After Strategist Ji left, Li Yan felt the qi in his body flow smoothly again. He couldn't help but give a wry smile. Whenever his teacher was standing nearby, he would feel his qi being suppressed.
He calmed his mind, cleared his thoughts, and stopped thinking about other things. The copper brazier would burn for about an hour each time, giving him that much time to cultivate. He couldn't afford to waste it. He came to the copper brazier, took a stance, and then stretched his hands into the blackish-green energy above the copper basin. He silently circulated the incantation of his technique. Instantly, the blackish-green energy enveloping his hands seemed to be drawn in, splitting into ten wisps of black silk and drilling into his fingertips. Li Yan immediately felt as if red-hot needles were prying open his fingernails, like they were being peeled off alive. The pain shot straight to his heart and brain.
Even though Li Yan was mentally prepared, he had not expected such excruciating pain. He let out a muffled groan, his stance wavered a few times, and his body retreated two steps. The strange thing was that the wisps of blackish-green energy that had been drawn in by his technique did not disperse. They stretched as he retreated, still drilling into his body through the gaps in his fingernails.
Sweat had already soaked through Li Yan's black robe. He gritted his teeth, forced himself to focus, and moved forward two steps, re-establishing his stance. He once again circulated his technique. The wisps of blackish-green energy, like red-hot silver needles, pierced and advanced through his meridians. With every inch they advanced, his whole body would tremble involuntarily, and sweat poured out like a thick slurry.
He didn't know how long he could continue to cultivate, but he was naturally tenacious. Whatever he set his mind to, although he might not be able to do it perfectly, he would always give it his all. Time passed bit by bit. Eventually, his nerves went numb, and only his mind was still mechanically circulating the technique, urging the blackish-green energy to move through his body.
Outside the room, Strategist Ji, who was sitting cross-legged on the stone table, had his eyes closed in meditation, but his eyelids would occasionally twitch, betraying his unease. After more than half an hour, his eyes suddenly snapped open. He had vanished from the stone table. The stone door to Li Yan's room was opened as if by an invisible force.
Inside the room, Li Yan's face was now blackish-green, and a layer of black energy covered his hands and arms. He had lost consciousness and could no longer even mechanically circulate the technique. His body was tilting backward, but the blackish-green energy was still firmly attached to his ten fingers, forming arcs as his body fell back, looking very strange. Just as he was about to fall flat on his back, a figure suddenly appeared behind him. A large sleeve flicked out and wrapped around him, while the other sleeve shook at the ten wisps of blackish-green energy. With a few soft popping sounds, the blackish-green energy had broken off from Li Yan's ten fingers. But Li Yan's body seemed to still have a suction force. The broken wisps of blackish-green energy in the air still twisted like snakes, swaying and lunging towards Li Yan's body, looking terrifying and bizarre.
Strategist Ji didn't spare another glance at the blackish-green energy. He shook the large sleeve that was wrapped around Li Yan, and a gentle force lifted Li Yan and carried him towards the wooden bed, then gently placed him on it. He then walked to the bedside in a few steps, his hands flying in front of his chest, forming several complex-looking hand seals. A few points of green starlight shot from his fingertips and landed on Li Yan's abdomen.
Li Yan felt as if he were in a volcano, his body burning with unbearable pain. He wanted to scream but couldn't, suffering immensely. Countless red-hot lava streams surrounded him, about to cook him through. He felt he was going to die in this volcano. Suddenly, a cool sensation rose in his abdomen, and the volcano and the endless lava slowly receded. His mind began to clear. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying flat on the bed, with his teacher in a black robe standing by his side. He struggled to sit up, but a sharp, hot pain shot through his chest and abdomen. He groaned and lay back down. He saw stars before his eyes, and the volcano in his body seemed to be on the verge of erupting again.
Lying on the bed, he collected himself, turned his head to look at his teacher, and forced a smile. "Tea... Teacher, disciple is incompetent and has failed to live up to master's expectations..."
"Hehe, you don't need to blame yourself. To be able to persist for over half an hour on your first time has already greatly surprised your teacher. You have done very well," Strategist Ji said with a gentle smile.
