Chapter 342

Hu Xiaotian. Also possibly Imperial Palace, eunuch, power, money, chaos, greed, desire, and the seven emotions and six desires are generic; only Hu Xiaotian is a specific name.

Li Yuncong hearing him say this actually laughed: 'Cutting off one desire adds a bit of focus; don't underestimate this focus. Most people can climb to the top of a hundred‑foot pole, but wanting to go further is even harder—few can do it. Our kind lack one thing, and it's precisely this lacking thing that lets us shed our burdens and reach our goals more focused and easily than ordinary people.'

Hu Xiaotian, Li Yuncong, Senior Eunuch.

Li Yuncong said: 'Entering the palace is also a kind of cultivation; in the palace some cultivate good, some cultivate evil, but no matter what you do, once you choose it you cannot stop, nor can you turn back.' He looked at Hu Xiaotian with deep meaning: 'When two tigers fight, one must be injured; wanting to survive in a tiger's mouth is not that easy.'

Hu Xiaotian's cold sweat, just wiped away, broke out again. Li Yuncong is no ordinary person. His understanding of himself far exceeds what Hu Xiaotian imagined. Not only does he know Hu Xiaotian's physical condition, but from various signs it seems he also senses what Hu Xiaotian thinks in his heart. Yet Hu Xiaotian knows little about Li Yuncong—aside from knowing he is a Senior Eunuch of the Cangshuge, and that he is the uncle of Fan Zongxi, Deputy Superintendent of the Imperial Stables. Previously Hu Xiaotian only knew his martial arts were not weak, never imagining he could be this formidable; Li Yuncong should be a paragon of one who hides his brilliance in the court.

Before tonight, Hu Xiaotian still thought Li Yuncong was exactly as he described himself—a world‑withdrawing Senior Eunuch. But now it seems Li Yuncong hides his talents, and his background is unknown. According to Hu Xiaotian's understanding, the eunuchs split into two major factions: one led by Quan De'an, the elders; the other led by Ji Feihua, the young Turks. As for Liu Yuzhang and his ilk, they can roughly be counted as neutral, but Hu Xiaotian intuitively feels Li Yuncong and Liu Yuzhang are not the same kind of person. Li Yuncong wouldn't seek him out for no reason. If there is a secret, Quan De'an knows him best. For now, Ji Feihua wants to use him against Quan De'an; logically those two wouldn't tell anyone about using him. From the scene where Ji Feihua killed Wang Decai in the Bright Moon Palace, Ji Feihua and Li Yuncong don't seem to be on the same side. Could Li Yuncong be like Zhang Fuchuan of the Cattle and Sheep Room, an insider for Quan De'an? On second thought, that seems impossible. If it were true, why would Li Yuncong bother to expose this secret?

Li Yuncong said: 'Was it Quan De'an who sent you into the palace?'

Hearing this, Hu Xiaotian almost could confirm that Li Yuncong was the third force in the palace, hiding even deeper than the seemingly retired, low‑key Quan De'an. Hu Xiaotian said: 'This isn't a secret; thanks to Eunuch Quan pleading before the Emperor, the Emperor has just let our Hu family off.'

Li Yuncong chuckled, slowly shaking his head: 'Do you think a eunuch carries much weight in the Emperor's eyes?' The implication was that the Hu family's escape from this disaster had little to do with Quan De'an; in fact, Xiao Tianmu had already made this clear earlier. The Emperor spared Hu Buwei not because Quan De'an interceded, nor because anyone pleaded, but because Hu Buwei was still useful to him. Li Yuncong's remark now further proves Quan De'an played little role in the Hu family's affairs.

Li Yuncong said: 'Even if the Emperor spares your Hu family now, do you think the Hu family will forever be safe?'

Hu Xiaotian had also considered this problem; imperial power is unpredictable. Looking through history, truly few rulers are magnanimous—it's not that they don't repay, but the time hasn't come. Once his father is squeezed dry of his remaining value, what awaits him is inevitably a dead end; it's not just his father, but the whole family, even him, who has entered the palace as a eunuch, is no exception. In the Emperor's eyes, what is the life of a little eunuch worth? So Hu Xiaotian is actively plotting to escape Kangdu. But escaping is far from simple as he imagined; the first difficulty is his own body—Quan De'an planted a hidden danger in him. If he escapes and that alien true qi erupts, he will surely go berserk, his meridians severed and he will die. Looking back, Quan De'an is almost certainly doing this on purpose. Hu Xiaotian now even imagines cursing Quan De'an's ancestors through eighteen generations; this old bastard has no Conscience at all—after all, I'm still your benefactor.

