Goudanzi's Fantasies About His Eyes

Vast Cang Mountains, West Mountain Pass.

Corpses littered the ground in utter disarray.

An icy wind swept past, making the scene even more desolate. These were the bitterest days of winter, and the temperature was exceedingly low. With the cold wind blowing as well, it had taken only half a day for the blood on the ground to freeze. The corpses, too, had frozen stiff, hard as iron and stone. A little while later, an extraordinarily cold, eerie gust suddenly blew through.

The gust was unimaginably cold. As it brushed lightly over the scattered corpses, the already frozen bodies gave off faint cracking sounds, like branches snapping in the woods.

They were indeed cracking, and not just one of them. With a single sweep of that sudden cold wind, nearly a hundred corpses inside West Mountain Pass began to fracture. Like rotten wood left lying for too long, fine cracks spread across them, leaving them no longer whole.

Nothing else happened to the other corpses; they were as dead as dead could be. Only the corpse of the grand elder, whom the mysterious young man had flung aside earlier, underwent an unexpected change.

Like the other corpses inside West Mountain Pass, the grand elder's body gave off several cracking sounds after the eerie, icy wind brushed over it, and fractures spread across its surface. When the last crack rang out, his skull suddenly split open. A thin wisp of black vapor emerged from within. More and more seeped out, growing increasingly dense, as though about to coalesce. But this was a mountain pass, where the wind blew fiercely, and the black vapor scattered like smoke and dust at the first gust. Unlike ordinary smoke and dust, however, it was not blown away completely. Often, after the wind carried it several dozen feet and lost its force, the vapor began gathering in one place again, as though tugged by an invisible power.

The mountain wind was fierce. As one gust weakened, another arrived, endlessly. Though the strands of black vapor clung on stubbornly, they were ultimately no match for the power of nature that had endured since time immemorial. Amid the unceasing cold winds, they gradually dissipated. In the end, only one final wisp remained, drifting dazedly down the mountain with the wind.

The first ray of morning sunlight slowly crept around the towering ridge and reached the little village at the foot of the Vast Cang Mountains.

The weather in the mountains was like a baby's face, changing without warning. Yesterday, the sky had been gloomy, with gusts of cold wind and the occasional drifting snowflake. Today promised brilliant sunshine.

Goudanzi got up very early. He did not know why, but these days, going a single day without moving left him uncomfortable all over. Being confined to bed for several days by his injuries had nearly driven him mad.

Today, his fever had finally subsided. When he woke, he felt refreshed and clearheaded, without the slightest lingering discomfort. He quietly climbed out of bed, went to the clearing beneath the cliff behind his family's courtyard, and began practicing tai chi.

Unlike before, neither of his two rounds of the simplified Tai Chi Fist flowed smoothly. As the saying went, the heart followed intent, and intent followed qi. Today, however, his intent and qi simply would not come together. It was not because his mind was too cluttered, but because, as he practiced, he could feel the circulation of qi and blood through his meridians far more clearly than before.

To everyone else, he had been gravely injured, plagued by an unrelenting fever, and unconscious. They had no idea that he had not slept for even a moment during those two days. His spiritual perception and soul had remained in a peculiar state, and that state had been caused entirely by his eyes.

At the moment when the black bear was about to kill him, his eyes had undergone an exceedingly profound-or perhaps wondrous-change. In the midst of that crisis, he had noticed nothing. After losing consciousness, however, he felt as though he were dreaming, floating up into an empty space. It resembled the images of the universe he had seen in his previous life: dark, empty, devoid of everything except a single eye.

Later, he came to think that this eye was most likely his own.

An enormous eye floated in that expanse of emptiness. It was golden, with a few strange black markings deep within its iris, and radiated a faint golden glow. That glow was the only source of light in the void.

At the time, Goudanzi felt as though he were a cloud of mist floating in that empty space. He could control this "body" of his, moving it wherever he wished, but moving was all he could do.

He had tried moving toward the enormous eye, but no matter how far upward he went, it remained suspended above his head, and he could not close the distance. Indeed, he even suspected that he had never moved at all within that mysterious void-that only his consciousness felt as though he were moving.

Of course, he could not explain that profound, mysterious sensation. He had no idea how long he stayed in the void before he felt his entire body jolt. Then the void vanished, the eye vanished, and he returned to the real world and woke up.

Everything seemed to be over, yet during the next few days, he began noticing changes in his eyes.

When he concentrated his awareness on his eyes, they soon underwent a series of changes. First, they turned pale gold, with a few faint, fine black markings deep within their irises, exactly like the enormous, mysterious eye he had seen hovering overhead in that void.

Once his eyes took on that unusual appearance, he could not only see what lay before him clearly, but even see things behind him. In other words, when his eyes turned pale gold, they gave him a full 360-degree field of vision, without a single blind spot.

Beyond that, his eyesight and powers of observation improved tremendously. Distant objects that had once appeared extremely blurry became perfectly clear. His visual range expanded several times over, and his sensitivity to what he saw increased dramatically as well.

Those two effects were changes in his eyesight alone.

