Purple Haze Lays the Foundation; Sunflower Reaches the Pinnacle
While Lin Pingzhi stood frozen in place, his mind blank, Lin Zhennan unconsciously looked down.
This martial art seems to possess a kind of magic; every word is precious, and every sentence strikes directly into the depths of the practitioner's Mind Stone.
But Lin Zhennan had finally understood the right path left to them by their ancestors after today's battle. He was in the prime of his martial arts career, and every time he thought about it or practiced, he gained something.
So, after about four or five breaths, he finally succumbed to the allure of the sword manual.
But my vest was covered in cold sweat.
He almost drew his sword and took the bell off.
Looking down through the gaps in the roof tiles, Yue Buqun was also covered in cold sweat. He had even unconsciously loosened his belt, but fortunately Lin Zhennan quickly put his cassock away.
He was filled with lingering fear. "Damn it! I almost couldn't be honest with my junior sister anymore."
Inside the guest room of the Fuwei Escort Agency, Li Lin, sitting cross-legged, scoffed. He had expected to see three sisters born tonight.
The room was brightly lit.
"Father, what are you doing?" Seeing his father draw his sword, Lin Pingzhi quickly bent down to protect his manhood.
"I—" Lin Zhennan laughed angrily, "I want to destroy this demonic art, not castrate myself!"
"This is our family's ancestral divine skill!" Lin Pingzhi quickly got up and pressed down on the cassock.
Lin Zhennan grabbed his collar, "You wretched child! Why do you have to ruin your manhood when you have the right path to follow!"
"Father, you're confused!" Lin Pingzhi struggled. "We can show it to Young Master Li. He can create the miraculous skill of using the heart chamber as the dantian in battle, let alone this demonic skill that requires self-castration."
"Yes!" Lin Zhennan's eyes lit up.
Yue Buqun couldn't help but slap his thigh, thinking to himself, "As expected of my good disciple, his mind is so quick!"
The next day.
"What is it?"
In the spacious round grove, Li Lin, who was putting flowers in Yue Lingshan's hair, looked at the newcomer.
"Father." Yue Lingshan blushed and quickly hid behind Li Lin to fix her hair.
Surrounded by a group of Qingcheng disciples who deliberately kept their backs to Li Lin, the three men approached the two men: Yue Buqun Lin Zhennan, father and son.
"You, you!" Yue Buqun's face was practically beaming with laughter, but he could only cover his face and pretend to scold him.
He was secretly pleased with himself: So what if you, Zuo Lengchan, are a martial arts master who can innovate? You don't have a beautiful daughter!
"I apologize for this unintentional disturbance, and I hope Immortal Li will forgive me." Lin Zhennan apologized first, and then respectfully handed over an item. "This is the [Bixie Sword Manual]. After hearing about it yesterday, I remembered the last words of my ancestor Yuan Tu: The items in the cellar of the old house in Xiangyang Lane, Fuzhou, are the heirlooms of my Lin family. They must be kept safe and my descendants must not look at them, otherwise there will be endless troubles."
"This is exactly what it is."
Seeing that Li Lin accepted it, he breathed a sigh of relief and then said, "Miss Yue, you don't need to avoid suspicion, just look at it directly. Mister Yue, you can do the same."
"Ah—this!" Yue Lingshan was about to dodge when she saw Li Lin unfold the cassock.
The Qingcheng disciples who formed a human wall with their backs to them kept their eyes straight ahead. In their eyes, how could the mere [Bixie Sword Manual] be a match for the [Crane Cry Nine Heavens Divine Skill]? Since yesterday, they had only had this divine skill in their eyes.
But after hearing Li Lin recite "To become the most powerful in the martial arts world, one must castrate oneself with a sword," he couldn't help but prick up his ears.
This martial arts skill is too strange!
Ah--!
Yue Lingshan exclaimed again, covering her eyes with her hands, but leaving a large gap between them.
Yue Buqun continued studying the area he had been looking at yesterday, his mind filled with only the incantation for this divine skill. "This skill actually requires taking a drying medicine? Hmm, it's not expensive, it can be bought at any ordinary pharmacy. And the true qi can be circulated like this?"
