Deun Yu's *first* Bak Ming Sun Gung inner power absorption.

[Ken Cheng]

The way Bak Ming Sun Gung works, the user can only absorb inner power from a person whose inner power is less than the user's existing inner power. The whole "river flows into the sea" concept.

What does that mean for first-time users coming into Bak Ming Sun Gung with no inner power base, a la Deun Yu? The first people he absorbed inner power from were a group of Mo Leung Sword Sect flunkies. These people probably didn't have very strong inner power, but given that they were professional martial artists, they must have had more than Deun Yu...who, having never trained in the martial arts, had none AT ALL (except that baseline inner power that all people are born with just to keep them alive). How could Deun Yu even have gotten started? Does Bak Ming Sun Gung provide a little "start-up" inner power so that users can get started?

[HuangYushi]

The first guy (named Yu Guangbiao) who hit Duan Yu happened to make contact with the Shan Zhong acupoint on Duan Yu's body, the only place that had the ability to absorb energy at that particular point in time. Details below.

Quote wuxiapedia.com: Initial effects of learning the Mystical Skill of Northern Darkness
(Scroll down to the above sub-header)

When Yu Guangbiao struck Duan Yu on the Shan Zhong acupoint, Yu's arm went numb and limp at once. In addition, Yu felt a brief moment of emptiness in his chest. As for Duan, he did not feel anything on the spot that he had been hit, although the punch had produced a rather loud sound. This was because the energy in Yu's punch had been absorbed into the 'sea' of energy in Duan's Shan Zhong acupoint and stored there. The Shan Zhong acupoint was also the place where the 'True Energy of Northern Darkness' (Bei3 Ming2 Zhen1 Qi4 北冥真气) was accummulated. Despite having practised the Mystical Skill of Northern Darkness a few times, Duan could still be considered a man without any foundations in internal strength. Therefore, he had absolutely no ability to take in another person's internal strength through the Shao Shang acupoint on his thumb, and send it along the Hand Taiyin Channel of the Lung and the Ren Channel for final storage in the Shan Zhong acupoint. But when Yu struck Duan's Shan Zhong acupoint and sent some internal strength into it, Duan could not resist the flow of energy into his body at all. Duan felt nauseous after Yu's internal strength gathered in his Shan Zhong acupoint; when he thought about the Ren Channel and the Hand Taiyin Channel of the Lung, he could feel a faint stream of warmth flowing through the two channels before returning to the Shan Zhong acupoint. The nausea disappeared after that, an indication that Yu's internal strength had taken up permanent residence in Duan's body (Chapter 5).

[Ken Cheng]

Hmmmm. So without this lucky break, Deun Yu's Bak Ming Sun Gung would have been like a powerful computer that remained unformatted for installing an operating software?

[HuangYushi]

Probably. But unlikely to be for long. In JY stories, the Shan Zhong acupoint is also associated with the "very high possibility of life-threatening injury and death" when struck. Therefore, anyone trained in martial arts who wanted to hit the untrained Duan Yu would have been likely to choose that spot over others.

[Ken Cheng]

Kind of a reverse boobytrap, eh? Cool.

I always wondered how that "river flows into an ocean" thing would work if the Bak Ming Sun Gung user was a total inner power novice like Deun Yu was.

[HuangYushi]

Now, you know.

[CC]

It might not be impossible to practice without getting hit!

It was never explicit that going through the Bei Ming exercises alone would not cultivate _some_ inner power.

The LBWB exercises were stated to be able to help cultivate one's inner energy after 1 complete sequence. So if DY had not been hit but continued to practice the LBWB everyday, he would have also gained inner power.

[ChronoReverse]

He would have died in fact. Training LBWB without good internal energy is a good way to fire deviate.

[Ren Wo Xing]

He would have died in fact. Training LBWB without good internal energy is a good way to fire deviate.

Yes, the book specifically stated that, I believe.