K̶̥̠̖̐̈́̀̋̓̈́͘͠Ǫ̸̳͚̭̥͋̿̂̾́͜͝C̷͕̗̻̯̺̬̖͙̈́̅̈͒͜K̷͔͊̉̏ ̶̹͖̐A̵̡̡̛̛͉̬̘͈̼͆͑͝ ̴̗̱͍̊D̴̢̖͇͆̈́͒̀͌́̾͝Ō̴̤̥̋́̈́̉Ơ̷̳̤͇̈́̀̅͊͂̽Ḑ̵̗̘̯̹̲̱͆̈́̃͒̕͘L̸̨̛̖̩̼̟͒̀͜ͅẸ̶̡̥̤͍̺̺̗̄̄͒͠ ̶̧͎͖͖̘̱̓̆̈͘͠F̷̛̛̣̩͈̑͑̎̃̈́̅͘͠E̸̯̯̦̼̤͌̆͝ͅË̶̢̩͚̙̜̜̪̞͕́̓͗̒̚͠ͅL̵̝̝̺̹̱̟̟̓ ̵̨̛̺̣̩̭̾͗̽T̸̢̳͑̚͝H̸̡̱̰̣͂͘Ę̷͖̻̘͒̊͛͛̌̽̕ ̶͉͎̏̆͒̌̍̚R̸̬̥̰͙͔̩͖̗͚̄̊̽̂̚̕͜A̸̟͆̄͝I̴̢͝N̵͌̔̈́̐͜B̷̧͈͇̭͎͇̦͙̤̊̊̈́͂͜Ǫ̴̳̞̟̙̖͈̃͗̊͋̈́͑̐̒͝W̵̼͕̄̃̅͐̅͐̌̀ ̵̨̺̹̂̓̉͛̋̄T̶̻̭̤̪̾̾A̸̤̒̒̓S̵̩̗̯̬͇̳̲̯̘͛̓͊̇̾̉̚͝Ţ̷͖̠̯̦̼̥̠̏Ẽ̴͖̈́̉͊̀̂͝ ̴̺̓̈́̀̓̐T̵̺̞͋́́̽Ḫ̵̨͇̮̜̥̭̽̃̓̅̔́̌͐̚̕ͅͅE̴̲͍̠̰̗̦̥̫͎̊̈́͗̈̈́̉͋̿ ̶̪̥͍͚̘̮̱̎͑͒͂̋́͜͝A̷̧̧̛̱̥̪͖̥̒͗͜͠ͅC̴̢̠̗̭̩̋̏͂͐̏̈́̈̚͝Í̷̡̝̞̦͍͙̲̳̼̓̕͝D̸̨̫͉̪͔̞͕̙̾͒́̀͌͒̎͋̚͘ͅ ̵̪̟̻̗̝̠͉̪̍̚Ţ̵̢̛̣̥̹̜̙̻͆̀̈̈́̎̈ͅR̵̲͑͗͂̚Į̶̢̼̣͇̞̎̍̉́ͅP̵̢̬̯͓͒̋̀̒̈̀̐͂̕ͅ ̶̢̢̨̹̹̟̮̮̝̈́̔̿̈́ͅD̵̛̗̺̿͆͗͝Ơ̸̥̪̭͚̫̟͖̪͖͕͆͂͆̌̔̊̀͂̚O̵̧͙͓͌

Bleeeaargggh...morning again!!!

I hate mornings. I hate waking up early!

I am getting tired of having to hear that THING every morning.

I have tried looking around the entire sect for the bird, but I have come up empty handed. I begin to wonder if the damn critter isn't by chance invisible, and that's why I can't find it.

Mental note to self - find a technique that allows you to locate things by the noises they make.

As soon as I walked out of the house, I found gorilla-boy in front of my doorstep with a huge bouquet of flowers in his hands. He was accompanied by a few guys that looked like carpenters and builders, which were probably here to fix the hole in my wall and the gap in my fence. He was also very, VERY clean and smelled like fresh shampoo and perfumed soap. I guess that my warnings had not been for nothing.

The bouquet was a mix of tulips, roses, lilies, orchids and blue hyacinths, all of which mean I am sorry in the “flower language”. I guess he really wanted to get that point across. It also must have cost a shitload.

