The Return of Cambrian Period Volume 1 Chapter 12 8 Dec 30, 2019

Before reading this chapter, I seriously recommend you read through the ridiculously OVERSIMPLIFIED explanation below...

1/"Three Treasures", a concept in traditional Chinese medicine

"Three Treasures", which are Jing (精) - Essence, Qi (氣) - Energy and Shen (神) - Spirit, are the essential energies sustaining human life in Chinese traditions. They are theoretical cornerstones in traditional Chinese medicine and some martial art practices such as Qigong & Tai chi.

2/ Qigong (氣功)

Qigong (cultivation of energy) can be defined as a form of moving meditation that allows those who practice it to balance the flow of energy throughout their body. It is the basis for martial arts.

3/ Dantian (丹田)

Dantian can be considered as the energy center within our body. They are important focal points for transmutation of Jing (essence), Qi (energy) and Shen (spirit). These points act like the "refineries" that will refine Jing, Qi & Shen into more elevated states. There are 3 main dantian points in human body:

- Lower dantian: below the navel, where the process of refining and purifying Jing (essence) into Qi (energy) begins.

- Middle dantian: at the level of the heart. This is where Qi (energy) is refined into Shen (spirit).

- Upper dantian: at the forehead between the eyebrows. This is where Shen (spirit) is refined into Wu Wei (a mental state in which our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment with the flow of life).

4/ Neili (內力)

Neili (internal power) is the power that will be generated if martial art practitioners practice the art long enough. It is a very well-known concept in the Chinese novel genre Wuxia and probably Xianxia as well.

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The two men walked for more than an hour. The sewage pipe seemed to have no end. There was suffocating darkness everywhere they went.

Cheng Tianbi was so hungry that he had stomach cramps. He finally couldn't endure it anymore and slowly sat down against the wall. Cong Xia's condition was much better than him. When he saw this, he squatted down as well.

"How are you feeling?"

Cheng Tianbi's hand touched his stomach and he lowered his head.

"Hungry?"

Cheng Tianbi nodded.

"Just let me rest a little bit."

"What's the point of resting when you're hungry."

Cong Xia looked around worriedly, the light of the flashlight was very limited, all he could see were wild grasses.

If he wasn't reluctant because of the fact that these grasses could be poisonous, Cheng Tianbi would have already eaten them. However, his rationality would also not last for much longer. Those who had never experienced the taste of hunger would never understand.

Cong Xia observed Cheng Tianbi's tired look, he felt unbearable in his heart. He walked around, grabbed a kind of weeds that seemed to be harmless and stuffed them into his mouth without even thinking.

He didn't worry whether these things were poisonous or not. Since that jade could save him once, it would save him a second time.

The bitter taste of weeds permeated his mouth. Cong Xia suppressed the urge to vomit, he almost spit it out. He had never eaten such a bitter thing in his life. At that moment, he could feel that his tongue was all numb. Cheng Tianbi frowned and looked at him.

"Don't just put anything in your mouth."

Cong Xia grabbed a bunch of weeds and sat down next to him. He smiled, showing his canine teeth. His fair-skinned face was twisted.

"This is for you... Try it. If it's not poisonous, then you should eat it. Even if you can't swallow it down, you still have to."

Cheng Tianbi grabbed his nape with one hand and hit his jaw with the other. Puking sound was coming from Cong Xia as he threw up everything in his mouth.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

[Note: ptooey = an imitation of the sound of spitting. It's an onomatopoeia.]

Cong Xia desperately spat out the thing in his mouth. He wiped his mouth. There was the expression of someone who had just been resurrected on his face. However, when he looked at the weeds on the ground that were chewed half way, he had no choice but said.

"What have you done? I had to go through a lot of hardship to eat it."

"I won't be able to fill my stomach with these things no matter how much I eat."

"But there is nothing else to eat now."

Cheng Tianbi took something out of his backpack, Cong Xia got closer to have a look, it was a bundle of incense sticks that were as thick as a thumb.

"What kind of incense is this?"

"It's the insect repellent incense for outdoor use."

"Can it make the insects faint?"

"No, follow me."

"You want to eat bugs?"

Cheng Tianbi took a lighter and stood up.

"Still better than weeds."

There were indeed a lot of bugs in those grasses. They sounded oddly horrifying. Some bugs were bigger than his toes. At first, Cong Xia became frantic just because something crawled on him, but after walking for seven or eight hours in this broken pipe, he had already became emotionally numb. Cheng Tianbi handed both the incense and the lighter to Cong Xia.

"You smoke from that side, I'll block this side."

Cong Xia obediently squatted down aside, he lit the incense and smoked the grass. Within half a minute, a dozen of thumb-sized, soft-bodied, black worms suddenly emerged from the pitch black grass. Cong Xia did not expect there were so many bugs like that at all. He felt nauseous. He didn't have time to think about it much as the amount of bugs that came out was increasing. Not a lot of them had fast speed, they seemed rather clumsy. Only by slamming his backpack on the ground that Cheng Tianbi could kill a bunch of them.

