Martial Arts Master

It was getting chilly in late autumn. As the night breeze blew, Lou Cheng, with his jacket off, felt an unexplainable kind of dry heat instead of a shivering cold. It was the kind of feeling one got when they were faced with a college entrance examination that was beyond their abilities.

Getting close to the glittering and translucent “Jindan”, he held his breath and bent down carefully. Taking precautions, he carefully wrapped his right hand with his jacket and carefully reached out to touch it. Upon touching it, it gave him the impression of being solid, and the chilly cold and scorching heat seen by his naked eye were merely an illusion instead of reality.

Lou Cheng pressed a little harder, and the Jindan gave in accordingly. It had looked light as a feather, as if it was nothing, but when he touched it, the feeling would be completely different.

Lou Cheng was panic-stricken at the difference. He stared at it with fixed attention and recognized that it was lying calmly in his palm wrapped with the jacket. The center started to spin, creating a swirl of ice crystals and flames, yet it showed no sign of the cruelty and horror that had previously burnt and frozen the black carp.

“It’s magic,” Lou Cheng welled up this thought in his heart and tried to search for a reason for that change. “Perhaps the cruelty and fierceness that had been in the Jindan had been dissipated and extracted by the black carp…”

With the danger gone for the moment, Lou Cheng started to think about how to handle the problem, as it was hard to confirm whether the thing before his eyes was a Jindan. Even if it was, he had no idea what effect it had. “Shall I just turn it over to the state and suffer no misfortunes, yet also reap no benefits? Or shall I conceal it, look for information, study it slowly, then use it to my advantage to change my ordinary life? It’s a big risk to conceal it like that, but it’s also a big risk to not achieve anything during your entire life.

“If I do take it with me to hide it, where should I put it? How could I keep it safe?”

With these thoughts going through his mind one after the other, Lou Cheng realized with his remaining lucidity that he should leave this place as soon as possible, no matter what his decision was, for fear that some incident or change might unexpectedly come.

Suddenly, he felt the Jindan in his palm was gently expanding and then shrinking, like a human being inhaling and exhaling. Furthermore, the frequency seemed to be constantly adjusting.

“It’s adjusting?”

At a loss, Lou Cheng’s mind went blank and he could only sense his breath, but he noticed the expansion and shrinkage of the Jindan were resonating with his breathing, in a harmonious rhythm.

“Resonance?”

As the thought formed in his mind, he saw that the Jindan had become more illusory as it turned to a flow of light that drilled into his palm, seemingly unstoppable even with the obstruction of the thin jacket.

“How could this be real? What is going on!?” Lou Cheng was terrified by what he had just seen. His heart was stricken with fear, and his mind was filled with the pitiful sight of the black carp.

He took a few steps back, unable to think carefully, then turned around and ran toward the school hospital located further ahead on the road, at the lakeside. Of course, he didn’t stop to consider if the doctors would have the ability to treat the damage caused by the Jindan.

After running for a while, Lou Cheng slowly calmed down and realized that fear and panic made no difference to the matter, but only burned up his physical energy when the situation went out of hand.

After cooling down, he frowned after suddenly feeling that something was wrong. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his lower stomach. With each breath, a warm current welled up and rushed toward his feet and lungs, easing the aches and pains from the running. His previous panting became slow and steady. He felt he could run for another three thousand meters without a break, and there were no signs of the previous concerns about the scorching hot and chilling cold.

“This…” breathing in lightly, Lou Cheng slackened his speed, tried to calm down and looked down at his stomach.

As he bent down, he felt a buzz in his head and vaguely saw a fantastical scene: In the spot directly under his own navel, called the Dantian by those in the martial arts world, was the Jindan. Nestled there, it seemed as if it contained a boundless nebula, and it expanded and contracted with his breathing. Ice crystals and blazing flames swirled together brightly with each breath.

This vision seemingly disappeared in an instant, and Lou Cheng was left with only the sight of his own dark blue T-shirt. He lifted the bottom carefully, only to find his usual soft and full belly, as if he had just finished a big meal.

After gradually slowing down his footsteps, he finally stopped. With the rhythm of his breathing coming back to normal, the hot current in his lower stomach disappeared.

“Does the Jindan supplement my strength when I am tired?” Lou Cheng frowned and thought about the change, “This may be a blessing. It doesn’t seem like it has any ill will, but after all, human beings and black carp are not the same…”

After waiting for a while, Lou Cheng gradually relaxed and his expression went back to normal. There was no sign of the previous raging fire and viscera-freezing cold.

“Let’s try that again…” He decided and turned around to run along the previous path.

It was simply a fact that running made one tired, just like the fact that every man would eventually die. After a while, Lou Cheng started to feel exhausted, and this was the very moment the warm feeling in his lower stomach’s Dantian appeared again and created a hot current to relieve his body.

“It is cool! I can even participate in the distance race of the school if I continue practicing this way…” Lou Cheng gradually felt more joy than worry and stopped in front of the dead black carp.

After thinking for a while, he bent over to pick up the black carp, stuffed it with stones from the shore, and threw it back into the Weishui Lake.

After all of this, he turned again and walked along the lakeside path back to the boy’s dormitory.

Along the way, on the one hand, Lou Cheng was quite pleased with the fact he’d found his own genuine treasure. He hoped that he might become one of the well-regarded backbones of the martial arts club one day and gain the favor of Yan Zheke as well as the admiration of fans. On the other hand, he became worried about the risk of the Jindan and was afraid to follow the fate of the black carp and die at a young age. As a result, his steps were brisk one moment and heavy another.

