Chương 41: Chapter 16 – Martial Meridian Art

About two weeks after he had learned about the costs of the technique—weeks full of training, work, and little sleep—Jianyi stood at the counter of the outer sect library, proudly handing over his medallion. The librarian smiled as she handed him the technique scroll.

"Congratulations. I know very well that it is not easy to gather contribution points if one can't go out and gather natural treasures, defeat beasts, or complete other missions. I hope the technique helps you on your cultivation journey."

"Thank you very much for your help. I truly appreciate it, and I am sure I'll be back soon." He placed the scroll into his storage ring, as he had started to do religiously for everything else too—not because it was necessary to carry his meager belongings, but because it was constant training. He had seen Elder Sun and Minghao use theirs, and it was instantaneous. He might not be there yet, but he would get there eventually.

Back at home, he settled down on his bed and went through the process of accessing his storage ring again to pull out the scroll. He paid full attention to the Martial Meridian Art and started to read it in detail. It became clear quite quickly why the elder had given him the qi control toy. The technique required the cultivator to control two slivers of qi in parallel, have both accelerate simultaneously, and then hit two gates at exactly the same time.

Jianyi felt a headache coming on just thinking about the complexity—at the same time, he got excited about the challenge and the implications of being able to exert this level of control. The technique also prescribed the combinations of meridians that should be opened together. Taking into account that his feet and thigh meridians were already free of impurities, he would now have to address the right arm first—palm and biceps—then the left arm, then lung and neck, and finally stomach and heart.

Four more attempts if everything worked out. He had little more than two months until the test, which was a lot less time than he would have liked. He grabbed the artifact. It was time to get busy again—nobody would ever be able to accuse Jianyi of not putting in the effort.

"Today we will begin our week of you gaining proficiency with Piercing Fang. As you know, this is the second form—a clean thrust. It is the most basic of attacks. But basic does not mean weak or unimportant; it means that it is the basis of your offense.

"We have done this before. Rise. Advance. Close. Retreat.

"Assume the Rooted Stance, gather energy. Now, slowly, very slowly, you will bring your right leg forward, and once you have a stable position—not before—you will bring your spear forward in a straight motion. At the last moment, raise the spear slightly upward. Return to Rooted Stance. Go!" Again, Minghao used his own spear to correct Jianyi's movements. As their time for the morning came to a close, Jianyi asked Minghao whether he could demonstrate the movement once.

The retainer smiled and whirled his spear in his hand while he considered the request.

"Why not." With that, he took the central position in the training circle, assumed the Rooted Stance, and then, with a fluid motion full of grace and coiled energy—almost too fast for Jianyi to see—he exploded forward and immediately returned to the starting position. Jianyi looked at the retainer with an open mouth.

"That… that was fast. You didn't step before striking, though!" Minghao laughed.

"You have to walk before you run, Jianyi. We will get to that soon enough. First, you have to perfect the individual movement, then you bring them together into a form, then you bring the forms together. One step at a time, and we will work on your speed soon."

After the second training session of the day, still sweating, they had an early dinner before Jianyi ran to his dishwashing duties. Even though he had acquired the manuscript he needed, he had kept up with the work in the kitchen. His days were long and exhausting, but he was sure that one could never have enough contribution points, and once he passed the test—hopefully—he might not have the time anymore. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Another benefit of the activity was that he got to talk with people other than Minghao. He had taken a strong liking to the man and was grateful for his patience and humor, but talking with people a little bit closer to his own life experiences prior to joining the sect was not bad for a change. He had also taken to carefully trying to understand the dynamics in the sect a bit better—at least from the perspectives of mortal servants.

So far, the one thing he had learned about his teacher was that none liked to gossip about him. About others, sure, even elders, but not about Elder Sun. Why, he did not know.

He was tired when he returned to his room, but he still sat down in his cultivation chamber and focused on the qi in his body. Over the last few days, he had managed to separate two slivers of qi at the same time, and now he could control them almost indefinitely as long as he didn't move and stayed in his lower dantian with both streams of energy. The moment he tried to navigate with either one or both, he started to lose control.

