MTL - Asking About Longevity-Chapter 532 shrine

Chapter 532 Shrine

“I, the Five Elements Sect, keep my word and am willing to admit defeat.”

The great elder glanced at Mo Hua with fear, and then continued, "My friends, here you can learn the highest inheritance of my Five Elements Sect - the Five Elements Spirit Formation."

“The Five Elements Spiritual Formation, with one grade and thirteen lines, is the top ultimate formation.”

“I don’t need to say more about the preciousness of this array.”

“But in order to learn this formation, there are still some rules that must be followed..."

“First, you can only learn for five days, two hours a day. If you can learn it, my Five Elements Sect will have nothing to do with you. But if you can’t learn it, please do it for yourself..."

“Second, during the period of learning the formation, no brick or wood in the house may be damaged, and no furnishings may be moved;”

“Third, you must not be disrespectful to the shrine or insult my ancestors of the Five Elements Sect;”

“Fourth, no matter whether you have learned this formation or not, or how much you have learned it, it must not be taught to outsiders!”

 “Fifth…”

The great elder was rude again, talking a lot of nonsense and talking about a lot of rules.

Mo Hua sounded boring, but for the sake of the Five Elements Spiritual Array, I tolerated it.

After the elder finished speaking, he looked at Mr. Zhuang again and said tactfully:

“The precious Lishan Yunwu Tea is prepared on the third floor. Sir, please move over and take a rest to taste it.”

 This is an order to expel guests.

 When learning formations, no outsiders are allowed in front of the shrine.

Mr. Zhuang nodded, glanced across the faces of the three people in Mo Hua, and said, "Study hard." Then he brushed his sleeves and went downstairs to drink tea.

 The great elder also left behind Mr. Zhuang.

When the great elder left, he burned the incense burner, glanced at Mo Hua and the others with a vague look in his eyes, then locked the door before leaving.

In front of the quiet and solemn shrine, only the three of them, Mo Hua, were left.

They only have five days, two hours each day, to comprehend the Thirteen Patterns and Five Elements Spiritual Formation of the Five Elements Sect.

 We must seize the time.

 In front of the shrine, there are five futons.

 “Sit on the futon, visualize the shrine, and understand the formation.”

 This is what the great elder said.

And he also specifically said that "sitting" when sitting on a futon means "kneeling down".

 But it is impossible to sit on your knees.

 The ancestors of the Five Elements Sect have nothing to do with Mo Hua, so they are not worthy of Mo Hua's kneeling.

Mo Hua then sat cross-legged on the futon.

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi glanced at the ink painting, and like him, sat cross-legged on the futon.

Mo Hua sits in the middle, Bai Zixi sits on the left, and Bai Zisheng sits on his right.

 The three of them began to concentrate on visualizing the shrine.

The shrine is made of black wood and gold paint, and is magnificent, yet simple and solemn.

There are gilded reliefs on it, engraved with sculptures of ancestors, spiritual animals, chariots and horses, exotic flowers and plants, carved beams and painted buildings, and various magic weapons...

The ink paintings are dazzling to look at, but I don’t quite understand what these carvings are for...

 Only in the middle of the shrine, there seems to be a dojo.

 In the middle of the dojo, a huge formation disk is displayed.

 The formation masters gathered around him, looking respectful.

On the dojo, there is an old man with a solemn expression, pointing to the sky, as if he is preaching.

 Preaching at the shrine.

 Dojo array.

  This is the place in the entire shrine that is most closely related to the formation.

“Could it be that the Five Elements Spirit Formation is engraved on the formation plate in the middle of the shrine?”

Mo Hua guessed, then he calmed down, visualized the shrine, and put his mind on the formation disk in the middle.

Sure enough, after a while, a bell sounded.

In the incense burner in front of the shrine, curls of incense float in front of the ink painting, and wisps of incense are shrouded in front of the shrine, condensed into lines, and manifested on the formation disk.

 Ink painting refreshed.

 “Sure enough!”

He was about to concentrate on looking at the formation patterns, but at this moment, another old voice sounded in his ears:

 "I'll teach you the formation..."

This feels too familiar.

When Mo Hua was in Nanyue City, he snatched Zhang Quan's picture of the ancestor. When he was imagining it, there was this ethereal, old voice in his ears, which kept saying, "I will teach you the great road" and "help you become an immortal." , "Longevity and long-term vision"... words like that.

