Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Middle Dantian
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After regaining my senses, the first sight I encountered was a dozen or so senior uncles surrounding me, each exclaiming in awe as they invoked the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign.
It might be too irreverent a way to describe the elders of my sect, but honestly, it was a bit eerie.
Senior Uncle Mugeon pulled at my eyelids, checking my eye responses, while Master repeatedly asked if I was truly alright.
I assured him that I was.
Every orifice in my body felt like it had been prodded raw, but nothing had been severed, so I really was fine.
I wasn't sure if this pain that didn't kill me was making me stronger, but since I hadn't died, that was enough for me.
I was used to enduring pain anyway. I was the kind who wouldn't even groan if you plucked out my eyeballs.
"Sorry... I'm so sorry... Forgive me, Hyeonseong..."
"Urk..."
But the violent pressure grinding against my broken ribs was something I just couldn't handle.
About two hours after I came to, Junior Sister rushed in, her cheeks still streaked with dried tears.
Her hands dug into my shoulders and underarms, trembling as she stroked my back. Naturally, this pressed our chests together.
'What the hell is this, damn it...'
This wasn't directed at Junior Sister—it was aimed at my own body.
I was used to the pain of flesh being torn, but this soft, warm sensation was utterly foreign.
And regardless of my worn-out mind, my current body was that of a fourteen-year-old. Instincts wouldn't listen to reason at this age.
To stop blood from rushing to embarrassing areas, I desperately circulated the Small Heavenly Circulation through my stiff meridians to calm the flow.
[Well, you're a virgin through and through. True to your infamous nickname.]
'Shut up.'
Among the malicious nicknames the Heavenly Demon had saddled me with, there were ones like "Six-Foot Boy" or "Virgin Sixty Years" that were hardly worth calling nicknames—they were outright insults. And to some extent, they stemmed from truth. I really was a virgin, after all.
That said, I did feel a bit wronged about it.
For starters, I was a Wudang Daoist. Unlike those deviant Huashan types where male-female romances within the sect were a huge scandal, we didn't form relationships with the opposite sex unless we planned to leave the secular world behind.
And among the countless martial arts I'd learned in my past life, there were no lustful techniques. Why bother paying at some brothel for sex when it didn't increase your inner energy?
Besides, past thirty, I never had the leisure for it—neither the time nor the mental space.
I'd even considered just picking up some Virgin Arts since I'd probably never need it anyway... but if I actually mastered it, the Heavenly Demon's teasing would double, so I dropped the idea.
"Ahem."
As the senior uncles cleared their throats awkwardly, Junior Sister finally blushed and pulled away.
The towering six-foot Daoist standing before me—Sect Leader Senior Uncle Mugwang—spoke in a stern voice.
"Uncle Mugeon said we couldn't predict when you'd wake, which worried us all, but it was just needless concern. With the Medical Hall Master's successor so close at hand, we must accelerate the training of the next generation. In any case, it's fortunate you've recovered."
Senior Uncle Mugeon, scolded by Sect Leader Mugwang, wore a slightly aggrieved expression from behind. His eyes seemed to protest: who could've guessed a body in such ruin would wake this soon?
Ignoring that gaze, Sect Leader Mugwang handed me a small pill he'd been about to slip into my mouth.
"For now... this is a Small Return Pill. Your master and I were going to use Vital Energy Guidance to heal your internal injuries, but since you've awoken, take it yourself."
"A Small Return Pill? Why is that here?"
"We stole—"
Senior Uncles Mu-ja and Sanbon swiftly clamped down on the mouth of Senior Uncle Mountain Root Great Auspicious, who had started to speak.
Sect Leader Mugwang continued with an unchanging expression, as if he hadn't heard a thing.
"We acquired it by chance through certain channels."
"Pardon?"
"That's all you need to know."
"Yes, sir."
Since he was giving it away, I accepted.
In my past life as a wanderer, I'd roamed and fought everywhere, consuming plenty of spirit elixirs along the way. I'd built up tolerances, and once I reached a certain realm, they barely boosted my inner energy anymore.
My total capacity was so vast that even years' worth of gains barely showed.
But now? It was different. Any elixir I took would visibly increase my inner energy.
Especially a lump of natural essence half the size of my fist like the Small Return Pill.
"Thank you. I gratefully accept."
"It was something you deserved by right. If there's truly something you desire, speak it after careful thought."
"Something I desire..."
"Anything at all."
Sect Leader Mugwang turned, surveying the elder senior uncles around me, and declared:
"I, Mugwang, Sect Leader of Wudang Sect, hereby proclaim in this place that I shall grant one wish of Heavenly Communication Pavilion's prodigy Hyeonseong—be it Earth Dragon, Sword Cat, World's Best Swordsman, Martial God, Volcanic's Crimson Flower Divine Sword, Beggars' Sect's Fiery Beggar Hero, Wudang's Wudang Ghost Axe, Dugu Family's Black Mysterious Sword Emperor, Wandering Expert Thunderbolt Spear, or Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Asura Demon Buddha—whatever it may be, by the authority of the Sect Leader."
