Book 14 Chapter 3 – Altering the Acupoint, Exchanging Meridians

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan were eagerly looking up and around. On the starry sky under the moonlight, Xu Ziling’s familiar shadow appeared; small at first, but quickly growing bigger. Hastily they raised their power, ready to provide support.

Amidst the light flutter of the sleeve, Xu Ziling came to within three zhang above their heads. Suddenly he flipped over, and miraculously slowed down. And then light and easy like a falling leaf he floated for about a zhang, before finally landed on the ground. Afterwards he staggered a little bit and nearly falling on his butt on the ground.

Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan were stupefied.

Although this cliff could not be considered high, but it was at least thirty zhang tall. Upon introspection, they realized that if they jumped down, although they would not die, but at least they would receive light injury from the shock; they could not do like Xu Ziling just did.

By the time they rushed over, Xu Ziling was already one step ahead by darting toward the woods on the opposite cliff. Of course the other two knew what was going on; without wasting any time they followed his lead.

After running for more than twenty li at a stretch, the three stopped in a dense forest at the foot of a mountain.

Opening up his left hand, Xu Ziling smiled and said, “Look! It was because of this treasure that Lin Xiangru’s [3rd century BC famous statesman of Zhao] name spread throughout all ages.”

The two were unable to take their eyes off the treasure in Xu Ziling’s hand.

Kou Zhong reached out to take it, “Ow!” he cried and said, “My heavens! Why is it so scalding hot?”

Xu Ziling was dumbstruck, “That’s impossible,” he said, “It is clearly as cold as an ice cube.”

Kou Zhong handed it over to Ba Fenghan and said, “You be the judge; is it cold, or is it hot?”

Very carefully Ba Fenghan took it. The first to capture his attention was the engraving, “Ordinary Han characters I know, but these eight undecipherable writing, do you know what they say?”

Kou Zhong leaned over to look; shaking his head, he said, “This is bird-shaped seal character, we need Wang Tong here to read it. Ol’ Ba! I wanted you to feel this ghost thingy, whether it is cold or hot, not to research what characters are engraved on it.”

Ba Fenghan smiled and said, “Right now my heart is calm; I feel so relaxed and comfortable. Evidently the legend that the Jade Annulus of He Clan can calm and subdue the mind is not fabricated.”

Xu Ziling reached out to gently stroke the characters engraved on the seal. With his fingertips he traced two simplest characters and said, “Although I do not recognize these two characters, I can guess what it is; it must me ‘Yu Tian’ [from heaven] two characters. It is really strange that a moment ago this ghost thingy was able to make people feel agitated and wish to die, but now it’s giving people light, relaxed feeling.”

Kou Zhong also reached out to stroke the characters; he said, “The first two characters should be ‘Shou Ming’ [ordained/appointed], and the last two characters are ‘Yong Chang’ [forever/eternally prosperous]. Ha! Shou Ming, Yu Tian, something something, Yong Chang, only two characters are not recognizable. The three of us combined ought to be equal to six out of eight Wang Tong.”

All along Ba Fenghan’s attention was focused on the treasured seal he held on his open palm. His eyes shining with strange light, he said, “And now do you guys feel this is cold, or hot?”

“Of course it is hot!” Kou Zhong exclaimed.

Amazed, Xu Ziling said, “What seems to be the problem? How could there be hot jade and stone?”

The two boys turned to Ba Fenghan, waiting for his answer.

Ba Fenghan’s whole face lit up; he said, “I have never seen jade and stone with this kind of texture, with cold inside the heat, and heat inside the cold. Even more, there seems to be endless energy hidden inside. If we could use it for ourselves and carefully research it, I am sure there will be some previously unimagined gain.”

Smiling wryly, Kou Zhong said, “Problem is even the nuns and the monks of Ci Hang Jing Zhai and Jing Nian Chanyuan are unable to do anything about it; what can we possibly do?”

Tranquil and calm, Xu Ziling said, “I have a way. While there is still another sichen before daybreak, we immediately research it, hoping for some result. If our inner power cannot advance greatly in a short period of time, tomorrow will be our ‘unbearable day’!”

