Survey of Mountains and Rivers

Big North folded his arms, tucking his hands into his long sleeves.

"It depends. There exist various divination techniques which allow the user to peer into the past or to see visions. Even if there's no surviving physical evidence of whomever you may be looking for, Heaven sees and remembers all. Since most divination techniques work by peering into heavenly secrets, the cost of usage varies depending on the significance of the divination target, but usually, it's well worth it. Especially in your case, since it might directly help you cure your inner demon."

He paused momentarily to recall some information.

"I believe that there is a Golden Core immortal art within little Black's inheritance called 'Survey of Mountains and Rivers', which is a type of geomantic spell. I recommend you familiarise yourself with it before advancing to the Golden Core realm, since it has a few prerequisites that you need to accomplish before advancing."

Wuxian listened with interest. Though he had only heard its name, he had already placed his hopes of overcoming his inner demon with this grand-sounding technique. Having a divination technique conveniently within his inheritance like this made things a lot easier, since even a novice cultivator like himself knew that divination arts were amongst the hardest techniques to procure without connections.

"But that means that I will need to survive my inner demon tribulation until I reach Golden Core and beyond that, since after breaking through I will need to first learn the immortal art and then become proficient in it. Not only that, but there's also the possibility that it doesn't solve the root problem of the inner demon. To top it all off, I'll also need to be able to survive my inner demon trials long enough to even make it to the Golden Core stage in the first place."

He couldn't help but let out a helpless sigh. The fact that Qi Condensation was one of the slower stages didn't improve matters much. Unlike Qi Refining and Foundation Building, where he steadily progressed through refining various meridians, progression through Qi Condensation was somewhat less quantitative in that he needed to steadily expand his dantians. To expand them further, he would need to condense his qi more, which in turn required him to expand his dantians more- a sort of positive feedback loop.

The issue was that he had to expend qi in order to expand his dantians. Undoubtedly, advancing through Qi Condensation would take many, many months of non-stop cultivation. Combined with the fact that his own safety was not entirely assured within this dangerous city of Cang'An, nor was it outside, the future looked bleak.

Suddenly, a pang of hunger began spreading throughout his body. As the numbness and headache faded away, they were replaced by various other primal urges that threatened his sanity. In a hurry, he focused his mind and extracted a fasting pill from within one of his interspatial rings, swallowing it in one go.

It took a few minutes for the pill to work its magic, but once it had, he felt at peace. 

"It seems that I really did sleep for quite a long time." He remarked.

Big North chuckled in response.

"A month, to be exact."

"Seriously?!" Wuxian couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. "I managed to survive that long without food or water?"

Big North nodded affirmatively. "Immortals often go into seclusion for years at a time, it's no surprise that a rookie cultivator like you can close up for a month. Though you haven't practised body tempering, the positive side effects of cultivation have begun to show. While your lifespan hasn't drastically increased after your breakthrough, your constitution has become something that a mere mortal's cannot compare to."

Wuxian nodded, touching his chin contemplatively.

"In my dream, roughly a month passed too. Do you think that it's possible that time within the inner demon trial adheres to the same flow of time in the real world?" He asked.

Big North shrugged, not pretending to be more knowledgeable than he really was.

"Like I said, inner demon trials are highly variable between each individual. Perhaps, knowing that time is one of the things you lack most, Heaven's will gave you an inner demon trial which directly reduces the time you have in the real world, exploiting your weakness."

Wuxian frowned. "How often do inner demon trials occur?"

"Again, there is no general consensus or set standard for inner demons and their trials. From what I've personally seen, while inner demon trials do not require as much energy from Heaven to send down compared to lightning tribulations, they still require a substantial amount. After each trial, they will require a period of time to recharge and we can only roughly figure out the duration between each interval after you experience your second trial." Seeing Wuxian's ashen look, Big North slipped in some positive news. "But as you get stronger both mentally and cultivation-wise, the damage you'll suffer from inner demon trials will decrease."

"Makes sense." Wuxian folded his arms, similar to Big North's current posture. "I was thinking that if the backlash from dying inside the trial was manageable and if they don't occur too frequently, it might be wise to directly commit suicide as soon as I realise I'm inside one."

"That's a good train of thought." Big North complimented. "There's no telling how long any individual inner demon trial might last continuously. It's possible that if you manage to survive long enough, you might just die from old age within the trial- that is, assuming your physical body in the real world hasn't already withered away by then. Another concern is muddling reality with fantasy. There have been cases of people starting families and new lives within their trials, growing too attached and dying as a result."

"The more I hear and think about it, subtle tribulations like the inner demon trial seem much more dangerous than destructive tribulations like the lightning trial." Wuxian sighed, though, strangely, he did not seem as downtrodden as before.

He was unfazed by his close call with death, knowing that what had happened had happened and that the only thing he could do was continue to move forwards. Perking himself up, he stood up and shook his limbs to loosen and wake them up.

"In the end, my problems will go away once I cultivate long enough."

Big North nodded in agreement. "Cultivation is a panacea for all ailments."

