Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Thump! Thump!
Steaming hot porridge. Vegetables canned from the field.
It was a purely vegetable-based meal, as Master had forbidden eating meat for fear of accumulating fire qi.
The chatter quieted, and Master Mujin picked up his cutlery in silence.
Master Mujin, an adult, scooped up the food and ate it first, followed by me and Yeonhwa.
After a quick meal of porridge and vegetables, the bowls of food were placed on a wooden tray.
“Oh, I’ll do this.”
Yeon-hwa said she would do the dishes, rolled up her sleeves, picked up the tray, and headed for the nearby ravine.
“Hehe, you’re a genius, and so is that kid.”
“I don’t know, but I do know that Yan Hua is a genius.”
“She might be the first female elder of the Huashan Sect.”
Master Mujin doesn’t lie, and he’s very discerning.
If Master Mujin said so, then if Yan Hua continues to train as she is, she will one day have the honor of becoming the first female elder of the Volcano Sect.
“By the way, I have to go out for a while.”
Master Mu Jin sternly said.
“Master Zhang Wenyin has asked me to descend.”
“Why?”
“There’s been a fight between a sect founded by one of the Volcano’s inner disciples and another sect, and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen and I have been sent on a mission. We won’t be back for a month or so.”
A month. A short period of time, but a long period of time.
He hadn’t been away from his master since he became his apprentice, and he was a little nervous when he heard he was going down the mountain.
“When do we leave?”
“I think we should leave right now, the plum blossom swordsmen have already arrived in Yanhua Village.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
A battle between factions, a battle for one’s life, would be dangerous to say the least.
“Hehe. Who am I? I am Mu Qin, the elder of the Huashan Sect. It’s dangerous, but not dangerous enough to die.”
A confident expression and tone.
I relaxed at Master Mujin’s demeanor.
“Good luck, then.”
I bowed with a sweeping gesture.
“Yes, you should continue practicing while I’m gone, and don’t fool around.”
With that, Master Mujin opened the door, stepped out of the drunken rock, and deployed his polarizing armor.
In an instant, Master Mujin’s figure disappeared from my sight.
I sighed and went to the valley.
“Lalala.”
Yan Hua was humming and washing the bowl in the valley.
Careful not to break it, and scrubbing it carefully.
It was familiar.
A pop!
“Huh? When did you get here?”
A foot stomped on the ground, startling her, and she turned around.
“Oh, I’m alone.”
“Eh? Alone? Where’s Elder Mujin?”
“He’s off on a mission, and I won’t see him for a month or so.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t even say hello to him properly…….”
Yan Hua shook her head to clear her emotions.
Ding!
Wiping the last bowl clean and drying it in the sunlight, Yeonhwa said.
“So, what are you going to do from now on? Are you going to stay in the Qu Yun Cliffs?”
“Of course I will. Is there anywhere else I can stay?”
“Right. Then I’ll come and visit you whenever I can. So you don’t get bored.”
“I don’t think you’ll be bored when you’re practicing martial arts.”
“Don’t nag me. If I say it as a favor, I’ll take it.”
“Yes, yes.”
After that, they made small talk.
Later that evening, after Yeon-hwa left, I walked out of the drunken rock and looked at the evening sky.
A clear, cloudless evening sky.
The sky was a mixture of purple, black, and other colors, and the moon and stars shone brightly, giving the world a different feeling.
“It’s beautiful…….”
I had been too busy practicing martial arts to see such natural scenery.
But now that his master had left and he had some time to spare, he realized that it would be nice to take in these spectacular sights.
Just then, a star twinkled and shone and fell to the ground.
“A meteor?”
Meteors are auspicious.
If you make a wish while it’s falling, it’s said to be a sign of good fortune.
However, for some reason, I had a feeling that it would be bad rather than good.
“Why?”
My heart was pounding hard and fast.
It was an ominous premonition.
“Is it because you’re not here?”
This is my first time being alone.
I told myself that that’s why I’m so anxious, and I entered the drunken rock.
Zap! Zap!
A bright light illuminated the world, and birds chirped.
“Mmm…….”
I shielded my eyes with my hands against the blinding sunlight, then removed them as I stood up.
He shook his head, shaking off the sleep that still lingered in his body.
“Master…….”
As soon as I woke up, I looked for Master as was my habit.
“Master?”
But there was no answer.
There was no sign of Master Mujin, who was always the first to wake up.
“Ah, that’s right, you descended yesterday…….”
He remembered what happened yesterday.
He remembered that Master had descended and that he was alone.
“……Alone?”
His heart sank at the realization that he was alone.
A feeling of being alone that he hadn’t felt yesterday because he was with Yeonhwa weighed on his heart.
