Living beings can be viewed as a collective, but can also be viewed as individuals. The same can be said of both mortals and cultivators.
Take, for example, mortals. Mortals had souls in their bodies, as well as physical meridians that formed a self-contained network designed to keep out harmful outside influences. That, in turn, helped to prevent illnesses and other mortal dangers.
Cultivators were similar. They had bodies bolstered by spirit energy, and the cycles and operations of their bodies were governed by various natural rules. Depending on the cultivation base and life level of a cultivator, their cycles and operations would reach increasing levels of perfection. After reaching a certain point, it would be virtually impossible for another person to find weaknesses to exploit, and the cultivator’s defenses would be able to resist all outside forces. The only way to kill a cultivator like that was to be far stronger than them, and wipe them out quickly and decisively. But a cultivator with a similar cultivation base would need some special method to defeat them.
That was one of the reasons why immortal skills had been created to begin with. Generally speaking, immortal skills were designed to be gruish and extraordinary. They were supposed to be used to get past an opponent’s defenses with the goal of killing them decisively.
Meanwhile, human nature was complicated and incorporeal. And that meant that it was one of the main targets that many immortal skills would hone in on as a weakness.
That was the case with Six Thieves Deceive Life. It contained the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures expressed as forms of will. That will would form an attractant that could reverse cyclical patterns, penetrate defenses, and allow for killing blows. As for Five Dogs Cleave Immortals, it actually emphasized the will of temperament.
The word cleave could be used in the sense of ‘cleaving to’ a place. For instance, the soul would cleave to the body that it inhabited. That was why this technique was most commonly thought to be a possession magic.
However, there was another meaning to it. After all, it was also possible to cleave from something. And that meaning was the opposite of possession: letting go.[1]
Unfortunately, most people couldn’t let go of things easily. That was the origin of the saying used to describe the immortal skill.
The concept of cleaving from external things was what made it possible to bypass the defenses of an opponent. When that loophole was present, the immortal skill could be used.As for the memories of Yue Dong’s Junior Sister, that was the extraordinary aspect of this immortal skill. Using that aspect, it was possible to conceal something that wouldn’t easily be detected. The point was to deceive the subject. And when that thought wasn’t detected, it would have time to grow and mature. It was like opening the door of a room that had previously been locked. It involved five breaths of time, and that was the true meaning of ‘the stingy dog cleaves to a place.’
Overall, the immortal skill relied on that gruishness to unleash the will of the Five Dogs to surpass the traditional extraordinary ability and turn it into something very deadly. Of course, when talking about ‘opening the door’ it referred to maliciously invading the enemy.
As for the white eye, it was a manifestation of the greedy will of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals.
Having insatiable desire. That is called greed. The greedy dog cleaves to a place and is bound.
A will of greed could restrict the heart and mind. It could bind the body.
The door opened and the white eye appeared. It looked at Xu Qing. At that moment, Xu Qing’s mind reeled, and he became vaguely aware that four breaths of time were about to pass. A gruish sealing symbol appeared, starting on the inside and moving outside. The white eye was sealing Xu Qing in place. During those four breaths of time, the sealing mark formed. And if it could not be broken during that time....
Renouncing the rules of life. That is called foolishness. The foolish dog cleaves to a place and falls into death.
A white vortex appeared in the middle of Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, without any sound accompanying it. It appeared beneath the white eye, and as it spun, it exerted a force of separation. What was being separated were his fleshly body and soul. After the third breath of time passed, a white mouth appeared in the place of the vortex, which opened wide with boundless evil.
This was....
Arguing without understanding the facts. That is called depravity. The depraved dog cleaves to a place and falls into hell.
The white mouth viciously took a bite. It took a bite of his soul! Finally, something appeared around the eye, the vortex, and the mouth. It was the fifth will of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals. It was a white face.
