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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Qi Circulation and Breathing
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"It's late, but you're just heading out like this?"
"Walking in the daytime has been too hot lately."
Not even an hour had passed since Dang Mujin went to find Yi Chung, and the two were already leaving Chengdu.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have walked a late-night road out of worry that some wild beast might appear. But things were different now. There was a martial arts master right beside him.
Dang Mujin didn't know just how strong a peak expert was. But he'd never heard tales of the world's greatest warrior getting devoured by a tiger, or a peak expert dying after being bitten by a wolf. Yi Chung must have some confidence in himself to set out on a night road like this.
Once they left Chengdu behind, signs of human presence vanished quickly.
Grasshoppers and wild pigeons in the surrounding thickets cried out excitedly. Their clamor was loud enough to hurt the ears.
The night sky was filled with stars, as if they might pour down at any moment. Dark night clouds would block the starlight, only to slyly retreat again.
Dang Mujin walked along, alternating his gaze between the sky and his feet.
His father suddenly came to mind.
When Dang Mujin had asked if it was okay to leave with Yi Chung, his father had surprisingly agreed without hesitation.
'All right. Go ahead.'
'Won't you be short-handed?'
'What does manpower matter? This is the only time you can leave.'
A physician's clinic, once established in a village, couldn't be abandoned. There was never a time when everyone in the village was healthy.
Just as you thought to take off, you'd remember you needed to give acupuncture to old man Jang in the next village over. Then, as you tried to leave again, you'd think of delivering medicine to old lady Song in the upper village.
The face of a patient who seemed like they'd be fully recovered after just one more dose of medicine would float before your eyes. If you left like this, you could clearly picture them writhing in pain. But once you healed them all, new patients would appear, waiting for the clinic.
And so the young man in his twenties became a man in his forties, fifties, and sixties.
By the time he realized it was too late to leave, he'd pass the clinic on to his children. And the children would age in the same spot.
That was the life of a physician. Dang Mujin's father had lived it that way, and his grandfather before him too.
Dang Mujin sensed that his father must have had many days when he wanted to up and leave.
It was only natural. What man didn't want to see the wide world and take in landscapes he'd only heard about in stories?
To nod his head as if he'd been waiting for it when his son said he was going with Yi Chung—how many regrets must he have buried to do that?
The tip of his nose tingled. Dang Mujin pressed down on his eyelids a couple of times and steadied his breathing.
"But, elder. If I follow you around, won't I be unable to work as a blacksmith?"
"There's a forge pretty much everywhere. For someone like me, borrowing one for a day is no big deal. And there's something I should tell you in advance."
"Yes."
"Drop that 'elder' talk if you can. It feels weird every time you say it. Makes me feel like some eighty-year-old geezer."
"Is that so."
But there wasn't a suitable way to address him. Calling him by name felt wrong, and using a nickname was odd too. Especially since it wasn't a particularly impressive one.
In that moment, Dang Mujin realized.
'Ah. He wants me to call him master.'
This was probably how it would end up. Dang Mujin pretended not to know and asked back.
"So what should I call you? Mas—"
"Call me brother."
An utterly shameless remark out of nowhere. Dang Mujin narrowed his eyes and glanced to the side.
Yi Chung's gaze had turned slightly away from him, hiding his face.
"Brother? You want me to call you 'this brother'? For real?"
"...Yeah."
"I'll call you that if I can, but our age difference is more than double. What would people think if I went around calling you brother...?"
"Then what? Got a better one? You don't."
Dang Mujin pondered deeply. There really wasn't a good way to address him. Elder didn't work, brother didn't either, and master felt premature.
In that instant, a phrase flashed through his mind.
"Old man?"
Yi Chung clamped his mouth shut.
*
The two walked on in silence.
The faint excitement and joy of strolling through the night streets lasted only a moment.
By the time the eastern sky began to lighten hazily, Dang Mujin's legs were starting to ache.
"We've walked quite a ways. Shouldn't we rest a bit?"
"Let's do that. We've got something to do anyway."
"Something to do?"
"Didn't I say I'd teach you martial arts? We have to start somewhere."
Dang Mujin's heart pounded. He'd teach him swordsmanship, so he'd have to quickly snap off a tree branch or something.
But Yi Chung brought up something else.
"Sit down and assume the lotus position."
"Lotus position?"
"Yeah. Martial arts begin with regulating your breathing and sensing your qi."
Dang Mujin sat as Yi Chung instructed and crossed his legs into the lotus position. Soles of his feet resting on his knees. His body wasn't flexible enough for a perfect posture, but Yi Chung didn't point it out.
"What now?"
"Breathe in slowly. As slow and deep as you can. Then exhale thinly."
Suuuup— Haaaaah. Suuuuup— Haaaaah.
After repeating that a few times, Dang Mujin looked at Yi Chung.
"And?"
"And what? Keep going. Until I say stop."
It felt like something was off, but he wasn't in a position to argue. Dang Mujin endlessly repeated the slow breathing.
Before long, the hazy eastern sky had fully brightened, and the sun crept up over the horizon.
Of course, nothing had changed. He didn't feel any stronger, or his body any lighter.
Instead, stray thoughts filled his mind.
What Dang Mujin knew of martial arts was mostly memories of kids from his childhood who had clamored to learn swordsmanship at the Qingcheng Chengdu Branch.
And those kids had bragged about how hard and tiring it was to learn the sword, but never mentioned anything about breathing exercises like this.
The breathing that had started around the hour of the hare extended past the hour of the dragon into the hour of the snake. Lunchtime was approaching soon.
Dang Mujin wondered if this was right and glanced back. Yi Chung was sprawled on a rock, dozing off with his head nodding.
