Seal Cultivation For Self-Improvement Chapter 3 Part1

The appearance of Xu Hong confirmed Yu Qiu’s suspicion that he had come back. He went back to the beginning, at the moment he first entered the path of being an Immortal. He was really reborn.

This made Yu Qiu very happy, and his joy made him forget the unhappiness of having seen Xu Hong again.

Meanwhile, Xu Hong lingered for a moment outside the door. He wondered, “Is he a swindler?”

And then he left.

Back then, it was Xu Hong who brought Yu Qiu through the door of the Immortal path, creating good karma between them. In the hundreds of years they were together, Yu Qiu had long paid off Xu Hong for his graces, yet their karma continued to be entwined and entangled with each other, becoming unclear. But then, no matter who was more grateful to whom or who owed more to whom, in the end, with Yu Qiu’s rebirth, all the debt of grat.i.tude he had in his past life was now turned into dust. [1]

Yu Qiu had refused to go with Xu Hong, disrupting the causes and effects [2] of this world. In this world, Yu Qiu’s path will contain no shadow of Xu Hong. He even wished he’d never see Xu Hong again in this life… though he knew that it was unlikely.

Yu Qiu exhaled deeply, then went to the inner room. He looked at the old man still lying on the bed, and his heart gradually settled down. Since he had returned to the beginning, then this man was no doubt his true father.

Yu Qiu rolled up his sleeves and once again looked at the circle above his wrist. After knowing that the body he was in was actually his own body, Yu Qiu can confirm that this strange pattern did not belong on him.

What is this? Could my rebirth be related to this?

Yu Qiu recalled the small voice he heard before he was born again. He guessed that his situation should also be related to that voice, along with this circle. However, he did not know what that voice was.

The unknown would always bring anxiety, but they were not worth panicking over and being indecisive [3].

Since Yu Qiu had been reborn, then naturally, he would want to…

… continue studying Seal Cultivation.

Yes, to Yu Qiu, nothing was more important. He loved it so much! In his past life, before he fell into the hands of the Shadow Demon, he had been researching on a new way of drawing seals. He had already studied about half of it, but when he died, he couldn’t finish his research. This was his greatest regret. Unexpectedly, there was now a chance to continue, and Yu Qiu felt very moved.

However, even if he wanted to study Seal Cultivation, he couldn’t. He had no cultivation, no materials, no crystal, and his soul force was very weak. Drawing a ghost seal alone would consume most of it. Should he start on Qi refining? Yu Qiu seemed to be going through the profound experience where even the cleverest housewife couldn’t cook without rice. [4]

But before starting on his own cultivation path, he tucked the quilt in for the old man on the bed.

Afterwards, Yu Qiu pulled open the curtain and went into the living room. He found some stuff to block the broken door plank, then he sat cross-legged on the floor. He began to adjust his breathing according to the way he remembered.

The first step in cultivation was called Qi Refining.

Before the Foundation Establishment, cultivators who had not yet unlocked their spiritual skills would try to tap into the spiritual qi of the heavens and the earth by practicing a special breathing method. For several weeks, they would control the circulation of qi inside their body before exhaling it out and inhaling new spiritual qi.This continuous to and fro circulation process was called Qi Refining.

Through this process, the cultivator’s meridians would be cleansed and his body would also develop its inner essence. 

Qi Refining was the first challenge a mortal would face upon entering a sect.

Even when Yu Qiu had achieved this layer before, he still had to try and try again on this first challenge. At midnight, Yu Qiu’s forehead was dripping with sweat. He had circulated his qi throughout his meridians, and it would take him half a week before he could expel it.

Although the methods of Qi Refining were no secret in the mortal world, a lot of ordinary people would get stuck in this stage, making immortality seem like a vague dream. It made many people to think that Qi Refining was just ridiculous.

Without proper guidance, many people would not be able to step out of this layer their whole life. However, if one could receive guidance from a cultivator who had reached at least the fifth layer, then this step can become extremely easy.

Therefore, having a teacher to guide you is very important.

But Yu Qiu did not need a guide.

If he couldn’t do it once, then he’d do it two, three times. Even if he failed for thirty, three hundred, or three thousand times, he’d just keep on going until success is achieved.

While Yu Qiu was practicing, he did not notice that the strange circle-like pattern above his wrist was flickering–bright, dark, bright–with every attempt he made.

After countless times, dawn had broken.

Yu Qiu had still not given up. Another round of spiritual qi was introduced into his body and into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians [5], his four limbs and his bones. Just one meridian more. He failed on this point last time, but this time, with an inhale of spiritual qi and under Yu Qiu’s control, he finally pa.s.sed through the last one!

After one last round of qi circulation, he finally succeeded. The circle above his wrist was also flas.h.i.+ng fiercely at this moment before resuming to normal.

Yu Qiu was soaked in sweat.

Yet he didn’t stop to rest immediately. The polis.h.i.+ng of the body and the spirit was very little in one cycle [6]. The important thing was to complete the second and third cycles while his body had not forgotten the feeling. Until the feeling had been completely ingrained into his body, only then can it be a.s.sured that he can naturally finish the whole process on the next time.

It was only when the sky had turned bright did Yu Qiu eventually stop.

He opened his eyes, swept his sweaty hair away from his forehead, and stretched out his legs which had been folded all night. He tried to get up, but fell askew on the ground.

Yu Qiu was stunned for a while before he remembered that he had not slept or eaten all night… After all, he hadn’t considered eating and sleeping as a daily necessity for many years. 

Fortunately, the physical condition wasn’t too bad. After a night of cultivation, his body had always improved a little better.

He had entered through the door of immortality and successfully transformed from being an ordinary man to a cultivator of the Qi Refining layer.

Although being in the Qi Refining layer was not much different from being a mortal…

Yu Qiu was so hungry that he wanted to find something to eat in the house, but the family didn’t even have a single grain of rice.

Yu Qiu went into the room to see if the old man was awake.

The sight frightened him. The old man did not wake up, and he also had a fever!

1 虽然在之后数百年间的相处中，这份恩情早就已经被于秋还清，两人间的因果恩怨却不断地了了又结，结了又了，纷纷杂杂缠缠绕绕，扯不清楚。

From how I understood it, the entire paragraph is basically saying something like “Yu Qiu would owe Xu Hong, but then he pays it back” and vice versa. And because they would often owe each other something and would later pay each other back, it’s become difficult to keep track of who owes more and who still needs to pay back.

Keeping track of every single favor a person owes you and whatnot might sound baffling to Westerners, but it’s quite common in Asian countries. And the “owing” and “paying back,” in this case, doesn’t exactly work like a business transaction where, once the debt is paid, you can just forget about it. Asians value social relations.h.i.+ps a lot. Even after the “debt is paid,” both parties will still try to maintain a mutually beneficial relations.h.i.+p. It’s a bit hard to explain and this note is getting really long, so I’ll just stop here.Return ▲

2 因果

Also translated as “karma.” Return ▲

3 迟疑

Actually means “to hesitate.” “Not worth panicking over and hesitating” doesn’t really sound good, so I changed it. Return ▲

4 巧妇难为无米之炊

Idiom that means “People who are more capable than others can hardly succeed if they lack the necessary conditions when doing things.” () Return ▲

5 奇经八脉 (qí jīng bā mài)

These act as reservoirs or pathways for the circulation of Qi. () Return ▲

6 周天 (Zhōu tiān)

Literally translated as Sunday but, in Taoism, it means circulation. Thanks very much for explaining this! Return ▲