While the tribe was bustling with preparations for their successive migrations, Nate had other matters in mind. He had finally reached sufficient mastery over his Sensory Manipulation ability. Although it only worked on two individuals, his mother and himself. He had only monitored his future sibling’s health, unwilling to modify anything until he had thoroughly mastered all abilities related to Body Manipulation. Acting by an intermediary through his mother’s body was better for now.

Still, it was enough to meet the objective he set for himself. To become familiar enough with the human body’s senses to be able to induce mental hallucinations. Even if it rubbed Nate the wrong way to be so limited in range, he could only influence one other person. It also prevented him from perfecting his skills in using his spiritual senses, as not everyone had the same perception. Having access to more bodies to inspect and influence would allow him to deepen his knowledge of how the human body works and how to improve it. A larger data pool would lead to more precise information, thus, better experiments and results.

As it was, Nate could only rely on his most direct family, his father excluded, to plan for his experiments. It required him to be more cautious, as any mistakes would cost him dearly.

It was time to focus on how to shape a person’s body. It was still a branch of Mental Manipulation, as Nate would only be altering how the brain affected the body.

So far, Nate has been manipulating the brain areas related to the mind, like memories, emotions and senses. During this next step, he would focus on the parts that directly influence the body’s inner workings, mainly the production of hormones and other chemicals. Although it wasn’t Body Modification yet, it wasn’t far off.

As he had expected since he started practising his Sensory Manipulation -and even further when he went from perfecting this ability to developing Nerves Manipulation- the transition was relatively easy this time. Indeed, now that he had all the tools he needed, the only thing left was to use them differently.

Nate’s first objective was to improve how he monitored his health and that of his mother and sibling. For him, it was to ensure his growth was going well and to see if he could later improve parts of it by adjusting the quantities of hormones being produced. For his mother and future sibling, it was more to see if the pregnancy had any issues and ensure their health was as good as possible. In this regard, Nate could already use his spiritual sense to check for those details. His new focus on hormones was thus only a way to give him more in-depth information on each of their bodies.

What became a new challenge for Nate was when he attempted to guide each of their growth. Either by improving how their body produces the necessary hormones -like with the gastric system and related organs by increasing efficiency and thus reducing the need for food and water. Or by making more minute changes, where impairments could be just as practical as improvements. Mainly when emotions, stress and blood pressure were concerned. A good example was Vitamin D, where high levels were just as problematic as low levels. In this case, it would heighten feelings of thirst, nausea, constipation and headaches, among other symptoms. Considering their situation, where water and food might be sparse, it could become dangerous. Even more so for Dew, who was pregnant.

In the following months, Nate struggled with the intricacies of the human body’s inner workings by deepening his understanding of it and making adjustments to improve his health and that of his closest family.

During his eighth month, Nate made a significant breakthrough, noticing something in his body that he should have looked for since he arrived in this world. While Nate was monitoring how his blood vessels and nerves were solicited by his body to provide for his needs, he made note of a minor yet growing discrepancy. A tiny amount of energy was being diverted to other body parts. Most of the time, it was along nerves and blood vessels or through organs. It wouldn’t have been noticed without the pattern that could be seen.

A network of vessels drawing in energy to support their growth -albeit slow and barely noticeable- and, more importantly, to influence how the body was nourished.

The answer should’ve been evident to Nate. Meridians were something which was already believed to exist in his old world. Although primarily by people familiar with Eastern medicine. In this new world, where Nate had irrefutable proof of unseen energies, meridians should’ve been the first to look for once he inspected the human body. For him to not think of doing it came from several reasons.

The main one was that his meridians were barely noticeable even now. The network he could observe in his body had started to appear only recently. While on his mother’s body, since she never consciously used other energies -like spiritual senses- her meridians were essentially merged with her blood vessels and nervous system and, in other parts, atrophied.

The other reason explaining his slip-up came from Nate never taking their existence seriously. Nate’s only semblance of knowledge about meridians came from what he read in fantasy books relying on Eastern cultures, like wuxia or xianxia novels.

Then, from the fact they had something to do with acupuncture by making use of pressure points to stimulate the body to alleviate various symptoms. To Nate, it was an obscure practice with dubious results.

Since his reincarnation, Nate never saw any hints leading him to think cultivating Qi might be realisable. The only supernatural thing was his psychic ability, which was unique to him due to his reincarnated circumstances.

Now that the growing child was aware of a network of meridians in his body, he had to dig out any knowledge he might have glimpsed during his previous life. In the end, the only thing he could remember apart from fantasy and hearsay was having read, once, about the twelve principal meridians and eight extraordinary ones. The text made mention of some details about their name and function, for example, the fact that the twelve main meridians were associated with a different organ each. Or that the Heart Meridian had a Lesser Yin quality and was paired with the Small Intestine Meridian of Greater Yang quality, both being associated with the Fire element. He wasn’t sure what it meant but could infer some of it.

The Fire element was maybe the simplest, having meaning with life, growth and energy. A person would harvest energy through digestion, which was then used to support the body and heart and nurture life.

The Yin and Yang part usually refers to two opposite or complementary aspects. Like Life and Death, Light and Darkness, Day and Night. One being the antonym of the other, yet couldn’t exist without its counterpart. In this case, it should relate to each organ’s characteristic that was the opposite of the other. Nate could only make guesses on this, unsure what it could be.

