Chapter 9
[Hua Cao Jue]
When Xu Ziqing saw them, he suddenly felt that the three words were directly imprinted into his mind, making him stagger backward and almost fall onto the ground.
Old Man He laughed and said: “Your way of viewing it is quite mind-consuming. Inadvisable, inadvisable.”
Xu Ziqing blushed: “I don’t know what happened. I only just looked at the name of the technique and felt dizzy.”
Old Man He said: “It’s natural. Don’t think it’s just a thin book. It was written by a capable person with great cultivation abilities. Powerful spiritual energy is naturally brought between the strokes. You haven’t gathered any qi yet, so naturally, when you first see it, you will be shocked by the aura.” As he mentioned this he warned, “If you have the chance to see other techniques in the future, you must be absolutely careful to not act rashly. If you don’t have enough ability and rush to practice advanced techniques, I’m afraid you will only damage your body instead.
“This great power was written with gentle spiritual power which is why I dare show it to you, a novice. But not every great power is good-tempered. If you are unlucky and encounter a technique written by a person with violent disposition, just by looking at the name of the technique will you be injured by the shock.”
Receiving the instruction, Xu Ziqing bowed to salute: “Thank you, Steward He, for your guidance, junior will take caution.”
Steward He waved his hand: “Take it and practice it. It has its own method for gathering qi. Don’t look down on it. Although this [Hua Cao Jue] is inferior, it is one of the more outstanding techniques. It’s also closely related to our spiritual herbs. For many years, the people of Baicao Garden have practiced it. Our roots are lower, so it’s not easy to practice it. If you’re dissatisfied and your cultivation improves in the future, you can naturally find other techniques.”
This is also an appreciation for Xu Ziqing’s steadfast work that Steward He is instructing him. He wants to make Xu Ziqing truly have a foothold in Baicao Garden, so when his life is over, he can pass the garden onto him.
Furthermore, Steward He learned this [Hua Cao Jue] at the beginning, and after getting familiar with it, he was able to cultivate to the fifth layer of Qi Refinement. At that time, because of his excellent handling of the spiritual herbs, he was made an exception and was given the next-level technique from the Patriarch, but he couldn’t just give it to anyone at will. Old Man He said this to Xu Ziqing, hoping to give him some encouragement so that Xu Ziqing could also follow in his path.
Xu Ziqing was also very grateful to Steward He. Although the old man was stern, his words have also helped him a lot. This made Xu Ziqing, who had no elders to teach him after his birth, bear a lot of respect toward him.
After Old Man He instructed Xu Ziqing to practice, he didn’t have the time to stay for long and only said: “If you have any questions, think about it yourself first. If you are really troubled, then come ask me.”
Xu Ziqing naturally answered with an ‘understood’.
When Old Man He left, Xu Ziqing closed the door and sat cross-legged on the bamboo bed.
He settled himself and turned open the first page of the book.
At the beginning was a paragraph with the cultivation method for gathering qi written there.
“Sit still on the bed, shut your eyes and meditate, lead the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through the spiritual root, and straight to the Dantian1 in order to nourish it.”
Xu Ziqing took a deep breath and straightened his posture. Both of his hands imitated the image on the page, naturally pinching his fingers into a tactic shape before lifting them up and naturally placing them on his knees. Then he closed his eyes and eased his mind.
Letting his mind empty, he focused his energy between his brows until soon there was a blank space in his mind, and he entered the highest peak of concentration, deep meditation2. When focusing his thoughts on the spiritual energy, he could see the boundless darkness in front of him, with five-colored light spots appearing suddenly, sparse, and floating around.
Xu Ziqing faintly understood that this was the spiritual energy of the five attributes between heaven and earth and that he was meant to absorb them. But how could things in this world be so simple? It wasn’t easy to distinguish the colors alone, much less try them one by one.