The three went into hiding at the top of a mountain about fifty li east of Jing Nian Chanyuan, where they sat cross-legged around a large piece of flat rock, with the rare treasure placed in the middle of the flat rock. In the pitch-black night before dawn, under the starlight above, it emitted an extraordinary splendor, so that they were overwhelmed with an out-of-the-ordinary, free-from-vulgarity, immeasurable-mystery, fantastic feeling.

When Xu Ziling had finished narrating what he went through and what he felt during the stealing of the treasure in the Copper Hall, Ba Fenghan spoke in delight, “Ziling, on this kind of situation, former sage has already said it well; it is known as ‘shedding one’s mortal body and exchange one’s bones’, or perhaps ‘washing the marrow and exchanging the tendon’; while actually it is only strengthening the meridians and intensify the ability, increasing the capacity of the true qi, or perhaps increasing the speed of the qi power flow. It looks like Ziling is suitable to have the good fortune, as well as foundation, of becoming top-tier martial art master. Usually this kind of process will take long years of struggling arduously, but you have obtained it in mere several breaths. It is indeed unprecedented in the Wulin history.”

Kou Zhong happily said, “Does that mean Ziling’s skill has advanced tremendously?”

Shaking his head, Ba Fenghan said, “Skill, perhaps increased a little, but he still has to undergo a period of training. However, what he has is not small matter either. You should know that human power is sometimes exhausted, just like a bucket; it could only contain a fixed amount of water. After the transformation driven by the Jade Annulus of He Clan, Ziling has been transformed from merely a bucket to become nobody-knows-how-deep a pool. Afterwards, it will depend on Ziling on how much water he can absorb.”

Xu Ziling wholeheartedly accepted the enlightenment; he said, “That was what I feel. Fenghan Xiong’s analysis is very accurate.”

Sucking a deep breath, Kou Zhong said, “And now how are we going to deal with this treasure?”

Ba Fenghan also frowned. “Do I have to wait for this treasured jade annulus to turn berserk and raging fiercely before I can absorb its energy?” he asked.

Having foreknowledge, Xu Ziling replied, “That is unnecessary, plus it will be too dangerous. Could it be that I have to beat you as hard as I can with a staff?”

Kou Zhong nodded. “I understand,” he said, “Xiao Ling, why don’t you tell Ol’ Ba the details of what you were going through? I am going to check around, perchance someone was hiding nearby and we didn’t know it.”

After Kou Zhong left, Xu Ziling said, “This move of mine was stolen from Wanwan; i.e. I gathered all my true qi in the shengsi qiao acupoint at the ocean of qi, so that the meridians do not have the least bit of true qi, so that we can repeat what happened within my body caused by the Jade Annulus of He Clan, and can acquire its energy.”

After pondering silently for half a day, Ba Fenghan sighed and said, “Now I know what true brotherhood is. If it were other people, it would be strange indeed if he did not do anything in his power to monopolize the treasure. But you guys merely treated it just like eating a meal or drinking wine, without giving it the slightest thought. Just from this fact alone, I, Ba Fenghan, submit to you wholeheartedly.”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, “This is called blessing will be enjoyed together!”

And then he carefully explained how to circulate the power.

This moment Kou Zhong returned. The three of them sat in formation. Xu Ziling sat in front, Kou Zhong at the rear, and Ba Fenghan in the middle. The two men on the back had their palm pressed onto the middle of the back of the person in front of him, while Xu Ziling was holding the Jade Annulus of He Clan in his hand.

After taking a deep breath, Xu Ziling said, “Begin!”

Suddenly applying his power, his right foot was burning hot, the true qi from his entire body entered the Jade Annulus of He Clan.

The treasured jade annulus immediately lit up with dazzlingly bright color.

All three of them were severely shaken at the same time, as if they were electrocuted.

It was an intense feeling that was hard to describe.

It was as if the Jade Annulus of He Clan came alive and radiated an incomparably lively extraordinary power that was trying to invade their brain and body. Strange and unfamiliar scenes flitted through their mind, making them jittery and nearly driving them mad and making them wanted to scream, as if they had fallen into a nightmare from which they could not extricate themselves.

Xu Ziling’s true qi, which originated from the Secret to Long Life, hastened the violent aspect of the treasured jade annulus.

But this time they were like riding a tiger, from which they could not get off; they could not stop even if they wanted to. The three could only disperse the qi power within their body, while maintaining a little bit of clarity in the taizu qiao acupoint, and keep pressing on.

