The Origin of the Five Elements Battle Method

"Finally done." Lu Yang stretched his arms. Under the guidance of the Technique Transmission Elder, their learning had progressed at lightning speed, and they had already achieved initial success with the Five Elements Battle Method. The Technique Transmission Elder stroked his white beard and nodded slightly. "Not bad. I have nothing left to teach you." Among all the disciples he had ever taught, Lu Yang and his companions were the fastest to master the Five Elements Battle Method. In part, this was due to Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou's formidable divine senses, which played a leading role throughout their cultivation. Another crucial factor was their remarkable unity; studying together made their efforts yield twice the result with half the effort. "The Five Elements Battle Method is indeed powerful." Li Haoran nodded inwardly. If the Nine Nether Cult had mastered this method, Qin Haoran and the four Vice Cult Masters joining forces might very well have repelled the debt collectors. Of course, that assumed the four Vice Cult Masters were informed of the cult's deficit and could still remain united after finding out. "Speaking of which, this Five Elements Battle Method is so wondrous. Which senior of epoch-making talent invented it?" Lu Yang asked curiously. "This Five Elements Battle Method was created by the founding patriarch of our Five Elements Sect, Mister Tiankui. He was an extraordinary genius of his generation who laid down many foundational legacies for our sect, the Five Elements Battle Method being one of them." Mister Tiankui was renowned across Great Xia. A hundred thousand years ago, he was a supreme figure of his era on par with Heavenly Venerable Guiyuan of the Dao Seeking Sect, and he had helped drive the establishment of the Five Great Immortal Sects. A look of reminiscence crossed the Technique Transmission Elder's face as he recalled the tales passed down by word of mouth within the Five Elements Sect. "Mister Tiankui was born into a scholarly family in the late Great Yu era and was deeply influenced by the Confucian doctrines of 'let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject, the father a father, and the son a son.' Originally, he intended to pass the imperial examinations and enlist in the army to lay the groundwork for a future rebellion. When the time came, a single call would rally thousands, and he could crown himself king—would that not be marvelous? ...Those last two lines were Mister Tiankui's exact words from his daily journal, not mine." "Alas, before he could pass the examinations, the Emperor of Great Yu was already gone, slain right upon his imperial throne. Mister Tiankui's plan to join the army and rebel collapsed on the spot." "...Wait a moment, Elder. You just said Mister Tiankui was deeply influenced by the doctrine of ruler and subject, father and son, and then he decided to rebel?" Although interrupting an elder was bad form, Meng Jingzhou simply couldn't hold back. "That's right. Mister Tiankui grew sick and tired of studying all that 'ruler is ruler, subject is subject, father is father, and son is son' stuff, so he wanted to see what would happen if he didn't follow it." Enlightenment dawned on Man Gu. So there were Confucian cultivators who operated like that—not merely reading dead books, but using practice to test whether what was written in the books was true. His own past studies had been far too rigid. "When the world descended into chaos, Mister Tiankui's cultivation was not yet high enough to vie for supremacy under heaven. So he quietly cultivated, sustaining his slaughter through slaughter on the battlefield, and his cultivation grew by leaps and bounds." "Yet, rare though his talent was and fast though he cultivated, by the time he became a regional warlord, the Jiang family had already triumphed and proclaimed an emperor. He was a step too late." "Mister Tiankui spent his days in sullen depression, traveling across the world to clear his mind. One day, he wandered into an immortal realm by mistake and stumbled upon a great opportunity." "An immortal realm?" Lu Yang caught onto the word 'immortal.' Usually, such places were called secret realms; anything qualified to be called an immortal realm had to have something to do with an immortal. "It's just related to an immortal, that's all. Look at you, making a fuss over nothing. In front of this Immortal, what does an immortal realm even amount to?" the Immortal Fairy remarked lazily, completely indifferent. She was an immortal herself, so everything she did was related to an immortal. Lu Yang eyed the Immortal Fairy suspiciously. *You talk as if you actually know where an immortal realm is.