Chapter 100

Tianfeng Valley is the place on Yunqing Mountain closest to the secular world. Tianfeng Valley is located to the west of Yunqing Gate, at the entrance to the mountain. This area has fewer mountains and more flat land, with streams and rivers, farmland, and forests. There are over a hundred disciples in Tianfeng Valley.

The children of Yunqing Gate's disciples, if they have very poor aptitude, can either leave the mountain and enter the secular world or go to Tianfeng Valley to practice some methods for strengthening the body and mind. The main responsibility of Tianfeng Valley is to guard the mountain gate, purchase daily necessities, and handle other miscellaneous tasks. Their lifespans can reach at least a hundred years, and some can live up to two hundred years, free from pain and illness. They do not seek immortality but only a good life. Over a hundred people, from more than forty households, know each other well. Their descendants can stay in Yunqing Gate if they wish; those with good aptitude can join the sect, while those with very poor aptitude stay in Tianfeng Valley.

Yunqing Academy is deep within Tianfeng Valley. The gatekeepers are also members of Tianfeng Valley, just on duty. Of course, these are just the surface details. The outer area of Yunqing Academy is a school where children learn to read and write. In the past, some children left the mountain to take the imperial exams and became top scholars, which is why it was renamed Yunqing Academy.

The inner courtyard is made up of tiled houses, guarded day and night by two disciples to prevent children from entering. This is the true Yunqing Academy, where an array is set up. Without a peach wood token, the array will activate, forming the Eight Trigram Formation, trapping enemies inside. The sect leader, Thousand Feather Immortal, will be immediately alerted, and the nearest high-ranking expert of Tianxing Sect will set out immediately.

The Eight Trigram Formation is not particularly profound for cultivators, but it has endless variations. Even those who deeply understand the Eight Trigram Formation would find it difficult to break out of the array in less than half an hour. Half an hour is enough time for all the disciples of Yunqing Gate to arrive. The Eight Trigram Formation changes every three days, and the array master is randomly selected from Qingyuan Sect, arranging the Eight Trigram Formation according to their own will. They can freely adjust the positions of the eight gates: Life, Wound, Rest, Block, Scenery, Death, Surprise, and Open.

Inside Yunqing Academy, four disciples of Yunqing Gate are reading Daoist texts, including two of the Four Talents and two other disciples. The sect's Daoist texts are introductory and basic, while the texts in Yunqing Academy are more advanced. As for high-level Daoist techniques, they are not recorded in documents or scrolls. They are either passed down by a master or self-realized.

In addition to the disciples reading books, there are several old Daoists responsible for repairing the texts.

Lin Fan crossed the wooden bridge to enter the academy. The stone lions at the bridgehead are embedded with cold iron, and the array is always active. Since Lin Fan holds a peach wood token, it does not block him. Inside, the layout is square on the outside and round on the inside, reflecting the Daoist concept of the square earth and the round sky. As Lin Fan walked past the bookshelves, he casually pulled out a book titled "Wood Chapter of the Five Elements Techniques."

Sitting down, he opened it and found that it explained wood-based Daoist techniques from simple to complex. Lin Fan first skimmed through it, then went straight to the last few pages, discovering that most of the techniques were for nourishing the spirit and refining the body, with no offensive techniques. Among the five elements, wood and water are more focused on self-cultivation and qi refinement, while earth techniques are good for defense. The most powerful are fire and metal techniques, with fire excelling in area attacks and metal in point attacks. Lin Fan, balanced in the five elements, only learned fire and metal, which was too limiting in combat. Today, he wanted to learn wood and water techniques.

Lin Fan was quite disappointed. He quickly flipped through a hundred books on wood and water techniques, finding only a few offensive techniques, and three of those were already recorded in his sect's library. The last one, Wood Blade, was too basic.

Lin Fan picked up another book on the Five Elements and found some useful information. For example, Xie Fengzi's Fire Sword and Fire Dragon techniques, which are based on a focus on fire, can transform fire into a sword or a dragon. Such techniques cannot be taught but must be self-realized after becoming familiar with the five elements.

Lin Fan put the book back and wandered around. One of the Four Talents was reading a book on the Eight Trigram Formation and the Five Elements, which explained how to reverse the five elements. For example, if someone is water-based and is attacked by metal lightning, they can reverse it to fire, which overcomes metal, greatly reducing the impact. However, reversing the five elements is risky. If you are reversing water to fire, you must first be familiar with both water and fire, or your cultivation will be twice as hard and you risk going astray.

Lin Fan moved to the lightning techniques and found a book on Metal and Water Mixed Lightning, which requires a good understanding of both metal and water. Lin Fan put it back; he had just mastered Earth and Fire Mixed Lightning, and he did not want to start over. Moreover, while mixed lightning is more powerful than elemental lightning, it lacks the specific characteristics of elemental lightning. For example, metal lightning can paralyze with lightning, and water lightning can bind with thunder. When combined, they form an invisible whip that is fast and powerful but lacks the paralyzing and binding effects.

After a while, Lin Fan unexpectedly found a yellowed book in the corner of the bookshelf, titled "Divine Lightning." Lin Fan was delighted, but when he opened it, he found that it only described divine lightning and did not teach how to obtain it. The book recorded that divine lightning, also known as heavenly lightning, is not part of the five elements. Some say it is formed from primordial chaos, with the speed of metal lightning and the power of fire lightning, as well as the binding ability of water lightning and the might of earth lightning. Using divine lightning consumes only as much true qi as wood lightning, which is the closest to nature and the least draining of all lightning techniques. However, for those at the Golden Core stage, the consumption of true qi for elemental lightning, except for fire lightning, is negligible.

The five elements cannot escape the Yin-Yang Taiji. Metal is the growth of Yang and the decline of Yin, wood is the growth of Yin and the decline of Yang, water is the extreme of Yin, fire is the extreme of Yang, and earth is the balance of Yin and Yang. Everything has the five elements, but divine lightning is not part of them. Before Pangu opened the heavens and the earth, there was no heaven or earth, no time or space, just chaos. The Heavenly Dao does not refer to immortals, who are also within the Heavenly Dao. The author believes that only the Heavenly Dao is outside the five elements and Taiji, so divine lightning is chaos lightning.

Chaos... dumplings! Lin Fan took out a bowl of dumplings and ate while reading. The book was well-written, but it was all theoretical knowledge. Even knowing the characteristics of divine lightning, where would he find it?

As he was thinking, the array of Yunqing Academy suddenly activated, and blue light enveloped the four walls. The old Daoist shouted, "Do not move, stay where you are." Clearly, this was not the first time the array had been activated.

His warning was a bit late. One of the Four Talents had already floated to the door to confront the enemy, but when he touched the blue light, he disappeared. The old Daoist saw another Talent about to help and urgently said, "He has entered the Eight Trigram Formation, do not move." The Eight Trigram Formation is not the Nine Palace Formation; it has a death gate. Once you enter the death gate, if you do not hold out until rescue, you will die.

Lin Fan, who was close to the old Daoist, asked, "Senior, why did the Eight Trigram Formation activate?"

"I don't know. In the past three months, it has activated four times," the old Daoist said. "Each time, we cannot find the cause, and no Daoist texts are missing. This time, the head of Qingyuan Sect personally set up the Eight Trigram Formation."

Lin Fan asked, "If it's the same Eight Trigram Formation, does it matter who sets it up?"

The old Daoist replied, "It does. Each person has their own unique way of setting it up, and the effects can vary."