Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 370 Creation of the Five Elements, Creation of Humanity
Waves of worldly energy surged forth, and the Heaven-Mending Stone seemed to be soaked in a softening agent, stimulating the release of more of its creative energy, which was then absorbed and contained by Qiu Chuji.

Qiu Chuji sat cross-legged in the Five Elements Formation, the Qi of the Five Elements constantly connecting with creation, attempting a preliminary deconstruction.

Creation is one of the supreme cosmic rules that transcends the world. Its essence lies in time and space. After all, the meaning of time and space lies in civilization, while creation can generate civilization. With Qiu Chuji's current primordial spirit cultivation, it would have been absolutely impossible for him to comprehend even the slightest bit of creation.

But he relied not only on his primordial spirit, but also on his physical body, which had been completely reshaped by the Qi of Creation, and his innate demon god status within the small world. This made him innately close to Creation, because he himself was a 'miracle' formed under the guidance of Creation.

Even so, deconstruction is by no means an easy task for him.

Therefore, Qiu Chuji lowered his requirements and used the Five Elements to build a bridge, opening a door from the mysteries of creation.

Even if it's like the blind men touching an elephant, it's better than knowing nothing at all.

What is creation?

A seed sprouts, breaks through the soil, pushes aside rocks, and welcomes spring—this is the workings of nature.

A star comes into being from nothing, nurturing life, giving birth to civilization, and displaying miracles—this is also a creation of nature.

It is everywhere, yet it cannot be truly and completely categorized or controlled.

Even the Heaven-Mending Stone, which contains extremely rich Qi of creation, is not creation itself, but a specific crystallization of creation from the perspective of the sage Nuwa.

The creation it represents is only a projection of a part of the creation as understood by the sage Nuwa.

Qiu Chuji's understanding of creation through the stone used to mend the sky is essentially equivalent to reading a book about creation written by the sage Nuwa.

He not only couldn't fully perceive creation itself, but he also absolutely couldn't personally understand Nuwa's expressions and feedback regarding creation.

But... as long as you get started, you'll be fine!

The world outside the door and the world inside the door are absolutely two different worlds.

Of course, Qiu Chuji didn't need a complete understanding, as that was too far off for him. He only needed a few fragments from the general picture, and even those few fragments, if he could fully grasp them, would be enough to open the gate to becoming a Golden Immortal and attain immortality.

After all, by embedding oneself in creation, one can travel with the ripples of the universe, thus becoming more eternal than the stars.

Within the Heaven-Mending Stone, under the slow rotation and pull of the Five Elements Array, the vast and abundant Qi of Creation was slowly and laboriously drawn out strand by strand, as if being drawn from silk, and merged into the Five Elements Array.

Under the influence of the Five Elements Formation and his own instincts, Qiu Chuji fell into a mysterious state.

Time passes little by little.

Outside, Jia Baoyu's "peerless beauty" continues to resonate, influencing the choices and destinies of many.

In the original trajectory, Jia Baoyu was like a canary, kept in a cage of wealth, unable to see the outside world.

But now, whether he likes it or not, his absolute advantage in appearance and his gender have become a kind of 'weapon'.

If someone wants to harm others with a weapon, they will naturally fan the flames and stir up trouble behind the scenes.

Standing in the center of the stage, Jia Baoyu is naturally subjected to a great deal of worldly influence.

This, in turn, stirred up waves in the mortal world, causing the Sky-Mending Stone to react continuously.

Inside, Qiu Chuji closed his eyes and meditated, doing his utmost to seize this rare opportunity.

Originally, he only wanted to combine creation with physical form to create a body comparable to the first generation of humans, but now... he wants more.

He sat cross-legged in the very center of the Sky-Mending Stone, and five-colored light flowed mysteriously around him, illuminating the surrounding void as if it were a crystal vase.

Suddenly, Qiu Chuji made a sword-finger gesture, his clothes fluttering without wind, and the five colors of spiritual light—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—flowed between his ten fingers in turn. At the points where they intersected, mysterious patterns as fine as spider webs burst forth. And above these five elements, something unseen and intangible was being drawn and brewed.

Suddenly, Qiu Chuji's internal organs emitted a series of strange rumbling sounds.

Some instinctive, special senses are permeating from inside the body outwards.

Thus, the internal and external are connected, forming another special cycle outside of the Five Elements.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Qiu Chuji's pupils reflected the wondrous spectacle of the Five Elements Formation: Ru Shou transformed into a white tiger roaring in the west, the Azure Dragon meandered and grew from the eastern sky, the Black Tortoise emerged from the water carrying the Eight Trigrams, and the phantoms of the Crimson Flame Vermilion Bird and the Earth Qilin intertwined before falling into the boundless wilderness.

Qiu Chuji's Five Elements Primordial Spirit originally corresponded to five ancient deities: Ru Shou, Ju Mang, Gong Gong, Zhu Rong, and Hou Tu.

This selection was not random; rather, these five individuals were both gods and shamans, knowledgeable in mysticism, physically powerful, and shared many similarities with the martial arts that Qiu Chuji himself controlled.

The Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, Vermilion Bird, and Central Earth Qilin, which also represent the Five Elements, are more inclined towards the inheritance of Taoist methods.

At this moment, under the guidance of fate, this kind of cognition, spirit, culture, or some kind of mysterious perception and limitation was easily torn apart.

From this point on, the Five Elements returned to their original state.

Qiu Chuji allowed them to be what they wanted them to be.

They should be this way as they are, not fixed in form and appearance because of the people of the past.

All established images are both a conventional prejudice and a shortcut for easy understanding and application.

Now that Qiu Chuji has reached a high level of understanding of the Five Elements, looking back, things are naturally very different.

"Heaven and earth reverse, the five elements return to their proper places!" Qiu Chuji shouted, and a five-colored vortex burst forth from his chest.

But then, a crimson flame suddenly ignited at the hem of the green robe, yet it did not damage the fabric in the slightest. Instead, it caused the suspended black water to evaporate into a misty purple aura.

Starlight appeared in the palm of his left hand, while the five fingers of his right hand seemed to have grasped the brilliance of the sun and moon.

Immediately, the starlight in his left hand transformed into the sun and moon, while the sun and moon in his right hand transformed into starlight.

The stars are inherently the same; it is the perception of living beings that alters their nature.

This is fate!

If a star happens to illuminate a world that has given birth to civilization, then it is destined to be extraordinary in that civilization, and it is also destined to be different from other stars, becoming one of the eternal themes and core elements in mythology.

Looking at the flickering light and flame in his palm, Qiu Chuji couldn't help but burst into laughter.

With the addition of creation, the fire in his Five Elements is no ordinary fire, but the fire of the sun and the fire of the stars; the wood in his Five Elements is no ordinary wood, but the tree that reaches the heavens and the tree of the world; the water is the water of profound mystery and the source of the vast ocean; the earth is the earth of returning to the void and the beginning of life; and the metal is the metal of the Great White and the essence of killing and warfare.

This means that the power of the five elements controlled by Qiu Chuji posed an extremely terrifying threat to those gods and Buddhas.

Those below the Golden Immortal level dare not disregard them.

Even an immortal Golden Immortal could be worn down by his creation and the Five Elements. However, with Qiu Chuji's current strength and ability, if he really wanted to wear down a Golden Immortal, even if the other party stood still and let him wear them down, the time would be measured in thousands or tens of thousands of years.

After closing his eyes to sense for a moment, Qiu Chuji opened them again: "It's no use! I can't deduce anything anymore!"

"It's not a physical reason, but rather that one's spirit, soul, and personal accumulation and knowledge are insufficient to support such behavior."

Unable to analyze the Qi of Creation further, Qiu Chuji stopped pursuing it and instead began to study how to utilize the Qi of Creation.

In terms of warfare, one can simply follow the principles of the Five Elements and adapt them accordingly.

The Five Elements encompass everything, and their interaction, exchange, and conflict can all produce different changes.

All sorts of transformations, such as wind, thunder, clouds, and evil spirits, can originate from the Five Elements. Therefore, only when one reaches a very high level of cultivation can one say that one is "transcending the Three Realms and not within the Five Elements." For all living beings and all things in the world, it is extremely difficult to completely break free from the constraints of the Five Elements.

But aside from its application in warfare, the Qi of creation should not be used in such a brute force.

Qiu Chuji began to try to create things within the Heaven-Mending Stone. In any case, the Qi of creation here was extremely abundant. Even when he broke the Heaven-Mending Stone, he probably wouldn't be able to refine it all. So, this application and practice of his methods was not a waste.

At first, he simply created some very simple things out of thin air. Although it wasn't as easy as it was in the small world, it was still more direct and easier than using the Great Five Elements Wheel to materialize the five elements.

Soon, Qiu Chuji began to transcend his previous work, no longer content with merely fabricating inanimate objects, but starting to fabricate living ones.

Birds, beasts, fish, insects, flowers, grass, and trees all began to appear in the originally empty space of the Sky-Mending Stone, turning the once empty and desolate space into a vibrant place.

"Something's wrong!"

"These creatures I created seem a bit stupid, only possessing mechanical instincts!"

"Unsure... I'll try again!" Qiu Chuji mobilized a great deal of the Qi of Creation and finally began to attempt to create a human.

This kind of creation is not the union of men and women in the mortal world to produce offspring, nor is it a cultivator cutting off a part of their flesh and soul to create an external avatar.

Instead, it independently and randomly creates an individual that has no direct connection to itself in terms of flesh and soul.

This is touching the authority of the true 'God'.

This god is not an ordinary celestial deity, but a 'God' who holds all the rules and the power to interpret them, and to whom all glory belongs.

Because the power to create life from nothing is a power that only the supreme God possesses.

The gods in Heaven have divided their authority into too many, too numerous, and too dense divisions. So even if they are not weak in terms of energy, legends, or many other aspects, they lack uniqueness and absolute divinity, which greatly diminishes their authority in certain areas.

The vital energy of creation piled up, and a woman's body was born from the stone used to mend the heavens.

