The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 236 The Foundation of the Myriad Transformations of Yin and Yang
The land north of the Yangtze River in the south is a place of great historical significance.

The Northern Army and Navy stationed along this line in the Southern Kingdom of Tiandu number nearly 100,000, and all of them have entered the path of the samurai, possessing the ability to suppress corpse demons and sweep away tigers and leopards.

Li Qing's sudden disappearance without any warning at such a heavily guarded pass in Jiangbei naturally could not be hidden from the soldiers and generals.

The uncontrolled Linggui Sect members roamed freely in this strategic pass, constantly stimulating the nerves of the officials and nobles at the top of the Southern Kingdom's pyramid. In the days since Li Qing disappeared, the Jiangbei Circuit Inspector had repeatedly urged the Northern Army to come forward and ask Li Qing to leave, using various pretexts.

But anyone with eyes can see that this ancestral clan leader who was connected to the underworld of Tiandu has disappeared without a trace in the present world of Tiandu. Where did he go?

This isn't a difficult question to guess...

The generals of the Northern Army remained silent, unable to find the man for the time being. They simply doubled their troops at various passes. However, Shi Laojun showed no awareness of causing trouble. He patted his chest and guaranteed that Li Erlang was of innocent lineage and had a blood brother who was the governor of the Southern Kingdom. This dispelled the generals' doubts.

At this moment, Li Qing had already completed the final piece of the puzzle for the path to immortality by drawing upon the starlight of the Milky Way in the Qishan Domain.

The Purple Palace is the beginning of longevity.

Once the foundation of one's Dao is established and all meridians are open, one's magical power becomes liquefied and substantial. With every gesture and movement, Daoist rhythms flow. From this point on, one's lifespan exceeds sixty years, and one can observe the rise and fall of dynasties over three hundred years.

If the Purple Palace and Crimson Palace were to advance further, refining the inner circulatory system of the human body into a single primordial chaos, the Taoist would then be detached from the world, freed from its constraints, and no longer bound by worldly norms.

Those who reach the Purple Mansion Foundation exhale as wind, their voices like thunder. Their profound Daoist charm and magical power can manifest as subtle elemental anomalies that can be discerned by sight.

The Purple Mansion Dao Foundation of the Qi Refining Path is even more different.

The Dao of Talismans is said to be bestowed by the gods in dreams. Although it is called Immortal Talisman, it is actually a Divine Talisman. It is no different from the Emperor's inheritance of power and the nine-rank advancement.

The Refining Divine Path communicates with the unseen realm, manifesting through the authority of the Great Dao, becoming one of the 365 gods of the heavens and the 3,000 auxiliary gods of the orifices. It will use the Dao body as the heavenly palace, exercising the authority of the most noble of all the gods in the world—Taiyi, and especially relying on the interaction between heaven and man.

The alchemical cauldron, on the other hand, blends various methods, using alchemical techniques externally, primordial qi in its form, and refining the spirit in its cultivation; it claims to be the foremost method of internal cultivation...

These three are all part of the current lineage of Taoist practice.

Only the Golden Elixir Path of Cangshan and the Primordial Qi Path of Tiannan are different from the previous three. The Golden Elixir Path and the Qi Refining Path are considered to be the two oldest lineages among the immortal paths. They do not seek gods or worship ghosts, but are absolutely materialistic immortal paths.

The Golden Elixir Dao gathers the rare treasures of heaven and earth, and captures the principles of the Great Dao. It gathers all the changes into one elixir. Once the elixir enters the stomach, although some Daoist practitioners of the Golden Elixir Dao cannot withstand the essence of the Golden Elixir and die violently, those who succeed are definitely first-class in the Dao of immortality!
The same applies to the path of Qi cultivation. By observing the heavens and surveying the earth, and relying on the primordial Qi, one can fully interpret the changes of the universe within the Zhou Tian Tian world.

The three internal cultivation traditions cultivate the Way of Heaven and Man, while the ancient traditions of Golden Elixir and Qi Refining follow the Way of Nature!
"The ancestral aperture is like a constellation of stars, a hundred veins contend like a river, converging in the Purple Palace and Crimson Palace, the Three Treasures gather together, and the Primordial Spirit is about to be born..."

When Li Qing opened his eyes from his cultivation, he stretched out his right hand and saw ancestral energy rising and gathering in his palm, transforming into a powerful vortex of energy. Within this energy, Yin and Yang were transformed, and the two polarities established the foundation of the Dao, which is the foundation of the myriad transformations of Yin and Yang.

