The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 409 Listening to Master Tell Stories
Some ideas, once planted, will take root and sprout like crops watered with manure.

Under Wu Chengyu's persuasive words, Yang Kang became increasingly convinced that Wanyan Honglie's decision to make a Han woman his principal wife despite everyone's objections and to treat him, his adopted son, as his own was solely for the sake of his mother's beauty.

Anyway, for a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy, his mother is the most beautiful woman in the world, and he hasn't yet developed his own unique aesthetic sense.

He never considered that Wanyan Honglie truly loved Bao Xiruo. Children of that age don't actually have that many romantic feelings in their minds.

Yang Kang was a prince since childhood, and all he saw was the extravagance and debauchery of the Jin Kingdom's nobles and royal family. Under such influence, he regarded matters between men and women as normal and believed that they were all driven by desire. Even when he later met Mu Nianci, his desire outweighed his feelings.

Such a person would never believe in genuine feelings in the world, especially when there is no blood relation.

Therefore, his feelings towards Wanyan Honglie have completely changed. The father-son relationship is now mixed with too many misunderstandings and is no longer as pure.

"Master, are there any examples in the world of people who are not biological father and son, but end up being better off than biological father and son?"

Wu Chengyu knew that Yang Kang's ability to ask this question at this moment meant that he was beginning to question his relationship with Wanyan Honglie.

In fact, there are instances where adoptive fathers truly treat their adopted children, who are not of their own blood, as their own, and the adopted children do indeed take good care of their adoptive fathers in their later years.

The story of Dorgon and Sha Zhu is just too representative, and it has been repeatedly spread in the multimedia era of later generations. Nothing in the world is so absolute, but what he wants at this moment is to push Yang Kang's thoughts to the edge of the abyss again. How could he possibly find a counterexample?

"Let me tell you two stories. They are both true, but you may not be able to find any relevant records."

There was a dynasty that did not appear in the history books. It was also a dynasty in which a foreign tribe occupied the Han dynasty. However, before the foreign tribe entered the pass, their chieftain had already died, leaving behind an orphan and a widow, as well as a younger brother who could be described as wise and brave. They eventually established a dynasty entirely because of this younger brother's achievements...

There is another story that I witnessed firsthand. This time it wasn't about any princes or ministers, but just the most insignificant little people.

There was a cook named Shazhu. His neighbors were also widows and orphans, with a lazy and wicked mother-in-law and three children, one boy and two girls. Shazhu's mother died when he was very young, and his father ran away with another widow.

He also had a much younger sister, and even so, he did his best to take care of his widowed neighbor…

Wu Chengyu recounted these two most representative stories of forming cliques and raising ungrateful wretches to Yang Kang, but the perspective of the whole story changed, emphasizing that Dorgon and He Yuzhu were both lustful, and exaggerating the beauty of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Qin Huairu.

Then it was emphasized that the kindness these two old men showed to the child was all an act; it was all just to please the woman they liked.

Finally, there are the children they raised, who actually grew up in oppression and depression. For example, the child named Fulin became emperor but had no real power, which was incredibly humiliating. Another example is Banggeng, who was paraded through the streets with a tattered shoe hanging around his neck, completely losing face.

Wu Chengyu didn't emphasize the final fate of the two old men, but it was clear from Yang Kang's eyes that he felt whatever tragic ending those two guys deserved.

The same story, with different focuses, perspectives, and listeners' stances, can produce completely opposite effects.

At this moment, Yang Kang deeply empathized with Emperor Shunzhi and Bang Geng, and his perception began to change. He attributed all of Wanyan Honglie's past good deeds to his methods of seizing and pleasing his mother.

Of course, Wu Chengyu's persuasive skills also played a role, gradually causing Yang Kang to lose his ability to think independently and slowly accept his influence.

