Marvelous Colors of Elixir and Paint Transform the Western Sea, Jade Maiden Turns Yang and Returns to Yin (Part 2)

On the Colorful-Luan Spirit Ship, aside from Hengshou steering the vessel, everyone else formed a circle and watched quietly as Heng Hua examined the man in black.

The man in black stood at the yang pole of the Taiji Eight-Trigram Formation, while Heng Hua sat cross-legged at the yin pole, holding a wooden puppet in his hands and muttering an incantation.

Golden light from the eight trigrams spiraled up and down. Wisps of aura flowed from the man in black into the puppet, gradually giving it the man's features.

In the end, the puppet became a plump woman.

After watching for a while, Zhou Xiao asked Xiaoyu, "What is the origin of this spell your young master is using?"

"This is a medical art that Old Immortal Liu and Young Master created together—the Immortal-Spirit Reflection Method. Through a working puppet, it recreates a patient's physical condition, making examination and treatment easier."

Zhou Xiao nodded thoughtfully.

This method was indeed novel. Not only could it project illnesses, it could also revert to root, return to origin, and restore one's original appearance. Yet in terms of technique, it seemed to contain more than just the methods of the mystic sects.

Naturally, it was not a mystic sect method. This was a healing cultivation art Heng Hua had improved with the aid of wicked witchcraft and gu techniques. Its original purpose had been to help Fu Danwei examine his body.

Even treating the puppet could feed the effects back to the original body.

Seeing her original appearance, the man in black grew wildly excited.

How many days had it been? How long had it been since she had seen what she truly looked like?

During this time, she had not merely dared not look in a mirror—she had not even dared look down while walking over water.

Heng Hua placed the puppet before her.

"Fairy, have you seen it clearly?"

A mass of yin qi lay within the puppet's center, while a layer of dim crimson radiance slowly drifted across its surface.

"You have been afflicted with a wicked curse... this layer of dark red luster on the surface is it. As long as this radiance is broken, the curse can be undone. Hmm... the yin qi in your body has only been suppressed somewhat. It seems the one who acted did not intend to completely change your sex."

Heng Hua took a large pile of tools from the small wooden chest beside him. He first put on his glasses, then took out a mirror disc and brushes, arranging them one by one.

The man in black's expression shifted as she glanced around.

"Don't worry. They cannot hear us. Fairy, you can speak plainly. Since this concerns your body, it would be best to describe in detail what happened that day."

"The person who cursed me had secretly loved me for many years, but I never agreed. On the day I formed a Dao partnership with another, he sneaked into our bridal chamber and cast this curse on me."

"Because of love?" Heng Hua shook his head. "Boring."

"You have cultivated for only a few years. What does a brat like you know?"

In a deep, rough voice, she said agitatedly, "Love between men and women is poison to cultivators like us! My master calculated long ago that Senior Brother was my tribulation of love, so I avoided him as though avoiding a flood or wild beast. Again and again, I stated clearly that my heart was set upon the Dao and held no interest in romance. Yet Senior Brother simply would not listen. He believed I must like him, and merely did not dare be with him because of Master's prophecy.

"After learning that I had become Dao partners with Fellow Daoist Sun, he flew into a rage from shame and came to take revenge, placing this curse upon the two of us. After Fellow Daoist Sun underwent a sex change, he was too ashamed to see anyone. I cannot even contact him now."

Heng Hua had no interest in such topics. "Tell me carefully—how long did he spend casting the curse? What exact words did he chant, and what hand seals did he form?"

The man in black thought for a long while before silently shaking her head. "The situation was urgent that day. There are some things I cannot remember."

After a pause, she hurriedly asked, "Without those details, you cannot undo the curse?"

"I can. It is simply more troublesome. My first method would be to use a counter-curse against the curse he cast—a specific curse-breaking method."

Heng Hua bestowed the Wisdom Eye upon his own eyes. Amplified through the "lenses," he gradually magnified the red light on the puppet's surface.

As the red light flowed, tiny spirit glyphs appeared and vanished amid the radiance.

He picked up the mirror disc beside him and used his brush to record the spirit glyphs one by one.