The string of bizarre nicknames prefixed to my name made my molars grind.
Looking around, the senior uncles and Master nodded with moved expressions. Junior Sister clasped my hands in hers, tears streaming down her face.
I wanted to cry too.
Two weeks had passed since I awoke.
I'd returned to my normal physical state. Even Senior Uncle Mugeon, who always spoke leisurely and slowly, marveled at my astonishing recovery speed.
"Hmm, I thought you'd need months of rest... Is my intuition truly dulling...?"
I bowed and cupped my fists to Senior Uncle Mugeon, who muttered to himself with a shaken expression, wondering if he really needed to consider retirement.
"It's all thanks to your care, Senior Uncle."
Leaving behind Senior Uncle Mugeon, whose face brightened ever so slightly, I stepped out of the Medical Hall. Warm sunlight filtered through my now-quite-long bangs.
'Gotta cut or tie this hair soon. Letting it grow wild will just get in the way during fights.'
Fiddling with my curly gray locks, I walked on.
More urgent than hair care was a pressing issue.
My current state had an imbalance in essence, energy, and spirit.
My enlightenment had reached the Absolute Realm, but my total capacity and body were still at the Peak Realm.
Even trying to manipulate inner energy at my accustomed speed, my meridians and organs couldn't keep up. This caused clashes and ruptures between true energy and meridians, leading to internal injuries.
'Unity might be too much, but... I need to narrow the gap somewhat.'
I grabbed a pouch of Wall Grain Pills and headed to my cultivation chamber.
Amid the straw-clumped Wall Grain Pills stood a brown elixir radiating unmatched aura.
'Good thing I saved it.'
I planned to use this Small Return Pill to form a second dantian.
Most think of the "dantian" as the lower abdomen, but in Daoist cultivation, that's just the lower dantian—one of three.
Among the body's three dantians, the middle one—the heart—is one of the most vital organs alongside the brain, and crucial in martial arts too.
Because the meridians through which inner energy flows largely overlap with the blood vessels.
The heart provides the driving force to send inner energy to every corner of the body.
Thus, the lower dantian is the True Abode, the middle the Energy Abode, and the upper the Spirit Abode.
However, while using the heart to move inner energy is common, gathering inner energy in the heart itself is exceedingly rare.
The middle dantian ties to human emotions and mind.
Mess it up, and your sanity frays, your temperament shatters.
Only the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which prizes twisted personalities as fine traits in followers, might welcome such a method. Manuals on middle dantian heart arts were scarce outside a few demonic ones.
But I knew of one exception.
The spear master from the Western Regions who reached the Absolute Realm: Wandering Expert Thunderbolt Spear.
One of the few warriors I'd gotten along with in my past life, despite my own prickly nature.
He served Demonic Heaven, the alliance of the Evil Factions, but he was an old wanderer worth respecting.
He loved sitting by the campfire—insisting on building one himself to "set the mood" even before us Absolute Realm experts who needed no warmth—and spinning tales in his clumsy Central Plains tongue. One night, talk turned to Western martial heart methods.
Hard to believe, but he claimed all Western warriors and sorcerers stored qi in their hearts.
Unlike the Central Plains, where demonic, secular, Buddhist, and Daoist families—even Daoist sects—varied wildly by school, the West unified under the Nine Rings Divine Art a millennium ago.
Contrasting Ming China's unified empire with the West's Spring-and-Autumn chaos of endless kingdoms rising and falling yearly made it even harder to credit.
A unified continent with fragmented arts; a fragmented one with unified arts. The bizarre contrast felt almost fateful.
All the Three Heavens Seven Absolutes heard it together, but as Thunderbolt Spear predicted, they showed no big reaction.
Fiery Beggar Hero just smiled politely at the senior; Crimson Flower Divine Sword wasn't even listening.
Black Mysterious Sword Emperor slept through most days like an old granny; Asura Demon Buddha, unable to use inner energy, had no interest in heart methods.
The Heavenly Demon saw no need to envy arts from leagues away. She'd already perfected the world's finest.
Thunderbolt Spear hung his head glumly.
I was the only one intrigued.
I grilled him relentlessly about the "Nine Rings Divine Art."
Thrilled, he gestured wildly as he explained.
As hinted by its unification, the West lacked concepts like "not for outsiders" or "secret from non-disciples." He taught it to me freely.
In my past life, to grasp the oral formula properly, I even learned the Western tongue.
At minimum, in martial arts, my passion was unmatched.
The Nine Rings Divine Art—named by Thunderbolt Spear after learning Central Plains speech—was truly divine.
It avoided directly touching the middle dantian, instead forming rings of inner energy around it to circulate true energy, eliminating side effects.
Even I had never thought of it.
Inventing such a method a millennium ago and spreading it across a continent made its creator a grandmaster rivaling Dharma, the First Heavenly Demon, and the Three Peaks Immortal.
And now, I planned to embark once more on an unprecedented adventure: stacking inner energy in two dantians using two heart methods, something no one in history had tried.