Chapter 61: The Stone from Another Mountain Can Polish Jade

"Stop, stop, stop! Let me rest a bit—get me something to eat!"

Feng Xue, aching all over, raised his hand to call a halt; Liu Yunxi, her face lit with sincere smiles, immediately stopped, showing not the slightest reluctance—as if none of what had just happened had stirred any personal emotion whatsoever.

To be fair, she wasn't actually cruel—after over half an hour of sparring, Feng Xue had barely a few real bruises on his body—but every strike she landed targeted soft flesh precisely; no hard injuries, yet the pain was undeniably real.

Watching Liu Yunxi turn toward the kitchen to prepare food, Feng Xue collapsed onto the ground—but didn't immediately rest; instead, he forced himself to pull out his phone from the Hu Tian Bag and insert the storage card loaded with Daoist scriptures for study.

Since the related texts he'd prepared were too abundant, searching through them one by one was impractical, and his weight limit after this reincarnation couldn't support the computational power needed for local AI deployment.

But that didn't stump him—he simply opened keyword search, inputting key terms like "Qi," "Qi," "Five Phases," "Yin-Yang," "Thunder Art," and so on for precise queries; once he found something interesting, he read the surrounding context, then used unfamiliar terms as new search entries to pull up more data from the database.

Though this method would inevitably miss some things, it was the most efficient learning strategy he currently had; his eyes darted rapidly across the text until he suddenly spotted something intriguing.

"The Five Zang Organs' Five Qi are the concrete manifestations of Ying-Wei Qi within the five zang… I know the Five Zang Qi: Kidney Water governs Liver Wood's Water Zang Thunder, Heart Fire governs Lung Metal's Jianggong Thunder, and Heart Fire and Kidney Water refine Lung Metal's Geng-Xin Sword Qi… but what is this Ying-Wei Qi…?"

Seeing a familiar term he couldn't quite recall, Feng Xue immediately searched for information on Ying-Wei Qi; after reviewing several documents, he took out another storage card on traditional Chinese medical theory and studied it for a while, finally confirming that this concept originated from the foundational framework of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon.

"Ying-Wei circulates; the zang produce five qi. Ying Qi resembles the nutrients transported by blood—nutrients nourish the five zang, generating the five zang qi, which then enter the meridians and are collectively called Wei Qi, capable of repelling external pathogens and strengthening the body; Yuan Qi is one's innate Qi, understood as the body's inherent property, slowly growing stronger during the circulation of Ying-Wei…"

"According to this theory, the 'blood and Qi' of martial cultivators in this world are actually Ying-Wei Qi: blood as Ying, Qi as Wei. Wu Xiu, then, is the refinement of control over the Ying-Wei circulation to strengthen the body; Xuan Xiu uses Wei Qi to nourish and expand the innate Yuan Qi, then feeds it to the soul; as for the so-called 'nourishing the flesh in return,' it's likely the integration of Yin-leaning magical power into Ying Qi to bolster Wei Qi, achieving far superior bodily nourishment beyond mere eating—even allowing supplementation of the five qi through ingesting jade or similar substances."

Feng Xue wasn't skilled in traditional Chinese medical theory, so he wasn't certain whether his crude interpretation was accurate—but given the Xuan Xiu system he'd encountered so far, this line of thought seemed sound, at most containing minor flaws.

Yet as someone bound by fate, he didn't care much for missing details; what he now pondered was whether he could use these theories to develop techniques based on Yin-Yang and the Five Qi.

Not because he wanted to abandon his superior magical power, but because he wanted to build a mold for it.

In terms of cultivation, sensing and manipulating Ying-Wei Qi is far easier than manipulating magical power or Yuan Qi—likely because Ying-Wei Qi has dedicated channels (Ying flows through blood vessels, Wei flows through meridians); magical power doesn't just borrow pathways—it also requires the soul as a control system, yet before Dao initiation, the soul isn't even fully developed.

Using a crude analogy, it's like a child whose body hasn't matured yet can't ejaculate—but can still piss a long distance.

So according to this theory, if one could directly use Wei Qi to cast spells, wouldn't that grant higher control and precision?

Feng Xue didn't even require power—he just needed functionality; once achieved, he could use Wei Qi as a casing to encase his magical power inside—yes, like missile theory: separate the warhead from the guidance system; magical power handles only damage, while Wei Qi handles everything else.

