Legend of the Cultivation God

Chapter 161 – Refining Bones

Seeing that Zhang Xiaohua had changed his face, Elder Yu felt that he was a little harsh and discouraged this diligent country boy. Then he changed his wording and continued, “I have watched you practicing the fist martial arts boxing, you get a quite bad comprehension, as you have never acquired a whole set of fist martial arts. However, that’s not a big deal, whether you can acquire it or not won’t affect you. But the inner energy cultivation method is different, it purely concerns life, when it takes over you accidentally, you could suffer either a serious injury or a life-threatening condition. The Strong Bull Sutra is perfect for you, as it is easy to practice. But I still want to remind you that if you try many times and don’t sense qi, it is better to let it go. As the old saying goes – take a step back and there will be a bigger world in front of you. You can also try other cultivation methods, that’s also not bad.”

After listening for a long time, Zhang Xiaohua realized that Elder Yu still cared about him and didn’t regard him as an outsider, so Elder Yu spoke so straightforward to him. Zhang Xiaohua was very grateful and said to Elder Yu, “Elder Yu, thank you for your kindness. Building the straw mat shed has this purpose, and in these few days, squad leader He also told me a lot of precautions, so I will be careful. Now I am just trying to sense qi, not going to practice it yet, then there won’t be big problems, you can rest assured.”

Then, he turned to Ou Yan and said, “Sister Ou, the main purpose of building the straw mat shed is still to guard the medicinal field, to practice is secondary.”

Ou Yan saw that he was so persistent, how could she blame him, so she said, “It doesn’t matter, Zhang Xiaohua, even if you want to practice martial arts, I will support you. But you have to do it carefully, you’d better not practice crazily in the night in order to win the martial arts display competition.”

Zhang Xiaohua cupped his hands, “I understand that, sister Ou.”

Ou Yan asked again, “How to build that straw mat shed, do you need any help from the villa?”

Zhang Xiaohua said with a smile, “No. I started building straw sheds when I was a child. I’ll finish it myself in one afternoon.”

Ou Yan smiled and replied, “OK. Go ahead. Get materials in the warehouse if you need them.”

After receiving a definite answer, Zhang Xiaohua was joyful and took his leave at once, rushing to the warehouse to get materials he needed.

Zhang Xiaohua was proficient in building straw sheds in the fields as he had built many straw sheds with his father and elder brother when he was young. In addition, the straw shed was used only to shelter him from dew, and it didn’t need to be as comfortable and beautiful as a house, so Zhang Xiaohua finished it in one afternoon. Zhang Xiaohua noticed that his strength had increased when he carried the timber in the afternoon since there was no heavy work to do for a long time. He could lift up some heavy wood materials with one hand.

Zhang Xiaohua wondered if his strength would increase with age. He didn’t know how strong he was. But he clearly felt fingers of his right hand became more nimble while he was covering the shed with straw and fastening straw rope. It seemed that his fingers had recovered.

Good event came one after another. Zhang Xiaohua led a happy life.

A solitary and discordant straw shed was built next to the medicinal field. No objections would be raised since nobody would come here.

Hadn’t seen He Tianshu the whole day, Zhang Xiaohua thought he might have been comprehending while plucking out his hair. He wished He Tianshu wouldn’t be bald when he came out.

Night fell as expected.

Zhang Xiaohua sat cross-legged in his straw shed, facing the setting sun. The gorgeous sunlight had turned the cloud in the distance in red. Looking at the sun silently, he sighed with emotion, “the flash of the setting sun is splendid, but it is a pity that the dusk is approaching.”

Zhang Xiaohua was attracted by the beautiful scene momentarily. After that, he closed his eyes and started training according to the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method.

Yuan Qi was still all in small strands falling from above, and it disappeared when entering his body. He was not in a hurry, just slowly attracting it. After a while, Zhang Xiaohua’s body seemed to be a magnet attracting Yuan Qi, so he had more time to experience absorbing Yuan Qi.