Either their function, one being obvious (Heart) while the other more subtle (Small Intestine).

Or perhaps their form, as one was solid (Heart) and the other hollow (Small Intestine).

Maybe from their place in the body, one dealing with the inner body (blood → Heart), the other with matter from outside the body (food → Small Intestine).

Or their way of working, one storing energy (Heart), the other transforming it (Small Intestine).

Then, lastly, came the quality of Lesser or Greater. Nate did not know their significance since he didn’t know the meaning of yin and yang for those meridians. And also that the apparent meaning of lesser being less important didn’t make sense with it being associated with the heart.

A lot of research and filtering needed to be done to turn this knowledge into anything remotely useful. Still, it was, in Nate’s opinion, better than exploring blindly.

Anything else he could remember was guesses and made-up things he read about in fantasy stories mentioning Immortal Cultivators. From that, he knew there often was a realm of cultivation called Meridians Opening, which was segmented into nine stages. Which likely had something to do with the eight extraordinary meridians more than the twelve ordinary ones.

Thus, he knew meridians were a set of pathways along which vital energy, or Qi, was said to flow. They supposedly could be nurtured to heal someone of their illness. Or, albeit it was only speculation, they could allow someone to cultivate their Qi, improve their physical and mental health, and heal others. Which was the basis on which cultivation and Immortals were drawn in Eastern myths and fantasy stories.

Rather than getting discouraged by his obscure knowledge about the subject, Nate focused on the potential to be unearthed from nurturing those channels. He lamented for a moment for not having noticed this peculiarity earlier. Then he quickly realised it was unnecessary, as he couldn’t have seen it earlier. The only meridians he could observe were his own, which he only started noticing recently because of their increased activity.

What mattered to Nate was that he had found a path that would make Immortality a more likely future.

Indeed, with the existence of meridians, plus his ability to harness the power of his soul in the form of spiritual senses, and finally, the Olympian physique showcased by the tribe’s warriors, cultivation became a real possibility.

To become a cultivator, seeking to understand the Dao and obtain Immortality while fighting beasts and demons with a flying sword.

This discovery opened Nate’s eyes to a few possibilities about his future growth and the world where he lived.

Since cultivation was suspected to be real, it would make sense for different paths to exist to gain power. Paths that might be hindering each other, like Body and Spiritual Cultivation. Ensuring he could guide his growth to tread both paths might be challenging.

It also reminded him that if cultivation was a thing, he should invest time studying herbology and alchemy. To learn to make pills and elixirs to supplement his growth or heal any ailments he and others might suffer.

Concerning the world where the tribe lived, it highlighted some points he had previously wondered about.

Among which, what kind of existence could yield such influence as to order all tribes thousands of miles around to gather in one location?

If Immortal Cultivators were a thing, it was much less surprising. Yet no less frightening. The implications of such a decision might even involve more danger. For humans to unite in such large numbers might be proof of a common enemy. Not necessarily human. Or even humanoid. If other sapient races existed, or if beasts had a way to gain sapience, the dangers the reincarnated soldier might need to face would increase by several folds. He might as well be in a world where the Eastern myths of Pangu and Nuwä -primordial entities responsible for creating the world and/or Humanity- were real beings. Or one where entities just as powerful existed.

At that moment, Nate wanted to worry about this possible and deadly reality. Yet, his conjectures highlighting his mortal and insignificant life were quickly put at the back of his mind. Hidden among his memories in such a way that he would only want to focus more on the present when he thought about those theories. He couldn’t explain why this blockage happened. Only that he somehow knew it wasn’t something to worry about.

He was still a child. A very young one who still needed his mother most of the time. Better to focus on the things he could do than on distant and vague possibilities.

Either way, now that the reincarnated man had discovered this new aspect of himself, his priorities had slightly changed. Before, most of his focus was on the body itself and how to improve its inner workings. Now, for his own body at least, Nate would focus on cultivating his Qi and nurturing his meridians to enhance his body. Or at least to prepare his body to make those two goals a reality.

They were but a few problems to solve regarding that. Nate could only identify ten meridians inside his body, compared to the twelve or twenty meridians he was supposed to have -if going by the twelve main meridians and eight extraordinary ones.

Two groups of four went along his arms and legs each, and another two traced a vertical line on his body. He couldn’t say which were still hidden among the twelve meridians or if he had opened any of the eight extraordinary ones. Indeed, despite their name referring to an organ, the meridians rarely passed through their respective body part. The only way for Nate to identify each of those channels was to keep up his observations. Then eventually, to see how Qi would affect his body depending on which channels and pressure points were stimulated.

While thinking on this, Nate realised he would need to be careful, as too much progress on Qi cultivation might become problematic if his body couldn’t handle the changes.

He might have made many breakthroughs in Spiritual Energy Manipulation, going from expanding his senses to borrowing those of another and then influencing them. Then manipulate their feeling, their mind and finally, their nerves and soon their body. Nonetheless, he would now need to progress very slowly toward this new goal of Qi Manipulation, at least until physical training became available for his infantile body.

For now, it was better to continue as before. Making minor adjustments to improve his health and that of his mother and soon-to-come sibling. All the while developing his ability of Nerves Manipulation into Body Manipulation. Then monitoring other changes happening in their bodies as he went through his life, suffering the trial befitting of a toddler not even past his first year.