This was also his bad luck. When testing his spiritual root before, the steward reported to several other people what the attributes of their spiritual roots were. When it was his turn, only ‘lower-low’ was mentioned, so Xu Ziqing didn’t know what his attributes were at all.
It stands to reason that before practicing a cultivation method, one should know the attributes of the practiced method. However, not all cultivation methods will specify, and like this non-standard cultivation method, it’s often miscellaneous—that is to say, any spiritual root can be practiced with it, however, it’s up to you to absorb which spiritual energy you’re able to practice easily.
Therefore, Xu Ziqing had to tease every light spot to see which one favored him a little.
According to the five elements of heaven and earth, he started from the golden light spot. Xu Ziqing tried to have some contact with it, but the golden light spot hid farther, so it seemed that one was not it. Then there was the cyan light spot. This time it was much smoother. He only summoned it slightly, but the light spot seemed that it couldn’t wait to rush in, and entered directly from the center of his eyebrows, sliding down to his Dantian.
Xu Ziqing was delighted, knowing that he had succeeded in attracting the spiritual energy of the wood attribute. But he still hesitated. If he didn’t try all of them, he was afraid he’d miss another. So he tried the blue light spot, red light spot, and brown light spot. Only after this trial did he know that except for the cyan light spot that favored him, the other four were not interested at all.
For a moment, he didn’t know whether to rejoice or feel inferior. He was quite stunned.
Fortunately, Xu Ziqing has always been open-minded and thought that since the wood qi liked him so much, he naturally wanted to repay it in the same way, so he gave up on the other four qi and only absorbed the wood qi.
Because he screened off the other four qi, Xu Ziqing only saw the cyan light spot in his eyes thereafter. He saw that they gathered from a sparse one to two, to more than ten, and then to a hundred. The more they gathered, the quicker they were absorbed by him. This made Xu Ziqing gradually enter a condition where his whole state of mind became ethereal and peaceful.
The spiritual energy gathered in his Dantian, and because it was of the wood attribute, it showed a faint softness and warmth, containing thriving vitality.
The process of absorbing the spiritual energy was very comfortable like his whole person was being comforted by a big gentle palm, and like there was a warm water stream scouring gently in the body, enjoying itself, seeming to want to flow out.
Xu Ziqing has never felt such a pleasant sensation, making him further understand why the world wanted to cultivate to immortality… Even without mentioning the benefits of successful cultivation, this comfortable feeling alone was enough for people to linger.
This concentration lasted seven days and seven nights. When Xu Ziqing woke up, he felt that his whole body was very stiff.
When he moved a little, his joints ‘crackled’. He wanted to move, and just as he raised his arm, felt as if his skin was chapped.
Xu Ziqing was a little confused and opened his eyes to look down, his body immediately stiffening.
It was exactly chapped and cracked!
His hands were originally white and slender, but now they were covered in a layer of thick black crusty skin, like dirt condensed by not taking a bath for several days. Just looking at it made him feel stinky.
From previous life to present life, Xu Ziqing has never been so dirty!
Without being able to feel the lingering charm after concentration, and too late to rejoice in the success of gathering qi, Xu Ziqing quickly got out of bed and went out to fetch water to take a bath. As soon as he went out, he met Old Man He who was coming back from working that day. When he looked up, the sky was already getting dark.
Old Man He paused in his steps, looking at Xu Ziqing with a somewhat complicated expression.
He never expected that this little worker he recognized would be able to enter deep meditation after practicing the cultivation method for the first time and that this entry into deep meditation would last seven days and nights.
In this realm of cultivating immortals, the speed of gathering qi into the body was greatly related to the thickness of talent, as was the time spent entering deep meditation. Under Xu Ziqing’s qualification, he shouldn’t have been so quick to enter deep meditation, let alone achieve the introduction of qi, and initially eliminate impurities in the body.
So quickly and for so long in deep meditation, in this small world of heaven, only legend has it that those who are qualified for the top have ever done it.