"Morning, g…I mean hello there again. I didn't catch your name last night, I am sorry. Hi, I am, Trina."

"They call me Fung, of Clan Tai. I would like to once again express my deepest apologies for wrecking your house and intruding upon your property. My clan's healer is also very impressed with the stitching job that you have performed on me, and told me that he has nothing extra he can do to the wound except to let it heal naturally."

"Your name is Tai Fung? Pfft...Ok! Then from now on, I dub thee: Fungus!"

"Fung..us?"

"Yeah you know, like a mushroom…"

"Sorry, but you are not making very much sense to me..."

Tcheh, I guess that it doesn’t translate that well when adapted to the native language. Damn you Timmy!

"It is ok, you do not really need to understand what I'm talking about (giggle)!"

"Erm...Alright men, go ahead and tend to the Sect Elder niece's house.

"(unison shout)Yes, Master Fung!"

"Ok, then let me ask you a question, my dear Fungus. What if I WASN’T the Sect Elder's niece, would you have still behaved this same way?"

"Erm…(shyes his eyes away)...no...probably not..."

Hah, at least he’s honest.

"Well see, then that's where your problem lies, big guy. You need to learn to stop looking down on other people like they are lesser beings.

Let me give you a few examples. Are you able to prepare your own meals like your cook does? Are you able to clean your own house like the maid does? Can you build houses or dig trenches the same way as those workers who do it everyday?

"Mmm...No? Why would I want to do any of those things? It is what servants are hired for in the first place."

"Then, do you acknowledge that they are BETTER at doing their particular jobs than you are?"

"Well of course, it is probably how they got hired to the household in the first place…"

"Well, if those people are BETTER than you at doing something in this world than you are, then why do you dare to look down upon them? If you are below them in every aspect, then how do you have the nerve to consider yourself a superior being? Shouldn't you be trying to learn from them instead?"

"But I am superior! I am a cultivator! I have opened my spiritual roots! I am at Qi Refinement stage 5!"

"A cultivator that does not know how to clean, cook, nor build anything by himself and only knows how to get into fights with other idiots similar to him, and then wind up losing. Again, where is the “Superior” in that? And for the sake of the argument, what if all of those servants were to awaken their spiritual roots overnight and catch up to your cultivation level? Then where would you be then? Right at the end of the pack, that's where!"

"Hurgh..."Fung chokes on his words again. "I...umm...see your point. This one shall reflect on your imparted wisdom…"

"And what's up with these?" I point at the flower bouquet.

"Umm...the seniors in my Clan have told me that they represent the desire to apologise in flower language."

"Yeah man, I appreciate the gesture and they are really beautiful, but couldn't you have brought me something a little bit more useful? Those flowers are going to wilt away in a couple days, and I will just have to throw them out afterwards. I am a practical girl, so if you want to apologise to me, then go get a refund for those flowers and buy me something useful instead."

"Ugh...sure..." Fung looks a little dazed and hides the flowers behind his back. "If you want, we can head to the market and you can pick an item of your choosing at my expense, as my gesture of apology and gratitude towards you."

"Neat! Then let's go, my dear Fungus! Onwards towards a shopping spree!"

"Hey...hey...wait up! I said one item!"

Giggle! I did not tell him I still had Lingfeng’s token.

I grabbed my new backpack, then we headed together towards the market. Because of the bacteria-virus lesson that I had imparted to Lingfeng, I had decided to prove my point, so I needed certain items to make that happen. I did not think that the notion of a Petri dish had even been invented in this world yet, so I had to find something to improvise with.

With Fung by my side, it became much easier to locate the things I needed for the project. Since he was my one-year-older cultivation-Sempai and had been around the sect for a while now, he knew much better than myself where everything was located, so he was acting like sort of a guide for my whims. First, we headed to a ceramic and glassware shop. I needed something that could act as the “glass container” for the Petri dish. I told Fung to keep an eye out for a set of teacups and plates. Of course, the moron went for the most expensive and flowery decorated set!

"No! WRONG! BAD FUNGUS! What the hell am I supposed to do with such highly decorated dishes? They would just get in the way of the culture! Put them back on the shelf!"

