Chapter 6 – The Hongluan Manual (紅鸞天經)

It’s dawn the next day.

Old man Zhong was sleeping on top of dry leaves in the forest. A s.h.i.+vering long sword was pointing at his neck. The owner of the sword was Zixun Fairy.

At daybreak, Zixun Fairy was the first to wake up. She found herself in the arms of an old man, feeling the pain in her lower body. She dressed herself quickly and took out a long sword to point towards the man’s throat.

Until now, Zixun Fairy still didn’t know this man’s name. Tears came down from her eyes while she bit into her lower lip. The panic in the beginning had dissipated and she was debating whether she should push the sword into the old man?

Looking at her own blood on the lower body of the old man, Zixun Fairy didn’t have the heart to carry it out in the end. She took a closer look, this person’s foundation was too weak and there wasn’t any chance for future advancement. Maybe, it wouldn’t take too long for him to die. Let him die on his own. A mortal’s life span was short, it wouldn’t take long for him to die.  In any case, he was trying to save her.

Zixun Fairy cast a deep look towards the old man again. With a stamp of her foot, a purple cloud carried her into the sky.

When she looked back, with a wave of her arm, old man Zhong’s clothes covered his body and he was suddenly surrounded by pebbles moved over by Zixun Fairy. The pebbles were arranged into magical array that would guard against poisonous insects and snacks. Zixun Fairy didn’t understand why she did all this for him either. In her mind, she would never meet this person again, wasn’t it better if he died from poisonous insects and animals? Why, then, did she help him?

With mixed feelings, Zixun Fairy quickly disappeared into the sea of clouds.

Old man Zhong didn’t wake up until afternoon. When he woke up, he suddenly discovered that he was naked. Stunned, he quickly put on his clothes. He frowned when he saw the blood on his body and immediately remembered everything.

Zixun Fairy?

She was long gone and old man Zhong also picked himself up. But, in his mind, he was very curious about Zixun Fairy. The Kaiyang School. What a coincidence?

After he dressed, he took up his dragon cane which was fortunately still here, and turned the dragon head lightly. His treasure, the red bead, appeared in the mouth of the dragon.

Putting the bead back, old man Zhong looked around. It was a mess, but there appeared to be a broken machete not far from him.

Broken machete? Old man Zhong walked over. It seemed that Zixun Fairy didn’t pay much attention to it because she had little interest in the weapon and that it was broken.

Tianlei Zhihuo[1] had burned Old Devil Hongluan into ashes, but the machete was only broken?

Old man Zhong began to study it carefully. He didn’t believe this machete, which had been pa.s.sed down for generations, was just a symbolic item.

The fact that it could withstand the Leihuo showed that it was made of particularly strong materials. Therefore, maybe it could be made into another magical tool by melting it down. What old man Zhong didn’t know was that the reason it had withstood the fire of Leihuo was because it had been enchanted inside, but was destroyed after the machete broke in half and had little use now.

He checked the machete inch by inch. When he reached the handle, old man Zhong noticed that some kind of animal skin was wrapped around it. On the skin, there were two beautiful characters ‘Hong Luan.’

Old man Zhong began to sc.r.a.p it lightly with a small dagger from his pocket. In the Hongluan School, the machete was viewed as a symbol of inheritance, who would have dared to damage it like old man Zhong was doing?

Slowly, old man Zhong’s eyes showed surprise. His dagger was not any ordinary dagger, it was one of his treasures. But he could only cut open a small hole after sc.r.a.ping for such a long time?

Old man Zhong patiently kept peeling. After four hours, he finally peeled off the animal skin.

Inside, there was a silk scarf wrapped around the handle.

Scarf? Old man Zhong was ecstatic; he had found another treasure.

He unfolded the scarf immediately; there were numerous tiny characters tightly packed together on it.

To prepare for a day like this, old man Zhong had already learned how to read and write different styles of characters. He naturally could read them.

Hong Luan Tian Jing.[2]

Hong Luan Tian Jing?

Old man Zhong excitedly read the first four characters. About eighty thousands words followed.

Seeing it, old man Zhong’s heart jumped. A secret manual, this was a secret manual. He had paid a lot for one in the past, it’s quite unexpected to see one at this moment.

Since he had reached Xiantian, he had amazing memory. He found a valley and used three days to memorize the eighty thousand words. Then, he used another three days to continuously recite it over and over again. Afraid that he would still forget it, old man Zhong used another five days to memorize it backwards. For another three days, he kept repeating it, forward and backward, until he carved the entire book into his memory. Afterwards, old man Zhong burned the scarf.

The Hongluan manual held a secret ultimate technique; it was not for practicing martial arts, but a type of secret ultimate technique for practicing Meixin[3] telekinesis. Telekinesis?

Old man Zhong wasn’t sure how important telekinesis was. But, he knew that originally the Hongluan School was not practicing from this Hongluan manual. It was only because the technique in the manual was so powerful that the school was named after it. Furthermore, what old man Zhong didn’t know at the time was that the masters of Hongluan School for generations had only mastered half of the Hongluan manual.

