It was midday when, as Xing Yi was meditating, he felt an abrupt change in his body.

All at once, warmth surged throughout the front and back of his spine. Every pore on his body simultaneously opened, releasing liquid that elicited a nose-wrenching smell. It was disgusting.

Xing Yi panicked as he questioned what was happening. However, all his past preparation for this moment quickly brought him back to the task he had at hand.

He focused inward and realised that this warmth was his vital energy. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it. And it was very warm. It circulated throughout his meridian like a rushing tide due to the breakthrough he had just made. Remembering all the information from the cultivation manual, he grabbed onto the newfound vital energy and consciously circulated it throughout his newly opened meridian.

His vital energy was like a strange, formless muscle made out of water. He couldn’t feel it but he could sense it’s shape and movement as it continued to rage through his conception meridian. He expected it to take a long time to learn to control, but he found that it wasn’t very difficult.

Listening to the advice of his cultivation manual, he rode along the tide that had formed in his meridian and goaded it further forward. The impurities that still remained from the initial breakage continued to scatter.

Yes!

Xing Yi inwardly celebrated in his head as he circulated his vital energy. Excitement broiled from every cell in his body at his long-awaited breakthrough. It had finally come!

Soon, all his impurities had been completely dispelled and his robes were completely drenched in black ooze. He smelt absolutely horrible, and he could tell. But he continued on with his cultivation and circulated his vital energy to expel the remaining specks of impurities that still remained within his first meridian.

According to his cultivation manual, impurities were expelled with each cleansing of a meridian. These impurities exist within all mortal creatures and through the process of cultivation, one was able to expel these impurities and become closer to a perfect existence.

These impurities clogged the meridians, preventing humans and other creatures alike from being too strong as it would cause turmoil and chaos in the world.

The extraordinary vessels of external cultivators and internal cultivators were very much alike. The only difference being that they carry different energies. In fact, Xing Yi had extraordinary vessels just like immortal cultivators. The only difference being that they had spiritual roots to absorb and control qi.

Time passed and Xing Yi now found that he could circulate his vital energy with no obstruction, and it flowed smoothly, a sign that he had finally expelled the last of his impurities. Opening his eyes from his meditation, he was greeted by the sight of Ya Jing lying on the courtyard porch with her hands pinching her nose.

“You smell!” Ya Jing exclaimed.

Xing Yi sighed as he stood up.

“I’m going to go wash up,” Xing Yi said as he walked out of the courtyard and inside, making sure to not drip any of the black ooze onto the pristine wooden flooring of the house. Xing Yi walked out of the house and out of the Servant Hall area and down the mountain.

As Xing Yi washed himself down in a river at the bottom of the valley, he reflected on what happened.

It had taken him seven months to cleanse his first meridian.

Now that may be important to the future of his cultivation and is a determining factor of his talent, he wanted to appreciate how far he had come. As he washed himself, dipping up and down again and again in the water, he felt like a changed person.

He breathed in the air, squinting at the sun rays of the setting sun that gleaned through the thick expanse of trees.

His mind had been forged through thousands of hours meditation. He did not move. He did not think. He merely breathed in and out, again and again, imagining the circulation of his qi throughout his first meridian.

And finally, all his efforts had borne fruit.

A wave of immense gratitude washed over him as a few tears of joy dropped down his cheeks.

He stayed like this for many moments until he climbed out of the river and redressed himself in his now very damp clothes. They still smelt absolutely horrid, but he would throw these ones out and get a new pair.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Xing Yi couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that he wasn’t blinking an eye when throwing out robes that cost such a fortune. If his family were to know what he was doing, his mother would keel over in shock and tell him to not be so wasteful.

But now that he was in a sect of immortals, his perception of value had changed. He lived in essentially a mansion, dined on cuisine every night and read and learned from books that were created and written by immortal masters of legend.

If he lived like this, he could afford to be a bit wasteful.

It was at this moment in his hike up the moment is when Xing Yi noticed that he wasn’t breaking a sweat and his rhythm of breathing hadn’t changed at all. His legs brought him up the mountain path with ease, not taking the slightest effort.

Xing Yi blinked his eyes in surprise as he stopped in his tracks as he inspected his arms and legs. They hadn’t changed at all but now suddenly contained significantly greater power. That was the wonder of cultivation.

Excited to see how far he could push himself, he sprinted up the mountain for several minutes, not slowing down the slightest. It was only when Xing Yi sprinted that he picked up a slight sweat and that his legs felt the burn. When he finished his hike and arrived at the Servant Hall, he sat down to catch his breath.

That felt awesome. He sprinted up the mountain at his fastest pace for several minutes and he felt like he could’ve went for at least a few more.

Was he this fit before?

Xing Yi had learned from his cultivation manual that with each cleansing of a meridian that his physical prowess would exponentially increase but he didn’t expect it to be this drastic.

Xing Yi smiled at this.

He had grown stronger. Much stronger.

In the world of cultivation, in order to procure resources for one’s cultivation you had to have the necessary power. As one’s power increased, so did their access to resources. This was represented by a person’s cultivation level.

As of current, he only knew of two external cultivation levels. That being meridian cleansing and Inner Fire. The former consisted of twelve layers while the latter was divided into the intensity and colour of the flame.

Beyond that, he had no clue.

Xing Yi changed into a new pair of robes in his room and sat down to plan his next course of action.

Now that he had cleansed his first meridian, he had so many more opportunities.

He was no longer a mere mortal but an external cultivator. If he so wished, he could venture back down into the mortal world and become a soldier with guaranteed success that he would become distinguished in the battlefield with his strength.

He could become a bodyguard for a rich noble, paid a fine salary and many benefits. He could become so many things and even more if he continued on with his cultivation, but his heart was set. He was apart of a sect of immortals, and he refused to be content with such meagre achievements in cultivation.

He refused to be mediocre.

Something small had alit within him when he embarked on this journey to so-called “immortality.”

After his breakthrough, fuel had been dropped into the fire and it had now blown up into magnificent proportions. He had proved to himself that he could make progress.

He pushed through even when he felt that it was hopeless to continue any further.

He hadn’t told Ya Jing or anyone else but sometimes he would stay up late at night sobbing, thinking about whether or not if he should even continue. That he should just run away from it all and stop the pain.

Meditating was hard. It had been so difficult. All he did was meditate all day and it was achingly boring sometimes that he just wanted to quit.

Yes, there had been days where he didn’t get all twelve hours. But overall, he pushed through.

He pushed through all of it.

Him of seven months ago would’ve played safe, would’ve gone easy on himself.

But now, he was strong. He endured the pain and had reaped the gains.

But there was still one thing at the back of his mind that still hadn’t been properly addressed.

That being his lack of spiritual roots.