Five Elements Battle Method

Once their roles were settled, the Merit Transmission Elder led the five outdoors, had them take their positions according to their designated elements, and spoke aloud with his hands clasped behind his back: "To achieve seamless cooperation, one must first know oneself and know one's comrades. "You five are similar in age and matched in cultivation realms, so this step will be much easier for you. "Release your auras and closely sense the realms of the other four." Lu Yang and the others sat cross-legged, closing their eyes to focus their minds. Releasing their auras, they used their divine sense to perceive external movements. "Hm? What powerful divine sense," the Merit Transmission Elder murmured softly in surprise, noticing that Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou possessed the most prominent divine sense, clearly a whole cut above the rest. Moreover, Lu Yang's divine sense was even stronger than Meng Jingzhou's, showing a distinct difference. "Divine sense is the hardest to cultivate, and to this day I have never heard of a method for cultivating divine sense at this stage. How on earth did these two rascals train theirs? "Ah, of course. Meng Jingzhou possesses the Bachelor Spiritual Root, and the profile provided to me by the Dao Seeking Sect even indicated that he formed an unprecedented Dual Bachelor Golden Core. His yang qi is abundant, and his desires are correspondingly stronger. As a possessor of the Bachelor Spiritual Root, he must constantly suppress his desires. Under that kind of tempering, it makes sense for his divine sense to be powerful. "Then what about Lu Yang? Some secret art passed down by Yun Zhi? Or did that Old Scoundrel Buyu hit upon a method like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse?" Having suffered relentless torment at the hands of the Immortal Fairy, Lu Yang was exceptionally adept with divine sense, and his perceptual touch was the sharpest. With everyone releasing their auras without concealment, he sensed the realm of three junior siblings and one grandson. All four had reached the late Golden Core stage. Li Haoran, who had progressed the slowest, had successfully broken through before setting out. Li Haoran had spent a year soaking in magma during the Qi Refinement stage, which had delayed his cultivation; now, building up steadily and breaking out suddenly, he had finally caught up with everyone's pace. Lu Yang also sensed Meng Jingzhou's vigorous vitality and yang qi, so ferocious that an ordinary ghost or monster would be scorched just by looking at him. Naturally, not all ghosts feared Meng Jingzhou; a female ghost like the Immortal Fairy was completely unfazed by him. After about half an hour, everyone opened their eyes, having thoroughly grasped the others' details. "Next is the second step: channeling spiritual energy." The Merit Transmission Elder had the five line up in single file in the order of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, starting from Man Gu pressing both hands against Li Haoran's back to channel spiritual energy, continuing down the line until finally Tao Yaoye transmitted everyone's spiritual energy together with her own to Lu Yang. Lu Yang's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. Although he had prepared himself, the abrupt rush of immense spiritual energy still exceeded his expectations, faintly bordering on the limit of what he could bear. "Release it all!" the Merit Transmission Elder shouted. Lu Yang drew the Green Blade Sword. With his essence, energy, and spirit uniting as one, his sword qi surged like a bolt of white silk. "Slash!" The five people's spiritual energy transformed into sword qi, pouring downward like floodwaters bursting a dam. *Boom!* A ten-meter-long arc of sword qi cleaved downward in a flash like a waterfall of sword qi, crashing toward the pool with boundless power. In an instant, the winds and clouds swirled wildly, the colossal roar deafening, and a fathomless rift tore open in the ground. