Yang ZiMei, without any masking and in a breath, recited back out her master's chant. (1)
He had already mentally prepared himself beforehand but YuQing still got a big shock.
"Since you've already memorized the chant, start cultivating the ki technique for two hours then this priest will teach you another."
"Yes!" Reciting the chant of the ki technique from a moment ago, Yang ZiMei felt like it concealed an incomparably profound mystery. She had already been itching to cultivate.
From the chant, in a broader perspective, ki induction is separated into three boundaries: induce ki into the body, induce spirit back into the origin soul, induce soul into sublimity. From a more detailed perspective, there's 20 different boundaries, from polishing the muscles, refining the bones, to reaching sublimity, transforming the whole body, a void yet voidless state.
YuQing lead her to the waterhole behind the temple and had her sit on a white stone nearby as he explained the meaning of the chant and the key to cultivate it. This will allow her to begin cultivating through the threshold of ki induction herself. (2)
But, he, sits in the middle of the waterhole, crossed legs to cultivate, completely ignoring the biting cold of the morning water.
Seeing that her master already entered a state of meditation, she straightened out her own slightly disorderly thoughts and began to breathe according to the chants of the ki technique.
At the beginning, she felt somewhat unaccustomed, after several cycles, her inhales and exhales became smoother, and there was a kind of peculiar sense. Inhaling, her body felt a slight chill, like her pores were absorbing the essence and energy of the surrounding greenery. Then it enters the body and upon exhaling, her body felt light, like some kind of impure matter was cleansed from within her body. This made her dantian feel cool and she relaxed. (3)
While completely intoxicated on that marvelous boundary of harmony between heaven and human, she's forgotten her entire surroundings.
When YuQing finished his meditation, he looked over to Yang ZiMei. He saw a faintly discernible this mist shrouding her body and was momentarily stunned. He really couldn't have imaging that there would still be a person in this world who could sense the nature of the world, achieve the boundary of harmony between heaven and human, and just from the first time they started to induce ki into the body.
A genius!
He stood up from the waterhole and kept watch beside her as she cultivated.
By the time Yang ZiMei came out of her selfless boundary, it was already midday, six hours had passed.
She was a little at a loss as she looked at the sun overhead and then looked over to her master. With a soft exhale asked, "How did time pass by so quickly?"
*Growling*
An intense grumbling sound of hunger suddenly called out from her belly. She discovered that she was so hunger, the skin of her belly was about to concave into her back.
She wrinkles her brows to look at YuQing with a pout, "Master, I'm really hungry!"
YuQing stoops over, picked her up, carried her into the temple, placed her on a seat, and went to retrieve something for her to eat.
Yang ZiMei ended up eating three bowls of rice, two plates of tofu and vegetables, and six apples before she satisfied her belly.
She was frightened by the amount she ate and with a worrying face, looks over to YuQing, "Master, I thought cultivating ki meant I wouldn't need to eat, like those immortals who dine on the wind by drinking dew and eating air."
YuQing humorously gave a knock on her head, "Dine on the wind and drink dew? You thought ideally but in our founding fathers, there has been several who've cultivated to the boundary where they could dine on wind and drink dew."
"Ah, there really were? Isn't it like they became immortals?" Yang ZiMei asked, astonished.
"Not immortals, but nothing more than a human with a slight unconventional point."
"Hopefully, I can also achieve this unconventional point." Yang ZiMei yearned. If she didn't need to eat anything, then she wouldn't be like her last life, going through every day, worrying for her empty belly.
1. TL Q: BTW does anyone care about whichever word used: mnemonics vs chant.
2. What do you call a wide puddled? Mere? It's not a lake or pond so waterhole it is.
3. Think of dantian as a "core of energy" or "sea of qi/ki" in the body and there's three of them. The location of the one here is described as 3 finger's width below the navel. Basically special enough to be left in pin yin.