Meridian Opening Realm
The first property Matthew drove to was the only one with no residents currently living there.
As they had driven out of the city and were now in more suburban upstate New York, the house that Matthew was in front of was a 1500-square-foot house with two floors. Thankfully, instead of being directly under the house, the Spiritual Qi Vein was in the backyard, under a few feet of dirt and grass.
After using his own set of keys to get into the house, Matthew quickly walked through it and went to the backyard.
This was the hard part. He had to find the exact location of the Spiritual Qi Vein. The only information he had on its location was in the backyard. Besides that, Matthew was in the dark.
"Mat, where do we start digging?" John asked as he finally managed to catch up to his older brother. Though Matthew had an easy time carrying the shovel, the same couldn't be said for 12-year-old John.
"One second, John, I need to find that myself," Matthew responded as he walked slowly around the backyard.
If Matthew had his previous cultivation base, he could even be able to scan the entire Earth, let alone this tiny backyard. But now Matthew was a weak mortal without a strand of Spiritual Qi in his body, so in order to find the Spiritual Qi Vein, Matthew needed to go try and sense it.
Even though Matthew had yet to start cultivating and still had clogged meridians, he was still able to sense Spiritual Qi very well, and with how much Spiritual Qi was in the vein, Matthew was confident he would be able to sense it even from above ground.
The only downside was that Matthew had to be directly above the vein. Any further, he wouldn't be able to detect it.
So, ignoring the odd gazes of his siblings, Matthew continued to walk around the backyard, making sure not to miss a single inch of it in fear of missing the Spiritual Qi Vein.
Thankfully, it didn't take long to detect the Spiritual Qi Vein, and after finding it, Matthew called over John.
"John, come here now. We will start digging from exactly where I'm standing." Matthew ordered as he started to dig into the dirt.
Though John's young mind was still reeling from the odd circumstance he was in, he still subconsciously listened and went over to where Matthew was digging to help.
After digging for almost 10 minutes, John was too tired and had to tap out. Handing the shovel to his twin sister, John sat down on a chair to rest. Joanne, wanting to find what Matthew was looking for, took the shovel and started digging as hard as she could.
Sadly, she too got exhausted even faster and was forced to pass the shovel back to the now full-of-energy John.
The switching process and digging would continue for another 2 hours until Matthew finally found what he was looking for.
Matthew's expression grew excited when he hit an oddly crystal-shaped rock with his shovel. Then, jumping into the hole they had dug, Matthew went in to pick up the Spiritual Qi Vein. The rock itself was decently large, at about the size of a head, but it weighed virtually nothing for Matthew, and he could easily bring it out of the hole.
The Spiritual Qi Vein was supposed to be a bright white crystal. However, now, in such a desolate land, it had turned a murky gray color. But still, with Matthew's senses, he could tell that there was still Spiritual Qi within it.
In a normal world, where Spiritual Qi was rampant and covered every inch of the land, a Spiritual Qi Vein the size of a head would be enough to create a middle-grade sect on top of it, but now in a desolate land like Earth, it was going to be used just to unclog Matthew's meridians.
John and Joanne were on the side, exhausted and breathing out of their mouths, trying to catch their breaths. But seeing Matthew look so excited as he pulled out a rock, they grew curious and went over to see what it was.
"Mat, what is this rock? How could you pick it up so easily?" John asked as he walked over to his brother.
Joanne was also curious about this. Matthew's superhuman feat of strength was extremely eye-catching. After all, carrying a head-size rock with such ease was something not even strongmen could do, let alone Matthew's average build.
"This isn't a rock, you two. But a Spiritual Qi Vein! And I know you two have no idea what that is, but before you question anything, let me show you." Matthew answered.
He could naturally see their immense confusion, but sometimes, actions were better than words. And rather than explaining to them what Spiritual Qi was, Matthew planned to show them.
Grabbing the shovel, Matthew stabbed into the rock, cutting it in half. And to the shock of the twins, a pure white gas flowed out and into the atmosphere.
