This article is a general outline of the concept and system of magic in "Smoke and Dust of the Fairy Road".

The spell system in "Immortal Road Smoke and Dust" can be understood from the following three classification descriptions. The three categories are (to ★ be prominent):

★ In terms of attributes, there are two classifications:

1. Tai Chi, Yin and Yang;

2. Water, fire, wood, metal, earth, wind, and thunder.

To explain a little:

The "Tai Chi" in the first is a metaphor for the most fundamental power. For example, in the strange book "Refining the Gods and Transforming the Void", which was obtained by Xingyan, it is described:

“...... I don't know its name. The strong name is called 'Dao Li', and the strong word is called 'Taihua'. Words "too" show its greatness, and words "Hua" show its worship. ”

The "Taihua Dao Force" described here is likely to be a source power similar to Tai Chi. Generally speaking, the Origin Force does not have all the hierarchical characteristics and personalities of the known forces (such as the seven attribute forces listed in 2), but it has the commonalities of these forces, and these commonalities are the simplest and most essential characteristics of all forces.

The "yin and yang" in the first is often called "Qiankun" and "Liangyi", which generally refers to the opposite sides of various things. For example, heaven and earth, sun and moon, landscape, men and women, cold and warm, movement and stillness, gathering and dispersion, light and shade, their essence is "two opposite sides", and there is no absolute indication. For example, if the mountain is opposite to the river, it is yang, but if it is opposite to the sky, it is the earth, the kun, and the yin.

The classification of the first and the attributes of the second are intertwined to form the grand spell system in this book. For example, Tai Chi can give birth to all things, water, fire, wood, gold, earth, wind and thunder, all of which are essentially derived from Tai Chi; between these spells, water, fire, wood, gold, earth, wind and thunder, they are mutually reinforcing and mutually transforming, giving birth to illusions, and can also derive the spells of foreign and dazzling and dazzling eyes, which can be described as ever-changing and infinitely useful.

And water, fire, wood, gold, earth, wind and thunder themselves, all have yin and yang. For example, in water spells, weak water is yin, freezing is yang, cold water is yin, and hot soup is yang. It is also like wood, the soft leaf is yin, and the giant tree is yang. It is like thunder, and the muffled sound is yin, and the thunderbolt is yang. It is like the wind, the slight breath is yin, and the wild soaring is yang.

In particular, there is a very unique yin and yang relationship among the various spells, that is, attack and defense. For each type of spell, there will be two types of spells: defensive and offensive. This will be gradually covered in the subsequent chapters of "Fairy Road Smoke and Dust".

In this book, there is no innate difference in the offensive and defensive characteristics of each system of spells. The strength of the user depends only on the profundity of the practitioner's path and the wonder of the method. Of course, it also has a lot to do with the mutual restraint between the attributes. If the spells are combined, there may be tragic consequences of adding fuel to the fire, and if the spells are combined, there may be a miraculous effect of defeating the strong with the weak.

It is worth noting that this nature of mutual restraint between spells of different attributes has a considerable impact on cultivators. For example, when practicing these series of spells, practitioners are faced with trade-offs.

For example, in various Taoist spell texts, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth are referred to as the "five elements"; The relationship between the five elements is as follows:

Symbiosis: wood gives birth to fire, fire gives birth to earth, earth gives birth to gold, gold gives birth to water, and water produces wood;

Phase: wood overcomes earth, soil overcomes water, water overcomes fire, fire overcomes gold, and gold overcomes wood.

Therefore, if the girl Lingyi'er, who was quite entangled with Xingyan, chose a water-based spell when cultivating, then after she had cultivated the spell to a certain point, because of the "aquatic wood", if she went to practice wood-based spells at this time, she would progress much faster than other cultivators who only practiced wood-based spells at the beginning. However, due to the restraint of each other, if Ling Yi'er wanted to go back and cultivate the fire spell again, it would have little effect—or even, he would not be able to master it at all.

Based on this, Taoism has this saying:

"If the five elements are smooth, then Yi Lun is very important, and if the five elements are chaotic, then Yi Lun is very bad. ”

Yi Lun, common sense, the meaning of not chaotic, the meaning of ruin, the meaning of corruption.

Obviously, if you can master two or even more than three spells in the above-mentioned Five Elements Wind and Thunder, the power and utility of the spells derived from it are likely to be more than simply raising one or two grades, not simply summing.

