Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 48: Meridian Valves

With the passing of seasons, it was now nearing summer. Anji was officially three and a half, about to become four years old in a few more months. When she woke up, Lizi informed her that her shifu finally emerged from her isolated training. Even without the summons from her father to give Yan Ping her greetings, Anji was already intending to do so.

Many things happened in the last six months. Apart from her strict study regime, the youngest princess of the Celestial Dragon Sect was busy with comic book production. Upon seeing the success of her martial arts comic book, her busy father tasked her to convert more basic manuals into comic books with Gu Ying and Lizi’s help. In return, they will receive commissions from the sales of these comic books. The Celestial Dragon Sect made these books only available for borrowing at the library at first. Its popularity within the inner disciples spurred demands within the outer disciples. Eventually, even commoner children came to know about them and wanted to learn.

Not one to disappoint, Anji made several versions of the comic book so that illiterate commoner children could also learn basic martial arts that were good for their health. The outer disciples were tasked to teach commoner children basic martial arts every week, creating new job posts. The sect recruited more artists and gave commoner children options to pay for their martial arts education by gathering herbs. With Doctor He’s help, Anji drew job posters distributed at the Celestial Dragon Sect’s outposts in various towns. The herb-gathering proposition sailed, and Anji used the herbs gathered by the children to create new medicine.

After getting dressed in a light cotton dress, Anji and Lizi hurried to find Yan Ping waiting for her in the guest hall. The cicadas became noisier as the sun rose higher into the sky. It wasn’t even noon, but Anji was already perspiring from a little walk. Thankfully, the past few months of physical training improved her stamina, and the little princess did not need to be carried from place to place.

"Anji greets shifu!" she burst past the door excitedly and greeted loudly with shining eyes.

Her shifu looked as pale as she had previously looked, with her snowy hair and dead fish eyes. Even with the help of Heavenly Eyes, Anji did not spot any difference in her teacher’s aura. It was still the same shade of white glow with the same intensity.

"Good morning, Anji. Have you been well? You sound much healthier," Yan Ping commented, gesturing for her student to take the seat beside her.

Paying attention to her etiquette, Anji climbed onto the chair with Lizi’s help. Gu Ying excused herself to wait outside, leaving the teacher and student to converse privately while Lizi left to brew tea and fetch some refreshment snacks.

Thrilled to share her study progress, Anji recounted her hardships learning martial arts under her mother’s guidance at first. The martial arts comic books topic came up, and Yan Ping smiled at the promising child. It was a shame she had lost her sight and could not see the marvellous creation Anji came up with.

"After learning the Eight Trigram Palm, Doctor He and I were busy trying to develop a new medicine that could increase regenerative abilities in cultivators. We’re still working on it," Anji sighed. "It’s not easy to test it out because there are not many immortals around."

"Why do you need immortals to test the medicine?" Yan Ping frowned. "Is your father injured?"

For a moment, Anji was silent. Then, she shook her head. Would her shifu mock her for fruitlessly using her time while in training? The young princess thought she could complete the medicine’s formula on time before her shifu reappeared. However, she failed.

"No, father is well. I thought I would complete the new medicine for you, shifu. Anji was being selfish. I thought if I could help to recover shifu’s eyesight, maybe shifu would be able to enjoy the martial arts comic Gu Ying and I created."

Ah, even after half a year, Anji was still the same thoughtful child as before.

"Don’t worry too much about the medicine," she patted Anji’s head. The child had grown a little taller since the last time they saw each other. "It’s great that you learned everything I tasked you. I was afraid of placing too much pressure on you. It’s good that you finished learning the basics this quickly. Shifu can start assessing you for the treatment immediately. As for my eyes, they will recover without medicine now that I have my toes in the Supreme Core realm. Let me see how much you’ve improved in my absence."

Offering her wrist for another session of pulse-taking, Anji wondered how different her health was now compared to before. Doctor He and Gu Ying claimed that Anji was much stronger. However, she was still unable to cultivate and her recovery from any injury still took the same amount of time. Apart from growing slightly taller and gaining a few more muscles, Anji felt no difference in her health.

The bracelet Yan Ping left with Anji did its job well in her absence. Anji’s chakra networks were less active than half a year ago. Although energy was still flowing into Anji from the chakra channels, it was more controlled.

"Can you activate your Heavenly Eyes for a bit?" she asked, channelling some qi into Anji’s body to better understand the child’s meridian network.

Obeying, Anji activated her Heavenly Eyes and the lovely onyx eyes transformed into two pools of molten gold.

With her newly gained knowledge, Yan Ping could easily identify soul energy and chakra points in her student’s body. Although she could not fully suppress attuned chakra gates, she could adjust the switch for its activation. Presently, Anji had no control over her chakra network. Hence, Yan Ping increased the resistance towards energy in the soul bracelet and linked the soul energy Anji harnessed to her cultivator core’s second seal as a regulator. With two locks in place, Anji should no longer be spirited away easily. However, for safety, she should only practice cultivation and remove her soul bracelet in Yan Ping’s presence until she reaches the Strengthened Core stage.

Anji felt a tingling sensation spread throughout her body from her pulse as her teacher circulated qi throughout her circuits. After learning more about meridians from Doctor He, she knew which points her teacher checked based on the itch intensity. Yan Ping checked all twelve main meridians, stopping at each acupressure point for a while before progressing to the next. It took her teacher a few minutes to fully examine each acupressure point, and Anji learned something interesting while tolerating the itch.

She could see faint glowing spots if she focused her Heavenly Eyes hard enough on the itchy part that her teacher was working on. They were difficult to see, and it did not always work. However, having something new to do gave Anji ample distraction from the discomfort.

While Anji fought the urge to fidget, Yan Ping felt her energy drained quicker than expected. Dismantling the secondary seal on Anji’s core was still impossible. However, she managed to create twelve primary meridian valves inside of Anji’s body to regulate qi leaks from her core should the seal be loosened. There were eight more valves to create for the extraordinary meridians, but Yan Ping was already exhausted. She had not created any acupoint seals for each meridian’s main point because she had to repair an extensive amount of spiritual root damage caused by Anji’s overly powerful core when she was an infant.

Seeing how her shifu’s complexion worsened with the passing hour, Anji worried that the blind prophet would collapse while treating her. After four long hours, Yan Ping finally retracted her energy and called it a day.

Wiping sweat from her brow, Yan Ping apologised for not being able to finish Anji’s treatment in one sitting.

Shaking her head, Anji smiled brightly. "I am grateful for shifu’s assistance! Anji can wait. Shifu has worked hard. Please rest a lot. Lizi has prepared some vegetarian food for you. I’ll inform Father that you’re done for today."

Nodding, Yan Ping waited for her sensible student to leave the room before collapsing onto the table. Even after understanding the basics of soul energy, mastering the conversion of spiritual energy to soul energy was still too difficult.