Chapter 42: Essence, Qi, and Spirit

  After dinner, Qu Wen had a habit of putting the bowls and chopsticks back in his own room, leaving the two old men alone to be affectionate. Perhaps it was because he had drunk a cup of high-proof liquor that he felt warm all over, with a warmth emanating from his lower abdomen and spreading slowly throughout his body's meridians.

  As the meridians are unblocked, the scattered and floating spiritual awareness in the body miraculously gathers together, no longer a stagnant pool of water.

  The rapid recovery of his spiritual awareness filled Qu Wen with joy, if he had followed the normal method of recovery, it would have taken at least half a year. Now, just by drinking a cup of medicinal wine brewed by his father, his depleted spiritual awareness was quickly restored.

  "Dad, this wine is really great..."

  Qu Wen couldn't help but sneak back into the house, tiptoeing to the kitchen, searching for a long time before finally finding that bottle of medicinal wine under the cabinet. Apart from this, there were also bottles of medicinal wine made with ginseng and three snakes, geckos and other Chinese herbs, neatly arranged inside.

  "Wow, Dad's private stash is really impressive, I'll have to learn from him how to brew wine properly next time."

  He finished speaking and ran back to his room like a little thief, hugging the wine bottle, just as he was about to enter the house, he suddenly heard a loud roar behind him: "You dare to steal Laozi's wine!"

  The voice was all too familiar; who else could it be but Father? Qu Wen was so frightened that she hastily closed the door, refusing to open it no matter how her father shouted from outside.

  Before long, his mother's voice came from outside the door: "What are you yelling about? It's just a bottle of wine. If your son wants to drink it, let him have it."

  Qu Jian often boasts in front of outsiders that he is third in rank at home, but in fact, there are only three people at home, so you can imagine what his status is like. He chuckled with his wife: "There's no free lunch, this kid finally knows the benefits of the medicinal wine I brewed, just like how I became strong and energetic after drinking it back then, which allowed me to have this child."

  Shen Luyun didn't expect Qu Jian to become like this after drinking two more cups of horse urine, and she was so ashamed that she directly kicked him out: "Get back in the house and see how I'll deal with you."

  As soon as his parents left, Qu Wen finally felt at ease, opened the bottle cap and took a sniff. The smell was still pungent and hard to bear, but for Ling Jue's early recovery, he didn't care about that much anymore. He poured the liquid into his mouth with a gurgling sound until half of it was gone before stopping.

  "Didn't expect my drinking capacity has improved again!"

  He took a long swig of wine, with 70% to 80% alcohol content, and boasted that in the past, even if it was just a 30% white wine, drinking half a kilogram would be enough to get him drunk, but today he managed to down seven or eight kilograms of over 50% strong liquor.

  As the strong liquor entered his belly, a scorching hot sensation rapidly spread from within, as if someone had lit a big fire in his stomach. The meridians throughout his body also expanded once more, just like opening the gates of unobstructed spiritual awareness that had been blocked for a long time. In an instant, they surged towards his brain from all parts of his body, rotated in a circle and then flowed back to his entire body, circulating repeatedly without stopping.

  Actually, Qu Wen does not know that since ancient times, major classics have recorded "the true Qi is the normal Qi." There are also sayings like "if evil Qi is not properly examined, and the major Qi has already passed, then draining it will cause the true Qi to escape, and once escaped, it will not return."

  In other words, apart from visible internal organs and blood, skeleton, the existence of Qi also has a great use for the human body.

  The aura of a normal person is extremely weak, and the amount they have from birth is all they will ever have. It is extremely difficult to cultivate it later in life, unless one has practiced special qigong or had some extraordinary encounter; otherwise, it is absolutely impossible to increase it by even a single fraction.

  If the internal organs and external tissues cannot cooperate, the essence will gradually dissipate and cannot regenerate on its own, also indicating that a person is beginning to enter old age. Taoists attach great importance to an individual's aura, hence the saying "a person's face is related to their essence and spirit".

  The text translates to:

  Because Quwen has Lingjue Shentong in his body, he constantly absorbs the spiritual energy left on the antiques and transforms it into a special aura of his own. Therefore, the aura accumulated all over his body is much stronger than that of ordinary people. The reason why it disperses but does not condense is just a temporary blockage caused by improper use for the time being, and as time goes on, it will eventually recover.

