Chapter 51: Ancient Heaven Today, the Sun and Moon Endure

Hidden Dao Peak, Inquiry Courtyard.

Master Yuanji traced patterns in the empty air.

Radiance bloomed from his fingertips like a brush, gradually growing a torso from an embryo, finally condensing into a talisman.

The process followed strict structural rules, executed with rigorous precision that permitted not a single error, yet the resulting form possessed a freehand and dashing grace.

Beginning with strictness, ending in broadness.

Between strictness and broadness lay a profound and subtle truth, unnameable in words, indescribable in dao; some things could only be comprehended intuitively.

Xuantong saw the preservation of boundaries within the talisman: knowing when to be strict and when to be lenient, knowing both the square and the circle.

Xuanyu saw rules and order within the talisman: the harmonious balance of leniency and rigor, the fusion of law and principle.

Xuanming saw even more:

Beginning with oneself and extending to all living beings, being strict with oneself while treating others with leniency, the Dao of Immortality valuing life, universally saving humanity.

Beginning in radiance and ending in the dust, the rise and fall were the deliverance of life beneath the brush, while strictness and broadness embodied mingling with the dust of the world.

Beginning in rigidity and ending in open-mindedness, transitioning from rigid adherence to rules to moving freely with one's heart, encapsulating a whole lifetime in between.

Looking closer still, from the outside in, from complexity to simplicity, it was nothing more than a single stroke and a single dot, a single dao and a single principle, a single person and a single mind.

Seeing Master Yuanji look toward him, Xuanming smiled with understanding. He similarly extended his finger, which blossomed with a fluorescent glow.

Master Yuanji was taken aback. He had not expected this True Person from the Seeking Truth Temple to act so unexpectedly as to discuss the Dao through talismans as well.

One must know that the Heavenly Talisman Sect was founded upon talisman arts, possessing profound attainments in the Dao of Talismans. Writing and painting talismans was his means of livelihood, his primary method of cultivation.

Although discussing the Dao was meant to validate one's learning, with the purpose of absorbing principles as needed, broadening horizons, deepening cognition, and mutually benefiting one another, since it was a discussion, there was naturally a sequence of precedence—colliding in exchange, clashing in discourse.

Although Fellow Daoist Xuanming was a True Person who had achieved the supreme method, he had after all broken through to this realm quite recently. Being fellow practitioners of the Greater Heavenly Cycle realm, Xuanming's combat power might surpass his own, but their Dao attainment might not necessarily be equal.

The former was about strength; the latter was about principles.

Though related, they were not absolute.

The strong in strength did not necessarily possess a preceding Dao.

The weak in strength did not necessarily possess a trailing Dao.

For Fellow Daoist Xuanming to pit his short against another's long, measuring an inch with a ruler, was truly somewhat overconfident. Thinking of another purpose for his current trip, Yuanji hesitated, wondering whether he should intentionally hold back.

Only by aligning one's heart with the Dao and serving the Dao with sincerity could one participate in the Dao, strengthen the Dao, and cause the Dao to flourish.

A discussion of the Dao should inherently not be tainted by selfish desires, but if he won this debate, the matter he wished to plot would require half the effort for twice the result. Yet if he intentionally held back, this discussion of the Dao would become a joke, reduced to a mere facade.

Not only would it leave him with meager gains, but it would also make his thoughts blocked for a time, showing a lack of sincerity toward his own Dao.

In the flash of a spark, Master Yuanji's mind surged with tumbling thoughts. Failing to find a two-sided solution for the moment, he prepared to observe the changes quietly and act according to the circumstances.

Gathering his mind and spirit, Master Yuanji focused entirely upon Xuanming's fingertips. Following his movements, he was instantly startled, and instantly mesmerized.

---

Two horizontal strokes, a falling stroke, and a rising stroke—the character for "Heaven".

He had actually written the exact same character.

The difference was that the Heavenly talisman written by Yuanji was in the ancient seal script of the Heavenly Talisman Sect, with a human figure standing right in the middle, naturally surmounted by the heavens above. Meanwhile, the character for heaven written by Fellow Daoist Xuanming was in modern script, implying that nothing in the vastness of space could exceed the heavens.

The Heavenly Talisman Sect studied the Heavenly talisman most profoundly; otherwise, how could they dare use it as their name?

Yuanji was also most proud of this talisman.

If other peers of the same rank were to write the Heavenly talisman before him to discuss the Dao, it would inevitably border on showing off one's slight skill before an expert. Yet upon seeing the talisman written by Xuanming, he not only harbored no such thought, but instead wore a serious expression, observing attentively with all his heart, his face full of appreciation and admiration.

In Yuanji's eyes, Xuanming's Heavenly talisman began like the heavens and ended in the earth, as if it contained an entire world. Once formed, the talisman condensed the cosmos; once fixed, the character gathered Yin and Yang, possessing a grand spirit and vast scenery.

In Xuantong's eyes, his senior brother's talisman was about knowing the turbid while guarding the pure, knowing the Yin while guarding the Yang. In Xuanyu's eyes, his senior brother's talisman was about the brilliant clarity of the universe and the enduring constancy of order.

---

Beside the rugged, vigorous old pine tree, the resting spirit deer Changshou gazed at the two talismans in the void. At first, it tilted its head in curiosity, then its moist eyes filled with confusion. Its eyelids drooped, half-open and half-closed, as drowsiness struck.

Shaking its head vigorously, the spirit deer tried hard to rouse its spirits. Although its cultivation was low and its intelligence still clouded, its instincts told it that those two talismans held great benefits, and it subconsciously wanted to hold on a little longer.

