Once everything was ready, Yan Lingyun had Lian Youming bring out the things he had prepared, one by one.
Astragalus, balloon flower root, codonopsis, Solomon's seal, fragrant Solomon's seal, wild ginseng, fleeceflower root, lingzhi...
Only after all the ingredients for the dietary supplements had been laid out did Yan Lingyun check them against the recipes, one by one.
Some of these things Lian Youming had obtained from the supply and marketing cooperative and mountain foragers, while others he had bought from Liu Danaodai. Scraping everything together had taken considerable effort.
Yan Lingyun said nothing, merely sorting through them with great care and attention. Apart from a few medicinal herbs that had lost their potency through improper storage, most were fine.
She turned and opened her own case. Its contents were far more meticulously packed than Lian Youming's large burlap sack: a whole assortment of bottles and jars, three wooden boxes, two jade boxes, a section of thick bone with red flesh still attached, and a bear paw stripped of skin and flesh.
Under Lian Youming's curious gaze, Yan Lingyun took out ox bezoar, musk, rhinoceros horn, and dried deer heart blood. Then she opened a jade box, revealing a bear gallbladder, amber in color and copper-yellow throughout. Last came that section of thick bone.
"Hiss... ox bezoar, musk, and that's a copper gallbladder. Could this be the backbone of a Siberian tiger?"
Liu Danaodai's eyes had truly been opened. He stood beside them with his hands and feet trembling, no longer even stuttering as he spoke.
These were all worth a small fortune.
After a moment's thought, Yan Lingyun took quite a few well-preserved medicinal herbs from her case and substituted them for those Lian Youming had prepared.
"You can't just consume the decoctions from these five recipes any way you please. Since their medicinal properties correspond to the five elements, you must drink them in the order in which the five elements generate one another. If you get it wrong and their medicinal properties clash, something might happen."
Standing beside her, Lian Youming had no idea what to say and simply kept nodding.
Some of these herbs entered the heart meridian, others the lung meridian, and still others the liver, kidney, or spleen meridians. Some strengthened Qi and nourished the body, some invigorated the blood, some regulated Qi, and some dispelled blood stasis. What had originally looked like a miscellaneous heap to Lian Youming was soon sorted out by Yan Lingyun, item by item.
Only after Liu Danaodai went outside to keep watch did Yan Lingyun speak with considerable concern. "Your art follows a different path from those internal martial arts. Those martial artists mostly temper their foundations from the outside in, training through the dog days of summer and the bitterest days of winter. They might spend two or three years on forms and stance training alone. That is meant to strengthen their blood and Qi, temper their sinews and bones, and reinforce their internal breath. Only then does their master teach them fighting methods and impart the method of swallowing Qi."
"But," she looked at Lian Youming, her expression very serious, "this art of yours actually begins by strengthening the five Qi through dietary supplements, skipping the process of tempering the foundation. It works from the inside out. Once you begin practicing, you will definitely need to take in large quantities of essence and Qi within a short time to forge your foundation. Its martial principles seem to draw on the idea of nourishing like with like. It's extremely unusual."
Lian Youming raised his thick eyebrows. "Nourishing like with like?"
Yan Lingyun said softly, "If you really can strengthen yourself by consuming things from outside your body, then compared with the flesh and blood of wild animals, which of those martial arts experts isn't as vigorous as a dragon or tiger, with abundant blood and Qi...?"
At this, Lian Youming's eyelids twitched wildly. "You mean eating... surely it can't be that sinister."
Yan Lingyun sighed. "That is where its martial principles lead, not something I dreamed up... As for whether this art is an extraordinary skill or an evil method, I'm afraid only its creator knows. Brother Lian, I trust you, so you must be extremely careful about this in the future."
With that, Yan Lingyun divided each set of medicinal ingredients into five portions, making fifteen portions in total, and simmered them over a low flame in fifteen medicinal pots.
They simmered for over four full hours.
In each pot, nine bowls of water were reduced to one. The fifteen pots of medicinal decoction were then recombined into five portions according to their respective medicinal properties.
In the end, what was actually poured from the pots amounted to only five bowls.
Looking at the medicinal decoctions before him, thick as glue, Lian Youming could not help swallowing.
"What is this stuff? Nothing's going to happen if I drink it, right?"
