Unparalleled Evildoer

Chapter 13 Hope is always overturned by despair

Cangyan Mountain is surrounded by cliffs, deep ravines and steep walls, with strange rocks rising up to the clouds. Ancient trees grow on the cliffs in various shapes and sizes. There are cypress trees on the mountain and sandalwood forests at the foot of the mountain. There are waterfalls plunging down and clear pools of blue water. The morning mist rises as if it is floating above the white clouds, and the evening glow looks like auspicious light from heaven.

This cave is thirty zhang deep, more than two zhang high, more than ten zhang wide inside, and only ten zhang wide at the entrance. Stalactites stand in rows, like countless spring bamboo shoots hanging upside down from the ceiling of the cave.

Wuzhan woke up and saw that it was already daylight outside the cave. He stood up and walked to the cave entrance. Looking out, he couldn't help but gasp. He discovered that the cave was actually inside a cliff and there was a bottomless abyss under his feet. Wuzhan had never been to such a high place before. His heartbeat quickened involuntarily. He turned back to look for his master, but found that his master was gone. At this moment, he was really worried that his master would leave him here and ignore him. He looked everywhere outside and finally found his master in a Taoist robe, sitting cross-legged in meditation on a stone cliff beside a waterfall in the distance in the morning light.

Wuzhan really couldn't imagine how the master brought him into this cave, and when he reached the opposite cliff. He couldn't help but envy his master. He really hoped that one day he could also cultivate his master's skills and no longer be that useless man who couldn't even tie a chicken. He sat at the entrance of the cave, sometimes looking at the strange rocks, sometimes at the ancient cypresses, sometimes at the rising sun, sometimes at the morning mist, listening to the sounds of kingfishers, and leisurely listening to the sound of the spring, as if he had forgotten everything.

After the mist, Zitan stood up, stretched his waist, and jumped up. He tapped his toes on the stone wall and slid down the stone wall in a graceful curve, like a crane spreading its wings and falling. Just after falling from the stone wall, his figure was seen rising and falling in the forest, like a fish constantly jumping out of the water. After a while, he appeared in front of Wuzhan, looking at the stunned Wuzhan, and smiled, "Why did you get up so early!"

Wuzhan came to his senses and said, "Master got up earlier."

"The early morning is the most peaceful time of the day, so we must seize this time to cultivate our body and mind. This is what my master told me."

"I will definitely keep this in mind, Master. When will I be able to learn the same body movements as you?"

Zi Tan stroked his silver beard and laughed, "If you want to master this body technique, you need to combine form and intention, intention and qi, and qi and spirit. It will take at least ten years. Don't be impatient. Take it step by step, and you will naturally succeed."

When Wuzhan heard the sound of "Ah!", he felt very disappointed and thought, "Maybe I will die before I can master this skill!"

Zitan saw what Li Zhan was thinking and consoled him, "If you meet someone with extraordinary strength and high comprehension, maybe it won't take that long."

"But my disciple's muscles and bones must be the worst. It may take longer, or even a lifetime to master it."

"There is no end to cultivation. Even if you have achieved enlightenment and become an immortal, you still need to keep climbing. Moreover, no one has ever ascended to immortality in the past thousand years. Didn't most people die on the road of cultivation? So what's the difference between high and low realms? Contentment is the key to happiness. The purpose of your cultivation is to strengthen your body. As long as you are alive, do you still care about the realm of your cultivation? If you are too eager for success, you will easily go astray and lose all your previous efforts!"

Wuzhan said calmly: "Master is right." At this moment his heart was cold, because he knew his physical condition very well, but there was still a glimmer of hope in his heart.

Zi Tan smiled and said, "Okay, seeing that you are so anxious, I will pass on the Qi Condensation formula to you, and you can use this time to memorize it."

Wuzhe knelt down and bowed, "Please teach me, Master!"

Zitan paused as he spoke: "Empty your mind, get rid of all distracting thoughts, make your heart as calm as still water, breathe in and out harmoniously, feel your pulse, find out how Qi moves, turn nothing into something, concentrate on Qi, let Qi flow throughout your body and gather in Dantian,..." After each sentence he waited for Wuzhan to write it down, and after each sentence he finished, Wuzhan nodded for him to continue. Zitan quickly taught Wuzhan the thirty-six mantras of Qi concentration.

Zitan said: "If you forget something, you can always ask me. Now let me see how many sentences you wrote down."

Wuzhan immediately recited the thirty-six sentences word for word. Zitan laughed and said, "Well! Your memory is better than mine. Back then, master carved the formulas on a bamboo board, and I memorized them over and over again. It took me an hour to remember them all." Zitan said this in an exaggerated way, intending to encourage Wuzhan.

Zitan then explained to Wuzhan the names, locations and functions of the twelve meridians of the human body. Although Wuzhan was physically weak, he had an extraordinary memory and could remember everything he saw. Zitan only explained it once and Wuzhan had completely remembered it.

……

The autumn wind blew the crimson leaves off, and they floated into the cave entrance. Outside the cave, the sun was scorching. It was already the tenth day. Wuzhe sat at the cave entrance, closing his eyes and concentrating, sitting cross-legged in meditation. His hair was disheveled, and his clothes were tattered. The sweat from his head slid across his dirty face, leaving a white mark.

"Why can't I sense any trace of true energy in my body? Is it because my mind is not at peace?"

"No, it's been ten days, and my heart has never been so peaceful."

"Did I remember the location of the meridians wrongly and look in the wrong direction?"

"No, the location that Master mentioned must be this one. I have asked Master many times, and it is certain!"

Wuzhan felt that his meridians were extremely dark and empty. He could not see any light and could not find any vitality.

"Could it be that I don't have that true energy in my body at all, not at all?"

