CH 10

Bai Fan held onto the opportunity with the thought of improving bit by bit, so no matter how tired or busy he was, he would complete all the studies that Yin Rui did and practice the same basic skills as Yin Rui. In other words, Bai Fan was going through what a typical martial arts disciple would.

Bai Fan memorised all the contents of *《Three Character Classic》, 《Thousand Character Classic》and《Zeng guang》, after he could basically recite everything including the acupoint maps. Yin Nanhan felt that he had completed the basics so started to teach Bai Fan methods of refining Qi*.

Bai Fan became anxious, although he did not show any expressions of concern, his heart was surging, he constantly stared at Yin Nanhan as he soaked inside the bath.

Yin Nanhan smiled, then first dictated the mantra* for refining qi, as to let Bai Fan remember everything by heart. Fortunately, Bai Fan had been memorising all those ancient texts these days, so he knew how to memorise efficiently, therefore he was able to memorise the short mantra without taking too much time.

After Bai Fan memorised everything, Yin Nanhan allowed Bai Fan to follow his voice, relax his breathing, keep his thoughts inside his mind and focus all his concentration on his dantian*…

Although these words could only be described as mysterious, Bai Fan had become accustomed to listening to Yin Nanhan’s way of talking. Initially, Bai Fan already felt dizzy in the bath, after relaxing a bit more he entered a realm where he was asleep yet not asleep either. Gradually, his abdomen felt hot. What made him even more surprised is the painful medicinal bath had an effect on his body, the feeling of having thousands of bugs digging into his body is now swimming towards his dantian. The heat added together with these little bugs created an indescribable combination.

Yin Nanhan looked at Bai Fan, who was sitting in the tub with his eyes closed, with admiration in his eyes. This son’s understanding was extraordinary, and his roots were not bad. After a few days of conditioning, he was actually even better than Yin Jin. Better than that fake, Yin Nanhan was naturally proud, thinking how Yin Jin had been raised with various precious herbs since he was a child, but nothing good came out of it, and this son who had just been found didn’t take long, but showed great results.

But Yin Nanhan had some regrets in his heart. If this kind of aptitude had been brought up from a young age, it would have definitely attracted a lot of attention. It’s a pity that he missed it…

Bai Fan was immersed in that peculiar realm that night, and the heat in his body circulated through acupoints one after the other with Yin Nanhan’s words. The time he spent in the tub exceeded all the previous times, and after taking the medicinal bath, he was actually full of energy without a trace of fatigue, and he was not as sweaty and dehydrated as before.

After Bai Fan went back to his living quarters from Yin Nanhan’s, he found a brush and paper to write down the mantra, and wrote down what Yin Nanhan said today word for word, he feared that he would miss something which would cause Yin Rui to mess up the process of refining his qi. That would become a great problem if it were to happen. Since Bai Fan was really full of energy that day, he picked up the brush and continued to write the homework that Yin Rui had not completed. Although the first half of this homework was written by Yin Rui, the next part written by Bai Fan looked to be the same too. Both of their handwriting were exactly the same, as if they were written by the same person.

Time passed, and the sky outside began to turn brighten. Who knows when the person who was laying on the table and fell asleep opened his eyes. He saw the thick stack of completed homework with a glance, and there was a slight hint of warmth in his dark eyes. He immediately spread out the paper ball in his palm and read it carefully. After memorising the mantra, he sat cross-legged on the bed and closed his eyes.

On one hand Yin Rui was working hard, on the other hand Bai Fan opened his eyes while laying on his bed with a very excited look on his face. He got up and picked up a pen and paper and started to record the mantra. After writing, he also added a very flashy name “Martial Arts Cheats”.

Looking at this page of martial arts cheats, Bai Fan’s happiness was beyond words. This was a cheat. With this, he can become a martial arts master.

But Bai Fan’s excitement didn’t last long, because he soon discovered that when he sat cross-legged and practised the technique seriously like last night, his body actually felt empty and he didn’t feel anything.

Bai Fan did not believe what he was experiencing and continued to practise, but he was still empty… so he practised until it was almost time for work and reluctantly stopped.

​​Bai Fan had been practising for several days, and there was nothing happening to his body. However, he was not going to give up. The dream of becoming a Wuxia Master will not easily be shattered. He had obtained all the martial arts secrets. Besides, Yin Rui has the body of a child, compared to him who was already in his twenties, so of course it was normal for him to be slower.

His hard work had finally paid off. After Bai Fan practised for a period of time, he could vaguely feel some qi in his dantian, but they were scattered and could not be gathered together. Bai Fan was very anxious, so he started looking for the reason. After repeatedly comparing the sensation of refining qi in his own body and the feeling of refining qi in Yin Rui’s body, he finally found the biggest difference between the two. It was that medicinal bath, that medicinal bath does have some miraculous effects, Yin Nanhan once mentioned that the medicinal bath can restore one’s root bones to the best period for martial arts.

