Chapter 141 – Pow Bam (First Draft)

Spiritual energy always moved. Whether it was qi, essence, or lifeforce. Like all things alive, stagnation of these fundamental forces meant death of the organism.

But there was a pattern to the movement. And within Yu Han’s body, that pattern resembled a loop.

He had pathways. Networks of meridians that acted as vessels for these esoteric forces to travel in. As his body was tempered and he increased in level, physical fitness, and assimilation of true qi, more pathways opened up, and the existing ones got refined. Perhaps the networks themselves were optimised.

The spiritual energies would move within these pathways as if they had pre-programmed behaviour. Essence and qi stuck within the pathways. Lifeforce could seemingly travel anywhere within the bounds of his skin and his inkwell tendril.

Cultivation arts were meant for assimilating ambient spiritual energies into the practitioner’s own reserves. From nature to true qi. From pure qi to true qi as well. That meant this loop was not fully self-contained. But Yu Han, even with his increased awareness, had never managed to observe this assimilation.

Yet now, he was seeing a seemingly opposite process.

The essence moved outside of his pre-existing networks. Slowly, parts of the cold-feeling energy diffused away like steam leaving a hot-spring stream.

They permeated outside the meridians, then his flesh and bones, skin and self. They left him, and he lost track of them. What remained was a vague feeling that the outside world existed, as if covered in a fog of war.

An immense feeling of loss crashed down on Yu Han. He broke out of his meditative state and collapsed on all fours.

“D-Downward dog!”

His reflexes kicked in and he went into a yoga pose. His head hung from his neck looking down. Beads of sweat slid down his forehead and nose and dropped to the compacted mud floor.

Cat cow. Okay Yu Han. Don’t panic. It’s normal. This is fine. Flex your godsdamned spine. Remember that time at kettlebell practice? Don’t piss your pants—

His vision nearly blacked out. He knew if he closed his eyes, he would faint.

He went from one pose to another. He was not practiced at all. He wished he could go through the Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms. But his body would not let him do anything that involved standing.

The weather in the Sunken Mountains always felt like a humid summer. Like the tropics, but with typical rains, and rarely torrential downpours. His hut, though made of rammed earth (which was probably mixed with sand, straw, and beast manure), had excellent ventilation, heat retention, and water-proofing. The final feature might have been because of oil, while the first two might have been enhanced by arrays. He’d seen disciples coating their huts in rendered monster fat that had been mixed with medicinal herbs and plants. Yu Han would probably have to reapply this oil again too.

Hut maintenance. Did he need to reapply some array-formation effect too?

He lay down.

No! This is the snake pose.

He breathed in and out.

Art Levelled Up!

Art Mastery Levelled Up!

Art Grade Levelled Up!

Art Evolved!

“Art what now?”

「Art is a what now. If you don’t add an ‘is a,’ your sentence make sense no.」

“Ha ha, funny.” Yu Han opened his dao records while Fei Rui lifted his sleeves and crawled in. He crawled out soon after.

Yu Han (Johan) | Lvl.2 | Accords: 1

Qi:

[True: 300/300]

[Pure: 230 (+13)/300]

[Primordial: 0]

[Lifeforce: 903/912]

「Are you okay? Are you dying? I don’t want you to die yet. Can you do it after I beat up my tribulation?」

“I’m… I got no idea.”

 [Thousand Petals Awareness (Synaptic Bloom)] Psychic | Earth 1 (+2) | Blossoming Path 1 (+1) | 1 (+1)/2000

It’s… in the art name now? He had moved his essence with a mortal’s divine invocation. True, he used Synaptic Bloom to get into that zen state. And that was enough for his bottleneck to break?

Heck, his art grade even went up! From elite 9 to earth 1. Now the dao records registered his made-up name for the awareness trick. Didn’t Fang Zhao say one had to formalise a technique in text before the dao records would register it—

“My notebooks…”

Yu Han had formalised them. He had three notebooks full of how-tos, breakdowns, reviews, analyses, diagrams, and reflections on what Thousand Petals Awareness was and how he could improve on it. This included his foray into Synaptic Bloom too.

The way the dao records added it in parentheses was a bit clunky though.

Did it just copy me? No, can’t be.

Yu Han found the strength to sit up. He rummaged through his pile of notebooks until he found the latest one on Thousand Petals Awareness. There, on the cover page, he’d written ‘Thousand Petals Awareness (Synaptic Bloom).’

Right. Plagiarist.

He took out a pen and rewrote the name.

Thousand Petals Synaptic Bloom.

“I want this to be the name.” Yu Han grinned. Would it work?

He felt it. Ever so slightly. In his body. A thin strand of essence moved in a particular pattern. Not a loop, not diffusing like fog either.

But like the shape of an array. A letter.

 [Thousand Petals Synaptic Bloom] Psychic | Earth 1 (+2) | Blossoming Path 1 (+1) | 1 (+1)/2000

“Holy shit.” What was that?

He bit his lips and jotted the observation down on his ‘Observations 6’ notebook. The tip broke through the paper because of how forcefully he wrote, so he flipped to a fresh page.

# TODO: Find out if we use essence to interact with the dao record.

# TODO: Does mastery layer elevation give passive boosts even for active arts?

He put the notebooks away and sat down. He tried to cross his legs but his thighs were suddenly too fat or he somehow lost his flexibility. He couldn’t hold the pose, even though he could just a few minutes ago. He extended his legs out, and loud pops echoed through the room. It felt like a chiropractor had done a thing to his knees.

“Breathe in, breathe out. Fei Rui, go away. I’m busy.”

「T-Then can we talk thirty minutes later?」

“I’ll be done by then.”

「Yay.」

Synaptic Bloom.

One moment Yu Han felt the world as it was. The next, every detail upscaled to multiple times the resolution.

