Back in his room for the first time in days, the first thing Ji Kang wanted to do was sleep in his bed. While he was in the library the sun had set and looking at the simple mattress he was harshly reminded that he had been sleeping rough and very little for the past two nights.

Ji Kang was a vigorous teenager, but continuing to deprive his body when there was no urgent need for it was unwise. No matter what was in the technique manuals Shen Lan had given him, Ji Kang had little doubt he would be putting his body through intense training in the near future so he should make sure he took care of it while he had the chance.

The next morning Ji Kang took the Yin-Yang Nourishing manual out onto the porch around the interior courtyard to read it. Ji Kang had decided not to hole up in his room but instead to make himself available, in order to lend credence to his story that he wasn’t hiding from Lu Wu.

Ji Kang spent the day reading through Yin-Yang Nourishing, trying to memorize every sentence. He discovered that it only covered up to Core Formation. Once he reached Core Formation he would have to find a successor chapter or find a different compatible cultivation method that did show the path forward.

The relevant Qi Condensation section of the method was comprehensive and covered everything he needed to know and do at his current stage. According to Yin-Yang Nourishing, meridians and the dantian did not exist inside the human body in the same way mundane organs like the heart or lungs did, but rather were largely spiritual.

The theory of cultivation in the Imperial Cultivation path was that a human’s spirit was inherently able to interact with Primeval Qi, and the process of cultivation was to develop and strengthen the spirit while simultaneously deepening the bond between the cultivator’s spiritual and physical selves.

Prior to awakening, a cultivator’s breathing technique helps the cultivator become aware of their spirit and through meditation, allows them to begin manipulating it. Advancing to Qi Condensation is the very first modification a cultivator makes to their spirit, opening a dantian in which to concentrate and store the qi that their spirit had been subconsciously inhaling and exhaling their whole life.

The next step on the cultivator’s journey was to concentrate a dense nucleus of qi inside the dantian while simultaneously reshaping the channels used for this spiritual equivalent of ‘breathing’, otherwise known as meridians, to match the diagrams laid out in the cultivator’s cultivation manual.

The new meridian shapes will increase efficiency in the flow and change the nature of the qi as it passes through them. The newly formed nucleus of qi in the dantian will form a battery of power for the cultivator to draw upon to cast techniques and spells.

All of this is accomplished through meditating on the meridian layout diagram, specific physical exercises that act as a mental aid, and periodic spells cast by the cultivator upon their own meridians.

Reading all of this, Ji Kang was greatly enlightened. He had heard people vaguely mention ‘spirit’ many times before, but until now he had no real idea what they meant. He now realized that when he was cultivating prior to this when he had felt the Primeval Qi entering through his lungs that was simply his brain trying to make sense of signals it had never encountered before but that were similar in essence to familiar signals.

The book said that humans had eight major meridians

While studying the Yin-Yang Nourishing meridian layout diagram, he realized the manual instructed him to divide his meridians into four groups of two, and reshape them into a three-dimensional elongated bagua shape.

One meridian of each group would be dedicated to Yin and the other meridian of each set would be dedicated to Yang. The manual then instructed Ji Kang to meditate in two sessions each twenty four hour day-night cycle. In the daytime meditation session the Yang meridians would act as intake channels and the Yin would take the role of outlets, in the nighttime session those roles would reverse.

This schedule would take advantage of the natural environment’s excess Yin and Yang aspected qi to hasten the speed of Ji Kang’s cultivation.

Late into the evening Yu Shuren emerged from his room and upon seeing him, came to talk with Ji Kang.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Brother Ji! Long time no see. While you were missing I had to deal with Lu Wu all by myself, greatly hindering my progress, but now I too have reached Qi Condensation!” Yu Shuren’s broad face lit up in a toothy smile that practically sparkled with his joy.

“Congratulations Brother Yu! I had no doubt you could do it before the deadline.” Ji Kang stood and patted Yu Shuren’s shoulder and spoke with a playful smile. “Indeed, I’m sorry to have shirked my share of the burden, I owe you one, just let me know when I can return the favor and give you a break from the Young Master.”

