Chapter 13: Meridian Opening
A sharp pain shot through Tyrak's entire body right after the surging energy smashed through all the obstacles in his primary heart meridian. He shuddered despite himself and eventually coughed out a mouthful of acrid blood as he tried to resist the piercing ache clouding his senses. The discomfort continued increasing, and before long, he couldn't help but think he was about to meet his maker.
Fortunately, the pain subsided after a while, and a wave of euphoria surged within his entire being. He felt some mysterious energy flowing into his primary heart meridian, giving way to a blissful sensation of immense strength and vitality within his body.
Tyrak could vividly feel his physique growing more robust with every powerful contraction and expansion of his heart. The mysterious energy flowing into his heart meridian filled his heart's blood with boundless vitality before it was pumped into every corner of his body. In turn, the countless cells in his body rejoiced and jubilated as they greedily gobbled up the incoming energy within his blood. After circulating through the body once, the blood with diminished energy levels returned to the heart, where it was pumped forth again. The cycle continued, and just like that, Tyrak's already vigorous body strengthened at an unbelievable rate.
"What a wonderful Berserk God Ascension Technique!"
Tyrak slowly opened his eyes. Steam emanated gently off his body, and a thin layer of greyish and foul-smelling sticky substance had already coated his skin. But Tyrak didn't mind the smell. After opening his heart meridian, he felt extremely comfortable. It was as if he had just finished soaking in a magical hot spring, and his entire body felt as light as a feather. He flexed his biceps slightly, and his bones immediately produced audible popping sounds.
"Wonderful!"
Tyrak was beside himself with excitement. His physique had grown significantly more powerful after he followed the instructions in the Berserk God Ascension Technique to open up the heart meridian. He couldn't help but wonder how strong he would become when he finally opened all his meridians and achieved the pinnacle state of the body-forging meridian-opening realm. At that point, maybe, he would gain the strength to take on all those prodigies from the powerful and mystical warlock organizations of Othea. And if he remained persistent in his training efforts after that, he would slowly gain the strength to look into the mysteries that led to his family's demise seven years ago.
"But what's the origin of that surge of energy that helped me clear my heart meridian? Could it be part of the opportunity given to me by the mysterious entity?"
The whole process of opening his heart meridian was still fresh in his mind. He had failed to sense any trace of the formless mist-like cosmic energy described in the Berserk God Ascension technique manual. So, he had opted to absorb the more abundant colorful energy specks floating around his body. However, there was a challenge in taking that route. The energy particles seemed to have little affinity with Tyrak's body, and towing them into his heart meridian was an almost impossible feat.
But by relying on his tenacity, forged over the seven years of slaving in the mines, Tyrak remained relentless. He successfully focused on one dark energy particle and guided it into his heart meridian. However, right after entering the channel, its resistance to his towing increased multiple times. Tyrak could only let it go, thinking he had failed to clear even one obstacle in his heart meridian.
It was at that point the energy surge occurred. The overflow swept away all barriers in the heart meridian, thus allowing Tyrak's progress in training the Berserk God Ascension technique to advance by leaps and bounds in a few seconds. Otherwise, his training wouldn't have been that quick had he relied on only the colorful energy specks floating in the natural world. He was well aware that without the surge of energy, he would have taken months to clear even a single obstacle in the heart meridian. It was the simple but undeniable truth.
"This should be the doing of the mysterious entity," Tyrak mused. "The surging energy is beneficial to my training. I can ignore its origin for the time being."
Tyrak quickly got his priorities right. What was important was for him to continue training in the Berserk God Ascension technique and become stronger quickly. As for the rest of the issues, he would think about them when an opportunity arose.
Sweeping his gaze around the cavern, he noticed that Tamara had yet to return. Maybe, she was still bathing, or she had decided to leave without saying goodbye. Tyrak didn't bother himself with pondering the matter for long and resolved to continue training in the Berserk God Ascension technique.
"I should continue..."
According to the Berserk God Ascension technique, the heart meridian was the most important. But aside from it, eleven other primary meridians existed in the human body. They included the stomach, the large intestine, the small intestine, the lung, the spleen, the bladder, the kidney, the pericardium, the triple-energizer, the gallbladder, and the liver meridians. They were all crucial meridians in the human body, and just by opening them, a powerhouse practicing the Berserk God Ascension technique would allow energy to flow through them smoothly. That very energy was what the practitioner in question would continue utilizing to refine his body and shatter human limits to achieve unparalleled strength.
Tyrak closed his eyes and quickly descended into a state of thoughtlessness again. His prior experiences made him more familiar with the routines of opening the meridians. He spread out his senses and quickly started towing another dark energy particle toward his lower abdomen.
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With exceptional tenacity, he dragged that energy particle into the opening of his stomach meridian using his consciousness. And just like before, an overflow occurred in his body and it swallowed the particle. The very same energy continued pouring forth with boundless momentum and quickly cleared all the obstacles within his primary stomach meridian.
Tyrak, of course, experienced the all-familiar excruciating pain after opening his second meridian. Fortunately, with the experience from before, he fared much better. He relied on his tenacity to endure the torment before calming himself down and focusing on another primary meridian.
