T/N: A bunch of information on real life cultivation/traditional medicine.
Just as the little fox was feeling vexed, the television near her side happened to be showing "The Storm of WW2".*1 A dignified and solemn voice said, "Common Era 1941, Hitler launched World War II, Germany attacked Poland…"
Su Chan gave a start. She widened her eyes and looked toward the television, surprised and curious, as if she could not understand why there a person’s voice coming out of the television.
She inquisitively moved close until she was right in front of the television, investigating it by touching and tapping.
Before coming down from her secluded mountain, she had heard of various things of the mundane world from her master, including metal carriages that could run, flying machines that could fly, but she had never before seen a television.
Su Chan played around with the television for a while. She could not discover any profound mechanism, so her interest waned. She could not resist getting lost in thought about herself and Li Yundong.
Just as she was deep in thought, a tank suddenly appeared on the television screen slowly raising its cannon. The barrel of this cannon slowly lifted upwards. Then with a bang sound, it fired!
The little fox received a scare. Incensed, her fist struck toward the television.
There was a bam sound, which Li Yundong heard from inside the kitchen. He rushed out to take a look and instantly petrified by what he saw.
The television on the wall had fallen down and broken into two parts. The place where the two split was actually still giving off sparks with a electric buzzing sound.
Li Yundong was speechless. He stupidly said, "Wha-what happened here?"
Su Chan pointed at the television in a rage and said, "There’s someone inside there that scared me!"
Li Yundong almost fainted. His face looked like he did not know whether to laugh or cry. "This is a television, my little grand aunt! It can’t be that you don’t know what a television is, right?"
Su Chan replied with a blank expression, "I don’t know…"
Li Yundong felt so depressed that he wanted to vomit three liters of blood. Internally, he was furiously cursing, ‘This damn girl is pretending not to know. Isn’t it just a kiss? She doesn’t need to retaliate like this, right? This is just great! This television was at least five thousand big ones*2, now it’s gone up in smoke!’
Su Chan saw that Li Yundong was black in the face*2. She cautiously asked, "Are you angry?"
Li Yundong looked at her timid expression like a child who did something wrong. Despite the thousand flames of anger raging in his chest, the ten thousand types of unhappiness he felt, how could he release even a word in anger? He could only force a smile and say, "N-no."
Li Yundong dragged the broken television outside of his apartment in a very gloomy mood. He would throw it away when he went downstairs. Then he would find some time to buy an identical television. Otherwise, if the landlord saw, it would be a pain to deal with!*3
Having something like this occur caused the meal to be rather gloomy. While the little fox still thoughtlessly ate without a care, Li Yundong paused many times between bites as if he were eating wax.
The little fox saw Li Yundong’s demeanor. No matter how stupid she was, she knew she had done something wrong. Due to her guilt, the little fox moved to the bedroom very early and hid inside.
After Li Yundong cleaned the room, he let himself topple onto the carpet. His eyes looked toward the light hanging from the ceiling. He gazed into the distance lost in thought. Li Yundong thought what happened today on the inside.
Recalling that he sent Zeng Qing flying with a kick and Zhao Yujian flying with a punch, Li Yundong felt as if he were in a dream. If it were before, this was something that Li Yundong could not even imagine.
After the last couple days, Li Yundong already realized that he had experienced some kind of change. This is definitely not some kind of hidden potential or limit break, what kind of person can force out their hidden potential or break their limits all the time?
Li Yundong knew that the top commandos of this world could use their thumb and their index finger to explosively exert about 1000kg of force, and crush a thumb sized piece of ice.
However, that required control over one’s own adrenaline and was almost a form of unleashing one’s hidden potential to perform a feat that was impossible for normal people.
But this was something that burns one’s life force and potential in exchange. If someone uses this type of technique too many times, there was even a chance that they could die.
Li Yundong thought about all the impossible things he had been doing these days. If all of these were based on burning hidden potential, then he would probably be dead by now.
However, he was still living vigorously. That meant, he had definitely discovered something. His own body had undergone some sort of change. Unfortunately, he did not know what this change was.
Nevertheless, Li Yundong was certain, this kind of change was a good thing.
Li Yundong lay on the carpet. For a time, he was overwhelmed with emotion. His body was eager to move as if he were overflowing with strength that he wished he could exert somewhere.
The more he thought, the more excited Li Yundong became. With a whoosh, he bounced upright and punched toward the air.
Bam! With this punch, it seemed all of Li Yundong blood vessels and meridians opened at once and hot blood began to flow.
Li Yundong simply felt that his entire person seemed to be on fire. A mysterious strength seemed to expand continuously like fermenting dough, filling every blood vessel in his body, every muscle, and every strand of hair!
Li Yundong stood in bow step stance. And waved his fist with a pow sound. As he waved his fist, his hair suddenly rose and stood straight up!
However, Li Yundong concentrated all his attention on experiencing this sensation of strength, so he did not notice this unusual condition.
On the contrary, the little fox hiding in the bedroom heard the movement from outside. She stealthily pulled her door open a crack and saw Li Yundong’s condition at a glance. She was immediately delighted. ‘This is great. He finally discovered the Gold Pill energy in his body, right?’
When she saw the hair on Li Yundong’s head stand up, the smile on her face practically radiated with happiness, like she just saw a crop that was growing beautifully.
The little fox knew that this was a sign of the body’s blood and qi flourishing to the extreme. Similar to an opened air hole on a pressure cooker, the body’s extreme yang and hard qi would be expelled from the Baihui acupoint at the top of one’s head.
