Legend of the Cultivation God

Being He Tianshu’s apprentice was enough to satisfy Zhang Xiaohua. He preferred learning to understanding Piaomiao steps by himself. However, seeing He Tianshu was somewhat bristle at his words, he walked up and picked up the paper, pretending he was reading and saying, “OK, squad leader He. Let’s read it together.”

He Tianshu snorted and muttered to him, “That’s better. You’ll know how hard it is to grasp Piaomiao steps.”

Zhang Xiaohua smiled and said, “OK. Learn from squad leader He and salute squad leader He.”

The paper was full of dense footprints and strange numbers with some very small characters in the margin, which made Zhang Xiaohua bewildered. What should he do? Seeing Zhang Xiaohua’s embarrassed face, He Tianshu felt delighted and said, “Read the small characters in the margin first, and then look at the footprints in accordance with the explanation. The footprints illustrated how you should walk and the numbers showed which footprint to take first.”

Zhang Xiaohua read the paper slowly after knowing how to read it. At first, he could partially understand it, but he grasped it gradually when he studied the footprints. The paper turned out to record the second level martial arts technique of Piaomiao steps that He Tianshu had just understood.

While Zhang Xiaohua was reading, a small figure that was practicing Piaomiao steps according to the record in the paper and his understanding arose in his mind. The figure finished practicing when Zhang Xiaohua completed reading. The Piaomiao steps that the figure practiced were the same as what He Tianshu had taught him except for several differences. The differences were in the figure rather than the footsteps. Zhang Xiaohua didn’t know if it was because of his misunderstandings or other causes.

Therefore, he raised his head and asked, “Squad leader He.”

He Tianshu was at the critical moment of understanding Piaomiao steps with his eyes crinkled and eyebrows frowned. Hearing Zhang Xiaohua was calling him, he furrowed his eyebrows even closer and said impatiently, “What’s wrong?”

Zhang Xiaohua wanted to ask, “Why there are some differences between what you have taught me and what I understand just then?”

But looking at He Tianshu who was impatient with him, he bit his tongue and stammered, “This seems to be what I have just learned.”

He Tianshu replied, “Review what you have learned. As an old saying goes, cherishing the old knowledge helps you acquire new understandings. That is the way to learn.”

With this, he took the papers from Zhang Xiaohua’s hand and read it carefully, thinking to himself, “I indeed gave him the wrong paper. But unexpectedly, he understands it.”

Looking at Zhang Xiaohua in surprise, He Tianshu picked up two pieces of paper from one side of the desk, read it cautiously and gave them to Zhang Xiaohua, saying, “These are the papers recording the martial arts techniques of the third level, you can read it. By the way, you go and read it in your room, I want to be alone.”

Zhang Xiaohua took the papers and walked out of his room.

He Tianshu said with a smile, “If you have learned anything from the papers, don’t forget to tell me.”

Zhang Xiaohua gave him a smile, closing the door and going back to his room.

He Tianshu curled his tip and shook his head, saying, “This bloke is really impatient. As the old saying goes – you don’t know how much rice and salt cost until you manage the household affairs. It takes much more than several days to comprehend this secret manual. When you read it yourself you will know how hard it is.”

Zhang Xiaohua, who returned to the hut, did not waste time. Sitting on the sleeping platform, he started to read these pages in hand. The words were written clearly – the lifting technique of qinggong. Zhang Xiaohua got excited, this was just the martial arts technique of lightening body that he was dying for! One will search high and low only to find it when one least expects to, ZXH thought happily.

Suppressing his excitement, Zhang Xiaohua read it carefully, and while reading the text, he also checked the illustrations. After reading carefully, Zhang Xiaohua’s enthusiasm waned. The basis of this technique method of lifting was inner energy, which was exactly the way of manipulating inner energy. He had no inner energy, so he could get nothing by learning it.

Zhang Xiaohua was very disappointed and he threw those two pages of paper on the table. He twitched his mouth and thought that the core of all kinds of martial arts was inner energy, such as qinggong, high-class fist, and sword martial arts; it seemed that he still had to practice well the Worry Free Heart Sutra’s cultivation method first.

When he stood up and picked up the pages, he remembered that the third-layer method of Piaomiao steps had two pages, and he hadn’t read the second page yet. However, he did not hold any hope, as he was unable to learn the method of the first page, how could he jump to the second?

The second page also read very clear, the technique of floating.

Floating? Zhang Xiaohua was stunned, what did this mean? Then, Zhang Xiaohua dabbed his forehead and smiled. The first page just talked about lifting, this second page was of course about a matter after lifting. It must be the continuation of the first page. But, could qinggong make people floating? Zhang Xiaohua did not know. Since the footwork was written like this, maybe it was possible.

Zhang Xiaohua thought of it for granted.

However, when Zhang Xiaohua carefully understood it, he discovered that his comprehension was somewhat biased. This technique of floating was not a follow-up to the technique of lifting, but another method of qinggong, which was quite different from lifting. The technique of lifting was about how to circulate inner energy in the meridians of your body to achieve the effect of lightening body, while the technique of floating taught people how to release qi in the meridians, by manipulating the skills of releasing qi, one could achieve the effects of body floating.

However, no matter which technique of lightening body, they were both based on inner energy, which Zhang Xiaohua lacked. Though the illustrations of this secret manual were wonderful and Zhang Xiaohua’s comprehension was incisive, everything was in vain.

Zhang Xiaohua then understood the words when the Piaomiao sect’s first disciple Zhang Chengyue handed him the “Piaomiao steps”, the “Piaomiao steps” was indeed not close-related to the inner energy. The first two layers of cultivation methods had nothing to do with inner energy, but the third layer was the beginning of using inner energy, presumably the following layers of cultivation methods were also driven by inner energy.