Seal Cultivation For Self-Improvement Chapter 4 Part1

“Mother.” Xiao Chunmian’s gaze suddenly cooled down. “You’re sick again.”

The woman ignored him, and thinking that slapping the left cheek was not enough, she raised her hand again to slap the right cheek. 

Seeing his benefactor encountering such a thing in his own home, Yu Qiu naturally couldn’t stand it. However, this was the young master’s own mother. Yu Qiu couldn’t protest. With no other choice, he rushed to block the incoming slap and let it land on his arm.

However, since Yu Qiu had not yet eaten, his Qi Refining layer was like floating clouds [1]. When he was. .h.i.t by the slap, he fell askew to the ground.

Fortunately, Xiao Chunmian helped him in time.

However, his support only angered the woman further.

“Where did this savage boy come from!” The woman scolded Yu Qiu and then pointed to Xiao Chunmian, swearing, “Did you run out of the house just to meet with this savage? How dare you meet a man in private! What a scandal, what a scandal! You’re throwing away the face of the whole Xiao family!”

“We’re outside, not in the mansion!” Xiao Chunmian’s face turned cold again. “Father will be back soon. Do you think father will be happy if he knew what happened today?”

The retainers had to come forward and take away Mrs. Xiao while the woman tried to beat and kick them. They grabbed Mrs. Xiao’s arms and tried dragging her back to the Xiao mansion through a path with less people, while she incessantly cursed at them.

“Sorry, Xiao Qiu.” Xiao Chunmian fell behind, revealing a shy smile. “Today, I made you see a big joke.”

Yu Qiu didn’t know what expression to use in facing the other party’s family affairs, so he simply smiled.

This silly smile was just right for him to keep pretending. Xiao Chunmian thought that he was still muddle-headed and sighed. He wanted to talk more, but Mrs. Xiao was getting restless and the retainers couldn’t handle her anymore. Xiao Chunmian had to help them carry her back.

Xiao Chunmian couldn’t help but frown. Yu Qiu looked at the wound on the young master’s face.

Yu Qiu thought that about what a pity it would be if such a beautiful face would be marred by a wound. He couldn’t help but reach out, wanting to touch it, but when he thought of how his fingers were too dirty, he held back. He quickly turned around, looking for the bucket of water he brought yesterday, and thoroughly washed his wands.

After washing, his thin and yellowish hands, though still small and sickly, looked a lot cleaner.

“Hey, Xiao Qiu…” Xiao Chunmian was in a hurry to say goodbye to him. Seeing this scene, he could neither laugh nor cry.

Yu Qiu ran up to him, and wiped Xiao Chunmian’s face with his clean fingers. Xiao Chunmian thought he felt a slight chill, and before the wound started hurting again, Yu Qiu’s fingers had retreated.

In this seemingly light touch, Yu Qiu had tried hard to gather his soul power into his fingertips as he quickly drew a pattern on the teenager’s face. Naturally, this was no ordinary pattern, but a seal. If a Seal Cultivator were present, he’d probably recognize this as a part of the Rejuvenation Seal. It’s a very small part; perhaps, merely a stroke.

Normally, if a cultivator of a mere Qi Refining Layer were to draw a seal without any materials, it would have no effect at all.

In fact, Xiao Chunmian felt nothing. His injury was still there.

However, this was the best that Yu Qiu could do right now. Through a seemingly simple stroke, he condensed the essence of his hundreds of years worth of knowledge, including his unfinished research–how to efficiently simplify the seals in limited conditions so that they can still perform their most important function.

After retreating, Yu Qiu unexpectedly staggered again. Half of his soul power was already consumed from creating those ghost seals yesterday, and he hadn’t rested much too. Now, his soul power was completely drained and his head suddenly started aching.

This was a symptom of overexerting the soul. It was not Yu Qiu’s first time experiencing it, so he was well-prepared.

Xiao Chunmian, however, did not know the reason. He was frightened and quickly grabbed Yu Qiu’s hand to steady him.

Yu Qiu smiled and said, “Now it won’t leave a scar.”

Xiao Chunmian was stunned, but then smiled, “So Xiao Qiu is really powerful.”  He wasn’t serious though, and his tone was like that of someone coaxing a child.

