Journey to the West: Beginning with the Apprenticeship of Bodhi Patriarch

Chapter 61 Cooking Success
It is said that "to refine a powerful medicine into a pill, it all depends on the secret method of controlling the temperature."

Time flies, and before I knew it, five years have passed.

Jiang Yuan taught him to use true breath to assist true fire, to burn the cauldron under his navel, until the cauldron burned brightly, and his abdomen seemed to be filled with fire and smoke, causing him unbearable pain. Water in his two kidneys was boiling like soup, and sweat poured out all over his body.

Looking inside, the cauldron under the navel is red everywhere, and the surroundings are blazing with flames, filling the sky. The ground is red and majestic, and the real fire is incomparable to the Yin and Yang fire. This fire is the result of the action of the primordial spirit and the real breath, and the five people are united.

Jiang Yuan took another closer look at the cauldron and saw that the four herbs in the cauldron were being burned in a high fire without showing any visible changes.

This medicine is not that medicine, it is an innate medicine, and it is indeed difficult to refine.

Jiang Yuan has been calcining the four medicines for five years, but they remain motionless.

Look at this black essence, it becomes raging when it meets fire; this rabbit marrow, it becomes punished when it meets fire; this wood liquid, it becomes brilliant when it meets fire; and this golden essence, it cannot be refined when it meets fire.

He taught how to retract and release the true fire, advance and retreat, to cook both civil and martial arts, and the fire was truly "lasting and never exhausted".

However, the real fire cannot burn the elixir in the cauldron in a short period of time.

Jiang Yuan was neither anxious nor impatient, his mind was as calm as still water. If the True Fire had burned for five years and could not burn these four medicines, then what about fifty years? He thought that fifty years should be enough to burn the four medicines.

He has been practicing hard for hundreds of years, so why would he care about these forty or fifty years? There is no such thing as years in practice, time passes like flowing water.

Jiang Tong'er was fully focused on "cooking" and was completely unaware of the outside world.

……

Outside the quiet room.

Zhenjian was walking outside the quiet room. He was reading a Zen book and had some enlightenment in his mind. He was about to find his senior brother to ask him for advice.

Before he approached the quiet room, the master hurried out of the door and asked, "Who is approaching?"

Zhenjian hurriedly checked himself and bowed, saying, "Master, it's me, it's me!"

The master took a closer look and asked, "Zhenjian, since you are not practicing in the front hall, how about coming here?"

Zhenjian said, "Master, I read the Zen book written by my senior brother and I have some enlightenment, so I came to ask for advice. I accidentally disturbed you, Master. Please forgive me!"

The master said: "Guangxin is at the critical moment of cultivation now, you must not stop, you should continue to cultivate. I have given you the Taixuan Qingsheng Talisman, your life is safe, and you are just beginning to achieve enlightenment. It will not be too late to ask for advice later."

How could Zhenjian dare to say "no"? He just made a promise and went back as usual.

The ancestor looked at Zhenjian going away, and said to himself in his heart: "This elixir is difficult to make, and the heaven and earth cannot tolerate it. Whether the boy can make the elixir depends on himself. I will teach you that no one will bother you."

There are seven steps in the path of alchemy, and now the boy has taken the fourth step. This step is difficult, as it poses challenges to the primordial spirit, the mind, and all five of them.

"Difficult, difficult, difficult! Tao is the most mysterious. Don't take the golden elixir lightly. If you don't meet a wise man to pass on the secret, your words will be useless and your mouth will become dry and your tongue will become dry."

The master walked back to the quiet room.

……

It is difficult to refine the innate medicine with true fire, and before I knew it, another forty years had passed.

Jiang Yuan sat cross-legged in a quiet room, and used his true fire to burn the four medicines in the cauldron. After being burned by his true fire for forty-five years, the four medicines remained motionless. No matter how high the fire was, he would not be able to succeed in cooking them.

This did not move his mind, as he had the jade talisman with him, and the two gods could not stop him, so he just focused on cooking.

His heart was unshakable, he was not lazy, and he was confident that he would succeed in his cultivation. However, the five people in his body were shaken by the true fire of his soul every day. It was like the monkey's mind was distracted, the golden man was hidden by his heart, the mind was restless, the wood mother was lazy, and only the yellow woman was stable in the middle.

Jiang Yuan secretly thought that it was not good. If the five people were to become restless, they would be in trouble at this time. If they made a mistake in using the fire, the great Dao would be in vain. The true fire had already started and could not be stopped. If he did not refine his body with the four medicines, he would die.

