Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 404 Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Armors: The Study of Heaven and Earth

"Aha--"

Chen Zhuangzhi sat cross-legged in the training hall prepared for him, his whole body steaming with white mist that sometimes turned black, his palms taut and placed on either side of his head, palms facing forward.

The hall was filled with screens and full-length bronze mirrors, vaguely resembling a mysterious formation.

The roof of the palace is very high and is a dome.

This is a three-tiered, pyramidal-roofed hall. From the outside, it appears to have three layers of eaves, black tiles, blue windows, and carved beams and painted rafters.

Inside, there is actually only one layer.

This symbolizes the roundness of the heavens, the sequential descent of heaven, earth, and humanity, and the interconnectedness of the three realms.

At the very center of the roof, a seven-foot square area was not made of ordinary building materials, but of crystal, making it crystal clear.

Although the crystal was carved into a pointed shape, there was no sense of uneven lighting when looking up at the sky.

I felt that there was nothing above my head, and I could look directly at the stars and moon and gaze up at the night sky.

Chen Zhuangzhi was not sitting directly under the roof of the palace, but rather in a slightly off-center position.

In this way, at midnight, the moon in the sky, the crystal in the middle, and Chenzhuang on the ground can be aligned in a straight line.

This allowed him to fully enjoy the moonlight at midnight.

At noon, he would go to the Human Furnace Hall to select a group of disciples and distribute the moon turbid essence he had collected into their bodies.

Once he reached his level, he no longer needed to concern himself with how his disciples cultivated demonic arts and refined their internal energy.

Anyway, when his time comes, he will reclaim that essence, no more, no less.

Tonight, the Huangshan Patriarch caused trouble, and Chen Zhuangzhi went out to investigate, wasting some time.

He was quite unhappy that he couldn't use the entire midnight hour to collect moonlight.

Unfortunately, the Huangshan Patriarch and the others were all Zhang Tongxuan's incarnations, making it difficult for Chen Zhuangzhi to deal with them, and he felt somewhat restless.

"Old hags... Once Master Jun has worn you out, I'll make you taste all the tortures of the Chen family, and then you'll know what death really means!"

Chen Zhuangzhi's mind became agitated, and the white light emanating from his palms flickered slightly, becoming unstable.

Behind him, a light, floating soul appeared, following the rhythm of the flickering light.

Chu Tianshu immediately recognized that the man in black in front of him was the one who had broken into his valley, attacked the child, and injured Old Lu.

That round, plump back of the head is truly tempting.

Chu Tianshu twitched his fingers slightly, but his soul was too far from his body to execute the complete Phoenix Rebirth Sword technique.

He thought about it and decided not to try to kill the person in one fell swoop using only his soul power.

Let's see where this place is!
Chu Tianshu looked up and his soul silently rose and passed through the roof.

"Who?!"

Chen Zhuangzhi suddenly sensed something, let out a shout, and leaped into the sky.

Chen Zhuangzhi smashed a large hole in the tiles next to the crystal roof, and while he was in mid-air, he had already turned around and slapped out a palm.

Chu Tianshu raised his hand to block, his palm facing outwards.

Chen Zhuangzhi felt a powerful force, as thick as the ocean tide and as expansive as a sphere, come through and collide with his own fierce palm strike.

The two figures drifted away separately.

Halfway through his retreat, Chu Tianshu looked around and was struck by the beauty of the mountains and rivers, with their distant peaks and overlapping ridges. Even under the cover of night, the picturesque scenery was undeniable.

On the nearby hills, there are palaces and temples everywhere, but they are hidden by maple forests and bamboo groves, and their layout is so ingenious that even if outsiders come to the vicinity, they probably won't be able to tell anything about them.

Only by being there in person can one truly appreciate how much effort went into building these structures on these hilltops.

"No wonder you were able to find me."

Chu Tianshu glanced down at his feet and saw that the entire hall was actually made up of magical artifacts.

The incantations hidden in the roof of the temple pose no threat; their aura is negligible, yet they can serve as a warning.

After just a fleeting glance, Chu Tianshu turned his gaze to the night sky.

This place has good feng shui, a pleasant climate, and an endless night sky dotted with stars.

At first glance, it was as if starlight had fallen into his eyes.

Only then did Chu Tianshu's retreating momentum come to an end, his toes touching the roof of the palace.

"Damn it!!"

Enraged, Chen Zhuangzhi spread his arms wide and grabbed at the air.

Even after fighting him, the opponent had time to glance left and right and look up and down as he retreated.

In short, no one gave him a second glance.

Since entering the realm of enlightenment, Chen Zhuangzhi has never encountered anyone who dares to underestimate him like this.

