Chapter 17 - The Mysteries of Qi

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh... my head hurts like hell... damn it feels like my head is splitting apart from the middle.

...Where am I right now...? ...What time is it...

I looked around my surroundings to answer the questions in my head. Right in front of me, the window was wide open.

The sun was about to set, and I am back in the clan house, in my parents' room, still on mom's back. 

How long has it been? A few hours? A day? 2? Uuugh. The splitting headache ain't helping...

Hooo-whew. Deep breaths. Accept the pain. And relax. Huuuúuuu. Wheeeeeew.

Much better. Let's see how my body's doing.

'Looking', or rather, sensing the Qi within my own body, I immediately sensed a profound lack of Neutral Qi within my body. There's barely a thread of Neutral Qi within every cell of my body.

The hell? What's going on? Where's all my Neutral Qi? Did the cycle stop when I fainted?

Directing my senses towards my heart, I sensed that the『Yin-Yang Cycle』was still going strong, constantly pumping out Yin-Yang and Neutral Qi.

Nope, still going on strong. Come to think of it, where's the extra Yin-Yang Qi? It's not in my blood.

Scanning my body from head to toe, I finally found the source of the anomaly.

My eyes? Right, I forgot to break down the cycle. But hey, I don't seem to be able to see Qi... And all the Yin-Yang and Neutral Qi within my body is gathering towards my eyes... The『Yin-Yang Cycle』within my eyes seems to be growing well. It's about to fill my eyes completely. 

As for the Neutral Qi.... it's disappearing? No. It's going into the cells of my eyes... It's assimilating? How? My eyes are absorbing the Neutral Qi, but what is it for? 

Reopening my eyes. I looked straight ahead, and saw my own reflection of the polished silver mirror. 

What happened to my improved vision? I wanna see the world in that 9kUHD9000fps quality!

As I concentrated on my eyes, the moment I thought that, the world sharpened in clarity, and the flow of Qi within Heaven and Earth appeared in my eyes. Looking beyond that, I saw the reflection of my eyes within the silver mirror.

Within my irises was the symbol of the『Yin-Yang Cycle』, with black and white glowing faintly within my eyes in the sunset glow. However, the symbol was obscured by the black hole-like pupils in the middle of the eyes, blocking the middle of the symbol and a small part of the dots.

Maaaaaaaaaan. Looks so kewl. Is this my own visual prowess? Niiiiiiice. It's a little showy though, how am I supposed to be low-key?

Closing my eyes while thinking of that, I noticed a strange occurrence happening even before my closed eyes.

Wait, I can still see?! What?! That's crazy! Does closing my eyelids make no difference?

Testing my hypothesis out, I opened and closed my eyes repeatedly, comparing my vision for both cases.

For the clarity, it makes no difference. My vision, whether I closed my eyelids or not, has no difference. I can still see very clearly, wether is it the world, or the flow of Qi. But for the 'frame rate' part, or visual acuity, I still can't tell yet. But just this alone is great enough. How do I turn it off though?

Even if I thought that, my 'visual prowess' did not turn off. 

Eh? It didn't work? Why? It worked before, I just thought of how I wanted to see Qi again and it worked... What is it did I do differently?

Sensing the Qi within my eyes more carefully, I noticed that the neutral Qi is disappearing into the cells really fast. Previously, there was still a pool of Neutral Qi, but it's rapidly dwindling into the cells of my eyes.

Huh. Is Neutral Qi being used as fuel? At any rate, I'll try stopping it. 

Willing the Neutral Qi to stop, I checked back to my vision, but to no avail. My vision was still as it was before.

So it's a no. Not as fuel...then for what is my cells absorbing all that Neutral Qi? Whew. I have no idea now, but I'll just call down first. Deep breaths. Hoooooooo. Haaaaaaaa. Relax my eyes. I don't need to see clearly for now anymore.

The moment I thought that, my vision went dark as my eyelids were currently closed. After reopening my eyes again, I looked forward into my reflection again.

Whew. That worked. I think I should coin a term for my visual prowess. Should be easier to image and refer to... I'll go with...

『Truth Seeker』

Yeah. Sounds great. 

...Huh? Is it just me, or did my vision get clearer? I don't remember being able to see the lines of polishing on the silver mirror...

O_O

SO THAT'S WHAT THE NEUTRAL QI IS FOR!

The Neutral Qi helps my body, or more accurately speaking, my cells to acclimatise to any strain on my body. If I'm not wrong, there should also be some Neutral Qi at my brain too.

Sensing the area at my brain closer for Neutral Qi, I found small pockets of Neutral Qi everywhere within my brain cells, much more than the rest of my body.

I was right! This is OP!!! If I do this right, I literally can become like Saitama or something. If the Neutral Qi has no limits, of course.

At any rate, it explains why my headache has been slowly reducing to the point where I didn't even notice it anymore at some point...

Hmm. It seems like I need to send one thread of a pair of Yin-Yang Qi to form a cycle at my brain. Hopefully, I can also turn it off, like how I did with my『Truth Seeker』activation.

Sending just a pair thread of Yin-Yang Qi just produced by the cycle in my heart towards my brain, I willed the pair thread of Qi to form a tiny『Yin-Yang Cycle』within the centre of my brain.

