Volume 3: Qiongzhou. Five Elements Volume Chapter 18: Three Lines Eight Trigrams Formation at Will

  It was already late afternoon, and the bamboo forest was very quiet. When Chunjiu and Lin Meng'er were outside the bamboo forest earlier, it didn't seem particularly vast, only a few hundred meters wide. However, now that they had been walking for what felt like half an hour, they still hadn't reached the edge of the forest. This realization shocked both of them.

  "Sister, after you entered the bamboo forest, did you hear any bird sounds?"

  "Yes, I also feel strange. Just now at the edge of the bamboo forest, I heard many birds chirping, but now it's suddenly quiet!" Lin Meng'er naturally felt the strangeness too, and was getting anxious, so she softly replied when Chu Jiu asked her.

  On the ninth day, he looked up at the sun in the bamboo forest above, distant and yet blurry. He suddenly straightened his body, his feet kicked against the horse's back, and he was already two zhang high. He grasped a green bamboo and looked around, and what entered his eyes were all bamboo forests, continuous and endless, boundless and horizonless, many times more vast than he had estimated from outside!

  He couldn't help but take a big shock, fell to the ground, and a mouthful of sweet, a mouthful of blood had surged up his throat, but in order not to let his junior sister see him worried, he forcibly swallowed it back down.

  His hands formed a yin-yang shape, and his internal energy surged. After a brief moment of adjustment, he slowly said: "Junior sister, this bamboo forest has been tampered with by someone, and an unusual formation has been set up. Now that the sky is already darkening, we must pass through before nightfall!"

  Lin Meng'er was shocked and asked, "Senior brother, what kind of formation is this? This bamboo forest seems wild, I was just wondering why it's like this at this time, and before I could even leave, I didn't expect that someone had actually manipulated things behind the scenes?"

  After she finished speaking, she also got off her horse, but didn't know what to do either, and could only stare blankly at the ninth day of the first lunar month.

  Although he was seriously injured and his movements were restricted, the skills he had learned over the past decade or so remained vivid in his mind. After entering the "Worry-Free Cave" behind Mount Canglang, he practiced the "Shooting Heaven Shocking Dragon, Thirty-Six Steps". The old man had already taught him the Five Elements of Mutual Generation and Restriction, as well as the Eight Trigrams of Fuxi. Earlier, due to his dizziness and weakness, he hadn't carefully distinguished between them and had easily fallen into the formation without realizing it. Now that he found himself trapped, he naturally mustered all his strength to find a way out.

  At this subtle distinction, the ninth day was shocked, this momentum is surrounded by bamboo forest, there are roads in the middle of the road, and doors are born from doors. It seems that the eight directions of Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui are all turning as intended. However, what can be seen is that the ground is flat and even, with no birth door and no death door, hiding the changes of water giving birth to wood, wood giving birth to fire, and the logic of the five elements' variation. There is generation and restraint, and their generation and restraint are all explained by Qi theory rather than substance theory. The mystery of Tao becomes substance and cannot generate or restrain.

  On the ninth day, it is known that among the five elements, wood disperses, fire rises and flames, earth moistens, metal collects and condenses, and water descends and nourishes. And what is called "mutual restraint" means to control its excessiveness. For example, metal restraining wood means that the condensed metal energy can restrain the dispersed wood energy, not using a formed axe to chop trees. What is called metal generating water means that the condensed metal energy can promote the generation of descending and nourishing water energy, not turning metal into water. The two ways of heaven and man, the great way of the five elements, and the natural five elements are all related to each other and belong to the heavenly order.

  This formation is the clever application of the three elements of water, wood and fire in the Five Elements, with the bamboo forest as an auxiliary, using the water element to moisten and seep into the earthy air, so that the water does not overflow, the wooden element disperses and gathers with the golden air, so that the wood does not disperse, the fiery element rises and is subdued by the watery air, so that the fire does not blaze excessively. All of this is the natural wonder of the transformation of energy, where the Gate of Life intersects with the Gate of Death, but no matter how far one goes, the end is still the Gate of Death. Those who fall into the formation will find themselves going around in circles if they make a wrong move, until they are exhausted and captured by the enemy.

  Lin Meng'er saw Chu Jiu's solemn expression and couldn't help but feel tense, asking: "Senior brother, is this formation really impenetrable?"

  Chu Jiu shook her head and smiled as if she was very relaxed: "Sister, there's no need to be so tense. Since the formation has been set up, there must be a way to break it!"

