Longzang

Chapter 227 The Way of Water

Water Blade Technique is a Taoist art created by the ancestors of humankind, originating even before the first Immortal Lord appeared. Originally, Water Blade Technique was actually a water control technique used to pump water for irrigation. Later, some people adapted it to sweep courtyards during important ceremonies such as festivals and grand sacrifices, and its application gradually broadened.

The first book Wei Yuan held was about this period of history.

Of course, the Immortal Lord wouldn't write a dry book; he also included several corresponding spells from his early years, so Wei Yuan learned the water pumping spell, the water spraying spell, and the gushing spring spell.

Wei Yuan patiently opened the second book, and after reading it in the blink of an eye, his expression turned somewhat strange.

The second book describes the earliest water-blading techniques. In order to remove stubborn dirt, the ancients made the water stream finer and faster. When they broke through a certain limit, the water turned into a blade that could cut through stone and split gold.

The entire book explains the Daoist structure of this most original version of the Water Blade Technique. The Daoist structure of the contemporary Water Blade Technique that Wei Yuan learned is extremely exquisite and ingenious, with a core no bigger than a bean. The so-called learning of magic is to memorize the entire Daoist structure, then construct it without any mistakes, and then input Daoist power to activate one or more water blades.

As for why the structure of Taoism is the way it is, it's like one plus one equals two; everyone thinks it should be that way, and no one asks why.

The more Dao power is input into the Water Blade Technique, the greater its power becomes. However, the structure of the Dao technique has its upper limit. Once it reaches a certain point, it cannot accommodate more Dao power, and further input will cause it to collapse and explode, which will instead damage the caster's primordial spirit.

The two books in front of Wei Yuan contained extremely complex Daoist structures, each as large as a house!
Even with Wei Yuan's exceptional spiritual sense, it took him three or four readings to truly memorize it. It should be noted that after he reached a certain level of cultivation at the age of ten, Wei Yuan could memorize a historical text of tens of thousands of words after just one reading. At that time, five or six of his classmates were at a similar level, while the least intelligent students in the class needed to read it three times to remember it.

So Wei Yuan put his mind to it and learned a powerful Rapid Water Blade Technique, though it was rather impractical.

Wei Yuan felt a growing unease. He opened the fourth book, read it slowly, and then started reading it again from the beginning. He repeated this process five times before he finally understood about 80% of it.

Wei Yuan knew that the remaining 20% ​​was the essence.

Wei Yuan composed himself and picked up the fifth book. This time, he didn't understand about 30% of it. The percentage might not seem like much, but Wei Yuan knew his own limitations; he hadn't understood most of the non-essential parts of the book.

These two books explained in detail the Daoist structure of the Rapid Flow Blade Technique, breaking it down into dozens of large and small parts. The fourth book pointed out that some structures were actually useless, serving only a decorative purpose. Upon seeing this, Wei Yuan suddenly understood why he found the Daoist structure of this spell so grand and imposing, even featuring bird, beast, and insect patterns that looked quite beautiful.

The decorative elements are not only useless, but they also successfully increase the difficulty of casting this spell. To put it more vividly, this spell could originally be learned by a fourth-level Crimson Tide Sect disciple, but with these decorations, only a high-level cultivator from the Primordial Beginning Palace can comprehend it.

Pei Haixian speculated that in the era of the master-apprentice system, where knowledge was passed down orally without being written down, these decorative structures were probably set up by teachers to protect their apprentices.

It's common for apprentices to study for decades without mastering the art. When the master is on his deathbed, if the apprentice is still filial, he will teach him the Taoist teachings stripped of their embellishments. If the apprentice is unfilial, then he will be left to live with this grand but impractical Taoist teaching.

However, fate is unpredictable. One of the masters died young, unable to pass on this secret, and thus the elaborately decorated Taoist structure has been passed down. This structure has its advantages: it's visually appealing, and it's clear how difficult it is to learn, possessing a very mystical, ethereal quality.

What Wei Yuan didn't understand was why the Immortal Lord considered some structures to be decorative structures when they clearly had functions.

The fifth book specifically discusses three minor structures, suggesting that one can be removed and two can be improved, and it explains the principles in detail. Wei Yuan read it once and immediately learned the improved version of the Rapid Water Blade Technique, increasing the spell's power by ten percent; the improvement was truly remarkable.

As before, Wei Yuan learned the spell, but didn't understand the underlying principles at all. A Celestial Lord is indeed a Celestial Lord; he could write thousands of words just about whether a wisp of Dao power should bend upwards or downwards.

Fortunately, in order to take care of the younger generation who are eager to learn, Tinghai Xianjun left a sentence at the end of the book: If there is anything you don't understand, you can exchange it for my humble work "The Principles of the Structure of Daoist Methods".

Wei Yuan felt only a slight ripple in his heart. He immediately offered sacrifices to the underworld in exchange for the Daoist book. However, this "Principles of Daoist Structure" required three exchanges to be considered complete.