“Haha what are you saying? As if I would dare follow your example in pulling a disappearing act. However, as a matter of fact I have another matter I would like to spend your favor on. I have just managed a breakthrough and was planning on informing Master Shen...” Here Yu Shuren paused to discreetly look around and see if anyone was listening before lowering his voice and continuing. “I saw she gave you a private audience yesterday after you announced your breakthrough. Is there anything you think I should know before my own interview?”

Clearly Yu Shuren had long been intimidated by Shen Lan’s menacing aura and wanted to have insider information about what to expect from the private conversation, or if there was anything Ji Kang thought he should pay special attention to.

Yu Shuren and Ji Kang had formed something of a mutual understanding and Yu Shuren had come to appreciate Ji Kang’s perceptiveness and social intelligence. He would take any shred of advice on how to navigate such a potentially fraught situation that Ji Kang was willing to give him.

Ji Kang slightly narrowed his eyes in understanding before leaning in and also lowering his voice. “When you’re alone with Master Shen, maintain a proper degree of respect, but don’t be afraid to speak your mind or ask questions. She seems to appreciate thoughtfulness in her disciples. However there is one matter you should take special note of. Everything you see in the library should absolutely not be spoken of outside of it. After all those are all Master Shen’s hidden accumulation of trump cards.”

Yu Shuren glanced at the book Ji Kang had put aside to speak to him and was puzzled, but he decided Ji Kang must have had a reason to caution him so strongly and so he decided to keep it in mind.

At this moment Lu Wu sauntered out of the north wing of the courtyard residence. He glanced at Ji kang and Yu Shuren who both greeted him but disdained to answer them while showing a proud and preening expression.

Lu Wu walked over to the front of the main building and knelt while calling out. “Master Shen! This disciple Lu Wu has reached Qi Condensation!”

After some time Shen Lan’s voice reached the three boys from inside the building.

“Very good, come to the basement alone.”

Lu Wu stood up and disappeared into the building.

“It looks like you have some time before your audience with Master Shen after all Brother Yu.” Ji Kang remarked once he was certain Lu Wu was out of earshot.

“Hmm, indeed. My condolences Brother Ji, it seems your early lead has been lost now that the Young Master and myself have caught up.” Yu Shuren seemed to still be in a jovial mood despite having to wait for Lu Wu to finish despite having broken through earlier.

Yu Shuren decided to go eat while he waited for Shen Lan to finish talking to Lu Wu, meanwhile Ji Kang resumed reading his cultivation manual.

After the time it took to burn several joss sticks Lu Wu finally emerged from the basement library holding two books and Yu Shuren went down.

Lu Wu came over to talk to Ji Kang and asked without a preamble, “What cultivation method did you choose?”

“Answering Young master Lu, I chose a manual called Yin-Yang Nourishing.”

“Mmm, interesting. Master Shen recognized my talent and so she gave me the opportunity to inherit her personal cultivation method: Rampant River Running.” Lu Wu said this with a faux modest look on his face. Clearly he had come here to brag and had only asked Ji Kang about his cultivation method in order to segue into talking about his own.

Lu Wu held up one of the two tomes he was holding to show Ji Kang. The cover was dark blue with an aesthetically pleasing river pattern printed on the front in a lighter blue.

“Congratulations Young Master! You’re fortunate indeed to inherit the cultivation method of such a powerful character as our master, but that’s only to be expected for the Young Master of the Lu family!” Ji Kang did his best to pretend to be impressed, while thinking that it was incredibly unlikely that someone as careful as Shen Lan would hand out copies of her cultivation method for her disciples to carry around.

If she truly did so it was likely an enemy of hers could steal the book and find out her weaknesses and flaws. Ji Kang thought it much more likely Shen Lan had for some reason wanted Lu Wu to choose this method and so she appealed to Lu Wu’s vanity by prefacing it with terms like ‘recognizing his talent’ and ‘giving him an opportunity’.

Although, Ji Kang couldn’t be sure he wasn’t allowing his dislike of Lu Wu to bias his judgments. Just because Ji Kang thought Lu Wu was a foolish child who shouldn’t be given unsupervised access to sharp objects didn’t mean everyone else necessarily shared this view.

Perhaps Shen Lan truly did want to pass down her personal cultivation method to her disciple with the highest cultivation talent.