"Master said that as long as a person is alive, they have Qi in their body. 'If Qi is gone, life is gone.'"

"But why can't I feel any true energy at all? If there is no true energy in my body, then why am I still alive?"

"Am I really the evil spirit they say I am? I shouldn't exist in this world. Or, should I die?"

Those childhood images emerged in his mind one by one, those people who had seen him, the doctor shaking his head helplessly, the Taoist priest thinking in amazement, his sister's cold discrimination, the servant's concealed fear, his father's fierce eyes, making Wuzhan's mind a mess...

"Am I a normal person? Should people like me die?" Wuzhan was on the verge of collapse at this time. He was full of despair about everything in the world. His clothes were already soaked with sweat. His thin little body was shaking constantly. His eyes were open, and his eyeballs were completely black, emitting a cold light, staring angrily at the dark world.

With a "puff" sound, Wuzhe spat out a mouthful of blood and fell softly to the ground.

When Zitan returned, he found Wuzhan was cold all over and his pulse was extremely weak. He quickly gave him a "Qi Condensation Pill", helped him up, sat behind Wuzhan, and transferred his true energy to Wuzhan.

Zi Tan's true Qi was input into Wu Zhan's body, but it dissipated in a moment and could not be retained at all. Zi Tan had no choice but to use his own true Qi to drive Wu Zhan's meridians to circulate. This was not only dangerous, it could easily cause Wu Zhan's meridians to rupture and cause his death, and it consumed a huge amount of true Qi and required a lot of support. It took Zi Tan an hour and he was already sweating profusely.

……

Wuzhan slowly opened his eyes. He had experienced this situation countless times. This time he was even more tired and exhausted. He moved his lips slightly and said, "Master, I tried hard, but I can't do it."

Zitan wiped the sweat off his face and comforted him, "Don't worry, take your time, everything is difficult at the beginning!"

"It's not difficult. I'm not afraid of difficulty. What I have is that I don't even have the possibility. It's not that I lack the Qi in my body, but that I don't have a single trace of Qi. I don't even know what it is. I'm a useless person."

"How could that be? I can feel the weak Qi in your body."

"That must not be true qi, that is dead qi. I have been searching for it for ten days and can't find any."

“Death energy?” Zi Tan picked up Wuzhan’s wrist and felt his pulse again. His face suddenly froze and he said, “How is this possible? I could clearly feel that faint breath that day, but how come there is nothing at all now?”

"So, they are right. I am actually a dead person and should not have come into this world."

Zitan said: "You can't look at it that way. Apart from your poor physique, what's the difference between you and a living person? As long as you're alive, you have a chance."

Wuzhe's eyes moved around, and he said calmly: "As long as you are alive, you have a chance..."

"Yes, since you can't condense your qi, then you should train your body to have a strong body."

"Physical training? ... But I don't have the strength in my body."

"So you have to practice. Take a good rest. When your body recovers, you can start again."

Wuzhan did not answer. He did not dare to have any illusions, because the more illusions he had, the greater the disappointment. In fact, this had already become his character. The reason why he was mature at a young age was because he faced helplessness and powerlessness since he was born, and the occasional glimmer of hope was fleeting.

As usual, the master got up early every day and sat cross-legged in meditation on the edge of the cliff or beside the waterfall. Then he went to collect some pine nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts, as well as some mountain pears, mountain dates, mountain reds, and some wild vegetable leaves. Because the wild vegetables were old in autumn, he occasionally brought back some pheasants and rabbits to eat. Since they came, the number of pheasants and rabbits had decreased a lot.

Winter is coming. This is the first snow that Wuzhan has seen on the high mountains. Wuzhan, wearing a red sandalwood blanket made of rabbit skin, sits at the entrance of the cave and looks into the distance. Large flakes of snow are falling. The whole sky is white. The pine and sandalwood forests, mountains, and rivers are all silver.

This did not arouse Wucan's excitement, because he was just a spectator in all things. Everything he saw was the same, cold. He was very smart, so smart that he did not want to think about anything. He became very lazy, so lazy that his clothes became smelly. This year passed quickly and slowly.

Spring is here. The waterfall on the stone wall has not frozen for a year and has been flowing all the time, but the ice on both sides of the waterfall has begun to melt.

He was thrown into the water by his master, "Master has endured you for a whole winter, wash me clean quickly!" The cold water made Wuzhan's whole body tense, and his face finally had a different expression.

The barrier-free cat was in the water, shivering from the cold, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, "Master, this water is too cold, I can't stand it, pull me up!"

"If you can't wash it clean, don't even think about coming up. Even if your hair is washed clean, there will be millions of lice. Let them all freeze to death. From today on, I will meditate here every day, and you will bathe me here!"

"Master, please kill your disciple quickly. I feel so uncomfortable."

"Don't worry, I know what to do. I won't let you die. As long as I'm alive, you'll be alive." In less than half a year, Wuzhan had nine attacks, and Zitan controlled them all nine times. He knew Wuzhan's meridians like the back of his hand, but Zitan's skills had not improved at all in the past six months. The reason is obvious.

"Master, I'm almost frozen to death." Wuzhan pleaded while rubbing his body.

"The cold won't kill you. Just get used to it. This is also a way to temper your muscles. Don't let me work hard alone. You need to work hard too!"

Although it was very cold outside, it was actually not as cold in the water. As long as the body stayed above the water, the cold was bearable. Wuzhan gradually adapted to the cold water. His trembling lessened a little, and he gradually felt that his body had a little more strength in such water than before. Perhaps it was the strength from the trembling that gave him some energy.

He thought of his mother, and of soaking in the warm wooden tub, bathing him with a smile, with pink orchid petals floating on the water. It seemed useless then, but now it seemed beautiful.

(End of this chapter)