Chapter 112 — Five Stars Split the Wall

The Scripture says that to open the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury one must fix the star positions. The star positions are the five luminaries of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth in the heavens, and they answer to the five luminaries within the human body's Five Luminaries Divine Treasury. Every person's constitution differs, their growth differs, man and woman differ, and so the places of the five luminaries within the treasury differ as well.

Therefore one must use the five luminaries of heaven to reckon the five luminaries of the body, fix the star positions, and then strike with qi.

Shen Mu took from his bundle a thick stack of paper, a charcoal pencil, and an abacus; beside them lay ten volumes of the Classic of Calculation. He opened the papers: they were densely covered with formulas. He used the primal-solution method to compute the positions of the five luminaries, and these past days he had calculated nearly to the end.

The abacus clicked on without pause, and when the sun had climbed three poles high, Shen Mu stretched, rose, and worked the stiffness from his body.

On the first sheet upon the table he had drawn a heart, ringed about with dense writing and formulas; five lines branched from it, tracing an equilateral pentagon around the heart, each corner marked with the nature of metal, wood, water, fire, or earth. Shen Mu had turned the way of generation and overcoming into numbers, computed the star positions, and at last worked out the exact location of his Crimson Palace. Having limbered himself, he began to pace, step by step, urging his qi into vigorous circulation.

As it passed through the Spirit Embryo his qi grew ever more vast; he walked faster and faster, until wind began to howl in the room, and the wind grew stronger and blew open doors and windows, and Shen Mu simply stepped out of the tower into the courtyard, pacing swiftly on as though no one else existed, never stopping.

At last his qi reached its utmost. In the Primordial Embryo Divine Treasury, the Spirit Embryo upon the Mystic Altar rose to its feet and raised both hands toward the heavens, and from each hand five streams of qi rushed up into the heights of the treasury; pairing and merging, they became five stars. Those five stars were joined by threads of qi, linked along the sides and across the diagonals, forming a pentagonal pattern.

Then they slowly grew dazzling, and like a mirror, with a hum, they shone down from the Primordial Embryo Divine Treasury, opening the Ren and Du meridians; the light shone down along his throat and, with a hum, illumined his heart's chamber.

Shen Mu's qi erupted in vast force, surging down along the path of light, and crashed with a boom upon the very point the light illumined. A thunderous roar sounded at his ear; an invisible gate in his heart's chamber burst open, and that invisible barrier was smashed to dust by his qi and vanished without a trace. A divine treasury — thus opened! A divine note sounded in his mind, but before it could disturb the circulation of his qi, the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury had already gaped wide!

Shen Mu halted; half a month of accumulation had become this one overwhelming strike — thoroughly exhilarating, a downpour of delight! "Why does the young master not cultivate in quiet, but come out here instead? " Fu Qingyun walked over, a note of reproach in her voice.

Shen Mu opened his eyes; his aura was still rising, his cultivation growing ever richer. He smiled. "I have broken through the wall.

" Fu Qingyun's heart gave a leap; she stared at him wide-eyed, unable to believe it, and stammered, "The young master has broken through.

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what? " "I have broken the barrier of the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury," Shen Mu said with a smile.

Fu Qingyun felt a little dizzy.

"But I only just left your room a short while ago.

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