While doing his chores during the day, he had thought about the problem, and it came down to the same issue that had handicapped him previously. He had two hands and could move them independently without any issue. They were his; he was them. With qi, there was still a part of him that did not consider it truly a part of him. If he could overcome that, he knew that he would make a leap forward. He took a deep breath and centered himself.

With an effort of will, he created two tiny golden pearls of qi and carefully moved them toward the pathway to his right leg. They wobbled, but they followed his will—as they should. They were part of him, after all. Slowly, they moved through his pathways, the network that connected meridians and dantians. He managed to make a full round through his body—legs, arms, and all the way up to his head. That was a resounding success. His bed called to him, but he wanted to use his momentum.

He guided the slivers of qi to the gate on his right palm. He had to make a decision whether to move them in parallel or sequentially through his gate. He went for parallel, as he didn't believe he had it in him to control one inside and one outside of his body at the same time. He started to sweat, the concentration taking everything out of him, but it worked. Outside of his body, the qi was, of course, invisible, but he could still sense it hovering outside his hand.

Carefully, with clenched teeth, never letting his focus waver, he moved them downward to Elder Sun's artifact that rested on his lap. A finger length more. A drop of sweat fell from his brow. He remained focused. A moment later, he saw a slight flicker coming from the gems on both sides of the elder's toy. He had made it!

After morning sparring, Jianyi knocked on Elder Sun's study door and entered after a few seconds.

"Jianyi, how can I help you?" asked the elder, sitting behind his desk, apparently in the middle of writing a letter.

"I apologize for disturbing you, teacher. I just wanted to inform you that I managed to get your artifact to glow and, with your permission, would now make my first attempt with the Martial Meridian Art." Jianyi had spent another day improving his control of the two qi threads, even being able to move them separately through his body. He was eager to move forward. Elder Sun looked at him for a moment.

"Congratulations. That was quite fast. As I said before, I am not going to stop you if you think this is the path for you. Make sure you are well rested and have practiced the technique sufficiently when you make your attempt. I wish you success." After being dismissed—but crucially with the approval to go ahead—Jianyi left and helped Minghao in the herb garden. He also informed Huang Jingyi that he would not be able to help in the kitchen that evening.

His nerves built up throughout the day, and as he finally retreated to his room in the late afternoon, he could barely contain his excitement, despite the physically exhausting training session that lay behind him. He decided a quick catnap was needed to make sure he could sufficiently focus during the procedure. Twenty minutes later, he felt much better. His heart beat calmly, and he was ready. As the last time, he undressed, placed the cleansing pills close to him, and settled down in the cultivation circle.

Whenever he had had a moment during the day, he had circled two slivers of qi through his pathways, preparing for this moment. In principle, this should be easier than the exercise with Elder Sun's artifact, as the qi did not have to leave his body. In practice, it wasn't that simple. He needed to accelerate the qi much more; he needed to synchronize the movements in two different parts of his body and hit the meridians precisely.

He took a moment to memorize the placements of the gates in his palm and biceps again. It was unpleasant because it meant he had to get close to the impurities that clogged them, and he had done it many times before, but, as his mother said about cloth when tailoring, it was better to measure twice and cut once than the other way around. Jianyi did a few more practice rounds, but then he felt like he couldn't prepare more, and it was time to go through with it.

First, he created two slivers that were slightly larger than the ones he had used so far. It would help to break through the impurities should he hit them. Of course, it also increased the risk in case he missed his target, but he was willing to do it for the improved likelihood of success. Next, he started the circulation. For the meridians in his right arm, he had to move the qi through the pathways in his legs first, accelerate, then go back up all the way to the neck, and from there down the arm.

Already on the way down the legs, he started to feel uncomfortable, as the qi raced through the channels faster than he was used to. The feeling increased as he continued to accelerate on the upward trajectory. He struggled to maintain concentration in the face of the pain but gritted his teeth and continued—a few more moments, and it would be all over. He held his breath as the qi neared its targets; his focus did not waver despite the difficulty of two parallel movements and the intense pain.

The qi hit, and for a moment, Jianyi's mind blanked, and he thought he saw stars as the pain raced through his body. His spirit felt scraped raw, as if a hot poker had been rammed through them. It took quite a few moments and deep breaths until he managed to focus again.