The toll on Su Yuchen’s mind began to act on him, the intense concentration during cultivation drained all his mental energy. He began to feel throbbing pain in his head, the very next moment, he felt as if a vise was tightly holding onto his head and crushing it.
He held the sides of his head with both of his hands and then tried to survive the unbearable pain.
As he closed and opened his eyes while gritting through the pain, his vision blurred, he was starting to lose his consciousness. He tried to resist and focus his eyes, and this made them start burning.
He closed his eyes, gave up on bearing all the pain and then let his mind recover from the exhaustion.
..
.
Su Yuchen’s maid woke him up before dawn by knocking on the door, when he woke up he was sleeping on the floor in the cultivation room. He had no headache, his head felt light compared to the night before.
He picked up the stellar rock laying beside him and checked it. There was no visible changes in it, he couldn’t even tell that it was used for cultivation.
The dense astral energy from the stellar energy made him understand why it was not recommended to use them for cultivation at the Meridian Refinement Realm.
He didn’t know if the reason he could be safe, was because he has top grade talent or it was because he has more pain tolerance. He remembered the mental strain that he persevered through during the cultivation and after it.
He also remembered that on the day he first tried to start cultivation, he was careless and circulated the astral energy through every meridian when he felt no exhaustion during the first three meridians. He then went on to endure tremendous pressure and nearly lost control of the life essence.
Then he was more reckless and continued to practise in the same way. He couldn’t understand why he gets stubborn and reckless on certain things. He has low motivation to cultivate and still he behaves recklessly.
Or he might be behaving recklessly during cultivation because he has low motivation to cultivate.
However, the reckless behaviour from the night before made him slightly frightened. He shouldn’t be using a stellar rock to cultivate, but he still used it. He was basically gambling on his life with that reckless behaviour of his.
Glad, he didn’t remembered that loser’s face while circulating the astral energy, he might have lost control of the life essence and hurt himself.
Su Yuchen decided to check the results of his cultivation. He controlled his mind, breathing and soon entered a meditation state.
The dantian was just filled to seventeen percent of its total capacity, a four percent increase with using the stellar rock. The astral energy that became his could now be controlled and circulated through the meridian system without the life essence.
It's just that he still has to put more efforts to fill the dantian and then continue to fill the entire twelve meridians with his astral energy. Then he would enter the Meridian Refinement Realm 1st stage.
‘Sign in’ he said in his mind.
[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded “Top grade Stellar Rocks x 10”.]
“Wow!” Su Yuchen gasped after seeing the notification. He never heard about that thing, but he knew that's something beyond he could get his hands on in the next hundred years if he cultivated without the system.
With a thought he looked into the system storage, he tried to look at a top grade stellar rock and instantly, the dense energy from the rock nearly tore apart his mind, the system protected him.
It was a blue colour rock, which looked like a glass rock, radiating sharp blue rays. He was under pressure just by looking at the rock.
Looking at it he wondered if he could even use the top grade stellar rock for his cultivation at the moment.
On second thought, he realised that a normal stellar rock was already too heavy of a burden for him to cultivate with. He doesn’t need to think about a top grade astral rock.
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Su Yuchen put his thoughts aside about the top grade stellar rock and got up to get ready for the morning exercise.
While absorbing the purple astral energy, he worked on improving his stances. He still received a smack with the stick for once when he failed to do a stance as his left hand was not in the right position.
After eating his breakfast, he thought about the lecture from an Inner Sect Elder which was mentioned by the sect deacon after morning exercise.
Su Yuchen contemplated on skipping the lecture and staying indoors to avoid any unexpected troubles, but decided against it, he didn’t want to hold himself back because of the negative thoughts in his mind. The lecture is good for him and he should go there if he wants to improve himself or there would be more setbacks for him in the future when he follows on with his negative thoughts.
His increasing negative thoughts after the humiliation was concerning him. He never had a moment in both of his lives when he was filled with thoughts like these. He never seriously thought of killing a person and he never skipped a day in his job after making a mistake during his work.
He didn’t even make a mistake and now he his thinking about skipping an important lecture that would help him in his cultivation.
This was concerning and he needs to stay in control of his emotions.
..
.
There were thousands of Inner Sect Disciples at the lecture. Some of them looked like kids and some others were like old men.
The lecture went smoothly. The Inner Sect Elder started with lecturing about Meridian Refinement Realm and proceeded with the next realms. Su Yuchen kept his focus during the lecture and understood all the things the Inner Sect Elder taught to the Inner Sect Disciples.
He contemplated on what the Inner Sect Elder taught, during the whole time the Inner Sect Elder lectured on advanced cultivation realms.
He was glad he didn’t skip the lecture because of what happened the day before.
In the courtyard.
Su Yuchen decided to read the book on cultivation knowledge he received from the sect. The book was much thicker than the cultivation notes book he got from the system.
He read the book the whole afternoon. The first half of the book explained the rules of the sect, about the authority and powers the elders hold and the importance of the disciples to the sect. It explained the various halls and their functions in the sect. The importance of contribution points and the various ways they could be obtained was seriously emphasised in the book.
The second part explained about the Meridian Refinement Realm. There were many similarities with the cultivation notes, but this book was less comprehensive. This book also mentioned about refining the meridians multiple times.
However, it only mentioned nine refinements, and cultivators were given a rank according to the number of times they refined their meridians. Nine being the lowest rank which is achieved when a cultivator enters the Meridian Refinement Realm 1st stage. First rank Meridian Refinement Realm 9th stage is the strongest in the Meridian Refinement Realm. The way the ranks were labelled made them look unnecessarily long, and they missed ninety nine more ranks.
The book mentioned the best way to achieve the first rank, which was to complete the refinement of the meridian system during every stage. This wasn’t mentioned in the cultivation notes, though, he only read few paragraphs.
He decide to try this method, and he his going to use the stellar rock’s astral energy to achieve the refinement. A thick buff for the meridians and the dantian during transformation.
The serious motivation for cultivation he was having, he desires this everyday without having to go through other humiliating quests.
That night, Su Yuchen, once again cultivated with the stellar rock, and lost consciousness in the cultivation room.