Five breaths passed.
Li Lin began his critique, "Although this sword manual is not as complete as the full Sunflower Manual, it is actually a good thing. It is missing only the parts that should be missing, and it also incorporates some Buddhist qigong."
"Please enlighten me, Immortal Li," Lin Zhennan asked.
"Although this skill contains the essential principles of 'the transformation of heaven and man and the growth of all things,' it ultimately takes a shortcut in the initial stage, making the practitioner's mindset more inclined towards femininity. It causes the practitioner to fall from a state of neither male nor female to a state of femininity, making them extremely susceptible to attraction to strong, masculine men," Li Lin said.
Lin Zhennan was shocked: Having children? God, I was just saying, please don't take it seriously!
"But fortunately," Li Lin continued, "The missing part of the [Evil-Repelling] is precisely its core."
"Practitioners will only become distorted in their minds, and will develop a fondness for cosmetics, needlework, and bright colors."
"The physical changes are limited to smoother skin and hair loss."
"Moreover, since it is partly derived from Buddhist Qigong, if one practices it without seeking speed and with steady and stable results, even deviations in one's mind will be close to non-existent."
It must be said that the [Bixie Sword Manual] is far more perfect than the [Sunflower Manual] in some respects.
If the former is cautious, even their spouse will not notice, and may even praise the practitioner for being more virile.
If the traces are not right, one can also claim that they have practiced the Daoist art of preserving essence.
Lin Zhennan was tempted.
He had read the opening section, a large part of which was about how to perform surgery on himself, treat his injuries, take medicine and practice qi circulation, and it also mentioned that he could still enjoy sexual intercourse.
Anyway, he already has a son, so this cut will only cause short-term pain. His wife might be even more satisfied with his smoother skin and his improved combat skills after practicing martial arts.
The same applies to Yue Buqun.
Before he mastered the [Zixia] technique, it had the drawback of diminishing desires and depleting his yang essence.
Lingshan was also born to him before he formally practiced this skill.
Now he is nearly sixty years old, and even though he has achieved great success in [Zixia], he still has no children.
Why not
Lin Zhennan and Yue Buqun exchanged a glance at each other.
But the next moment, the two put the thought aside.
If it were just the two of them here, it wouldn't matter.
If this matter were to spread, even if one's swordsmanship were divine, one would have no face to show in the martial Human World.
At that moment, the two suddenly understood why Feng Qingyang had gone into seclusion. The dignified sword saint had married a prostitute, in a formal and public manner.
The news has been exposed, especially since the woman's lover has learned of it. How can he still face the world?
"Can it be changed?" Lin Pingzhi asked.
As a young man, he had no deep-seated hatred and no intention of castrating himself; he still remembered his purpose.
"Simple. This is nothing more than the Qi going against the natural order of the meridian circulation, with excessive internal energy and Yang Qi, causing desires to arise and leading to a qi deviation." Li Lin said calmly, "Castration is simply to make the excessive Yang Qi a rootless source, and then use the drying medicine to regulate the Yang Qi, so as to achieve a balance of Yin and Yang."
"If the yang pulses defy the norm, wouldn't it work if the yin pulses also defied the norm?"
"It seems that the creator of the Sunflower Manual was either from the inner palace, a eunuch, or someone with evil intentions who deliberately led people astray."
"Otherwise, such a simple principle would have been thought of."
As he spoke, Li Lin focused his energy on his fingertips and began to write characters on the stone surface.
Stone chips flew everywhere, and in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the secret technique of reversing the Yin meridians that he spoke of had already appeared.
Having been well-versed in the art of Qi cultivation for many years, Yue Buqun questioned the meaning of life, wondering, "The principle of simplicity? This is clearly equivalent to creating another divine skill. Apart from Young Master Li's Immortals and Gods appearance, who else could do it?"
"Hiss—" After writing the last word, Li Lin suddenly paused. "This is perfect for men and women to practice together. However, when practicing, the whole body will be filled with heat. You must choose an open and deserted place and practice with your clothes open so that the heat can dissipate immediately without any obstruction. Otherwise, it will accumulate in the body, which can lead to serious illness or even death."
