Chapter 158
Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t help but feel agonised after inspecting his internal body for a period of time. This is bullying! Regardless of the fact that he had no apt.i.tude and was unable to sense the Yuan Qi of the heavens and earth following the process stated in the Serene Heart Sutra. After struggling arduously for a long period of time, the Yuan Qi of which he had finally managed to absorb easily today suddenly vanished!?
Regrettably, Zhang Xiaohua was unable to see his body’s interior and naturally wasn’t able to search for any wisps of Yuan Qi. The only thing he could do was to repeatedly attempt to search his body’s interior..
Following the first success, it can be considered that having prior experience would make it easier to sense the Yuan Qi of the heavens and earth. Not long after, Zhang Xiaohua found a wisp of Yuan Qi again. Complementary to his first success, Zhang Xiaohua once again attracted the wisp of Yuan Qi into his body. However, similar to how the n.o.ble man’s home was inaccessible to the common man, the wisp of Yuan Qi disappeared without a trace the moment it entered his body.
After a few tries, Zhang Xiaohua no longer felt frustrated. The Yuan Qi of the heavens and earth outside his body didn’t belong to him, but the qi that was absorbed into his body belonged to him. Why would he care where the Yuan Qi went? As long as the wisp of Yuan Qi doesn’t leave his body, he would find it one day. Plus, Serene Heart Sutra never mentioned how the Yuan Qi escaped one’s body, and he had never heard that the inner energy would escape when he watched He Tianshu and the others cultivate.
Is it possible that the Yuan Qi would find its own way out?
It sounds weird just saying it. So Zhang Xiaohua sat cross legged in the medical fields for a whole afternoon absorbing strands of Yuan Qi. At this point Zhang Xiaohua was also a bit bewildered, he could already sense Qi so didn’t he just absorbed it? Shouldn’t he be able to sense the boundless Yuan Qi between heaven and earth? Why was it all in such small strands? And all of the Yuan Qi seemed to be falling from above, not at all like what was described to him. Where was all the Yuan Qi? Could it be that He Tianshu and the rest’s inner energy were all trained strand by strand?
Wearing a face full of doubt, Zhang Xiaohua returned to the courtyard and out of instinct went to knock on He Tianshu’s door. He Tianshu already returned from the medicine hall and was in the room learning the Piaomiao Steps. Seeing Zhang Xiaohua at his door, He Tianshu smiled and asked, “Zhang Xiaohua did you have a problem when training in the strong bull sutra?”
Zhang Xiaohua was surprised for a second and said, “Squad leader He, you really are a saint, being (able to predict the future).”
He Tianshu waved his hand saying, “This isn’t much. Thinking back to the years when I was still young when reaching the first bottleneck in training inner energy, I was exactly like you, randomly cultivating due to panic. A moment of carelessness could have produced an accident, if not for fellow disciples releasing it early, I could have been disabled. I have heard of this strong bull sutra before as well, simple to practice, with no difficulties along the way with clear and straight instructions. Perfect for you with no one to guide you on cultivating as long as you have determination and patience.”
Afterwards, his eyebrows jumped, jovially asking, “This entire afternoon weren’t you working hard? What was your progress on the strong bull sutra?”
Zhang Xiaohua face turned red and said in a small voice, “No feeling at all; I still cannot sense Qi.”
He Tianshu laughed and said, “It’s fine, sensing Qi is different for everyone’s apt.i.tude. Don’t give up, keep trying, before long you will probably be able to sense Qi. That year I also used two days before I could develop Qi sense.”
“Then how fast are those with talent?” Zhang Xiaohua asked in curiosity.
He Tianshu replied without hesitation, “Immediately!”
“Ah!” Zhang Xiaohua mouth gaped until you could stuff a duck egg inside.
“Yes, just in an instant,” He Tianshu leisurely laughed, “This world has countless geniuses. If I can recall correctly, in my year there were many who could sense it immediately. Of course even the majority could sense it before the second day.”
Zhang Xiaohua proceed to ask, “Then squad leader He, was there anyone who did not develop Qi sense?”
He Tianshu clenched his brows and said, “In my memory there wasn’t any. As the saying goes, Piaomiao Sect only picks the best. Almost no one took more than three or four days to gain Qi sense.”
Zhang Xiaohua with a heart full of disappointment asked a follow up question, “Then, squad leader He, when you sense Qi from the world, is the Yuan Qi in strands or in groups?”
