DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS BOOK 3 OF 5 (Breaching The Formation) by Jin Yong

The Despicable Matchmaking With A Freezing Palm Part 1

You TanZhi carried the gourd and travelled quickly back to Nanjing, he reported back to AhZi, saying that he has caught the frost silkworm.

AhZi was overjoyed, she ordered him to rear the silkworm in the clay urn, currently it is mid-summer, the weather is burning hot, but when the frost silkworm is being kept in the urn, the Palace gradually got colder and colder, not long after, even the teapots, cups and the tea water all turn into ice. During one night You TanZhi shivered in his bed, he was freezing and could not sleep, he thought: "This silkworm is really strange, it rarely seen in this world. If Miss really let it suck my blood, even if i don't get poison, i will also freeze to death."

AhZi caught several poisonous snakes and bugs to fight with the silkworm, the silkworm simply move around and all the bugs freeze to death, the silkworm feasted on their juice, this went on for ten days, not a single poisonous bug was able to resist. One day AhZi came into the main hall of the Palace and said: "Iron Clown, we will kill this silkworm today, go stick your hand into the urn and let the silkworm suck your blood!"

You TanZhi was worried about this day, when his dreaming at night, he feared this exact moment, eventually AhZi did not show any mercy and wanted to sacrifice him along with the frost silkworm, his heart is dejected, he gaze at AhZi, he did not move or reply.

AhZi pondered: "I acquired this treasure by accident, the poison palm skill i am training now, it might be even more powerful than my master." She said: "Stick your hand into the urn!" You TanZhi was tearful, he knelt and kowtow, he said: "Miss, when you mastered this poison palm, please don't forget your subordinate who died for you. My surname is You, my name is TanZhi, i am not Iron Clown." AhZi smiled and said: "Fine, you are called You TanZhi, i will remember it, you are very loyal to me, very good, you are a loyal and devoted lackey!"

You TanZhi listen to her praise, he felt comforted, he gave another two kowtow and said: "Thank you Miss!" but he was not willing to give up without a fight, immediately he flipped his body upside down, his head went between his legs, his left hand clutched his leg, right hand reached into the urn, in his mind he is thinking about the small arrowheads on the two words beside the monk in the book's drawing, suddenly he felt an itch on his index finger, a stream of cold energy shot out like an arrow, it started from his arm and swiftly went to his chest, You TanZhi kept thinking about the direction of the small arrowheads, the stream of cold energy followed the meridian path directed by his thoughts, it went from his finger to his arm, and from his chest to the top of his head, the cold energy chilled him to his bones wherever it goes.

AhZi saw his odd posture, she found it funny, after a long time, he still maintained the posture, she became curious and approach his body, the frost silkworm is still biting his index finger. The frost silkworm body is transparent like crystal, she saw a thread of blood entering its mouth, it pass by its left body , made a u-turn, and pass by its right body and back to its mouth, flowing back into You TanZhi index finger.

After a while, a thin layer of frost formed on You TanZhi's iron mask, clothes and limbs, AhZi pondered: "He must be dead. A living person will have body heat, how can frost form on him?" but she saw blood still circulating within the frost silkworm, apparently it's still sucking blood, suddenly, wisps of hot steam issued from the frost silkworm.

In the midst of her surprise, there was a gentle clattering sound, the frost silkworm fell off You TanZhi index finger. AhZi had already prepared a stick, she ram down hard. She thought this super natural frost silkworm would not die with this one stroke, but who knew that when it fell into the urn, its belly face the sky, it just stayed there and did not turn around. The silkworm was pounded into pulp in one move.

AhZi rejoiced and quickly stuck her hand into the urn, she stuffed the silkworm's fluid and blood onto both her palm, closed her eyes, circulated her energy and absorbed all the blood and fluids.

She channeled for half a day, stretch out her hands and stood up, she saw You TanZhi was still upside down his head between his legs, body covered with frost. She is extremely astonished, she reach out and touch his body, his hands emit a strange coldness, his clothes frozen stiff. She is shocked but found it funny at the same time, she summoned the attendant and ordered him to bury You TanZhi.

The attendant led a few Khitan soldiers and they put You TanZhi corpse on a horse carriage, they went outside the city. AhZi did not instruct them to give a proper burial, thus the attendant did not bother to dig a grave and simply threw the corpse into a small brook, they went back to the city.