Yuan Qi in pores was very subtle, and Zhang Xiaohua still got nothing. The Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method did not say how to sense Yuan Qi that had entered into body – it only told cultivators how to circulate Yuan Qi after it entered body, so Zhang Xiaohua didn’t know how to sense it in his body.

Zhang Xiaohua pored over for a long time but still didn’t figure out that, so he became impatient and started thinking about something else. He thought of the difference between the Strong Bull Sutra and the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method. At this moment, an idea flashed upon his mind, illuminating him like a bolt of lightning. He remembered that He Tianshu said that when the inner energy cultivation method first produced Qi sense, it was not really that there was a warm flow of energy penetrating from his forehead. The warm flow of energy in the meridians was just a figure of speech. So even if he did not sense Yuan Qi in his pores, he could pretend he sensed.

Zhang Xiaohua realized now why he felt that he had thought of something important these days but couldn’t find a clue. It turned out to be this.

We have to clap our hands to praise Zhang Xiaohua. Life is changeable. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made. (This is a quote from Hometown by Lu Xun.)

The cultivation method did not say how to sense Yuan Qi that disappeared in body, but Zhang Xiaohua promote his cultivation of Yuan Qi with the help of figure of speech. He was really a genius.

However, if masters of yuan qi cultivation knew this genius behavior, they would certainly sneer, then shake their heads and leave a comment: the ignorant was fearless.

Having made up his mind, Zhang Xiaohua set out to give it a try. Firstly, he imagined his pores were filled with yuan qi and then he took yuan qi into the meridians in his body in accordance with the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method; secondly, he made the imperceptible yuan qi run along the meridians. According to his understanding, yuan qi went back to his Middle Dan Tian after running a circle in his body at last. Instead of continuing to train himself, Zhang Xiaohua sensed his body first and found nothing strange, which meant imagination did no harm to his body, though he didn’t know if it was effective.

Therefore, Zhang Xiaohua continued his training and stopped after yuan qi had run in a circle in his body for 36 times.

When he opened his eyes, it was already night. Thinking that he didn’t practice his fist martial arts and sword stance yet, Zhang Xiaohua walked out of the straw shed and practiced his sword stance and Heavenly Dipper fist in the dim light of night. It was cloudy outside and he could hardly see the moon or stars. Zhang Xiaohua felt extremely comfortable when the cool current ran around his body.

After practicing his fist martial arts, Zhang Xiaohua met a new problem. He used to think the flow driven by his fist martial arts was in the meridians, but today he had imagined the flow of yuan qi in accordance with the meridians in the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method that was quite different from meridians involved in his fist martial arts. How could this happen?

Furthermore, the sword stance taught by Elder Yu could drive the warm flow of energy when he performed it with his left hand, but the flow did not run around his entire body, instead, it ran in his left arm. Maybe it was part of the meridians, but it was not recorded in the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method. Why?

In order to find out the cause, Zhang Xiaohua had practiced his Heavenly Dipper fist several times, trying to feel the place where the flow ran. After he finished practicing, he thought about it carefully and suddenly realized the place where the flow driven by the Heavenly Dipper fist ran was not the meridians in his body, or more precisely, the flow had run through his bones.

Each move in 108 movesfist martial arts led the warm flow of energy through a bone. When the fist martial arts was finished, the flow just ran along all the 108 bones!

Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t understand now. The fist martial arts he pieced up had such an effect? What was the purpose of this fist martial arts?

Was it refining his bones?

This was a question without an answer. No one could answer him.

Zhang Xiaohua stopped poring over it while touched his smooth jaw. Knowing that there was no one he could turn to, he didn’t want to make things difficult for himself.

As a Chinese old saying goes, why should a woman give a hard time to another woman?

Then why should he embarrass himself?

So Zhang Xiaohua would not take the sudden warm flow of energy led by sword stance into consideration.

Zhang Xiaohua returned to straw mat shed with an inexplicable mood.

Uneasy? That’s impossible! The Heavenly Dipper fist was named by himself. He had been practicing for so long without feeling discomfortable. Why should he be uneasy?

