73 Hope

The boy howled in pain but quickly calmed down. Cha Ming worked with the doctor to set the bone in the right position, and Li Yin made another splint for the finger to heal properly.

In the end, they took the boy back to his mother, who was waiting in the dining area. She had prepared a lunch for them in her restlessness, so they ate together before the mother and child finally left. Cha Ming returned to carrying wood, but the vivid scenes he'd experienced kept playing through his mind as he worked.

Do I need to destroy my qi pathways before rebuilding them again? he thought. Do I need to clear the rubble before building new supports for the collapsed tunnel? He recalled how missing sections of qi pathways had been quickly replaced by brand-new material. However, even lightly burned walls would lead to new meridians, which were much thinner than before.

He had a theory, but how he could accomplish it was a different matter. Unfortunately, his qi channels could not be destroyed by regular means. He could break them down forcefully by circulating his qi, but it was far too painful, and the debris left behind wouldn't be removed. Besides, he couldn't circulate his qi for more than three seconds before passing out.

Then, a crazy idea popped into his head. What if I try using my destruction qi to clear away the rubble? I could first coat my meridians in creation qi to shield them, and slowly work my way forward. I would destroy a little bit, then create more as soon as it's destroyed.

His mind continued to race for the remainder of the day. He worked quickly to finish all his duties before returning to his room. He shivered with excitement at the prospect of recovery.

Cha Ming rested his mind for an hour before projecting his spiritual force inward. He focused on his dantian and the several severed and damaged qi pathways. This time, he paid extremely close attention to the seals on his dantian, which enabled qi to flow to and from his qi pathways.

There were many pathways leading from his dantian to his kidney, so he chose a badly damaged one he had not experimented with yet as a starting point. Taking a deep breath, he gently gathered a wisp of the dark, destructive qi that inhabited the star between his qi lakes. It cycled continuously between the elements in a destructive fashion—wood destroyed earth, earth imbibed water, water doused fire, fire melted steel, and steel cut wood. It struggled fiercely as he pulled it out from its natural resting place.

Fortunately, the calamity lightning had done more than just injure Cha Ming. The baptism of lightning had greatly strengthened his soul, and he was now at half-step foundation establishment. Therefore, he used brute force to stabilize the struggling qi, which upon sensing the presence of absolute power, became gentle as a kitten.

The first step is establishing a qi seal. Everything he was trying was purely experimental. The Creation Qi Manipulation Technique was not designed to handle destruction qi, after all. Therefore, Cha Ming had to make many of his own inferences. The first inference was how to create a qi seal with destructive qi. Judging from the form of all other qi seals in his dantian, he decided that it should take the shape of a black star.

The qi seal for wood, for example, was created using the character for wood. It was the same for all the elements, but the creation qi seal was not a character. It simply existed as a white circle, as though any attempt to represent it as a character would be considered blasphemy.

He first grabbed a wisp of creation qi and gathered it on the circular seal, acting as a buffer between his dantian and his destruction qi. He was performing a dangerous experiment, and any slight mishap could pierce his dantian, leading to the complete ruination of his cultivation. At that point, recovery would be truly impossible.

Seeing that his buffer was established, he carefully guided the black wisp to the white circle and used it to draw a black line on the circle. He sighed in relief when he saw that his dantian was not pierced by the qi's destructive power. Following the first stroke, he quickly drew four more. To his surprise, the instant he completed the star, it flashed briefly before glowing with eight colors. There were five colors representing the five elements, a white circle, and a black star. The eighth color was ash gray, and he wasn't sure what this signified. However, he was quite pleased to see that the experimental qi seal had been completed successfully.

The second step, destruction before creation. Cha Ming gritted his teeth as he slowly urged the small wisp of black qi through the newly established qi seal. The instant it touched the badly mangled qi pathway, extreme pain made Cha Ming convulse slightly. Compared to creating qi pathways, destroying them was unimaginably more painful. Fortunately, his soul was formidable. This allowed his mental state to bear the extreme pain and force the black wisp a little further down.

Cha Ming felt like countless razor blades were ravaging his insides as he continued to direct the wisp of destructive qi toward his kidney. Still, he pressed on. This was the last straw he could grasp, and if he was successful, he might be able to save his life. With luck, he could restore his ability to cultivate.