After He Tianshu heard that he was stunned for a second and then proceeded to laugh loudly, “Zhang Xiaohua, Zhang Xiaohua, you are really good at jokes. In this world where is there such thing as real Yuan Qi? This Qi sense is a just an expression/figure of speech. I believe that in the strong bull sutra, it also mentions that it is just a figure of speech. For example, when there is gas penetrating from your forehead, this is just the fledgling stage of inner energy. Inner energy or inner strength is you circulating this gas through your channels to your acupuncture points. After circulating through the channels within the body, the amount of inner energy will increase. This is the method to increase inner energy. Of course, there are medicines to increase your efficiency, increasing the rate in which you circulate inner energy. However, I have never heard that you can absorb Qi from the air around you. If it was like that then we can just breathe every day. Why sit in meditation and endure training for our Yuan Qi?
Looking at Zhang Xiaohua’s face full of confusion, He Tianshu explained again, “Furthermore, a person’s channels/meridians is the vessel for inner energy. The size of your channels will determine how much inner energy you have. We train inner energy martial arts for two aspects. One is to increase inner energy, and the other is to expand our meridians. Only with both ways increasing is it considered as a high level inner energy martial art. Your strong bull sutra although is easy to practice but when it is easy to practice, the improvements over every month or day is also limited. This sutra/martial art will have almost no effect on expanding your channels. Many people will go insane if they practice incorrectly while training this.”
“But…” Zhang Xiaohua anxiously asked, “If you can’t sense inner energy from outside your body then how does your body produce inner energy?”
He Tianshu smiled and asked, “Since ancient times, people have wondered about how inner energy is produced and they concluded that as long as you have Qi sense, the meridians inside your body will naturally correspond the inner energy produced. Warm and cosy feeling, if you use a method/martial art to circulate, then the inner energy will follow your thoughts, like a mouse circulating in your meridians.”
“If you train for a long time, the mouse will naturally become big,” He Tianshu spoke in a manner of fact way, finishing his point/ patch up his sentence.
“Warm feeling? Circulate in your meridians?” Zhang Xiaohua came to a realization, previously when he was cultivating heavenly dipper fist, there was a warm feeling. He a.s.sumed that it was inner energy.
However, this meridians, Zhang Xiaohua kept thinking about the Serene Heart Sutra, mentioning the cultivating directions, it is not exactly the warm feeling so he asked again, “Squad leader He, then is all inner energy within the channels the same?”
He Tianshu had smiled wide again ad replied, “Of course it is not the same, every inner energy training method has a place where they are different for the usages of the different channels and the movement/ circulation of inner energy pathway. If the Piaomiao Divine Art and your strong bull sutra energy direction/circulation method is the same, then it would be also be called Piaomiao Divine Art now wouldn’t it?”
Zhang Xiaohua finally understood.
However, he still didn’t give up and asked, “Squad leader He, is what you are saying really true? Inner energy is not from the outside world absorbed into the body?”
He Tianshu resolutely said, “Positively, definitely, as well as surely!”
Zhang Xiaohua was speechless. Training Serene Heart Sutra he could certainly feel the Yuan Qi being absorbed by the body already, what is going on with this? Originally thinking to ask He Tianshu this question relating to the inner energy disappearing, asking this time made all his Qi sense questions overthrown. Isn’t it the same as not asking?
He Tianshu seeing Zhang Xiaohua’s discouraged expression walked forward and patted him on the shoulder saying, “Zhang Xiaohua, As the saying goes failure is the mother of success. As long as you are not afraid of bitterness and sacrifice, unafraid of perspiration and with enthusiasm, you will succeed. If you cannot attain Qi sense within a day, just use two days, if two days is not enough, just use three days, if really after one or two months still unable to achieve, there is also no harm. You just don’t need to train inner energy, just go and train external martial arts. Look at our Piaomiao Sect’s Shi Niu, he is learning external martial arts. Isn’t it just as impressive?”
Zhang Xiaohua didn’t bother to explain himself as he randomly gazed at He Tianshu’s table. He Tianshu looking at his expression, was slightly embarra.s.sed/awkward, “The Piaomiao Steps second levels have some difficulty, I keep on looking but I can not understand. This obviously is a footwork martial art, there are some places I simply cannot understand, simply unimaginable. I really don’t know how the elders managed to train this. You don’t need to be anxious, when I do understand, I will immediately inform you. You go and train that strong bull sutra first, and find your Qi sense ok?”
Zhang Xiaohua also had no interest and said, “Alright, squad leader He, you go ahead and look first, I will go back and ponder again.”