But before they could ask any more questions, Matthew sat down and started forming hand seals while taking in huge, deep breaths. Since he didn't have any cultivation currently and still had clogged meridians, the only way Matthew could absorb the Spiritual Qi was the manual way through his mouth.
The first realm of Qi cultivation was called the Meridian Opening Realm. As the name suggested, the realm was about opening the meridians throughout the body, allowing a fluid circulation of Spiritual Qi.
This realm is usually forgotten, as in better cultivation environments, humans are mostly born with unclogged meridians. Or, in the rare cases where they weren't, an elder could unclog the meridians of his junior with his own Spiritual Qi.
This would be the trend on Earth in a few years, but Matthew would not wait that long to start cultivating. So he planned to be a tycoon and use a Spiritual Qi Vein to unclog his meridians.
The Meridian Opening Realm had 12 stages and 8 secret stages correlating to the 12 standard meridians and the 8 extraordinary vessels of ancient Chinese medicine. Matthew estimated that with the amount of Spiritual Qi that came from this Vein, he would be able to unclog his standard meridians.
However, the extraordinary vessels were much larger and longer than the other twelve. As a result, he would most likely only be able to unclog them with both of the other two Spiritual Qi Veins. So, suppressing his displeasure, Matthew concentrated on unclogging his 12 standard meridians first.
Greater Yin-Hand Meridian
Lesser Yin-Hand Meridian
Faint Yin-Hand Meridian
Lesser Yang-Hand Meridian
Greater Yang Hand Meridian
Yang Bright Hand Meridian
Greater Yin Foot Meridian
Lesser Yin Foot Meridian
Faint Yin Foot Meridian
Lesser Yin Foot Meridian
Greater Yang Foot Meridian
Yang Bright Foot Meridian
With Matthew's wealth of experience, he was able to unclog 12 standard meridians very quickly. But at the cost of a bathtub full of impurities being expelled from his body. Since Matthew never used his meridians, they naturally clogged up over the years, taking in more than two decades' worth of impurities.
Now that he was expunging all of those impurities, Matthew was forced to smell all of the crap he had eaten over the past 20 years.
It smelled so bad that he almost lost his concentration at one point. Thankfully, after reciting a few mind-calming mantras, he was able to keep his focus and not waste any of the Spiritual Qi.
Opening his eyes, Matthew had expected to see faces full of awe from his younger siblings, but sadly, he was met with faces full of disgust and a tinge of fear.
"Why are you guys so far away?" Matthew asked as he stood up from his cross-legged position.
"Mat, that gas, does it make you crap your pants?" John asked loudly in an odd voice, as he was currently pinching his nose.
At this point, the stench had become so bad that even though John was more than 10 meters away, he could still smell Matthew. So, to help his nose, John began to pinch it so as not to smell his older brother.
Laughing a little, Matthew knew his current appearance was more than a little revolting. So he took off his top layer of clothing and went into the house to take a shower.
"You guys wait here. I'll be right back." Matthew said as he went inside.
As Matthew was trying to cleanse himself of the stench, John and Joanne were in the backyard trying to figure out what Matthew had just done.
"John, what the heck did Mat just do?" Joanne asked in a low voice.
"Wasn't it obvious? He dug up some prehistoric laxative rock and shat himself. What else could it have been?" John answered confidently.
Sadly, his answer wasn't met with a good response, as Joanne smacked John on the back of the head once again.
"Dammit, Joanne, I told you not to smack me!" John yelled as he tried to pounce on his sister.
"John, we both know Mat didn't crap himself. The stuff came out of his pores, not his butt. And even if it were a laxative rock, a human body can't contain that much poop." Joanne retorted as she dodged her brother's lunges.
Hearing her words, John stopped and tried to think over what had happened, and she was right. The black goo came out of Matthew's pores like a blackhead that had been popped.
However, with the only logical answer being proved wrong, John became conflicted. He was a book-smart kid who thought of everything logically and scientifically. But now that his philosophy was disproven, he didn't know what to think.
"Then what the hell was that gas then?" John thought aloud.
"I don't know either. We just have to wait for Mat to come back." Joanne answered as she went inside the house to rest.
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