Ask Wudang Chapter 027

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After about a quarter of an hour, one person and one monkey landed in the valley.

Looking around, one could see snow-capped peaks piercing the clouds, steep and precipitous, like ten thousand fathoms rising into the sky, unscalable.

All around, flowers bloomed in profusion, green grass like a carpet, red flowers and green trees intertwined.

Underfoot was soft, fine grass, and in the nose was the (qīng yōu) fragrance of flowers, birds chirped melodiously, and fresh fruits hung from branches, a sight of exquisite beauty.

“Outside, it’s clearly covered in snow, but here it’s like spring all year round. What a blessed land.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak…”

Just as Ye Qingfeng was feeling this emotion, the little monkey cried out again.

As its cries faded, an old, large white ape pushed aside the bushes and hobbled over.

The large white ape was not afraid of people. It came directly to Ye Qingfeng, pointed to the left side of its lower abdomen, and let out a “woo woo” sound.

Ye Qingfeng looked sideways and saw that the large white ape’s lower abdomen was covered in pus and blood, with a large sore.

Seeing this sore, his heart suddenly stirred. He thought to himself, “This large sore must be where the Nine Yang Manual is hidden. Back then, Yin Kexi and Xiao Xiangzi stole the Nine Yang Manual and hid it in the belly of a large white ape. When Yin Kexi was on his deathbed, he suddenly had a change of heart and asked He Zudao, who was passing by, to deliver a message to Monk Jueyuan. The message he said was ‘scripture in the monkey,’ but because he was on his last breath and his words were unclear, He Zudao misheard it and thus relayed it as ‘scripture in the oil,’ leaving a century-old enigma.”

After musing for a moment, Ye Qingfeng took out a small dagger and began to perform surgery on the large white ape.

The large white ape was extremely old and quite intelligent. It knew that Ye Qingfeng was treating its illness. Although its abdomen was in severe pain, it forcibly endured it, not moving at all. A moment later, Ye Qingfeng cut an incision on the large white ape’s lower abdomen. He pulled open the incision and looked inside. Sure enough, there was an object hidden within. He took it out and saw that it was an oilcloth package. He placed the oilcloth package aside, then took a thin vine, stitched up the incision on the large white ape’s lower abdomen, and then applied some golden wound medicine to it. Only then was the task complete.

After such a surgery, the large white ape could no longer move and lay quietly to one side.

The little monkey “squeaked” twice, then reached out a paw to caress the large white ape’s head, as if comforting it.

Ye Qingfeng thought to himself, “This monkey is truly incredibly spiritual.”

After praising it silently, he immediately picked up the oilcloth package next to him and unwrapped it.

Inside the package were four blue-bound books, with “Lankavatara Sutra” written in large characters on the covers. Opening the scriptures, all that met the eye were Sanskrit characters, winding and incomprehensible. These contents were precisely the Lankavatara Sutra personally handwritten by Bodhidharma.

However, in the crevices of these Sanskrit scriptures, there were lines of regular script Chinese characters, like annotations for the Sanskrit.

Ye Qingfeng knew that these Chinese characters were not annotations for the Lankavatara Sutra, but rather the Nine Yang Manual that he had been searching for.

Immediately, he focused his mind and carefully read downwards.

“First use the mind to command the body, follow others not oneself; later the body can follow the mind, by oneself still follow others. By oneself, one becomes stagnant; by following others, one becomes agile. If one can follow others, one will have proper measure in one’s hands, accurately weighing the size of their force, not a single cent wrong. Accurately assessing the length of their coming, not a single hair’s breadth off…”

“When Yin reaches its peak, it gradually declines, Lesser Yang subtly arises, Yin gradually wanes and Yang gradually waxes, Yin and Yang complement each other, mutually giving birth and aiding each other…”

“Let him be strong, like a gentle breeze caressing a mountain peak. Let him be arrogant, like the bright moon illuminating a great river. Let him be cruel and evil…”

“Strength borrowed from others, Qi issued from the spine. How can Qi be issued from the spine? Qi sinks downwards, absorbed by the two shoulders into the spine, concentrating in the waist. This is the descent of Qi from top to bottom, called ‘he’ (). From the waist, it expands through the spine, spreads to the two arms, and extends to the fingertips. This is the ascent of Qi from bottom to top…”

“Inhale and exhale Nine Yang, embrace unity and contain primordial essence, this book can be named the Nine Yang Manual.”

