Chapter 21: with translation of chapter title

In the dim prison cell, on a bunk padded with dry grass, the woman's hands and feet dragged bronze shackles; she used her lovely eyes to scrutinize the deep, bottomless cell, thinking of an escape plan, but got nowhere, for the place she now occupied was one of the most dangerous spots in the whole state of Han—the residence of the Blood-Cloth Marquis Bai Yifei.

"……" The woman racked her brains, feeling inexplicably irritable; she turned her head and looked through the prison window at the bright moon outside.

"Tsk tsk!"

"Who are you?" The woman's expression shifted.

"I never expected that you, who have thrown the whole of New Zheng into turmoil, would also feel anxious and sorrowful when faced with desperation."

"Just who are you?" The woman's eyes sank.

"You don't need to know who I am; you only need to know that I can save you—that's enough!"

"You'll save me?" The woman's gaze grew deep.

"That's right, I can save you, but there's a precondition." Zhou Shuo, wearing the body of a snake-eagle, stood on the eaves and conveyed his words down to Yan Lingji in the prison cell below—there's no free lunch in this world.

"What is it?"

"Simple—tell me, is your fire‑starting ability the Flame‑Allure Technique?"

"You know the Flame‑Allure Technique?" Yan Lingji was somewhat surprised.

"I don't know much—I've only heard of it—but my condition is simple: you hand over the Flame‑Allure Technique to me, and I'll help you escape." Zhou Shuo, hearing Yan Lingji's affirmative reply, couldn't help but think a little; the Flame‑Allure Technique was later the skill of the Red Silk of the Flowing Sands, and this plot really is clever.

"You're actually interested in the Flame‑Allure Technique?" Yan Lingji grew even more bewildered; if Zhou Shuo had asked her for something else—say, the whereabouts of Heavenly Marsh, or her loyalty, or even her body—she wouldn't have been surprised, but asking for her Flame‑Allure Technique left her puzzled; this skill is hard to practice and master, and besides, it belongs to the realm of esoteric arts, which countless people avoid.

"Just tell me whether you agree or not!" Zhou Shuo, hearing the surprised female voice from below, couldn't help but click his tongue—would anyone really agree to hand over their secret skill just like that?

"You can only believe me; besides, I have to tell you something: don't expect to escape from here using the Flame‑Allure Technique, for this place is the territory of the Blood‑Cloth Marquis Bai Yifei." The voice from below let Zhou Shuo relax a little, as he asked himself how he would keep his promise—meaning he was open to compromise.

"You can only believe me; besides, I have to tell you something: don't expect to escape from here using the Flame‑Allure Technique, for that Blood‑Cloth Marquis is no ordinary person—he too is deeply versed in extraordinary arts, probing the darkness of the human heart, and his power far surpasses your Flame‑Allure Technique; here, you cannot get out by yourself alone." Zhou Shuo explained this, adding that apart from himself, Yan Lingji had no other chance.

"But you've got to give me a chance to believe you, right?" The voice from below carried a hint of provocation, but unfortunately, Zhou Shuo's soul was currently attached to a bird's body.

"There's no such chance."

"Then what should I do?" Yan Lingji stood in the cell, gazing at the unfathomable depths of the prison, thought it over repeatedly, and chose to compromise, because of her fear of the unknown, while the Blood‑Cloth Marquis lurked within that unknown.

"Simple—the Flame‑Allure Technique." Zhou Shuo was very direct.

"The Flame‑Allure Technique is an esoteric art of the Hundred Yue; can you let me see you?" Yan Lingji, hearing the perpetually vague voice from outside, couldn't help but frown.

"Oh, you want to see me?" Zhou Shuo shifted his feet slightly, spread his wings and flew up into the sky, then after a circle landed on the windowsill, looking at the girl inside who faced the window—her fine figure clad in a black‑gold‑red long dress, her light‑blue eyes like deep pools, her features delicate and pretty; she was indeed a creature of tender and passionate beauty.

"You…" Yan Lingji watched a black shadow flash past, then immediately a giant snake‑eagle perched outside the window; she instinctively widened her eyes, then blinked in disbelief, wondering if she had seen wrong.

"How?" Zhou Shuo, seeing the girl's blinking and moved expression, couldn't help but stretch the corners of his mouth all the way to the back of his head.

"It's really you speaking!" Yan Lingji stared at the snake‑eagle gazing straight at her, half‑disbelieving.

"Nonsense, my soul is attached to this eagle—who else could I be? Someone's coming…." Zhou Shuo, looking at the incredulous girl, kicked off with his feet, spread his wings and flew away from the prison, evading the gaze of the white‑armored soldiers patrolling inside; Yan Lingji also noticed, pretending to look out the window at the moon, and the patrolling white‑armored soldiers, seeing nothing amiss, retreated again.

"Are you still there?" Yan Lingji, watching the white‑armored soldiers leave, whispered toward the window.

"Of course I am—you can start telling me about the Flame‑Allure Technique now." Zhou Shuo, standing on the eaves and hearing the soft question from inside the cell, couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"All right, I'll tell you—I hope you keep your promise; otherwise, even if I die, I won't let you off." Yan Lingji bit her lip, finally deciding to compromise; a human soul attached to a bird's body was almost unheard of, and perhaps she really could luckily escape.