Xu Ziling, who bore the brunt of the Jade Annulus of He Clan, felt that the extraordinary energy within it was many times more violent than the last time; it unceasingly surged up like an escaping wild horse, entering the palm of his hand, then bursting through each and every one of his meridians, big and small, in his entire body.

Xu Ziling has never imagined this situation would happen. The instant he felt that he gained control over the true qi in his meridians strengthening his body, the qi and blood in his entire body seemed to freeze up, while the coldness of the Jade Annulus of He Clan was increasing steadily without any sign that it would stop soon.

Ba Fenghan immediately detected that something went wrong; he knew that Xu Ziling already lost control over the Jade Annulus of He Clan. Suddenly he was faced with the most painful decision he had to make in his entire life.

If he removed his palm from Xu Ziling’s back, which had turned as cold as ice and snow, he would be able to escape unscathed. But Xu Ziling definitely would be done for.

If he continued doing what Xu Ziling taught him to, the outcome might very well be the same as the Buddhist staff Bu Chi used to strike Xu Ziling, i.e. he had to sacrifice himself to withstand the blow.

Ferociously clenching his teeth, Ba Fenghan applied his power for a sudden intake of a breath.

A cold stream like torrential flood after the storm surged violently into Ba Fenghan’s system.

‘Wah!’ Ba Fenghan spurted mouthful after mouthful of fresh blood, spraying on and turning Xu Ziling’s head, neck and back, dark red; it was shocking the eye, astonishing the heart.

It was as if the palm of his hand has become the bridge connecting the two people’s meridians.

The strangest thing happened.

When the unusual qi penetrated his palm, it was still bone-chilling cold, but suddenly the heat and the cold rolled up together as a stream, like a million naughty and repulsive rats were scurrying around wildly all over his body, with no meridian was spared.

The strangest thing was that clearly the cold stream was a lot stronger than the heat stream.

Even with Ba Fenghan’s firm, steadfast willpower, he nearly could not help screaming.

The qi and blood in his entire body swelled. His meridians felt as if it was ready to explode. This kind of pain was clearly beyond the limit of pain that anybody was able to endure.

When the strange qi from the Jade Annulus of He Clan going through Xu Ziling’s body, during the exit it automatically rushed out in the spiraling manner, and thus the emissive destructive power was multiplied.

Kou Zhong at the back already saw Ba Fenghan spurting out blood, followed by the two were shaking violently, while Ba Fenghan’s back alternated between cold and hot; so he knew something was terribly wrong.

But he did not know that Ba Fenghan was in the battle between Man and Heaven. Without even thinking, immediately he used all his strength to absorb the strange qi from Ba Fenghan’s body.

‘Wah!’ Just like Ba Fenghan, Kou Zhong also spurted blood. It was scorching hot that he felt his meridians were about to dissolve from the heat and turned into violent flow, which immediately piercing through his whole body.

In that instant, Kou Zhong knew that the fate of all three of them was entirely in his hand.

If he let the strange qi conquer him, the three of them would end with their meridians burst open.

He had to send the strange qi back into Ba Fenghan’s system, and in turn would have to be transferred back to Xu Ziling, until finally Xu Ziling had to send it back into the dreadful-like-the-gods-or-the-demons Jade Annulus of He Clan, bringing about a complete circle.

At this time the three’s meridians were still linked without any barrier.

Kou Zhong had just had this thought, the spiraling cold qi he stored in his ocean of qi rushed forth in full-strength, meeting the heat energy that was entering his meridians, as swift as the lightning, head-on.

‘Boom!’

The nerves on the entire body of all three persons were split like they were struck by violent lightning; all three of them could not help spurting out more blood.

Chapter 3 - Part 2

Ba Fenghan felt the cold/hot intertwined spiraling qi were circling back and forth; but this time it was not too cold. Rather, the balance between cold and hot was just right, so that he felt unspeakably comfortable and at ease. Evidently its destructive nature has been greatly reduced.

Originally he had made up his mind to face death, but now that things took turn for the better, his spirit aroused, he took advantage of the incoming momentum by first drawing the qi power toward his dantian, and then let his meridian carried it through into Xu Ziling’s body.

Xu Ziling also felt his originally icy-cold meridians turned pleasantly warm somewhat; immediately he also pacified this slight difference to recover his vitality. Quickly he used his thought to control the flow of qi, from the scorching hot yongquan acupoint on his right foot pierced through his body, while returning the cold stream to its rightful owner, back to the Jade Annulus of He Clan, which tightly gripped in his two hands.

