Chapter 145: Qi Deviation

‘What on earth is going on!’ After taking a series of deep breaths, George finally adjusted his mental state to be as calm as still water.

This dream was simply too real, so real that it felt like he was actually there. No, this wasn’t the main point. The real point was that with George’s current mental cultivation , he shouldn’t be dreaming unless he deliberately wanted to!

‘Could it be Qi Deviation?’ Feeling that something was wrong but unable to put his finger on it, George naturally came to this conclusion.

‘Oh my! Now let me think about what could have triggered this situation.’ Sitting on the bed, George began to ponder.

So-called Qi Deviation, according to some “Masters,” falls under the category of so-called spiritual medicine. It means that when practicing Qigong, one constantly experiences some Qigong effects. Most of these effects are normally expected; but sometimes there are inappropriate ones. The latter usually last for a short time and disappear quickly after proper adjustment.

However, a very small number of cases are not corrected in time and persist, gradually causing lasting psychological and behavioral abnormalities. In severe cases, it can affect normal study, work, and life. These varying degrees of psychosomatic disorders are called Cultivation Deviation, commonly known as Qi Deviation. They belong to the category of psychological mental illness. Mild cases are psychological disorders, while severe cases are mental illnesses. Articles discussing Qigong since ancient times have recorded this extensively.

The so-called Qi Deviation from Cultivation Deviation generally manifests in the following four situations: first, internal Qi agitation; second, ceaseless external movement; third, Qi and blood stagnation; and fourth, mental psychological disorders. In fact, except for Qi and blood stagnation and mental psychological disorders, the other two items are too idealistic and can be classified into the fourth category. On the contrary, the third category sometimes has strong clinical manifestations, such as abdominal distension and pain, a feeling of the head being tightly bound, and incontinence. However, it seems that most of them are also classified as psychogenic diseases, which are emotional disorders.

In fact, in Tianchao before George transmigrated, starting from the 1980s and 1990s, dozens or even hundreds of people were sent to mental hospitals every year because of practicing Qigong. As for other milder situations, such absurd things as looking everywhere for Masters or old military doctors, go without saying.

George’s current situation was closer to the fourth category: mental psychological disorders. It means that some Qigong practitioners produce hallucinations while practicing. The practitioners believe these hallucinations to be true and live in a virtual world. They become confused, manic, and crazy, and may even become mental patients. This is called “Entering Demonic State.”

The general manifestations include three types: first, symptoms similar to schizophrenia, including auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, anxiety, tension, fear, excitement, noisy behavior, incoherent speech, and weird behavior; second, symptoms similar to hysterical neurosis, including mood swings, emotional instability, and paroxysmal crying and laughing; third, symptoms similar to neurosis, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, irritability, and suicidal tendencies. All these fall under the category of mental psychological diseases and are known as the most serious type of Qigong deviation. Although George hadn’t reached this level yet, if left unchecked, it would be hard to say what would happen in the future.

In Tianchao where George lived before transmigrating, the public usually classified the various Daoist health-preserving skills George practiced as a type of Qigong. After all, the scope of Qigong itself was quite broad.

Qigong, or Qi Gong, is a method of physical and mental exercise that uses the adjustment of breathing, body activity, and consciousness—namely, regulating breath, regulating form, and regulating mind—as means. Its purpose is to strengthen the body, prevent and treat diseases, prolong life, and develop potential.

There are many types of it, mainly divided into dynamic Gong and static Gong. Dynamic Gong refers to Qigong mainly based on body activities. For example, the Daoyin School focuses on dynamic Gong, characterized by limb operations that emphasize the combination of intent and Qi. Static Gong refers to Qigong where the body does not move, relying only on self-control of consciousness and breathing. Most Qigong methods are a mix of dynamic and static.

In religion, Daoist priests often practice Daoyin and Inner Alchemy Qigong. In Buddhism, Zen meditation and sitting meditation also contain elements of Qigong. Qigong is often practiced together with martial arts or sitting meditation. Chinese medicine practitioners who practice acupuncture also often improve their therapeutic effects by practicing Qigong. However, as for the specific effects, one can only say that different people have different views.

Therefore, for this phenomenon that suddenly appeared on him, George naturally thought of the words “Qi Deviation.” At the same time, after waking up with a start, he began to sort out the possible problems within himself.

‘The “Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method” has already reached the second stage. The current speed is obviously much slower than before. That is to say, the current progress is normal. Could it be that the rapid progress before was problematic? Or was the unstable foundation caused by that situation the hidden danger?’ While thinking, George took a Sugar Cube from a sealed Teak jar on the bedside table and put it into his mouth. He began to soothe his stomach, which was constantly protesting against him. Although he couldn’t be sure of the exact minute, George was very sure that the time was definitely past three in the morning.

