Chapter 186: Solitary Yang Does Not Last Long
When Lu Yun woke up, he found himself in the small bamboo house. Outside, the sky was dark and it was extremely quiet.
After circulating his vital energy for a bit, he realized his internal vital energy had recovered about eighty percent. However, it felt slightly sluggish when circulating, indicating his meridian injuries had not fully healed. Lu Yun didn’t dwell on it, though; he was more concerned about what had happened while he was unconscious.
Thinking of this, Lu Yun exerted a little force and sat up from the bamboo couch. Only then did he notice there was actually someone else in the room.
“Why are you here?” Lu Yun asked the young attendant who was dozing by the wall. He was secretly surprised that he hadn’t noticed the boy.
“What do you mean?” The young attendant, woken by Lu Yun, stretched and said, “This is my room, isn’t it? I have to sleep at night, right?”
Lu Yun stood up, stretched his muscles, and said casually, “Don’t you sleep during the day?”
“Nonsense!” The young attendant glared at him. “I practice the Great Dream Divine Fist. I was cultivating then!”
“There’s even such a kung fu?” Lu Yun was used to the young attendant’s tall tales, but he knew that if he exposed him, the boy would surely fly into a rage. So he smiled and said, “Then you must be training very hard…”
“Of course! Someone as talented and hardworking as me will definitely become a Grandmaster in the future,” the young attendant said proudly, seemingly not catching Lu Yun’s sarcasm. “If you treat me well now, you’ll definitely benefit in the future.”
“Haven’t I treated you well enough?” Lu Yun walked to the doorway with a smile. “Look, I gave you my couch as soon as I woke up.”
“That’s more like it.” The young attendant cheered and jumped onto the couch, lying down comfortably and humming contentedly. “I need to be comfortable to cultivate this skill for the best results.”
“Then you take your time cultivating,” Lu Yun said. He had barely taken a few steps out the doorway when he heard even snoring sounds coming from behind him. He couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile. He thought to himself that being carefree like this guy wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Leaving the young attendant’s east room, Lu Yun walked to the front of the main house. Seeing the light on inside, he softly called out from the doorway, “Master.”
“Come in,” Lu Xian’s voice sounded. Lu Yun pushed open the bamboo door and saw that the room was lit by a single dim lamp. Lu Xian sat by the lamp, his entire body bathed in a dim yellow light, seemingly lost in thought.
Lu Yun sat opposite him and said respectfully, “I’ve troubled you again, Master.”
“You know you’ve troubled me?” Lu Xian’s anger flared. “You scoundrel! How dare you make me take the fall for you? What do you take your Master for?”
“In this world, a disciple can only rely on their Father and Master,” Lu Yun said pitifully. “But this burden was too heavy for my Father, so I had to seek your help, Master.”
“Hmph!” Lu Xian grunted, his expression softening slightly.
“Master, what happened afterward? Did it not leak?” Lu Yun seized the opportunity and asked shamelessly.
“What is my status? Who would doubt my words?” Lu Xian sneered. “The entire Capital City now knows that I killed Lu Jian. From now on, I doubt anyone will dare to plot against you again.” He shot Lu Yun a sideways glance.
“I’m sorry, Master, for letting you bear this ill repute.” Lu Yun observed Lu Xian’s expression, thinking that Lu Jian and Lu Xian were, after all, cousins. It was indeed wrong to have his Master carry this infamy. “But I truly had no choice at the time.”
“As I publicly declared, anyone who dares to scheme against you again will have their head severed from their body,” Lu Xian said, shaking his head and speaking in a deep voice. “Even if you hadn’t killed him, I would not have shown mercy. If I cannot keep my word, what kind of Grandmaster am I?”
“Then, Master, what is troubling you?” Lu Yun finally asked directly.
“Besides you, who else could it be?” Lu Xian sighed deeply. “Have you not noticed your own condition?”
“Disciple,” Lu Yun hesitated slightly. “Apart from the slight sluggishness in my vital energy circulation, there is no other discomfort.”
“Use the Five Virtues Five Elements Technique to visualize your Five Viscera,” Lu Xian said in a deep voice.
“Yes.” Lu Yun nodded and followed his instruction, circulating his vital energy according to the Xie Clan’s cultivation method. Simultaneously, he focused his gaze inward, following the flow of his meridians and visualizing the condition of his Five Viscera.
