The five [Life Patterns] Jing Qian had acquired were absorbed by [Worldly Insight], and in that instant, they stirred a tremendous reaction with the hidden seals buried within the [Dao Book].
At last, the final missing piece of the puzzle fell into place.
After consuming a sea's worth of [Life Essence] and half a year of ceaseless deduction, the Blood River Book of Impermanence and Abyssal Prison was finally stripped of all dangers, ready to be cultivated.
And this orthodox legacy, one that pointed straight toward the Upper Third Rank, had been completely transformed, reborn into something new.
The moment Jing Qian cast his divine sense into the [Dao Book] within [Worldly Insight], a chorus of ten thousand ghosts weeping echoed in his ears.
A crimson blood river surged through his sea of consciousness, then froze inch by inch, transforming into a turbid, ochre-yellow current that fell from the void like a cataract. Bone-crafted boats drifted faintly within its foul waves.
"This is… the projection of the Yellow Springs?"
Within his pupils, myriad blossoms of red spider lilies broke through the water's surface, their scarlet petals inscribed with shifting symbols half Buddhist sutras, half Daoist talismans.
The moment the first flower brushed against his consciousness, three vast bronze wheels thundered across his mindscape.
The Wheel of the Past sank into the riverbed, the Wheel of the Present hovered in mid-heaven, and the Wheel of the Future receded into the void.
"All beings are like sesame seeds, and reincarnation is the grinding mill."
A voice of the Great Dao reverberated without source.
Jing Qian seemed to witness his past life's battlefield death, his present life cutting off mortal ties in pursuit of the Way, and in a future life, himself transformed into a single spider lily swaying by the banks of the Forgetting River.
Suddenly, countless threads of karma snapped taut, dragging his soul toward the whirlpool at the river's heart.
Just as his consciousness was about to shatter, a single strand of Qingping Sword Qi pierced the void, severing the endless cords of fate.
Then a vast black hole yawned open in his Sumeru World, devouring the entire realm of the Yellow Springs.
[Worldly Insight] transformed into a jade-green skiff drifting upon the waters.
Jing Qian pressed three drops of heart's blood onto its prow; each drop blossomed into a golden lotus.
The words of the Dao Book swam like tadpoles into the center of his brow, and in that moment, he understood the truth of this law:
Rooted in Yanfu Bodhi, channeling the Ninefold Yellow Springs as its veins
When perfected, it grants mastery over the Seal of the Sixfold Reincarnations.
It was the secret transmission of the Yanfu Path:
"The Dao Book of the Nether Cycle of Yanfu."
As the final rune of "冥" seared itself into his Purple Mansion, his entire skeleton rang like chimes of jade.
The once-ghastly aura of the Yellow Springs now carried a trace of divine solemnity, like that of a righteous underworld deity.
From the riverbed, eighteen bronze lamps flared to life, illuminating a fragmentary stone stele. Upon it, five ancient seal characters blazed:
"By the Mandate of the Yanfu Lord."
"So this Dao Book… reveals the law of life and death, of reincarnation itself!"
Before his words had faded, the Yellow Springs reversed its flow, coiling into a black dragon that lodged itself within his dantian.
Scarlet petals fell one by one, forming a twelve-petaled lotus throne within his qi sea. Upon it stood the faint phantoms of the Ten Kings of Hell, each holding a jade tablet of office.
Seated within the [Void Realm], Jing Qian grew utterly still.
This Dao Book had seized his entire soul, unveiling before him a road that reached to the heavens themselves.
Immersed in the profound verses of the Dao, he was enraptured, unable to pull himself away.
The main body of the [Dao Book], now unraveled through [Worldly Insight], flowed into him effortlessly.
The road of cultivation ahead stood wide open, and an immortal path stretched clear beneath his very feet.
For him, this was the single most important realization since he first set his fate.
All the doubts and uncertainties of daily cultivation had found their answers here.
Jing Qian no longer needed to look outward for guidance. Within this Dao Book alone lies the very essence of cultivation's truths.
This retreat lasted for a full ten days. Not until half of the twelfth month of the Yin Year had passed did he finally awaken.