"So... does this mean that disciple can cultivate our sect's technique?" Li Yan said with difficulty, his face contorted in pain.
"Naturally. However, although you are in pain now, you must still refine the herbal medicinal power you have just absorbed. Otherwise, if this medicinal power remains in your body, it will only bring harm and no benefit. And only after it is refined will this medicinal power belong to you, and only then will one session of cultivation be considered complete."
Li Yan naturally knew this. His teacher had told him before that this daily cultivation was divided into two steps: absorbing the herbal medicinal power, and then refining it for his own use. After forty-nine days, he could enter the first layer and generate internal energy. From then on, with this as his foundation, he would no longer need to absorb herbal medicinal power and could just continue to cultivate.
Li Yan took a deep breath, endured the burning pain in his body, and slowly sat up. He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his technique to refine the medicinal power in his body.
Seeing this, Strategist Ji turned and quietly left the room. He once again sat cross-legged on the stone table outside. After settling down, he muttered to himself in a low voice, "This child is indeed strong-willed. But after he refines this medicinal power, it's hard to say if he can still maintain a calm and peaceful mind." After saying this cryptic sentence, he seemed to fall into deep thought.
From this day on, Li Yan began his painful journey of drawing medicine into his body and refining its power to strengthen his meridians day after day. But the time he could remain conscious while drawing in the medicine grew longer and longer. As time went on, although the medicinal power nearly doubled every seven days, the pain of drawing it in gradually lessened. Apart from the first few times when Strategist Ji had to intervene to help him, he was later able to cultivate completely on his own. This was because his meridians were growing stronger day by day. His previous meridians were like thin, tender tubes. When the medicinal power forcibly tore them open and expanded them, it was naturally excruciatingly painful. As the medicinal power was refined and absorbed into his body, the large and small meridians in his body also gradually grew and expanded. Several of his main meridians had already become thick and tough, so the pain was greatly reduced.
"Whew." Li Yan let out a long breath, ending today's cultivation and refinement. He did not get up but remained seated cross-legged. After opening his eyes, he frowned, feeling a wave of irritability welling up in his heart. He had to take another deep breath. As his daily cultivation progressed, he found that his mood was becoming more and more irritable, as if a ball of fire was rampaging through his body, making him extremely frustrated.
He had asked his teacher about it. Strategist Ji told him that this was caused by the medicinal power cleansing his body. Only powerful medicinal energy could create strong meridians, and only such a constitution could drive the fierce techniques of their sect. After he broke through to the first layer after forty-nine days, this situation would improve. In the future, as his cultivation deepened, this situation would disappear completely.
After hearing this, Li Yan thought of his teacher's world-beating martial arts and felt it made sense. But for some reason, he still had an inexplicable sense of unease in his heart. Whenever he thought about it, he couldn't find any clues.
Putting these thoughts aside, Li Yan felt another wave of frustration. This frustration had begun to make it impossible for him to maintain a calm mind during his cultivation.
Li Yan stood up and pushed open the door. It was already night. He was feeling extremely frustrated, so he walked around the valley. Since he started cultivating, he had been busy with his practice every day and had no time for leisure. But today, the frustration in his heart made him want to vent. He couldn't stay in his room any longer.
He walked aimlessly in the valley. The autumn wind on his face, with its waves of coolness, blew away much of the frustration in his chest. He couldn't help but take a few more deep breaths of the cool air. He walked slowly in the valley. The valley was not very large, and after walking about half a circle, he came to the pool. A wave of cold air hit him in the face. His heart felt a chill, and the qi in his body flowed smoothly, his spirits greatly lifted. He quickened his pace to the edge of the pool. The cold was even stronger, and his chest felt completely comfortable. Overjoyed, Li Yan simply sat down by the edge of the pool. He sat there for half an hour. By the time he stood up, the heat in his body had completely dissipated, and a wave of weariness washed over him. He returned to his room and fell into a deep sleep.
As dawn arrived, Li Yan awoke from his sleep feeling a hundred times more energetic. In the past twenty-odd days of cultivation, with the changes in his body, he had not slept as soundly as he did last night for a long time.
