Volume Two: Eventful Autumn, Twists and Turns Chapter 135: Gentle Nourishment and Recuperation, The Foremost Sect

The Bairong Ointment looked a shade darker, but once applied, it became completely invisible.

Yang Chengzi and the two maidservants were utterly shocked.

"Is this thing really that powerful? It can even cover up a flower birthmark this big? It won't only last for a single day, will it?"

"This stuff is extraordinary. We paid a hefty price to get it from an old woman. That old woman used it to make the wrinkles and dark spots on her face completely vanish. Covering up a flower birthmark is nothing! As for how many days it lasts, that's not entirely clear—probably a month or two. In any case, it won't wash off with water. Keep this prescription safe; the ingredients are all quite simple, so you can mix it yourselves in the future. Just use it on the same day you make it, otherwise it will dry out."

With that, he shoved a slip of paper with the prescription into Yang Chengzi's hand, and Yang Chengzi accepted it readily enough.

Yang Shiqian didn't waste any more breath. After wiping on the Bairong Ointment, he pulled out a golden needle. Chen San wasn't particularly timid, but seeing a row of golden needles still made him too afraid to even draw a full breath.

With a chuckle, Yang Shiqian looked at Chen San and said, "Don't be afraid, young man. I'm just sticking in one needle, and it doesn't hurt. It might itch a bit at first, but don't scratch it—you'll get used to it gradually."

Just as Chen San wanted to ask something, Yang Shiqian turned Chen San's face away. Feeling for Chen San's neck, he thrust in the golden needle, which was about the length of a little finger, until it completely vanished from sight.

Not to mention the two little maidservants, even Yang Chengzi stared at him in astonishment.

Yang Shiqian smiled. "Don't be afraid, it's just temporarily inserted. Once he's healed, you can pull it out yourselves."

For a moment, Yang Chengzi didn't react. He looked at Chen San's neck and couldn't even see the pinhole.

"Ho-how do I pull it out? I can't even see where the needle went in."

"There's no need to make it complicated. You know where the Tianzhu acupoint is, right? Press on the Tianzhu acupoint with a bit of finger strength. After pressing for a while, the golden needle will work its way out just a bit. Once you see it, you can pull it out. Oh, right, this is a prescription to warm and supplement the greater Yang. Taking it will not only greatly nourish the Yang energy, but also invigorate masculinity. I didn't even use it on myself—this kid is getting a bargain. Take one dose every two days, decoct three bowls of water down to one. I reckon for someone like him, about three months should do the trick."

"You could tell his Yin and Yang were out of balance?"

"Does that even need telling? Look at that limp wrist and those coy, affected airs—it's a wonder you all could tolerate him this long. If it were me, I would have slapped him upside the head long ago. Besides, taking too much of this medicine requires venting internal heat. You folks figure out how to handle that yourselves."

Yang Shiqian rattled off a string of words, but none of the four really understood what he meant by "venting internal heat" at the end.

Yang Chengzi only knew that excessive internal heat could damage the organs, and drinking a bit of herbal tea would bring it down; hearing about "venting internal heat" was a first for him. Chen San and the two maidservants were even more clueless and didn't take the matter to heart.

Once he finished up, Yang Shiqian packed away his things.

"Come, come, young lady, say something. Let me check if the position of that golden needle is correct."

After being needled, Chen San felt a tingling sensation, though not quite the itchiness Yang Shiqian had described. Thinking about it, not knowing what to say, he finally asked, "What do you want me to say~?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yang Chengzi and the two maidservants all turned to stare at Chen San. Chen San himself was momentarily startled. Although his voice sounded a bit different from his original one, it was much deeper than before—it sounded unmistakably like a man's voice.

Changyu and Chen Xin were beyond thrilled. Chen San, even more excited, grabbed Chen Xin and Changyu's hands, and the three of them spun around in a circle like young maidens who had just encountered some joyous news.

They hadn't spun more than twice before Chen Xin and Changyu stopped looking so happy. Aside from his voice changing, Chen San's coy and dainty mannerisms remained entirely unchanged, and his limp wrist hadn't dropped an inch—a sight that gave Changyu the sudden urge to draw her blade once more.

With a smile, Yang Shiqian explained, "Don't be impatient, don't be impatient. Didn't I give you a warming and nourishing prescription? Three months—just bear with it a bit longer."

After that, Yang Shiqian bade them farewell. After his treatment, Chen San truly looked a lot more normal. At least the flower birthmark on his forehead was gone, and his voice was a man's voice. If it differed somewhat from the past, so be it.

Anyway, Yang Shiqian had said that once he recovered, pulling out the needle would let him return to his former voice.

Yet Chen San's masculine voice paired with those coy manners and gestures made the two maidservants want to smack him even more. What could they do about it? Supplement him, that was what!

Yang Chengzi gathered a few doses of medicine for Chen San and, following Yang Shiqian's instructions, began having him drink a dose every two days. And wouldn't you know it, the medicine's warming and nourishing properties seemed remarkably potent—after just four days and two doses, Chen San already looked noticeably less effeminate!

As for the affair of Wu Chengfeng, the Hall Master of the Leiming Hall, Chen San and the others badgered Yang Chengzi for three days before Yang Chengzi finally told them with great reluctance. When he spoke of it, he repeatedly warned them that once they left the room, they must never discuss the matter again, lest it surely draw down a fatal calamity upon them.

After the three curious youngsters made repeated oaths and promises, Yang Chengzi finally told them.