Ecstatic? Just a little. Both He Tianshu and Elder Yu advised him to practice external martial arts instead of the inner energy cultivation method. This cultivation method refining his bones must be a kind of external martial arts, so there was nothing which he could be proud of or feel happy for.

Secretly delighted? Haha, that’s for sure!

Zhang Xiaohua though of some masters mentioned in wuxia novels. All outstanding talents had developed a new method of their own. Practicing both inner and external training was one of these new methods. He Tianshu also told him “Inner training from a breath, external training on the bones, tendons and skins.” His Heavenly Dipper fist was on the bones, tendons and skins, while his Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method inner training was from breath; this was just the way for him to become a master!

Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t help but dream more about his future, and his little tail slowly rose up (In Chinese, one’s tail rises up means one feels complacent about oneself).

However, when he sat on the ground in the straw mat shed, the coldness of the soil brought him back from his dreams about becoming a hero. He might not understand it correctly, and he just sensed qi but still missed the inner energy. Was there any necessity to think so much now? As the old saying goes – 10,000 years is too long, you just need to seize today.

So first, he decided to focus on his own job.

Zhang Xiaohua lit up the oil lamp in the straw mat shed and picked up a book, reading it with relish.

Multi-skills is no burden, if he could learn more, he would have more ways to make a living. If he had no big achievement in practicing martial arts, planting herbs could also make him live comfortably for a lifetime, no worry about lacking braised pork.

This was the great ideal of Zhang Xiaohua!

After reading for a long while, Zhang Xiaohua closed the book, seeming not to read enough. Knowledge is the best possible spiritual food for human beings, Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t agree with that more. But the intuition of the body told him clearly that – it was late, midnight was around the corner, you should close the book and prepare to rest. Zhang Xiaohua then packed up his things and blew out the oil lamp.

Zhang Xiaohua used to live in Guo village before, and he slept very early. He didn’t know he would definitely fall asleep at midnight. After coming out and having experienced a few times, he realized that his body naturally had adaptability – when it came close to the awaking hour, although night watchman didn’t chime, he would know what time it was.

After packing everything, Zhang Xiaohua went to the middle of the straw mat shed, sitting cross-legged, his palms faced up and practiced “nine shallow and one deep” method of breathing. In a short time, he entered the realm of emptiness and began to absorb the qi into his body as usual.

When Zhang Xiaohua woke up the next morning, instead of standing up immediately, he imagined peacefully and circulated the yuan qi in his pores in the meridians for 36 times before he went out of the straw mat shed to practice his fist martial arts and sword stance.

In the daytime, Zhang Xiaohua was the only one in the medicinal field. He Tianshu hadn’t appeared yet. However, Zhang Xiaohua noticed that there were fewer weeds than usual in the medicinal field, which made him feel much relieved. As an old saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. Seeing nobody helped him took care of the medicinal field, God hid those weeds deliberately and gave him more time to practice martial arts, he thought. Zhang Xiaohua could not help but become more expectant for the upcoming Piaomiao martial arts display competition.

Zhang Xiaohua should practice qinggong and footwork in the woods, so he left the medicinal field.

Zhang Xiaohua ran into Ma Jing and Liu Er on his way to the woods. As soon as Ma Jing saw Zhang Xiaohua, he greeted him in the distance and ran directly towards him, trying to grab at Zhang Xiaohua’s hands. However, Zhang Xiaohua was exceptionally agile at that time, he dodged Ma Jing’s hands at once, cupping one hand on the other and saying, “Brother Ma, long time no see. How’s everything going?”

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Ma Jing’s hands suspended in the air. Showing no embarrassed look on his face, Ma Jing clenched his fist on the other hand before his chest, saying, “Zhang Xiaohua, how are you?”

After that, Ma Jing blinked at Zhang Xiaohua with a tacit look, then he said in a low voice, “Zhang Xiaohua, you have some remarkable skills. I thought you were just so lucky that squad leader He took you as his apprentice, but now I know you are a man of true talent and real learning. I admire you very much.”

