Chapter 10: One Yin Finger

"Cultivate the manual without castration?" Li Xian looked at Zhao Ti, his frost-white brows trembling slightly.

After a long while he said: "The martial arts recorded in the manual run through the meridians in extreme yin, without any admixture of yang fire. Heaven gives birth to water, earth flourishes it at six — utmost yin, utmost softness, extreme ghostly, extreme bewitching. Encounter yang fire and it ignites, burning everything away. The loss of prior cultivation is a small matter; going mad from qi deviation is a great matter. There is absolutely no possibility of success."

Zhao Ti considered: "By that reasoning, would it work simply by not entertaining any deluded thoughts?"

Li Xian sighed: "Your Highness, all men in the world are mortals — where could there be any possibility of not entertaining deluded thoughts? Even one who has the will but not the strength still has the will first, and the strength or lack of it comes after. Once the will is there, fire arises. Unless it is resolved at the root, the moment a thought stirs, the yang meridian activates, and all effort is in vain. Everything turns into empty dreams and bubbles, and what's more, going mad from qi deviation could cause sudden death at any moment."

Zhao Ti stood up and paced two circles around the room: "Can women practice it?"

Li Xian said: "The manual is no ordinary cold-natured Cultivation Technique. Men may castrate themselves, but women have no way to dispel the deluded fire, making it hard to balance yin and yang — it cannot be done!"

Zhao Ti smiled: "Then that's it. The very crux of this manual lies in the single word 'fire.' Women, being yin in nature, likewise cannot practice it — clearly it has nothing to do with the human body itself. As long as one can absorb yang and conceal fire, contain hardness and hide ferocity, then ordinary men and women alike may yet be able to practice it."

"Your Highness has only glanced through the manual once, yet comprehends it so deeply?" Li Xian stared fixedly at Zhao Ti: "If Your Highness truly had no internal energy, this old minister would surely assume Your Highness had been steeped in this art for many years. Still, although the reasoning is as such, how to resolve it is far more difficult."

Zhao Ti pondered: "This prince has only studied external fast sword techniques over the years, and has limited understanding of internal arts. Looking at the principles is one thing, but I don't know the internal arts of the world. Li Xianggong, think again. This prince refuses to believe that since a principle exists... there is no solution."

"This..." Li Xian showed a trace of hesitation, but immediately hid it.

Zhao Ti keenly caught the change in his expression and said in a gloomy voice: "Li Xianggong, this prince loves martial arts and has no other pursuits. Last night in a dream, the late Emperor asked about my life at the end. I answered truthfully — every day I grind my strength, crude fists and clumsy legs, unfit for refined company. The late Emperor sighed and finally swept his sleeve and departed. I woke from the dream, my heart uneasy, as if fallen into an abyss, at a loss within."

"Sigh, Your Highness." Li Xian's eyes fell on the bound volume of the Sunflower Manual in Zhao Ti's hands, his lips trembling, yet pressing shut again.

Seeing him unmoved, Zhao Ti reached out and beckoned Tong Guan over, returning the manual: "Truthfully, this prince doesn't actually want to practice this manual. After all, it was tailor-made for internal attendants. This prince is simply curious. The manual is returned to Li Xianggong — no need to look further. If Li Xianggong knows how to resolve it, please speak plainly and satisfy this prince's curiosity. Otherwise it gnaws at me unbearably."

Li Xian watched Tong Guan return the bound volume and breathed a sigh of relief within. This manual was nearly thirty thousand characters long — no matter what, the other party could not have memorized it all. He actually wasn't afraid of Zhao Ti secretly learning This Cultivation Technique. This Cultivation Technique was born within the palace, meant to serve the imperial family; outsiders were naturally guarded against it at every turn. As for the imperial family, even if ordered to destroy it outright and never practice it again, he would obey without error. What he feared was that Zhao Ti truly was, as he described, a martial arts fanatic — one unsteady thought, and he'd hack himself. Then he would be the guilty one.

Now that the manual was returned, Li Xian felt a weight lift in his heart and could not help but speak: "Your Highness, this old minister once had a conjecture regarding the lost Zi Xia Jin, suspecting that cultivating This Art first might spare one the agony of castration. But it is only a conjecture and may not be accurate."

"Zi Xia Jin..." Zhao Ti shook his head. He recalled why the name of this Cultivation Technique felt familiar — because it was too similar to the name of the Huashan Sect's Zi Xia Shen Gong.

