Give Me Back My Dantian
"Then we'll stand watch nearby in shifts. Should anything happen, scream for us straight away."
The Blood Sky Captain flashed a grin every bit as vicious as the rest of him, left me at my quarters, and took his leave.
"Hey! You two stay on standby—the rest of you, back to your posts."
Beckoning someone over with a lazy flap of his hand, he soon led his men away. I watched his retreating back for a moment, then flopped onto the bed.
Knock knock—
"Young Master, shall I bring in your meal?"
After a couple of polite raps, someone asked after my dinner. I gave a vague yes, and was just settling into the brief comfort of it all when—
BAM—
A sound like a bomb going off erupted at the door, and Dang Mulin barged into my room.
The sun had long since gone down, yet there she stood, panting hard, sweat pouring off her in sheets despite the biting chill. I said, with perfect composure:
"What's up, sis?"
At the sight of me grinning shamelessly, Dang Mulin was struck speechless on the spot.
"Um..."
Determined not to give her a single opening, I kept cutting her off.
"Have a seat. Let's talk."
"Okay... sure. But Muyeong, earlier, you see..."
"Sis, here—wipe off that sweat."
I handed Dang Mulin a dry cloth, thinking to myself: Shameless. We're going full shameless...
Dabbing her forehead with what I'd given her, she tried again.
"Anyway, Muyeong... what I heard earlier..."
"Aren't you thirsty, sis? Here, have some water."
Smiling sweetly, I offered her a full glass.
"Oh... thanks."
Dang Mulin gulped the water down in one go and heaved a huge sigh.
"Whew... I feel human again."
Having caught her breath, she rounded on me once more.
"Anyway, Muyeong... about what I heard earlier..."
Knock knock—
"Young Master, your dinner has arrived."
With exquisite timing, a servant cut her off and set down a late supper.
"Ah, thanks."
I gave the servant a brief nod, then turned to my sister.
"Oh... you haven't eaten yet either, have you?"
"Muyeong, just hear me out—"
"If you haven't eaten, should I have them bring you a plate too?"
"..."
"A person's got to eat, you know."
"Muyeong."
Hic—
That one word carried the same murderous aura she'd shown me last night, and I was so rattled a hiccup popped right out of me.
"You said you lost your memory..."
Hic.
"Why didn't you say anything that night?"
Hic.
"And here I never knew a thing..."
Hic.
"Anyway, Muyeong, you must have been so startled when I suddenly started babbling that evening. I'm sorry..."
Hic.
The murderous air from moments ago had vanished without a trace, and in its place she was practically glowing with remorse. I hiccupped on and on, utterly dumbfounded by the whiplash, while the apologies kept pouring out of her.
Glug glug—
"Ahhah... it finally stopped."
Only after downing a glass of cold water did my hiccups cease.
"It's okay, sis... it wasn't your fault."
To my consolation, Dang Mulin said nothing. She just sat there quietly.
Perhaps my brain had been pickled by the run of misfortune lately, because her words—so unexpectedly reasonable for once—drew a sigh from deep within me. If you were going to talk like this, why couldn't you have just said it nicely to begin with...
A while later...
The clatter of chopsticks died down.
"Oof, I'm stuffed."
Patting my belly, round and satisfied after a full meal, I turned to Dang Mulin, who had sat there watching me eat the entire time.
"Oh, right—there's something I want to ask you, sis..."
Hearing me trail off, she replied warmly.
"Name it. What do you need?"
"So, I, uh... I've forgotten all my martial arts."
"Oh... you forgot your martial arts too?"
"Yeah... that's actually what I'm getting at. Think you could teach me, sis?"
At my request, a look of mild trouble crossed Dang Mulin's face.
"Well... Muyeong, I might have to head back to Hubei again before long, so..."
Watching her fumble for an excuse, eyes darting away from mine, I put on the most pitiful expression I could muster.
"Is it... too much trouble?"
She waved her hands in frantic denial.
"No! It's not that it's too much, it's just—something might come up, that's all... Or, how about you ask Father instead?"
"So it IS too much trouble..."
I let my shoulders sag and grumbled in a voice gone completely limp.
"Father looks busy... and with my memory the way it is, it kind of scares me to trust just anyone with something like this..."
Dang Mulin flinched at that.
Just a little more and she'll tip right over, I thought, and kept murmuring away.
"You're honestly the only person I can think of to trust... Besides, you were the first person I saw when I came back from the dead, after all..."
Looking down at me as I moped like a puppy caught in the rain, Dang Mulin seemed to wrestle with herself for a moment—then gave in.
"Okay... fine. I'll teach you."
Clasping my hands together, eyes wide and sparkling, I said:
"Really? Thank you, sis!"
Dang Mulin laughed, sheepish at the sight of me. Watching her, I thought to myself: Ah... shit. What the hell am I doing, acting like this at my age...
Truth be told, I had my own reasons for asking Dang Mulin to teach me.
Well, nothing to be done about it... Last time I tried picking up something martial-arts-adjacent, it caused complications. And even if the truth of this body comes out, if I handle them smoothly enough, maybe they won't go blabbing it around...