In all the daoist schools that the little fox had come into contact with, daoist cultivators believe that the human body has three great quintessences, individually named essense, qi, and blood. The human body also has three Dantians, respectively, the lower dantian in the abdomen, the middle dantain at the heart, and the upper dantian in the brain.*4
The lower dantian holds the essence. The middle dantian holds qi. And the upper dantian holds spirit. Daoist cultivators believe that as blood flows, the essence and qi of the lower and the middle dantians would be brought together with blood to the upper dantian, where upon the ‘three blossoms congregate on top’, also known as the ‘three splendor congregate on top’.
This process, in which essence, qi, and blood are congregated at the top of the head and then refined into spirit, is commonly called the cultivation of a microcosmic orbit or a microcosmo.
When Su Chan used the tri-pronged blossom technique to massage the three important acupoints on Li Yundong’s head, she was basically helping Li Yundong passively cultivate the microcosmic orbit.
However, no matter what you do, active participation is always more effective than passive experience.
Even though Li Yundong was simply waving his fist, but this type of reflexive flaring of the entire body’s blood flow would cause the three splendors to congregate on top, secretly complying with the cultivation of a microcosmic orbit.
The little fox secretly laughed. She knew that, only when the three splendors were all gathered at the top of the head, would they be cultivated into spirit.
This spirit did not refer to supernatural creatures but rather spirit as in mental energy. It could be considered a cultivator’s most profound type of primordial energy, also known as ‘spiritual sense’.
Once Li Yundong cultivated the ‘three blossom congregate on top’ to a certain realm, then he would obtain spirit, which would grant him internal vision, allowing him to see his own organs and meridians. Like that, Li Yundong would have the ability to start cultivating the next level, which is the macrocosmic oribt, ‘five qi to the origin’.
Only Li Yundong completes ‘three blossom congregate on top’ and ‘five qi to the origin’, then Li Yundong could start officially building his foundation, becoming a true cultivator.
Once Li Yundong builds his foundation, the little fox would be able to steal yang to supplement yin!
The little fox could not resist beaming with joy at this thought. However, after she was happy for a while, she suddenly recalled how nice Li Yundong was to her. For a time, not knowing why, her heart faintly could not endure, as if something made her panic and choke.
Su Chan hurriedly repeated a mantra to herself, performing self-hypnosis, ‘He stole my Human Origin Gold Pill. He stole my Human Origin Gold Pill.’
After reciting her mantra several tens of times, her heart finally started feeling better.
How could Li Yundong know what this little fox Su Chan thought in her heart? He currently felt so existed that he trembled. This type of unprecedented strength made him feel as if he were expanding, burning, and even exploding.
Li Yundong thought back to his fight with Zhao Yujian. Zhao Yujian performed various kinds of kicks. He suddenly wanted to imitate that one high kick Zhao Yujian used before.
This notion had just appeared in his head when the blood and qi of his entire body starting to the heel of his right leg, stimulating his leg muscles to extend and contract. At that instant, the muscles of his entire leg was set into motion and stretched.
He pushed off with the tip of his toe. His leg kicked upward with a pow. Using a incomparably proper posture, he performed a high kick.
This kick, even if a ninth dan black belt taekwondo grandmaster came, he would still not be able to find any fault with it.
Li Yundong was both excited and overjoyed. In the past, he could not even do the splits, let alone kick from bottom of his foot to the top of his head.
At this time, Li Yundong got the mistaken perception that there was nothing that he could not do.
He raised his head and saw the hanging light above. Without thinking, he jumped up with a swoosh and unleashed a flying kick. The tip of his toe hit the two meter high hanging light with a single blow. With a bang, his kick had the light swing around.
Li Yundong was merely acting on impulse, wanting to see if he could really kick something so high up, but he never imagined he would really reach it!
This kind of satisfaction, sense of achievement and excitement mixed together, causing Li Yundong to pump his fists in exultation and shout, "Yes!"
But not long after his shout, Li Yundong heard a creaking sound from above. He raised his head to take a look, only to see the hanging light sway once and then fall down at him with a bang.
Li Yundong received a solid hit. He hugged the hanging light and screamed miserably, as he fell onto his back.
The little fox who was by the door laughed so hard she could not catch her breath. Li Yundong held his head and sat up. He glared at the little fox. As a result, the little fox laughed even harder.
Su Chan’s laughter caused Li Yundong’s face to flush red. He pretended to be an evil monster and pounced at Su Chan. Su Chan released a startled laugh and slammed the bedroom door shut with a bang.
Li Yundong rubbed at his forehead and nose in front of the door. He resentfully walked to the carpet. He took a look at the hanging light by his foot and the glanced up at the large hole in his ceiling. He could only smile bitterly. "This is just great. Truly, blessings never come in pairs and misfortune does not come singly*5. The TV broke and this hanging light broke too. Could it be that today’s an unlucky day for my finances?"
~~~
*1 二战风云: I think it’s a Chinese documentary on the second world war. Either not famous enough or too biased to have reached the international community. Probably the former since I couldn’t find it in Chinese, or it’s really old. The only other option was a game.
*2 Black in the face means to look unwell or upset.
*3 The normal custom in China is for the landlord to rent furniture along with the home.
*4 You might not know this, but it is true. There are three dantians and dantians are acupoints, in theory you could cultivate using other acupoints, but the dantians are the one most suited. Especially the lower dantian, which is often treated as the only dantian. This work is closer to cultivator in the real world than most novels you read.
*5 Pretty self-explanatory. If it weren’t for the first part, I would have used ‘When it rains it pours."