Chapter 77: The Inchlight Sun-Seizing Secret Art
Chapter 77: The Inchlight Sun-Seizing Secret Art
“It’s alright. I just overexerted myself. I’ll recover after resting for a few days. Looks like I won’t be able to work at the hospital these days. Like you, I need proper rest.”
Zhou Shiyun smiled weakly and shook her head.
“Did the Divine Physician not check your condition? Is there any solution?”
Lin Mu was puzzled. Logically, her own master was the Divine Physician, capable of curing almost anything. How could Zhou Shiyun’s health be this frail?
“My master poured all his effort into saving me back then. If not for him, I wouldn’t have lived to this day. Finally, because saving me consumed too much of his strength, he couldn’t hold on and passed away five years ago.”
Zhou Shiyun paused her steps and spoke calmly.
“So that’s what happened. It seems your body truly is different from ordinary people. Even the Divine Physician could do nothing about it.”
Lin Mu frowned, deep in thought.
“Maybe I can help in the future. Perhaps I can uncover the mystery within your body!”
“It’s fine. I’m used to it by now. Living an extra day is a bonus. Saving one person is a victory. Even if I die someday, it would be a worthy death, without regrets.”
Zhou Shiyun smiled as if relieved and glanced back at Lin Mu.
Over the next two days, both quietly recuperated. Once the powerful poison inside him was cleared, Lin Mu’s recovery speed greatly increased. With the help of his Zhenqi, he actually recovered faster than Zhou Shiyun.
That day, they had a casual lunch. Zhou Shiyun, whose spirits were very low, had already gone to rest. Sleep was her only way to recover slowly.
Lin Mu wandered around the courtyard. Besides the main house in the center, two smaller houses stood in the compound.
Strolling into one of the houses, Lin Mu found a large medicine cabinet. He recognized it; similar ones were used in Chinese hospitals. Each small drawer held a different medicinal herb.
Combined together, their properties could create potent Chinese medicines to regulate the body and cure ailments.
However, a small plaque sat atop the cabinet, bearing five characters: “All medicine carries some toxicity.”
Recalling how Zhou Shiyun’s expert acupuncture had expelled the powerful poison in him with just a few gold needles, Lin Mu understood the Divine Physician’s intent. He advocated healing through acupuncture, not merely medication.
Opening the small drawers, Lin Mu found no herbs inside, only lingering scents.
As Lin Mu looked around casually, a painting on the wall caught his attention. It depicted an elderly man holding a silver needle, clearly in an ancient style.
What struck Lin Mu as odd was that the position of the silver needle in the painting wasn’t flat; it bulged out slightly. Thinking the painting was crooked, he approached to straighten it.
Touching it, he knew something was off because the wall itself was uneven. Curious, he lifted the painting, revealing a loose brick in the wall behind.
Lin Mu curiously nudged the brick, and unexpectedly, one of the medicine cabinet drawers popped open.
Surprised, Lin Mu walked over and found two scrolls inside: one of cloth, one of paper.
He took both out. Unrolling the paper scroll first, he discovered a letter.
After reading it carefully, Lin Mu finally understood. These two items were left behind by the Divine Physician Zhou Shiyun had spoken of.
According to the letter, the Divine Physician was originally named Mu Renqing. He practiced a family-inherited gold needle secret art called Inch Light Seizes Yang. It signified needles an inch long that seize Yin to restore Yang.
This gold needle secret art, if cultivated to a profound Realm, possessed the miraculous effect of reviving the dead and regenerating flesh. Unfortunately, the paired Internal Cultivation Method had been lost long ago.
Without deep cultivation power as support, many techniques within the art couldn’t be used. Forcing them would only drain one’s life force, leading to death.
Years ago, while traveling to heal the world’s suffering, he accidentally offended a mysterious faction seeking to seize the gold needle secret art. Driven to it, he hid in Donghai and lived in seclusion.
He didn’t pursue settling that grudge, only deeply regretted failing to fully cure Zhou Shiyun. During his entanglement with those people, he suffered heavy injuries, causing his cultivation power to greatly diminish.
He could no longer perform some of the most powerful secret arts within Inch Light Seizes Yang. Though he exhausted all his strength to seal Zhou Shiyun’s extraordinary meridians using a unique secret method, it could only preserve her health for ten years.
After ten years, the strange illness in her body would erupt again. Without anyone to suppress it, death was inevitable.
Life and death rest in heaven. Mu Renqing didn’t believe anyone besides him could suppress Zhou Shiyun’s illness. He simply left behind the family’s Inch Light Seizes Yang scroll, not wanting the peerless art to vanish without an heir.
