The Legend of the Condor Heroes: Starting from the Bodyguard

Chapter 298: A single copy of the "Huang Ting Jing" breaks the shackles of martial arts.
Yellow leaves fall in the west wind, wild geese cry in the sky, as we bid farewell to each other on the western hills.

Li Mochou arrived alone on horseback, and left with Zhou Yan as her escort, along with four escort vehicles from the Fu'an Escort Agency.

Life in the ancient tomb was actually very austere.

Zhou Yan had firsthand experience with this. Wang Chuyi had even mentioned sending grain to the ancient tomb, but it was refused by Lin Chaoying's maid. Li Mochou and Xiaolongnu's daily expenses relied entirely on the assets left by Lin Chaoying, but how long had that been going on? They should have long since reached the point of being unable to make ends meet.

In other words, they relied on the mountains for sustenance and raised bees to harvest honey, which allowed them to barely make ends meet.

Therefore, Zhou Yan purchased a lot of medicinal herbs needed for his cultivation.

They bought ginseng, lingzhi, and polygonatum, as well as some fur coats for the winter and a whole cart of rice and flour. Of course, they also brought a few boxes of traditional Zhongdu pastries for Xiaolongnu.

Li Mochou initially refused, but Zhou Yan said that he had at least practiced the Ancient Tomb Lightness Skill and the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra Sword Technique, and had a connection with the Ancient Tomb. Most of what he was buying were cultivation materials, so there was no need to be polite.

Li Mochou, being a free spirit, readily accepted.

We left the city at dawn and were escorted to the Western Hills.

The escort team consisted of a bodyguard from Fu'an and ten porters. They handled the matter officially, and Zhou Yan settled the escort fee in Fu'an.

“Master Zhou, please go back. Once we reach Zhongnan Mountain, we will move all the supplies up the mountain as you instructed before returning.”

"Thank you."

"You're too kind, Master Zhou," the bodyguard said with a smile.

The caravan sped up, and Li Mochou said to Zhou Yan, "Brother Zhou, I'm on my way. Once Master allows me to leave the mountain, I'll look for you again, Brother Zhou, and we can travel the world together and gain some experience."

"it is good!"

The bright autumn sunlight fell on Li Mochou's face, making her cheeks flush and her complexion radiant. She said softly and gently, "Brother Zhou, until we meet again."

"Take care along the way."

"understood."

Li Mochou smiled sweetly, spurred her horse, and the green horse galloped away, gradually disappearing from Zhou Yan's sight.

Zhou Yan turned his horse around and returned to Zhongdu. He then met with Lu Youjiao and Zhang Wangyue, telling them that he would be practicing for a period of time and that if there were any important matters, they could send someone to deliver a message.

He told them where he was going to practice, and took with him several Taoist classics, writing brushes, ink, paper, and several jars of strong liquor. He rode the "Night-Shining Jade Lion" out of the city and galloped all the way to the Great Wall, where he had once gone on an outing with Li Mochou.

The Great Wall was built during the Northern Qi Dynasty, starting from Beixiakou in Youzhou and ending in Datong Prefecture.

Zhou Yan found a pavilion and settled down. This pavilion, which could originally house more than ten soldiers, was located on the summit, offering views of the rolling sea of ​​clouds, the undulating mountains, and the magnificent scenery of autumn sunshine, fog, and autumn rain. A stream flowed down the mountain, and the "Jade Lion Under the Night" grazed freely in the valley. Hunting and bathing were both convenient, making it a rare and wonderful place in the outskirts of Zhongdu.

The reason why Zhou Yan abandoned his previous secluded cultivation in Xishan Valley and came to the Great Wall can be traced back to Jiang Kui, the chief镖头 (bodyguard) of Longmen镖局 (escort agency). Jiang Kui's swordsmanship evolved from poetry, and his sword momentum was magnificent. Living on the Great Wall and looking at the mountains and rivers, what he saw was a kind of momentum. Not to mention the distant part, the winding Great Wall, which resembled a coiled dragon, made Zhou Yan feel that he could comprehend some of the momentum of the "Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms".

"At dawn, I gaze upon the myriad clouds and rosy hues," and at night, I watch "the stars shift and the water clock drips frequently."

During the day, Zhou Yan would admire the mountains and rivers, and at night, by a campfire, with a lamp and candle in hand, he would read the "Huang Ting Jing" word by word. He was not in a hurry to practice swordsmanship or integrate the Nine Yang Manual, but gradually relaxed his body and mind, merged with the mountains and rivers, and slowly immersed himself in a transcendent and free state of mind that "transcends the Five Elements," using pen and ink to record the occasional flashes of inspiration.

Four days later, during a night of thunder and lightning, Zhou Yan stood on the Great Wall. In the distance, the clouds formed swirling vortexes that resembled inverted mountains. The red lightning flashed more and more densely, and wherever the lightning illuminated, streaks of lightning flashed across the winding Great Wall, looking like a giant dragon raising its head, about to take flight into the sky in an instant.

As Zhou Yan watched the Great Wall weave through the thunder and clouds like a dragon, his mind suddenly stirred, and he recalled the lines from the *Huang Ting Jing*: "The essence of Qi is deep within the three passes; the five elements, though different, share the same root; the three and five combine to form one; who can rival the sun and moon?"

He muttered to himself, “The Great Wall is like a dragon moving through thunder and lightning, turning clouds and rain. The dragon gains power from thunder and fire, thus possessing the spirit of ‘who can contend with the sun and moon’ in the scriptures. The five elements correspond to the five internal organs. Could we perhaps train the Qi-guiding method of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms by communicating with acupoints through the internal organs and meridians, thereby increasing the internal Qi with more vigorous Yang Qi?” Zhou Yan read the Yellow Court Classic, observed the celestial phenomena to glimpse the Yin and Yang of creation. He meditated for several hours in the thunderstorm, then turned and went into the pavilion, where he recorded his insights and began to try.

