Legend of the Cultivation God Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Luck

Feeling the Yuan qi in his body disappear, Zhang Xiaohua wanted to cry but had no tears. This was just bullying! Putting aside the difference in talent, how could the Yuan qi that he worked so hard to get disappear so easily? 

  

 Since he had no means to introspect his body for the Yuan qi, he could only try again.   

  

Following his first experience, not long after he was able to sense another strand of Yuan qi entering his body. But similar to the first instance, this time too it vanished unnoticeably. 

  

After a few more occurrences, Zhang Xiaohua stopped feeling bitter about it. The Yuan qi outside was not his own but once it has entered his body, it is his Yuan qi. As long as it doesn't leave his body, he would find it someday. Moreover, it wasn’t mentioned in the Serene Heart Sutra that the Yuan qi would leave the body after entering. Even He Tianshu had never said that the Inner Strength runs out of the body. 

  

Is it possible that the Yuan qi would exit by itself? It sounds weird just saying it. 

  

Zhang Xiaohua sat down on the field ridge of the medicine field, and absorbed a lot of Yuan qi into the body in one afternoon. At this time, Zhang Xiaohua was also a little puzzled. But after all, is it possible to deflate? Why wasn't he able to perceive the Yuan qi around him? Why are they all traces? They all come trickling from the top, not as mentioned in the Heart Sutra. Is there a mass of qi between heaven and earth? Could it be that He Tianshu's internal force was also cultivated strand by strand like this? 

  

With his mind full of questions, he returned to the yard and knocked on He Tianshu's door. He Tianshu had come back from the Medicine Hall and was studying the Misty Steps in his room. He asked with a smile, "Did you have issues in practicing Headstrong Bull Strength Headstrong Bull Strength?"  

  

Zhang Xiaohua froze and said, "Captain He, you really are a great man. You can predict my thoughts so accurately." 

  

He Tianshu waved his hand and said, "It isn't anything great. If I was of your age and had got my first qi manual, I would be just like you. Inner qi cultivation would be easy to go wrong with without guidance, if not for your brother's discovery. I have heard of your "Headstrong Bull Strength", it is simple and easy to understand. It is suitable for you to practice even with no guidance. 

  

Then, raising his eyebrows, he laughed and said, "You were busy all afternoon? How was your progress?" 

   

Zhang Xiaohua blushed and said in a small voice, "I could not feel any qi sense." 

He Tianshu smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. Qi sense is related to the talent of a person. You cannot be discouraged so easily. Keep practicing, you will get it sooner or later. Back then, even I had used entire two days to get qi sense." 

"How long does it take for the most talented ones?" Zhang Xiaohua asked curiously. 

"Immediately!" He Tianshu answered confidently. 

Zhang Xiaohua's mouth opened so wide is surprise that you could fill a whole duck egg inside. 

"Yes, it's immediately." He Tianshu repeated with a smile. The world has got numerous talents. But in my memory very few people are able to get qi sense so quickly. Most take one or two days." 

Zhang Xiaohua the asked, "How many days did it take for the slowest person to get qi sense?" 

He Tianshu knitted his brows and said, "All people in Misty Faction are naturally talented. The slowest one took a little over 34 days to obtain qi sense." 

Zhang Xiaohua felt a little reassured. He then asked, "Do you feel that the qi outside is in traces or in large amounts?" 

He Tianshu listened, he was shocked, and immediately laughed, said: "Zhang Xiaohua, Zhang Xiaohua, you are really funny. There is no qi outside, this sense of qi is a hypothesis. It should also be described in Headstrong Bull Strength. Assume that qi comes from the forehead, this is the embryonic form of internal force. Internal force is your own way to carry this qi and get through your acupuncture points in the meridians of the body, and they can increase a little after flowing around the body once. This is the essence of the increase in internal force. As I said, if you could inhale qi from outside of the body then we would just inhale it from outside every day. Why would we need to meditate sitting cross-legged and work hard to exercise our internal strength? " 

Looking at Zhang Xiaohua's puzzled face, He Tianshu explained: "Also, the body's meridians is the container of internal force, and the size of the container also determines the amount of internal force. To increase the internal force is to expand the meridians. Only when both of them are increased, can it be regarded as a high-level inner cultivation art. Your "Headstrong Bull Strength" is easy to get started with. The exercise route is simple, and it takes only one week to have some progress, the internal force growth is limited, and this exercise has little to no effect on the expansion of the meridians. Therefore, there are very few people who practice this." 

"But," Zhang Xiaohua said anxiously: "Without feeling the internal force from the outside of the body, how does the body generate internal force?" 

He Tianshu smiled and said: "There's is an old saying, live by your heart. This is how the internal force is generated. As long as you have qi sense, there will naturally be generation of internal force in the meridians of your body, nice and warm. If you practice according to your cultivation art, the internal force will follow your mind, and it will flow in your meridians like a little mouse." 