By the time he finished reading the four volumes of scriptures, half an hour had already passed.

Just by reading the scriptures, and without even beginning to cultivate, Ye Qingfeng already felt that the Nine Yang Divine Skill contained within the scriptures was definitely not inferior to his Pure Yang Wuji Skill. The Pure Yang Wuji Skill focused on purity and was incredibly powerful, emphasizing offense. The Nine Yang Divine Skill, on the other hand, focused on endurance, with extremely fast true qi recovery, emphasizing defense and healing. Both divine skills cultivated Yang-attribute true qi, one being Pure Yang True Qi and the other Nine Yang True Qi. Their natures were the same, making it truly difficult to distinguish between them. Furthermore, the two divine skills had many similarities. The Pure Yang Wuji Skill could be seen as an upgraded version of the Wudang Nine Yang Skill, and the Wudang Nine Yang Skill originated from the Nine Yang Divine Skill, so their similarities were not surprising.

Next, Ye Qingfeng attempted to cultivate.

He found a stone platform, sat cross-legged, with his five hearts facing upwards, closed his eyes, and concentrated his mind, circulating his inner breath according to the methods in the Nine Yang Manual. As his inner breath flowed, true qi circulated through all the meridians of his body, continuously stimulating his acupoints, and wisps of Nine Yang True Qi were thus generated. Nine Yang True Qi and Pure Yang True Qi originated from the same source. As soon as they were generated, they immediately merged into one. The new type of true qi, which integrated Nine Yang True Qi and Pure Yang True Qi, possessed the miraculous effects of both: strong yang, purity, endless vitality, and continuous flow, truly incredible.

Feeling the transformation of his true qi, Ye Qingfeng was greatly encouraged, and his mindset became even more positive.

In cultivating internal arts, one’s state of mind is undoubtedly very important.

In the original work, when Zhang Wuji cultivated the Nine Yang Divine Skill, he had already been tormented by cold poison for many years and had long given up all hope. The reason he still cultivated the Nine Yang Divine Skill was merely to pass the time while waiting to die. His mindset was that success was welcome, but failure was also no concern; he could be said to have no desires or demands. It was this peaceful mindset that allowed him to cultivate the Nine Yang Divine Skill to great mastery in just four or five years.

Ye Qingfeng’s current positive mindset was undoubtedly not in line with the prerequisites for cultivating the Nine Yang Divine Skill.

However, his Pure Yang Wuji Skill was already complete, his Eight Extraordinary Meridians were unobstructed, and his entire body was completely clear, exactly like the state of great completion of the Nine Yang Divine Skill, completely compensating for the flaws in his mindset. Cultivating the Nine Yang Divine Skill in his current state was like Zhang Wuji, who had achieved great completion of the Nine Yang Divine Skill, cultivating the Heaven and Earth Great Shift. Therefore, in just the time it takes to eat a meal, he completed the foundational cultivation of the Nine Yang Divine Skill. Three hours later, he had completely cultivated all four volumes of the Nine Yang Manual, and the true qi throughout his body had also completely transformed.

After cultivating the four volumes of the Nine Yang Manual, the Nine Yang Divine Skill was considered to have reached the realm of great mastery. As long as he broke through the final profound barrier, he could achieve complete mastery.

To break through the final profound barrier, one needed to endure the suffering of the Nine Yang Burning Body. Although Ye Qingfeng had already unblocked all his meridians and acupoints and could easily expel the heat, the true qi in his body had already transformed, and breaking through the final barrier would definitely be more dangerous. Therefore, he did not immediately attempt to break through but planned to return to Wudang and ask his master to protect him before making the breakthrough.

With the Nine Yang Divine Skill at great mastery, Ye Qingfeng’s total true qi increased by more than twofold, and the speed of true qi generation also greatly improved, becoming more than five times faster than before. At this point, with every lift of his hand and every step he took, true qi flowed, truly a divine and enlightened state.

After mastering the Nine Yang Manual, Ye Qingfeng took out three more blue-bound books. These were the three secret manuals obtained from the Zhu Wu Lianhuan Manor.

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