Of course, for the sake of mutual restraint, it is generally impossible for us to know what kind of spells we can study or create if we master both water and fire.

It should be pointed out that these five elements, together with wind and thunder, do not only refer to their ontology, they represent some basic characteristics of heaven and earth. For example, there are texts that say:

"The water is moistened, the fire is said to be on the fire, the wood is said to be straight, the gold is said to be leather, the soil is said to be harvested, the wind is cleansed, and the thunder is moving. ”

Therefore, in heaven and earth, everything that has the nature of "moistening" belongs to water, and everything that has the nature of "fire" belongs to fire, and so on.

If we divide some attributes between heaven, earth and man from the viewpoint of the nature of the five elements, there are five directions, five organs, five constants, five sounds, five colors, five flavors, and so on.

It is worth mentioning the "five tones" here. The five tones refer to: the palace is earth, the business is gold, the horn is wood, the sign is fire, and the feather is water. In this book, Zhang Xingyan once used the jade flute "Shenxue" supplemented by the "Taihua Dao Power" on the Horseshoe Mountain, and played a different song "Water Dragon Yin", which seems to have the miraculous effect of inducing the thunder of the sky and subduing the beasts, which may be related to this.

Of course, in the above-mentioned classification of spells, if you can cultivate a spell like "Tai Chi" that can biochemical ten thousand arts, then the future of the cultivator can really be described as "limitless" - it's a pity that this kind of spell basically only exists in myths and legends for the vast majority of living beings - such as Pangu, such as Nuwa, such as Fuxi, it is said that these gods and men are already the Tao of heaven and earth, and they are omnipotent!

Regrettably, if nothing else, it is highly doubtful to say that the existence of these god-men is very doubtful - it is said that at that time, some scholars who attached great importance to research often published such astonishing statements that were somewhat deviant, and although they were scorned by those supporters of gods, they were often unable to refute them, so they had to watch these theories of "forgetting their ancestors" continue to circulate.

Therefore, concepts such as "Tai Chi", whether in Taoism or other schools, treat it as a category of philosophy and principle, rather than as some kind of magic.

The above is the classification of "spells" according to their nature and attributes in this book.

★ If it is divided into hierarchical levels, the "spells" in this book can be roughly as follows:

Illusions, spells, fairies, magic.

1. Illusions, commonly known as blind spells, are relatively easy to master and are often used by some low-level practitioners [Note 1]. Although the damage that can be inflicted by this illusion is often very low, and even some illusions do not produce any physical damage, they can also have unexpected effects when used at the right time-

The head of the Qinghe River of the Qing Palace (Raozhou Office) on Luofu Mountain once said such an experience:

"'Demons are born from the heart': if the heart is disturbed, the spirit will be slight, and if the spirit is strained, the demon can take advantage of it; ”

"If this demon is a trick of the heart, if not this demon is a fantasy of the heart. ”

For some people, the demon of the heart is more damaging than any spell.

2. Spells, the "arts" practiced by most practitioners in the world, are therefore often used to refer to "techniques" in this book. The requirements for cultivators of this type of spell, as well as the power after casting, are roughly between "illusion" and "immortal".

3. Immortal arts, when a practitioner who is familiar with magic reaches a certain level of Taoism and state of mind, his magic will naturally evolve into immortal arts, or biochemical new "immortal" arts. Of course, when the Tao and the state of mind have reached this state, they can practice the existing secrets of immortal arts, if they are lucky enough to find such secrets or teachers.

For Taoism, which is mainly depicted in this book, the people who can master immortal art are all "people" who have reached the highest level of cultivation in Taoism—most Taoist sects in this book stubbornly believe that only people can become "immortals". But this book doesn't think so.

The biggest characteristic of these immortals is "longevity". Let's quote the words of a certain character in "Smoke and Dust of the Immortal Road" as an interpretation - Yiren Yunzhongjun once preached to Zhang Xingyan like this:

“...... If you have to build the avenue and understand the heavenly machine, you will be able to live forever and see for a long time, and you will be able to ascend to the Tao. From then on, you can suck the wind and drink the dew, do not eat the grains, live with the heaven and the earth, walk with the sun and the moon, ride the clouds, return to the rainbow, come and go, flutter and ride the clouds, and travel between the heaven and the earth. If the Tao is profound, the immortal fate is broad, and you can go to the sky and enter the earth, royal spirit luan, and drive the flying dragon......"

