Chapter 9: The Inflatable Doll Sent by Master?

This trip was quite fruitful; not only did I meet the legendary Dong Pangpang, but I also got two skill manuals for free.

Such a lost secret manual from the previous dynasty is like a handsome masseur—you can't just buy your way to meeting one.

But what concerns me most right now is still this wooden box.

The seal on the box is quite old, indicating that Master had long ago sealed the items and left them with Lord Dong.

Since Master knew that thing was related to my origins yet sealed it with Lord Dong without telling me, he probably didn't want the inexperienced younger me to risk investigating my background.

If Master was on such good terms with Dong Yun that he could entrust him with something so important, why then put a seal on it and forbid him from touching it?

Lord Dong may not be all-powerful, but he surely holds high rank; if this truly concerns my origins, why not let him see it so he can help verify it directly?

Full of doubt, Jiang Yunzhou returned to the small courtyard beside the Cang Medical Hall.

Sister Qingru and Bai Zhi were still at the medical hall; taking advantage of the empty hall, Jiang Yunzhou slipped into the bedroom and closed the doors and windows.

First I put the two manuals away, then placed the wooden box on the bed, carefully tore off the seal, and opened it to find only one thing:

A book with a black cover.

Why is a book made so mysterious?

Could Master have left some peerless martial art for me?

Holding it in hand and examining it closely, the paper's edges are ragged as if gnawed by a dog, completely unlike machine-cut paper.

This book must have been stored for a long time, yet it feels like new—its cover smooth and clean, with no signs of aging or yellowing; it is certainly not ordinary paper.

In hand it is surprisingly light, like holding a paper shell, with none of the weight a book should have.

Turning it over with suspicion, I found the book half black paper, half white paper, and not a single character on either.

What kind of riddle is Master playing on me?

When I turned to the last page, a small yellowed slip of paper fell out, bearing only a short sentence:

Heat it and the words will appear.

Isn't that just taking off your pants to fart?

The slip is tucked inside the book, but I don't see how heating it would keep anything secret—anyone who gets the book would know to do that.

Thinking this, Jiang Yunzhou lit the candle holder and held the black-covered book over the flame to bake it.

But upon heating, not only did no words appear, the book in my hand felt hardly warm at all—the cool paper showed no temperature rise.

The paper of this book is indeed different; perhaps it needs a fierce fire to work?

Just as I was wondering whether to take it to the kitchen to bake, Jiang Yunzhou noticed again the yellowed slip that had just fallen from the book.

This color looks just like the paper of the letter Master also gave me.

Wait a moment!

Jiang Yunzhou's mind flashed with inspiration, and he hastily pulled out the letter from his bosom.

Could it be that the 'heat and the words will appear' on the slip refers to this letter?

Jiang Yunzhou tentatively baked the letter over the candlelight.

As the flame passed over, the back of the letter actually revealed neat lines of regular script.

Sure enough!

That makes sense.

That slip is not the key to unlocking the book's secret; otherwise putting key and lock together would be too unsafe.

The letter in my hand is the key!

Thus even if the book were stolen, the thief would not know its secret.

And when I brought the box to find Dong Yun, the letter and book, key and lock, finally matched up.

While astonished by Master's arrangement, Jiang Yunzhou also grew more curious about what secret the book truly hides.

The regular script on the back of the letter is very neat, obviously not Master's handwriting.

It also looks older than Master's writing; Master must have deliberately written the letter on this paper.

The first line of the regular script has only twelve characters:

"As long as you keep this secret strictly, you can boldly employ it."

"What is this 'secret'? What is 'employ'?"

"Infuse the Supreme Yang Internal Technique into the Formless Dark Paper until it transforms and is completely filled."

"For the first use, dot it with blood, and it will automatically become part of the body."

"During use, the nature of the Formless Dark Paper remains hidden, so outsiders will not detect it."

"To return to normal, simply withdraw the energy back into the body or let it dissipate on the spot."

"The subtleties will become clear after use."

Jiang Yunzhou scratched his head; he understood the passage somewhat but not completely.

It seems to be explaining how to use this strange black-covered book so that it can become part of one's body.

But what use is it to make a book part of one's body?

It seems to say the book can turn into something; if I could grow something extra on my body, what I would most hope for is......

Don't wander off in fantasy; Master handled this so carefully, leaving the book to me must be of great use.

Thinking this, Jiang Yunzhou took the strange black book in hand, then, following the letter's guidance, began to cultivate, slowly infusing the energy of his Pure Yang Infant Technique into it.

Could it be that Master taught me the Pure Yang Infant Technique from childhood precisely for this thing?

As the Supreme Yang energy poured in continuously, the entire black-covered book began to rapidly inflate.

The originally flat black-covered book, in my hand, quickly bulged like a balloon.

But gradually something felt off; the shape of this dark, swelling object...... resembled...... a person.

Originally Jiang Yunzhou had imagined the book could at most become a weapon or a third hand or third leg, something like that.

After all, it was said this thing could become part of the body, but I never expected it to actually take on a human shape.

And the weight of this black mass in my hand hadn't increased; it remained extremely light.

Even though it wasn't fully filled yet, its form was already quite evident.

It really looks a bit like the inflatable doll I saw at a friend's place in my previous life...

My master knows guarding my chastity for so many years has been too hard.

Did he send me an inflatable doll to let me continue guarding my chastity?

No, that's not right! This damn thing is a male doll!

At least send a female one!

The paper figure has no bamboo skeleton; it is entirely constructed from the paper of this strange book.

Compared to a real person, the details are still rough, but the overall shape is already clear.

A paper-white male figure clad in a tight black robe, with a wholly black lacquered paper sword at his waist, resembling a black-clad swordsman.