"But I thought they looked really nice…"

"They do, but that’s not what I'm here for. Look for the plainest and FLATTEST looking ones. It’s the base tea plate that I'm after, not the cups, by the way. A bonus would be some lids that could fit right on top of the base dish."

"What the hell do you need all of those for?" Protested Fungus.

"Well, remember when I told you about all of that Bad Qi that grows by itself? Well, Lingfeng was quite interested in the subject, so I plan to demonstrate to him just how dangerous infections can be. For that, I need some containers to hold the specimens and some base emulsion. Which reminds me. Do you know any place in the market that sells something called “agar”? It’s a gelatin like thing that’s used for cooking. If not, maybe some place that sells red algae instead?

"Ugh...no. But we can head to the apothecary ingredient store or try at the cooking ingredients market."

"I’ll have this set of twelve tea cups, plates and lids, thank you!" I told the store teller as I handed my desired items to him.

I did not find any totally flat plates, but it did not matter that much. This was clear-white China Ceramic, and the main reason I had bought the set was because the cups were quite wide, so their lids fit pretty snugly on top of the base plates, if reused in that fashion. Fung paid for the set, then we were on our way to the ingredients market.

While I did not find agar gelatin directly, I did find red algae which was almost just as good, since agar is made out of red algae in the first place. Why the hell I was looking for this particular weird ingredient, is because it is the most commonly used “substrate” substance for bacteriological cultures in Petri dishes. The weird shit that the bacterias grow upon in the Petri dishes that you usually see in movies? Yeah, that’s called agar. How the hell did I know about all of this? Well, I did tell you before that my Earth mom used to be a doctor, so I had a lot higher medical education than most other Earthen people.

Fung was still rather confused by my peculiar demands, but still followed me around without complaining.

Just as we were both coming out of the ingredient market, we ran into another scene.

For some reason, three huge ass guys that were even larger and older than Fung had found it fitting to get into a fight with Mini-MC Mc’spiky-hair dude.

Spotting his “enemy”, Fung instantly entered “combat mode”.

"Hrr! It’s that guy again!" Fung rolls up his sleeves.

"Ho-ho-hooold on a second there big guy! What exactly are you planning on doing?"

"Well, I'ma go there and teach that lil pipsqueak a lesson and…"

I cut him off immediately with a wave of my hand right in front of his face!

"BZZT! WROOOOOOONG!"

"What?!!"

"Tell me, my dear Fungus, have you ever heard of destiny?"

"Yeah, sure, all great Heroes of the world have their destinies written in the stars and..."

"Yeah sure, sure, that, whatever. Well, sorry to break it to you, but that dude over there? Definitely a child of destiny of some sort! If you go to him right now, you’ll only get your face caved in."

"What, HIM? NO WAY!"

"YES WAY!"

"Hrr! How can you even tell?"

"I have my ways…(I can’t tell him it’s the hair)"

"I don’t believe you!"

"Ok. Then just watch…You CAN wait for a couple of minutes, can’t you?"

"Ugh...sure..."

The three kept being berated by the pipsqueak, who was complaining that they had scammed him and had sold him a “broken” item that did not work as advertised. The three were obviously guilty-as-charged and did not even try to hide the fact, but rather they were making fun of spiky-hair for being such an easy mark.

Of course, in the end, it came down to fists again.

You would expect that three huge dudes vs one scrawny little-ass first-year disciple would end up with the disciple in the hospital, but that’s if you thought in normal everyday terms. Spiky-hair was anything but normal. In under five seconds, all three dudes had been plastered all over the pavement, with their teeth knocked out and their fingers broken. All three were out cold, as spiky-hair picked up their gold pouches, and only took back what the item had cost.

Ok, so that’s a +1 for a “righteous” type of prick.

I indicate the result to Fung, which was now wincing at the sight of the three bullies.

"See, I told you it was stupid to seek vengeance just like that. You would have only gotten beaten up once again."

"Right...uuughhh!" Fung gives me a conflicted look after seeing the state of the three “victims”."

"Listen, Fung, if you're from a rich clan, then can you maybe have your people dig into the background of that spiky-hair?

"Well, I wouldn't say rich-rich, but we’re decently well off..."

