Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Something More Important Than Money (4)
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Murong Bi emerged from the Martial Pavilion and gazed toward the eastern sky.
The dimly lit sky was quite beautiful. For some reason, the sky seemed far more pleasant to behold in Hubei than in Yunnan.
...If even the sky weren't beautiful, it'd be hard to endure this situation.
Damn, where the hell do I even start?
As expected, there's nothing noteworthy in the Martial Pavilion. The real family secret arts haven't been passed down... I figured as much.
Confirming it firsthand made his blood pressure spike. This body's natural low blood pressure even sharpened his mind.
How the hell am I supposed to navigate this mess?
He pondered for a moment, but somehow, there had to be a way.
Murong Bi took a deep breath.
Let's start with myself.
With the site manager dead and the funds embezzled, the Black Tiger Gang was undoubtedly in chaos.
That made it all the more crucial to uproot them quickly. Ga Hang was one thing, but who knew how many grunts infested their main branch.
There was no need to take the long way around when the straight path was clear. Living day to day with loose ends didn't suit his nature.
Just hold on a little longer, you filthy wildcats.
Returning to his residence, Murong Bi stripped naked and sat cross-legged.
He'd lost count of how many times he'd come and gone in less than a day. The place he'd first seen that morning already felt like his own room.
Thanks to that, his mind was at ease.
Let's cultivate the Brain Gate Heart Technique as calmly as possible.
The first time he'd learned it, he'd skimmed the Soul Burning First Method and rushed straight into the second technique. He had to prove his worth to that father in name only just to survive.
Because of that, he'd endured manic fits a dozen times a day, slamming his forehead against the wall hundreds of times to quell his rage.
Looking back now, it's a miracle I didn't die, damn it.
Even careful cultivation triggered anger issues; repeating that madness might birth a generational great demon.
Let's see.
He calmly ran his hand over his chest.
His subcutaneous fat was so thin that he could feel his bumpy ribs.
This body's in too rough shape. Cultivating high-level divine arts could shatter the eight extraordinary meridians and kill me outright. In that case...
First, nourish the body with a basic heart method. Just like simmering the Soul Burning First Method down to its essence, the body needed that process too.
"Well, as expected, it's this one."
Murong Bi closed his eyes.
Mixed Origin Heart Method.
The second martial art he'd restored after perfecting the Brain Gate Heart Technique.
The Mixed Origin Heart Method had branched off from the Murong clan's divine art, the Mixed Origin One Qi Technique. Though considered basic, it held profound depth.
Versatile and free of clashes when transitioning to other heart methods later.
Especially good for Sujing.
The Mixed Origin Heart Method excelled at regulating internal energy and steadily activated yang qi in the major acupoints, making it ideal for healing. It wasn't for nothing that his older brother's blocked meridians had improved with the advanced Mixed Origin One Qi Technique.
Murong Bi recited the incantation of the Mixed Origin Heart Method and focused on his breathing.
Suuup. Hooo.
In the quiet room, only his breathing echoed.
After more than an incense stick's time, the sounds grew fainter. His short, shallow breaths lengthened and deepened.
Before, he'd gasped after counting to ten; now, after an incense stick, he could count to twenty with ease. After half a shichen, even fifty left him with breath to spare.
It wasn't increased lung capacity. His body had simply adapted to the Mixed Origin Heart Method's breathing technique.
Good.
Mastering the breathing alone left his body drenched in sweat.
Next, inhalation.
With proper breathing settled, he now advanced to drawing in external qi.
Murong Bi's breaths deepened further.
Whooo.
The breeze from the window brushed his sweat-slicked skin.
Ugh!
A sharp pain lanced up from his dantian.
Young master, how did you end up like this?
As he'd sensed earlier, this guy's dantian wasn't even properly formed.
It was bizarre. Forming a dantian meant one could manipulate qi with intent; it shouldn't be this sloppy and twisted.
Did he suffer qi deviation or something?
Tsking inwardly, Murong Bi directed the incoming external qi toward his dantian.
I'll have to wipe it clean and remake it.
Just then, as external qi surged to the dantian's exterior.
Wuuung!
Gasp!
It felt like a dagger plunging into his lower abdomen.
He'd tried dismantling the distorted dantian with external qi, but it forcibly absorbed it instead.
What the hell is this?!
Murong Bi hurriedly yanked the external qi back out.
But it wasn't easy. Untouched, it was just a failed vessel; disturbed, it unleashed terrifying suction, devouring qi.
But what truly shocked Murong Bi wasn't the pull.
It's qi!
In martial arts, the dantian was the vessel for qi.
A fusion of intent and qi, perhaps. It existed upon formation, yet no ordinary eye could see it by opening the belly.
The womb of true qi: existent yet intangible. That was the dantian.
Yet the one in this body was no ordinary dantian.
Precisely, it wasn't a dantian at all.
The qi clumped together on its own, mimicking a distorted dantian.
Murong Bi panicked.
Even he, with world-class knowledge of martial arts and qi, had never encountered such a case.
How is this even possible... Ah!
An involuntary exclamation escaped.
You fool! There couldn't have been a dantian in the first place!
If a dantian fused intent and qi, a soulless husk couldn't retain one. The young master's soul—tied to his intent—had vanished.
For a dantian to linger post-soul departure, one's martial realm had to be supreme, will and qi potent enough to deceive the corpse into life.
