Gradually, his breathing quieted, and his heartbeat grew clearer. "Thump, thump." He felt the blood throughout his body surge with each beat of his heart.
With every pulse of his blood vessels, he faintly felt a tingling sensation climb upward from his tailbone. It came and went, usually rising four or five vertebrae before disappearing, then starting over from the beginning. The whole process left him restless and frustrated.
He heard nothing, felt no heartbeat, and saw nothing. His consciousness sank along with the sensation, sinking, sinking, sinking... It was as if even his consciousness had faded away. He felt only that time and space were in chaos, that heaven and earth were indistinct, and that everything around him was shrouded in a haze like smoke and mist. He wanted to make it out, but could never get any closer.
There seemed to be a light in the chaos. At first, it felt as large as the moon, but it was indistinct and unreal. When he tried to gather it with his consciousness, the very act of focusing would often break his meditative state.
Progress was therefore slow. In three months, he had managed to condense the radiant light to the size of a soybean, but after that he could not advance another step.
Feeling the light stubbornly refuse to condense any further, he was preparing to withdraw his mind and leave the state when, all at once, golden light burst forth. In the stillness, it seemed to flow endlessly. His spirit was joyful, as though drunk and bathed in warmth. His whole body felt suffused with gentle heat. For a moment, all sounds fell silent, the bright moon hung overhead, and the earth seemed to shine in a realm of light.
At that point, he knew that the method of turning the light back had succeeded. This was a clear sign that his mind had opened and brightened, and that the golden flower was blooming.
His delight slowly settled, and he could clearly sense the difference from before. He could now gather and release his mind at will. Unlike in the past, he no longer needed to regulate his breathing and calm his mind; once a thought arose, he could stop it.
And unlike before, when he had controlled the light with his thoughts, now he himself was the light, the center of this primordial chaos.
This was...
Huh? Something was wrong! Why was the chaos around him moving?
According to the alchemical texts, when the light first appeared, it should still be in the dantian. And what was going on with this dantian? Why did it feel as though it was collapsing inward?
This was...
Was...
As his consciousness returned once more, he heard a cacophony of noise beside his ears.
The sounds were so irritating that they made him restless. He wanted to open his eyes and see what was happening around him, but his body wouldn't obey him.
Not only could he not open his eyes, but his whole body ached. Although he couldn't see what was happening around him, he could tell the situation wasn't good.
Soon, Bai Sui felt something touch him, and the person seemed to be using tremendous force, pressing down on his abdomen.
A sharp pain overpowered every other sensation. Bai Sui, who had been struggling desperately to wake up, suddenly opened his eyes.
The light that abruptly flooded his vision kept him from seeing his surroundings clearly, even with his eyes open.
Gradually, Bai Sui's eyes adjusted to the light. After being trapped in darkness for so long, he saw the scene around him for the first time.
A man who looked to be in his forties or fifties was pressing both hands against Bai Sui's lower abdomen.
It seemed Bai Sui's sudden struggle had startled him.
But the man only met Bai Sui's gaze for a moment before returning his attention to what he was doing.
As the man continued working, another stabbing pain struck.
Bai Sui looked toward the source of the pain and saw that the clothes over his lower abdomen were soaked with blood.
The man was tearing the clothing away from the area. The movement tugged at the wound, and that was what had jolted Bai Sui awake.
The pain made Bai Sui weep uncontrollably, while his limbs twitched weakly.
Tears blurred his vision, so Bai Sui couldn't see exactly what the man was doing to his wound. But he understood that the man was treating him.
Wave after wave of pain washed over him. At last, Bai Sui couldn't bear it and fainted again.
During this bout of unconsciousness, Bai Sui felt as though he had dreamed a very long dream.
In the dream, there was a remote little village.
Though far away from everything, the village had a powerful clan to rely on for protection.
That clan was the Uzumaki Clan. Its members all possessed strength far beyond ordinary people, and it was through this power that they protected the region.
But every benefit came with a drawback. Though the village relied on the Uzumaki Clan's protection, it was still part of the Land of Fire.
Compared with other villages, it had to pay an additional tax, as the price of buying itself a peaceful life.
Many villages would have given anything for the chance to pay extra tribute like this.
After all, choosing to pay "voluntarily" was far better than being plundered and having everything taken by force.
And so, under the protection of the Uzumaki Clan, the village lived in peace for decades.
That lasted until the Uzumaki Clan joined some kind of alliance and stopped maintaining its neutrality as it had before. For the first time, the flames of war spread into the village.
Because of its location, the village was relatively isolated and far from the Uzumaki Clan's homeland, so the protection it received was weak.
As a result, those in the village who had some wealth packed their belongings and fled.
Thanks to decades of peaceful living, quite a few people had managed to build up a considerable fortune.
At first, only a few families fled. For one thing, they couldn't take their fields with them; for another, it was hard to leave their homeland.
Later, the war escalated, and the sounds of battle carried into the village several times.
This frightened even more people into migrating toward the Uzumaki Clan's lands.
Gradually, fewer and fewer people remained in the village, and more and more houses and fields stood empty.
This reduced the village's actual workforce and its resource output, until it could barely pay its taxes.
The village therefore wanted to attract labor from outside. One day, a young couple fled to the village and settled there.
After all, though the village might be caught up in the war, it hadn't happened yet. To many displaced people, it was a safe haven.
The earlier battles had also changed the terrain around the village. It had originally been a seaside village surrounded by woods.
The fighting over the years had burned down most of the woods, making the route to the village easier to travel.
The couple weren't the only ones. Dozens of other refugees like them had also come.
These newcomers had experienced the ravages of war and treasured peace all the more. They were deeply grateful to the village for taking them in, and never slacked off when they worked. As a result, the harvest the following year was even better than in previous bumper years.
After setting aside the portion owed in taxes, the villagers all enjoyed a prosperous New Year.
Having tasted success, the village pressed on and continued taking in refugees from outside.
The newcomers had all kinds of motives and temperaments, but every worker brought the village a considerable benefit.
Yet fortune and misfortune lurked side by side. The village's growing prosperity also attracted covetous eyes.