Hearing that, Zhang Xiaohua smiled and said, “That’s right. You brother Ma have exerted an edifying influence on me. How can I grow in strength so rapidly without your help?”

Ma Jing smiled with his eyes crinkled, feeling complacent of his praise. Then he squinted at Liu Er, saying, “Your growth also has something to do with your talent. Look at my brother Liu Er, who has followed me for a long time, why can’t he understand this? Zhang Xiaohua, don’t forget to tell us if you make a fortune in the future, at least, we once lived in the same room.”

Zhang Xiaohua thought about before, then couldn’t help but get goose bumps, and he quickly said, “Sure, sure.”

Ma Jing got his promise and became snobbish, “I have borne your words in mind. When you rise someday, I can show off then. Maybe I can write a book – The Story Between Zhang Xiaohua and Me?”

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Zhang Xiaohua stunned and quickly advised, “Brother Ma, we have lived in such a short time in the same room, you couldn’t remember many things about me. Besides, is there so much content for you to put in a book?”

Ma Jing waved his hand and said, “It’s none of your business. If the book can make money, how can’t I write it?”

Zhang Xiaohua smiled bitterly.

Ma Jing cupped his hands and said goodbye to him, “Well, let’s cut it short, you should still concentrate on progressing. Everything will be settled only after you get some achievements.”

Zhang Xiaohua nodded with a smile and said, “Yes, what brother Ma said is great. All achievements depend on real talents. I will work hard.”

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Ma Jing smiled and went away, while Liu Er by his side smiled honestly at Zhang Xiaohua and then caught up with Ma Jing.

Just two steps away, Ma Jing turned back and called, “Zhang Xiaohua.”

Zhang Xiaohua had to stop and went back and asked, “Is there anything else, brother Ma?”

Ma Jing looked at Zhang Xiaohua with great respect and said, “Zhang Xiaohua, your act to build a straw mat shed in the medicinal field is really wonderful. Your flattering act precisely fits the intention of the villa master. Today, those boys who are centered on brother Xi are talking about you, I really admire you a lot. How could you come up with such an idea? You’ve got real talents, I cannot catch you up simply by flattering.”

Zhang Xiaohua was stunned on the spot!

Regardless of Zhang Xiaohua’s reaction, Ma Jing turned around. He said as he walked away, “I have to hurry to the warehouse in case that brother Xi and others get there first!”

Zhang Xiaohua looked at Ma Jing’s back without replying. As an old saying goes, “The speaker has no particular intention in saying something, but the listener reads his own meaning into it.” Although he did not say anything, what he did was misleading. “Men are not what they were in times past.” Zhang Xiaohua thought to himself. He also recalled his second brother’s experience in Piaomiao sect, which made him feel bad.

However, he suddenly burst into laughter. After today, there would be a lot of straw sheds next to medicinal fields which Ma Jing was responsible for. It must be interesting. But what did this have to do with him? “Follow your own course, and let people talk” was wisdom. A gentleman was open and poised – he felt no qualms upon self-examination anyway. As for how others thought of him, that was none of his business. In an instant, Zhang Xiaohua seemed to understand Zhang Xiaohu.

It was quite a distance from medicinal fields to the forest, so Zhang Xiaohua inevitably passed by the courtyard. He was in a hurry, and met many young servants greeting him with their thumbs pointed up. Zhang Xiaohua felt funny, but said nothing. They all walked in the same direction as Ma Jing. It seemed that today’s warehouse was going to be lively.

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The woods were still so quiet. His mind became rested as soon as he stepped in. He puckered his face in a smile. This was just the feeling he liked.

Zhang Xiaohua reviewed qinggong and the footwork of Piaomiao steps He Tianshu had taught him in his mind. He took a deep breath, his right foot stepping on the ground heavily. Then he rocketed forward like an arrow. He freed himself in the forest as if he was a butterfly flitting through the flowers.