 Ink painting is instinctively repulsive.

 Another liar!

His eyes flashed, his consciousness flashed, his mind was pure and concentrated, and he abandoned illusions.

 After a moment, everything disappeared.

 Above the incense burner, smoke curled up.

 But the smoke is just ordinary smoke, without formations or appearance.

 The old voice in my ears also disappeared.

 The shrine remains as before.

 There is nothing on the formation plate.

 It seems that everything has disappeared because of the abandonment of ink painting...

 Looking at the ink painting again, the shrine is still a shrine.

 Without formation, there is nothing...

Mo Hua was stunned.

 He meditated for another long time, but still nothing changed.

Mo Hua thought for a moment and murmured in his heart:

 “Would it be self-defeating…?”

“That voice just now really wanted to convey my formation?”

“In the incense burner, the smoke is thick and the condensation is indeed a deep five-element pattern..."

“So I saw through the illusion and the ancestors of the Five Elements Sect were unhappy, so they stopped teaching me?”

"No way…"

 I tried ink painting a few more times, but it was still in vain.

 It seems that this shrine really doesn’t want to teach him the formation.

Those smokes are just ordinary smokes that no longer condense into formations...

Mo Hua was helpless and sighed.

 Do you have to blame yourself because your spiritual consciousness is too strong, your Taoist heart is firm, and you are too sensitive to the changes in your spiritual thoughts?

Mo Hua turned his head and looked at the junior senior brother and junior senior sister.

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi are both sitting cross-legged, with straight postures and serious eyes, staring at the formation disk in the center of the shrine.

 In his eyes, a pattern of light flashed, as if he was comprehending something.

 The two of them seem to be learning the Five Elements Spirit Formation...

 It is not easy to disturb them with ink paintings.

Mo Hua tilted his head to the right and glanced at Bai Zisheng.

 Then he tilted his head to the left, stared at Bai Zixi for a while, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart:

 Little senior sister is so pretty!

Her skin is fair, her eyebrows are delicate, and her eyes are like stars in the sky, quiet and crystal clear.

This is because she changed her appearance and covered up her original appearance.

 It would look better if it were the original one...

 The ink painting looked at it for a while, and then he came back to his senses:

“I almost forgot, business is more important, the Five Elements Spirit Formation…”

 Ink Hua began to concentrate on visualizing the shrine again.

 But no matter how he visualized it, the shrine did not change at all.

Even if he wanted to "pretend to be stupid", close his consciousness, and think silently in his heart, "You are here to trick me, I won't see through you anymore", it was useless.

The shrine still ignored him.

Mo Hua sighed. He looked at the shrine for a while, and he couldn't help but wonder:

Does this shrine have anything to do with the visualization picture?

 In the visualization picture, some spiritual thoughts will reside.

These spiritual thoughts are of various kinds.

　　It includes not only the understanding of the great road, the perception of the way of heaven, but also the residual spiritual thoughts of some monks after their death, or evil thoughts such as ghosts and zombies.

 Ink painting Nowadays, I have never seen a serious visualization picture.

 Everything I have seen is not serious.

 There are also some evil spirits in the picture.

Then this shrine is just a serious "visualization picture"?

Mo Hua also remembers that Master said that the so-called visualization picture is just a general term. Not all things visualized are "pictures". Every plant, every tree, every brick, every spiritual weapon and magic weapon may contain the Great Way, or something. There are spiritual thoughts, or evil spirits are parasitic.

“So, this shrine is a different kind of ‘visualization picture’?”

“It’s just that other visualization pictures are ‘pictures’, but this is a ‘niche’?”

“Is there something lodged in the shrine?”

“Is it a certain divine thought? Or is it the method of the Five Elements Spirit Array?”

 “No matter how you say it, it’s a good thing…”

Mo Hua’s eyes lit up and he was a little disappointed.

 “It’s a pity that it’s too big to move...”

 “And it’s impossible for the Five Elements Sect to let themselves move away.”

Mo Hua muttered in his heart:

“If I can move the shrine, it will be settled once and for all. If I study it every day and meditate morning and night, I will definitely be able to learn the Five Elements Spirit Formation..."

 It’s a pity that this can only be thought about.

