20 Three points

Despite hearing the good news, Alonn wasn't happy.

"What do you want?" He asked Long.

"I never said I wanted something, I just said you could learn it. And I won't teach you either," Long said with a playfull voice.

Alonn didn't even felt angry, he was already used to Long's childish behavior.

He simply began to examine the changes in his body more deeply. He learned that he can use one gate to absorb spiritual Qi at the same time he use the other to use his own True Qi. However, it decreased the efficiency of both considerably and isn't recommend in a life and death battle. However, he can use this method in walking trips.

Alonn started to eat moss again.

"You really look like a herbivore, how did you survive with just it?" Long asked.

"I don't know," Alonn answered listlessly.

"What, are you still angry?" Long teased.

"Why are you asking something you know? Can't you read my mind? Just let me eat in peace," Alonn said with a visible vein in his forehead.

"..." Strangely, Long was silent.

Although he thought it was a bit strange, Alonn was more worried about the pearls rate of absortion.

'I will need to eat more often to stay alive... How in the hell will I be able do survive without proper sleep?' Alonn thought and looked at the skeleton.

'It I could at least get out of this place...'

"You would still die, there's nothing out there that can help you."

"..." Alonn refused to accept it. He survived during this whole time for what? If he dies, it would all have been for nothing, all this suffering and humiliation!

All this time cultivating and he still has no idea how he can stop the pearls or expel them from his body, he doesn't even know where they are.

An unknow fury bursted inside lf Alonn.

"Be careful, you might really explode if you lose control over your emotions right now, you just opened one of the most dangerous gates," Long said.

Alonn didn't believe a word he said, but still tried to calm down.

"Cough, listen. I know you are angry, but will you believe if I say that wasn't exactly my fault?"

Again, Alonn's fury burst and he almost cursed Long.

"I said 'not exactly', I'm not saying it wasn't my fault but there's another factor..."

"Do you take me for a fool? Why should I care about it? Will you let me leave if I hear your stupid story,?" Alonn sneered.

"...Will you belive if I say yes?"

"Just kill me if you want, stop tormenting me," Alonn said and closed his eyes to meditate again.

Slowly, Alonn tried to visualize a True Qi hand. However, the task was harder than anything Alonn has tried before.

His True Qi was simply dispersed upon leaving his body, and didn't maintain a fixed shape.

This was the first time the 'omnipotent' True Qi failed to Alonn's expectations.

He also noticed his True Qi was just like the spiritual qi, invisible but able to be sensed.

"Your True Qi is invisible because it doesn't have an attribute," Long explained.

'I thought True Qi was an embodiment of all laws, why does it even need an attribute? Shouldn't it respond to my will and transform as I desire?'

"True Qi is indeed like spiritual qi, an embodiment of the laws... but it doesn't mean you can understand those laws just by using True Qi," Long said and made an fire lit on the air.

"Your use of True Qi is very shallow, you don't really understand it and that's why you can't bring out all of it's potential."

"Your True Qi needs at least one attribute to be manifested outside of your body without dissipating. Do you see this flame I just lit? Although I'm using cosmic qi, the principle is the same, it isn't dissipating because I understand the laws behind the flame."

Alonn felt Long was very strange today, why was the damn skeleton being so kind to him?

"...Why don't you try learning about an attribute first?" Long ignored the elf's thoughts and said.

"And how am I suposed to learn it?" Alonn asked with narrowed eyes.

"I don't know, I'm a mage, not a cultivator. I can't teach you... But there's something that can," Long's bone finger pointed at the book om the ground.

"Although it's just an low-level cultivation technique, it's complete and flawless. It can teach you a thing or two about attributes."

Alonn looked at the skeleton glowing eye sockets with narrowed eyes and vigilant heart.

'This guy is up to no good,' Alonn thought and took the cultivation technique to read.

'...'Three points convergence technique'? What a shit name, I thought it would be something like 'Great heavenly technique' or 'War god technique,' Alonn thought with the corners of his mouth twisted.

"...What is your problem? Why would a cultivation technique have such a ridiculous name?" Long asked with an amused voice.

"It's usually like this in books..." Alonn said.

Three points convergence technique teaches how a cultivator who has not yet opened the gate of the heart can understand the three main feelings in each of the mortal gates.

If the cultivators reaches the 'Great accomplishment' level, he could then give his True Qi three different attributes, 'I am', 'I feel' and 'I do'. He would also be able to open the Heart gate much more easily and still possess a strong foundation.

The Root gate can represent the 'I am' of a being. The Sacral gate can represent the 'I feel'. The Plexus gate can represent the 'I do'.

Each time a cultivator open one of the mortal gates, he can peep the mysteries within them.

"I didn't really understand," Alonn said as soon as he finished reading the whole book.

"You are just too stupid, poor being tch tch tch," Long mocked.

"Shut up, zombie. I'm not talking about the technique, this I understand. What I don't understand is the fact you gave it to me. Did you stop reading my mind?"

"Well, things has gotten pretty boring lately. So I decided to temporarily stop reading your mind," Long said with a lazy voice.

'...Long is a son of a bitch and deserves death.'

"W-WHAT DID You think about the technique?" Long tried to pretend he didn't read Alonn's mind.

" ..Whatever, just leave me alone for some time. I want to focus on my cultivation," Alonn said and tossed the book at the lake.

"Why did you do it? Don't you want to practice the technique?" Long asked surprised.

"It was so damn short that I memorized everything," Alonn smirked and closed his eyes again.

Actually, his brain evolved along the rest of his body, and his intellectual capacities, such as memory, have also greatly increased.

However, he didn't dare to practice the technique easily, he wants to explore every bit of it to find any trick.