When his eyes opened, a trace of Dao-rhyme spilled forth. His pupils were deep as ink, like a fathomless pool.
The harvest from this seclusion was immense.
He had not only absorbed the entire, all-encompassing legacy of the Yanfu Nether Cycle Dao Book, but also comprehended the key transitions between the Fatebinding Realm and the Dragon-Elephant Realm.
From this moment onward, the step from eighth rank to the next would present no more obstacles.
Only now did he truly understand how shallow his previous knowledge of cultivation had been.
Take, for instance, the Fatebinding Realm he once thought he had mastered; there remained vast amounts of work left undone.
According to the Dao Book:
"Life Patterns are the wheel-seals of the Great Dao, the starting rung of the cultivator's ascent. They are the very needles with which one weaves the path ahead."
Unlike the vague understandings he had held before, the Dao Book laid things out with crystalline clarity:
"The Yanfu weaves with the stars as its shuttle; the Purple Mansion embroiders brocade with the fate-disc as its needle. Sutra says: The dark threads arise three inches above the Scarlet Palace, the fate-needle rests within the Ninth Heaven. Mana, like the silken threads of the ice silkworm, endlessly spun; fate, like the Northern Dipper, setting the axis, patterns faintly forming. Twist Kan and Li as twin cords, braid Xun and Zhen as gilt strands; one stitch bridges the Magpie's span, half a thread crosses the Yellow Path…"
In plain words:
Mana is the thread, Life Patterns the needle, together they weave the Dharma-image to ensnare destiny's mechanism.
Once a cultivator has nurtured their essence enough to condense their first [Life Essence], they may kindle it in the [Fate Fire], burning the body to forge the first [Life Pattern].
From then on, each pattern becomes a needle of the Dao, stitching together the tapestry of one's path.
The quality of a Life Pattern is like the sharpness of that needle; it determines how broad and lofty the road that may be woven.
Before, Jing Qian instinctively assumed that higher-grade patterns were simply "better." Powerful, yes, but he had never understood why.
Now, after reading the Yanfu Dao Book's lofty treatises, he finally grasped the truth.
Every cultivator of the Fatebinding Realm has a numerical limit to the patterns they can bear called their Life Measure.
This is a heavenly decree, immutable.
It relates to one's innate talent, but also to the grade of patterns themselves.
With each advance of three ranks, as the essence of life itself ascends, the Life Measure expands, allowing more patterns to be sustained.
But once the limit is reached, no new patterns may ever be forged.
The Dao Book recorded in detail how ancient patriarchs had exhausted their minds to chart these boundaries, calculating fate measures and fusing them with cultivation law.
For Lower Three Grades cultivators, the upper limit of Life Measure is nine taels and nine qian, the theoretical perfection granted at birth.
But no living being ever attains such an ideal mortal growth, and the grinding of the world always diminishes it.
Thus, in this world, talent is judged by Life Measure.
Above four taels, one may tread the path of cultivation, glimpse the Dragon-Elephant Realm, and even kindle the [Fate of Longevity].
Those with such measure are called Silver Talent (Four-Tailed Silver), the bare minimum for a lasting cultivator.
If one's innate Life Measure exceeds six taels, they are deemed Golden Nature (Six-Tailed Gold).
Such talent ensures effortless ascension through the Middle Three Grades, and even a clear path into the Upper Three, lording over an era.
The higher one's Life Measure, the more Life Patterns they can sustain.
The Dao Book listed their costs precisely:
White Fang pattern → costs 9 qian.
Azure Wing → 1 tael.
Blue Blood → 1 tael 1 qian.
Violet Eye → 1 tael 2 qian.
Golden Root → 1 tael 3 qian.
Thus, higher-grade patterns consume slightly more measure, but the power gained is exponentially greater.
A Golden Root consumes only four qian more than a White Fang, yet its might is a hundredfold stronger!
This is why even a single qian of Life Measure is precious. That small margin might allow a White Fang to become an Azure Wing, multiplying divine power tenfold and vastly raising mana capacity.
For disciples of the great orthodox lineages, then, the art lies in precise planning.
They must calculate every fraction of Life Measure, combine it with the proper legacy methods, and construct a pattern system where not a single qian is wasted.