"My best bet about Mr. spiky-hairdo is that he's either from a tragic common born background, or has been exiled from his clan for some stupid sort of reason. He was probably considered to be a cripple until recently, or some sort of other similar catastrophe had befallen him to drag him down in the dirt. Then despite all odds, he suddenly began to rise back into power and even went ascending a few ranks. Can you check for me if that is correct?"

Fung waves his hand at an empty patch of air, then suddenly a guy garbed in full black clothes and with his face hidden like a ninja behind a mask appears out of nowhere right behind him. I guess his clan was wise enough to send a few bodyguards to watch over his ass, after he got beaten. Fung has a few whispered exchanges with the shady bodyguard, then focuses back on me.

"My “friend” here tells me that his name is Jin Tianzen. He got kicked out of his clan after his cultivation seemingly went berserk and he attacked one of the elders during a clan meeting, an elder that he had previously been in a few conflicts with. Everybody thought that he was done for, except that a few months ago he seemingly recovered all of his cultivation, and attended the disciple selection for the Blue Mountains of Books Sect, coming out ranked in third place during the entrance exams. Ever since then, he has been catching the attention of a lot of the seniors, because he seems to be quite good at cultivating and fighting. Hurgh...FUCKING WEIRD...everything that you said was spot on! How the hell did you even know that?"

"Elementary, my dear Fungus, it is how Heroes are born in the first place. Tell me, what do you think Heroes are best known for?

"Umm...I don't know? Slaying monsters, rescuing maidens, all of that stuff…?"

"Well, you are partially right, but those are only the by-products. No, what Heroes are known for, is overcoming adversity. Fighting even when all odds are seemingly stacked against one’s person, and then coming up on top.

Then tell me, what do you think would happen to a young lad like spiky-hair, who got into a really shitty situation, but then overcame it through sheer strength of Will and Dedication? Wouldn't that make him a little bit...Heroic?"

"So you're saying that because he came out of the crapper in one piece, that it makes him a Hero candidate? Then we’d have a whole lot more Heroes running around in the world if that was the “requirement”."

"Well, no, there are many other factors besides that (like having a paid account), but usually it's the most obvious tell-tale sign that destiny has something large in store for him (it’s also the hair, the hair makes it so fucking obvious)."

"And you my friend, are just a stepping stone for his ascension. A minor background character, easily swept away by the tides of fate. But if you want to keep on challenging him, then be my guest. You will probably then be transformed into the comic relief character that appears from time to time and gets his ass kicked in the most hilarious or embarrassing ways, but still never gives up.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Do you WANT to wind up as the comic relief character, Fungus?"

"Of course not!"

"Then my advice is for you to let this whole conflict drop and forget about it. Otherwise you will just get caught up in spiky-hair’s destiny's narrative, and become just another sacrificial pawn within his storyline."

"But..."

"No buts! A true man should know when he's been beaten, and accept his defeat. As long as you are still alive, you can always go and improve your skills and levels, and reach new heights.

But if you get yourself stuck in his narrative, you are more likely to wind up dead, rather than on the safe side."

"The little Lady is wise, Young Master. You should probably listen to her advice." Adds the shady bodyguard.

"I know, I’m not blind, it's just that...Aaaarghhh...Fine! I will just let it drop. Screw that guy and his spiky-hair altogether!"

"Good choice, Fungus!"

*System Chime*

Timmy: You have altered Fung's preset narrative role away from [Comic Relief Character]!

Timmy: Destiny deviation detected! Compensating...

Timmy: Fungus has now ceased to try and chase after the Hero of the Flame Jin Tianzen.

Timmy: New potential companion and party member detected! If you raise your reputation high enough with Fungus, he will become available for recruitment.

NO FUCKING...WAAY TIMMY! HAHAHA!

Timmy: YES WAY!

Fucking hell, the Hero of the Flame? I fucking KNEW IT! The hair is always a dead giveaway for that sort of shit!

Also, Fungus is heroic party companion material? Well, that is surprising!

I feel that I have gained something precious today!

I guess I have to raise my “rep” with Fungus some more then. How the hell can I tell how high it is?

Timmy: You have unlocked the “Reputations” tab in your interface.

