chsdbacks Chapter 87 Meat and Tiger
Chapter 87 Meat and Tiger
However, in Lin Yan's view, these principles are actually the same.
Both are about clearing blockages.
He focused his perception of "qi" on the location of blood stasis, then guided the true qi from the Qihai point, along the Ren meridian, and stopped at the Tanzhong point.
The Tanzhong acupoint is the intersection of the Ren meridian and the middle Dantian in the chest. Three branches branch off from here, leading to the lungs, pericardium, and diaphragm respectively.
He chose a branch of the meridian leading to the lungs, and his vital energy flowed along the branch, only to be blocked at the point of blood stasis.
He did not choose to force it, but let his true energy slowly rotate around the blood stasis, grinding away the blood clots little by little like a water mill.
[Basic Body Tempering (Minor Success) (17/2000)]
The value on the panel jumped.
Lin Yan didn't look at the panel and continued grinding.
The speed of the swirling energy increased, and the edges of the blood stasis began to loosen.
A small, dark red blood clot was enveloped by true qi and carried away from its original position. It traveled outward along a branch meridian to the Tanzhong acupoint, where it was diverted to the Ren meridian. Then it went down, passing through the Qihai acupoint, and finally reached the Yongquan acupoint of the Foot Shaoyin Kidney meridian.
My feet felt warm.
Lin Yan felt something being expelled from the soles of his feet.
He opened his eyes and looked down.
There was a small patch of dark red wetness on the sole of my foot; this was blood seeping from the Yongquan acupoint.
Old Meng was packing his medicine kit when he saw the wet patch and suddenly stopped.
"You...you forced out the bruising?"
"Force it out a little," Lin Yan said.
Old Meng squatted down, opened his eyelids to look at him, and felt his pulse, his face showing an expression of disbelief.
"How did you achieve this level of internal energy?"
Lin Yan didn't answer Lao Meng's question, and continued grinding with his eyes closed.
The second bruise, the third, the fourth.
Grind it piece by piece, force it out piece by piece.
More and more damp patches appeared on the soles of my feet, and my entire foot turned red.
When Chen came in carrying a basin of freshly boiled water, she saw that her son's feet were covered in blood. Her hand trembled, and she almost dropped the basin.
She steadied the basin, placed the water on the ground, took a wet towel, and squatted down to wipe Lin Yan's feet.
Lin Yan subconsciously pulled his foot back and said, "Mother, it's dirty."
Chen didn't say anything, but wrung out the towel and wiped Lin Yan's feet little by little.
After wiping one foot, I would switch to the other.
Lin Yan looked at the top of her mother's head. Her hair had turned much whiter than last year, with white hair growing out from the roots, as glaring as frost in winter.
After wiping her feet, Chen rubbed the towel in the basin of water until the water turned red. She rubbed it twice, wrung it out, and then used it to wipe Lin Yan's ankles, the tops of her feet, and between her toes, wiping every part very carefully.
"Yan'er".
Chen suddenly spoke, her voice low, as if squeezed out from her throat.
"Um."
"Is it impossible not to work hard?"
Lin Yan was stunned for a moment.
Chen did not look up, and her hands did not stop moving, but Lin Yan could feel that his mother's fingers were trembling slightly.
"I was sitting in the kitchen, listening to you talking inside, listening to Old Meng say your bones were broken, listening to your painful groans," Chen said slowly. "I don't know anything about martial arts or officialdom. I'm just a country woman, but I know you were fighting desperately."
She put down the towel and looked up at Lin Yan.
She didn't shed a tear, but just looked at her son with red eyes.
"Your father tried his best to learn martial arts so that I could have a better life, but he died while trying. Yan'er, all I have left are you and Xiu'er."
Lin Yan looked into her mother's eyes and remained silent for a long time.
"Mother, do you know the Crown Prince?"
Ms. Chen shook her head.
"The Crown Prince is the Emperor's eldest son, the one who will become Emperor in the future," Lin Yan said. "He wants to use me now, not because he thinks highly of me, but because he needs a weapon."
"knife?"
"Yes, a good knife. A knife doesn't need to have brains or ideas. As long as it's fast and sharp, it can cut wherever you point it. When you're done, just put it on the knife rack."
"But I am not a knife, I am a person, I have a brain, ideas, and things I want to do."
Ms. Chen frowned, not understanding.
"The Crown Prince is like a sword hanging over my head. He doesn't cut it down because I'm still useful to him. The further I go in the arena, the more patient he will be with me. Every time I win a match, I become more valuable to him. Only when I win in the end will he think my value is higher than Zhao Yuanlang's, and only then can we survive."