Kou Zhong at the back constantly generating cold qi from his tianling acupoint, striving his hardest to reconcile it with the hot stream entering his body.

Strange things happened.

The Jade Annulus of He Clan’s brightness was constantly increasing at an alarming rate, until it was as bright as the moon in the sky, its brilliance sparkled brightly; it was strange to the extreme.

The strange thing was that the stream of qi was constantly circulating inside the three men’s meridians, from the icy-cold it split apart into the intertwining cold and heat, and it was only upon reaching Kou Zhong’s system that it turned into heat energy. Furthermore, it was flowing faster and faster, until finally it went out of the three men’s control, as it continued to cycle without any sign that it would stop any time soon.

The yongquan acupoint on Xu Ziling’s left foot grew increasingly hot, while Kou Zhong’s tianling acupoint grew increasingly cold.

Under normal circumstances, the two boys would not be able to endure these abrupt changes from hot to cold and vice versa. But this moment they felt that the colder the better, the hotter the more wonderful it was.

All kinds of illusions flitted across their brains; this one rose up the other one disappeared, in an endless string of strange scenes.

Several cycles later, the cold and hot stream in Ba Fenghan system was approaching its equilibrium; the strong and weak locked in a stalemate.

Even with his vast experience and knowledge, after traveling ten thousand li, Ba Fenghan did not understand exactly what happened at the moment.

In a word, from the time Xu Ziling released the cold qi and it entered his body to cause the cold/hot flow, which deviate from cold, and the time Kou Zhong returning the flow, it turned into cold/hot combined flow, which deviate from hot.

What he really wanted to do, and the only thing that he could use, was trying to bring the true qi inside his body to a balance cold/hot flow.

Because the strength or weakness of these cold and hot flow was changing constantly, Ba Fenghan was like a tight-rope walker over a high cliff, unleashing everything he had just to maintain the equilibrium; otherwise he would lose his footing and fall into the cliff to end up having his body torn and his bones crushed.

By this time Xu Ziling was already able to move his own true qi, although he was still unable to cutoff the incoming huge qi from the Jade Annulus of He Clan, which surging up violently.

Fortunately the meridians are divided into yin and yang. The cold qi from the Jade Annulus of He Clan was coming from the yang meridian, entering via the palm of Ba Fenghan’s hand. Coming back from Ba Fenghan, the intertwined cold/hot true energy returning inside the jade annulus was coming from the yin meridians.

Each cycle of the flow of qi had made the three men’s meridians to be swelling a little.

After the flow was getting faster and faster, suddenly it slowed down. In this way the fast flow became slow, and the slow flow became fast. It kept cycling like this for no one knows how many times and how much time passed. Suddenly all three of them felt sharp pain like the heaven fell and the earth rent, the meridians inside their body seemed to be bursting open, their bodies sprang up at the same time.

Xu Ziling fell forward, while Kou Zhong fell back.

Ba Fenghan’s entire body was thrown up halfway into the air, before it fell heavily on the grassy ground.

Lying down on the ground, the three could only pant, and momentarily they were unable to crawl back up.

But they all knew that some extremely fantastic thing had happened inside their bodies.

Ba Fenghan groaned, and was the first to get up. He found out that his entire body, from head to foot, was drenched in sweat; moreover, the sweat beads were blackish and smelled fishy, but his body felt relaxed and extremely comfortable.

Opening his eyes to look around, the whole world looked different.

The forest of the mountain tops near and far appeared to be a different world. Not only the color gradation and richness appeared to be enhanced many times over, the most emotionally moving was that in just a glance, he seemed to be able to distinguish the difference poses and different expressions of each leaf’s movement under the morning light and the gentle breeze.

Ba Fenghan was so moved that his body was shaking violently as he kneeled down, with hot tears welled up uncontrollably in his eye sockets.

As he closed his eyes, the heaven and earth inside and outside immediately ‘water and milk blended into one entity’.

The warm sunshine radiated from the east, casting its light on his body. From not having a moment of his own, it was as if presently he felt he has received his existence, the meaning of his life.

