Chapter 13, Turtle Breath

Translator: StarReader

 

Late at night, in a corner on the first floor of the library, an old wooden table held a dim little oil lamp. Su Chen, poring over his books by the light, often stayed up till dawn.

 

The library was open all night, allowing disciples to stay until the break of dawn. But oil lamps weren’t provided; one had to bring their own.

 

Su Chen had no extra money to spend on oil. At Medicine King Estate, there was a vast wild paulownia grove at the back of the mountain. One could gather the fallen fruit of the wild paulownia trees, crush them in clay pots, and extract the oil. One would fill small bamboo tubes with the oil and fashion wicks from wild cotton. This allowed anyone to make a small oil lamp.

 

The light was dim, and it emitted a faint aroma of paulownia oil, which was refreshingly pleasant and had a stimulating effect. Su Chen brought along his homemade paulownia oil lamp and sat at the desk, buried in piles of Daoist texts. Among them, he discovered several important revelations.

 

“Ordinary mortals cannot discover the hidden Spirit Mountain within themselves.

 

“To seek one’s Spirit Mountain, one must first close off their six senses and send a single thread of divine sense directly to the Muddy Grain Palace, the seat of the mind.”

 

These sentences meant that ordinary people could not recognize the mysterious Spirit Mountain. To find it, one had to follow an unconventional path: block out all external stimuli, shut down their sensory perceptions, and then focus a thread of mental energy deep into the Muddy Grain Palace.

 

[Finally found a solution!] Su Chen exclaimed, a mix of surprise and excitement.

 

The next challenge was figuring out how to cut off his six senses. Perhaps the library held some books on that topic.

 

Su Chen spent several days sifting through the shelves, and much to his delight, he uncovered several Daoist manuals specifically for closing the six senses, such as Questioning the Heart Sutra, Fetal Breathing, Turtle Breath, and others. These texts offered methods for closing off the six senses and achieving a state of deep meditation and inner peace.

 

The outcome that Su Chen was most satisfied with was the manuscript of Turtle Breath.

 

This was a Daoist classic, typically used for cultivating both body and mind, without any restrictions on practice. It contained no records of martial arts techniques or ways to enhance a practitioner’s combat power, categorizing it neither as a martial arts text nor as a medicinal manual.

 

The manuscript described that cultivating this method could allow one to gradually shut down their six senses while asleep, entering a state of deep slumber.

 

Su Chen was thrilled, as it enabled him to practice while sleeping without needing to set aside additional time for it.

 

In contrast, works like Questioning the Heart Sutra and Fetal Breathing required extensive time to cultivate.

 

He spent his entire day following his master to learn martial arts and medicinal skills, and from evening till late night, he continued to search through the library’s books and documents for more clues about the bluestone tears.

 

His schedule was packed every day, leaving him no extra time to specialize in a lengthy practice regimen.

 

“I’ll go with the Turtle Breath. Closing off my six senses might just lead me to the mysterious Spirit Mountain!”

 

Su Chen decided to give it a try. The books in the library couldn’t be borrowed, so he memorized Turtle Breath by heart. It was only two pages long, with just a few hundred characters of text, making it easy enough to remember.

 

Not until late at night did he return to the stone hut to sleep. Zhang Tieniu, Yang Caizhi, and the others had been asleep for one or two hours, snoring softly.

 

“Even though a turtle has a nose, it breathes in and out through its skin; this is known as the turtle’s breath.

 

“With one’s back like a turtle’s, their breath flows softer than a whisper. Close the eyelids, then the nose, then the mouth, and finally the heart, with the tongue pressed against the upper palate. As meridians relax and meditation instills deeply, the energy will sink into Dantian, and the mind will sharpen into one point.

 

“With time, the heart’s focus sinks, gradually blocking out the six senses, until the body dissolves into nothingness. Breathing slows down and becomes longer, while the pulse turns faint.

 

“Mastering this technique, one can take a single breath a day and have one heartbeat per hour.

 

“As the sun rises in the east and nature revives, the senses awaken.”

 

Su Chen gently lay on the brick bed, silently practicing Turtle Breath. He gradually fell into a deep slumber.

 

He cultivated like this for about a month.

 

Su Chen noticed that his breathing had indeed become slow and rhythmic, and he slept very soundly. Even the snoring of Zhang Tieniu, the grinding teeth of Yang Caizhi, the foot-tapping of Qin Huihui, and the sleep muttering of Kong Xinqiao completely disappeared.

 

Not even during the rainy season, when thunder rumbled outside the hut, did he hear a single sound.

 

Every time Su Chen woke up after a nap, he felt refreshed and full of energy. All traces of yesterday’s fatigue vanished. With just five or six hours of sleep a day, he was able to maintain his vigor.

 

As for the recovery of energy, it was quite satisfactory. However, there were no additional effects beyond that.

 

“The Turtle Breath only has me feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep. There hasn’t been a single sign of shutting down the six senses!”

 

This frustrated Su Chen greatly.

 

In truth, he was unaware that Turtle Breath was a very low-level Daoist text for self-cultivation. It merely made one’s breathing longer and had no effect on closing off the six senses entirely.

