I leave my room, take a leap off the ground and land on the roof of the building. I walk towards the middle of the roof and I sit in a lotus position. I raise both of my arms above my head and I start channelling qi into my hands to create a suction force.
As I channel more qi to make the suction force stronger, I can feel the qi flow in my body becoming slower and slower but I don’t stop and instead make the suction force stronger since there is no pain. As the suction force gets stronger, the winds start to whirl around me.
Soon my body starts to feel stiff as the amount of qi in my body starts to become saturated and I eventually start losing control of my qi. My muscles harden and finally when it is too late, I realize that I cannot move my body at all.
What’s worse is that I can no longer channel any qi as there is no space in the qi pathways to allow for any kind of movement at all.
So I just sit on top of the roof, in the cold dark night.
…
As the rooster crows in the early hours of the morning, birds start to sit on my shoulder. Soon a big black bird rests on my head. Although I cannot look at the bird properly, I believe that it is the strongest and the prettiest of them all since it is on the top of my head.
After what seems to be a long time, I see some of the villagers delivering breakfast to the house. Of course, nobody sees me since I am sitting in the middle of the roof.
Surprisingly, nobody realises that I am missing and it was only until after breakfast that I see the guards hastily running out of the building. I try to yell but I cannot even open my mouth. I hope they are looking for me. I don’t want to die because birds pecked me to death…
From the top of the building, I have a nice view of the entire village. I can clearly see the guards running around and then soon more people start running around. It looks like they are all looking for me now and it should be almost lunch time since some villagers have started cooking lunch in a huge pot for the search party.
Ahh…looking at them cooking lunch makes me feel hungry. I’ve not slept at all and missed today’s breakfast too…I feel bad about them organizing a search party for me. I mean I am right above their heads…
People might tell you that villagers are rough, uneducated and tell you to stay away from them but right now, looking at them searching for me, they really resemble ants! They are well organized and there is no chaos at all. They form lines on their own and separate out to various parts of the village systematically to look for me or signs of struggles in case I was kidnapped.
…
Soon, everyone was having lunch in the centre of the village which is just to the side of the building that we are staying at. Even Judge Cui and Judge Tang have joined the search for me and they are now eating lunch with the villagers.
Soon my mouth starts to water and my stomach growl.
The second my stomach growl, I swear Judge Cui’s head snapped at my direction. Oh my gosh! He is still looking at me.
Have they finally found me?
I watch Judge Cui spit out the food he had in his mouth and started clutching his stomach, laughing uncontrollably and everyone at the lunch venue started staring at him.
Judge Cui starts pointing in my direction while he laughs and the entire village burst out into laughter. I guess they are laughing at me since those darned birds are still on top of me.
…
After the entire village laughed enough, they had to clean up all the food they spat out in shock when they saw me because the mayor is a hygiene freak. I guess being clean is good since it helps keep diseases away.
It is clear that everyone in my group are cultivators but how high is Judge Cui’s cultivation have to be to hear my stomach growling from such a distance?
Anyway since cultivators are not known to ordinary people, they couldn’t fly up to me in front of all them but had to walk back towards the building, and jump up onto the roof, pretending that it was due to their martial skill, when in fact a qi flow cultivator could already perform the jump easily.
When Judge Cui got near me, he asked “How did you even land up in this position. Did your father not teach you how to cultivate?” he said while chuckling. It seems like he was already aware of what happened to me which is why he had such a big reaction when he saw me.
“What’s wrong with him?” Judge Tang who was next to Judge Cui asked with concern.
“He absorbed too much qi at once and there was no space in his qi pathway to allow the qi in his body to flow. This will cause his body to stiffen and soon, he won’t be able to move.” Judge Cui replied without a care.
“He is already in the realm of qi flow?!” Judge Tang and the rest exclaim in surprise.
“He was already in the realm of qi flow before we left. There is no need to be surprised.” Judge Cui nonchalantly said. It is now clear that he is the strongest person among us.
“There is only one way to help you right now. Since your state is caused by absorbing too much qi, I have to drain some away from you. I will attack you with a qi draining move, prepare yourself.” Judge Cui says and smiles as he enters a fighting position.
Oh no! I think as my eyes become bigger.
Before I can see or feel anything, I am sent flying off the roof. I feel no pain but a few seconds later, the pain hits and I vomit out blood.
*Bleggghhh*
Judge Cui lands near me and says “quickly, move the qi in your body or your cultivation will be damaged.”
I execute standing meditation immediately to move the qi in my body and the excruciating pain I felt when my body was transforming returning. It seems like my qi pathways are crystallized or hardened and the flesh of my body has qi in it and they are hindering the flow of qi which results in the pain I feel.
“Do not worry, just bear the pain and push through. While this is not the proper way to cultivate, people who land up in your situation will be stronger if they survive. Their body will be stronger and their qi pathways will be more hardly but the qi pathways will be unable to expand anymore until you clear away all the solidified qi in your pathways.” Judge Cui explains calmly at my side.