Not wanting to waste any more time, Wuxian refocused his mind. From within his interspatial rings, he retrieved a pile of manuals. After digging through them, he found one that was lined with black and yellow patterns. Dusting off the cover, he found that a large yellow river with a towering black mountain looming over it was depicted. 

'Well, it's called 'Survey of Mountains and Rivers'. It'd make sense for there to be corresponding imagery.'

Similarly to many of the other manuals that Black Emperor Mountain Hermit had passed down to him, the Survey of Mountains and Rivers contained a lot of philosophy about the Dao and a few esoteric explanations for some geomantic terms. After the confusing introduction, of which Wuxian understood little, came the more upfront description of the immortal art.

The Survey of Mountains and Rivers is an extremely unique divination technique. While divination techniques have always had a rather high barrier of entry, partially due to the difficulty associated with mastering them and partially due to their exclusivity to certain families and clans, there exists some level of uniformity between the principles between each. 

For example, the Spring Autumn Pavilion's Ten Changes technique, which expends the user's lifespan and memories in exchange for heavenly secrets, to be interpreted using hexagrams and oracle shells, which is a divination art that is passed down a line of blood-related immortal cultivators.

Another is the Eight Celestial Readings technique which expends the user's spirit foundation and cultivation base to discover heavenly secrets, often delivered in the form of dreams and visions. Similarly to the Ten Changes, which is tightly controlled by the Spring Autumn Pavilion's Cai clan, the Eight Celestial Readings are controlled by the Baxing Sages.

More carefree and eccentric are those few techniques practised by immortal hermits, lone cultivators unaffiliated with any particular faction, who sell their services in exchange for wealth, resources and so on. The inheritance of these fellows is uncertain- there have been many cases in the past where an immortal hermit has failed to pass on their teachings to a disciple, either due to negligence, or to unfortunate circumstances like backlash, resulting in the permanent loss of their methods forevermore.

But each of these immortal arts follows similar principles; to sacrifice at the cost of oneself in exchange for a chance to peer into the secrets of Heaven. Heaven does not care for mortal wealth in the traditional sense and it works on the principle of 'fair-exchange'. To divine trivial matters such as tomorrow's weather or next week's winning numbers, one might only need to expend their qi, but to divine matters of consequence to the lives of many, oneself, or pertaining to the Dao itself, a heavier price must be exacted.

The other similarity between all divination techniques is that the caster is merely a beggar at Heaven's doorstep. It is Heaven's own prerogative whether or not it deems the beggar's request worthy of an answer. In the case where Heaven deems one unworthy to learn a secret, or if the price to be paid is too heavy, the caster would suffer from backlash. At worst, backlash could result in death. At best, damage to one's spirit body, their golden core or their Dao heart.

Now, what makes the Survey of Mountains and Rivers so different from these? Unlike the aforementioned Ten Changes or the Eight Celestial Readings, it does not sacrifice one's lifespan or cultivation, but their time instead. Rather than rely on the caster's own power and sacrifice, the Survey of Mountains and Rivers uses landmarks of great heavenly presence in the form of a mountain and a river that are linked by a spiritual feature such as an earth vein to directly commune with Heaven's will.

The price to be paid is the caster's time. Heaven's will often issue directives to the summoner, the difficulty and importance of which varies depending on the significance of the heavenly secret they wish to learn. The downside of this is that under most circumstances, only one of Heaven's directives can be issued at any one time and they are also associated with time limits. This means that before being able to divine another matter, one must first complete their directive. Failure to complete the task results in backlash, the severity of which depending on the significance of the heavenly secret in question.

The other downside is that even if one completes their task, the landmarks involved must also recuperate, lest the user overexerts the power of the land, causing the vitality and quality of the earth vein to be permanently reduced. This is in contrast to the Ten Changes technique, which allows for consecutive activation. A well-known story is that of Cai Tianji, who aged eighty years in a single day, sacrificing his life in exchange for heavenly secrets to protect his clan from destruction.

Users of the Survey of Mountains and Rivers technique will be limited by the strength of their chosen landmarks. The highest quality earth vein discovered to date only allows for the technique to be cast once in a fortnight, while the lowest quality one might take years to recover from a single use.

As for the usage of this technique, it is divided partly between a conduit of Heaven and Earth and an immortal art. The immortal art required to activate the technique is recorded and explained further on in this manual. 

The most important prerequisite to being able to begin learning the technique is a golden core. Shortly after breaking through from Qi Condensation to Golden Core, the cultivator must imprint the likeness of the desired mountain and river into the newly formed core and form a connection between their spirit body and the earth vein. This must be done quickly as the prime period of time whereupon the user begins engraving is roughly three breath's of time after advancing. At least three years of painting classes are recommended!

Due to the connection between the cultivator and the landmark, the technique has an additional hidden advantage and disadvantage. Spiritual damage the cultivator suffers will be partially sustained by the earth vein. While this aids in protecting the user, it also increases the interval between each potential activation of the Survey of Mountains and Rivers.