 It is indeed too much to move the shrines of the ancestors of the Five Elements Sect...

 But the question now is, how can I learn the Five Elements Spiritual Formation...

The ink painting was a bit difficult, staring at the shrine in a daze.

 In the incense burner, the smoke gradually dissipated. Time passed little by little...

 Unknowingly, the time has arrived.

 The incense in the incense burner gradually burned out.

Mo Hua was shocked to realize that two hours had passed, but he hadn't learned a single formation pattern yet...

 It was like he was taking an exam and the paper was about to be handed in, but he hadn’t written a word yet...

Mo Hua’s little heart trembled.

 Then I realized that this exam would last for five days, I didn’t learn anything today, and there were still four days left, so I felt a little relieved.

 The incense burner burned out.

 All the dense breath has disappeared.

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi came back to their senses, blinked, their eyes brightened slightly, and they withdrew from the state of contemplation.

They all glanced at the ink painting at the same time, but they were stunned when they found that the ink painting looked like they had just taken a class, learned nothing, and then just messed it up.

At this moment, the great elder opened the door.

His eyes passed over the faces of the three people in Mo Hua. He didn’t ask anything, he just said lightly:

 “The time has come today, and it will come again tomorrow.”

The three of them in Mo Hua bowed politely and left with Mr. Zhuang.

After returning to the house, Mo Hua said with some guilt:

“Master, I haven’t learned anything at all…”

Mr. Zhuang was a little surprised and curious, and said with interest:

 “What did you see?”

Mo Hua said truthfully: "I saw the formation patterns on the formation plate, and heard an old man talking, and then habitually, I gave up distracting thoughts, and then...I couldn't see anything..."

 Except for spending a little time peeking at the little senior sister, the rest of the time was spent pondering the visualization pictures and being in a daze...

“Master, why is this?” Mo Hua asked.

Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment and sighed: "Maybe your consciousness is too strong..."

 The spiritual consciousness is too strong and one can understand the essence.

The Taoist mind is clear and free from deception.

 But because of this, if you can’t see the illusion of the shrine, you can’t see the inheritance of the Five Elements Sect.

Mo Hua muttered: "The Five Elements Sect is too outrageous. How could they use such a strange method to inherit the Jue Formation..."

Mr. Zhuang silently glanced at the ink painting, thinking that it’s not that the Five Elements Sect is outrageous, but that your spiritual consciousness is too outrageous.

 At the first level of Qi refining realm, there are thirteen lines of spiritual consciousness.

 The ancestors of the Five Elements Sect probably did not expect that...

Mr. Zhuang asked Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi again, "What about you?"

 They both nodded.

Bai Zisheng said: "We have all learned how to sit on a futon and visualize the shrine. The formation pattern will appear on the formation disk in the center of the shrine's dojo..."

“There is also an old man who will tell you some key points in learning the Five Elements Spiritual Formation…”

Mr. Zhuang said: "Draw it and show it to me."

 Bai Zisheng murmured, "I haven't learned everything..."

“It doesn’t matter,” Mr. Zhuang said, “I can draw as much as I know.”

"Um."

 Bai Zisheng nodded, then took out a pen and paper and began to draw the five-element formation he learned from the shrine.

Bai Zixi, with a pen in hand and an elegant posture, also started drawing.

 After finishing the painting, they handed it to Mr. Zhuang together.

Mr. Zhuang only glanced at it, then nodded and said: "It is indeed the Five Elements Spiritual Array of the First Grade and Thirteen Patterns."

Mo Hua also came up to take a look.

What Bai Zisheng painted was a fire element formation. It was not completely painted, but it should be the fire spirit formation among the five elements.

What Bai Zixi drew was a wooden array, with thirteen array patterns, every one of which was perfect. It was a complete wood spirit array.

Obviously Bai Zixi's formation talent is much better than Bai Zisheng's.

The complete first-grade and thirteen-pattern Wood Spirit Formation...

 Although I used the Immortal Formation, I could completely record it in two hours.

Mo Hua couldn't help but praise: "Senior sister, you are so awesome!"

Bai Zixi nodded, accepting Mo Hua's compliment, and her eyes were bright.

Bai Zisheng curled his lips. Although he was dissatisfied with the "glib words" of the ink painting, he was still worried:

“Junior brother, if you can’t see the dojo formation diagram, doesn’t it mean that you can’t learn the Five Elements Spirit Formation?”

