After sipping the Nourishing Essence Soup slowly, Qin Yi felt a warm, sun-like sensation in his stomach. He was full, comfortable, and it felt truly magical.
He never imagined that even eating in this world of martial artists could be so extraordinary.
Although breakfast had amazed him, Qin Yi never forgot the most important thing…
"Young Master, when do we start learning?" Qin Yi set down his cup and approached the Young Master's couch, blinking his bright eyes as he asked.
Qin Xu raised an eyebrow. This little fellow's enthusiasm for learning was genuinely unexpected.
"Hmm, since you don't have a formal name yet, I'll just call you by your childhood name."
"Great! Everyone I know calls me that," Qin Yi clapped his hands and smiled in agreement.
"Da Tou, let's start with a small test. Yesterday I said, before practicing martial arts, what should one do first?"
Without hesitation, Qin Yi replied immediately:
"Practice virtue before martial arts; cultivate determination before virtue; acquire broad knowledge before cultivating determination; strengthen memory before acquiring knowledge."
Qin Xu raised his eyebrows again.
Da Tou's intelligence was indeed exceptional. He remembered every word spoken yesterday, without missing a single one.
"Correct. We'll start with 'strengthening memory,' and to do that, we begin with learning characters."
Qin Xu stood up and walked to the courtyard, surveying the area. He nodded slightly, then tapped the ground lightly. The solid earth instantly turned into soft sand. With a flick of his hand, a dried branch over three feet long at the corner of the courtyard flew up, describing a perfect arc, and landed in his hand.
Qin Yi followed closely, watching everything unfold clearly.
This magical scene seemed as natural as walking or speaking—fluid and effortless—yet impossible for ordinary people.
"So this is the power of a martial artist? Amazing!" Qin Yi looked up in admiration at Qin Xu.
Qin Xu shook his head slightly:
"These are just small tricks. When you become a martial artist, you'll be able to do them easily as well."
"Alright, let's begin learning characters."
Qin Xu's tone became solemn:
"Writing originated from pictographs and inscriptions on walls, then progressed to stone tablets, wooden boards, and finally bamboo slips. Over time, characters evolved, becoming simpler and more abstract, until they became the written characters we use today."
Pictographs.
Qin Yi nodded in understanding. He didn't expect that the written language in this world was also pictographic.
"How simplified are they? Some basic characters can even be expressed with a single stroke."
With that, Qin Xu drew a vertical line in the sand and looked at Qin Yi:
"This is 'Heaven'."
He drew a horizontal line next:
"This is 'Earth'."
Then, a short diagonal stroke followed by a vertical stroke:
"This is 'Human'."
He paused and said to Qin Yi:
"Heaven, Earth, and Human are the simplest and most fundamental characters. Almost every other character you learn later contains elements of these three."
"Once you understand the meaning of these basic characters, even without prior study, you can often guess the meaning of unfamiliar characters."
Then Qin Xu drew a cross:
"Alright, a test. What character is this?"
Qin Yi had an idea now—he could interpret characters as drawings and deduce their meaning.
"Convergence of Heaven and Earth… the world?" Qin Yi tilted his head, studying the cross in the sand, and whispered a guess.
Qin Xu nodded, then shook his head, and drew a character resembling a vertical line with a small stroke at the top:
"What about this one?"
Seeing Qin Yi scratch his head, Qin Xu smiled and drew another:
"And this one?"
Qin Yi sighed, looking down in frustration:
"Young Master, I don't know."
Seeing that Qin Yi had been a bit overwhelmed, Qin Xu quickly patted his head and smiled:
"It's alright not to know—that's why we're learning, isn't it?"
"Mm, yes. Young Master, what do these three characters mean?" Qin Yi immediately revived, looking up eagerly.
Qin Xu was slightly taken aback by Qin Yi's sudden burst of energy, then began to explain:
"Da Tou, remember: one character, one meaning. Each character has a clear and unique meaning. Your understanding must be precise; even the slightest mistake can prevent you from accurately comprehending a text. For ordinary texts, mistakes may be tolerable, but in important texts, such as martial arts manuals, errors could have serious, even fatal consequences."
He then pointed to the first character:
"This one represents the living world."
Pointing to the next:
"This one represents the world after death."
Finally, pointing to the cross:
"This one represents the human world."
Qin Xu shook his head and sighed, as if pondering something:
"Da Tou, see how ignorant humans are. They arrogantly consider themselves the protagonists of Heaven and Earth, believing the world exists for them. And how greedy they are—they are not satisfied with the living world and still wish to possess the world beyond death."
Here it comes again—
The Young Master's sentimental mood had returned.
Qin Yi stepped closer, grasping Qin Xu's right hand with both hands, and asked with innocence:
"Young Master, what's wrong?"
Qin Xu snapped out of his melancholy, looking down at Qin Yi's concerned eyes, smiling as he rubbed his head:
"Da Tou, nothing's wrong. Alright, let's continue learning."
"Earlier, we learned characters composed of 'Heaven' and 'Earth.' Now, we start with 'Human.'"
"The character for 'Human' is more complex than 'Heaven' and 'Earth.' A single character, written differently, can give rise to many other characters."
Qin Xu drew an inverted human character in the sand and asked:
"What does this mean?"
Following the method taught earlier, Qin Yi guessed:
"An upside-down person?"
As he pondered, he noticed a shadow on the ground. A spark of insight came to him:
"I got it! It's a human's shadow!"
Qin Xu nodded in satisfaction.
Rotating the character in different directions, Qin Xu asked about each variation.
Qin Yi, having grasped the pattern, quickly interpreted them, shouting excitedly:
"A person lying down and a person crawling!"
Qin Xu praised:
"Da Tou, you're clever—so quickly you've found the trick."
Pleased by the Young Master's praise, Qin Yi laughed heartily, not noticing…
Qin Xu's lips curled slightly, eyes twinkling mischievously, as he drew another inverted human character and asked:
"And this one?"
Qin Yi paused, glanced at it, and confidently answered:
"The reflection of a person in a mirror!"
(End of Chapter 24)