This act of laziness from the attendant actually saved You TanZhi's life. When You TanZhi was bitten by the silkworm, he immediately used the energy circulation method from the [Tendon-Changing Sutra], the poison gas was neutralized, his blood was suck by the frost silkworm and return back into his finger and the deadly frost poison of the silkworm was absorbed by him. Thus, the blood and fluids absorbed by AhZi was completely ineffective and she wasted her effort. If You TanZhi had completely mastered the energy circulation method of [Tendon-Changing Sutra], he would be able to slowly neutralize the frost poison absorbed by him and greatly increase his internal energy, but he only learnt one method, thus he can't expel the poison. The strange frost poison is the number one most Yin and cold element in the world, it froze his body solid immediately.

If the attendant really buried him in the soil, even after a few hundred years, he might not defrost and might not actually die. Currently his body is submerged in water, it slowly flow downwards, after around 10 li, the creek made a turn and his body was trapped by reeds at the side. After a while, the water surrounding his body all turn into ice, forming a crystal coffin. Water continued to rush and wash over him, bit by bit the cold air wash away, eventually the ice covering his body started to melt.

Luckily, his wearing an iron mask on his head. Iron transfers heat and cold quickly, thus ice covering his mask melted first. Water rush onto his head and he started coughing, he was conscious and clear headed again, he climb out of the brook, "Ding Dang" sound came from his body, evidently he still carried a lot of ice on his body. Initially when his body froze, he did not lose consciousness, but he was stuck in the ice and could not move. After being frozen for a long period of time he lost consciousness, now that he safely escaped, he felt as if he just woke up from a long dream.

He sat by the side of the brook, he thought about his loyalty and devotion to AhZi, he willingly risk his body to feed poisonous bugs to help her practice her skills, but when he died, AhZi did not even give a sigh, looking out from within the ice, he saw her beam with pleasure and took all the silkworm's fluid and blood, spread it on her palm and practice her skills, she only look sideways at him, thinking that he died in a fun and strange way, there wasn't the slightest bit of pity from her.

He pondered: "This frost silkworm is exceptionally poisonous, it's worth more than a thousand poisonous bugs and snakes, after absorbing the poison into her palm, Miss will naturally master her poison palm. If i go back and see her ..." Suddenly, his body trembled, his heart grew cold and he thought: "Once she sees me, she will definitely test her poison on me. If she mastered the poison palm, she will naturally kill me with one stroke. If she has yet to master it, she will definitely ask me to catch more poisonous bugs and snake until she mastered her palm, until she can kill me with a single palm stroke. I will die either way, why should i even go back?"

He stood up and jump a few times, shaking off all the ice on his body, he thought: "Where should i go?"

He dare not seek Qiao Feng for revenge anymore. At the moment his undecided, he wandered around the wilderness and mountains, picking wild berries and catching birds and small beasts for food. During the night on the second day, he felt bored, he took out the Sanskrit [Tendon-Changing Sutra], he thought of following the posture of the monk in the drawing.

The book is completely soaked, he flipped the page cautiously for fear that he might damage the page, but he was surprised as he saw drawings of the monk on every single page, their postures all different. After some deep contemplation, he finally understood, the drawings will only appear when wet, he was not save by Buddha. Starting from the first page, he copied the posture, when he thought about the small red arrowhead on the strange words, he felt a faint thread of cold ice traveling around his limbs and bones, it was as if the frost silkworm was alive and crawling in his body. He became fearful and quickly stood up, the frost silkworm inside his body vanished immediately.

For four hours he kept thinking: "The frost silkworm inside my body, has it left?" but he can't touch, feel or even track it, he couldn't bear it anymore and started to imitate the odd posture and contemplate on the small red arrowhead on the strange words, after a while, the frost silkworm start crawling inside his body again. He gave a loud cry and stopped contemplating on the arrowhead, the frost silkworm vanish again, when he start to think about the arrowhead, the frost silkworm crawls again.

Every time, when the frost silkworm crawls, his body felt comfortable and unrestricted. The book contains many different postures of naked monk, the small arrowhead on the strange words twist and turn, its variation complicated. He followed the various different postures to activate the frost silkworm, his felt cool yet warm, he was comfortable and at ease.

Time flies and a few month pass, when capturing beasts he felt his hands and feet becoming lighter and more nimble, he leap and jump further, his running speed greatly exceeds what he was capable of in the past.

