amaotonovel Chapter 204 Tracing the Fate Chart: The Mystery of the Five Elements
Chapter 204 Tracing the Fate Chart: The Mystery of the Five Elements
Yu Zhanmo, a history graduate student who is obsessed with ancient literature, spends his days exploring the secrets of ancient books in the library.
One day, while he was searching for information, an ancient book exuding a mysterious aura quietly came into his view.
This book is unsigned, its pages are yellowed, and it bears the marks of time.
When he gently turned to the first page, the densely packed words on it were actually related to his destiny.
The Four Pillars of Destiny (Bazi) are like "mysterious codes" written for life, containing a wealth of information.
First, look at the year pillar "戊申", which is like a "destiny gift package" for the year a person is born.
The Heavenly Stem Wu Earth represents solidity and stability, much like the tangible land beneath our feet. This suggests that people born in this year may possess the grounded nature of earth and be reliable in their actions.
The Earthly Branch Shen (申) represents metal. Metal can be imagined as glittering treasure. Shen (申) is like precious metal hidden in a treasure chest, carrying a sense of mystery and value. It suggests that people born in this year may have some unique opportunities, like treasures hidden in a treasure chest that need to be discovered.
Looking at the month pillar "Gengshen", the month is like another stage in the journey of life.
The Heavenly Stem Geng Metal is sharper than Wu Earth, like a precious sword, representing a sharp vision and decisive style of action during this period, capable of quickly and decisively solving problems.
The Earthly Branch Shen Metal has reappeared, echoing the Shen Metal in the Year Pillar. This indicates that people born in this month will be accompanied by unique opportunities and precious qualities throughout their growth, like having sparkling treasures along the way.
The Day Pillar "Xin Hai" is of utmost importance, as it represents oneself.
The Heavenly Stem Xin Metal is like a delicate gold ornament on jewelry, which is both precious and delicate, indicating that the person may be thoughtful and has their own shining qualities.
The Earthly Branch Hai (亥) represents water, which is flowing. This suggests that a person's life may be like flowing water, with many changes and ups and downs, but it is also full of vitality.
Finally, there's the hour pillar "Ji Hai," which is the code for the birth time. It's like setting a small alarm clock for this journey of life, determining the pace of the start.
Compared to Wu Earth, the Heavenly Stem Ji Earth is more like fine clay, with strong plasticity. This means that in the second half of life, this person may have many opportunities for learning and growth, and can mold themselves into a more capable version of themselves.
The Earthly Branch Hai (亥) water appears again, emphasizing changes in life once more. However, these changes may be more reflected in the spiritual realm, such as shifts in thoughts and perspectives.
Let's talk about Yu Zhanmo's unique five-element configuration:
The element of gold is truly "rich and powerful," with a total of four of them, firmly holding the top spot and exuding a domineering aura;
The water element was not to be outdone, and followed closely behind with three members;
The earth element is somewhat lacking, with only two of them, making them a bit weak.
The wood element is even more pitiful, with only one remaining, making it rather weak.
The most outrageous one is the fire element, which simply disappeared without a trace.
This resulted in a peculiar situation where the metal element was extremely strong, water was also quite present, earth was somewhat weak, wood was incredibly weak, and fire was practically "run away from home."
However, Yu Zhanmo's Day Master is Xin Metal, born in the Shen month, when the metal energy is extremely strong, making it easy for him to dominate the fields of literature and history.
Although the Earth element in the Hour Pillar helps to "boost" the Metal element, the two Water elements in the Earthly Branches act like two mischievous devils, constantly consuming the Metal element.
Overall, Yu Zhanmo's five elements are too strong, almost to the point of excess. It's like a balloon that's been blown up too full and urgently needs to be deflated to suppress the excessive metal energy.
At this time, the fire element makes a dazzling appearance like a superhero; it is the "top dog" among the favorable elements.
It can not only deliver a "blow to the head" to the arrogant metal, making it subdued, but also harmonize the "cold aura" brought by the combination of metal and water, and make up for the lack of fire element in the whole, achieving multiple benefits in one fell swoop.
Wood, as a secondary favorable element, also quietly contributes, both generating fire and consuming excessive metal energy. However, it needs to cooperate with fire to exert its maximum effect.
Metal and Earth, on the other hand, become unpleasant and unlucky elements, causing trouble in the Five Elements world.
Too much water needs to be controlled, otherwise the entire Five Elements will become cold and icy, and we urgently need fire, the "little sun," to warm things up.
Icicles on the eaves reflected the clear winter sunlight, and Yu Zhanmo paused, his hand holding the forging hammer still.