Within the eye outlines there is only the whites, giving it a slightly eerie look.

At this point, no more qi can be infused; this must be the 'fullness' mentioned in the note.

Jiang Yunzhou laid the paper figure on the bed, thinking he needed to deal with it quickly, lest this male doll be seen by Senior Sister Qingru or Xiao Baizhi.

He feared they would get the wrong impression that he liked playing with dolls and had homosexual tendencies.

He pricked his finger with a needle and dropped fresh blood onto the paper figure's eyes.

He had intended to make it look nicer, but he didn't expect that as the blood was absorbed, the entire paper figure would begin to change.

The originally abstract, crude features gradually became more refined.

It felt like playing a game with integrated graphics all along, then suddenly switching to a 4090 GPU and seeing the character's rendering improve.

After refinement, the face bore some resemblance to his own; the expressionless visage was somewhat stern, and beneath heroic brows lay a pair of distinctive blood-red eyes.

Of course, only the details became finer; the paper figure itself showed no sign of coming alive, and it still felt icy cold to the touch.

Jiang Yunzhou raised his hand and noticed that the blood threads from his fingertip, used to dot the eyes, were stuck to the paper figure's eyes.

As the blood threads snapped, Jiang Yunzhou suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

Immediately afterward, his vision and bodily sensations began to change.

Before him appeared the bedroom ceiling and his own image; looking down, he realized it was the paper figure's perspective.

Shared vision?

The change in perspective wasn't a split-screen; instead, a new field of view appeared above the original dark view.

Even more astonishing, he felt no discomfort from this visual change, as if having an extra view were natural.

As for the bodily changes, they were even more natural; Jiang Yunzhou merely thought, and the paper figure on the bed opened its hand accordingly.

This feeling wasn't like attaching an external device to the body; it was more like a previously numb body gradually regaining sensation.

It felt as if the paper figure lying on the bed were originally part of his body, with no strange discomfort of growing a third leg.

He reached out and pinched the paper figure's arm, and he felt the pinch himself.

Jiang Yunzhou tried giving a command:

"Go outside."

However, the paper figure remained motionless on the bed until Jiang Yunzhou moved as if controlling his own legs, whereupon it rose and walked into the living room.

It seems the paper figure contains no independent consciousness; it is merely a bodily extension, giving him an extra body.

With this, can all tasks that one person can do be done twice as efficiently?

Both bodies have sensation? Holy shit, that would be... double the pleasure!

But since the letter said, 'The subtleties will become clear with use,' the effect is surely not this simple.

Thinking, Jiang Yunzhou exerted force with his right hand, raised a palm to strike the black-clad paper figure, while simultaneously controlling the paper figure to turn and block his strike.

Boom!

The shockwave nearly blew the door open.

When the two collided, it felt as natural as striking left hand against right hand, except Jiang Yunzhou noticed that the impact from within the paper figure carried a yin-cold qi.

After a few more tries, Jiang Yunzhou immediately discovered the pattern: strikes from the black paper of the paper figure's body emitted yang energy, while those from the white paper emitted yin energy.

Moreover, the paper figure happened to have a black-lacquered paper sword whose blade is white and scabbard black; sheathed it is a yang sword, drawn it is a yin sword.

Thus, he could fully control the paper figure to practice cultivation.

Theoretically, since the paper figure is part of his body, if it learns a technique, could he also learn it?

Thinking, Jiang Yunzhou took out the book 《Yin Yang Yun Yu》.

Then let's try learning the yin-cold attribute sword technique from this book.

"The Flowing Cloud Yin Sword—this will do."

Carefully examining the sword manual, the Flowing Cloud Step and Ghost Shadow Sword of this technique are marvelously subtle; when used to perfection, they can be like a ghost killing invisibly.

Jiang Yunzhou picked up the paper figure's black-lacquered paper sword and gave it a try; the sword's scabbard is jet black, its blade pure white, the body extremely light, and it handles with great swiftness.

But after all, it clashes with his own qi, so looking at the manual he can only grasp a rough idea, still far from practical combat use.

Next, Jiang Yunzhou again manipulated the black-clad paper figure, which is already part of his body, to practice.

To his surprise, the Flowing Cloud Step and Ghost Shadow Sword in the 《Flowing Cloud Yin Sword》, which ought to be hard to learn, were performed by the paper figure effortlessly and exactly as he had envisioned from the manual, all at once.

His own steps, which he had just been unable to execute quickly and smoothly, were astonishingly fluid under the paper figure's feet.

The icy blade qi, with its tangled, shifting blades in all directions, became remarkably simple in the paper figure's hand.

Like a true master, the black-clad paper figure drew its black-lacquered paper sword, stepped with the Flowing Cloud Step, and its black silhouette glided close to the ground like a ghost.

Clang!

Hardly seeing the strike, a yin-cold sword qi flashed past, and the bamboo stool beside the table snapped in response.

If he hadn't stopped his own steps, Jiang Yunzhou would hardly believe this was actually his own operation.

Heavenly talent, right?

No, this heavenly talent is now me.

Just once and you can successfully practice.

The hardest part of learning a secret manual is actually being able to use it as described in the book.

Because practicing body movements and footwork and controlling the use of internal force cannot be achieved overnight; unless one's control over body and internal force reaches perfection, it's impossible to successfully execute after just one glance.

Moreover, this Black-clad Paper Person is inherently extremely light, and besides, it has no internal meridian restrictions, so it can naturally be executed as one wishes.

Jiang Yunzhou, seeing this, tried again with his true form, and to his pleasant surprise discovered that, although he was originally quite unfamiliar with the Flowing Cloud Yin Sword, after learning it with the Black-clad Paper Person, he could actually execute it skillfully.