Grass and Wood Wash the Meridians (II)

After Strategist Ji left, Li Yan immediately felt the flow of energy within him ease. He could not help but smile bitterly. Whenever his master stood beside him, he always felt his breath and energy become obstructed.

He promptly calmed his mind and steadied his breath, no longer dwelling on anything else. Each burning of the copper furnace gave him roughly one shichen to cultivate, and he could not afford to waste time. Walking up to the furnace, he assumed a horse stance and extended both hands into the blue-black vapor above the copper basin. As he silently circulated the mnemonic and cultivation method, the blue-black energy wrapped around his hands seemed to be drawn in. It split into ten black threads and bored toward his fingertips. Li Yan immediately felt as though red-hot needles had suddenly pried open his nails, tearing them away alive. The pain stabbed straight into his heart and brain.

Even though Li Yan had been mentally prepared, he had never expected such agony. He let out a muffled groan, his stance swaying beneath him, and staggered two steps backward. Strangely, the blue-black threads of energy that had already been drawn by the cultivation method did not disperse. They stretched as he retreated, still drilling into his body through the gaps beneath his nails.

Li Yan's black robe had already been soaked through with sweat. Gritting his teeth, he forcibly gathered his focus and stepped forward two paces, resuming his stance and circulating the cultivation method once more. The strands of blue-black energy became like red-hot silver needles again, piercing through his meridians and advancing. For every inch they moved forward, his entire body shuddered involuntarily, while sweat poured out layer upon layer like slurry.

He did not know how long he could endure this cultivation, but he had been born with a tenacious nature. Once he set his sights on something, even if he could not do it flawlessly, he would always give it everything he had. Time trickled away. Eventually, his nerves had long gone numb. Only his mind continued mechanically circulating the cultivation method, driving the blue-black energy through his body.

Outside, Strategist Ji sat cross-legged atop the stone table with his eyes closed in meditation, yet his eyelids occasionally twitched, betraying his unease. More than half a shichen later, his eyes suddenly flew open. He vanished from the stone table, and the stone door of Li Yan's dwelling swung open as though pushed by an invisible force.

Inside, Li Yan's face had turned blue-black, while a layer of black energy covered both his hands and arms. By now, he had lost all sensation. He could no longer even mechanically circulate the cultivation method, and his body was tipping backward. Yet the blue-black energy remained stubbornly connected to his ten fingers, stretching into arc after arc as he fell back, looking exceedingly bizarre. Just as he was about to crash stiffly onto the ground, a figure appeared behind him. One wide sleeve swept out and wrapped him up, while another shook at the ten streams of blue-black energy. With several soft pop, pop sounds, the energy severed from Li Yan's fingers. Yet Li Yan's body seemed to retain a suction force. The severed blue-black energy twisted through the air like venomous snakes, writhing and swaying toward him without cease, terrifyingly strange.

Strategist Ji did not spare those blue-black streams another glance. With a flick of the sleeve holding Li Yan, a gentle force carried him to the wooden bed and slowly laid him down. Strategist Ji then strode to the bedside. His hands flew before his chest, forming several seemingly complex hand seals, after which several points of blue starlight shot from his fingertips and descended onto Li Yan's abdomen.

Li Yan felt as though he had been cast into a volcano. His body burned with unbearable pain. He wanted to scream, yet no sound would come out. He suffered endlessly as countless scarlet torrents of lava surrounded him, roasting and boiling him through.

He felt that he was about to die within that volcano when a cool sensation suddenly rose from his abdomen. The volcano and boundless lava gradually receded, and his mind began to clear. When he opened his eyes, he discovered that he was lying flat on the bed, with his black-robed master standing beside it. He struggled to sit up, but a searing pain stabbed through his chest and abdomen. He groaned and fell back down, sparks bursting before his eyes as the volcano within his body showed faint signs of erupting again.

After lying there and steadying himself, he turned to his master and forced a smile. "M-Master, this disciple is incompetent and has failed your expectations."

"Hehe, there is no need to blame yourself. For your first attempt, enduring for more than half a shichen has already greatly exceeded my expectations. You did very well." Strategist Ji smiled at him gently.

"So... so this means this disciple can cultivate the sect's cultivation method?" Li Yan's face was somewhat twisted as he spoke with difficulty.

