Chapter 30 Blessing in Disguise
Chapter 30 Blessing in Disguise
Su Chan's voice was a balm to his soul, and hearing it was akin to standing directly under a cool waterfall during a sweltering weather. It soothed every cell in his body and cleansed every fragment of his soul, washing away the murderous thoughts, finally bringing his consciousness back to light. When Li Yundong finally came to, the first that crossed his mind was that he was afraid, not of what he was doing or what he had become, but of the consequences of what he was about to do: If I kill this man, I won't be able to see Su Chan ever again!
WHAM!!!
The floor trembled when Li Yundong's fist impacted the wall about an inch away from Liu Chuan's head. The sound of the impact echoed inside the lecture hall. It was loud, so loud that anyone outside would've assumed that someone had smashed a giant mallet against the wall.
Li Yundong pulled back his fist, and the students sitting in the last row gasped in horror when they saw the fist-sized dent on the concrete wall.
Li Yundong tossed Liu Chuan to the side. That was when he saw Su Chan making her way towards him.
"Don't!" Li Yundong yelled at Su Chan. "Don't come any closer!"
The last thing he wanted was to lose control a second time and accidentally hurt Su Chan, so he did the only thing that made sense at that moment. He bolted out of the lecture hall as though his life depended on it.
No. Not his life.
Her life.
***
Su Chan began to panic the moment Li Yundong's figure vanished from the doorway. She knew she had to get to him before it was too late. There wasn't a single second to lose.
SWISH!
Su Chan's body rose into the air, with her arms spread wide like the wings of a gliding hawk, as she leaped from the back of the class to the first row!
"Holy f*cking shit! Did she just fly?"
"F*ck... Am I seeing things?"
While the lecture hall went into an uproar, Zhou Qin was still in a daze on the floor. Then, all of a sudden, Zhou Qin sprang to her feet and ran after Su Chan.
Li Yundong didn't run far; he stopped when he reached the nearest men's room and ran in.
A student was taking a dump in a stall inside the bathroom when Li Yundong burst in. The hair on the back of the poor guy’s neck stood on end when he heard a series of thumping sound just outside his stall. It was as though someone was playing one of those bass drums from a marching band. When he opened the door by an inch and poked his head out, what he saw would've made him shit his pants if he wasn't already seated on a toilet bowl. Some whack job was smashing his head and fists into the marble sink just outside the stall!
Startled, the guy pulled up his pants and bolted out of there. Poor guy didn't even wipe his butt.
***
Zhou Qin had been waiting outside the men's room for minutes now, listening to Li Yundong's moans of agony through the door as well as the relentless thumping from inside. Oh, my god... what's happening in there?" Zhou Qin thought, panicking. "Should I just go in...? But I'm a woman and this is the men's—
Suddenly, the door flew open and a guy ran out, holding up his unbuttoned pants.
Zhou Qin burst forward and grabbed the guy's arm.
"Hey, what's going on in there?" she asked.
The poor guy was already at the door of the men's room when he realized that he had forgotten everything he'd learned during his potty training. Needless to say, his mood was about as shitty as his butt by the time he was out the door. Having a chick stopping him when he was trying to run for his life was the final straw. He yanked his hand free from Zhou Qin's grasp, causing the latter to stumble. Then, he all but yelled at her: "Go see for yourself if you wanna know!"
After that, the guy hauled his "shitty" ass out of there.
Zhou Qin straightened herself with a frown. She glanced at the door when she heard another moan from Li Yundong, then stomped her foot. Oh, whatever, Zhou Qin thought, gritting her teeth and entering the men's room.
The first thing Zhou Qin saw was Li Yundong's bloodied face. Her eyes traveled down and she noticed that the front of his shirt was covered in blood.
CRASH!
Zhou Qin jumped when Li Yundong slammed his fist into the mirror in front of him, smashing it into pieces. Zhou Qin moved her feet and —
BAM! BAM! BAM! CLANK!
The marble sink broke off into several pieces after Li Yundong hammered it with his fists as though he was the Incredible Hulk.
Oh my God... Can anyone be this strong? Zhou Qin thought, her face as white as a sheet, her earlier resolve to move in to help Li Yundong completely forgotten. She couldn't move. She was too stunned and frightened to do anything other than watch. In her daze, Zhou Qin didn't notice Su Chan slipping into the bathroom.
Su Chan crept forward until she was standing right beside Zhou Qin. The girl hadn't realized her presence yet, but Su Chan wouldn't blame her; it wasn't every day that a mortal got to see another bloody-faced mortal standing three to four meters away in front of them smashing things like a maniac.
