I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 370Book 2: : Innate Eight Trigrams, Nascent Spirit Law Assembly
Vol 2 Chapter 370 Innate Eight Trigrams, Nascent Spirit Law Assembly
A group of people stood on Ten Thousand Immortal Island, craning their necks in anticipation, waiting for Senior Sister Zhang to emerge from seclusion.
Each possessed extraordinary innate divine abilities.
Take Zheng Fa’s three divine abilities, for example:
The Five Elements Divine Light of both positive and negative aspects had been applied by him to spirit material research, laying the foundation for the Jiushan Sect’s artifact refining industry.
If combined with the Rainbow Transformation Method and the advanced tactical concepts of the Flying Car Gang, Zheng Fa would be nearly invincible in magical combat: whether he wins or not was uncertain, but losing would definitely be difficult.
As for the Great Sun True Fire, it allowed Zheng Fa to freely alter the incantations within his body, while also helping others in the Jiushan Sect to rebuild their foundations.
Almost every divine ability brought enormous benefits to both Zheng Fa and the Jiushan Sect.
At this moment, everyone was both surprised and hopeful about Senior Sister Zhang acquiring an innate divine ability.
But before a cup of tea’s time passed, a change occurred in the sky.
A swirl of black-and-white chaotic energy crossed over from the Xuanyi Realm.
This chaotic energy contained yin and yang, held the essence of dragons and tigers, formless and intangible, yet seeming to encompass everything.
The group on Ten Thousand Immortal Island felt an indescribable joy and even reverence well up in their hearts;even Xie Qingxue, the most special Nascent Spirit among them, showed a flicker of suspicion mixed with fervor in her gaze.
They were all cultivators, at least at the Nascent Soul stage.
Looking at this chaotic energy, they felt as if they were witnessing the “Dao” itself.
In a strange silence, the chaotic energy slowly rotated;amid the myriad transformations of energy, where black and white converged, a figure danced gracefully like an immortal, materializing from nothing, shifting from illusion to reality.
It was Senior Sister Zhang.
The black-and-white chaotic energy wrapped around her, transforming into a white robe.
The robe was as pure as snow, making Senior Sister Zhang appear even more like a celestial being.
The strangest thing was the mysterious pattern printed on the back of the robe: a yin-yang fish at the center, surrounded by eight neat and similar patterns.
“What is this pattern?”
Uncle Pang murmured in confusion, but no one around had seen this pattern before and could only shake their heads.
Only Zheng Fa’s eyes carried astonishment;he had seen this before:
The Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Diagram!
Whatever divine ability Senior Sister Zhang had comprehended, Uncle Pang and the others might not understand, but Zheng Fa had already guessed eighty percent of it.
The figure emerging from the chaotic energy seemed to be Senior Sister Zhang’s yang spirit;she was almost transparent, with golden light shimmering in her eyes, and even beside her pupils, faint eight-trigram diagrams were imprinted.
Uncle Pang suddenly furrowed his brow: “Wuyi, why does she seem a little off?”
Something was definitely off.
Senior Sister Zhang usually wore a cold expression but had never been this indifferent before.
Her golden pupils showed not coldness, but an emptiness, a hollow void.
Senior Sister Zhang stood tens of yards above the ground. For Zheng Fa and Uncle Pang, that distance could be covered in an instant.
Yet her expression gave them a vague feeling—
She was very far away from them, so distant it felt as if she wasn’t even in the same world.
Mist thickened in the sky;Senior Sister Zhang was amidst the fog, pure and ethereal like clouds.
She stared into the void, seemingly lost in thought, her expression vacant, as if entranced or bewildered.
Uncle Pang couldn’t help but softly call out from below: “Wuyi…”
Senior Sister Zhang moved her head and turned to look at Uncle Pang, but the gaze she gave him—though not unfamiliar—was utterly devoid of emotion, like a bottomless cold pool, indifferent and heartless.
S
Seeing that look, Uncle Pang turned to the others with a helpless expression.
Senior Sister Zhang’s eyes swept across each face below, showing no reaction, as if looking at pigs and dogs, or even stones.
Now everyone understood: Senior Sister Zhang was in trouble!
Looking again at her yang spirit, the crowd felt a sense of detachment not belonging to this world.
Senior Sister Zhang noticed their worried expressions but her eyes remained as still as an ancient well, her gaze fixed on Zheng Fa.
Her eyes froze.
Zheng Fa stared back until the cold pool in her eyes rippled and steam rose.
Senior Sister Zhang smiled.
She lightly leapt and flew beside Zheng Fa.
“Senior Sister?”
“Wuyi?”
“What happened to you just now?”
Seeing her seemingly returned to normal, everyone began to ask eagerly.