After they had done smoking this area of grass, the two men moved to the next area. They did so for more than ten minutes. The ground was covered with corpses of insects, around forty or fifty of them.

Cong Xia wiped the sweat on his forehead, he looked at the squashed bugs and reluctantly said.

"Do we really have to eat them?"

Cheng Tianbi didn't even say any unnecessary, he already started to gather the corpses of the worms in front of him. Within a short time, a small pile of insects had piled up on the ground, all of which were soft, black worms. Some were still kicking their legs.

Cheng Tianbi alighted some dry weeds, surrounded the pile of worms with the weeds and started roasting them.

Cong Xia quietly turned his head away. As an extremely passionate food lover, when he thought about his current situation, he really wanted to cry.

After a while, the smell of roasted meat filled the air. Cong Xia gulped down his saliva.

"Are they poisonous?"

Cheng Tianbi said.

"It doesn't matter."

It was either death by starvation or death by poison. Indeed, just like Cheng Tianbi said, it didn't matter if they were poisonous or not.

After finished roasting, Cheng Tianbi sat down on the ground. He pierced a roasted worm with the military knife, threw it into his mouth and chewed it without any hesitation.

Cong Xia gulped down his saliva, squatted down aside and watched as Cheng Tianbi ate enthusiastically. He still felt reluctant towards these worms. Cheng Tianbi glanced at him.

"Come here and eat."

"I, I'm not as hungry as you. You should fill your stomach first."

Cheng Tianbi coldly said.

"You will slow us down. Eat. Quick."

Cong Xia shakingly leaned forward and picked up a piece of worm meat with his fingers. He hesitated for a few minutes, closed his eyes, clenched his teeth and stuffed it into his mouth.

The first thing that he felt was the extravagant meaty aroma. Cong Xia couldn't hold back and took a bite. It was crunchy and crispy. Although it lacked a little salt but it didn't taste bad at all. Cong Xia swallowed the meat in a few bites. When the food passed through the esophagus and reached the stomach, he felt the unprecedented satisfaction. Even his toes warmed up. This was not simply just having a meal, it was obviously salvation! This worm meat was extremely delicious!

Cong Xia shakingly reached out his hand. This time, he grabbed a small amount, stuffed all of them into his mouth and gobbled them up. Cheng Tianbi snorted.

"These are not enough for us to eat. We need to roast some more."

Cong Xia hastily nodded. Just like that, one of them smoked and the other roasted. All the way, they had eaten hundreds of bugs. After they were already full, the two men collapsed at the corner of the wall to rest.

Cong Xia laid on the ground for a while, then crawled next to Cheng Tianbi.

"Mr. Soldier, have you slept?"

"No."

In a place that danger was around every corner, he simply could not rest at ease.

"I'll be the guard for you, just sleep for a while."

"No need to."

"Just sleep for a while, just an hour, you are more tired than me. I will definitely wake you up by then."

Cheng Tianbi glanced at him.

"Don't fall asleep."

"Relax, I definitely won't fall asleep."

Cong Xia vowed while raising his wrist with a watch on it. Cheng Tianbi took a deep breath, held his assault rifle and planned to place his head on his bag to sleep for a while. Cong Xia quickly said in a servile way.

"Use my leg as your pillow. Your bag is full of weapon, it will be very uncomfortable to use it as a pillow."

Cheng Tianbi looked at Cong Xia's sincere and bright eyes. At first, he wanted to push him aside but then he didn't do it.

Cong Xia took the initiative to move the bag aside and straightened his legs. He even patted on his legs twice, then smiled gently at him.

"Come. Hurry and get some sleep, only if you maintain your physical strength that we can survive."

Cheng Tianbi was stunned for a moment, then he lied down. He rested his head on Cong Xia's thighs and closed his eyes.

Cong Xia's gaze moved from the bright forehead of Cheng Tianbi, to his curly eyelashes, to his tall nose and then his thin lips. He unconsciously smiled and softly said.

"Mr. Soldier, just sleep, please rest assured."

Cheng Tianbi soon fell into a light sleep. Cong Xia didn't dare to sleep, but he was very exhausted. He had to take the ancient jade out, had it in his hand and pondered, in an attempt to distract himself.

What was so amazing about this piece of jade? The old man said that he was his only descendant, he also said he had to learn something... What did he need to learn? Those Sanskrit words? Did it mean that he had to enter that void to get the answer?

Holding the piece of jade, Cong Xia silently thought about everything that happened in the void, every word that the old man had said and those Sanskrit words that were shining in golden light. Oddly enough, he understood all the Sanskrit words. However, at that time. they were dangling in front of his eyes and seemed to be mixed up disorderly. He didn't see anything in complete, but he clearly remembered the words like Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. He merely didn't know what it was saying.

It would be really good if he could take a closer look at those Sanskrit words, there must be a lot of mysterious secrets in it, he really wanted to take a look...

As he was thinking, Cong Xia was surprised to find that the ancient jade in his hand began to glow, the light changed from dim to bright. Those Sanskrit words appeared in his consciousness once again, but this time he was awake.

