Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Chapter 637: Chapter 310: Five Elements Mistaken King and True Dragon Horn (Part 2)

But the True Dragon Horn is still extremely important, as Chen Dragon has cultivated the Five Elements Mistaken King.

"Let’s go. There should be more temples like this one here. If we search them one by one, we’ll definitely find some clues." Zhang Fan said solemnly.

This deep valley is known as an Ancient Sacrificial Land. It once thrived with incense and offerings, and the Daoist temples must have been more than just one.

Perhaps, Zhao Jie Xuan is hiding in one of them.

"Wait... wait..."

At this moment, Zhang Wuming stopped them.

He turned around and started exploring the ruins of this collapsed, dilapidated observatory, sometimes turning the divine statue, sometimes knocking on the walls.

"What are you doing?" Zhang Fan asked.

"I’m thinking, why did this senior leave a message here alone, was he bored?" Zhang Wuming said calmly.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Fan and Li Miaoyin exchanged glances and saw a glimmer of hope in each other’s eyes.

"Are you saying..."

Zhang Wuming continued to explore, moving behind the divine platform, where he found another stone statue behind the Human Xiao statue, which had three heads and six arms, each holding a magical artifact, showing ferocity and anger.

"This is the Tai Sui Statue!" Zhang Fan whispered seriously.

The Human Xiao and Tai Sui are two sides of the same coin, cycling through zodiac signs, holding both fortune and misfortune.

Zhang Wuming took a glance at the rock wall blocking his way, touched it, tapped it, and sniffed it.

He turned to Li Miaoyin and waved.

"Sister-in-law, come over here for a bit."

"Alright..." Li Miaoyin took a step forward but suddenly stopped, a hint of surprise appearing on her delicate face.

"What did you call me? Who’s your sister-in-law?" Li Miaoyin teased.

Zhang Wuming blinked, looked at Zhang Fan.

"Why are you looking at me?" Zhang Fan said with wide eyes.

Boom...

Just as he finished speaking, a gust of wind swept through like a giant hammer, crashing down heavily. With a loud bang, Zhang Wuming’s hair stood on end, and cracks immediately spread across the rock wall behind him, expanding with a crackling sound.

"This..." Zhang Wuming gulped.

"Who did you just call sister-in-law? Who’s your sister-in-law?" Li Miaoyin said while flexing her slender hands, looking at Zhang Wuming with a gentle smile.

"It’s up to my brother." Zhang Wuming replied with a dry laugh.

Bam...

At that moment, the cracked rock wall suddenly fell apart, and a beam of light penetrated from within.

"Indeed, there’s more here than meets the eye."

Zhang Fan’s eyes lit up, and he leaped forward like a bulldozer, knocking open the small hole and rushing through.

Beyond the rock wall was a massive cave, with a beam of light falling from an opening in the ceiling, illuminating every corner.

"This place is so special..."

Li Miaoyin looked around at the walls, where a viscous liquid continuously seeped through, gathering at their feet, forming an underground river that flowed through the intersecting ravines.

Moreover, there were five figures on the walls, each symbolizing gold, wood, water, fire, and earth.

However, the order between them was somewhat different.

The traditional cycle of the Five Elements is that gold produces water, water produces wood, wood produces fire, fire produces earth, and earth produces gold, endlessly circulating.

Yet the sequence on the wall was exactly the opposite.

"The inversion of the Five Elements brings marvelous use, the one who makes mistakes is the king, and sees the divine plan!"

Zhang Fan looked at the images on the wall, surrounded by various talismans and ancient seal patterns, his eyes narrowing intensely.

"Was this the place where the Lord of the Profound Palace once cultivated the Five Elements Mistaken King?"

"Is this the cultivation method of the Five Elements Mistaken King recorded here?" Zhang Wuming’s eyes lit up.

"Skillful method, Daoist non-action."

Li Miaoyin shook her head: "That level of Daoist skill has no specific cultivation method."

"It is about understanding the Dao and cultivating the principles."

"But everyone knows the principles, yet how many can actually master them?"

The basic principle of the Five Elements Mistaken King is as recorded on the wall.

In the cycle of natural creation and destruction, the smooth transition of the Five Elements represents the natural flow of postnatal energy in the human body.

For example, the lungs belong to gold, the kidneys to water, and lung metal through the respiratory system regulates the body’s water ways, thus sinking into kidney water, promoting the metabolism of body fluids.

