Jade Wing Sect, somewhere in the back mountains
“Ahhhh!” A small yelp of pain echoes sharply in the hills.
“Let go of him!” The girl moves to get the teenager off the young boy that’s laying face down on the floor, with his arm pulled straight behind his back.
“No, ah! No, Big Sister, it’s fine, it feels good. Ah!” The young boy explains in between yelps, with his arms being pulled alternately and his trapezius muscle being squeezed rhythmically between the switch.
“Don’t worry, Little Miss, my master was extremely thorough in his guidelines, I won’t harm him. If you don’t believe me, you can go ask the Sect Master.” Tong explains matter-of-factly as he grips the boy’s right shoulder and firmly applies pressure with his fingers as he drags his hand back towards the boy’s elbow.
“You leave my dad out of this! I’m saying, are you good enough to treat my brother?!”
“Oohhh…” The boy groans comfortably as he feels the flow of blood coursing through his arms and shoulders.
“Why don’t you ask him?” Tong taps the boy’s shoulder after letting go of his arm, to indicate that he’s done. Chunye in turn rolls his head on the soft grass before turning over to face the sky with a loose expression.
“Why does it feel so good, Big Brother Tong?” The boy asks without opening his eyes.
“Think of it like this, you use your Yang energy in exercise, so you body builds up a type of Yin. Your muscle is the same as well, certain aspects of Yang allows the creation of the muscles, while parts of Yin destroy it. So what we are doing is bringing out the bad Yin as soon as possible and recharge your Yang with Qi and massage, it’s also why you get more hungry the more you exercise. So when you are hungry, you feel good after eating, right? It’s the same thing.”
The boy opens his eyes and look up at the clouds drifting in the sky. “I don’t really get it… but wouldn’t Dad or Big Sis gets stronger too if you do the same for them?”
Tong’s face freezes at that question, before pulling back and ponders the question. “This… this is something Master Ye and Master Li came up with, so I don’t really know.”
“Oh.” The boy pull his lips to one side before returning his face to normal, letting the matter drop.
[T/N: This is the “I am thinking about it but I don’t get it or can really think about it” look, not a grimace or anything like that. The lip is slightly puckered, if you watched any asian dramas, it’s that look.]
[T/N: Steward is used in a slightly derogatory way]
[T/N: 空識 sounds the same as 空色, which is a pretty important term in buddhism, not sure if it was intentional though, but I’m pretty sure.]
[T/N: 饒沃 was the word used while 肥沃 was the explanation. Even if you don’t know chinese, you can tell that the first one is more complicated. The latter is the common term used by laymen while the former don’t see much use aside from older literature. Kinda had to make do with it in english.]
[E/N: Oral traditions last much, much longer than any other form of human communications]
[T/N: Red dust is referring to the desires and temptation of the mundane world.]
“Greatness can only come from the blood that supports you.”
“To be ‘selfless’, one must become ‘selfish’.”
“Wealth is wasted on the wealthy.”
“The chains of kinship prevents one from greatness.”
“Life, is too short a journey. Death, is too long a rest.”
…
[T/N: From what I can gather, mandala is an aid to meditation. I’ll ramble later in the comments since I’m not sure of… a lot of things from my research, it was a fun read nevertheless.]
[T/N: Bodhisattva can be thought of as mortal trying to become a buddha due to their compassion for all sentient beings. Think of a cultivator in a typical CN trying to hit the next stage/become immortal/become a god, but instead of doing martial arts or whatever, he cultivates his mind/spirituality and knowledge instead.]
One of the monks suddenly drops his brush, his eyes closed and backs away from the table that he is working at, slowly collapsing to the floor. Ming, the local herbalist, the local bone doctor and the monk who assisted Ming in reading immediately get into action. Ming flies towards one of the walls where prayer mats are stacked, the locals removed the surrounding furniture and the monk reaches out with one hand before leaping off the floor to catch his falling colleague. Ming dashes right by and slides the prayer mat underneath the monk before running out the front door. The two locals look at one another after clearing out the area, sure that everything is out of the way. Unable to control themselves, they turn towards the table where the entranced monk was working and stare at the scroll that he was copying.