The autumn mountain forest was quite tranquil, with only the sounds of Ruan Su starting a fire and cooking in the adjacent room reaching his ears.
Qin Yi stared at the two characters he had just translated for a long while, then set down the writing brush and let his gaze fall upon his own body.
What met his eyes,
was a thinness caused by malnutrition and lack of exercise.
From the swaddling clothes of his initial transmigration to the child's body of today.
This body's strength, reflexes, and growth rate were all within normal human parameters, with nothing special about it whatsoever.
But this ancient book called "Li Jing" forced Qin Yi to begin re-examining it, because he was certain he didn't recognize this script.
Yet his body, or rather his brain, could directly break down this writing into something recognizable, then summarize and output it in other characters.
As if innate, as natural as breathing.
And on this point,it was rather similar to certain "Calamity Seeds" he had encountered during his southward journey.
With that thought, Qin Yi picked up the "Li Jing," jumped off the low stool, and walked toward the kitchen.
There was nothing to agonize over. Based on the available clues, Qin Yi arrived at the only two possibilities for this situation in an instant.
One was the Brain Disease.
Two was that he too was a Calamity Seed.
And the ability to decipher this script was something every Calamity Seed possessed innately, after all, that woman Meng Peijiu, who was suspected to be a Calamity Seed, seemed to recognize this writing as well.
All he needed was to verify it with his big sister.
Pushing aside the curtain of the small door,
Ruan Su, wearing an apron, was standing on a low stool beside the earthen stove, on her tiptoes, holding a spatula in one hand while sprinkling fine salt into the iron pot where meat and vegetables were stewing.
Catching sight of Qin Yi running in from the corner of her eye, Ruan Su immediately turned around, her small face still smudged with charcoal ash from adding firewood, and asked with a smile:
"Hu...ngry?"
Qin Yi didn't answer. He held up the ancient book with both hands, thrusting the title page right in front of his big sister's eyes:
"Sis, take a look. Can you read this?"
"......"
Standing on the low stool, Ruan Su raised her spatula and stared at the strange characters for several breaths. She tilted her head, leaned around the book, and peered at Qin Yi with one eye, somewhat curious about what Little Yi was doing:
"Do...n't get it. What's... wrong?"
"Take a closer look."
"Mmm...."
Ruan Su didn't understand what Qin Yi was trying to do, but since Little Yi asked her to, there had to be a reason.
She furrowed her delicate brows and studied it seriously for a long while, until the gurgling bubbling from the pot snapped her back to reality. She shook her head, looked into Qin Yi's eyes, and gave an awkward little smile, afraid of disappointing him:
"I still... can't read it."
Qin Yi didn't show any particular reaction, smiling as he said:
"Sis, this should be a cultivation technique. Now our family has a complete technique too."
"Huh?"
Ruan Su's slender eyes twitched slightly, but her small face showed no sign of happiness. Instead, it looked somewhat stiff.
Every time Little Yi made her practice cultivation, it was agony. She'd cough up so much blood...
Now every time she heard the words "cultivation technique" from Little Yi, she felt a bit afraid.
Qin Yi could see his sister's timidity and curved his eyes into a smile:
"I'll try it first this time. If nothing goes wrong, I'll translate it for you, and then you can practice it, Sis."
"No way!"
Hearing this, Ruan Su clearly grew anxious and jumped straight off the low stool.
In her mind, practicing cultivation was dangerous, practically synonymous with spitting blood.
"I'll... go first!"
"......."
Qin Yi didn't refuse, nodding along with her:
"Al...right then, Sis, you go first."
"Don't... sneak off and practice."
"Okay."
"..Mm."
Only then did Ruan Su let out a relieved breath. She nodded, turned around, and continued cooking.
Leaving the kitchen, Qin Yi took off his shoes and climbed onto the bed, showing absolutely no intention of honoring the promise he'd just made, and directly flipped open a page of the "Li Jing."
...
Throughout the world, martial arts are divided into two types: external and internal.
External techniques involve tempering the body day after day through various methods, then repairing it with various medicines and stones, steadily raising the body's limits bit by bit.
It was somewhat similar to Ruan Su, except she grew stronger automatically after sleeping, with intermittent explosive surges, while those who practiced external techniques had to train themselves like half-dead dogs just to improve a little.
Internal techniques were somewhat special.
They were completely different from external techniques. One couldn't simply take a posture from a manual and start cultivating directly. A rather cumbersome "Spirit Attraction Ceremony" was required first.
According to that uncle Peng Jun, this process was actually quite dangerous.