Long was silent too, he seemed to be in deep thought as he didn't tormented Alonn's anymore.

Slowly, time passed.

Alonn's hair has grown a lot since entering the cave, and it was already below shoulder height. Honestly, Alonn didn't like his hair too 'long'.

Alonn's cultivation moved forward with slow but steady steps. He learned more and more about True Qi and finnaly started to practice the cultivation technique.

First, he needed to be in peace of mind and then feel the gates within his body. With his True Qi he then tried to make another type of connection with the gates.

It wasn't easy even with several tips given by the book and Long. He needed to ressonate with the gates.

The Root gate represent the 'I am', and so Alonn's needed to learn what it means...

It was an slow process, but one day... Alonn finnaly got it!

"Finnaly, I thought I would die again before you could understand such an simple attribute," Long said with a laugh.

Alone was sitting on the ground in meditation pose with eyes closed, but something that looked like white smoke was slowly being emanated by him.

"...The 'I am' attribute is really strange, it doesn't even seems something real," Alonn said as he opened his eyes, his irises are both shining with white light.

"It's because this attribute is a reflection of your dao heart, just like the other two. It's between reality and your own thoughts, or beliefs if gou wish," Long explained.

"...I am Alonn, but I'm also an infinite nothing. In the end I'm but an infinite vector in the infinite space lake. This is what I feel when I use this attribute," Alonn said with tears running down his face and embarassed look, it was just too strange to cry over something like this.

"Well, who is a child now?" Long said with a ironic voice.

Alonn didn't try to refute Long and also didn't try to wipe the tears. He was a bit too calm...

"Hey, snap out of it! Do you really want do die? If you let yourself be consumed by the laws you will be nothing but an empty shell," Long said and starterd to swing the elf in the air.

"Hey stop! I'm not being consumed or anything you zombie, I'm just in contemplation," Alonn shouted with a angry voice.

Long then landed Alonn on the ground.

'I need to test it now, don't disturb me,' Alonn said and ate a bit of moss.

After a while, he focused and used his True Qi in his arm trying to create a fake hand.

This time the True Qi didn't dissipated immediately, and the form of a hand was slowly created.

However, the True Qi seemed a bit too sparse and the fake hand couldn't hold anything.

"Well, at least now you can pretend," Long said and laughed.

Alonn seemed calm, as if he expected it from the beginning.

He slowly sitted on the ground to meditate again.

"By the heavens, how can you meditate for so long without feeling bored?" Long said surprised.

"It's because you keep testing my patience, thank you," Alonn said listlessly.

"Hah! I won't fall for you fake thank you!" Long shouted, but then noticed something in Alonn's mind.

"Are you stupid? Are you really grateful just because now you can create a fake hand?"

"Long... don't confuse things."

"I stil wants to kill you, but it doesn't stop me from feeling gratitude," the elf said with a smile, it was indeed what he was feeling.

"Makes sense," Long unexpectedly agreed easily.

'This guy is really a villain!' Both thought at the same time.

"Who are you calling a villain!?" Long shouted and trowned Alonn into the lake.

"You fucker!"

Days passed more quickly after that day, and the relationship of the elf and the skeleton began to take an unexpected turn.

Alonn has finnaly came to understand that Long was an bipolar zombie, sometimes good, sometimes evil. And Long finnaly came to understand that the elf won't easily forgive him for almost killing him, no matter how much he tried to make up for it.

At the same time, Alonn moved quickly with his cultivation. In a few months he finally mastered the cultivation technique and reached 'Great accomplishment'.

The 'I am' attribute was about his history. The 'I feel' attribute was about the cause and effect, such as evolution, that allows him to have feelings. The 'I do' attribute was about how his actions impact the world around him.

Now his True Qi can manifest three attributes, each stranger than the other, and he even opened the Plexus gate in the meantime!

"Finnaly... I finnaly have a hand again!" Alonn wept with joy.

His white fake hand made of True Qi was holding a stone, it was finnaly able to be useful for Alonn.

"Congratulations, you can finnaly clean your buttocks properly!" Long didn't let the mocking chance slip.

"Shut up! Don't ruin the moment," Alonn said with clenched teeth.

The three attributes can not only grant him a fake hand, as well as many other benefits.

"Hahahaha, I'm finnaly able to fly!" Alonn shouted as a white cloud was formed bellow feet and levitated him.

"...Really?" Long said.

At the same time, Alonn ran out of True Qi.

Bang!

The elf fell on his buttocks and cursed.

"Damn, I need to breakthought again!" Alonn said, but he knew it would take some time before he reaches the peak of the Heart realm.

"Well, I think I can finnaly let you leave this chamber. I mean, you need to find a solution for your main problem and the moss is almost losing effect," Long suddenly said.

Because Alonn's breakthought, the pearls absortion rate of vitality and True Qi increased again, and Alonn now needed to constantly eat moss.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Alonn asked with a vigilant heart.

"Don't confuse things, it's just that my spirit sense recovered enough to cover the whole cave system, you won't be able to run from me anyway so I think I can let you take a stroll outside," Long gave a strangely long explanation.

Alonn looked with narrowed eyes at the skeleton and said, "All right, then. It's not as if I could leave this place anyway since I need the mosses here."

"Ah, yes... Exactly, so don't try to run! The mosses won't grow outside without the special qi of this cave system," Long said with a strange voice.

"Special qi?" This was the first time Alonn was hearing about it.

"Just go away!" Long said, raised it's bone hand and levitated the elf to outside the lake's chamber.

'This guy is really strange...' Alonn thought and shook his head. But suddenly, he thought about something, he never asked Long if he was really a 'guy'.