Cultivation

"Take off your clothes?" Xu Yuan asked instinctively.

Ran Qingmo's expression remained calm. She said softly,

"My injuries are severe, and my control over qi has weakened considerably. If you keep your clothes on, I might hurt you."

Hearing the woman's straightforward words, Xu Yuan made no fuss and simply took off his fine robe.

It was the first time he had taken off his clothes. In the faint light of the night pearls embedded in the stone walls, Xu Yuan finally saw just how thin his body was.

He stood over six feet tall, yet probably weighed less than 110 pounds. His ribs were clearly visible beneath his skin.

Years of indulgence in wine and women had completely hollowed out this body.

Xu Yuan looked away and regarded Ran Qingmo calmly. "Do I need to take off my underwear too?"

"."

Ran Qingmo looked up at him, her cool gaze fixed silently on his face.

All right. It seemed he didn't need to.

Xu Yuan sat cross-legged opposite Ran Qingmo, just about to speak.

"Lie down," she instructed softly.

Xu Yuan silently adjusted his position and lay flat before her.

Ran Qingmo raised a slender, jade-white finger. A faint blue glow appeared at its tip.

"My qi will enter your body."

Xu Yuan glanced sideways at her. "Will that cause any problems?"

He remembered Ran Qingmo saying that if her qi entered his body, it would tear open his narrow entrance.

"."

Ran Qingmo was almost used to this "qi reaching the Origin Beginning" expert asking her such stupid questions about cultivation.

After a brief pause, she shook her head and explained, "The qi will remain on the surface. It won't enter your meridians."

Xu Yuan nodded to indicate she should continue.

In the dim cavern, the woman's slender fingers moved slightly. The faint blue glow at her fingertip scattered into hundreds, then thousands, of specks of light, which drifted down like fireflies and settled across Xu Yuan's skin.

They felt a little cool.

The next moment,

the specks of light sank into his body, passing straight through his skin like mud flowing into the sea.

In an instant,

Xu Yuan's body became a see-through anatomical diagram in his field of vision.

The specks connected, and clear pathways and acupoints appeared before his eyes.

Soon, as the specks entered him, Xu Yuan felt his body gradually go numb.

But the numbness came with waves of tingling. Her qi was cool and refreshing, and it felt wonderful.

"Ah~"

Ran Qingmo's gaze swept over to him.

Xu Yuan shut up.

Ran Qingmo turned her eyes away and said clearly, "I'll teach you to identify the acupoints first."

"Acupoints?"

"They're important nodes along the meridians," she explained.

"Oh, okay." Xu Yuan nodded.

"It might hurt a little."

As she spoke, Ran Qingmo extended a slender finger and lightly pressed it against Xu Yuan's neck.

Her fingertip wasn't warm. If anything, it was a little cold.

"This is the Huiyuan Acupoint."

As the words left her mouth, the touch of her finger sent a sharp stab of pain through the pleasant tingling.

The pain on the right side of his neck made Xu Yuan's body twitch involuntarily.

Still, the pain was just about bearable.

Ran Qingmo didn't stop. She continued to tap lightly across Xu Yuan's supine body, once every five seconds.

With every tap, she named the corresponding acupoint, and a sharp pain came from somewhere beneath the spot her finger touched.

Time slipped quietly by.

Two quarters of an hour later,

she had pressed all several hundred acupoints on the human body.

Ran Qingmo slowly withdrew her hand and looked at Xu Yuan. "Have you memorized them all?"

Xu Yuan opened his eyes.

He met her gaze for a second, then opened his mouth.

"Huh?"

Surely she didn't think he could memorize everything on the first try?

"." Ran Qingmo.

Without saying anything more, Ran Qingmo silently raised her finger again and continued tapping.

"This is the Huiyuan Acupoint."

"."

"."

Who knew how much time had passed or how many times the acupoint lesson had been repeated? It might have been morning, or it might have been afternoon.

Ran Qingmo withdrew her hand again and looked at the man lying before her. "Have you memorized them this time?"

Xu Yuan closed his eyes and carefully sensed what remained of Ran Qingmo's qi inside his body. He nodded slightly. "I've more or less got them."

"More or less?"

"Seventy to eighty percent."

"."

Ran Qingmo stared at him with a strange look, her eyes full of incomprehension.

So stupid.

She couldn't understand how the man before her could be so stupid.

"."

Xu Yuan more or less understood what the Big Ice Block's gaze meant and opened his mouth to explain.

In his previous life, he'd been a top student in everyone's eyes. He thought he'd memorized the acupoints quickly enough.

But in the end, Xu Yuan swallowed the words that had been on the tip of his tongue.

Compared with her, perhaps the "top student" he'd been in his previous life really was just an ordinary person.

He remembered that, at this point in the story, the black-clad woman before him was only seventeen.

And at seventeen, she had already reached the Grandmaster realm. She was only one step away from having her qi reach the Origin Beginning.

The gap between people really was greater than the gap between people and dogs.

Ran Qingmo didn't say anything. She silently raised her finger and said, "Let's continue."

"Mm."

Xu Yuan nodded and focused once again.

Time slipped quietly by again.

There was no sky visible inside the cavern, so it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.

After yet another round,

Xu Yuan felt as though his entire body was about to turn into the same deep blue Source Qi as Ran Qingmo's.

At that point, Ran Qingmo spoke. "If we keep going, your body will be hurt."

"."

Xu Yuan slowly opened his eyes. He hesitated briefly, but still nodded in agreement with Ran Qingmo's suggestion.

Though her qi was gentle, it was still foreign energy. Staying in his body for too long would eventually burden him.

At that moment, he already felt slightly nauseous and dizzy.

And concentrating for so long had left his body feeling more exhausted than ever before.

Willpower was certainly important, but the body's limits were what they were. No amount of willpower could change them.

After a full day of lessons,

Ran Qingmo didn't rest. She continued sitting cross-legged, regulating her breathing and healing her injuries.

Xu Yuan climbed onto the only jade bed in the cavern. The moment his head touched the pillow, he sank into deep sleep.

In his dreams,

she was still teaching him to identify the acupoints.

Ran Qingmo seemed not to need rest.

While Xu Yuan was awake, she taught him the fundamentals of cultivation.

While he rested, she sat silently in a corner, regulating her breathing and healing her injuries.

There was no food in the cavern, but the pool seemed to have formed from some kind of natural treasure. Just one drink gave Xu Yuan enough energy for the day.

Life here seemed to pass without the years. The days went by, one after another.

And through those days without any sense of day or night, Xu Yuan gradually mastered the obscure and difficult knowledge of cultivation.