Xu Ying colored slightly. "I'll return it once I've finished reading. I haven't finished, is all. Look at you getting so worked up, as though I'd make off with your book."
The black bear was a demon of Mount Xiao, and an old acquaintance of his.
Children of poor families grow up early. Xu Ying was a snake catcher of Lingling; he ranged the mountains all day, searching everywhere for strange serpents. Roam the wilds enough, and one bound to meet demons.
Though an honest boy, he had cultivated the Grand Unity Daoyin Art since childhood, his qi and blood vigorous and deep, and any common demon was truly no match for him. And so Xu Ying had "made friends through blows" with many of the demons of Lingling's mountains.
For he had cultivated the Grand Unity Daoyin Art for many years, his cultivation at its very peak, with no road left to walk — so he extorted these demons, demanding their scriptures to study, seeking the path that lay beyond.
The bear yao Xiong Qianli was one such victim.
"Are we truly not going to eat him?" the snake yao Yuan Qi glanced at the black bear, licked his lips, and murmured, "I'm a bit hungry."
Xiong Qianli glared in fury. "Xu, you really do mean to eat me!"
Xu Ying soothed them. "Qianli, you know me — I'm kind and beautiful of heart, and I don't eat demons. Had I meant to eat you, I'd have done it years ago." His belly, betraying him, let out an inopportune grumble.
Xiong Qianli was startled and shrank further into the corner, not daring to come out.
Xu Ying rummaged about the cave, the great bell tagging along, clanging into things at every step. Lucky it was a stormy day and the mountains could not be climbed, or that racket would surely have drawn pursuers.
He searched for a good while; the cave held only a few pots and pans, some old books, and some sweet potatoes and yams — nothing else to eat.
Xu Ying glanced at Xiong Qianli in the corner, and the black bear shuddered, crying: "Don't look at me! I don't eat people! Last time you said I was not to harm anyone, and I've even given up chickens and ducks, cats and dogs — there's no meat in here! Look at the fields beyond the cave — these sweet potatoes and yams are all grown by me!"
Xu Ying scratched his head. "Every so often one may still eat game. Oh well — I'm not a man who must have meat. A sweet potato or two won't kill me."
He got some sweet potatoes and yams and set them roasting over the fire, and in a while the fragrance wafted up.
The black bear was hungry too, and crept timidly near to beg a few.
The snake yao Yuan Qi, seeing his slavish look, grew cross: "This is your cave, and the sweet potatoes and yams are yours, not his — what are you being so cautious for?"
The black bear wiped his tears and choked out: "You've never been beaten by him..."
Yuan Qi began to weep. "Brother, so you have suffered the same as I."
Xu Ying set down his roasted potato, displeased. "Qianli, I thought we were friends — I never imagined you'd say such a thing of me!"
The black bear, cowed, sat beside Yuan Qi and whispered: "He even picked up a stone, squeezed juice right out of it, and said that if I did not hand over my scripture, he'd squeeze the juice from my head as well, and make me drink it!"
Xu Ying caught the words, scowled black, and said nothing, chewing his potato in silence, thinking: "He said he was willing to be my friend, and yet speaks ill of me behind my back! Hmph!"
The snake yao Yuan Qi stole a glance at Xu Ying and whispered: "When he threatened me for my scripture, he used the same stone-trick, squeezing out water — truly unnerving!"
Xiong Qianli lowered his voice. "A thug's ways — less genteel even than us demons!"
The snake yao Yuan Qi nodded again and again. "Brother, what books do you read of late?"
Xiong Qianli was both startled and delighted: "You like reading too?"
The two demons felt a great kinship, with much to say to each other — were it not for Xu Ying's inconvenient presence.
Xu Ying finished brewing the medicine, dividing it into one for external application and one for internal consumption, and dressed the wound of the snake yao Yuan Qi. The snake yao Yuan Qi curled his tail about the great cauldron and gulped down the broth, glug-glug.
Xu Ying then tended his own wounds. His inner injuries were not severe, but his cuts and bruises were no light matter, and had to be treated early.
Medicine applied, Xu Ying looked outside. Night had fallen, but it was not yet the hour the sun went down.
"Yuan Qi, the great bell taught me the method of inner observation, which can heal the inner injuries of the five viscera and six bowels, and can also raise one's cultivation, transforming the qi of the five viscera into origin qi. Let me teach it to you."
