Chapter Fifteen: The Mystery of Change

  The fox licked its lips, stretched and shrunk its neck, and spat out a bead the size of a quail egg from its mouth. The bead was surrounded by a circle of golden light and floated in mid-air. "This is the golden bead we've kept to save our lives," it said. "It's a treasure made from the relics of Buddha's bones through refining rituals. Not to mention an ordinary person, even a great immortal like Daluo Jin Xian may not be able to do anything to it."

  Qian Yiqun was about to reach out and take a closer look, but the fox had already swallowed the pearl in one gulp. "This is our lifesaving treasure, how could we give it to you?" The fox said, "You haven't even learned 'ease' yet? The fox learned extremely quickly and effortlessly mastered Qian Yiqun's "topic-shifting great method".

  "This... ordinary people's home, who would go learn that?" Qian Yiqun found an excuse for himself.

  "You can buy a set for less than one tael of silver at the bookstore outside, and you still don't learn it. What a waste of talent! " Bai Ze immediately gave Qian Yigun a lesson: "Yi has Taiji, born two instruments, three talents are complete and become four images, four images evolve into eight trigrams..."

  Qian Yiqun knew that the fox had cleverly shifted the topic, but these things were spoken from the fox's mouth, and it was quite interesting. Every word and sentence seemed to be printed in his mind, without feeling dry or obscure. The fox saw Qian Yiqun being humble and eager to learn, with a good talent, and for a moment they talked enthusiastically, without hiding anything, and actually recited the entire "Mystical Axis of the I Ching".

  What it says about the Book of Changes is not the popular version that has been passed down, but rather a genuine and profound art of divination. The biggest difference between this and the common understanding of the Book of Changes lies in the fact that people see the Book of Changes as a flat surface, with the eight trigrams each occupying a fixed position, representing the eight directions. However, the sixty-four hexagrams in the profound art of divination are three-dimensional, taking man as the ultimate reality and the center of the sphere, with the eight trigrams on the outside, like an eight-sided die, one hexagram per side, which can be used to distinguish between good and bad fortune, and to advance or retreat accordingly.

  "If one can cultivate the Easy Numbers well, they can cultivate three layers." The fox said, "The 4,096 lines of the I Ching are truly a divine mechanism, with each step being a camp. I've only seen Chen Bo have this skill."

  "Heh heh heh!" Qian Yiqun was overjoyed in his heart, "Can the great immortal teach me?"

  "Impossible," the fox glared at Qian Yiqun with a bad temper, "the Three Thousand Six Hundred Great Ways have countless side doors, do you think you can learn them all? Greed will lead to trouble!" The fox didn't say that he himself couldn't do it, instead he took on the demeanor of a strict teacher and lectured Qian Yiqun.

  Qian Yiqun's mind flashed with a bright idea, and he secretly thought: Indeed, that's the reason. Just now, things happened suddenly, and he actually rushed up like a rough man holding a knife... The use of the Sword Controlling Technique was not great either... Thinking of this, his arm involuntarily ached, and under the lamp light, he saw that the place where he was hit by the iron ruler had turned into a large bruise.

  The fox approached and sniffed, saying: "A whiff of seductive air."

  Qian Yiqun thought to himself: You're wearing this fox fur coat, are you qualified to call others promiscuous?

  "That old dog Wei is indeed possessed by a demon, this smell, tsk, it's really foul." The fox covered its nose and turned its head, revealing a face of disgust. "However, I think he's a short-lived goods, once he dies, the demon should be able to return to the painting too. Actually, in my opinion, you should have handed over old dog Wei to that Dai Shiming today."

  "Huh?" Qian Yiqun was taken aback, "What does that guy want with Old Dog Wei?" That Old Dog Wei is only good at hiding and nothing else, even if he went to be a grandfather nobody would want him.

  "He should also be attracted by the charm of the fox spirit," said the fox. "Fortunately, you didn't take out the 'Bai Mei Tu', otherwise he wouldn't have let you off so easily."

  "Has the charm of the spirit tempted him?"

  "You don't know? Well, you didn't know anything to begin with." The fox looked pleased with itself. "Now listen up, although the charming spirit will return to the picture scroll once the possessed person dies, after the Han dynasty, someone invented a Spirit Binding Array that can turn spirits into earthbound spirits at one's beck and call. In other words..."

  "Yā is going to snatch away my Mèi Líng!" Qián Yì Qún exclaimed in shock, "Kill that old dog Wèi, then trap the Mèi Líng!"

  "Indeed," the fox was interrupted, and it showed a hint of dissatisfaction. "So if I were you, just let Dài Shì Míng kill Wèi Lǎo Gǒu. When he absorbs the charm into his body, all his spiritual power will be useless, and with just one sword strike, you can easily take him down. At that time, the charm will naturally return to the painting."

