The Earth Mother Goddess gives birth to children, and the Heavenly God cares for them. Children born from the earth look up at the sky as they grow. All creation under heaven and earth is born and dies by the grace of the two gods, continuing a massive cycle. That must be the principle of how all things flow.
However, as they say, even among five fingers, there are some that hurt less. Even if the Heavenly God is a stern father, he is not a fair one; even if the Earth Mother Goddess is a loving mother, she is not a meticulous one. Among children, there are bound to be those who grow exceptionally well, and those who are stunted.
The children of the Enger Plains were exceptionally, perhaps a bit excessively, well-grown.
"Ah. They're massive, massive."
Standing on a small hill, I clicked my tongue at the sight of a black river meandering and flowing. The black fur fluttering in the wind looked just like black ink flowing like a river. Hundreds, thousands of water buffaloes with such fur were marching in one direction, shaking the ground.
The massive river of beasts flowing along the grass instead of waterways was beyond magnificent; it was destructive. If you threw a pebble in their path, it seemed like it would turn into fine sand in a few seconds. The herd of beasts, holding up their bifurcated curved horns, was leaving to find prey, retaining primitive power.
I could cross if I wanted to, but I decided to wait until that river of beasts ended. Getting bored, I asked the regressor.
"Mr. Shei, if you fought those, could you win?"
"What nonsense is that? If it were one or two, I could hunt them without difficulty, but there's no reason to fight that entire herd. Who would do such a foolish thing?"
"So you'd lose?"
"If it's not hunting but killing them all, then it's possible. Of course, I won't do it. If I used Jizan for such a pointless mass slaughter, I'd fall out of its favor again. I coaxed it and barely manage to carry it around."
You don't care about people's moods but you care a lot about Jizan's. Just live with Jizan.
"Aji. Can you win?"
Aji lifted his head and shouted.
"Lose!"
"How confident. Don't you have pride as a king?"
"Pride doesn't feed me!"
"Wise."
"You can't win either!"
Hmph. It seems like he's trying to provoke me, but no way. I have no regrets about being weak. What am I supposed to do about being born this way? Instead of blaming the world, my job is to find a way to survive.
"Of course. Because I'm weak. If possible, I must resolve things through dialogue. If I can't resolve it through dialogue, I just won't fight at all."
"Woof? Dialogue? Can't do it?"
"It's not like that's the king of cattle, how do I talk to it?"
"I can do it!"
"What?"
Aji abruptly ran down towards the water buffalo herd.
He seems confident, but isn't that strange? The reason beast kings can communicate with each other is because they take human form. Just because he's the Dog King doesn't mean he can understand the language of water buffaloes. He can roughly convey emotions through atmosphere and facial expressions, but there's a huge difference from expressing intentions among their own kind.
"Don't provoke them too much and come back!"
If he provokes them and comes back, it becomes dangerous for the group. Not him, me.
Taking a short break, the regressor raised Tian'e high above his head. It looked comical, but there was a rational reason for the regressor taking such a pose. The essence of Tian'e is compressed space. It must contain the power of wind to exert its powerful authority.
The Heavenly Sword, Tian'e, contained a near-inexhaustible amount of wind, but when facing Sangun, I drew too much of Tian'e's power and nearly depleted it. If I don't gather wind whenever I can during the trip, its power will run out halfway.
"If only the wind was sufficient, we could have just crossed over."
The grumbling regressor suddenly seemed to remember something and asked me.
"Hmm? Come to think of it, Hughs. You ate a spirit elixir, right?"
"Yes. I did."
"How is it?"
"The efficiency isn't very good. For eating three spirit elixirs, it was negligible."
The regressor nodded as if he expected that and comforted me.
"Everyone's ability to absorb spirit elixirs is different. You almost threw away the Xiangya Pill last time too, didn't you? The absorption rate varies depending on talent and constitution, and above all, you have to be young to better attach Qi to your body. Don't be too disappointed."
Telling me not to be disappointed, but he seems subtly pleased? I'm sorry, but I'm on the normal side, not a dull-witted fool. I took out a card and infused Qi into it.
"With Qian Qigong, this much."
