A Glimpse of Understanding

Gu Bei, flanked by women, engaged in boisterous laughter and revelry with Lin Yi.

The room shimmered with gilded splendor, adorned with vibrant floral arrangements, while the soft, fragrant presence of women surrounded him, their voices like warbling orioles.

But in the instant he lowered his head to drink, his gaze suddenly grew distant.

His master, Mu Qingsi, he surmised, was likely once the pampered daughter of some illustrious sect or a founding aristocratic family.

Even after she had been wandering the jianghu (TL Note: A term referring to the martial arts world or a wandering lifestyle) for some time when she first took him in, her demeanor and actions still lacked a certain down-to-earth quality.

Many things considered common knowledge by ordinary people were utterly foreign to her.

Naturally, she was equally clueless when it came to teaching disciples.

When Mu Qingsi first guided him into cultivation, she maintained the dignified air of a master, but Gu Bei instantly recognized that most of what his ‘cheap’ master was teaching him had likely been learned from books just the night before.

Still, he didn’t expose her at the time, simply going along with whatever Mu Qingsi did.

After all, he wasn’t sure if he was a soul transmigrator  or a body transmigrator , and his soul was certainly not that of an innocent child, incapable of thoughtlessly blurting out whatever came to mind.

This, however, led to a significant consequence.

He lacked understanding of many common cultivation practices, including numerous rules for navigating the jianghu.

He surmised that when Mu Qingsi initially learned these common practices, no one had explicitly taught her; rather, she had absorbed them through her environment.

Later, when she roamed the mortal world (TL Note: ‘Hongchen,’ referring to the mundane, earthly realm), she was already at the Nascent Soul realm, a level where such rules were no longer necessary for her to meticulously observe.

Consequently, apart from his mastery of the longsword and a rudimentary understanding of elixirs, Gu Bei remained ignorant of many minor spells commonly used by cultivators.

He would sometimes mock himself, noting that he couldn’t even perform spells to conceal his cultivation, let alone ‘play the pig to eat the tiger’ (TL Note: A Chinese idiom meaning to feign weakness to ambush a stronger opponent) like protagonists in novels.

Therefore, his method of concealing his cultivation was to genuinely make himself ‘the pig’.

He would abolish his own cultivation and start anew.

This was not a new endeavor for Gu Bei; abolishing his cultivation and rebuilding it had become his customary practice.

He hadn’t told Yun Qingyi the full truth then; his self-created cultivation method hadn’t nearly led to qi deviation (TL Note: ‘Zouhuo rumo,’ a common term in cultivation novels referring to a severe backlash or mental instability due to errors in cultivation practices), but had resulted in it countless times already.

After first devising his own cultivation technique, he immediately began practicing it, only for his qi circulation to go awry, leading directly to qi deviation.

The spiritual energy would either violently assault his internal organs or accumulate in a specific one, causing intense physical pain while simultaneously triggering a torrent of emotions.

One moment he would feel inexplicably joyful, only to be overcome with sorrow and tears the next.

Even with his adeptness at managing his emotions, Gu Bei found it nearly impossible to control such rapidly shifting feelings, as if his body and senses were no longer under the command of his own soul.

His ultimate solution was to disperse all the spiritual energy and cultivation within his body.

Returning from the Qi Refining stage to that of a mere mortal.

The reason the Qi Refining stage isn’t considered true cultivation is that spiritual energy isn’t generated within one’s own Dantian (TL Note: The Dantian is an energy center in the body, often translated as ‘elixir field’), a personal microcosm; instead, one must first guide qi into the body, then gradually refine the natural spiritual energy of the heavens and earth for personal use, tempering one’s physical form.

This is a lengthy process; those with exceptional talent can naturally shorten it significantly, but Gu Bei’s talent was merely average, neither outstanding nor poor.

After dispersing his cultivation, his body, which had yet to be fully tempered, remained similarly stalled.

Gu Bei’s talent was comparable to that of most cultivators, and indeed, to most people in general.