Because once forged, a pattern can never be reversed.
To obtain one that both fits perfectly and spends Life Measure efficiently, that is the rarest fortune, the truest opportunity for the Dao.
And since Life Measure is so precious, beyond careful use, how to increase it has long been the central pursuit of cultivation.
On this, too, the Yanfu Dao Book gave clear and profound guidance.
There were two core ways to increase one's Life Measure.
First, the awakening of a Longevity Life Pattern.
By accumulating lifespan and using it as the foundation, one could push their Life Measure higher. Among all Life Patterns, Longevity was the most unique, as it not only didn't consume any measure but could actually add to it. The amount gained corresponded exactly to the rank of the Longevity Pattern.
At present, Jing Qian's own Azure Wing Longevity could grant him an additional one tael of Life Measure, a crucial advantage.
Furthermore, if enough lifespan was accumulated, a cultivator could burn sixty years of life to temporarily gain one qian of Life Measure.
This "borrowed" measure lasted only a short time. It looked wasteful to shorten one's life for such a fleeting gain.
Yet cultivators with true ambition always left an intentional gap in their Life Measure, saving just enough room to fit in one last Life Pattern.
That final pattern, meant to crown a lifetime's work, would always be of the Golden Root rank. But when the time came, the saved Life Measure was never enough to sustain such a heavy burden. So, they would rely on their Longevity Pattern, burn down a few cycles of lifespan at once, and just barely meet the requirement, successfully forging their final pattern.
In this way, they could surpass their natural Life Measure limit, carrying a pattern otherwise impossible to bear.
The Dao Book called this technique "Lending Fate." A vivid name.
Borrow a tael or two of measure, and it was pure profit. The deeply rooted sect heirs, with vast reserves of lifespan, might burn enough for five or six qian at once, an enormous gain.
This was why the Longevity Pattern was considered absolutely vital to a cultivator's path.
...
The second path to expand Life Measure was tied to Spiritual Construct.
The Yanfu Dao Book devoted long chapters to this phenomenon.
Spiritual Constructs were wondrous condensations of the Dao's essence formed from mana and primal energy. They could arise from living beings, from mountains and seas, from gods and ghosts, even from tools. They encompassed all things.
Unlike ordinary magical artifacts, a Spiritual Construct possessed its own Life Measure.
When a cultivator subdued a Spiritual Construct, binding it with their own lifespan, not only did they gain a powerful tool, but they could also offload the Life Measure burden of a Life Pattern onto the Spiritual Construct.
Thus, with Spiritual Construct, a cultivator could carry more Life Patterns than their natural limit allowed, vastly deepening their foundation.
For a ninth-rank cultivator forging their first Spiritual Construct, the process was known as "Spiritual Construct Casting Fate." The results were twofold:
Their strength surged with a Spiritual Construct protector.
They gained spare Life Measure to forge more patterns.
Even the weakest Spiritual Construct could relieve at least the cost of one Life Pattern. In the realm of cultivators, this difference alone was enough to leave ordinary peers far behind.
...
As Jing Qian carefully digested these teachings, he felt his vision broaden, his mind expand.
This framework, Life Measure and Life Patterns, lifespan, and Spiritual Construct was complete, rigorous, yet infinitely expansive.
And this was only the path for the Lower Three Realms.
Beyond lay the Middle Three Spirit Subduing, Earth Fiend, and Star-Seizing, a scope grander and more mysterious.
As for the Upper Three Realms, the knowledge was so abstruse that even with the Dao Book's guidance, Jing Qian could scarcely touch it. The fragments he retained were stored within his Worldly Insight for later years, when his cultivation had caught up.
At present, he already bears seven patterns: Sumeru, Qingping Edge, Worldly Insight, Tushita Furnace, Tidal Wave, Soulweaver, and Longevity. For the Fatebinding stage, this was quite a number.
But how much Life Measure he truly possessed, and how many more patterns he could bear, he had no idea.
In all of Hunzhou, he had never even heard of a way to measure it.
He could not know that this knowledge of how to calculate Life Measure was a privilege held only by the greatest orthodox sects.
