Huang Rong from The Return of the Condor Heroes: Brother Jing, let's get a divorce.

Yang Guo held the coverless handwritten book and sat down by the window on the third floor.

The sunlight from the window shone directly onto the yellowed pages. The ink was old, but the strokes were neat, clearly showing the copyist's meticulous care. The paper was rough, with curled edges, indicating it was at least several decades old.

"The Kan-Li Formula".

Three words, no signature, no author.

Yang Guo turned to the second page.

The opening was a general outline. He read it word by word.

"The way of heaven and earth is simply yin and yang. The human body is the same. Yang is hidden in Kan (water), and yin is hidden in Li (fire). The key to cultivation lies in drawing water from Kan and filling Li, so that water and fire are in balance and yin and yang are in their proper places."

Yang Guo read it twice and roughly understood its meaning.

Kan represents water, and Li represents fire. The human body contains both Yin and Yang, but in a normal person, the Yin and Yang are mixed and impure. What this exercise aims to do is to separate the Yin and Yang within the body, returning them to their proper places, allowing water and fire to interact and achieve balance.

He continued scrolling down.

The specific cultivation methods begin on page three.

"When meditating, first concentrate your mind on the Qi point. The Qi point is located one and three-tenths of an inch below the navel. It is not a physical point, but a place where spirit and Qi meet. Concentrate your mind on this point, but do not be intentional or unintentional. Intention will cause you to feel hot and agitated, while unintention will cause you to feel cold and agitated. You must maintain this state of mind continuously and subtly, between intention and unintention."

Yang Guo frowned.

Intentional or unintentional? What the heck? It's either there or it isn't. How can it be intentional or unintentional?

He forced himself to continue reading.

"The key to breathing is to breathe deeply and slowly through the nose. When inhaling, visualize the pure Qi of heaven and earth entering through the Baihui point, descending along the Ren meridian, and sinking into the Dantian. When exhaling, visualize the impure Qi rising from the Dantian along the Du meridian and dissipating through the Baihui point. This cycle of rising and falling repeats itself and is called the Small Heavenly Circuit."

He understood this part. Simply put, it's about guiding true qi to circulate within the Ren and Du meridians. This is similar to the meditation and entering a state of deep concentration practiced in the Quanzhen School, but the approach is different. The Quanzhen School's methods only utilize pure yang, with true qi circulating in a unidirectional manner. This Kan-Li technique, however, requires a bidirectional flow of yin and yang, simultaneously following two paths.

Yang Guo turned the page.

"After the Small Heavenly Circuit is completed, one must practice the Great Heavenly Circuit. The Great Heavenly Circuit is when true qi circulates throughout the twelve regular meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians, reaching everywhere. At this time, the yin and yang qi in the body will naturally differentiate. Yang qi returns to the Governing Vessel, and yin qi returns to the Conception Vessel. The two qi each follow their own path, without interfering with each other, yet they also respond to each other."

Yang Guo read more and more intently. He discovered that this martial arts technique was completely different from the trashy books he had read before.

Those so-called "Bedroom Enhancement Techniques" and "The Art of Seducing Women" are all about how to extract vital energy from others. To put it bluntly, they are evil arts that harm others for personal gain. Practicing them too much will inevitably lead to qi deviation, exhaustion of vital energy, and death.

But the Kanli Jue is completely different. It doesn't mention anything about absorbing yin to supplement yang. It talks about the harmony of yin and yang within oneself.

Yang Guo silently summarized in his mind—the core idea of ​​this thing can be summed up in four words: self-sufficiency.

Without relying on external forces or others, it is purely about integrating the Yin and Yang energies that already exist within one's own body, allowing them to return to their proper places and for water and fire to blend together.

He continued reading.

"After the balance of water and fire is achieved, a wisp of primordial energy naturally arises in the dantian. This energy is neither yin nor yang, yet it is both yin and yang. It is called primordial energy. When primordial energy is abundant, one is immune to all diseases and has inexhaustible energy. One can engage in sexual intercourse without depleting one's primordial yang, and indulge in desire without damaging one's foundation."

Yang Guo's eyes almost popped out.