Ms. Chen tightened her grip on the towel.
"Then can we stop the competition and go back to Zhenbeiguan or Heifengling? We're not going to take up this official position anymore."
"There's no going back." Lin Yan shook his head. "Mother, the only thing I can do now is win this competition. Only then will I have the right to negotiate with him and have a chance to survive in this predicament."
Chen didn't say anything more, but lowered her head, soaked the towel in water again, and continued to wipe the bloodstains off Lin Yan's feet.
After wiping, she stood up with the basin in her hand, turned around and walked out.
She stopped at the door without turning around.
"Yan'er".
"Um."
"Mother still doesn't understand what you're talking about, what swords and knives. I've never been literate, and I've lived a life of poverty, but I know one thing." Her voice was soft, "You promised me you would live. You said you would, and you have to do it."
Lin Yan watched her mother's back. There was a patch on her faded old cotton-padded jacket, which she had sewn herself. The stitches were dense but crooked, unlike the neat stitches she had sewn for herself and Xiu'er.
"Mother, I promise you."
Ms. Chen nodded, pushed open the door, and went out.
……
Lin Yan closed her eyes, recalling the words she had just spoken to her mother.
The crown prince is a tiger.
But he wasn't a hunter, he wasn't even a butcher, he was just a man holding a piece of meat in his hand.
The tiger isn't eating him now because he has meat in his hand.
Once the meat is gone, the tiger won't be so polite.
So what he needed to do wasn't to keep holding onto the meat, but to make the tiger feel that raising him was more useful than eating him.
This is the hardest part.
Let's focus on healing first.
Lin Yan sat down, took out a bone-regenerating pill from the small porcelain bottle and swallowed it, then used [Qi Observation] to sense the meridians in his body.
The body's vital energy flows slowly through the meridians, starting from the Qihai point, ascending along the Ren meridian, and branching out at the Tanzhong point, following the Lung meridian into the chest cavity.
There are three areas where blood stasis is most difficult to clear, located deep between the ribs and stuck in the gaps of the meridians. They are in tricky positions and the vital energy cannot reach them.
He tried several methods, but his internal energy couldn't bypass them.
Lin Yan opened his eyes, thought for a moment, and then closed them again.
This time, he didn't rush to flush out the blood stasis. Instead, he used the breathing technique from the incomplete "Exhalation and Breathing Manual" in conjunction with the circulation of true qi to first disperse the true qi and gradually let it seep into the gaps in the meridians.
The first blood clot was enveloped by the true qi from the side. Lin Yan did not rush to force it out, but instead let the true qi slowly rotate around the blood clot. One circle, two circles, three circles, the rotation speed became faster and faster, and the edge of the blood clot began to loosen. A small piece of dark red fragment was thrown out and walked out along the meridian.
[Basic Body Tempering (Minor Success) (187/2000)]
The speed of the swirling energy increased, and the second bruise was also enveloped.
This time it was faster than the last. It was as if the true energy had found the trick, and in no time at all, it pulled the stagnant blood out of the corner of the meridian and sent it out along the same path.
Another patch of dark red bruises seeped out from the soles of Lin Yan's feet.
The third bruise was the most difficult to treat.
It is located at the intersection of the pericardium meridian and the lung meridian, and the heart and lungs may be damaged if you are not careful.
Lin Yan stopped, took a deep breath, withdrew his true energy, and started again from the dantian.
This time, he didn't just use the Ren meridian. He divided his true energy into two paths: one ascending along the Ren meridian and the other descending along the Du meridian. The two paths of true energy formed a small cycle between the Tanzhong acupoint and the Dantian. The true energy flowed back and forth in this cycle, becoming faster and denser, like a net that was tightening. He slowly pressed this net towards the third blood clot.
The bruises were trapped in the net.
He held his breath, slowing the rotation of his inner energy by half, making it more refined and cautious.
The last small piece of blood clot was peeled off and traveled outward along the pericardium meridian, passing through the chest and the Qihai point, and finally being expelled from the Yongquan point.
The soles of my feet were covered in dark red bloodstains, making my feet look like they'd been pulled out of a dye vat.
Lin Yan let out a long breath, spread out his Qi Observation, and re-examined his chest cavity.
The main blood stasis has been basically cleared away, with only a little bit remaining deep in the meridians, which no longer affects the circulation of vital energy.
True Qi circulates in the meridians, and the proficiency of [Basic Body Tempering] on the skill panel is slowly increasing.
Lin Yan didn't close his eyes all night.
