5. What is Qi
Clay is staring at the diagram that made him recall another fragment of his past life. It is called Gathering Formation used to gather the surrounding Spiritual Qi in the environment and concentrate it in an area.
Few minutes ago, he looked at the succeeding pages but to his disappointment, he recalled nothing more.
He is confused if that memory is real as detonating himself like a suicide bomber to destroy a weird structure whilst surrounded by zombies just does not fit the earth he knew. However, that moment right before he disintegrated, he saw a pattern on the a giant floating eyeball and analyzing its position, it exactly match the Qi Node Diagram he is now studying and to be precise, it is Sub-Qi Nodes.
The diagram has blue and red dot representation and he just opened all the blue dots or Major Qi Nodes but the red ones are called Sub-Qi Nodes and as the name implies, they are smaller nodes branching out from the Major Nodes and depending on the location, a Major Nodes has 2 to 6 smaller nodes around it.
Particularly in the eye, there is one Major Nodes surrounded by 6 smaller Sub-Qi Nodes and if he use three of these nodes, he can form a triangular pattern and enclosed it with a circle, it becomes a standard fantasy magic circle which is exactly what he saw in the memory fragment.
It is as if it is wanting him to do it.
From celebrating his achievement of become a Peak-Early Condensation, Clay’s countenance became serious. Since there is another quarter before the effect of the pill completely dissipates, Clay sat in meditative position again and attempted to open the nodes around his eyes.
When he closed his eyes, he was surprised as the Sub-Qi Nodes are barely lit up but he carefully guided his Spiritual Qi anyway however, as soon as he came in contact with the first Sub-Qi Node, he felt like something swirled an in an instant, the effect of the pill vanished.
“What happened?”
Clay has no clue what transpired so he took out another pill and threw it into his mouth and as soon as the pill had taken effect, he channeled his Spiritual Qi again to the Sub-Qi Nodes and this time, it consumed a portion of the pill power.
“Why does it consume so much?” Clay bitterly cursed.
Earlier, he felt it was selfish and greedy to use another pill and he was planning on giving the remaining back to Rani but in the end, he may end up using everything instead.
Clay clenched his teeth as he continuously ate four consecutive pills to open up all 12 Sub-Qi Nodes around each eye and after quarter of an hour, he opened his eyes the laid on the floor spreading his arms to his side. While there is a huge increase in his power after breaking through, he actually felt exhausted opening Sub-Qi Nodes.
He let his body rest and after half an hour he sat on a meditative position again and this time, he will follow the pattern based on his memory fragment.
Honestly, he does not know what will this bring him but it is the only clue to remembering more of his past life.
Slowly, Clay let his Spiritual Qi flow towards the Sub-Qi Nodes and attempted to form the magic circle pattern around his eyes and just as he anticipated, it was actually challenging.
Clay could easily let the Spiritual Qi flow to any Qi Nodes in his body but guiding it towards the Sub-Qi Nodes was ten times more difficult.
He does know if this kind of circulation would do him harm but he has a feeling it will give him profound powers. After almost an hour of continuous circulation, he had finally mastered and successfully drawn the magic circle on his eyes via the Sub-Qi Nodes and right at this time, he recalled another small memory fragment.
The memory is about a manly superhero wearing a cape who can shoot laser beams from his eyes.
“Really?” Clay cursed. He thought it would be an important memory but all along, it was point to Superman. He just hopes this circulation technique would give him Laser Beaming Eyes ability.
Clay’s heart pounded. With the pattern formed within his eye, he got to his feet and opened his eyes.
WAHH!
Clay was full of anticipation a laser beam would come out from his eyes, but instead he was greeted with a completely different view. Contrary to his expectations, his right eye did not even emit any powers but instead saw some fuzzy images that he lost his balance with the sudden shift of his sight and dizziness assaulted his head.
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Clay dropped to his knees while catching his breath. Just now, he saw images similar to infrared display.
After a few seconds, the dizziness went away and afraid that his eyes were damaged, he got up and looked himself on the mirror.
“Thank god!”
Clay stood nervously in front of the mirror and continued to observe his eyes and after an hour, he calm down.
“What was that anyway?”
Seeing that there was no change on eyes, he got curious again and allowed the Spiritual Qi to circulate around his eyes again then stopped three seconds after.
Clay observed his eyes again in the mirror and after confirming he was fine, he formed the magic circle again around his eye.
