Chapter 27: The Twenty-Seventh, Five Elements Proportions

Thanks to the automatic operation of the Spiritual Root Dao Seed's Primordial Nourishment and Breathing Technique, which provided constant repair, Lin Donglai did not suffer from cultivation deviation.

He immediately recalled the contents of the Five Elements Qi Gathering Manual he had read earlier. After all, since he was practicing according to the steps of the Five Elements' mutual generation, Wood generating Fire should be just right.

After reviewing the borrowed General Outline of the Five Elements for a while, Lin Donglai found his answer.

Although his Five Elements Qi Gathering Manual allowed for mutual generation, it was not a simple matter of Wood generating Fire and Fire generating Earth to complete the cycle.

Every cultivation technique is unique to the individual. Given his specific situation, he should first complete partial cultivation of the Earth and Water elements.

Once Water and Earth have nourished the Wood, they would serve as a continuous source of support for the growth of the Jia Wood. Only then, by practicing Wood generating Fire, would he avoid the complete incineration of the Jia Wood; because after Wood generates Fire, the Fire would then generate Earth, maintaining a state of balance.

The General Outline of the Five Elements also provided special notes regarding the prosperity of each individual element.

To achieve "Prosperous Wood" in the Five Elements, one must first practice the Chen Earth Earth-Gathering Manual during the early stages of Qi Refinement, and then practice the Water and Wood elements during the middle stage.

Only in the late stage of Qi Refinement could one practice the Metal and Fire elements. This was the only way to complete the Five Elements cycle and achieve the characteristics of Prosperous Wood.

There was also the issue of proportions. It was not a matter of all Wood turning into Fire, or all Fire turning into Earth; rather, the Five Elements existed simultaneously, and mutual generation and mutual overcoming existed at the same time.

Lin Donglai's recent attempt to practice the Bingwu Yang-Gathering Manual had been a mistake in the order of cultivation, which is why he had ignited all of his Jia Yin True Qi, completely transforming his spiritual attribute into Fire.

Fortunately, his Spiritual Root Dao Seed was powerful; otherwise, he would have destroyed his own foundation.

Before long, Lin Donglai's meager amount of Jia Yin True Qi burned out. With nothing left to burn, the fire naturally died down.

Immediately after, the Bingwu True Qi vanished, transforming directly into Chen Earth True Qi—the exact manifestation of Wood generating Fire, which then generates Earth.

Even though Lin Donglai had never practiced Chen Earth True Qi before, it was that miraculous.

Within his dantian, a new mass of Earth element essence appeared, roughly the size of a mung bean.

"The Five Elements True Qi can be converted at will, through mutual generation and overcoming. It truly deserves its reputation as the number one Qi Refinement technique, known as the 'Subtle Law of Excellence'."

Lin Donglai felt he had gained some insight. It wasn't a vast amount, but this was exactly the kind of Dao attainment required for the Spiritual Root Dao Seed to grow its "main stem."

Beneath the sprout, a small section of a pale green, almost translucent tender stem had grown, topped with two cute little bud points, looking much like a bean sprout.

"I can continue practicing the Chen Earth Earth-Gathering Manual. The Earth Qi here is relatively abundant. I will practice this until I reach the second layer of Qi Refinement. Then, at the second layer, I will practice Renzi Water-Gathering and Jia Yin Life-Gathering. At the third layer, I will practice Bingwu Yang-Gathering and Gengshen Metal-Gathering. This way, I can complete the mutual generation cycle of the Five Elements Qi Gathering Method during the early stages of Qi Refinement."

"Water and Earth adjust the mud, Wood is planted in the mud, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, and abundant Earth generates Metal. Metal doesn't need to be too much; just a little will suffice. Fire cannot be too strong either. Only then can the Five Elements generate each other to achieve Prosperous Wood."

"My cultivation of the Inner Landscape Blessed Field will likely need to follow this same principle. I need to find the most suitable ratio of the Five Elements to achieve perfect mutual generation."

The Blessed Field Method was even more dangerous, as it required Five Elements essence and Fetal Breathing, and Fetal Breathing itself had to be rooted in the five viscera.

If something went wrong with the viscera—much like what happened today—it could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Today, by using Wood to generate Fire, the Fire overcame the Wood, burning the Wood to ashes and transforming it into Chen Earth. Consequently, both the Liver and the Heart would have suffered damage.

Although the Spleen was strengthened, Earth overcomes Water and Fire; thus, the Kidney Water and Heart Fire would be depleted. Furthermore, Earth generates Metal, and once the Metal Qi becomes too strong, it would further suppress the Liver Wood... eventually leading to a total imbalance of the five viscera, causing them to fall into chaos and attack one another, wasting vital essence out of thin air.

