Chapter 29 – Heartbeat

The Lan River entered the city from the south, but it began further out, past the outer wall, through the flat farmland that fed Lanyu’s population, and beyond that into a stretch of forest the city had not yet consumed.

I could feel the difference the moment we passed through the outer gate.

The ambient field thickened although it was still weaker than the ambient Qi that surrounded Hekou’s river fork, where the current carried qi with density.

We followed the river upstream along a track worn by fishermen and foraging parties until the outer wall was out of sight behind the tree line and the city sounds had thinned to almost nothing. The river here moved over stones rather than stone walkways, the current continued on unhurried, the banks soft with grass and root.

I stopped.

Xu looked at the trees and the river that stretched beyond, “So, is this is where you train people?”

“This is what I train people near,” I clarified. I crouched at the water’s edge and pressed two fingers to the ground and expanded my senses as well as my awareness. This was less of a technique and more of a sense that you develop over time. I excelled had detecting the presence of ambient Qi over time due to my proximity near Hekou’s river, but it was an ability that any could learn if given a sufficient enough of time. “Lanyu’s river is older and the energy here is more stilted but it’ll do.” I stood.

She had already moved closer to the bank.

“Where is the equipment?” she asked.

“There isn’t any.”

She seemed surprised by this.

“Sit down and face the river, we’re going to do some breathing exercises.”

She sat on the grass at the river’s edge without ceremony, legs folded, back straight, looking at the current. I stood behind her.

“I’m going to check your meridian pathways,” I said. “That is what I referred to as Mai. This requires contact at specific points such as the wrist, forearm, spine, chest, and abdomen. Tell me if anything feels wrong, which can include sharp discomfort, pressure that builds, or a rubbing or grating sensation.”

Commander Xu nodded. “Understood.”

I started at her left wrist, the lung mai point, two fingers pressed lightly at the inside of the wrist where the radial pulse sat. Her qi flow was strong, considerable volume, dense and well-developed more so than I thought it would be. I held it long enough to feel the full character of it and moved on.

The large intestine point, inner forearm just above the wrist crease. She was strong there too. The pericardium point at the wrist’s center was again, strong, with a faint excess that I noted and kept moving.

“Roll your left shoulder back,” I instructed her, and she did it. I moved my fingers to the upper trapezius where the small intestine pathway ran close to the surface, tracing the line toward the base of the neck. “Any tension here?”

“Always,” she said.

“That’s not tension. That’s the small intestine mai running congested. You’ve been carrying it so long you thought it was a muscle ache.” I pressed the release point at the junction and felt the pathway ease just a little. “You’ll want to work that yourself every morning. Two fingers pressed against it for thirty heart beats.”

I moved to the back. The bladder pathway ran the full length of the spine in two parallel lines flanking the vertebrae. I worked down it from the base of the skull, both hands now, thumbs pressing the points in sequence.

“Breathe into it,” I said at the mid-spine.

She breathed and I felt the pathway open.

“There’s a held point at the fourth vertebra,” I said. “You’ve compensated the governing vessel around it.”

A pause. “Must have happened during the Border Campaign.”

“Your body remembered it so you wouldn’t have to.” I held the release point until the tension in the surrounding tissue softened. “It won’t clear in one session but you know where it is now.”

I moved around to her front. The stomach pathway ran down from the face along the throat, across the chest, and down the abdomen in a long vertical line. I worked the upper chest points first, collarbone junction, then below the clavicle. She watched me work with the same focused interest she’d brought to everything else.

The heart mai point sat just below the left collarbone. I pressed it and felt the first significant thing, a density I hadn’t expected.

“There’s an accumulation here in the heart pathway. It’s not deadly but it can be an indication of a source of stress.”

A moment passed, then Commander Xu said, “I have a general idea of what caused it.”

I moved on without pressing it. The spleen pathway along the inner leg, which I assessed by the secondary points at the abdomen rather than asking her to extend her leg. The kidney pathway at the inner ankle and the lower abdomen.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The liver mai ran along the inner thigh and abdomen. I worked the abdominal junction point, which was the most assessable without asking her to change position.

“The kidney-to-liver transition,” I said. “This is the main restriction. Feel it?”

“I’m trying.”

“You’re looking for it with force. Stop and let your attention rest on the area between your lower abdomen and your right side and notice what’s there first. Think of it like peaking through a window before going outside yourself.”

A long pause.

“There’s a tightness,” she said.

“That’s it. That’s where you’ve been losing energy every time you circulate. You’ve been pushing qi through a passage that wants to be tended to, not driven.” I removed my fingers. “Your lung pathway is the cleanest channel I’ve assessed. Your governing vessel has old impact compensation. Your heart pathway has the accumulation of waste, and The kidney-to-liver transition is the main problem. It’s costing you.”

“Show me the kidney transition,” she urged.

I pressed two fingers to the point again. “Find it the way you found it a moment ago. Let your attention rest on it without directing anything toward it.”