  He said this, yet it was not an empty word, for he had already figured out the formation of the array. However, he was puzzled and thought: "The person who set up this array is either benevolent or unable to do better, but has not arranged the five elements properly. If we add to that the dampness of the earth element, and dispel it with the wood element, then the earth will not be too wet; if the metal element is too contracted, and warmed by the fire element, then the metal will not be too contracted. With such transformations and changes, the power of the formation, the depth of its secrets, and the confusion that makes one's head spin, will increase several times over!"

  At the beginning of the ninth hour, he suddenly stood up. He had already grasped the array method and was naturally calm in his heart. Lin Meng'er saw him swaying and went forward to support him, listening to her senior brother's instructions.

  "Shi Mei, this formation is the 'Three Rows Eight Trigrams As You Wish Formation'. Close your eyes, first walk forward in a straight line for seven steps, then turn around!"

  "Three Lines Eight Trigrams Formation"? What a profound name, I got a headache just by listening to it, but fortunately, Brother Chun knows." Lin Meng'er said with mixed emotions of excitement and frustration upon hearing Chu Jiu's words.

  However, she did not know that Chu Jiu was also proficient in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. Her father and her senior master were both masters of the mysterious and yellow arts, but she herself had been too young to care about it and hadn't studied much, and even the energy she spent on practicing swordsmanship wasn't a lot, most of it went into other hobbies. As for how Chu Jiu's progress in martial arts was, because her own martial arts skills were not as good as Chu Jiu's, she naturally couldn't see it, plus every time they competed, Chu Jiu would intentionally let her win, so she didn't know whether Chu Jiu's skills were high or low, and even more so, she didn't know that Chu Jiu also had some foundation in the mysterious and yellow arts. Now that she heard Chu Jiu speak with confidence, recognizing this formation, how could she not be overjoyed?

  She steeled herself and followed the words of Chujiu, closing her eyes and walking forward seven steps. When she turned back, she let out a sharp cry of "Ah!" as in front of her was a dense thicket of bamboo, stretching out endlessly, with no sign of her senior brother anywhere!

  At the beginning of the ninth hour, Lin Meng'er was just ten steps away, yet she let out a series of shrill cries. It was clear that she couldn't see herself anymore, so he knew his conjecture was correct. He loudly said: "Junior sister, don't be afraid, close your eyes again, take four steps to the left, five steps forward, and then seven steps to the right!"

  Lin Meng'er's heart was racing, and all around her were dense bamboo forests with no small paths in sight. As she hesitated, she suddenly heard her senior brother's voice again, although she couldn't see his figure, but his voice was right beside her ear.

  She had no choice but to follow the instructions, seeing that on her left side, just three steps away was a large bamboo forest. How could she possibly take four steps? But she steeled herself and closed her eyes, following her senior's words: "Take a big step to the left with your foot." Her heart skipped a beat, but surprisingly, she didn't bump into any bamboo trees. Still, she dared not open her eyes, only taking more cautious steps, again following her senior's instructions: "Take five steps forward," and then "seven steps to the right." To her surprise, there were no obstacles on the path, and she walked smoothly without hindrance.

  As she finished her steps, she suddenly heard the sound of water flowing beside her ear, and couldn't help but be greatly shocked. To know that in a bamboo forest, it was absolutely impossible to hear the sound of running water.

  She was overjoyed, opened her eyes, and the scene in front of her had changed again. She found herself at the edge of a bamboo forest, with a thatched cottage about 70 or 80 meters ahead, just as Silver Spear Old Man had described. Next to the cottage, a small river flowed slowly, with occasional rocks poking out of the water. The sound of the flowing water was ordinary, but at this moment, it sounded incredibly familiar and intimate to Lin Meng's ears.

  An old man with white hair and a long, flowing beard was reclining in an armchair about five zhang away from the sun, basking in its warm rays. In a small thatched cottage further away, smoke curled up from the chimney, and through the open window, a woman could be seen busily at work, the sound of chopping wood rising and falling, occasionally accompanied by the savory aroma of cooking wafting out.

  She was shocked in her heart, and didn't know what to do. Suddenly a horse neighed behind her, she quickly turned around to look, and saw that Shifu and the horse had also come out. Chujiu was extremely exhausted, and could only lean against the side of the horse, barely able to prop himself up.

  Lin Meng'er's heart was naturally very pleased, and she hurriedly turned her head to say to Chu Jiu: "Young Master, look, I didn't expect that deep in the bamboo forest, there would actually be another paradise!"