Chapter 55: Young Man, Do Not Indulge in Excess

Liu Miao delivered a swift kick to Jiang Han's chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. She frowned slightly and asked, "Why are you so absent-minded today?"

Although the Junior Brother's offensive momentum had been fierce today, it lacked endurance. He was disarmed in no time, appearing thoroughly distracted.

Jiang Han's mind had been preoccupied with the diagrams in the *Pure Yang Technique*. Not a single acupoint location was marked on them, and the textual descriptions were bafflingly obscure, filled with phrases like "focus intention on the elixir field" and "circulate qi through the golden well."

After much pondering, Jiang Han still could not make head or tail of it, so he had to temporarily give up on studying the *Pure Yang Technique*.

"Senior Sister Liu, I ran into the Junior Martial Aunt today. She gave me an inner cultivation manual, and I've been thinking about it just now," Jiang Han said, figuring it might be better to consult Liu Miao.

"No wonder you were so distracted; I knocked your sword away in just a couple of moves," Liu Miao remarked.

*No, I was distracted because of your posture... your movements were too wonderful...* Jiang Han said, "There are some parts I don't quite understand."

Liu Miao replied calmly, "What is unclear? I will teach you."

Jiang Han gave a soft cough, lowered his voice, and said, "The booklet the Junior Martial Aunt gave me—some of the illustrations in it are a bit, well... they feature some exposed women..."

"..." Liu Miao said calmly, "Most inner cultivation manuals feature such illustrations. Your Senior Sister has seen plenty of them. You don't need to remind me, just take it out."

Jiang Han was somewhat surprised and let out a sigh of relief. *Ah, so that's how it is. That's a relief.* He had worried that showing his Senior Sister erotic pictures might incur her displeasure, but it turned out she was already accustomed to it.

"Senior Sister, it's this one." Jiang Han fished the small booklet out from inside his robe.

Thus, inside a pavilion, the two sat side by side and began to study the anatomical sketches in the *Pure Yang Technique*.

"This one means sitting cross-legged in the sunlight."

"As for this one about storing qi in the elixir field, the elixir field is located three inches below the navel."

Liu Miao explained as she looked through it. At first, the postures of the anatomical sketches in the booklet were quite normal—sitting or lying down—but further in, they featured two women, and the postures changed to things like the butterfly pose, the plow pose, the jellyfish pose, the double-angle pose...

As she looked further, Liu Miao's eyes widened, and her breathing noticeably quickened.

It was true that inner cultivation manuals often depicted artistic human figures to clearly mark acupoint locations, but the figures drawn in this technique were lifelike and detailed down to the finest hair. Furthermore, some of the cultivation postures were ones Liu Miao had never seen before, making her flush just thinking about them.

Liu Miao suddenly closed the booklet and said, "These figures are drawn too... as if deliberately enticing someone to keep reading... Some of the movements I have never seen before; wanting to figure them out will take a lot more time."

Jiang Han nodded in agreement. "Indeed, studying these postures really takes up a lot of time. In the past, I could look at them for half an hour at a stretch, and I never grew tired of it."

Liu Miao asked, "Junior Brother has looked at this kind of inner cultivation manual before?"

Jiang Han vaguely replied, "Um... pretty much! They were all just strange pictures."

"What kind of strange pictures were they?" Liu Miao asked curiously.

Jiang Han thought for a moment and said, "Well... things like the *Secret Play Pictures of Spring Nights*, the *Classic of the Su Nv*..."

Noticing that his Senior Sister's eyes lit up, he hurriedly added, "They aren't proper things, Senior Sister, you shouldn't be curious about them."

"Oh, I'm not curious, just asking casually," Liu Miao said calmly. "I'll return this inner cultivation manual to you. I've already explained the first three postures; go back and practice according to those three."

"Yes, thank you, Senior Sister."

"The *Zi* hour opens the heavens, the *Chou* hour splits the earth, and the *Yin* hour brings forth all things. From now on, you must get up during the *Yin* hour to sit in meditation and nurture your qi."