* *If only you knew the location of even a single one.* Sensing the disdain in Lu Yang's gaze, the Immortal Fairy puffed up proudly to prove her worth. "This Immortal stays inside your spiritual world, which means the place where this Immortal resides is an immortal's spiritual world. Simply put, this place is the Immortal Realm!" Lu Yang had never heard "the Immortal Realm" explained like that before. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the elder's story. "According to Mister Tiankui's records, that secret realm was arranged by immortals who schemed across eternity, with profound mysteries hidden everywhere. He even saw shadows of immortals preserved across the ages, as if ancient history were replaying before his eyes, though the immortals' faces remained obscured and blurry!" "Two immortals were playing a game upon a chessboard, using black and white stones. Their layout was exquisitely subtle, every move planned after long contemplation, with months passing between each stone played. It was as though they were playing not a mere board game, but the eternal ages, the mortal realm, and the myriad lives of the world!" "During the game, a third immortal arrived in the guise of a woodcutter to watch." "Mister Tiankui became utterly enthralled. By the time he came to his senses, a whole century had passed!" "As he watched the black and white stones clashing on the board, locked in a struggle where neither side could easily connect five stones in a row, he experienced a sudden epiphany." "Mister Tiankui believed that five stones corresponded to the Five Elements. Aligning five stones in a row brought ultimate victory, symbolizing the unity of the Five Elements—a force of immense power that could move even immortals." "He entered secluded cultivation right there on the spot. Taking that epiphany as his foundation, he created the Five Elements Battle Method, and upon emerging from seclusion, he founded the Five Elements Sect." "Unfortunately, when Mister Tiankui came out of seclusion, the shadows of the immortals had vanished, never to appear again." "Mister Tiankui claimed that he was dull-witted and had only grasped ten or twenty percent of it. He believed that game of chess must have held deeper layers of meaning that eluded him—for example, why did the third immortal, the woodcutter, come over to watch? What was the significance of cutting firewood? Was it treating all living beings as kindling, or was it meant to show his neutral stance?" The Technique Transmission Elder shook his head with regret. There were too many things that could never be explained. Ancient times were shrouded in mystery, and even now, the world's knowledge of the ancient era was nothing more than fragmented scales and claws. Lu Yang: "..." He remembered the Immortal Fairy telling him that Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin had used playing chess as an excuse to avoid eating the Immortal Fairy's cooking, adamantly refusing to go. The Immortal Fairy had then sent Immortal Jiuchong to chop firewood for cooking, and after chopping the wood, Immortal Jiuchong had gone over to watch the game. The three immortals had ended up playing chess for an entire hundred years. Lu Yang had assumed that a game lasting a hundred years had to be Go or something similarly profound, embodying heaven, earth, and the cosmos. *Turns out you two were just playing Gomoku!* "See, what did this Immortal tell you? Immortal Jiuchong infused Yin-Yang and the Five Elements into the chessboard to enlighten posterity! Isn't this a living example?" the Immortal Fairy declared self-righteously, finally finding proof that she hadn't been lying. "By the way, Elder, is that immortal realm still around?" "It is. Although the shadows of the immortals disappeared and no one else could ever comprehend anything from it, Mister Tiankui felt that an immortal realm was an immortal realm after all, so he relocated it back to our sect." *No wonder the founding Metal Vein Elder hauled several whole mountains of ore back to the sect,* Lu Yang thought. *Your founding patriarch hauled an entire immortal realm!* Still, now was not the time to harp on that. "Can we enter the secret realm to view the immortals' chessboard?" It was, after all, a place where three immortals had stayed. There might be clues. Hearing Lu Yang ask this, Meng Jingzhou and the others grew interested as well. Anything related to immortals was something they simply had to see. The Technique Transmission Elder pondered for a moment. "I will need to ask the Sect Master about this, but I imagine he will agree."