The great serpents slowly turned, their eyes settling on me.
I would have been lying if I said I wasn't nervous. They were enormous, and I had just seen what they could do.
But they had shown no wish to hurt me. They had saved me instead.
The black serpent had already helped me twice. I put my fear aside.
I felt they were as intelligent as people, perhaps more intelligent than most.
'Why did you come to save me?' I asked.
They only watched me. No roar, no sign of an answer. Under that silent gaze, I no longer knew what to do.
Their bodies swayed as they turned and moved slowly into the darkness.
They had given me no answer, which only made me more curious. But this wasn't the time to pursue it.
Uncle Qiu was still hanging up there. I pushed the questions aside and went to get him down.
I carried him on my back and hurried down the mountain. All the way, I could distinctly sense several immense shapes moving through the darkness, guarding us.
Were the four serpents protecting me?
Perhaps they thought Heiyao Mountain was too dangerous. Afraid that something else might happen to me, they had stayed close to keep me safe.
I didn't understand what they wanted. At least they bore me no ill will.
Once we reached the main road, I hailed a taxi. The driver took one look at the unconscious man and eyed me with suspicion.
I could only give him an awkward smile. After finally getting Uncle Qiu home, I examined his injuries.
They weren't especially serious. Mine were worse.
His wounds looked frightening, but they hadn't damaged muscle or bone. I let out a breath of relief.
He was still unconscious. I thought he must be exhausted and left him undisturbed.
I laid him in his own bed and returned to my room. I had meant to take a shower, but a terrible pain gripped my heart.
A deep ache spread through my organs, as though they were about to split apart. It was the damage from the fight.
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Each punch from the shadowy figure had carried tremendous force. Yet I had the strange feeling that my attacker hadn't used all of it.
At full strength, a single blow could have killed me. The figure could have done it, but hadn't.
And yet every word, every movement, had been full of murderous intent.
I couldn't make sense of it.
I made my way to the bed and sat down, barely supporting myself.
Blood spattered from my mouth.
I couldn't hold it back. Another great mouthful came up. I had never been so badly hurt.
I was about to sit cross-legged and try to heal myself when a shape appeared at the window. I looked up. A small snake.
It was carrying something in its mouth.
The snake slithered slowly toward me and set the object down. A medicinal pill.
Then it turned and left.
I studied the pill for a moment. The great serpents must have sent the little one with it.
They knew how badly I had been hurt and had sent medicine for me.
They had saved my life. Surely they meant me no harm. I put the pill in my mouth.
I had no idea what it was made of. The instant it touched my tongue, it dissolved.
At first I felt nothing. As I swallowed, a cool sensation passed through my throat, then became warmth inside my body.
The warmth was faint at first. Gradually it grew hot. The medicine was beginning to work.
There was no time to lose. I stilled my mind, slowed my breathing, and used my qi to guide the medicine's power through my damaged organs.
A little over two hours later, I opened my eyes and gently breathed out the turbid qi.
The aching organs had almost recovered. As I absorbed the medicine's power, its heat had changed to coolness.
It nourished each of my organs. I felt renewed, and astonished that a single pill could be so potent.
I had pills of my own, but I had used most of them lately. Those pills weren't even half as effective as this one.
Pills like these were made by combining Chinese medicinal herbs so that their properties could work to the greatest effect. The ones Grandfather used to make had been powerful, too.
In his later years, though, he had largely stopped making them. He supervised while I did the work. My skill was nothing to boast of.
I had rarely suffered serious injuries, and little by little I had grown careless.
Only now did I understand how much a truly potent pill could matter to a Daoist cultivator.
With a good one, wounds that should have taken months to heal could mend in days.
In a feud where your life was at stake, that might give you one more chance to survive...
I looked toward the window. The eastern sky was beginning to pale. Dawn was near. Somehow, the whole night had passed.
I hadn't rested, yet I felt no fatigue. Some of the medicine's power remained inside me, and I was full of energy.
After years of training, I could already go several days without sleep, or even without food.
Daoist cultivation worked upon the body's essence, qi, and spirit.
When those three had been strengthened to a certain degree, spiritual power emerged of its own accord.
In truly powerful practitioners, essence, qi, and spirit were exceptionally abundant.
Grandfather had once told me that, with enough cultivation, a person could attain immortality. That was the highest goal of everyone who followed the Dao.
The old sayings described it as 'Three Flowers Gather at the Crown' and 'Five Currents Return to the Source': five currents in the chest, three flowers above the head. They spoke of the same principle.
The Three Flowers were essence, qi, and spirit. The Five Currents were the qi of the internal organs.
Those organs corresponded to the Five Phases.
Wood to the liver, water to the kidneys, earth to the spleen, fire to the heart, and metal to the lungs.
What we called the pursuit of immortality was, in a way, the gradual work of perfecting ourselves.
An old line in the cultivation books put it this way: 'Within the body lies the elixir of agelessness. How few understand it.'