Timmy: Current Reputation with Fung - 73% towards [Friendly]

Current state: [Doubtful, Confused]

Timmy: Current Reputation with Clan Tai - 15% towards [Neutral]

Current state: [Wary, Suspicious]

Hmm...well that’s something else alltogether...

I guess I gotta “grind” myself some Fungus “rep” then. Only 27% more to go, yey!

As we left the market, I told Fung to drop by tomorrow at my place again, to give me a hand with the Petri dishes. I guess involving him in this “side project” might raise my “rep” with him a little bit.

He agreed, and then both him and his shady bodyguard departed towards their home, as I went back towards mine.

By the time I came back from the market, the building team had already finished patching up my wall and had already left. It was like nothing had ever happened to the wall in the first place, with the gorilla shaped hole now being totally covered by new cement and plaster. Man, those guys sure moved fast! They had already finished the job, and I didn't even get the chance to thank them. But then again, I guess such skilled teams were necessary to have around the sect, when the young generation of the cultivators would wreck the place on a constant basis. The building team, whoever they were, had my 5-star review, would call again!

I put aside my newly acquired tea set, because I still had to have a deeper talk about the bacterial culture project with Lingfeng, and because the algae still needed to be processed into agar first.

Seeing that I still had half-a-day free at my discretion, I went back to my attempts at cultivating. I went to the living room, grabbed myself a stack of pillows, then went cross-legged in a meditation pose.

I had previously refined the “basic” cultivation method of the Sect to a more tolerable iteration by reducing the flowery pomp to a minimum and keeping the practical instructions, but I had never actually tried to put it into practice so far.

When it came to Qi absorption, the main problem with trying to cultivate by absorbing the Qi of the world, was that it was mainly “dirty” Elemental Qi, which was unfit for cultivation.

If I were to actually concentrate and look at the world from the point-of-view of my spiritual roots, then the whole environment around me was filled with Qi motes belonging to the entire elemental spectrum floating around everywhere, with the most common being of the Earth type, colored as a deep earthy-brown nuances. Second in abundance came the Air motes, colored in green-teal shades, then the Water motes colored in different shades of blue. Fire motes were the rarest of them all, colored in shades ranging from red to orange, and you could find very few of them floating around freely without being in the proximity of a fire, a forge, or a volcano. Light Qi was present everywhere during the day and looked like floating motes of sunshine, but was replaced by the shadow type during the night time, which looked like floating black holes. Besides all of those there was another type of floating Qi, which was the attributeless kind. It existed in much lesser quantities alone by itself, it was usually colored steamy-white, and it was this particular Qi that all of the cultivators were chasing after. It was this attributeless kind of Qi that was used for internal cultivation. Stuff like expanding the dantian and the meridians, or nurturing the spiritual roots or opening new pathways, it was all done using this type of Qi.

This “white” Qi was most oftenly found contained within spirit stones. Of course, the spirit stones themselves had different grades of concentration and density. The low-level spirit Stones would have in only about 10% of their entire capacity as the attributeless-kind of Qi, with the rest being “garbage” random elemental Qi, usually based on the origin of the stone. This, of course, was much denser than using the plain atmosphere, which possessed only about 1% concentration of attributless Qi on the average. The higher the grade a spirit stone was considered to be, the more attributeless Qi was contained within, therefore the higher the concentration of “usable stuff” that could be drained out of it.

There was also the factor of spirit stone density, which was all about how LARGE the stone itself was. You could have one stone the size of your palm and another one the size of your head, yet have both of them contain the same amount of attributeless Qi, therefore clocking in at the same concentration of useful Qi out of the total mass. It was no wonder that the smaller/denser and the more concentrated the stones were, the more valuable they became compared to the rest, because they were much easier to carry and utilize by the common cultivator.

Of course, no stone was ever the same as another. Still, the Major Sects, which were one of the biggest producers of Spirits Stones, had managed to establish a generalized system of evaluation for these commodities. Since most of the spirit Stones came from well known and well-established Spirit Springs or Veins, the quantity and quality was generally uniform across the batches. The Major sects would cut and measure their harvested spirit Stones precisely before sending them out to the public, which had transformed the Spirit Stones into a second kind of currency besides the usual “mortal” gold. After a certain point in a cultivator's life, things like gold would become absolutely useless, since the currency would not be able to purchase anything useful for the cultivator anymore. Only rare spirit stones, pills, potions or artefacts would still have any sort of value at that level.