After a while, Heng Hua stopped and picked up another jade-like tool for inspection.

"That is not right. This bears your birth characters—eh, your age—"

Heng Hua shut his mouth.

"Is there a problem?"

Her gaze shot over like blades, cold and sharp.

"No, no problem."

Heng Hua continued his examination, inwardly grumbling: My powers of observation are still lacking. I did not realize this fairy—no, this senior's age was nearly catching up to Grandfather's.

"Fairy, may I know your name?"

"My surname is Jin, and my courtesy name is Xian'e."

"I shall address you as Auntie Jin."

Heng Hua finished his examination and put away the tools.

"I have identified the curse on you. It is called the Spirit-Transferring Yin-Restoring Curse."

"This curse belongs to the category of wicked arts. He must have secretly obtained your hair and blood at some point. He soaked your hair and blood for a year in a place of extreme yang, then burned them into ashes and had you consume them, using them as an internal medium to trigger the external art. Zhou Xiao, Senior, would not be able to lift the curse merely from the outside. If Fairy's Dao partner was also struck by this curse, then in terms of timing... your Senior Brother prepared quite thoroughly."

Jin Xian'e gritted her teeth. "No wonder there was a period when he often dragged the two of us out to drink and discuss the Dao. I thought he had given up and simply wished to maintain the relationship between senior brother and junior sister. I never imagined it was all to prepare the curse."

"This curse can only last sixty years. That man must have been overcome with vile thoughts and deliberately used you two to vent his anger."

"Yes, his anger has subsided. But the two of us..."

Jin Xian'e was so furious that the Three Corpse Gods leaped about in rage. "Must we truly wait sixty years?"

"There is no helping it. This curse is exceedingly complicated. It generates a particular incantation according to each person's birth characters. If I am to use a counter-curse, I need at least three years to decipher it."

Provided it did not interfere with my daily life.

"Too slow. What are the other two methods?"

"Fairy, have you heard the legend of the Violet-Glow Celestial Robe? Long ago, a male cultivator happened upon an ancient immortal robe. After putting it on, his yin true essence swelled to abundance, and he directly became a female immortal."

"I have heard of it. You mean that if I can find such an immortal robe and wear it, I can recover?"

"To put it plainly, sex is nothing more than a balance of yin and yang qi. Fairy is presently yang on the outside and yin within. You only need to break this state."

But where was she supposed to find such an immortal treasure?

Jin Xian'e said impatiently, "Continue with the third method."

"No, no, I know such immortal treasures are not easy to find. What I mean is, I can cast another Yin-Yang Inversion Curse upon you."

"You know such crooked methods too?" Jin Xian'e immediately looked at him with vigilance.

"Fairy, do not be so hostile. The purpose of this sort of curse was not originally to harm people, but to prepare cultivation resources.

"When the iron tree in my home blossoms... I use sex transformation to let the iron tree pollinate itself.

"You know iron trees, cycads, right? My home has a red-leaf cycad, shaped like a phoenix tail and very beautiful."

Heng Hua had originally wanted to say the pig in his home, but when the words reached his lips, he decisively changed them to "red iron."

"Iron trees are divided into male and female. The one in my home is female, so I use a sex-changing spell to induce male flowers and let it pollinate itself. This method of changing sex for self-pollination is recorded in Horticultural Art. It is a perfectly normal method of flower cultivation."

It was not merely flowers. When Heng Hua had been tinkering with spells on Coiling Dragon Island, he had even tried turning a sow into a boar, letting it impregnate itself and bear piglets.

"Horticultural Art? Those miscellaneous books read by gardeners actually contain such profound spells?"

After considering it for a moment, Jin Xian'e shook her head. "Tell me the third method first. This one does not sound reliable."

Another sex change? What if something went wrong?

"The third method is straightforward."

Heng Hua slapped his chest and declared boldly, "There is no need for a specialized curse-breaking method, nor any need to disrupt the yin-yang balance within your body. I will use the higher-grade Dao art, the Moon-Seizing Divine Invocation, to directly purify the Spirit-Transferring Yin-Restoring Curse."

