Chapter Ninety-Eight: Three Primordial Periods and Nine Cycles

Li Zisheng formed a new evaluation of the Three Flavors House in his mind. By this point, he had already figured out the White Tiger Hall inside and out. Although he had just had a brief conversation with Yanhong, it failed to yield any useful information, as Yanhong had skillfully sidestepped his inquiries and avoided answering anything regarding the origins of the White Tiger Hall.

Realizing he could extract nothing more from Yanhong, Li Zisheng had no choice but to give up. He instructed Balian to look outside, and finding no suspicious persons about, he took out the *Book of Heavenly Mandate Rituals* from his cloth bag.

The twenty-four iron pillars and the bizarre stone forest lingered persistently in his mind, and he still needed to unravel the crucial secrets hidden within them.

He opened the book of *Heavenly Mandate Rituals* authored by the mysterious old man.

"Indeed, it really is so. My memory did not fail me."

On the page Li Zisheng turned to, characters identical to the twenty-four large characters carved upon the iron pillars appeared before his eyes, with only one distinction: the characters in the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals* were written in seal script, whereas those on the iron pillars were not.

Gazing at the twenty-four characters in the book, Li Zisheng could vaguely discern their matching forms despite being rendered in seal script.

Jia, Mao, Yi; Chen, Xun, Si; Bing, Wu, Ding; Wei, Kun, Shen; Geng, You, Xin; Xu, Qian, Hai; Ren, Zi, Gui; Chou, Gen, Yin.

These twenty-four large characters occupied an entire page within the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals*. To Li Zisheng's surprise, the arrangement order of these twenty-four characters in the book differed slightly from the twenty-four iron pillars etched in his memory.

Although the assistance of Mr. Zhong's books had given Li Zisheng some familiarity with seal script, he had only mastered about half of it and lacked profound research, leaving him quite bewildered as he looked at the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals*.

He continued to flip through the volume. While the seal script further on was largely beyond his immediate comprehension, Li Zisheng could already discern that the page following the twenty-four characters contained descriptions pertaining to the twenty-four iron pillars, though deciphering them at present proved exceedingly laborious.

Nonetheless, one detail Li Zisheng managed to identify on the subsequent page was a very concise phrase known as the "Three Primordials and Nine Cycles."

Coincidentally, Li Zisheng was familiar with this concept. In the place where he used to live, there had been a village sorceress who acted eccentric every day, constantly muttering incomprehensible words under her breath. Yet, far from shunning her, the surrounding people held her in great awe. Having lost his relatives at a young age, Li Zisheng had pitied the old sorceress and frequently visited her. Over time, through constant exposure to these ghostly and supernatural notions, he could be said to have grown somewhat accustomed to them.

As for the Three Primordials and Nine Cycles, he understood them quite well, having heard the sorceress speak of them on countless occasions.

The so-called Three Primordials and Nine Cycles take one hundred and eighty years as a grand cycle. Each grand cycle includes three primordials: the Upper Primordial, the Middle Primordial, and the Lower Primordial. Each primordial lasts sixty years and is further divided into three cycles, with each cycle lasting twenty years. Thus, the Upper Primordial comprises the first, second, and third cycles; the Middle Primordial the fourth, fifth, and sixth cycles; and the Lower Primordial the seventh, eighth, and ninth cycles, thereby forming a complete system of three primordials and nine cycles. The primordials and cycles in this system are symbols represented by the sixty Jiazi that signify different energetic and atmospheric fields. The numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine respectively denote One-Kan Water, Two-Kun Earth, Three-Zhen Wood, Four-Xun Wood, Five-Yellow Earth, Six-Qian Metal, Seven-Dui Metal, Eight-Gen Earth, and Nine-Li Fire.

"Could it be that these twenty-four iron pillars are related to the Three Primordials and Nine Cycles?"

Li Zisheng pondered the crux of the matter, yet he remained entirely devoid of any clear lead, utterly unable to bridge the connection between the Three Primordials and Nine Cycles and the twenty-four iron pillars.

Setting aside the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals* given to him by the mysterious old man, Li Zisheng picked up the volume provided by Mr. Zhong. His current doubt centered on whether the bizarre stone forest formed in the shape of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish was indeed recorded within the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals*, as this was the focal point.

Li Zisheng harbored a persistent premonition that this stone forest, arranged in the pattern of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish, was the crucial key. Otherwise, the former sages of the White Tiger Hall would never have expended such immense mental effort merely for aesthetic appreciation, dragging a vast quantity of massive boulders down into this subterranean world.

To do so would be sheer folly.

Li Zisheng perused Mr. Zhong's book from cover to cover, but finding not a shred of useful information, he laid it aside and picked up the volume given to him by the Chief Steward. Meeting with the exact same result—total futility—only the book given to him by Ling'er remained.

He had long since noticed that the book given to him by Ling'er was noticeably newer than the other three in his possession.

Ever since Ling'er had handed it to him, he had never once opened it.

Li Zisheng opened to the first page and prepared to turn to the second. However, the moment his fingertips brushed the paper, an abrupt tactile sensation transmitted through them.

"No, there is something strange about this book."

An interlining was actually concealed between the second and third pages. How could this be?

Li Zisheng could not fathom Ling'er's intentions. Yet, Ling'er could hardly be considered careless enough to overlook an interlining between the second and third pages. Deducting from this, the interlining must have been intentionally placed by Ling'er, or purposely placed there by Ling'er on behalf of someone else.

Viewed in this light, the person behind the scenes undoubtedly harbored unspeakable secrets they wished to impart to him, but lacking any other opportunity, they had resorted to this method of conveyance.

Li Zisheng instructed Balian to fetch a pair of scissors.

Carefully slicing open the bonded edges between the second and third pages, he revealed an extremely thin letter hidden within.

Upon extracting the letter, Li Zisheng discovered to his astonishment that its paper quality matched almost identically with a letter his esteemed mentor had once written to him back at his old residence—a unique paper texture he had never encountered elsewhere before.

This letter was bound to be connected to his mentor, and might even very well be a missive written to him by his mentor himself.

Halting his actions and temporarily putting the matter of the stone forest aside, Li Zisheng unfolded the letter.

The letter bore merely four characters. He was intimately familiar with the handwriting; these were unmistakably the strokes of his mentor.

"Do not meddle, do not inquire."

"Do not meddle? Do not inquire? What is my mentor trying to tell me? By concealing this within the *Heavenly Mandate Rituals*, my mentor must surely know my identity. Could this be a warning telling me not to get involved in the affair of the Yishan Rock Carvings?"