This time, it should be the ‘you’ character in this other world.
Yang Dingtian followed and read it once more, then wrote it again. Then he wrote the Chinese ‘You’ character on the ground, read it out, and pointed at the old man, indicating that it meant ‘You’.
The old man quickly grasped this. Moreover, he read it very accurately, writing it as well as Yang Dingtian as did like before.
Following that was the eyes, nose, mouth, hair, skin, meat, blood, tendons, stomach, feet, snow, ice, stairs, sky and other words.
Yang Dingtian was originally very intelligent, but the old man was even more intelligent.
After several hours, the falling snow finally stopped. The two people had been learning each other’s language the whole time.
The old man taught Yang Dingtian 189 characters, 50 expressions. After finished studying, the old man even used Chinese to examine Yang Dingtian.
For example, when the old man pointed at the sky’s black cloud and said the two words ‘black cloud’ in Chinese, it meant he was asking Yang Dingtian say this world’s ‘black cloud’ and how to write it.
When Yang Dingtian said the correct words, the old man would give a smile. However, when Yang Dingtian said the wrong word, the old man would directly give him a slap near his ears.
The slap near his ears really hurt, but the old man probably hurt more. This was because his broken bones had not fully recovered. Once he gave Yang Dingtian a slap, he would even spit blood. Therefore, Yang Dingtian did his utmost to not get it wrong. After he made a mistake, he would quickly slap his own face, not daring to make the old man hit. Moreover, he would hit harder than the old man, directly making his own fact swell and sometimes to the point of even spitting out blood.
Yang Dingtian was usually very intelligent, but after several hours, several hundred characters, and nearly a hundred expressions, there would nevertheless would be some wrong. Therefore, his face was finally beaten to swell like a pig’s by himself. Some of his teeth were loose and the saliva he spit was replaced with blood.
The old man’s eyes had no pity; once he made a mistake, his eyes would puncture Yang Dingtian.
Finally, when the studying finished, the old man reached out and touched Yang Dingtian’s inflamed face, making Yang Dingtian’s heart raise some warmth.
“Go make the ice stairs!” The old man had unexpectedly said it in Chinese, then slowly closed his eyes, once again entering the ‘closing-up’ situation.
“You, don’t you need to eat things?” Yang Dingtian asked. However, the old man didn’t pay any attention, even though he could mostly make out the meaning of Yang Dingtian’s words.
Yang Dingtian let out an embarrassed laugh. Then, he carefully straightened out the old man’s clothing, used his hand to comb his hair, and went to make more ice stairs.
……
Like this, day by day passed.
The majority of the time, the old man sat down with his eyes closed. Every ten days, he threw Yang Dingtian a red-colored pill, maintaining Yang Dingtian’s life and energy.
Only when it began to snow would he open his eyes.
When the snow stopped, the two people would cease learning. The old man would sit down and close up once again while Yang Dingtian would continue on building the ice stairs.
Time passes day by day.
The ice steps spiraling around the cavern wall became more and more taller. Along with the height, Yang Dingtian’s proficiency in this world’s language and writing became higher as well. The old man had practically already completely grasped the majority of the Chinese language’s written language. This was because he was highly intelligent; once he grasped the pattern and essence of the Chinese language’s written language, he would be able to do a comprehensive self-study. It was so much that he could even indicate Yang Dingtian’s few remote errors! Afterwards, the old man’s intelligence made Yang Dingtian not too frightened.
But even though Yang Dingtian’s start of learning this world’s language and writing started out very well, it slowly became more difficult afterwards. In the first ten hours, Yang Dingtian learned many hundreds of words, but afterwards, it became more and more slow. Because this world was one completely of Martial Power and was a world entirely based on Xuan Qi, regarding the numerous ranks that Yang Dingtian did not have a concept of, it was highly and extremely abstract.
In order to make Yang Dingtian grasp it accurately, the old man even went as far as to translating the ranks and concepts all into Chinese. Then, he once again taught Yang Dingtian.
Therefore Yang Dingtian, who was not receiving much of a beating these days, would thrash his own face into a pig head every time he was studying.
The old man was still as incomparably severe as before, his gaze as incomparably sharp as before.
But the moment Yang Dingtian’s body turned around, the old man’s gaze towards him immediately was full of soft tenderness.
Time gradually goes by……
One month, two months, three months……
Half a year later, the winter season had passed and the snowy weather became less and less. However, the icy stairs were only completed by half!
The weather was becoming hotter. (Of course, this is relatively speaking.)
Yang Dingtian almost grasped the language and writing of this world. He could use the language and writing for daily life use and had enough understanding about this world.
This world was called Primal Chaos Continent! The land area was bigger than Earth by a lot, so the amount of people was also more. It was completely a Martial Power revering world. Xuan Qi is the foundation of this world and each person has different Mysterious Veins. A person blessed with high talent in cultivation would become a powerhouse, a person with low talent in cultivation would not become much.
It could be said that this world was one completely made up of Martial Artists. There were many lower ranked, only those with the Martial Dao were higher ranked. If one wants to become a person who can conduct themselves, there is only one way. That way is to cultivate martial arts.
The pill that Yang Dingtian would eat every 10 days was called ‘Violent Flame Pill’. It used several types of medicinal herbs mixed together with several types of Mysterious Beast blood and used ‘Ardent Flame Sacred Fire’ to refine. Its value was worth a large sum of gold. As long as an average person ate one, they would be able to make their cultivation go forward. But here, it was actually considered food to eat by Yang Dingtian.