Besides, this is the stronghold of him and his apprentice!

In his anger, Chen Zhuangzhi had already unleashed his most powerful killing move.

The Tongxuan School's "Taixu Qimen Qibian Method" not only explores the primordial energy of heaven and earth in depth, but also conducts extensive research on the flow of wind and the breath.

The wind blows throughout the world, and the air within the wind is actually of many different kinds.

Among the Taoist ancestors' numbering system, the Heavenly Armor Qi is an essential gas for combustion.

The Qi of the Heavenly Ding is itself a kind of fuel.

When Ding and Jia are in harmony, pure water can be generated.

However, if one uses demonic energy to entrust Heavenly Armor and Heavenly Soldiers respectively, allowing them to first become liquid, they can meet again.

With just a little stimulation, it will immediately generate explosive power.

The temperature of this explosive combustion is equivalent to three times that of magma.

If properly controlled, the resulting impact speed can far surpass the movement speed of an enlightened being.

Chen Zhuangzhi spread his hands apart and grabbed, and two water spheres, one light blue and one crystal blue, appeared in the palms of his hands.

They separated and reunited instantly. He had already sent the two water spheres forward, where they collided and created a bright blue flame that hurtled towards Chu Tianshu.

As if he had foreseen the future, Chu Tianshu had already drifted three zhang to the side.

"That move is powerful, but it's not fully mastered yet; the warning signs are too obvious..."

Although the flames were powerful, they didn't even graz his edge; his gaze remained fixed on the sky.

Suddenly, Chu Tianshu's expression changed, but instead of looking at Chen Zhuangzhi, he looked towards the mountains.

In the next instant, his figure, like a disturbed reflection in water, rippled and vanished.

A hand suddenly reached out, grasped at thin air, but found nothing.

Zhang Tongxuan withdrew his hand, his expression subtle, and glanced around.

"They didn't hide and flee; they really vanished from here in the blink of an eye?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhuangzhi was both shocked and furious: "How is that possible? Even a soul must have its own trajectory. How can it truly disappear into thin air?!"

"Perhaps, it's through the eighth realm of consciousness."

Thinking of this, Zhang Tongxuan thought, "I secretly captured so many monks and interrogated them, but I still couldn't find out the key to entering the country. I thought that Qing Sheng and Wu Bei had no intention of passing this on to a third person."

"Unexpectedly, something has still been left behind as a legacy?"

As he spoke, Zhang Tongxuan floated down from the roof of the palace and stood at the base of the wall, stamping his foot.

At the base of the wall, a crimson, crisscrossing mark about the size of a finger joint appeared. Chen Zhuangzhi, who had followed, turned even more ashen-faced upon seeing this.

This must be the mark left by that person when they touched the top of the hall with their toes.

By using objects to transmit force, the mark moves along the way and hides at the base of the wall.

"Don't be ashamed or angry. Although you may not have noticed it for the time being, once you calm down, you will find out."

Zhang Tongxuan offered a few words of comfort, then waved his hand to erase the mark.

Chen Zhuangzhi's expression softened slightly: "He thinks he can use this mark to track down our headquarters afterward? He's underestimating us."

Zhang Tongxuan stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the stars and moon.

When he arrived, he saw Chu Tianshu looking at the sky.

Is it just to express contempt?
"Zhuang Zhi, go and stay in the quiet room of my little tower. Do not cultivate, do not use force, and restrain your aura to prevent him from finding you again."

Zhang Tongxuan frowned slightly and said, "I'll go with you."

“There are some things in that tower that you don’t yet understand. I will teach you everything today.”

"This tower has been idle for many years, but perhaps it will be put to use."

In the deep valley.

Chu Tianshu's soul appeared in mid-air and fell back to his true form.

"Such a strong sense of threat. Is it because my soul has departed and my strength is incomplete? Or is it because he has some special methods targeting the soul?"

Chu Tianshu opened his eyes and muttered to himself.

Xiao Liang quickly asked, "You fought someone? Did you leave any backup plans?"

“I left a mark, but I felt that the mark was destroyed when I was still in the eighth consciousness realm.”

Chu Tianshu couldn't help but smile when he saw the undisguised disappointment and worry on Xiao Liang's face.

"But I looked at the sky over there."

Lu Yuande asked in surprise, "Look at the sky?"

"Yes, sometimes you don't necessarily need magic to determine your location."

Chu Tianshu gathered his energy in his right hand and imprinted several golden dots on the grass, representing constellations.

Next to each constellation is a line of annotation.

His face would occasionally show a look of reminiscence, his left hand calculating while his right hand constantly drew pictures and wrote words.