Xu Ying sat before the campfire, and spoke the method of condensing one's awareness into spirit sense, of opening the spirit-sense gate, and of entering the Hidden Realm, saying: "If you open the Hidden Realm within your body, you will see your own five viscera and six bowels, heart and lungs hanging like an inverted mountain. The five viscera hold the five qi, which give off a five-colored divine light; combined with Grand Sun tempering of the body, it can be seen. Gather the five qi, and you can achieve the Five Qi Returning to Origin, refining origin qi. Once you reach this step, your power will advance a thousand li a day, and becoming a Demon King will not be hard."
The snake yao Yuan Qi listened entranced, and the bear yao Xiong Qianli also sat by the campfire to listen, somewhat confused.
Xu Ying finished speaking and let them cultivate as they would, while he observed himself within, his spirit sense entering the Hidden Realm of his body.
The snake yao Yuan Qi was a strange serpent; his strength had originally been about equal to Xu Ying's, and he had fought Xu Ying for three days and three nights before being captured, so his aptitude was quite extraordinary. Xu Ying explained it once, and he grasped a great deal, soon settling into a meditation, nose at eye and eye at heart.
The black bear's wits were a little slow, so he simply sat by the campfire, contemplating slowly.
Xu Ying sat before the campfire, guarding his mind on the Grand Unity, his eyes halfway shut; beneath his lids, divine light flickered in and out like yellow sprouts.
Before him, that white jade gate appeared again, and he pushed through it, entering the Hidden Realm of his body once more.
Last time he had entered the Hidden Realm the time was too short, and Xu Ying had not lingered. This time the sudden storm had cut off his pursuers, and so he had plenty of time to explore this inner world.
Though it was his second visit to the Hidden Realm, the awe of the first entry had not diminished in the least!
Xu Ying floated in the air, gazing all about. The impossible colors of the Hidden Realm — colors that could not exist in the outer world — held him deeply spellbound.
Above, the origin qi ran currents, streams threading the sky, hung with rainbows like ribbons; the hanging heart and lungs hung like mountains, inverted, the five qi falling like cascades, gathering to become origin.
The origin qi steamed, and when it met thunder turned to rain, or pooled into masses that became a blazing Grand Sun, traveling among mountains and streams, illuminating the five viscera and six bowels.
Xu Ying, his heart at ease, his spirit sense roaming heaven and earth upon the streams of origin qi, borrowed the qi to heal his inner injuries.
He saw, in the clouds, bolts of lightning so clear, so dazzling, he could even make out every detail of each bolt — full of power and sharpness!
"The great bell said I only ever gathered qi, never knowing inner observation and visualization. Now I've learned inner observation — but what is visualization?" Xu Ying wondered.
The great bell, to save his life against the City God and Zhou Yihang, had spent its last power and was still fast asleep; Xu Ying could not reach it. What visualization was, he naturally had no way of knowing.
Xu Ying roamed the Hidden Realm for a long while. Suddenly, by the light that burst from the thunder as it tempered his body, he noticed that within him there were many dark regions he had never noticed before!
"What place is that?"
With lightning's flash, he dimly made out magnificent mountain ranges in the darkness, stretching in unbroken ridges like a giant dragon; whence it came he knew not. And following the ranges by the lightning's light, he saw their course seemed to come from above — falling down out of the sky!
Xu Ying was startled and unsure. Then suddenly he saw surging, churning rivers and waters coming from the horizon, as though to drown the very mountains!
Beside that great mountain range there seemed to hang a celestial river pouring down!
The lightning's glow came and went in a flash, and the giant mountain range and surging long river vanished once more into darkness.
Xu Ying steadied himself. The thunder within his body flashed again, and amid the crash and blaze he dimly perceived, between the dark mountain and the great river, a gate that stood towering between heaven and earth, cutting off the mountain from the celestial river!
That gate, in the lightning's glow, gave off a sheen like black iron!
When the thunder passed, that black-iron gate too hid itself in the darkness.
"That gate..."
Xu Ying's heart shook mightily, and his spirit sense flew up, trying to draw near and see — only for his "vision" to swim before him the moment he reached the edge of the darkness, his spirit sense threatening to crumble.
He hesitated a beat, then pressed on; his spirit sense, vague and dim, suddenly collapsed and dissolved.
Xu Ying woke from his inner observation and moved to rise — when the world spun violently, and with a thud he pitched over, falling into a dead faint.