"This is clearly..."
What Li Lin did not utter were the four words 'Jade Maiden Heart Sutra'.
Like other books by Jin Yong, "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" has been revised many times.
There are sayings such as "The Purple Haze Manual is the foundation for beginners; the Sunflower Manual is the pinnacle of skill," and "This skill originated from a couple of peerless masters who were in their prime, with their martial arts skills at their peak, and who were deeply in love but had fallen out and avoided each other for some reason."
Fang Zheng said, "It is impossible to find out the surname of this pair of seniors. Some people say that the boy's name has the word 'Kui' in it, and the girl's name has the word 'Hua' in it, so they are collectively called the 'Sunflower Collection', but most of them are just guesses."
After the two separated, the martial arts manuals they created were also separated, divided into two parts: [Qiankun], also known as [Heavenly Book and Book of Earth], [Yang Record and Yin Record].
And coincidentally, the sunflower faces the Double Ninth Festival, and the morning glory picked in the evening is a flower.
The conversation between husband and wife must be a long-standing fallacy.
The Qianjing may be the predecessor of the Quanzhen Method and the Innate Skill. After separating from Lin Chaoying, Wang Chongyang modified and practiced it alone in order to resist the Jin. However, the Innate Skill still has the weakness that one cannot have sex before mastering it. This is probably why Yideng neglected Consort Liu and became a nun after receiving the skill.
The Kun Jing may be the predecessor of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra. The Jade Maiden Heart Sutra was created by combining the Qian Jing, which is part of the Quanzhen Heart Sutra, in order to make up for the deficiencies of the Innate Skill.
The eunuch who created this feat must have obtained a fragment of the "Innate Skill" or the "Jade Maiden Heart Sutra".
At the same time, the explanation of "[Purple Cloud Foundation Building]" also makes sense.
Mount Hua inherited the Daoist tradition of the Quanzhen School, and Hao Datong's Zixia School happens to match the Sunflower Manual, so it should also originate from this.
However, the [Bixie Sword Manual] is a secondary creation, and Yue Buqun can only defuse the bomb.
"What's wrong?" Yue Lingshan asked worriedly, not knowing what Li Lin was thinking.
"I think I understand why Cai Zifeng and Yue Su were so determined to steal the Sunflower Manual. This martial art is related to the Quanzhen School and Zixia," Li Lin said.
"Steal?" Yue Buqun exclaimed in surprise. "Could this not have been a gift from Chan Master Hongye?"
Seeing that his surprise was genuine, Li Lin was secretly alarmed: So this guy wasn't just trying to cover up the past.
Li Lin then added, "That's fair to say. Chan Master Hongye originally intended for Mount Hua to obtain this skill, so he deliberately spread the news and created an opportunity for the two of them to steal the manual."
"But the two were too timid to steal the original, and only dared to copy it separately."
"Then I could only send a disciple to remind him that to master this martial art, one must castrate oneself (originally there was no castration involved; this secret was passed down orally. The Demonic Sect's mantra about castration is 'To practice this divine skill, one must castrate oneself with a knife')."
"As a result, we also lost a disciple who could carry on the mantle."
"If it weren't for the Five Peaks Sword Sects's underhanded tactics that killed the ten elders of the Demonic Sect, and the subsequent emergence of the Sword Qi Sect and the internal strife within Mount Hua, his entire scheme would have been accomplished inexplicably."
"I'm afraid Chan Master Hongye will die in despair."
The Shaolin conspiracy theory has appeared in countless fan fiction works.
After Li Lin arrived in this world, he discovered that it actually existed.
However, Shaolin Temple is not as miraculous as some claim.
All they wanted was for the Demonic Sect and Mount Hua to fight each other.
As for why the Demonic Sect insisted on attacking Mount Hua...
This is because the Sunflower Manual had actually fallen into the hands of the Demonic Sect long ago.
The fame of the Sunflower Manual was already widespread among various schools before Chan Master Hongye obtained it.
