A Road Lies Ahead

Based on the fact that every person from Huaxia suffers from a fire-insufficiency phobia, alongside Lin Hai's expectations of the stories that would happen in the future, he wanted to grow stronger!

"Start with the Wuji Stance." Chen Bing's voice interrupted Lin Hai's thoughts, and he pointed to the center of the open space. "Feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, imagine a string lifting the crown of your head."

As soon as Chen Bing finished speaking, Lin Hai began to imitate the posture he had just taken. Yet when he actually assumed this standing stance, he found that all of this was not as simple as it looked.

Soon, Lin Hai's thighs began to tremble slightly, while at the same time, he could not find that feeling of "standing like a pine" that Chen Bing had.

Chen Bing chuckled, walked over, and tapped his tailbone with his fingertips. "Sink here, relax the Mingmen point. Tai Chi emphasizes 'emptily lifting and energizing the crown,' not making you stiffen your neck like you're doing now."

His fingers brushed across Lin Hai's shoulders and neck, miraculously and slowly relaxing Lin Hai's somewhat tense muscles.

When the muscles all over his body were slowly relaxing, Lin Hai was surprised to find that his legs stopped trembling.

Although his current posture was far from as calm and composed as Chen Bing's, at least it looked somewhat correct.

"Now try Vajra Pounds Mortar." Chen Bing stepped back two steps. "Remember, the movements must be continuous, like pulling silk."

Lin Hai took a deep breath, recalling every detail of Chen Bing's opening posture. He slid his right foot out half a step, raised both hands, and then lifted his right palm while pressing his left palm down.

However, his arms were slightly stiff, and he completely failed to execute the soft-within-hard arcs that Chen Bing had.

When he continued and began to imitate Chen Bing's stamping-foot power generation, it was as if he were just kicking the ground.

"Wrong." Chen Bing shook his head. "Tai Chi power generation emphasizes 'its root in the foot, issued in the leg, governed in the waist, and expressed in the fingers.' Just now, only your arms were moving, and your lower body was completely scattered."

The tip of Lin Hai's nose broke out in a slight sweat. While watching from the side, those movements had clearly been so natural and fluid, but once he did them himself, his body felt like it was being disassembled into unrelated spare parts.

He tried again, this time paying special attention to his lower stance, with the result that his upper body became even stiffer, and his overall movements also became fragmented, looking exactly like a rusted robot.

Seeing this, Chen Bing suddenly stepped forward and grabbed his wrist, the force light yet enough to prevent him from breaking free.

"Close your eyes." Chen Bing's voice was very soft yet allowed Lin Hai to hear it clearly. "Don't think about the movements, feel your breathing first."

Lin Hai obediently closed his eyes, and Chen Bing placed his other hand against his belly.

"Sink qi to the lower dantian." Chen Bing said, while his palm gently pressed down, slowly moving to the location of Lin Hai's lower dantian. "Right, right here, imagine there is a ball of qi rotating."

Something wondrous happened—when Lin Hai stopped deliberately imitating the external form and instead focused on his interior, his body seemed to automatically find a certain rhythm.

He raised his arms again, and this time the movements were much more coherent; although far from being called fluid, at least they were no longer as stiff as just now.

"Much better." Chen Bing's voice carried praise. "Remember, Tai Chi emphasizes 'intention precedes form.' Just now, you were too obsessed with imitating the external form, and instead lost the most fundamental thing."

Lin Hai opened his eyes and found that Chen Doctor had already retreated three steps away. Sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting mottled light and shadow upon him.

At this very moment, he suddenly understood why those moves were called "Cloud Hands" and "White Crane Spreads Its Wings"—they were never mechanical combinations of movements in the first place, but rather a poetic description of heaven, earth, and all things.

"Again? If you can execute the whole thing, then just follow this feeling and execute it once completely." Chen Bing raised an eyebrow.

Lin Hai nodded. This time he did not rush to begin, but instead stood quietly for a moment just like Chen Bing.

When he initiated his movement again, the movements were still raw, but faintly possessed a hint of meaning. As he lifted his right palm, he felt as if he were truly cradling a pool of clear spring water; pressing his left palm down, it was as if he were gently pressing a falling maple leaf back onto its branch.

"Clack!" When executing the stamping-foot power generation, he finally struck a decent Vajra Pounds Mortar.

Although it could not be said to have any might, that sense of power coursing from the soles of his feet to his fingertips made him experience a new world.

Then, relying on the content recorded by his enhanced brain, supplemented by Chen Bing's occasional vocal reminders from the side, Lin Hai stumbled through a complete round of Tai Chi.

When Lin Hai stood with eyes closed, withdrawing his fist and exhaling, the Seven-Colored Essence that had always remained dormant in his mind stirred.

Perhaps influenced by this internal martial art of Tai Chi; perhaps drawn by Lin Hai's wholehearted concentration and freedom from distracting thoughts as he entered a state similar to meditation, that ball of qi emitted a fine thread as thick as an ox hair. Originating from the depths of Lin Hai's mind, it circled his body once before finally plunging into the lower dantian that Chen Bing had just pointed to.

Lin Hai had an inkling of awareness, but at present he was merely an ordinary person with a slightly strengthened body and did not possess so-called internal vision, thus he could not see this scene which perhaps held momentous significance.

When Lin Hai opened his eyes, he only felt his whole body growing hot, which should have been the blood and qi of his entire body being mobilized.

Chen Bing clapped his hands and smiled. "Not bad, you've got some semblance of it now. However..." He suddenly stepped forward, flicking his finger against Lin Hai's elbow. "It's still too stiff here. Chen-Style Taiji emphasizes 'softly neutralizing and rigidly issuing,' and your kinetic force is all stuck at your joints."