Cultivators like him were not uncommon, which also explained why Foundation Establishment cultivators could sometimes be ambushed by mortals and die with bitter resentment.

This was a consequence of the physical body not being fully tempered during the Qi Refining stage.

After his cultivation was completely dispersed, Gu Bei instinctively fell into a panic.

Back then, to ensure his foundation would be stable once he embarked on the path of cultivation, Mu Qingsi had gone to great lengths, traveling to the Outer Four Seas and then to the Great Barrens, spending a full six months on these journeys.

A figure akin to the Guanghan Immortal (TL Note: Guanghan Immortal, or Chang’e, is a moon goddess in Chinese mythology, often depicted as beautiful and ethereal) had been disheveled and even scarred at times during those six months of rushing about with him.

Mu Qingsi had tried to act tough and not show him her injuries, but with her personality, she couldn’t hide anything from him.

His master had paid such a heavy price to secure him an entry into the Qi Refining stage far superior to others, yet he had suffered qi deviation and lost all his cultivation.

He felt both self-reproach and a creeping dread.

With cold sweat soaking his clothes, having completely lost his ability to think calmly, he once again attempted to guide qi into his body.

Guiding the qi into his body succeeded, but in his haste and fear, he took the wrong path for qi circulation, leading to qi deviation again as soon as he entered the first stage of Qi Refining.

Helpless, he could only, drenched in sweat, abolish his cultivation once more.

Then he tried to guide qi into his body again.

And failed again.

This process was excruciating; at the moment of qi deviation, his mind would blur, and the physical torment was utterly unbearable for an ordinary person.

Gu Bei was an ordinary person, and thus, he too had repeatedly considered simply ending his own life to be done with it.

Yet, countless times, on the brink of collapse, his master’s serene, aloof face — imbued with a desperately hidden, bewildered concern — would materialize before his eyes.

He endured it time and again, even as his fingernails raked his own skin, drawing blood.

A stumble might not always lead to wisdom, but it certainly allows one to identify the causes of failure.

With enough failures, all contributing factors can be eliminated.

And so, he finally succeeded in guiding qi once more.

After that time, qi deviation never occurred again.

Perhaps even if he had inner demons , they had grown weary of him.

What decent person would suffer qi deviation so many times during the Qi Refining stage? What cultivator could possibly experience qi deviation so frequently at the Qi Refining stage?

Subsequently, he discovered that the speed at which he could re-guide qi and restore his former cultivation was extraordinarily fast.

After all, his previous cultivation had been accumulated bit by bit, and he possessed a clear understanding of the experience and sensation of breaking through realms.

And his Dantian and meridians (TL Note: ‘Jingluo,’ energy channels in the body) seemed to have become… well, ‘loose’ or ‘flabby’ after countless instances of guiding qi into his body?

Natural spiritual energy is far more volatile and impure than the refined spiritual energy within a cultivator’s body.

So, to use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, after being ‘strengthened’ by spiritual energy so many times, Gu Bei no longer felt much.

He might even ask, ‘Are you in yet?’

Moreover, he found that resetting his cultivation seemed to offer some inexplicable benefit.

Each time he recommenced the Qi Refining stage, he felt his body grow a little stronger.

He wasn’t sure if this was good or bad, and even when he asked his master, he didn’t receive a definitive answer.

Mu Qingsi had never heard of a situation like his.

For others, a single qi deviation would ruin their meridians entirely, rendering their Dantian, their personal microcosm, completely unusable.

Thus, he speculated that it was likely due to the rare heavenly treasures (TL Note: ‘Tiancai dibao,’ refers to precious natural resources used in cultivation) his master had found for him, making his Dantian and meridians inherently… resilient from the start.

Speaking of which, he still remembered how, when he told his master about it, her ethereal, peerlessly beautiful face first registered a hint of stupefaction, followed by a completely undignified, sharp shriek.

After frantically checking him over from left to right and finding nothing amiss, she finally relented.

Once she had calmed down a little, she dragged him off and scolded him for an entire night.

‘My master is truly adorable.’

Gu Bei thought, an unconscious smile gracing his lips.