Feng Shui
"Slowing down the movement of your qi is quite simple. During the first step of casting a spell when you're stirring up the qi within your dantian, simply be gentler. It's that easy."
'Of course it is.' Wuxian thought to himself sarcastically, annoyed that he hadn't thought of slowing the qi's movement.
Black Emperor Mountain Hermit shrugged. "But you'll have to practise with faster qi flow later on anyway. It's not like your opponent on the field will wait for you to finish casting your spells. And in a scenario where you've been ambushed by someone, you need to be able to defend yourself and fight back at the same time."
Wuxian spent the next day practising a few techniques from the weapon imbuement spell school.
The first spell he learned was the most basic one, merely attaching his qi to the weapon. Following the prescribed pathway of meridians, the spell had little use. This was because wood qi had three major properties; nourishment, restoration and poison.
This spell was like the healing spell example his master had given previously. Using it, enemies hit by the weapon would have their skin complexion improve, their wounds healed but at the same time, have poison injected into their body.
For it to be properly useful, Wuxian needed to learn how to separate his qi's different properties.
Fortunately for him, the manual was designed with Nine Revolutions Earthfire cultivators in mind. The first spell was merely a training exercise to become accustomed to imbuing a weapon.
The actual spell was significantly more difficult. Though he was only guiding a single strand of qi, he had to take a somewhat meandering route, passing through meridians of the wood element, tempering the qi to remove its healing properties.
Since he had significantly reduced the flow rate of his qi, he was able to complete the technique in one go. Before, his sword had taken on a vibrant green. Now, it had become a swampy shade instead, undoubtedly hazardous to life.
Wuxian suddenly had the impulsive urge to touch the blade, before clearing his mind quickly and cancelling the technique.
He glanced at the middle-section of the scroll, looking at the tempting medial realm spells, where there were several techniques explaining how to launch qi projectiles. Eventually, he failed to resist the temptation, closing his eyes and stirring up his qi again.
The qi projection spell relied on a fast flow of qi in order to allow it to actually leave the body at a reasonable speed. This meant that the method of practising with a reduced flow rate wouldn't produce very good results, since it required the initial inertia to propel it through the air.
Wuxian guided the qi through several meridians which focused on reducing the width of the stream of qi, shaping it into the shape of a blade and accelerating its speed further.
As the qi passed through more and more meridians, it got exponentially faster and faster. In the end, Wuxian sat down, wiping the blood off his mouth.
'Better learn how to walk before I try to run.'
He turned his focus back to the beginner section of the manual. There were different variations of the same technique which allowed the user to control which part of the weapon would be imbued.
This was no doubt useful, since imbuing the hilt of the blade with fire would be counterproductive.
In fact, the first few techniques Wuxian had done weren't exactly correct either. The way he had done it was to open the required meridian channels and then allow for a continuous flow of qi to his weapon. Naturally, he would not be harmed by the toxic qi like this.
However, this method also required continuous consumption of qi to keep the spell's effects active. The more efficient way was to close the meridians behind the rapidly moving stream of qi. Thus shutting the Shen dantian off and preventing the wastage of qi.
The qi would then inhabit the blade of the weapon, lasting for a few minutes before eventually dissipating into the air. Naturally, this technique was more intensive, since the number of operations- the number of times he had to open and close meridians- had doubled.
But fortunately, this technique could be practised with a reduced flow rate. Wuxian used two attempts to activate the spell- the first attempt he had let out too little qi and instead of attaching itself to the sword, it directly vanished into the air.
Satisfied with his work, Wuxian turned to other spell schools. Golemancy and puppeteering were high level techniques. Not only were forging techniques involved, the level of meridian control and external qi manipulation required were not something Wuxian had access to.
No doubt, these were things to be learned once he had first gained practice in forging and once he had reached the medial success realm of weapon imbuement at the very least.
"Wuxian." Black Emperor said, grabbing his attention. "We're running out of time."
"That soon?" Wuxian asked, shocked.
His master nodded solemnly. "I estimate we have only one or two days left."
Looking at the ghost's sad countenance, Wuxian realised that his master had been living all this time alone in seclusion. Not only that, he had known clearly when he was going to die for good.
Shaking his head, Wuxian did not say anything. To go from being a proud and free immortal to an old recluse, hiding from the gaze of Heaven was undoubtedly like going from wealth to poverty in a single stroke.
His master had been living a pitiful life.
"Though I have been in your tutelage for only a few days, your teachings will remain with me forever. As the saying goes, a teacher for a day, a father for life, so have I been enlightened." He bowed.
Black Emperor turned to the side to wipe away ghostly tears, before regaining his bravado.
"Okay, that's enough of that. Don't bother trying out puppeteering, golemancy, alchemy or forging. All three of those require lots of material resources, along with expertise that I do not have time to teach you.
Additionally, with the time we have left, they will not be relevant to you anyway. Once I deceive Heaven, you must go far from here. The resulting destruction will trigger the curiosity of many and if they detect you near the site, they may capture you for interrogation, or worse."
