As I asked for a volunteer, several hands rose, and I picked one that looked the calmest among them. "Walk forward," I said even as I invited her right in front of the spiritual pillar. I was as tense as them, as I had a feeling that, a mistake here might have disastrous consequences.
As she stood in front of the pillar, I raised my hand, activating the formation to hide us from the view. I didn't want any of them to start copying what we were doing.
"I'm ready, sir," she said.
"Good," I replied as I waved my hand, and the acupuncture needles spread over her body. Even then, I walked to her and stood at her back, ready to use my massage talent together with alchemy to make sure her essence circulated correctly.
More importantly, I wanted to make sure the conception of the burning ice stayed exactly the same as the spiritual pillar. I couldn't risk it drifting away to turn into yet another martial arts that was blocked by the mysterious mist.
"Now, I want you to focus on the conception, and ignore everything else. Only after you're fully focused, I want you to throw the first punch, and do it perfectly," I ordered.
"Yes, sir," she said as she closed her eyes. I knew she followed my order, as even she focused, I could feel her flickering essence moving. Ironically, it reminded me of a small spark of fire, trying to survive in the wind. Even with all her talent, it would have been extinguished without my help.
I was glad that I was using Qi and not essence to support it. If I tried to use essence, it would have tainted the conception. Qi acted like an insulated wrapping, keeping the essence alive without tainting it.
As she threw the first punch, her body started feeding the essence of her vitality. The flow had been intense. If the vitality of her body hadn't been maintained even after I destroyed their martial arts, it would have been enough to drain her completely.
"M-my talent," she gasped, unable to understand what was going on. It even broke her focus on the conception.
Luckily, I was there to protect the core of the essence and prevent it from being corrupted.
"I know, I remodeled and enhanced it," I said. I hadn't mentioned it, because I knew no warning would prepare for the great change. Her current talent was not too much below mine when I first arrived and took the System Enhanced pill.
That pill was Earth Grade, and while her current pill was only Black Peak Grade, the assistance of the alchemy pushed it closer to effectiveness. And, back then, I was able to break into the martial arts by merely throwing a few punches, which nearly starved me.
"Now, eat this, and wait," I said as I passed her an essence pill. Without martial cultivation, it would have killed her if left alone, but she still swallowed it without hesitation.
I once again used Qi to help her digest the energy and absorb it gently. What was supposed to be a deadly threat was nothing compared to my alchemy talent. I said nothing until she absorbed the energy completely. "Now, punch once again, but don't let your focus drift away," I said.
She punched, and I controlled the flow of the energy. Her new essence slowly channeled through the hint of essence she had received from the spiritual pillar, threatening to drown the small flicker without my intervention.
That one punch let her grow her essence greatly, and immediately reach the peak of the Muscle Reinforcement stage.
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"Good," I said as I fed her another pill, and repeated the process. Another punch, and she was at the Skin Refinement. One pill, and three more punches, and she reached the peak of the Bone Forging. Another punch, and she was at the peak of the Connate realm, all her gates activated and linked to her meridians, allowing her to freely control her essence however she wished.
"I-it's …" she gasped.
"Much weaker than you expected, right," I said. "Don't worry, it's just a beginning. That's the nature of the ancient martial arts. We need to maintain the purity of the essence, and not the power. That will arrive later."
"Yes sir," she said.
It was the time for the next step. "Now, bleed on the symbol again," I ordered. She followed it, but I once again controlled the amount of essence she let out. The connection had been established, but this time, it was her essence that had been taken by the symbol.
I wasn't experimenting blindly. The manual I had received also described the way to repair the spiritual pillar if damaged. Of course, the amount of damage they expected was much lesser, forcing me to go into a lot of trouble just to make sure I didn't shatter the symbol while trying to repair it.
Once again, it was like trying to feed a weak flame.
It was a tiny bit, and even then, it was a challenge for the weakened symbol to absorb. It did, but only because of the purity of the feedback. Even then, I could feel the symbol straining.
Then, I met with a very interesting surprise. As the symbol absorbed the essence, it also consumed some Qi from the air. It was a tiny amount, one that I would have missed without formations giving me absolute control of the area.
It surprised me, because the technique I had received mentioned had no mention of Qi absorption. I wondered if it was a deliberate misdirection or something they weren't aware of. After all, I wouldn't have noticed without my unique circumstances.
But then, learning new things was why I experimented, and this discovery wasn't enough to make me stop it.
"Good, now, go back and start reading the technique again. No practicing without my order. But, don't hide your cultivation."
With that, I raised my hand, and the screen had fallen. The rest shuffled when the volunteer returned, her martial cultivation of Connate realm enough to shock them. They were practiced enough to recognize the signs, but even for a genius apothecary, that was too much. They would assume that the spiritual pillar played a big role, so it was important.
They still didn't know my identity as a Qi Cultivator.
"Now, the second volunteer," I said. I repeated the earlier process, but this time, I didn't block the view. And, with the existence of a mortal rising to Connate Realm in less than five minutes, she wasn't shocked by the extent of her remodeled talent.
I repeated the process for every single one of them, making sure that they had maintained the stability and purity of their conception even as they focused on generating the Burning Blizzard essence. And, I fed the spiritual pillar with their essence, each time it took just the tiniest bit of Qi from the environment in the process.
I didn't dare to peer into the structure of the spiritual pillar, afraid of dispersing it with my probing.
"Congratulations on your first, tiny step to the great path of ancient martial arts," I shouted. "Connate Realm is nothing but a speck in the form of true martial arts. Soon, you'll be entering the Blood Essence realm, able to fight even the immortals in equal footing. However, before that step, you have to enhance and reinforce the Burning Blizzard essence. It's going to be hard work, but in the end, you'll have the strength to follow your Queen to the land of immortals!"
"Now, go back and read the technique again," I ordered. As much as I wanted them to start practicing, I knew from experience that martial learning didn't only rely on talent but cultivation. More importantly, the effect was almost like a multiplicative effect, which was why the organizations valued talent even if they had the resources to easily create an army of Connate Realm martial artists.
Once they read the technique several times, I ordered them to gather together, and guided them. I didn't practice the technique myself, as I wasn't ready to take the risks. Currently, the Burning Blizzard essence supported by the drawing was too weak for it to matter.
I preferred to watch and see if there was any side effects before I committed to it one way or another.
However, the experiment was important enough that I decided to stay here for the foreseeable future, making sure that the conception of the essence stayed true to the representation of the giant drawing. My time was split between correcting their moves. Well, the conception behind their moves, as the physical aspect of their moves was pretty much perfect.
And, occasionally, I controlled as they slowly fed the symbol with their martial essence, triggering its recovery.
I couldn't help but feel excited as I watched them.
The experiment was going well. I could already feel that my own martial arts wasn't too far away.