He first added the Hand Lesser Yin Heart Meridian to the internal energy circulation path of the "Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms".

The Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian originates in the heart, passes through the lungs, and ascends to the eyes. An hour later, Zhou Yan's internal energy surged, his facial meridians bulged, and his appearance became ferocious. His internal energy, blood energy, and pulse energy clashed, causing his whole body to tremble and two streams of blood to emerge from his nostrils. The Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian was damaged.

Zhou Yan used the Quanzhen Heart Sutra to extract the gentle energy from the Jade Guanyin, relaxing his muscles and tendons and repairing the damage to his meridians.

After recovering from his injury, and after some careful consideration during a meal, Zhou Yan suddenly realized that the lungs belong to the metal element, which clashes with and is incompatible with the masculine energy of the "Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms".

Zhou Yan attempted to connect the Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian, as the kidney belongs to water, thus balancing yin and yang.

An hour later, Zhou Yan vomited blood, his meridians were damaged, and he concluded that water and fire were incompatible.

He used the Jade Guanyin to heal his injuries again. After recovering, he tried to connect with the Foot Jueyin Liver Meridian. The powerful internal energy flowed through the original circulation path of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms and entered the Foot Jueyin Liver Meridian. Suddenly, the meridian trembled and resonated, like a dragon emerging from the abyss. The internal energy was tempered by the liver fire and became yang and hot. The Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms circulated through an additional meridian and fourteen acupoints provided additional internal energy, greatly increasing its power.

Zhou Yan was overjoyed. With a clear whistle, he appeared on the Great Wall outside the pavilion. His left leg was slightly bent, his right arm was bent inward, and his right palm drew a circle. With a whoosh, he pushed it outward.

Where the palm wind passed, a scorching heat surged forth. In the cool weather, a white energy surged out like a tide, with several waves of energy following one another. From a distance, it looked like a flying dragon soaring through the air.

Zhou Yan felt gratified as he experienced the power of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, which had increased by nearly 20%. The effect was similar to how the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth stimulated the body's potential. Moreover, the internal energy, after being tempered by the liver, had a scorching quality. It could not only effectively counter Zhuang Shiyi's Xuan Yin Palm, but also increase its power to damage the opponent's meridians in battle.

Zhou Yan recorded this insight on paper and then began to study the eight principles of the "Dog-Beating Stick Technique".

For the first five days, regardless of whether he used the Quanzhen Swordplay, the Jade Maiden Swordplay, or the Hengshan Swordplay, his moves all followed the basic swordplay techniques such as thrusting, chopping, and slicing.

On the seventh day, the moves Zhou Yan made with his Qingfeng sword were like graffiti. His move "Dingyang Needle" was a diagonal upward thrust like a mountain lift. The "Flowers Before the Moon" move from the Jade Maiden Sword Technique was a downward strike. It was originally like a moon hanging in the sky, but now it was like thin vines wrapping around a big tree, as if sealing it off.

On the tenth day, Zhou Yan completely broke the ambiguity between the eight secrets of the "Dog-Beating Stick Technique" and the sword technique. The sword technique was still the sword technique, but the sword style had added changes in the force of tripping, entangling, stabbing, picking, leading, sealing, and turning.

His journey of enlightenment was like initially seeing a sword as a sword, then seeing it as not a sword, and finally seeing it as a sword again.

Zhou Yan spent half a month in seclusion cultivating, adding a method of circulating qi, making the "Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms" even more powerful, and successfully integrating the eight secrets of the "Dog-Beating Stick Technique" into his swordsmanship.

No one came from Zhongdu, so Zhou Yan assumed it was nothing serious.

He descended the Great Wall to the valley, visited the "Jade Lion Bathed in Night," bathed in a pool, hunted a pheasant, then returned to the Great Wall, drank wine, ate meat to fill his stomach, and began to contemplate the "Song of the Rising Tide of the Blue Sea."

Ten days later, during the new round of cultivation, Zhou Yan was reading the "Huang Ting Jing" when he suddenly fell into deep thought upon seeing the phrase "the essence and energy in the three fields are subtle".

The sentence means, "The mysterious spring irrigates the three fields. Within the dantian, the spirit and energy change, and the response comes from the heart. It is neither existent nor nonexistent, and cannot be forced. To progress from the coarse to the subtle, one must be based on order. Therefore, one should focus on the subtlety of the energy and the subtlety of the mind. The image can reach the extreme stillness and subtlety."

Zhou Yan laughed. He realized how foolish he had been before. He had created a new method for guiding Qi. Why did he need to mobilize the abundant internal energy in his dantian and try it out one by one through his meridians? He only needed a wisp of it and could sense it with his mind.

Zhou Yan channeled his internal energy, separating a wisp of it to attempt to connect the energy pathway of the "Blue Sea Tide Song" with the "Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian." He sensed it with his mind and felt the wisp of internal energy flowing between the two meridians like a fish in water, without any obstruction. Overjoyed, he devoted himself to regulating his internal energy, allowing it to flow powerfully. After passing through the five major acupoints of Niwan, Zhiyang, Kaiyang, Weilu, and Guanyuan, which are the meridians operated by the Peach Blossom Island's unique skill, the internal energy and meridian energy resonated like a plucked string.

Zhou Yan leaped forward and swung his sword.

A soft, tearing sound, like tearing silk, rang out in the air, and a candle half a foot away from the sword's edge snapped in two.

The intangible becomes tangible.

The three-foot-long sword in Zhou Yan's hand no longer emitted a simple sword light, but also a half-foot-long condensed sword aura.

(End of this chapter)