Forging A Spiritual Artifact

"I do have a set of techniques that are well-suited for Body Cultivators, but I can't give you them for now. I'm not going to lie to you, I messed up big time..." Fang Yun said helplessly as he felt that he shouldn't have been so impatient to test his techniques.

"What's wrong?" Lou Meng's voice became somber as he could tell from his young master's tone that something has gone wrong with his cultivation.

Fang Yun didn't answer immediately but instead took out a quilt pen and paper from a drawer near his bed. It was then that he drew a diagram on the sheet with practiced handwriting. Once he was done, he used the diagram he held to try and explain his theory.

"Think of the body as a compass and the Spiritual Channels within your body as the pin that points towards the Dao you are searching for. To find the path towards your Dao, the direction you take will cultivate is what decides the different kinds of abilities within you will obtain while proceeding.

North represents the Soul, East represents the Mind, South represents the Physique and West represents the Heart. Any Dao which Cultivators seek will always be attuned to at least one of these four 'directions' and will take on the characteristics of specific forces hidden within these four fundamental building blocks for human life.

The 'directions' the 'pin', or should I say Spiritual Channels, point towards all have their own special form of internal energy within them. These internal energies are considered the four fundamental internal forces that the human body can produce.

From what I could deduce through seeing your Spiritual Channels in action: The more a Cultivator treads upon the Dao of their choice, the more their Internal Qi will take on more characteristics of a specific internal force which resonates with their Dao.

The Dao you chose to seek as a Cultivator is the Metal Dao, a Dao that heavily relies on murder, slaughter and proficiency in weapon arts. So it is only natural that the Dao is in a 'direction' somewhere between your Heart Force, which is also known as Aura, and your Physique Force known as Ki.

Now, after ALL that explaining, let me move on to my main point. After you started practicing the Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing circulation technique along with your War God's Sword Tactics circulation technique, an alteration occurred that moved your Spiritual Channels about... here." After he finished explaining the details regarding his theory on human life and moved on towards explaining Lou Meng's cultivation deviation, he stopped talking for a few minutes to let him take in everything he just said.

Fang Yun was practically sharing knowledge that only those who broke through the void and ascended to the Immortal Realm would be able to know of. If an Immortal was to descend down from the higher realms and listen to his explanation, perhaps he would be enlightened on the Dao of Life.

It was too bad that although Fang Yun had a lot knowledge regarding life and death, he wasn't qualified on gaining profound enlightenment on neither the Dao of Life nor the Dao of Death. It was just like an amateur swordsman having 'knowledge' of swordsmanship but not the 'experience' training it personally.

If he ever wanted to stimulate his subconscious in order to gain enlightenment on a Dao, he needed to have the cultivation required for it.

After digesting the truckload of information Fang Yun explained in just a few sentences, he looked towards the diagram to see that there was now a new mark on the diagram. Between the Spiritual Channels (Pin), West direction and South direction was a mark that indicated where his Spiritual Channels have currently moved to.

"Now that you're Spiritual Channels have been moved to this location within your body, it will now be easier for you to attune with the Dao of Metal or other similar combat-orientated Dao. What you're going to have no choice sacrificing in return is your affinity with non-combative Dao like the Dao of Music and something you worked your entire life to obtain, your cultivation..." As soon as he finished his way words, Lou Meng's face distorted as he lowered his head in sorrow.

Although he blamed Fang Yun for his current circumstances, he also knew that the benefits he gained far outweighed the sacrifices.

He had never heard of a Sect that had any techniques that could increase a person's affinity with their Dao of choice and felt that Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing circulation technique would be heaven-defying if it weren't for the fact that he would have to restart his cultivation from the very beginning of the Nascent Forging stage.

Little did the two know that they were both ignorant to the fact that Fang Yun's circulation technique would cause a bloodbath even in the Immortal Realm due to it being able to allow a person to become a 'true' Body Cultivator that didn't rely on spiritual medicines or rare heavenly treasures.

Those who were more well-informed regarding 'true' Body Cultivators would know that they are as rare as Phoenix feathers even in the Immortal Realm due to the lack of cultivation manuals that can help low-level Cultivators find the right path. There may be some monstrous geniuses who were able to stumble onto the path of 'true' Body Cultivators by chance but none were able to consciously choose this path.

"Don't get so depressed. You may be starting all over again, but at least you're starting with a firmer foundation. As long as you cultivate hard, you'll be able to recover your previous cultivation in a few months time." Fang Yun joyfully smacked Lou Meng's back and encouraged him since it wasn't like losing his cultivation for a few months will be much of a problem.

"Thank you." After realising that perhaps his perception of the situation was a little too negative, he found that his young master had a good point.

"No need for that." He waved off Lou Meng's gratitude before continuing.

"For now I'm going to expel the Internal Qi from within your Spiritual Channels in order to stop it from harming your body. Since you're going to have to cultivate from the beginning of the Nascent Forging stage in order to match your Spiritual Channels with suitable Internal Qi, it's best that you help me expel every last bit of the old Qi remaining within you. Otherwise you can't blame me if you're cultivation stagnates later on in life due to your pettiness." Fang Yun spoke seriously with eyes that sharpened towards Lou Meng's own. A little shame appeared on Lou Meng's face as he found that his young master really knew him well.