"Naturally. However, though you are suffering now, you must still refine the medicinal power of the plants and herbs you have just absorbed. If that medicinal power remains inside your body, it will bring a hundred harms and not a single benefit. Only after refining it will it truly belong to you, and only then will one session of cultivation be considered complete."

Li Yan naturally knew this. His master had explained it before. Each day's cultivation was divided into two stages: absorbing the medicinal power of plants and herbs, then refining it for one's own use. After seven times seven, forty-nine days, he could enter the first level and produce internal force. From then onward, with this as his foundation, he would no longer need to absorb medicinal power from plants and herbs. He would only need continual cultivation.

Li Yan drew a breath and slowly sat up, enduring the scorching pain inside him. He crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and began circulating the cultivation method to refine the medicinal power within his body.

After seeing this, Strategist Ji turned and silently withdrew. Once again, he sat cross-legged on the stone table outside. After settling down, he murmured to himself, "This child is indeed steadfast of heart. But after refining that medicinal power, whether he can still remain calm and composed is difficult to say." After uttering that cryptic remark, he seemed to sink into deep thought.

From that day onward, Li Yan began a painful journey of day after day drawing medicine into his body and refining its power to strengthen his meridians. Yet the time he remained conscious while drawing medicine into his body steadily grew longer. As time passed, although the medicinal power nearly more than doubled every seven days, the pain of drawing it into his body gradually lessened considerably. Aside from helping him dissolve it during the first few sessions, Strategist Ji no longer needed to intervene later on, as Li Yan could cultivate entirely on his own. This was because the meridians within his body had grown stronger by the day. Previously, his meridians had been like delicate, tender pipes. When the medicinal power forcibly tore them open and expanded them, the pain was naturally beyond measure. But as the medicinal power was refined into his body, large and small meridians alike gradually grew and expanded. Several of his main meridians had already begun to thicken and toughen, naturally reducing his suffering greatly.

With a long exhalation, Li Yan finished refining his energy for the day. He did not rise, remaining seated cross-legged. After opening his eyes, he frowned as a wave of irritation surged within him.

He could only draw another deep breath. As his daily cultivation progressed, he discovered that his emotions had become increasingly irritable, as though a ball of fire were darting wildly up and down inside his body, leaving him unbearably vexed.

He had asked his master about it. Strategist Ji told him that it was caused by the medicinal power cleansing his body. Only potent medicinal power could forge strong meridians, and only such a constitution could wield the sect's fierce and formidable cultivation method. Once he entered the first level after seven times seven, forty-nine days, this condition would improve. As his cultivation deepened in the future, it would disappear completely.

After hearing that, Li Yan considered his master's martial arts, unmatched beneath heaven, and felt that it made perfect sense. Yet an inexplicable unease remained in his heart. Whenever he pondered it, however, he found no clue.

Setting those thoughts aside, another wave of irritation rose within Li Yan. This restlessness had begun to make it impossible for him to guard his heart and return to the origin whenever he cultivated.

Li Yan rose and pushed open the door. It was already night. Feeling utterly stifled, he wandered through the valley at random. Since beginning his cultivation, he had spent nearly every day diligently training, with no leisure to steal a moment of idleness. But today, the irritation in his heart made him want only to vent it. How could he possibly remain inside his room?

Thus he wandered aimlessly through the valley. The autumn night wind blew against his face, waves of coolness brushing over him. He immediately felt much of the oppression in his chest disperse, and he could not help taking several deep breaths of the faint chill carried on the wind. He walked slowly through the valley. The valley was not very large, and after circling halfway around it, he reached the pool. Waves of coldness rushed toward his face. His heart chilled, and he immediately felt the energy within him flow freely as his spirits soared. He hurried several steps to the water's edge, where the cold grew even stronger, leaving his chest incomparably comfortable. Delighted, Li Yan simply sat beside the pool. He remained there for half a shichen. When he finally stood, the heat within his body had completely dissipated, only for waves of drowsiness to surge up afterward. Upon returning to his room, he collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

When dawn arrived, Li Yan woke from his dreams feeling full of vigor. Over these more than twenty days of cultivation, as changes occurred within his body, it had been a long time since he had slept as he had the night before.

