Elder Kuzhu felt suddenly flanked by four columns of smoke from his left side, each as thick as a wheel, swirling with multicolored flowers, and each containing a person.

The four individuals were all fairly young; the first one was about eighteen or nineteen, dressed like a scholar with a refined and cultured air; the second was in his early twenties, carrying a large bow, resembling a hunter from the mountains; the third was around fifteen or sixteen, garbed in luxurious silk clothing, looking like a young noble; the fourth was nearly thirty, muscular, carrying a hoe, clearly a farmer.

Seeing these four, Elder Kuzhu was more horrified than if he had encountered any formidable demon from this world; with his thousand years of cultivation, even the strongest devils or evil spirits were mere trifles to him, yet these four were unmistakably his past lives!

Due to his unorthodox Daoist cultivation, mixed Primordial Qi, and an inability to purify his Nascent Soul fully, he could not ascend. Moreover, his emotions had grown faint and his heart had hardened during his prolonged retreat in the mountains, his being merging with the grass and stones.

Rated as one of the Cosmic Six Strange by Li Jingxu, he was originally quite obstinate and eccentric. Over the long years of cultivation, secluded in the deep mountains, his body withered, his heart ashen, and he was on the brink of turning to stone; though his Daoist power seemed to increase, he was, in fact, nearing deviation.

Later, he unintentionally acquired a Buddhist scripture and read about Buddha Shakyamuni's Nirvana, where to the northeast, south, and west stood pairs of Sala trees, each side having one flourishing and one withering, known as the Four Flourishings and Four Witherings.

The scripture described: The eastern trees represent "permanence and impermanence"; the western trees, "self and no-self"; the southern trees, "purity and impurity"; the northern trees, "joy and no-joy."

The flourishing trees demonstrated the transient aspect of the world—impermanence, non-joy, no-self, impurity; the withering trees exhibited the essence of Nirvana—permanent, joyful, self, purity.

In the end, it stated that ultimately there is neither withering nor flourishing, neither illusion nor emptiness.

Bamboo, robust with life, prolifically flourishing, represents flourishing aspect; yet, his cultivation of withering bamboo was oriented towards the path of feigned death.

Either we wither or we flourish, either we die or we live; how can one achieve to be both withering and flourishing, both dead and alive?

Elder Kuzhu felt that if he could penetrate this paradox, he could break through the millennium bottleneck and either ascend to the Immortal Realm or ascend to Pure Land.

Thus, he left his physical body protected by Spirit Bamboo atop Wuzhong Ridge of Great Wilderness Mountain and divided his Primordial Spirit to keep reincarnating in Central Earth.

While his physical self continued to comprehend the realm of "withering death" and delved into Withering Zen at Wuzhong Ridge, his Primordial Spirit ventured into Central Earth, reincarnating as humans, reliving the sensations of having flesh and emotions, families and friends, pondering the realm of "flourishing life." In this way, combining the lessons of flourishing and withering, life and death, he hoped one day to attain complete enlightenment.

Since he came into Central Earth to reincarnate, each life naturally had biological parents.

With his Daoist power, he was not confused by the barrier between life and death, and endowed with residual wisdom, he could speak soon after birth, his soul bringing vast mana that made his body strong, allowing him to stand and walk within months.

Although some considered him a freak, parents in nine out of ten of his lives revered him as a prodigy, cherishing him delicately, fearing he might be scared or hurt.

Yet he grew impatient with dealing with these ordinary humans, finding it boring and detestable, all the welcoming and sending off, all the praises and glories, all meaningless to him.

Thus, in nearly every lifetime, he lived only until his twenties or even younger before finding some excuse—or sometimes none at all—to leave his family, wandering in the mortal world for a few years before sealing his physical body and returning to Wuzhong Ridge for quiet meditation.

Now, the figures emerging in these four streams of colored smoke represented his appearances from his past four lifetimes!

Although Elder Kuzhu transferred through cycles of reincarnation without losing his Daoist power or becoming muddled by the barrier of death, he was still not at the peak of his power, thereby always disturbing the yin yang balance and altering fate, confounding anyone trying to predict his path.

Seeing these four representations was not because they were formidable, but because he felt like his greatest secret had been peered into, making him change his face and turn to look at the giant Black Dragon sleeping soundly inside the great hall: "Did you figure this out?"

The Black Dragon, dead to the world, naturally could not respond. No one else understood what was happening.

At that moment, to Elder Kuzhu's right, four more trails of colorful smoke burst forth, equally lively with raining flowers, each containing a middle-aged couple—officials, hunters, wealthy merchants, farmers—all reaching out to him, crying out the infant names from each of his past lives: "My dear child! To find you here!"

Elder Kuzhu instantly felt a mix of irritation and embarrassment. He waved his cane, severing the four pillars of smoke, which then scattered with the wind.

He snorted coldly: "Playing at mysteries, what of it? I didn't plan to personally deal with you today, but seeing this nefarious creature like this, you indeed must not remain!"

He strode into the great hall where Mo Zhui and his brothers prepared desperately to fight. Jade Lotus Miaomiao had persuaded them to stop casting spells, but seeing Elder Kuzhu approaching again, they tensed up and prepared to cast spells together.

Suddenly, three colorful pillars of smoke rose and blocked the path of Elder Kuzhu. With a swing of his cane, the smoke pillars were severed at the waist before the figures inside had a chance to emerge.

However, this time the smoke pillars did not shatter and disperse like before but instead blended into a dense, multicolored fog that surged towards Elder Kuzhu.