"If you practice for a long time, then the mouse will naturally grow up." He Tianshu added as a matter of course. 

"Warm flow? Flowing in the meridians?" Zhang Xiaohua thought in his mind. When he was practicing Heavenly Dipper Fist before, he had felt a warm flow. He guessed that it might have been internal force. 

Zhang Xiaohua thought about the exercise route described in the Serene Heart Sutra, which seemed to be inconsistent with the warm current route he had felt in his meridians before. He asked, "Is inner strength meridian routes the same for all arts?" 

He Tianshu is looks the smiling face," Naturally it's different for different Inner Cultivation arts. They use different meridians transporting routes. If Misty Divine Art is the same with your «Headstrong Bull Strength» meridian routes, then won't we call it Misty Divine Art?" 

Zhang Xiaohua was disappointed but he did not lost heart as before. He asked, "Captain He, is what you said real? Can't Inner Strength be gained by absorbing qi from the outside?" 

He Tianshu said categorically, "Definitely and certainly!" 

Zhang Xiaohua was speechless. When he practiced the Serene Heart Sutra by himself, he really felt the vitality of the world and brought it into his body. What was going on? He wanted to ask He Tianshu questions about the disappearance of qi in the body. He decided that he might as well not ask about it. 

He Tianshu seeing Zhang Xiaohua's discouraged appearance, went close and shook his shoulder. He said: "Zhang Xiaohua, there's an old saying, failure is the mother of success. You do not have to fear hardship, sacrifice, perseverance. If you cannot obtain qi sense in one day use two days, two days are not enough use three days. If you cannot obtain qi sense in 1-2 months, that is also not the end. You can practice outer cultivation arts instead of inner cultivating arts. Look at our Misty Faction's Shi Niu. He doesn't practice inner cultivation but isn't he very fierce?" 

Zhang Xiaohua did not voice any arguments, just looked toward the He Tianshu without saying anything. He Tianshu looks at his appearance, somewhat awkwardly said, "This Misty Step Second Layer still has some difficulties that I have not unraveled yet. You said that this is obviously a footwork. I can’t figure out how to do it in some places. It's unbelievable. I really don't know how the sect leader made them. Don't worry, I will let you know as soon as I understand it. You still have to learn your Headstrong Bull Strength first and find a sense of qi." 

Zhang Xiaohua did not show much interest and said, "Captain He, you look first. I will also go back to ponder over it."  

After saying Zhang Xiaohua bowed his head and went out. 

He thought that he could find a satisfactory answer here but Zhang Xiaohua got even more confused, the things that He Tianshu said is very different from the Serene Heart Sutra that he practised. Did he practice wrongly? 

  

He Tianshu looked at Zhang Xiaohua's back, and worried about him. The internal cultivation arts have always been about talent. If you don't get a sense of qi for a long time, you can't generate any internal force at all, let alone talk about it. Zhang Xiaohua's was able to learn Fist arts by persevering but he might not be able to get internal force with his low talent. 

Immediately, He Tianshu remembered Zhang Xiaohua's ingenuity when learning Misty art steps, but the techniques of this step should also be based on internal force. Without internal force, even the best techniques are rootless and useless. Thinking of this, He Tianshu let out a long sigh, shaking his spirits and went back to diligently studying Misty Steps. 

Zhang Xiaohua returned to the hut. He took out the Serene Heart Sutra from his bosom again. He carefully read the description of first layer again carefully and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his memory. Closing the book, he began to ponder over it. 

The Heart Sutra clearly states that there is endless vitality between the heavens and the earth, and how much Qi you absorb into your body depends only on the practitioner's skill. If you don't have the ability to perceive the vitality, you can just face the infinite vitality but can’t recognize it. Now that he can sense qi, he should naturally feel a lot of vitality, shouldn't he? 

Suddenly, Zhang Xiaohua's eyes lit up. He had just read the first layer of the Serene Heart Sutra, which may not have this information but the future exercises may have it. So, he quickly opened the Serene Heart Sutra again. 

What disappointed Zhang Xiaohua is that after he has read it carefully from beginning to end, he still hasn't found any answer. The other dozen or so layers all talk about the route of the exercise and the boundaries between layers. It seems that only the first layer touches upon the vitality of heaven and earth. 

However, Zhang Xiaohua is not without gain. At the end of Serene Heart Sutra, it mentioned about another method of absorbing the vitality of heaven and earth. This method is not used to absorb gaseous heaven and earth energy, but to absorb qi from a solid stone called essence stone. According to the records of Serene Heart Sutra, although the vitality of this world is dispersed between the entire world, the concentration of the vitality in each place is different.In some special places, the vitality of the heaven and earth is amazingly strong. After a long time, it will condense into essence stones. Essence stones are large and small depending on the time they have been formed for, small like beans, and big like walnuts. These essence stones are crystals of Yuan Qi, which naturally contain a lot of Yuan Qi and can be absorbed by practitioners. On being absorbed the essence stone will slowly become smaller after being absorbed until it finally disappears completely. 