"Then let's meet at the training grounds tomorrow, at the Hour of the Dragon."
"Got it."
With that, Dang Mulin stepped out of my quarters. I waved both hands at her in big, flapping arcs.
"Take care, sis!"
"You too."
She answered with a wave and a smile, and I saw her off until she was gone.
"Somehow, everything that got tangled up is nearly all unraveled now."
"Ughhhhh."
Letting out a long groan, I sank into bed and reached for sleep.
Whether the exhaustion was of the body or the mind, I couldn't say, but the moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.
The next morning.
Rubbing my eyes, I shuffled sleepily out of my quarters.
"Where might you be headed?"
A Blood Sky Guard, having spotted me loitering off somewhere at the crack of dawn, came over and asked. I answered:
"Ah... my sister said she'd teach me martial arts, so I'm headed for the training grounds."
"Is that so? Then I shall follow you."
"Sure."
And so I set out with a single Blood Sky Guard in tow as my escort.
Some time later...
The man who'd been trotting along at my heels finally spoke up.
"By the way, Young Master."
"What?"
"Where exactly are we going right now?"
At that, it finally dawned on me: I, who had no idea where the training grounds even were, had been blithely leading the way this whole time. I smacked my forehead.
"Oh, right... I don't actually know where the training grounds are. Could you lead the way?"
"Ah..."
He let out a short sigh, then promptly delivered me to my destination.
"Muyeong!"
Far off across the yard, Dang Mulin was waving her raised right hand back and forth. I turned to the Blood Sky Guard standing at my side.
"Quick question. Does that gesture look like 'come here' to you... or 'go away'?"
He answered with the weary air of a man well used to this sort of thing.
"It reads as 'come here' for you, Young Master, and 'go away' for me. Our Captain uses that exact gesture all the time, so I'd wager I'm right."
At his answer, I thought of the bandit of a man from yesterday, then set off toward Dang Mulin.
"I shall remain close by."
I tossed a wave of acknowledgment over my shoulder at the guard addressing my back, then crossed the training ground and planted myself in front of my sister.
"So, what do we start with?"
Dang Mulin mulled it over for a moment before answering.
"You really don't remember anything at all about your martial arts?"
"Nope!"
"Then first, let me explain how heart techniques work."
Dark-crimson poison qi coiling around her hand, she swiped lazily at the empty air as she spoke.
"The heart method I practice—and the one you were practicing, too—is called the Poison Blood Heart Art. It's a secret art that only the direct bloodline of the Clan Head may learn. Master it completely, and with nothing more than a handful of bloody water, you can reap the lives of every soul for miles around..."
Dang Mulin's crisp, concise explanation dragged the nightmare from a few days ago right back to the surface of my mind.
Ah... so that's why every last one of the thralls I'd so carefully cultivated dropped dead without my even noticing...
Just recalling it made the back of my neck go stiff. I shook it off and refocused on her explanation.
"First, sit down cross-legged for me."
With a flicker of anticipation, I plopped down onto the packed dirt and folded my legs into a lotus.
Dang Mulin came around behind me and rested a hand on my back.
"I'm going to channel my true qi through you. Pay close attention to where the energy flows."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than something lukewarm began to swim through my body.
The internal energy roamed my whole frame like it owned the place, and I couldn't help basking in the warmth welling up inside me.
After a while, Dang Mulin lifted her hand from my back, took hold of my shoulder, and turned me around to face her.
"Why... on earth don't you have a lower dantian?"
Her face was a portrait of bewilderment, her voice dead serious. I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Ah... so that's why I got shot down back then.
A scene surfaced from the farthest reaches of my memory.
"You're hopeless when it comes to martial arts. Just give it up."
"Why?"
"Well... to be good at math, you have to be able to add first. And you can't."
"What's that supposed to mean? I can just learn how."
"No... how do I even explain this... Look, for you it's not a question of trying hard enough—your body simply can't do it, period."
"Excuse me?"
"I mean... you could imitate the motions well enough, but honestly it'd be pointless for you... So just give up, go home, wash your feet, and get some sleep."
Once the brief flashback ended, I left Dang Mulin to her grave muttering and let my thoughts run.
Ah... I hate this world so, so much. Sticking a guy with no lower dantian into a murim story—how is that any different from sticking a guy who can't sense mana into a fantasy? Life... fucking hell.
Just as I was cursing a world that seemed determined to screw me over and me alone—
Hold on... do I actually need to use a dantian for this?
Something sparked to life in my head.
Who knew how much time had passed. I tapped the shoulder of Dang Mulin, who was still wrestling with the problem all on her own.
"Sis! Is this how it's done?"
At my call, she turned around to look at me—and her eyes went wide as saucers.
"Huh...? No, wait—how on earth did you...?"
Grinning at Dang Mulin, whose eyes had gone full rabbit-caught-in-headlights, I held up my right hand for her to see.
"No idea how—I just gave it a try, and it worked?"