Five Immortal Sects

Chapter 27: Water True Scripture

The “Water True Scripture” is the strongest and most core cultivation method of the Water Immortal Sect. 

It is listed alongside the “Wood Immortal Technique” of the Wood Immortal Sect, the “Fire Burning Heaven Technique” of the Fire Immortal Sect, the “Earth Heavy Mountain Technique” of the Earth Immortal Sect, and the “Metal Thousand Army Breaker” of the Metal Immortal Sect as one of the oldest and most powerful cultivation methods in the Immortal Spirit Realm.

Many people have sought to join these five ancient immortal sects, but none have been able to find the location of their mountain gates.

The “Water True Scripture” begins with the phrase:

“Heaven has five elements: water, fire, wood, earth, and metal. They transform and generate each other, giving birth to all things, and are interconnected in a cycle of birth and destruction. Water is the foundation of the five elements, as solid as metal, as thick as earth, as extreme as fire, and as light as air!”

The five elements are interconnected and balanced, but in the beginning of chaos, they were born in a specific order. Water was the first to emerge, followed by wood, fire, earth, and metal, eventually forming a balanced cycle that nurtures all living things.

Water is the foundation and the first of the five elements.

It can be as hard as metal, as thick as earth, as extreme as fire, and as light as air.

In the ancient five immortal sects, the cultivation methods also have their strengths and weaknesses, but this only applies to the Great Ascension period and below.

If the five cultivation methods are cultivated simultaneously to the Great Ascension period, without considering factors such as talent and ability, they are equal in power and divine abilities, which is in line with the principle of the five elements being ultimately harmonious and unified.

Cultivating the “Water True Scripture” requires a water Spirit Root as the foundation, and each stage of cultivation follows the principle of the five elements generating each other. To enter the next stage, one must balance the five elements.

Taking the Qi Condensation period as an example, the five elements generate each other in a cycle. They can be imagined as five large vats of different heights, with water being the highest and metal being the lowest.

When cultivating the “Water True Scripture”, one starts with the highest water attribute vat, and as the water spiritual energy is cultivated, it overflows into the next vat, which is the wood spiritual energy vat.

However, this does not mean that one can immediately break through to the next stage. Instead, one must continue to cultivate, and the water spiritual energy will overflow into the wood spiritual energy vat, generating wood spiritual energy.

This process continues until the metal spiritual energy vat is filled, completing the cycle of the five elements generating each other.

In the future, every time one breaks through to a new stage, the five elements will continue to generate each other in a cycle.

Therefore, the five immortal sects require their disciples to have a Spirit Root with attributes that follow the principle of the five elements generating each other. If the Spirit Root does not follow this principle, the spiritual energy will become imbalanced and reverse, leading to death.

For example, if someone has a mixed Spirit Root, and their water spiritual energy is the strongest, they should cultivate the “Water True Scripture”. However, if their other attributes are strong in the order of fire, earth, metal, and wood, then when they cultivate the “Water True Scripture” and fill the water spiritual energy vat, the excess energy will overflow into the fire spiritual energy vat.

If the water spiritual energy overflows into the fire spiritual energy vat, but the fire spiritual energy is not generated, the result will be a violent and chaotic explosion, leading to death.

The cultivation methods of the five immortal sects seem complicated and difficult to cultivate, whereas others can quickly advance by cultivating a single attribute. However, the five immortal sects require cultivating all five elements to enter the next stage.

This is a major taboo in the cultivation world, where time is of the essence. If one cannot cultivate quickly enough, they may not be able to reach the Foundation Establishment stage within a few decades, and their lifespan will be exhausted before they can progress to the next stage.

However, for the five immortal sects, it’s not the case. They adopt the principle of mutual generation, except for the first stage of Qi Condensation, where they need to cultivate the five elements from scratch.

Once the last stage of Qi Condensation is completed, a cycle of mutual generation is formed, where metal can generate water, which in turn accelerates the generation of wood spiritual energy, and so on.

The second advantage of the five immortal sects is that their internal spiritual energy is three to five times more abundant than others, although this depends on individual differences, and there are many cultivation methods that can achieve this.

The more abundant the spiritual energy, the longer the duration of combat, and the greater the power of the spells.

The third advantage is that they can cultivate different spiritual energy attributes, which is rare in other sects.

Except for the Saint Spirit Root, other Spirit Roots have multiple attributes, but they usually choose to cultivate a single main attribute, otherwise, their cultivation speed will be slowed down.

The five immortal sects’ spiritual energy is interconnected, so if they lack earth attribute spiritual energy, they can use fire attribute spiritual energy to transform into earth spiritual energy, and wood spiritual energy can generate fire attribute spiritual energy to supplement it…

This way, they will never encounter the embarrassing situation of lacking spiritual energy for a certain spell, as long as they have time to cultivate various attributes.

This is the true terror of the five ancient sects, and the reason why other sects cannot understand them. The core of their power lies in the principle of mutual generation.

Seeing this, Li Yan also remembered Dong Fuyi’s weird smile when he said that he had to practise to the peak of the first level of the Condensation Stage, and now he understood what he meant.

Military advisor Ji’s ability to absorb others’ spiritual energy has a maximum limit, which is that the opponent’s spiritual energy cannot exceed the peak of first level of Qi Condensation period, otherwise, it will backfire and kill him.