However, the letter repeatedly emphasized: without deep cultivation power, one must not forcibly practice the profound secret techniques within Inch Light Seizes Yang. Otherwise, any consequences were their own responsibility.
Reading the letter, Lin Mu became very interested in this gold needle secret art. He then unrolled the cloth scroll, which spread over a meter long. Detailed Cultivation methods were drawn upon it.
After carefully reading it from start to finish, Lin Mu first felt astonishment, then surprise, then deep admiration for the founder of this secret art.
His understanding of the human body was unparalleled on Earth!
Practiced to the highest Realm, this Secret Technique could touch the edge of the Golden Core Stage. Meaning, there was a chance one could break through to the Golden Core Stage using it!
Even in the Cultivation World, the Golden Core Stage was a crucial bottleneck for lower-level cultivators. Crossing it led to vastly increased cultivation power and Lifespan, paving the road to the Great Dao.
Unthinkable that someone on Earth, relying on such weak Spiritual Energy, could create such a powerful Cultivation Technique. In wisdom and character, this person rivaled the most renowned legendary figures in the Cultivation World.
“So many hidden talents exist in this world. Truly formidable. Had he been born in the Cultivation World, ascending would have been a certainty. What a pity, such a genius, and I never got the chance to meet him.”
Holding the cloth scroll, Lin Mu sighed deeply, genuinely regretting not being able to meet someone so extraordinarily talented.
Practiced to its peak, this Secret Art lived up to its name, possessing some power to reverse Yin and Yang.
Of course, unleashing such power required Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. Cut off from it, its potency was greatly limited.
Lin Mu had been pondering how to treat Zhou Shiyun’s illness. With this gold needle Secret Art in hand, he immediately made a decision.
After sleeping all afternoon, Zhou Shiyun finally awoke. Two days of continuous rest had improved her spirits significantly. Leaving her room, she saw Lin Mu seated cross-legged in meditation in the living room.
She felt curious. She’d only ever seen her master cultivate like this, never anyone else.
Sensing her gaze, Lin Mu slowly opened his eyes and smiled softly. “You’re awake?”
“Yes. I’ll make some dinner.”
“Wait. There’s something I want to discuss first. Sit,” Lin Mu said, rising.
“What is it?”
Zhou Shiyun sat at the table, looking at Lin Mu with confusion.
Without a word, Lin Mu took out the two scrolls he’d found that afternoon and handed them to her.
“What is this?”
“You’ll know after reading it.”
Puzzled, she unrolled both documents. As she read, her eyes slightly reddened. Finally, she couldn’t hold back quiet sobs.
Her master’s immense kindness to her spanned her entire life. Worried about her even as he died, such a debt felt impossible to repay.
“Where did you find these?”
Drying her tears, she looked at Lin Mu.
Lin Mu briefly explained. “These were left by your master. I’m only returning them to their rightful owner.”
“By the way, I’ve read the entire Inchlight Sun-Seizing Secret Art. I plan to practice it. It’s incredibly powerful; it’d be such a shame for it to be lost.”
“It’s pointless. Even if you have talent in this area, at best you’d become a bit stronger than me. Without powerful cultivation power as foundation, you can’t reach profound Realms. Trying to push it means self-destruction.”
Zhou Shiyun shook her head helplessly. She knew the limitations of Inchlight Sun-Seizing far better than Lin Mu.
“Oh, that doesn’t worry me. What worries me is whether I have the talent.”
Lin Mu chuckled softly. He held up his right hand, fingertips pointed like a sword. A strand of Zhenqi slowly emerged, effortlessly leaving a deep groove on the table.
Zhou Shiyun stared at him in utter shock. She hadn’t expected him to be a Martial Artist, and clearly one with considerable cultivation power.
At least, she’d never seen her master reveal such a technique.
“Who knew you were hiding such power? No wonder you recovered so fast. You possess Zhenqi inside.”
(Zhou Shiyun overestimated Zhenqi’s effect. While destructive force was indeed extreme, not everyone with Zhenqi could heal like Lin Mu.)
“Fortuitous circumstances led me to Martial Arts,” Lin Mu said with a light smile, brushing past his Cultivation journey.
“With cultivation power supporting the Inchlight Sun-Seizing Secret Art, if you master it deeply, it might cure your strange illness.”
Her eyes momentarily brightened, then dimmed. Mu Renqing’s letter had explicitly stated: despite sealing her extraordinary meridians, it would only last ten years.
Five years had already passed since Mu Renqing’s death. Mastering such a Secret Art to its peak within the remaining five years seemed unimaginably difficult.