In this coma, Xu Ying felt his head split with pain in his dreams, murky and muddled, a stream of nightmares one after another, each weirder and more terrifying than the last, like a heart-demon invading.
By the time he slowly woke, he could recall not a one.
Xu Ying slowly opened his eyes. His head still throbbed fiercely, as though an axe had bitten into his left temple and still hung there, never withdrawn.
His sight slowly cleared, and the faces of the snake yao Yuan Qi and Xiong Qianli came into focus — two great demons gazing at him with concern, and only when they saw him wake did both let out a sigh of relief.
"You suddenly fainted, you frightened the life out of us brothers!" cried the snake yao Yuan Qi.
Seeing Xu Ying's bewilderment, he hastened to explain: "While you were out cold, Qianli and I hit it off famously and have sworn brotherhood. I'm the elder brother."
"I'm the younger!" Xiong Qianli said excitedly. "It's the first time we found we had so much in common — if we hadn't sworn brotherhood, we'd have had to marry!"
All that night, the bear and snake demons talked of Xu Ying, and could not have said enough.
Xu Ying shook his head, then clapped it hard again, still plagued by a migraine. The two great demons gazed at him with concern, yet a certain expectancy in their eyes, fearing that with a single firm clap he might burst his own head open.
After a while Xu Ying felt a little better, and stared off into space for a time, his voice hoarse as he said: "When I was in the Hidden Realm just now, I think I saw the barrier gate that leads from the Qi-Gathering stage to the realm beyond."
The snake yao Yuan Qi was taken slightly aback, and the bear yao Xiong Qianli's whole body jolted too.
The two demons exchanged a glance, and Yuan Qi said, his voice trembling: "A-Ying, what did you say?"
Xu Ying thought a moment, certain he had not misseen, and said: "In cultivating the Grand Unity Daoyin Art, I long ago felt myself at the very peak, with a surging qi and blood threatening to breach the gate — but no gate to breach, no road to walk. Yet just now, when I observed myself within, I saw that barrier gate — a pitch-black gate, hidden in the darkness! I have a feeling that if only I break through that gate, a whole new world awaits!"
The snake yao Yuan Qi was beside himself with excitement. "You truly saw that gate? Beyond it — there is truly a road?"
Xiong Qianli, unable to hold back his agitation either, stared at him with wide eyes, awaiting his answer.
Xu Ying nodded heavily. "There is absolutely a road!"
Yuan Qi stood dumb as a wooden chicken, then suddenly tears streamed down his face and he murmured: "A road, truly a road... hahaha! Wonderful, there truly is a road! A-Ying, you are the great hero of our yao race!"
He was wild with joy, frantic with excitement, cheering without stop.
Xiong Qianli, too, wept hot tears of joy and, hugging the snake yao, jumped and danced, laughing without end.
Demons can cultivate only to the Qi-Gathering stage, at most become a Demon King, and then can advance no further. Practically every great demon who reaches the summit of the Qi-Gathering stage feels that surge of qi and blood seeking to breach a gate — yet has no gate to breach, and can never enter the next realm!
Should Xu Ying truly find the gate to the next realm, then for the yao race it would be a triumphant, heaven-shaking joy beyond compare!
"The rise of the yao race!" Xiong Qianli cried, clenching his fists tight and thrusting them high.
"Down with the tyranny of men!" the snake yao Yuan Qi cried, wild with delight.
The two demons exchanged a look and said in one voice: "The Divine Land belongs to men, but in the end it shall be ours, the yao race's!"
Xu Ying sat up, taking no part in the two demons' revelry, and murmured: "But does it not strike you as strange? All this time, neither of you has yet mastered inner observation, nor entered the Hidden Realm — yet I, a human, have mastered it first. Does this not suggest that the yao arts may not be yao arts after all?"
He recalled how the great bell had once said that the demonic arts were the arts of Qi-refiners, and said: "I think the demonic arts may not be demonic arts, but rather human arts — the arts of human Qi-refiners. Only, for some reason, they have been lost to the ages..."
"Why must it be a human Qi-refiner? Why can it not be a yao Qi-refiner?"
The bear yao Xiong Qianli clapped a paw over his shoulder, excited. "Seven-ge and I debated all night long and reached a vital conclusion — you must be a demon that merely looks human! One of those human-shaped oddities of the yao race!"
The snake yao Yuan Qi sidled up from the other side, hooking arms and shoulder, grinning: "A-Ying, one day you'll show your true form!"