It was their moat, the foundation that secured their dominance.
Their disciples carefully measured and calculated, building pattern systems that wasted not a single qian of Life Measure.
Meanwhile, scattered cultivators took whatever they could get, forging any pattern at hand. In doing so, they squandered precious measure on low-grade fates and forever cut themselves off from higher ascension.
The gulf between the two paths was beyond imagination.
All the more so because techniques like Spiritual Construct Casting Fate, and Lending Fate widened the gap even further, until disciples of the great lineages and wandering cultivators seemed almost like beings from two different worlds.
A single opportunity to measure one's Life Measure was counted as one of the most important fortunes a cultivator could ever encounter.
Such chances were monopolized by the top sects and never revealed lightly to outsiders.
Whoever mastered the art of measuring Life Measure would see their status rise dramatically.
This gave birth to a special profession known as the Fate Calculator. Their status was lofty, utterly unlike those two-bit fortune tellers of Jing Qian's past life, squatting under a bridge with sunglasses and a tin sign.
In all of Hunzhou, not a single Fate Calculator had ever arisen, so Jing Qian had no way to know his own Life Measure.
Fortunately, the Yanfu Dao Book contained a method: the "Cycle-Seeking Divination of Fate Calculation." With it, one could determine their own Life Measure, another's, the measure of Life Patterns, even the burden of Spiritual Construct. It was a top-tier divination art.
Once mastered, one would instantly be a qualified Fate Calculator welcomed as a guest of honor even before the gates of great noble clans in the upper provinces of the Divine Dynasty.
After obtaining the Dao Book, Jing Qian did not immediately practice its orthodox teachings. Instead, he chose first to study this secret art.
With his Worldly Insight, all observation-based methods felt as though made for him. Whatever he studied, he grasped at once.
This Cycle-Seeking Fate Divination took him only a single stick of incense to learn.
He immediately turned the art upon himself.
The power of Worldly Insight unfurled, the divination merging seamlessly, like his system had just unlocked a new function.
The information about his Life Measure appeared clearly before his eyes.
...
First, his own Life Measure.
Reborn across two lives, carrying his past and present selves, with the Sumeru Dao Stele suppressing his cultivation, his natural Life Measure had reached eight taels and nine qian. This was no mere six-tael gold, but eight-tael gold, a genius qualification.
At such a level, he had already hit the upper limit for the Fatebinding realm. With steady progress into Dragon Elephant and Longevity stages, he would inevitably reach the ultimate limit of the Lower Three Realms nine taels, nine qian.
With such talent, he could sit in the very front row at any Grand Academy feast.
Adding in his Azure Wing Longevity, which granted him an extra one tael, his total Life Measure now stood at nine taels and nine qian.
...
Next, his Life Patterns' consumption.
Sumeru and Qingping Edge two Heaven's Mandate patterns, not mentioned even in the Dao Book, each consumed one tael, five qian, for a total of three taels. More costly even than Golden Root, by two qian apiece, priceless beyond measure.
Worldly Insight and Tushita Furnace, two Golden Root patterns each took one tael, three qian, totaling two taels, six qian.
Tides already edging toward the Violet Eye rank cost one tael, two qian.
Soulweaver consumed one tael, one qian.
Together, his six non-Longevity patterns used up seven taels, nine qian.
If all of them were eventually raised to the Heaven's Mandate rank, as was his ideal, the burden would climb to nine full taels.
Without the aid of Spiritual Construct or Longevity, his cultivation capacity would already be locked, leaving him no space to grow.
...
Realizing this, Jing Qian broke into a cold sweat.
This was the plight of the lone cultivator without a lineage's guidance, blundering ahead blindly, only to fall into invisible traps. By the time they discovered their path cut off, it would be far too late.
Even Jing Qian, bearing the Sumeru Dao Stele, capable of brute-forcing his lesser fates up to Heaven's Mandate rank, could not avoid hidden risks.
If his Fate system lacked harmony with orthodox teachings, he might forge an incomplete dharma form, sowing immense dangers for his future path.
Fortunately, he still had time to correct course.
So Jing Qian turned his eyes toward the path of the Spiritual Construct.
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