"What do you mean?" Kuang Bindun asked as he stared at Song Tanda in confusion.
"Wait." Jack said as he closed his eyes and focused.
'I'm sure that I gathered the energy by simply absorbing it through the meridians in my skin. No breathing techniques or weird chanting required. Just… do I have to get my ass kicked for it to kick in?' Jack thought as he tried to replicate the phenomenon from a couple of nights ago.
After as much time as it takes to brew a cup of tea passed Kuang Bindun broke the silence with a nervous "Well?"
Jack snapped his eyes open and sighed "Can't get it to work so fast. This is gonna take some time. You better go back home and get some rest."
After a second of hesitation Kuang Bindun nodded reluctantly and said "Sure, but you have to tell me everything. I'll see you tomorrow night, probably after the graveyard shift again." he finished with a sigh and went out of the house.
Jack made himself as comfortable as possible in his hard cot and closed his eyes in an attempt to capture that peculiar feeling. After a couple of hours, his fatigue got the better of him and he fell asleep.
The next morning started off with a curse for Jack as his back spasmed in pain. He quickly moved some spirit energy to his back meridians on instinct and felt the pain subside.
'This whole spirit energy thing is super weird.' he thought with a chuckle as he marveled at the uses of this strange energy.
He flicked his eyes around the room and, except for a slight ray of sun coming through a crack in the doorway, everything seemed normal. He reached down in front of his bed where Kuang Bindun left some water for him in a bowl, took a few mouthfuls, and closed his eyes in concentration.
After a few minutes in thought, Jack remembered 'I felt the spirit energy entering through my skin, but not through all of it. I'm certain that only my torso and arms felt the cooling sensation. But, the diagram said that the meridians go through the entire body.' he frowned for a few seconds before he realized 'But I know how the meridians of the torso and the arms are arranged. I only have a vague idea on how they look in the rest of the body. The cultivation technique didn't specify the need for them so I didn't study them and left them for later.'
Jack stopped thinking and focused fully on all of the meridians he knew of that had contact with the skin. He tried everything he could think of to suck the energy out of the air and into the meridians connected to his skin.
After a few hours, he sighed and opened his eyes to grab a drink. As he did he thought 'Should I try and imagine the air as a part of my cultivation cycle again? Nah, don't want to make my injuries even worse. Last time I didn't know what could happen and still almost passed out, this time something a lot more painful might happen like when I tried to dissipate the energy in the courtyard.'
He placed the cup down on the ground and glanced at the ray of sun that moved from its previous position 'Noon already, those bastards are probably having lunch right about now. What I wouldn't give for a cheeseb…' Jack suddenly stopped moving and stared at the motes of dust floating in the ray of sun.
'It can't be that simple…' he thought as he squeezed his eyes shut and focused on the meridians that he could feel had contact with the skin.
After a few minutes, he felt the now familiar cooling feeling seep into the meridians connected to his skin on his torso and arms.
Jack opened his eyes and started laughing.
Kuang Bindun dragged his exhausted body towards Song Tanda's house and slid the door open. In the light of the moons, he saw the young boy lying on his cot with his eyes closed.
Jack watched through his eyelashes as he heard someone open his door. When he saw Kuang Bindun he opened them fully and said "Come in, and close the door."
Kuang Bindun blinked away the fatigue in his eyes as he followed Song Tanda's instructions. When he turned around from closing the door he saw Song Tanda sitting up on his cot. He reached up to his face to rub his eyes. After a firm rubbing, he still saw the same scene, only this time Song Tanda had a slight smirk on his shadowed face.
"How?" Kuang Bindun breathed out in wonder. His brows furrowed in anger as he asked "Did you force yourself to sit up in meditation?"
Jack laughed at Kuang Bindun's expression and said "Watch this." With that, he closed his eyes and focused on the meridians in his skin."
A minute later Kuang Bindun hissed and stepped away from Jack until his broad shoulders hit a wall.
Jack opened his eyes and frowned at Kuang Bindun in confusion "What's wrong?"
"You… How… Why…" Kuang Bindun spluttered while pointing a calloused finger at Jack.