Seeing Yang Kang's initially conflicted yet gradually resolute expression, Wu Chengyu felt for a moment that he was quite a scoundrel for harming the psyche of a minor. But the next second, he felt that he had directed a good show and was very much looking forward to the subsequent developments of this show.

"Alright, that's enough. You must be tired today. Go back and rest. Take the iron gun with you, and remember to do three sets of gun-raising training tonight."

Yang Kang left with a heavy heart, while Wu Chengyu secretly laughed until his stomach hurt. Now that his martial arts skills had reached a high level, he was no longer so motivated to search for martial arts manuals. Instead, manipulating people's hearts gave him a greater sense of accomplishment.

It was another night of sensual debauchery. Wu Chengyu had recently been letting loose, and Wanyan Honglie had sent him several beautiful maids to completely win him over, making it hard for Wu Chengyu to resist.

Getting up early in the morning, Wu Chengyu ate roasted lamb kidneys for breakfast while watching Yang Kang practice his spear technique. Under Wu Chengyu's influence, Yang Kang's personality changed drastically. He became somewhat taciturn and no longer thought about running away from the palace to cause trouble. He practiced his skills without any prompting and was extremely diligent.

“My good disciple, come here. I see that your mind is not so chaotic today. I will now pass on to you the fundamental Daoist technique of our Quanxing lineage: Dao Heart Demon Seed.”

Yang Kang was overjoyed. He was now severely insecure and his thirst for divine skills was even stronger than before.

Wu Chengyu led him into the room and had him sit cross-legged, calm his mind and focus his spirit. Yang Kang had a foundation in cultivating the Quanzhen Principles of Internal Medicine, so he quickly entered the state of meditation.

"I will now convert all the internal energy you already possess into the internal energy of the Dao Heart Demon Seed Technique. Fortunately, the foundational cultivation method you are using comes from Quanzhen, the most orthodox Daoist method. Otherwise, I would have had to go through a lot more trouble. Do not resist, and then memorize this entire energy circulation path." The Quanzhen True Method was originally a basic internal energy cultivation method created by Wang Chongyang after he achieved mastery of the Innate Skill, in order to widely spread it among his disciples. It is consistent with the Innate Skill, but it has a stronger universality.

However, this process is still very difficult. The power attributes of the Innate Skill far exceed those of most internal skills in the world. Even Wu Chengyu had to put in a lot of effort and operate it with great care.

But what he's doing now isn't actually beneficial to Yang Kang's development; it's simply taking a shortcut.

The level of martial arts called "Innate Skill" is extremely difficult to learn. The more divine the skill, the more time it takes to achieve success in cultivation, and if one's aptitude is insufficient, it is difficult to make progress.

If you simply teach Yang Kang the secret manual of the Innate Skill, give him a little explanation, and let him practice on his own, it would take him several years before he could even get to the basics.

Wu Chengyu is destined not to stay in the Zhao Prince's Mansion for long. After he goes to the Mongolian desert, it is uncertain whether he will return. If he disappears afterward, and after a few years, he sees Yang Kang again and finds that he has not even crossed the threshold of cultivating the Innate Skill, what will happen then?

To satisfy his perverse desires, Wu Chengyu had to see Yang Kang master the Innate Skill, become a top-notch master in just a few years, be full of pride and swagger, and then, after turning eighteen, accidentally break his vow of celibacy and lose all his power.

If there weren't such a good show to watch, why would he bother spending time teaching Yang Kang Wang Chongyang's version of the Innate Skill?

What Wu Chengyu is doing now is directly using his own internal energy to help Yang Kang cultivate the Innate Skill, forcibly removing this threshold. This requires a sufficiently profound level of internal energy cultivation and an extremely thorough understanding of the Innate Skill. Only he in the world can help Yang Kang achieve this quickly.

However, there is no shortcut to cultivating internal energy. While this method may allow Yang Kang to quickly generate the seed of innate internal energy within his body and gradually master the energy circulation path, resulting in extremely fast cultivation speed in the early stages, it lacks a true understanding of innate internal energy.