  "How will you summon it then?" Qian Yiqun thought to himself that Bai Ze was indeed a qualified old fox, and humbly asked for advice.

  The fox spirit glared at Qian Yiqun and said, "We haven't used it before, how would we know? You'd better focus on meditating and cultivating your spiritual energy instead of thinking about those useless things."

  Lingyun's power had already made Qian Yiqun addicted, he was very curious about this inexplicable "thing", but couldn't understand it, and could only treat it as a magic value in online games, anyway at his current level there was no need to explore deeper.

  Qian Yiqun sighed, didn't expect that in the great Ming dynasty, he still couldn't escape the fate of hard work and diligence. But thinking about it for over a decade, with himself in his prime, his parents must be old, it's indeed a heavy burden to support the whole family, both the elderly and the young, which greatly increased his motivation, he sat cross-legged on the bed, reflecting inwardly.

  In the midst of stillness, Qian Yiqun watched as his Spiritual Sea gradually recovered, but the speed was still not optimistic. Just when he felt bored, a bright light suddenly flashed across his mind, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a dull and murky bead that shone without dazzling, with an exceptionally warm and gentle glow. Qian Yiqun placed his divine sense on the bead, and suddenly, the entire world was filled with the eunuch-like voice of a fox spirit's quacking duck sound.

  This tone is exactly what was just said in "Yi Zhong Xuan".

  Qian Yiqun had just listened and thought it was interesting, although he remembered more than half of it but couldn't use it at all. At this moment, hearing it again in the sea of recognition, it's a feeling of enlightenment.

  He inwardly responds with sensitivity, and outwardly naturally manifests an image.

  Two huge yin-yang fish surrounded Qian Yigun's body, first forming a circle and then transforming into a sphere that completely enveloped him. Outside the black-and-white sphere, golden light appeared in various forms, either as long lines or short breaks, which were actually the yin-yang trigrams. The six trigrams quickly combined to form eight trigrams: Qian, Dui, Xun, Zhen, Kan, Li, Kun, and Gen.

  The fox spirit watched with a keen eye, wondering in his heart, secretly nervous: what's the origin of this young man? The things we casually spread by word of mouth can actually be directly imprinted on his mind and appear as images! This is too demonic!

  Only those with a rich and abundant spirit or a pure heart can see this extraordinary phenomenon, the fox is an ancient spiritual breed, of course, it's nothing to be surprised about, while others are completely unimpressed by the golden light filling the room.

  Qian Yiqun thoroughly comprehended the eight trigrams, feeling physically and mentally at ease. Just as he was about to withdraw his spirit from the Spiritual Sea, he heard the voice of the Book Spirit say: "Immortal Master... this humble slave can only assist you up to this point."

  Qian Yiqun heard Shuzhong Xian's voice was weak and tired, as if he was on the verge of collapse, and hastily asked: "Shuzhong Xian, what's wrong with you?"

  "Just now, Xiao Nu overestimated himself and used his magical powers to transform Bai Ze's oral teachings into mental transmissions, so that the immortal could easily understand the subtleties of numerology." The immortal said in the book, "Some people have used too much force."

  Qian Yiqun felt a sense of realization: It was actually helping me in secret all along, really... proving that I, Xiao Ge, am destined for greatness!

  "Immortal Senior, I want to retreat and recover in the painting axis. Please grant me one thing." The immortal thought of saying "unreasonable request", but remembering Dai Shiming's previous lesson, he straightforwardly made the request.

  "You said," Qian Yiqun said, "as long as I can do it."

  "We can't let Zhou Tianmei's spirit return to the painting!" The immortal book suddenly found some strength, "If Zhou Tianmei's spirit returns to the painting, it will be sealed in the Langhuan Temple. Otherwise, not only will it hinder the master, but also harm the world."

  The fairy in the book finished speaking, and her voice gradually dissipated. No matter how hard Qian Yiqun called out to her, she didn't respond.

  Qian Yiqun came back to himself, not knowing how long he had been sitting there. Outside the window, it was already getting light. The fox was curled up in a ball and sleeping on its own blanket, its fiery red fur rising and falling with each breath, looking very comfortable.

  Qian Yiqun jumped out of bed, stretched his body, and his bones crackled with a loud noise. He was full of energy and vitality. He turned back to look at the fox and thought to himself: "The charming spirit will hinder the master's affairs, why didn't the fox say anything? The great chaos in the world is indeed very reliable, oh my! Originally, it was just a group of people fighting with cold weapons in time and space, but now I've released Zhou Tian's charming spirit, isn't this a sudden jump from history to fantasy?"

  Wait, it's not all my fault either. Qian Yiqun thought to himself: Before Ge came, there were already unscientific things like ancient spiritual species, so this world was originally a fantasy background. Hmm, did I actually travel to a different world or return to the Ming Dynasty?