The Flame‑Allure Technique is an esoteric art; 'esoteric' meaning different and extraordinary. In the world of qi cultivation that leans toward life‑force training, the Flame‑Allure Technique is a leaning toward dual cultivation, using invisible spiritual power as a mind‑deterring art; its method of practice also resembles Daoist arts, beginning with visualization, meditating on the fire deity, outwardly cultivating qi to strengthen the body, and inwardly using fire to illuminate the spirit and dispel darkness.

Because it is aided by qi cultivation, the visualization of the Flame‑Allure Technique differs from that of the Yang‑God realm; they do not focus on the image of the fire deity, but only on internal secretion, the aim not being to exit the orifice but to manipulate spiritual power—which, to ordinary people, is ethereal and illusory—so this esoteric art is ten times harder to master than ordinary martial arts.

Zhou Shuo had Yan Lingji recite the technique's mnemonics and her training experience in full, then posed several focused questions; after some internal deliberation, only when Yan Lingji asked, "When will you save me?" did he finally speak.

"Saving you isn't urgent; within these two days I'll stay here to observe the whole Bai residence, clarify the situation, and then rescue you—you wouldn't want to walk out only to be surrounded and intercepted, would you?"

"All right then!" the girl's voice showed no disappointment as imagined; on the contrary, she was very composed.

"Don't worry, I'll stay here with you for these two days and not leave—but you'd better take it easy, don't casually provoke Bai Yifei." Hearing the girl's composed voice from below, Zhou Shuo felt a bit embarrassed, as if he had taken something from someone and not yet fulfilled his promise.

"I know." Yan Lingji gazed out the empty window, feeling a little unreal—she was talking to an eagle that housed a human soul; just what kind of divine being was this fellow!

"Hey, what was your original name?" Yan Lingji couldn't help but ask; if this fellow were a person, what would he look like!

"Well… I'm called… I'm not telling you that for now, but I'm definitely not a bad guy." Zhou Shuo almost answered instinctively, but then stopped himself; a man should keep some mystery.

"Not a bad guy!" Yan Lingji couldn't help but roll her eyes—what kind of answer is that? Whether you're bad or not has nothing to do with me; getting me out of here is what matters most.

"Someone's coming outside—I'll leave for a moment." Zhou Shuo, seeing the guards patrolling the Bai residence approach, let out a warning and then took flight.

"Hey, hey…" Yan Lingji heard the receding wind, her brows knitting as she felt the silent prison close in; her heart fluttered a little, but there was nothing she could do—she could only sit alone, cultivate to ease her loneliness.

As Yan Lingji cultivated to dispel her loneliness, Zhou Shuo, while using his avatar to monitor the Bai residence, began to organize the Flame‑Allure Technique; its internal cultivation meant little to him, but in the application of spiritual power it was highly enlightening.

The Flame‑Allure Technique is a kind of mind‑deterring illusion; in the use of spiritual power, besides manipulating the five senses and controlling the mind so that one clearly is in an illusion while the body is actually burned to death, it can also use qi to conjure fire shapes, gather heat, and form a flame that water cannot extinguish—very uncanny.

Based on the Flame‑Allure Technique, Zhou Shuo recalled a passage from the Zhou Muwang chapter of the Liezi, where Lao Chengzi studied illusion under Master Yinwen; after three years without receiving instruction, and three years later when he sought to withdraw, Master Yinwen replied to Lao Chengzi, explaining the true essence of illusion.

All vital breath, all formed things, are illusory; the beginning of creation is the change of the two qi of yin and yang, called birth and death; understanding this law and following it, the process of transformation and change is called transformation and illusion, for the craft of creating all things is subtle, and people cannot grasp it, so most can only conjure false objects, while only those who know that illusion is no different from birth and death—birth and death being but a great dream—can truly illusion the world.

Lao Chengzi pondered Master Yinwen's words for three months, then fully mastered the illusion technique, able to appear and disappear at will, even to reverse the seasons—make winter thunder, summer freeze, make birds walk and beasts fly—but he never wrote down this esoteric art to pass it on.

The Liezi's writings originally intended to expound the Daoist idea that life is like a dream, with gains and losses, joy and sorrow all illusory; but as Zhou Shuo sees it now, there is another feeling, and when applied to martial arts' esoteric techniques, there is an even greater Dao: whether it is spiritual power or the soul's exit from the body, the foundation of these esoteric arts is really just the character 'illusion', differing only in depth and height.

"The ideas of the Liezi are great, but alas, understanding does not mean one can put them into practice!" Zhou Shuo flicked his fingers, watching the flame leap between them, and couldn't help but feel moved; the insight Laozi spoke of he understood, yet such insight was like a flower in the mirror or the moon in the water—he could not reach that state, everything would be in vain; Laozi's words are not wrong: 'The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name.' That Lao Chengzi probably didn't refrain from writing out his own cultivated illusion technique because he couldn't write it at all—the Dao is self‑realized and self‑gained.