Chapter V: Condensing Meridians

My father looked on with worry, and my mother was steeped in anxiety. Both of them were itching to do something extremely reckless. A mistake that would take years to rectify.

For those of you who don't know, the true first step of cultivation starts with awakening or condensing of the meridians. During this time, the acupoints open takes in qi from the surrounding environment. The Qi then moves into the body and condenses the meridians. Nobody knows how, but it seems the body has an innate ability to condense meridians. That doesn't mean extra meridians cant to be condensed manually. It's just recommended that a cultivator should innately condense their meridians to gauge their potential.

During this time, the Acupoints also open. These also can be opened manually, but allowing them to naturally open is best. However, the environment of the young cultivator is crucial and plays a big part in their awakening. This small detail is why my parents were extremely anxious.

My parents counted as eight extraordinary meridians formed, followed by my six principal meridians. However, there are twelve principal meridians, and the Qi vortex around me was starting to slow down. Though my meridians appeared thick and strong, worthy of my Bloodline. I needed more Qi to condense my remaining six meridians.

The mortal world's impure Qi also slowed down the process. For every strand of Qi I took in, 75-83 percent of it was a pure waste.

Seeing this development and realizing that my special bloodline from the cursed ancestor was very picky, my mother popped high ranking qi gathering pill in my mouth, two stages higher than what she gave Nimue a little over a year ago when she awakened.

My father then took out a spirit stone pen and carved an inscription on my back. I grimaced under the pain, and golden-green blood trickled down my back. My parents then moved in tandem as my father used his Qi to suspended me in the air. My mother then put the final nail in my coffin as soul force-coated needles appeared, puncturing all of my 2,000 acupoints.

I could feel her soul force flicking, twisting, driving the needles to clear the way for Qi absorption.

Pop! Baboom!

Like a gate had been shattered to pieces and the walls of a fortress blown to smithereens, my acupoints opened, the pill turned to pure energy, and my father's body inscription turned me into a Qi glutton that appeared insatiable. With the amount of energy being pulled in, my body condensed strong meridians by the dozens. My parents' worry had gone overboard, and they were heavy-handed with their help. Instead of twenty meridians, I quickly climbed to 108, a feat only seen in special physiques and Mythic Beast Bloodlines.

My father had managed to condensed forty, while my mother condensed forty-nine during their awakening. Even now, their open acupoints were barely half of mine as the technique both of them used on me was hazardous.

The reason why the techniques were hazardous to use, especially during an awakening, appeared in the sky not moments after being performed. Clouds formed over the Vamoria clan, and a tornado touched down in the courtyard.

'Too much,' my parents thought.

Too much Qi, my body couldn't handle it and had no experience to even attempt to tame it. Even cultivators of hundred years may explode if they open all 2,000 acupoints when they've only ever used a quarter of that amount. Acupoints are recommended to be opened as the number of meridians a cultivator has increases.

My father was the first to act and flew to the sky. Sixty-four array flags flew out, creating a grand formation, sealing of the clan from incoming Qi. My mother took her place behind me and attempted to siphon Qi from my body, but my bloodline treated her as an enemy.

My body erupted in golden green light as a deafening roar exuded from my body, blowing my mother away. In an instant, my cells trapped the excess Qi along with all of the impurities that entered my body from the Mortal World.

My body inscription gradually calmed down to a halt as the energy from my mother's pills was soaked into my body, and my acupoints had no Qi left to take in. When the commotion ended, my eyes were bugged, and I panted as if I had finished a triathlon.

"108 meridians," my father gasped as he watched the qi dispersed in the sky above the clan.

"2,000 acupoints," My mother heaved as she sat against the wall she was blown against.

"And a Heavenly Qi Swallowing Body Inscription," the muttered in tandem.

But they couldn't rejoice as their recklessness saturated my body with impurities—more impurities than a 100-year-old man who lived his entire life cultivating in the Mortal World.

'This will stunt his progress.' My father thought to himself.

'We have to find a way to detoxify his body,' my mother thought.