Xiao Liang was self-taught, while Lu Yuande's school was even more learned.

But no matter how they looked at him, they still couldn't understand what Chu Tianshu was doing.

I recognize each character individually, but when they are put together, I don't understand their meaning.

Lu Yuande looked at the two characters with the heaviest strokes and a look of confusion on his face.

"Longitude...latitude..."

"It is precisely the warp and weft of heaven and earth."

Chu Tianshu replied casually, still in the process of recalling and calculating, without intending to elaborate further.

His study of latitude and longitude was actually related to his trip to Busan.

Even before going to Busan, he had considered the possibility that something serious might happen there, or that something unexpected might occur.

If all the location and communication tools on my body, such as cell phones and talismans, are rendered ineffective, and I am stranded at sea, how can I determine my location and route on the vast ocean, get back to China, or go back to the scene of the incident?

When Helai came, he recommended that he study astronomy and geomancy.

By observing the sun, moon, and stars, one can calculate their own latitude and longitude.

In ancient China, the term "warp and weft" appeared very early on, referring to textile technology at that time.

However, there were figures like Zhang Heng, Kong Anguo, and even Liu Xin, Wang Mang's advisor, during the Han Dynasty.

They all made new breakthroughs in the development of astronomy, calendar systems, celestial sphere measurements, and arithmetic.

The terms that truly correspond to geographical latitude and longitude had already appeared at least before the Northern and Southern Dynasties period.

However, at this point, longitude is referred to as straightness, and latitude is referred to as transverseness.

It was the dynasty's high-ranking officials who, in order to obtain a map of the country, mobilized a great deal of manpower and resources to conduct calculations and inadvertently discovered the spherical curvature of the earth's overall uplift.

In order to make the map more accurate, when scaling it down to paper, it is necessary to make these two scales and set different scaling ratios for different sections of the map as an aid.

However, the practice of observing stars and calculating latitude and longitude only experienced rapid development during the Song and Ming dynasties.

Calculating geographical latitude is relatively simple.

In the Northern Hemisphere, people can get a rough result by observing the altitude of Polaris and calculating its angle with the sea level. However, to make the conclusion more accurate, more complex observation and calculation are required. On land, the observation methods are even more complicated.

For ordinary people, calculating geographical longitude is extremely difficult from the very beginning.

Because of the Earth's rotation, different time zones exist in different places. Longitude can be used to divide time zones. Conversely, to measure accurate longitude, an extremely accurate clock is needed.

In the history of Chu Tianshu's hometown, it wasn't until modern times that ordinary clocks finally had the technology to meet the required precision, which could be used in this area.

However, for experts who can sense the power of heaven and earth, their sense of day and night is already extremely accurate.

Even when calculating latitude and longitude on complex land, an expert who understands the study of the sun, moon, and stars can do it much more easily than an ordinary person.

Chu Tianshu calculated for about half a quarter of an hour, came to a conclusion, and then looked up at the stars in the sky above the valley.

This time, there's no need to rely on memory; you can calculate it on the spot, which is much faster.

By comparing the latitude and longitude of the valley with those of the enemy's lair, one can determine which direction to take and approximately how far to travel.

It can be continuously corrected along the way.

Although this algorithm still has some errors, it may have a deviation in the range of a town.

However, Chu Tianshu had also seen the terrain and landscape of that area, so he would be able to identify it once he got there.

Although Xiao Liang couldn't understand it, his intuition was very sharp.

"Does this mean you've already figured out a way to find their headquarters?"

Looking at the large amount of calculations on the ground, Chu Tianshu couldn't help but feel a little sense of accomplishment.

"Yes, it really is in the south. It must be the Tongxuan Sect."

Xiao Liang's gaze sharpened.

"Then what are we waiting for, Tianshu? Let's go and meet them now. Perfect timing, I've rested enough!"

Chu Tianshu laughed and said, "A well-fed general will not be as bad as an hungry soldier."

Xiao Liang paused for a moment, then chuckled and said, "That's true, but Lao Xie and Lao Pang are still in Heze, so they probably won't have many good things at the tavern."

"What would you like to eat? Still some bread?"

The old scholar's original name was Xie Wuchan, the old man playing the erhu was surnamed Pang, and the old man playing the pipa was surnamed Fan.

"Of course not eating pancakes, let me roll out some pills first."

Chu Tianshu stood up. "Don't worry, I can make the dumplings very quickly."

Xiao Liang's friends are mostly there.

Chu Tianshu was also unwilling to let go of the person who had harmed his young apprentice and the old Taoist priest.

"While munching on meatballs, I went to settle old scores."

(End of this chapter)