Qing Shui dejectedly walked out of the Qing Mansion. Other than going to the nearby hills and mountains, he had no other place to go. Coming to this place, a place where he had visited countless times before, he looked towards the horizons, over the peaks of endless mountains and deep valleys, thoughts of suicide crossing his mind. However, every time he thought of suicide, memories of a woman filled with gentleness and hope would appear in his thoughts. He told himself that no matter what, he must persevere and live on. For the sake of that hope-filled gaze which belonged to his mother!
Qing Shui was unwilling to remain as a trash like this. The more he thought about it, the more anger he felt. When the anger inside of him bottled up to the point of eruption, traces of madness appeared in his eyes and he roared at the heavens. “Sh*tty heavens, I will never give up! If you want to suppress me, I, SHALL, SUPPRESS, YOU!” A voice filled with a thousand ounces of unhappiness echoed far and wide.
After yelling, Qing Shui deliriously chose a path up the mountain and began to sprint upwards. He wanted to vent all of his negative emotions, such as the dissatisfaction and anger he felt by exhausting his energy. He felt that he might explode if there was no outlet for release.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Only sprinting a short distance actually made him emphysematous and starting to feel tightness in his chest; Qing Shui gritted his teeth, ignored his body reactions and continued sprinting onwards.
Aches in his body, coupled with the difficulty in breathing resulted in rivulets of sweat, akin to the flow of a small stream cascading down his face. This actually stimulated his will to persist.
“I will not admit defeat, I have to be stronger, I must endure…….” Qing Shui was already delirious as he haphazardly ran around for an unknown amount of time. He ran and ran and ran, to the point where he was no longer fully conscious. And finally, darkness claimed him.
Time passed slowly by, the skies had already turned dark as the moon rose to its acme. Cascading downwards was beams of silvery light, looking as gentle as an angel descending from the heavens, casting their shine onto Qing Shui. Qing Shui was still unconscious, his delicate body looked tiny and pitiful where he had fainted, halfway up the mountain pass.
—
Back in the Qing Clan, Qing Yi was in a fluster as she realised that Qing Shui was missing. She immediately went to the nearby hills Qing Shui frequented in an attempt to search for him. However, there were no traces to be found. Unwilling to give up, she persisted on to no avail.
Qing Yi returned to the Qing Clan in a panic and hurriedly ordered all of the servants and slaves to join in the search for Qing Shui. Everyone became terrified as they witnessed an insane looking Qing Yi display her power. Only now did they remember that she was actually an expert, her previous graceful and gentle demeanor had completely disappeared as she searched for Qing Shui.
—–
At the moment right before Qing Shui fainted due to over exhaustion, there was an endless rush of knowledge and information gushing into his mind. It was as if a hidden door had been forced open.
Strengthening Techniques, Meditation Techniques, Alchemy, Smithing Skills, Hidden Weapon Techniques, Tailoring, Cooking, Hunting, Foundation Building skills and various other Craftsmen techniques . . . . . . . . . .
“Ahhh, aren’t these the abilities I had when I was playing [Western Fantasy]? Why would they appear in my mind now? Even more incredible, there are also detailed methods of cultivation! But sadly, other than this [Ancient Strengthening Technique], the others seem to be useless to me.
Qing Shui was very excited, in [Western Fantasy] , the human race had the highest capacity for learning. Those that cultivated to the pinnacle of martial arts could even fight with celestials and demons. However, he understood that in this world, there were no gods or demons; the strongest warriors here would only be able to instantly destroy cities with the wave of a hand.
From his experiences playing [Western Fantasy], Qing Shui knew that the strongest skills were not martial art techniques but were instead the complementary support arts, like strengthening and foundation building techniques. Even with no martial arts techniques, just by building one’s foundation, one could become invincible; that is if one practises to the zenith of foundation building arts and strengthening techniques. As the saying goes, practicing martial arts without establishing your foundation well, in the end it will all be for naught!
Qing Shui also realised that the names of the techniques, as well as their detailed description in ways of cultivating were all deeply imprinted in his mind. He had gained the ability to memorise anything he saw instantly!
Eidetic Memory?
Like a mirage, after the images of all the different skills from [Western Fantasy] flashed through his mind, a gigantic image of Yin and Yang appeared in his sea of consciousness!
An image of Tai-Chi! [1] Or should I call it Yin Yang?
As the ancient dictum goes “After the chaotic world had been created, it was divided into Yin and Yang by the creator in order to stabilize the world”, Alright, Qing Shui thought, he decided to refer to it as Yin and Yang.
After this, the Yin-Yang image gradually shrunk to the size of a seed. Slowly and continually rotating, fixed in his sea of consciousness. Qing Shui could slightly feel that with each round of rotation, the symbol actually emitted a miniscule amount of energy. This energy flowed towards all of the major meridians, energy channels and organs in his body, slowly transforming them.
At this instant, Qing Shui felt as if his body contained boundless amounts of energy. However, he was confused. Didn’t I die from electrocution while playing [Western Fantasy]? Why did the abilities from [Western Fantasy] appear here today?
Could it be that it is somewhat related to me fainting from exhaustion?
Forget it. In the past I was a trash that couldn’t cultivate, no matter what transformation took place in my body, it cannot be worst that what it was originally!
Qing Shui was in a semi-conscious state. Despite feeling immensely invigorated in comparison to his past self, he was still unable to regain consciousness. He could sensed that the rotation of the Yin-Yang symbol in his mind would rotate continually for eternity. Qing Shui was unsure of the actual reason, but he had a very strong intuition that this symbol will change his destiny!
All of a sudden, he heard voices calling out his name!
“Ah, its mother!”
Heard Qing Yi calling out his name desperately, he felt a surge of warmth in his heart. He kept wanting to call out to her but was unable to.
“Qing Shui!”
“Qing Shui!”
““““““““““““““““““`
“He is here, we found him!” Qing Shui heard an unknown voice calling out in front him.
“Qing Shui! Qing Shui!” Qing Shui heard his mother calling him in anguish. Even without looking, he could sense that her face was filled with tears and contorted by grief.
After that, he felt Qing Yi tightly embracing him; that familiar warm hug reminded him of how this beautiful and gentle woman had single-handedly raised him, causing him to feel very blessed but also gave him hints of heartache. He increasingly hated the guy who had abandoned her. Qing Shui swore that in the future, he would definitely redress this for Qing Yi
After some time had passed, Qing Shui slowly drifted off into sleep. Before that, he could still feel someone taking his pulse and hints of conversation between Qing Yi and others.
Qing Shui drifted off into sleep with a smile on his face, he had a feeling that the sun tomorrow would shine especially brightly!!
[1] symbol of taichi: http://feng-shui.lovetoknow.com/tai-chi-symbol
Both the symbol of Tai-chi and Yin-Yang have the same meaning, just differently named.