Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Yin and Yang of Northern Darkness

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Meng Fan opened his eyes while sitting cross-legged and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

As he had imagined, the Northern Dark Divine Art could indeed be combined with the qi-cultivation methods of the One-Person-Under-Heaven world and refined into a cultivation art suited to this world.

The outside world was the greater universe, while the human body was a lesser universe.

Human beings could draw upon qi. Between heaven and earth, the qi of all things was abundant and inexhaustible, just as Laozi had said: “It endures as though ever-present, yet is never exhausted in use.”

In Meng Fan’s conception, the Northern Dark Divine Art should be able to refine the qi that existed invisibly throughout heaven and earth, transforming it into his own innate qi.

The experiment just now had made it clear: he had succeeded.

With the boundless sea of qi between heaven and earth filling his own dantian, Meng Fan would no longer need to worry about insufficient innate qi in the future.

Even if he could not compare with Sister Bao’er, surpassing all his peers would certainly be effortless.

The cultivation of supernaturals was invariably centered on refining their own innate qi. Methods that interacted with the qi of heaven and earth were exceedingly rare.

In the original story, Jin Yong’s Celestial Dipper Qi might perhaps be counted as one such method. It could even be called the Sage’s Thief.

Its principle was to follow a prescribed sequence of steps and positions. Once this was done, the body’s meridians would open, allowing the practitioner to absorb the scattered energy released by living things into the surrounding space. This energy was known as celestial-dipper qi.

This method of walking was called Treading the Dipper and Stepping the Stars.

And Treading the Dipper and Stepping the Stars originated from Yu’s Steps.

The Scripture of the Eight Transformations of the Divine Cavern Emperors, in its chapter “Yu’s Steps for Summoning the Spirits,” explains it thus: “Yu’s Steps were a technique devised by the Great Yu of Xia, a way of walking that summoned and commanded spirits. They were the root of every art and the key to its deepest mysteries.”

Daoists worshiped the sun, moon, and stars, placing particular importance on the seven stars of the Northern Dipper. They believed that praying to the gods through this pattern of steps could summon spirits, obtain the divine qi of the Dipper, banish evil, and welcome truth.

When practicing qi or entering the mountains and forests, Daoists also frequently used these steps to gather qi and drive away邪 influences. The name Yu’s Steps was ancient; in later ages, it developed into the Daoist Dipper Steps, which became Treading the Dipper and Stepping the Stars.

So long as the sequence of steps was not disrupted, the practitioner could use celestial-dipper qi to maintain abundant vitality for a long period. Certain steps could also enable one to inhale celestial-dipper qi capable of repairing the body.

It was a method closely connected with one’s very life and destiny, allowing one to absorb the transformations of heaven and earth for personal use. However, it was not as powerful as the Six Vaults Immortal Thief.

In fact, this revealed that Treading the Dipper and Stepping the Stars bore a certain resemblance to the Wave-Like Steps.

The Wave-Like Steps likewise took the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes as their foundation. By advancing through the positions of the hexagrams in a prescribed order, the practitioner could accumulate internal power and true qi.

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Where did this internal power and true qi come from?

Energy could not be created from nothing. Conservation had to apply.

Put another way, could the Wave-Like Steps actually be a form of celestial-dipper footwork?

In truth, the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Wave-Like Steps were essentially two mutually complementary aspects of the same kind of cultivation.

The Wave-Like Steps could absorb the qi drifting freely between heaven and earth, while the Northern Dark Divine Art could likewise help Meng Fan draw in that qi.

To describe them in more vivid terms, the Northern Dark Divine Art was like a Kunpeng soaring through the waves and skies, devouring the “small fish and shrimp” scattered throughout heaven and earth.

The Wave-Like Steps, meanwhile, were more like an automatic cultivation cheat. Once Meng Fan began to move, they would cultivate on their own in the background.

Combined, the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Wave-Like Steps exhausted every possible method of movement and stillness to steal the qi of heaven and earth.

Of course, with the Northern Dark Divine Art and the Wave-Like Steps as points of comparison for the cultivation arts of the One-Person-Under-Heaven world, Meng Fan’s thoughts began to wander even further.

It was said that the ancient practitioners of qi ate the rosy clouds and drank qi.

There was also the saying that those who consumed qi would become divine and attain longevity.

In the world of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, the Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Rule Supreme Skill was likewise the supreme martial art of the Carefree Sect. It required the most exalted internal art as its foundation before it could be cultivated.

