Xiangyang Pier was now a sea of humanity.
On the largest stone platform, the Daoists from the City God Temple were conducting a ritual amidst the music of pipes, flutes, and drums. Dressed in vestment robes, they held hu bans, horsetail whisks, and incense burners, circling a boat.
Their feet traced the Astral Step, chanting in time with the music:
"The Taiji separates the primal qi, the two principles give birth to the four images.
The Five Elements are arrayed in the eight directions, Heaven and Earth make up their chapter.
The sun and moon illuminate the cosmos, Yin Yang transform all things..."
What they chanted was known as "stepping empty words."
It was said that when King Chen Si Cao Zhi wandered the mountains, he suddenly heard the sound of sutras being chanted from the sky, clear and wide-reaching. Those who deciphered the sounds transcribed them, and they were the voices of immortals.
The Taoists imitated these, creating the "stepping empty words."