"Purify it? Explain in detail."

This sounded quite reliable. The question was whether this brat could really do it.

"The Moon-Seizing Divine Invocation uses an altar formation on the water to draw down the taiyin moonlight from the heavens. After three consecutive months of sacrificial rites, it can purify the curse on Fairy's body."

"Three full moons?"

"That is right. We must receive the Taiyin Jade Dew from three full moons."

"Then this is the one. If you help me lift the curse, how about I give you a Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Heng Hua immediately grinned. "Senior, could you show a little sincerity?"

A Foundation Establishment Pill? Was that something I lacked?

"I know that you want me to ensure your safety. But I cannot do that."

Jin Xian'e said, "Zhou Xiao's affair has stirred the Golden Direction Water Region into a great uproar. There are reports that he carries the Demon Palace's supreme treasure, the Six Desires Pearl. Aside from the Mysterious Subtle Sect hunting him down, the Demon Palace has already learned the news."

The news had indeed spread.

Heng Hua's expression changed.

With things like this, Senior Zhou's life could not be preserved.

"Look, a group has already arrived."

In the distance, long sails rose high as a five-tiered ocean tower slowly sailed across the water. Azure light descended from the sky, transforming into the shape of a jade tree.

"The Lin Clan of Watergate Island."

Heng Hua instantly developed a headache. Each of the three great lineages of the Northern Region had Nascent Soul Cultivators stationed within them.

"Fairy, there is no Golden Core Realm cultivator aboard, right?"

"There is a False Core cultivator," Jin Xian'e said. "Do not worry. Once fighting begins, I will take you and your family away. As for Zhou Xiao, hand him over to them."

She had sought Zhou Xiao only to lift her curse. Now that she had Heng Hua, she could not be bothered to concern herself with Zhou Xiao.

"Fairy, Senior Zhou is going to Firegate Island to destroy the Six Desires Pearl. This is a clash between immortals and demons. Since you are also an immortal cultivator, should you not lend a hand?"

"What has that to do with me? I cultivate only to seek longevity. I cannot be bothered with any struggle between immortals and demons."

"..."

After thinking briefly, Heng Hua took out paper and began to paint.

Before long, he completed a portrait of a beauty using "Puppet Jin Xian'e" as its model.

"Even if you give me a portrait, I will not act."

Though she said this, Jin Xian'e stared foolishly at the version of herself in the painting.

Though the painting technique was somewhat stiff, seeing her true appearance still made joy bloom across her face.

"This is not merely a portrait."

Heng Hua picked up the painting and gently blew toward Jin Xian'e. "Go."

The portrait floated before Jin Xian'e and transformed into a patch of azure cloud that wrapped around her.

Outside the formation, Zhou Xiao saw the portrait and his heart stirred. "The art of spirit paintings?"

When the azure cloud dispersed, the crude, boorish man had vanished. In her place stood a graceful and beautiful immortal maiden.

"Fairy, look."

Heng Hua took out a mirror. "Though the eyes are somewhat stiff and dull, and the strokes around the brows cannot capture your divine charm, this appearance is better than your male form, is it not?"

"You changed me back?"

Jin Xian'e hurriedly examined herself in the mirror, touching the tender skin she had maintained for a thousand years.

It was my skin. It was my face!

She stared at the mirror without blinking.

Only after losing something did one understand how precious one's original form was.

"My spirit painting art can only last for one day. After one day, the spirit painting will be destroyed."

Jin Xian'e came back to herself and silently lowered the mirror.

She glanced at the ocean tower in the distance, then fiercely swung the heavy sword in her hand.

"Get the hell out of here—"

The first chapter updates between 14:00 and 15:00 at noon.

If the second chapter has been revised, it will be released together at noon. If not, it will be released between 20:00 and 21:00 in the evening.

Today's second chapter will be pushed back to tonight.

Some readers feel this stretch of the plot is rather slow, so it will be sped up. Within three to five days, it should reach Foundation Establishment. Heng Hua will finally no longer need to hide behind others and can reveal his great ultimate moves and divine abilities. The wonders of the Heavenly Book will also be shown.