I attached a card to my index finger and flicked it. The card moved as if it had become one with my finger.
Even a magician of my level cannot attach a card to a single finger without any other device. You have to secretly hold it in your palm or secretly wedge it between your fingers, otherwise there's no way other than Qigong.
"Just one card? You're skillful, but anyone can do that much if they only know the basics of Qian Qigong. Didn't you do it in the Wudi Chasm too?"
"Well, yeah. This much doesn't even count as magic."
Originally, my feeble Qigong would have reached its limit here. But I am currently in a state of having digested the spirit elixir. I put strength into my finger and infused Qi.
Wuuung. A gray glow arose along the edges of the card. The spreading light gradually became one with the card and flashed sharply.
"Huh? Sword Qi?"
"It's not as great as Sword Qi. I just wrapped it thinly around the card with Qian Qigong."
Qian Qigong is a Qigong that reaches out to all things in the world. It is a technique that controls all things using Qi as a medium.
The first stage is moving objects in contact with my body, like adhesion or repulsion.
The second stage is changing the properties of an object with the infused Qi.
The third stage is forming a shape with pure Qi to expand the object.
And the fourth stage is using Qigong with that pure Qi. At this point, you can create a blade with Qigong even without a blade, so it is sometimes called Sword Aura or Sword Qi.
You have to achieve up to this fourth stage to be said to have attained Great Success in Qian Qigong. Well, depending on the person, some say you have to catch wind or flowing water with Qigong to attain Great Success, but that's a difference in knack and Qi capacity, not a difference in realm.
"That much is the third stage, the realm of Emanation, isn't it?"
"I knew the knack. I just didn't have enough Qi to do it."
People who learn Qigong talk about enlightenment or gaining the mind, but honestly, it's just a knack. Just like shuffling cards or pulling from the bottom of the deck makes you stutter at first, but once you get used to it, you can do it while thinking about something else, Qigong is the same.
With my mind-reading, how many thoughts have I read? There's no way I wouldn't know the knack. I just struggled because I didn't even have the strength to hold a card with my Qi capacity.
"Your realm seems higher than I thought. Huh? This should be enough?"
The regressor, having remembered something, slashed at the empty air with Tian'e five or six times. Something whitish wavering flowed from the sliced space, and the cloud rising from Tian'e was cut into a square.
The regressor held out the stair-cloud to me.
"Here, Hughs. Get on."
"On what?"
"This. Until now, I wrapped you in wind to move, but I don't think there's a need for that anymore. If you have Qigong, you can stand on the stair-cloud."
If there was a good point about traveling with the regressor, it was that I could walk without putting in much effort. Aji is fast even just walking, and the regressor flies around riding Tian'e. Then I'm the only slow one left, but they can't leave me behind, so they grab me with wind and move.
It was comfortable and nice. I dragged my feet and stalled.
"I'm fine."
"I'm not fine! The speed slows down. Try holding onto the stair-cloud with Qigong and stand. If you can move by riding the stair-cloud, it's much faster and lasts longer."
"If you only look for the easy way, your own abilities won't develop."
"That's exactly what I'm saying to you! Just endure it a bit!"
Just because it's true doesn't mean you can say it out loud. Do you know it's defamation by stating facts? And you might not know well, but I had a glass ceiling! No matter how hard I tried, being normal was my limit!
I grumbled and got on the cloud stairs. The stairs made of whitish clouds looked so soft that my feet would sink, but when I concentrated my mind and breathed out Qi, it wove together firmly enough to stand on.
"Uwah, this is a bit difficult."
"You have to emit Qi so you don't lose your body's balance while stepping on the cloud stairs. It requires a sense of balance and careful Qi control. It might be hard to learn in a short time, but you won't die even if you fall, right? Let's just learn by falling in actual combat."
"I don't want to. It hurts when I fall."
"Then do your best not to fall. If you can stand intact even for one minute, we'll depart."
"One minute?"
"Yeah, one minute. Knack is important. You'll have to emit more Qi where you want to step harder. Try hard. This is helpful for you too. It's also a training method that simultaneously trains the body and Qigong. Isn't it great that you can train while moving?"
"Not really."