Within the primordial energy, the energy is divided into light and darkness, and its form is based on yin and yang. The light energy is wind, clouds, fire, and thunder... while the dark energy is like the oppressive darkness of the night sky.

With a single breath of primordial ancestral energy, he established the foundation of the Yin-Yang Dao. This was proven by Li Qing and set the tone for the future path of the Yin God.

"Unfortunately, I, Li, still haven't reached the standard set by the immortal sects for that cultivation seed, the standard of comprehending the Dharma intent and inscribing that Dharma intent and Dao principles within the foundation of the Purple Mansion..."

This is one of Li Qing's shortcomings. He has cultivated for too short a time. He has dabbled in the Soul Path, Qi Path, Flame Path, and Thunder Path, but he has not yet mastered the Fire and Thunder Arts. His Thunder and Fire Arts are far from being manifested.

The Qi Dao, as one of the most fundamental Daos, is too obscure, and the Soul Dao is also infinitely mysterious. These two Daos are so difficult that only those at the Yin Spirit Upper Realm can even reach the threshold of minor success.

The immortal disciples often achieve great success in their Purple Palace on the same day that their Dharma intent is first formed. When they attain both, it is called perfection!

Xi Liqing's power was directly perfected, but she still needed to spend a lot of time refining and polishing it.

The Dharma Intent is the embodiment of one's own Daoist teachings. It allows one person to manipulate the laws of the universe and make them their own. It possesses all sorts of incredible abilities. Li Qing is still a step behind in this regard.

"However, it doesn't matter. The Qi Channel is different from others; you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Li Qing didn't force it. With his cultivation in the Dao of Qi and the Dao of Soul, the goals of both were too high, and they were not easy to achieve.

As for the second-tier lightning and fire magic intents, he was unwilling to spend too much energy to hastily condense them.

Looking inward with lowered eyes, one sees the ancestral apertures rotating like stars, and the primordial energy within the hundred meridians as vast as rivers and seas, blending together like a celestial river beyond the boundary.

In the Purple Palace, a hazy figure sat cross-legged, absorbing the energy of all worlds into its body and gathering its boundless divine thoughts between its brows. This nascent primordial spirit was surrounded and flowed with black and white energy, half mysterious and half pure. Such contradictory energy made it seem like a ghost, immortal, or holy being.

The Way is fundamental, the Law is secondary, and the Technique is third.

The path of cultivation seeks to make progress in one's practice and to achieve longevity. The various paths have never sought to be invincible in the same realm. The paths explored are diverse but not chaotic, refined but not extreme.

The life of immortals is a warm bed for nurturing the primordial spirit, which is conceived with the three treasures of essence, energy, and spirit, so that the primordial spirit condenses into spiritual substance, first transforming into the yin spirit, then shedding yin and yang, obtaining a bit of pure yang, until it breaks free from the cage and lives long in the world.

An overly extreme physical body and spiritual consciousness can backfire, becoming a cage that binds the primordial spirit.

Taoism has always sought a "balance of all things".

Looking around at the changes in the inner heavens, Li Qing parted his lips slightly and spat out the star bead in his abdomen, which had been refined to the point where only a wisp of divine gold remained, and held it between his two fingers.

"The authority and power of the mountain god are useless to me. It would be a waste to merely increase my magic power. But for Sister Cui, this is a great medicine to transform her Yin spirit body into the substance of a Yin god."

Li Qing's knowledge, while not vast, was still quite extensive, encompassing Qi, Soul, Thunder, Prophecy, Ghost Curses, Fire... The further he progressed in his cultivation, the more energy he had to expend in choosing between each of these paths, making it truly not worthwhile to covet the power of the Mountain God.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to let one's own family act as a medicinal ingredient to help the Cui family's sister achieve the path of the Prefect.

Even though Li Qing still had some doubts, wondering whether the opportunity in Qishan would still belong to her after the Ghost Mother entered the Great Dao of the Yin God, and whether "her" heart would change.

However, humans are not plants or trees; how can they be without feelings? Since he unknowingly entered the Dao, the Ghost Mother has been relentlessly entangled with him, following him through life and death. He cannot suppress or restrict her because of some unfounded possibility.

The complex look in his eyes vanished in an instant. Li Qing exhaled a long breath, got up, pushed open the palace door, and headed towards the East Mansion.