Lingfeng had left a few Spirit Stones of each different tier up to level three with me, as an example batch for me to analyse, but had warned me to keep away from the level 2 and level 3 stones because their concentration was much too dangerous for me to tamper with. I could very well damage my meridians or even blow myself up if I ever tried to cultivate with those.

Besides Spirit Stones, there was another type of gem that was worth mentioning, which was the Soul Gem. Dark arts would allow for certain cultivators to trap the souls of mortals, cultivator-enemies or even Spirit Beasts within their Soul Gems, and then convert them to an attributeless flow of Qi.

Imprisoned souls would transform into “clean” Qi after a while, which would allow for the Soul Gem to be used just like a common any-day Spirit Stone for normal cultivation purposes.

Soul Gems were usually a profoundly banned artifact because of their inherent cruel nature, and were only used on the most heinous of offenders, since having your soul trapped within a gem would prevent it from going into the reincarnation cycle, at least until the gem was shattered and the soul energy released or consumed.

I tried cultivating according to the methods written in the scrolls, albeit my “altered” version of the thing. They basically said to try to expand then contract my whole Dantian along with the rhythm of my breath, creating a sort of a “pump” effect that would allow me to draw inside of the dantian any surrounding Qi motes that were present near me. The process was slow as hell, and I was getting very little Qi from the outside world from doing it. Even then, it was mostly “dirty” Elemental Qi, which I then had to expel back into the world, while only retaining the “useful” attributeless stuff. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I have no idea how these cultivator people managed to find the patience to do this for years at a time. The problem of collecting attributeless Qi was being aggravated even more by the fact that my spinal meridian had been damaged during the “root transplant” maneuver, and now was leaking small amounts of “white” Qi back into the world like a defective balloon with a few pores too wide.

Whatever I was gaining from one side, I was losing through the other.

I had to find some way to patch that shit up before attempting any sort of serious cultivation.

I wondered if I could cut off the Qi access to certain sections of my meridians, isolating them from the rest of the system?

I mean, if I was to get wounded to my meridian system, having it leak from 1000 holes was probably one of the worst things that could happen during a fight. I had to find some way to clamp it down and bandage it the same way that I would do to a bleeding flesh wound.

I had very little in the way of Qi left, because I had used a lot of it to braid the three qi tentacles which were still active inside my dantian, costing me around 375 out of my starting 500 Qi points. After that, I had spent 10 Qi on identifying the Golden Brooch, and the rest had slowly escaped through the pores in my spinal meridian, leaving me with about only 20 Qi to spare in my pool.

After one expansion and contraction, my dantian would get filled with large amounts of “garbage” Qi, and I would have to spend about 20 minutes to get rid of all of the Elemental Qi, to only wind up with about 1 mote of “clean” Qi in the end. The “clean” mote amounted to about 10 Qi points in the status screen. There was no way that this was going to work! I was losing more Qi than I was gaining! I had to find some way to fix the holes in my spine, ASAP!

The next time Lingfeng stopped by to check on me, I instantly aggroed him, filling his mind with questions. He told me that the usual way to fix broken or leaking meridians was to keep on circulating Qi through them, as the presence of the Qi would heal and nourish the wounded area. That seemed kind of stupid to me, because it was like pumping water through a hose and hoping that the water would fix the holes inside of the pipeline. Then had to be a better way to go about this.

In the end, I managed to find what I was looking for after I went for a second check up at the Healer lady from the Hall of Medicine which had taken care of my “monthly” problem. She told me of an alternative way of patching up the meridians, which was a little bit similar to stitching up flesh wounds using a needle and a string. Except that instead of silk, one would use their internal Qi-strings to sew up the damaged areas. After I found out about the method, I instantly went back home and I began my attempts at patching things up. With the very little Qi that I still possessed inside of my meridian, I stitched up all of the visible holes that I could find.

Timmy also acknowledged my attempts, and told me that my [Spinal Meridian] would get healed to Full Hp in about 3 days.

