Lei stepped back, his fingers stinging dully from the impact. He shook off the splinters of wood stuck around his knuckles. It hurt, but it just felt right to get that out of his chest. There was something about the sound of fingers plunging into solid wood.
He was about to glance back to see if Zhu Luli had anything to say when a shadow flashed past him, teeth grinding as another punch fell on the dummy next to him. The wood groaned loudly. Splinters splashed across the side of his face. It took a moment for Fatty Lou to step back and regard the result of his effort. There was a little smile on his face, as if he was expecting it.
“Huh,” he muttered, looking at Lei’s dummy. “A few inches. You’ve nearly crushed the damned thing.”
“Your web looks weak,” Lei said, smiling down at Fatty Lou’s hand. “And you somehow managed to nick your finger. Even I know how to punch a still target, Brother Lou. I say you have much to learn from our dear instructor here.”
They both turned to find a spellbound Zhu Luli staring at them, her mouth slightly open. She seemed to be trying to blink herself awake, but her eyes remained fixed on the dummies.
“Keep breathing,” she said to the group of children staring curiously at them, then cleared her throat and glanced at Lei. “We didn’t bring many spiritual ingredients with us, did we? Or was there an Earth-tier weed that I didn’t know about? Brother Lei, surely you would’ve shared a dish like that with the rest of us, wouldn’t you?”
Lei raised an eyebrow at her. “You’ve told us we’ll eat after the morning session. Why are you asking this?”
“Because, well — wait a second,” Zhu Luli said, turning toward the dummies. Then she snapped her fingers. “Of course. That must be the reason. Can you two step back? I want to try it myself.”
She backed off, the fingers of her right hand clenched tight. She eyed the third dummy to the side, scowling at it as if it were a great foe. Her eyes seemed to sway toward the other two damaged dummies for a second before she raised her chin. Her dash was a great one, her lithe figure almost darting through the air like an arrow before her fist crashed into the dummy.
It snapped and groaned, and the tail of the dummy, which was deep in the ground, almost broke off as the structure bent strangely. Yet it remained standing, though Zhu Luli’s jab had left a great impression on the wood. The edges sailed high in the air, and Lei could see each of the marks her knuckles left on the surface. When she backed off, the wood started coming off from those parts.
“How?” she muttered, eyes on her feet. She paced around them for a while, as Lei and Fatty Lou stood awkwardly to the side. Their blows were certainly not half-bad, but there was a natural grace to how Zhu Luli crushed that wood. Lei thought it was beautiful, but not in a sick way. Like a show.
Yes. A great performance in comparison to our brutish efforts.
“Okay, good, well,” Zhu Luli said, pointing a finger at the pair of them. “We already knew you were stronger than 1st Step Body Tempering Stage cultivators. But to create a web in the wood, you must be at least at the 4th or even 5th Step. You see why I’m surprised? This shouldn’t be possible.”
“Strength and ability to cultivate are two different things,” Lei said. “You’ve said these words.”
Zhu Luli raised a hand toward him. “I did, and they were true, but in your case, the difference between what you’ve shown and what you really are is rather steep. Are you sure you couldn’t maintain two or three full circles? Or maybe four?”
Lei lowered his chin. The last time he tried to cultivate, the other night when they got back from the Measurement Hall, he managed to force himself up to sixteen minor circles. This was with the help of the gnarled fries and spiritual burgers he cooked for dinner. They were Low-Quality, but they were enough to supply spiritual energy, and they also didn’t get them high.
“Sixteen for me,” he said.
“Yeah, around the same,” Fatty Lou muttered.
“You’re close to reaching the 2nd Step of Body Tempering Stage,” Zhu Luli said, glancing back at Snake, Stone, and Little Mei.
Those three had broken through the 2nd Step the other night, and Lei had seen Zhu Luli test those kids against the dummies. Other than Stone, the others barely left any dent in them.
“Sit down and relax,” Zhu Luli said a moment after, her gaze demanding complete obedience. “Try to adjust your breaths. I need time to think about this.”
Lei nodded, taking his place near Little Jiao. Even though the little girl seemed earnest in learning cultivation, she had already begun asking questions about Lei’s dishes. That was a good sign. The other night she kept her nose near the wok as Lei cooked the fries. He told her about the oil, about the plants, about the way a cook should care for their knife.
She is coming along. She’ll make a good cook.
What worried him was another face in the circle, sitting right across from him. Little Ji had that stubborn scowl on his face, just like the one Snake had a few weeks prior. Lei could see the boy pushing himself. His cheeks were flushed, and he was nearly out of breath.
The Body Tempering Stage was just the start. According to Zhu Luli, most chosen of the cultivation clans would prepare their foundation and step into the Qi Condensation Stage when they passed the age of 20. Granted, they had the talent for it. Meanwhile, people like Little Ji and Lei would either have to come across a fortuitous encounter, or a miracle, to become Qi Condensation Stage experts.
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I’ll make it happen. I’ll learn alchemy if it comes to that. Nothing is impossible in this world.
Lei nodded to himself. That was the reason why they brought everybody to this cultivation session. Zhu Luli wanted them prepared. It was also important for them to learn how to guide spiritual energy, as it was already a miracle the kids hadn’t hurt themselves with Lei’s dishes.
Why did we get high when none of these kids showed any reaction?
That was another question he lacked the answers to. Even Zhu Luli said how potent the spiritual energy in his dishes had been. It made her literally fly, and Little Yao the squirrel was no different. Why, then, wasn’t it the case with the kids?