At Qiu Chuji's call, she opened her empty yet bright eyes, and then, without shame or taboo, naturally began to walk in the 'kingdom' created by Qiu Chuji.

When she was hungry, she would instinctively pick up fruit from the ground to eat; when she was thirsty, she would lie down on the ground to drink from the stream; and when she needed to relieve herself, she would just squat down wherever she could find a spot.

Her behavior was not wrong, but Qiu Chuji observed her for seven days, and during those seven days, the woman's behavior remained basically unchanged.

She saw the monkey jump from the tree but didn't react.

I saw birds flapping their wings and flying away overhead, but I didn't react.

She saw the tiger leap out of the woods and come toward her, but she didn't react unusually.

"No soul?" Qiu Chuji asked, somewhat puzzled.

If he had no soul at all, then the woman he created must have been nothing more than a shell.

She would lie on the ground, still alive, but completely motionless, and would not open her eyes, driven by instinct to eat, drink, and relieve herself.

But to say it has a soul would certainly be an overstatement.

So Qiu Chuji created even more people.

Furthermore, the Heaven-Mending Stone accelerated the time in one aspect.

This is an isolated and enclosed space, and there is a vast amount of creative energy at his disposal, so Qiu Chuji did not feel much burden when using the time acceleration technique.

Driven by instinct, people began to reproduce.

The 'humans' created by Qiu Chuji are born generation after generation, and then die without any ripples.

There is no soul separated after death, nor is there a soul incorporated at birth.

Then Qiu Chuji manifested his divine power and descended into the place where these people had gathered in his true form. He tried to teach them how to use tools and learn simple counting and timekeeping methods, just as many human ancestors had summarized, deduced, and considered in the process of slash-and-burn agriculture.

But these people completely ignored Qiu Chuji; only a few women came over and lay down in front of him.

Qiu Chuji hesitated for a few moments, but still did not choose to try this method.

After all, he wasn't some kind of demonic cultivator.

······
Qiu Chuji is playing "Minecraft" inside the Stone of Heaven, while outside, Jia Baoyu has experienced the rage of Master Zheng who wanted to kill him, Lady Wang's arrangement for all the maids to try to win back Baoyu's heart, and Jia Baoyu's "pleasant conversation" with the Fourth Prince at Juxian Tower. Now, it is fast forward to the stage where the Fourth Prince confronts the Jia family.

Inside the Jia family mansion, Jia Zheng and his mother, looking at the storybook of "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" handed to them by the fourth prince, both had their expressions changing, their moods shifting between light and dark.

"Prince Qi! Baoyu, he...!" Grandmother Jia hesitated, wanting to refuse but having great reservations.

The traditionally conservative Emperor Zheng could not accept it, but he lacked the courage and confidence to oppose the Fourth Prince's decision. He could only sit there stiffly, his face dark and silent.

"Baoyu has already told me!"

“He has had a miraculous encounter that allows him to change his appearance. In just a few more days, he will be a real woman, beyond any doubt.”

"Therefore, I would like to ask you two to step forward and verify Baoyu's identity."

“In this way, it will not only be good for Baoyu, but also for your Jia family!” the Fourth Prince said slowly.

What's being tapped between the fingers is an account book.

The records contained the money that the Jia family owed the imperial court.

Now that the emperor is conducting a thorough accounting, although the fire has not yet reached the upper echelons of the aristocracy, the loopholes are opening. The Jia family currently has no one to lead the household and cannot come up with enough money to cover the deficit. Once investigated, the result will certainly be the confiscation of their property.

The Fourth Prince has now stated that as long as the Jia family is willing to "prove" Jia Baoyu's true identity—that he is actually a woman—he will help them delay the repayment date, allowing them enough time and energy to raise the funds.

As for why the Jia family, which was originally short of money, went to such great lengths to build the Grand View Garden for the Imperial Concubine's visit home?
This can actually be seen as a means to extract money from the Xue and Lin families.

However, from the masters to the servants, no one in the Jia family was easy to deal with. As a result, after the Grand View Garden was completed, although the Xue and Lin families had spent their money, the Jia family did not have much silver left in their treasury.

It's like putting on a great show for free, but the scalpers pocketed all the ticket money.

At this moment, the Fourth Prince brought up the account book, which was probably to say that the Jia family should cooperate, so he stepped in to help delay.

If the Jia family doesn't cooperate, then he will have to take action and let the knife fall on their heads first.

As a prince with a renowned reputation and real power, there may still be obstacles to him accomplishing something.

But dealing with certain things isn't actually that difficult.

The Jia family having two Dukes is ancient history.

The current title of the Rongguo Mansion is First-Class General, which is no longer a super-rank and has no real power.

Under the pressure of the Fourth Prince's gaze, Old Master Zheng hesitated to speak.

Grandmother Jia swayed slightly, looking somewhat unsteady, but still sighed and said, "When Zhu'er died of a serious illness, her mother couldn't bear the shock and adopted Bao Yu as her son. We couldn't bear the shock either, so we all followed suit. More than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye... Everyone has gotten used to calling him Bao-ge'er! We've forgotten... that he was originally a girl!"

(End of this chapter)