Lou Meng sat down and meditated in order to stabilise his cultivation with compete trust in his young master's words, but little did he know that Fang Yun didn't tell him the whole truth.

Lou Meng may be thinking that his young master would expel his former Internal Qi into the surroundings, but his guess was wrong. Fang Yun had no intention of wasting the Internal Qi Lou Meng had previously cultivated and had decided to use it to forge his own Spiritual Artifact on the spot.

If any Cultivator whether they were to originate from the Mortal Realm or Immortal Realm were to know of his plan, perhaps they would laugh at him for being too desperate and misguided.

A Cultivator would only start to forge their Spiritual Artifact after entering the Nascent Forging stage, this was the regular and most orthodox path of cultivation. Fang Yun on the other hand actually wanted to skip the most basic realm and forge a Spiritual Artifact without even having the slightest bit of mastering over Qi. It is no wonder that many would consider his efforts in vain as only the delusional would think that they could ignore creating a foundation for cultivation.

Fang Yun wasn't without common sense and knew that he couldn't forge a Spiritual Artifact by relying on the orthodox route of cultivation, so he opted towards creating his own cultivation technique by using the knowledge and experience he gained from his past life as a martial artist.

Lou Meng was completely oblivious to Fang Yun's thoughts due to how impossible it was for a Mortal to even think of absorbing his Internal Qi. To him, even if his Internal Qi he previously cultivated was to enter his young master's body, it would immediately dissipate due to having nowhere to be stored within him.

Not even mentioning that a Mortal like Fang Yun had no Spiritual Channels to store his Internal Qi, but the fact that his young master hadn't ever cultivated Qi in his life would make it impossible for him to intricately manipulate his Internal Qi to forge a Spiritual Artifact.

Lou Meng's guess was pretty accurate regarding his young master's physical condition, but there was no way he could have known that his young master had already thought of a solution for the problem at hand.

As he explained previously, a Cultivators body is like a compass that points towards their chosen Dao. It was normally impossible gain profound enlightenment regarding a Dao before entering the peak level of the Internal Root stage, but he was different from others due to his intrinsic knowledge and experience in cultivating the four fundamental internal forces in his previous incarnation as Alex Stuman.

To break through the void and enter this dimension that had Mortals and Cultivators, he broke through the void using only the strength of his mind and soul. In that incredibly long length of time in the void between realms, he understood that the even four fundamental internal forces of the human body were able to connect with the Dao without using Qi as support.

With that in mind, he put his hands on Lou Meng's back and worked together with him in a order to expel the Internal Qi within his Spiritual Channels. The Internal Qi within his body shifted towards the only exit they could find, which were Fang Yun's hands, and were absorbed into him.

Since Fang Yun had no Spiritual Channels to store the Internal Qi, what would usually happen was that the Lou Meng's cultivation would dissipate into the air around them. However, instead of allowing the Internal Qi to escape his body, he circulated the two techniques he practiced for years as Alex Stuman.

The Chaotic Primordial's Flesh Tempering circulation technique of the ancient Chaotic Dragon's Demonic Horn style and the Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing we're circulated at once in order to break down the Internal Qi entering his body. The spiritual energy entering his body was digested by his four fundamental internal forces and assimilated into them at a breakneck speed. As more Internal Qi flowed into his body, he found that the apatite of his internal forces were bottomless.

The fact that all of his four fundamental internal forces were being improved over time didn't cause him any happiness as he knew he couldn't celebrate before he was out of danger.

With his unique experiences, he knew that the Psion within his mind and the Chakra within his soul would automatically balance each other by converting Chakra into Psion or vice-versa whenever it was required. This was the same with the Ki within his physique and the Aura within his heart.

However, he knew that if he was to get careless now and cause an imbalance between his Soul and Body or Heart and Mind, the consequences would be catastrophic. In his previous life, he didn't have to worry about his soul becoming stronger that his body or his heart becoming stronger than his mind because of Earth's lack of spiritual energy, but this time was different.

One wrong move and he could end up annihilating the building blocks that keep him alive. Although Cultivators could explode when cultivating their techniques the wrong way, at least their souls would return to the Rivers of Reincarnation after dying this way. He on the other hand would have his soul erased from existence without even leaving a complete corpse to be buried.

He knew of the dangers he was going to experience beforehand, but he decided to try and cultivate anyway.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to survive his wedding day tomorrow if he didn't have the ability to defend himself against the enemies lurking in the shadows. He was even sure that there was a high-probability that the person who hired his old servant to assassinate him and smeared mud on his name would personally show himself to cause trouble. He predicted that even with his grandfather's help, there is no way he'd be able to survive the mystical methods the enemies had up their sleeves!

'I will forge the best weapon I can think of.' And with that, a series of modern age firearms and weapons appeared in his mind as he got ready to forge his Spiritual Artifact fully absorbing the Qi.