Jack gingerly pushed himself off of the cot, showed his palms to Kuang Bindun, and said in a soothing voice "Relax, I'll explain everything." He sat back down on the cot with a sigh and patted the spot next to him as he said "Come, sit."
Kuang Bindun looked around the room like a frightened animal, hesitated for a couple of seconds, and asked "You're not a demon, are you?"
Jack almost broke his calming demeanor with a fit of laughter, but he held it in as he said "No, I am not. Would a demon let himself get whipped close to death by some uppity moron?"
Kuang Bindun gave a hollow laugh as he said "I guess not." He looked at the cot like it killed a close friend of his, took a deep steadying breath, slowly came close to it and sat down.
They sat next to each other for a dozen seconds before Jack broke the silence as he started talking slowly "So, I think that while Du Angliang was whipping me my subconscious screamed for spirit energy to relieve the pain. As I just got used to the feeling of spirit energy taking the edge off of pain it considered it the thing I needed most at the time."
Jack started to talk faster as he got into his story "The way I see it, no one ever told me that it couldn't be done, so I never had a block in my head that prevented me from doing it when I needed it the most. Especially when all of my mental barriers broke down from the pain. It enabled my subconscious mind to absorb spirit energy through the meridians in my skin."
He stood up from the cot and started to slowly walk from one end of the house to the other as he continued "After I woke up I could remember what happened, but couldn't figure out how to do it again. I knew that the air had spirit energy in it, but I couldn't get the meridians in my skin to take it in."
He stopped walking and looked at the closed door with a smile "But then it came to me, Bindun. Particles, molecules, atoms, and smaller things. Everything's made out of them. How do people breathe? We inhale air and then our lungs filter out what they need and expel the rest. I presumed that that's how the first cultivation techniques came into being. That's maybe the reason why so many meridians gather around the lungs."
Jack looked at Kuang Bindun with a grin "If our lungs can filter out oxygen from the air, why couldn't our meridians filter spirit energy from it too? From that, I just had to learn the trick of instructing my meridians on how to gather spirit energy from the air."
Kuang Bindun looked at Jack with wide open eyes as he said "Tanda, what are you talking about?"
Jack furrowed his brows as he thought 'What? Oh crap, they're primitives. I keep forgetting.' He sighed and suddenly felt the pain from all the unconscious movement that he did hit him at once.
His knees buckled and he almost fell to the ground, but strong arms grabbed his body and held him up. Jack looked up at Kuang Bindun's face and said "Thanks." as Kuang Bindun guided Jack back to his cot.
Jack lay on his side and looked up at the burly teen with an exhausted wry smirk as he said "Sorry about that. I got a bit too excited while I waited for you to come." He could still feel a slight shake in Kuang Bindun's hands when he helped him.
Kuang Bindun stepped away from the cot as he looked down at Jack and said "What you just said didn't make any sense. Are you sure that you're not a demon?"
Jack chuckled as he responded "Pretty sure." He calmed himself down and said "Look, it's complicated. I learned some of these things from a traveling scholar I met a few years ago. I can teach you if you want. Then we can make some tests and see if my theory about spirit energy holds any merit."
Kuang Bindun looked over his shoulder at the door for a second, turned back to look at the small boy lying in the cot, took a calming breath and asked "Are you sure I can learn to do what you did?"
Jack gave him a reassuring smile as he answered "Of course. It's just going to take a bit of time to change the way you think. Right now I'm too tired to teach you anything, we can start tomorrow."
Kuang Bindun nodded his head in acceptance and said "Alright, Tanda. I'll trust you, for now." He turned and went to the door. As he touched the door he stopped and asked "By the way, what theory about spirit energy did you come up with?"
Jack stayed quiet for a few seconds before he opened his mouth to say "I don't think I'm ready to share it with anyone just yet. When I am you'll be the first person I tell it to."
Kuang Bindun grunted in acquiescence, slid the door open, exited the house, and slid the door closed.
Jack stared at the dark door while a flicker of guilt shimmered in the depths of his eyes as he thought 'Sorry pal, I don't think you're ready to admit that everything you believe in is a lie, just yet.' He closed his tired eyes and fell into a deep sleep.