"Before I teach you this art, I need to tell you where it came from," Bi Lingkong said. "The Master said, 'If names are not correct, words will not ring true.' If we don't understand an art's history, it's hard to grasp what the sage who created it had in mind. In cultivation, a hair's breadth of error can lead you a thousand miles astray. We cannot be too careful."
Only after she saw Pan Long nod did she continue. "That is especially true of this art. When you cultivate it, remember its origins. You must understand what the Master was thinking and what he had experienced when he created it, or you may stray onto an evil path."
Pan Long was puzzled. From Bi Lingkong's introduction, why did this sound less like a respectable art and more like some sinister practice such as "harvesting yin to replenish yang"?
Among all the evil arts in the world, few openly declared, "I'm a bastard, and proud of it." Most claimed to have a "righteous path." In truth, those paths were usually made up to fool people and led nowhere. The evil path was the art's real legacy.
And from the way Bi Lingkong described it, didn't this art sound much the same?
The uncharitable thought flashed through his mind. Bi Lingkong went on. "The Confucian School was founded early in the Warring States era. By then, the Sky Hero Dynasty's rule had collapsed. Of the thirteen regions and one hundred and eight commanderies and kingdoms under heaven, more than half had declared independence and ignored the emperor's orders. Many had even begun swallowing their neighbors, with wars breaking out now and then."
"The Master was from Fucheng, which lay under King Tianlu's rule. King Tianlu governed harshly, with a thicket of