13 The Next Step, A Successful Breakthrough?

Two months after being promoted to a Core Disciple Yun finally had the resources she thought necessary to make a breakthrough into Neidan Forging's base level. She waited until the day that was set to retrieve tasks and made sure to stock up her group with good tasks so that she could focus all of her energy for the next few days directly into gathering Heavenly Qi into the core of her meridians and compressing it over and over until it formed a metaphysical object that she could build upon.

According to the Solar Thunder cultivation manual she had been studying she would need more than just Heavenly Qi to forge a dual-element Neidan like she wanted; she would also need an alchemist's help to have the correct pills. She discovered almost two weeks ago that one of the disciples under her was an alchemist in training, a rare profession in their sect, and so she consulted with him about preparing the pills she needed. He was extremely sure that he could create high quality pills according to the recipe she gave him, and so she provided him with the resources and time he needed to complete the task without telling him what the pills were for.

Yun had long ago learned her lesson from Elder Lei's lecture on her first day, 'trust no one, everyone wants to take what you could have' was now her philosophy within the world of cultivation. The only secure position was the position of power. Be strong enough to crush anyone who opposed you, and if you couldn't crush them then suppress them until you gained enough power to do it.

Now Yun sat in the cultivation chamber provided for her with her Core Disciple personal spaces, Heavenly Stones were scattered about the room, two or three placed on each position of the array formation she was centered in. These stones totaled over a hundred and were nearly all the stones she had gained since she had reached the Ninth Change of Meridian Opening. With everything prepared she began activating the array to release huge amounts of Heavenly Qi into the chamber, then began to forcefully absorb as much as she could, guiding it all to her core at the navel.

As the energy began to fill that space she took out the two gleaming pills that were refined for her and directly swallowed them. As they reached her stomach she could feel the elemental energy bombard every meridian in her body, filling every cell and channel with electric fire. The energy at her core began to whirl, using the rotation to become denser, just as the elemental energy rushed in and nearly broke her control of the process.

Following the Solar Thunder Sutra she pushed the energies to rotate in more than one direction, the non-elemental energy rotated in the horizontal axis, while the fire was tilted sixty degrees on the axis clockwise and the lightning was opposite. Each energy wheel had an equal distance separating them, and along the common axis they all mingled in a single linear space. As the energies collided on that line they began to form particles of all three energies that drifted outside the rings, slowly being pulled to the center by the rotation. Eventually the first energies from the array and the pills was drained, and as Yun heard the Heavenly Stones shatter to dust she took out another set of pills and also swallowed them. Electric fire raged through her body again, rushing to her core from every corner and joining the rings in streams, adding more and more mass to the vortex and flinging more and more of the linked particles of energy into the empty space that was quickly beginning to look like a massive sphere.

As the second set of Heavenly Stones also broke she knew she had entered the final stages of her task and began to use the thinner energy from the array that was now only running at half power to surround the self-sustaining whorl within her core. As her energy covered over the massive sphere she began to pour in all her strength to push down on it like gravity, crushing it into the smallest, densest state possible, then holding it while it all melted into a single solid whole. More than once she nearly lost control, but she galvanized her spirit and continued to struggle while sweat poured off her body to pool beneath her.

Finally, weary and nearly spent, she began to loosen the constriction she had applied and observed the structure to ensure it had stabilized into a single core. Twice she thought she saw the surface about to break, and twice its own gravity and rotation brought it back to a cohesive whole. Finally, she released the excess energy she had been maintaining control of and watched as it began to rotate around this nascent core, finally falling to the surface and nourishing it. Opening her eyes at last, Yun nearly collapsed backwards in exhaustion as she tried to get up. Her legs refused to support her weight, forcing her to half crawl her way out of the chamber to find a clean surface to lay on and recover.

Eighteen hours later Yun's eyes snapped open, stars twinkling in their depths, and she slowly pulled herself to her feet. She felt like her entire body was charged with energy, humming with power, and like every cell had been reborn, baptized in fire and lightning. As she marveled at the changes to her body she also looked within; her meridians now had spiraling fire and lightning strands woven along them, evidence of how dangerous her position had been. Had the energy been much higher or her cultivation less firm she would have shattered her meridians instead of cracking them.

While she slept and energy coursed through her body, the damage to her meridians was filled by elemental energy and repaired, causing the spirals. This, too, was part of the secret of cultivating the Solar Thunder Sutra. The end result was not only creating a Neidan that could support both energies, but also meridians that were tempered by them. This was integral to being able to properly handle these energies in combat, and was why there were so few cultivation methods that dealt with multiple elements. The advantage, and luck, of having an affinity for these two particular elements was not only that there was a cultivation method available for them, but also that they were complementary elements.

The combination of Fire and Lightning elements was the source of the Light element laws, creating another powerful skill that Yun could use in the future. With her breakthrough into the Neidan Forging realm a perfect success she decided it was time to leave her quarters and see if there was anything that needed her attention.