Li Yuncong said: 'If everything remained as it was before, none of these changes would have happened.' After saying that, he stopped, his deep eyes fixed on Hu Xiaotian.

Hu Xiaotian, Long Yelin, old emperor Long Xuan'en, old emperor, Long Xuan'en, Miaomiao Mountain at the heart of Yaochi Lake, Grand Emperor, Long Xuan'en again, old emperor again, and the idiom "to make a comeback".

If Long Xuan'en could make a comeback, it would certainly not be a bad thing for his father, the Hu family, or even himself—his father would almost certainly be reemployed, restored to his former post, possibly even promoted. Hu Xiaotian smiled at Eunuch Li and asked: 'Eunuch Li, did you ever serve the Retired Emperor?' That amounts to directly asking Eunuch Li where he stands.

Li Yuncong, miscellaneous school, Library Pavilion, Your Majesty.

Hu Xiaotian said: 'According to Eunuch Li's opinion, can the ailment in my body be cured?'

Li Yuncong said: 'It can be cured, of course it can be cured, but a good doctor is hard to find; the number of people in the world who can cure you can be counted on one's fingers.'

Hu Xiaotian said: 'I'd like to hear it.'

Li Yuncong said: 'The person who transmitted this power to you long ago knew the danger alien true qi poses to you; he might have a way to cure you, but his method would simply be to use internal energy to wear away the alien internal energy in your body, leaving you powerless again, while he would lose a great deal of his own internal energy because of you—back and forth, his internal energy would likely be halved. Such a losing deal he might not undertake, and even if he were willing, you might not agree.'

Hu Xiaotian said: 'I never pursued martial arts; compared to my life, martial arts are insignificant.'

Li Yuncong added: 'Another method is to find someone whose martial arts surpass his and use internal energy to suppress the alien true qi in your body; this works in the short term, but over time the hidden danger will surface, as the two different true qi interact inside you. If they backlash, you'll die even worse, though it should be able to delay your descent into berserk.'

Hu Xiaotian, Great Method of Star Absorption.

Li Yuncong had never heard of the Star‑Absorbing Great Method; he shook his head and said: 'There is a Devouring Divine Skill that devours others' internal energy to make it one's own, capable of boosting one's martial power to its peak in a short time, but anyone who cultivates this martial art inevitably meets a bad end, without exception.'

Hu Xiaotian nodded; he had read about such things many times, he sighed and said: 'Putting it that way, there really aren't many who could save me.'

Li Yuncong said: 'There is yet another method: cultivate orthodox internal energy, transmute the alien true qi in your body into your own—refine it, discard what is unsuitable, keep what is beneficial, until all alien martial power becomes yours, formeless and traceless; this internal cultivation method is called the Formless Divine Skill.'

Hu Xiaotian said: 'I've heard of something called the Uninterrupted Method—I wonder if that's what you mean.'

Li Yuncong said: 'As the saying goes, teach according to the student's abilities—just as an orange grown south of the Huai becomes a bitter citron, each person's conditions differ, so the cultivation methods they practice naturally differ.'

Hu Xiaotian's curiosity was fully aroused; what did Li Yuncong mean by saying that?

Li Yuncong said: "Actually, the two martial arts manuals were originally one; eight hundred years ago, the monk Huijue of Tianlong Temple, synthesizing the essence of Buddhism, created the Formless Divine Skill. Countless martial artists have lost their lives trying to obtain this divine scripture. Three hundred years ago, Tianlong Temple offended the court because it was involved in royal secrets. The court sent troops to sweep Tianlong Temple, slaughtering the monks inside. Two thousand monks fought a great battle to defend the temple against the imperial army, lasting three days and three nights. The court took Tianlong Temple at the cost of fifty thousand casualties, slaughtered the monks, and razed the temple to the ground. When they set fire to the scripture library, some Buddhist scriptures were transferred to the palace; among them was the Formless Divine Skill, which embodied the lifelong painstaking effort of Master Huijue."

Hu Xiaotian listened, lost in thought, and couldn't help but interject: "So you're saying this Formless Divine Skill is now in the imperial palace?" If it's in the palace, the most likely place to keep it would be the Cangshuge. Li Yuncong, after talking so much, finally got to the point. If this book really exists, and this divine scripture can truly solve my problem, then as long as Li Yuncong provides it, I wouldn't rule out betraying Quan De'an and Ji Feihua. Hu Xiaotian even feels that he has no shame. (To be continued~^~)