People's constitutions couldn't be lumped together, and each internal cultivation technique required different constitutions. If one got it wrong, backlash would occur during the "Spirit Attraction Ceremony." In mild cases, it meant coughing blood and internal injuries. In severe cases, paralysis.
The great aristocratic families did possess secret methods for testing the talents of their clan disciples, but for people of low origins like them, even if they stumbled upon a complete internal cultivation technique by chance, they'd still have to gamble with their lives to see if they had the talent for it.
Qin Yi didn't know whether the "Li Jing" in his hands counted as an internal cultivation technique.
This book was indeed an ancient text, dating back to the Great Qin dynasty over a hundred years ago, but most of its contents were obscure, rambling daily notes and miscellaneous records.
Given Qin Yi's ability to distill information, the useful knowledge he could extract from it was very limited.
The book contained no acupoint charts like ordinary internal cultivation techniques, nor did it require one to prepare any precious herbs. All it had was a passage describing breathing methods, along with the four characters "Yin Jie Deng Ming."
The Deng Ming Seal...
Qin Yi recalled briefly.
He actually knew of this one.
A cultivation technique from before, the one that had made Ruan Su cough up blood during training, had recorded this hand seal.
Silent for a moment, Qin Yi began adjusting his breathing according to the methods recorded in the "Li Jing," then formed the Deng Ming Seal with one hand.
One breath.
Ten breaths.
A hundred breaths...
In the stillness, the direct sunlight shifted slightly, spilling across the wooden cabin and casting a large shadow from the cone-shaped wooden log still hanging from the door frame.
Until the sounds from the adjacent kitchen gradually faded, and Ruan Su emerged carrying a large basin of stewed vegetables and meat. Still, nothing had happened.
Setting the basin on the square table, Ruan Su casually wiped her water-stained little hands on her apron and cheerfully called Qin Yi over to eat. It had been a long time since she'd shared a meal with Little Yi while he was clear-headed:
"Time... to eat, Little Yi."
Seeing this, Qin Yi got up and sat down at the square table.
Ruan Su went to fetch a large bowl of rice and a bowl of soybeans, pushing the rice toward Qin Yi. After sitting down, she picked up a chopstick-full of greens and started munching away noisily.
Qin Yi watched the girl and deliberately said with a hint of heartache in his voice:
"Sis, you don't need to be this frugal. How much can a bit of meat and rice really save?"
Ruan Su looked up against the light, her cheeks puffed out as she chewed and mumbled with a grin:
"However... little, it's... still money. Wait until... your Brain Disease... is cured, then we'll talk, hehe."
Qin Yi maintained his breathing, let out a soft sigh, and didn't try to persuade her further.
If he ate less, this big sister would naturally finish the leftovers herself.
Switching hands to form the hand seal, he picked up the chopsticks with his right hand and put a piece of meat into his mouth. The taste wasn't particularly good, after all, his sister's talents seemed to be entirely allocated to strength and speed.
That was good enough. Qin Yi's requirements for food were merely survival.
Swallowing the meat, Qin Yi thought of the matter concerning Granny Meng from earlier and was about to speak, when he suddenly noticed a faint blue glow appearing in his field of vision.
It was diffuse, like colored gas dispersing through the air, continuously being drawn into his body with each breath.
It worked?
Noticing this clearly unscientific sight, Qin Yi's emotions remained remarkably calm without the slightest ripple. He carefully sensed the changes in his body for a moment, but these gaseous substances drawn into him had no immediate effect.
Slowly withdrawing his gaze, Qin Yi spoke softly:
"That Granny Meng, you'll need to be careful around her from now on. She's definitely not from the capital of the Later Tang Kingdom. I saw her during the refugee tide, more than once. I suspect she was... following us."
"......"
Hearing this, Ruan Su's eating motion paused slightly. She looked up with a hint of wariness, but what she saw next made her pupils abruptly contract.
In her field of vision,
Little Yi's body, which had been sitting upright in the chair,
suddenly toppled sideways without any warning.
What happened?
Her body moved before her mind could catch up.
"Little Yi!"
"........"
The shout rang out at his ears, but it sounded like it came from the horizon.
Qin Yi had no idea what had happened either.
All he knew was that a pain he had never experienced before, like thousands of fine needles stabbing into him, suddenly erupted within his skull, instantly stripping away his control over his body.
His vision tilted upward with his falling body,
and then,
he saw a square table being sent flying...
He realized in an instant that Ruan Su was rushing over to catch him, but right now he wished this big sister would control her strength a bit.
Don't end up killing him with the impact.
His eyes closed, his vision went dark.
Before his consciousness completely sank into darkness, Qin Yi thought silently with his mind, which was gradually sinking like into quicksand.
As expected, it was the Brain Disease.
But there were still things left unfinished...