Chapter 8: Entering the Sect as a Disciple
Editor: Henyee
After half a year of relentless cultivation, Han Li was finally going to take Doctor Mo’s test.
Zhang Tie was fidgeting as he stood close to Han Li. His behavior was nothing strange. Zhang Tie had told Han Li that for the past six months, he had made no progress on the oracular chant given to them by Doctor Mo.
Han Li knew that Zhang Tie’s efforts in cultivating the oracular chant were no less intense than his own. Although Zhang Tie was unlike Han Li, who practiced like a madman, the efforts he expended could still be considered conscientious and diligent!
Strangely, the oracular chant seemed to be useless to Zhang Tie. No matter how much effort he put in, he wasn’t able to produce even the slightest amount of effects. It seems like Zhang Tie would never successfully cultivate the oracular chant.
Han Li’s mind was unsettled. He knew that Zhang Tie would probably fail the test. Even though Han Li was slightly successful in learning the oracular chant, he was not stronger than Zhang Tie in any way, so there was a high chance of both of them failing Doctor Mo’s test.
Fearing the worst, Han Li assiduously cultivated. By the time of the exam, the strange energy flowing in his body had increased by a little. If the energy was as thin as a strand of hair in the past, it was now slightly thicker, resembling a thread of cotton. Even so, this did not reassure Han Li, who feared he might not pass Doctor Mo’s test.
“Are you guys prepared? Let me take a look at the fruits of your cultivation.” Doctor Mo squinted his eyes as he sat and coldly stared at the two of them.
“We are ready!” Han Li and Zhang Tie could only put forth a bold face and agree.
Doctor Mo, slowly rose from his chair and stood up. He put the book that always seemed to be nearby down on the table.
“Extend your hand”
“Circulate your Qi for me to see.”
Doctor Mo held Zhang Tie’s right wrist with one hand and placed his other hand on top of Zhang Tie’s Dantian.
After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, Doctor Mo retracted his hands and closely evaluated Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie’s face was flushed as he nervously put his hands behind his back, lowering his head and not daring to look Doctor Mo in the eye. He knew Doctor Mo had most certainly discovered that he made no progress in the oracular chant and would probably punish him to teach the two of them a lesson.
“It’s your turn.”
To their surprise, Doctor Mo didn’t even show the slightest indication that he would punish Zhang Tie. Some slight hints of disappointment flashing past Doctor Mo’s eyes were the only reactions Doctor Mo had. After examining Zhang Tie, he turned to Han Li and motioned for him to come closer. He then held Han Li’s wrist and began the inspection.
“His touch feels just like ice. It doesn’t feel like the touch of a living human,” Han Li mused in his mind.
The skin on Doctor Mo’s hand was dried and full of calluses. As he held Han Li’s hand, Han Li could feel slight waves of sharp pain.
Perhaps it was because the external interference agitated the energy within Han Li’s body, but the strange flow of energy actually started to circulate by itself. It flowed through his meridians and energy channels, passed all his acupoints from his Dantian to his head, and flowed to his four limbs. It completed a full cycle before flowing back to his Dantian. The moment the strange flow of energy circulated throughout his entire body, Han Li’s pain from Doctor Mo’s touch immediately dissipated.
“Ai!” Doctor Mo involuntarily let out a sound of surprise; it appeared that he had discovered the strange flow of energy in Han Li’s body.
“Quick, circulate your energy according to that chant that I taught you once again.” Although Doctor Mo tried his best to suppressed his elation, traces of madness and excitement still flashed through his eyes, causing Han Li to be secretly alarmed.
“Slowly, slowly…let me take a good look.” Doctor Mo added as his usually cold tone of voice became rushed, placing his other hand on Han Li’s Dantian.
Han Li could feel both of Doctor Mo’s hand tremble slightly. As Han Li circulated the strange energy, Doctor Mo became quite agitated.
“Not bad! Not bad! This feeling…this is the feeling that I wanted. I’m not wrong, I’m not mistaken! Hahaha!”
Doctor Mo, after a thorough examination, could no longer hold back and started laughing maniacally, both his hands tightly clutched on Han Li’s shoulder. Even his normally squinty eyes enlarged as they intensely stared at Han Li. It was as if he had seen a rare and valuable treasure, his eyes flashing with faint traces of madness.
Han Li’s ears were ringing from Doctor Mo’s unceasing laughter and he felt slight pain on his shoulder. Seeing the madness in Doctor Mo’s eyes, Han Li could not help but feel terror in his heart.
“Good, very good.” From the expression on Han Li’s face, Doctor Mo could tell that he was terrified. Only then did Doctor Mo realize that he had been overeager; thus, he controlled himself and regained his composure.
