Han Dongfang

Startled he looked at the source of the voice. The new arrival was a handsome youth with a trace of a mustache. He had short black hair and lively black eyes. He looked at Zhang Wuji with a soft smile "Hello there, I'm Han Dongfang. How may I address you?"

"Han Dongfang!" Zhang Wuji involuntarily exclaimed. Realizing his mistake he immediately corrected himself. "Senior brother Han, I got startled. I apologize for being disrespectful."

"No problem. I did surprise you with my sudden appearance." Han Dongfang waved it off and seated himself opposite Zhang Wuji on the right side of the cave entrance. "I dug this cave back when I first joined the sect. After becoming an inner disciple, I've been too busy to come here. Didn't expect it to be occupied by someone else in this time."

"I'm sorry I thought this was a natural cave." Zhang Wuji immediately stood up. This guy was the first ranker in outer sect tournament the year before the last one. He still remembered the absolute dominance with which he won the tournament. He was also the personal disciple of the sect master, not someone he could offend.

"Relax, sit down. I don't mind company. Also the cave though dug by me is still sect property. Feel free to use it. You still haven't told me your name."

"Zhang Wuji." He sat back down. He didn't want to go back yet and according to Lin Yingjie, this fellow was quite a friendly guy.

"I think I heard that name somewhere. Where was it.." he repeatedly tapped his forehead trying to remember "Oh are you the Zhang Wuji that betrayed Wang Bao for a girl?"

"What?" Zhang Wuji furrowed his brows. He didn't quite like the wording of the sentence.

"Ah sorry sorry, my bad. I just got excited meeting a main character of a rumor."

"It's ok. Yeah I'm him." He knew Wang Bao had his lackeys spread all kinds of rumors about him. He didn't expect it to have reached Han Dongfang's ears. He thought of him as some kind of a reclusive cultivation maniac.

"Sorry about what happened. I know this Wang Bao guy, this isn't the first time he did something like this. But it is the first time he generated so much hype. Usually he just beats all those who resist. I'm curious, how are you still fine after all the heat?" Realizing something he added "It's fine if you don't want to say."

"I had some friends' help."

"Oh? Then why didn't you use their help to save your girl?"

"My girl? She is not my girl."

"So you are the toad lusting after swan's meat?"

"No! Where are you getting all that from?"

"These are the two most popular theories, either Wang Bao took your girl or you fell for her after seeing her with Wang Bao and hence betrayed him."

"We didn't know each other." He was getting irritated with this line of questioning.

"What is the story then?" Right after he said that, he saw Zhang Wuji was about to get up and leave. "Oi oi calm down you need not tell me the story for free. I can help you with your martial arts. I see that you use your fists, you should know I am quite proficient in that area."

Zhang Wuji thought for a moment and roughly told him what happened. He omitted all of the personal stuff which was mostly irrelevant to the story.

"You should have asked your friends to help on the very first day."

"That's what they said."

"Alright, it's my turn now. Show me the art you practice." He stood up and got into fighting pose. Zhang Wuji attacked him with his modified Obliteration Fist. After a while Zhang Wuji felt a gentle force pushing him away and stopped attacking.

"It was not bad. Obliteration Fist and an art based on a bird of prey. I like the way you combined the two. There are slight changes that could be done to the timing but overall it was quite good. I don't understand why you agreed to my offer."

Zhang Wuji then explained his problem.

"Six months huh, isn't that around the time you got associated with Wang Bao? I think the reason for your bottleneck is emotional rather than a lack of expertise."

"No I didn't stop training even for a moment if that's what you mean." Zhang Wuji thought Han Dongfang meant he was depressed and skipped training.

"No no I don't mean your emotions effected your actions, instead I think they effected your natural qi flow."

"Qi flow? I'm in body refinement realm, and what does martial art training have anything to do with qi flow?" He was puzzled. From what he knew, body refinement realm had nothing to do with qi flow. The realm was all about getting the body more compatible with qi so that qi condensation could be achieved. It is from that point that qi flow becomes central to cultivation. Some even consider qi condensation as the beginning of cultivation and call body refinement a preparatory stage.

As for martial arts, it is only starting from phantom tier that qi was used. Before that the arts were only used to optimize and distribute the body strength according to the needs of the practitioner. They were also used to familiarize with a martial art's form before learning it's qi flow diagram in qi condensation realm.

"I think you have misunderstood the term qi flow. Give me a moment to organize my thoughts." Han Dongfang thought for a moment before continuing.

"Qi is a kind of spiritual energy generally known as spiritual energy of life or simply life energy. Every living entity has qi flowing within and this flow is called life force. The moment this flow stops, one dies. The main reason for cultivation is to delay death as much as possible. The only way that can be done is by strengthening one's life force. That is what is done from qi condensation onwards. But qi flow exists even before that.