Keep your eyes closed, fatty. He did. He felt a sudden itch where his unruly hair tickled his eyelids. I should tie it in a bun. Why couldn’t my stylist transmigrate here with me, jeez. He wanted so bad to scratch it, but held that urge down. Soon, the itch vanished. Yu Han had a feeling that if he wished, he could amplify the itchiness to the max.

Only a psycho would do that though. Maybe Johan.

Touch. Touch rose to the maximum. Everything else fell to nothing. He felt his kidney. The overfull bladder. The rising of his lungs and the soft inside of his diaphragm touching the spongy tissues.

Then, Yu Han opened his eyes. Sight came back. He watched the world in a resolution he didn’t even think was possible. He could focus on every damn detail of the cracks on the wooden door and the bits of straw in the compacted floor like bugs trapped in amber.

Sound. The rustle of the leaves. The gusts. The bugs. The many, many bugs. The thousands everywhere, chittering, tittering, screeching, creaking.

Smell. Moist. Rot. Pungent. Sweet. Bitter. Citrusy. The smell of nature. Sweat.

Taste. He could taste… air.

This was Synaptic Bloom.

Yu Han had no clock. So he counted. One. Two. Three. Four.

The sunlight peeked through the window. When clouds covered the sun, the light dimmed or diffused. Sometimes large shadows would sway. Trees?

Did I blink? He did. He timed a blink every five counts.

He blinked 360 times. That was 1800 counts. He wasn’t sure if he could count as precisely one a second, but it had to be close? How much was the offset?

Fei Rui had been there for a while. Maybe 133 counts? They promised to meet in half an hour. There were two hours a bell, and two half-hours an hour. It was an approximation. Who knew if it had been 20 minutes or 40.

Yu Han felt his essence just about dry up by 377 blinks.

Before, he could hold Synaptic Bloom for maybe 10 minutes, but usually 5.

Now?

377 blinks with 5 counts a blink.

He shut down. Lay down. Breathed.

Fucking awesome! He could wipe Li Yao’s ass with Li Yao’s face now. He should do that next time.

Intelligence: 15 -> 17

Perception: 14 -> 16

Clarity: 10 -> 12

Focus: 12 -> 14

[Mind 17.95 -> 19.15]

“Ha…haha….hahaha.”

「O wow.」

“Hahahahaha.”

「Hahahahahaha. I did one more ha!」

“Hahahahahahahaha!”

「Hahahahahahahahaha!」

Yu Han could barely see or feel or sense or hear or taste. Fei Rui was being fun. The world was nice. The sun felt awesome on his face.

Who knows how many blinks passed after that. Maybe a few more 377s.

Fei Rui stopped laughing. He went outside. Maybe ten minutes later, he scuttled back in while windmilling his claws.

「Yu Han, some human-shaped monsters are outside. They kicked open the gate-thing on the wooden fence!」 Fei Rui said. 「They are so bad.」

Yu Han giggled. Then broke into another round of laughter. “Hide and get big. If they try to hit me, knock them out with a bam and a pow. Like Li Yao taught you.” He could hear the ruckus now. Wang Daming? He could barely move his body and now thugs were here to shake him down.

「What if I can’t hide? I can change my shell colour to maybe perhaps mayhaps possibly trick their eyes but what if one sees me?」

“Then they do. Hit them harder.”

「Li Yao taught me not bam and pow. He taught me to squeeeeeeeeeze the neck. They’ll be like the dumb fishies when I throw them out of water. So dumb. They can’t breathe outside liquid. Dumb!」

Fei Rui took position. He enlarged into half the size of the hut and supported his body by pushing against the walls and floor with his legs. His shell changed from cute orange to drab hut-coloured khaki-green-brown.

「Yay.」

“Fuck, fatty, you dead or something?” Wang Daming’s voice raged. “Check if he’s home.”

Two thuds on his door. Then a kick and it broke inwards. It was the big guy with droopy eye.

“Yo, Bro Wang, the fatty’s passed out on the ground—nah, he awake.” Droopy eyes walked in like he owned the place. “Stinks like fart. He should’a had’a breakthrough.”

Wang Daming came in next with his ugly mug and missing fingers.

“Whew, did you shit your pants little bro?” The bastard had the gall to grin. “Good for us. We got a proposition for ya. Couldn’t talk last time cause of your little prank but guess what? It ain’t so hard to find out where you live. Not many fatties as fat as you around here.”

“Ha…ha ha.” Yu Han laughed.

Wang Daming’s face fell. “What’s funny? You think this’s funny? Do I look entertained to you?”

Yu Han laughed harder. “Y-You. You knew who I was with that day before you showed up, didn’t you?”

“A little bird told us that Senior Shu Boyan wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about you,” Wang Daming grinned. “Love letters straight from a core disciple, from them to me, to make your life better. Get my jam?”

“What do you want?” Yu Han asked.

“You got the token, bro,” Wang Daming said. He lifted his palm and twitched his fingers like he was stretching them. “The courtyard token. But you ain’t got the people with that Fang fella disappearing. But we got plenty!”

Wang Daming laughed. His goons, about five of them squeezed into the hut, joined in.

“It’s a good deal,” Wang Daming continued. “Don’t even need to let me be the leader. Oh you can be all that and more. But just let us six bros be the vice-leads, yeah?”

“So you can all sign some paper, send it to an elder, and get him to remove me?” Yu Han said. Yu Han had asked the senior sister at the Law Enforcement Hall how courtyards could be taken over. She instantly knew he was talking about Sima Yan. Creepy. “What if I don’t?”

Wang Daming sighed. “Doing things the hard way, huh? Get his fingers. Start with the nail—”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. Fei Rui went bam and pow and Wang Daming flew.