Chương 21: The End

A handsome boy. Very handsome, it was said. He bathed in the blood of his defeated sect brothers. Did he know it served no purpose? Yes. Did he do it anyway? Yes. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms It was late afternoon, and they had finished weeding the herb garden as well as a practice session in which Minghao had made him move with increasing speed through Circling Sky.

"What did you take away from your observation of the inner disciples?" Jianyi thought about the question. There were a few things that stood out to him, most obviously how big the gap between him and those students was. But there was more.

"One thing that I noticed was that they were focused on their opponent, not the forms. Those had become subconscious."

"Very good, Jianyi. You need to realize that I have not shown you how to fight, I have barely shown you movements and forms. The only way to learn how to fight is to fight. But! Fighting without the forms is little better than a brawl." The retainer smiled at him.

"All of this," he pointed towards the training circle, "over the last ten weeks or so, was just about laying foundations. The sect will teach you how to fight, they are very good at it. But I think that what we have done should set you up for a good start."

It was time to open more of his meridians. According to the Martial Meridian Art, the next gates were the lung and neck. Jianyi felt confident. While it was true that the pain in his pathways had increased after the second use of the opening technique, things were going well overall. Practicing the Circling Sky under the guidance of Minghao brought him endless joy.

With few exceptions, his excursions to other parts of the sect had made him feel more connected with his new home, and he felt more and more qi trickling into his body from the previously opened gates. Things were truly looking up. With practiced movements, he sat down in his cultivation chamber and placed the cleansing pills beside the circle, as always. As usual, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath to prepare for the procedure… and noticed his robe shuffling on the floor. He had forgotten to undress.

He scolded himself and debated whether his lapse in focus was reason enough to abort the attempt. He was very much aware of the warnings he had received from Elder Sun and others about the dangers he faced. But, no—distraction and overconfidence were no excuse for a lapse in discipline. Time was running out, and if he wanted to make it to twelve open meridians and do so in time for the looming test, there was no choice but to move forward. Being weak was not an option. He just needed to stay focused.

He undressed and spent an additional thirty minutes in meditation to ensure no distractions would get in his way. Jianyi sliced off two slivers of qi from the reservoir of qi in his lower dantian, which had noticeably grown. The paths he had to follow were more complex than before, as the two slivers had to move asynchronously around his body but hit the meridians at the same time. Right away, the pain was excruciating—a steep change from previous attempts.

He returned the qi to his dantian and took a few breaths to steel himself for what was to come. With renewed resolve, he moved the pearls of qi through his pathways at an ever-increasing pace. The pain was intense and grew with every moment. Jianyi gritted his teeth. It took all his focus not to lose control; he was so close and so full of hope. The pain threatened to overwhelm him; he just needed to hold for a fraction of a second more. He was not strong enough. He would lose control. He would fail.

But deep, deep within him, he felt something vast stir, trying to help him overcome the pain, go beyond the breaking point. Startled by the feeling, he lost focus, and the balls of qi crashed into his pathways—close to the gates, but not close enough. From there, Jianyi knew only pain.

Movement. Vague figures.

"…in his bed."

"Is this the end?" The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Only he can decide…"

Jianyi woke with the largest headache of his young life. But it was not just his head that ached. It was his whole body and, even more so, his meridians and pathways. There was no part of him that didn't hurt; breathing was a pain, and his neck was stiff. He cracked his eyes open, then snapped them shut again as daggers of light stabbed at his vision. It was a bright day, but Jianyi had no idea which day it was. Carefully, he opened his eyes again and found himself in his bed.

From what he could see, there were no external wounds, but he was barely strong enough to lift his head. Slowly, his memories returned to him. Panic flared as he tried to look inward to assess the damage, but the attempt sent a spike of pain through him that made his headache seem benign. He closed his eyes and faded away again.

It was unclear when, but he woke up again. The pain in his head had abated slightly, but the weakness in his body remained. Having learned from his mistake, he did not attempt to access his meridians again. He opened his eyes and found Minghao sitting by his bedside, reading a scroll. He tried to speak, but his throat was parched, and he didn't manage to produce more than a cough. His friend and teacher turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Risen from the dead?" Jianyi managed a soft nod and was grateful for the cup of water that Minghao helped him take a sip from.

"How long have I been out?" he asked softly.

"Two days. We found you when you didn't turn up the next morning. It seems that your breakthrough did not go as planned…"

"That is an understatement, Minghao. I failed. How bad is it?"

"Bad," the retainer said bluntly but not without kindness.

"Elder Sun took a look at your pathways, and the damage is substantial. It will take a long time to recover from this—months. The backlash to your body should heal quicker, but it will set you back there as well." For a moment, despair threatened to overwhelm him, but he remembered their family motto. Discipline had seemingly failed him—or rather, he had failed it. He would not lose his dignity. He nodded.

"Thank you for telling me. I am sorry for failing. You and the elder have done so much for me." Minghao patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about us. Focus on getting better." Soon after, he drifted back to sleep.

The next time he woke up, his head felt significantly better, and the mental fog that he hadn't even realized had been there was gone. Still, he was careful not to use his qi or even check on his channels. But he felt ready to get up and take a shower. It was slow, and he walked like a mortal closing in on his first century, but it did work. The thought alone of carrying a spear made him sweat, but it was important to focus on the good things.

That had helped him and his mother in the more difficult times, and it would see him through this. After the shower, he slowly made his way to the courtyard and sat down in the place where Elder Sun sometimes drank tea, using the sunshine to lift his spirits. He reflected on that fateful night and where he had gone wrong. First, he had ignored his body's warning that the time between attempts had been too short. He should have waited until the pain in his meridian pathways had abated.

Second, there had been signs that he had not been as focused as he should have been. He had also ignored those. It was too soon, but he did need to reflect on what had driven him to this point. Was it purely discipline? Was it the desire for revenge? Was it fear of the test that loomed over him? It was, objectively, better to advance quickly on the path of cultivation than to linger.

He also believed, despite none of his teachers ever mentioning it, that to go far on that path one needed to be willing to take risks—to push oneself, maybe further than reasonable. He hoped it wasn't just the stories of heroes from his youth talking, but he didn't think so. Fate, the Heavens… someone had bestowed him with perhaps the most powerful Core Card in the empire's history. An opportunity, maybe, to defeat the demons. It would be almost blasphemous in his mind not to give it his all.

Elder Sun entered the courtyard and sat beside him.

"How are you feeling, Jianyi?"

"Much better, teacher. I am sorry for causing you trouble." The elder waved him off.

"Don't mention it. I am more interested in whether you are also sorry for using the Martial Meridian Art." Jianyi thought about it for a moment, but even on second thought, he was at peace with his decision. He shook his head.

"No, I am not. I think I owe it to… I think I must strive for the best possible outcome. I think I should have gone about it differently, but I do think going for it was the best path for me and my special circumstances." The elder nodded slowly.

"Good. Jianyi, if there is a powerful cultivator in the empire who hasn't faced setbacks, I don't know who it is. The path of cultivation is a long one—long enough to make mistakes, long enough to learn from them."

"Thank you. I will definitely learn from this." They sat together in silence for a few moments, and Jianyi's thoughts went back to the failed attempt.

"Teacher, when I lost control, there was something, I am not sure what, that tried to help me. I might be imagining things, but I feel that if I hadn't been so surprised, it could have saved the attempt." The elder looked at him for a few moments.

"Mhh, interesting. You really are interesting. Something to explore when you are feeling a bit better. Focus on that for now." Elder Sun patted Jianyi on the shoulder and got up.

"I will, teacher, but I will be able to run errands again soon." Errands. Errands. There was something about errands to run. Errands he had run…

"Elder!" Jianyi shouted at the older man, who was almost out of the courtyard and now turned around with a raised eyebrow and a twinkle in his eyes.

"The healing process seems to be coming along well. I haven't been yelled at in a long, long time," he said with a chuckle.

"I am sorry, teacher, but I just remembered something." He raised his hand with his storage ring.

"Elder Chen Qingmei gave me a pill, in case something went wrong during my meridian opening. Do you think it will help?" The elder turned back.

"Did she now? Mhh, let's have a look." He took Jianyi's ring, infused some qi into it, and produced the small pill bottle with a large pink pill. He looked at it for a moment, then looked at Jianyi.

"She just gave this to you?"

"Yes, she said that a student of Elder Sun should not suffer from a limited talent or something like it. I was supposed to give it back if I didn't face any issues. But I think this counts as an issue, doesn't it?" The elder chuckled.

"It certainly does. This is an Ancestral Pathway Preservation Pill. It is very potent—worth quite a fortune. Rest for now. Until you feel no more pain in your body, only then lie down in bed and take this pill. It should do you good." As the elder left, Jianyi felt hope rising in his chest. He would not allow this to be the end of his cultivation journey. The pill offered him a chance to be whole again—at least in time for the test.