Upon exiting the main hall, one could see the Linglong Crazed Master idly wandering around the courtyard, guarding the area.

Seeing this, Li Qing casually tossed the skin of the mountain god, which he had skinned alive, from his sleeve into the arms of the exquisite and eccentric master, and with a swift movement, solemnly warned:
"Put aside all other matters for now, and use the technique of peeling skin to make paper to properly swallow this thousand-year-old, immortal divine skin. It will be enough to give you the foundation to yearn for the Yin God."

"The Mountain Ghost Law is enough to devour the remains of the Mountain God, and it is a stepping stone that can transform you." Jiazi Qunchang must take on the role of protecting Li Qing. It is likely that in the future, he will be in contact with those who have reached the Purple Mansion Perfection or even Yin God. At present, their combat power is far from enough, and they need to slaughter hundreds of ghosts and monsters to sacrifice to the Dao of the Mountain Ghost.

Such opportunities will likely abound in the future...

After giving these instructions in a deep voice, Li Qing continued walking straight into the East Garden without stopping.

At this moment, the Ghost Mother sat silently between the moon towers, where lonely ghosts and wandering spirits had no one to offer sacrifices, a situation that had remained unchanged for two hundred years.

Nourished by the will of Qishan and bound by the rules of the Qishan domain, she is confined to the underworld all day unless the energy of the mortal world moves Qishan.

This is a restriction set up by the Heavenly Demon in the past; it is both a constraint and a form of protection.

Fortunately, with Li Qing's arrival, the mansions became connected, spanning an entire neighborhood. Paper figures roamed the area, demon servants gathered herbs, and the ghost lanterns that burned all year round brought a touch of life to the underworld.

"Sister Cui!"

Li Qing held a golden light in his palm and slowly stepped into the hall. As he got closer, not only did his steps slow down, but his tone also became gentler.

The Ghost Mother turned her cold face and quietly met Li Qing's gaze, clearly moved.

"I brought you something that I'm sure you'll like."

Turning her head slightly, Wenyan carried the mountain god's sacrificial pearl, which had been offered to the Queen of the Southern Dipper, to the Ghost Mother.

The golden light within the pearl, containing nearly half of the power of the mountain, is enough to enable a minor demon or Daoist disciple to directly attain the perfection of the Purple Mansion, and has the power to mobilize the mountains.

But clearly, it didn't hold much allure for the Ghost Mother. The aloof woman tilted her head and scrutinized her for a long time, but made no move.

She doesn't understand the Southern Dipper ritual, so how can she refine it?

Thinking of this moment, Li Qing picked up the bead that was now only slightly covered with star essence and a wisp of golden light, and held it between her lips and teeth, using her Jade Saliva Profound Yin Qi to completely remove the star impurities from its surface.

Just as the light of the power of the mountain was about to be released, he disregarded the Ghost Mother's doubts, leaned forward, and pried open her lips with his tongue, transferring all of that indescribable power of the upper way into her.

At this very moment, under the favor of the natural will of Qishan, the two were united in spirit and there were no more secrets between them. The Ghost Mother revealed everything to Li Qing. It was an absolute trust that stemmed from instinct, a relationship that transcended the bond between Daoist partners.

The mother is the origin of all things. The root of the mysterious yellow is called the mysterious yellow mother qi, and the root of the mysterious yin is called the mysterious yin mother qi...

Its origin is the primordial yin energy born from heaven. When Li Qing probed into the ancestral aperture between her eyebrows, all he saw was a blank space except for that wisp of primordial yin energy that connected the heavens above and the underworld below, like a divine tree.

The Ghost Mother had no past memories, only a fleeting image: a noblewoman in a brocade robe, her eyes filled with tears, her heart ashen yet her spirit steadfast, was bound to a beam with a nine-foot rope inside a scorched palace...

This is the original form of the Ghost Mother, the scene of Cui Qu'er, the last descendant of the Cui family, hanging herself in the past!
A sense of sorrow, grief, and despair, like the return of all things to nothingness, welled up in his heart. However, what followed this sense of injustice was an even more twisted and violent will, a "distorted" will that wanted to twist and destroy everything, and forever sink into the boundless darkness of the underworld.

This surge of Dharma intent impacted Li Qing's soul, almost causing him to lose his mind. However, Li Qing suppressed the palpitation and used the Xuan Yin Qi, which originated from the same source as the Ghost Mother, to regulate the disordered and powerful Xuan Yin Mother Qi within her body. He also wanted to help her refine that wisp of the Li Mountain Authority in one fell swoop.

