Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 73: Chess Piece Stealing the Pill

It had been a while since Qiu Feng and the two children had left. Ji Yuan waited until he was completely sure that they were gone. Then he returned to the Green Jade Pool in almost uncontrollable excitement, playing with the two white jake sticks, one large and one small, in his hand.

As expected of Yuhuai Mountain, they truly liked everything to be associated with jade. Whether it be the blue jade pendant, the white jade slips, or even Qiu Feng’s jade hairpin, Ji Yuan could detect the subtle movement of a mysterious light in all of them just now.

“Oh, I forgot to question them on behalf of Wei Wuwei!”

Ji Yuan slapped his head and laughed when he remembered this. After all, he was not very familiar with Wei Wuwei. If it had been for Xiao Yin Qing, he would never have forgotten to do it.

By the deep green pool, Ji Yuan sat down in the same place, put the green bamboo pole aside, crossed his legs, and began to read the contents of the two white jade slips.

This method of recording information had been mentioned in both Bright Strategies and A Historical Account from Outside the Tao. It was called the method of conveying the spirit through objects, and was a characteristic information-recording method for immortals. It was just more laborious to create, so it was not often used in normal situations. The material used could be gold, iron, stone, jade, or other things. The higher the scribe’s cultivation level and the stronger their spiritual power, the lower the requirements for the material. Even in the Historical Account, it was mentioned that there were people who could convey their spirit through objects like flowing water or the breeze, which could be considered extraordinary.

As for the two sticks of white jade in Ji Yuan’s hand, they were both white jade of excellent quality, probably due to Yuhuai Mountain’s wealth. Naturally, it was a good material, with the least requirements for the scribe’s cultivation.

After all, the Spirit Binding Manuscript was just a fragment. Qiu Feng had been studying it for over a decade and was still not able to restore it. Ji Yuan didn’t think he would be able to do anything with it right away, so he set it aside first and held the larger of the white jade sticks in his hand.

There were several characters engraved on it, with the words “Yuhuai Small Exercises,” and there were some engravings like waves of water on the front.

Reading this jade slip was much easier than reading the books in Heavenly Script. The person who touched it only needed to input some spiritual energy into the jade slip. There would naturally be a spiritual sense that drew in the mind and conjured up its detailed contents in their consciousness.

Even if it was only a basic Qi Training Art, the content of it far exceeded the original Qi Guiding Art. If one really wanted to compare, the Qi Guiding Art could only be regarded as a fraction of the content of the Qi Training Art, which incorporated many principles and explained the basics of cultivating immortality in detail.

There was a whole vast world all around him, and a whole small world inside of his body. The sun and the moon were connected to the stars and the acupoints. There was no end to the exploration of the world inside of the body, and its complexity was no less than the complexity of the wide world around him.

The Qi Training Art was based on connecting the five elements of the internal organs, to create combinations like heart fire, kidney water, and other pairs inside the body to refine spiritual energy. Based on Ji Yuan’s understanding, this was all very mysterious.

“It’s no wonder that most of those innate masters of the martial arts world die with regrets after reaching the peak. This kind of thing cannot be comprehended by just understanding internal skills and meridians.”

With a sigh, Ji Yuan began to practice refining Qi for the first time in his two lifetimes. The so-called small exercises were the first few stages to training Qi to cultivate immortality, collectively referred to as Nourishing Qi. Not only did one have to cultivate the two key Qi of heart fire and kidney water, one yin and one yang, but also refine and nourish the spiritual power.

However… Of the two biggest hurdles in cultivating immortality, the first being to perceive the spiritual energy and channel it as Qi into the body, and the second being to internalize Yin and Yang in the world inside of the body, neither held any difficulty for Ji Yuan.

His experience was completely different from how other immortal cultivators in the basic stage perceived their internal organs and visualized the world, as their visualized world could only be a room at most. Ji Yuan simply entered into a state of concentration and thought of transforming his body into the world. The whole world in his concentration was already vast.¹

The mountains and rivers, rivers and lakes, the sun, the moon, and the stars all appeared one by one…

Ji Yuan did not linger on the beautiful scenery of the mountains and rivers, but rather quickly began to practice the key points, silently reciting the formula to help guide the spiritual power, and stimulating the vitality of his organs to link them to his inner world.

‘The heart fire appears. ’

A thought came to his mind.

Boom…

Above a giant peak somewhere in his world, a ball of fire burned from the sky like the sun. Ji Yuan could almost feel the infinite heat. He was not as excited as he had originally imagined he would be. Although he could experience emotions during his concentration, his self had been assimilated by his vast world, so his emotional fluctuations were as peaceful as the vast inner world itself.

‘The kidney water appears. ’

The next thought came to his mind.

Crash…

At the same position in the inner world, the rivers on the earth converged and the waves rolled.

The situation was quite different from what the Yuhuai Small Exercises described, or perhaps it had even reached a point beyond recognition. However, Ji Yuan felt that it wasn’t a bad thing.

‘Qi transformation of yin and yang! ’

One of the two most critical steps. The earth surged and the sky blazed. An infinite water force climbed up from the bottom, and a blazing flame rolled down from the sky.

One red force and one translucent force converged at the top of the tallest peak of the inner world with astonishing momentum.

Ji Yuan was like a bystander watching this awe-inspiring scene in front of him, unmoved. He watched the fire and water gradually vaporize and transform at the intersection, forming one white force and one black force.

These two colors gradually rotated at their point of collision, forming a strange vortex, like a huge Tai Chi map,² but missing the two circular dots on either side.

‘The Yin-Yang furnace! ’

This was the most crucial step, and even Ji Yuan couldn’t help but have his heart race.

“Boom!”

Originally, everything in the inner world seemed to be silent, but at this moment, Ji Yuan seemed to hear a clear explosion, and the world seemed shake.