Lin Hai rubbed his somewhat numb elbow, yet could not help grinning. He had finally touched that threshold—the invisible boundary separating "watching" from "doing," and separating "resembling in form" from "resembling in spirit."

"Alright, today's morning lesson concludes here. Next we'll head to the next room, and I'll explain to you what you'll usually need to do over there, let's go." Lin Hai followed Chen Bing out of the clinic and walked toward the neighboring room.

Pushing open the wooden door of the front hall next door, a complex aura of grass and trees rushed toward them.

Lin Hai took a deep breath, his lungs immediately filling with a certain cool scent—like mint, intertwined with a deeper medicinal fragrance. Sunlight filtered through the lattice windows, casting mottled light and shadow in the room and illuminating the greenery that filled the space.

Yet Lin Hai's gaze was drawn by a uniquely shaped plant on the right-hand side. It was planted in a dark red purple-clay pot, its stem knotted like a dragon, yet its leaves were delicate to the point of near transparency, the veins reflecting golden fine threads in the sunlight.

"That is a nearly hundred-year-old Fo-ti, the anchor treasure of the clinic." Chen Bing placed the keys on the cabinet to the side, producing a crisp sound.

He continued, "Every morning before the sun comes out, you must use a bamboo watering can to spray its leaf surfaces—remember, it must be bamboo, as metal cans will affect its medicinal properties."

Chen Bing's fingers lightly caressed the curled vines of the Fo-ti, his movements as gentle as stroking a cat. "This old fellow has a quirky temper; it loves shade, fears waterlogging, and yet needs to bask in the sun. In summer, water it once every three days, and in winter, once every half month. The water must be set out in the sun in advance."

Lin Hai followed behind Chen Bing, passing through a green maze formed by potted plants. A bitter fragrance drifted through the air, and every two steps one could discover a plant never seen before.

Some had saw-toothed golden lines along the edges of their leaves; some bore red berries the size of pearls; and others grew like ordinary weeds, yet exuded a fresh fragrance similar to citrus.

"Over here is the Dendrobium Orchid." Chen Bing stopped in front of a row of hanging wooden boards, those boards covered in thick moss, with several plants bearing small pale purple flowers parasitic upon them. "They originally grew on precipitous cliffs, so they cannot be planted with ordinary soil."

He took down a wooden board and handed it to Lin Hai. Up close, he realized that those things that looked like moss were actually a special tree bark mixture, feeling light and fluffy to the touch, like the fur of some kind of animal.

"You must spray them with water before nine o'clock every morning, with the volume of water governed by the tree bark being slightly damp. Too much and the roots rot, too little and they dry to death."

Just as Lin Hai wanted to ask about the specific amount of water, Chen Bing had already turned to another area. Dozens of white porcelain pots were arranged here, planted with various herbs. Mint, rosemary, thyme... the familiar fragrance made Lin Hai feel as if he had drifted back to his grandmother's vegetable garden.

"These are prepared for ordinary guests, they're easy to raise." Chen Bing pinched off a leaf of Lemon Balm, crushed it between his fingertips, and pressed it against the philtrum of Lin Hai's nose.

A cooling sensation surged straight to Lin Hai's forehead, instantly refreshing his spirit. "Water them thoroughly once every three days, stopping the moment you see water at the bottom of the pot. If a guest wants some, use silver scissors to cut from here—" He demonstrated a diagonal cutting gesture. "You can't just yank them randomly, or you'll injure the parent plant."

Plants also existed in areas of the shop where sunlight could not reach, and the temperature here was visibly a few degrees lower. Several pots of bizarre-looking plants were displayed: one had dark purple leaves covered in dense fine fuzz on the surface; another bore trumpet-shaped, ghastly white flowers with unnatural purplish-black flower centers.

"Datura and Aconite." Chen Bing's voice suddenly turned grave, and he retrieved a pair of leather gloves from beneath the counter. "You must wear these when handling them. Even if you merely touch the sap..."

He rolled up his left sleeve, revealing a twisted scar on the inner side of his wrist. "This is the price of my foolishness when I was 14 years old."

Lin Hai instinctively stepped back half a step, and those bewitching flowers seemed to be staring right at Lin Hai in the gloom. Yet Chen Bing chuckled softly, retrieving a cyan porcelain bottle from the shelf. "There's no need to be scared, though; used correctly, poison is fine medicine. In our Chinese medicine, there is even the concept of fighting poison with poison, and this bottle of Yang-Restoring Pill uses Aconite as its main ingredient; I've used it to save quite a few patients with failing heart-yang."

"Remember," Chen Bing said to Lin Hai, "every plant in this shop possesses spiritual intelligence. If you treat them well, they will naturally reciprocate." He pointed to the ceiling, and only then did Lin Hai notice dozens of small burlap bags hanging from the beams, swaying gently with the draft blowing through the hall.

"Those are seeds harvested last year, and we'll need to re-seed them when the appropriate time comes later."

When the sunlight slanted westward, Chen Bing showed Lin Hai the backyard's circulating water system, composting area, and medicine-drying racks.

"Alright, that's basically all of it. If you run into any problems later, just come ask me." Chen Bing detailed all the circumstances here to Lin Hai.

"You look around and familiarize yourself with things here for a bit first; I'm going back next door to hold consultations. Tomorrow morning when you arrive, come here first, since the water for watering the Fo-ti needs to soak up enough time in the sun after all." Saying this, Chen Bing walked toward the neighboring clinic.

At this moment Lin Hai was still somewhat dazed, having taken in far too much information all at once, and he needed to sort it out bit by bit.

At this time, he was still completely unaware of what kind of sparks he would collide with this medicinal plant shop, with these medicinal materials, and with the plants, nor what kind of story he would write.