After waking, Li Yan stood before the table and watched the misty vapor curling above the pool outside the window. His eyes grew brighter and brighter. Then he strode swiftly toward his master's stone house. Before he reached it, Strategist Ji's familiar, gentle voice drifted out. "You are here. Then come in."

Since Li Yan had begun cultivating, he had seldom come to his master's place. Usually, after preparing the medicine each day, his master would stand guard outside Li Yan's room to protect him.

"Yes, Master." Li Yan's expression tightened as he hurried inside. Once he entered, he found his master sitting cross-legged behind the table as unchanged as ever. One hand held that book that seemed neither gold nor jade, while he looked up at Li Yan with a smile. Yet for some reason, whenever Li Yan saw his master, he always felt the energy within him become obstructed.

"Hehe, your complexion is quite good today. It seems you have discovered something about this valley." Strategist Ji looked at Li Yan and said with a smile.

"Master knows why this disciple came?" Li Yan asked in surprise.

"You must have discovered that the pool can dispel the heat within your body, correct?" Strategist Ji said with a smile.

"Yes, Master. So you already knew of the pool's effects." Li Yan could not help asking.

"Of course I knew. When I chose this valley as my residence, half the reason was that the water of this pool possesses an unusually frigid effect."

"Then, Master, why did you not let this disciple cultivate there?" Li Yan asked hesitantly.

"Hehe, this sect's method of initiation is indeed somewhat overbearing. Therefore, all disciples of this sect experience such a condition during their introductory cultivation, and there are quite a few ways to resolve it. One may immerse oneself in one's own interests to restore peace of mind, such as playing the qin, performing music, calligraphy, and so forth. Another is to use external forces to directly offset the fire within the body, such as ice stones, snowy mountains, cold pools, and the like." At this point, Strategist Ji paused and glanced at Li Yan.

Li Yan did not press him further. He knew that his master would soon give him the answer.

Seeing Li Yan remain so composed, Strategist Ji could not help sighing inwardly. This child has a quiet nature and loves to ponder.

Then he continued, "The reason I did not let you cultivate beside the pool now is that, when one first begins cultivation, one should rely on one's own endurance to contend against it. That tempers one's character more effectively. If you depend on external things from the beginning, their effect will diminish more and more as your later cultivation progresses, and it will instead hinder your own training. That is why I did not tell you of these matters. I feared you would be unable to resist the temptation and abandon the tempering of yourself."

After hearing this, Li Yan thought, So there is such a reason. These many methods cannot be used lightly. Then he bowed and said, "This disciple understands his mistake."

Strategist Ji waved a hand. "This is not your fault. I simply did not explain it clearly." Then, after pondering briefly, he said, "How about this? From what I have observed of your cultivation these past few days, you seem to have reached a certain bottleneck. But for now, do not cultivate beside the pool. I will first use another method to eliminate the abnormal condition that appears during your training. When you make your final push into the first level after seven times seven, forty-nine days, cultivate beside the pool. That will produce the best result. Once you enter the first level, you may cultivate there for extended periods."

Hearing this, Li Yan was delighted. "Then what method will Master use?"

"You will find out during today's cultivation." Strategist Ji smiled faintly but did not explain.

Li Yan smiled bitterly to himself and could only take his leave.

Several hours later, after Li Yan drew the medicine into his body, he sat cross-legged and began refining the medicinal power. Before long, the scorching energy was already churning violently within him. After suppressing it several times, he gradually became unable to restrain it. His mind could no longer remain calm, and the restless energy surged ever more fiercely.

Just then, a melody from a qin suddenly drifted in through the window. It was like an autumn moon over a tranquil lake, like the jade rabbit rising in the east; like a breeze in the woods softly brushing the branches and leaves, then like a maiden murmuring in whispers; and then like morning dew illuminating the heart. Li Yan immediately felt coolness slowly arise within his heart, while his agitation gradually faded and his spiritual platform slowly cleared.

He instantly understood what method his master had used. His master's attainment in the qin was so profound that he could transform sound into a realm, making one's spiritual platform bright and clear. Li Yan did not dare think further. He focused his mind and steadied his breath, slowly entering a state of self-forgetfulness.