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According to legends, thousands of years ago, humanity had to reconstruct their path towards absolute power that is cultivation from scratch due to the changes in the heavenly dao rules, making is so that cultivation was no longer favored by it. From then on, cultivation became something that, instead of going along the heavenly dao, it violated its rules. That is to say that cultivators from before followed the path that the heavenly dao showed them.

Many years after the change in heavenly dao rules, human cultivators managed to rise from the ashes and create their own path, the martial path, a path where one would take and gain power from the heavenly dao and rise against it, with the only goal being that of completely surpassing the heavenly dao, defying its will and becoming eternal!

Sadly, only ten realms exists within the current martial path of humanity and even upon reaching the tenth realm, that fabled goal is unachievable. It is even said that this is because the martial path isn't complete, that it lacks something to be able of reaching that state of absolute power.

As it is, the martial path consists of two main factors, that of energy which refers to true qi, and the dao, something that defines itself as one's own path in comprehending the laws of the universe and their powers, as well as of the heavenly dao itself, to make it ones own.

Qi condensation is the start of said martial path. It is where a marrial artist first condenses their true qi from nothingness using the spiritual energy of heaven and earth before then striving to refine it even further and open the full one hundred and eight meridians that exist within the human body, reaching then a state of completion.

This realm is also known as the preparation to open the dantian, the inner dimension inherent to the human body.

...

Di Feng opened his eyes and withdrew the green jade slip that he was reading just moments ago into his spatial ring.

"Qi condensation..." He muttered to himself.

According to its description, Di Feng currently could be considered of being in the first layer of qi condensation. His true qi vessel was deep and seemed to form a small stream, as thin as a hand. It was located within his first opened meridian and moved along between all three of his opened meridians.

Now, Di Feng has to keep nourishing the true qi vessel and open more meridians so that a circulatory path of energy can be established within his body.

Normally, ordinary martial artists would open eight meridians per layer of qi condensation while geniuses would manage to open ten or even twelve each time. Even then, to fully open the one hundred and eight meridians was definitely difficult and probably only one in a hundred million geniuses would be able to achieve this, if statistics could even be made!

Di Feng suddenly took out a white pill the size of his pinky and sat down cross legged on the bed. This pill was called the Channel Opening Pill and contained a very pure and abundant spiritual energy that one could refine easily and the use it to impact the meridians so as to open them. It was only effective for those below the third layer of qi condensation however.

Di Feng directly ate it and started breathing in an specific manner following his own Tyrant Dragon Method. The pure influx of spiritual energy traveled over his three meridians, nourishing his true qi vessel before moving towards another closed meridian.

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As the stream of spiritual energy got closer, its high amounts of pure energy directly forced open the meridian before moving towards another.

Time passed and like this, the spiritual energy from the pill was drained dry but only five meridians ended up opening. Strangely enough, over half of the spiritual energy of the pill was absorbed by his heart, blood as well as his muscles, flesh and skin as he circulated it while trying to open them.

Di Feng exhaled a breath of foul air before opening his eyes. His brow furrowed in the next moment as he recalled his recent cultivation.

"Those damned seals, they not only block off my fey bloodline and bodily attributes, but also even supress the part that I just unsealed! Like this, apart from being able of cultivating, my bloodline can't do much for me now... the only relief is that at least, my body got stronger and my affinity with the laws of darkness increased a bit..."

Di Feng grumbled.

He clearly remembered all the effort he had to put these last few years to not only pass the trials of the mysterious world within the first seal, but even more so to gain the approval of that shadow man so as to finally break said seal and gain the ability to cultivate. It was obvious that with that much effort, one would expect great rewards, but there weren't many at all...

For Di Feng, who was half ancient fey and half human, his ancient fey bloodline and bodily attributes were supposed to be his greatest advantages but now they were not only supressed, but even his cultivation would be slowed down by them due to their huge need for nourishment and in return, he would not get much more than the strengthening of his body and the nourishment of his blood and vitality, things that of course were beneficial but still would come at a great cost. Di Feng would only feel that it was worth it if he could release some of the power of his bloodline, which he currently couldn't and probably for a great deal of time to come because of the seals.

In turn, only by practicing the Tyrant Dragon Method, something that his father left behind, would he be able of making full use of his advantages and minimize his disadvantages.

This method was one that was specifically made for him and one that perfectly let him practice human martial arts and one that would also nourish his ancient fey attributes, making them stronger over time.

Di Feng sighed, feeling that his own martial path would be much more difficult than others. Well, it already was considering how he started later than anyone else...

He proceeded to walk out of his room and what greeted him was the sight of his mother, Di Yue, meditating quietly in the living room.

She was a tall woman, over half a head taller than even him who was over 1,7 meters in height. She wore a white robe that covered almost her entire body while her long and silky black hair cascaded down her shoulders.

As she sat there with her eyes closed, a golden halo seemed to shine around her body, making her seem holy and untouchable.

Di Feng silently walked over and sat in front of her. He always liked to sit beside her as she meditated. It strangely made him feel calmer.

His thoughts then started to drift and he ended up thinking about his father...

He knew almost nothing of him except his name, which was Long Chen. As for his feelings towards him, they also couldn't be termed to as 'love' or 'longing', they instad were complicated and not easily described.

After all, how would you feel about a father who you never saw and who decided to seal off a road that could have been marvelous to walk in? If it was just that, maybe disappointment or resentment would be enough without knowing the specific circumstances, but in Di Feng's case, there were also events during his childhood where humilliation took place because of his inhability to cultivate and this in turn further complicated the matter.

Humans were like this after all. When you are above all others, you would be envied and accepted everywhere while a small minority of people that are overly jealous would hate you, but if one is poor and lacks everything, either nobody would care about you or there would be people who would treat you as an ant who can be stepped on and no repercussions would follow...

In the end, the main reason for his complicated emotions could be said to be because he didn't understand the reason behind his father's actions, even after carefully trying to think it over many times during the past years.

Di Feng abruptly looked over to his mother, only to realize that she had already stopped meditating and was gently looking at him.