The ancestor gave him a jade talisman to protect him from the two gods who tried to stop him, but the five of them were unable to stop him if they let their guard down.

"The monkey in the heart, the horse in the mind, the male gold, the female wood, the female yellow."

Jiang Yuan wanted to use his energy to alert the five people, but his true breath was endless and he had no energy left.

Just when the boy was full of doubts, suddenly the Yu Ding shook violently, and a divine light disappeared into the body with a bang, waking up the five people. They no longer relaxed, and focused on following their original spirit to move the fire and calcine the four medicines.

When the boy was no longer distracted, he focused on burning the four medicines, and his heart would not stop even if time passed.

……

The true fire burned the four medicines every day, and the four medicines never showed any changes. The boy just focused on refining them and would never dare to make mistakes. He sought the truth for many years without changing his mind. Finally, after another sixty-three years of painstaking refinement, he achieved success.

Jiang Yuan slowly exhaled true breath, and the true fire in his body began to cook. Upon closer inspection, the true fire was like a blazing golden snake at first, but now it was like a mighty blood horse.

Looking inside the cauldron, the black essence has changed. As it is calcined by the true fire, it has become round, which is the perfect state, the state of mixed origin. The rabbit marrow, wood liquid, and gold essence all have manifested forms. This great medicine was finally refined by him.

Jiang Tong'er did not dare to be negligent. He mobilized the fire again, swallowed his true breath to burn the martial fire, making the fire raging. He calcined the four medicines according to the secret method of fire control passed down by the ancestors.

He knew that the two gods often tried to stop him here, because the jade talisman given by the ancestor was often vibrating.

After the boy had been refining the black essence for one hundred and eight years, it was finally successfully refined and in a perfect, mixed state. The remaining three medicines were then successfully refined one after another, and within five years, all the three medicines were finally successfully refined.

Inside the cauldron, the four medicines were seen to have taken on four perfect circles, which was indeed the result of the invisible being refined into the visible.

The fourth step of the alchemy path finally leads to success.

The difficulty of this step of cooking lies in the control of the heat. If you can control the heat, you are halfway to success. Another difficulty lies in the heart of the Tao. If you have been refining with true fire for many years without seeing any results, you will often become lazy, and then the two gods will interfere.

Without great perseverance and luck, one cannot succeed. One wrong step will lead to failure.

This is a common occurrence. The orthodox path to obtaining the golden elixir is difficult. Unless one has exceptional talent, good comprehension, and great luck, one will definitely not take this path. Most people will resort to unorthodox methods.

Jiang Yuan came back to his senses. He had succeeded in cooking, but the fire was still burning. He needed to put out the fire before he could complete the task. This step would be perfect.

The boy calmed his mind and ordered his primordial spirit. The five of them worked together to 'stop the fire'. He recited the secret of top-grade fire, 'The Art of Stopping the Fire', and slowly exhaled the last wisp of true fire and true breath. The cauldron under his navel extinguished the fire, and he sealed the cauldron with the mantra to hide the four medicines firmly and not let them leak out.

When the task is accomplished, one will see that the cauldron is still and the four medicines are storing energy inside, and one will feel at ease.

Jiang Yuan opened his eyes, put away the jade whisk, then placed the jade talisman next to the whisk, took out the Taixuan Qingsheng Talisman, took Yu Ding with him, put on a purple robe, he had now achieved the fourth step of Dancheng.

The remaining three steps, once they are accomplished, will be able to glimpse the mystery of the Tao, find the right path, and enjoy long-term immortality.

Jiang Yuan sighed deeply, sitting cross-legged on the futon in the room, chanting: "For the golden elixir, the temperature is the most important. Follow the wonderful function of the primordial spirit, inhale and exhale the true breath, gather and disperse, rise and fall, cook and refine, cycle endlessly, continuously, use it without being too frequent, in response to nature."

"The four herbs are hidden in the body. This medicine is hard to find. When it is scattered, it will blend and become invisible. When it is gathered, it will condense into medicine. Five people are needed to find it. The five people are the monkey and the horse, the golden man and the wooden mother, the yellow woman and the knife, the baby and the girl, the spirit turtle and the golden crow, the dragon in Li and the tiger in Kan. These are all different names of the five people. If they are not constant, they cannot be cooked."

"Difficult, difficult, difficult! The golden elixir is difficult! There are 360 ​​unorthodox ways, but the great way is only one."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and stood up, heading towards the Patriarch's meditation room...

(End of this chapter)