ENG
Five carts align with elements five,
From their fusion, fiery life does thrive.
Beast heads roar as they swiftly race,
Fire wheels east and west, the path they trace.
At Flaming Mountains, Red Boy was about to celebrate his hundredth birthday. He was in high spirits and asked the Keeper, "My birthday is coming soon. Can I go out and play for a while?"
The Keeper replied, "As your father instructed when he ordered me to watch over you, I must ensure you focus on your practice. You cannot go out at will."
Red Boy argued, "I have already mastered the Samadhi Fire. Can't I take a break for a few days?" As he spoke, he punched his nose, releasing a burst of flames.
The Keeper shook his head, "You were taught the Samadhi Fire so that you could use it to refine your inner core. Spitting fire carelessly such as that dissipates your qi and is nothing more than a trivial trick."
He continued, "The liver corresponds to wood, which generates fire; the heart corresponds to fire, which generates earth; the spleen corresponds to earth, which generates metal; the lungs correspond to metal, which generates water; the kidneys correspond to water, which generates wood. The five elements generate each other in a continuous cycle. With the Samadhi Fire, you should use it to refine the energy of your five organs."
Growing impatient, Red Boy said, "Enough, I understand. I'll go back to my practice."
On his birthday, the Bull King hosted a grand banquet in the mountains, inviting many friends to celebrate. Red Boy ordered some minions to bring out five small carts. The minions arranged the carts according to the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Red Boy approached them, recited an incantation, and spat out fire from his mouth while thick smoke erupted from his nose. Flames burst forth from his eyes, and fire surged from the five carts. After several bursts, the red flames blazed into the sky.
The Keeper was displeased, feeling that Red Boy was too playful and overly interested in trivial tricks. He feared that the boy might waste his potential in the days to come.
However, the Bull King was very pleased. To him, although Red Boy was not engaged in deep practice, he already understood how to employ his skills to create useful tools, which showed great ingenuity. He immediately ordered the creation of five larger war carts for his son.
From then on, the Five Element Carts became Red Boy's companions in his practice. Within a hundred years, these carts, imbued with his Samadhi Fire, gained sentience and became formidable guais in the Flaming Mountains.
The scene begins at the Flaming Mountains where Red Boy is about to turn one hundred. His father, the Bull King, left a Keeper in charge of watching him and making sure he practiced seriously. Red Boy asks to go out and play before his birthday, but the Keeper refuses, saying he must follow the Bull King’s orders and stay focused on practice.
The Keeper explains why. Red Boy has learned the Samadhi Fire, a powerful internal technique, but the Keeper says it should be used to refine Red Boy’s inner core rather than for flashy displays. He teaches the five-element cycle that links the organs: the liver is wood (which generates fire), the heart is fire (which generates earth), the spleen is earth (which generates metal), the lungs are metal (which generate water), and the kidneys are water (which generate wood). The Keeper’s point is that Red Boy should use Samadhi Fire to strengthen and balance those five organs, not spit flames as a party trick.
Red Boy is impatient and demonstrates anyway: he punches his nose and releases fire, then on his birthday he stages a show. At the banquet the Bull King hosts, Red Boy orders five small carts brought out and arranges them by the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. He chants an incantation, breathes fire and smoke in several ways, and the carts erupt with flames. The poem-like imagery in the story—five carts aligned with the five elements, beast heads roaring as they race, and wheels of fire that trace paths east and west—describes these carts becoming fiery, beastlike war machines.
The Keeper is upset because he thinks Red Boy is wasting his potential on tricks instead of steady inner work. The Bull King, however, is pleased. He interprets Red Boy’s show as practical ingenuity: Red Boy has learned how to turn his skills into useful tools. Impressed, the Bull King orders five larger war carts to be made for his son.
After that, the Five Element Carts become part of Red Boy’s regular practice and company. Over the next hundred years, those carts—imbued with his Samadhi Fire—grow in power and gain sentience. They become formidable guais in the Flaming Mountains, turning from crafted vehicles into living, dangerous beings that continue to shape the area’s power dynamics.