  However, Qu Wen was young and impatient, couldn't wait that long, discovered that his old man's self-brewed wine had a miraculous effect on Ling Jue's recovery, and naturally wouldn't let it go.

  There are herbs such as ginseng, cinnamon, Szechuan lovage, cooked rehmannia, tuckahoe and Chinese angelica in the medicinal liquor that nourish blood and Qi. In fact, they are just ordinary tonifying and activating blood circulation prescriptions. After being soaked in strong liquor for many years, their effects are combined together to become a masterpiece of tonifying and nourishing blood, which is exactly suitable for Qu's unsmooth Qi and blood.

  Seven or eight medicinal wines went down the belly, already with drunken eyes, feeling the full spiritual energy re-condensing into a piece, happily laughing loudly, and again unable to withstand the wine's potency, fell head-first onto the bed, a good dream all night until dawn, letting the spiritual awareness freely recover in the body.

  Longcheng is located at the southernmost part of our motherland, only a sea away from Hainan Province. Even in late November, it's still sweltering hot, with people on the streets wearing thin shirts and shorts.

  After resting at home for a day, he came to Yuefeng Pawnshop again. As soon as he walked into the company, everyone looked at Qu Wen with curious eyes and whispered to each other.

  "Who is this guy? He looks quite handsome, but why does he look so familiar?"

  "It seems like he was a new recruit in the pawnshop department just a few months ago, and I heard that he was taken as a closed disciple by Master Gu and brought to City B for training for a period of time."

  "It's great that he was taken in as an apprentice by Master Gu, he'll definitely make a fortune. He'll become a formidable appraiser in the future. I must get close to him and build a good relationship."

  Back at the pawnshop, the first thing to do is to report to Chen Qifu, and then chat with Fan Yongcheng for a while. In fact, my heart has long been flying to Su Yaxin. I feel that it's hard to develop some emotional threads between each other, but Gu Quan dragged me away to B city, and we've been apart for three months. It's absolutely impossible not to miss her in my heart.

  After finally getting rid of Fan Yongcheng's three-person pursuit, I sneaked to the outside of the business department, and as usual, I first poked half of my head inside. But I saw Lu Shaojie standing by Su Yaxin's desk, shamelessly pestering her.

  "Yaxin, are you free tonight? I bought two tickets for the latest movie and I'd like to invite you to watch it together."

  Su Yaxin's personality is weak and she has a thin skin, not good at refusing others. Usually, Qin Weina helps her decline such invitations. Coincidentally, Qin Weina was out on business today and wasn't in the company, so for a while, she couldn't find anyone to be a shield, and it was hard for her to know what to do.

  "I... I have something on tonight, so I'm really sorry..."

  Lu Shaojie listened, his mouth slightly raised, revealing an entirely disbelieving expression: "You don't have to lie to me anymore. You didn't go home right after work that day, and besides, I've invited you over ten times. With my sincerity in mind, shouldn't you accompany me out just once?"

  "My god, I've seen people with thick skin before, but never anyone as shameless as this, a complete scoundrel who specializes in cheating girls!" Qu Wen looked through the gap in the door and saw Lu Shaojie's lecherous face, and she couldn't help but want to slap him to death. After thinking this, she walked straight over to the two of them, came up close and slapped Lu Shaojie's shoulder hard.

  "I've got a dinner date with Yaxin tonight, so she's busy and can't go watch some crappy movie with you!"

  Feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder, Lu Shaojie turned around hastily and shouted loudly: "Who is it? Are you courting death?"

  It's been months since they last met, and Lu Shaojie's arrogance has grown, just because he has an uncle who is a high-ranking official, daring to shout loudly in the company.

  He had never had a good impression of him, and after being scolded like this, Qu Wen's anger suddenly burst forth. The hand that patted Lu Shaojie's shoulder quickly turned into a claw, and with a slight exertion, a strong grasping force was transmitted from his hand, causing Lu Shaojie to cry out in pain.

  "What's wrong, haven't seen each other for just a few months and you don't recognize me? If you're not convinced, then go solo right here. What I'm afraid of is the grandson."

  The barbarians are very demanding, just hoping that everyone can click on the collection after reading it. Collecting this thing is very important for writers, thank you!