Chapter 90: Talismans can communicate with ghosts and gods

"Sister, are you wondering why this bird landed in my hand?"

Miaoyu looked towards Zhou Tieyi. In the warm spring sunshine, the young man opposite her had a pure smile, without any trace of the loneliness of yesterday.

"Then I'll tell Senior Sister, Senior Sister, will you accompany me to watch the Dragon Fish Contest tonight?"

The fishing ban was lifted in April. The royal family fished for dragon fish in Fengyu Pavilion, and naturally they wanted to share the fun with the people, so they asked the Ministry of Education to establish the "Fish and Dragon Meeting" on the second day of April. On this day, people would hold fish lanterns and swim at night, which was very lively.

Miaoyu thought for a moment and nodded.

Seeing Miaoyu nod, the five energies around Zhou Tieyi gathered together to form a canopy.

Among them, the green energy was the most vigorous, merging with the blood energy around his body, forming a vague and tall figure behind him.

The moment the figure appeared, the surrounding birds suddenly became even more joyful and danced around Zhou Tieyi like ministers paying homage.

“You’ve already gotten started.”

Miaoyu said with a sigh.

She should have been surprised because she knew the day Zhou Tieyi obtained the [Five Emperors' Treasure Edict].

In less than a month, without anyone teaching him, he was able to control the Five Qi and even condense such a strange vision as the Green Emperor's Dharma Image.

But during this period, Zhou Tieyi not only condensed the statue of the Green Emperor, but also did so many great things.

With talent at this level, even she, a direct descendant of Taiyi, can only sigh in despair.

"I only vaguely understand it, similar to a talent, but I still need my senior sister's guidance on how to use it."

Zhou Tieyi was not at all arrogant. He attributed half of his credit to Wu for gathering the power to control the Five Qi.

Miaoyu thought about it seriously before she said, "Do you know what it means to enter the Dao through martial arts?"

Zhou Tieyi straightened his back. This concerned his future practice, so he had to listen carefully.

"To enter Taoism through martial arts, in other words, is to refine essence into qi, refine qi into spirit, refine spirit into emptiness, and refine emptiness into Taoism. This is the oldest and earliest way of cultivation in our Taoism."

"Does Taoism have other methods of cultivation?"

Zhou Tieyi originally thought that among all the schools of thought in this world, each one was a complete school of practice. But now it seems that Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism may occupy multiple paths of practice. They are indeed worthy of being the top three schools.

Miaoyu nodded, "Of course, the corpse-reincarnation immortals we have seen these days are one way, but this way is not available to the third level."

"There are also methods such as concentrating the mind and visualizing, and contemplating the mind through the ordination."

"And this [Five Emperors' Precious Edict] is a method of conferring the Five Emperors' spirits to open up a divine palace in the body. It is very different from the fundamental method of my Taiyi Temple, so my uncle said it is not the fundamental way."

"I don't know how you skipped the middle step and directly led the spirits of the Five Emperors into your body, but I can only teach you from the basics."

After saying this, Miaoyu went downstairs, and after a while, she brought back two books, paper, ink, pen, and inkstone.

"Senior sister wants to teach me the book of alchemy?"

Zhou Tieyi immediately guessed what Miaoyu wanted to teach him.

There were three parts in this [Five Emperors' Treasures] that he couldn't understand. The first was the words that twisted like dragons and snakes.

The second is the Taoist alchemy book, also called talisman.

The third is various Taoist riddles, such as what does jade essence refer to and what does yellow bud refer to. These cannot be figured out through enlightenment alone, and need to be learned slowly one by one.

Miaoyu nodded. She unfolded the [Blue Emperor's Treasure Edict] and pointed to the words next to the Blue Emperor's statue that twisted and changed like dragons and snakes. She said, "This word is called 'Dragon Seal'. It is a pattern formed by the enrichment of the power of heaven and earth on a specific substance. The ancients collected them and studied them slowly. They found that these dragon seals were formed by the enrichment of the power of heaven and earth. Therefore, if they can be written, they can enrich the corresponding power of heaven and earth."

Zhou Tieyi pondered in silence. Since he had already completely taken control of the tribe, Mu Ye handed the witch's notes to him.

Most of the patterns needed Mu to explain, except for one pattern on a piece of jade, which Mu only half understood.

This jade stone records the [divine descent technique] used by the witch!
"However, the dragon seal is mysterious and contains the principles of heaven and earth. It can only be understood by oneself. The principles understood by each person may not be the same. Therefore, the Taoist ancestors were afraid that the younger generations would not understand it, so they took specific changes and made it into phoenix patterns, cloud scrolls and other calligraphy styles."

Miaoyu picked up the pen, ground the ink, and wrote a phoenix pattern and a cloud scroll on the paper.

The feeling that Yunlu gave Zhou Tieyi was like a word stacked up in several layers, like clouds gathered together.

The phoenix pattern is easier to understand. It is the Taoist talisman that Zhou Tieyi has seen the most. There is a flowing cuff on each side, like a phoenix spreading its wings, so it is called the phoenix pattern in this world.

"Now you just need to learn the Phoenix Pattern well."

Zhou Tieyi was slightly curious, "Why?"

Miaoyu put down her pen. "Because talismans can communicate with ghosts and gods, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a Taoist sect that was involved with Shintoism and helped the gods to revive. Therefore, after the founding of Daxia, this Taoist sect was completely destroyed, and the Yunlu and other calligraphy styles also became taboos and were only circulated among the upper echelons of the Taoist sect."

"Then why isn't the Phoenix Mark banned?"

Zhou Tieyi looked at the phoenix pattern written by Miaoyu, and he already had a vague answer.

Although these are the most basic things a Taoist priest needs to learn, Miaoyu feels a sense of accomplishment when teaching Zhou Tieyi.

He smiled and pointed at Feng Wen's head, "You guessed it, right? Clouds can be headless, but phoenixes need to have heads."

"There are ten ways to start a phoenix pattern, pointing to the Five Emperors, the Taoist Master, the Buddha, the Confucian Sage, the Great Xia Saint, and the Patriarch. Any phoenix pattern other than these ten is a demon or heretic. If you encounter one, you will be punished for offering sacrifice to the gods!"

This is a man-made rule. Zhou Tieyi nodded to show that he understood.

"Under the talisman head is the talisman core, which is filled with specific dragon seals, such as thunder magic, earth magic, etc., which are effective when combined with the talisman head."

As she said that, she handed the two books she had brought to Zhou Tieyi. Inside were pictures of phoenix patterns, which, like English words, had to be memorized by rote, with no shortcuts.

Of course, Zhou Tieyi is not an expert in the art of talismans, so he just needs to memorize a few of the more practical ones.

"Under the heart of the talisman is the foot of the talisman, which symbolizes yourself. You can use the three methods of '奉', '令', and '叱' to end it. The deeper your understanding of the talisman and the stronger your strength, the more you can progress in sequence. Therefore, the word '叱' at the foot of the talisman has the strongest effect. If you are a beginner in learning talismans, it is good enough to learn the word '奉'."

After explaining the Phoenix Pattern, Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "It doesn't sound difficult."

It's like a new language, and for me, it's like I need to memorize words.

"Writing talismans is certainly not difficult, but if you want the talismans to be effective, even if an ordinary Taoist reaches the ninth rank and practices for a year or two, he can only write the shape but not the spirit."

As she spoke, Miaoyu handed the pen in her hand to Zhou Tieyi, "Try to blend your own energy and blood into the pen and ink and write a talisman."

(End of this chapter)