Finally, Dang Mujin couldn't hold back and called out.
"Um, old man."
"What?"
Yi Chung's voice upon waking was far from pleasant. He clearly didn't like being called old man.
But until he found a better term, that's what he'd have to go with.
"It's not that I'm doubting you, old man. I've just lived my whole life next to the Qingcheng Chengdu Branch and picked up things from eavesdropping, so I wanted to ask."
"What's on your mind?"
"The kids I knew who trained at the branch said they started swinging wooden swords right after entering the outer gate. I never heard anything about learning breathing."
Yi Chung chuckled.
"That's a practical matter."
"Pardon?"
"Try sitting a bunch of kids under ten down and making them just breathe like this for a couple hours. They won't last even half an hour before they're fidgeting and bolting out. Repeat that for a few days, and they'll start skipping altogether instead of coming to the branch."
"That makes sense."
"If the kids don't come to the branch, do you think their parents will pay the tuition?"
"Ah."
Dang Mujin understood immediately.
When giving medicine to kids, you put in double the licorice root to make it palatable, and if possible, slip them a piece of candy. That way, they wouldn't fear coming to the clinic.
When dealing with children, eliminating their aversion comes first. Apparently, martial schools weren't much different.
"You let them play around with swords at first, then after a few months, pick out the promising ones and teach them the breathing methods. The main sects of great schools only accept those fully prepared and teach methods like mine from the start, but mid-to-small sects, little dojos, and branches teach the basics later."
"So, how much longer do I have to breathe like this?"
Yi Chung stretched languidly and looked up at the sky.
"You've probably started getting the hang of the breathing by now, so let's get serious. Today's goal is to sense your qi."
"I haven't felt a thing so far..."
"Of course not. I'll guide the qi in your body, so focus on the sensation."
Yi Chung sat behind Dang Mujin and placed both hands around his waist. After a brief wait, a strange sensation arose near the Jingmun and Daimai acupoints.
A cool, ticklish feeling—not strong, but clear.
"Feel something?"
"Uh... yeah."
"That's qi. Your goal today is to remember that sensation."
True Qi Guidance. Yi Chung gently led the energy inside Dang Mujin.
Dang Mujin closed his eyes and focused on the inner sensation.
The path the energy took wasn't complicated. He'd seen it in medical texts, and countless needles had been inserted there while learning acupuncture.
"Jingmun, Daimai, Wochu, Yudu, Gellyo, Huantiao."
Dang Mujin murmured softly. A satisfied laugh came from behind.
"Good thing you were taught as a physician. Others have to start by teaching them what acupoints exist. Since we're at it, shall we expand the range a bit?"
Dang Mujin didn't respond, just focused quietly.
The range Yi Chung guided Dang Mujin's qi through gradually widened. Down to Fengshi, up to Riyue and Tianchu, even to Lianque. The qi softly circulated from the armpits down to the hips.
"For a while, it'll tickle every time the qi moves. That's the miscellaneous qi that was blocking your meridians getting scraped away—can't be helped."
As the True Qi Guidance continued, Dang Mujin felt a peculiar sensation.
Not as clear as the qi Yi Chung was pulling, but another faint energy was circulating in his body too. Its path matched the meridians he'd learned in medicine.
So where had the qi accumulated in his body come from? Dang Mujin inhaled very slowly and gently.
A thread-thin, hazy strand of qi entered through his nose. It passed the Zhengming in the nasal cavity, to Tongtian in the head. Then slowly down to Geshu near the lungs.
Like spring morning mist, so faint it might dissipate at any moment.
But precisely because it was so faint, Dang Mujin could control it with his meager aptitude. Like a newborn grasping a tiny feather with its tiny fist, Dang Mujin slowly guided the hazy qi.
Dang Mujin tugged lightly at the qi that had stopped at Geshu. He knew every meridian in the body. Even without seeing, he knew which way to direct the qi.
The small new strand of qi Dang Mujin had drawn in moved from Geshu to Riyue. Soon, it met the qi Dang Mujin had been moving, which Yi Chung was guiding. The qi Yi Chung controlled gently enveloped the qi Dang Mujin had brought in.
Yi Chung, focused on the True Qi Guidance, couldn't miss that sensation. He let out a disbelieving chuckle at the absurd sight, then burst into loud laughter.
"I picked up a lunatic. I just told you to sense the qi moving through the Foot Lesser Yang Gallbladder Meridian, and you've already drawn in new qi with Inhalation?"
Dang Mujin didn't answer or move, focused entirely on the qi. Yi Chung slowly lifted his hands from Dang Mujin's back.
Dang Mujin didn't even notice Yi Chung's hands leaving his back, immersed in his Qi Circulation.
No, it wasn't even proper circulation. Not even a Microcosmic Orbit, just faint inner power. With his extremely limited experience, all Dang Mujin did was slowly caress and tug the qi this way and that.
Unlike Yi Chung, who easily handled larger amounts of qi, Dang Mujin couldn't fully control it. But he had no intention of giving up.
After struggling for quite some time, Dang Mujin finally managed to move the tiny strand of qi from Daimai to Wochu. A distance not even half a handspan. But when he opened his eyes, his whole body was drenched in sweat.
The sun had already begun to set, touching the horizon. The sky, clouds, earth, and forest burned red. It felt like they'd barely started before lunch, but evening was already here.
Yi Chung sat with the sunset at his back, watching Dang Mujin. He grinned and asked.
"Was it fun?"
Countless thoughts swirled in his mind. So much he wanted to say, so much to ask.
But Dang Mujin gathered them all and gave a short reply.
"Yes."
And with a grin like Yi Chung's, he smiled.