My Divine Diary-Chapter 12: Blood Qi

Facing his father’s eyes which had become curious like a child’s, Su Hao couldn’t be bothered and directly gave him the answer: “A blind person!”

“Why can a blind person not see the doctor?” Wu Tianyun didn’t get it.

“Because blind people can’t see, so naturally, they can’t see the doctor.” Su Hao explained.

After hearing this Wu Tianyun didn’t say anything for a while.

Su Hao couldn’t help but worry that his father might start to think himself an idiot!

……

Wu Tianyun and Su Hao sat across from each other, a stark contrast to one another, one big, one small.

Wu Tianyun pondered a while and slowly said: “You want to learn martial arts, then you must first understand what martial arts is. In the next half year, I will slowly teach you the foundations of martial arts. Once you’ve mastered your body, then we can start exercising.”

“Humanity and fierce beasts are different. Fierce beasts’ strengths are their innate talents. It’s an instinct. But the strength of humans is different. The human clan’s strength relies on wisdom. Our ancestors, amidst the long struggle with the fierce beasts, discovered the secret to the fierce beast’s strength. That is blood qi. So the ancestors developed various kinds of blood qi exercise methods, allowing human clans to begin to meet the fierce beasts in head-on confrontations of power. We call these blood qi exercise methods “blood qi secret techniques” or “blood qi scriptures”. There’s not much difference between the two.

“As for what blood qi is…” Speaking up to here, Wu Tianyun paused for a moment, looking at the intently listening Su Hao, wondering if his son could understand everything he had said up until now.

At that moment, Su Hao raised his head and asked: “What is blood qi?”

Wu Tianyun laughed at himself and no longer hesitated: “Xiangwu, stick out your hand.”

Su Hao obeyed and stuck out his hand.

Wu Yuntain then asked: “I ask you, how is it possible for you to stick out your hand?”

Su Hao answered without hesitation: “Because the muscles inside the arm contract, pulling the upper arm, causing the hand to stick out.

Wu Tianyun didn’t ask how Su Hao knew the answer to this, instead he continued to ask: “Why can the muscles contract?”

The marble room automatically began to search for literature regarding muscle contractions, but Su Hao knew that his father wasn’t asking about that. Uncertain, he responded: “Because there’s energy in the muscles?”

Wu Tianyun applauded Su Hao’s ability to understand the concept of energy. He nodded: “That’s right. Not only is there energy in the muscles, every piece of our body all has energy. Relying on this energy, we’re able to walk, run, jump and grab things.”

Having said that, Wu Tianyun pointed to a rock the size of a basketball: “Xiangwu, go bring that rock over here.”

Su Hao’s eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when he saw it. Then he looked back to his stubby arms and legs. He probably couldn’t move it. But without saying anything, he picked up his little body and ran over to the rock. He first attempted to pick it up. The attempt failed. Then he walked to the rock’s back and used all the strength he could muster to lift the rock with both hands, pushing the rock towards his father.

Wu Tianyun allowed Su Hao to sit back down and he casually lifted the rock and tossed it up and down: “Is the rock heavy?”

Su Hao admired his father’s bulky arms and spoke honestly: “Heavy.”

“To you, it’s very heavy and can’t be lifted. But to me, it’s very light.” Wu Tianyun said. With a toss of his hand, the rock soared away and rolled back to its original spot. He asked: “Why is that?”

Su Hao was speechless. He had thought the rock he had rolled over with such effort had some sort of special use, but it was tossed back into place just like that? If you want to ask, just ask. Why did he have to make such useless efforts?

Su Hao was helpless and could only obediently follow the train of thought to respond: “Because my arm strength is weak, father’s arm strength is strong. That means my arm’s energy is small and father’s arm has more energy.”

He didn’t bring in age as a response because he knew his father wasn’t asking about that.

Wu Yuntian nodded his head: “That’s right. Because my arm has more energy and your arm has less energy. Then let’s take the term we call energy and give it a different name. We’ll call it blood qi. We can say the blood qi in the arm can let you lift a rock. The stronger the blood qi, the heavier the rock you can lift.”

“Sure.” Su Hao nodded to indicate he was following.

Wu Yuntian finally revealed a smile, something Su Hao rarely saw. He said: “If you’ve understood up to here, then let’s get to the point.”

After a pause, Wu Yuntian said: “The so-called blood qi exercise methods are basically a way to let the body raise its energy. The more blood qi and energy the body accumulates, the stronger the martial artist is. Once the body’s energy reaches a certain point, they can even destroy a mountain with a punch.”

Isn’t that like a nuclear bomb? Su Hao looked at his father in shock: “Father, have you seen a martial artist like that?”

Wu Yuntian shook his head: “I haven’t met one, but I have heard of it.”

Seeing Su Hao’s disappointment, he explained: “I was only trying to tell you humanity’s potential, when they go through these exercises, can reach those heights. It is said that the most powerful ancestral martial artists can do those things.”

Su Hao only nodded. Wu Yuntian asked: “Then Xiangwu, here’s the last question. Every day we have to use so much energy to exercise every day. Where the the energy to exercise come from?”

Su Hao quickly replied: “Eating food!”

“Right!” Wu Yuntian nodded and continued: “Every day we eat a great quantity of food and convert the food into energy. Thus, Xiangwu, in the future you need to eat more.”

Wu Yuntian said with a rare tenderness: “Xiangwu, you are the smartest child I have ever met. Not everyone can understand the reasoning for why they need to start learning martial arts at the age of 6. I hope in the future you can become the human clan’s number one martial artist! I hope you… break the martial artist bloodline shackles.”

Su Hao wondered: “What are martial artist bloodline shackles?”

Wu Yuntian shook his head: “You’ll understand it later. Let’s get back to the matter of food becoming energy.”

“Do you know the little fatty in the outpost?”

“I do”

“As long as you know. In the food we eat, aside from the amount we need for our daily activities, there are a lot of leftovers. The leftovers in the end will become energy. There are two kinds of changes it can go through. One is the blood qi I just talked about. This kind of energy is active and strong and can directly increase strength. The other kind is fat. When it’s stored, people look chubbier.

Our body’s natural tendency is to store fat because fat can be stored for longer. The blood qi exercise methods basically redirect a portion of the energy being converted into fat and make it become blood qi to store in the body.

“As for little fatty, he’s an example of conversion failure. That is to say, if you learn martial arts too early but fail to covert it, you will…”

“Become fat!”

Su Hao raised an eyebrow and had a silly expression. Thinking about how he might become a fat dumpling made him a bit scared.

At this time, Wu Yuntian took out a book near his chest and handed it over: “First go and memorize this book. Once you have memorized it, I’ll take you to analyze it.”

Su Hao looked at it — “Nine Palace Severing Blood Scripture”.

“The name’s not bad.”