Elder Kuzhu frowned slightly and thought to himself that these Demon Path tricks were nothing more than illusions meant to deceive the hearts of people or to conceal a Divine Demon lying in wait to ambush—he didn't hold in high regard even the techniques of the two Sect Hierarchs of the Asura Sect among the Cosmic Six Strange.

Holding his bamboo cane, he stepped forward, eager to see what other methods the other party had.

With each step covering more than ten yards, he walked several steps, and by all reasoning, he should have reached the entrance of the palace. Suddenly, he had a realization: he had ended up on the edge of the platform instead.

He realized that this was the Inverting Five Elements technique, twisting space, and could not help but sneer, "Trivial tricks, daring to flaunt skills before an expert!"

He had cultivated the Moving Great Technique of Greater Five Elements, which reversed Yin and Yang and inverted the Five Elements, using arrays to create a realm completely isolated from the outside world—an easy feat for him.

At this moment, the colorful smoke intensified, with three pillars of smoke rising from the front, back, left, and right, merging together in the center into a vast cloud of colored smoke.

Elder Kuzhu immediately began to calculate the array's pattern changes using his spellcasting. He was a master in this area; he first determined the constants, then the variables, calculating while either stepping two paces forward or three paces back, sometimes moving to the left, other times to the right.

He thought he could easily deduce the pattern changes of the array, but he was surprisingly mistaken!

It turned out that Shi Feiyang had set up not the commonly used "Dunjia," but "Liu Ren."

Taiyi, Liu Ren, Qimen—these were the ancient three styles, all traceable back to the time when the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady taught the Yellow Emperor to defeat Chi You.

The Taiyi Formation was used for divining the fate of nations, predicting the rise and fall of countries and various natural disasters. The Liu Ren Formation was used for divining daily life in the Human World, mundane matters. Qimen Dunjia was also used to predict wars, conflicts between friends and foes, and how to seek fortune and avoid disaster.

In the past, Shi Feiyang mostly used Qimen Dunjia and its derived techniques and arrays; this was his first time using Liu Ren.

Qimen Dunjia emphasizes Jia Wood, with the six Jia circumventing under the Six Wu, heavily utilizing six Jia when calculating the auspicious and ominous times of friends and foes, and emphasizing Six Wu when forecasting how to avoid calamities and counteract.

Liu Ren, as its name suggests, relies on Liu Ren as the crucial mechanism, with Ren belonging to the Heavenly Stems, matching the Earthly Branches: positioned in the Hai Palace among the Twelve Constellations. Ren Water and Hai Water both belong to Yang Water, representing river water. Among the Eight Diagrams, Hai corresponds to the Northwest and relates to the Qian Trigram. Qian represents Heaven, hence the Heavenly River Water.

Heaven gives birth to water; the water of the Heavenly River originates in the heavens and descends to the earth, never ceasing!

Shi Feiyang happened to have True Water, using it to transform a spring's eye as the source of the entire array, making the array's energy nearly infinite, endlessly recyclable!

The Twelve Flower Evil God Gang, like twelve large trees, rooted within this source, thrived and grew into towering trees. Despite Elder Kuzhu's high mana capable of severing these with a casual stroke, they broke but did not dissipate, transforming into thick smoke from which Lotus, Osmanthus, Orchid, Pear, Peach, and Tea flowers—twelve types of flowers—emerged, changing in size and continuously spinning and fluttering in the sky, creating boundless space, trapping Elder Kuzhu within!

Elder Kuzhu was also extremely proficient in techniques; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to use the Moving Great Technique of Greater Five Elements. He moved swiftly within the array, initially walking, then flying, his body enveloped in a cloak of blue light, darting left and right, as quick as lightning. As his movement within the array increased in speed, the internal space grew larger, while externally it remained merely twenty or thirty yards, but inside it expanded to cover hundreds of miles.

Elder Kuzhu immediately recognized this as the Liu Ren Formation and scoffed in surprise. In duels, both parties always try to capitalize on their strengths and attack the opponent's weaknesses. Hence, the most commonly used method was Qimen Dunjia. Liu Ren, which is used to calculate mundane daily affairs of the populace, mastering in divining marriages, funerals, and even trivial daily occurrences, using this for a duel was simply laughable!

He quickly grasped the operational rules of the array, calculating the Heavenly Plate's pattern. Yet, when he prepared to break it, he found the source of the array was a vast and unceasing flow of water.

A single drop of True Water could transform into a lake; Shi Feiyang used an entire bottle as the array's core, thousands of drops of True Water, which expanded into a sea.

Elder Kuzhu, currently without the power to disturb the sea, could only follow the water veins to find the source, but this source continually transformed, adapting according to the interactions of the Acquired and Innate, moving from the Hai Palace to the Shen Palace.

Shen belonged to Metal, which engenders water, the water of the Heavenly River aided by Shen Metal, growing increasingly fierce.

He hastily rushed to the Shen Palace; the water source then moved to the Si Palace, associated with Fire. While traditionally Water and Fire oppose each other, here, they achieved balance, causing the water of the Heavenly River to boil...

Elder Kuzhu was always a step slower than the water source, his frustration mounting. He thought to himself, having achieved enlightenment a thousand years ago, he was now trapped by a Demon Dragon's array—it wouldn't sound pleasant spread in future tales. Madam Lu Yu would surely laugh her teeth off, not to mention the way these youngsters watching would underestimate him.

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