The Thirteen Bird Forms in Five Animals Qigong are the gentlest among them, yet even so, when Su Mu performed a full set now, the pain left his face pale as death.
Beads of sweat the size of soybeans dotted his forehead, and even in the depths of winter, his clothes were soaked through with fine perspiration.
"To think that I have grown this weak…"
Pangs of inhuman pain racked his body, making Su Mu gasp, a self-mocking whisper sounding in his heart. Yet after a short rest, he grit his teeth and continued his cultivation.
After that came the Thirteen Tiger Forms, Nine Deer Forms, Nine Bear Forms, and Nine Ape Forms.
With severed meridians, every movement was unspeakably difficult for Su Mu—each form painstakingly slow, as if time itself had dulled. Yet in that slowness, the pain seemed to fade, and Su Mu became completely absorbed within the practice.
