I Am Your Natural Enemy

The book that Fourth Great-uncle Master gave him was actually quite rich in content, and after being translated, most things turned out to be pretty simple and easy to understand.

Especially things like finger seals and hand seals—not only were there pictures, but also detailed written descriptions of the finer points and precautions.

The most basic one was the Tao Finger.

This is the Panacea Hand Seal most commonly used by Taoists when performing rituals—even ordinary people probably have some impression of it.

The left hand’s middle and ring fingers bend inward, with the thumb pressing down on the tips of the middle and ring fingers.

This hand sign is extremely common to see in all sorts of movies and TV shows.

But even the most basic and common hand seal has its requirements—it’s standard to keep the fingernails of the middle finger, ring finger, and thumb hidden.

Wen Yan tried it out. To meet the requirements and still keep the index and pinky fingers straight and upright, and the palm bones from curling up like chicken claws, keeping the hand seal crisp and forceful—honestly, it’s not that easy.

If you’ve got tenosynovitis or short, thick fingers, pulling this off is also quite hard.

As for those super complicated Bagua Finger Prints later on, just by looking at the pictures, he honestly couldn’t figure out how you were supposed to do them.

There was one he recognized, though—the Vajra Finger Print. Zhang Laoxi had used it when setting up the altar and charging talismans. It was also a pretty widely-used finger seal.

Looking at it carefully, it seemed that at funerals, the mages used that seal to break roof tiles—seems like this was the one.

Supposedly, if you could smash a roof tile mid-air with a finger seal when performing a ritual, it indicated that the dead had died well—of natural causes or illness, nothing out of the ordinary.

If you couldn’t break the tile with that finger seal during the ritual, it usually meant something was off about the manner of the death.

Or, to put it more accurately—the hour of death, cause of death, etc.—something about it was at odds with the information the Taoist had before starting the ceremony.

Wen Yan had no idea which of these would be of use to him, so he could only experiment one at a time.

The simplest Tao Finger he could do pretty easily, but the strength and energy flow in his left hand was a bit different from the right. Even for hand seals meant for both hands, you had to constantly adjust.

Once everything lined up, and he formed a seal that fit him perfectly—the lines from the fingertips to the palm—an all new, complex, complete circuit was reconstructed. In the way energy circulated, Wen Yan could definitely feel a difference.

It was like, compared to his previous way—just brute force after bursting forth—this was now all about efficiency, precision, and finesse.

The simplest Tao Finger, in his hands, couldn’t serve as a full-on ritual seal. But he sensed that, paired with Scorching Sun, it might be extremely effective.

With his left hand forming the Tao Finger, when he tried channeling Scorching Sun, and his Yang Energy started flowing, it all clicked—like a sudden revelation—and he instantly grasped how to proceed from there.

With the Tao Finger, he pointed into the distance—at the little zombie sitting at the backyard entrance, watching him practice martial arts.

He watched as a strand of Yang Energy turned into sword aura, flying silently out from his fingertip, sinking directly into the little zombie’s body.

The little zombie’s mouth gaped open, eyes wide in shock. Then, with its tiny legs, it scampered over to Wen Yan’s side and clung to his leg, whining pitifully.

Wen Yan picked up the little zombie and sensed the Yang Energy that had been bestowed upon it. Compared to when he directly touched and bestowed energy by hand, there wasn’t much difference at all.

​Maybe there was some loss along the way, but compared to the total energy gifted each time, it was negligible.

Cradling the little zombie in one arm, Wen Yan tried with his right hand too—forming the Tao Finger. Once he was sure it worked, he pointed through the air, from the back door, right at Sparrow Cat in the first floor living room.

At a distance of nearly ten meters, a condensed stream of Yang Energy shot out, entering Sparrow Cat with precision.

This time, though, Wen Yan could feel that at this distance, the transferred Yang Energy was reaching its limit.

Signs of dissipation were already starting to show—if he tried to send it farther, the condensed Yang Energy would probably just scatter immediately.

But even with just ten meters, Wen Yan was totally exhilarated.

He didn’t know when these hand seals had first appeared, or how they’d developed—but just this ordinary Tao Finger could now let him grant Scorching Sun’s energy over distance.

He was convinced that the number of hand seals he’d be able to use from here on out would be way more than he’d expected.

Since even the Tao Finger could condense Yang Energy like this and grant it at range—wouldn’t that mean he could do even more from afar with advanced versions?

Wen Yan quickly flipped through the book. He remembered that there were a few simple hand seals in there—one of them called the Sword Finger.

It was very simple: the index and middle fingers straight, the thumb pressing down the ring and pinky fingers, keeping the nails hidden.

The tips of the ring and pinky fingers, respectively, pressed on the Zi and Hai positions.

Wen Yan kept adjusting their positions—after more than ten minutes of fumbling, he finally figured out the correct finger seal. At first glance, it just looked like putting your fingers together like a sword, but without a teacher or some trial-and-error, getting it right would be tricky.

He struck out through the air with Sword Finger—willing his power to shoot from his fingertip. But only a wisp or two of Yang Energy came out, like smoke puffing out, drifting just a few inches before fading away—like exhaling a mouthful of smoke.

But Wen Yan wasn’t discouraged—instead, he was even more fired up.

As long as he was getting results, that was enough. He wasn’t expecting overnight miracles. So long as there was a glimmer of hope, he was willing to grind it out.

For now, it seemed like his training wasn’t up to par—his power was strong, but scattered, not focused enough.

If his control over his energy improved and he could condense it better, then the Sword Finger would definitely become a real weapon.