It is called the supreme secret manual in martial arts. If one masters the martial arts in the manual, one will be invincible in the world and will also live a long life, exceeding one hundred years.
Dongfang Bubai's reputation as the world's number one also partly stemmed from the magic manual.
Ren Woxing once said, "For many years, the Sunflower Manual has been the treasure of the Sun Moon Holy Cult Sect, passed down from one leader to the next. At that time, I was so engrossed in practicing the Star Absorbing Great Method that I forgot to eat and sleep, and I didn't care about anything else. So I thought I would pass on the position of sect leader to Dongfang Bubai. Passing the Sunflower Manual to him was to make it very clear to him that I would soon pass on the position of sect leader to him."
This statement is not entirely false.
While his desire to seize the position of leader was a pretense, the true truth was that the Sunflower Manual had always been the most prized treasure of the Sun Moon Holy Cult.
However, after the Human World of the Star Absorbing Great Method, created by combining the incomplete North Sea True Scripture and the Great Skill of Chemicalization, it was shelved because it needed to defuse the bomb.
The claim that no one has mastered it in the past three hundred years, as Fang Zheng said, is nine parts true and one part false, stemming from this fact: after being shelved, the sect leader was unwilling to practice it.
Therefore, its reputation was overshadowed by the "Star Absorbing Great Method".
After several generations, apart from the high-ranking members of the Sun Moon Demonic Cult Sect, the connection between the long-standing and orderly major sects and the Demonic Sect became little known.
People in the martial arts world only know that the Demonic Sect has the "Star Absorbing Technique," but they don't know that it has the "Sunflower Technique."
After that, because of Wudang, it ended up in the martial arts world, which benefited Shaolin.
More than eighty years ago, several masters and elders of the Sun Moon Demonic Cult launched a night raid on Wudang Mountain and stole the True Martial Sword along with a copy of the Tai Chi Boxing Manual handwritten by Zhang Sanfeng.
This was certainly because they were looking for solutions after discovering the flaws in the "Star Absorbing Great Method".
It was also for revenge.
Upon hearing news of the manual, the ten elders of the Demonic Sect rushed over, as it was originally the sect's most treasured divine skill.
"Is Shaolin afraid of my Huashan Sect?" Although Yue Buqun did not know the connection between the Sunflower Sect and the Demonic Sect, he was well-versed in this matter and immediately made this connection.
"How could this be?" Yue Lingshan exclaimed in disbelief.
Shaolin's history is even longer than Wudang's, so long that they are almost synonymous with the orthodox path, and there is even a saying that "all martial arts under heaven originated from Shaolin".
"It's not Shaolin that's actually wary of Mount Hua; they're just the executors." Li Lin dipped his finger in tea and wrote the character "[Ming]" on the table.
In the original timeline, Wudang was able to acquire 20,000 jin of explosives, which were truly invincible in Jin Yong's world, not just because Daoism was good at alchemy.
All because they were connected to the Ming Dynasty.
Yue Buqun's face turned pale.
He was educated after all, and before the disaster at Mount Hua, he even had the idea of taking the imperial examinations.
"Can this technique be practiced by one person?" Yue Buqun quickly and abruptly changed the subject.
"If we're talking about a man and a woman, then the only ones here who can practice are probably Mister Yue and me," Lin Zhennan quickly added, trying to skip ahead.
"Of course." Li Lin raised an eyebrow. "This is not the original version after all. It is a re-creation based on the [Bixie Sword Manual]. As long as you adhere to the principle of Yin before Yin Hou, you can practice them together."
"However, if one person practices alone, the progress will not be as rapid as if two people practice together."
"Pingzhi, it seems you should start thinking about your marriage soon." Lin Zhennan teased Lin Pingzhi awkwardly.
But these words struck a chord with Lin Pingzhi, who had been in love since childhood. "If it were two people, should I learn the Yang Meridian or the Yin Meridian?"
"Either is acceptable," Li Lin said. "However, if a man practices the Yin Meridian, he may develop a feminine appearance, while a woman can only practice the Yang Meridian, and her appearance may become more rugged."