Sunlight slowly rose above the valley, and birds chirped and chased each other through the forest. As time passed, the sun moved to the center of the sky above the valley, then gradually slanted towards the western mountain peak until, in the evening, it slowly sank behind the mountain, and the land was enveloped by night, with only the incessant chirping of autumn insects breaking the silence.
Time passed day by day. In the blink of an eye, eight or nine days had gone by since Li Yan began his cultivation. Apart from eating and simple washing, when he would open his door for a short while, Li Yan's door remained tightly shut.
Inside the room, Li Yan, now dressed in a long black robe, sat cross-legged on the wooden bed. His eyes were slightly closed, his hands formed a seal over his abdomen, and his breathing was even. After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes, his brow tightly furrowed. He had been practicing diligently for the past eight or nine days but had still not been able to stimulate the qi in his dantian. He had gone to ask his teacher about it, and Strategist Ji's reply was that this initial cultivation varied from person to person. It could take as little as three to five days, or as long as ten days to half a month, to stimulate the dantian qi. Impatience was the greatest taboo in cultivation; one needed a calm mind and a serene spirit. However, it had been almost ten days, and he still couldn't find the so-called feeling of cultivation. He couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.
He got off the bed, pushed open the door, and walked out. Looking at the slowly darkening sky, he began to walk slowly around the valley, contemplating the meaning of every word and sentence in the incantation. As he walked and thought, he heard the sound of trickling water. Unknowingly, he had arrived at the pool. Listening to the sound of the mountain spring flowing slowly down the cliff face and looking up at the cold brilliance of the half-moon in the sky, the sound of the water echoed endlessly in his heart. He suddenly felt a sense of understanding. He stood there motionless for an unknown amount of time. Suddenly, he felt a coolness in his body that seemed to resonate with the sound of the flowing water. He immediately sat down cross-legged by the edge of the pool. The "Breath Guiding Technique" that had been swirling in his mind for the past few days began to flow naturally with his thoughts. Before long, a faint black energy appeared on his face. This black energy did not look strange; instead, it felt like a layer of cold, deep water lightly veiling his face, shimmering with a transparent light.
At this moment, Li Yan was unaware of any of this. He only felt the sound of the gurgling water filling his mind, and with each breath, it began to fill his body. Suddenly, he felt a coolness rise from his dantian, and it began to move slowly along the meridians guided by the "Breath Guiding Technique." Every place it passed, a sudden coolness would appear in that meridian, but it did not feel cold. Instead, it felt like a fish swimming into the sea. With each circulation of this cool energy through his meridians, the coolness in his dantian would grow stronger, making it increasingly cool inside.
In the stone house on the east side of the valley, Strategist Ji was also sitting cross-legged behind his table, meditating with his eyes closed. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, a smile on his face. He muttered to himself, "Finally, you can feel the qi of heaven and earth? It seems it's time to prepare the herbal medicine. This is truly something to look forward to." With that, he slowly closed his eyes again.
A long time later, Li Yan slowly opened his eyes. The valley was the same, the water still trickled down the cliff face, but the moon had disappeared from above the valley. It was now the middle of the night. His face showed a look of uncertainty. The nights in the autumn mountains were very cold, but Li Yan didn't feel the chill from the outside at all, because the coolness inside his body was even greater. Yet, it didn't cause him any discomfort; instead, he felt his senses sharpened and his body light. However, he remembered that the "Breath Guiding Technique" said that stimulating the dantian qi should produce a warm current. Why was his the opposite? Had he made a mistake in his cultivation? If so, would he end up like his senior brother? The thought made him feel uneasy. Just as he stood up in hesitation, he suddenly felt the cool energy in his dantian stagnate, and the flow became unsmooth. He was momentarily stunned, and then a voice sounded in his ear. "Li Yan, you have finally completed the initiation. Very good indeed."
Hearing this voice, he was startled and quickly turned around. A figure in a black robe stood silently behind him. He then relaxed, because the voice was his teacher's. He quickly saluted. "Teacher, you are not yet resting." He felt a sense of wonder. His teacher's internal energy was so profound. He had just experienced a small change in his body, and his teacher knew immediately. It was truly amazing.
Although the moonlight had faded from the valley, under the faint starlight, Li Yan could vaguely see his teacher's smiling, blurry face. He hesitated for a moment and then continued, "Disciple... disciple is not sure if I have succeeded."
"Oh? Your teacher has felt the aura of your stimulated dantian qi. It should be so," Strategist Ji said calmly.
"But, disciple did not feel a warmth generated in my dantian as the incantation described. Instead, it was a trace of coolness," Li Yan said, his face filled with apprehension.
Strategist Ji was stunned at first, but after a moment, he laughed. "I didn't explain this to you in detail. The Breath Guiding Technique only stimulates the dantian qi. When it is stimulated, each person's experience is different: sour, numb, itchy, cold, hot. Generally speaking, warmth and heat are the most common. The incantation I gave you only listed the common sensations. You don't need to worry about this."
Hearing this, Li Yan let out a long sigh of relief, his worries instantly vanishing. He thought to himself, 'From now on, I should just ask Teacher directly about these things. I was just scaring myself with my own wild thoughts.'
As if he could see Li Yan's expression in the darkness, Strategist Ji chuckled and said, "You have been quite tired these past few days. You don't need to cultivate anymore today. Go to sleep early. Tomorrow, you can formally begin cultivating the 'Woodyin Art.'"