As the cycle quickly formed and gave a tremor throughout my body, I felt a mild sense of clarity spread through my mind. My senses sharpened a little as the world around became a little more clearer.

I saw the world become just a little more vivid.

I heard the soft, steady breathing of mom behind me.

I smelled the gentle, enticing fragrance of mom surrounding me.

I felt the warm back of mom that I am leaning against.

I tasted a very faint hint of something delicious in the air.

*grooooowl*

Or maybe it's just me being hungry?

*creak*

"Is Yan'er awake? It's almost... sun...set." Wei Bai trailed off as he looked at me staring at him with one foot past the door.

"I don't know, I just heard her stomach growling and I was just about to check up on her...What's wrong?" An Xin responded as she awoke from her meditation.

"S-s-she, she's awake!" Wei Bai shouted while lifting a trembling finger pointing at me.

"Really?!" An Xin shouted as she quickly but yet carefully carried me with her hand on my rear and the other hand slipping out of the hole between the cloth wrapping around me tied to her chest, reaching out to carry me in her arms.

I stared at her shimmering, and watery apatite-like eyes and cried put happily like intending to say Hi, "Aouh~!" while lifting up my right arm.

"Oh thank the Heavens you're alright Yan Yan! I wouldn't know what to do if something bad happened to you again. The clan physician said that you're completely fine that your pulse is very strong and steady for a newborn and that your Qi flows smoothly and unhindered so your body is definitely healthy and is very far from death but I was just so worried that you would just never wake up anymore and I was about to immediately rush to Physician Li's place but I held myself back because he may be skilled but he also charges ridiculous prices just for seeing him but he would know more about the human body and soul and what happened to you despite your healthy body and I told myself to be patient and wait and hope that you would wake up before sunset and that you will be fine but the thought that something happened to your soul and it is slowly deteriorating as I waited kept me worrying that it might be too late if I waited until sunset I couldn't concentrate on meditating and I wanted to take you to see Physician Li and and and... UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~! I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE ALRIGHT~! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~!" Words spilled out of mom's mouth like a machine gun as she bursted into tears and bawled loudly, spilling out all her anxiety, worry and relief for me as she hugged me tightly within her embrace.

Dad just silently walked over to mom and embraced her with me in between, patting her back gently.

I'm sorry for worrying you mom, but it couldn't be helped. 😞

I'll try to get much stronger so something like this won't happen again.

I hope.

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After about half an hour of bawling and hugging, mom finally vented all of her feelings and calmed down. Even dad had a much more relaxed expression.

*GROOOOOWL*

My stomach growled even louder than before.

Ah. Is it nice timing or bad timing?

"Oh! I almost forgot, Yan Yan hasn't eaten for more than a day now! Here~ I made sure to make my milk extra yummy~" An Xin gasped as she handed me over to dad and quickly opened up her hanfu, exposing her bountiful, somewhat swelling breasts to me, and pull me closer towards her nipples.

Me, obviously very hungry, immediately grabbed her left breast and started sucking hungrily.

*suck~ suck~* *chiiiiiiiuuup~*

Wei Bai, looking at his daughter, still on his hands, deliciously and hungrily sucking on his wife's beautiful, tender mountains, unconsciously gulped loudly and licked his dry lips.

Hearing that, An Xin raised an eyebrow and glared at her husband,

"What are you thinking! Yan Yan doesn't have enough milk as it is already and you want some too?! You're too greedy!"

Sheepishly grinning at his wife, Wei Bai apologized, "Sorry, it's just, Yan'er was drinking so deliciously that I couldn't help myself, I know very well how hard it is on you to keep up with Yan'er's needs. It was a subconscious thought that passed my mind, that's all."

"I've already asked the clan's physicians and alchemists for help on making a new tonic that would help you make more milk and cope with Yan'er's needs." Wei Bai explained, trying to absolve himself of the guilt placed on his shoulders.

"Humph. Good. At least you're still very thoughtful of your wife and our child" An Xin pouted with a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

"Of course, I always am." Wei Bai smiled as he handed Hui Yan over to his wife's arms and hugged them both.

Ugh. So much dog food for single dogs... I really need to build up some resistance to PDAs... You know what, I should just enjoy it. It's just mom and dad anyway.

An Xin couldn't help but close her eyes and leaned on his shoulder, secretly smiling when her husband hugged her like that, and just enjoyed his hug, while Wei Bai closed his eyes and hoped that his wife would forgive him, leaning on her shoulder and breathing deeply in and out, secretly enjoying the fragrant and calming smell of his wife's hair, careful not to squeeze their daughter in between them.

The couple stayed like that for a long time until Hui Yan sucked dry her left breast.

Awkwardly releasing each other, Hui Yan then switched to the other breast and started sucking hungrily again.

The husband, thinking hard on what to do for over 15 minutes, decided to shift over to the back of the bed, and hugged his wife and started lying down, leaning his head back on the fragrant sandalwood-like headboard, helping to carry the baby with his sturdy arms.

The wife, just closed her eyes and smiled, enjoyed and leaned back on her husband.

The daughter, sucked until there's no more left, and closed her eyes to enjoy her mother's warm embrace.

The trio did as they pleased as they passed the night away.