The young master hadn't reached such heights.
Even so, how did I miss it?
Sensations dulled in the new body, sure—but not enough to confuse qi for a dantian.
Still... How did the qi linger without a dantian? Why didn't it dissipate?
Murong Bi probed the qi shaped like a distorted dantian.
The more he explored, the more astonished he grew.
Incredible density.
An incredibly small, translucent, twisted clump of energy.
Yet its density was phenomenal. Unfolded fully, the internal energy would qualify as first-rate, no doubt.
And one more thing.
Qi within qi...
Inside the dantian-shaped qi nestled a sparrow's-tear droplet of more qi.
That fueled the misunderstanding. Distorted but dantian-like, with isolated qi pooled within.
What is this? Does it even make sense?
No dantian, yet qi unescaped—and layered qi within its boundary.
Moreover, the qi is extraordinarily pure...
Focusing his intent on it, Murong Bi decided.
For now, I'll make it mine.
The suction was fierce, but ownerless qi. No reason he couldn't claim it.
I need a dantian large enough to fully embrace that dantian-shaped qi.
Murong Bi recited the Mixed Origin Heart Method incantation anew, drawing external qi while concentrating intent.
Cold sweat streamed down his body.
Shaping a vast dantian while reining in external qi against the suction was grueling. Time pressed; the ownerless qi could rampage anytime.
Yet he was the former Martial Alliance Leader.
Wuuuuung.
An incense stick later.
A new dantian formed deep in his lower abdomen.
Instantly, the ownerless qi erupted fiercely, flooding the vessel in a blink. Secure container born, it reverted to form.
"Gah!"
Murong Bi vomited blood.
The qi roiled, jolting the fresh dantian and inflicting internal wounds.
"Damn it."
Still, dantian formed successfully, ownerless qi subdued in one stroke.
But the body was too frail to idle. Sealed merely, not owned—prone to rampage anytime.
Murong Bi swiftly recited the Mixed Origin Heart Method, imprinting intent onto the qi.
Qi surged from the dantian, threading meridians per Murong Bi's colossal intent.
Arghhh!
Ragged meridians screamed like bones flayed by blades under the dense qi.
Murong Bi summoned utmost endurance, circulating qi true to the incantation.
Then, the miraculous unfolded.
Tszzz.
Pale steam wafted from his body.
Meridians nicked by qi restored swiftly thereafter.
The Mixed Origin Heart Method's signature healing at play. Dense qi, endured bodily, restored all to origin.
Dense qi. Mixed Origin Heart Method.
Plus Murong Bi's intent honed to mental peak—his cesspool innards mended rapidly.
Another half shichen passed.
Done!
Nearly all damaged meridians normalized; ownerless qi transmogrified into Mixed Origin True Qi via circulation.
The dantian brimmed with Mixed Origin True Qi.
"Huu."
Murong Bi opened his eyes.
Sweat bore waste, stench foul. Naked cultivation had purpose.
Staring at his chest, his expression sobered.
"You bastard, what the hell did you do?"
Converting ownerless qi to Mixed Origin True Qi revealed it.
"How did you funnel life force into one spot?"
Yes.
The young master's dantian-mimic qi was primordial qi—the innate life source humans bore from birth.
Origin qi, variably dense and quantified per person, dictating innate lifespan.
I see.
Primordial, thus undissipated, body-bound. Life force incarnate, not external qi.
In short, the young master had condensed life force dantian-like via some method, shattering his body thereby.
External qi absorption made sense. Low-density stream to primordial sea—natural flow.
"Daoist cultivation has similar methods."
Unease shadowed Murong Bi's face.
It feels familiar.
Beyond Daoist ways, something this akin lingered in memory.
Anyway, time for serious digging. Whom he'd met pre-death, what studied.
And how he'd stooped to such extremes.
"Whew, whatever."
Uncrossing legs, he rose.
Body floated feather-light. Internal energy born, impurities purged, meridians healed—power surged.
Smile bloomed unbidden.
"Now it feels human."
Foundation firm; now temper properly. Pitiful to his Alliance Leader peak, but ample to hasten forging.
Fix Sujing before wildcat hunt.
From the room, Murong Bi bathed thoroughly and beelined for the patriarch's quarters.
Then.
"Hurry! Fetch Physician Yang!"
"Sister! Open your eyes! Sister!"
Desperate voices.
Sensing dire straits, Murong Bi bolted inside.
Seok Ung, Murong Suhyang, Old Man Gwak—all pacing anxiously.
Beyond them.
Murong Sujing lay deathlike on the bed.
"Young master?!"
"Outta the way!"
Shoving Seok Ung and Murong Suhyang aside, Murong Bi checked her pallor.
"Oh no!"
Her ashen face blued over.
The blue fleck mid-brow darkened twofold. Frigid aura billowed body-wide, frosting the room misty-cold.
Suppressed meridian blockage flared critical.
"What're you doing! You, step back...!"
"Prop up Sujing!"
Murong Bi's bellow stunned them.
"What're you waiting for! Raise Sujing, I said!"
"Y-Young master?"
"You idiots...!"
Forcing her torso up, he braced it against himself, palm to Gate of Life acupoint.
Urgency etched Murong Bi's face.
You bastard! I won't lose you too!
Wuuuuung!
Dense Mixed Origin True Qi seeped through the Gate of Life acupoint.
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