I moved stealthily along the city searching for news about the envoys' descent and the trash of the Huang family.
While I was searching I felt a strong qi fluctuation coming from the far north, I thought for a while if I was going to see what it was, but I just entered the city and I didn’t want to leave empty. In a couple of days, I learned a few things.
The envoys will arrive at this city in 3 months and they will pick up all the people below 12 that have found at least one secret meridian or that have formed a dantian.
The fiancee of the Huang young master has broken off the engagement Humiliating further the poor sod, she is a cultivation genius with 4 secret meridians found and will enter directly the inner sect.
This confirmed to me that Huang Long (that is the Huang young master's name) is a protagonist in the making, just waiting for his lucky chance to slap everyone in the face.
I also discovered that there have been circulating rumors that the northern forest has recently been born an earthly treasure capable of curing all ailments. It was probably the cause of the qi fluctuation I sensed earlier.
I decided to stalk the Huang compound to find Huang Long because I was sure that with the possibility of curing his broken meridians, he would soon depart for the north forest.
Indeed the same night a dark figure exited on horseback from the clan compound and went straight north, not noticing that an even darker figure was following him.
I followed the little fellow for three days before we arrived into the forest that for various years I have called home. The brat was sure of himself: he never stopped looking for signs and seemed sure of what direction to take. Not that he was wrong since the direction was where there was the highest concentration of natural qi.
But the fact that he could tell with broken meridians signifies that his initial mental cultivation was pretty high. It took us two days to reach a cave: there two groups of people were arguing against each other probably about the right to collect the natural treasure.
The groups were each composed of three members and soon the argument evolved into a fight. They all had swords and they clumsily tried to hit each other until only one group composed of only two people remained. One was fine but the other was heavily injured.
The alright person tried to help his companion but in return only received a knife in the throat. The second person wasn’t as heavily injured as he was letting on and was only waiting for a chance to obtain the treasure all for himself.
Just as he was going to enter the cave and obtain the prize, a knife flew from behind him and stuck his back then a figure exited from the bushes and with a ruthless move retrieved the dagger and slit his throat.
I was impressed: the kid was capable of pulling such an impressive move with his frail body. The figure was Huang Long.
Huang Long entered the cave while I was silently following him. At this moment I was quite conflicted: if I should snatch the treasure from him or continue with my original plan.
I decided to follow him and then decide.
Inside the cave, there was an open space filled with a dozen various herbs emitting a qi fragrance. Long stayed there stupefied even as a young master of a prestigious clan has never seen so many precious herbs. There was even the same plant that his father had bought at a steep price for him to heal his meridians.
Huang Long composed himself and went to the center of the clearing where he picked up an old black ring. He hesitated a bit and then wore it. It was a storage ring, something that only the heads of prominent clans could have.
I was surprised when the kid picked up something from a ring that I only read about in novels. But what surprised me wasn’t the ring but the fact that the kid could extract something from it. To do so I could tell that he used some spirit sense and that means that his mental cultivation was at least on par with mine.
From the shadows I see him extracting a green pearl and a crystal with a red dot in the middle. When I saw the second item I suddenly had the urge to eat it, but I held myself back. If that was what could heal Huang Long and I ate it all I had done would have been for naught.
I instead watched as the green pearl released a black gas filling up the cave. I was also surrounded and immediately I noticed some black blobs forming inside my mind lake. But I was relieved when I saw that as soon as they appeared they were eaten by the two koi fishes.
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“No, I am not trash! I will defy the heavens and rise as the strongest!”
With that shout from Huang Long, the midst disappeared and I saw the green ball entering the space between his brows
Then an ethereal beauty appeared.
“Your determination is as strong as it is your mind. But your meridians are shattered, take me as your master and I will help you”
“Sorry but, fairy, who are you?”
“You can call me Ling and I come from a distant place you wouldn’t know. I can help you reconstruct your meridian channels but in exchange, I want three things from you.”
Huang Long kowtowed three times and said ”Master. Ask away and even if I have to go through fire or blades I will.”