Timmy: You have patched up your [Spinal Meridian]

You have earned the achievement: [Meridian Medic]

You have unlocked the skill: [Internal Meridian Healing].

Progress bar for the skill has been added to your status screen.

Description:

You can now patch up any broken or damaged meridians using strands of Qi. The patched up areas will slowly heal to full Hit Points over a period of time, based on the severity of the wounds.

Well, I guess that’s that! I gotta wait for three more days before I attempt anything.

Except maybe...hmmm...I wonder…

I turn my mind’s eye towards my dantian again. If the outer wall of the dantian was seemingly “permeable” to Qi, since I was sucking in Qi from the outside world to the insides of my dantian by doing the expansion-contraction thing even if it was “dirty” Qi, then I wondered if it was possible to do the reverse, and “pump out” Qi instead. I reckoned that it would be much easier to pick out the “good” Qi from the environment and then drag it inside, if I had some way to properly grab it instead of relying on general luck and hit-and-miss tactics that the sect basic cultivation method employed. If I could extend my Qi-braided tentacles to the outside world and use them to grab the motes instead, then it would accelerate the whole process by a shit-ton.

I looked for a way to get the braids to the outside world, but simply piercing my meridian to get them out seemed like a really bad idea to me. Therefore, I had to find some point on my body where the meridian network met the outside world. Places like the fingers and toes were such “contact” points, but they were way too far away from the dantian for what I needed. No, instead I picked the closest point that I could think of, which was the navel. The meridian system did have a “pipeline” that extended all the way there, a pipe that had been “cut off” alongside with the umbilical cord once I had been “born”. It was now blocked off like the rest, but I now knew how to handle that. I grabbed Qi-braid number 2, the intermediate thickness one, then I slammed it hard against the “border” separating the dantian away from the navel meridian. In the end it went pop, and I also got the system announcement for it. But that’s not what I cared about. I grabbed my Qi-braid tentacle number 3, the rope-like one, then I tried extending it out of my body. The first thing I noticed was that the further away it went from my body, the harder it became to control. Barely an inch away from my skin, and I could not control it anymore. The second thing I noticed was the fact that the “braid” was now dissolving slowly in the atmosphere, once it had been left outside of the body. The Qi it was made out of was slowly returning back to nature, since nothing was containing or controlling it’s presence anymore.

Ok well, that’s a bust.

I was hoping to maybe “lasoo” myself some more white Qi motes.

Still, there HAD to be some way to do this.

Again, I turned my attention towards the inside.

In the middle of the dantian, the brocolly-like root crown was sitting there inertly. There were some small changes that had occurred to it though. Some of the ”branches” had begun to elongate a little bit under the exposure of the white Qi, and the whole thing now resembled a broccoli mixed with an anemone, having a bunch of tentacles shooting out of the crown at regular intervals and swaying in the air.

I wondered if I could do anything with those branch-tentacles instead. Yi Gore had mentioned something about those branches extending all the way out of the body, and going against the will of the Heavens or something. Therefore, there was a chance that while the Qi strands alone might not survive on the outside, these branch-tentacles might make it instead.

Still, they were much too short to be of any use at this moment. They could not even reach the nearest wall of the dantian.

I wondered if I could “force” them to grow. I did have that [Root Gardener] skill that I had gained early on. Time to experiment!

I grabbed some of the very little white Qi that I still had left, and then I directed it towards one of the branch-tentacles that was closest to the ”navel” exit point. I began to massage and caress the whole tentacle using the white Qi, like it was some sort of precious pet getting a rubdown. Sure enough, the white Qi seeped into the membrane of the root-tentacle, and made it grow a little bit.

Success!

Timmy: You have successfully nurtured your Spiritual Roots using Qi for the first time. You have earned 50 Cultivation Experience.

Timmy: What’s up with you and tentacles anyway? I have seen enough hentai anime inside of your memories to know where this is going…

I ignore the system’s ramblings, and proceed to do the same thing again. Maybe if I can stuff this whole branch-tentacle full of Qi, then maybe I can elongate it far enough for my desired purpose.

Except I’m out of free-floating Qi motes now!

FUCK!