Senior Sister Zhang said nothing;the light on her yang spirit gradually dimmed, revealing her physical body. Then she shook her head and said, “Just now I had a thought of abandoning everything and indulging in the Dao of Heaven.”
Uncle Pang anxiously asked, “Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s something wrong with the yang spirit method,” Senior Sister Zhang frowned. “Or perhaps my innate divine ability is just too mysterious.”
“What innate divine ability?”
Senior Sister Zhang raised the Feixian Brush, lightly tapping the tip in the air.
An Eight Trigrams diagram appeared again in the void.
“My divine ability is called Innate Eight Trigrams.”
“What is Innate Eight Trigrams?”
“It is also a method of deduction.”
Zheng Fa listened nearby, thinking as expected, while Xie Qingxue curiously asked, “Deduction? How is it different from the Nine Chapters Calculation Array?”
Senior Sister Zhang shook her head. The Feixian Brush traced a swift motion, spinning the Eight Trigrams diagram, revealing a hexagram.
That hexagram hovered in the air and flew toward Xie Qingxue.
Before she could react, she suddenly felt heavy, dizzy;the sky was beneath her feet, the earth above her head, yin and yang reversed, heaven and earth overturned.
“This is…”
“This is a hexagram from the Innate Eight Trigrams and also an attack method I call ‘Heaven and Earth Rotation.’”
“Impressive…” Xie Qingxue, proud and confident, could only admit defeat in her heart. “The scariest thing is, I had no warning at all.”
“That is one of the characteristics of Innate Eight Trigrams. It originates from nature, carries illusion, making it hard to defend against. It even has the feature of using falsehoods to confuse reality, attacking the enemy’s weaknesses,” Senior Sister Zhang explained. “Another advantage is that it adapts to circumstances, borrowing the power of heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers, so it hardly consumes the cultivator’s spiritual energy.”
Zheng Fa listened with some envy.
It seemed stronger than his three divine abilities, which were straightforwardly powerful.
“Of course... this method can’t trap Fairy Xie forever.”
The others did not think this Innate Eight Trigrams was weak. Xie Qingxue’s situation was extremely special—wielding the Qingping Sword, she could even shatter the Great Freedom Demon Ancestor’s revival with a single strike;her potential was sky-high.
And Senior Sister Zhang had just reached the Yang Spirit stage.
Even hearing that the spell consumed very little energy was terrifying.
“Heaven and Earth borrowing method… sounds a bit like the talisman path concept, very suitable for Wuyi.”
Everyone nodded.
Indeed, it sounded like an exceptionally effective talisman spell with minimal consumption.
“What about the deduction?”
Zheng Fa thought about the reputation of Innate Eight Trigrams he had heard in modern times and knew this deduction method was not just empty talk.
Sure enough, a smile appeared on Senior Sister Zhang’s face, her gaze somewhat proud. “Using Innate Eight Trigrams for deduction, I can predict some futures.”
Hearing this, everyone’s hearts trembled.
No matter how powerful an attack method was, it was nothing compared to seeing the future.
“What kind of future?”
The Feixian Brush danced in the air;within the Eight Trigrams diagram, hexagrams fluttered about. “For example, Uncle Pang, if your magical energy accumulates for another three years, you might face the Nascent Spirit Tribulation.”
“You can predict my Nascent Spirit Tribulation?”
Senior Sister Zhang smiled proudly: “About eighty percent accuracy.”
“What else can you predict?”
She smiled and said, “Perhaps because my strength is shallow or because of my divine ability’s limits, the stronger the cultivators involved or the more complex the events, the more blurred the hexagrams I see become.”
“My confidence in predicting Uncle Pang’s Nascent Spirit Tribulation is eighty percent.”
“But predicting Haori Mountain’s plans might be less than ten percent accurate. Of course, if I had more information, I would be more confident.”
Uncle Pang’s face immediately turned strange. “Are you implying I’m weak?”
The Old Man sighed beside him: “Even so, this is astonishing.”
Xie Qingxue and the others all nodded, their faces full of amazement.
This divine ability didn’t sound very powerful, but everyone present knew the value of having the initiative.
Especially if combined with Elder Han’s intelligence bureau, the advantage the Jiushan Sect would gain in future disputes would be incredible.
Xiao Yuying quietly said, “In the Xuanyi Realm, such secret methods have never existed before! Peeking into the future... it’s truly unimaginable.”
Based on her knowledge of history, her words carried at least sixty percent credibility.
“Actually, I have a guess,” Senior Sister Zhang frowned. “Innate Eight Trigrams is basically an algorithm, but perhaps a magical or more perfected one, not essentially different from the Nine Chapters Calculation Array.”
“The Nine Chapters Calculation Array isn’t that magical.”
“The key is that Innate Eight Trigrams seems to contain some ultimate principles of heaven and earth,” she explained.