Stay calm... stay calm... Su Chan thought as she watched Li Yundong's movements, waiting for an opening for her to strike. Now! Su Chan burst forward the moment Li Yundong had his back turned towards her, then slammed the heel of her palm on the back of Li Yundong's neck. Li Yundong's body went stiff for a moment, but then he suddenly turned around and delivered a punch.
SWISH!
It missed Su Chan by inches as she dodged nimbly to the other side of Li Yundong. Three or four meters away, Zhou Qin's hair fluttered slightly due to the air currents that Li Yundong's punch had generated.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Su Chan's body weaved and slithered around Li Yundong like a snake.
Li Yundong kept punching and missing. When Su Chan dodged another punch and ended up behind Li Yundong, she saw another opening, so she pulled out a strand of her hair and poked it at a spot behind Li Yundong's head.
Like a needle, the hair lodged itself firmly in Li Yundong's Tianzhu.
Several violent convulsions shook Li Yundong's body before his body went limp and he passed out.
Su Chan sighed in relief, then placed Li Yundong's unconscious form onto her back. She turned around and leveled a cold stare at Zhou Qin, who had yet to recover from her stupor.
"If you breathe a single word of what you've seen here today, and I mean a single word, then I will find you," Su Chan growled threateningly, "and I will kill you!"
Zhou Qin's brows shot to her hairline as she snapped out of it. But before she could say a word, she saw Su Chan leaping out of the window while carrying Li Yundong on her back.
"Ah!!!" Zhou Qin released a scream of horror.
Zhou Qin burst forward and rushed towards the window.
No! No! No! This is the fifth floor! What is she think—
Upon looking out the window, she saw Su Chan charging away from the building like a gust of wind while still carrying Li Yundong on her back.
What...
Zhou Qin stood numbly at the window, watching in a stupor as Su Chan and Li Yundong's figures passed the campus gates before disappearing around the bend of the street. Several guys came into the bathroom just then, but Zhou Qin didn't even notice. She was still staring out the window, gripping the window sills tightly with both hands.
She trembled, out of what she couldn't really tell. Perhaps it was fear? Panic? Excitement? Or maybe... passion?
Li Yundong... Zhou Qin thought, her eyes glazing over. Who are you?
***
Su Chan carried Li Yundong all the way to the apartment. Although she maintained a calm exterior, she was panicking inside. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why didn't I warn him not to practice in public! I nearly got him killed!
Inside the elevator, Su Chan fished out the key of the apartment from Li Yundong's pocket. When the doors slid open, she ran out of the elevator and straight to Li Yundong's apartment.
Su Chan placed Li Yundong on the carpet, then quickly knelt down beside him to give him a pulse diagnosis. While reading his pulse, she also studied Li Yundong's face to check his complexion.
Well, at least the bleeding has stopped... she thought, removing her fingers from Li Yundong's pulse point.
Next, she worked on checking Li Yundong's Qi flow. In cases of Zouhuo Rumo, there are usually two possibilities: one, the afflicted's Qi rushes towards their head, impairing their Baihui, Shenting, Tianchong, and Chenglin; two, Qi goes in the opposite direction, damaging the Foot's Minor Yin Kidney Meridian and Foot's Major Yang Urinary Bladder Meridian.
In the first case, the afflicted would end up with cognitive impairment, and in the second, lower-body paralysis.
Waves of emotion hit Su Chan as she watched Li Yundong's battered face. After a while, she got up and went into the bathroom, where she found a few clean towels, which she then used to clean the blood on Li Yundong's face. Then, she placed one palm on Li Yundong's Huagai and the other on his Qihai.
Her master had once told her that the Huagai is located between the two sides of the lungs along the line formed by the sternum, somewhere between the chin and the nipple levels. All Qi moving towards the head would pass through the Huagai. The Qihai, on the other hand, is located slightly below the navel.
Whenever a person is angry, they would feel a surge of Qi straight into their head. This Qi originates from the Qihai, moving upwards through the Huagai, then through the Shenting until it finally reaches the Baihui. This type of Qi flow would disrupt the normal Qi flow pattern of the brain. This is exactly why people become irrational when they are angry.
Those who are adept in Qi control can prevent the Qi that arises due to anger before it even reaches the brain. The gist to doing that is to use the Huagai as a gate to prevent Qi from rushing into the brain.
