Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty-Six — The Four Realms of Cultivation

Next day, the yin hour.

The sky was not yet light, the world a murky grey, when Li Daoxuan was roused by his master's goading.

"Keep that horse-stance steady!"

Clad in a loose white training robe, Li Daoxuan held a horse-stance at the courtyard's center, a censer perched atop his head with a long stick of incense set in it.

"Hold it — if the censer tips, you get a fresh stick, and you stand until this one burns down!"

Zhang Qianyang stood with hands behind his back; in this moment he set aside his carefree manner and grew stern indeed.

Li Daoxuan's face streamed with sweat; puzzled, he wondered why a cultivator must practice this.

As if reading his doubt, Zhang Qianyang gave a cold snort. "Cultivate the nature but not the life, and you end with empty hands. 'Nature' is the spirit of man; 'life' is the body. Cultivate both nature and life — that is the Great Dao!"

"For us Daoist cultivators, from age seven, besides breathing and sitting, we temper the body; a good body greatly aids the Way. Lad, your talent is fair, but much remains for you to mend!"

Li Daoxuan pulled a wry face. "Master, if I must hold stance, at least let me eat — since last night you've let me eat nothing. Without food, where is the strength to train?"

At this Zhang Qianyang sneered. "Want to eat? You may — if you don't fear death."

Li Daoxuan started, not grasping his meaning.

"I ask you: of late, when you cultivate, do you often feel a pain below the navel by three inches — one that climbs higher as your cultivation grows?"

At these words Li Daoxuan started violently; the censer atop his head nearly toppled.

"Master… how did you know?"

He had not even asked, yet the master had seen it — truly, taking a master was the right choice; an old hand in the house is a treasure.

Zhang Qianyang sat cross-legged, sipped his wine, and said flatly, "I saw it the first time I met you, and was most astonished — how you'd survived, I could not guess."

"Do you know the name of cultivation's first realm?"

Li Daoxuan guessed, "Foundation-building?"

Zhang Qianyang shook his head. "Cultivation's first realm is called Bigu — 'grain-abstinence'!"

"Bigu? Not eating?"

"Not so simple!"

Zhang Qianyang said gravely, "Mana is born of primordial clear qi; but man eats the five grains and a hundred common foods, and his body teems with turbid matter that conflicts with clear-qi mana. Thus, to cultivate mana, the first step is to cut off the five grains and purge the turbid qi within."

Li Daoxuan wondered, "But would one not starve, not eating?"

A cultivator must also temper the body, training hard each day; without food, how long could one live?

"Bigu is not 'not eating,' but not eating common grains and worldly food. Normally one eats fruit, drinks mountain spring, and takes Bigu Pills brewed of precious herbs. Over time one expels the turbid and exalts the clear, draws in heaven-and-earth's clear qi, and cultivates mana."

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He looked to Li Daoxuan and said sternly, "You never entered Bigu, yet somehow cultivated mana; clear and turbid qi clash within you, stuck at the lower dantian — so your lower belly aches, your sinews feel near to splitting. The more you cultivate, the fiercer the clash; in the end your body might burst and you die!"

Li Daoxuan's heart turned cold; he was filled with dread, only now seeing he had walked unknowing at the cliff's edge, nearly courting disaster!

"Still, no great worry — your master is here."

Zhang Qianyang took a jade vial from his waist and tipped out a black pill the size of a sugar-bean. "Open."

Li Daoxuan opened his mouth; the next moment the pill was flicked into it.

The pill settled in his stomach, and soon warm currents welled within him; the hunger vanished utterly, and his limbs and bones felt clear and at ease!

"This is our Mount Longhu's secret Bigu Pill, brewed of mica, ginseng, lingzhi powder and other precious herbs. One every seven days staves off hunger, steadies the root and nurtures the origin. Small as it is, it costs no less than gold!"

These days Zhang Qianyang had used the three gold ingots gained from his disciple to buy herbs, and gathered more in the mountains himself, thus refining a batch of Bigu Pills.