Everyone looked puzzled.
But Zheng Fa understood:
Senior Sister Zhang seemed to think that she could understand the algorithm of Innate Eight Trigrams, but the divine ability’s key was that it encapsulated many world essences she had not yet comprehended or even seen.
Simply put, it was a high-quality dataset.
Zheng Fa nodded: “So ‘innate’ means some kind of a priori knowledge?”
Senior Sister Zhang looked at Zheng Fa, eyes narrowing with a gleam of amusement.
Uncle Pang scratched his head and asked the Old Man, “Do you understand what these two are talking about?”
The Old Man shook his head.
“Aren’t you a Nascent Spirit?”
“...”
“Isn’t he your disciple?”
“...”
...
After Senior Sister Zhang and the Old Man finished their Nascent Spirit exercises, everyone was about to leave but was stopped by Zheng Fa.
“Nascent Spirit Law Assembly?”
Hearing Zheng Fa’s words, Xie Qingxue was stunned for a moment.
Zheng Fa had planned this for some time;he said to Xie Qingxue:
“Currently, the Jiushan Sect actually has all three types of Nascent Spirit laws.”
“Fairy Xie, you and the Jiushan Ancestor follow similar paths, both inclined toward the Heavenly River Method.”
“Senior Sister Zhang uses the Yang Spirit Method.”
“My master, the Ancestor of the Blood River, and Jiao Wuji use the Dharmakaya Method.”
“The three methods each have their strengths and weaknesses and differ greatly. Why not have an exchange to learn from each other’s advantages?”
Ultimately, Zheng Fa wanted to create a cultivation method most suitable for himself and even for the Jiushan Sect, but relying on himself alone wouldn’t work—if he only wanted to use the Yang Spirit or Dharmakaya Method, it would be simple;the problem was, he wanted much more than that.
He had to borrow the wisdom of others.
Before, they waited for Senior Sister Zhang and the others;now there was no need to delay.
“Demonic Method, Heavenly River Method, Yang Spirit Method…” Xie Qingxue murmured, eyes shining, “Learn from each other’s strengths?”
“Mm.” Zheng Fa nodded at her. “One, to demonstrate the strangeness of each’s method;two, to discuss flaws. I plan to have the Nascent Soul disciples all come to listen, and also Brother Yan.”
“Unfortunately, Elder Han and Uncle Huang are outside.”
Xie Qingxue nodded gently and smiled: “Three Nascent Spirit cultivators debating law on the same stage—this has never happened before in Xuanyi. Count me in.”
It wasn’t just Xie Qingxue.
Others in the courtyard were eager as well, looking at each other with curious eyes.
Not to mention, the Yang Spirit and Dharmakaya Methods represent the Immortal and Demon factions, who usually fought each other bitterly. Only in the Jiushan Realm, under Zheng Fa’s vision, could they coexist.
Now, probably only the Jiushan Sect had the capability to organize such a law assembly.
Yan Wushuang soon arrived;his aura had also reached Nascent Soul.
Upon entering, he called out to Xie Qingxue, “Senior Sister, why did you call me?”
Before she could answer, Yan Wushuang continued, “But it’s just as well you called;I’m getting scolded by my dad! The Tongjian is great, but my dad can scold me anytime, anywhere. So annoying!”
“Shut up. Zheng Fa asked me to call you.” Xie Qingxue felt a bit embarrassed and said, “Listen carefully!”
“Listen to what?”
Yan Wushuang looked around and saw tables and chairs set up in the courtyard. Zheng Fa sat in the center with six Nascent Spirit cultivators.
Opposite them were chairs reserved for Nascent Soul cultivators like Yan Wushuang.
Yan Wushuang sat down drowsily.
Zheng Fa spoke frankly: “This Nascent Spirit Law Assembly is actually my selfish idea. I want to create a Nascent Spirit cultivation method most suitable for me and even the Jiushan Sect, but I only have a few clues. That’s why I invited you all to share.”
Yan Wushuang was stunned, wondering, share what?
“This sharing has two parts: one, each Nascent Spirit cultivator talks about their understanding, feelings, and views on their own cultivation method.”
“Second, everyone discusses how to make up for shortcomings in cultivation.”
Yan Wushuang’s eyes widened sharply;he thought: can it really be like this?
He had seen this kind of seminar before—didn’t Zheng Fa organize one earlier?
But the problem was, the Nascent Spirit method was a cultivator’s greatest secret;exposing one’s flaws—wouldn’t that be giving others leverage?
Not to mention a public discussion, even between master and disciple or father and son, such secrets were likely kept.
Even his father, Sect Master Yan, wouldn’t tell him these.
Zheng Fa specifically called him here!
This meant Zheng Fa cared about him more than his father did...
For a moment, Xie Qingxue, Jiao Wuji, and several others also showed some unusual expressions.