By pressing down on Li Yundong's Huagai and Qihai, Su Chan was preventing his Qi from rushing towards the head and the lower body. At the same time, she was also channeling her own Yin Qi through her palms and into Li Yundong's body. The moment Su Chan's Yin Qi interacted with Li Yundong's Yang Qi, harmony would occur as dictated by the Yin-Yang Principle. In an instant, the roiling and turbulent Qi inside Li Yundong's body calmed.
The state of his Qi was clearly reflected on Li Yundong's expression. Before Su Chan channeled her Yin Qi into his body, his expression was pained. But now, there was a look of tranquility on his face, as though he was just sleeping. The bulging of his veins subsided too. Soon, his Qi flow returned to normal.
Su Chan sighed in relief, though she still kept her eyes on Li Yundong, just in case anything went wrong again.
Li Yundong had just escaped death. Barely. Now, his Qi was like a tidal wave that had been directed into an irrigation canal, flowing and returning to the appropriate meridians.
Minutes passed with Su Chan watching Li Yundong closely. So far Li Yundong's Qi was circulating normally. In fact, she'd counted four or five... Xiao Zhoutians?
Wait a minute! He's doing Xiao Zhoutian involuntarily?!! Su Chan thought, sitting up straighter. She started tracing Li Yundong's Qi flow again and found that his Qi was indeed flowing on the path defined by Xiao Zhoutian.
But he nearly died just now! He... he went into Zouhuo Rumo! Don't tell me it was a blessing in disguise...?
It was as though his meridians had been forcefully activated when his Qi went on a rampage earlier. Imagine a torrent gushing through an open wasteland, creating canals and tunnels everywhere by sheer force. This analogy applies perfectly to Li Yundong's case. Li Yundong's Qi was the torrent, his body the wasteland, and his meridians the canals created by the torrent! In other words, his Zouhuo Rumo really was a blessing in disguise! For an ordinary Cultivator to achieve the same thing, they would have to first strengthen their Qi to insane levels — can't really create canals with a tiny stream. That alone would take years and decades of hard work and effort! Yet, Li Yundong did it by dumb luck.
For the love of the Tao... how did this guy get so lucky!!! Su Chan's mouth dropped open. First the Jindan! Now this?!
Envy rose inside Su Chan.
"You!!" Su Chan pointed her finger at Li Yundong's nose, then held her head and looked up into the ceiling.
"I can't believe you're so lucky! Argh! Argh! Argh!"
She looked back down at Li Yundong.
"Hmph! Let's see how you handle yourself if you go into Zouhuo Rumo next time! Hmph! Hmph! I certainly won't be there to save your ass because I'm ignoring you from now on! You think you're that good? Hmph! Fine! Keep performing Xiao Zhoutian on your own and see if you won't run into any problems without me watching you. Good"—Su Chan stood up abruptly—"bye!!"
She stormed off.
Two steps. That was as far as she went before she stopped.
But... his meridians are damaged... and his Qi isn't done repairing them yet... If something goes wrong again... there'll be no saving him...
Su Chan turned around and walked back, plopping down on the carpet with a pout.
"I'm not doing this because I'm worried about you!" she said. "I'm just worried... worried a-about my Renyuan Jindan! S- so don't get the wrong idea, you amateur!"
Then, Su Chan began mumbling to herself: "Such an amateur. How can he be stupid enough to practice Qi control in public? Does he have a deathwish? What a drag."
Su Chan's eyes, however, told a different story than her words. When she watched over Li Yundong, her eyes were filled with concern and worry. She kept staring at Li Yundong unblinkingly, fearing that something might go wrong again.
On Li Yundong's 36th Xiao Zhoutian, his body began glowing in a myriad of colors, like the colorful clouds in the evening sky.
Su Chan jumped slightly.
"Is that... the Jindan's aura?"
Su Chan's eyes flashed with envy as she watched the colorful glow on Li Yundong's body. The colors were a sign that Li Yundong's body had fully assimilated the Renyuan Jindan's power. It also meant that the Renyuan Jindan was about to begin the final phase of Li Yundong's physical reformation.
At the end of the process, Li Yundong's Essence, Qi, blood, and physical strength would be boosted by at least several times!
After a while, the envious look in Su Chan's eyes vanished.
"I guess master was absolutely right about one thing..." Su Chan said with a sigh. "The reformation process for some people really is incomparable..."
With that, Su Chan sat back down on the carpet and began casting a protective spell on Li Yundong.
What surprised her later was that the process ended up taking two days and two nights!