Michael woke up after sleeping soundly, he felt optimistic about the future after finding out Elena was in possession of the legendary Tyrannical Dragon meridians. Although activating them may prove to be rather tricky based on his current achievements.
Like he did every day, he checked to see if his cultivation had been reset and like all the other days he found his Dantian as dry as a desert yet again. Gradually he had become numb to these happenings, he reckoned that if he woke up one day and he was still a cultivator, he would die of shock.
'Archie, how long do you think it will take till we have everything we need?' Michael asked. He was motivated to get Elena cultivating as soon as possible. After she broke through, maybe he could send word to Jason who was in the outer sect.
'Master it is difficult to say.' Archie said slowly 'The biggest hurdle will probably be your meridians. For you to be able to transfer the tremendous Qi from the Qi-Boosting pills into Elena's meridians.'
At the mention of "tremendous Qi" Michael felt an ache from his meridians and gulped loudly. 'So you're saying that I'll need to refine my meridians further, before we can start?'
'Yes. If your meridians can't handle the powerful Qi then you could be crippled before you even have a chance to transfer the Qi to her meridians' Archie said gravely.
'Won't that take forever?' Michael complained. From his understanding, the refining of the meridians were the slowest and most painful part of the Qi condensation realm.
Archie shook his head in annoyance 'You've been cultivating a month and have already increased your meridians 2 levels.' Almost flailing about, Archie pointed to his meridians that were glowing with a faint orange light.
'Not to mention it takes most people over a year to get to your stage, yet you're complaining after only a month?' He scoffed. His master was clever, however his knowledge of cultivation seemed to be skewed. Perhaps it was because of his affliction of having his Qi reset every morning that attributed to his warped notions.
'Over a year?' Michael paused, the look on his face grave for a moment.
Archie looked over at Michael who seemed to be contemplating deeply and thought to himself 'Good, maybe this will put things into perspective and make him more diligent.'
Michael's contemplation lasted only a few seconds before he let out a surprised gasp. 'Ah Doesn't that mean I'm a genius?'
Staring at his Master, Archie resisted the urge to pummel him and settled with a facepalm. 'That's what you gathered from my explanation?' he asked wearily.
'That's the most important thing' Michael said matter-of-factly.
'Genius your head! How can you be called a genius and you're not even a cultivator yet?' Archie yelled.
Michael stood still, his mouth agape for a few moments before walking over to the corner of the room and crouching down. In a pouting voice he said, 'It's not my fault my stupid Qi disappears.'
'Ah' realising that he had touched his masters sore spot he quickly tried to console him. The last thing he needed when they had so much to do was for Michael to go into a bout of depression.
Archie began to coax Michael. 'Master I also have a recipe for the Meridian-healing pills that are even better than the ones Grandpa Yin gave you.'
Michael's ears perked up, and he made a face as to tell Archie to continue.
'If we can get the help of Elena to refine this pills, it should cut down the time needed by a large margin. As long as we gather the ingredients, then you can achieve the silver tier refinement in a matter of 2 months.'
'Silver tier refinement?' Michael asked.
Archie nodded 'Generally a Qi condensation practitioner will refine their meridians 3 times, causing them to glow a certain colour depending on the level of refinement. The first level is yellow, second is orange and the third is red.'
'It's not very well known, but there are levels beyond red. These are known as the Upper Tier Celestial Meridians'
Michael who was always a sucker for cool names was now fully invested. With shining eyes, he asked 'Upper Tier Celestial Meridians?'
'Yes, they are Silver, Gold and White Jade meridians.' Archie continued 'although the White Jade meridians aren't as amazing as the Tyrannical Dragon meridians, they do not fall far behind.'
'However, they require certain herbs to be able to activate. Another prerequisite is that one must be in the Qi Condensation realm.'
'Why is that?' Michael asked confusedly. Surely one could refine their meridians at any stage of cultivation?
'Once one reaches Foundation Establishment, the meridians become unable to be refined further. Much like its name, once one reaches it, their foundation is built and without heaven defying pills it is almost impossible to alter.' Archie explained carefully.
Nodding, Michael began to have a clearer picture of what it was like to become a cultivator. To complete his revenge against the unknown enemy he would need to become a powerful cultivator, not just a mediocre one. 'I must set a good foundation before I increase my cultivation' he vowed.
Suddenly his mindset changed. 'Maybe having my Qi reset each morning is a blessing in disguise.' He thought silently.
Seeing the shift in Michael's face, Archie finally felt like he was getting through to him. It was in his best interest that his master would become strong. If he were to die while taking revenge due to his negligence, there wouldn't be anyone to blame but himself.
With the tools at his disposal and the Eternal Pendant, as long as they were careful there should be no one that would be able to stand up to them in Jianghu. They just needed time and space to be able to grow.
Saying that, Archie couldn't say that he wasn't concerned about Michael's Qi being reset every morning, he had racked his brain and could think of nothing that would be causing his master's condition. He even went as far as guarding Michael throughout the night in hopes of getting a clue, however he always came up naught.
Sighing lightly he quickly changed his frame of mind, there was no use thinking about things that were out of their control. They now had a goal to pursue, refining Michael's meridians and refining the pills needed to activate Elena's Tyrannical Dragon meridians. For that they needed ingredients.
Archie beckoned Michael, snapping him out of his reverie. 'Grab some ink and paper, I'll give you a list of ingredients we need for the meridian repairing pills and the Qi-boosting pills.'
Michael quickly did as he was told, making his way to the desk and pulling out some ink and paper.
Archie quickly rattled off some ingredients '50-year Black Jade Fruit, 50-year Purple Spirit Root…'
After almost 15 different herbs Archie finished his ingredients list. Just casually browsing through the list Michael was gob smacked. While only a few of the herbs were new to him, the rest were commonly used in tier 1 pills. The only difference is that this list required them to be of significant age, most above the age of 50.
'How are we going to find all these ingredients?' Michael asked.
'Did you forget we have the Flow Realm?' Archie retorted with a smile. 'Even if we can get a few younger versions, we just need to wait some days until they're ripe for the picking.'
"Heh he hehehe" Michael chuckled out loud, rubbing his hands together like a greedy merchant.
Elena who had just finished getting ready for the day had come to check in on Michael. She walked into the room only to see a perverted look on his face and the sound of him chuckling eerily. Without making a sound she quickly backtracked, telling herself that she saw nothing.