It should be noted that although Wang Chongyang's version of the Innate Skill has flaws, if one truly masters it, there is a chance to advance to the Innate level, with an extremely high upper limit.

Wu Chengyu's actions were like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and the final result was that even if Yang Kang cultivated the Innate Skill and resolutely refused to break his body in the future, the upper limit of his skill would not be high. He would be above a first-class master and could fight against top masters, but he would have no hope of becoming a supreme master or even reaching the Innate Skill for life.

Of course, whether the upper limit is high or not is no longer important. Yang Kang is over eighteen years old, and Wu Chengyu doesn't believe he can resist. But that's a story for another time.

Converting internal energy attributes and re-establishing a fixed path within Yang Kang's body cannot be accomplished overnight, nor can it be done in a day. Wu Chengyu circulated his internal energy through Yang Kang's meridians for eighteen cycles, taking a full hour, before successfully converting one-third of Yang Kang's internal energy.

This guy went to great lengths to watch the show, but Yang Kang had no idea that, feeling the changes in his body, he was becoming more and more convinced of his master Wu Chengyu, and even felt that the reason he had such a good master was entirely because of his biological father Yang Tiexin. For a time, he even felt more favorably toward his biological father.

"Alright, that's enough for today. If you force it any further, your meridians won't be able to take it. I estimate that it will take two more times before your internal energy can be fully converted. Don't try to circulate your internal energy tonight, but carefully experience and remember the path of internal energy circulation you followed today."

"Many thanks to Master for his great kindness, Wanyan Kang is deeply grateful."

"Alright, you've reached the right level for today's training. Your body hasn't fully developed yet, and too much intense training will only damage your foundation. Now, how about I tell you a few more stories?"

There was once a man who, for some reason, was infatuated with widows. To win her heart, he abandoned his children and ran off with her to another place, even going so far as to raise her three sons…

Wu Chengyu once again used his persuasive skills, telling stories about lecherous men who like to form cliques. There are quite a few such stories; he's seen them countless times in movies, TV dramas, and online novels. However, none are as classic as Sha Zhu's. Even if he hadn't seen them before, he could easily make up many versions on the spot.

Changing someone's perception through talk is not something that can be done overnight; it requires constantly influencing the other person's subconscious. In any case, the more times Yang Kang listens to this, the stronger his resistance to Wanyan Honglie will become.

Time flies, and just a few days later, Yang Kang had mastered the basics of the Innate Skill. The nature of his internal energy was forcibly changed, and he had finally overcome the most difficult hurdle in mastering the Innate Skill.

With Wu Chengyu's help, the task was already accomplished, and the energy circulation path had been memorized. From now on, Yang Kang could only cultivate step by step. However, he knew how to do it but not why. This innate skill had completely lost its Taoist essence in Yang Kang's body and could only operate mechanically.

But Yang Kang now has great faith in Wu Chengyu and truly regards him as his mentor. Especially after he converted all his internal energy into different attributes, the total amount of Quanzhen internal energy he had cultivated for several years was much smaller, but the quality was worlds apart.

With the same amount of internal force, a single palm strike that could only shake a small tree before could now break its trunk. This alone filled Yang Kang with confidence for his future.

Just as Yang Kang expressed his gratitude to Wu Chengyu, and Wu Chengyu accepted it without hesitation, they heard hearty laughter coming from outside the courtyard.

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Yang Kang's expression instantly changed, turning extremely gloomy. However, he quickly changed his expression again, plastering a genuine smile on his face, which even hinted at admiration. Wu Chengyu couldn't help but secretly curse, thinking that this kid's acting skills were quite good.

"Greetings, Father. Father, you are so busy every day, it has been so long since you came to see Kang'er."

　Thanks to readers 0854, Sister Hulu, Don't Silence Me, and Zhuo Mufeng from Qingcao Family for their generous donations.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)