Looking at the twenty books in front of him, Wei Yuan, with the thought that he might as well die anyway, opened the first one.

This book serves as a general outline, describing the evolution of Daoist structures from ancient to medieval times. It lists thirty-six core structures and seventy-two Qimen structures. If Wei Yuan can understand all twenty books, he should be able to learn one hundred and eight Daoist arts. The most core Daoist arts of the early human race are all here.

If you can understand it...

Whether you understand it or not, you can learn Taoist arts, but Wei Yuan was unwilling to give up.

These twenty books have moved beyond the Water Blade Technique and begun to explain the basic principles of the Daoist structure, and are already somewhat close to the Great Dao.

Wei Yuan remained calm and composed, flipping through the books one by one, merely reading them without seeking deeper understanding. After finishing, Wei Yuan discovered that he indeed needed to exchange for four more books.

Wei Yuan offered sacrifices of underworld soil in exchange for Daoist books, and ten books appeared before him. Upon opening them, Wei Yuan discovered that quality was more important than quantity. Any one of these ten books was more valuable than the previous twenty combined.

These books begin with the principles of the Five Elements of Heaven and Earth, explaining the essence of Dao power, how to construct Daoist structures from Dao power, and some techniques for constructing Daoist structures.

Although Wei Yuan didn't understand it, he was deeply moved, thinking to himself, "This is the Great Dao." Indeed, the closer one gets to the Great Dao, the more difficult it becomes. The techniques mentioned later are merely skills, insignificant compared to the Dao itself.

But what you'll be exchanging next are all further explanations of the techniques.

Offerings were made to the underworld in exchange for Taoist scriptures.

Then Wei Yuan discovered that the technique was anything but simple. He didn't know just how difficult it was, but it was incredibly difficult. This time, not only were there no repetitions in the thirty-odd books, but there was also no fluff; all the essential information was so complex that Wei Yuan couldn't understand it, and he didn't even know why.

For example, the internal structural changes of a water blade transforming into an ice blade made Wei Yuan begin to doubt the entire world, and he subconsciously wanted to break everything around him to see what was going on.

At this moment, the laurel branch stands quietly beside Jade Mountain, enjoying the tranquility of life.

Then Wei Yuan saw a sentence that seemed like a curse: If there is anything you don't understand, you can exchange it for my humble work...

Offerings were made to the underworld in exchange for Taoist scriptures.

Offerings were made to the underworld in exchange for Taoist scriptures.

Offering sacrifices to the underworld in exchange for Taoist scriptures...

After acquiring the new Taoist book, Wei Yuan realized that the art of techniques was not difficult; the ultimate art was truly difficult.

For example, one book describes how, in order to maximize the power of a single water blade, the immortal lord specifically studied the flight process of a water blade.

In the eyes of the immortal lord, at this moment, wind is water, and water is wind. The water blades are so fast that the wind becomes a huge obstacle. The whole book then describes how the wind flows past the water blades, what kind of force it exerts, what shape of water blade is best for breaking the wind, and even how to use these forces to change the direction of the water blades, and so on.

These books were all written by Tinghai Xianjun after he became an immortal.

By this point, Wei Yuan had spent over 20,000 merit points to exchange for more than 270 Daoist books, which filled half a room. Wei Yuan suddenly realized that these 270-plus Daoist books constituted a complete path to immortality.

The Immortal Lord did not hold back, revealing his complete Great Dao to everyone. Disciples of the Primordial Beginning Palace who had enough merit could exchange for it; not a single book required Heavenly Merit. However, everyone in the Primordial Beginning Palace chose to turn a blind eye, not mentioning it at all.

After all, it is not shameful to be inferior in strength, but it is truly shameful to be inferior in wisdom. Following the path of the Immortal Lord of the Sea, one is prone to losing one's Dao heart and giving rise to inner demons.

Wei Yuan silently put down the several books on ultimate techniques, arranged them neatly, and then bowed to the entire set of books. Standing before this pile of Daoist texts, Wei Yuan felt as if he didn't have a brain and was only fit to be a mount for an immortal.

He suddenly realized that Xu Wenwu's so-called advanced mathematics and physics in his world were nothing compared to the path of the Immortal Lord.

After calming himself down, Wei Yuan began to recall why he had exchanged the entire Path to Immortality. Initially, he had only wanted to learn an advanced Dao technique.

Have you learned Water Blade Storm? Yes. Did you understand it? No.

Superficial understanding is a major taboo in cultivation, which is why Wei Yuan kept exchanging items in order to understand them, until he had to face the cold reality that he was not as intelligent as others.

Wei Yuan suddenly realized that there might be many more advanced Dao techniques similar to Water Blade Storm.

Now Wei Yuan knows how the resources for Tinghai Xianjun to become an immortal came about.

At this moment, in the study of countless seniors within the Taichu Palace, there was a bookshelf specifically for displaying these Daoist books. Wei Yuan believed that the vast majority of them were brand new.

(End of this chapter)