Chương 51: The Path Forward (Part I)

I need to take most ouf of this situation, Lucian thought. He used his bat claws to travel through Magistrate Yue's throat, moving toward her stomach. She's resilient. Still breathing after all this. Good. He didn't aim to kill her, for now. Lucian wanted to gain a better understanding of meridians and Qi flow, to feed his curiosity about how to cultivate, and to help him find a way out of this situation.

It surprised him greatly, however, that even blinded, bleeding, with internal injuries, and unconscious, Magistrate Yue maintained part of her breathing technique, her muscles contracting in a steady rhythm. She continued to gather Qi inside her body, guiding it through her meridians and into her Spiritual Root. Lucian calculated that in a few days at most she would return to peak condition. Maybe sooner. Amidst his thoughts, he reached her stomach.

The gastric fluids burned him slightly, but it was nothing compared to sunlight. Once able to stay still inside her, he closed his eyes, letting the echolocation provide a clearer perception of her body. As he expected, her situation was anything but good. She had dozens of fractured bones, one malfunctioning kidney, a ruptured section of the intestine causing internal bleeding, and a damaged stomach. Well, that last part was because of the way he entered her, but it still had to be considered.

Previously, he had performed an improvised autopsy on Xu Hua and experimented on Wang Chen to validate his knowledge about meridians. Following these practical studies, Lucian began searching for the thin meridians inside Magistrate Yue. The heartbeat and breathing noises interfered, but soon he found what he was looking for. They are marvelous, he thought, genuinely amazed. From her lower abdomen, twelve lines extended throughout her body, connecting to organs, blood vessels, and bones.

They don't look like a mage's mana veins, he thought, recalling his old enemies. Meridians are more like a tree's roots. In Xu Hua's body, they were still, lacking something. But here, they seem alive. Struggling to... To do something. Through Xu Hua's memories, Lucian learned that a person's breathing technique guided Qi inward, toward the Spiritual Root, and from there it flowed to the organs and chakra points.

Qi was also directed toward the locations where future Dantians would be formed, but that piece of information wasn't important for now. Lucian analyzed each part of Magistrate Yue's body with extreme care and attention. Then, when he thought about what he knew from the Qi Gathering, Qi Refining, Qi Condensation, and Foundation Establishment stages, everything made more sense. Cultivation is the act of taking from the world to empower oneself, he thought, his bat eyes gleaming.

So this is not so different from being a vampire. Cultivators need to take Qi from the world to grow. At that moment, he paid attention to the Qi mixed with the blood he had devoured. Next, for the first time in this new world, he experienced a moment of enlightenment. When I devour blood, it can also be stored within the Rune of Greed, compressed beyond the physical limits, he thought. A Spiritual Root should do the same with Qi. Which means it doesn't exist purely in the physical world!

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. After that, he returned his focus to the current situation. Lucian noticed Magistrate Yue's body heating up, as if trying to fight against the unknown intruder. Her body is fighting to draw in Qi, to survive. It wants Qi to empower her meridians and chakra points, each with its own function. Didn't I learn through Xu Hua's memories that each chakra point enhances a body function?

And if Qi is moving along her breathing technique without her being awake, doesn't it mean Qi is following a flow? It was as if Lucian was witnessing a new world unfolding before him. Being inside Magistrate Yue, being bathed in blood and the unseen Qi opened his view. Why do I try to refine Qi or fight against it? I didn't understand its flow before, so I expelled it with blood. But what if I can guide it? I should try to use the Qi inside me to unlock my meridians!

I should carve a path with blood and Qi inside me! Lucian decided what to do, but he faced a lingering problem. What I learned about meridians does not account for a bestial form, but for humanoid ones. This bat's internal structure is vastly different from my form. What if this affects my cultivation? I can't take this risk! Quickly forming a plan, Lucian sighed inwardly. He disliked the odds, but he had no luxury of choice.

So, opening his mouth, he commanded the Blood Essence he had refined from the Inspectors to force Constable Mu's blood out of his body. Like he had done with Pan Xunmeng's blood long ago. The difference was that, this time, he was inside Magistrate Yue's body. Given the sudden influx of blood, it took two seconds for her stomach to rupture under the pressure. Then, Magistrate Yue woke in agony, screaming.

She was unable to see anything, her legs unresponsive, and to make matters worse, her swelling abdomen hurt like never before. Because of the Movement talisman she had used, Magistrate Yue couldn't walk and had to rely on it to move within the formation. Not that she was in any condition to leave the ground. Through the formation, she checked her position. Soon, she saw herself on the brink of death, her body swollen and bleeding, with needles piercing her brain through her eyes.

At the same time, having recovered part of her awareness, she felt an influx of Qi within her. It took her a second to notice it wasn't her own Qi, and with practiced ease, she dispersed it, fearing it was an unknown demonic technique. Her swollen belly deflated a moment later, the numbing agony fading as whatever had filled it disappeared.

Unable to grasp what had just happened, she opened and closed her mouth to ask for help, until the golden images in her vision showed the corpses of the Inspectors and Constable Mu around her. Smacking her dried lips, she commanded the formation to show her Xu Duan's condition. The young man was bleeding and unconscious, causing her heart to skip a beat. A myriad of thoughts passed through her mind.

She felt she could heal herself over time, but she believed that Lucian was also healing nearby and would kill her and Xu Duan before she could do anything. Imperial Magistrate Yue Zhenli could accept her death, but refused to let the same fate reach Xu Duan! With great effort, she moved her hand to her blood-soaked robes and pulled out a talisman. For this one, she would normally need to bite her lip and offer blood to activate it, but the piece of paper was already smeared with her blood.

The moment she channeled a thread of Qi into it, her ruptured meridians burst and damaged more organs. Still, she was able to activate the formation. Eighteen flags buried in the ground shot upward, altering the One-Floor Pagoda Heavenly Formation. They cut through the air, rushing toward Xu Duan. After surrounding him, the flags formed a smaller protective array and stabilized his condition.

Smiling faintly, Magistrate Yue stammered, "Big Sister, your son is—" Her words were cut off as her abdomen swelled and burst violently, spraying gore in every direction. A skeletal figure emerged from within her body. It was skinless, igniting the moment sunlight touched it. In an instant, the horrifying creature grabbed her by the hair, jumped out of her body, and dragged her into the shade of the nearby bushes.

After being protected in the shadow, the skeletal being opened its bone maw and drove its fangs into her neck. Magistrate Yue felt nothing, the pain having numbed her mind. Nonetheless, a faint smile lingered on her lips as the last image she saw was Xu Duan sleeping safely in the golden formation array.