At the top of the giant peak, in the center of Yin-Yang Tai Chi map, a huge pill furnace³ emerged among the infinite mysterious ripples.

“Huuu…”

Ji Yuan body in the outside world exhaled lightly, mainly because the description in Bright Strategies was just too scary. It kept cautioning some difficult things, saying that some people ignited the furnace thousands of times but still failed to pass the stage.

Until the furnace in his inner world was completed, Ji Yuan could temporarily rest assured. If the cultivator did not suffer extremely serious or bizarre injuries, the pill furnace in his body would not disappear. In the future, it would appear as long as he visualized it.

Ji Yuan visualized the towering alchemy furnace in his body as he stood on a mountain peak. No matter how he looked at it, his aptitude at this didn’t seem to be too bad.

A smile appeared on his face, and his mind raced freely. The spiritual energy around him seemed to disappear into thin air, then appeared in front of the pill furnace and was absorbed by the holes around the body of the furnace…

The night in Laohua Mountain passed quickly in silence. When it was almost dawn, Ji Yuan felt the first strand of red elixir Qi⁴ overflow, and then a steady stream of red Qi flowed out from the holes in the elixir furnace as if it were a stream of stars.

Originally, there was no need for Ji Yuan to take care of this step at all. This red Qi would seep out and transform his inner world, merging the acupoints and orifices between his physical body and his inner world. However, this barrier had already been passed. Based on the pill furnace, the orifices corresponded to the Sea of Qi in his physical body, which was the core of the Elixir.

In terms of immortal cultivation, Ji Yuan currently had immortals, the plan at this stage is about one mu⁵ of Dantian.⁶ Although the concept of the Dantian being the Sea of Qi in the martial arts terminology of this world, this Dantian was not the same thing. Their names were the same, but the core is completely different.⁷

But something that shocked Ji Yuan also happened at this time. Three chess pieces, one black and two transparent, swept across the visualized pill furnace like shooting stars. Before the red Qi had formed into spiritual power, 70% of it had already been taken away. The remaining pitiful 30% had to be forcibly introduced into his Dantian by Ji Yuan’s quick focus. Otherwise, there might not have even been a trace of it left.

Ji Yuan opened his eyes, stretched out his right arm, and made the sword-fingers hand gesture. A half-illusory and half-solid black chess piece appeared at his fingertips. It looked the same as before, as if the disappearance of the red Qi that Ji Yuan had worked so hard to refine had nothing to do with it. The same was true when he vanished the black piece and held the two transparent chess pieces.

Ji Yuan had mixed emotions. He wasn’t sure for a long time whether to cry or laugh.

“Hey… Forget it… After all, it’s all my own, so I can control it even if the pill was stolen. Anyway, the size of my Qi supporting world’s Elixir Core is not large…”

Well, the stolen pill was a cultivation term that Ji Yuan himself invented, with absolutely no other input.

At this moment, the sky had already turned to dawn. Ji Yuan exited the cultivation state and looked around. He found that he was completely surrounded by thick white mountain fog, and his clothes were extremely damp.

He patted his butt and stood up.

“Haha, let’s go!”

. . .

At this moment, in Niu Kui Mountain, nearly 300 li⁸ away from Laohua Mountain, in Lu Shan Jun’s tiger den, a huge monster lying in the darkness suddenly seemed to feel something. A pair of enormous green tiger eyes opened in the darkness.

“Sir, you used ‘the way of man’ to refer to my former demonic path. Evil spirits are born from evil, which consumes my already inefficient spiritual power to increase my malice and karma. Over time, as demons are born, it is difficult to escape the tribulation. The way of heaven is the complementarity of yin and yang. My realm has increased a little! Hohohohoho…”

With a terrifying hoarse laughter, the tiger grinned with a terrifyingly large mouth, revealing pale fangs that were vaguely visible in the darkness.

At the same time, halfway up another peak of Niu Kui Mountain, a loud fox cry sounded in the morning sun; and, on the bed with his family in Ning’an County, Yin Zhaoxian’s sleeping frown relaxed a little.

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T/n: a moment of silence for me please, who had to translate all of these cultivation terms T_T

1. The subtext is that because JY is blind, he’s already visualizing the world around him, so when he needs to visualize his inner world to cultivate, he can imagine the whole vast world since that’s what he’s lived with, while other cultivators can only imagine a room. Honestly, it’s a really cool way to work with what could be a character’s weakness, and turning it into a strength. Giving minor Toph Beifong vibes ↩︎
2. The classic Yin-Yang symbol ↩︎
3. If you’ve read cultivation/martial arts novels before, you would be familiar with this. Chinese alchemy was actually a thing, but it didn’t produce miraculous pills like you would see in various NovelFires or manhua. The historical alchemy furnaces were complex systems of fans and pots and turning grinders, while the fantasy pill furnaces are more like a magic pot with a couple of ingredient slots. I’d recommend looking up images if you’re curious what these ones in the story look like. ↩︎
4. 丹 (dān): red/pellet/powder/cinnabar, works with the furnace. You may remember that “Vital Qi” was green, the color of life, and this Qi with the furnace is red (maybe because of the furnace’s relation to fire?). Could also be translated as “Elixir” apparently, so you’ll see them used interchangeably ↩︎
5. ~2.5 acres, a little under 2 standard soccer fields ↩︎
6. Dantian also translates to “Elixir field” and “Sea of Qi,” hence both of those terms in the previous paragraph. It is believed to be the central seat of life force and energy. ↩︎
7. It seems like here, as opposed to “standard” cultivators who increase their Sea of Qi in the Dantian, JY’s method is to have the pill furnace as the central Dantian and the inner world as his power ↩︎
8. ~150 km, ~100 miles ↩︎