A Good-for-Nothing

129. The Thirteen Moves of Qingwei (1)

Translator: DragonRider

During the past couple of days, Li Zong had had quite some meetings, and He Zheng had been occupied with cultivation. Both of them felt that it’d be more convenient if they stayed in the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB). Therefore, He Zheng and Li Zong had stayed in the living quarters of SMB for several days.

Since there were much more applicants this year than there had been in any of the previous years, the date for the announcement of the results of the interview would also be two or three days later than usual. He Zheng, who had been at leisure during the past couple of days, had been cultivating internal energy and Fu-craft (Fu is a piece of rectangular paper on which magical figures are drawn by Chinese Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune) with undivided attention.

Every day, He Zheng would routinely spend some time browsing through the handbook left to him by Xuanqing, reviewing the exorcism circles and Fu patterns in it. Accidentally, with a quiver of his hand, he directly turned to the last page.

There was nothing on the last page. It was totally blank.

He Zheng had never figured out why the last page was blank. Had it been reserved for a signature, by any chance?

He Zheng’s palms were slightly wet with sweat and he unintentionally wiped one of them on the last page. As a fairly clean person, he found the sweat on the page a trifle unpleasant to look at and was just about to get something to fix it when unexpectedly, a faint golden light briefly emanated from the blank page and with that words gradually emerged on it.

He Zheng was fleetingly stunned. He read the words carefully and found that Xuanqing had actually recorded some kind of cultivation method on the last page!

The name of it sounded quite badass – The Thirteen Moves of Qingwei.

He Zheng read about the first move, which was the very elementary Qi-gathering technique that Xuanqing had had He Zheng learn from Zu Zhichong previously. He Zheng naturally read on.

Probably in the knowledge that He Zheng had a rather unfirm exorcism base and might not be able to understand profound theories, Xuanqing had even used the vernacular. He Zheng read it without any difficulty.

There were many cultivation methods in the world of cultivation. All sects and clans had their own respective mental cultivation methods.

For instance, He family had a systematic cultivation method of its own style, which of course actually centered around the Welkin Upender. People who reached the highest level of the mental cultivation method of He family were capable of wielding the Welkin Upender’s power at will, turning a cloudy sky into a rainy one with a flip of their hands. When He Zheng had still been a young boy, he’d heard that one of He family’s forebears, with the Welkin Upender in his hand, could annihilate dozens of demons of all descriptions with a single move.

But the Thirteen Moves of Qingwei was different from the mental cultivation method of He family. It included not only a mental method but also some Fu incantations, and there were even Taoist-style lightness skills.

The first six moves were mostly about a mental method of internal energy, and the latter seven were external moves. If anybody acquired a high level of proficiency in this mental cultivation method and managed to master any of the latter eight moves – according to what Xuanqing said in the handbook – their ability to cast spells with Fu would be absolutely unprecedented, and they would be powerful enough to invoke storms and transform a handful of beans into a group of soldiers. It was even possible for a cultivator following this mental cultivation method to reach the level of directly drawing energy from any heavenly body, reversing the natural course of lives, and sensing occurrences happening in every corner of the universe.

As He Zheng read on, he involuntarily clicked his tongue. If he really managed to master the latter few moves, all his meridians would be unobstructed, his Qi in a dense state, and he might even achieve immortality.

He Zheng had no idea why this previously hidden cultivation method had suddenly emerged. Maybe it was because his proficiency in exorcism had advanced recently, and this handbook had somehow sensed it, so the cultivation method on the last page had been displayed.

He Zheng raised his head and looked into the sky, wondering how his irresponsible master shifu had been doing with his closed-door cultivation. ‘I’ve got to go to the Qingwei Sect and check on him if I have the chance…’

After a few moments’ trance, He Zheng shook his head in an effort to collect his thoughts. “Master Shifu, I promise I’ll take this seriously. I won’t let you down.”

Having made a resolution, He Zheng left the handbook open on his knees, concentrated his mind and began cultivating straight away. The first move was an elementary Qi-gathering technique and He Zheng knew it like the back of his hand, so he directly started from the second one. According to the instructions on the page, he sat cross-legged with his hands clasped before his lower abdomen and lightly closed his eyes, subvocalizing the mental method.

The instant he closed his eyes subvocalizing the mental method, He Zheng felt as if everything around him and his own body had vanished, as if he were in an infinite spiritual universe where emptiness was his only company. His Dantian was getting increasingly warm as he subvocalized the mental method. When he finished the mental method, he slowly opened his eyes.

He Zheng failed to notice the faint mist about him which gradually dissipated after his eyes opened.

He flicked a glance at the clock on the wall and was taken aback. He remembered that it’d been three o’clock that he started cultivating, but now it was already five o’clock!

It had taken two hours for him to finish one single circle of internal energy!

There was a layer of fine beads of sweat on his forehead. He Zheng stood up intending to get a towel to wipe his face only to find that his whole body felt uncommonly comfortable. He was unable to describe this feeling with words, but it was very pleasant and miraculous. If he did have to describe it, he would say that his internal energy felt more refined. It also struck He Zheng that this cultivation method recorded on the last page had got to be good stuff, that he needed to put greater effort into cultivating from this day on.

He Zheng, holding the handbook in his hands, sat for a while. To be on the safe side, he memorized all thirteen moves first before hiding the handbook in a secret place.

He had just put away the handbook when there was a sudden knock at the door and He Zheng’s heart twanged. He cursed this insensible unexpected visitor in his mind, looked through the peephole and saw that this insensible visitor in a baggy sleeveless undershirt was standing beside the window stealthily looking at him.

“Hey, Cutie!”

As He Zheng pulled the door open Zu Zhichong’s smile widened, his eight big white teeth revealed. He instantly put his arm around He Zheng’s shoulders and drew him out of the room. “You must feel lonely staying here like a widow. Come on, I’ll take you to play video games!”

He Zheng, before he could resist, was quickly taken to Room 308 by Zu Zhichong who turned out to have great strength.