How can one engage in sexual intercourse without losing one's vital essence? How can one indulge in sexual desire without damaging one's foundation?

Isn't this exactly what he's been dreaming of?

He's been taken advantage of by three women in turns these past few days, and his back is practically broken. The root cause is that every time he has sex, he's depleting his vital energy, which he can't replenish.

If this threshold-breaking technique allows him to practice without revealing his secrets, then wouldn't he be able to do it freely in the future?

Yang Guo was so excited that his hands were trembling. He turned the pages three times faster.

The following pages detail the steps and precautions for cultivation.

The first step is to sit quietly and concentrate, focusing your energy on the acupoints. Practice for one hour each at midnight and noon. Midnight marks the beginning of Yang energy, and noon marks the beginning of Yin energy. Practicing during these two hours yields the best results.

The second step is to regulate your breathing. Breathe extremely slowly, to the point where one breath lasts three minutes. During this process, the vital energy will automatically circulate within the body; no conscious guidance is required.

The third step is observation. Observation doesn't mean seeing with your eyes, but rather using your spiritual sense to perceive the flow of true energy within your body. Once you perceive it, don't interfere with it or try to control it. Let it flow as it pleases. Just observe.

Yang Guo fell into deep thought upon reading this.

This "don't worry about it" philosophy is unlike any of the martial arts he'd learned before. The Nine Yin Manual emphasizes controlling qi with intention, and the Quanzhen School further stresses that intention guides the flow of true qi. But the Kanli Manual says not to use intention to control true qi. The more you control it, the more rigid the true qi becomes. If you let go, the true qi will flow along the most reasonable path on its own.

He understands this principle. When driving, it's actually more stable to loosen your grip on the steering wheel than to hold it tightly. Of course, this is on the premise that the road is straight.

Yang Guo continued flipping through the pages.

What followed gave him a jolt.

The handwritten manuscript reads: "When the Kan-Li formula is perfected, water and fire are in harmony, and innate primordial energy is abundant. Only then can one glimpse the superior methods. Kan and Li are the acquired trigrams. Returning from the acquired to the innate, Kan and Li transform into Qian and Kun. Qian is pure Yang, and Kun is pure Yin. Yin and Yang each occupy their proper places, and heaven and earth are settled. This state is called the Qian-Kun formula."

Yang Guo read this passage three more times.

When the Kanli Technique is practiced to its fullest extent, it will transform into the Qiankun Technique.

Kan and Li are acquired, impure. Kan contains Yang, and Li contains Yin; they are a mixture of Yin and Yang. The process of practicing Qigong is to separate these mixed elements and return them to their proper places. When they are completely separated, Kan becomes Kun, and Li becomes Qian. Pure Yin returns to pure Yin, and pure Yang returns to pure Yang.

This is the process of returning to one's innate nature after birth.

Although Yang Guo wasn't highly educated, he had at least studied philosophy in his previous life. He wasn't an expert in things like Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and the Eight Trigrams, but he still had a basic understanding of them.

He turned to the next page, wanting to see the specific practice method of the Qiankun Technique.

blank.

The rest of the pages are blank.

Yang Guo turned to the last page and finally found a line of small print.

"The Qiankun Formula cannot be conveyed through words. When the Kanli Formula is perfected, the Qiankun Formula will naturally manifest. Do not seek it, do not rush it. The Tao follows its own course."

Yang Guo stared at this line of text for a long time.

This means that the Qiankun Jue doesn't have a specific practice method. You'll naturally learn it once you've mastered the Kanli Jue.

This is too far-fetched.

However, he couldn't worry about that right now. The Qiankun Technique was a matter for later. The most urgent task was to practice the Kanli Technique and solve the immediate crisis.

His back was in terrible pain; he felt like his body was falling apart every night when he got home. If he didn't find a solution soon, those women would eventually drive him to his death.

Yang Guo turned back to the page on the general outline and began to study it carefully from the beginning.

He noticed a line of extremely small writing in the corner of the last page of the manuscript. The ink was lighter than the main text, as if it had been added later.