He quickly looked down at Cheng Tianbi, who happened to open his eyes at this moment. He suddenly sat up and looked around with great vigilance. Cong Xia said nervously.

"What, what's wrong?"

"I feel... I feel a tremendous amount of energy..."

He looked down at the glowing jade in Cong Xia's hand.

"It's the jade, isn't it?"

"I, I saw some texts."

"Where?"

"In my mind."

Cong Xia pointed at his head. He closed his eyes and those Sanskrit words in his mind formed a complete glowing "wall". In addition to the words on the "wall", there were also some pictures that he couldn't understand.

The way these Sanskrit words narrated was in the form of obscure ancient texts. Oddly enough, when Cong Xia started to read, those ancient texts, which were written in Sanskrit, were automatically described in his mind in modern language. Cong Xia started reading from the first paragraph. According to the text, he was required to refine non-elemental energy.

What is non-elemental energy?

What energy is it? What is non-elemental?

Cong Xia, with a lot of questions in his mind, continued to look down. What was written below was the method of refining non-elemental energy, which looked a lot like practicing Qigong. Absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon and continuously purifying the energy core. The purity of the energy core was also divided into seven levels, which were: first rank - reservation, second rank - fusion, third rank - earth, fourth rank - heaven, fifth rank - enigma, sixth rank - fundamental, seventh rank - purity.

Cong Xia felt dizzy. What the heck was the energy core?

He continued to look down, the texts wrote about refining non elemental energy. It was about the method of continuously refining and purifying the energy core. It also included the environmental effects, breathing methods, meditation content etc. In short, the more he read, the more mysterious it became, the more certain Cong Xia felt that this must be the way ancient people practice internal power.

Maybe the internal power is real.

If he really took the practicing martial arts of the ancient heroes as the example, then it would take several decades to concentrate of the internal power. He did not have decades to spend, it was already a miracle that he could live for dozens of days in this apocalypse.

"What did you see?"

Cheng Tianbi urged him. Cong Xia hurriedly opened his eyes.

"I saw a lot of wonderful things, I'll tell you later."

Cong Xia continued to look down. He found that the methods of refining non elemental energy were extremely strange. Some even said that drinking certain animal blood could enhance non elemental energy. But he never heard of this kind of beast. There were many more methods of refining non elemental energy in this jade that he didn't have the materials to carry out.

However, the more he saw, the more he was attracted by what was said on this "wall". The content contained in this ancient jade revolved around the rules of the five elements - Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. He also gradually understood that the non elemental energy mentioned at the beginning was free from the five elements, but at the same time, still blended in with the five elements.

[Note: In Chinese philosophy, the 5 elements are the building blocks of everything in the universe. The elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. They are also known as the Five Transformations of Energy, each of the elements represent a different phase of energy.]

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Cong Xia absorbed too much information all at once, not for long, he felt so exhausted and sweaty. He opened his eyes. The Sanskrit "wall" in his mind disappeared without a trace.

Cong Xia took a deep breath, he still had so many questions that needed answers urgently, but he couldn't read it any longer.

Cheng Tianbi didn't make a single move while watching him, waiting for him to speak. Cong Xia gulped down his saliva.

"It's amazing, this ancient jade is like a book with a lot of mysterious things that are hard to explained in it."

"Such as?"

Cong Xia looked at Cheng Tianbi and suddenly the power of the wind that evolved within Cheng Tianbi's body came to his mind.

Don't tell me... That energy is the energy mentioned in the ancient jade?

The more Cong Xia thought about it, the more certain he felt.

The usage of the word 'energy' was too broad. Electricity, water, even nuclear energy, couldn't they all be considered energy? But the energy this ancient jade referred to must be a certain kind, and it should be related to this global evolution.

If analyzing in this direction, the wind energy of Cheng Tianbi belonged to the element Wood. It was a kind of Wood energy. Everything in the world was made of the five elements. It was just that after Cheng Tianbi evolved, his inclination was towards the element Wood.

He, on the other hand, did not evolve, so he could not determine which element actually was more abundant in him.

Cong Xia grabbed Cheng Tianbi's hand and hurriedly said.

"Just feel it."

"Feel what?"

"Sit down, close your eyes, let your energy submerge in the energy center (dantian), feel the energy in your body. The ancient jade said that the vessel of the energy could feel the energy in his body which has condensed into a 'core'. I don't know if this 'core' is real or not, but if the energy mentioned in the ancient jade is the energy that was created by your evolution, then as the vessel of the energy, you should have a 'core' inside your body!"

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I swear this chapter is @#$%@^# hard to translate. I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching and making those terms as easy to understand as possible... -_-

I have no problem understanding this chapter (the fact that I'm Vietnamese helps a lot LOL), but for someone who is unfamiliar with Chinese philosophy, culture and martial art forms, it's gonna be difficult to get a hold of.

I have already tried my best to explain as clear as possible. Let me know if you still find it hard to understand. Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated.