4. Journey to Power
“Just why can’t it connect?” Clay scratched his head. It has been two days since he engrossed himself to meditation and attempt to break through to Qi Condensation but he had been stuck on controlling his Qi to the 8TH Qi Node.
Initially, he was confident of becoming a real cultivator using one pill but to his disappointment, the effects of each Qi Sensing Pill Vanish without any further progress.
Clay looked at the empty bottle of pills. While pondering if he missed anything from Rani’s instructions, he suddenly heard Aunt Shi’s voice calling from outside.
“Come down breakfast.”
Clay got to his feet and walked downstairs and when he arrived at the kitchen, everyone has already finished and is preparing to move out. He wanted to take a seat however, he noticed that each kid leaving the room looked at him in disdain.
For the past two months, he rarely has the chance to interact with other kids as he had been mostly isolated but after becoming Tao Rao’s disciple, he finally get to eat on the same table as everyone yet he is being greeted by unfriendliness.
Clueless as to how he offended anyone, he decided to ignore them for now and focus on becoming stronger.
When it was Rani’s turn to get up, Clay slightly bowed to show respect.
"Senior Rani, I wonder if I could get a few more pills. I can now circulate up to 8 Qi Nodes and I might be able to successfully breakthrough if senior can spare six more Qi Sensing Pills.”
Rani was just about to ask Clay’s progress and he commends Clay for proactively reporting to him but to have the audacity to make it sound like connecting 8 Qi Nodes is an accomplishment and even dared to ask more batches of pills, the muscle on his hand twitched he is tempted to slap this wastrel.
He remembered he only ate a total of 2 pills to enter Qi Sensing Phase and straight to Qi Condensation and if these pills were given to the other kids who just left, some of them may even break through with just one pill.
"You have the lowest aptitude in terms of Elemental Affinity and physique among all disciples within this brotherhood which means you will need more resources compared to others. As a disciple of Elder Tao Ad, you get to enjoy some resources, but you need to work hard. If you do not work hard, these resources will be given to others, you understand?" Rani wanted to sound sincere but his facial expression says otherwise. “These are another six pills. Make sure you strive harder.”
As Clay received the bottle, he did not dare breath. Just now, there was this ominous feeling as if Rani had transformed into a ferocious bull ready to trample and break his bones
“This junior will do his best.” Clay waited until everyone left before he took seat. At least he now understands those kids’ reason for looking at him with contempt. He reckons the pills he ate were probably meant to be distributed to them yet everything is being allocated to him.
He has an idea that he is special because he has potential to become a Formation Master and he thought this gang is being extravagant to nurture him but in reality, he is taking away someone else’s resources.
Clay suddenly felt an inexplicable guilt but conflicted at the same time. Having witnessed the one sided massacre of the young Lanases two months ago is proof of how vile and brutal this bandit is and he has this feeling they will toss him out if he does not become a cultivator soon.
Clay clenched his fist then ate his breakfast.
After a sumptuous meal, Clay went back to his room. This time, he did not meditate and instead walked around the room as he contemplated on yesterday’s problem. The issue is that every time he connects to the ninth Major Qi Node, he just fails to do it and the next thing he knew, the pill effects had already lapsed.
Recalling Rani’s instructions, it was straightforward and simple as guiding the flow of energy from point A to B but when he is one step away from completing the connection, he suddenly could not make it. It is like trying to grab an object and he could not further extend his hand nor move his body to touch it.
“What am I doing wrong?” Clay mumbled as he opened one of the thin books and stared at the image depicting all the Qi Nodes of the body. Having wasted precious resource, he is careful not to repeat the same task and achieve nothing again.
Looking at the image, all the nodes are numbered from 1 to 99 and as simple as guiding his Qi from 1 to 9 to reach the first stage of Qi Condensation, he felt like he is missing something.
“Wait a minute…” Clay studied the image one more time. Without the number, they are all just dots that needed to be connected to form a loop.
“Can’t I just start from point 9 back to point 1 then to my dantian?”
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Clay took out the bottle Rani gave him a popped a pill and threw it into his mouth the closed his eyes. It really amazes him that all the Qi Nodes in his body only lit up after ingesting a pill.
“Let’s see…” As the first step, he gathered and refined the Spiritual Qi around his room and refined it towards his dantian and when he reached his limit, he let a sliver of his Qi towards the 9TH Qi Node and after one full minute, he felt the node has been opened then started channeling his Qi towards the 8TH, then to the 7TH, 6TH, 5TH and when it reached his dantian back, what transpired next brought him to great elation.
WENG!
A circular ring of aura glowed around his body and he looked like a deity that descended from heavens. Clay felt like a profound and mysterious power fused with him.
“This is powah!”
Excited, he opened his eyes and looked at his fists.
He wanted to laugh now that he understands the secrets of reaching the first stage of cultivation and it is not really the reverse circulation that did the trick.
Qi Nodes are like tunnels that needed to be opened first before it can allow Qi to flow inside it and given that the 9TH Qi Node was not opened, he was stuck with it for two days. Clearly there is a limit as to how much he can keep extending his Qi following a 1 to 9 pattern but if Rani explained it to him that he can open up a node by exposing it with Qi directly from his dantian before circulating, then he could have had achieved a breakthrough using one pill.
With his new found power, Clay felt like he could smash and break everything he touches and while thinking about testing how strong he had become, he walked towards the wooden stool and grabbed its circular air.
CRACK!
“Magnificent. I’m strong! This is powah!” Clay happily exclaimed as the piece of wood broke on his palm.
Beaming with energy, he suddenly started to make some karate poses and punched the air around him.
HYA! HYA!
As he was lost in thought while doing his moves, the image of Aunt Shi standing at the door greeted him.
“Bath’s ready."
Clay stopped and froze in embarrassment. He wanted to drop to the ground and perform some pushups and pretend he is exercising but Aunt Shi already turned around and walked downstairs.
“I’m still consolidating my strength. I’ll take a bath later.” Clay would rather stay in his room knowing that someone witnessed his extreme karate skills.
It hasn’t been long since he consumed the pill and would rather maximize it while he can still see the Qi Nodes in his body.
From his understanding, circulating 12 Major Qi Nodes makes him a Mid-Early Qi Condensation Practitioner and 15 Qi Nodes for Peak-Early Condensation and since the concept is the same, he just needed to open up all relevant Qi Nodes like he did on the 9TH Node.
If he is successful, he should be able to break through to Peak-Early Condensation before evening.
Clay contained his joy then sat down in meditative position. As he sent Qi towards the 10TH Node, his mind started to wander. He started picturing himself being the strongest and is able to do anything he wishes. First is being able to fly, then a mansion, and sleeping with a beautiful woman.
“He he he.” Drunk by his small achievement, Clay started laughing by himself and after seven minutes, he finally opened six additional Qi Nodes but right when he was about to circulate Qi towards newly opened Qi Nodes, he noticed the effect of pill started to diminish.
Mystified that pill effect is gradually fading, he refused to let go of this opportunity. There are 99 Major Qi Nodes in the body and since it is obvious he will opened them all up in the future, he will take advantage of this moment and not waste another pill. After all, he should be ashamed he already consumed seven of them in total and he should not be too greedy.
Clay did not want to waste a single moment and sent his Qi towards the 16TH Node.
Meanwhile, Aunt came back but upon seeing Clay is silently meditating, she slowly stepped back and did not make a sound. Earlier, she was surprised and could tell that Clay just broke through and she was finding an opportunity to congratulate and prepared a medicinal bath but it looks she will have to wait.
Clocked ticked and almost an hour and a half had passed, Clay opened his eyes. He reckons the pill effect will have had completely gone away in another thirty minutes but he is no longer worried as he had opened all 99 Qi Nodes in his body.
All that is left is circulate his Qi using the 10 to 12TH Qi Nodes to reach Mid-Early but analyzing the principle involves in Qi Circulation depicted on the book, there is no difference from Early to Peak Early which means it is highly possible that it will be the same process when reaching Foundation, Core Formation, and Nascent.
“So if I directly involve all 99TH Qi Nodes now, will I have reached the peak of cultivation?”
Clay had a bold idea so he wanted to test it out but the moment his Qi reach the 14TH Node, he noticed that the amount of Qi in his Dantian has almost been depleted and he could not accumulate anymore.
“So that is why!”
With a little adjustment, he was able use his remaining refined Qi towards the 15TH Node then back towards his Dantian.
WENG!
Unlike his initial reaction, Clay is not surprised as his level increased further and unlike the first stage where the circulation almost immediately became automatic, Clay notice that once he release his control, the flow will stop. He did not need a master to remind him that he must keep doing it until it fully stabilizes.
Clay patiently circulated his Qi and after another fifteen minutes, even he could not describe this euphoric state. He remembered Rani telling him that he has the weakest Elemental Affinity yet he did not even encounter any real hurdles achieving Peak-Early Condensation.
“Who’s the weak now?” Clay smirked as he felt proud with his achievement. He wanted to go out now and confront Rani to tell him that he is wrong.
Clay got to his feet and picked up the book and when he was about to placed it on the table, he noticed the other two books and got reminded of what Elder Tao Rao wanted him to learn.
“Basic Inscription and Fundamentals of Formation. Sounds fun. Let me master it as well.” Although he knew nothing, his ego is still basking in the glory of being able to break through to Peak-Early Condensation.
As he opened the book, he did not really read it and just randomly flipped the pages for a cursory overview but when he got to the middle pages, he saw a familiar yet diagram and at the same time, he was assaulted with a splitting headache.
*Argghh!
Out of the blue, he suddenly recalled another fragmented memory of his previous life. He remembered being disguised to look like a zombie while walking towards a Formation that has similarities with the diagram on the book.
When he was near the center, a giant floating eyeball locked into his location. He pressed a button in his hand. He knew he detonated but right before he disintegrated, he saw something within that Giant Eye. He saw triangle enclosed with a circular light that look like a magic circle from a fictional book.