When morning came, Little Wu led me to my parents' courtyard, where my father sat me down with a large smile. At the time, I had no idea what my parents had done to me. I assumed my father was happy because I could cultivate like Nimue.

"Where's my mom?" was the first question I asked.

"Little punk, aren't you happy to see your father?" He glared at me.

I simply shrugged my shoulder, causing my fathers' lip to twitch in annoyance.

"You know, you used to cry--"

"Ahh! I'm happy to see you, dad!" I interrupted him, "Sheesh. Always bring up old stuff. I guess that's what old people do... They like to reminisce."

"Old?!" My father leaped across the small table, and I quickly rolled to the side to dodge before scurrying away.

My evasion was meaningless as my father appeared in front of me. He snatched me up, then rubbed his knuckles into my scalp. I laughed at my offended father. It was good to have parents again. My first parents had died around my fifteenth birthday. It wasn't until I met Suyin's parents that I received parental love again. Sometimes, I even imagine that Gellis and Mina are the parents from my past life. They simply can't remember me after taking Old Lady Meng's soup.

"I'm only 20 years old, little punk!" My father growled, pulling me from my thoughts.

Eventually, my father released me, causing me to sigh. "You know.." I began, "Life would be pretty bleak without you around. I'm glad you didn't go back to the clan."

"I still can't wrap my head around how you remember those days." Said Gellis, "But I'm glad my annoying son couldn't survive a second without me. That crying saved my life and allowed me to watch you grow up. But enough of this, we have things to talk about."

I nodded my head seriously. Then, without a trace of movement, my father took me back to the small table where they started.

" I will be guiding you in your cultivation starting today," My father spoke with pride.

Naturally, I was excited. I had been waiting for this block of instruction ever since Nimue condensed her meridians and started her cultivation a year ago. But I outwardly frowned. "Don't you already supervise my training?"

"This is different! It's more important and a lot more delicate." My father reasoned with his overly mature five-year-old. "First, tell me about the name day celebration."

He always asked me about random blocks of information, but I never grew annoyed with it. "Name day ceremony is a tradition held by every race of the Chaos Serpent Planet, consisting of the five outer sphere Continents: North, East, South, West, and Central. With the mainland, home of the 12 Immortal Palaces and Royal family located in the Inner Region."

"What's the Inner Region?" My father asked with a smile. Honestly, he's my biggest fan.

"The inner region is the core of the planet. The Chaos Serpent Planet is a Hollow Planet. The Inner region is said to be ten times greater than all the five outer continents put together. " I answered fluidly, without hesitation.

"Good, And where are we now?"

"The Deep South. Every Mortal World has a designation. The East Continent's Mortal World is known as the Far East, Central has the Great Sand Lands, while the west and Inner region doesn't have a Mortal World. All the while, The North Continent's High North is extremely harsh and mysterious. Though it's considered a Mortal World, not many people live there, and those who do are rarely seen. "

"Fantastic. Go on." He said.

"Unlike most races, humans do not use the Fate Star Array that shows the child's fate and naturally determines our name."

"How many races are known?"

"Currently a thousand Daemon and Mythic Races. With the Dragons at the top followed by the 12 immortal races. Dark Phoenix, Winged White Tiger, Faye, Giants, Gnomes, Lunar Pythons, Nine-headed hydra, Golden Lions, Black Tortoises, Dwarves, Humans, and Succubi."

"Very good. Before our Cursed Ancestor, who reigned equally to the Dragons?"

I finally frowned. "We did—the Elven Sages. We are a branch family. After the main family was destroyed and cast out from the Inner Region, we made a new home on the West Continent. Though, we can be considered the Original Main Family since I have the Cursed Streaks."

"Years not wasted," my father spoke with pride. "Now it's time for you to learn what makes the world run. Cultivation. For the most part, everyone can cultivate unless they are defective. But that doesn't mean that everyone has a talent for cultivation. On your name day, your fate showed a star and ten thousand planets, and your star touched them all. So you were given the name Orym, meaning Ten Thousand Skills. So that's how your mother and I decided to train you. It's a heavy burden, but I believe you can handle it. Because you have the talent to become a powerhouse."