"Ah, the *Yin* hour?"

"Is there a problem?"

"No problem at all!"

Jiang Han felt a wave of a headache coming on. The *Yin* hour was from three to five in the morning. Getting up to meditate from three to five—did he even want to sleep anymore?

However, in order to learn this inner cultivation technique, he had no choice but to go all out! Sleep or no sleep, he would do it.

"That's all for today's martial arts practice. You may go down the mountain," Liu Miao said calmly.

"Yes, Senior Sister."

"By the way, those *Secret Play Pictures of Spring Nights* and the *Classic of the Su Nv* you mentioned—where can they be seen?" Liu Miao suddenly called out to stop Jiang Han.

Jiang Han was stunned. "You can find them at bookstores... Senior Sister, it's better not to look at those things; otherwise, it's easy to sink into the abyss."

Liu Miao said calmly, "Your Senior Sister has no interest in such things, I was just asking casually."

"That's good." Clutching the booklet, Jiang Han left Cuiyun Mountain.

After Jiang Han left, Liu Miao hesitated for half an hour before also leaving Cuiyun Mountain and entering Yunyang County.

Another half-hour later, she returned to her room on Cuiyun Mountain. After hesitating for a few moments, she opened a copy of the *Classic of the Su Nv*.

Liu Miao's eyes widened abruptly. Such things actually existed in this world?

Senior Sister Liu flipped through the *Classic of the Su Nv* and fell into deep contemplation.

...

When Jiang Han returned home, he had Wu Wenhua prepare dinner. After eating, he read books by the window, fighting off sleepiness until three in the morning.

Hearing the night watchman's drum sounding, Jiang Han opened the window. Moonlight filtered through the clouds and refracted through the windowpane onto the floor, looking like a pool of clear water.

Jiang Han sat in meditation under the moonlight while opening the *Pure Yang Technique*.

Those postures imprinted themselves into his mind.

At the beginning of his meditation, his legs went numb after a short while. But after a little longer, his blood circulation normalized, the numbness vanished, and his whole body felt warm.

Jiang Han closed his eyes, recalling the words from the *Pure Yang Technique* in his mind, and began to breathe in a regulated pattern.

At first, sleepiness overwhelmed him, and he was barely holding on. But soon he found that as his mind emptied, his mental fatigue eased, the sleepiness slowly dissipated, and an unprecedented comfort washed over his entire body.

*Having abundant spirit makes one not think of sleep...* That saying was actually true!

Jiang Han meditated until five o'clock. When he finished, his body felt completely refreshed, without a trace of sleepiness.

...

Jiang Han began to enjoy his current life. Every day he meditated for an hour, then headed to Cuiyun Mountain at five o'clock to practice swordplay with his Senior Sister.

After practicing, he went down the mountain, had a meal, and then began running his floral perfume business.

Although his master Meng Hongshang was rarely seen, every time she appeared she would give him some medicinal meals to nourish his body.

After practicing this way for half a month, his physical fitness was immeasurably better than before, and climbing Cuiyun Mountain had become much faster.

"Senior Sister, are you still not awake?" Climbing Cuiyun Mountain early in the morning, Jiang Han discovered that Senior Sister Liu, who usually woke up early, was nowhere to be seen. He had no choice but to go to her room and knock on the door.

After knocking for a full quarter of an hour, Liu Miao finally opened the door while yawning.

Jiang Han was startled. "Senior Sister, what did you do last night? Didn't you sleep?"

Liu Miao said, "Studying those spring palace... studying inner cultivation made me lose track of time, so I went to sleep a bit late."

With a strange expression, Jiang Han looked at Liu Miao and noticed that not only did his Senior Sister have dark circles under her eyes, but her expression was also much more haggard, a far cry from the spirited, aloof Senior Sister he had first met.

*Did I drag my Senior Sister into the abyss?*

"Senior Sister... as a young person, you shouldn't indulge your desires to excess!" After thinking for a moment, Jiang Han earnestly advised.

Liu Miao: "???"