Chapter 9:

Chapter 9:

Internal Energy (1)

The question he had was simple.

“What about internal energy cultivation methods, like the ones in martial arts novels? Are they not going to teach us those?”

It was a question about the cultivation methods often seen in martial arts novels.

“You know, the ones that talk about the principles of the universe, the five elements, and the eight trigrams, and then suddenly the protagonist reaches a high level of internal energy?”

“I guess there must be a reason for it.”

But since Mu-jin didn’t know anything about internal energy cultivation, he just focused on following Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s instructions and concentrated on his breathing.

This was the time to learn internal energy, the foundation of martial arts.

What martial arts enthusiast wouldn’t want to obtain internal energy?

“When you breathe out, imagine that all the evil energy inside your body is leaving through your mouth, and gather all the bad energy inside your body and exhale deeply.”

“Huu.”

Mu-jin, who didn’t know anything about internal energy, simply followed Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s instructions and practiced the internal energy cultivation method of the Shaolin Temple.

Meanwhile, the second-class disciples who were watching the training corrected the novice monks who were not concentrating or had the wrong posture.

After about half an hour had passed...

“Everyone, open your eyes.”

When the novice monks seemed to have gotten used to the breathing and sitting posture, Master Uncle Hye-jeong stood them up.

“What you’ve learned is the Breath Control Technique, the most basic breathing method to feel and store energy in your body.”

Mu-jin felt a sense of disappointment upon hearing Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s words, realizing that he had only learned a simple breathing method, not internal energy cultivation.

But this was unavoidable.

“To operate internal energy, you must first feel the energy. So, from today on, you must practice the Breath Control Technique every day to feel the energy.”

To learn internal energy cultivation, Mu-jin had to follow Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s words and feel the energy.

Next, he had to make the felt energy flow through his blood vessels according to the meridians.

“From now on, the second-class disciples will give you a book that marks the human meridians.”

As soon as Master Uncle Hye-jeong finished speaking, the second-class disciples handed out thin books with the meridians marked to the novice monks.

“You don’t need to memorize all the meridians, but you must memorize the important ones. There are meridians you must pass through when operating internal energy, and many meridians that are good to know when suppressing an opponent.”

Master Uncle Hye-jeong pointed to the second-class disciple’s body, naming each meridian one by one.

“Oh, meridians.”

Mu-jin, who had seen meridians often in martial arts novels, anxiously checked Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s teachings and the contents of the book, trying to memorize them quickly.

After another half hour had passed, Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s serious voice flowed out, finishing the meridian education.

“Now that you’ve learned the meridians and can feel energy through the Breath Control Technique, you’ll learn our Shaolin Temple’s introductory internal energy method, the Bulsim Gong. Do you understand?”

“Yes!!!”

Mu-jin replied with all his might, his heart pounding with excitement.

“I’ll memorize everything today!”

He felt like his body was burning with the desire to learn internal energy cultivation right away.

* * *

That evening.

After finishing his day, Mu-jin cheerfully made his way to his quarters.

His heart was pounding with excitement at the thought of memorizing all the acupressure points during the evening free time and even practicing the supplementary ‘Breath Control Technique’.

But his cheerful mood plummeted in an instant due to the sight of Master Uncle Beob Gang practicing alone in the Arhat Faction training hall.

“Master Uncle Beob Gang! What are you doing right now!?”

“Hahaha. Thanks to the exercise method that Mu-jin taught me today, my knees hurt less, so I was trying to train a bit more.”

As Beob Gang replied with a bright voice, Mu-jin could not hold back and sighed deeply.

“The purpose of the exercise was to make your knees hurt less, not for you to overdo it! The training from dawn was already enough!”

Here he was, a trainer, and his charge was harming himself with unsanctioned exercises.

It would be different if he were training a muscle-building athlete preparing for a competition. But in reality, the person in question was a patient.

“Hmm.”

Believing that Mu-jin had no reason to lie to him, Beob Gang pondered for a moment on how to help him.

The simplest method would be to transmit qi directly through ‘Direct Body Transmission’.

If qi was flowing through one’s body due to someone else’s doing, anyone with even a slightly developed sense of qi should be able to feel it easily.

The only issue was:

‘That would be a violation of our Shaolin’s rules.’

Why else would they have only taught the ‘Breath Control Technique’ in the morning training and not performed the ‘Direct Body Transmission’?

Feeling qi was also a kind of trial. A trial to select the true disciples.

Without assistance from others, only those who could feel qi through the ‘Breath Control Technique’ alone were eligible to be chosen as true disciples.

True to his dedication to the rules, Beob Gang could not defy such regulations.

Instead, he came up with an alternative idea.

“Ahem. In that case, how about you try practicing the ‘Breath Control Technique’ here instead of at your quarters?”

“Here, you mean?”

“I was about to perform qi circulation myself. Who knows? If I’m circulating qi next to you, it might be easier for you to sense it.”

While it wasn’t a direct infusion of qi into the body, the flow of qi created artificially by someone else was much easier to detect than natural qi flows.

Mu-jin quickly grasped Beob Gang’s intention and willingly sat cross-legged on the floor of the training hall.

“I’m ready, Master Uncle!”

“Hahahaha. Then I must begin my qi circulation. Focus your mind.”

Beob Gang also sat down in a cross-legged position and began to recall the intricacies of the internal energy technique as he inhaled the qi from the air through his nose. Following the Shaolin internal energy technique, the qi circulated through his body.

Some of the qi transformed into the majestic energy characteristic of the Buddha’s work through the technique, while the rest was exhaled with his breath back into the atmosphere.

However, Mu-jin, who had yet to feel qi, simply closed his eyes and focused on the basic breathing of the ‘Breath Control Technique’.

As his body began to mechanically repeat the breathing pattern, Mu-jin started to concentrate his mind elsewhere.

‘Master Uncle Beob Gang is currently circulating qi. There should be qi flowing around him. I have to feel that qi!’

Naturally, it was not an easy task. Especially since he didn’t even know what qi felt like in the first place.

With that realization, he thought deeply.

‘I must feel the difference. There has to be something unique around Master Uncle Beob Gang’s mouth and nose that I can sense.’

Instead of aimlessly trying to sense it, Mu-jin sought to discover the difference by comparing it to other areas.

As Mu-jin concentrated on Beob Gang’s breathing for a while, from a certain moment, the majestic Buddhist internal energy began to flow out from around Beob Gang, deeply immersed in qi circulation.

‘Is this it?’

Mu-jin, who was deeply focused, could easily feel that energy.

Feeling that energy, he realized that his own breathing also contained such energy.

‘Inhale as deeply as possible, drawing it to the danjeon at the center of the body.’

Recalling Master Uncle Hye-jeong’s words from the morning training, Mu-jin drew in the qi through his nose, visualizing the energy being stored in the danjeon, a vessel within him.

As he exhaled the air deep from his lungs, he tried to retain the drawn-in qi.

Of course, it wasn’t going to go well right from the start.

The frustration of the qi, drawn in through the nose, escaping entirely through the mouth, was indescribable.

However, Mu-jin was not the kind of man to give up over such a minor setback.

He continued to practice the ‘Breath Control Technique’, drawing in and exhaling qi.

After much repetition,

Out of the qi he inhaled, a minuscule fraction—

If he drew in qi 100 times, he managed to retain about 0.0001 of it.

It might have been less than a speck of dust, but a broad smile formed on Mu-jin’s lips.

‘Even if it’s just 0.0000000001%, if it contains truffle, it’s considered a truffle-infused snack, right! Yes!!’

Mu-jin reminisced about the truffle snacks he had eaten during his days of watching food vlogs on Neurtube.