"I'm sorry I have to tell you this, Shun Jin."
Shun Jin swallowed. She looked nervous about what I was going to say.
She adjusted the collar of her robe, covering her smooth shoulders and back. Then she turned to face me.
"What is it?"
I looked at her seriously. She also seemed curious and a little nervous, waiting for me to continue speaking.
"I want you to shampoo my hair too. Lately, my hair feels stiff. Seeing your hair shiny and soft, it seems you use a foamy plant that can make your hair fragrant and soft." I lifted the long hair on my shoulder and showed the texture of my hair, which had become hard and dry even when wet.
Shun Jin looked at me with a frog-like gaze. Squinting in disgust.
I looked back at her seriously. "I can't train you with itchy and smelly hair. Especially in this scorching midday heat."
Sighing, Shun Jin pulled something out of her robe pocket. It was a white flower.
"Here. I picked this plant near the pond. It turns out this flower has a fragrance and can foam, making hair soft when I use it on my head." Shun Jin handed me the white flower. I saw several of the same flowers growing around the waterfall pond. I seemed to recognize this flower.
Looking at the flower I was holding, its petals were pale white, slightly translucent, and its pistil was orange-yellow. And after I saw its stem, I recognized this flower.
Its stem was not green, but blue. That explained the scent of Shun Jin's hair and its shiny black color. Also, the waterfall pond, which was not too deep, neck-high, looked very clear and crystal-like.
"Hmm, it seems we are very lucky, Shun Jin. The flower you use for shampooing is a Water Lily. This is a flower that is a bit difficult to find in a place like this because they generally grow in cold regions in the North."
"Water Lily?" Shun Jin asked, tilting her head.
I nodded. "Open your mouth."
Shun Jin opened her mouth obediently. I then plucked the flower head and put it into Shun Jin's mouth.
She was immediately surprised and wanted to spit out the flower because of its strange taste. But I quickly covered her mouth and said, "Swallow."
Shun Jin had no choice but to swallow the flower in her mouth because she couldn't spit it out.
She looked at me angrily as if looking at a villain. I withdrew my hand after making sure Shun Jin swallowed the flower.
"Bleh! Why did you tell me to swallow that flower?! It tastes so strange and cold!" Shun Jin said annoyedly, puffing out her cheeks into a round shape.
"Soon you should feel something very cold in your stomach. Don't let that cold take over your body, otherwise, you will freeze to death due to Qi deviation."
Shun Jin turned pale hearing that. She touched her own stomach and she began to feel something very cold there.
"W-what should I do?" Her body trembled, not from fear but because she was already feeling the piercing cold throughout her body.
I sat cross-legged behind Shun Jin and placed both my palms on her back.
"Stay calm and control the flow. Close your eyes and feel the Qi flow I'm giving you."
Shun Jin nodded. She immediately closed her eyes.
"Control your breathing, let the Qi flow from the flower into your heart. I will show you how."
From my palms pressed against her back, which was covered by the robe fabric, warmth spread directionally through the back of her lungs. I provided warm Qi to connect the cold Qi from the water lily into her main dantian.
Like a stream of water flowing from the top of a mountain through a crack in the earth. I only opened the way for that crack in the earth to channel water towards the spring pond, where the water should collect. It felt like threading a needle through many tiny holes. I had to focus on guiding the flow of the water lily Qi that Shun Jin had consumed to reach her main dantian. Otherwise, she would experience Qi deviation and her body would freeze as the water lily Qi flowed to the wrong places.
Shun Jin shivered violently. She felt an extreme cold within her body.
"Stay calm and control your breathing. Follow my warmth."
Trying to nod, Shun Jin gritted her jaw to focus on following the Qi flow I was channeling. She held back the water lily Qi from going off track and followed my instructions.
Actually, telling Shun Jin to eat the Water Lily without building a strong body foundation was a big mistake. But without it, she wouldn't be able to get a strong Qi foundation because her dantian was weak and talentless. But precisely because her dantian was weak and talentless, she could obtain a new dantian.
The Water Lily is a Yin-energy, water-type flower, as its name suggests. It possesses a purity that can cleanse any impurity. That's why the waterfall pond looked abnormally clear and clean. Because Water Lilies grew beside the pond.
Usually, this flower is sought after by martial artists who have reached the Nascent Soul cultivation level to cleanse their three dantians before ascending to the next cultivation level. However, I once heard that Ye Jing ate this flower when he was a child, and with it, he gained a water-type dantian afterward. Because of this, throughout his life, he was called the blue heroic swordsman, taken from his blue eyes and his sword technique that always emitted a blue water light.
Shun Jin must be feeling immense pain from within right now as the water lily Qi enters her main dantian. That water lily Qi will transform her initial, untrained dantian and give her a new one. This can only be done by a beginner like Shun Jin, even if the stakes are her own life.
For hours until sunset, the Water Lily Qi finally stabilized within Shun Jin's main dantian. Her body was still shivering from the cold. She was sweating not from heat but from the opposite. Her breathing was very ragged as if she had just run for hours non-stop. She turned her head back, her gaze very weak.
"I... managed... to absorb it..." She smiled faintly. As if she had just completed something difficult. And she deserved to be happy.
Generally, almost 90 percent of people would experience Qi deviation and die after consuming a Water Lily without a Nascent Soul cultivation level or higher. But Shun Jin successfully absorbed it well. Although she still needed someone to guide her.
Shun Jin's ice-cold skin now began to warm up again.
"So... Does this mean... I have Qi?" She asked after I laid her on the ground near the campfire, whose flames had dwindled due to lack of wood to burn.
I smiled faintly. Nodding. "With this, every three days you will eat that flower again to improve the quality of your dantian in a short time. I will make you eat all the flowers growing beside the pond." I grinned wickedly.
Shun Jin looked at me in horror.
"I'm going to die..." She said that before her eyes closed, losing consciousness from exhaustion after absorbing the Qi.
***