Seeing this back and forth exchange, Mrs. Xiao was no longer just restless; she started rioting!

Xiao Chunmian sighed, and finally, he stuffed several pieces of broken silver into Yu Qiu’s hand. He told him to use it where he wanted, then he turned around and ran to Mrs. Xiao.

Seeing him coming, Mrs. Xiao became silent.

Yu Qiu wanted to chase after Xiao Chunmian and give back the silver, but when Mrs. Xiao saw him approaching, she reacted as if she was seeing severe floods and fierce beasts [2]. She tried her best to keep him away from Xiao Chunmian. One of the retainers had to send Yu Qiu away politely.

It seemed like hearing Mrs. Xiao’s hurling insults earlier was no illusion. She was guarding against Yu Qiu like how a mother would if a man were to approach her daughter.

Watching this group of people go away, Yu Qiu’s mouth twitched: What is this called…

Yu Qiu couldn’t help thinking: Could Xiao Chunmian actually be a woman dressed as a man?

Not to mention, he had a beautiful face. Matched with a gentle name and a gentle character, the possibility was not that small.

Yu Qiu pondered and then went back into the house.

After waiting a little longer, Doctor Zhang finally lifted the curtain and came out of the room.

“How is it?” asked Yu Qiu.

Doctor Zhang frowned and looked at him, apparently very disgusted. But he was invited by Xiao Chunmian and was even paid with silver. He had to be responsible for his patients. Finally, he patiently explained the situation to Yu Qiu.

Generally speaking, although the old man had a fever after he was injured yesterday, the injury was just a trigger. The root cause was that the old man was too poor, malnourished, depressed, and had been drinking for many years, which made him irremediable.

At last, Doctor Zhang wrote a list, saying that, although he had saved the old man, Yu Qiu would have to nourish his father’s foundations slowly; otherwise, something would happen sooner or later.

Yu Qiu took the list and thanked Doctor Zhang before sending him out.

Then he weighed in his hand the broken silver that Xiao Chunmian gave him. Although Yu Qiu did not want to have too much involvement [3] with the same person at once, he was not too stubborn. Since he couldn’t refuse, and he really needed a sum of money right now, then he’d gladly accept the money. He would remember the amount clearly and pay Young Master Xiao later when he had the chance.

Fortunately, a debt of money is the easiest debt [3] in the world.

Yu Qiu went to the money bank and, in front of everybody’s gazes, he exchanged one of the silver ingots for a handful of copper money. He then bought several white steamed buns on his way back.

He ate half and left half of the steamed buns. Yu Qiu felt so alive again and, in his heart, he was deeply grateful to Xiao Chunmian.

When he got home, Yu Qiu repaired a chair that had been damaged yesterday, dragged it into the room and placed it beside the old man’s bed, and put the rest of the steamed bread on it. Yu Qiu glanced at the bed and saw there wasn’t much s.p.a.ce left. He didn’t want to squeeze in with the old man, so he picked a corner in the room and slept with his arm as a pillow.

His soul power was running low and he needed to rest.

He would’ve liked to take advantage of sleep to continue cultivating, integrating the process of Qi refining in his daily life, but for now… He had to wait until his soul recovered.

1 浮云 

Idiom which means “nothing” or “meaningless.” Return ▲

2 洪水猛兽

Idiom which means “great scourge” or “extremely threatening.” Return ▲

3 因果

Involvement… debt… The word used here is actually 因果 (yīnguǒ), which means “karma” or “cause and effect.” The concept of karma is mentioned several times throughout the novel, so I thought I should make it clear right now that I won’t always be using the word “karma” to translate it, coz it will sound redundant. There are also times the author uses “karma” as a verb… but in English, as far as I know, karma can only be used as a noun.

Starting from the next chapter, I will be marking the words that are translated from 因果 with an asterisk if I’m not directly using the word karma just to remind the readers that the words hold more weight than they sound. “Karma,” after all, is a sort of philosophy… a lifestyle even. And replacing such a profound word with everyday terms would inevitably make it lose a part of its meaning.

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And wow… Yu Qiu sure takes this whole karma thing seriously. If I were to lend him some money, I bet he’d pay me back tenfold!

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