And the ugly feeling from yesterday somehow became stronger every time I thought of Master, which made me even more disturbed.
“Wow, what a disgrace, Qingwu. Even if Master is gone, life is the same. It’s morning training, right?”
He shook his head to clear his emotions and stepped outside.
He breathed in the fresh air to warm up, then picked up the wooden sword that was propped up against the side of the hermitage.
“Huh.”
As he picked up the sword, he felt a cold, clear energy.
The wooden sword had absorbed the energy of the evening and dawn, and was imbued with yin qi.
The corners of his mouth tilted upward in a smile at the pleasant sensation, and he moved his sword.
First, the three-pointed sword.
It was a martial art he had been practicing since he was a disciple of Bo Ping, so it was the most suitable for morning training.
He moved his sword as if to lightly loosen his body, extending the sword gong to the end before retracting his sword.
Next up was Zhang Tianshu.
Like the Three Swords, it was the one I was most familiar with.
As usual, I felt a few inconsistencies, but ignored them.
As usual, he simply extended the formation to the end.
Then came the Plum Blossom Sword.
Unlike the previous two, he moved his sword nervously.
“Hot!”
With a quick movement of his hand, he shook the sword pole.
The shaking sword pole quickly drew the shape of a plum blossom.
But that alone was not a true plum blossom sword.
He moved the inner cavity of the dagger and expelled it through the sword pole, revealing a reddish plum blossom.
Papapapap!
The plum blossoms quickly filled the space.
The number of plum blossoms was five.
The maximum number I could produce.
“Hmm…… seems like it could be something, somehow?”
I felt like I could create one more plum blossom.
I moved the sword again on that feeling.
Slowly, but not slowly, I moved my jing into the sword, spun it around, and thrust it out quickly.
“Hot!”
Papat!
I followed the feeling and moved the sword.
I drew five, and the sword seemed to move of its own accord.
Pot!
I drew another plum blossom.
“Six!
But the plum was not complete.
It was an incomplete plum, missing two petals.
“Huh.”
I sighed.
“No, it’s okay, it’s good enough…….”
I sighed in disappointment, but this is a huge accomplishment in itself.
Yesterday I made another plum, and the next day I made half a plum.
That was enough to satisfy me.
I leaned my sword against a flat rock, climbed up on top of it, and sat down in a trestle.
This time, I practiced my mind.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply into his body.
“Huh.”
Nature’s chi entered through my nose and traveled through my blood vessels.
As I relaxed into the practice, I was reminded of the time when I had just become a student and was given an explanation of the practice.
“Sit on the patriarchal seat.”
I did as Master Mujin said and closed my eyes.
As my eyelids descended, inky blackness gradually took over my vision.
“Contemplate the inside of your body.”
I can’t see the outside.
All I can see is the inside of my body.
I did as Sensei said and looked inside.
I could feel a wall in front of my brain at the forehead, a half-open door at the top of my head, and a little more space and energy that I had been collecting at the bottom of my navel.
“You will feel a short circuit below your navel, and something at the top of your head, and then in your head. The place where you’ve been collecting your chi, below your navel, is called the lower zone. The upper part of the navel is called the midline, and the head is called the upper line.”
“Why do you call it the bottom, middle, and top?”
“I’ll tell you now. The lower chi kung is the place where the inner gong, as it is called in the world, is built up. It’s where you train to increase the strength and utilization of each part of your body. It is the place to control the physical body and the divine body. It regulates the ups and downs of emotions and protects the internal organs. It governs the heart and spirit, where practicing here will make your bones supple, increase the flexibility and self-repair of your internal organs, and help you stay calm at all times. The upper zone is called the place for the gods, and it governs the soul and the white body. When developed, one can have precognitive powers, also known as telekinesis, which allows one to predict the minds of others, and telekinesis, which allows one to move objects without touching them.”
Master Mujin took a deep breath before speaking again.
“These are all important, but at this point in your life, you’d be better off cultivating the lower forms. In martial arts training, the body always comes first, followed by the mind, and then the spirit. Do you understand?”
Master’s voice echoed and imprinted itself in my mind.
At this moment, all the half-open stops were open, and the top one was slightly open. In the lower section, I had accumulated a great deal of internal cultivation that was incomparable to that of two years ago, and my body was supple and my mind was clear.
“Wow!”
This is the end of the distractions.
As I entered the state of no-me, my mind was submerged in the depths of my heart.
Crying in a trance, it was no different than usual.
How long had it been?
Suddenly, the energy that had been flowing according to the pattern of the Jahasim method began to deviate from the path.
The energy began to move and break through the blockages.