As I came to my senses, I could see my outstretched hand near my face.
There were previously unnoticed dark wisps of something similar to smoke emerging from my bones, lightly coiling in the space where the soft tissues would usually surround the bones.
As I lay there, I deduced that my burst of anger resulted in an explosive increase in strength, but it had nearly depleted whatever energy I had.
It felt alarming, as I had no way to replenish my energy - food was out of the question, same as doubtful possibility of photosynthesis, nuclear fission or whatever methods I could come up with.
I understood too little of my situation, and could do nothing but lie motionlessly on stone tiles, observe and think.
---
As I watched the whatever smokelike substance around my hand, I soon became aware that I could actually sense it.
It felt like some long-forgotten limb or muscle finally moving after obdormition. The perfect memory even provided a rather unneeded correct medical term for the numb feeling of the limb going to sleep.
Luckily, there were no pins and needles, just sluggish feeling of having some awareness and minimum control.
I concentrated on the separate wisps I could see, and to my surprise, I felt that it actually was some form of energy, as it had no substance. But it was enveloping my whole body, and it was weird to feel it.
---
Time passed, I gradually made out the general flowing patterns of the energy. It was moving along different paths, strongest two went from the top of the head to the crotch both in front and back, six along both hands and rest forming complex web in torso, with some reaching towards the legs and the head.
As I imagined the shape and directions of the flows, I suddenly realized something, and would have started skipping around in nervous excitement had I not been immobile. I had seen such patterns before!
Back on Earth, or at least in my familiar version of it, I had read about those from an old book about acupuncture, which I found while browsing through a selection of books belonging to my acquaintance, who was a great fan of Kung-Fu (I personally blamed Jackie Chan for that one) and whatever Chinese stuff he got engrossed in.
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And there, from these fourteen paths, twelve were named as meridians or chakras, two central lines were vessels, and the Qi energy was supposed to flow along all of them.
I temporarily decided to call the smoky thing coiling around me as Qi, as it seemed to move like Qi I had read about. It made sense, right?
The existence of meridians or Qi was not proven in my previous world, but I was fully ready to give it a chance, considering the fact that I was now a skeleton stuck in another world.
What was the thing about Qi? I could recall, that it was energy governing the body, linking mental and physical whole. While a lot of fairly useless mystical mumbo-jumbo and fantasy stuff was associated with related knowledge, I decided to be careful, to watch, learn and adapt.
As it turned out, it was complicated.
---
Training to cultivate Qi, finding balance and harmony while trying to guide and move immaterial substance was extremely frustrating.
With some trial and error, I was slowly becoming able to trace basic paths that I remembered reading about - "From internal arm yin to external hand yang, to external leg yang to internal leg yin and back to internal arm yin to repeat the cycle".
I alsió found out, that whispering the directions helped to concentrate, like some mnemonic chant.
However, I could not remember (as I had skipped over these parts when browsing through the book) what was influenced by the supposed yin-yang relationship and what was the role of the five element theory and internal organs associated with all that mystical stuff ancient Chinese had come up with over the millennia.
But I could observe, that if I tried to change the paths my Qi flowed, I experienced something that I could only describe as mental nausea. And if I pushed on, I ended up badly shocked, with my strength and vitality taking a nosedive, bringing me close to another blackout.
Deeming my spiritual hacking experiments overly dangerous in my already weakened state, I focused on simple acceleration and support to already occurring circulation.
---
I guided my Qi through the pathways that seemed to lie over my visible bones, seemingly in the space where flesh, tendons and the rest were supposed to be, never leaving the invisible confines of the body,.
Considering the invisible, but tangible physical body outlines, I also concluded, that I actually had to possess something similar to etheric or spiritual body.
It also seemed to allow my bones to form an intact skeleton and move without the use of cartilage, tendons and other connective tissues.
---
Over time, I noticed that the Qi started to congeal, and previously misty substance began to condense at the edges of the energy streams, slowly seeping back into bones.
As I had estimated, in several days the dark wisps of visible energy returned into my bones and I felt myself being back in the same shape as before my reckless burst of strength.
Luckily, that event allowed me a glimpse into new possibilities, so I sat down in traditional lotus position (purely for ambience and tradition's sake) and turned my focus back into myself.
Before, I had simply noticed and observed the state of my physical being, which was a fairly disappointing skeleton. Now, I observed the energy inside me, and that promised to be much more helpful.