I just used the last 20 points on that branch just now!

Where the hell am I supposed to get any extra Qi from?

Should I try the “normal” cultivation method and get 10 Qi at a time?

No fucking way gonna go that slow!

There has to be some excess Qi somewhere that I can use!

Hmm, maybe I can unbraid the previous Qi tentacles? I still had number 1 and number 2 attempts in one piece plus half of the number 3 “rope” still available, since the other half of it had dissolved in the air once I had tossed it out of the body a few minutes ago.

Let’s try unbraiding number 1 Qi tentacle first.

Actually...I wonder if I could feed the tentacle itself to the branch, just as it is. Ok, cancel that unbraiding. Let’s try using it as it is first, and see what happens.

I push the number 1 tentacle against the membrane of the branch, and it goes in smoothly. The branch was accepting the attributeless Qi even while being braided. I wonder if there’s some deeper meaning to something like this. Will I end up having to feed my spiritual roots complex Qi structures at the end of the line, once I advance my cultivation to a high level? Seems plausible.

For now I keep pushing the Qi braid inside of the branch, and I cause the thing to continuously extend under the pressure, just as I needed it to do.

FUCK YEAH!

After number 1 braid gets fully consumed, I grab braid number 2 and do the same thing. It also goes in smoothly as well, and causes the branch to extend even further away.

Ok, let’s go all out!

I grab the remains of the number 3 “rope” braid and I push it against the membrane in similar fashion.

At the end of it all, there was now a limp branch-tentacle-rope like thing dangling down from the crown of my spiritual roots, and I was at zero Qi altogether.

This had better work somehow!

I try to nudge the limp branch-tentacle appendage, but it still remains unresponsive.

Come one, Junior branch-tentacle nr.1! Stop laying like that on the floor, we have work to do, Qi to harvest, cultivation to increase!

I get only a bare shudder out of the whole thing.

Damnit!

Well, at least there was some sort of response.

I wonder if there is any info about manipulating spiritual branches in the “default clone memory package” that I was born with.

I begin to dig through the memories, while trying to avoid anything related to the Hero of the Sun or his little sister. In the end, I find an obscure reference inside a dark corner of the memory pack, but it’s exactly what I needed.

“Spirit roots respond to emotion”.

In hindsight, that should have been pretty obvious.

The real reason they were not moving was because I had never actually accepted the fact that I am now inside of a different world, and that the old me is “dead” and gone. A part of my subconscious still held the hope that I would somehow wake up, and that all of this would have only been a bad dream, and I would suddenly find myself back home on Earth.

Well, that's part of the subconscious had to go!

This was the real shit, right here, right now!

The spiritual roots were an extension of my soul, as proven by the presence of the “external” modules in the form of bumps upon the root stem.

The root is me, and I am the root!

I FUCKING AM ROOT!

Timmy: Your account already has root access.

I KNOW, TIMMY! FUCK OFF!

Move, motherfuker!!!

I unleash all of my fury and conviction towards the limp root-tentacle appendage.

It instantly stands up like an electrocuted eel and then begins to respond to my commands.

Good Junior branch-tentacle nr.1! That’s what you should have done from the start!

I spent a little bit of time practicing a range of motions with the new appendage, until I felt comfortable enough at manipulating the thing around, then I proceeded to shove it through my navel meridian and then out of the body through the navel itself.

The branch-tentacle did not dissipate, nor did it lose it's mobility once it was far away from my body!

Fuck yeak! Cha-ching! Victory, baby!

Alright, let's see if I can snag myself some of those white motes.

"Yoink! Got ya!" I snag a white mote out from the air.

I instantly retract my branch tentacle back into my dantian, and then I let go of the mote!

Timmy: You have gained 10 Qi.

Alright Me, High Five! Proof of concept and execution all completed!

Now I only have to wait for three more days for my spinal meridian to get healed, so I can stop leaking away all of this white Qi stuff.

Once my back meridian is healed and I can manage to gather some more Qi, the next step will be to elongate all of the branch-tentacles and put them all to work at gathering even more attributeless Qi.

I wonder if there is some method through which I could automate the harvest of external Qi. I know for a fact that I am too lazy to keep on doing this manually for my entire future.