On the stone stools, Xuanming and Yuanji smiled at each other, simultaneously guiding their talismans until the two characters for "Heaven" slowly drew closer.

The ancient heaven was murky; the modern heaven was bright and clear.

As the two heavens closed the distance, their strokes swam like fish.

One intertwined illusion and reality; the other alternated light and darkness.

One possessed no fixed form; the other possessed no fixed momentum.

One transformed into a circle and then into a horizontal stroke; the other changed into a dot and then into a vertical stroke.

The two heavens converged, the two characters fused, and the two talismans absorbed one another through collision, complementing each other through opposition, discarding the dross while keeping the essence, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and comprehensively absorbing both.

Ancient and modern connected at the tip of the brush, surveying both east and west.

Above and below ran parallel within the talisman, spanning across north and south.

Principles derived from the process, shattering and then reorganizing, reorganizing and then shattering, resembling the sparks of colliding thoughts, continuously debating and mutually validating one another in communication.

Every shattering was an argument; every reorganization was an absorption. The Dao became clearer the more it was debated through mutual unyieldingness, and principles became more distinct the more they were discussed through opposing fronts.

Their respective understandings of the Dao also grew increasingly profound by absorbing each other's principles, their breadth widened and their depth dissected.

Xuanming closed his eyes; Yuanji shut his.

The two figures immersed themselves within, the corners of their mouths upturned.

At some unknown point, the spirit deer closed its eyes, lay flat on the ground, and fell soundly asleep. Its breathing unconsciously carried a faint, special rhythm, and the spiritual essence rose and fell in tandem with it.

Xuantong and Xuanyu felt their bodies and minds uncontrollably fatigued, their heads spinning and their eyelids growing increasingly heavy.

Subtle Dao rhythms permeated outward from the evolving talismans, resembling tiny streams emerging from a clear spring, gathering little by little to cover an increasingly vast area.

The rugged old pine shook its branches and leaves without wind.

---

The three-foot lotus pond's withered lotuses emitted fragrance, and the lotus seeds nurtured spiritual essence.

The herbal plants on both sides of the bluestone path relaxed their leaves, and medicinal herbs at the corners and along the walls accelerated their growth. The spiritual resonance of the peachwood sword on the desk grew even more active.

The Dao rhythm drifted out of the courtyard and flowed into the Scripture Repository.

The Taoists reading scriptures there benefited and instinctively walked outside the Inquiry Courtyard, one after another sitting cross-legged on the ground to silently comprehend.

The newly appointed scripture-guarding Taoist arrived and, seeing the group of Taoists scattered about sitting casually, frowned deeply. A moment later, observing the neatly arranged rows of meditating Taoists, he took the top seat himself and dedicated his mind to comprehending the Dao.

Inside the Scripture Repository, a streak of spiritual light wandered among the bookshelves and scrolls, bathing in the Dao rhythm, appearing and disappearing indistinctly.

---

Two hours later.

Inside and outside the Inquiry Courtyard, people were sprawled everywhere, fast asleep.

Only the two True Persons remained half-asleep and half- awake, half-dreaming and half-conscious, half-wise and half-foolish, entering a profound and subtle state.

The two characters for "Heaven" resembled the Two Modes, distinctly separate yet containing each other within. Transforming from two into one, each occupying half, a three-foot illusory universe gestated and was born amidst the principles, ultimately giving birth to a brand-new talisman within heaven and earth: Ming (Brightness)!

A single day divided into day and night.

Half a day as the sun, half a day as the moon.

The ancient heaven served as the end; the new heaven served as the beginning.

The cyclical alternation of endings and beginnings formed the rotation of the sun and moon. The sun rose and the moon set, the moon set and the sun rose, the character "Ming" radiated brilliance, and the heavens possessed their proper seasons.

Space generated time; time evolved space.

Master Yuanji fell asleep without realizing it, snoring like thunder. Only Xuanming remained awake, his mind and spirit plunging into the three-foot illusory heaven. Without a single distraction, he comprehended the "Ming" talisman, half of his consciousness entering the sun and half entering the moon.

An incense stick's time later, heaven and earth grew unstable, and the "Ming" talisman was on the verge of dissipating. Xuanming's mind stirred, and his mysterious pass (Xuanguan) radiated brilliance. A trace of profound aura from the *Jade Scripture of the Outer Scenery of the Yellow Court* was guided out by him and injected into the "Ming" talisman.

This was an ability he discovered after achieving the status of a True Person—he could draw down a trace of mysterious Yellow Court breath. Although there was only a single trace, it was boundlessly profound, capable of augmenting enlightenment and shielding against prying eyes.

Acting on a sudden impulse to see if he could stabilize the "Ming" talisman, he never imagined it would actually work. That single trace firmly stabilized the illusory universe, made the movement of the sun and moon orderly, separated the clear from the turbid in heaven and earth, ordered Yin and Yang, and brought purposeful action to the cosmos.

From midday to dusk.

Xuanming comprehended for three hours.

When the "Ming" talisman was finally about to dissipate, looking at the talismanic sun and moon within the illusory universe, he experienced a flash of inspiration. Operating the Hunyuan Method, he drew in a wisp of purple Qi from the setting sun and a wisp of moonlight from the new moon, injecting them respectively into the talismanic sun and moon. Each branded half a talisman, and borrowing the Yellow Court breath to retain half a wisp of vital energy, after the "Ming" talisman dissipated, he gathered the halves of the sun and moon talismans into his mysterious pass.

Simultaneously, a joyful cry of a deer echoed through the air.

You-you-you~!