 The Five Elements Spirit Formation was actually just the icing on the cake for him and Zi Xi.

 They do not rely on formations.

  But ink painting is different.

 Ink painting must follow the path of formations, and we must continue to learn formations and continuously enhance our spiritual awareness.

 The Five Elements Spirit Formation is crucial to ink painting.

Mo Hua sighed again.

He has no good solution.

If the formation diagram never appears in the shrine and dojo, then there is really nothing he can do.

He can’t smash the shrine...

 Bai Zixi thought for a moment, her beautiful eyes brightened slightly, "My brother and I will teach you!"

Bai Zisheng was stunned for a moment and understood:

“That’s right, I’ll learn from Zixi. Once I’ve learned it, I’ll teach you.”

Mo Hua was startled for a moment, then thought about it for a moment, and his eyes lit up.

 It seems like...it's not impossible.

 You can learn from wherever you are.

 It is only natural for my junior senior brother and junior senior sister to teach me formations.

 “But, does this count as a side story?”

 According to the great elder of the Five Elements Sect, you can only learn and practice by yourself.

Bai Zixi shook his head and said, "It's not considered a rumor."

Mo Hua thought for a moment and nodded. He felt that it was right. They were all from the same sect, and they were all qualified to learn Jue Zhen. They communicated with each other, so naturally they were not considered outsiders.

So Bai Zixi and Bai Zixi began to teach ink painting the wood spirit array and the fire spirit array.

Bai Zixi looked calm.

Bai Zisheng's face was full of excitement. He rarely taught Mo the formation method.

The two of them taught Mo Hua all the key points they heard from the old man while teaching the formation patterns.

 Hand ink painting is a lesson learned, memorizing formations, listening to the explanations, and asking any questions.

Until night, Mo Hua finally roughly grasped the patterns of the Wood Spirit Formation and the Fire Spirit Formation.

 This formation pattern can be drawn with ink, but it is of little use.

Like other Jue formations, it seems to be missing something important. It only has the form of the formation, but not the charm of the formation.

 This is what Mo Hua expected.

 But there is another issue that concerns him:

“Why are there only wood spirit formations and fire spirit formations?”

 Where are the other three series of Five Elements Spirit Arrays?

 Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi looked at each other and shook their heads.

“The only thing I saw was this spiritual formation…”

“Is it a matter of learning one thing at a time? After you learn it, can you learn other things?”

“If it is done step by step, why is the order different? There is wood and there is fire. How is this order determined?”

None of the three could figure it out.

Mo Hua sighed: "I can only look at it tomorrow..."

Bai Zisheng also said: "This is the only way."

Bai Zixi also frowned, looking confused.

Mr. Zhuang looked at the three of them, smiled slightly, and said nothing.

 …

At this time, on the fourth floor of the Zangzhen Pavilion, in front of the simple and majestic shrine.

 The great elder lit three incense sticks and inserted them into the incense burner.

 Cigarettes curl up.

 After a while, the three incense sticks became shorter and longer.

 The incense on the left is burned the most and remains the shortest, but there is still a long length left.

 The incense on the right is the second best, burned a little, but not too much.

 The incense stick in the middle did not move at all.

The great elder was delighted, nodded and said:

 “I haven’t learned yet, so…”

 Not only have I not learned it, but I have not learned it at all!

The Great Elder was a little relieved and a little emotional.

I have some talent, I have a solid foundation in formations, and I know how to do it right, but after all, I am too young, I have learned a lot, and my understanding is also a little bit worse...

 He doesn’t understand the Five Elements Jue Zhen at all.

It seems that I guessed right.

 His senior brothers and sisters are indeed stronger than him.

However, no matter how strong you are and how talented you are, you still have a long way to go before you can truly understand the Five Elements Spiritual Formation...

Of the three sticks of sandalwood in the incense burner, except for the middle one, there are only two left. There is still a long way to go before they are actually burned out...

 The great elder breathed a sigh of relief.

He faced the shrine, raised his hands in salute, and said piously:

“… bless my Five Elements Sect, keep the inheritance intact, and keep the formation prosperous!”

 There was no response in the shrine.

 But the wooden sculpture of the old man in the dojo opened his eyes.

 (End of this chapter)