“ Very well my disciple, I like your determination. First, you have to obtain a nascent soul beast core of the ice attribute and 300 high-grade spirit stones or 3 top-grade spirit stones. Secondly, you cultivate hard until you reach the core formation realm. Thirdly, you must share your spirit sense with me.”
“The last request is for me to see my surroundings since right now I am simply a detached soul. It will also expand your spirit sense range to 500 meters.”
(Huang Long) “Master before doing that, can you help me repair my meridians?”
(Ling) “Very well. Now ingest the crystal in your left hand. It contains the blood essence of a True Dragon. Normally it should be too powerful for you to bear, but, with my help, you can use it to repair your meridians and also to change and improve your constitution.”
“Now sit cross-legged and adjust your state of mind before eating the crystal”
Huang Long did just that and then ate the crystal with the drop of blood.
As he was shaking and enduring the pain of his transformations I decided to exit my hiding place and collect those poor herbs that were being ignored. I decided to leave a couple for the kid or he might just fight me to the death, but the rest went into my inventory space. Then I returned to my hiding place.
Just in time as Long was waking up and ecstatic was examining the changes in his body.
Then he looked around and discovered that the herbs had disappeared. He was suddenly enraged. “Master who came while I was recovering?”
(Ling) “How should I know I was busy helping you reconstruct your body. You are lucky that whoever did it didn’t attack you. Now fuse your spirit sense with mine and I will see if he is still in the area of 500 meters around us.”
“Hmm, no one. Wait, attack that shadow!”
Huang Long threw his dagger and I swatted it away with my paw as I exited my shadow.
I roared.
Everything was going according to plan.
(Huang Long) “Master, what should I do?”
(Ling) “It should not be a normal beast. You’re no match for it and using my power is like using an ax to kill an ant: very impractical. I will instead capture and make him follow and protect you.”
Huang Long excitedly exclaimed: “Thank you, master.”
Then an enormous pressure descended on me, my legs buckled and I couldn’t move.
‘Maybe I miscalculated a little, I never thought that she had a technique capable of enslaving me.’
Long confidently approached me and, under the instructions of its new master, cut his hand and flicked a drop of blood on my forehead.
The drop entered my mind space and tried to encase it. But before it could do so it was swallowed by one of the two koi fish.
Ling and Huang Long remained stupefied when from their perspective the technique failed. After a bit, the master suggested he try a second time.
The same thing happened: but after the second koi fish ate the drop of blood a kind of resonance appeared and I sensed a connection with the Huang kid.
Ling, satisfied, ordered her disciple to sit down and meditate, with me as protector. That was to find the hidden meridians (the reconstruction cleared the normal ones) and to form a dantian before the 3-month deadline of the envoys' descent.
As I waited at the side I listened to the various explanations about cultivation from the fairy.
I learned that the hidden meridians that one discovers aren’t necessarily related to the potential of the individual. Instead, it is equal to the amount of qi that someone can hold, its potency, and also to the number of stages in the qi-gathering realm. In this realm, the layers are equal to the number of hidden meridians multiplied by 2.
‘So I have to go through 16 layers of qi cultivation, good to know.’
The number of hidden meridians found depends on the innate talent of the individual and can be improved through the use of secret techniques.
Ling imparted one of such techniques to Huang Long that together with his innate talent should help him find out 5 hidden meridians.
Additionally, the only way for someone to determine the number of hidden meridians found by somebody is to check it during the dantian formation stage. After that, they become a unified cavity and the number can’t be asserted anymore.
Finished the explanation, and the trope continued as I expected. Long found 6 hidden meridians and astonished Ling who praised him as on par with the top sects prodigies.
Then in two months Long finished creating his dantian and used the herbs to boost his cultivation to the 3rd layer of qi gathering.
In these two months I didn’t idly away but continued to expand my mind lake and my mental cultivation had reached the 2nd stage.
[crystal mind lake Lv1 → Lv2]
[spiritual sense Lv1 → Lv2]