“I’ll just check it out first. If there’s any problem, I’ll immediately hand it over to the state.” Standing at the door of room 302 of the dormitory, Lou Cheng took a deep breath, made up his mind, fished out the key and opened the door.

…

From a secluded trail at the side of Weishui Lake, a figure wearing an old T-shirt walked from afar and stopped near the place where the black carp had previously been. He looked about seventy or eighty years old, with his hair all white, yet there were very few wrinkles on his face.

“There seems to be a strange fluctuation here?” The old man looked around.

After a moment, he shook his head, and took out a silver-white flask with a practiced hand. He took a deep gulp of wine, then walked away while humming a babbling song.

…

Back in the dormitory, Lou Cheng was worried whether Cai Zongming had come back or not. Lou Cheng let himself into the bedroom, turned on the light, and the darkness within the room was immediately dispelled. He shut the door behind him and sat in front of the computer blankly, neither moving the mouse nor looking at the screen.

He once again wondered how to reassure himself, searching for all manner of explanations. In all his short and inexperienced life he’d never encountered something of this magnitude. He was unable to completely keep a cool head in the face of such a potential danger.

You only live once, but the world is so beautiful.

No matter how many benefits and prospects one had, it was hard to let go of the concerns deep in their mind.

Depression was overtaking him, heavy as a mountain. Lou Cheng gritted his teeth, instinctively picked up his phone, and dialed a familiar number.

“Hello, son?” A slightly husky female voice came from the other end.

“Mom, it’s me.” Hearing this familiar voice, Lou Cheng got a little choked up, and the fear inside his heart dampened.

Whenever he was having a tough time, Lou Cheng would think of his family and recall how much pain and hardships they went through.

“Son, has something bad happened? Why does your voice sound strange?” Lou Cheng’s mother asked sensitively.

Tears welled up in his eyes, but Lou Cheng forced a smile and said, “No, of course not, just a little homesick.”

“Homesick? Didn’t I ask you before if you wanted to come back before the holiday? Who said that a man has to be on their own?” Lou Cheng’s mother laughed and said in a motherly tone, “Tell me the truth, do you need any money?”

Lou Cheng’s mood sank even lower as he slowly explained. “It’s true, I miss you and Dad, and the braized pork with eggplant, the quick-fried eel and tomato and egg soup that you cooked, and I even miss the garlic that I planted on the balcony…”

If he was to die just like that black carp, how pitiful it would be.

Lou Cheng’s mother was silent for a moment. With her voice trembling slightly, she said, “So do your father and I. Bah, why do you have to be such a naughty boy and make your mother cry?”

Lou Cheng could not help but laugh, and he calmed down gradually. “Who would dare do such a thing? Oh, right! Where is Dad?”

Back during third grade, the company in which Lou Cheng’s father worked had been in trouble. Even though his father was an incredibly valuable asset to the company, he could only get a base salary. The family mainly relied on his mother selling goods on the market stall and managed to get through with blood sweat and tears. When Lou Cheng went to middle school, his father finally decided to go out and get another part-time job. Nevertheless, he could never get along with his bosses due to his pride and could never stay in a single location for a long period. As a result, he was always hopping from one job to the next. Lou Cheng’s mother supported the whole family and her hard work always left a strong impression on Lou Cheng.

The family situation did not take the turn for the better until Lou Cheng went to high school, when his father settled down and returned home to take a position as technical director in a local enterprise. However, his mother couldn’t stay idle, and wormed herself into the community to work as a temporary worker and got along with a group of older women.

“Don’t you know your dad? Hasn’t he been playing chess for an hour every day after having his meal?” Lou Cheng’s mother answered grumpily. It was clear that she cared more about the latest news of Lou Cheng. She took the opportunity to inquire about Lou Cheng’s studies and how he was living.

“Is the course schedule tight?

“Do the teachers give good lessons?

“Are the courses difficult?

“Is it easy to get along with your roommates?

“Is there anything you’re not used to?

“Is anybody bullying you?”

In the past, Lou Cheng had always been impatient about these questions and would reply frivolously. Today, however, he was in a good mood and, fondly recalling memories of his past, he calmly and thoroughly answered each and every question. Lou Cheng’s mother went on to gossip about family trifles, from Grandpa’s household to Aunt’s household, then to an unreliable relative of Lou Cheng’s father and the discord of various households in the community. Lou Cheng listened quietly with a smile on his mouth, tossing in a quick word every once in a while.

At the end of their conversation, Lou Cheng’s mother showed her generosity and decided that this month she would give him 800 more yuan, to facilitate his adaptation to college life.

“Who would have thought that calling home would have helped out so much with that extra bonus…” Lou Cheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The previous pressure and unease had all disappeared. “Up until now, it seems the Jindan poses no real danger. As long as I’m careful and report anything bad that comes up to the state, it should be fine…”

With joy overwhelming his worries, Lou Cheng touched his belly and couldn’t help but let his imagination run wild for a moment.

“With the Jindan, at the very least I can have at least enough strength to practice martial arts and achieve an Amateur Fifth Pin or Amateur Sixth Pin earlier, to impress Yan Zheke. Maybe I can even reach Professional Ninth Pin before graduating, and I will have more choices when it comes to getting a job.

“Of course, if the Jindan is more magical than I can imagine, then… could I possibly enter into the martial arts world as I dreamed as a child, and even compete with the Mighty Ones and obtain one of the five greatest titles revered across the whole country?

“Oh, if little Ming sees me touching my belly like this, he’ll ask me if I am pregnant.”

Tossing and turning these thoughts in his mind, Lou Cheng seemed to have more confidence to deal with life. At this moment, the door handle turned and several loud voices entered the room.

Lou Cheng could tell that the three “brainiacs” had come back from studying.