Although Yun Zhongjun's words may be a bit exaggerated, and for some reason abruptly stopped, and he did not say it completely, but we can already understand the gorgeous style of the immortal magic from it.

The magic is owned by the gods, and its power can turn over the river and the sea, catch the stars and the moon, open the world, or destroy the world - as mentioned earlier when the original "Tai Chi" spell said, the true existence of these myths and legends of the gods still needs to be verified, so these so-called magic techniques, in a simple word, are "lost".

Compared with immortals, the difference between gods and gods is that immortals are innate true saints, while gods are innate true saints - for these gods who are quite at risk of being lost in legends, their origins are impossible to test compared to immortals.

★ In addition to the division by attributes, ranks, sects and natures of practitioners, there are mainly Taoist arts, Buddhism, ghost techniques, witchcraft, and many other methods - some of which are still very powerful, but due to various factors, they are not widely known.

In fact, these are just general classification methods, strictly speaking, there is no particularly strict classification standard, and the categories of these spells above are not completely defined. As far as the ontology of "art" is concerned, there is no strict distinction between good and evil, but due to the differences in the practitioners themselves, especially their races and beliefs, the cultivation methods are different, resulting in more significant differences.

It should be noted that there are differences in the practice of various spells, and there are even more similarities. There are no strict restrictions on all kinds of spells for cultivators. For example, the spirits of plants, trees, beasts, and birds may also practice Taoism, Buddhism, and other methods that are generally practiced only by "humans", and those who are the subject of this book can also practice witchcraft and ghost skills in a specific way if they wish. However, due to many factors, these two types of spell cultivation are not common.

Generally speaking, due to the innate advantages of "people" in cultural inheritance, Taoism and Buddhism in magic have formed a relatively complete and profound system after thousands of years of development, and there are well-run inheritance places and means. Therefore, if there is a normal cultivation due to chance, compared with demonic arts and ghost techniques, the practice of Taoism and Buddhism will progress faster and be safer to cultivate.

Of course, this world is vast, this universe is vast, and there are many things that ordinary people don't know about between this heaven and earth. Perhaps, in some unknown places, there are some unknown elves who use more bizarre methods and practice more magical spells.

It should be pointed out that this general outline of the spell of "Immortal Road Smoke and Dust" is only an objective description, and does not mean that the characters in the book (including the spirits of plants, trees, birds and beasts) have such views.

For example, "demonic art" is called "spiritual art" in the mouths of many practitioners who practice it. "Hexart" is often a term for "human", and other cultivators don't like it.

In fact, in this world, except for gods and immortals, others such as people, plants, beasts and birds, ghosts, and elves all have certain prejudices within themselves or with each other to a greater or lesser extent [Note 2].

For example, some of the Taoist people in this book often stubbornly believe that only "people" are made up of the elite in nature. One of their key ideas is that the human body is the embodiment of nature:

"People have hair, naturally have plants and trees, people have eyes, nature has the sun and the moon, breath is the wind, tears become rain, bones are mountains, blood is rivers, etc., it is said that heaven and man are one. ”

Although this Taoist doctrine has its own truth and in fact plays an important guiding role in Taoist practice, it is clear that this view subconsciously contains a certain degree of contempt for other spiritual beings in nature.

Some paranoid sects tend to infinitely expand this contempt, causing them to regard all the cultivating plants, trees, birds, beasts, and spirits as evil creatures. This kind of extreme view often leads to many tragedies.

These are the main spell concepts and systems in "Immortal Road Smoke and Dust".

After roughly sketching the general outline of spells, finally, this article will conclude with the highest level of magic use in Taoist legends:

In harmony with heaven and earth,

In harmony with the sun and the moon,

In order with the four times,

It is good luck with the ghosts and gods.

The innate way and the heavens are violated,

The way after tomorrow is the time of worship.

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[1] The term "practitioners" mentioned in this book does not refer specifically to human beings.

[Note 2] In the future, as the plot develops, a special explanation of the characteristics and interrelationships of the various creatures involved in this book will be given at an appropriate time, and placed in the "Genealogy of the Elves".

[Note 3] In the future, in this "Mysterious Wisdom", the spells that have appeared in this book will be compared with the "General Outline" of this book, and a description similar to "Zhenlong Pavilion" and "Elf Spectrum" will be made. You have to fill in the existing ones: "Taihua Dao Force", "Ice Heart Knot", "Water Without Trace".

"Xuan Miaoqi" is tentatively named, if there is a more suitable one, it will be changed. : )