Could it be that there was something wrong with the array when testing the spiritual roots? Old Man He thought so, but after reconsidering, he thought this was not the case. The only possibility now was that Xu Ziqing was born extremely compatible with this cultivation technique, and was able to get started so quickly.
With that idea in his mind, Old Man He no longer thought deeply about it. He was willing to wait on the spiritual herbs here and didn’t like to bring a hornet’s nest about one’s ears. Whether the array was wrong or not, he accepted this odd-job worker, so he would just tell him to do things at ease.
He glanced at Xu Ziqing and shouted: “Since you’re awake, go and wash up quickly, so as to not be so unsightly.”
Xu Ziqing only thought that him being dirty made Old Man He displeased, so he smiled, and hurried to fetch water to clean his face and wash himself. But he never saw the Old Man He staring behind him, a glimpse flashing past his eyes in an instant.
The hot bath was very comfortable, but it took quite some time to scrub away the dirt on his body. Xu Ziqing came out of the tub, wiped himself dry with a cloth towel, and then put on a brown short uniform prepared for the odd-job workers of the Baicao Garden.
His long hair was not wet, but half dry. Suddenly, he moved his mind and some slight spiritual energy from his Dantian circulated around his body. His hair was completely dried in an instant.
However, after finishing this, Xu Ziqing’s head suddenly felt dizzy. He couldn’t help but fall back and gasp for air for a moment. Then he felt a palpitation, and his Dantian felt like it was also churning as if the spiritual energy had a sense of shock.
Slowly regaining his breath, Xu Ziqing smiled bitterly: “Sure enough, I cannot use it recklessly as I please. I just wanted to use spiritual energy after a few days of deep meditation, but it was still too much.”
When he thought about it, he felt something was wrong, so he took out the book [Hua Cao Jue] and scanned it carefully.
As expected, there was still something more after gathering qi.
It turned out that after passing the stage of gathering qi into the body, he could only master how to draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. However, spiritual energy was still spiritual energy, and it needed to be accumulated in the Dantian continuously. When the Dantian was full, he had to draw in the spiritual energy and compress it continuously. Finally, when the Dantian is incapable, it would change from a quantity to a qualitative change. Spiritual energy would transform into spiritual power, and a little spiritual power source would be planted in the depths of the Dantian. Then drawing spiritual energy in, and continuously thickening the attached source, the accumulated spiritual power will always be there. At that time, he would complete one layer of Qi Refinement.
In other words, Xu Ziqing is still hovering in front of the cultivator’s threshold, and only after he has laid down the spiritual source can he become a real cultivator.
Then practicing further, is to get through the fifty-two acupuncture points on the two channels of Ren and Du3, and achieve the second layer of Qi Refinement. Every time a layer was advanced, two meridians must be opened up, and the number of acupuncture points was uncertain. And with different practices, the sequence of opening the meridians was different, and the spiritual power circulation in the body was also different. There would be no new changes until the ninth level of Qi Refinement.
Xu Ziqing’s practicing of [Hua Cao Jue] means that after getting through the two channels of Ren and Du, he has to first impact the Yin Wei and Yang Wei meridians of the eight extraordinary meridians3. But this was after the second layer of Qi Refinement.
Footnotes
1, Dantian, literally translates as “Cinnabar Field” or “Elixir Field”. Refers to the region in the body where a person’s qi is concentrated. There are technically three Dantians, but these novels simplify the concept and only use the lower Dantian (located three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel).
2, Translated as deep meditation, but it’s basically samādhi.
3, Ren and Du (Aka Conception and Governing), as well as Yin Wei and Yang Wei are part of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians which act as reservoirs or pathways for the circulation of qi. Of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Governing Vessel (督脈) and Conception Vessel (任脈) are mentioned in these novels most frequently. The Governing Vessel runs from the Dantian (in the lower abdomen) up along the spine to the head. The Conception Vessel runs from the Dantian up the front of the body to the head, where it connects with the Governing Vessel to form a complete circuit.