The Huashan Sect was not the one later founded by Hao Datong, one of the Seven Immortals of Quanzhen, in the early Yuan dynasty. The Quanzhen-founded Daoist Huashan Sect was at the foot of Chaoyang Peak, a Daoist temple, whereas the true Huashan Sect was at Yunu Peak. The two were not the same thing.

If Zi Xia Jin was the predecessor of Zi Xia Shen Gong, then the Huashan Sect was very likely founded by the Chen family lineage, which also fit with the inextricable connection between Ancestor Chen Tuan and Mount Hua.

Still, he didn't quite believe that learning Zi Xia Jin would allow one to practice the Sunflower Manual without castration, especially since it was only Li Xian's own conjecture.

Zhao Ti refused to give up: "Li Xianggong, I have heard that when Emperor Taizong went on his southern campaign, he swept the jianghu and green forests, collecting many martial arts manuals. Li Dahuan attended him at his side and must have overseen them. Later, when he created the Sunflower Manual, it should have much to do with studying those martial arts. Could there truly be no solution among them?"

Li Xian was startled by the words: "How does Your Highness know of this matter?"

Zhao Ti said: "It's not hard to deduce."

At this moment Tong Guan brought over some water. Li Xian moistened his lips, was silent for a while, then said: "Since Your Highness knows of this matter, this old minister will hide it no longer. The Sunflower Manual was indeed created by Ancestor Dou with reference to those martial arts texts. Back then the Ancestor left word that if one first cultivated a certain Cultivation Technique from the Shanhai Guan by the Yangtze River, one could avoid castration and practice the martial arts in the manual."

"Hmm? Is it true?" Zhao Ti narrowed his eyes.

"It's just that the Ancestor's original intent in creating this manual was to pass it to his disciples and adopted sons, all of whom were castrated men, so whether or not that Cultivation Technique could be practiced didn't matter. No one paid it any mind."

"The Shanhai Guan by the Yangtze River... what Cultivation Technique is it?" Zhao Ti asked.

"Shanhai Guan is a great Daoist temple. It has a sect-defining ultimate art called Yi Yin Zhi, also known as Huan Yin Zhi — extremely yin, ghostly, cold, and fierce, dark and bewitching in form. If cultivated, it can harmonize yang fire, conceal true hardness, and practicing the Sunflower true qi afterward would not cause the deluded fire to burn the body."

"Huan Yin Zhi? So it's this Wu Gong!"

Zhao Ti remembered this Wu Gong. It was the ultimate technique of Cheng Kun, the Hunyuan Thunderclap Hand of the late Yuan, Heavenly Sword and Dragon-Sabers era — extremely yin, cold, vicious, and ruthless. Cheng Kun had once used this art to gravely wound the Seven Great Masters of the Ming Cult at Bright Summit.

This Huan Yin Zhi was originally named Yi Yin Zhi, later renamed. It was somewhat like the Tianshan Life-and-Death Talisman — a strand of yin-cold internal force that attached itself within the body and would wander through the limbs and bones. Because it attached and moved, rather than being a specifically counteracting internal force, once struck by it, it was very hard to cure at the root.

This finger art was not only fearsome but also insidious — once injured, yin-poison attached to the body, and in combat it could only be neutralized by pure-yang internal force.

At this moment his thoughts raced like lightning. Not learning the Sunflower Manual, but learning this Huan Yin Zhi was also an option.

"Li Xianggong, where is this Huan Yin Zhi now?"

Li Xian shook his head: "Your Highness, it wasn't that this old minister was deliberately hiding it from the start — it's truly that this Huan Yin Zhi no longer exists..."

"No longer exists?" Zhao Ti was stunned.

"Since Your Highness knows of Emperor Taizong's southern campaign to collect martial arts manuals, could you not know of Emperor Renzong's destruction of the Three Vaults?" Li Xian said, puzzled.

"Emperor Renzong destroyed the Three Vaults? What Three Vaults?" Zhao Ti was bewildered: "This prince has grown up in the palace and never heard of this matter. It's not recorded in Emperor Renzong's daily records either."

Li Xian thought for a moment: "It was this old minister who spoke carelessly. The Three Vaults were built by Emperor Taizong. After Emperor Renzong damaged them, how could it be fitting to record it?"

"Please Li Xianggong inform me of the details. What vaults were destroyed, and what does it have to do with martial arts?" Zhao Ti asked, frowning.