Time passes day by day and Yang Dingtian’s understanding of this world was steadily increasing, but he still knew nothing about the old man as before. Who was this old man? Why would he be stranded here and why would his body be discarded? All of this still was a mystery, but his and the old man’s sentiment was getting deeper and deeper. Yang Dingtian became more and more fondly attached to the old man, until finally, he basically considered the old man to be his close relative.
**********
Each time after taking the Violent Flame Pill, Yang Dingtian felt that his whole body was bursting with energy. Therefore, whenever he wasn’t making the ice stairs, he would always be shadow boxing in a messy manner. Doing so was in order to release the surging energy within his body.
One day, the old man drew a set of pictures that depicted a Fist Art onto the snow. This fighting technique’s name was ZhengYang Fist1 and altogether, there were five moves. Every move, had about ten forms each.
This ZhengYang Fist seemed very simple and after Yang Dingtian imitated it three or four times, the first move seemed to be about right. Just as he was feeling complacent, he saw the old man’s icy cold face. Then the old man wrote on the snow these words: Appearance of Practicing the Fist, Core of Cultivating Qi. Fist Goes Forward, Qi Goes to Attack. When it arrives to the time of Xuan Qi flowing at lightning speed within the body, the first move will be considered to have been cultivated to completion.
After that, the old man once again closed his eyes and stopped paying attention.
As a result, Yang Dingtian hurriedly used his utmost concentration in practicing the fist over and over. After he fully practiced a few thousand times, he still had not felt any Qi. Instead, he was so tired that it was as if his bones were falling apart and he fell on the ground to heavily rest.
When he woke up the next day, he happened to see that the old man had already opened his eyes, writing a few hundred packed characters onto the ground.
“This is called ‘Heaven and Earth Art’, the most basic Qi cultivating art. You must cultivate according to this art during the early morning daily to cultivate Qi.” The old man said: “Towards this world’s language and writing, you already understand a major part of it, but for profound cultivating Qi arts, it touches upon the human body’s many acupuncture points. It has close relations with one’s Muscle Veins and requires specialized diagrams and books. These, you completely don’t understand, therefore those types of cultivating Qi arts after unsuited to be taught to you or else you may encounter cultivation deviation. This set of mnemonics is just a breathing in and out art, there will be no danger in cultivating it.
“You must cultivate one hour of Qi every morning, then practice three hours of ZhengYang Fist. During the time you shadowbox, try to feel a strand of Qi. When you do, inform me and I’ll teach you the second move.” The old man said.
“Yes!” Yang Dingtian replied.
The old man closed his eyes, once again entering a deep sleep mode. For these entire six months, he had shut his eyes and closed up for the majority of the time. To say it in a few words, his vitality should be less. For the past six months, Yang Dingtian took the Violent Flame Pill, but the old man didn’t even eat anything. He didn’t even drink water, moreover, he didn’t even go to urinate or defecate, making Yang Dingtian completely revere him. Although he had never talked about his identity, since his body had so many Violent Flame Pill, Yang Dingtian secretly speculated that the old man’s identity was definitely not common.
Yang Dingtian restrained all his miscellaneous thoughts and began according to the old man’s mnemonics. He sat down breathing with his eyes closed, breathing in and out to cultivate Qi.
This set of mnemonics only had a few hundred words and there were approximately a few actions. Through the nose, to the tongue, to breathing, to a gesture, to folding legs, then lifting the *** rhythmically. All of this was required to be accurate and without deviation. After these actions were done, it would be one cycle.
After one cycle, Yang Dingtian suddenly felt a small itch around his lower abdomen. It was a bit hot and felt as if a mouse suddenly jumped up. It took hold of his body and almost went against it, causing him to not help but let out a low cry.
“What’s wrong?” The old man opened his eyes.
“It’s as if there a small mouse jumping inside my stomach.” Yang Dingtian replied.
The old man’s face was surprised, not believing it: “This quickly?”
Then the old man sighed: “There is always someone above one, it exasperates one. Continue, this is not a misbehavior, don’t be frightened.”
“Yes!” Yang Dingtian said. Then, he continued to start according to the mnemonic to cultivate Qi. Every cycle took roughly three minutes and after each cycle, the little mouse would jump. However, when Yang Dingtian wanted to look for it, it would vanish to nothingness. Therefore, the whole process was like playing a game of hide and seek.
The entire process was as if Yang Dingtian had acquired a novel toy to play with. It could be said that this simple ‘Heaven Earth Art’ allowed him to enter this strange and mysterious world of Martial Dao.
One hour later, Yang Dingtian’s unwilling heart made the last attempt.
“Pu……” The result was that small mouse seemed to really drilled into the deepest part of his lower abdomen, then continued to jump inside of there.
“What?” The old man opened his eyes and asked.
Yang Dingtian said: “That little mouse came out, drilled into the deepest part of my lower abdomen, then stayed in there and continued jumping.”
The old man once again was stunned, then shook his head again: “There is always someone above one, it exasperates one!”
He did not tell Yang Dingtian that if it were other people cultivating according to this Qi cultivating mnemonics, highly talented people would take one month to feel the little mouse. Only after at least six months later would they be able to take the little mouse into the deepest part of their lower abdomen.
“The process just now is called ‘Attracting Qi’. It absorbs the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi into your body, then through your countless strips of Muscle Veins, it converges into your abdomen’s Qi Sea. The jumping mouse you were talking about is your initial Xuan Qi.” The old man said.
“I also have Xuan Qi?” Yang Dingtian was pleasantly surprised.
- TLN: Pinyin is ZhengYangQuan. Zheng can mean Principal, Proper, Correct, Straight. Yang is the character in Yang Dingtian’s name. It can mean Sun, Positive, Male, and somewhat means ‘Light’. Quan is just fist or boxing. So, this fighting technique could technically be called ‘Straight Male Boxing’. ↩