Joy of Life Vol 1 Chapter 33

Five-Bamboo was a very strange and mysterious person. In Fan Xian’s eyes, Five-Bamboo led a lonely life – even after more than thirty years, he was still single. Excluding him, he did not have anyone else to talk to. There were even some amongst the people in Danzhou who thought that Five-Bamboo was not only blind, but also mute.

His eyes were forever hidden by that piece of black cloth. Fan Xian suspected that it must be quite a terrible sight.

As Teacher Fei also referred to him as Master Five, it was obvious that Uncle Five-Bamboo used to be an official in the Capital. However, nothing about his behavior gave the impression that he was an “official”. He even gave t___ underneath it, which would explain why he was unwilling to let anyone see underneath it. Five-Bamboo gave off an otherworldly vibe, as if he was a immortal which did not require sustenance from our world.

As he thought about this, Fan Xian casually glanced towards him. After asking that sentence, Five-Bamboo was silent once more as he “gazed” coldly towards the twilight in the horizon. The gentle crimson glow enveloped him, reflecting on the black cloth shrouding his eyes as a brilliant orange light resembling fire. (Yea the phrasing seems slightly awkward here; will go about changing it some other time. ~MCM)

Fan Xian suddenly thought of something outrageous and, after considering for a long while, stammered, “Uncle, you have been staring at those mountainous mirages for quite a long time… could you possibly be… from Heaven?” (The Chinese have the belief that people who trained in mountains eventually become immortals, or at least that’s what I got from the wuxia dramas I watched since young anyways. The connection between immortal and Heaven here is pretty wonky here though. I mean just because you’re an immortal doesn’t mean you’re from Heaven… Yea wells, that’s just my two cents worth ~MCM)

He had come to accept the concept of inner energy and even gradually came to believe that there are higher beings that were merciful enough to allow him to experience all that he had in this world. However, if he was told that the partner who had gotten along with for years actually turned out to be a deity, he would not be able to casually accept it. An immortal hero would only scare the shit out of him.

Five-Bamboo shook his head and replied blandly, “I was just reminiscing about the place where me and the mistress had arrived in.”

“Are you sure you’re not a deity? What about my mum?”

“Are there even deities in this world?”

“Wasn’t there a Temple?”

“And who said that deities lived within the Temple?”

“Uncle, are you suddenly remembering something?”

“No. I was merely trying to forget some trivial things.”

……

……

Five-Bamboo stood up and faced the sea again. He nodded faintly towards the ocean, as though he was bidding farewell to some unknown place. “Let us return. There are some things I can finally tell you”, he said softly.

Fan Xian smiled gently, his mother told Five-Bamboo to inform him of his circumstances when he grew to the age of ten, knowing that the latter did not forget the promise; he would tell him the circumstances of his birth.

As he walked towards the cliff face, he breathed in deeply. The inner energy within his body began to slowly flow out along the meridians and gathering onto his palms. He stuck himself to the cliff’s surface. The inner energy was forced unto the palm’s surface for about a short distance before being taken back into the body. When it met a surface, an intricately small notch was formed – because inner energy is formless, it could guarantee that the circumference of the palm would create a snug fit  in the notch. (I’m not quite sure how to picture this in my head as well. Would rephrase this at a later date if necessary ~MCM)

His palm was securely attached to the smooth granite, relying solely on the adhesive ability of the inner energy holding him in

The average martial art practitioner, no matter the place. After releasing inner energy on one hand, he would move his hand downwards. Just like that, Fan Xian easily climbed down the cliff.

Just like Spiderman.

No matter how abundant the inner energy within his body was, would not be able to do this. The only reason Fan Xian could succeed in this was due to his unorthodox training method and the makeup of his body as well as his unorthodox methods of doing things.

In this world, all of the martial arts practitioners only cared about “amount” and “power”. The former naturally referred to the abundance of inner energy and the latter referred to a more subtle meaning that was similar to the extent of inner energy one can expend. It would never occur to even the strongest of fighters to consider using the power of natural energy.

From what Five-Bamboo gathered, “amount” and “power” was…… actually the same as the quantity and quality of inner energy as well as the extent of mastery one would have on it. Currently, Fan Xian has already been tutored under him for a decade and has a power level between level three and seven-and-a-half. Yet, there were basically no improvements after for four years now.

Martial art practitioners would often consciously treat the inner energy within their own body as a sort of tool or weapon. Just like water that is thrown away, once it is used to attack an opponent, they would be unable to get it back. After a long battle, their inner energy would be exhausted but they would simply meditate to recover the inner energy.

And the people of this world were not wrong to think of it this way. Once the inner energy has left the body, it was only wishful thinking to be able to retrieve it back. But Fan Xian was different. The inner energy in his body cycled in a different way compared to a normal person. Behind his back, there was a small opening in the Snow Mountain that acted like an entrance connecting the natural energy from the world outside with him. He was thus more sensitive to the use of inner energy compared with the average person.

At the same time, Fan Xian was often… bored... as well as very stingy… which was why he would keep trying to force the inner energy out before attempting to absorb it back in.

After painstakingly experimenting for three years, he could now send inner energy out of his palm for about one millimeter before absorbing them all back.

It was nigh impossible to attack any enemy with such a short distance. Fan Xian could only grudgingly admit that the training he had been doing for the past three years was rather useless.

Since he had learnt such a useless trick though, he felt that he must use it to its fullest.  Because every three days, he would have to climb the cliff, he came up with such a technique to scale the wall using that principle.

Perhaps Fan Xian’s talent over the people of this world was this. His train of thought was not restricted to the teachings of the place and he did not have any preconceptions; to him, everything was new and fresh and everything seemed possible to him. Fan Xian was like a fish that swam down the cliff. Raising his head upwards, he saw that Five-Bamboo had already become a black speck on the edge of the summit. He was not in a hurry, and smiled while he gazed up. He always enjoyed seeing Five-Bamboo descend the mountain.

Five-Bamboo took a few steps forward, as though the cliff’s edge was further.

His feet met an empty plot of air, and his silhouette began to fall slowly. Every thirty feet or so, he would extend a palm and pressed gently on the stone face of the cliff to slow down the speed of his descend. After approximately ten palm strikes, he was standing at the bottom of the cliff expressionlessly.

Although the method Five-Bamboo used seemed simple (What the fuck, as if anyone other than Chuck Norris would consider that simple. ~MCM)(I’m dead lol -MCW) (It can look simple, even if it's hellish to in practice~~ Freya), it required great precision in terms of the direction, angle, power, speed as well as taking into account the strong gust from the sea. To be able to detect the exact timing required great calculation and judgment, which was to be expected of one of the elite fighters of this world.

If you consider the fact that he is blind, you could eliminate one of the two. (Not so sure what the author was trying to say here. May rephrase this later ~MCM)

No matter how many times he has seen this, Fan Xian could not stop himself from praising him aloud. “This blind master is badass.”

Chapter end