Martial King's Retired Life

“Rubbish! Isn’t it perfectly normal to remove your clothes so that your qi can’t escape? They do it in Jade Maiden Heart Sutra or whatever. St-stop lewd-ing everything.”

“Explain your expression right now, then! You brought the manual when you have no experience, didn’t you? Did this porno seriously come from Mount Daluo? You brought a porno with you for several hundred kilometres?”

“Nonsense. Look: it’s clearly labelled as a mental cultivation manual.”

Oh, crap, for real. Is it really not a porno?

“According to the manual, two people need to practice it simultaneously, with each person cultivating their energy at the same time, using their partner as a cauldron. In the final phase of these diagrams, the woman and man don’t have to combine their scholar fire and martial fire. Until then, the woman cultivates scholar fire, while the man cultivates martial fire…”

It actually sounds legit? No wonder why Young Shiyi is so invested in it.

“No green has corrupted this mental cultivation. It is a 100% pure dual cultivation discipline. It does not contain any lewd contents.”

As if I’d believe that! You expect me to believe that when there are all those nude diagrams?!

“This manual is a so-called dual cultivation manual. It requires a man and woman to train together in order to master. As such, it is an unprecedented discipline. Lust for someone of the opposite gender is natural. To fight the urge is to fight nature – a most unwise course of action.

“In the initial stage, it will feel the same as the first meeting between a couple, a little confusing, awkward and distant. Accordingly, it is necessary for you to sigh eight hundred times as well as be depressed for four hours daily in order to enter ‘Passionate, One Glance Generates Sparks’ Realm.

“You are only beginning your cultivation once you have reached the first realm. Over the course of your training, you will be profoundly attracted to your training partner. The ugliest partner will become the best-looking person in the world. It, therefore, is common for you to become lovers. If you don’t like your partner, you can punch them in the face, and everything will be restored to normal. As you two advance through the curriculum, you will reach ‘Lonely Couple’ Realm…”

The progenitor of this discipline must only have half a brain! What the actual flip?! The only outcome I can see from following this manual is becoming mentally demented!

The creator actually wrote his name on the pages. His name was “Your Husband Isn’t Coming Home Tonight”.

I take back what I said earlier. His brain is filled with rat piss! Who’s the lady, then, your training partner or yet another woman?!

Seeing Young Shiyi, face beet-red, focused on the artwork, I called, “… Young Shiyi?”

“Ah, ahem, train your martial fire properly. I will be inspecting your progress.”

Are we seriously going to through with this?

Young Shiyi had me copy down the internal strength portion for myself, lest I forget to train it. Hours after I was done, she told me, “That’s that. I have to make a quick trip back to Mount Daluo.”

I nodded, expecting to hear that sooner or later. “To return Overarching Heave and relay the events at Nieyao?”

“Precisely. I’m sure there’s a fuss back home since I took Overarching Heaven without permission. I, at least, need to provide justify and explain my actions.”

Though she said that, she only needed to pout and pull a few funny faces to settle all the hard feelings. After all, who were the people backing her?

“I need to tell your shifu all about Nieyao, especially about Pangu and Sky Palace. Pangu hasn’t shown up for centuries, so we need to record all the information you gained from your fight with it. We also need a discuss how to deal with the egg in the underground palace from now, so their input is integral.

“Sky Palace and us have stayed out of each other’s lanes, but it’s clear that they lured you into this so that you could subdue Pangu for them. The status of our relationship is no longer what it once was.

“As you predicted, His Majesty asked Sixth to let our branch disciples join the imperial court as a means of establishing an official alliance between us. I need to iron out the details with my cousin and nephew.”

“I should be the one to personally go for this.”

“You can’t keep up with my pace in your current state. Third and Fourth will accompany me. As long as I have them around, Overarching Heaven and Pangu’s secrets will be safe. I’m more worried about you. You want to keep a low profile; however, Liu Shan Men and you, as an individual, have drawn a lot of attention following recent events. To complicate things even further, you’ve lost your abilities.”

So that’s why you want me to give this dubious thing a whizz.

I embraced Young Shiyi, and she meekly reciprocated. “… Don’t fret. I know how I’m doing, and I know how to restore my abilities.”

Young Shiyi raised her head. “Really?”

“Really.”

My internal energy didn’t just evaporate into thin air. The true diagnosis was that I couldn’t access it for a prolonged period because I exhausted everything I had in my scrap against Pangu. While I did have a tad of internal energy left in me, it was reserved for healing the damage I sustained.

“I haven’t lost my abilities. They’re just buried deep inside; I can’t use them.”

“Isn’t that the same thing? How will you recover your abilities?”

“Nothing amazing. Hibernating just like Pangu and absorbing natural qi to restore my own. Keep it up for long enough, and I shall be the old me.”

“Long enough is…”

“A hundred days.” I jabbed Young Shiyi’s nose with a finger. “As long as I can absorb natural qi on schedule daily, I’ll be 100% within approximately a hundred days.”

“That’s relieving to hear, but… what are you going to do if you need to be in action?”

“I have arrangements for my safety. My only problem is that I can’t go around on my own for the next three months. If I must throw down, I’ll have to hire help.” I looked down to Young Shiyi. “When are you heading back?”

“… Tomorrow morning.”

Glossary

Jade Maiden Heart Sutra – If you don’t already know, it’s also from Jin Yong’s condor trilogy, first introduced as Ancient Tomb Sect’s discipline in Return of the Condor Heroes.