Worst case, I drop dead, he thought. It's better to die trying than to give up hope.

This single thought guided him through the process like a light in the darkness. He continued inching farther and farther until he reached his kidney. When he arrived at the kidney, he didn't stop. Instead, he used the black wisp to destroy the surface where a ruined qi seal lay. He wiped this qi seal out of existence, then carefully traced a black star where the seal had previously been. After the last stroke was completed, he finally ran out of destruction qi.

Fortunately, I managed to finish clearing a single pathway, he thought before retracting what remained of his inky black qi. After it returned to his qi pool, he directed the misty white qi to the same qi seal. It passed through effortlessly, and as he directed it, he witnessed the creation of the most beautiful qi pathway he had ever seen. It was flawless, a much better product than his original creation. Better yet, he felt that this new qi pathway was far more flexible and durable this the ones he had been born with.

Compared to the pain he'd suffered while clearing the rubble, the pain of creating a new pathway was like scratching an itch. In a way, the pain felt comfortable. It took him less than a tenth of the time to completely empty out his creation qi and form a complete qi pathway. As soon as he formed the circular seal, the same eight-colored mutation as before led to the creation of a hybrid qi seal.

He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the deed was done. After retracting the white qi, he was about to begin cultivating to recover his qi when a thought struck him: Could he use this hybrid qi seal with all the elements? His dantian was brimming full with five different qi lakes. He didn't hesitate to grab a wisp of green wood qi and force it through the hybrid qi seal. As expected, it passed through without a hitch.

As it passed through, he noticed the qi pathway strengthen, and the dematerialized flesh beside where the destruction qi had passed began to heal over. It continued until finally pouring into his badly damaged kidney. He gasped in shock as the damaged organ sprang to life. While he couldn't heal the charred remains of the organ, its function had increased significantly.

Once the wood qi was completely exhausted, he switched to water qi. The instant the water qi poured in, he felt the fluids in the organ regenerate. It began functioning at a much higher capacity. Next, as he poured metal qi in, he felt the blood in his organ increase. Then, earth qi stabilized its structure, and finally, fire qi catalyzed the whole process. Although he wasn't sure exactly how well it was functioning, his rapidly decreasing lethargy was a good indication.

He sighed in relief when the process was completed. As he withdrew his consciousness from his body, he realized that it was already late in the evening. He felt a stabbing pain in his bladder as the urge to relieve himself struck without warning. He hobbled over to a small bucket in his room and sighed in relief as he filled it with hot urine. The process brought him great pain.

Am I passing a kidney stone or something? he thought. And what's that smell?

It took him a quarter hour to painfully finish the process before he retrieved a small lamp. He lit it, only to discover that the bucket was filled with a blackish red fluid. He swirled it around slightly, hearing a noise akin to sand in the bottom.

He wrinkled his nose and stuffed the bucket in a corner of the room. He planned to show it to the doctor in the morning.

Finally, after wandering back to his bed, exhaustion hit him like a sack of bricks. Sleep took him instantly.

***

Cha Ming woke up the next morning to the wonderful smell of breakfast food. His stomach grumbled intensely, so he immediately obeyed it and sprang out of bed. After washing his face, he proceeded to the dining room, where he saw a large breakfast laid out on the table. He heard the doctor in his office, patiently discussing medical matters with his patient.

Not wanting to disturb him, he walked over to the table and ravenously ate whatever was in front of him. He hadn't felt so hungry in a long time. Even spending a month unconscious hadn't made him so famished.

Li Yin walked in just as he was finishing his meal. "You finally decided to come out of your room after three days, I see." The man grunted. Seeing the look of confusion on Cha Ming's face, he continued. "I checked up on you several times over the last few days. For three days, you were sitting in a meditative posture, and I didn't want to disturb you. This morning, I saw that you were sleeping, so I made you breakfast. Given that you can't cultivate, I'm surprised you could stay in a meditative state for so long."

Embarrassed, Cha Ming explained his recent experience with the clever doctor, who listened attentively. After their discussion, Cha Ming also fetched the bucket of foul urine he'd excreted when he woke up from his session.