Because of the contrast it provided, the immortal skill of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals was completed in Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness. It became... a complete face. It had white hair, and a facial expression... that was smiling, yet not smiling. Crying, yet not crying. It was gruish to the extreme. It began to fuse with Xu Qing’s fleshly body.
Renouncing the three paths of hell before attaining lifelessness. That is called austerity. The austere dog cleaves to a place and forever loses the body.
Xu Qing’s view of the world began to dim. Outside, at the bottom of Immortal Cleaving Lake, a new corpse appeared on the huge white magical symbol made of corpses.
It was none other than Xu Qing. His hair was white, as was his skin. His eyes were also opened, and they glowed with white light. He was now one with the other surrounding corpses. His facial expression resembled theirs as well.
But a moment later, something dramatic happened. Outside of Xu Qing there appeared a host of threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures. The threads pulsed with the immortal skill fluctuations of Six Thieves Deceive Life. Xu Qing had prepared them in advance, and they had now been stimulated to congregate around him.
When they arrived, some of them pierced into Xu Qing’s fleshly body, while others went toward the white face. Yet others circled around him, moving round and round until they formed something like a cocoon around him. The cocoon was itself a sealing mark.
As for the white face inside Xu Qing, it was now incapable of emerging into the open.
This was Xu Qing’s plan. He wanted to personally experience Five Dogs Cleave Immortals. And though it was astoundingly gruish, he was now feeling fairly confident. And the reason for that confidence was Six Thieves Deceive Life. After all, Five Dogs Cleave Immortals and Six Thieves Deceive Life were fundamentally part of the same immortal skill.
In that manner, time passed.
***
Everything at the bottom of Immortal Cleaving Lake was still. Then, all of a sudden, the lake water seemed to stop moving. Two hours passed. That was when cracking sounds came out of the cocoon. They started out faint. But soon they became louder and more frequent. At the same time, the cocoon started to split open. The effects continued until the cocoon exploded.
Xu Qing was revealed. His hair was no longer white. It was back to its usual color. It was the same with his eyes, although they did contain traces of lingering fear.
“This is Five Dogs Cleave Immortals,” he murmured.
This skill is far more gruish than Six Thieves Deceive Life.... Wait, no. That’s just because Yue Dong is fundamentally weak, which allowed me to vanquish her version of Six Thieves Deceive Life. The origin of the immortal skill is this sealing mark....
Xu Qing looked down at the white sealing mark beneath his feet. He could sense that the sealing mark was extremely ancient. In fact, if his speculations were correct, it probably came from the time of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity. In fact, there was even the possibility that this seal was the original sealing mark of the immortal skill of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals.
If I hadn’t gained control of Six Thieves Deceive Life first, and turned it into a dao lineament of authority completely belonging to me, then it would have been difficult to awaken just now.
He looked at all the corpses around him. Now he realized that these were the bodies of people who had failed to gain enlightenment.
This immortal skill....
Xu Qing shifted his attention to his own right hand. The scattered remnants of the cocoon threads were gathering there, where they were forming into a faint symbol. The symbol actually looked exactly like the white symbol at the bottom of Immortal Cleaving Lake. And as he watched, the symbol turned into something that resembled a mask.
By means of Six Thieves Deceive Life, he would later be able to extract the mask and use the ultimate origin of the immortal skill to force it to work for him.
Xu Qing sent his divine will into the mask and experienced the same thing he had just experienced with Five Dogs Cleave Immortals. Ultimately he was able to break through the inner qualities of the immortal skill.
The stingy dog preserves a memory within the memories of the person using it. Because of how deeply it’s hidden, it’s hard to pick up on any clues about what it really is. If five breaths of time pass, and the user hasn’t erased it, the greedy dog will appear.
The greedy dog is a sealing mark that prevents the user from escaping. The sealing mark takes four breaths of time to form. If it isn’t erased before then, the sealing is complete, and the foolish dog appears.