Wuxian nodded in understanding. "Then I should learn geomancy?"
"Indeed. Geomancy has many uses, such as reading the feng shui of the land, divining the future and locating earthly treasures. For you right now, the best course of action will be to find an earth vein, ideally of heavenly dragon grade, to make a home for yourself.
Cultivators cannot spend all of their time fighting, or else they will be no different to animals. You must have a place to call home, a place to strengthen yourself and a place to rest. Earth veins are ideal for cultivators of our lineage, not only because of the high abundance of spiritual energy, but other factors to do with earthfire and so on.
You'll learn more in detail as you read through the alchemy and forging manuals."
Wuxian frowned slightly. "Master, didn't you say that grandmaster and our forebears had great achievements and were powerful cultivators? Why can't I find them instead of going off to do my own thing?"
Black Emperor twirled his fingers, clearly ashamed of himself.
"I ran away from home because of a disagreement… even if you can present proof that you are my disciple and true inheritor, that might make them reject you even more."
He paused, recalling some memories with a forlorn expression. Then he sighed and shook his head.
"I am sorry Wuxian. I am a bad master, barely able to teach you my techniques. Not only that, but you will not be able to benefit from having grandmasters either." Black Emperor apologised.
"Well, it's not a big deal to me, master. First of all, I should be dead anyway. A second chance at life even as a mortal is already enough for me. Secondly, didn't you say that there are many lone cultivators out there with no affiliation or backing?
Unlike them who have low grade cultivation techniques and no teaching, I have been blessed with your guidance and more boons than I can count.
Please accept my bow."
This time, Black Emperor's eyes turned red for real. Being able to read Wuxian's mind, he knew that every one of those words was for real.
"Ahem, ahem. It's all good and well you know how to appreciate your seniors. Now, go and look at the geomancy scroll, let me know if you have any problems or queries."
Wuxian rolled his eyes at his master's display of fragility, returning to his cultivation cushion and unravelling the scroll in question.
The beginning was an introduction to things about balance and harmony of Man, Earth and Heaven. After scrutinising it for a while, he realised that it was word-for-word identical to the long spiel his master had given him previously about unity with the Dao, absolute unity between the three aspects and so on.
'Heavens, my master is truly unreliable.' He sighed internally.
Interestingly, unlike the weapon imbuement manual, the geomancy scroll talked a lot about geography and non-cultivation related things. It briefly explained some things about feng shui- the layout of houses and palaces and auspicious or inauspicious internal decorating and so on.
After reading through the next section, Wuxian raised his head to look at his master.
"Master, it says here that I need to use divination tools. I need something called a 'South-pointing Compass'."
"Ah right. Here, catch."
A circular object flew through the air, directly into Wuxian's outstretched hands. He held it up and examined it, noting its complexity.
On it were forty concentric rings, covered in various formulae. Looking at it, Wuxian felt his head spinning, dazed by the complexity of the tool.
"The south-pointing compass is composed of two plates- the earth plate is the base plate, while the heaven plate sits on top and rotates freely. In the centre, there is a magnetised spoon, which points towards the south magnetic pole, hence the compass's name. You can use this to find the direction and position of the rings.
If you look closely, you can see directional markings spread evenly across the outer ring. There are twenty four in total, each are fifteen degrees apart. Each degree represents one terrestrial day."
Glancing down, Wuxian couldn't help but notice that the magnetic spoon was spinning rapidly and directionlessly, occasionally swinging left, sometimes right. Not once did it stay still and point in one direction.
Following his gaze, Black Emperor Mountain Hermit explained. "This inheritance chamber is masked with several anti-divination and anti-feng shui arrays. When people divine for my location, they will be met with nonsensical results. When people enter the vicinity of the chamber, their compasses will point away, or spin wildly."
Wuxian noticed an issue.
"Then when I leave the chamber, should I make clear of the effects of the formation arrays first before searching for an earth vein? Since my south-pointing compass won't work until I leave the formation's area of effect?"
His master shook his head.
"There's no need. These formations are all a unique creation of your grandmaster. They're part of a series of 'instant formations'. They can be packaged up into a portable size and deployed very easily. Before you go, I will give you these formations so that you can hide your new dwelling.
Just make sure you follow the setup guide step by step. One wrong placement and the formations will not work properly."
Wuxian clicked his tongue in wonder. Who knew that immortals were this lazy, uh, creative?
"Speaking of which, master, how will I carry all of these things with me? I don't have a bag or satchel."
Black Emperor grinned.
"The world of cultivation is filled with many wonders, my disciple. There is something known as an 'interspatial ring'. This is a contraption that can compress space into a mere ring, allowing you to bring many items with you as you travel."
Wuxian nodded, looking on expectantly.
"Unfortunately, interspatial rings are highly valuable and I lost my heaven grade ring during my escape."
Before Wuxian could complain about his master's unreliability, the man in question produced two rings out of nowhere.
"But I do still have these backup yellow grade rings. Here, take them."