In Meng Fan’s understanding, the most exalted internal art could be none other than the Northern Dark Divine Art. The Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Rule Supreme Skill was very likely a continuation of the Northern Dark Divine Art once it had reached a certain stage.

Or perhaps the Northern Dark Divine Art, the Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Rule Supreme Skill, and the Lesser Formless Skill were originally parts of a single whole.

The Heavenly Mountain Child Grandmother had begun practicing this art at the age of six. At thirty-six, she returned to youth, a process that took thirty days.

At sixty-six, she returned to youth again, and that time it took sixty days. At ninety-six, she underwent the transformation once more, requiring ninety days before her power could be restored.

Although the Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Rule Supreme Skill possessed tremendous power, it had one flaw: each time the practitioner returned to youth, all cultivated power vanished completely. After one day of restoring her cultivation, she would recover the power she had possessed at the age of seven; on the second day, that of age eight; on the third, that of age nine. Each day represented one year, and at noon every day she had to drink fresh blood in order to practice.

Of course, this was also because the Heavenly Mountain Child Grandmother had injured the Triple Burner meridian of the Hand Shaoyang channel.

The internal art had originally been called the Pure Yang Art of Supreme Sovereignty. It belonged to the extreme yang and was unsuitable for women to practice. Proud and arrogant, the Child Grandmother reversed the circulation of this extreme-yang art, transforming it into extreme yin, and renamed it the Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Rule Supreme Skill.

This internal art primarily attacked the Triple Burner meridian of the Hand Shaoyang channel. In modern terms, the Triple Burner meridian was essentially the endocrine system.

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The true qi of the human body originated from the five grains. After the grains entered the stomach and intestines, their nutrients were absorbed by the small intestine, while true qi was gathered by the middle burner. It then entered the upper burner, passed through the lungs into the twelve primary meridians, and traveled through the kidney meridian into the Governing and Conception Vessels before returning to the lower burner and entering the dantian.

The Triple Burner effectively controlled the gathering, dispersal, storage, and use of true qi. Strengthening the Triple Burner through the circulation of energy could produce far more true qi than ordinary cultivation methods. Once mastered, the entire body would be filled with it.

That was why this art possessed such astonishing power and was truly the pinnacle of internal cultivation. Yet because it generated too much qi—far more than the corresponding amount of blood—it also carried a grave danger.

Qi belonged to yang, while blood belonged to yin. Without the yin of blood to harmonize the yang qi, yang would flourish while yin withered, ultimately resulting in death. There were many ways to replenish blood, but the Child Grandmother had chosen the extreme method of drinking fresh blood.

Furthermore, because the Triple Burner meridian was positioned relatively late among the body’s meridians, even lying beyond the Governing and Conception Vessels, anyone wishing to practice this art needed a solid foundation in both the Lesser and Greater Heavenly Circulations.

Otherwise, the body’s true qi might be exhausted, or it might fail to control the yang qi, resulting in overstimulation and insomnia.

In Meng Fan’s eyes, the original Pure Yang Art of Supreme Sovereignty belonged to the yang aspect of the body’s yin and yang. In terms of the dual cultivation of nature and life, it belonged to life cultivation.

The essence of life—the art of transformation.

As for the Lesser Formless Skill, it was subtle and profound. It was “lesser” because only by being lesser could it be formless and leave no trace.

Its principal characteristic was that it did not cling to outward form and was impossible to trace.

Anyone who possessed this art and knew the moves of another martial discipline could rely on its incomparable power to imitate even another sect’s ultimate techniques, perhaps surpassing the originals. Those who had never studied the art themselves would find it extremely difficult to tell the difference.

This art was linked to the blood and qi of the heart meridian, focusing primarily on refining the Heart Meridian of the Hand Shaoyin through the little finger. It therefore belonged to the yin aspect of cultivation.

If developed to its ultimate境界, its power would be immense.

Yet the art was called the Lesser Formless Skill. The addition of the word “lesser” already indicated that it was ultimately only an elementary stage of the Daoist advanced internal arts. When used to operate Daoist techniques, it was indeed smooth and effortless; but when applied to the arts of other schools, it inevitably fit imperfectly and could not reveal their full subtlety.

Cultivating this art required purity, stillness, and non-action; the spirit was to wander through the Great Void, reaching the utmost emptiness and guarding stillness with unwavering devotion.

It could be regarded as the cultivation of nature within the dual cultivation of nature and life.

The essence of nature—the art of mastering the body’s transformations through formlessness.