The power of the foolish dog is the vortex. It serves to separate the soul and body of the user, find a weakness, and then magnify it. If it isn’t wiped out within three breaths of time, the depraved dog arrives.
The depraved dog devours the soul, and if it isn’t destroyed within two breaths of time, the austere dog appears.
The austere dog merges with the body, and if it isn’t killed within one breath of time, then... the immortal skill of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals is a success.
If the immortal skill is complete, it unleashes astonishing killing power. To some extent, it uses one’s own body to kill one’s own self! That’s why there is no differentiation between strong and weak. The technique is extremely harmful to the soul. However, there’s still something I don’t understand...
Cleaving immortals. Cleaving immortals. Which is the true meaning?
Is it cleaving from the immortal? Casting it aside? Or does it mean cleaving to the immortal?
Xu Qing got the feeling that the two words ‘immortal’ and ‘cleaving’ were key to accessing another, more important level of the immortal skill. Because he hadn’t fully mastered the immortal skill, he had no way to gain full enlightenment.
Xu Qing felt a bit of regret. However, he also knew that the immortal skill was amazing. Although it wasn’t possible to completely master it in a short time, he did have the right foundation. And it was all because of the synergy with the Six Thieves immortal skill.
It’s the foundation that brings the qualifications. As long as I’m qualified, then I have the chance to completely master it.
Xu Qing suppressed his regret, looked up, and shot toward the surface of the lake. After he was gone, the sealing mark at the bottom of the lake faded. It was no longer complete.
***
Outside in the Immortal Skills Hall, there was a secret chamber that was a restricted area. Inside of it was a black stone, upon which was an ancient symbol that looked exactly like the one at the bottom of the lake. That was the true Immortal Cleaving symbol.
Even that symbol was now dimmer, as though part of it had been taken away. Unfortunately, the grand immortal adept of the western Devilbirds was wandering now, and until he returned, it wouldn’t be possible for anyone to discover what had happened.
***
The immortal adepts of Immortal Cleaving Lake were still seated cross-legged seeking enlightenment. It had only been about four hours since Xu Qing sank down into the lake. Because of that, not many of the immortal adepts noticed when Xu Qing emerged from the surface of the lake. Those who did notice were dumbstruck. However, after recovering from their initial shock, their conclusion was that he must not have actually attempted to seek enlightenment. They assumed he had come up to the surface out of fear, and thus, they scorned him.
Xu Qing ignored all of that. Looking at the Immortal Skills Hall, he considered the lessons his Master had taught him. It was important for a person to show gratitude. Therefore, he clasped hands to the Immortal Skills Hall and bowed. That way, he could be free from debt from the subject, and would feel comfortable fighting and killing them later if necessary.[2]
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The young man in the Immortal Skills Hall saw what happened and sneered.
He showed up acting all high and mighty, but when he left, he bowed. Switching from arrogance to deference like that is something I’ve seen a lot of. There’s always somebody who thinks they’re some sort of chosen. Omnipotent. But after experiencing the torment of our immortal skill, they turn chicken. This Sir Blood Dust is a real coward. He was obviously scared away. Well, good riddance!
1. This is the wordplay I mentioned several chapters ago when this immortal skill was introduced. In Chinese, the character I’m rendering as ‘cleave’ has multiple meanings. I’m using ‘cleave’ because I can basically impart the same concept as in Chinese while using an English word that has two opposite meanings depending on the context. For those of you who aren’t very familiar with the word ‘cleave,’ it works as I’ve described it in the translation. To ‘cleave to’ something means to stick close to it, while to ‘cleave from’ or cleave one thing ‘ away from’ another means to separate from it. Incidentally, one of the characters used in the technique name is also used in the word commonly used in xianxia for “possession.” Sadly, I could not come up with one word in English that has all three meanings. ☜
2. Xu Qing is referring to what Master Seventh taught him in chapter 304. Search for “clean conscience” on that page, and you’ll get to the exact passage. This lesson was mentioned a few times in subsequent chapters. ☜