However, after cultivating the five immortal sects’ methods, one’s spiritual energy will surpass that of others in the same stage.

Moreover, if Military advisor Ji absorbs Li Yan’s spiritual energy and suddenly changes the attribute of his spiritual energy output, the result will be…

But the premise of these two results is that Li Yan must have cultivated the “Water True Scripture” to at least near the peak of first level of Qi Condensation period, which will give him a great advantage.

Li Yan couldn’t help but sigh after reading the introduction, marveling at the existence of such a powerful cultivation method. It’s no wonder that the inheritance of this method is so difficult, and the heavens have their own principles.

At this moment, he finally understood the fundamental core of the five immortal sects: the principle of mutual generation of the five elements.

Moreover, he realized that the spiritual energy referred to by other cultivators, except for specifically mentioned wood or water attribute spiritual energy, is equivalent to magical power. This is because others cultivate single-attribute spiritual energy, whereas his own magical power is the sum of the five elements.

After reading the introduction, there were only a few lines left, which were the cultivation incantations for the first stage of Qi Condensation. Li Yan’s spirit was lifted, and he felt that his cultivation path had finally arrived.

Li Yan slowly opened his eyes, still sitting in the stone room, but with a new incantation in his mind. He had already memorized the incantation several times in his mind, and after confirming it, he thought about how to leave, and suddenly, he exited his mind.

Li Yan closed his eyes again, concentrated his spiritual power, and appeared in front of the small lake. Then, he drove himself out of the space, and instantly, he returned to the stone room.

He stood up, smiling, feeling that he had finally mastered the method of entering and exiting his mind, and had obtained the cultivation method of the “Water True Scripture”. Now, he just needed to figure out how to escape this valley of beast.

After lunch, Li Yan walked to the door of the first stone room, and as usual, Military advisor Ji’s warm voice came from inside. Military advisor Ji was still sitting calmly behind the low table, with a hint of uncertainty on his face. He looked at Li Yan and pointed to the mat in front of him.

“Sit down!”

Li Yan sat down, and Military advisor Ji sat in silence for a while, calming the turmoil in his chest. Lately, the fire poison in his body had become increasingly difficult to suppress.

If he didn’t use his magical power, it was still manageable, but once he used it, he felt a sense of chaotic energy. When he saved Li Yan earlier, he used his magical power several times, and felt that his energy was already unstable.

‘Time is running out, and at this rate, I estimate that I won’t be able to hold on for more than a year or two!’

Military advisor Ji thought to himself, and then habitually stretched out his left hand from his sleeve, and casually looked at the book with two layers of color.

‘But we can’t put all our hopes on that kid, but this book has been set up with a profound restriction, hmm?’

As he thought, the scene in front of him suddenly changed, and Military advisor Ji stood up from the ground.

The book was still the same two books stuck together, with the top third still white, but the bottom two-thirds had turned grayish-brown, as if it had lost its luster.

For many years, he had always kept this book by his side, studying it diligently every day. But now, the scene before his eyes was no longer familiar, and this sudden change left him stunned.

He hastily took the book and examined it carefully, flipping it back and forth from different angles, and finally confirmed that the book had indeed changed.

He carefully opened the book to about one-third of the way through, silently channeling his spiritual energy into it. After a while, he heard a clear “whoosh” sound, and the lower half of the book, which had turned grayish-brown, was successfully infused with his spiritual energy.

Military Advisor Ji was overjoyed, thinking to himself, ‘The seal on this book must have been lost over the years, and this change in color must be the result of the seal’s power being released.’

He carefully sent out a thread of his spiritual sense, cautiously approaching the book, and after a moment, he discovered that everything was normal, so he increased the power of his spiritual sense and probed deeper into the jade book.

As a result, he saw an unexpected scene: the book was empty, with a map suspended in mid-air, resembling a fluttering, wind-tossed painting.

From a distance, he could see several curved lines and some markings on the map.

Even now, he still approached the map with caution, being extremely careful.

After a while, his spiritual sense finally stopped in front of the map, and since nothing unexpected happened, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

The lines on the map resembled a route map, with several different lines converging from different directions towards a central region, finally stopping at a place resembling a lake.

On top of it were several flashing, blood-red characters: “Great Poison Cultivation Technique”.

Military Advisor Ji stared blankly at these characters, and after a long while, he muttered to himself, ‘Great Poison Cultivation Technique, Great Poison Cultivation… This must be a poisonous immortal cultivation technique or a poisonous immortal method. Heaven hasn’t abandoned me, heaven hasn’t  abandoned me, haha.’

Military Advisor Ji was overjoyed, almost to the point of madness…

After a while, Military Advisor Ji withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade book, and his face seemed to be happy and angry.

He had carefully studied the map, and as a member of the “Seeking Immortality Lineage”, he had been to many places that outsiders couldn’t reach. The places marked on the map seemed familiar to him, as if he had been there before.

However, some of the terrain and landscape didn’t quite match his memories. He recalled entering the Great Green Mountain, traveling west for tens of thousands of miles, then turning north, and after about 4,000 miles, there was a narrow, long valley with a lake that resembled the one on the map.

But the scenery around the lake on the map was different from what he remembered, leaving him uncertain for a moment.