"There's two kinds of flows, natural and forced. Natural flow is what keeps one alive. As long as your natural flow is not disturbed, you will live a healthy and full life. A body is said to be sick when this natural flow is disturbed. This flow can be thought of as a property of life just like water's taste is it's inherent property, the two can't be separated. It exists in all, whether cultivator or not. The only qualification is being alive.

"Forced flow just as the name suggests is a result of some force applying on the natural flow. The moment the force is removed, the flow would return back to it's natural state. Cultivation, phantom tier and above martial arts, pills, emotional excitation, physical stimulations are some of the things that can induce a forced flow.

"Repeated forced flow due to the same force would eventually cause changes in the natural flow. You could think of a repeatedly used elastic band, it would eventually change, lose some of it's elasticity. The change could be positive or negative. This nature may or may not play a key role in cultivation depending on the technique one practices but it is very important for martial arts.

"Prolonged emotional excitation similarly causes the natural flow of qi to change. In your case, I'm thinking prolonged thoughts of vengeance have effected your natural flow thus effecting your body which halted your martial art progress."

"I don't feel like I am in an emotionally excited state."

"That's how prolonged emotional excitation works. It has been excited for so long that it has become obvious and you no longer notice it. It's the same as with walking. When learning how to, you were so focused but now you don't notice most of the things involved in walking."

Zhang Wuji thought for a bit and shook his head "Although I won't give up on a chance to get back at him, I don't hold such strong sentiments of revenge. I too am at fault for what happened. If I hadn't lost-"

"Alright I got it. Self-blame it is. Then it must be guilt or regret or something like that. Let's see, losing your temper did start the chain of unfortunate events but the victim is also you. And from what I can see, you are over it. If not this what could it be hmm.. you held on till the girl entered your story. You blame the girl and feel guilty for that?" He looked closely at Zhang Wuji's face hoping to read his answer from it. And read he did.

"Alright! Now that we know the source, we can start solving it." He punched the air with excitement.

Zhang Wuji lowered his head trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Come on, there is no need to be like this. It's good that you feel guilt. Now let's concentrate on solving it." He put his arm around Zhang Wuji's shoulder and said in an encouraging tone.

"It's useless. I've been trying to do the same but the heart just won't listen."

"How have you tried?"

"I do what should be done and try to talk some sense to it. Try to slowly change my views on the matter."

"Great, you understand the root cause of your problem to be your flawed heart. Emotional turmoil due to guilt, guilt due to blaming the girl, blaming due to your twisted view of the world." Han Dongfang patted his back.

"Yeah, my father taught me." Zhang Wuji smiled proudly.

"Your father speaks wise words," the smile got wider "but he is not fit to teach."

"What!"

"Calm down. You are clearly not wise, you may even be stupid. Telling a stupid man wise words is clearly hurting him. What he said about the heart maybe true, but how is that useful to you?

Heart this, heart that, heart everything. All that is true. But a stupid man won't be able to comprehend that.

Recognizing your stupidity, he must have prescribed you a specific solution for your specific problem, not a general solution to all problems. If heart were so easy to comprehend and manipulate, the world would have been a much better peaceful place. Heart is tough. Keep his words in your heart and work to bring them to fruition every second of your life. Till that happens, go for specific solutions.

"Right now, to deal with your guilt, apologizing to her would be the best solution."

Zhang Wuji thought for a bit and felt what he said made sense.

"What will I even apologize about?"

"What you feel guilty about."

"I never offended her in any way, I never said it out loud."

"Mind is difficult to control. It keeps jumping all over the place. It will think things and it itself would then think guilt over that. One must control one's mind with actions. Once you have a strong heart, your mind wouldn't be all jumpy. Till that happens, actions are your only method to salvation."

After a long moment Zhang Wuji asked in a low voice "But apologizing now would hurt her wouldn't it?"

"You think poison, that's what you will spread. You either drown in that poison, or spill it out and take other's help to breathe free."

"I can't do that! How can I hurt her just to feel better?"

"Well you could try to console her and help her out later. This way she'll grow too." Han Dongfang shrugged.

"Don't joke around!"

"It's just a suggestion. You are filled with guilt. The solution is forgiveness. You don't have that, so you seek another's help. If she has it, she wouldn't be hurt and will absolve you of your guilt too. If she doesn't, most probably she must also be suffering within as a consequence of committing the act. Your apologizing may help her out of it. It may also trigger it if hidden, but it wouldn't worsen it anyway.

"If it comes out of it's hiding, you two can help each other or even seek someone else's help.

"Anyway the origin of your problem is your thinking. The reason you hesitate from using my method is similarly the same thinking. Changing that is changing your heart, tough thing to do. But don't give up, keep trying to do that. But clearly, guilt is stopping you from further growth. To remove guilt, you must have grown. That makes an infinite loop. You will be stuck with no solution. Take this temporary solution for your guilt, and concentrate on your growth.

"Step out of your binding loop and apologize. Take the first step. Best not to delay it for it's a long journey."