“In the future, you must work as hard as you’re working right now. From this day onwards, you will be promoted to my personal disciple.” After saying that, Doctor Mo released his tight grip on Han Li’s shoulder and proceeded to pat him in encouragement.
Doctor Mo regained his usual calm look almost as if his loss of control had never happened. But from his occasional glances at Han Li, one could tell that he was still tremendously excited.
“As for you…” Doctor Mo finally shifted his gaze onto Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie was thunderstruck by the events that unfolded earlier. Seeing that Doctor Mo shifted the topic of conversation to him, Zhang Tie awoke from his daze with a start.
Just thinking that he failed the assessment and would be asked to leave the mountain caused traces of bitterness to appear on Zhang Tie’s face as he looked at Doctor Mo.
“Your talent is questionable. Despite such a long period of time, you still could not produce even a small trace of energy. Accepting you as my personal disciple would be too much of a stretch.” Doctor Mo repeatedly shook his head.
Zhang Tie’s heart fell down to the bottom of an abyss after seeing Doctor Mo shaking his head.
But suddenly, Doctor Mo seemed to have thought of something interesting, as he gazed at Zhang Tie with a bizarre expression in his eyes.
“Looking at your bone structure, I may have a suitable technique for you. I just wonder if you are willing to learn from me…” Doctor Mo’s sudden shift in conversation caught everyone by surprise. It was as if Doctor Mo wanted to allow Zhang Tie to pass the test.
The moment Zhang Tie heard Doctor Mo, how could he reject the offer? He immediately gave his consent and said that he would be willing to learn from Doctor Mo.
“Excellent! The two of you can depart first. Tomorrow, I will hand you both new cultivation techniques.” It could be seen that Doctor Mo’s current spirits were excellent!
Han Li and Zhang Tie both looked at each other and felt that today’s test had been full of twists and turns. After all, both of them actually passed, leaving them both satisfied and pleased.
Chapter 9: Way of the Armored Elephant
Editor: Henyee
Looking back, Han Li couldn’t help but give a knowing smile.
In the half year that Han Li spent with Zhang Tie, because their personalities matched well with each other, the two had naturally become very close friends.
Han Li slowly stood from his crossed-legged position and rubbed his calves. After sitting in the cross-legged position and meditating for a long time, his legs had become numb, and even some of his bloodstreams felt clogged.
After kneading them for some time, his legs returned back to their normal state. Standing up, Han Li dusted himself in his usual custom before exiting the stone chamber.
Turning his head back to look at the stone chamber used for cultivation, Han Li couldn’t help but sneer at himself.
This entire chamber was made of solid granite while the doors were made of a giant piece of crocidolite. If a normal human wanted to break into this room, he or she would need to spend at least three hours hacking at the doors with an enormous axe.
(TL: crocidolite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riebeckite <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riebeckite>)
In the Seven Mysteries Sect, only the Sect Leader, Elders, and Division Heads were allowed to use this type of silent cultivation chamber. Not even Inner Disciples were allowed to use them as they pleased! This cultivation chamber was created for those practicing profound cultivation techniques to guard their practice against any external disruption and in order to prevent qigong deviation. Han Li didn’t know what methods Doctor Mo had used, but the Sect somehow granted him the usage of his own personal cultivation stone chamber, built into the side of the cliff of the God Hand Valley.
(TL: Qigong deviation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zou_huo_ru_mo_(medicine)> is when cultivation goes awry.)
After the cultivation chamber was built, Doctor Mo had assigned it for Han Li’s sole use. Seeing such a gift, Han Li couldn’t help but feel humbled by Doctor Mo’s benevolence.
Doctor Mo’s treatment of Han Li was perhaps too good to be true. Ever since Han Li had become his official apprentice, Doctor Mo had personally dipped into his own supply of herbs for Han Li to consume. Not only that, Doctor Mo also created an unknown medicinal bath for him to soak his body in. Han Li didn’t know what types of herbs were being used, but as he watched Doctor carefully refine those herbs, his normally impassive face revealed a hint of reluctance. Even Han Li could figure out that these herbs were extremely valuable.
Clearly, these benefits were extremely useful to him, causing Han Li’s cultivation speed to increase severalfold. Han Li had recently succeeded in mastering the first layer of the mysterious formula chant imparted to him by Doctor Mo.
During his process of breaking through, his meridians had nearly ruptured several times and he had suffered from some moderate internal injuries. But thanks to Doctor Mo’s expertise in the healing arts, the injuries to his meridians were easily repaired, and with the aid of the medicinal herbs, Han Li did not suffer from any serious, permanent damage.
