Chương 85: Cultivation Engineering

After he woke up and cleaned himself off, Paike was fixated by what he saw in the mirror. The changes were both more subtle and more extreme than they had been for all the jumps in the first realm of his physical cultivation. Apparently he had been wrong that he was about to take the next step and instead had been on the verge of advancing to the second realm.

Each method of physical cultivation was pretty different, and his stages apparently were big enough jumps that he only needed a few before he was up to the next realm. He had heard of methods like the Gentile Lotus cultivation that might have seven or eight stages in the early realms. Maybe even hundreds in the later realms. Any of his cultivations could never be considered gentle or gradual. He wasn't elegant, but rather brutal and straightforward.

From ripping apart his dantian to progress or crushing things with brute force in his fights, Paike didn't suffer distractions from his progress. That was part of what had him so confused about what he saw in the mirror. The previous stages had left him bald, with tiles under his skin. This was almost the opposite. Perhaps it was from his physical cultivation finally matching his spiritual, but he looked more balanced. His hair had grown so he had long flowing black locks that reached just past his shoulders.

Almost as noticeable was that his facial features had shifted ever so slightly. His cheekbones were a bit more prominent, his chin just a bit better proportioned. Overall, just a bit more handsome. His muscles and shoulder width stayed about the same, but he noticed that his waist was more slender, so he adjusted his robes slightly to get them to fit right. It was as if most of the changes that had come from spending time as a mortal before awakening had been washed away. Even his skin was whiter.

He was still recognizable, but the changes were obvious. The jagged bit behind his teeth hadn't gone away; if anything, it was sharper. He poked his arm. The tilted bits of armor under his skin were still there, even if they were harder to see; he could still feel them. They were smaller and a lot more of them. It was only as he closely watched the skin move that he could make out the hexagonal scaled pattern, and he noticed they slightly overlapped now. He was grateful that he looked more normal now.

If anything, he looked less changed than almost all Topaz cultivators with a second realm body, as his eyes were still normal and all his modifications were hidden. With the nagging pressure to advance finally off his list of pressing things, Paike took the time to evaluate everything he needed to work on. First, he needed to refile his dantian. He was now completely out, and this prevented him from doing many things or even fighting effectively.

Second, he needed to find out the situation in the outer sect and talk to Liming. Third, there were his studies with Taka and generally getting control of his battle trance. Fourth, his research both with Guan Li and Elder Song was ready to progress. Fifth, he needed to continue expanding his Dantian. Sixth, he needed to progress his cultivation again. Seventh, he wanted to further develop and refine the technique he had created. Maybe he could fully integrate it into the art, purpose, and all.

He felt this was a pretty decent list. There were things he was forgetting, he was sure, and then there were also things that didn't make it. Like helping his sister and friends progress. He had to check a few things off for himself first. The most important was to finish getting his battle trance under control. He was making good progress, but he still had a deadline. However, before he could even start on items three, five, six, and seven, he needed more qi. Even two and four would be hard without it.

Before he started, though, he wanted to get some advice. Guan Li had mentioned an idea earlier, but they had been interrupted before he could ask more about it. So he headed out to the common rooms of their house to see if he could find his roommate. Guan Li wasn't yet up. Paike could hear his even breathing through his door. Something he had never noticed before, and he put it down to heightened senses after his breakthrough. Looking out the window, he saw that the sun still wasn't up yet.

Apparently his cultivation hadn't taken as long as he had thought. He considered leaving the house, but that was a bad idea without any qi. Instead, he grabbed his staff and went to the courtyard in the back. Settling in, he started running through some forms. He had expected it to feel awkward, but if anything, it felt more natural than ever before. He didn't have much of an affinity for any particular weapon, but this felt as if he was fighting unarmed.

That was where he was most comfortable, but this felt just as good. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The staff felt a part of him. His awareness of it was just as intense as his feeling for his own hands. Each sweep was precise, and each through followed the path he intended perfectly. He just decided what he wanted to do and his body obeyed. He sped up, going through several katas without stopping. With each completed set, he increased his pace again.

His staff whipped through the air with an audible hum with every sweep. Eventually, he even broke a sweat. Stopping to drink some water, he left the staff leaning against the house before he started in on some unarmed routines. The change wasn't as noticeable; he was certainly faster and stronger, but didn't feel that much more comfortable than before. He stopped when the door to the courtyard opened, and Guan Li stuck his head out.