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—* Having unleashed this strike, the spiritual energy of all five was drained down to the last drop. Their legs trembled with exhaustion, and they finally collapsed onto their backsides, gazing at the fissure in the ground while grinning foolishly. Even Lu Yang was astonished by the power of this strike. It was the strongest blow he had ever unleashed to date. "Did you see my strike? I knew just now that it would definitely pack this kind of punch!" "What's so great about your strike? The aura Man Gu and Li Haoran channeled into me almost shattered me! I had to use Nirvana True Fire to restore my meridians while dispersing the force!" "Man Gu, you channeled way too much spiritual energy." "I just wanted to make it stronger, that's all." The five discussed it with boundless enthusiasm, faces beaming with excited smiles as they looked back on the execution of the attack. The Merit Transmission Elder handed each of them a bottle of Great Restoration Pills and nodded approvingly. "For a first joint attack, this strike was quite impressive. Next time, be careful not to pour out all your spiritual energy in one go. You must hold something in reserve. "In all the years since the Five Elements Battle Method was created, Old Song and the other five branch elders have used it often. Even for them, they have only unleashed a full-power strike seven or eight times in total. Those were truly brutal fights, leaving themselves no way out at all." "Did they encounter formidable enemies?" "They encountered the elders of your Dao Seeking Sect." "..." "Oh, and Old Scoundrel Buyu," the Merit Transmission Elder added, naming a key figure. "..." The Merit Transmission Elder clicked his tongue twice, shuddering at the memory of that attack. *It was truly exhilarating.* "Did our Sect Master stir up trouble again?" Tao Yaoye asked. For the five branch elders to unleash a full-power strike using the Five Elements Battle Method, just how deep a grudge must it have been? "That was some seven or eight hundred years ago. Old Scoundrel Buyu took your Fifth Elder and Eighth Elder to the Golden Buddhist Kingdom to build a temple. Whether it was legal or in violation of the rules isn't clear, but the temple got built regardless. "The temple's incense offerings were exceptionally flourishing, too. Presumably they used some sort of marketing gimmick, so pilgrims showed up in droves." Tao Yaoye was still puzzled. "Is there a problem with that?" "The problem was that Old Scoundrel Buyu named the temple the Five Viscera Temple, and the ones enshrined inside were Old Song and the five of them! It made the Buddhist Kingdom think our Five Elements Sect had come over to snatch their business, and they were this close to sending a transnational wanted bulletin to the imperial court. "Fortunately, Old Qiu stepped in promptly to clarify the situation and explain the reasons, which convinced the Buddhist Kingdom to withdraw the warrant. "When Old Scoundrel Buyu took his beating, he claimed they were conducting an experiment to see if Old Song and the other five could feel the faith being directed at them. "Old Song roared at him, asking why he didn't put himself up as an object of worship instead, to which Old Scoundrel Buyu replied that he was afraid of being wanted." Tao Yaoye: "..." *The Sect Master didn't take an ounce of an unjust beating.* Seeing the immense power of Lu Yang's strike, the Immortal Fairy chuckled with great interest. "This Five Elements Battle Method actually has something to it. It's quite creative. Immortal Jiuchong once came up with something similar." Lu Yang was startled. Having personally experienced the power of the Five Elements Battle Method, he knew it was formidable indeed. As a celestial, Immortal Jiuchong possessed an even broader vision—just how mighty would something he created be! "Please elaborate, Fairy." "Back when we Five Ancient Celestials gathered to exchange insights on cultivation, Immortal Jiuchong proposed an idea: combining yin and yang with the five elements to serve as a reference for future generations. If later generations could comprehend its mysteries, they would surely make invaluable progress in yin-yang and the five elements." "Did Immortal Jiuchong succeed?" Lu Yang asked eagerly. "He succeeded. It's gomoku. Haven't you played it?" Lu Yang: "..." Once the five had mostly recovered, the Merit Transmission Elder had them continue channeling spiritual energy, with Lu Yang discharging it, but this time holding back so as not to exhaust themselves completely as they had the first time. After repeating the exercise several times, the five quickly learned to control the amount of channeled spiritual energy at will. "Now we begin the next step. Stand in the same order as before, but form a circle. Lu Yang, you press against Man Gu's back. "The five of you will transmit spiritual energy to the person in front of you. Keep strict control over the speed and amount of energy. If the speed is too fast or the quantity too large, the person in front won't be able to bear it."