Book 8: Chapter 57

Wh-where am I?Shen Yiren finally shed the sleep from her brain; however, she found herself in an ocean of darkness with no sense of direction or corroboration that she was still alive. She eventually gleaned that it wasn’t a blackness foreign to her. She wasn’t blind. She couldn’t see. Opening her eyes was an illusion.Fortunately, it didn’t take Shen Yiren too long to regain self-awareness and her sharp senses. With time, the recovery of her listening and smell enabled her to illustrate the interior of the room in her mind vividly to the point of almost having personally screened it with her eyes.It soon dawned on Shen Yiren that she wasn’t blind, paraplegic or diagnosed with some disease. It was purely a case of her mind and body’s disconnect. She could sense the wall that segregated her mind and body, a feeling that was hard to believe unless one experienced it in the flesh. The more she explored, the more “zones” she discovered her body had been divided into. She could search for muscle memory and fragments of her memories. Sadly, the “wall” was impregnable.Shen Yiren experimented with intense focus and bristling mental attacks to no avail.If only this wall was mental trauma. I’ve been through so much that I could easily mow the wall down. Nothing has ever kept me down mentally. Why did my opponent have to be my body this time? Damn fake death condition. I’ve never felt so physically powerless before.Shen Yiren never dreaded physical challenges as she embraced “mind over matter” arguably better than anyone; not even Abels overwhelming power convinced her to stay down, after all.Given she couldn’t do anything about her predicament, Shen Yiren abandoned thoughts that weren’t pragmatic, switching to her analytical mind, collating and studying the information on hand.Although Shen Yiren couldn’t quite recollect the outcome of her match against Abels, she had the rest of her memories in front of her regardless of how fragmented they were – a rather surreal phenomenon. Alas, memories of her hedging her life to survive Abels’ challenge onwards would elude her.I think I sped off on Battle Cloud and… fell into the water and… I guess I’ll have to ask my body for answers…Though she couldn’t mould true qi, Shen Yiren’s immobile body compensated with heightened senses, consequently magnifying that state of her physical damage. The silver lining among the list of inconveniences and unideal circumstances was that her internal injuries were drastically less debilitating than she estimated. She remembered breathing blood and barely feeling her body, yet her internal injuries were negligible.I can’t tell what the time is right now, but the aroma the breeze wafting in tells me that it’s winter. Did my body mutate or something? My injuries shouldn’t have healed so fast. Shen Yiren was stuck with an unsightly scar on her left wrist, and true qi automatically reversed when it travelled there, indicating that it was disabled.At least I have my right hand. I’d rather that than wield a pen on paper all day… How come… I still have my skills? How come my qi is more pure and potent than before? Was I training in my sleep? Why is even my qi circulating differently to Six Phenomena True Qi that I’ve always trained? There’s only thirty percent of it left.While Abels blocked Shen Yiren’s meridians, Ming Feizhen’s spirit, a conscious part of him, still existed, guiding her qi around her body using his style for one cycle to protect her life. The conscious and qi circulation method Ming Feizhen installed in Shen Yiren was derived from one of the three supreme styles that he learnt. Under normal circumstances, it was risky to circulate the qi the way Ming Feizhen did. Due to Abels blocking Shen Yiren’s meridians, though, he lowered the risk of qi deviation to the absolute minimum without detracting from the benefits of Ming Feizhen’s qi circulation method.Demanding qi to flow through a body with blocked meridians is akin to treading through criss-crossing ravines, where one wrong turn would lead to death even if one was an expert. An easy way to understand the danger of not being a hundred percent focussed when guiding one’s qi would be to imagine walking across a tight suspended over a pit of sharp spikes and falling to one’s death if doubt ever crept in for even a split second.Unless one had carved out a correct path and imprinted it to their subconscious, they could never be in two minds while circulating qi. Thus, Shen Yiren’s amazement at her new qi circulation method, more potent internal strength, the fading of her original system and intermediate level with her new system was justified because she hadn’t had a shred of awareness for some time. Even now, her true qi continued absorbing her original internal energy to upgrade her internal strength. The only way she could restore her old style was if she deleted all of her skills to start over from scratch.I don’t know what style this is, but this internal strength style’s structure is more intricate than any style I’ve ever beared witness to. Just how did I obtain this style? If I ever find out who caused this change, I’ll slap him into next week on the spot.Even though this new style proved exceptional enough to earn her praise and respect, Shen Yiren wasn’t quick to celebrate as she always took pride in inheriting Liu Shan Men’s styles and skills. Nonetheless, as it was a moot point to mull over a topic she couldn’t change or comprehend in her current state, she moved on.According to the two cases of fake death that I’ve read in the past, I need a stimulus strong enough to reconnect my brain and body.  In one case, the wife was euphoric upon giving birth to a child and came back to life when she was supposed to have died. The other case was an elder dying a bitter death. After bursting out in tears, he regained free movement. I wonder if there are even doctors who know this… Damn it! I hate being in a passive situation.Shen Yiren spent her time awake on contemplating things, so it was vexing for her. She learnt that it was Luo Siming, the last guest she was supposed to visit, who rescued her, popped in twice daily and always stressed to the servants that she was to be taken care of properly. Doctor Luo’s prescription and treatments also proved effective in gradually unclogging her meridians.Shen Yiren was shocked to learn that Zha Pi had infiltrated Luo Sword Manor as Reverend Zha. While she was glad to know she had such a loyal subordinate, she was annoyed that he ended up trapping himself there with her instead of getting her out.Over the course of days and days, Shen Yiren developed respect for Luo Siming as he was kind gentleman. Part of her believed that she could’ve moulded him into an accomplished man if he spent a few years as her apprentice. She evaluated him to be somewhat weak until the night he spilled his heart out for she understood the pressure he felt, coming from an influential clan and shouldering Liu Shan Men as he shoulder Luo Sword Manor. Shen Yiren’s respect for Luo Siming crumbled, however, when he slipped the pill into his mouth and leaned his face in, finding him repulsive.Growing up, Shen Yiren knew next to nothing about romance and habitually ignored men who fawned over her. While dense in romance, Shen Yiren easily distinguished between those genuinely sincere and those defiling her with their eyes due to the number of times she had to be subjected to them growing up.The respect and admiration Shen Yiren harboured for Luo Siming was comparable to a granny’s admiration for her grandson or the respect one showed another on the streets, which was why he irked her when he crossed the line.Inflamed, Shen Yiren regained nominal control over her right leg; she was dead certain she could stomp Luo Siming off if he actually did kiss her, having said that. When he was interrupted, she unexpectedly felt a wave of disappointment owing to her missing an opportunity to regain functioning of her right leg. Regardless of her effort thereafter, no improvements were made.At long last, an opportunity finally presented itself when somebody that sickened Shen Yiren more than Luo Siming did ogled her. After proving he ate filth, he boldly leaned his face in. Her nerves jolted, and her muscles contracted the same way a hunter’s did when preparing to prey.The two cases Shen Yiren previously read on curing fake death proved correct as her right leg exploded toward its target. She imagined herself swiping her nose with her thumb after and simpering upon stinging her prey.