Of course, Ma Sa, or rather Dave, didn't notice a code in the 'A Detailed Compendium of The Flora of Qian'. It was, in fact, a rather famous martial artist from the Celestial Opening period who noted the possibility. His copy of the book was a first edition and he, as Ma Sa now claimed that he himself had done, grew suspicious of the extremely complicated terminology and weird sentence structure of the book. Having a lot of time on his hands as an Aetheric Monarch stage martial artist, the Monarch of the Eastern Dao devoted much time outside of his cultivation to decoding the book. Whilst Dave had been spawning books and reading to gain knowledge about the Qian continent he had stumbled across the Monarch's notes.

Bringing up a copy of the notes in his inventory, Ma Sa began to copy out the opening passage both in the encoded text and the hidden text. He then stopped and demonstrated the complicated steps to unveiling the clear text. Certain characters were written at nine precise positions on the page and a 'solution' was always given as a character in the final sentence of each page. In order to decode the text, the reader had to identify the numerical progression of the characters from the string of characters that made up the first sentence on each page. They then had to multiply the characters on the nine key positions a certain number of times to match the solution. When Dave first saw the code it made his brain ache. It did have a strange familiarity to him though. When he finally recalled where he had seen that geometric arrangement of an enneagram before in a Ted talk about Vortex Based Mathematics he was rather stunned.

The clear text which Ma Sa had written out read: "Violet Palace, Heavenly Spring, Supreme Abyss. The Abyss engulfs the Spring before the Spring fills the Abyss. The Palace remains untouched by mortals."

As Ma Sa explained to Guan Yuang Fei how he came to to unveil the hidden passage in the text, the old man's hands started visibly shaking. The copy of the book that he possessed was a later edition which had slightly different text from the original. One would not be able to uncover the secret of the book from it. Ma Sa had to make the excuse that the copy his father had was an earlier edition that had been passed down from the founder. It would do him no harm if his teacher believed him to have a photographic memory anyway as it only added to his value.

Looking towards the distressed face of Guan Yuang Fei, Ma Sa asked in a hesitant tone "Teacher, what is it? Does this make sense to you? Though it seems like it could be meaningful, I don't understand most of the terms. Is it a coincidence?"

"You... I... Well..." Guan Yuang Fei struggled with finding the words to say. Finally he settled on just saying what he knew. He knew that since the boy was capable of finding a ridiculously obscure code in the world's driest piece of literature, something he himself was incapable of even imagining, he was deserving of an honest answer.

"The Violet Spring refers to an energy well which resides here." Old Guan indicated at a point in the middle of his sternum. "The Heavenly Spring resides here." Once again he indicated a point. This time it was on the medial aspect of the upper arm level with the center of his bicep. "And the Supreme Abyss resides here." He indicated a hollow on his wrist at the base of his thumb. "As for the following parts... I am afraid they are beyond my comprehension at the present time. You will be pleased to know that this is not a coincidence. It is impossible for such text to appear without it being planned meticulously."

"Really?!!" Ma Sa may have hammed up his reaction just a little bit but he was truly delighted that Old Guan gave him an honest answer. For him to do so meant that he valued him enough to share a little martial knowledge. "Then? Is it a martial art? Could I learn it?"

Dave knew long before he became Ma Sa that it was a martial art and that the code referred to acupuncture points. The problem was that he had no idea how to even begin interpreting the instructions of the 'training manual'. It seemed to describe circulations of Qi but that had always been an esoteric subject on earth. How does one circulate something that they have no sensation of?

"Don't get too excited, my child. The profundity of this art is far beyond my comprehension and I'm afraid that you wouldn't be able to cultivate it even if you knew the full hidden manual."

"Do you know martial arts Teacher? Can you teach me? I want to understand so that I can make more sense of this. Please! Teach me!"

"Hahhh... No, I won't teach you." Ma Sa's heart nearly stopped from disappointment when he heard the blunt refusal. Dave hit *~* before exploding.

[FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!!!] *return*

*~*

As he returned from a freakout in the console he heard his teacher continue "I promised that I would find a martial teacher for you if you were able to study properly under me until I'm satisfied. I will absolutely fulfill that promise and I furthermore guarantee you that your martial teacher will be far stronger than I. Just work hard for me and I will work hard for you Xiao Sa."

"... Un! I'll work hard Teacher!" Ma Sa could only sigh with relief. Did this old man want to shorten his life??