Mountain-Shrinking Fist

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Mountain-Shrinking Fist (缩山拳)
Alias(es)	“Shrink Mountain” (named strike) 17
Affiliation	Created by the East Sea Boat People/Tanka; a printed edition is credited to Tiantai Temple Dharma Master Shi Yibiao 9
Occupation/Role	Martial art and True Technique connected to Dagon (Great Ocean Water) 10 27
First Appearance	9

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Learned	10	Mingde guides Zhu Yuanzhang to gather his blood and qi and contemplate the visualization technique. After witnessing Dagon’s image, he receives temporary Dagon-related benefits and learns the fist.
Perfection	15	Zhu Yuanzhang describes the technique as being in a perfected state through the support of the Great Wisdom Zen Technique; its defense withstands Zhao Zhen’s True Fire.
First Layer	23	Zhu Yuanzhang’s Taicheng Secret History status panel lists Mountain-Shrinking Fist (First Layer).
Second Layer	46	The technique’s breakthrough disrupts the balance among the Mountain-Shrinking Fist, Great Wisdom Zen Technique, and Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique; it begins remodeling Zhu Yuanzhang’s body more rapidly.

Background

The Mountain-Shrinking Fist was created by the East Sea Boat People, or Tanka, for fighting wind and waves and defending themselves aboard boats. Mingde states that an ordinary martial artist might need thirty years of work amid wind and waves merely to reach the threshold of contemplating its Visualization Diagram. 9

Its original manuscript is an uncanny water-soaked tome kept in Imperial Awakening Temple’s Scripture Depository. Its cover appears to be marine hide with black, fish-like scales, while its pages have fused together as though submerged for a long time; copper or iron rings allow it to be handled without directly touching it. 9 10

Mingde provides Zhu Yuanzhang with a printed edition credited to “Tiantai Temple, Dharma Master Shi Yibiao.” The technique does not negate the lifespan cost of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique, but it can extend lifespan; Mingde estimates roughly three months for Zhu Yuanzhang under his circumstances. 9

Manuals

• Original manuscript — A pitch-black ancient tome stored atop a six-story bookshelf in the Scripture Depository. Direct contact pulls the viewer into a lethal sea-bound vision. 9
• Printed edition — An oil-paper-wrapped booklet with clearly illustrated moves and stances, credited to Tiantai Temple Dharma Master Shi Yibiao. 9
• Visualization Diagram — Contemplation of the technique leads the practitioner to a reef amid a stormy sea, where Dagon rises from beneath the waves. 10

Abilities & Skills

Dagon Visualization

The technique is cultivated through the visualization of Dagon, also called Great Ocean Water. Facing Dagon’s historical image fulfills the conditions to learn the fist and initially grants temporary Dagon-related blessings. 10

• Brings the practitioner into a reef-and-storm vision dominated by a colossal scaled humanoid emerging from the sea. 9 10
• Gives the practitioner an instinctive affinity for damp, mist-laden environments. 10
• Allows resonance with the original manual; Zhu Yuanzhang uses this resonance to locate the text within the Scripture Cave. 15
• At advanced stages, enables entry into the Bitter Sea and contact with the underwater city of Guixu. 36

Shrink Mountain

“Shrink Mountain” is the fist’s named combat strike. It manifests overwhelming pressure likened to a mountain or a crashing tidal wave. 16 17

• Creates surging fist shadows accompanied by the sounds of waves striking reefs. 17
• Inflicts devastating internal damage; Zhu Yuanzhang leaves a bowl-sized wound through a Shadow Walker’s chest. 17
• Shatters bluestone beneath the user’s feet and can overwhelm opponents with hallucinatory sea-air and visions of a reef. 18
• Can be augmented by the Great Wisdom Zen Technique, sharply increasing its blood-energy output and force. 18
• When combined with perfected Dingguang True Fire, can form a “mountain composed entirely of flames” around the user’s punch. 30

Deep One Transformation

The technique progressively alters its practitioner toward a Deep One or merfolk-like existence rather than merely strengthening a human body. 36 37

• Produces blue or gray scales, keratinous growths, altered fingernails, webbing, oily secretions, and accelerated wound scabbing. 10 19 43
• Remodels internal organs as well as the body’s exterior. 10
• Alters the soul, eventually allowing a transformed body and soul to merge completely. 36 50
• Grants enhanced physical power, agility, regeneration, and resistance to crude weapons. 47 50
• Leaves irreversible changes; Zhu Yuanzhang cannot reverse the transformation of one of his fingers after leaving his Deep One form. 43

Vitality and Lifespan

The fist can increase blood and qi, temper tendons and bones, and extend the practitioner’s lifespan. 8 9