"There you are." Paike walked over and picked up a spare rag to wipe his face with.

"You were looking for me?"

"After you went to cultivate, I had a few thoughts I wanted to run by you." Guan Li said as he stepped out of the way to let Paike back into the house.

"Go for it," Paike said.

"I was actually waiting for you to get up as well."

"Oh, good." Guan Li said with an eager tone as he moved to one of the chairs and picked up a single sheet of paper.

"So I was thinking about how you bound the notes we finished." Paike nodded.

"What about it?"

"Well, it seemed like you kinda just made it up as you went. I couldn't see it, obviously, but I don't think I have seen you using anything like it before."

"It wasn't fully from scratch then. There were some things I had tried earlier fighting the Bloodjade Ants that led into it, and I used an already existing meridian. But yes, it wasn't from an art I learned in a book or anything like that." Paike confirmed.

"Good, that was what I thought." Guan Li said as he handed over a piece of paper. It took Paike a few moments to figure out what he was looking at, but then he frowned and started to decipher it.

"This isn't a full art." He stated.

"No, I thought designing my own meridians was a bit much yet." Guan Li said.

"I'm thinking of using the few I have and maybe pick part of existing arts and use their meridians." That was one of the obvious paths they could take their ideas. Paike only had two meridians, and he could potentially have many more. But with how everything was going, he wasn't as sure he would be as limited as he had first thought. Still, it was probably safe to assume he would have to make do with fewer than he wanted.

So perhaps choosing a set of meridians he could use to cover any situation or make any technique would make more sense than learning full arts. It was extremely ambiguous and not necessary if he could recarve and repurpose other meridians. Still, it was tempting.

"Will this need more meridians?" Paike asked as he studied the paper.

"No, I designed it to work with what I had."

"An art without a meridian. I certainly haven't heard of something like that before," Paike mused.

"Nothing about it should be permanent; I think you could try it out without problems. I have a couple of suggestions, though." He started into a lengthy explanation about why some of Guan Li choices could be improved on. Guan Li pushed back, and by the time they were done, no part of the proto-art that Guan had designed was the same, even if the effect was. It was just more powerful, faster, and efficient.

"This would be so much easier if you were in Topaz," Paike explained, throwing his hands up as he once again had to describe what he meant rather than just drawing it in the air. Not that he would have been able to right now, but still.

"I'm working on it," Guan Li grumbled.

"Do you think we could go back to the nexus of qi again? I made good progress there."

"Soon, we can get Liming and Yixin again. I've been meaning to start pushing Liming; I think she might be slowing down as her focus is pulled away from cultivation." Paike said, "But before we do that, I wanted to talk to you about your idea for making it easier for me to refill my qi. I'm totally out, and I don't want to be vulnerable with how chaotic you made it sound last night."

"You mean the thing I suggested about making a door before Li Feng interrupted us?" Guan Li asked.

"Exactly," Paike said.

"I like the idea, but I see a problem, and I was wondering if you had any ideas about it."

"You mean what will happen as your dantian grows?"

"Yes," Paike said.

"I also have a few ideas about how to build something permanent, but I'm not sure what is best. It feels wrong to craft it out of spirit flesh. A little like making a door out of meat. But my other options won't grow with me."

"I see what you mean." Guan Li said.

"A door might be a bad analogy. You are right. You need something that can stretch with your dantian as you fill it. So it can't be too rigid, or it will crack or cause other problems. But you also can't have it be too weak, or it will rip. Maybe something like a tent flap. You can have buttons on one side and loops on the other?"

"That would be interesting," Paike said. He thought about it a little. There was no way it would work for anyone else. The gaps when it was closed out caused leaks, but unlike him, they could pull qi through the membrane. So what would those small gaps be to him? He could probably make them small enough that his qi couldn't get in or out. He was more worried about making it strong enough. And when opened, he could pull qi in at a crazy rate.

If he didn't have to wait for it to heal each time, then he would actually be more efficient than other cultivators. The only issue was strength. He needed to be able to grow without ripping it.

"Buttons would cause stress points." Paike mused.

"But what if I made a series of interlocking latches that bind together?"

"Like a set of locks?" Guan Li asked.

"Would you need a key? Or maybe just a tool to force them into place?"