Now, a full ten hours after dinner, George’s stomach was indeed empty. Although he had the right to order his subordinates to wake up from their sleep now and prepare a late-night snack for his stomach. But there was not much time left before dawn. Being considerate to his subordinates, he wouldn’t disturb their sweet dreams for the sake of this one or two hours of time difference! It was definitely not because he was afraid that eating too full might affect his mental agility.

The protest of his stomach actually made George’s mind extraordinarily clear. ‘Indeed, completing the first stage of the “Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method” in just one month was shockingly fast. If looking only from this aspect, although it is unknown whether George’s mind has been adversely affected, the unstable foundation is almost certain.’

However, considering that George had switched to this cultivation method, the problem couldn’t be viewed this way. This was like a person selling his shares in his original company to start a new business. You couldn’t say that this money wasn’t his. Similarly, it was a normal phenomenon for the development speed of the new enterprise under his name to exceed that of the vast majority of people who started from scratch.

‘Although the cultivation of the “Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method” was fast, according to the description in the “The Great One Deity Visualization Method,” there was absolutely no problem with it. Besides, having practiced for so long, it shouldn’t be the case that this situation only appeared today! The most likely time for problems to occur should be on the day of condensing the Nine Emperors and within a day or two after! From this point of view, this possibility should be ruled out.’ George first crossed out the possibility of this technique having problems in his heart.

‘Then what about the “Primordial Qi Great Grappling”? That doesn’t seem right either! Ever since I mastered the basics and established the foundation of the Essence Spirit, my progress has been slow. This fits the characteristics of the orthodox Daoist sects quite well. Even the “Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method,” which has entered the second stage, shows this trend. Up to now, I have been following the records above, practicing step by step according to the instructions. It’s also unlikely that the problem lies here.’ George also made a judgment on his other crucial technique.

A senior known as the Hidden Immortal once said, ‘Cultivating the Dao is like climbing a mountain, and the righteous method is like a staircase.’ George did not have the ambition to hack through thorns and thistles to open up a new path himself. He preferred to walk on the broad road to the sky that had been verified by countless predecessors. In this way, when climbing the mountain, he could find the winding paths opened by predecessors and climb up the steps, moving forward continuously. Although there were wind and rain along the way, and lightning and thunder, pavilions and caves had already been built on the mountain path, enough for people to hide from the wind and rain. Therefore, he was very cautious in this regard and dared not make the slightest mistake.

‘The subsequent Secret Art of “Qi and Blood Separation” basically has nothing to do with spiritual cultivation. And the Secret Art of “Spirit and Flesh Exchange,” although it involves the spiritual part, has no effect on its essence.’ George was a bit confused now. Where exactly did the problem lie?

‘Since it has nothing to do with those direct or auxiliary cultivation techniques, could it be a problem with the moves?’ A sudden realization struck George’s mind, as if he had found a new direction.

He had been limited by his past fixed mindset before. Because things like “Qi Deviation” basically happened when practicing cultivation techniques. He had basically never heard of problems occurring when practicing moves! Of course, this also had a lot to do with George living in a low-martial-arts world in the past.

With this direction in mind, George immediately discovered the most likely source of the problem—the Knight Technique “Flash of Lightning.” In fact, the most critical point was that it had never appeared as a specific item on George’s System character card.

George slapped his forehead and exclaimed, “I actually forgot about this. My brain was really a bit slow earlier.”

Because his System was quite different from those in other novels, there were rarely any prompts or messages. Even when George was injured or sick a few times before, there was no specific information in the character status, so he had to let those Herbalists and Clergy do whatever they wanted. As for missions, there hadn’t been a single bubble for years. The few times there were, the mission rewards were given directly. Let alone a hint on how the mission was triggered, there weren’t even enough clues for George to summarize the trigger pattern himself! If this System were a game created by a game company, it would definitely fail miserably. Although George didn’t play online games much before transmigrating, he could still learn a thing or two from posts on various forums.

Because of this, unless George felt a significant improvement in his strength and wanted to compare specific values from the System’s character card, he rarely paid attention to it.

However, today George seemed to have another realization: all abilities recognized and included in the system by the System were mostly beneficial, or at least had very small side effects.

Abilities that were not included had various possibilities: one was that George hadn’t fully mastered them. The second was that the ability itself had some problems, or George had gone astray during cultivation, causing it to have issues. As for whether there were third or fourth types, although George didn’t know yet, it didn’t mean they didn’t exist. It could only be said that George hadn’t encountered or discovered the remaining possible situations yet. After all, George had only transmigrated to this world for fourteen years. Since he was three years old, he was able to think like a normal adult, so he had only studied this System for at most ten years.