Zhang Xiaohua was very happy, and immediately remembered this method firmly in his mind, but the last sentence of the method poured cold water on his head. This method requires a cultivation of the ninth level in the Serene Heart Sutra. Only then can it be used, otherwise a lot of heaven and earth vitality will swarm into the body, which cannot be supported by the practitioner's not so tenacious meridians and cause the practitioner to explode and die. 

Zhang Xiaohua pouted, put the Serene Heart Sutra back into his arms, and thought in his heart, he really did some useless work now. Not to mention what this essence stone looks like, where can he find it, he hasn't even entered the alley on the first layer, and he doesn't know when would he be able to practice until the ninth layer? Even if he had an essence stone, he would not dare to absorb it. 

In the evening, Zhang Xiaohua still came to the woods, first practicing boxing, then sword and footwork skills. Needless to say, boxing and swordsmanship, his footwork skills were also becoming more and more sophisticated. Although there is no internal force, Zhang Xiaohua's body is very different from the previous one, and when he used the footwork skills to run in the woods, it looked very elegant. 

After this daily practice he sat down cross-legged under a tree and began practicing the Serene Heart Sutra trying to feel qi and draw it inside his body. 

However, he sat for a long time, but could not get the feeling that he got in the afternoon again. 

Having no other choice, he stood up and patted the dust from his clothes. What's going on? Is there no Yuan qi in there evening? 

Zhang Xiaohua was worried. He practiced a worry-free heart Sutra, how could there be so much trouble. It was easy to find the sense of qi in afternoon but the qi disappeared after entering his body, now he can't even find it. 

In fact, he didn't want to think about it. It's like someone has given pointers of his understanding to others. The cheats are the essence of theory, but after all, they record the experience of others. People are different from each other. These are to be compensated by practical experience. There is a saying that a famous teacher has outstanding disciple. There are certainly self-taught students, but that's just a drop in the ocean. 

However, the idea of finding the lost qi reminded Zhang Xiaohua, didn't he get the qi for the first time in the medicine field at noon? Since he cannot find it in the woods at night, why not try it in the medicine field. 

Do it when you think about it, anyway, there is still some time before midnight and he could just hurry back later. 

The medicine field appeared particularly tranquil at night. Moonlight was scattered around and the herbs were gently swaying in the wind. 

It was a wonderful night, but how lucky would Zhang Xiaohua be? 

Zhang Xiaohua sat on the ridge between fields, but did not immediately start with nine shallow and one deep breaths. 

This is progress. There is nothing in the Serene Heart Sutra that says that you must calm down before you practice. Without the guidance of the master, you can only get this experience through trial and error. 

When Zhang Xiaohua felt himself ready, he started the breathing method of Serene Heart Sutra, slowly adjusting his breathing frequency, and gradually entering the state of emptiness. 

When Zhang Xiaohua released his senses, he was shocked and almost lost his state of emptiness. 

Why? 

Zhang Xiaohua felt very excited. He found that there was so much qi in the heavens and earth outside. A trace of vitality fell from the sky like rain, which was more than five times more than the day. The descriptions in Serene Heart Sutra are too different, but after all, they are much more than before. 

Zhang Xiaohua happily used the method of the Heart Sutra to draw the qi into his body. It is strange to say that Zhang Xiaohua just introduced the first trace of qi into his body, and other qi traces seemed to hear the horn, and all came to him following the first one. 

Zhang Xiaohua suddenly realized that earlier he thought that gathering qi was like getting drop by drop. The internal force of the cultivation body took too long. Now he felt, that under the condition of abundant vitality, as long as he pulled the first qi trace, other traces would follow one after another, this is the real trick, it seems that he did not go the wrong way. 

At this time, Zhang Xiaohua was extremely happy, and 100,000 pores of his body were like babies with big mouths scrambling to suck up the qi of the world. The qi seemed to be endless, but the amount of each time was very small, but the gathering of qi was continuous. Endless. 

So, the delighted Zhang Xiaohua, in his excellent mood, had forgotten the time. He did not know if it was 11 p.m. or 1 a.m., he just seemed to have a faint smile. 

When the smile just started, it immediately solidified on his face, and poor Zhang Xiaohua immediately fell into sleep. 

Zhang Xiaohua in his sleep is still sitting cross-legged, and his special breathing style is still there, and the gurgling flow of the stream still flows into his body, but the flickering lights in his sleep was deeply magnified under the stimulus. Invisible formless waves were given out from Zhang Xiaohua's body under the stars.