Glancing at the ashes of the scarf, old man Zhong buried the broken machete. He had to be careful.

Afterwards, old man Zhong, holding his dragon cane, hurried back to the villa.

After taking care of some family business, he rode on the underground train back to Dakun Kingdom.

Inside the Zhong resident, everyone was surprised to see old man Zhong now appeared to be in his forties. The legendary term of Xiantian jumped into all the minds of the servants and adopted sons. Old man Zhong had reached Xiantian?

But his eight sons had disappeared. No one dared to ask.

Back at his living quarters, old man Zhong sat cross-legged inside his practicing room.

The Hongluan manual held twelve levels. Old man Zhong was practicing to reach the first level, Qisha.[4]

Followed the method, old man Zhong stayed at the residence for two months. Finally, he completed the so called Qisha, the first level. Old man Zhong sat cross-legged, inside his palm floated some reddish fog, faintly discernible.

Hongluan Mist, the number one aphrodisiac of the world? Old man Zhong awkwardly stared at it.

With a turn of his hand, the Hongluan Mist disappeared. But right between his eyebrows, there was a gentle feeling of fullness. Old man Zhong, according to the description in the manual, could slowly see a small gap-like place between his eyebrows.

Inside this small gap, there were bursts of pinkish transparent energy lightly twirling within. This energy, seemed indiscernible at times and tangible at other times, was very strange. Old man Zhong tried to lightly control it; he used this pinkish transparent energy to search his own body and felt as if it could penetrate any object. When it reached deep inside his body, he saw his own meridians.

Divine sense[5]? Old man Zhong surprisingly tried to remember something from his blurry memory. No, it’s not divine sense, this was telekinesis. But, what’s the difference between the two?

Old man Zhong couldn’t figure it out, it would have to wait for later. He knew that it only took some Zhenqi[6]mixed with this pinkish telekinesis, as a little catalyst, and it would become Hongluan Mist.

Magical telekinesis.

Suppressing his excitement and happiness, old man Zhong slowly stood up. The first level of the Hongluan manual was the easiest to practice; it would only get harder and harder later. It was impossible to learn all of it in such a short time. As of now, telekinesis was not the most important thing. The main task was to practice other techniques of Xiantian.

Old man Zhong slowly moved over the cus.h.i.+on and turned over the bricks underneath the cus.h.i.+on. There appeared a small hidden grid.

Inside the grid, there was a tiny purple wooden box.

He took the box out very carefully, wiped it with his sleeve, then opened it slowly. There was a small piece of jade inside. There were flowing lights of various colors on the surface of the jade, indicating that there was a spell on it. Only using a special hand gesture could the spell be broken. Otherwise, a forced intrusion would totally destroy whatever was stored in it.

Next to it was a piece of white cloth. There were many lines on it, together with drawings of mountains and rivers. This was a map. Even though the map was deeply ingrained in old man Zhong’s memory, he still very carefully reproduced it at that time.

Old man Zhong remembered that it was a man adorned in a grey robe, with messy hair, who gave him this piece of jade.

“A lot of people are after me now; I can’t get away. Give this piece of jade to the master of the Kaiyang School. He will promise you a small favor in return.” The grey robe had said eagerly.

“Will he let me into the Kaiyang School?” Zhong Tian asked anxiously.

The gray robed man looked at Zhong Tian gravely and said, “as long as you can reach Xiantian, you will for sure.”

“Address.” Zhong Tian asked hurriedly with bright eyes.

The gray robed man smacked the ground once and the route to the Kaiyang School was marked on the dirt. It was the same map that old man Zhong had copied onto the white cloth.

After he finished, the gray robed man flew into the sky and disappeared before Zhong Tian’s eyes. At the same moment, Zhong Tian saw a dozen or so flashes of light in the sky shooting towards one direction.

Looking at the tiny jade piece in his hand, a bit of excitement entered old man Zhong’s eyes. Xiantian, Xiantian, there’s no doubt that he could get into the Kaiyang School now.

[1]: 天雷紫火, pinyin: “tian lei zi huo,” literally means “heavenly thunder purple fire,” no matter how hard I tried to translate this into English, it sounded ridiculous and so decided to leave it in pinyin. It sounds more like a real technique this way.

[2]: As a reminder: 紅鸞天經, pinyin: “Hong Luan Tian Jing,” literally means: “Hong Luan Heavenly Martial Art Technique Manual”

[3]: 眉心, pinyin: “mei xin”, literally means “between the eyebrows,” so it’s “between the eyebrows telekinesis”… yes I know it sounds silly

[4]: 起煞, pinyin: “qi sha,” literally “the start of evil/fiend/demon,” it means something akin to “the first step to being a demon.”

[5]: 神識, pinyin: “shen s.h.i.+,” literally means: “divine/spirit/soul knowledge,” but since he’s using it to sense his own meridians we called it “divine sense.”

[6]: The term “真氣,” zhen qi in pinyin, means literally “true” or “princ.i.p.al” qi. Qi is a concept from traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. It is believed that qi flows in a person’s body and could be manipulated, in medicine to help a patient and in martial arts to empower a person to perform superhuman feats of strength.