After waking up, Li Yan stood at the table, looking at the swirling mist above the pool outside the window. His eyes grew brighter and brighter. He then walked quickly towards his teacher's stone house. When he arrived, Strategist Ji's familiar, gentle voice came from within. "You're here. Come in then."
Since Li Yan began cultivating, he had rarely come to his teacher's place. His teacher would usually prepare the medicine every day and then stand guard outside his room for him.
"Yes, Teacher," Li Yan said, his expression serious as he walked in quickly. When he entered the room, he found his teacher still sitting cross-legged behind the table as usual, holding that book that was neither gold nor jade in one hand, looking up at him with a smile. But for some reason, every time he saw his teacher, he felt the qi in his body become sluggish.
"Hehe, your complexion is quite good today. It seems you have discovered some things in the valley," Strategist Ji said with a smile, looking at Li Yan before him.
"Teacher knows why disciple has come?" Li Yan asked, surprised.
"You must have discovered that the pool can relieve the heat in your body, right?" Strategist Ji said with a smile.
"Yes, Teacher. So Teacher already knew about the pool's effects," Li Yan couldn't help but ask.
"Of course I know. Half the reason I chose this valley as my residence was because the water in this pool has a somewhat strange cold effect."
"Then... Teacher, why didn't you let disciple cultivate there?" Li Yan asked with some hesitation.
"Hehe, the initiation method of our sect is indeed a bit domineering, so disciples of our sect will encounter this situation during their initiation cultivation. There are generally many solutions. For example, immersing oneself in one's own hobbies to restore peace of mind, such as playing the guqin, blowing a flute, calligraphy, and so on. Another way is to use external forces to directly offset the fire in the body, such as ice stones, snow mountains, cold pools, and so on." At this point, Strategist Ji paused and glanced at Li Yan.
Li Yan did not press, knowing that his teacher would give him the answer soon.
Seeing Li Yan's calm demeanor, Strategist Ji couldn't help but sigh inwardly. 'This child is naturally quiet and thoughtful.'
He then said, "The reason I didn't let you cultivate by the pool right away is that when you first start cultivating, you should rely on your own endurance to resist it. This will better temper your mind-nature. If you rely on external objects from the beginning, then as you continue to cultivate, the effect will become less and less effective, which will actually hinder your own cultivation. Therefore, I did not tell you these things, for fear that you would not be able to resist the temptation and give up on tempering yourself."
After hearing this, Li Yan thought, 'So there's a reason like that. There are many solutions, but they can't be used lightly.' He then bowed and said, "Disciple was wrong."
Strategist Ji waved his hand. "This is not your fault, it's just that I didn't say it clearly." He then pondered for a moment and said, "How about this. Looking at your cultivation these past few days, you should have reached a certain bottleneck. But for now, don't go to the pool to cultivate. I will first use other methods to help you resolve the abnormal symptoms that appear during your practice. When you are about to break through to the first layer on the forty-ninth day, you can then cultivate by the pool. The effect will be best then. After you enter the first layer, you can cultivate there for a long time."
Li Yan was overjoyed to hear this. "Then... what method will Teacher use?"
"You will know when you cultivate today," Strategist Ji said with a faint smile, not explaining further.
Li Yan gave a wry smile in his heart and could only take his leave.
Several hours later, after Li Yan had drawn the medicine into his body, he began to sit cross-legged and refine the medicinal power. Before long, the hot qi was already churning in his body. After suppressing it a few times, Li Yan slowly found himself unable to control it. His mind could not be calmed, and the restless qi became more and more turbulent.
Just then, a sound of a guqin suddenly floated in from the window, like the autumn moon over a calm lake, like a jade rabbit rising in the east, or like a gentle breeze rustling the leaves in a forest. Then it was like a young girl's soft whisper, and then like morning dew enlightening the heart. Li Yan immediately felt a coolness rise in his heart, the frustration gradually dissipated, and his mind slowly cleared.
He instantly understood what method his teacher was using. It turned out his teacher's skill with the guqin was so profound that he could transform sound into a state of being, clearing one's mind. He didn't dare to think any more. He focused his mind and slowly entered a state of self-forgetfulness.