After concluding this, Bai Fan’s eyes lit up. He took out his savings and went straight to the traditional Chinese medicine store. Yin Nanhan didn’t hide the formula of the medicinal bath from him, and even explained the dosage and order of each herb in detail to him, so he made the exact same medicinal bath, and Bai Fan believed that there was no problem. What made Bai Fan most fortunate was that the herbs needed were neither too precious nor rare, most of which were common herbs. Otherwise he would not have the financial resources to afford them. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the formula of this medicinal bath was kept as a secret.

The traditional Chinese medicine store that Bai Fan went to was a relatively large one in Z City, with a complete range of products. Because he only received two months’ salary, Bai Fan was not well-off. For the sake of his wallet, Bai Fan did not buy too much. He only bought the amount needed for three medicinal baths. After weighing a dozen herbs, the salary for two months was still gone. Although those herbs are not rare, some of them were not cheap.

After putting all the herbs into a large bag, Bai Fan went out of the pharmacy and took a medicinal bath. He still had one very important tool that was not ready yet, and that was… a wooden bathtub.

No one uses a wooden bathtub anymore. They are only used as antiques in the modern and bustling Z City. Bai Fan stood on the side of the road, stopping taxis one after another and asking the drivers if they knew where he could purchase wooden bathtubs. Most of the drivers shook their heads and drove away. Finally, after many failures, one of the drivers nodded, “Get in the car.”

The car drove for a long time until it reached an old town. It stopped in front of a store. Bai Fan saw that there were many wooden chairs and the like in front of the store. He surprisingly found wooden barrels, there are big ones for bathing, and there are small ones to dip people’s feet.

Bai Fan happily bought a large one, and then found that the tub was missing a lid, so he drew a picture to indicate what it should look like. The owner was an old carpenter, so not long after, the lid of the bathtub was ready. There was a big hole in the middle, which was exactly the same as the one Bai Fan used before.

Large items are provided door-to-door service. The owner greeted a young man and asked him to drive Bai Fan back with him along with the bathtub.

After returning to the house he rented and moving the tub upstairs with the young man, Bai Fan thanked him, and then quickly got prepared.

He first cleaned the tub and heated the water. The amount of hot water needed for such a large tub was astonishing. Seeing that the water temperature of the water heater was 76 degrees today, Bai Fan simply plugged in the power and heated it for a few hours. Hours later, Bai Fan found that the water temperature had reached 89 degrees, so he started pouring hot water into the tub, and finally filled the tub to 80% full, and the water in the water heater was bottomed out.

Because of the presence of hot water in this large tub, the room was quickly filled with water vapour, creating a smoky feel. Bai Fan opened the medicine packs he bought today, and after processing each one, he grabbed a third of it and put it in. Some were ground into powder, some were cut into slices, some were put in whole sections, and some actually only required a section from the whole herb.

After all the medicinal materials were put away, Bai Fan began to wait patiently. He knew that he had to let the hot water soak the medicinal materials and at the same time, the temperature would naturally drop to a temperature acceptable to the human body before taking a bath.

As the medicinal materials were soaked, a strong medicinal fragrance filled the air, and the smell was the same as the medicinal bath he soaked in at night. Bai Fan knew that his medicinal bath should have been made successfully, but was it really successful? It would take a while to find out after testing it for himself.

When the temperature was bearable, Bai Fan removed his clothes and soaked in the bath. He also covered the tub lid, forming a big steamer. Unlike before where he wanted to jump out of a medicinal bath, this time he could be said to feel the subtle changes in his body with a little anticipation.

Under the fumigation of hot water, Bai Fan’s forehead was quickly covered with beads of sweat, and the condensed sweat kept flowing down his chin, but Bai Fan’s face showed a happy look, because the familiar feeling of thousands of little bugs digging into the body reappeared. He was worried because they were in two different worlds, so that the same medicinal materials may not produce the same magical effect. But now it seems that he had nothing to worry about.

……

Bai Fan relaxed his mind and tried to gather the scattered qi in his dantian. This time it was still very laborious, but with the help of the little bugs that had penetrated into the body, the few faint qi gradually solidified, and began to move closer to each other under Bai Fan’s will…

After taking the medicinal bath that day, Bai Fan was finally able to clearly feel the mass of qi in his dantian. Although it wasn’t like Yin Rui’s body which could flow throughout the whole body on the first day, Bai Fan was already very satisfied.

*《Three Character Classic》, 《Thousand Character Classic》and《Zeng guang》: 《三字经》《千字文》《增广贤文》, these are somewhat like ancient textbooks which are quite well known in China.

*Qi: Technically energy.

*Mantra: We weren’t sure how to translate 口诀心法, so Robe just decided on this. These are words which are used to help concentrate during meditation.

*Dantian: This appears practically everywhere in cultivation-related novels, it’s the energy core of the body or people would also call it the elixir field.

Luvchild: So hello we’re late once again and we apologise for that, we had troubles translating some terms since we’re pretty new to this and we’re practically half-dead from exams. So, sorry to say but we’ll be taking a break for the next update and update on the week after.

Robe: Enjoy the chapter:))