 

The books on the first floor of the library were quite ordinary, even sold at street bookstores, not considered secret manuals at all. Many practitioners and Daoists had practiced them before, with nothing special about them.

 

Su Chen pondered deeply for a long time but couldn’t figure out why.

 

He assumed it was because he needed to cultivate it for longer; he hadn’t reached the peak level described in Turtle Breath, where one could achieve one breath per day and one heartbeat per hour.

 

He had a long way to go before he could close the six senses, and naturally he could not gather a wisp of divine sense to sneak into the Muddy Grain Palace.

 

“Based on the current progress, if I want to cultivate Turtle Breath to achieve such an effect, it may take decades, and I will never reach the peak of exhaling once a day. I don’t have that much time to spend on this.

 

“I have to find another way to close the six senses!”

 

Su Chen spent more than ten days in the library, studying various medicine books and even reading various alchemists’ prescriptions.

 

Late at night that day, he saw a case recorded in the medicine book: “Wu Region’s hunter Zhang was bitten by a golden-banded viper, fell into a coma, and almost died. Fortunately, a pharmacist passed by and fed him an antidote, and he was revived in a moment and survived.”

 

When Su Chen saw this, his mind suddenly opened up and inspiration struck.

 

“Golden-banded viper venom, fell into a coma, and almost died?!

 

“Of course! The venom of the golden-banded viper can paralyze muscles and nerves.

 

“Just a single drop of venom is enough to significantly slow down blood flow and completely numb the senses. In severe cases, it can cause difficulty breathing, suffocation, and even death!

 

“If I reduce the dosage substantially, say by ten times or even less… the toxicity would decrease dramatically and wouldn’t be fatal.”

 

Su Chen perked up.

 

As a young pharmacist, Li Kui’s guidance these past few months taught him a lot about medicinal theories. He understood the most basic principle of medicine: talking about toxicity without mentioning dosage was just irresponsible.

 

Many highly toxic substances, when used in extremely small quantities, wouldn’t be lethal at all. In fact, some could produce unique effects that pharmacists exploited for medicinal purposes. That’s why substances like snake venom, scorpion venom, and sulfur, which were incredibly dangerous in larger doses, were often extracted by pharmacists to treat conditions like arthritis or epilepsy.

 

Su Chen couldn’t help but daydream.

 

If he combined a sliver of viper venom with Turtle Breath… Maybe, just maybe, it could greatly enhance its ability to seal off the six senses, allowing him to completely shut down his perception!

 

Such a method didn’t come without risks; a single misstep could be fatal.

 

After much deliberation, Su Chen decided to take the plunge and try it out to see if this approach would work. As long as he controlled the amount of venom carefully, even if it failed, there wouldn’t be any immediate threat to his life.

 

He had now been an outer disciple for five months, and time was running out.

 

If this attempt didn’t succeed, he faced being demoted to a disciple tasked with menial duties. That would mean losing access to the many benefits of being a disciple, including the privilege of freely browsing through the mountain of herbal and Daoist texts in the library.

 

Without that access, his hope of curing his condition would become more distant than a dream.

 

His illness was incurable, which made it hard for him to sleep peacefully…

 

Medicine King Group specialized in medicine, which naturally included various types of snakes.

 

The pharmacists at the Medicine King Estate often kept various venomous snakes. Sometimes, they would extract venom from golden-banded vipers for experimentation or to create different types of pills.

 

However, Su Chen knew he would have to pay a significant amount of money if he wanted any venom, which was quite expensive.

 

Su Chen had no money to afford it. His only option was to venture into the wilderness himself, capture a golden-banded viper, and extract its venom.

 

Having cultivated for nearly five months as a disciple under the Medicine King Group, he had learned about toxic herbs and was familiar with the nature of various snakes. He also knew how to catch them and collect their venom.

 

Su Chen planned to go to the mountains outside Gusu County City and find a golden-banded viper to extract its venom.

 

He also hoped to stumble upon some wild ginseng in the mountains, just in case he needed it. If he ever felt deep grief and shed a blue tear, it would come in handy.

 

Su Chen asked Li Kui for three days’ leave but kept his true intentions to himself.

 

Medicine King Group did not permit young disciples to venture into the deep mountains for herb gathering on their own, as their martial arts were still too weak—hardly even reaching the level of a third-rate practitioner.

 

The deep forests were fraught with danger; wild beasts and venomous snakes lurked everywhere. Fully grown wolves possessed strength comparable to that of a third-rate practitioner, rendering a young disciple defenseless once cornered by a hungry pack. Additionally, the treacherous terrain made it easy to get lost, possibly leading to being trapped without escape.

 

Only those who had attained the level of a third-rate practitioner and above, with their enhanced capabilities, were permitted to enter the deep woods for herbs.

 

Su Chen reluctantly decided that this trip into the mountains must be conducted in secrecy, with him claiming urgent family matters back in Zhou Village. Given that Zhou Village was quite a distance from Gusu County City, Li Kui reluctantly granted him a three-day leave but instructed him to return promptly and not neglect his martial arts cultivation or medicinal studies.

 

In secret, Su Chen prepared a medicine basket and provisions, departing swiftly from the Medicine King Estate toward the Vaulting Mountains some ten miles west of county city. His mission was to locate the golden-banded viper in the area.