‘It seems I was really too careless. I didn’t expect that practicing the Knight Technique “Flash of Lightning” using the original Shaman method would cause problems!’ George sighed in his heart.

In fact, the reason George chose the original “Thunderbird Possession” as his practice method was, besides his good knowledge in the field of Essence Spirit. A more important point was that this ability, passed down and improved by generations of Shamans, was much more reliable than the Knight Technique that Knight Val had tinkered with on his own.

However, George seemed to have forgotten one thing: in fact, he didn’t follow the Shamans’ original cultivation method completely. The behavior of installing a plug-in directly next to his Divine Soul was something that orthodox Shamans would absolutely not do in most cases. On the contrary, although Knight Val’s changes in this regard were far greater than George’s method, he was based on the way of the Knight, so the risk was actually much smaller than George’s method, which seemed to have little change. In fact, George himself didn’t know that his method was very similar to the process of a Bronze Rank Druid obtaining elemental shapeshifting, although the chosen Essence Spirit was completely different.

‘Do I look down on this world’s power system deep down? Otherwise, why would I make modifications to it so hastily!’ At the same time, George, who seemed to have found the problem, was also secretly reflecting on himself. Because the problem didn’t seem to be too big for the time being, George prepared to sort out from the root why he had turned the situation into what it was now.

‘Why on earth is that!’ While thinking, George made a move of a funny character named Little Goat from before he transmigrated. Fortunately, it was late at night in his own bedroom, and George didn’t have the habit of letting girls serve him in bed. Otherwise, the image he had spent a long time building in everyone’s hearts would definitely have cracks.

George scratched his hair in distress and thought, ‘It looks like I was really influenced by those novels I read before transmigrating. Although on the surface my actions could be considered as planning before acting, and my friends also regard me as a representative of reason. But it seems that the sense of superiority brought to me by my identity as a Transmigrator is indeed buried deep in my heart!’

‘But what exactly makes me feel superior to others! Is it the knowledge from the other world? Maybe a little! This might also need to include the way of dealing with the world left in the memory of me living one more life than others.’ George began to peel away the fog over his heart layer by layer, like peeling an onion.

Then he began to wipe and clean the stains among them, ‘There is really nothing to be proud of about this kind of thing itself. There are enough Transmigrators in this world to form a brigade. Let’s talk about knowledge again! Because the development directions of the two worlds are very different, some knowledge from the world before transmigrating might have immediate effects in this world by taking an unorthodox path. But most of it cannot be used universally, or there are various innate restrictions. In this regard, I am really far inferior to those guys who transmigrated from other Planes of the Multiverse! Because their rules are similar, most of their knowledge matches the rules of this world, and there are far more things they can learn from than me. To be honest, if I hadn’t been born into a good family, the knowledge I could use now would be even less than it is now! After all, there is a lot of management knowledge in the humanities. Do you think this would be of much use to an ordinary subject or a slave in some tribe?’

Having solved part of it, George felt much refreshed. After all, some things are nothing once they are laid out and spoken clearly. On the contrary, if you keep it in your heart and don’t face it, it is more likely to cause problems. Taking this opportunity, George decided to keep going, ‘Then next is the problem of this System obtained after transmigrating. Although I rely on it a lot, for something with unknown origin and history, one still can’t rest assured entrusting one’s entire future to it! Only what is completely mastered by oneself is the most real and credible.’

After such analysis and cognition, or self-hypnosis, George felt that his mental state was indeed much better than before. His mind was indeed much clearer. Of course, as far as the System problem was concerned, it had not been fundamentally solved. Or unless George could find out the root cause of the System’s existence, otherwise this point would always exist. The poem “Constantly wipe it clean, don’t let it gather dust” was really a wise saying for a cultivator like George!

‘Now that the problem has been confirmed, I need to think about what solutions there are. Can I say that I lifted a rock only to drop it on my own feet! If I hadn’t been so self-righteous back then, this situation wouldn’t have happened now.’ George’s mind was filled with self-blame.

The reason Knight Val was able to develop a Knight Technique using Shaman special abilities was that while he was knowledgeable and experienced, he also stood at a considerable height. It was like standing on the top of a mountain and looking back at the road you had traveled, occasionally discovering that a somewhat remote path could also easily lead to the main road. And what about George! He hadn’t even climbed halfway up the mountain, but when he found a path that looked interesting, he curiously deviated from the right path. It was normal to end up in a sorry state. Perhaps only when he had the chance to stand at the height of Knight Val would he be able to make choices and modifications more easily!