These were all medical theories Lin Donglai had learned in the academy, which were originally intended to help interpret cultivation techniques.

"I was too reckless. If I had known, I would have stuck to practicing Jia Yin True Qi. Now, I can only switch to practicing Chen Earth True Qi. Because my spiritual root is Prosperous Wood, practicing Chen Earth True Qi will be slower than practicing Jia Yin True Qi, and might even cause some depletion due to my inferior Jia Wood constitution."

"However, my logic should be correct. I cannot follow the method of Earth generating Metal to continue practicing the Gengshen Metal-Gathering Method, otherwise, even greater problems will arise. Geng Metal chops Wood, and it chops away at life force—it is the direct antithesis of my constitution. That Geng Metal spiritual energy might actually kill me..."

Based on Lin Donglai's current deductions, whether it was mutual generation or mutual overcoming, one had to leave room for the Wood element. Metal must not overcome it entirely, Water must not generate it entirely, and Fire must not burn it entirely. It was this "room" that maintained the balance of the Five Elements' mutual generation and allowed one to reach the ultimate state of Prosperous Wood.

Among them, Earth was undoubtedly the largest component.

The inheritance of the Earth Immortal lineage claimed that Earth is the Earth Mother, required to carry Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire. This was also why those who cultivated Blessed Lands and Grotto-Heavens used Earth as their foundation and were called "Earth Immortals."

Lin Donglai used a small twig to continuously perform calculations on the ground.

Half an hour later, he finally arrived at an answer.

If Metal is 1, then Earth must be 5, Fire must be 2, Wood must be 3, and Water must be 4.

The 5 of the Earth Mother was greater than Metal, Wood, Water, or Fire.

This perfectly satisfied the requirements: after Water generates Wood, there is surplus Water; when Metal overcomes Wood, it cannot overcome it entirely, leaving a foundation; when Wood generates Fire, the Fire cannot burn the Wood completely, leaving behind a seed. Only in this way could life be continuous and the true state of Prosperous Wood be achieved.

"In other words, if a total of 15 Primordial Fetal Breaths and 9 drops of essence blood are needed to refine one strand of Fetal Breath, then I will need 135 drops of essence blood..."

Lin Donglai calculated that if he ignored the advancement of his cultivation level and only considered the creation of the Inner Landscape Blessed Field, the remaining year of the Immortal Sprout period would be sufficient.

The cultivation order would be: Earth first, then Water, then Wood, Fire, and Metal, one by one, forming a cycle.

In this way, although it disrupted the traditional cycle of Earth generating Metal, Metal generating Water, Water generating Wood, Wood generating Fire, and Fire generating Earth, it was the most suitable foundation Lin Donglai could think of for the growth of the Dao Seed and the construction of the Blessed Field.

...

For the next eight or nine days, Lin Donglai spent his time working, cultivating, attending lectures, and eating across the three locations: Immortal Sprout Peak, Lingxi Peak, and Spirit Field Valley.

By the time the weeding, pest control, and tilling of this one acre of land were nearly finished, Ding Zhen had just managed to achieve Qi Refinement at the first layer before the second hundred-day assessment, and had moved up to Lingxi Peak.

Although he desperately wanted to become a Spirit Chef, studying the Way of the Spirit Chef in the Hall of Miscellaneous Arts required bringing one's own ingredients. Therefore, Ding Zhen could only go to the Hall of Artifact Refinement to learn the knowledge of smelting ores and forging fine iron.

"Brother Lai, I'm returning these two spirit stones to you first, along with two from Zhong Xuan and five from Xue Hong. I'm going to Merit Peak to see if there are any ways to earn spirit stones so I can pay them back sooner."

Lin Donglai did not refuse and took the stones. "It just so happens I'm farming. I just cleared an acre of land in Spirit Field Valley and was planning to buy some seeds. I'll also practice the Sprouting Life Technique a bit. Once I've grown something, I'll share some with you!"

Ding Zhen sighed with emotion. "That would be great. But right now, in the Hall of Artifact Refinement, I'm learning blacksmithing and ore tempering. I need to channel spiritual energy through the forging hammer to strike it into the pig iron. Only when the pig iron is turned into fine iron, and the fine iron is forged a hundred times and infused with spiritual energy to become spiritual steel, will I be considered a true artifact refining apprentice."

"Then I'll wait for you to forge my magical tools," Lin Donglai laughed. "I wish you success in becoming a disciple of the Hall of Artifact Refinement soon!"

(End of Chapter)