Chương 10: Cultivation

A talented child. Very talented. A genius, it was said. By age ten, he had unlocked his meridians. By age ten, he had killed his first man. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms Elder Sun's study had a lived-in feeling with a decorative fireplace, a large desk, and on the back wall, a large drawing in dark foreboding colors, showing a gray sky over a desolate landscape. A few cultivators wearing the sect's colors were highlighted by a ray of sun.

They stood alone against an immeasurable horde of demonic beasts charging them. Survival seemed out of the question, but their posture did not waver. Jianyi was captivated by the image. It spoke to him deeply. He wondered whether his father had perished in a similar scene.

"It's mesmerizing, isn't it?" Jianyi was brought back to his senses by the voice of Elder Sun, who sat behind his desk.

"Yes, it is," Jianyi answered.

"Where is it from?"

"An old friend of mine painted it a long time ago," the elder said wistfully.

"It reminds me why we do all the things we do, even while I'm not on the frontlines. Anyway, that's not why we're here today. Have you made progress with your exercises?" Jianyi shook his head.

"I'm sorry, teacher, I didn't."

"No need to apologize. As I said yesterday, overnight success would be more than surprising. Now, what does it mean to be a cultivator?" The elder looked at Jianyi expectantly. Jianyi remembered what the elder had said the day before.

"It is about qi. Gathering it and using it." Elder Sun nodded.

"Yes, cultivation is about harnessing qi—the energy through which the Heavens' order manifests in this plane.

"To access that energy, you first need to be able to gather it in your body. It enters through meridian gates, of which we have twelve. Unfortunately, most people aren't born with the gates being open, instead they are clogged with impurities. Few that make it through the trial have less than two or three gates open, though, some as many as five or six." Jianyi had, of course, heard of meridians, but he hadn't known that there were differences between people on them being open.

"What might be especially relevant to you is that there is variance not only in the number of open gates people are born with, but also in the number of gates they can reasonably open. When people talk about their talent or potential for cultivation, that is one of the key factors, beyond their soul's strength. Obviously, the more gates open, the more qi you can draw into yourself, and the easier you can cultivate." Potential.

So far, Jianyi had been very keenly interested in understanding cultivation better, but now his whole body was primed—potential was what the test was all about, and if open gates was a core indicator for one's potential, then it surely was part of the test. Elder Sun continued.

"Before we get lost in more theory, let us take a look at your meridians." Jianyi's heartbeat accelerated, hoping with his all for a good outcome. The Celestial Core Card surely was an indication that he had many meridians open. Surely. The elder got up and took position beside Jianyi, placing his hand on his back, just like he had done the day before.

Jianyi felt warmth where the elder placed his hand, but instead of a trickle of that finding its way into his lower dantian, the warmth moved through his body, clearly under the control of Elder Sun. It touched all extremities, his torso, and even his head. After a couple of moments, Elder Sun stepped back, Jianyi held his breath.

"Very well. Meridian gates are placed on the soles of your feet, your thighs, palms, upper arms, which makes eight. The others are on the lung, heart, stomach, and neck.

"In your case, three, both feet and the one on your right thigh, are open. The impurities blocking the other gates seem… robust. Given that each subsequent opening is harder than the one before, and that the most vulnerable gates are still closed, my prognosis is that it is unlikely that you will be able to open all twelve gates; nine or ten are more realistic." Jianyi felt like he had been slapped. Were the Heavens so cruel?

To bestow him with the Celestial Core Card and then rip it all away from him due to his low talent? How was he supposed to succeed in the test if his potential was so low? He stared at the elder, eyes wide.

"Is there no way to overcome this? Go beyond the potential?" The elder chuckled quietly.

"There is always a way, my young friend. It is just very hard—risks need to be taken and work done. Also, while the sect might judge you for lower potential, the number of open gates only determines the speed of your cultivation; there are still powerful cultivators out there with fewer open gates." Well, they might be out there, but if Jianyi did not pass the test in three months, he would likely die on the frontlines before he ever had a chance to do what he wanted, no, needed to do!

"Look, Jianyi, you told me that you are diligent in your training. If that is true, you have a chance to overcome this challenge under your own power; it is not impossible, just quite unlikely." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Jianyi missed his spear for some reason he didn't know. It was a random thought, but he struggled to contain his emotions fully. He took a deep breath. Three meridians out of twelve open. Not enough potential to open all twelve.

But, three months until the test. Three months was a long time. With hard work—and some risks—the barrier holding him back could be overcome. He mentally dedicated every free moment over the next three months to this singular task. Three months! He focused back on Elder Sun, who had waited patiently for Jianyi to work through what he had just learned.

"Let's conclude the fundamentals: Once qi is drawn through your gates into your body, it moves through meridian pathways that cross your body, connect the gates, and link them with your dantians. There are three dantians: the lower, which you have already accessed, home to your Core Card and all Affinity Cards. It is here that you collect the qi that you gather from the environment. Should you progress through the cultivation realms, that is where your core will be located.

"The middle dantian, near your heart, is responsible for your vitality and efficiency of your cultivation. It is destined to house qi cards, should you choose to use them, which allow you to accelerate your spirit or body cultivation. It is not something that you can do right now, so you don't need to worry about it.