"Fascinating!" Li Yin exclaimed. "It appears to me that, since you've managed to restore some level of qi flow to your kidney, it has cleared the debris that had been accumulating over time and was slowly poisoning you. If what you say is true, then the immediate threat to your life from kidney failure has disappeared. I'm happy for you. Truly." The older man's eyes sparkled for a moment, but an expression of loneliness quickly replaced his previous excitement. This too vanished swiftly and was quickly replaced with his usual calm demeanor. Then, a bell rang from his office.

"Take your time today and rest, my boy," Li Yin said before heading toward his office. "I need to go see another patient."

***

It took Cha Ming three more days to recover his qi, and ten shards had been ground to dust in the process. The damage to his meridians and qi pathways made it very difficult to absorb ambient qi, so the concentrated essence in mid-grade spirit stones was ideal for his recovery. He considered himself extremely fortunate to have washed up in a place where spirit stones were so abundant.

He soon realized that the process of healing his qi pathways would take far longer than he originally estimated. The process could even take two years, depending on the circumstances. Further, at least half of this time would be spent resting and recuperating.

These three days, he had done a considerable amount of thinking. He was currently useless in battle, and his injuries could only be aggravated if he was exposed to any violence or dangerous situations. This meant that, ideally, he should stay within the village the whole time. These thoughts continued to linger when he successfully cleared and rebuilt another two pathways. With each qi pathway he unblocked, he felt one step closer to gaining his life back.

It was now summer, and the scorching heat had forced many people back indoors for shelter. Cha Ming was no exception. His bedroom was rather small, so after purchasing the supplies he required, he sat at a small desk in the living room and began practicing his calligraphy.

He wrote whatever came to mind as his paintbrush flowed. There was no qi involved, but he kept his spiritual force active at all times, striving for perfection with every brush stroke. As he wrote, he thought of his kind teacher, Elder Ling, who had kindly taught him without asking for anything in return. So many coincidences had shaped his life in the past year. In addition, he'd had many instances of luck, such as finding the Clear Sky Brush, his cultivation technique, meeting Huxian, and meeting the man in the brush. Yet he had suffered no true hardships.

Now it was his turn to suffer. And this penance would last many years. Here he was, lost and friendless. He could only carry on and make the best of the situation.

"That's very good penmanship you have there," a voice said from behind him.

Cha Ming turned around and saw Li Yin, who nodded appreciatively. "You write quite fast as well."

Cha Ming sighed and continued writing. "I learned calligraphy when I became a talisman artist. Although I can't currently use qi, I can still continue practicing this skill. Besides, it focuses my mind and soothes the soul."

"Quite right," Li Yin said. "I have a job for you if you're interested."

"Oh?" Cha Ming asked. "Whatever it is that you need me to do, I'll be happy to oblige." This was the first time the doctor had ever asked him to do anything directly. He owed the man his life, so he would never hesitate to help him with something.

"Come with me," he said. "I'll show you something."

Cha Ming followed Li Yin into his office. There, he noticed a messy desk and a few bookshelves. The doctor walked past these and proceeded to a large wooden closet. He opened the lock on the handle and opened it, revealing a dozen large bound books. There were also over a hundred scrolls that lay bundled in a pile.

"I must confess, I haven't been the best at taking notes all these years," the doctor said. "I have so much research, and so many patients, but very little time."

He then walked up to one of the large bound books and opened it for Cha Ming to see. Every word written within it was hastily scrawled in what could only be described as "doctor's script." In other words, the contents were nearly illegible.

"These are my life's work," Li Yin continued. "They contain all my accumulated knowledge on medicine, and every book contains general groupings in each subject. For example, this book is about the human skeletal system. There's another book on organs, and another one on qi pathways, meridians, and acupuncture. There is also a large book on disease.

"What I'd like you to do is read through these, condense and amalgamate the content, and write it legibly so that new doctors can easily learn the content. Can you do it?"

Cha Ming gulped but eventually nodded. It was a very tedious task, but at this point he had a very substantial amount of downtime. Further, if he started with the book on meridians and qi pathways, then followed up with the book on organs, he would stand a much better chance in succeeding in his experimental recovery process.

"I'll start tonight," Cha Ming said, grabbing the large book on qi pathways. He didn't dare idle for a single moment. His life and his future were at stake.