This is the forward cycle of "gold produces water," which is the fundamental activity of life, but this activity moves from life towards death, accompanied by constant energy consumption.

Whether exercising and sweating or expelling through handiwork, once body fluids leak out, it is the dispersion of essence qi.

In fact, all activities of the human body’s Five Elements running smoothly are consuming energy.

Just like converting food into qi and blood is spleen earth producing lung metal.

This process also consumes energy yet maintains life.

Thus, from the moment of being born into this world, people are destined to move from life towards death along the path of smooth transitioning.

Hence, it can be understood that everyone is an energy-consuming external discharge system.

The Five Elements Mistaken King, however, is a reversal and sublimation, reversing energy operation, returning to the origin of innate, achieving longevity and transcendence.

Therefore, those who master the Five Elements Mistaken King become an energy-recycling internal system.

In the Daoist sect, all life skills involving the inversion techniques like "extracting lead and adding mercury, taking Kan and filling Li," are derived from the Five Elements Mistaken King, though none as mysterious and wondrous.

For instance, the North and South Sect Origin Zhang Fan practiced earlier is also derived from this mistaken reverse branch.

"The smooth Five Elements is the Dharma Realm Fire Pit, the inverse Five Elements is the Seven Treasures of the Earth..." Li Miaoyin whispered seriously.

"The principles have been known since ancient times, yet who can truly comprehend the samadhi?"

"Come and see."

At this moment, Zhang Wuming called out.

Zhang Fan followed the sound and discovered a skull in the corner, gleaming with a white brilliance like glazed porcelain.

The skull was enormous, about the size of a table.

"Is this a human skull?" Zhang Fan was momentarily dazed, then went forward to take a closer look to ensure it wasn’t a model.

"Whose skull is so large? Could there really be giants in this world?" Zhang Fan marveled.

"There’s also something over here..."

Zhang Wuming made a new discovery not far away, finding a length of arm bone, seemingly no different from a regular human, except its fingers were exceptionally long, with seven fingers in total, and the nails had fully ossified, sharp as knives.

"There’s more over here..."

A few steps further revealed a piece of spine bone, covered in spines that extended outwards, resembling a thicket of thorns.

"What kind of strange creatures are these?" Zhang Fan appeared puzzled.

"If I’m not mistaken..."

Li Miaoyin pondered briefly, then said: "These should be the remains of those who cultivated the Five Elements Mistaken King."

"What?" Zhang Wuming’s expression changed dramatically.

"I also only heard, earlier, that practicing this method goes against heavenly taboos and undergoes great tribulations." Li Miaoyin whispered.

The normal human life structure is a proper Five Elements system, innately harmonious, yet even so, once the Five Elements are out of balance, the body undergoes various changes and reactions.

For example, frequently staying up late causes the liver wood to flourish and generate fire, leading to acne, oily skin, and bad breath.

Kidney water depletion leads to hair loss, and so forth.

The proper Five Elements are like this; those who cultivate the Five Elements Mistaken King have an inverted Five Elements system, contrary to heavenly rules. Once the Five Elements are imbalanced, even a slight disharmony causes more significant effects.

"This is the Body Transformation Tribulation." Li Miaoyin looked at those peculiar remains.

Cultivating the Five Elements Mistaken King, if fallen into the Body Transformation Tribulation, the physical body undergoes various mutations, like changing gender, growing smaller or larger is common.

More often, it results in failures like these, turning into unrecognizable monsters.

"Besides, there is the Body Destruction Tribulation..."

The inverted Five Elements system is a process of energy recovery, being so potent often leads to the tribulation of body collapse, requiring constant repair and supplementation, and continuous evolution.

The slightest carelessness leads to falling into the third tribulation.

"Body Destruction Tribulation!"

Even mastering the Five Elements Mistaken King, nine out of ten will ultimately fall in this tribulation.

However, such beings, even when their body collapses, are beyond the imagination and understanding of ordinary people.

"It seems we’ve come to the wrong place..." Li Miaoyin’s expression kept changing.

"What do you mean?" Zhang Fan raised an eyebrow, as if guessing something.

"This might not be just an ordinary cave..."

"You mean..." Zhang Wuming suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

"This might be the stomach of the Lord of the Profound Palace!?" Li Miaoyin’s expression changed repeatedly, hesitantly saying.