Frost poisoning

Frost poisoning is the extreme Yin-cold condition caused by the frost silkworm’s venom, a poison that can freeze a person’s body and whose effects resist ordinary antidotes and internal-energy treatment. Through the limited circulation method he learned from the Tendon-Changing Sutra, You TanZhi survives the silkworm’s bite and absorbs its poison; unable to master the full method, however, he cannot expel it. The poison becomes inseparable from his formidable internal energy, turning his palm strikes into a danger to others as well as a sign of his unusual strength.

Origin and Absorption

When the frost silkworm bites You TanZhi, he uses an energy-circulation method from the Tendon-Changing Sutra. The method neutralizes the poison gas involved in the silkworm’s attack, while the creature’s feeding draws blood from him and returns it to his finger. In the process, You TanZhi absorbs the silkworm’s deadly frost poison. A later account makes clear that his blood and bodily fluids, which A'Zi had taken, are ineffective: her effort to benefit from them is wasted because the poison is no longer available in the form she sought.

Survival does not amount to a cure. You TanZhi has learned only one method from the Tendon-Changing Sutra, rather than mastering its full circulation practice. Full mastery would have allowed him to neutralize the poison gradually and greatly increase his internal energy; with his incomplete knowledge, he cannot clear the poison from his body. The distinction governs the affliction’s double effect: it leaves him with unusual power, but also with a cold poison that remains active and difficult to control.

A Body Frozen, Then Revived

The poison’s severity becomes apparent when A'Zi finds You TanZhi’s body covered in frost, with his clothes frozen stiff and his hands giving off a strange cold. Mistaking him for dead, she orders an attendant to bury him. The attendant carries him out of the city with several Khitan soldiers, but, since A'Zi has not ordered a proper burial, simply throws him into a small brook instead of digging a grave.

That careless act saves You TanZhi. His body, frozen solid by the poison, is carried downstream for about ten li before reeds catch it at a bend. The surrounding water freezes into a kind of crystal coffin; as water continues to pass over him, the cold gradually dissipates and the ice begins to melt. Because he wears an iron mask, the ice around it melts first. Water reaches his head, he coughs, and he regains consciousness. He had remained conscious at the start of the freezing but was trapped and unable to move; after losing consciousness, he awakens as though from a long dream and climbs from the brook with ice still clinging to him.

Poison Resistance and Unintended Power

Months of practicing the Tendon-Changing Sutra, together with the frost-silkworm poison that has merged into his body, give You TanZhi an unexpected resistance to other poisons. When Ding ChunQiu tests whether the Beggar Society members are alive, You TanZhi examines them and reports that they are dead. Ding ChunQiu’s disciples initially look pleased, then become shocked when You TanZhi remains unharmed. Ding ChunQiu recognizes that the poison on the beggars has not affected him, though he guesses that the young man must possess an anti-poison pearl, another protective treasure, or a powerful antidote. You TanZhi himself does not understand Ding ChunQiu’s reference to his poison resistance.

The same encounter reveals why the resistance matters. Ding ChunQiu had been immobilized by a python and rescued by You TanZhi; fearing that knowledge of this would damage his reputation, he intends to silence his rescuer after the snakes depart. The accumulated frost poison prevents the Beggar Society poison from harming You TanZhi, frustrating that attempt. When Ding ChunQiu later clashes palms with him, he discovers that You TanZhi’s internal energy is exceptionally powerful, cold, and poisonous. Though You TanZhi is knocked back and begs for his life, Ding ChunQiu cannot use his own poison palm to damage You TanZhi’s meridians or prevent him from exerting internal energy. Seeing a rare source of poison and power, Ding ChunQiu chooses to recruit him as a disciple so he can learn how the strength was acquired and eventually absorb the poison himself.

The Affliction Spreads Through Combat

You TanZhi’s palm force passes the frost poison to opponents. When Feng BoE clashes with him, the resulting cold is severe enough that GongYe Gan’s detoxification pill has no effect. Feng BoE’s condition worsens, and GongYe Gan finds the cold entering his own hand when he tries to check Feng BoE’s breathing. Ding ChunQiu has no antidote to offer; instead, he calls out to his followers, who leave the pavilion. The episode establishes that the poison’s effects can persist beyond the initial clash and that even an authority such as Ding ChunQiu cannot simply reverse them.

The danger recurs after Bao BuTong and XuanTong also clash palms with You TanZhi. Feng BoE, Bao BuTong, and XuanTong are all affected. XuanNan gives them three of Shaolin’s Six Solar Energy Pills, which ease the cold temporarily, and the others use internal energy to help counter it. But XuanTong’s symptoms return; further circulation of internal energy and more pills fail to drive out the poison. XuanNan concludes that the pills are not the right remedy and that their internal energy cannot suppress this Yin-poison. He proposes seeking Divine Physician Xue, whose reputation is associated with treating difficult illnesses.

Limits of Treatment and Narrative Significance

Divine Physician Xue’s assessment confirms that this is no ordinary poison. From the effects on Bao BuTong and Feng BoE, he infers that their attacker is a young-looking fighter with internal energy of extraordinary depth, comparable to at least thirty years of cultivation, and a nature combining opposing extremes. XuanNan identifies the attacker as Ding ChunQiu’s disciple and confirms that XuanTong was also affected. Divine Physician Xue is astonished by the disciple’s power, but admits that he cannot treat the frost poison and doubts that he deserves his title in the face of this case.

The affliction therefore marks a reversal in You TanZhi’s position. What begins as a near-fatal encounter with the frost silkworm becomes the source of poison resistance and exceptional cold internal force, while his incomplete mastery leaves him unable to dispel the poison that empowers him. In turn, the same force is transmitted through combat to several opponents, defeating pills and exhausting skilled practitioners’ efforts. Frost poisoning is not presented as a simple weapon that its bearer can readily control: it is a persistent bodily condition whose benefits and dangers arise from the same unmastered power.