"Blasted procedures, we could have just flown in." Solon was pacing at the ornate entrance to the west side of the Heavenly Maiden Sect proper. Bord only looked in amusement at his disciple. Solon was barely holding in his high Sand Tier aura, but the guard was a peak Gold Tier so it was not that impressive.
"If you want to be stomped on by powerful women, just leave me out of it." Bord poked fun at Solon and was rewarded with a slash of sword Qi. Bord easily defeated it. He was not so old he could not run circles around the youth yet.
Solon was mostly tired of traveling. After the patrol which had no battles at all for months ended in an immediate journey to the Heavenly Maiden Sect. The lands ruled by them had several teleportation arrays, but both swordsmen preferred to walk.
As if the spirits were picking on Solon, absolutely nothing happened on the journey there. No beast tides, no bandits, no abuse of powers, absolutely nothing compared to a normal journey. Bord was surprised but decided it was a gift to let him not waste what little time he had left.
"Are you Bord of the Flame?" The handsome woman at the gate suddenly asked a question after observing the exchange. Sword Qi was not unique to the Divine Sword Sect, but they were the experts. Still, Bord was pleased to hear his title.
"It is indeed I. May I ask how you know about me, young lady?" Normally, a lower tier calling a higher tier young would be an immense disrespect, but because of who Bord was, he was allowed some leeway.
The guard suddenly smiled and offered her own blade. Bord smiled and assumed his stance. Solon finally settled down and became solemn. The air began to vibrate as a profound white glow appeared on both blades.
Despite being at Gold Tier, the guard felt pressured by Bord's sword Qi. A smile spread on her face as sharpness increased. Sword Qi was not like elemental Qi, it had to be cultivated separately to raise it up much like elemental tempering in the Soul Realm.
Unlike the elements, there was little risk of causing an issue in a dantian, but Solon looked concerned as Bord was sweating now. Normally, this level of contest would be nothing but Bord was clearly pushing himself. Bord then smirked as his sword Qi set ablaze.
The Qi on the guard's sword shattered and she stepped back just once. Respect was in her pale violet eyes as she bowed to Bord.
"Thank you for the instruction." Bord nodded and took a seat to relax. Solon estimated his master was ok, but it would be unwise to push himself much longer. A sadness washed over his face before a voice called out.
"SOLON!" A youth came sprinting out of the gate and bowled Solon over. He had grown in height to be as tall as Solon, himself. His body was far more filled out and Bord noted clear signs of battle training. It was not sword work but still clear to see.
"Let me go. You are neither a beautiful woman nor my brother in arms!" Despite Solon's words, he did not put his full strength into fending off Lind. Bord was glad his disciple was looking out for the next generation.
Bord then saw surprise pass over the boy's face as he looked at him. Bord was wondering what was up when the pair of dark green eyes focused where his dantian would be.
"Only 3 cores but I see 6 elements flowing around you. Are you like me?" The young man was openly curious but Bord did not mind at all. A quick push of dantian cause all his elements to flare for confirmation. He quickly suppressed the feeling of pain but saw concern flash over the boy's face.
"Follow me please." The boy bowed to the guard who respectfully bowed back. Bord was stunned that a Soul Realm could get a Gold Tier to bow back like that. Solon led the way behind the boy. Their conversation brought a smile to the older man's face as he followed them deeper into the Heavenly Maiden Sect.
****
Lind had both men sit down in his entrance courtyard as he prepared tea. It was late at night but he was no longer tired. Solon was at high Sand Tier if Lind was to guess, while the older man, Bord, was barely a match.
Lind could not shake what he had seen at the gate. A 6 elemental in the World Realm but also not. Half his cores were still there while the other half were now reshaped into bowl shapes with their elements flowing outwards from the top. Those had to be the elemental fonts a World Realm forms but Lind had never been able to clearly see them.
What bothered him was the complete lack of a harmony flame in the dantian. He also noted that the dantian seemed damaged, cracked even to his Eyes. Lind gathered some herbs and produced some beast cores from his storage ring as ideas flowed in his mind.
Seeing Bord's dantian had sparked an idea and he could not stop himself.
"Ichor from crimson root, bark of iridium tree, I need a bird beast core…" Lind was mumbling as the 2 swordsmen could only stare at him. Neither knew what he was doing, but a swift knock distracted them.
"What in the cursed spirits are YOU doing here lecher?" Shoti almost distracted Lind but after she entered, Solon suddenly became very quiet. A sad smile stretched over Lind's face for a moment but he kept quiet. He had not yet talked to Shoti and Qing but they had become much closer over the last 2 months.