He had long noted Li Daoxuan's hidden ailment and set about resolving it.

"From now, you take the Bigu Pill; in about a month this peril will be mended."

Li Daoxuan was moved; refining elixirs was no easy thing, but drained the spirit sorely.

His master was one cold of face but warm of heart.

Li Daoxuan held his stance; blessedly, since cultivating mana his body had gained some improvement, or he could not have held this long.

"Master, might you tell me of cultivation's realms? To what realm must one rise, to attain longevity?"

More than half a year in this world, he had known nothing of cultivation's realms; now with a master, he would ask clear.

Zhang Qianyang nodded. "Good — today your master shall make it plain."

"Cultivation's first realm is the Bigu realm, with three lesser stages: early, middle, late."

"Early Bigu: mana must burst open the Huangting, the lower dantian — the storehouse of essence; once opened, essence surges like a sea, unending."

"Mid Bigu: mana bursts the Jianggong, the middle dantian — the seat of ancestral qi; once opened, blood and qi flourish, strength boundless."

"Late Bigu: mana bursts the Nihuan, the upper dantian — the mansion that houses the spirit; once opened, the spirit-soul grows, and wisdom deepens."

Li Daoxuan committed it to memory. He had not yet broken into early Bigu; his mana was a thin stream, powerless to burst the lower dantian's gate.

"Master, and the realm after Bigu?"

Now Li Daoxuan seemed to glimpse a new world, and pressed eagerly, forgetting his bodily ache.

"The upper, middle, and lower dantian are like three nails, pinning a man's soul fast in his flesh. Complete the three Bigu stages and you have drawn three nails — at midnight you may project your spirit-soul as a Yin Spirit. This second realm is called the Yin-Spirit realm."

"Reach the Yin-Spirit realm and the spirit-soul may fly and tunnel by night, roam the starry sea, gather moon-essence as medicine; the Way advances a thousand li a day. Only then have you some standing."

Li Daoxuan pictured it and could not help but long for it.

"Beyond the Yin-Spirit realm lies the Yang Spirit: the soul gathers and refines the great sun's essence, turning from utmost yin to pure yang; the Way becomes unfathomable, mana like abyss and sea — princes and ministers kneel to welcome you, and at the emperor's gate you are called 'upper immortal'!"

Li Daoxuan asked at once, "Does the Yang-Spirit realm grant immortality and eternal life?"

Zhang Qianyang shook his head. "Our Mount Longhu's Old Celestial Master, and the Maoshan school's Real Person Ye Fashan, are both Yang-Spirit cultivators. They have said the Yang Spirit lengthens life but grants no eternity."

"Then how does one live forever?"

Zhang Qianyang gazed at the paling sky, a trace of yearning in his eyes.

"That is cultivation's fourth realm — survive the tribulation and ascend as immortal!"

Just as Li Daoxuan craned to hear more, Zhang Qianyang waved a hand, somewhat deflated. "But of this realm your master has only heard tell, and knows little. When chance allows a return to Mount Longhu, ask the old master yourself."

Li Daoxuan nodded, summing in his heart the four realms of cultivation.

The first realm is Bigu; the second, Yin Spirit; the third, Yang Spirit; the fourth, Tribulation-Ascension!

"Master, only four realms? Then is immortality not easily won?"

Li Daoxuan thought of the tall realm-ladders in tales from his former life.

Zhang Qianyang sneered. "High eye, low hand. The path of cultivation is hard as climbing heaven; most toil their whole lives yet stay stuck at Bigu. And the road is thin ice — one misstep and all is lost!"

"When gathering moon-essence you meet the moon-devil; when gathering sun-essence, the sun-devil; beyond that, each cultivator has his own heart-devil. A man's life spans but a hundred years; to reach even the Yin-Spirit realm marks one of rare talent."

Li Daoxuan nodded, and asked his final question.

"Master, and what realm are you?"