Ba Fenghan unleashed the method to look deep into himself, and was immediately gob smacked. There was also a burst ecstasy and a feeling that he no longer needed to search for something to satisfy his need.

As he said earlier, his meridians were thus reinforced many times over. Although it could not be said that his skill had been increased tremendously, but as long as he consistently made intensive effort to cultivate his skill, he certainly could achieve twice the effect with half the work.

It should be noted that human’s strength was sometimes limited. For a martial art master of Ba Fenghan’s caliber, even a cun advancement could be more difficult than ascending the heaven. But after undergoing such a singular transformation like the course of events just now, he would be like a clear puddle that turned into bottomless deep natural pond. Every single acupoint, every channel, would be like shedding one’s mortal body and exchanging one’s bones by turning into unlimited storehouse of growth potential. Naturally it had made him so happy that he nearly went mad.

Suddenly Kou Zhong’s voice entered his ears, “My Niang! Why am I so smelly?”

Ba Fenghan opened his tiger-eyes.

Xu Ziing and Kou Zhong sat up; with a blank expression they turned their eyes toward the rising sun in the east, and then they vigorously sniffed the sweats on their palms.

In a very comical way Kou Zhong crawled on his hands and feet toward Ba Fenghan and said, “Ol’ Ba, how come you suddenly become more handsome? Your whole face is shining. It looks like the Jade Annulus of He Clan’s best feature is to be used as skin moistener.”

Using the sleeve of his clothes, Ba Fenghan wiped the dirt accumulated on his face from indistinguishable sweats and tears; laughing involuntarily, he said, “Although you are not dead yet, but I think you have turned crazy. You don’t have any manners at all.”

The two looked face to face for a moment, and then they roared in laughter together.

However, as why they were laughing, what was so amusing that they laughed, nobody knew for sure.

Xu Ziling was still staring blankly at the sun.

Exhaling a mouthful of air, Xu Ziling said, “I am staring directly at the sun, how come I do not feel the glare?”

The two quickly turned their gaze toward the sun; the usually glaring sunlight felt so warm and comfortable. It was definitely different than usual.

With a dreamy sigh Kou Zhong said, “My Niang! Turns out the sun is a big ball of fire; how come usually I could not see it?”

His heart moved, Ba Fenghan asked, “Where is the Jade Annulus of He Clan?”

Smiling ruefully, Xu Ziling opened up both palms, which were covered in fine-powder like substance, interspersed with bits of irregular-shaped pieces of gold, which also looked like their shapes have been changed by some kind of powerful compression.

The two stared at the remnants on his palms. They blurted in disbelief, “Is that the Jade Annulus of He Clan?”

The extraordinary treasure, which fame spread out throughout the ages, has become a pile of dust?

Xu Ziling nodded, “This thing has just burst into dust in my hands. Finished! The Jade Annulus of He Clan is finished!”

Clicking his tongue, Kou Zhong said, “We carefully scrape the dust from Xiao Ling’s hands, later on we’ll find a way to repair it. Maybe there are people who can work wonders.”

Ba Fenghan and Xu Ziling laughed and swore at him.

Kou Zhong also laughed aloud, sprang up, assuming a grand-ruler-facing-the-world attitude, he shouted, “Who dares to say that I, Kou Zhong, did not receive the Heaven’s command to be the Son of Heaven? Even the Jade Annulus of He Clan has become one with me. I am the treasured seal of the Emperor by the grace of Heaven. The treasured ruler seal is me. Anything I sign using either my fingers or my toes will be the imperial seal. Ha!”

Ba Fenghan returned to his calm and composed demeanor. Rising up to his full height, he said, “Do not get carried away. The trouble that we face because we stole the jade annulus is just the beginning. Now we need to look for a stream to wash clean the dirt and bloodstain from our bodies, and then we need to fabricate a decent story to explain where we were last night. We will deny categorically that it was us who stole the Jade Annulus of He Clan; otherwise, before we even become genuine martial art masters, the nuns and monks of Ci Hang Jing Zhai and Jing Nian Chanyuan will brandish their sticks randomly to beat us to the death.”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “No wonder they say that those with riches and honor are beyond the fear of death, unlike the rotten life of the poor. Come! The earlier we return to the city, the more we won’t attract other people’s suspicion. I still need to make a private appointment to meet and deal with Wang Shichong, that old fox!”

Amidst their laughter, the three left the jungle.

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