Every time Han Li was even slightly injured, Doctor Mo would become even more worried than Han Li himself. This worry manifested itself the entire time he treated Han Li, making Doctor Mo very tense. It was only when Han Li’s injuries began recovering that he let out a sigh of relief.
Doctor Mo’s concern went far beyond that of a normal relationship between master and disciple and caused Han Li to feel a little uneasy about the situation. If it were not for his Third Uncle or the fact that no one ever walked out from these valleys, Han Li would have thought that Doctor Mo was actually his long lost relative based on the attention that he had been showing to Han Li.
(TL: the author did not make it clear how Han Li’s Third Uncle prevented him from thinking this)
Walking out of the cultivation chamber, Han Li lazily stretched his body and walked away from the cliff. After he had become an official disciple, Han Li and Zhang Tie moved from their original quarters into their own personal house.
As he passed by Zhang Tie’s room, Han Li shot a glance inside.
As it turns out, Zhang Tie wasn’t inside. Han Li thought that he was probably by the Crimson Water Peak’s waterfall, cultivating his new martial arts technique.
After the examination, Doctor Mo instructed Han Li to continue practicing the oracular formula chant and refused to teach him any martial arts. However, in an attempt to pacify Han Li, Doctor Mo personally instructed Han Li in the art of healing without holding anything back. Whenever Han Li had a question about medicine, Doctor Mo would answer right away, even going as far as allowing Han Li to look through the various books in Doctor Mo’s library to find an answer to his question.
As for Zhang Tie, Doctor Mo fulfilled his previous promise and imparted a set of martial arts to him.
The martial arts Zhang Tie practiced was extremely peculiar. According to Doctor Mo, it was an extremely obscure branch of martial arts named the “Way of the Armored Elephant”. Even the name of this particular martial art was rarely heard of, let alone the existence of practitioners who actually cultivated it.
It differed from the martial arts of regular practitioners in Jiang Hu. Generally, the progression of cultivation for normal martial arts ranged from easy to difficult. As the level increased, so would the difficulty. Thus, the higher the level, the more effort it would take for one to achieve a breakthrough. Zhang Tie’s particular martial art style was divided into nine layers, with the initial three layers being the easiest to cultivate, following the same principle as normal martial arts. However, starting from the fourth layer, the difficulty of breaking through was increased to a monstrous level in addition to suffering the excruciating backlash caused by practicing the Way of the Armored Elephant. Many cultivators of this set of martial arts could not bear such excruciating pain and would stop their progression at the fourth level. Not to mention the 5th level nor the 6th level, the excruciating pain would only increase with each level!
(TL: Jiang Hu= World of Martial Artists)
After breaking through from the sixth layer into the seventh, there would be no further bottlenecks, and cultivation would be much smoother. The only drawback was that the cultivator would need to suffer from monthly bouts of intense pain.
This intimidated many people who desired to cultivate the Way of the Armored Elephant. This particular branch of martial arts was slowly dying out.
This martial arts style was very peculiar. When it reached a high enough level, its strength would become truly astounding. It was said that those who reached the ninth layer had bodies as tough as gemstones. They were impervious to all weapons, even fire and water! Even palms strike, fist techniques, and legendary swords and sabers wouldn’t be able to injure them.
But what made people most envious was that after cultivating this branch of martial art, practitioners would gain the tremendous strength of an elephant. After reaching a high enough level, their strength would be limitless. They were capable of catching live wolves and ripping tigers apart, as well as other unparalleled feats.
Those who had heard of this style both feared and adored it. Other than the creator of this martial art, there was no other individual who had managed to cultivate it to the ninth layer. Legend has it that the creator of this martial art was born without the sense of pain! That was the reason why he was able to create such a perverse martial art and execute it to its greatest potential.
Although Doctor Mo had explained the benefits and consequences in its entirety to Zhang Tie, Zhang Tie had no concerns about the harm it could bring to his body. He coveted the strength the Way of the Armored Elephant could bring him and promised right away to cultivate in this style of martial arts. Without even looking for another style suitable to him, Zhang Tie had already reached the peak of the first layer in two months.
In order to break through the first layer of the Way of the Armored Elephant, Doctor Mo had suggested that every afternoon, Zhang Tie should go to the Crimson Water Peak’s waterfall and cultivate under the impact of the surging waters.
According to Zhang Tie, this method really did have a godly effect. The difference between the peak of the first layer to the second layer was only paper thin, and as long as he worked a little harder, he would break through the bottleneck with relative ease!
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