More importantly, however, he could also look inside himself. All he had to do was switch his eyes to that fiery red color, and he could see the state of his body with perfect clarity: the flow of blood, the structure of his bones, the paths his Internal Energy took through his meridians, and even his metabolism. None of it could escape those freakish eyes of his.

Beyond this inner sight, what he valued even more was the countless-fold increase in his control over his Internal Energy. He could now manipulate it with extraordinary precision. Before, he had only been able to rely on his senses to circulate his Internal Energy along fixed routes, never daring to step beyond the forbidden boundary for fear of qi deviation. Now, however, everything lay plainly before his eyes. He could stop his circulating Internal Energy whenever he wished, slow its movement, and even reverse its direction within the limits his body could withstand. Most importantly, this control offered enormous benefits and convenience in practicing the Flameheart Method.

Although the Flameheart Method was only slightly more sophisticated than Great Strength Vajra Qigong, it was, after all, the introductory method to an exceptionally profound internal art, and contained quite a few subtle mysteries. In particular, it involved drawing the fire-aspected primal energy within the qi of heaven and earth into the body, slowly refining it into one's own Internal Energy, then expelling the primal energy of other attributes that had been absorbed along with it. This differed fundamentally from Great Strength Vajra Qigong's indiscriminate feasting on everything, good or bad. The process of refining and expelling the primal energy of heaven and earth required strong control over one's Internal Energy. His inadequate control was precisely why Goudanzi had kept putting off practicing the Flameheart Method after obtaining it: he simply had not been confident enough. Now, that difficulty had been easily resolved.

Of course, this did not mean Goudanzi had simply stumbled upon such an enormous windfall without paying a price. He also discovered that maintaining his eyes in that state consumed a great deal of energy. It drained not only his mind, but placed a tremendous burden on his body as well. With his current physique, he could maintain it for only a small fraction of a double-hour-roughly fifteen minutes-before reaching his limit.

And what did reaching that limit mean?

It meant utter exhaustion, weakness throughout his body, and falling asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. He would sleep for an entire day and still feel less than refreshed the next morning. Thus, after reaching his limit that first time, Goudanzi never maintained the state for so long in one stretch again. At most, he kept it up for ten minutes. He used those ten minutes each day to thoroughly familiarize himself with the state of his body and make ample preparations for practicing the Flameheart Method.

Previously, his insufficient control had kept him from rashly attempting to practice it. Now, however, after several days of adjustment and careful observation, he was confident that he could safely practice the Flameheart Method even without maintaining that special state of his eyes. Under the circumstances, he naturally could not wait-and did not want to wait any longer.

"Whew!" After completing an exceedingly ugly round of Tai Chi Fist, Goudanzi let out a long breath, a helpless expression appearing on his face.

No wonder people always say the ignorant know no fear. I used to think my Tai Chi Fist had really reached a certain level. Only now do I realize everything I practiced before was dog shit. Now that I understand the flow of Internal Energy and the circulation of qi and blood more deeply, I thought I could take my Tai Chi Fist up another floor. Instead, my Internal Energy and movements have fallen out of sync. The problem isn't Tai Chi Fist-it's me. I've only seen and understood how Internal Energy, qi, and blood circulate. I haven't truly mastered it yet. There's still a long road ahead before I can control it completely and merge it with the intent of Tai Chi Fist. Right, there are also those Tai Chi Fist mnemonic verses I memorized before. I used to think they were useless, but during that last round, my body's reactions seemed to bear out a few of the lines. No, I need to go back and write those verses down while I still remember them. A good memory is no match for a worn pen. If I forget them someday, the loss will be enormous!

Goudanzi stood still, his eyes narrowed, and slowly mulled things over. Too much had happened over the past few days. While lying in bed, he had been so busy exploring the functions of his eyes that he had not carefully considered anything else.

My eyes are rather similar to the Sharingan. Could I have transmigrated into the world of Naruto? No, the Naruto world doesn't have Chinese characters, and this world doesn't have ninjas either. Perhaps it's only a coincidence. I just wonder whether these eyes can copy other people's martial arts! At that thought, Goudanzi could not help licking his somewhat dry lips. He suddenly became intensely interested in the idea, even feeling an irresistible urge to test it.

Very soon, however, he grew discouraged again. In this remote mountain village, where could he find anyone who would let him test whether his eyes could copy martial arts?

The strongest person here was his brother-in-law, Wang Tianlei, and Goudanzi already knew practically all the martial arts Wang Tianlei knew. In some areas, he was even more proficient than Wang Tianlei. As for everyone else, they had learned their martial arts from Wang Tianlei and were not even as good as Goudanzi!

"Right!"

Suddenly, Goudanzi's eyes lit up as someone came to mind.

Wu Qinglong! That fellow is the best archer in the village. And not just him-I heard his father used to be the village's best archer too. Apparently, they practice an ancestral archery art. I wonder whether that's true. I've heard the Wu Household never lets outsiders watch when they practice archery. The only way to see them shoot is to go along on a hunt. Unfortunately, I'm too young and haven't had a chance to enter the mountains with the hunting party yet. Otherwise, I'd have an opportunity to observe! Goudanzi thought to himself.