After he finished speaking, Zhang Xiaohua bowed his head and walked off.
Originally, he a.s.sumed that after he visited He Tianshu’s place he’d find an answer that he would be satisfied with, but as for now Zhang Xiaohua was lost with no sense of direction. What is the connection between all this? What He Tianshu and his own Serene Heart Sutra said was completely different, could it be that he is training incorrectly?
He Tianshu looked behind him towards Zhang Xiaohua’s figure, full of worry. He also secretly worries for him, training inner energy was always reliant on talent. If after a long time he still can’t gain Qi sense then, there is absolutely no way to train inner energy. Don’t even mention circulating inner energy or strengthening your channels. Zhang Xiaohua’s fist martial arts were already forgotten up to this standard, afraid that inner energy won’t allow him to escape the same outcome.
Shortly after, He Tianshu thought back again to when Zhang Xiaohua was learning the Piaomiao Steps and the intelligence he displayed then. But even the Piaomiao Steps Qinggong also required a foundation in inner energy. So even if his skills do improved, it would be like having the stem without the roots, everything about it would be wrong. Thinking up to here, He Tianshu let out a deep sigh, roused up his own spirits and returned to meticulously studying the Piaomiao Steps.
Zhang Xiaohua returned to his room. His heart was still unreconciled, he once again took out the Serene Heart Sutra from his breast. He carefully and diligently read the first layer of the method once to confirm that his own recollection didn’t have any mistakes. Then he closed the secret manual and started to ponder to himself in his heart.
The heart sutra said it clearly, between the heaven and earth consisted of a boundless worldly Yuan Qi, the amount absorbed into your body relied on the profoundness of the pract.i.tioner’s strength. It was not at all like what the perception he experienced today, the world’s Yuan Qi existed in strands. If he lacked ability to gain Qi sense, then there was nothing to do. It’s possible that he is unable to recognise the boundless Yuan Qi, but since he already has Qi sense, shouldn’t he naturally sense the great amount of Yuan Qi? But in any case, it couldn’t be that he is able to sense some and not sense others right?
Suddenly, Zhang Xiaohua’s eyes lit up, he has only read the first layer of Serene Heart Sutra, it is possible it is not written down, and possible that the later layers had written it down. So he quickly opened the Serene Heart Sutra again.
What made Zhang Xiaohua even more disappointed was even after he read it carefully from the start to the finish, he still could not find even a hint of the answer form the secret manual. The rest of the ten plus layers only mentioned the training route and described the boundaries. It was as though only the first layer touched slightly on the worldly Yuan Qi.
However it was not as though Zhang Xiaohua did not gain any benefits, in the later portions of Serene Heart Sutra, it actually told of an alternate method of absorbing Yuan Qi . This method is not using absorbing Yuan Qi from your surroundings, instead it is some kind of method used by absorbing a type of solid worldly Yuan Qi called spirit/energy stone/Yuan shi. According to the Serene Heart Sutra records, although the worldly Yuan Qi fills the entire world, the thickness/denseness of Yuan Qi is different at different locations. At some special places where the Yuan Qi is astonishingly thick after a long time pa.s.ses, it will solidify into Yuan shi. According to how long the Yuan shi has been forming, the stones will be of different sizes. Small ones are like beans, large ones are like walnuts. These Yuanshi are crystallized Yuan Qi so naturally the inside contains a lot of Yuan Qi. It can allow cultivators to absorb it for a long period of time while the stone itself will gradually decrease in size until it finally disappears.
Zhang Xiaohua was very happy and immediately stored this method in his memory. One line written in the method caused him to have cold water dumped over his head, this method needed to wait until he has trained Serene Heart Sutra until the ninth layer before he is able to use it. If not, when large amounts of Yuan Qi gather inside the body, the meridians will explode because they are not strong enough, thus causing the cultivator to explode and die.
Zhang Xiaohua curled his lip, placing the Serene Heart Sutra back into his breast, thinking to himself in his heart, indeed it was just another useless effort. Not to mention that he doesn’t even know what a Yuan shi would look like, so how he could even find one. Looking critically at his own situation, he hasn’t even entered the first layer yet, who knows how long it will take him to reach the ninth layer. Even if he had a Yuan shi, he wouldn’t even dare to absorb it.