Learning that Wu Chengfeng and Xiahou Zhi were actually engaged in a homosexual passion and had even sworn vows as partners left the three of them speechless. Chen San, not knowing what the term meant, foolishly asked a follow-up question, only to be met with Changyu's lightning-fast, preemptive slap across the face.

Before Chen San could even process what had happened, Yang Chengzi and the two maidservants acted as if nothing at all had happened, standing up to go about their respective tasks, leaving him standing there looking utterly shocked. He hadn't understood a single thing after listening for half the day, yet he had taken a slap for nothing—truly a case of an unearned disaster arriving out of nowhere during an unlucky year!

After that, no matter how much they asked, the two maidservants refused to speak of the matter anymore, and Yang Chengzi ignored Chen San even more. Yet Chen San remained burning with curiosity, so he instead began asking how martial arts experts like Wu Chengfeng went about slaying demons. This prompted Yang Chengzi, who was equally curious, to ask the old man many things about the three major sects along the way.

Since Yang Shiqian had a favor to ask of Yang Chengzi, and the information was practically common knowledge anyway, he had nothing to hide and chatted freely and candidly with Yang Chengzi.

He didn't say much about the other sects, but regarding the Kaitian Sect specifically, they practiced martial arts, body movement techniques, weapons, and hidden projectiles. Logically speaking, no matter how formidable those skills were, they could only kill mortals; dealing with ghosts and vengeful spirits surely wouldn't work.

Yet his words made Yang Chengzi realize what it meant to know there are heavens beyond the heavens and people beyond people.

Unlike the other two major sects, the Kaitian Sect focused heavily on both internal and external kung fu. Internal kung fu meant practicing Qi, circulating a breath of true Qi to temper the tendons, bones, and skin. Once the Qi reached a certain level, not only would the shifts in one's body movement become distinctly pronounced, but—much like the mastery realm of Daoist priests—one could rely on the perception of Qi to sense the ghost Qi and demon Qi lingering all around. Practitioners of martial arts called this realm the Transformation Realm.

Within the Kaitian Sect, eight or nine out of ten people had reached the Transformation Realm.

Take Yang Chengzi for instance: unless he resorted to some soul-snatching forbidden arts or world-defying formations like the Qianqian Grand Array, relying solely on swordsmanship and a physical body strengthened through over twenty years of training, exchanging even a few blows with someone from the Kaitian Sect was simply out of the question.

If they were merely sparring with points awarded upon contact, within three rounds Yang Chengzi's Shangqing sword would inevitably be knocked to the ground. Then again, dueling wasn't actually fought that way; Yang Chengzi's true strength lay in his esoteric arts. Once forbidden from using them, his capabilities naturally diminished. However, members of the Kaitian Sect didn't rely solely on internal and external kung fu, nor were their weapons ordinary blades.

Nearly every kind of weapon was used within the sect, though swords and sabers were the most common. Their blades were entirely different from those carried by bandits and highwaymen; a saber remained a saber, and a sword remained a sword. Aside from being sharper, their weapons concealed the secret of slaying demons and eradicating evil.

Take Wu Chengfeng's Wind-Cleaving Longsword, for instance: the blade was over six feet long, suffused throughout with pure Yang energy and marked with black-and-red patterns. It repelled blood upon contact and could sever a strand of hair blown against its edge. The forging of the blade was carried out in rotation by three master swordsmiths of the Kaitian Sect, each delivering tens of thousands of hammer blows to forge the iron of three separate swords into a single weapon.

Hundreds of quenching cycles ensured the longsword could bend without breaking, and the substance used for quenching held the very secret of slaying demons and subduing evil.

Normal sabers and swords were quenched using water; after being heated red-hot and hammered, the glowing weapon was plunged into water to cool slightly before returning to the forge—that was how ordinary blades were quenched.

Yet the weapons of these people were not quenched in water. A pool of pure-Yang substances combined with rooster blood, subjected to hundreds of rounds of quenching and reheating, endowed these blades with the pure-Yang energy to slay demons and vanquish evil right from their birth. This was also why the weapons of the Kaitian Sect predominantly appeared in black and red.

Though swords and sabers were cold weapons, weapons forged by the Kaitian Sect felt like dying embers when brushed by a palm, radiating intense heat. Combined with the wielder's own Yang-infused blood, this allowed Kaitian Sect members to slay demons and vanquish evil without relying on any esoteric arts. It was precisely this advantage, paired with the augmentation of internal and external kung fu, that firmly secured the Kaitian Sect's position as the head of the three major sects.

Among these experts, there was no shortage of remarkable women: Gu Xiyan and Qin Shuanglan of the Lingfeng Hall; Baili Guiyan and Mu Wushuang of the Qianzui Hall; Nangong Yue of the Huanyue Hall, and so on. Every single one of them was a heroine who stood shoulder to shoulder with any man.

The Kaitian Sect judged people solely by strength, regardless of gender or background. As long as your movements were fast enough and your strikes ruthless enough, no one would dare show you disrespect.

The most famous among these heroines was not Baili Guiyan, whose movement techniques were the most agile and whose martial arts were the strongest, but rather Meng Wunian, the woman who had nearly become Wu Chengfeng's bride.

Pity that the falling blossoms yearned for the flowing stream, while the flowing stream was heartless. Not only did she fail to win Wu Chengfeng's affections, but a single remark from him drove her to leave the Leiming Hall. She began wantonly slaughtering the innocent, casting the blame onto the Kaitian Sect, and finally pledged allegiance to Fan Qianchou, one of the four great cave lords of Fallen Leaf Peak.