"I see. That's quite troublesome then..."
Receiving this reply, Ding Yun genuinely felt a headache and conflicted. Her time was extremely tight; she didn't have enough time to cultivate talent slowly. She just wanted to quickly train a batch, just in case.
However, this plan...
Seemed like it was going to be nipped in the bud right from the start.
She and Yue Li Chang'e had completely overlooked from the beginning that even with secret manuals and spiritual elixirs, the learners had to be able to understand the manuals for the plan to proceed smoothly.
Otherwise, it would be like playing the lute to a cow.
And Yue Li Chang'e hadn't prepared external martial arts.
They were all extremely精妙 (jingmiao - exquisite/profound) internal cultivation techniques.
External martial arts might only require memorizing dozens, at most a few hundred, movements. Practicing along would generally be easier to learn, and even if mistakes were made, the impact wouldn't be significant.
They could be corrected and re-learned.
But internal cultivation was different. If internal cultivation went awry, one could easily suffer qi deviation and die on the spot.
Learning from scratch and practicing slowly might be acceptable.
But directly consuming elixirs for accelerated cultivation was truly perilous; even the slightest mistake could lead to a fatal end.
Furthermore, due to the potent effects of the elixirs.
There was even a question of whether one would be able to retain a complete corpse.
Ding Yun wanted to cultivate talent, not individuals who would self-detonate at home before they could even enter the battlefield. Therefore, after hesitating for a while, she could only feign silence and privately message Yue Li Chang'e again.
【Miao Ling Tai Hou】: Yue Li Chang'e, I need to trouble you with something else. I can't find anyone in my palace who can quickly learn martial arts manuals, so do you have any way to create something like the legendary "灌顶之术" (guàn dǐng zhī shù - ritual of pouring water onto the head, implying direct transmission of knowledge) or use jade slips for inheritance and so on?
The goal is to have them learn these two cultivation methods in the shortest possible time, ensuring that their cultivation won't go wrong. Can you do it? I've seen it done in some storybooks. Can you?
【Yue Li Chang'e】: Illiterate?
Oh, right. I forgot that for many mortals, just surviving is extremely difficult, let alone learning to read. You'll have to wait a moment. The methods you mentioned are indeed often used among us cultivators, but the core reason we can use them is that we cultivators have strong enough spiritual and soul power.
We can withstand the direct infusion of knowledge and texts.
For mortals, it might be more troublesome. Wait, I'll go find some mortals to experiment with. Wait!
Based on Ding Yun's estimation, it would be difficult to get an accurate reply from Yue Li Chang'e anytime soon, so she quickly exited the red envelope group and turned back to the Grand Eunuch.
"Forget it. Since I can't find anyone with good literary talent. Find someone loyal. Also, quickly send someone to call my brother over. I have something to discuss with him."
People can't be too rigid. If a plan can't be executed smoothly, then change it. As long as the ultimate goal can be achieved. If the palace can't provide someone with good literary talent, then we'll have to look outside the palace. However, neither she nor the Grand Eunuch knew much about the outside world.
And there weren't many people who could directly interact with the outside.
Therefore, Ding Yun could only continue to squeeze the same source. She would continue to rely on her original brother to help her in the palace.
After all, they were in the same boat now.
If Duke An's rebellion were successful, the imperial family would certainly not fare well. But as the maternal uncle's family of the current emperor, would they fare any better? The future was uncertain, and their relationship might encounter problems, but at least for now, they were definitely natural allies.
"Yes!"
The Grand Eunuch responded and immediately withdrew.
What followed was a wait, both for her brother's arrival and for Yue Li Chang'e's reply.
After a long while, her brother arrived first.
Ding Yun was not polite with him. She directly stated that she had a way to break the deadlock but lacked personnel. She hoped her brother could provide some loyal individuals who were literate, had good literary talent, and, if possible, had some accomplishments in both Buddhism and Taoism.
Facing the demands of his sister, Xiang Yu Kui was quite confused but still thought carefully. "Sister, your requirements are too difficult to meet. Our family believes in neither Buddhism nor Taoism, so how can we know people who meet your requirements? Moreover, the people you mentioned are monks and Taoist priests, aren't they? Most Taoist priests in the Taoist temples meet your requirements, and the educated monks in the temples also meet your requirements. But what do you need them for? You're not going to do something outrageous like asking them to perform rituals for blessings, are you? Even if the situation might be dangerous, you don't need to do this. Don't we still have a fallback plan?"
Indeed, the Taoist priests in the Taoist temples nowadays, if they were older and legitimate, not charlatans, were basically literate and understood Taoist scriptures.
Some intelligent ones were even more remarkable, comparable to scholars in the imperial examinations. Some even knew medical skills.
As for the monks in the temples, while martial monks might not be knowledgeable, educated monks definitely were. After all, their main job was to study Buddhist scriptures and research them.
How could they study and research if they were illiterate?
But precisely because of this, Xiang Yu Kui's first reaction was that his sister wanted to resort to praying to gods and buddhas. But doing such things at this time would surely displease the civil officials and military nobles who still wanted to help resist. It showed how little trust she had in them to specifically recruit monks and Taoist priests to help!
"Brother, you've misunderstood. How about this? I know you might not believe me if I just say it directly. Take a look at these two secret manuals first. If there's anything you don't understand, be sure to tell me, and I'll explain it to you. After you've fully understood them, we'll proceed to the next step. Then you'll know why I asked you to do this. Don't ask any questions for now. Do as I say!"
In a world where there were no martial arts masters, explaining related matters was troublesome, and speaking without proof might not convince her brother. Rather than expending effort to explain only to be suspected of being driven mad by stress, Ding Yun decided to let facts speak for themselves. She then handed the secret manuals to her brother.
Xiang Yu Kui didn't press further and took the manuals to read. He wanted to see what was written in them that made his sister so confident.
Then, he recognized all the words in the manuals.
But there were many parts he didn't understand.
Besides the specialized terms he didn't grasp, he also couldn't comprehend the power that could be unleashed after achieving cultivation. How did the so-called Vajra Indestructible Divine Skill make one invincible just by practicing it?
It also made one immune to blades and spears, water, and fire. What kind of being would one become after mastering it? This was unreasonable!
These writings seemed even more outlandish than the popular chivalric novels of the time. The stories in chivalric novels depicted upright and righteous individuals who were merely skilled with swords, capable of scaling walls or breaking out of prison, perhaps fighting a hundred people at once. But the contents of these manuals were close to describing Vajra Arhats, immortals, gods, and buddhas.
He didn't need to think to know. His sister had definitely been deceived.