"Yes, Teacher. Then disciple will take his leave." Li Yan was overjoyed to hear this. This meant that he had successfully passed the initiation and was qualified to cultivate the real technique. He actually had the urge to start cultivating right away, but he also knew that he couldn't rush things. And although he hadn't consumed much physical energy over the past ten days, his mind was indeed exhausted. So, he walked towards his stone house. After taking a few steps, the feeling of stagnation in his dantian immediately subsided a great deal. He couldn't help but secretly admire the depth of his teacher's power. Before he had any internal qi, he had never felt this way. Now, with just this small trace of internal qi, he could feel the pressure from his teacher.
Watching Li Yan's disappearing back, Strategist Ji also turned and vanished from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already inside his room. With a flick of his large sleeve behind him, the door closed silently. He sat cross-legged behind the table again, his expression fluctuating, his mind racing. 'So, the first heaven and earth qi he sensed was water. In that case, the prominent black energy I saw during the needle test was real. Then cultivating a wood-element technique is not the best choice for him. But fortunately, he has a Miscellaneous Spirit Root, and based on his performance last time, the green energy was also present, second only to his perception of water. So, he can still cultivate it, but it will definitely take longer. I don't know if I can suppress this poison long enough to see the day he succeeds.'
After pondering for a moment, Strategist Ji shook his head with a wry smile. "To have been able to wait for this second person to arrive is already a stroke of great luck. I'm overthinking it. Could I ask for a better result than this? Then, let's start tomorrow. No matter what, my body can't wait any longer." Thinking this, he closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.
The next morning, Li Yan woke up feeling refreshed and clear-headed. His mood was as bright as the early autumn blue sky outside his window. After finishing breakfast, he went to his teacher's room early. Just as before, as soon as he arrived in front of the stone house, Strategist Ji's voice came from within. "Is that Li Yan? Come in."
Although Li Yan had only left his room a few times over the past many days, he had a rough idea that his teacher only went out every few days. On normal days, he would always be cultivating behind closed doors in this stone house in the valley.
Li Yan went in, and another half-day passed. When he came out, Strategist Ji also walked out slowly. He summoned Chen An and Li Yin, gave them some instructions, and then walked straight into the second stone house. A short while later, Chen An and Li Yin came to Li Yan's room carrying an exquisitely crafted copper brazier. Li Yan was, of course, waiting in his room as instructed by his teacher. Seeing them coming, he beckoned them to place the copper brazier inside the room. His stone house was also very spacious, so they could just find an empty spot and put it down.
The copper brazier was about half a person's height, made of fine copper, and gleamed with a metallic light. It stood on a sturdy jade base. Three purple flood dragons were carved around the body of the brazier, their heads raised upwards in a supportive posture. There were several hollowed-out sections on the bodies of the dragons and the brazier, through which one could faintly see the inside of the brazier. At this moment, the inside of the brazier was already fiery red, but it was unclear what fuel was being used, as there was not the slightest trace of smoke. Waves of heat emanated from the body of the brazier.
About a quarter of an hour later, Strategist Ji walked out of the second stone house, a look of fatigue on his grayish-green face. Chen An and Li Yin immediately entered the stone room and, a moment later, came out carrying a copper basin. Steam was also rising from the basin. They then carried the basin to Li Yan's stone house and placed it on the heads of the three dragons on the copper brazier. After giving a salute to Strategist Ji and Li Yan, the two of them closed the door and left.
Strategist Ji came to the copper brazier, a smile on his tired face. He said to Li Yan, "Have you memorized the incantations for the technique I told you about this morning?"
Li Yan also stood before the copper brazier and replied respectfully, "Disciple has already memorized them."
"Mm. Although the incantations for each layer are not too long, their meaning is profound and subtle. You must understand and comprehend them. Your teacher spent half a day explaining them to you so that you could fully understand the use of the first layer's incantations. The rest is up to your own diligent practice. As the saying goes, 'The master leads you to the door, but cultivation is up to the individual.' This is a timeless truth," Strategist Ji said with a nod.
"Disciple will certainly practice diligently. Thank you for your guidance, Teacher," Li Yan replied respectfully.
At this moment, steam was rolling out of the copper basin on the brazier. Looking closer, one could vaguely see many herbs churning in the juice under the billowing steam. Wisps of blackish-green energy rose from it, swirling above the copper basin.
"Mm. The preparation of these herbal medicines is a secret method of our sect. This basin of herbal medicine can be used repeatedly for seven days. After seven days, these herbs will lose their efficacy and must be prepared again, but the dosage will be increased by a few tenths. After repeating this for seven times seven, a total of forty-nine days, your meridians will have gone through the process of marrow washing and meridian forging, finally becoming incomparably strong. Only such meridians can withstand the domineering flow of our sect's internal energy later on. Just in terms of the meridians alone, after these forty-nine days of work, you will be on par with a second or third-rate master in the martial world. For an ordinary person to reach this stage, it would take nearly a dozen years of practice. But our sect can achieve this through this secret method of meridian cleansing. However, the process is also extremely painful. Those without great perseverance cannot complete it. You must endure all of this on your own. Do you understand?" As he said this, Strategist Ji's voice became stern.
"Disciple understands and will not disappoint Teacher's expectations," Li Yan said, his gaze fixed firmly on his teacher. He had been repeatedly told about this that morning. He was also a person of strong will and knew well that there was no gain without pain. Since his sect's martial arts were so domineering, the cultivation must have its harsh aspects. He was already mentally prepared.
"Good. Then you may begin. Your teacher will stand guard outside for you these few days. If you have any problems, I will promptly assist you." With that, he said no more, opened the door, and walked out. He then closed the door from the outside again, sat cross-legged on the stone table outside, and began to meditate with his eyes closed.