The moment he began visualizing, he broke out in a cold sweat. He saw that his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were all severely damaged. They were only able to maintain normal function by being nourished and supported by vital energy.
Lu Yun’s eyes snapped open, and he looked at Lu Xian in shock. “What is going on?!”
“This is the result of your recklessness!” Lu Xian’s expression was stern. “How could you dare to absorb such a massive amount of True Essence Energy into your body? How could your meridians and Five Viscera withstand it? If I hadn’t promptly helped you clear and regulate your meridians, you would have become a cripple by now!”
“This serious?” Lu Yun broke out in a cold sweat, then said with some relief, “Fortunately, I have the Five Virtues Five Elements Technique, and with the nourishment of Vital Energy, I should recover quickly.”
“Your injuries will heal quickly,” Lu Xian said, his brows furrowed, “but the damage to your foundation is irreversible.” He sighed and said, “I originally said you could live to thirty, but now you probably only have twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of lifespan.”
“Is that so…” Hearing that he still had ten years to live, Lu Yun visibly relaxed and said, “It’s still barely enough time.”
“What nonsense is that?!” Lu Xian became angry. He stared at Lu Yun and said, “I don’t care what your purpose or any secrets are, to make you look down on your own life so much. But my disciple, Lu Xian, absolutely cannot be a short-lived ghost!” As he spoke, his heart ignited, and his True Qi uncontrollably leaked out, blowing the small light flickeringly. But that faint light still persisted, unwilling to be extinguished. “No matter how much talent you have, you must live long enough for it to be useful!”
“My humble opinion, Master, is that the length of life is not important; what matters is what one has done in this life and whether one has any regrets.” Lu Yun could feel Lu Xian’s concern for him, so he opened his heart and said, “Master, let’s just go with the flow.”
Lu Xian was stunned by his words, and the next moment he slowly shook his head and said, “Heaven does not grant years, and it will only cause one to fail in their endeavor. As your Master, I must find a way to give you a normal lifespan!”
“Master…” Lu Yun’s heart warmed. Although he had had ulterior motives when he first became a disciple, ever since he called Lu Xian “Master,” Lu Xian had been treating him with sincerity. “Your disciple will listen to you.”
“I have pondered for a long time. It is said that ‘a solitary yang cannot flourish, and a true spirit cannot be formed.’ Your problem is nothing more than your cultivation method having yang without yin, a solitary yang that cannot last.” Lu Xian’s anger subsided, and he slowly said, “The Book of Changes says that yin and yang together are the Great Road. The ancient sage who created this cultivation method must have deeply understood the mysteries of the Great Road and would not have made such a low-level mistake. Therefore, there must be another cultivation method that can harmonize yin and yang with the Imperial Extreme Profound Cave Skill. Or perhaps, the cultivation method you practice is fundamentally incomplete, lacking the other half, which has led to your current situation.”
“If that’s the case, Master, can you deduce the other half of the cultivation method?” With the successful precedent of deducing the Five Virtues Five Elements Technique, Lu Yun couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope.
“Do you think I’m an Immortal?” Lu Xian rolled his eyes. “The Imperial Extreme Profound Cave Skill is so profound and mysterious that I still cannot fully comprehend it. By the time I can deduce it, you’ll probably be long gone.”
“If that’s the case, then where should I look for the other half of the cultivation method?” Lu Yun believed Lu Xian’s words implicitly.
“Where you got your cultivation method from, that’s where you should look for the answer,” Lu Xian said in a deep voice.
“This is my… this is the Royal Family’s cultivation method.” Lu Yun almost blurted out his identity, but he held back.
“Nonsense,” Lu Xian said disdainfully. “This is clearly a cultivation method of the Taiping Cult. Back then, the Founding Emperor took the Supreme Profound Void Technique recorded in the Purple Taiping Sutra, Gui Scroll from the Taiping Cult’s main altar, and renamed it the Imperial Extreme Profound Cave Skill. This is how his Huangfu Family’s supreme ultimate skill came to be.”
“Master means…” Lu Yun said softly, “that the other half of the cultivation method should be in the Taiping Cult, in the Purple Taiping Sutra?”
Lu Xian nodded.