As though she had noticed the resistance on Lian Youming's face, Yan Lingyun blinked her large eyes and smiled as if she had discovered some secret. "I've worked through the medicinal properties myself. There's nothing wrong with them."
Lian Youming's Adam's apple bobbed. It wasn't as though he had never drunk Chinese medicine before, but wasn't it supposed to be watery? This had been boiled down to glue.
After letting it cool for a while, Yan Lingyun picked up a bowl. "Go on, drink it while it's hot."
Smelling the pungent medicinal odor, then thinking of how this was the key to opening up that world, Lian Youming steeled his gaze, took the porcelain bowl, and drained it in one gulp.
Then he closed his eyes to feel the medicinal potency spreading through his body.
As the medicinal liquid entered his body, Lian Youming suddenly felt a scorching current of Qi surge upward from his abdomen. He immediately undid his clothes, bared his upper body, and sat cross-legged on the ground.
Yan Lingyun's voice reached his ears. "Can you feel the medicinal potency? It's that hot Qi. Use your breath to disperse it."
Lian Youming sank his breath, and the training method for Three Yin Earth-Baleful Force flashed through his mind.
Press the tongue against the roof of the mouth, pulse the cheeks, draw Qi into the throat and tongue... let the spirit roam the three yin...
As he drew a breath into his throat and tongue, a rhythm arose naturally in his breathing, churning into force, and that familiar sensation struck him once more.
Half a year had passed. This time, Lian Youming's mind was settled and his spirit steady, as though he had already rehearsed it countless times in his heart. He swallowed the breath into his abdomen, where it plunged straight down like a rushing waterfall, like a heavy hammer smashing hard into the rising hot Qi.
The gathered medicinal potency immediately dispersed, seemingly seeping invisibly into his internal organs.
Lian Youming took more than a dozen breaths in succession. Only when the hot Qi sank did he drink the second bowl of medicinal decoction, then the third, the fourth, and the fifth...
Once he had finished all five bowls, Lian Youming's whole body burned hot, heat rose from the top of his head, and his face glowed, as though he were taking a hot steam bath. But this change did not last long. As his breaths grew deeper and longer, everything returned to normal.
Yan Lingyun stood beside him, watching that intensely masculine body with several golden needles in her hand, her small face taut, as though she would stab them into him at the first sign of anything wrong.
Liu Danaodai had just come through the door carrying the stewed goose when he witnessed this scene. His jaw nearly hit the floor, and he stammered, "Holy shit, i-is this... the legendary... Qigong? The kind that lets you project your p-power... through the air?"
Although he knew aged medicinal herbs, he knew nothing of internal martial arts. Seeing the medicinal potency spreading through Lian Youming's body, he was instantly awestruck, as though beholding a celestial being.
Lian Youming had no time to pay the old man any attention. He exhaled a long breath of hot air, steadily regulating his breathing, undisguised delight on his face.
Now that his five Qi had been strengthened, all that remained was to replenish his essence and Qi through food so that he could practice the Golden Bell Cover.
Just then, Yan Lingyun suddenly turned and took another wooden box from her case.
"This box contains eleven pieces of hundred-year-old Solomon's seal, steamed and sun-dried nine times. Brother Lian, your foundation is still shallow. From now on, you only need to take a little bite when you practice. It's much purer than meat... What's in here will last you two or three months."
Lian Youming could not help clicking his tongue. It seemed this young girl really had spared no expense for that wild ginseng with eight-grade leaves. Even he felt a little embarrassed.
She really was a precious treasure.
"Don't worry, Miss Yan. I'll definitely do what I promised you. I guarantee I'll complete the mission. From now on, even if it's the stars in the sky you want, I'll pluck them down for you."
Lian Youming made his vows with utter conviction.
"Braggart!"
At his words, Yan Lingyun's cheeks reddened again. She hurried to the table and began eating the iron-pot stewed goose, keeping her head down.
Lian Youming was about to sit down too, but Liu Danaodai caught his sleeve.
"Uncle Liu, what's wrong?"
The man kept rubbing his hands together, and even the way he looked at Lian Youming had changed.
The village doctor Liu's eyes burned with fervor. "This disciple had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. I did not know a master stood before me. I beg Master Lian to accept this disciple into your school and impart your divine art. This disciple will surely bring glory to our school..."
He was no longer even stuttering.
(End of chapter)
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