You Tanzhi neutralizes the poison by following the Yijin Jing postures

You Tanzhi’s accidental discovery of a concealed Yijin Jing diagram turns a crisis of poisoning into an unexpected lesson: a posture that eases his suffering becomes the first step toward learning how to channel energy and neutralize external poison. The episode’s significance lies in the gap between what saves him and what he thinks has saved him. He follows the diagram through pain and exhaustion, but credits a Buddha rather than the manual’s instructions or the movements he has repeated.

The Manual and the Crisis

You Tanzhi has been carrying a Sanskrit manual wrapped in oilcloth. As the poison’s effects intensify, he is too distressed to attend to the book when it falls from his clothing. It opens, and the tears and saliva that fall onto its page reveal a drawing that had been hidden from view. The coincidence gives the scene its hinge: the book is present before he understands it, and its concealed instruction becomes visible only through the crisis.

The drawing depicts a monk in an unusual folded posture, with his head between his legs and his hands clasping his feet. The book also bears two large, crooked-looking yellow characters and a set of small red arrows. At first, You Tanzhi has neither the composure nor the knowledge to interpret these marks. His attention is governed by the poison’s effects; the diagram catches his notice because it resembles the position in which he has become stuck, not because he recognizes it as a martial instruction.

An Accidental Posture Becomes Practice

When You Tanzhi finds himself bent into a position resembling the monk’s, he notices that his breathing is easier and the itching has become bearable. Rather than force himself out of the posture, he deliberately completes it: he clasps both feet, keeps his chin against the ground, and holds the position. The first relief is therefore physical and immediate, while the meaning of the image remains obscure.

Whenever he straightens up, the itching again becomes difficult to bear, so he returns to the posture. Exhausted, he watches the arrows beside the characters. As he repeatedly considers them, he feels warmth travel around his throat and chest, and the itching in his arm diminishes. His response is practical rather than analytical: without understanding why the details matter, he keeps looking and repeating the process because it brings relief.

The change accumulates through repetition. After thirty cycles, only slight itching remains; after ten more, his fingers, palm, and arm are free of it. He withdraws his head from between his legs and sees that the dark discoloration on his palm has vanished. The episode thus gives each step a consequence: the posture first steadies his breathing, attention to the arrows accompanies the passing warmth, and repeated practice leaves his hand clear of the visible mark.

Misrecognition and the Manual’s Secret

Relieved, You Tanzhi concludes that the centipede’s poison has moved into his brain and that the monk in the drawing must be a Buddha who has come to save him. He bows to the image, his iron mask striking the floor. His response is sincere but mistaken: he recognizes the drawing as a presence to honor, not as a set of instructions he has just followed successfully.

The narration supplies the explanation unavailable to him. The image was drawn in a special herbal solution from India and appears only when the page is wet, disappearing once dry. This is why the drawing had not been seen earlier by A'Zhu or Xiao Feng. The Sanskrit writing explains how to practice the Yijin Jing, while the diagram shows the correct way to channel energy. Shaolin monks of earlier generations knew Sanskrit well enough to practice from the written directions, even though they did not understand the diagram’s mystery.

The posture is part of a set of secret Yoga techniques created by an ancient master in India. Its specific function here is to neutralize external poison during practice. The narration distinguishes the parts of You Tanzhi’s discovery: his bodily response leads him into the position through instinct, but tears and saliva happen to wet the page and reveal the image. His survival depends on both the accidental revelation and his repeated imitation of what he sees.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The discovery offers You Tanzhi a method for easing the immediate poison crisis, but it does not make him aware of the method’s true nature. He sleeps from exhaustion after bowing to the image, and the next morning A'Zi finds him alive. Her surprise gives the outcome a simple confirmation: despite the night’s ordeal, he has survived. She tells him to dress and follow her to catch poisonous insects, and he obeys.

The scene is a turning point in You Tanzhi’s physical training, but not yet a moment of conscious mastery. The reader is told what the hidden image means while he mistakes it for divine rescue. That dramatic contrast makes the manual both a practical means of survival and a source of misunderstanding: the instructions work before the person following them can name them. An episode begun in helplessness ends with the dark mark gone and You Tanzhi alive, while the deeper significance of the practice remains known to the narration rather than to him.