"I don't know the detailed principles, but if you've learned Qigong, try learning it to the end. If push comes to shove, I'll give you something like a spirit elixir or a manual. Right, just hold out for one minute..."
"Mr. Shei."
"Yeah?"
"One minute has already passed."
"Huh?"
The regressor suddenly looked at my appearance again. I was standing on the stair-cloud, calmly waving my hand. Seeing me as if I were standing on the ground, the regressor was a bit surprised.
"It works?"
"I have a good knack."
If it's something a normal human can do, I can do it too. What I can't do is things that are impossible due to physical limits, or things too personal for me to achieve. For example, like the Principle or the Innate Demon Path.
Until now, I could barely use Qigong and magic due to the physical limit of lacking Qi and mana, but now that I've overcome it, I've achieved at least the level of Qiankun.
"No, no matter how good your knack is. To stand on a cloud with Qigong from the start...?"
'It took me a whole month just to stand properly...! How much I had to watch the mood when I first learned how to use Tian'e! What is this? If you're the King of Humans, you're naturally a genius?'
Uh, I'm normal, not a dull-witted fool, okay? Compared to you, maybe a bit. And since I'm the King of Normal Humans, I can mostly do what a normal human can do. Literally, my knack is good.
"...Tch. Tch. Tch. Tch."
Even so, the regressor was clicking his tongue repeatedly while glaring at me.
"Mr. Shei. You're splattering saliva. Are you marking your territory? Getting your bodily fluids all over the place."
"I didn't click my tongue so hard that saliva splatters! Don't get arrogant just because you're a little good at something!"
"Arrogant? That's what I'm worst at. Have I ever boasted that I'm strong or let my guard down? If we're being fair, Mr. Shei is the one who let his guard down the most."
"Just get ready to depart! From now on, we'll be riding the stair-cloud!"
At that moment, my body instantly lost its strength and my feet slipped right through the stair-cloud. At the same time, the dark gray cloud that contained Qi returned to a pure white cloud before it could gather again.
"Uh, my Qi is all worn out."
"What?! Already?"
"Even if I ate a spirit elixir, there's a limit to the Qi a middle-aged man of my age can absorb. I guess this much was my limit."
"Lies!... Wait, it isn't? Qi depletion? Why is there no Qi left?"
The regressor's eyes momentarily turned yellow and then returned. In that brief moment, the regressor gauged my Qi with his Seven-Color Eyes and was puzzled.
"You use Qigong well, so why can't you make it your own?"
"Well. Maybe because it's not my body?"
That's because I am the Demon God. There is still a sense of disconnect between the body I perceive as mine and the body the Demon God is inhabiting. Even if I drink spirit elixirs like water, the amount absorbed is minimal.
"If that's not your body, then what is? No, more importantly. Are you okay with Qi depletion? If your Qi is completely drained, you'll feel so debilitated that it'll be hard to even move a finger."
"Ah, is this debilitation? It's exactly the same as my usual self."
I've always lived without Qigong, so I don't really know. I'm not sure, but my motivation has definitely dropped. I drooped my hands and feet and said.
"I guess I'll have to rely on you. Please move me with wind again."
"No! I couldn't gather the wind because I made the stair-cloud just now!"
"See, why did you do something pointless."
"That's what I should be saying! What are you going to do if you drain all your energy while practicing!"
"Woof!"
It was when I was bickering with the regressor. Aji ran up to the hill where I was with a bright expression.
"What. Where did you go and come back now..."
Behind such an Aji, two large-horned water buffaloes followed with sullen expressions.
Curved soaring horns. Fur so dense that the skin wasn't visible. And muscles that even that fur couldn't hide. A human who hasn't learned Qigong could never oppose them, and even if they learned Qigong, winning would be hopeless without a suitable weapon and detailed countermeasures.
The water buffalo with a back taller than my height looked at me and snorted. This guy Aji, I told him not to provoke them, but he ended up bringing water buffaloes. To you they might be fellow beasts, but to me they're a disaster.
As I stepped back on guard, Aji snapped his head back and said.
"Hey! Get on!"
"What?"
"They said they'll give you a ride!"
When I turned my head, the water buffalo was snorting and showing its back.