She said it could be about the difference in our ages. Their bodies are cleaner, closer to perfection than ours.
Lei doubted it would be something simple like that. The mana. He knew that was somehow the key to his answer. The other day, right after he cultivated, he tried to sense it for the first time. He saw it in his mind’s eye, a ball of swirling blue. It was senseless. It just stayed there, lingering around his meridians. When he woke up, it was gone.
If there’s a method to cultivation, the same should be the case with mana. I wonder if this tier upgrade will change anything?
Eyes closed, Lei couldn’t help but frown at the question. He had his own assumptions about the difference between tiers of the system and that of this world. Most spiritual beasts in this world were no different from cultivators when it came to the tier system. A Sabertongue could become a Qi Condensation beast, for example.
The plants, though, were different. Their tier system was divided into stages such as Mortal and Earth, just like the System. Those also aligned with the general cultivation system, so a Low-Quality Mortal-tier plant could be considered somewhere between the 1st and 3rd Steps of the Body Tempering Stage.
By that logic, Lei had to find an Earth-tier, or Qi Condensation Stage, plant or spiritual beast to cook an Earth-tier dish.
It won’t be easy.
He breathed in deep, trying to clear his mind. The Tranquilizing Meditation Art was simple yet effective. It used the twelve principal meridians inside the body, guiding spiritual energy through them. At first, Lei was unaware of the importance of meditation arts. The spiritual energy he gained through his dishes always seemed to find its way naturally.
Later, he learned from Zhu Luli why they were so crucial. Spiritual energy needed a guide to loosen the nodes at the ends of these twelve principal meridians. It was essentially prep work. Beyond these twelve nodes were the eight extraordinary meridians, which acted as little storage units. It was through these units that Qi Condensation Stage experts utilized spiritual energy without needing to absorb it from the air during a battle.
They also had another function. Depending on one’s essence, these storage units would align with certain elements over time. If you had an innate closeness to the element of fire, for example, you could use Fire Qi to nurture a Fire-Attuned Extraordinary Meridian in your body, which would turn into a natural fire reserve with enough effort. After a certain point, you could convert normal, unattuned Qi to Fire Qi using this storage.
Too complicated. It’s almost like everything changes when you become a Qi Condensation Stage expert. You become a real cultivator, shedding your mortal skin.
But Lei had a certain interest, especially in those Extraordinary Meridians. According to Zhu Luli, most alchemists nurtured the Alchemist’s Fire in one of those meridians. He could also do the same in the future, creating a fire of his own, which he could use to cook his dishes.
That’s why, before the Qi Condensation Stage, you wouldn’t be considered a real alchemist.
If, in the future, he had the opportunity, he wouldn’t mind asking a few questions to those illustrious alchemists—and to that one real Spirit Chef Zhu Luli mentioned who was working around the capital.
Perhaps he has a system like me. Who knows?
Lei breathed in and out, trying to focus on the ambient Qi around him, to take in the spiritual energy with each of his breaths. He could feel it was there, a soft blanket around his shoulders, weightless and pure. Whenever he tried to suck it in, though, it acted as if Lei wasn’t there.
At least he was making progress. In the past, he couldn’t even feel it in the air. In some ways, this was more frustrating, as he knew it was there but couldn’t reach for it. Yet it was certainly better than being blind to the spiritual side of this world.
“Open your eyes,” Zhu Luli said, clapping her hands. “It was a good session. Snake, Stone, and Little Mei, you three did well. I could feel the energy around you. Try to be gentle with it.”
She turned toward Little Meng and the other talented kids. “Spiritual energy is a different substance. It is not water that you can drink. By habit, you’re trying to suck it in through your mouths, but you have to use your body. Your whole body is a vessel, your pores little straws through which you absorb the spiritual essence of the world. Think on it.”
Lastly, she looked at Lei’s group. Fatty Lou was already grumbling, which summarized their session quite well. Little Ji seemed nervous, glancing toward Snake’s group with apparent envy. Lei sighed in relief when he saw Little Jiao and the others smiling at each other.
My restaurant staff is shaping up.
“It won’t be easy,” Zhu Luli said to them, her face strict. “What you’re doing is akin to trying to hold air itself with your bare hands. Just know that the spiritual energy is there, everywhere around us. I want you to focus on that. Rather than forcing yourselves to absorb it, just try to sense it. Be aware of it. Make your presence known to the world around you.”
“It doesn’t work,” Little Ji said, eyes downcast. “There’s nothing there. Just air.”
Zhu Luli shook her head when Lei gave her a hesitant look. She then stepped closer to Little Ji and raised her right index finger. “Watch,” she said.
Pebbles rolled lazily on the ground, the dummies standing still. Just when it seemed nothing would happen, Zhu Luli’s index finger began shimmering with a metallic glint. She turned, chin held high, and bolted forward like a gust of wind. She jabbed her finger into one of the dummies, a new one without any damage. Her finger drilled right into the wood, passing through it with barely any resistance. When she pulled her finger back, there was a hole in the dummy.
“See?” she said, pointing at the wood. Other than that finger-sized hole, there was not a single crack on the dummy. Her force was controlled into a single point. Lei shivered when he thought of what a finger like that would do to a human’s body. “Even if you can’t see or feel it, it is there. You just have to believe it.”
Little Ji nodded, his eyes flashing with an eager glint. He seemed to be longing for the day he would become a great cultivator. Around him, most of the kids had the same look.
Lei shook his head, his heart pounding in his chest. Even he had to admit that cultivators were damned cool.