"Finally, there is your upper dantian, the seat of your consciousness, which sits near your brain. This is where your technique cards will sit."

"That's what you did against Administrator Deng and the demonic cultivator yesterday, isn't it?" Jianyi reeled from the amount of information he had just absorbed and longed to understand how it all related to what mattered most to him, passing the test so that he could grow strong enough to fight demons. Elder Sun smiled.

"Yes, that's what I did yesterday. I gave the qi in my core an affinity and used that to activate the techniques. No matter how powerful you become, that basic principle doesn't change."

"How can I add the cards I have to my dantians?"

"Your middle and upper dantian are still closed, but that is normal. We will work on those when you are done with the meridians. Once the meridians and dantians are open, you will have entered Qi Condensation, the first realm of cultivation. That's when you will be able to move your cards into your dantians." With that, he produced two items from his storage device. The first was a scroll, the second a bottle with pills. He carefully slid them over his desk to Jianyi.

"This is your very first cultivation technique. The Imperial Gate Opening Technique. It will provide you with more details on your meridian gates and, most importantly, how you need to circulate your qi through your meridian channels to open more gates and in which sequence." He pointed to the bottle.

"It is important that after you have opened a gate, you take one of these pills. They will help you expel the impurities that you extract from your gates out of your body. If you don't, there is a risk that the impurities will clog up the newly opened or other gates. My very strong suggestion is that you don't wear too many clothes, at least none that you want to keep, when going through the process…" he said with a chuckle.

Jianyi reached out with trembling fingers to the scroll and pills—this was his lifeline, his way to unlock his potential, whether it existed or not. As focused as he was on getting his hands on those and starting right away, he was sure that the pills alone would allow him to buy multiple houses in the city. He looked up at the elder.

"How do I pay for these?" Elder Sun laughed.

"There is no need. The technique is another gift from the Emperor for every new cultivator, and the pills are given to everybody who joins the sect with unopened meridians. Most new joiners are hailing from families that have cultivators in their line. Those typically open their gates in the time between trial and intake, so not too many people need them, but everybody has the right to get them."

"Thank you! I will get to it right away," he said, sitting on the edge of his chair, imagining how he would use his new cultivation chamber. The elder raised a finger.

"You will see that each opening is a draining affair, and your channels are not used to what you need them to do. So, I would recommend you take at least ten days, if not two weeks, between each attempt. And don't despair if an attempt fails; it happens all the time.

"Once you have opened the maximum number of gates you can, we will come back together and address the dantians," the elder clapped his hands.

"I think that was enough for one day. Given that an attempt is likely going to take you out of commission for a day or two, I would suggest you inform Minghao before you go through with it, so that he can plan around it." Jianyi's thoughts raced. Ten days between openings would bring him right to intake day; two weeks would have him miss the deadline—that, of course, assumed he would be able to open all twelve meridians, and that he would not fail a single attempt.

Maybe that was one of the risks the elder had talked about—it seemed he had no other choice. Jianyi got up and bowed to the elder.

"Thank you so much for the lesson. I will do my best to succeed quickly." Elder Sun laughed.

"I am sure you will!" As keen as he was to start reading the scroll that Elder Sun had given him, he knew that his first port of call had to be Minghao to see what chores needed doing—but then, nothing could stop him from moving forward. A few hours later, he washed off the sweat from the second training session of the day and eagerly settled down in his cultivation chamber to begin reading the Imperial Gate Opening Technique. Apparently, there was a specific order in which one was supposed to open the meridians.

The order was meant to prevent imbalances in the body, and the difficulty of opening the meridians varied. As every opened gate increased the amount of qi in the body, a cultivator could improve their odds by delaying the most difficult ones. However, there was a counterpoint in the manual: Every attempt, whether successful or not, puts strain on the meridian channels of a freshly minted cultivator; therefore, every subsequent opening procedure becomes more challenging and painful.

So on the one hand, gathering more qi helped, but at the same time, every single gate-opening attempt made it harder. What got his blood boiling was the unfairness of it all. By having fewer gates open at birth, he would need more attempts than somebody with, for example, five gates open naturally. So he needed more attempts, and each would be harder than the last. A couple of deep breaths calmed him down. There was nothing to do about it—he just had to march forward to success.

It turned out that the exercise Elder Sun had given him to access his storage ring was, to a large degree, identical to the first step of the opening process. To move qi through his channels, he first needed to be able to grab what he had so far called his 'flicker' in the first place. To get started, he put the scroll to the side for now and engaged with renewed vigor in the attempt to access his qi. He worked on the exercise for hours without making meaningful progress.

He had the feeling that with a larger amount of qi, the process would get simpler, but he couldn't explain why he thought that. Only pausing for a quick dinner with Minghao, he returned to his exercise until he could barely keep his eyes open. Reluctantly, he accepted that further attempts would be futile and went to bed. There was a brief moment before he fell asleep where he wished that he could talk with somebody about all that had happened over the last two days.

However, there was nobody—and he was used to seeing things through on his own.