Cinnabar settles, mercury stills; a true rosy light spreads through the Great Purity.
The rosy cloud rises to the central palace, offering essence; on the cloud-bed the immortal bud fills.
The peaches ripen, the golden liquid coils; the alchemical fire pours brilliance into the Vermilion Capital.
Dragon and tiger join in mingling; lead and mercury appear, congealing the life embryo to dwell within the precious vial.
The Song of Gestation says: sow the immortal bud and form the life embryo.
Cheng Xinzhan currently still stands within the stage called “rosy cloud rising to the central palace” — the immortal bud has not yet sprouted, the essence tiger has not formed.
So even if the banquet peaches ripen and the vaporous dragon takes shape, dragon and tiger cannot mate to form the life embryo.
He had thought that after the second refinement he could set about practicing the Fourth Realm methods and be well prepared, but he hadn’t expected the pace of core-refinement to be so fast that the seeding of the immortal bud lagged behind.
This was unforeseen.
That said, if someone now told him to force the “rosy rise,” to make the central palace sprout, he would refuse.