• Mingde estimates that Zhu Yuanzhang may gain approximately three months of life after mastering it. 9
• In an earlier cultivation cycle, simply possessing the technique without actively using it appears to extend Zhu Yuanzhang’s life by at least another week. 11
• Its Deep One transformation can rapidly heal injuries with fish-scale-like scabs. 19
• When balanced with the Great Wisdom Zen Technique and Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique, it may grant a lifespan exceeding that of an ordinary human. 32

Technique Interactions and Limits

The Mountain-Shrinking Fist is fundamentally incompatible with the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique. Their conflict becomes a violent internal struggle when both are circulated. 10 11

• Dingguang True Fire burns the scales and altered organs produced by the fist, severely injuring the practitioner from within. 10
• The Great Wisdom Zen Technique can mediate the opposing techniques, allowing their simultaneous cultivation. 11 24
• The fist is described as a strong counter to the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique, though both techniques are weakened by pig blood mixed with garlic water. 18
• Without a sufficiently profound Great Wisdom Zen Technique foundation, continued cultivation makes full Deep One transformation nearly inevitable. 43
• After reaching the second level, the fist gains dominance over Zhu Yuanzhang’s other arts and accelerates bodily remodeling despite his attempts to strengthen Dingguang True Fire. 46

Relationships

• Dagon (Great Ocean Water) — The entity visualized through the technique; its image grants access to the fist and drives the practitioner’s transformation toward a Deep One. 10 36
• Master Mingde — Gives Zhu Yuanzhang the printed manual, explains its lifespan benefit, and protects him during his initial cultivation. 9 10
• Dharma Master Shi Yibiao — Credited on the printed edition; later suspected to be among the technique’s creators. 9 22
• Great Wisdom Zen Technique — Mediates the Mountain-Shrinking Fist’s conflict with other True Techniques and can amplify its combat power. 11 18
• Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique — A mutually destructive yet potentially complementary opposing technique; its True Fire attacks the fist’s Deep One transformation. 10 18
• Faci — Identifies the fist as an art that transforms the body into an unreal life-form and later warns that circulating it before donning the Tiger-Skin Monk Robe would have protected Zhu Yuanzhang’s body. 33 35

Story Role / Major Arcs

Imperial Awakening Temple

Mingde leads Zhu Yuanzhang to the Scripture Depository and offers the Mountain-Shrinking Fist as a way to increase blood and qi and temporarily suppress the burden of True Fire. Zhu Yuanzhang refuses to touch the original text again after it kills him through its sea vision, instead requesting a printed copy. 8 9

Under Mingde’s protection, Zhu Yuanzhang completes the initial cultivation in three hours. He sees Dagon’s image, learns the technique, and immediately begins growing scales and developing an affinity for damp air. 10

The fist initially proves dangerous: when Zhu Yuanzhang attempts to fight a Shadow Walker while also bearing Dingguang True Fire, the two techniques clash and kill him from within. 10

Scripture Cave Conflict

After using resonance with the original manual to locate it in the Scripture Cave, Zhu Yuanzhang reveals that his perfected Mountain-Shrinking Fist can withstand Zhao Zhen’s True Fire. 15

He uses the technique against Zhao Zhen and later destroys a Shadow Walker with the “Shrink Mountain” strike, testing it as an alternative means of facing the dangers of Yinglong Temple’s second act. 16 17

Taicheng and the Bitter Sea

Within the Taicheng Secret History, the fist becomes Zhu Yuanzhang’s means of entering the Bitter Sea. There he encounters Deep Ones, sees Guixu, and discovers that the technique changes the soul as well as the body. 36

Zhu Yuanzhang ultimately becomes a Deep One and struggles to control his new form. The technique’s progression increasingly threatens to complete this transformation faster than Dingguang True Fire can consume his lifespan. 37 43 46

Escape from Hualin Garden and Xuanyang Gate

As the transformation advances, Zhu Yuanzhang combines his Deep One body with the Tiger-Skin Monk Robe to smash through Hualin Garden’s frozen corpses and escape with Fu Qi and Xiao Dong. 47

During the escape from Jiankang, the transformed body provides powerful regeneration and strength, though refined Xianbei cavalry lances can still pierce it. 49 50

Trivia

• The original manuscript appears waterlogged but cannot be separated into pages. 9
• Zhu Yuanzhang’s first direct contact with the original manual results in immediate death before he can fully see the creature beneath the sea. 9
• The technique is described by Fahui as a True Technique that can genuinely point directly toward “transcendence.” 27
• Faci believes that cultivating both the Mountain-Shrinking Fist and Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique costs Zhu Yuanzhang his chance at transcendence, even though the Great Wisdom Zen Technique can balance their side effects. 32