Time passed, and Tyrak remained unrelenting in his training. He tackled primary meridian after meridian with the same tactic and continued reinforcing his accomplishments with the Berserk God Ascension technique. He lost himself in an uncanny state of emptiness, forgetting everything else around him, as his aura continued soaring at an unprecedented rate. His training speed was impressive as he quickly took firm steps toward accomplishing the pinnacle state of the meridian opening realm.
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As Tyrak was in the middle of training, gentle footfalls sounded in the otherwise silent cave. They slowly grew louder and louder until Tamara's gorgeous figure appeared around the bend leading to the exit of the cavernous space.
A long loose white robe had replaced her blouse and riding pants, and her slightly wet purple hair shone under the luminance afforded by the illumination crystals. The bath had rejuvenated her spirits, and she exuded a celestial-like aura as she walked into the cave.
She had really had a long and terrible day. She had gone against the teachings of her elders and initiated a Fate Queen Enslavement Rite alone. Her only intent had been to tie down a young man she had divined to possess boundless potential and destiny. She had lost her purity in the process, but in the end, failed to achieve her objective. Rather than taking the young man as a fate slave, she had become his slave. The whole flow of events had been coursing through her mind ever since, but she still couldn't identify where she had gone wrong during the ritual. The whole thing was like a mystery she couldn't unravel.
"Forget it. What's done is done. Maybe, I'll find a way in the future..."
Sighing to herself, she quickened her steps and entered the inner space of the cave. The next moment, her eyes naturally landed on Tyrak, who was sitting cross-legged. A feeling of surprise immediately swelled within her mind.
Tyrak seemed to be in a state of meditation training. But that was not what blew her mind. Instead, what caused her eyes to widen with surprise was that his aura was continuously growing at a very abnormal rate.
She had only watched him for a minute, but he appeared to have already overcome a bottleneck to push his powers a level higher. However, even then, he didn't stop his training. He maintained a meditative state, and after a few more minutes, he seemed to rush past another threshold and achieve more robust strength.
What kind of training speed was that? Was he a human or one of those legendary monsters with innate bloodlines? But even if he was one of those talented monsters, why did it seem like he wasn't training in warlock arts?
Many questions flashed within Tamara's mind, and her confusion grew exponentially. She remained rooted in place, watching and observing Tyrak as her astonishment spiked.
She was from the Oracle Temple, one of the mightiest warlock organizations in the entire world of Othea. She had seen many of her seniors and juniors, some with genius-level aptitudes, going through meditation. But even with all those experiences, she was really confounded and mystified by the bizarreness of Tyrak's training.
Usually, warlocks would commence practicing their arts by awakening their conscious realms before trying to perceive the mana particles within the natural world. After sensing the mana particles with high affinity with them, they would draw them into their awakened conscious realms and then kick-start the ardent process of refining their spirit power and constructing spell models. They would keep at it for years or decades, going through the ranks of apprentice warlocks until they completed an innate spell model. With the culmination of the 'innate' spell model, they would form a ‘mana core’ in their conscious realm and rise to the rank of official warlock. That was the process of practice that Tamara had learned since her younger years.
Needless to say, there were also rangers and warriors who made up the two other combat occupations in Othea. But from what Tamara had heard, their training was even more arduous. They would undergo hellish torture just to ignite their potential and awaken their life spark before becoming official rangers and warriors. But even then, they would not be able to match up to the might of official warlocks, who made up the mightiest bunch of humans in Othea.
Considering all that, Tyrak was clearly an anomaly in Othea. The technique he was practicing appeared not to belong to either the warlocks or the rangers and warriors. But even then, his powers were still improving at a rate beyond Tamara's understanding.
By her estimations, his aura had already strengthened by close to a dozen times during the time she had watched him in the meditative state. And bearing in mind that she had left the cave only an hour ago, his achievements were even more mind-blowing. Within that short window she had spent washing up, he had already grown from a weak entity that could barely match up to a primary-stage apprentice warlock and elevated his powers to a being that could give secondary-stage apprentice warlocks a run for their money.
Of course, Tamara understood that the potency of one's 'aura' didn't entirely represent one's combat prowess. A person with acute combat sense and superior battle experiences could overwhelm another with a more potent aura. But even then, the aura one exuded still remained the most obvious way of gauging one's level of combat prowess in Othea. For instance, Tamara could determine whether one was a primary-stage, secondary-stage, advanced-stage, or peak-stage apprentice warlock just by sensing the aura leaking out of another person's body. And that was why she could estimate the growth rate of Tyrak's powers as she watched him undergo his bizarre training.
"Maybe," she thought, "This is why he has a boundless potential and destiny. If he continues at this rate, he will rise to the ranks of Othea's powerful within a few years."
A wave of relief overflowed within Tamara's body after she made the conclusion. She was a very ambitious girl with goals only smaller than the heavens. But with a single mistake, she had already tied her fate to Tyrak when her ritual deviated from its intended purpose, and she became his slave. She hoped, more than anything, for him to rise through the ranks and become a powerhouse quickly. That way, she would follow along in his halo and rise to the top along with him.
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