"This secret formula was passed down from the Daoist master Huang Yuanji of Sichuan. Master Huang spent his life in seclusion at Leyutang in Sichuan, detached from worldly affairs, and devoted himself to the study of cultivating both body and mind. His method of meditation is the orthodox lineage of Daoist alchemy. I was fortunate enough to obtain a fragment of his manuscript, which I have copied here, hoping that someone with the right affinity will come to know it."

Huang Yuanji?

Yang Guo stroked his chin. Never heard of this person. A Taoist priest from Shu? What's this Leyutang?

He mentally went through all the martial arts figures he knew: the Eastern Heretic, the Western Poison, the Southern Emperor, the Northern Beggar, the Seven Immortals of Quanzhen, Peach Blossom Island, the Beggar Clan, the Duan Family of Dali… but none of them had the surname Huang and the name Yuanji.

Yang Guo didn't know that his father-in-law, Huang Yaoshi, whom he had forcibly recognized, was surnamed Huang, and that his real name was Huang Yaoshi.

If you don't know, you don't know. Their background isn't important; what matters is whether the technique works.

Yang Guo closed the copy and tucked it under his arm.

He stood up and walked to the window. The sunlight shone down, making him feel warm all over.

He closed his eyes and, following the instructions in the manual, focused his mind on a point one and three-tenths of an inch below his navel.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, it lingers subtly.

At first, he couldn't get into the swing of things at all. His mind was a jumble of thoughts, sometimes he would think of Huang Rong's face, sometimes of Li Mochou's figure, and sometimes of the curve of Lu Wushuang's back as she swept the floor.

He forcefully banished these images from his mind and focused again.

He knew the location of the acupoint very well. When he practiced the Nine Yin Manual, his master... no, he found it himself when he was figuring it out. But before, he would just pour his true qi into it, constantly filling his dantian. Now, the Kanli Technique required him not to pour in true qi, but simply to place his divine sense in that location and then do nothing else.

Do nothing.

Yang Guo tried three times and finally found that delicate balance.

His divine sense focused on the acupoint, neither too tight nor too loose. He could feel a faint warmth in that spot. This warmth wasn't something he created; it was there all along.

His breathing began to slow. The intervals between his breaths grew longer and longer.

The internal energy within the body began to change. The Nine Yin True Energy, which had been circulating smoothly in the meridians, suddenly split into two thin streams. One stream was warmer and flowed upwards along the Governing Vessel. The other stream was cooler and flowed downwards along the Conception Vessel.

The two air currents go their own way and do not interfere with each other.

Yang Guo was overjoyed and almost lost his focus. He quickly composed himself and returned to his intentional state.

After circulating three times, the two streams of energy converged again in the dantian. At the moment of convergence, an extremely comfortable warmth emanated from the dantian. That warmth spread from the lower abdomen to the limbs and bones, soothing the sore lower back, weak legs, and all uncomfortable areas.

Although it was only a fleeting feeling, it greatly invigorated Yang Guo.

He exhaled a long breath and opened his eyes.

effective.

Although it was his first time trying it, he was certain that this threshold-breaking technique was genuine.

It's not some kind of evil magic that scams people; it's a genuine Taoist tradition.

Yang Guo tucked the handwritten copy into his robes. After thinking for a moment, he walked to the messy pile of books on the first floor and stuffed "The Art of Sexual Enhancement," "The Heart Sutra of Controlling Women," and "The Record of Yin and Yang Intercourse" back to the bottom shelf, even placing several heavy copies of the Tao Te Ching on top of them.

These junk items are just a nuisance if left here. If some unscrupulous disciple finds them, who knows what kind of trouble they'll cause.

He walked out of the library.

Two disciples were still guarding outside. When they saw the sect leader come out, they both bowed in greeting.

Yang Guo stepped down the stairs, his steps much more steady than when he came up. His back was still sore, but he felt much more at ease.

He touched the coverless handwritten book in his arms, and the corners of his mouth turned up.

Huang Yuanji, no matter what kind of deity you are, Yang Guo is grateful for your kindness.

(P.S.: The exercise method has been written in great detail. Feel free to take it if you need it.)