Chapter 109: The Primordial Furnace of the Great Wilderness, the Purple Mansion’s Central Spirit

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Tai’s sudden assault inflicted little damage upon me. Fighting as he withdrew, he ultimately escaped once again, just as he always did.

Of course, I had no desire to continue the battle. Otherwise, he would never have been allowed to claim another victory.

Luo Ancestor, having bestowed the Primordial Spirit Method of the Three Souls and Seven Po, was likewise uninterested in such trivial matters. Once the foundations of Iron Mountain Village had been laid, the houses were not even finished before they began smelting iron.

The hunting party was simply too eager. They wanted to advance immediately from the Stone Age into the Iron Age.

Luo Ancestor understood their feelings and supported their actions, so he hurried over first.

By the time he arrived, the iron furnace had already completed one smelting cycle.

The earth and stones, melted into molten iron, were being poured into molds to be cast into an iron brick.

“Clan Leader, look! We succeeded!” Ironhead Kid exclaimed excitedly when he saw Luo Ancestor approach, eager to claim credit.

Luo Ancestor did not mind his impulsiveness. This was the era of barbarian tribes, not an age of feudal bureaucrats. There were none of those useless and pompous customs that served no purpose.

“Very good. Very good.” Luo Ancestor gazed at the iron brick, which had yet to cool, and felt greatly comforted.

The molten iron from this batch had been smelted well, strictly according to the manual Luo Ancestor had provided.

“There is still room for improvement in the temperature and the amount of spiritual energy added. Pay attention to those points when you smelt iron in the future.” Luo Ancestor pointed out several flaws on the spot.

Although they had followed his manual to the letter, that manual had been devised for the Heaven and Earth in the Pot, whereas this was the Primordial World. Certain “parameters” between heaven and earth differed slightly, so adjustments were essential.

Ironhead Kid carefully recorded everything beside him.

There were also several matters Luo Ancestor did not mention, mainly because they were still in the experimental stage.

The latest smelting plan was intended to make iron capable of resisting the Metal-element divine arts of the Lost Shaman and similar beings.

Otherwise, if the Metal Ancestral Shaman ever fought with another great power, he might simply collect all the metal and iron in the entire Primordial World.

Well, if the Metal Ancestral Shaman truly acted, perhaps no one could escape. Only those magical and spiritual treasures might be able to evade such a calamity.

Luo Ancestor needed only to ensure that metal and iron objects could withstand the Lost Shaman’s divine arts.

Treasures that had developed a spirit would certainly be able to evade those arts. Ordinary metal and iron objects, however, would require additional restrictions, along with alterations to their methods of refinement and tempering. Perhaps then they could achieve the desired result.

For this purpose, Luo Ancestor had even gone out of his way to study the Daoist art known as the Vajra Body.

After painstaking research, he had raised it to the eighth rank.

Yet it was still insufficient. Clearly, because it had not become an immortal art and had not escaped the limitations of the mortal realm, it could not possibly overcome another immortal art.

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Thus, Luo Ancestor temporarily placed this subject in the category of lesser importance. Whenever his thirty-six Dharma-body minds were not occupied, he would spare some of his mental capacity to work through the calculations.

His thirty-six Dharma-body minds, however, had never stopped working. Every day brought countless tasks: this matter needed attention, that matter needed handling. The essential work included refining immortal qi, deducing transformations of the Forty-Nine Profound Art, analyzing the changes occurring above the primordial spirit, and further deriving the methods of talismanic script.

Luo Ancestor discovered that talismans were useful for more than mere assistance. They could even serve as a path to enlightenment.

Using them to cultivate the Dao and carry its principles was especially excellent when explaining the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

To accomplish that, however, he first had to perfect the methods of talismanic script.

Unfortunately, this was no easy task. The existing methods of talismanic script were built upon the scripts of the Witch and Demon races, and those two races imposed extremely strict and overbearing restrictions upon the written language of the Primordial World. They would not permit the birth of any other script.

Even when Luo Ancestor scribbled out strange symbols and endowed them with meaning, in the very next moment his mind would involuntarily misassign that meaning. He would no longer feel that the strange symbols represented what he had intended.

Even using his Dharma-body minds to memorize them did not work. His strange symbols could embody their meanings only within the Heaven and Earth in the Pot.

Thus, a method that ought to have expounded the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth was like a castle in the air, liable at any moment to be suppressed and controlled by the Witch and Demon races—or even absorbed into their own systems for their use.

That was not the result Luo Ancestor wanted.

Yet he could not break the restraints established by the great powers of the Witch and Demon races. They were rules deeply engraved into Heaven and Earth, no different from the Great Dao itself. How could Luo Ancestor possibly break them?

