Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Leaky Dantian

Rong Shu quickly sat cross-legged and took another Qi Induction Pill.

Scattered points of light rushed into her body, and the qi within her dantian gradually grew denser. Seeing this, she let out a small breath, then guided the spiritual energy through her body, washing over the Ren Meridian again and again.

There were still one or two hours before dawn, and she did not feel drowsy, so she simply kept cultivating to consolidate her current realm. As she continued to draw in spiritual energy, she thought about the path ahead.

After stepping into the Qi Refining Stage, one must first open the Three Gates and the Baihui, namely the Ren and Du meridians, so that qi can circulate in a small Zhou Tian within the body.

She looked inward at her meridians. The Ren Meridian that had been scoured by qi now showed a faint overlay of bluish and reddish hues. As she curiously observed the changes, she felt the flowing qi reach the edge of the Baihui and sensed a subtle looseness. It felt like a crooked wine cork jammed into a bottle, making one want to press it down or simply yank it out.

A small strand of qi split off within her, probed at the edge of the Baihui, and at that teasing touch it bolted like an unbridled horse, shattered some unseen shackle, and poured into the Baihui. Before she could react, the Ren and Du meridians had already formed a qi circuit and begun connecting to the rest of her channels.

[Wait… the jade slip said opening the Ren Meridian corresponds to the Qi Refining Second Layer, and opening the Du Meridian corresponds to the Qi Refining Third Layer. Then what realm am I am now?]

As she puzzled over it, the qi had already completed a small Zhou Tian on its own, and she could feel a faint, tingling current flow through the Ren and Du meridians. When the current faded, it was replaced by a cozy warmth, like downing a steaming bowl of mutton soup in the dead of winter.

Just as her brows eased, she felt the meridians in her right arm begin to tingle and heat. The qi that had just calmed down turned restless again and surged toward the arm channels. Once, twice, three times it rammed through… until the arm meridians opened, and her right arm felt that same numbing current.

By now, Rong Shu was completely baffled. [Opening the arm meridians already? Isn’t that a sign of the Qi Refining Fifth Layer?] [Something is wrong!] [Absolutely wrong!] [Am I not just an ordinary dual-spirit-root talent?] [Shouldn’t I have to suffer and struggle, overcome one obstacle after another to break the shackles of a mortal body before setting foot on the path of cultivation?] [This script is off!]

If not for a fortuitous twist, Rong Shu at this moment would still be a wholly unremarkable Outer Sect disciple. But right now… [Just like that?] [I broke through this easily? All the way to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer?]

As if to answer her doubts, her dantian began to leak again. The fist-sized ball of qi shrank at once to the size of a fingernail, and if she let her attention slip it might go pop and vanish altogether. The arm meridians she had just opened, and even the Ren and Du, seemed to revert to their former blocked state. Her aura plummeted from the Qi Refining Fifth Layer back down to the Qi Refining First Layer in an instant. There was even a faint sense that she might not be able to hold on to even the First Layer.

With such wild swings, she had no time for self-pity; she could only grit her teeth, keep drawing in the world’s qi, and shore up that tottering Qi Refining First Layer.

Pop… Ren Meridian opened: Qi Refining Second Layer!

Pop… Du Meridian opened: Qi Refining Third Layer!

Pop… All the torso meridians opened! Right arm meridians opened! Qi Refining Fourth Layer! Qi Refining Fifth Layer!

The second time she reached the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, it lasted just as briefly; her realm roller-coastered straight back to the bottom. Qi Refining Fourth Layer… Qi Refining Third Layer… Qi Refining Second Layer…

She let out a grunt: “Hey!”

An inexplicable urge to conquer surged up in Rong Shu. She kept absorbing qi, and her meridians were opened, blocked, opened again, and blocked again, over and over… By the time the sky outside turned pale, her cultivation finally settled steadily at the Qi Refining Second Layer.

After wave upon wave of qi scouring, a lustrous azure gleam suffused her Ren Meridian. At the moment, the qi in her dantian manifested the wind attribute. With a thought, the wind-aspected qi shifted into the fire attribute. The azure glow along the Ren Meridian vanished with it, and the aura she gave off dropped to the Qi Refining First Layer.

Rong Shu stood and stretched. After a night of this back-and-forth, she had a better grasp of her body’s peculiar problem. She could draw in qi of any attribute, and once those motley energies gathered in her dantian they merged into a transparent qi. That transparent qi could then, at her intent, freely convert into any single attribute.

The most wondrous part was this: if the dantian was a bowl, qi of various attributes squeezed in would all take up space. But when those attribute-bound streams turned into transparent qi, they could blend together, achieving a 1+1=1 use of space.

For now, the attribute that resonated most with her was wind, with fire a close second. When the qi in her dantian converted to wind, the realm she projected outward was the Qi Refining Second Layer; when it converted to fire, it showed as the Qi Refining First Layer. If she switched to metal, wood, or earth and the like, she could not project even the First Layer; it was tantamount to the body of a mortal without Qi Induction.

Rong Shu left the room and headed to the backyard. She had pulled most of the backyard weeds yesterday. Only the edges still sprouted a few tufts, which she had meant to keep as a bit of greenery.

Raising her right hand, she gathered a fingernail-sized little vortex at her index fingertip, then flicked; the whirl shot out and shaved off the tip of a blade of grass. Next she condensed a spark of fire and went to work on the same leaf. The spark settled on the leaf, but it met the morning dew beaded upon it and fizzled out before it could scorch.

She compared the two effects, thinking: [The wind and fire attributes project different realms, and their actual power differs too.]

After summing up, a thought struck her, and she gathered wood-aspected qi at her fingertip. Because she had no spiritual root for it, she did not know if it would work. As for the jade slip… she no longer wished to use it as a reference. She strained and strained until at last a tiny flicker of green appeared at her fingertip. But before she could be happy for even a heartbeat, the green light went pop and went out.

Rong Shu fell silent: “…”