Sparks landed on his dark robe, burning a few scarlet marks, like red plum blossoms suddenly blooming in the snow—this reminded him of the way Xiao Si jingled her silver bells when she said those words: "Pudding Yu, the Xin metal in your destiny is clearly the fierce heat of black iron quenched in a snowy night."
In the rising steam of the iron foundry, he looked down at his reflection in the quenching pool.
The water's surface rippled with a knife-edged silhouette, and within the shadow cast by the brow bone lay frozen Siberian permafrost...
Indeed, as that girl said, those with excessive metal energy have shadows that are sharper than others, just like when he confronted the Tibetans last night, he forced back a seven-foot-tall strong man with just a Tang sword that was not yet drawn.
“But steel covered in frost for too long…” Little Si once drew a talisman on his palm with a cinnabar brush, the tip of the brush carrying the warmth of a spring stream breaking through ice, “and will forget that it too can melt into moonlight.”
At this moment, he looked at the newly received gold-embossed invitation on his desk—Jiangnan Academy invited him to give a lecture on ancient weapon forging.
The gilded patterns, illuminated by the furnace fire, meandered like bright peach branches, which suddenly reminded him of the dormant Jia wood in his birth chart.
Back then, Little Rhinoceros pointed to that bluish-green hue deep within the Hai River and said:
"Look, these are ancient lotus seeds buried under the frozen soil. They'll sprout when the east wind blows."
Sure enough, ever since he took over the archery lessons for the children at the private school, their innocent laughter and chatter have gradually melted away the cold mist that had lingered between his brows for years, just like a gentle rain in March.
When he got up in the morning, he specially changed his dark blue robe into a crimson arrow-sleeved robe, and a small sandalwood tiger tally was attached to his waist.
When I glimpsed my reflection in the bronze mirror, it was as if I saw a bonfire burning on the snowfield.
Just as Xiao Si said, it was a "lucky armor," and the red clothes reflected in the quenching pool, causing coral-colored ripples.
At that moment, he pushed open the carved wooden window facing east, and the rising sun was climbing up the eaves of the academy.
A waterfall of light cascaded onto the weapon rack, where the longswords and hook-and-sickle spears forged from cold iron gleamed with a warm, ink-wash-like luster.
Perhaps, just as that girl had said, as he polished the jade ring on the peach wood sword tassel in the morning light, his destiny, dormant for more than twenty years, was quietly cracking open with a spring-like opening.
As dusk settled, the old locust tree in Qiujia Village was silhouetted against the dark twilight.
The copper bells on the eaves jingled in the mountain breeze, and the little rhinoceros squatted on the bluestone slab, the tip of the cinnabar pen hanging on the yellowed fortune chart paper, hesitant to fall.
The last rays of the setting sun swept across Qiu Rongmu's profile across the way. She was leaning against the mottled bamboo fence, peeling persimmons. The soft rustling sound of the knife separating from the fruit mingled with the chirping of cicadas, as if time itself had frozen in this twilight.
“They were clearly born at the same time…” Xiao Si murmured, biting her pen, her sleeve smudged the star chart she had just drawn yesterday.
She unfolded Qiu Rongmu's birth chart for the third time—Wu Shen, Wu Shen, Xin Chou, Ji Hai—which was exactly the same as Yu Zhanmo's. However, the fate she had glimpsed while stargazing that night was as illusory as a reflection in water.
Yu Zhanmo's brows always held a somber, earthy air, while Qiu Rongmu's hair was adorned with a faint scent of rice blossoms, like an unburnt bonfire in a late autumn forest.
A perfectly round persimmon suddenly rolled onto the stone slab, interrupting her thoughts.
"Try some freshly dried persimmons."
Qiu Rongmu's voice was clearer than a copper bell, and her fingertips were covered with amber-colored icing.
Xiao Si looked up at her. In the twilight, her green dress resembled bamboo leaves soaked in dew. She was clearly born with a strong earth element, but her body was filled with a "nothing" wood energy. How could she have any vitality?
When the vermilion brush finally fell, it startled the crows perched on the locust tree.
The hexagram of intertwined metal and earth on the natal chart suddenly rippled, and half of the Jia wood emerged from the depths of Hai water—originally, Qiu Rong was born on the day three days before the White Dew solar term, and the wood energy hidden in the earthly branch broke through the soil with the change of the solar term.
Xiao Si suddenly felt a slight itch in his palm. Looking down, he saw several tender green vines climbing up the natal chart along the cracks in the stone, blooming with specks of pale yellow amidst the heavy earth element of the hexagram.