Zheng Fa looked at them, knowing this matter wasn’t simple: openness required great trust in others.
But he believed someone would speak up.
“I’ll start.” Senior Sister Zhang stood up. “I follow the Yang Spirit Method.”
As she spoke, a cloud of celebration floated above her head, and her Yang Spirit appeared before everyone.
“The advantage of the Yang Spirit Method is obvious: first, it’s simple.”
“In my deduction, the Yang Spirit is the easiest among the three methods to construct and even to complete.”
Zheng Fa nodded secretly.
That was also his feeling.
The Yang Spirit only simulates the nervous system, making it indeed the simplest among the three methods.
Also, because of this, the Yang Spirit Method seemed the oldest path to Nascent Spirit.
“Then why are there the Demonic Method and Heavenly River Method? Is the Yang Spirit weak?”
The Old Man frowned.
“No,” Zheng Fa shook his head. “If the Yang Spirit Method were weak, the Four Sects wouldn’t be so strong.”
“Right, the Yang Spirit Method is also the most prone to losing oneself,” Senior Sister Zhang continued. “When I first reached Yang Spirit, the revelations of heaven and earth surged like tides, even suppressing my consciousness. When I saw you all, it felt irrelevant—I only wanted to contemplate the Dao method well.”
“...”
Recalling Senior Sister Zhang’s earlier behavior, Xie Qingxue nodded slowly as if remembering something and said, “I think I’ve heard of a similar case called Dao Transformation? Those who undergo it supposedly experience great joy and revelation but eventually dissolve into heaven and earth, ceasing to exist.”
“You actually managed to escape it?”
Senior Sister Zhang glanced at Zheng Fa and smiled lightly but didn’t answer, only adding, “If that were the case, it wouldn’t be so bad;just be careful in daily life.”
“The problem is, Dao fruits in the Xuanyi Realm do not die.”
“You mean?”
“If I cultivate a unique method, that’s fine. But if I cultivate the methods or techniques of Dao fruit cultivators… do I dissolve into heaven and earth or into those Dao fruit cultivators?”
“Even if not Dao Transformation, how much influence do those cultivators have on the Yang Spirit?”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Zheng Fa felt heavy in his heart;as the Jiushan Nine Nether Demon Ancestor said, the influence of Dao fruits was enormous.
Especially since the Yang Spirit Method was the oldest, this path might be crowded.
And the biggest problem with the Yang Spirit Method was the risk of losing oneself.
Yan Wushuang no longer joked and listened more seriously. Though these things were spoken briefly, he understood he would never have heard them in other situations.
“So the Demonic Method has no risk of Dao Transformation?” The Old Man thought for a moment and said, “At least when I reached Nascent Spirit, I didn’t feel such a strong connection to heaven and earth.”
Yan Wushuang couldn’t help but say, “So the Demonic Method is actually better?”
Unexpectedly, the Old Man shook his head vigorously, brow furrowed, looking at the Ancestor of the Blood River and Jiao Wuji: “I don’t know how you two feel, but when I reveal the Dharmakaya, I get an inexplicable desire for destruction, even wanting to fight.”
Zheng Fa was stunned, recalling the Old Man’s earlier words about punching through Nascent Souls... that really didn’t sound like his usual speech.
The Ancestor of the Blood River and Jiao Wuji exchanged a glance;seeing Senior Sister Zhang and the Old Man so frank had influenced them: “Same here, even worse.”
“The Dharmakaya cultivated through the Great Freedom True Technique craves killing and bloodshed.”
“And the Myriad Demons True Solution…” Jiao Wuji added, “makes one addicted to intercourse, only controllable, never curable.”
“Of course, we have no resistance to the source of the cultivation methods, but we haven’t reached Dao Transformation facing the Demon Ancestor.”
Zheng Fa summarized the difference between the Yang Spirit and Dharmakaya Methods:
The Yang Spirit Method borrows incantations close to heavenly laws, risking Dao Transformation.
The Dharmakaya Method simulates the physical body, making it hard to resist various desires.
One gradually loses self following heavenly principles;the other easily indulges in human desires.
This was probably the biggest difference between the Immortal and Demon factions in behavior.
“What about the Heavenly River Method…”
Xie Qingxue saw Zheng Fa’s gaze, hesitated slightly, and said, “The Heavenly River Method has neither of these two dangers, nor the risk of control by Dao fruit cultivators…”
“The problem is, we ourselves are controlled by magical artifacts.”
“Besides, the biggest problem with the Heavenly River Method is the lack of progress.” Xie Qingxue looked somewhat helpless. “For example, if I want to increase my cultivation, the Qingping Sword has to advance… which is extremely difficult.”
Hearing this, even Yan Wushuang frowned.
The three methods all sounded problematic...
