CHAPTER 16: THE QI REFINING STAGE

Spirit energy swelled in Dan’s dantian. Time flowed by, ever unheeding of the world that transformed with its passage.

His body drenched with sweat, his breathing laboured, his skin darkened to a glossy red. Dan was ignorant of his appearance, his mind focussed on the complex changes occurring in his body.

Innate qi flowed from his meridians, down his channels, and to his dantian. He’d not known it was there, fledgeling as it was, formed when he reached the ninth level of Channel Building. It was his body’s way of preparing for the path ahead of it.

The qi was slight. It required goading and nurturing. Nature qi had simple desires. It wanted everything. It was natural to take what it wanted.

Once he’d coaxed it from his meridians, all Dan had to do was feed it. His innate qi swallowed the spirit energy in his channels, slowly traversing toward his dantian. He couldn’t feed it too much, or he’d risk damaging it. He couldn’t feed it too little, or he’d risk his potential.

The difficulty rose when one considered that he had to maintain this balance between all ten channels, stretching across his entire body, simultaneously.

If he failed, it would take a day to restore his reserves, and a few weeks to nurture innate qi for a second attempt. Worse yet, Dan didn’t know if his family’s murderer was still looking for him. He didn’t know if his father was still alive, or if he could save him if he was.

But internally, Dan felt he was capable. He might be nothing now, but he was years ahead compared to his father’s cultivation journey.

Confidence was a key factor in trials.

Bright sparks of innate qi travelled from Dan’s meridians. It very nearly lit his flesh on fire. Sweat and impurities poured from his skin, elemental detritus of aspects not his own. Loose energy garnered from eating, breathing, and drinking found itself destroyed; its scraps pushed through his pores.

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His body gradually fell into tune with his aspect. The bright, powerful qi gathered toward his core. It began from his meridians, from all extremities, and slowly traversed his body-spanning channels.

It was like a baptism of the elements, forcefully aligning his body to his aspect in the most brutally straightforward method possible.

His body grew hungry. Starved for energy. It emanated from his cells, a thirst for qi. The last of Dan’s spirit energy, gathered at the openings of his dantian, the edge of his channels, was finally swallowed.

Small streams of innate qi, ten in total, entered his dantian. Here, Dan could finally control them more directly. It was difficult, but he could nudge the qi, ever so slightly.

But the risk of sudden movement, of entering a channel by accident, was very real. He didn’t have complete control over his innate qi – not yet.

Dan exercised the next step of his technique.

His focus fell on the connection of his channels to his dantian. Without hesitation, he severed them all.

His senses fell flat. He couldn’t sense the hunger in his cells, the insignificant remnants of spirit energy that still pervaded his channels. All he had was his dantian.

His innate qi pulsed. His dantian slowly grew stronger, sturdier, and purer.

As Dan slowly guided the streams of innate qi into one, it was now just a matter of time. Excruciating focus, that is, and time.

Hours passed. The innate qi gradually entwined. His dantian gradually transformed.

Outside, the evening had long passed. In the pitch black of night, in his cultivation chamber, Dan mended his dantian’s connection points to his channels.

Streams of qi had gradually woven together, and then transformed. It was no longer ten individual strings, but one liquid ball of innate qi, no larger than Dan’s fist, that pulsed steadily in his dantian.

Spirit energy, gathered from the outside, streamed into his dantian. It was directly purified by his dantian, his qi like a transformative filter that gradually strengthened the spirit energy until it liquefied.

Like this, his body gathered qi. In time, it swept through his channels to his meridians, and from his meridians, it gradually spread and satiated his body’s thirst. His cells hummed with energy. His skin regained colour, and his eyes snapped open.

Colour shone from his eyes, briefly dyeing the otherwise dreary chambers in verdant green light.

Breakthrough!

He reached the Qi Refining stage!