096: Skipping Work to Slack Off

After finishing his chat with his college roommate, Chen Jue packed his bags and set out once again.

Of course, this trip was not entirely the product of a whim, nor was it simply for the sake of those wild herbs and rare medicinals, whose effectiveness was uncertain at best.

Now that he had taken up the inner-alchemy art of circulating the greater and lesser heavenly circuits, Chen Jue wanted to see for himself what it felt like, as the Daoist masters of old had experienced it, to retreat into deep mountains and old forests and cultivate in a thatched hut.

In ancient times, Daoist cultivators often sought out a lonely mountain far from the world and built a simple dwelling there to practice. Besides being able to gather materials on the spot and search the mountains for medicine, they could also draw closer to nature, keep their hearts tranquil, and contemplate the elusive, changeable, hard-to-grasp arts of the elixir and the Dao of alchemy.

There were plenty of mountains around Wen City, but they were mostly low hills and ridges, nothing like the environment in which those Daoists cultivated. Besides, he had never heard of any famous medicinal produce coming from there. The hills and uplands around Wen City were mostly red and yellow soil, strongly acidic, and not suited to growing anything of much quality.

The land near the coast, on the other hand, tended toward alkalinity. In such a saline-alkaline region, aside from fruits like bayberries and loquats, which at least still had a pleasant sweet-and-sour taste, there was basically nothing especially delicious to boast of among the crops.

There is a famous saying in the classics: fruit trees bear oranges south of the Huai River, but north of it they bear trifoliate orange.

Oranges are generally thought of as sweet and tangy, but after being transplanted to Wen City, they produced the bitter Wugan citrus, and the reason was the acidic soil. Bitter citrus is not something most people have ever tried, but it is said to have the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying the body.

Otherwise, Chen Jue would not have chosen to travel so far, going all the way to his college roommate’s hometown instead of somewhere nearby.

In addition, he did not want his frequent trips to teach at the unit to interfere with his own cultivation time.

To put it in modern terms, he had taken the subsidy and salary, but after only one day on the job he had already grown a little impatient and begun to plan how to slack off and handle his own affairs.

Earlier, using the method of stealing heaven’s timing, he had spent a whole night teaching Zhou Gang. Given the other man’s foundation and comprehension, he would surely be able to achieve a respectable result at the martial competition half a month later.

For a soldier, that would be a highly honorable and prestigious thing.

At worst, Chen Jue himself could go and compete then and bring back a placing, which would count as the unit earning a strong public showing before everyone, with most of the credit resting on Chen Jue’s shoulders.

Thinking of it that way, Chen Jue began to feel rather justified in taking that monthly subsidy of six thousand yuan.

Chen Jue said, "Political Commissar Yao, I’m planning to go into the mountains in Yun Province to shut myself away and train for a while. I’ve already bought my ticket and I’m leaving tonight, so I won’t be coming to teach for the time being. I’ll come back out before the martial competition begins, and I’ll be sure to bring back a good result. Please rest assured."

Political Commissar Yao said, "...All right then."

Last night, after hearing the two instructors report that Zhou Gang had received Chen Jue’s guidance and his martial skill had advanced overnight, as though some hidden expert in a martial arts novel had passed on several years of power to him, he had not believed it at first.

But this morning, after Zhou Gang sparred with the two instructors, he had indeed shown fighting power far more ferocious than before.

That made Political Commissar Yao unexpectedly hopeful. He had intended to ask Chen Jue to come by more often whenever he had time, ideally every day, since Chen Village was close by anyway.

Who would have thought that before he could even type and send that idea, Chen Jue would shut it down with a single sentence about going into the mountains to cultivate in seclusion?

"Ha! I really do not understand the thought process of these folk experts," he muttered helplessly. "Shut yourself away to train? These days, where can’t you shut yourself away? Why go all the way into the mountains of Yun Province?"

He grumbled a few more lines, then had no choice but to tell Zhou Gang the disappointing news while the latter was training hard.

After hearing it, Zhou Gang also seemed somewhat downcast, but he quickly began reciting the boxing maxims Chen Jue had taught him: muscles and bones must relax, the skin and flesh must be trained, each section must connect through without interruption, and the spirit should stand free within the void.