Lind finally felt he had the right ingredients. Compared to grade 2 elixirs, grade 3 required far more ingredients. There were 7 herbs, 3 cores, and even 3 mid grade spirit stones. Before Shoti could stop him, Lind extracted the essence from all of them. When he first started, he could barely get 3 essence to come together, but now this much was easy.
Mixing them, however, was far more complicated. Lind summoned water from his own dantian as that had the best results as he quickly stomped on the formation plate by his feet to activate the Qi gathering arrays.
All 3 World Realms froze at the profound feeling coming from Lind. Shoti looked shocked no doubt, but Solon and Bord were just in awe. Lind was using the full power of his tier 7 foundation to conjure water and fire. His Sky Touch made this process much easier on him, but Lind still needed practice on the more delicate side of things.
"Lind–" Shoti tried to speak but a single glance from him was enough to stop her. He trusted Solon. Besides, this was only possible with the inspiration of his master, Bord. The essences did not want to blend at first, but Lind was an expert at coaxing them now. He started with a few herbs, then a beast core, followed by a stone and repeated it.
Light began to emit from the mixture as Lind poured his Qi into it. The hurdle of mixture finally was surpassed and Lind noticed he was sweating profusely as his Qi was bottoming out even with the arrays to help him.
Lind pushed and the elixir finally came together. A spiral of colors blossomed until it seemed to become clear. Lind quickly filled 4 vials full before all the elixir was used up. He nearly collapsed before Shoti caught him. He smiled and quickly took out a recovery elixir.
The flow of Qi quickly refilled his dantian and made his body feel much better.
"Lind–What was that?!" Solon stood in shock before Lind walked towards his friend with a smile. A golden badge was produced and handed to Solon who looked at it for the length of time to burn a stick on incense. The 3 on it with the strange symbol of the divided vial took a long time to break through the mental block on Solon's mind.
Bord now looked at Lind with respect and bowed to him. A grade 3 expert, regardless of realm, was on par with a World Realm senior.
"Y-y-you're the elixir master of the Heavenly Maiden Sect?!" Solon limply fell down onto the couch. His sword almost fell off his back, but he instinctively caught it. Bord chucked but the old man was confused as one vial was handed to him.
"What is this for, young elixir master?" Bord held the vial up and noticed it was like a prism. Light revealed all 6 colors of a dantian floating inside. It was quite beautiful and the aura clearly put it in grade 3, if on the low end.
"I saw your broken dantian and it inspired me, senior Bord. I cannot make your remaining cores into fonts, but I did feel like I could do something after all I have studied on my own dantian." Lind then poured out 1 dose from the vial and again offered it to Bord.
All looked at the old man and his pale red eyes seemed to have a spark rekindle in them. Bord took the dose and examined it with his own senses but as he had no comparison, he could only take the chance. Afterall, he had come all this way just to see the promising 6 elemental Solon knew.
He swallowed the dose and felt pure Qi flow through his meridians. He guided it to his dantian and felt something pure behind it. Once it reached his dantian, pain suddenly spiked but it was far different from before.
Lind felt it. He followed all of it and his emerald flame suddenly burst outward and both men looked at each other. Lind began to glow with emerald light as Bord began to glow a burnt orange light. His harmony was still there! Lind had been right.
Bord swallowed the rest of the vial and the 2 dantians seemed to feed off each other. Lind felt the imbalance in Bord's dantian and felt something move him. Emerald fire flowed from his hands and was pushed into Bord. The old man did not resist as the flame felt so pleasant.
Lind saw small damages to the meridians being repaired by his elixir as the dantian cracks also healed. A sudden surge of Qi flowed into Bord and Lind fueled more of his emerald flame into the man as well. Lind had just recovered but now he was pulling all of his Qi to generate his harmony as he was.
Shoti and Solon quickly stepped back as something warned them not to be too close. Lind was blazing now but was not harmed and Bord was slowly catching up. The sound of breaking glass was heard when Bord suddenly fell down in pain but none could come close.
A serene expression came over the old man's face as he assumed a lotus position and the burnt orange flame mixed with emerald light. Lind was in pain now as well but he pushed on. It was almost there, he could feel it. Something important about his harmony was on the tip of his tongue.
Before Lind could grasp it, he felt a backlash push him back. Shoti caught him and he quickly assessed himself. He had a little damage but nothing serious. All 3 suddenly looked at Bord as the feeling of his aura stabilized and then broke through!
"By the spirits, Stone Tier, he broke through to Stone Tier!" Solon was crying as he looked on but Lind was stunned as the once clear dantain became too profound to look at anymore. He had 6 fonts now, all 6 fonts were turned inward before the image faded. Lind smiled as he passed out.
He would name that elixir, Dantian Restoration.