On a certain evening, a hungry wolf came out to hunt for food, it pounced towards him. You TanZhi was shock and fled quickly, the claws of the wolf had already reached his shoulders, it exposed its fangs and bite towards his throat. He panic and randomly threw out a palm, hitting the wolf on the top of its head. The wolf roll and twisted a few times and stopped moving. You TanZhi turn around and move back a few zhang, he saw the wolf did not move at all, feeling curious he picked up a stone and cast it out, the stone hit the wolf's body but it still did not move at all. He was pleasantly surprised and went over to inspect, the wolf was dead. He never expect this effortless palm stroke from him had this much power, he turn and inspected his palm repeatedly but did not see anything special, he cannot help but cry out: "The spirit of frost silkworm has shown itself!"

He thought that when the frost silkworm died, its spirit resided within his body, resulting in his amazing feat, he did not realize it was purely due to his [Tendon-Changing Sutra], in addition the frost silkworm possess one of the deadliest poison in the world, this Yin-poison had been absorbed by him, combined with the superior internal energy cultivated by the [Tendon-Changing Sutra], his internal energy contains an extremely fierce Yin-strength.

The [Tendon-Changing Sutra] is the most treasured supreme manual of martial studies, but its cultivation method is extremely difficult, it requires the dissolution of distinction between self and others, in addition, the practitioner must not have the slightest desire to learn the martial arts of the sutra. But only first-class martial monks will get the chance to practice the sutra, all of them are valiant and eager for success, who doesn't want to master the sutra as soon as possible and reap its benefits? Hence, it's extremely difficult for them to not have the slightest desire to learn the sutra.

For several hundred years, many Shaolin eminent monks practiced the [Tendon-Changing Sutra], but years after years of diligent practice yielded negligible results, thus all the monks thought the sutra was wholly ineffective, when the sutra was stolen by AhZhu, although the eminent monks were extremely angry, but they did not consider it to be a major loss.

One hundred years ago, Shaolin Temple had a monk, this person became a monk since childhood, his dull-witted and crazy. His teacher could not master the [Tendon-Changing Sutra] and threw it away in anger. The crazy monk picked up the book thrown by his teacher, he laugh and practice the contents, eventually he became a top martial art expert of his generation. Although his martial arts were outstanding, till his death, he did not know the exact reason, and nobody knew it was due to the [Tendon-Changing Sutra]. You TanZhi did not have the desire to learn martial arts, he followed the methods in the sutra purely for the sake of activating the frost silkworm within his body as he found it fun and interesting, unwittingly his martial arts improved day by day, he followed the exact same route taken by the crazy monk many years ago.

Days after, he killed several more wild beasts, he knew his palm strength was exceedingly strong and he became bolder, he kept on travelling south, he feared that if he does not summon the frost silkworm spirit for a single day, the "silkworm spirit" will automatically leave him, thus he use his palm everyday and dare not stop. The "silkworm spirit" was marvelous and strange and always came when summoned.

You TanZhi drifted south, on this day he reached the borders of Henan province in Central Plains. He knew his iron head will scare people off, thus during the day he rest in caves within wild forest, as night falls, he came out and stole food from homes. His body is exceptionally agile and nobody detected him.

On this day, he is sleeping in a small dilapidated temple beside the road, suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps, three people entered the temple.

He quickly hid behind a shrine as he dare not let others see his appearance. When the trio entered the temple, they sat down immediately and start chatting. The trio rambled and talked about gossips in the martial world, suddenly a person ask: "Where do you think Qiao Feng is hiding, one year has pass but we didn't even hear single news about him?"

When You TanZhi heard the word "Qiao Feng", his heart grew cold, he immediately paid attention to their conversation. Another person replied: "He committed all sorts of evils, he felt guilty and hid himself, i guess we will never see him again." The first person said: "It might not be true. His biding his time, once someone is down and out, he will strike immediately. Do your math, after the battle at JuXian manor, he killed how many people? Elder Xu, Grandpa and Grandma Tan, Zhao QianSun, Taishan Iron-Face Judge and his entire family, Tiantai Mountain Monk ZhiGuang, Beggars Clan Madam Ma, Elder Bai ShiJing, sigh, countless lives!"

When You TanZhi heard the word "Battle at JuXian Manor", his heart ached and he lost his interest in the conversation, after a while, he heard a hoarse voice said: "Clan leader Qiao has always been benevolent and righteous, i never expect...sigh...i never expect, this is all predestined fate. Let us just go." He finish speaking and stood up.