Thinking of this, he immediately pulled out his small notebook and recorded the idea; though eager to begin research, he'd only just entered the foundational stage of standing-post practice, and while internal circulation was manageable, using it independently still lay beyond his reach.

As he pondered, Feng Xue reviewed more material on Ying-Wei Qi and the Five Zang Qi, pulled out several related Daoist classics—including even a text interpreting cultivation through the lens of Journey to the West, titled The Original Intent of Journey to the West—and carefully compared another world's speculations and understandings of Yin-Yang, Five Phases, and alchemical cultivation.

Of course, Feng Xue knew different cosmologies couldn't necessarily be directly applied—but since the foundational theories were the same, trying was never harmful.

As he kept taking study notes, ideas based on Ying-Wei circulation and Yuan Qi kept emerging; his background as a web novel writer fueled rapid ideation, and one after another spell frameworks were left in his notebook; when he finally snapped back to reality, Liu Yunxi's Peiyuan meal was ready—he ate while activating the Ingestion Method, then performed the Body Strengthening Art after eating, and his previous fatigue and pain vanished instantly.

Without hesitation, he resumed communication with Liu Yunxi; this time, it wasn't just about mastering magical tools or being beaten—there were now experimental procedures, though most of his schemes ended up as Mo Ying's dinner.

…

"Pfft! Damned gray rat—I'll settle accounts with you after I pass the Human Tribulation!" Due to the rats infesting the mountain, the demonic cultivator could only dig open his own grave by hand; despite being a grand master of centuries, the moment his spirit and body split, he was doomed to bid farewell to his former self.

Now stuck at this awkward juncture, he wasn't even certain he could defeat that five-hundred-year-old giant rat.

Since he was certain this was the Human Tribulation, fleeing or hiding was the stupidest option; living in this world meant you couldn't escape karmic cycles; better to stay in this familiar terrain and outwit the local Xuan Xiu than to leave Lu City only to encounter a wandering grand master on the road.

"I'm only half-step Grand Master level, but with my experience and the nature of Turbid Wishes and Demon Qi, ordinary Xuan Xiu aren't much to worry about—I just need to keep the balance, not push them to the point of invoking ancestral spirits, yet not appear too weak either; if I fail to draw sufficient attention, someone might start investigating my presence. I don't know why they're looking for me, but since that gray rat moved, it's clearly no simple matter!"

As a demonic cultivator who reached Grand Master level, he had ample experience fighting Xuan Xiu and understood that every well-established Xuan Xiu lineage could summon a whole host of ancestors; demonic cultivators had ancestors too—but the problem was…

Demonic cultivators who went to the underworld all avoided the Yin Bureaucracy's territory; those strong enough to fight mostly operated in foreign lands; those who stayed on the mainland were weaklings hiding in remote corners to build ghostly domains—even if dragged out, they might not even match his strength.

"Sigh… if that gray rat can't find me, he might send others. I shouldn't stay on this mountain—I'll figure out a way to sneak into the city and scout the situation first!"

So ancient theories really are fascinating—for example, the word "nutrition": Ying Qi is the nourishment extracted from food, while Yang Qi is what we now call oxygen; Ying Qi travels through blood, meaning blood transports nutrients—does that match? Then what is Wei Qi?

According to the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, Wei Qi is the collective term for the five qi differentiated from Ying Qi by the five zang (in traditional Chinese medicine, the five zang and five phases aren't literal references to heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, but symbolic representations of five major systems: circulatory, immune, digestive, respiratory, and urinary/reproductive systems), flowing through the meridians to repel external pathogens and strengthen the body.

If we force-fit modern medicine, it's the five systems receiving nourishment, then keeping the body healthy and immune to disease—but whether this was how ancient people truly thought or just a forced analogy is open to interpretation; I'm neither a believer in the omnipotence of TCM nor a denier of its utility—I simply find these ancient classics fascinating.

Lastly, offhand: although the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon claims to be written by the Yellow Emperor, it certainly wasn't—because it contains the Five Phases and Five Zang, and the Five Phases theory only became popular during the Hundred Schools of Thought period. Thus, the Inner Canon must have been written after the Spring and Autumn period.

And how popular was it back then?

Isn't there a joke? In sci-fi novels, when a technology can't be explained, in the 19th century they called it steam power, in the 20th century nuclear energy, in the 21st century quantum mechanics; in that era, the Five Phases theory was exactly that—everything had to be fitted into it.

But note this: don't interpret the Five Phases literally.

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(End of Chapter)