At night, Zhang Xiaohua as before went to the woods. First he practices his fist martial art, next his sword and then his Qinggong body art. His Fist and sword arts doesn’t need to be said. His Qinggong also became more skillful. Although he doesn’t have a foundation in inner energy, Zhang Xiaohua’s body has large difference from before. When running in the woods, he had some similarities to the look of Qinggong, only not being able to go very high is wasting his elegant expression.
After doing the work he was supposed to do, Zhang Xiaohua chose a spot under a tree and with a heart full of confidence, started Serene Heart Sutra inner energy cultivation method, prepared to sense the outside world Yuan Qi, absorb into his body.
However, after sitting and sensing for a while, Zhang Xiaohua could not find any Yuan Qi at all, even the strand of Yuan Qi that he found in the afternoon was unable to be found.
Having no alternatives, Zhang Xiaohua stood up again and dusted off his clothes. Now what? Don’t tell me that there is no Yuan Qi in the night?
Zhang Xiaohua this Qi indoor, himself train this Serene Heart Sutra, why are there so many problems? If there is not a problem here, there is a problem there. Easily developing Qi sense, then next afternoon it is gone. Where should he go to find the solution?
Actually, he didn’t think that generally everyone in world who practices cultivation has someone giving them pointers to succeed. Secret manuals are theoretical, but what was recorded down ultimately is someone else’s experience. Everyone is different when cultivating and there will be differences. You need practice and experience to make up for the difference. A famous teacher will train a fine student, but of course, there are self made geniuses but that is just a drop in the ocean.
Thinking “where do I need to go to find the missing Qi sense” reminded Zhang Xiaohua, didn’t he first experience Qi sense in the afternoon in the medicine fields? Since at night in the forest he couldn’t find any, then why not go back to the medical fields to try again?
Thinking up to here, since there was still some time until midnight, there was no need to fear that he wouldn’t be able to make it back in time.
The moon lit the night and the medical fields were quiet if it wasn’t for the gently blowing wind. Under the moonlight, herbs swayed in the wind, extremely small details
It was really a beautiful night, only don’t know how was Zhang Xiaohua lucky?
Zhang Xiaohua sat between the fields, but didn’t immediately start the 9 shallow breaths and 1 deep breath.
This is improvement. The manual did not state that before practicing you should calm your heart and mind. No teacher gives this guidance and only with numerous attempts and failures then, can you achieve experience.
After Zhang Xiaohua felt that he was ready, he started the Serene Heart Sutra breathing method, slowly adjusting his own breathing frequency and gradually entered the meditative state.
When Zhang Xiaohua let his perception expand, he couldn’t help but feel alarmed and almost dropped his attention and lost the meditative state
Why?
Zhang Xiaohua’s sense/consciousness was like a fish, immediately as he sensed he realised that the surroundings have so much Yuan Qi, with wisps and strands, akin to water droplets on a rainy day. Compared to the daytime, this is 5 times more. Although the Serene Heart Sutra’s description has a large difference, the Qi in surroundings compared to before was so much more.
Zhang Xiaohua happily used the method in the heart sutra to absorb the worldly Yuan Qi. Speaking of which, isn’t it weird that when Zhang Xiaohua just absorbed the first wisp of Yuan Qi into his body, the Other Yuan Qi flooded in his direction, as if hearing some signal.
Zhang Xiaohua panicked. Before, he thought that to attract Yuan Qi, it should be done strand by strand and cultivation is a time consuming process and it will take a long time to cultivate inner energy. Looking at it current situation with abundant Yuan Qi, he only needs to attract the first strand before all the rest would follow the first strand. This truly is an amazing method. Looks like he didn’t walk the wrong road after all.
The Zhang Xiaohua’s body at this moment was unrestrained, his body’s pore are like countless little mouths competing like babies to suck the limited Yuan Qi, and the Yuan Qi is never ending. Although the amount absorbed each time is small, but there is a continuous flow of Yuan Qi to absorb.
So, Zhang Xiaohua enjoyed this happy mistake/coincidence, completely foreign about the time. When did he still know the thing about midnight? On his unmoving face appeared a trace of a smile.
Just when the smile appeared, it immediately froze. Pitiful Zhang Xiaohua sank into the deep sleep that the piaomaio sect elder would be jealous of.
The sleeping Zhang Xiaohua was still sitting cross legged and his breathing frequency did not change, the constant flowing stream of Yuan Qi also keep pouring into his body. Only the flickering light that appeared in his sleep. Under the influence of the nine shallow 1 deep breathing method, it was magnified and the inexplicable breathing frequency coincided with the stars in the sky.