A sudden mountain wind blew, and amidst the clatter of copper bells, a sigh from an old man drifted by:
"The solar terms are the gaps through which heaven and earth exchange their energy..."
An old man in a straw raincoat appeared out of nowhere and squatted under the persimmon tree, the glow of his pipe reflecting the deep wrinkles on his face.
Qiu Rongmu paused in peeling the persimmon, the moonlight reflected from the blade suddenly illuminating a corner of the destiny chart—where half a fire pattern lay quietly, waiting for the magma buried deep underground to break through its shell.
The copper lamp cast a pale yellow halo under the green tile eaves. Xiao Si knelt on a bamboo mat, the fortune chart paper spread out in front of him was blurred by the mountain mist.
She bit her fingertip and dissolved cinnabar in a water bowl. As the blood droplet fell, it caused the reflection in the water to shatter into shimmering golden spots—clearly the hexagram of the year pillar "Wu Shen":
The Heavenly Stem Wu Earth transforms into a swimming black tortoise, while the Earthly Branch Shen Metal solidifies into a white-browed tiger, casting mottled tiger stripes on the tortoise shell's pattern.
"That's the strange part."
She dipped her brush in cinnabar and applied it to the "Jiwei" character on the lunar pillar, the brush tip hovering over the damp Xuan paper, hesitant to fall.
The bamboo sieve used for drying persimmons under the eaves was suddenly overturned by the mountain wind, and dozens of orange-red dried fruits rolled over the horoscope, forming the Kun hexagram on the character "未".
The original nature of the Earthly Branch Wei (未) is thick loess, but at this moment, it reveals wisps of fire from the sugar frosting seeping from the persimmon cake, like a warm current lurking in the earth's veins in deep winter.
The Day Pillar "Xin Chou" suddenly trembled, and the jade hairpin flower transformed from Xin metal emerged from the bronze incense burner, but its roots were embedded in the frozen mud formed by Chou earth.
Little Si watched as ice crystals spread along the silvery-white petals until the Hai water from the "Ji Hai" hour pillar overflowed the natal chart—the Ji earth reflected in the water should have been fertile land, but now it showed cracked and dry signs.
"Mistaking residual energy for primary energy will surely disrupt the balance of things!"
An aged voice wafted over, mingling with the aroma of dried tangerine peel.
The village keeper tapped the "Shen" position with his pipe, and the white tiger transformed from Shen metal suddenly shook off the gold dust covering its body, revealing the Ren water scales hidden beneath its skin.
It turns out that the Earth element in the year pillar was not alone; the residual Earth element hidden in Shen had long since transformed into a protective mirror, shielding the person from three calamities and nine disasters!
Xiao Si suddenly woke up and drew heavy circles on the character "未" with a vermilion brush.
The earthly branch of the month pillar Jiwei should have contributed a whole piece of thick earth. Previously, the residual Qi of Yi wood hidden in it was mistakenly taken as the main vein, which made the earth spirit in the natal chart missing a corner.
The Five Yellow Earthly Fiends suddenly converged in the revised hexagram, causing the soul-suppressing bells on the eaves to ring wildly.
When the mountain mist dissipates, the water stains on the natal chart reveal a new hexagram: the Heavenly Stems Wu, Ji, Xin, and Ji transform into the Four Symbols to guard the four directions, while the Earthly Branches Shen, Wei, Chou, and Hai each return to their proper place within the earth's vein patterns.
That handful of soil that vanished into thin air was originally transformed into spring mud to protect the Jia wood in the Hai water, which was about to awaken but had not yet awakened, waiting for the thunder of the Awakening of Insects to break the final deadlock in the fate...
Little Si rolled up his sleeves and got to work, beginning the "Destiny Chart Analysis and Five Elements Subtle Differentiation" technique!
First, I saw the moon pillar mist:
The copper lamp flickered and burst, and Xiao Si stared blankly at the two characters "Ji Wei" that had spread across the horoscope.
The iron horse-shaped ornaments on the eaves jingled and rattled in the mountain wind. In a daze, it seemed as if yellow earth was rising from the direction of the moon pillar. The residual energy of the Yi wood, which was dormant in the Wei earth, sprouted a tender bud on the Xuan paper. This was clearly a sign of the hidden stem causing trouble.
Next, we will clarify the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches:
She pricked her fingertip with a silver needle, and as the drop of blood fell onto the "Hai" position, a phantom image of Xuanwu suddenly appeared on the water's surface:
"Mistaking the Jia wood in Hai for Ji earth would surely throw the universe into chaos."