it once. Not only were his internal organs nourished, but the loss of his mana was also halted.

"This is a method for Five-Elements Core-Synthesis?"

Li Nanxing tried cultivating according to the formula.

The gold qi stopped leaving his body. Propelled by the new true qi, it began the transformations of "metal engenders water, water engenders wood, wood engenders fire, fire engenders earth."

When earth qi cycled back into gold qi, it formed a Five Elements cycle within his body and instead began competing with the Crimson Origin Gold-Essence Furnace for gold qi. His mana gradually began to recover.

The Heart Ape observed Li Nanxing's condition and secretly nodded. As expected, the Creation's Epoch-Reunion Art I derived was correct.

Beginning with metal, Lord Jin gave rise to water, which then transformed into Wood Mother, finally becoming Lady Huang. It ended in earth, then returned to gold qi.

What Heng Hua taught Li Nanxing was precisely a shortened version of the three Foundation Establishment chapters of the Creation's Epoch-Reunion Art, born from yesterday's flash of inspiration.

Using Li Nanxing as an experiment, Heng Hua once more recorded and verified the data of his cultivation method.

Dusk gradually deepened.

The dark-red fire clouds above the island blended with the evening glow.

The Crimson Origin Eight-Trigrams Furnace stopped operating, and a streak of light escaped from the fire.

Li Nanxing appeared, naked from head to toe, without a hair or beard left.

Looking at Heng Hua outside, who was smiling and nodding, Li Nanxing sighed.

Though he was deeply unwilling, he ultimately had to acknowledge this debt of being taught the Dao.

Suppressing his shame, he bent down in a deep bow. "Thank you, Teacher, for the grace of saving my life and helping me attain the Dao."

Supplement:

Golden Furnace Illuminating the Dao Painting was destroyed in the year 200 of the Donglai calendar. Thereafter, rumors abounded.

By the year 500 of the Donglai calendar, the Donglai Imperial Dynasty had three mainstream accounts.

The first account claimed that Golden Furnace Illuminating the Dao Painting depicted Sage Fu subduing the Golden Demon with the Eight Trigrams Furnace, transforming the Golden Demon into an immortal.

This demon's skin was golden, and it had three heads and six arms. Hideous and terrifying, it often committed evil in the Dragonreach Waters, devouring a pair of virgin boy and girl alive each day. At that time, Sage Fu traveled with friends and subdued this demon on Earthflame Island.

In the Illuminating the Dao Painting, Sage Fu wore a gentle expression. Holding a whisk, he sat beside the golden furnace, enlightening the Golden Demon to enter the furnace and fashioning an immortal body.

The second account said the painting depicted a furnace, a youth, and a naked Daoist bowing before the youth. Yet the scene was exceedingly indecent, so the Crimson Origin Sect rejected it and issued a notice promising severe punishment for those spreading the rumor.

The third account held that the golden furnace actually referred to the Golden Register, and the work was also called Golden Register Illuminating the Dao Painting. It depicted Sage Fu writing the Golden Register and defeating Crimson Origin True Person. The painting concealed the secret of the Golden Register. This account was favored by the Crimson Origin Sect. However, comparing it against the "Cloudflame Lecture Painting" among the Ten Daoist Paintings of Sage Fu, Golden Furnace Illuminating the Dao Painting should not have been a depiction of battle.

Though this author has some thoughts, it would be improper to speak of the truth for the sake of the honored ones. Yet considering that the painter of Golden Furnace Illuminating the Dao Painting was personally pursued by Crimson Origin True Person for three years, one may come to some understanding.

—<Excerpt from Tales of the Three Ancients of Donglai Continent · Unabridged Edition>

Under pressure from the Crimson Origin Sect, this edition had gone out of print by the year 700 of the Donglai calendar.

—Records of the Donglai Literary Journal