The current displays of power by the Witch and Demon races made them seem as though they were at the height of their glory, as if they could remain the protagonists of the Primordial World forever.

Even so, his deductions concerning talismanic script could not stop.

He conducted them directly within the Heaven and Earth in the Pot, severing and transferring every thought related to talismanic script from the Primordial World into that inner realm. In this way, he could evade the suppression imposed by the Witch and Demon races.

So, whether he hurried here or there, he was always busy.

Fortunately, after rising that morning, the living beings within the Heaven and Earth in the Pot finally gave him a pleasant surprise.

After Yang, another person had become a primordial spirit.

Moreover, unlike Yang, who had only achieved a half-formed result, this was a genuine primordial spirit.

That person was none other than the Lord of the Five Viscera.

He and Yang often communicated. After Yang seized the Demon race’s Divine Mountain, the Lord of the Five Viscera had crossed mountains and ridges, traversed ten stretches of one hundred and eight thousand li each—the scale of the Heaven and Earth in the Pot—and reached the Western Extremity, where he met Yang. Thereafter, the two discussed the Dao day and night.

In the end, he returned to the First Kingdom of the Central Lands and “accidentally” obtained a scroll containing a method for cultivating the primordial spirit.

It was not the Primordial Spirit Method of the Three Souls and Seven Po, but the Great Method of the Purple Mansion Central Pivot.

This method had naturally been created by Luo Ancestor specifically for him.

It incorporated the Lord of the Five Viscera’s method of sacrificing and refining the spirits of the organs. Through further deduction, the brain was also treated as a kind of organ. The Purple Mansion Central Pivot within it was used as the dwelling place for the true spirit formed by merging and refining the spirits of the five viscera. The true spirit then underwent sublimation, sensed the might of Heaven, and achieved the primordial spirit.

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There was no denying that the Lord of the Five Viscera possessed extraordinary talent, and his wisdom was equally remarkable.

In the end, he truly succeeded in cultivating the method Luo Ancestor had deduced.

Rumble!

A torrent of thunder and fire washed over him.

The Lord of the Five Viscera endured it by force and comprehended the natural principles hidden within the tribulation, thereby surviving the calamity.

“My primordial spirit is complete!” the Lord of the Five Viscera cried, throwing his head back toward the sky.

He opened his mouth and drew in the essence of the sun and moon.

Luo Ancestor immediately stirred his thoughts and analyzed the result: the Lord of the Five Viscera could now absorb one hundred strands of solar and lunar essence.

“This is extraordinary.” Luo Ancestor was overjoyed.

He generously “transferred” ten strands of solar and lunar essence to the Lord of the Five Viscera, filling his primordial spirit and allowing him to refine a strand of immortal qi. He no longer needed to dissolve the physical body he had spent years refining into pure energy and then transform that energy into immortal qi.

This conclusion had also been deduced by Luo Ancestor from Yang’s experience.

Yang was a ghost immortal, and his physical body had long since been abandoned. Thus, after refining his primordial spirit, Luo Ancestor had not supplied him with a large amount of solar and lunar essence. As a result, Yang was unable to complete the refinement of his primordial spirit and could only rely on slow, painstaking progress. Only after killing so many demons had he finally gained his opportunity.

Having learned this lesson, Luo Ancestor added the condition to his new method of primordial-spirit cultivation.

After surviving the thunder-and-fire tribulation, one could directly absorb the essence of the sun and moon, or dissolve the physical body to obtain a vast amount of pure energy.

However, the Lord of the Five Viscera was the first to achieve a primordial spirit, so Luo Ancestor opened a convenient path for him.

Future primordial spirits would have to rely on their own talent and ability.

Luo Ancestor would grant each of them only one percent of the solar and lunar essence they managed to absorb.

Within the Heaven and Earth in the Pot, at least ten strands of solar and lunar essence were required to refine the first strand of immortal qi after achieving a primordial spirit. Therefore, those who came later would need to absorb one thousand strands before Luo Ancestor could divide ten strands among them.

The later candidates would probably have to dissolve their physical bodies as well.

Of course, there was another path: strengthening their foundations. Before refining emptiness, uniting with the Dao, and achieving a primordial spirit, they could refine more true qi and build up a deeper reserve of power. Only then could they form a primordial spirit entirely through their own strength.

Otherwise, they would have to follow Yang’s example, grinding away at the process little by little until they finally achieved a primordial spirit.

Once the first primordial spirit had been born, primordial spirits began emerging throughout the Heaven and Earth in the Pot like shoots after a spring rain.