Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Already at Qi Induction?

Rong Shu first swallowed a superior-grade Qi Induction Pill, then, following the qi-guiding formula recorded in the jade slip, closed her eyes and set her posture.

She recited the instructions in her mind, letting her body settle accordingly: “Sit cross-legged, form the hand seal with both hands, sink the shoulders, lower the lids, press the tongue to the palate, with Dui corresponding to the mouth, breathe naturally through the nose.” Then she continued: “Clear away all stray thoughts and enter stillness.”

As the superior-grade Qi Induction Pill dissolved, Rong Shu quickly felt a change. Her whole body seemed to whirl with a vortex of qi, as if it had a faint suction to it.

A sudden, piercing pain stabbed up from her dantian, nearly jolting her out of stillness.

She hissed through her teeth: “Tss.”

[That same familiar pain again.]

For the past five years, pain would surface in Rong Shu’s dantian from time to time, as if something inside were being torn apart. Yet she could find no cause. Even after seeking physicians multiple times, no one could diagnose anything wrong.

She gathered herself and maintained stillness.

The qi-guiding method stated that with dual spiritual roots, one usually needed at least half a month to achieve Qi Induction.

So she set a modest little goal: achieve Qi Induction within two months.

She did not know how much time had passed when she sensed the pill’s medicinal power about to fade. Just as she prepared to take another Qi Induction Pill, faint points of light blossomed around her like stars at night.

Rong Shu froze for a beat, then realized at once that these glowing motes were the spiritual qi mentioned in the method.

The points glimmered in many colors, each hue representing a different attribute. Among them, red and cyan represented fire-attribute and wind-attribute qi respectively. Only with spiritual roots of a given attribute could one absorb the matching attribute of spiritual qi.

Ignoring the other colors, Rong Shu focused on the red and cyan motes. She coaxed them with care, like a creepy aunt coaxing a kid, gently luring the two colors into her body.

After she successfully drew spiritual qi inside, she guided it into her dantian, then circulated it again and again to wash through her meridians.

Just as everything was proceeding smoothly, the other colored motes around her suddenly grew restless, no longer drifting aimlessly.

[What is going on?]

The next second, all those agitated motes swarmed into her body in a rush.

The abrupt change left Rong Shu momentarily stunned.

[Am I not just Wind-Fire Dual Spiritual Roots? Why are these golden, green, yellow, and purple spiritual qi barging in too?]

She wanted to break stillness, but once the qi turned lively she found that her absorption of wind and fire qi had clearly doubled. It felt like too good a chance to waste.

In the end, Rong Shu chose to hold position and watch carefully, prepared to snap out of stillness the instant anything felt off, like an indigestion she could not handle.

Those uninvited mixed streams of qi that had gate-crashed their way inside became perfectly obedient once they reached her dantian. Under her guidance, they circulated through her meridians in an orderly, disciplined way.

But before she could fully relax, the once-distinct, clearly separated streams of mixed qi began to merge bit by bit, wind and fire among them.

They gathered into a mass, intermingled, and gradually shed their colors, becoming a transparent gas, neither black nor white.

[What… what is this supposed to be? Where did the wind and fire qi I worked so hard to absorb go?]

Just as Rong Shu grew frustrated and at a loss, the transparent gas in her dantian seemed to “hear” her thoughts and slowly turned into a half-red, half-cyan gas.

She examined the changing gas with curiosity, and an incredible idea surfaced.

She tested a thought in silence: [Metal.]

In the next heartbeat, the red-cyan gas became golden, the color of metal-attribute qi.

[Wood.]

As soon as the thought arose, the gold turned green, the color of wood-attribute qi.

Rong Shu: [!]

She cycled through every spiritual root she knew—five-element spiritual roots and the various mutated ones—one by one in her heart.

In response, the gas in her dantian kept changing colors, like a messed-up string of flashing colored lights.

After a short while of experimenting, she noticed something new: when the gas shifted to the colors representing wind and fire qi, those hues were clearly deeper than the rest. By contrast, the colors representing ice and water were very dim, almost transparent.

The Qi Induction Pill’s effects had long since faded, yet Rong Shu felt she could now absorb the world’s spiritual qi with ease. [Doesn’t this mean… I’ve achieved Qi Induction?]

She withdrew from stillness and opened her eyes.

Rong Shu consulted the method in the jade slip again, worried she might have missed something earlier.

According to the jade slip, the ability to sense spiritual qi at any time without relying on a Qi Induction Pill was indeed a sign of success in Qi Induction.

Having achieved Qi Induction, her cultivation now stood at the first layer of Qi Refining.

Rong Shu rose and opened the window.

The cold moon hung high in the sky; the night was as thick as ink.

[In less than a single night, I completed Qi Induction?] Suspicion stirred in her heart.

[Wasn’t it supposed to take at least half a month?]

[And if I only have Wind-Fire Dual Spiritual Roots, why can I absorb qi of other attributes?] The jade slip never mentioned such a case; it only said that qi of non-root attributes could not be absorbed.

While Rong Shu pondered, that knife-twisting pain surfaced again in her dantian.

[Tss…]

She clutched her abdomen and bent forward.

At that moment, the transparent gas in her dantian turned half red and half cyan, then gradually dispersed and fused completely into the inner wall of her dantian.

The pain eased by a noticeable degree, fading faster than before.

Rong Shu straightened and hastily looked inward at her dantian.

What she saw left her a little dumbfounded.

Why had the qi in her dantian decreased?

What had been a fist-sized mass was now only the size of a finger.