My father took a deep breath, and his face became serious. I instinctively straightened my back, and his father began his lecture.

In the world of cultivation, there are three pathways one can choose to reach the pinnacle of existence. Each path consists of Realms, Sub-realms, and Stages. The first widely chosen path is Essence Cultivation, which focuses on training Qi- life essence. This Qi is a mix of Heaven and Earth energy pulled from the world into the body through the acupoints, following through the meridians to be stored in the dantian where it's stored and refined. Unfortunately, due to Orym's low rank, his father only told him about the first realm of cultivation --the Mortal Realm.

The Mortal Realm is broken into three sub-realms: Body Refinement, Martial Foundation, and Qi Gathering. Each with its own level of difficulty, importance, and stages.

The next path of cultivation is Body Cultivation. Pulling Qi into the body to refine oneself to unimaginable levels. A peak body cultivator could split Chaos Serpent Planet with a single step. The Mortal Realm of Body Cultivation overlays the first two sub-realms of Essence Cultivation, while the third sub-realm is Dao attachment. Dao attachment requires the cultivator to comprehend a Dao and completely assimilate it to the body if they wish to enter the Earth Realm of Body Cultivation. Due to the Dao Attachment Stage, body cultivators require hundreds of years to break through to the Earth Realm.

Finally, Soul Cultivation was the simplest yet most difficult and utterly painful cultivation route. It requires the expansion and refinement of the spiritual sea. When the spiritual sea becomes thick and reaches its apex, a cultivator must destroy the sea to reform their Martial Soul and truly begin the path of Soul Cultivation.

Soul Cultivation depends solely on the cultivator. The sea of consciences can undergo expansion and refinement as many times as the cultivator wishes as long as they could handle the pain. To refine the sea, one must grind their soul to make it pure and dense. To expand their sea of consciousness, one must shatter their boundaries and create new ones without losing themselves in the process. The highest recorded expansion and refinement is thirteen expansions and nine refinements. With every expansion, the refinement count resets to zero.

"Ten thousand skills…." I mumbled once my father was finished lecturing, "You want me to cultivate all three paths?"

"You and your sister are the last children of the Eldunari Clan. We may be able to change our family name for our safety, but we can't deny the blood that flows through our veins. We fled destruction, so bleed yourself dry or work to honor our people and repay our debt with to the best of your abilities."

"Tsk, you're always so serious, old man." I replied, "I never said I didn't want to cultivate the three paths."

My father flashed a toothy smile, "You take after your mother. Thankfully you aren't lazy like your father."

"Please, every night, I dream of counting the clouds with my wife. However, fate is a cruel thing, you know that."

My father nodded, and we father and son sighed in unison. Then, after a moment, my father looked at me and thanked the heavens for giving him a competent son that seemed to mature at an astonishing rate. With any other child, My father would worry to death.

"Alright, boy. Let me tell you the family secret. The Vamoria Clan's vault is filled with gold coins and steel weapons that mean nothing. Here, take my hand."

I took my father's hand almost immediately. My father and I turned into wisps of cyan smoke before they were transported into his storage ring.

"Welcome to the treasury, boy. The legacy of the Eldunari Clan." My father spoke as we appeared surrounded by countless treasures.

I gawked at the mountains of Yin, Yang, and Spirit Stones. Shelves of weapons, herbs, and texts in varying forms. To my right were jade bottles, beast parts, and cauldrons. But, the treasury went on, and I began to get overwhelmed by the heavenly fragrance of the Vamoria Clan's true treasury.

My father smirked at my reaction. "A Lot more composed than your sister. She ran around like a headless chicken and touched everything." my father chuckled.

"Where do we start?" I asked his father, eager to dive into a new world king of knowledge and exploration.

"We start with the cursed streaks that forced us out of the Inner Region," My father replied as a large tome appeared before us and opened with fluttering pages of golden parchment.