WCY and 9 yin

[pannonian]

When did he read the 9 yin manual? There are two sets of events that need to be reconciled here.

From LOCH:
WCY obtains 9 yin manual.
Huashan tournament to determine possession of manual.
Exhausted from the tournament, WCY passes on XTG in exchange for 1YZ.
WCY dies around a year after the tournament.

From ROCH:
WCY enters Ancient Tomb and finds counter to his skills.
WCY reads 9 yin manual and finds counter to Ancient Tomb skills, and inscribes these 9 yin skills in secret chamber.
WCY dies, admitting he didn't use his own skills to counter LCY's.

At some point, WCY read the manual and absorbed its essence, and inscribed the skills on the walls in the Ancient Tomb. Yet he died not long after the Huashan tournament. In the 3rd edition (IIRC), it's only after contemplation that he admitted that he didn't after all best LCY with his own skills.

So did WCY do all that stuff involving 9 yin and the Ancient Tomb in the year or so after Huashan, plus all that stuff in Dali? Or did he read it and absorb its essence before Huashan? If the latter, would his clear victory be less impressive considering he had the benefit of 9 yin, unlike the other four contestants?

[PJ]

In the past, I think some experts claimed that Wang only had about 10 days total to absorb the essence of 9 Yin.

[ChronoReverse]

Didn't it say in ROCH that WCY pretty much just flipped through the book out of curiosity and that was already enough to absorb its essence?

[pannonian]

It's still quite a lot of stuff to fit in in the year or so between Huashan and his death. He'll have to read the manual, inscribe all that stuff in the Ancient Tomb, contemplate it, change his mind about it, go to Dali for the exchange, get back and prepare for Ouyang Feng.

[kyss of the sword]

WCY did not read the manual before huashan. he was already the highest skilled exponent and he did not see the need too. he only wanted to stop people from fighting over the manual. after he won the tournament, he was deciding whether to destroy the manual or not. he read it out of curiosity and understood the essence through he did not practise any of the skills. quezhen skills and 9yin skills were so closely intertwined that ZBT learnt 9yin in his sleep after memorsing the manual.