"Master opens the door; cultivation depends on the individual," he said. "Coach, just you wait. Half a month from now, I’ll definitely surprise you."

...

On this second departure, Chen Jue did not bring that oversized dumbbell with him. For one thing, it was too heavy to take on a plane. For another, after practicing so much foundation work, he discovered that his energy was limited and he no longer had room to combine it with fitness training.

In fact, scientific strength training can sometimes be even more effective than martial practice at increasing attributes.

So long as one does not overtrain, and combines it with proper nutrition and injury prevention, it can be more direct and effective than many forms of martial arts that never amount to much.

Unfortunately, Chen Jue had a better way to raise his attributes, so he could only put the iron weights aside for the time being.

With a large bag of newly bought nutritional supplements and tonics, plus a travel bag containing a few changes of clothes, Chen Jue carried a bag in each hand and booked a ride on his phone.

It took two hours by car to reach Longjiang International Airport in Wen City. After passing security, he waited for a little over an hour before boarding the plane.

He had bought an economy seat and had no intention of spending extra money on business class. After all, it was only a two-hour flight, and there was no need to be so particular.

Fortunately, when he checked in at the self-service kiosk, luck had given him a window seat, so Chen Jue could look out at the nighttime scenery while flying through the sky.

Perhaps because his cultivation had borne fruit, and his build, appearance, and bearing had all become outstanding, several flight attendants, including a male attendant who was about his height, could not help glancing at him more than once after he boarded.

Of course, nothing as clichéd as a note with a phone number ever happened. At most, they stole a few more looks while passing by, when pouring water, or when handing out the inflight meal, and then exchanged a few words in private behind his back.

Chen Jue was sitting toward the rear, and with his hearing greatly enhanced, he naturally caught the casual chatter of the flight attendants in the back cabin.

They were basically praising how well he took care of himself, saying he looked like a celebrity, and remarking that even the best-looking guy in the flight attendant class back in school might not have had Chen Jue’s bearing.

As for the unappetizing plane food, Chen Jue did not touch a single bite. The principle of not begrudging the finest ingredients had already seeped into his daily cultivation.

He would no longer eat such tasteless airline fare.

Unless he were still that miserable office worker from before, scraping by to save money, willing to swallow anything edible no matter how poor the meal.

Enduring two hours of hunger was easy enough for Chen Jue now, given his current physical condition and cultivation foundation.

Once the plane took off, pierced through the clouds, and settled into cruise altitude high above ten thousand meters, Chen Jue turned his gaze out the window to admire the moonlit clouds, then looked up at the bright, pure moon.

As a young person from the Land of Hua, who had not once dreamed of one day flying through the heavens, soaring beyond the clouds, and going all the way to the moon to see whether there truly were Chang’e, the Jade Rabbit, and the woodcutter Wu Gang?

Even if one knew there were no living beings on the moon, imagination and romance were still necessary.

Of course, for most people, this came from the influence of legends, historical novels, and period dramas.

As for Chen Jue, he had grown up watching Sun Wukong and the Golden-Hooped Rod, and from childhood his impression of Chang’e flying to the moon and Wu Gang chopping wood had only deepened.

Combined with the fact that his cultivation had now achieved results, he began to wonder whether, once his attributes someday reached nine hundred ninety-nine and beyond, he might also be able to stroll among the clouds and walk upon the moon. That was what set his mind wandering so wildly.

...

Two hours later, the plane landed smoothly at the airport in Kun City.

While flying just now, Chen Jue had, for some reason, felt a strangely unsettling sensation, much like the one he had experienced during a CT scan in the emergency room at the hospital, as though his whole body were on high alert.

It was not as intense as the CT scan, but there was indeed a faint sense of discomfort.

After landing, he looked it up on his phone and learned that high-altitude flights were also subject to similar radiation, though the dose was much weaker than a CT scan, so ordinary people would not notice it and paid it little attention.

Only veteran pilots and older flight attendants knew that after a long time in service, most of them would end up with all sorts of minor ailments that ordinary people did not have.

It was an industry that seemed to offer high pay, while also carrying hidden risks.

It was only because his cultivation had reached a certain level, and his body had become highly sensitive both inside and out, that Chen Jue was able to detect this faint discomfort.