Chapter 3: A Night in The Wu Clan
The silver moon was floating elegantly in the dark sky, like a painting of a goddess flying in the black canvas.
The wind blew gently, the crickets sang in the bamboo trees. The leaves rustled intimately, and the peony flowers shyly bloomed with a blush.
Wu Feng sat cross-legged inside his room. He did not pay attention to the quiet and beautiful night. His attention was fully directed to the flow of breath coming in and out of his nasal channel. He was practicing a basic cultivation manual practiced by Wu Clan since the time of its founding.
Legend said that Wu Clan's founder is an immortal that had ascended thousands of years ago. One of his most prized cultivation technique is a basic cultivation technique that was called in a very unremarkable name, 'Art of Breathing Manual'.
Instead of high-level cultivation manuals or magic techniques manuals, it was said that the founder care for this basic manual the most. He never leaves the manual anywhere else except inside his qiankun pouch that was never parted from his belt. Only before he ascended that he left it behind as inheritance to be the most foundational part of Wu Clan's cultivation training.
The Art of Breathing Manual is very simple compared with other cultivation manuals circulating in the White Crane Dynasty. That was why it was treated as a basic manual, and after a long time passed the later generations attached less and less importance to it.
Now most younger generations of Wu Clan disciples learned the other more complicated cultivation manuals. Of course, the mentality of the majority of cultivators is as long as a cultivation manual is safe, the more fanciful and domineering the manual's name is the better.
Alas, they forgot that the majority of cultivators are at the bottom rung of the cultivation world. But it can not be helped because the powerhouses that created their cultivation manuals set the trend of naming their manuals with the most domineering names they can think of.
It also does not help the popularity of The Art Breathing Manual among the disciple of Wu Clan because of its difficulty.
It was simple and the parts that were covering the cultivation instructions were thin. The instructions in the manual are so simple the content is very boring to read and very unconvincing because it promised nothing in its pages.
The training is very boring the only hardships the disciples encountered are dozing off in the middle of training. But strangely the boring training is the hardest hurdle for the cultivators to get through.
Like its name, The Art of Breathing Manual only instructed how the cultivator should breathe. The cultivators should pay their minds only on their breath without controlling the breath.
There were no instructions on how to absorb qi, to accumulate qi, or to channel it in the various meridian pathways. It instead gave pointers on basic martial body training, mental faculties training, and techniques to maintain concentration on breathing.
It was also only mentioned various cultivation realms in passing without giving instructions on how to make a breakthrough from one realm to another. The manual also did not mention how to deal with the cultivation bottleneck. The rest of the manual instead listed various acupoints and meridians with great details.
It was very unconvincing as a cultivation manual. Most cultivators would not take such a manual seriously and will just read it as supplementary knowledge.
Wu Feng is indeed a peculiar eccentric among Wu Clan disciples as he chose The Art of Breathing Manual as his main cultivation technique. Actually the main reason is he has listened to the many legends of Wu clan founder from his grandfather that he had been brainwas- ahem, influenced to the point that he idolized the founder. So he persevered the boring training for years until he finally realized some of its wonders.
Many years later, when he obtained the fruits of his training sometimes he would fondly reminisce his early training years and sighed in relief how the naughty young kid luckily can persevere through.
Time ticked by. Wu Feng diverted his attention to the flow of qi in his meridians according to the knowledge from The Art of Breathing Manual. His Divine Eyes has not yet opened, so he can only feel the qi flow.
It was calm and steady as it automatically made a full circle from his dantian to his crown of the head and back to his dantian. There were no specific points to follow and no alternative channel to flow to, so no mistake can be made.
It is one of the wonders of this cultivation law, as there was little risk of qi deviation. The other wonders are there is no need to direct the qi flow because it will automatically flow when Wu Feng is deep in concentration.
The first time he successfully entered deep concentration state, he sensed his qi for the first time with great clarity, unlike his peers that needed to spend considerable efforts to sense qi, sometimes using treasures or eating pills to help them to learn to sense qi.
Finally Wu Feng exhaled a long breath and opened his eyes slowly. His mind slowly waking up from the state of deep concentration. A smile blossomed on his slightly chubby face.
"Success! The third stage of qi condensation! Wu, I never expect it will be so quick. It was only two years since I started cultivating and I am already in the third stage. Grandpa will be surprised. Hehehe, I need to ask for a reward."
With that thought, he jumped to the bed and sleep. He was absolutely oblivious of the discussion inside a room across his own.
Under the solemn moonlight from the round window, Wu Hao hugged his wife's waist. "That day is coming near again. Father and the elders wanted to send that brat to that place. But he was just ten years old this year, and he was very naughty. I am a little worried."
Wu Yue smiled, her fingers running down her husband's chest, playfully pulling a hair on his naked chest where hairs barely grew. "But can you bear sending him later? Three years later will mean three years lost of opportunity."
Wu Hao's lips twitched a little. "Can you stop? I instead worry that you can not bear to part with him this early."
Wu Yue sighed softly. "I also worried for him. What if he gets bullied? He is very young but very naughty, he never stops making trouble for others. What if he gets punished in that place? But for us cultivators, our young age is the best opportunity to build our foundation. And it is just right at his age to build his foundation."
Wu Hao pondered a little before he spoke, "Actually we do not really lack the method of building a solid cultivation foundation. Not to mention that it was just qi condensation. We are not a very large clan in the empire, but we are still an immortal lineage. Our clan also has many connections. You are also from the Xu Clan. Still, it is undeniable that that place is special. Feng'er also needs a little tempering to calm his temperament and it was an opportunity for him to see the wider world."
Xu Yue rolled her eyes. "Stop making excuses. You just can not bear to part with him because you have not brought him to play enough yet. Moreover, we only have one child. You and father in law are the same. One of the reasons Feng'er is very naughty is because father in law doted on him too much."
Wu Hao smiled wryly. "Uh, it was because my brother had not married yet until now."
The couples get silent for a while. Wu Hao's older brother, Wu Qin, loved to travel around and very dedicated to cultivation.
He was a cultivation maniac that never passed on an opportunity to learn new cultivation laws and magic techniques. Most of his life was spent on cultivation, hunting cultivation resources, hunting manuals, and circled back to cultivation again.
He rarely went back and at one time he got back he brought back stories that made Wu Feng, eight years old at that time and only met his uncle for the first time, preoccupied listening to his stories from morning until the next morning without sleeping which prompted scoldings from his mother.
After some time, Xu Yue said again, "actually, maybe this year we do not need to send Feng'er yet. It was not like he can absolutely be accepted to that place this year either. It is still not too late for Feng'er to go there three years later."
"It is useless mulling over it. When shoves comes to push, we'll just take him back. I am confident that with our clan's power he will not get in serious trouble. After all no matter how naughty he is, he is still just a kid. What kind of trouble can he make?
More importantly, the moon is very beautiful tonight. We should continue. Where was I at again?" Wu Hao replied with a grin. He pulled the blanket higher like an opera's curtain closing. But under the light of the dimp lamp, a play was just starting.
Wu Yue squealed with a blush. Soon the room was filled with soft giggles.
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