As their minds intertwined, Li Qing embraced the Ghost Mother, while a series of ghost candles were arranged, incense burned in a censer, and finally, a dozen or so soul bottles were opened simultaneously, with wisps of soul silk and incense filling them. The Southern Dipper Ritual was also created at the same time, completely dismantling the mountain god's authority from the Ghost Mother.

The mysterious Yin transforms, obscuring the two words; within the bridal chamber, the Great Dao is expounded…

With the establishment of the Yin God, a hundred arts arose, and from then on, the Way of Heaven was determined solely by humankind!

When Li Qing and the Ghost Mother Cui Qu'er were undergoing their transformation in the Netherworld, in the ancestral temple of the imperial dynasty to the north.

Many officials in red robes, with brocade bird patterns, all looked up at the 33-zhang-tall "Investiture of the Gods" scroll. They saw that the image of the Lishan Mountain God, one of the 54 Zhongshen gods in the scroll, suddenly disappeared and disintegrated. At the same time, the ebony statue of the god enshrined in the ancestral temple also cracked.

With the power of the mountain gone, there is no longer a god of this mountain. The spiritual energy and Daoist charm in the mountain have instantly decreased by 70%. Beasts are terrified and birds flee in panic. It no longer lives up to the name of the sacred mountain.

Such is the way of the gods: what they take from heaven and earth will also have a price to pay on this world. When a god falls, the mountains, rivers, and earth veins of a region will suffer a great blow.

If all the gods in the "Investiture of the Gods" were to perish, then this vast and prosperous northern kingdom would immediately be plagued by calamities!

The celestial officials' expressions changed drastically, and they all complained, "These southerners are like this, disrespecting the king's way, damaging our nation's foundation, and shaking our very roots."

"We beseech Your Majesty to summon the vanguard of the feudal lords, and let divine troops descend from the heavens to conquer the rebellious south!"

"Southern Expedition!"

"Southern Expedition..."

The news that the Southern Kingdom's Ghost God Sect Master had killed the God of Li Mountain had already spread, but today, the complete demise of the power of Li Mountain has truly excited the court officials.

In a battle between two armies, if you kill someone, so be it. We could simply "promote" a highly respected elder to assume the divine office, and that would be one thing. But you've gone and usurped our divine authority. Isn't this undermining others' efforts?
Who wouldn't want to inherit the authority of the gods and gain immeasurable power?
Li Qing's move can be said to have shaken the very foundation of all the Ministers of the Heavenly Court in the Imperial Dynasty!

However, while the courtiers were enraged, the emperor, with his hands behind his back on the throne, remained silent, staring directly at the divine map of the state.

The emperor remained silent. After uttering a few complaints, the officials also consciously shut their mouths and waited patiently for the emperor's decree to be delivered.

After a few breaths, the majestic and vast imperial figure seemed to withdraw its gaze, glancing at the empty corner of the "Investiture of the Gods" scroll, and solemnly said:
"Victory and defeat are common occurrences in war, so what does it matter?"

"The victor takes all, the loser loses everything—that is the essence of war… My lords, the imperial dynasty’s conquests have been too successful in recent years, to the point that you have forgotten the perilous nature of war!"

The emperor, with his back to his ministers, gave an indifferent chuckle.

With a majestic gaze, the Emperor glanced at the blank corner of the map of the land and state, and then solemnly issued an order: "There is a great sage in Mangshan, whose name is Cang. Issue an order to summon him to be the god of Mangshan and to supplement the list of gods of the land and state, making him the forty-third god of Mangshan."

"Summon the Marquis of Xiling, the Marquis of Zhige, the Marquis of Longnan, and the Marquis of Sifang, and order 80,000 troops to march south!"

"The rest of us should remain still and await changes in the southwest..."

The founding emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, who looked down upon the world and had the world in his heart, was the first god in the pantheon of gods. How could he be bothered by such a trivial matter? He summoned the vassal lords, and some of them would risk their lives to prove themselves.

Those golden eyes gazed at the southern sky, one couldn't tell if they were plotting to crush the Ba Kingdom in one battle, or trying to see clearly the Netherworld in the heavens above? Or perhaps they were keeping a close eye on the Eleven Luminaries Heavenly Palace, which was trying to be the first to act?
(End of this chapter)