[Basic Body Tempering (Minor Success) (312/2000)]
It rose by nearly 300 points in one night.
Each time he used his true energy to grind away a patch of bruise, his basic body-forging proficiency increased significantly.
This is different from practicing swordsmanship or palm techniques. The process of body training, to put it simply, is the process of gaining control over one's own body.
Lin Yan tried moving his left arm.
I found that I could lift my head, but it hurt terribly when I lifted it to shoulder level. The wound on my scapula was still there, but the bone was fine. The bone-piercing nail only went into the flesh and did not damage the bone.
The ribs still hurt, but the sharp pain at the break point was no longer as intense. The two misaligned areas were slowly pushed back into place by the internal energy. Although they hadn't healed yet, at least they were no longer piercing the lungs.
"Old Meng," Lin Yan said.
Upon hearing this, Lao Meng immediately came over.
"How severe would my injuries appear to outsiders?"
Old Meng was stunned for a moment, then he understood what Lin Yan meant.
"To outsiders, when you were carried back, you were covered in blood, the bandages on your chest were all red, and there was a penetrating nail in your left shoulder. For an ordinary person, this kind of injury would require at least half a month of bed rest. Even if you are in good physical condition, you wouldn't be able to get out of bed for three days."
"And what about three days later?"
"After three days, he can get out of bed, but can't walk more than a few steps. After seven days, he can walk, but can't move his hands. After half a month, he can spar with someone, but can't fight a tough battle."
Lin Yan nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this.
"After you go out, tell Manager Feng that I am seriously injured and whether I can participate in the final depends on my recovery."
Old Meng looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Are you going to pretend to be seriously injured?"
"I'm not faking it," Lin Yan said. "I'm really injured, but only I know the extent of my recovery."
Old Meng was silent for a while, then stood up, picked up his medicine box, and walked out.
When he reached the door, he stopped and looked back at Lin Yan.
"Doctors don't lie. But there are some things that, if you don't say them, then it's not considered lying."
He pushed open the door and went out.
Manager Feng arrived that morning.
He stood at the gate of the courtyard without going in. He spoke a few words to Lao Meng through the door, and Lao Meng relayed what Lin Yan had instructed him to say. Surprisingly, Steward Feng did not seem to have any doubts.
He stood there in silence for a while before leaving.
Upon returning to the Eastern Palace, he relayed Old Meng's words to Crown Prince Li Zhengxin without missing a single detail.
"...Three ribs are broken, two of which are dislocated and punctured the lungs, causing blood to accumulate in the chest cavity. Although some of it has been drained, the blood clots haven't completely cleared. A penetrating nail pierced my left shoulder; the bone is fine, but the tendons are injured. Even with the effects of the bone-healing pill, I'm afraid I won't be able to raise my left arm for at least ten days to two weeks. Old Meng said whether I can participate in the finals depends on my recovery."
Li Zhengxin held his teacup, listened to the conversation, and then placed the teacup on the table.
"Is he that badly injured?"
"That's what Old Meng said. Old Meng does have medical skills, and he's a fairly honest person; he basically doesn't talk nonsense..."
After silently staring at the teacup in his hand for a while, Li Zhengxin suddenly asked:
"How many days until the final?"
"It was originally scheduled for five days later. But the Ministry of War said that if General Lin is too seriously injured to participate, it can be postponed, but... it can be postponed for a maximum of ten days."
Li Zhengxin stood up and paced around the study a few times.
"Then tell the Ministry of War that the finals will be postponed for ten days."
Steward Feng hesitated for a moment: "Your Highness, is ten days enough? Old Meng said..."
"Old Meng was talking about ordinary people," Li Zhengxin interrupted him, "but what I need is not an ordinary person."
Manager Feng said nothing more and bowed as he withdrew.
The news spread very quickly.
That afternoon, teahouses and taverns of all sizes throughout the capital were buzzing with the news.
"Have you heard? The new guy who just arrived recently, his name is... what was it again? Right! General Lin Yan, the Loyal and Martial General, was crippled by Shen Yue. He broke three ribs and his lung was punctured. He's lying in bed unable to move."
"Will the final still be held?"
"Why are you fighting? The man is about to die, and you're still fighting?"
"Didn't I hear the Ministry of War postponed the finals by ten days?"
"I think they'd still lose even with a ten-day postponement. What kind of injury could heal in ten days? I watched the last match, and you didn't see it for yourself. Lin Yan was wrapped up like a dumpling. Even if he recovers a little over these few days, if he forces himself to go on stage, he'll definitely have to be carried off!"