HUH?
He waited and after a minute of not being lightheaded, he started to look around.
The first time, the image he saw were fuzzy but this time is a lot clearer. He covered his left eye with his hand to get a better focus on the images. He does not know how to describe it but it is all shades of black and white.
Clay stopped and observed his eye again in the mirror and after another half an hour, he walked towards the window to have a view of his fellow brothers diligently training.
He then once again formed a magic circle in his eye.
“What are these?”
Clay is bewildered and mystified by what he is seeing. When he focused on the nearby tree and it looked like thin wiggling gas-like threads. From time to time, he would stop the circulation and compare it to the real world images but when he looked into the direction of other gang members in the distance, he noticed the same wiggling threads including some white dots.
He had not cultivated long but seeing the white dots, the resemblance is very similar to Qi Nodes within the body.
Each moment that passed, he became curious as to what the threads are and what they represent.
"Is it possible that is Spiritual Qi?” he asked himself.
Time passed and he was engrossed by the new image of this world when he was suddenly, he interrupted by a voice.
Clay stopped and turned around to find that Aunt Shi is standing on the door with her hands crossed.
"You should learn to come down for meal by yourself."
Clay followed Aunt Shi downstairs in the kitchen and when he arrived, some of the kids are already seated around the table together with Rani.
When he sat down, he secretly activated the magic circle in his eye while they were eating. Clay normally would just gulp down his meal and leave as soon as he is done but this time, he slowly savored every spoonful as he looked around from time to time observing the close up display of his fellow brothers on the black and white world.
When he focused on Aunt Shi, she literally looked like a moving dots. Clay confirmed the dots fall exactly on the same position as depicted on the Major Qi Node Diagram so he is positive that what he is seeing is related to Spiritual Qi and cultivation.
He could even see a gas-like substance circulating within the stomach region of each person present and counting the Number of Qi-Nodes connected within Aunt Shi, Clay assumed that she is a Peak-Mid Condensation Practitioner.
Clay switched his focus on his fellow brothers. He was advised that these children have yet to enter Qi Sensing phase, but he is amazed that some of the Qi Nodes in their bodies are already lit up.
He suddenly remembered that when he attempted to open his Qi Nodes, not one was lit up and he guessed it has something to do with the mysterious Elemental Affinity.
But what he is really most curious of is Rani. There were almost more than 33 plus Qi Nodes and he cannot make sense of the circulation pattern between the some of the Sub-Qi Nodes on his arms.
"I see you have already broken through. Still you wasted so much pills. Make sure to memorize the contents of the Formation Book. ", Rani long noticed Clay’s cultivation when he entered the kitchen so he reminded Clay of their master’s task.
Meanwhile, Clay almost flipped from his chair upon hearing Rani’ voice and when his vision went to normal, he noticed that only the two of them were left.
“Mhh!”
Clay immediately nodded in response.
“I will gather some materials three days from now so you could start becoming a true disciple.” Rani stood up and but before he could turn around and leave, Clay mustered his courage to ask a question.
“There is a technique I had been trying in eyes and I would like to know if this is causing harm to my cultivation.” Klein asked.
“Do not be too ambitious. Your task now is to follow everything that master said. You will be given time to practice Offensive Techniques but that is too soon.” Rani smirked and sternly reminded Clay before leaving.
Clay ignored the unfriendly treatment and finished his meal in silence and went upstairs to his room.
He wanted to explore the limits of his newfound Superman's Failed Eyesight but he knew memorizing the contents of the book comes first.
Upon seeing the book lying on his bed, he remembered when Rani initially took them out of the spatial ring and what he said about being able to use the ring on his necklace upon reaching Qi Condensation Realm.
He recalled how Rani poured his Qi into the ring and took out the books.
Clay did not know the exact process, but he tried imitating what his brother did. First, he surrounded the book with his Qi and pressed it against the ring then the book vanished into thin air.
“Woh!”
Clay was shocked with the sudden disappearance of the book.
"What kind of sorcery is this? How?"
Like a prehistory caveman who had just discovered fire for the first time, Clay was beaming with joy as he poured his Qi into the ring to retrieve the book and put it back again and then the next hour, he had already experimented on several things to be stored in and out of the ring including water.
Clay did not realize that the process consumes his Qi reservoir so after a continuous usage of his Qi, he got exhausted so he slept the whole afternoon.